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!" =)