Big Girl Carseat

So, along with turning one comes the excitement of a new carseat! We bought it a week or two before her actual birthday, but it just sat in the box in her bedroom. But on her first birthday, I drug the box to the living room and got it all ready!

"I'm not so sure about this new seat..."


"Oh wait, it rocks my world!"


"Check me out, chilling in my carseat like a big girl!"


"Seriously mom, enough pictures. Usually when I'm in my seat we're going somewhere but we're in the living room. What gives?"


Now I was all prepared to install it in my car and ditch the infant carrier, but the doctor advised still using the carrier until she outgrows it because rear-facing seats are safest. But we did put it in John's truck since he doesn't drive as often, so my anticipation wasn't completely crushed! And boy, does she like getting to look out the front window when she rides in it! So cute!

Happy Birthday V (part 2 of 2)

Picking up where we left off...

So, I decided to call upon my seldom used creative side and do an art project to hang up at V’s party.

After much printing/cutting/trying to keep Violet from stealing the pictures, here is my final project:

In case you couldn’t tell, I free-handed the cutting of the pink V. And I totally misjudged the spacing, which is why the top right corner is all squished and then there is more space between them! Oops! =)

So after the cake-eating fiasco, we had to change outfits, and then it was time for presents.

Here’s V, sitting in her chair, more interested in eating her cheeto-thingy than opening her present.


So, V was not very interested in opening her presents at all. She was, however, interested in the music playing Sleeping Beauty card from my parents.

That's her cousin Kate watching her.

And here she is still playing with the card while her cousins try to open her gift (my mom wrapped it really good for a one-year old's party!).

Ignore me in the background, not quite sure what I was doing!

I wonder what Violet is looking at while wearing her superly cute hat from this website...


Oh, she's watching her cousins explore her new toy!

From left to right, that's Aunt Tiffany watching her little boy Noah sitting on the princess toy, Kate and Anthony in the background, Natalia checking out the princesses, and my dad and sister Aileen chilling on the couch.

And here she is a few nights later, when I let her have her picture collaged V, checking it out.


She just loved looking at the pictures of herself. Some of them she found quite funny!


About 5 minutes after these pics were taken, she figured out how to rip the pictures off and that was the death of the V! Funny how stuff like that takes so much longer to create than destroy!

Thanks for a great birthday party everyone! She really likes her new toys!

Happy Birthday V (part 1 of 2)

Saturday July 18th, we had Violet's first birthday party. It was a small party with only our families.

Of course we had to go buy a cute birthday outfit (which just so happened to match one of her super-cute bows)!




Here she is walking between John and me. Isn't that outfit the cutest?!


And here she is pushing the walker toy around.


What a big girl! Seriously, she is SOOOO close to walking by herself! She stands up in the middle of the floor and takes a few steps, falls down, stands back up and takes a few more! I'm SO close to being in trouble! =)

Back to the party...after everyone ate some lunch, it was cake time!

Once she's old enough to care, we'll probably get a "themed" cake!


So, V does not like trying new things. Here's John forcing her to eat some of the icing.


"Please don't make me eat anymore of that nasty stuff, I hate it!"


So yeah, V's first go at cake was unsuccessful. I do believe after a few more tastes, she'll start to like it though. Pretty much everything she tries for the first time she doesn't like (except yogurt, which we tried last night and she loved it!).

Part 2 will cover the presents (and my art project)!

Oh, and if you're interested, I started another blog for all my randomness (which I'm full of!), so check it out if you want!

A Sweet Treat

I'm working on a birthday party post, but I don't have all the pics for it yet (doofball me forgot to take pics while Violet had her first taste of cake!).

So in the meantime, here's some pics from a few weeks back that I intended on posting but didn't get to before her birthday came!

So, one day, I come home and there's a ginormous cookie (chocolate chip, yum-o!) on the counter. I don't remember where it came from...if we bought it somewhere or what...I just remember it being there.

Anyways, John decided to see what would happen if he gave Violet the cookie.

"What happened?," Says you...

THIS!


Yup, that's right. She was shoving that cookie into her mouth!


"Look ma, no hands!"


And now she's trying to take a bite out of the cookie.


Shortly after that picture was taken, she bit off a HUGE chunk and I had to go take some of it away from her. But she did still get to eat a few little pieces of cookie. (See mom, told you we would let her have sugar eventually! Just not everyday, I don't want to chase a sugar-buzzed baby!)

If there were ever any questions, she's definitely my little girl, judging by the way she loved that cookie!

