the MCKINNONS

christmas tree 2011

2012-01-05T17:41:00.000-05:00

every year we seem to go bigger and better when it comes to the ol' christmas tree. while i do NOT like the watering and the pine needles everywhere for several weeks, a real tree is kind of fun and seems to be our thing. we've gone to the same lot for the past 3 or 4 years. this year's tree was about as big as the corner it goes in... not much room to spare. we got it up and pretty much done the day after christmas. i also had my christmas decor out before thanksgiving even happened. clearly i need to invest in more pilgrim and turkey decor so as to not skip from pumpkins and skulls to ornaments and lights. i've kept a tradition my mom had with our girls which is getting a new ornament for each of them every year. i have almost all of mine from when i was younger until college that my mom gave me. so, that's what the pictures are of above. olivia with her yarn angel and violet with her yarn santa. blurry of course because this is just before i got my shiny, new camera!

thanksgiving 2011

2012-01-05T14:05:00.001-05:00

we did thanksgiving with adam's family this year along with a few extra friends. it was a great group and the kids had a great time acting crazy together at papa joel and gigi's house, as usual. i didn't take very many pictures so fortunately a friend in attendance captured a few.... :) the layout is all weird in this post but i'm too lazy to fix it. i'm on a mission to get caught up on blogging!

turkey trot that morning with my mom and sister. the early time was not agreeing with me, apparently. yikes.

done! time to eat!

the mac and cheese was my duty this year

too many cooks in the kitchen!

the kiddies

my pie i took home and finished off in an embarrassingly short amount of time.

wedding in utah

2012-01-05T14:03:00.002-05:00

in november adam and i went to his cousin kristen's (also a childhood friend of mine) wedding in UT. adam only came out for a few days of the trip (i went out a little early and stayed a little longer with adam's sisters), which was also a surprise for his sister courtney and niece reagan who was getting baptized the same weekend. i wish i had the video of when reagan answered the door to find adam...so funny/cute. anyway, it was great to have a kid-free break and eat at all our favorite UT spots... oink! the wedding was tons of fun (especially since we didn't have to worry about getting home to pay a babysitter! the girls stayed with my parents the whole time we were gone and had a great time.) i also caught up with a few old friends. we rounded out the weekend with brunch at sundance and before we all busted out of our clothes from eating so much, we called it good and headed home!

old roomies at goodwood bbq. this was the day i flew in which hopefully explains why i look like death.

some deliciousness at sweet tooth fairy...

the old stomping grounds...where we felt ancient compared to all the young, hip students on campus. is this really happening? am i getting old?

at the wedding...

adam's whole family minus garrett and scott! (and + aunt kelley)

my camera was on some really weird setting...we look like cartoons.

this pic cracks me up because i always feel like i'm smiling pretty big in my pictures and then they turn out like this. i look like i'm barely smiling and like i'm about to kill someone. cute.

went to the BYU game where we thankfully had indoor seats because it was faaaa-reeezing!

cougar tail. gross.

alex, abbie, ashley. one of them does not look like the others.

there's adam!

sundance....

BRR!

halloween 2011

2012-01-05T13:31:00.000-05:00

kicking things off at the methodist school fall festival

candy corn sugar cookies! (thanks to pinterest)

the girls were both hippies for the church party...

with cousin mckinley as a hula girl...

olivia switched it up to a flapper girl on the actual night of halloween... it was an old dress up of mine when i was little that my mom dug out of the attic!

on halloween night we kicked off the night with a stop at papa joel and gigi's house, stopped by a friends neighborhood for a party and a little trick or treating, then ended the night at my parents for homemade donuts and charlie brown's halloween outside on the big screen. good times!

vi's first haircut

2012-01-05T13:00:00.000-05:00

in september (on the 28th... thank you iphoto "photo info") we went with a short cut and bangs for miss violet.... too cute on our sassy little one. it's growing out quick and i'm trying to decide if we should keep the bangs or let them go. they're practically grown out now. i'm thinking we'll keep them. she was a great sport- just wanted to keep turning around to see what amy (hairdresser) was doing with the "snips" (what she calls scissors). nothing a little candy and dora on the iphone couldn't fix! of course i forgot to start taking pictures until we were almost halfway done but you get the idea. she had a mullet of sorts, basically.

here we go....

2011-12-29T16:25:00.000-05:00

i got a new camera for (early) christmas and i am determined to start blogging again.... for now, here's our christmas card in case we missed you... but hopefully we didnt'! xo

"punkin catch"

2011-10-12T12:19:00.001-04:00

monday night we hit up the pumpkin patch. there are lots of things i should probably blog from july to october, but i'm on a roll so we'll go with this for now. violet kept calling it the "punkin catch." i was surprised how into it she was. we've gone to this one 3 years in a row. what a difference a year makes!

