Happy Birthday, Princess Violet!

Violet is 3! Unfortunately both girls were sick last weekend on Violet's actual birtday so we had to reschedule her birthday party for this weekend. Behold, the Princess Party!
Her Princess-like hairdo.
Checking out her goodiesPar-tay!
"No Willa! You no play my toys!!"The stars must have aligned today... I baked these "rainbow" cupcakes. Way easier than they look (luckily!)And last, the weather was great (about 50 degrees) so we Released the Beasts and let them go run on the skate ramp. They had SOOOO much fun! It cracks me up!


Ah Willa. It's hard NOT to take pictures of her all day. She is so goofy and sweet and wonderful. I took some pictures of her in her "hip" birdie shirt I made for her.
She has been making this pouty face a lot lately. That and she sucks in her lower lip and she look so funny! I have yet to catch a good one of those on camera.
Closeup

Lookin' like her daddy!!
I had a friend make me some new diapers - Willa has grown out of all her small diapers and is on to the mediums already (I think Violet was in smalls until she was almost 1 - she was such a peanut!). I LOVE being able to pick out my own fabric and viola! A few weeks later they are wonderful cloth diapers.

Violet got a great package of gifts from her Oma back in Michigan. One of them was a sleeping bag of her very own AND a little doll-sized sleeping bag too! She LOVED them and immediately set up everything on the floor to take a nap.
Then she asked if Willa could come in with her so they both snuggled up together.
I just had to take a picture of this - talk about the multi-tasking, baby-wearing daddy! He watched the girls today while I got the cupcakes frosted and the house ready for the big party. He's such a good dad!

Dear Willa...

Please stop growing up. Thank you.
p.s. no, she did not get up here herself, but she LOOOVES to stand up on things and can do pretty well by herself.

Stock Show! Mountains! And a budding photographer...

Geesh!! I don't post for a week and suddenly I have dozens of pictures to share! First, it was the STOCK SHOW!! Yay!!! We went to the parade again downtown and watched the longhorns go down the streets, and then went to the actual stock show during the week. The best part? Violet rode the ponies BY HERSELF!! She did such a great job and I was so proud of her! We also saw some sheep...
Cows...
And more horses!
We also got the chance to go up to Breckenridge to a house owned by a friend of ours - it was GREAT to get away for a few days! Here is a picture of Willa and I that Violet took (more on that later!)

The view from the living room:
Violet and Jon went in the hot tub. I always saw pictures of people going hot-tubbing when there was snow on the ground and I thought they were CRAZY! Until we did it! It really is fun and nice and warm!

The girls and I went to the Children's Museum in Breckenridge where Doctor Violet made sure all of us were in perfect health.
Some quick pictures of Willa in the bathtub. You can see her two little bottom teeth here!
Biiiig blue eyes!
So, Violet has decided to take up photography. My regular (newer) camera died so I dug through the drawer and found my old one (that still works, luckily! What would I DO without a camera?). I had forgotten that a while back I told Violet it was her's and she took pictures with it. She REALLY loves taking pictures with her "cram-a" and we love the way she documents what is important to her. She took these pictures, although I did crop some of them!


Her Tinkerbell Dress

And last, here are Violet & Willa pretending that the couch is a pony!

Blah Blah Blah Blah

She speaks!


Here is Violet in all her glory. It is important to note that she picked out this outfit herself. And the reason I ask her how she is feeling is because lately when she dances she says "Mommy! I gettin' busy!" when she means getting DIZZY. It is quite hysterical.

Look-a-likes?

I posted this photo on Facebook and a bunch of people though it was Violet. Nope! It's Miss Willa all the way! She really doesn't look like Violet to us, but every once in a while she'll strike a pose that looks like her sister...
Violet at around 1 year...This week we moved Willa from the baby bathtub to the "big girl" bathtub (a bigger tub, but not quite our entire bathtub. Violet STILL likes taking a bath in the little tub!). She can sit up by herself and she learned to SPLASH! I forgot how funny that is the first time they figure that out. We even caught it on video!

Crazy girl! Or in Violet's words "She SO SO CRAZY!" (everything is "SO SO" to Violet. SO SO cute. SO SO bee-ful. SO SO silly.)
Post splashingShe has also turned into a roller. She can't crawl yet, but can get pretty much wherever she wants by rolling. Yesterday she rolled around Porter. He continued with his nap despite little tiny hands picking at his paws and whacking him on the back. Such a good dog!

Violet got REALLY sick this last week. She was out of commission for 6 days where she couldn't keep anything down. She was borderline dehydrated (we ended up at Urgent Care) and lost a few pounds :( It was horrible! But she is FINALLY starting to feel better and this mommy HAD to get out of the house today! So we bundled up and headed to the zoo. Even though it was in the mid-40's today, there is still quite a bit of snow out. It was really cool to see all the animals out in the snow - the zebras and giraffe looked especially funny! Some animals were really active too - especially the seals. For how much we've been to the zoo over the past 2 years, we have never seen them playing like this! Violet thought it was great!
And one more Willa video. This is quintessential Willa. She is just so happy and sweet. We showed her how to shake her rattle and she gently shakes it with so much concentration.

And one note about our house...
I really really hate our kitchen floor. I know I've said it before, but when they sold the house the sellers quite obviously did NOT think anyone was going to KEEP the kitchen. It is very very outdated, but it's RETRO outdated so we like it. Except the floor. It's really crappy, dirty looking (no matter how much I mop it!), paint splattered linoleum. I have been scheming to figure out how to get it replaced before we start refinishing the basement, and I wondered if maybe, just maybe, there might be wood floors underneath. So Jon agreed to peel back a little and see what was underneath. Up came the linoleum. Up came the plywood. And underneath we found... this:
IT'S GOT GOLD FLECKS!!!

Seriously - it is pretty cool. Unfortunately there is no way to know what kind of shape it is througout the rest of the kitchen without doing what Jon did (which took forever to peel away this little 5" x 5" square). And it would be full of staple holes. And I'm pretty sure this flooring is full of chemicals or something that is horrible to have babies crawling around on. But it's SO SO pretty.