violet turns 1!

i think i already blogged a few of these pictures, but whatever. they all belong in the same post anyway!

our cute baby sister turned 1 on january 20th. we had a little donut breakfast and headed to sea world to enjoy the day and get season passes. we met up with adam's sister and her fam for part of the day because they already have passes and were joining us for some birthday fun!

violet seriously loved every second of sea world. i know she is a little young and obviously won't remember, but she is such a crazy little adventurous one that i knew she'd be into it. and i was right. olivia liked the animals but did not like the crazy loud men dressed as parrots in the dolphin show. :) that was about as much as she got to enjoy because we didn't get to the park until like 12:30. it had given V enough time to get a morning nap in, but created a very sleepy olivia like 30 minutes after we got there. she slept probably from about 2-4:30 or 5 in the stroller and we left right before 6. next time i will try and find a better middle ground for my dueling nappers!

 trying the obligatory dippin' dots. she kept saying "more! more!" very frantically

 cruisin' with dad. i kept thinking she would get tired of walking and want to fall asleep in the stroller but no no, she was very busy. she kept going almost the entire day and didn't fall asleep until we got in the car. 

 V and cousin coleman...besties

 posing...this was coleman's idea

 cuties. they look alike a little in this pic, don't you think?

 OUT as soon as we started up the car in the parking lot. but even though she only took a quick power nap of about 30 minutes until we got to our next destination-- 5 guys burgers for dinner!

 a quick bath and kiss for baby when we got home and then it was nighty night.

a few days later we had a party for her at our house.

a blurry shot of her little invite (even thought it was just a family party, ha.) i blurred out my address in case a serial killer is reading this

she dove right in to her little black and yellow cake...and was totally over it and freaked out about the gallon of frosting all over her just as fast...notice coleman getting a sample...

 a little mid-party rinse in the sink

she definitely partied hard and loved being the center of attention. we had some cupcakes from a bakery close by...the owner has been on (and won) cupcake wars...yeeeeah. did not disappoint. next time we'll go for the mini size. the regular size cupcakes seriously weigh 5 lbs each. no joke. quite tasty! the adults did a few rounds of just dance on the xbox kinect. always thoroughly entertaining/embarrassing.

happy birthday to our little sis! i can't believe how fast her first year went by. this morning in the high chair she was looking like a giant eating her breakfast. pretty soon she will be 2. isn't the baby in the family supposed to stay a baby? she is VERY curious and crazy. walking is sort of old news for this busy body. she has now taken to climbing and jumping on the furniture. not ideal since she has also fallen off a dozen times. she cries and then jumps up for another round though! she is not easily slowed down. she likes to torture olivia but also give her (very hard) pats on the back if she's upset. her latest word is "ok!" which she likes to say whenever she feels like it all day long. she is also known to answer "yeah" in various tones of voice to any question you ask. sometimes she'll throw in a "no." speaking of no, she thinks it's a real joke. anytime i tell her "no" she just does it faster/more and then runs away laughing. yeah. not joking. re-directing her gets REAL old. aka she is becoming a total troublemaker. she is so funny and sweet though and she constantly makes us laugh. she loves dogs (dodgies) and her cousin coleman and any tasty treat anyone will give her.

dec/jan randoms

i am so close! i figured i'd do this post to capture any pics i want to journal that don't have to do with much of anything. then i can move on to violet's birthday and other events that lead us up to now. phew!

 cleaning the kitchen!

 looking 4 years old at the park

 swing swing

 they both love these big cement turtles and frogs at the park

 bad girl in the foyer at church

 i couldn't resist buying this for olivia...of course she refused to take a decent picture in it the sunday she wore it. it had a cute little dress underneath.

 

 when i was little, my mom bought each of the kids in our family a new ornament just for them every year. when i got married, she gave them to me. i'm doing the same for my kids. this was olivia's this year.

 one of many treasures olivia came home from school with...

 and another! 

 more park pics

 i don't even remember doing this but apparently i put her in the exer-saucer either because i was trying to get her out of the way of something or to just see what she would do. of course, she hated it. she has not been in it in months. way too old. aka it's taking up an obnoxious amount of space in the playroom. got to go.

 just a little sibling torture. violet has already mastered escaping the top part of the carseat buckle. she probably learned it from olivia. 

 fell asleep on the floor christmas eve when i was probably trying to deprive her of a nap. oops.

 RARE MOMENT. violet never ever ever snuggles. she is way too busy. but we all got really sick a while back and she was the first one down and out. little sicky girl.

 V and her cousin coleman. they are obsessed with each other. maybe to the point that it's almost weird. jk. it's too funny to watch. she just screams "CO-man! CO-man!" over and over.

 some of you may have seen these on facebook. i was on the phone with adam for literally 4 minutes and i turned around to this. i could only conclude that she knocked it off the table (i had just finished using it) and somehow got into it. big trouble.

 going to town on the bread basket at cheesecake factory

 we discovered that olivia is much happier at a restaurant sitting in a booster. duh. she thought she was big time.

 and, again. bad girls in the foyer at church. i love that violet is blurry because she was seriously running like crazy.

 violet attacking olivia. plain and simple.

 staying up late watching cartoons!

 big & little playing in olivia's crib when dad walked in...

 no words necessary. 

 stylin in her new birthday shoes (cute little sperry's from her cousins)

 watching some kids at the park play...very serious.

 one of my favs of her.

 olivia hard at work in nursery. scribble scribble. i just got called as nursery leader so now i can justify taking violet in there every week even though she is only a year.

 i sent adam this pic from costco and he said they looked like dumpster dolls. lol. rough day.

 olivia checking out the treasure chest at the allergist during her testing. cool rings. GOOD NEWS: her wheat allergy came back clear. bad news: her animals/dust mite allergies came back much worse than last time. i was sooo happy about the wheat though. you cannot imagine (unless you have to do it too) what a chore it is to pre-plan food for her every where we go. of course, the one downside to this good news is that she is so used to her food...a good portion of which is actually quite tasty... so some things i've tried to give her she has refused. like a donut. does she know what she's missing??

 olivia reading penny the pony's big race. dollar aisle from target has these dora books. violet has since completely shredded this one but who cares. one dolla.

 i was trying desperately to finish something for an activity i was in charge of at church and it was like 4pm...aka violet being very whiny. chocolate chip cookie in the high chair did the trick!

 thinking she owns the place in nursery? her foot? really? looks comfy.

making a few business calls!