2009

2010

2011

4th of july beach week

2011-10-11T13:33:00.000-04:00

wow, i am a loser. 3 months later i am finally posting about our week at the beach!

adam got tickets to the coke zero 400 which is apparently one of the big races at the track in daytona beach (we were staying in new smyrna, a short drive away). so he, garrett and cameron soaked in a day/night at the track. i'm sure he'll be disappointed i'm only posting one picture but that's ok. they said it was pretty cool and definitely interesting! :)

both my kids had a mini sick day during the week. nothing a little tylenol couldn't cure, thankfully.

cuzzies mckinley & violet

olivia's little sicky day happened to be ON the 4th. she was NOT happy about coming down to the beach to take an obligatory, festive picture, but of course i'm a mean mom and tried to make her. looks like the pic turned out awesome, right?!

ok, i'll let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves.. we had a great time!

(so funny that i caught this one.. literally soaking up the sun!)

love O running to the water in the back ground

violet's first ice cream cone. she was in heaven, to say the least.

yes, my then almost 3 year old with a binky. ughhhh

the end.

olivia turned 3!

2011-09-12T14:09:00.001-04:00

yep, it wasn't blogged about (until now), but olivia did in fact turn 3 on july 15th. with all the mckinnon cousins in town, we decided to just do a family only party. both of our local families plus the out of towners made for more than enough people... close to 30 i think? we went with a pink flamingo theme and had pizza, pasta, fruit & veggies and a flurry of too many desserts that we all binged on for days and days after the party. apparently my party planning weakness is totally overestimating how much people are going to eat. oops.anyway, here are some (mostly blurry) pics!

on her actual birthday (we did the party the next day), we were still at the beach so we did some pancakes (her fav) and sang happy birthday.

chowing down!

blurry iphone pic

oh look, another blurry iphone pic

the invitation

cousin mckinley at the drink station

i ordered that little palm tree cooler from oriental trading... i couldn't resist

i'll let the pics speak for themselves.. including all the ones with violet holding 2 pieces of pizza. the girl loves to eat. olivia, not so much. auntie ashley was nice enough to make some tasty ginger snap cookies to add to the dessert spread because i knew olivia would not be eating her birthday cupcake. she is not a dessert person (wish i could say the same!) but she does love ginger snaps. random, i know!

Random ramble

2011-08-29T15:38:00.001-04:00

I have no where else to put this since I don't keep a journal but I needed to jot down these little funnies from my chatterbox Violet. She is cracking us up these days.

Last night I went into her room at like 8:30 because I thought she was already asleep and I needed to put something away. She popped right up and said, "I huuuungry. Dinner!" So she got up and had some blueberries while Olivia had a piece of pizza.... And some oatmeal and bites of my PB&H. I think she's (Olivia) in some growth spurt..?

Vi is constantly surprising us with the funny sayings she picks up. Yesterday at the end of a book she said, "amen!" instead of "the end." she's started saying "I can't" and "I don't want it" (even when she does- awesome feature of the upcoming terrible 2's) and one of her current favs... "hold on." Feel kind of bad about that one since I totally say that to her approximately 100 times a day.

Saturday we took a last minute day trip to the beach. When I was putting Olivia's suit on she was getting all wiggly and excited and I said we were going to the beach, to which she said "The beach?? I loooove the beach!" Pretty sure she borrowed that line from Dora. :) When we were at the beach, she was collecting shells and throwing them into the water but I saw her take one and hold it up to her ear real quick to see if she could hear the ocean. So cute and clearly Dora is a very good teacher because I don't think I showed her that! :)

Today when it was naptime Vi dropped her babies on the hardwood floor on the way to her bed and said, "nigh nigh honey."

I'm sure there is more I could document but I have this little rugrat at my feet as I type this so it's time to go...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Six!

2011-08-03T23:34:00.001-04:00

Only 31 more minutes left of our 6th anniversary! Adam surprised me with a little staycation tonight. Here's the view from our room (that I think might be more square footage than our house) before we left to stuff our faces at dinner. Nothing like a good excuse to celebrate/pig out! Good times. Happy Anniversary to us!

Here's a pic my dad sent me of Olivia a little after Adam dropped the girls off for their sleepover. Party time with Diego! Clearly they are missing us so much.

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family picture time!

2011-08-03T10:39:00.000-04:00

this is not really a chronological update but....

it was a rare moment to have all of adam's family in town at the same time (except for uncle nate!), so we had to take advantage and attempt some family pictures. mix our crazy kids with this florida heat and you know it's going to be a great time! we did the best we could with tired, hot and insane children who we attempted to bribe with a bowl of m&m's for good behavior. i almost love the pics the way they are versus having some perfectly posed shots of everyone looking at the camera because let's be serious... that would NOT be reality!

papa joel & gigi with all 10 grandkids

choas before we attempted to organize them

missing a couple in this one. violet is thrilled to be restrained, can't you tell?

so many funny things about this picture. crazy kids!

each of them had a piece of bread to feed the ducks but they opted to feed themselves instead. :)

the whole group... minus adam's brother matt and courtney's husband nate....photoshop??

another try

our family took a few candid shots at the fountain since getting my girls to sit still at 5pm in the blazing heat was NOT an option, nor was it worth the effort...

