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.

Willa's Food Adventures

Willa doesn't seem to like to eat anything but bananas and sweet potatoes. Here is her reaction to trying applesauce:

Christmas 2009

Here are some pictures of our Colorado Christmas Adventure!

Violet & Willa in their Christmas shirts

Willa opening her presents. Which really just meant eating the wrapping paper. Yum!
She had such a looong day that she fell fast asleep on her Daddy's chest. Aw.And Violet dancing with her ribbon wand. I've heard of this phenomenon before but didn't witness it until this year: Violet was most excited about the stuff I found for her at the Dollar Tree and not with the more expensive Tinkerbell and Princess playsets we got for her "big" gifts. Funny! Sorta.

We hope you all had a fabulous holiday!

Merry Christmas!

Above, quite possibly the cutest Santa picture ever. :) Below, quite possibly the cutest little people faces drawn by Miss Violet.
AND her first person with legs! I asked her if it was an octopus. She said no.
And here is a self-portrait of me and Willa. I don't know how she figured out to smile at the camera even when there is no one behind it, but she sure does!
Merry Merry Christmas!

On the 5th Day of Christmas....

Violet got one of her Christmas presents a little early - she FINALLY got Willa into a princess dress so she could properly play Princess with her!
She then proceeded to read Snow White to her. Cute!


Those of you who know me know how much I HATE taking pictures with a flash, but Violet ASKED to take pictures with Willa the other morning and I couldn't say no! Unfortunately the sun wasn't quite right in Willa's room (aka "The Photo Studio") and I'm so bummed because I got some super cute ones! Here is one of my favorites!
We went to Zoo Lights at the Denver Zoo with Violet's good friend Hannah and her parents. It was chilly but not too bad and the lights were really cool! Here are Violet and Hannah in front of the mountain lion display:
And by the dragon:
Here are some pictures from Willa's 6 month photos!




Violet, dressed as Cinderella, inspecting the Christmas Tree.
What do you do the weekend before Christmas? Rake leaves of course! We LOOOVE the fact that we have two huge evergreens in our backyard this time of year (during the summer it would be nice if they offered more shade!), we only have to rake this tiny bit of leaves. And since it was almost 60 degrees, Violet took full advantage by jumping into the pile!
In her "birds nest" - which kept her occupied for quite a while!

We also baked and decorated some Christmas cookies. Here is Violet patiently waiting for them to be done. Good news for everyone who knows what a terrible baker I am - they actually TURNED OUT OKAY!! They WERE NOT BURNED! It was, dare I say, a Baby Jesus Christmas Miracle. Carefully putting on the frosting
And sprinkles
And tasting her handywork!

We also went to a really neat Christmas parade in Golden this weekend. There were TONS of horses and animals and Santa and all that good stuff. Plus the sun was out and it wasn't very cold. Here are Jon and Violet in front of the "Welcome to Golden" sign before the parade started:

Violet watching Santa, who arrived on a motorcycle.

If we don't post before then, have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!