Mini Christmas

My mom and sister came to visit us for a Mini Christmas! This is the first year in a looooong time that we have not all been together in Florida for Christmas and I'm SO glad they could come for a long weekend! Here are all us girls together... and yes, I am super duper thankful for my genes - doesn't my mom look like she is our sister?
Grandma and her Denver granddaughters. I LOVE this picture!
Grandma snuggling with a sleeping Willa. We get Willa up around 10pm to feed her one last bottle before the night (it helps her sleep through the night) and she is usually OUT after eating so we passed her around and everyone got a good sleeping-baby-snuggle in. I love it!


And then. My mom and sister and I had wrapped all the presents for eachother and the girls and lovingly placed them under the tree. Dear, sweet Violet figured out how to open her bedroom door on the EXACT same day that we were going to have our little family Christmas party. Jon was next door picking up his tools for just a SECOND (he was working on a project for our neighbors) and when he got back, the little stinker had opened up EVERY PRESENT under the tree!!! We were pretty disappointed that we didn't get to see her initial reaction to all the great toys she got (and what she thought of some of the more boring adult stuff!) - but we decided to throw everything in gift bags that I had laying around and call it good. Thus our Christmas tree looked like this:Wedding bags, new baby bags, birthday bags... but NO Christmas bags! And some gifts we just didn't wrap up. Luckily Violet was pretty excited about opening the BOXES for her gifts and playing with them, so it wasn't all lost. Needless to say, there are NO gifts under the tree now until Christmas morning! And I'm getting a child-proof lock for her door! :)

Here is Willa with her loot:
Violet and Leah enjoying a traditional dish of peppermint stick ice cream with chocolate sauce. Violet doesn't get ice cream very often and she thought it was GREAT!

In fact, Violet decided that she better lick up all the remnants of ice cream that was humanly possible. So, by using her super-long-lizard-like-tongue, she set the bowl on the floor (of course) and licked it out. Ironically, Porter decided that was the perfect time to come over and lick off the table for us! Too funny!Speaking of food, Willa got to try some of HER first food last weekend too! Here she is trying out some bananas.
Not so sure about it...
Okay, I like it!
And Violet trying on her Grandma's furry hood. Silly goose!
If you remember back a few months, Violet used a "bandbaid" to cover her nose when it got sore after a cold. This time she bit her lip and insisted on a bandbaid for THAT. Needless to say, it didn't last long either.

It's Christmastime in the Suburbs

We put up our Christmas tree last night - Violet is SO FUN at this age - she ooohs and ahhs at all sorts of things and it's so sweet and cute! She thought the lights were especially impressive even before we got them on the tree.
Helping to put the angel on.
And Daddy's response to her refusal to smile for the camera in front of the finished tree!Our dear, sweet, tiny little Willa Mae will be a shocking SIX MONTHS OLD later this week! It is so hard to wrap my brain around that one! But she is getting super good at sitting up and as usual, at smiling.


I don't know if you remember the last time Violet tried riding the carousel at the mall, but it was not a pretty sight. This time was oh-so-much better! She LOVED it! And now I have new incentive to get her to be good while I shop :)

We've got a lot to be thankful for...

Cute.
Cuter.
Then, without warning, SUPER NINJA BABY STRIKES AGAIN! (note the eyebrow. I cannot do that. Jon and both girls already can.)

Petting Porter. Earlier, she was chewing on his ear. Violet is REALLY into painting. She mostly enjoys ordering me to paint certain things (horses and snowmen are her favorites) but will paint by herself if she has to. She just recently started drawing actual FACES (circle with eyes, nose and mouth) which thrilled her artsy mommy QUITE a bit!
These too are just too sweet together!
We babysat for Jon's cousin Tim's two little boys (the older two are about 6 months apart, younger two are 4 months apart). And yes, Willa is now a PROFESSIONAL SITTER! I can even leave her alone for a few minutes and she rarely topples over. If she does, she has mastered the roll-from-sit-to-tummy move instead of going straight back. Yay!

Violet and Tobin did a little monkey puppet craft and thought they were pretty funny. Yes, Violet is wearing her princess dress. Then they were mesmerized watching the Curious George movie together.
This is the only semi-good picture I got of the girls on Thanksgiving.
We also had Christmas with Violet's Oma while she was here over Thanksgiving. Here is Violet being very excited about her new Christmas PJ's. I can already tell that Christmas this year is going to be REALLY fun with her - she gets SO excited about opening presents!
Trying to do her new ballerina puzzle while also making sure Willa didn't touch it.

Video Time!

First, here is a video of Violet. I hope you find it as funny as Jon and I did! She has this little beanbag game where you throw the beanbags into the basket. Her aim is, shall we say, bad. What cracks me up is how much she doesn't seem to care one bit. (p.s. she starts off by yelling at Porter, then trying to hide the beanbags from him)


AND Willa officially LOVES her sister and thinks she is THE most hilarious thing! This is a little dark, but here is Willa laughing hysterically at Violet as she throws a bracelet, then goes and gets it. Oh the hilarity!

Bathtime!