Prissy Pants

2011-08-02T20:26:00.001-04:00

Violet has taken on quite the little personality these days and it is definitely making us laugh. She is so chatty and has started saying just about anything. The past few days it's been, "Oh maaaan!" (Taken from our friend swiper the fox) and "Oh, gosh!!" (Taken from me when I had to slam on the breaks in the car the other day) She has become obsessed with putting this Cinderella dress up on whenever she can get her hands on it and can often be found pushing her baby around the house in it. The past couple days she's thrown the weird newborn Velcro sunglasses into this mix. This morning I heard her freaking out in the family room and when I ran to see what happened, I found her very upset that she couldn't get the sunglasses to stay on her baby. Guess she'll just have to keep wearing them herself instead! I laughed so hard when I was taking these pics... So much so that Violet started looking at me weird, kind of freaked out. Clearly she was clueless as to what could be so funny... She was looking good in her mind, I'm sure!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

happy birthday, olivia faye!

2011-07-15T12:00:00.015-04:00

july 15, 2008

may 2011 (my more recent pics of her actual birthday are on the other computer, i'll post some of those later)

happy birthday today to our first born baby girl. i hope i never forget the look of that brand new baby girl's face shown to me over the c-section curtain (glamorous, i know). round as round can be and screaming her head off! that face looks a little older now, and even more cute (if that's possible!), but she is still our sweet baby #1! can't believe she's 3.

4th of july beach week

2011-07-09T20:56:00.000-04:00

we just got home from a week at the beach for the 4th of july. we had a great time! i'll update on our trip and a few other things i've probably missed in all the non-blogging i've been doing recently, but for now, here are our cute beach babes enjoying their vacation.

(thanks to katie for the pics)

memorial day beach week

2011-06-14T13:47:00.000-04:00

we took a bit of a vacation over memorial day and spent the week at the beach. adam had to come and go a few times for work stuff (we're only an hour away), but other than that, it was great! the girls had a great time playing in the water and getting bronzed... and i didn't mind me some sun either. definitely needed it!

heading to the pool for a quick dip on our first night!

so pale :)

pics from here on out are in no particular order, some might be chronological, but others aren't. too hard to organize and the days all blend together. sleep, eat (a lot), beach, pool. repeat.

olivia was one with the sand on this particular morning...

mid-day snooze with dad. doing nothing at the beach somehow really wears you out!

vi and her cousin mckinley (they came over for a couple days) watching some care bears

silly girl post-nap

violet hanging out with some friends on the beach... cousin coleman leading a team cheer in the background. :)

"ok violet, this is what we're gonna do..."

"just like this..."

"ugh, why isn't this baby listening to me?!"

(coleman and violet are obsessed with each other but the age difference does not make for the best "playing together" experiences.)

love those wings in her hair!

violet checking out adam and olivia in the water. olivia loves the ocean, violet was surprisingly a little stand-offish. she preferred to stay in the very shallow parts or sit in the chair eating snacks. or say "stairs?" or "simming?" a million times... aka "can we go back up the stairs to the pool to go swimming?"

cute little beach bum

snack patrol

her favorite way to hit the waves.. on dad's shoulders!

very big jellyfish we saw... they were everywhere during our stay, but most of them were harmless non-stingers. pretty sure this was one the stinging type, though. ouch.

the non-stinging type are all those little clear discs. the kids were collecting them and playing with them all week

view from the condo porch

violet being silly for the camera after a nap. she's a little too familiar with taking photos of herself. sometimes she randomly turns my phone around and says "cheese!"

i think here she woke up from her nap first and found my phone and said "show?" she loves to watch tv on my phone like olivia. and that would be diet coke she dumped down the front of her shirt.

she is a lazy bum

now everyone's up from nap!

a day or two before our trip, olivia stole that beach book in her hand from my mom's house and on this day, she insisted on taking it down to the beach. she wanted to compare notes. :)

jellyfish in mom's bag? check!

violet trying to drag the toys back to the stairs to go in the pool. i did a LOT of chasing this trip. olivia developed a wandering streak and scared us on more than one occasion with how quickly she was almost out of sight. and violet is always on the run so that was nothing new for her. needless to say, a vacation with kids is not exaaaactly a vacation. still fun, though!