Hmm, I wonder if she liked her cake as much as the cookie...I guess you'll just have to wait to find out! =)

Happy 1st Birthday!

Happy 1st birthday Violet!

We had a party for her yesterday, pics to come soon from that!

I can't believe it's already been a year!!!

Swimming at Grandma's

We took Violet swimming at John's parents house again and this time we got some cute pictures...and the water wasn't freezing, so it was much more enjoyable! Violet played with her green rubber ducky (she loves her rubber duckies!) and sat in her float just chilling!

For about the first five minutes, she kept trying to take off her hat! She doesn't really like hats, but this one is strapped on under the chin so she gave up on pulling it off!

"It's a little bright mom, and I don't like my hat, but I've got my ducky so I'm okay..."


"Oh, that's much better, now I can have some fun!"


"Oh, thanks mom! My ducky was floating away but you saved it!"


"Hmmm, I'm not so sure about this now that I'm not in my floaty...but I do have my duck so it can't be too bad!"


"Can I take my hat off yet?"

Making Dumplings

One night, I was making chicken & dumplings for dinner...a moment of rarity, me making a homemade dinner, but it does happen occasionally! =)

So, one of the main dumpling ingredients (when you're out of Bisquick, anyways) is flour. Well, John decided to see what Violet would do if he gave her a spoon and sat her on the counter beside the flour canister.

This is what happened...

Notice the look of concentration as she puts her spoon into the canister.


"Ohhhh, I got some flour on my spoon!"


"Did you see that daddy?! Did you see what I did?!"


"I love cooking! It's so much fun!"


Needless to say, the clean-up from that adventure was a blast! =)

Oh, and if you're wondering about the dumplings, I had altered the recipe I because I was missing an ingredient (baking powder...I had baking soda but no powder) so I searched for a new version online but I cooked them the same way as in the original one...they were a total flop! This is why I do not have a cooking show...I did try them again the next week, once I had bought baking powder and they were a success! Yum-o!

What a Ham!

So, I love just dressing Violet up in the cutest little outfits and taking her pictures. However, she has eczema so I try to keep her legs covered up to keep them from breaking out and to keep her from scratching! So, to compromise, when she wears dresses, she usually wears leggings or tights with them.

Here she is in her denim dress and red tights (which match the flowers on the dress) playing with her little monster truck (which was John's pick to try to not force gender-specific toys on her!)


"Aren't I just the cutest thing ever?!!!"


And a rarity, a picture where she's not doing her cheese-er smile!

Oh, there it is again! Seriously, what a ham!


And one of the big girl standing by the ottoman...I think she's telling me how much trouble I'm in once she starts walking, and when she gets older...she's an ornery little booger!


I'm going to try to get caught up on posts before her first birthday this weekend(!)...so there should be a few more this week! It'll probably be the most post-happy week of my blogging career!

Speaking of her birthday...one year ago yesterday was her due date! About this time last year, I was walking around humongously pregnant and wondering when the heck this little girl was going to come join our family! And now here we are, one year later...it's crazy how time flies!

Funny Faces

Lately, Violet has turned into quite the little ham. She makes all kinds of goofy faces, and she has this new cheeser-smile she does for the camera. Literally, I think in two days, I got about 10 or 15 pictures of her making this face!


So, after a few smiles later, we put the camera away and put on her pjs. Well, next thing I know, she's sitting there blowing bubbles and she has this HUGE bubble beard! Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of the beard, but here she is blowing bubbles.


And this was after she was done (notice all the slobber all over her jammies!), and she was just making faces at me.


Then she saw I had the camera back out and crawled over with her silly little smile. "Mommy, you taking my picture again? I'm ready!"


"Cheese!"


What a ham!

New Camera!

So, as I think I mentioned, we bought a new camera in mid-June. The first night John was sitting in the living room playing with it and Violet was in an ornery mood!

She's recently discovered our couch throw pillows, and likes to crawl over to them and lay on them. See below.


And now on with the ornery-ness...


And some more...I'm not really sure what she was doing besides being a little goofball!


And a zoomed-in picture of that little monster face!


So, another night, I decided to try to get a good picture of me with Violet. Usually I'm the one taking pictures so I'm never in them...but John had the camera so I tried to seize the opportunity. However, Violet was much more interested in playing than posing for pictures!


About 10 or 15 tries later, we both gave up.

She's looking at her daddy like, "Please daddy, tell mommy I don't want to take any more pictures today! It's almost bedtime!" =)