We tried out giving the girls a bath together this week - although it was a good idea in theory, I kind of forgot that Willa can't really sit up very well by herself and how slippery tubs are. So it mostly consisted of me holding up Willa and Violet splish-splashing around and pouring cupfulls of water over Willa's head (who, miraculously, didn't seem to mind). Violet did agree to hold Willa so we could snap a photo of this momentous occasion (Leah - some of my best memories are playing with Sea Wees for HOURS in the tub!). Soon after this picture was taken, Willa spit up all over the place and we had to vacate the tub rather quickly.

Those of you who have been around our blog for a while may remember this little gem taken of Violet when she was about 4 months old:No, I did not Photoshop her into a teacup! It's actually a planter. I brought it out again for Willa who is apparently HUGE and doesn't really fit into it as nicely as Pipsqueek Violet did!
Contemplating Tea
Willa's sweet little serious face.
We took advantage of the nice warm fall weather last week and went to the zoo with our pals. Here is Violet with her buddy Piper jumping.
This Mommy Giraffe was very interested in Violet. She was so sweet and stayed looking at us for quite a while.
This is a game I call "Where's Violet?" - she has gotten back in the habit of crawling out of bed during her nap and taking all her toys up in bed with her, forcing her to sleep in rather odd positions. Se's wearing a blue sleeper, in case you can't spot her! She also sometimes does this at night in the PITCH BLACK! I went in to check on her the other night and she was curled up laying on her Princess Coach as a pillow. It's plastic. And hard. Yeowch!A couple of funny things she's been saying lately:
1) She can't say her "s" sounds very well, so she substitutes an "F" for fun. Thus anything that is "spicy" is "ficey". We hear "This too ficey!" a lot.
2) Yesterday she came up to me while I was feeding Willa, wrapped her arms (gently) around Willa's head and said "Willa is beautiful! Why she have crumbs on her head?" - Willa has a case of cradle cap. Sweet.

What does Violet REALLY think?

I borrowed this quiz from another blog and thought it would be fun to see what Violet thinks! It turned out pretty funny. Her answers are in bold, taken down exactly as she said them. My notes are in italics.

When do you feel happy?
Some people like Leah and Anna and Ethan and Claire.
(she asks all the time "What is that" and if there are people, I say "Some people" which apparently she has picked up on!)

When do you feel sad?
Some people like Mommy people.
(great!)

What do you like to do?
Play mine toys.

What does dad like to do?
Eat some apples

What does mama like to do?
Sew
(this was funny because I don't think I've ever heard her say "sew" before and I didn't really think she got what I did!)

What does Willa like to do?
Play her toys

What do your Friends like to do?
Play their tv's - throw them in my room

What is your favorite color?
Pink

What do you like to eat?
Banana

What do you like to drink?
Water and juice and milk!

What do you like to play?
Mine princesses

What is your favorite toy?
Little babies

What makes you happy?
Willa
(awwwwww)

What makes you sad?
Mom and happy too
(good thing she added that last bit, I was starting to feel bad!)

What is the best thing you do?
No, it happens
(whenever she spills or anything, we say "It happens!" so she doesn't get all worked up about it. She has now adopted that phrase as her own for many, many scenarios)

What are you excited about?
Piper

Where do you like to go?
People friends do

Where do you not like to go?
Some people houses

What is your favorite song?
ABC’s

What is your favorite art activity (cutting, gluing, painting, sewing, drawing)?
Not mine craft, mommy's craft
(Wow. Deep.)

What’s the best part of being 2 1/2?
I me princess

Do you love taking naps?
No, I can’t *sigh*

What are you going to do with your sister when she is older?
Two have play her some toys - I want to. It happens.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the girls! (Violet lost her Minnie Mouse ears... until we got BACK from Trick-or-Treating and she found them!)

Violet and her two best buddies, Jordyn and PiperWe went Trick-or-Treating down a street near us that has lots of cute shops that all give out candy. It's easy, fun, and in the morning which works well for naps/dinner. They had so much fun!
I love Violet's smile!Willa zonked out in the Ergo carrier.
Later woke up and was a happy little flower!

Whoops. Violet asked me what this "eyeball" was and I told her it was candy. I forgot that I also needed to tell her to UNWRAP it before she tried to eat it!And more snow pics! We ended up with almost 21" of snow over 2 days. It was crazy but so fun! I love snow if 1) I know it isn't sticking around for long, and 2) it's still pretty warm outside. Violet got all ready to go outside, complete with pink goggles.

Which is good because the snow was so deep that she walked out and promptly face- planted in the snow!Buried deep!

I sent Jon and Violet outside to play... of COURSE Jon had to try to send Violet down the ramp on a sled! It was so deep that she didn't go fast or far, and seemed to love it!A few photos from a little photo session I took the other day:

Willa can finally fit into some of my fitted diapers that I had for Violet, AND this awesome one that I had made just for Willa by a friend of mine. Love it!
AND Willa can sit! Just for a second, but it has been done! She's so funny - she's usually so happy so I tried to get her to smile while she was sitting but she got so excited that she kept flailing backwards and falling over! So just serious sitting pictures for now!
Hope you also like the new look to the blog! I've been meaning to change it forever now and finally got around to it!