the beginning of a new phase violet is in. this was the first time (of about 20 since then) that she has just taken off her diaper like it's no big deal. since we've been here at home she takes it off, leaves it in her trail, and runs around playing like nothing happened. this has resulted in a few accidents. she has also chosen to take it off once she's taken care of business in the diaper. maybe she thinks she's helping me out by completing step 1 of the diaper changing process. i am really considering potty training her with olivia this month. has anyone ever trained an almost 18 month old? she tells me when she has a poopy diaper and aside from the fact that her EXTREMELY clumsy self would have a hard time getting on and off the toilet, it could/would be so nice?!

slicky slick after a bath. there was a fountain in the courtyard of the place we were staying in and when we walked by it, violet would say "tubbies?" (what we call a bath sometimes) because the water sounded just like the tub filling up. pretty funny.

olivia slept in a bed this trip and did fine minus the 3 or 4 times she got out of the bed and apparently got too tired to get back in it to fall asleep.

oh look- rare shots with me in them. my sister took these when she and my mom came over for a day that adam had to work. i wish they were better quality, they were zoomed in on my phone i think...

oh, look who's been going through mom's bag...

i love how all the shots of me are with violet because she just wanted to lounge in the sun and eat snacks like her mom. olivia was off running away 2 miles down the beach or playing in the water nonstop.

violet totally copied my mom and tried to lay out at the pool...

trying to escape the pool. like i said, always on the run. she did fit through the cracks in the gate and got out once.

snack break!

looking very concerned that her baggie of fruit loops is empty....

with the exception of the first night when olivia was a little too excited and was a party animal half the night, she slept like a LOG. here is evidence.

an attempt at a photo with cousins!

adam and olivia are waaay out there...there was a great sandbar on this day. olivia loved it. she wanted to sit down on it and stay out there all day. all 4 of us went out at first but of course, violet got a little freaked out by wading through the deep water to get to the sandbar and promptly wanted to go back.

can you seem them?

snack attack from my little scaredy cat

could eat her up!

yeah. not so much. someday i will have a good picture of me with my children. someday.

a little better..

OUT on the drive home...

ditto.

phew. glad that's done. i just realized we didn't get one single picture of the 4 of us. of course. awesome.

chances are one in a million...

2011-06-07T15:32:00.002-04:00

but i'll give it a try!

(doing this is one of the ways to enter :))

http://ohhappyday.com/2011/06/goes-to-paris

violet does animal sounds

2011-06-07T15:08:00.000-04:00

excuse the runny nose, red eyes and hair in her face. she refuses to wear clips or anything of the sort. i think i'm going to cut some bangs and let the mullet flow freely. she is currently obsessed with watching this video of herself. she says "again?" and "push!" (push play on my phone) over and over and if i say no she starts hysterically crying. terrible 2's a little early??

easter!

2011-06-07T14:44:00.000-04:00

this year we had a pretty packed weekend...but we can't complain. it was fun to do a little of our own thing, and see both of our families. saturday we went to an easter egg hunt in our city that apparently should be an olympic event. the younger age group was 0-7....aka all the 5-7 year olds got the eggs. it was like a wave... every time i thought we were getting close to eggs, they got scooped up by some big kid a row in front of us. luckily they had a consolation table where you could get a few eggs and a beautiful necklace so my girls were happy with that. sunday morning, we did a quick bunny bread breakfast (a tradition i took from my family... although i do recall my mom's looking more like actual bunnies than mine...which looked like big blobs of bread) and easter baskets. the girls liked their finds...i also decided to start a new tradition of getting the girls a new swimsuit and cover up for their baskets. maybe i should give myself this gift too?? chances are i'll be buying those items around this time of year anyway, so might as well make it count for something! we went to church and then sped (literally) over to my grandparents on the coast for lunch and visiting. then the girls caught a nap in the car while we drove home to change clothes and go to adam's parents' house for a little more eating and a few games. then it was home for a bath and B-E-D! here are the pics to prove it.

olivia's class party @ preschool

city of WP egg hunt

a little pit stop at home depot on the way home :)

EASTER MORNING!

my grocery store easter lily that lasted a surprisingly long time!

grandma & me

olivia and her great-granddaddy

vi ready for some action at papa joel & gigi's house

cousins

the only shot i got of olivia in her dress...

and the only shot of violet in hers. boo! i kept saying i would put them back on and take a pic but it's been over a month so that's not looking too promising. they looked super cute, though!

apparently i need an organic frying pan

2011-05-25T15:31:00.001-04:00

i am by no means 100% organic...nor do i ever intend to be. but, i do buy a handful of things that i'm convinced make a little difference. (organic beef and dairy, mainly.) but, this article had me a little worried.....

popcorn (we consume a lot in this house)?? cookware?

