Halloween

This holiday was really fun for the Edwards' bunch. Maddie has literally been asking me "is it Halloween yet?" multiple times a day for about 3 weeks. I was SO ready for Halloween to get here so I can finally say "YES!!" and "Stop asking me that question!" For a while, Maddie has been telling me many different things she would like to be for Halloween, but I got an idea from Pottery Barn Kids that I tweaked and made myself. And I think it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. This year she went as a strawberry.
I was just telling Brian tonight that I was glad Maddie had several opportunities to wear her costume. She looked SO cute, and I worked on it for a while, so I wanted the time I spent on it to be worth it. Or even if I had spent a lot of money on it, like the previous years, if she can wear something more then once, the better.
This year Maddie started Halloween off right with a costume parade at preschool. I was one of the many mom volunteers who passed out candy as the kids walked by. They were all SO cute!

Chapel after the parade


Later in the afternoon, the kids had a Halloween party.


They got to make caramel apples. Maddie didn't care for hers. Probably only because she wanted cake. Because to her, thats what you have at parties. But I enjoyed the apple.



After that, on Sunday, we had Trunk-or-Treat at church.

And thirdly, tonight, we went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. This year was the easiest so far for trick-or-treating. she carried her bucket by herself the whole time, and she would have ran ahead of us to each house if we had let her. She was very excited about getting more candy, but she was also very polite to each person who came to the door. Can I say: #proudparetingmoment. :)

Checking out all her loot. She actually has about twice that much from preschool and from church. She will be eating candy for a while.

Pumpkin Patch 2011

Maddie needs a pumpkin for preschool on Tuesday, so I thought yesterday (Friday) was a good time to take her to the pumpkin patch down the street for some yearly pictures and she could pick out a pumpkin to decorate for preschool. We have been going to this pumpkin patch since she was 7 months old, I forgot to go when she was 1, but we have gone every year since. So here she is in all her cheesy-ness.

This is Maddie at 7 months old

This is Maddie at 2 Years



And now at 3 years




They also had a Hay Maze. It was really fun to go through it, Maddie would have stayed all day.

Bridal Portraits

I am finally able to post these bridal portraits. I shot a wedding last night and now I am able to post these bridals I took last month! They came out beautifully! To see more: taraedwardsphotography.blogspot.com

Why all the yelling?

I am now 10 days post surgery. I had my follow-up today and my Dr. said everything looks good. I haven't been feeling the greatest, I feel a lot of pressure, sometimes like my ear is going to explode and I cannot hear a thing, but I remember feeling that way the first time and it took me two weeks to get back to normal. My Dr. said there is still a lot of fluid (water they spray in there from surgery) and that is probably what is causing the pressure. Which is good, because that means its a fluid from surgery problem, not an actual ear problem. What is different this time, is that I can feel the bone around my ear more now then I could before, so I have a constant head-ache on the right bottom side of my head. I think its because I still felt sensitive around that area, then when he went and shaved more, it just kind of made it worse. But, I'm not complaining, it's nothing a little Tylenol wont fix. So, so far, so good.

My experience this time was about the same as the first two, everyone that works at Forest Park is super nice. My anesthesiologist was really friendly also. He was a bit young, he actually looked like he was about my age. At first, I was like, can you do this? But...I'm sure he's had many many years of practice, and he obviously did just fine.

One thing that I have noticed that were in common with these surgeries is that when I'm waking up from anesthesia, I get yelled at for rubbing my eyes. This time, I vaguely remember my Dr. patting me on the shoulder saying "Tara, you can wake up now, we are done and everything went well." then I remember the anesthesiologist yelling my name "Tara, Tara, wake up!" When someone is trying to wake you up from the deepest sleep you've ever been in, your first instinct is to rub your eyes. It just helps you to wake up. Well, the nurses and anesthesiologist are yelling at me (probably not yelling, but trying to get me to hear them) to wake up, so I automatically raise my hands to my face, then they yell "Don't rub your eyes!" so my arms fall back to my side and I drift back into sleep. Then I hear again "Tara wake up!" so my arms go back up again then they yell "Tara, don't rub your eyes!" I was thinking WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME? this little game went on for a while until I finally squirmed my eyes open just so the yelling would stop. (again, I'm being dramatic, but everything is weird when your under the influence)

They wheeled me upstairs and I got to stay the night. My Dr. suggested I stay. He knew we had met our total, so, why not take advantage of it? I was glad I chose to do this, that way Brian could stay home and only worry about Maddie. That part of the hospital was completely new and all of the nurses were very nice. And the pampering was nice too.

I asked a friend who has an anesthesiologist friend why your not supposed to rub your eyes when waking up. She said it was because your eyes can dry up, depending on the length of the procedure and if you rub them, your corneas can get scratched and vision can be impaired. They also try to get you to wake up quickly because there are rules about making sure the patient is coherent within a certain amount of time. There are a lot of rules we simpletons don't know about when it comes to what goes on behind the scenes of a hospital. She filled me in a little and I find them interesting. Maybe I'll be a Dr. in my next life.