blogging blues

2011-05-21T21:30:00.001-04:00

tonight i was feeling annoyed/depressed about the fact that i've kept this blog since 2007 but in some ways i don't really feel like it amounts to much. i've come and gone and come back again in my commitment to it, but at the end of the day, i don't keep a journal, i never print any of our photos or make photobooks or scrapbooks, so this is all i've got! doesn't my posterity want to read my blog?? kidding. i just wish i would make a better effort to 1- take better pictures that are not via my iphone and 2- have more consistency with entries that is actually more journal-like. i guess then it makes it seem like i'm assuming anyone cares about anything and everything i might write... so here is your notice: i'm not writing this for you, i'm writing it for me. well, maybe a little bit for you, seeing as how i'm horrible at KIT (keep in touch), so this is the avenue for that as well....anyways, you get my drift. here's to better blogging that i'll actually care about reading in 10 years!

a little entry tonight...

last night we went to my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary celebration. my favorite part had to be the slideshow my aunt put together of all these amazing pictures dating back to who knows when all the way up to this year (the last picture was a cute one of olivia and violet!). i'm the oldest grandchild, so i decided to make a book (i used shutterfly) giving each grandchild a page, where i had a current photo of them alongside their answers to 3 basic questions about our grandparents. it turned out really cute and it was really easy, and my grandparents really liked it. i'm hoping to get my hands on some of the pictures from the slideshow and make a similar book... i think it's a great way to have a "hard copy" of super old photos that otherwise get lost in somebody's junk drawer, you know?

in my own photos, i couldn't find an oldie of me with both my grandparents, but here's one with me and my granddaddy! i don't know why it looks like i have a black eye?

Mother's Day 2011

2011-05-09T21:10:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a good day. I attempted to sleep in...why is it on days where sleeping in is planned, I can't sleep past 7:30 to save my life, but on all other days when I hear "moooommmyyy!!!" at the same time, I feel like waking up = coming back from the dead??

Adam made me breakfast and had grand plans for my gift presentation involving both girls, but they had to re-write with Violet as the solo act when, around 8:30, Olivia was still snoozing soundly. Of course Violet had no problem charging into our room with a balloon in each hand and necklaces (part of my gift) around her neck. Being the bossy boss that she is, she was very annoyed that I dare try to take the necklaces off of her and was treating the balloons like pets on a leash saying, "commeer! (come here) and "come on!"

Church, family and probably too much food rounded out the day. A belated happy m-day to my own mom who is a top notch listener, helper, opinion-giver, shopping partner, babysitter... The list goes on!

Of course my pics are less than impressive but good memories all the same, right?

The best pic I could get of her running around like a maniac with her balloons....

Oh, Vi isn't smiling, let's try another one...

Yeah, not so much.

I somewhat on accident and somewhat on purpose let Olivia nap until 6pm, so she stayed up for a while to burn off some energy. Adam got this cute pic of her after she saw me reading in the corner and brought her own material (fruit ninja on Adam's iPhone) over to join me. She is my little snuggle girl. She sat there for a while with me. Too cute.

This is the pic that was in my Mother's Day card from preschool. My favorite parts besides how sweetly is smiling are 1- she has some kind of food in her mouth and 2- she could totally use some frizz-ease.... Just like her mama!

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dear target:

2011-05-02T12:07:00.000-04:00

stop tempting me. my children need NO MORE SHOES. they have an embarrassing amount as it is. you are only lucky that my store didn't have them in the right sizes when i was there last. and they are sold out online. ugh. i cannot resist. there aren't word to describe the cuteness of these on violet's fat little feet. there is a whole new slew of cute toddler shoes right now, but these were my favorite.

tubby time

2011-04-29T14:54:00.001-04:00

both my girls (especially violet) love to be their craziest in the tub for some reason. i had to be careful snapping these pictures because at any given moment, violet could've tried some crazy move for the camera and knocked her teeth out. she is trouble. she likes to say, "splash? no!" and then do it anyway. olivia has taken to using violet as her test dummy.. she likes to make her do or wear things and dump water on her head instead of her own. violet is fortunately amused...for now.

olivia likes to do these little half dunks in the water to pretend she's swimming. not quite brave enough to put her whole face in. :)

basically i just posted this instead of posting about easter because i'm too tired to sort through all my pictures. i think i just need to stop taking so many pictures... then i wouldn't have this problem!

good times in the backyard

2011-04-23T15:12:00.002-04:00

we bought our house last june and moved in around august or september, after some renovating. i can honestly say that this week was the first time we actually really,truly utilized the backyard. lest you think every person in florida has a pool, here are pictures to prove that is not the case...exactly. some of us have a $9.99 kiddie pool from target plus a slide for some real fun. olivia and violet weren't sure what to think of this newfound land to explore but they love it now. the other day olivia was trying to climb through the window in the living room to get to the backyard. need to familiarize her with those darn back doors that she's never been through until this week since apparently we are hermits and stay indoors 24/7. truth be told, i didn't realize how great of shape (relatively speaking) the yard is actually in, which brought me to a more reasonable comfort level in terms of traipsing around in it. anyway, the pool, slide and bouncy balls in the grass were a hit and we'll definitely be doing this more often. playing outside at your OWN house- who knew!? much better than packing up and going to the park some days. do i sound like as big of an idiot as i feel like as i type this? although i have a list of 50 items large and small that i still want to do around this house, i was definitely feeling lucky this week that we have it as good as we do just the way it is. kudos to adam for working day and night (literally) to get us this little joint! we were laughing the other day when we were laying in bed, both on our phones...adam doing work email and me looking at stuff for the house online... money in, money out! good times.

ok, enjoy the pics.

olivia chose to slide in with the popcorn she had been eating poolside (and the stupid binky which she has gotten reattached to recently after being sick... kill me)

violet was quite happy to catch the bowl and have a little snack in the water!

no shoes, no shorts? no problem in the backyard!

note sure why we've failed to remove these random blocks from the back of the house but olivia had a good time climbing on them and saying "marching on the bricks!!" sure thing!

PS- on a side note... need a little reader poll...since there are so many of you and all. below is the TV wall in our house. i've been debating what to do above the TV for a while. i feel like it needs something to close that area in..doesn't have to be huge, obviously.. just something. i've thought about a clock, some series of 3, continuing the photos to the left with more frames, a DIY art piece that i should link to show you but i won't.... and who knows what else. any ideas??????? ps if you're wondering if that is a box of spaghetti next to the TV, it is. violet brought it to me and said, "cack-oo?" (cracker). good try, baby vi!

I am soo crafty

2011-04-12T22:24:00.001-04:00

Just bought 2 of these...

...to make 2 of these!

Wish me luck! We had the same Easter baskets all growing up and while I am definitely known to dump any and all things holiday into my cart at Target, I'd like to take a more long-lasting, sentimental approach to the Easter baskets, the Christmas stockings, etc. Mmmk? Here's to finishing this task before Olivia's 3rd Easter and Violet's 2nd! Better late than never, right?

Tutorial here if you're interested.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

FYI

2011-04-01T17:58:00.002-04:00

I act like anyone reads my blog for recommendations on anything. I am aware that is not quite the case, but I don't have much else to blog about so I thought I'd share these few things...

Love these. Nothing more annoying than trying to make a grilled cheese with a slice of cheese that doesn't fill up the bread. And, they are the same as the regular slices as far as nutrition goes. They're just a little thinner, which I like better anyway.

These are really good. I'm not sure if the "Flat Out" brand is sold everywhere, but it's definitely at Publix for my FL friends.

Totally invested $3.99 in this beauty today at 7-11. Embarrassing to say the least.

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Sunshine babies

2011-03-29T14:50:00.003-04:00

We've been to the beach twice and the pool once in the past 2 weeks. Feels good. I might be cursing the FL heat come august, but for now, we are loving it!!

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....

2011-03-22T10:38:00.000-04:00

stole this from a friend. is it telling me that attempting to organize my house from top to bottom yesterday while my kids watched 400 hours of bubble guppies was not a good idea?? oops. jokes, jokes. really, though...turns out babies do turn into kids who turn into adults... how depressing is that!?

Cool cats

2011-03-13T16:36:00.001-04:00

These 2 love their shades...

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Twinners

2011-03-03T21:41:00.001-05:00

Adam and Violet around the same age....

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violet turns 1!

2011-02-18T12:33:00.002-05:00

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

2011-02-15T11:26:00.000-05:00

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!

december #2

2011-02-15T10:19:00.000-05:00

some quick family pics at my parents. this is the best one we got. shocker.

olivia is so excited to be taking MORE pictures!!

i love this one of violet. "yes? how much cuter can i be?!"

olivia at her school christmas party..i forgot about taking pics so this is the only one i got

we went to a nutcracker performance downtown with my parents. olivia wanted to be front and center until the way too loud music (even for me) started playing. forget about it.

diaper girls breaking ornaments

violet ripped her dress on christmas sunday

visiting a crazily lit house that is nearby...

violet with my sisters

family shot. horrible pic.

only pic i took on christmas eve at adam's parents... not sure how that happened? O went with a princess leia look...

oh, one more. olivia and violet with our friend vicki.

CHRISTMAS!

violet loved her shopping cart and stuffed fruits and veggies

olivia checking out her magna-forms

(yes i know she slept in a dress and not PJs..it was the first thing i grabbed when we got home late christmas eve and i was trying to transfer them to their beds. it is lame that on christmas morning, i was bummed that i had not been with it enough to put them in something festive?!? ugh.)

(shaker eggs from band in a box...the whole thing was a great, noisemaking hit with both of them.)

vi on the tambourine!

opening one of her favs...baby alive

she had it clutched under her arm for so long..too cute.

still got that baby...

ice cream cone set....

and little mom & me dolls from her stocking

on the way to my parents...with baby, of course!

vi taking a bottle break with her great-granddaddy

vi taking a graham cracker break with my dad

hanging with her great-grandma

she gave a little hug all on her own. sweet baby.

went to lunch with some of my HS friends who are rarely in town. apparently i'm the only one who chose to come back to the old stomping grounds.

december #1

2011-02-10T15:49:00.002-05:00

here we go. december was pretty packed so i will probably do a couple posts.

ADVENT DINNER

adam's mom hosts an advent dinner every year to kick the holidays off. we dressed up in some fancies (kind of?) and had a great dinner. topped it off with some family photos which always goes great with lots of kids under 5.

olivia and violet were not the slightest bit interested in pictures.

olivia going to town on her baggie of pretzel and violet falling asleep in adam's arms.

not much better. i think we have like 20 shots and only in like 5 are they both looking. but they are blurry because all my photos are on my phone these days. annoying.

i hated that i didn't get this shot with a decent camera. olivia was loving dancing with her dad. so cute.

blurry daddy/daughter

vi being sneaky

big trouble messing with gigi's breakables

still eating those pretzels!

just some post-dinner discussion

sleepy girl

CHRISTMAS TREE LOT

violet & adam at the lot

yes. another bag of pretzels. she is a snacker.

waiting in the car while the tree guy and adam put it on top of the car. of course olivia was in heaven with her pretzels and dad's soda. crocs with a winter coat? we keep it stylish in FL.

"what? i'm not doing anything."

happy little reindeer!

....aaaaand goodnight

CHURCH CHRISTMAS PARTY

we unfortunately had to miss breakfast with santa at olivia's preschool this year so our church party was the first run at a visit with mr. claus himself. last year olivia totally freaked, of course, so i expected the same this year. much to my surprise she was so nonchalant about it and just sat there for a second and just jumped down and walked away. ha! violet was the one who freaked out. i was kind of surprised because she is so easy going usually. not so much here.

CHRISTMAS PARADE

we braved the cold morning to go to our city's xmas parade. of course we got there too late and were not in an ideal spot but i just wanted to go for a few minutes anyway. i was being a total mom and demanding that we have some fun by checking a "fun" activity off the list. does anyone else do that? haha. we were all ready to go after like 10 minutes.

TWINS. love this profile shot of the brown eyed people

olivia liked it at first but started to get a little alarmed at the giant moose head or something that was on the john deer float. lol.

these little gap christmas shirts got many uses this year. cousin mckinley had one too. matchy matchy times 3!

i really should've used this for our christmas card. violet attacking olivia is a common occurrence around here.

the tree all lit up!

....on to the next.

thanksgiving in utah!

2011-02-09T21:48:00.001-05:00

i think this post has like 60 pictures so feel free to skip. no really. these kind of posts are for my personal documentation. thankyoubye.

this year we went to utah for thanksgiving...we rented a vacation home in SLC with adam's sister and her family who, at the time, were living in san francisco. we also got to go to my friend missy's wedding and see a few friends and other family members...successful trip! let the photos begin.

we used olivia's ticketed seat to restrain violet in the carseat. big girl on her first flight!

olivia snoozing in my seat

we made it! fortunately it only took like 5 years for adam to go get the rental car and come back and get us. :)

pretty sunset the night we got into town... headed to dinner with the millers!

olivia, abbie, jessie

asleep on the way to dinner = not ideal. sleepy photo #1

sleepy photo #2

sleepy photo #3 (this was AFTER olivia was transported from the car to the stroller, pushed into a restaurant where she slept all through lunch, and then pushed back out to the car. she woke up just as we were leaving!)

fun open gym with jessie and baby brody

sleepy photo #4

missy's bachelorette party..cafe rio + sketchy club in SLC. hilarious.

my sis aubrey joined us for part of the trip...girls were happy to see their auntie on the day of her arrival!

cousin ruby. sleepy shot #4.

precious. reagan and olivia asleep in the bunk bed one morning. sleepy photo #5.

crazy girl at cafe rio

grapes at cafe rio. tasty.

bowling with the family. that hair is killing me.

sleepy photo #6

sleepy photo #7

sleepy photo #8

olivia in heaven at discovery gateway. she loved every single thing.

time to speed this post up. no more captions for all the discovery pics. kids had a blast.

sleepy photo #9

cousin wade and olivia post turkey dinner. although i believe they ate mac & cheese and pretzels.

adam sneaking a taste

our delicious meal. the house was perfectly stocked with kitchen gear/gadgets... i think we only had to buy a few extra mixing bowls at walmart to get the job done. it was a great way to do a vacation/holiday.

one downside- no highchair at the house. i was going to go to ikea and get their $20 highchair but i never got around to it. so, carseat strapped to the chair worked just fine.

like idiots my sister, sister in law and i braved a few stores around 1am on thanksgiving night. this was walmart. JOKE. that was my first and last black friday experience.

swimmer girl at the lehi legacy center

sleepy photo #10

jessie and her brody at missy's wedding

excuse my ridiculous hair. i underestimated how much time i needed to get ready and basically had to just put my hair back wet before we left. not a good look.

jessie and i with the beautiful bride!

sleepy photo #11

sleepy photo #12

sleepy photo #13

sleepy photo #14 (another transfer shot. from car to target cart to....

...jessie's couch. we stayed with them at the beginning and end of our trip during the days we did not have the house with the wingets. good times!

sleepy photo #15

sleepy photo #16

my girl on the ipad on our late night flight home. PHEW! as you can tell from all the pictures i took of my sleeping children, they definitely got their share of R&R on this trip. adam and i were not so well rested but did manage to have a great time! i just realized how even though this is so many pictures, it doesn't cover a good portion of what we did! i guess that's what happens when you take a 2 week trip. ok, i am sooo over this post. :)

Bedhead

2011-01-27T15:15:00.002-05:00

Olivia opted to not take a nap yesterday. Rare for her but I don't mind because she is always ready for bed at like 7. She was literally snoring by 7:15 last night and did not wake up till 9:30 this morning. Of course, as usual, V was up at 7 on the dot. Anyway- apparently 14.5 hours of sleep gives you major bedhead. I wouldn't know.

"honestly? no photos please."

watching violet do a song and dance outside her crib like she was saying, "umm get up! it's sooo awesome out here!"

breakfast and cartoons while savoring her last few moments with her blanket and binkie. monday i decided NO more of either during the day. at all. i've said that before, but i would be casual in my hiding places or just throw it back in her bed which just meant she'd go find it if she got the urge. now they both go in very good hiding places all day. she gets them for sleep only. she's been doing surprisingly awesome. she doesn't even look for them when before, she was always dumping out my purse to find them. in the next little bit i'm going to take the binkie for good and keep the blanket on a sleep-only deal. wish me luck!

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Baby land

2011-01-25T12:34:00.001-05:00

Violet is a single mama to many babies. We have 6. So, she is often found doing this. She is a good mommy, though, and doesn't have favorites. She keeps them on a good rotation. She needs to work on her baby handling skills though since this morning she was carrying one in her mouth to keep a free hand...probably for another baby! Love our little mother hen.

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Happy Birthday V!

2011-01-21T10:05:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday yesterday to our sweet baby sister. We had such a fun day at Sea World and we're having a little family party on Sunday, so I'll post more later. For now, here she is enjoying a birthday donut before we left! Can't imagine life without our funny, crazy, curious, lovable troublemaker!

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the zoo, new magic t-shirts and a very special seashell (november 2010)

2011-01-14T14:43:00.002-05:00

olivia's preschool class does an unofficial playgroup each month. someone takes turns being in charge...aka: picking the location and providing snacks! in october we went to the zoo. i decided to swap violet out for olivia's cousin mckinley who is the same age and also easier to manage at a place like the zoo. violet just wants out of the stroller at all times and at the time, she wasn't walking yet, so it just would've been a disaster.

reading their books on the way there!

ready to go!

olivia and eloise

on the train with our dum-dums...check!

little cousins who look NOTHING alike!

adam got olivia and violet new orlando magic t-shirts at a game one night.. olivia's says "howard #12" on the back, lol

another crappy picture from my phone...but it's all i got!

we went to a cute toy store in town on this night where they have a little rock collector's nook where you can fill up a little bag for $5 or something. olivia was having fun picking and choosing some favorites.

violet (in her new sporty magic shirt) going to town on a mini baby that we had to buy because by the time i realized she had yanked it off the shelf, she had chewed the price tag off and the whole doll was a soggy mess. one more for the collection!

go magic!

olivia's classmate eloise went on a beach vacation and brought back shells for everyone. so cute. olivia really liked it and kept saying it was her "sea-sell."

halloween recap (feel free to skip)

2011-01-14T14:15:00.001-05:00

getting halloween started off right trying on her first dress up!

church trunk or treat

with a friend from nursery. note: violet is not in nursery yet, but she is so crazy at church we can often be found hanging out there. :)

loving running around the gym in her ballerina best!

big bag of lays...healthy

sharing with dad

checking out the buffett! she had the perfect ballerina bun. lots of hairspray, that's for sure.

preschool halloween parade

"hey, that's my mom!"

some of the other kiddos...checking out all the costumes was hilarious. they were all a little overwhelmed at the big crowd and loud music. always entertaining!

an attempt at a class picture. the kids were all over the place and olivia had no interest in sitting down

jay had his mom's video camera in front of him so that's the only explanation i could come up with for why she did this. that or she has a major crush?? he was so cute and just went with it!

when she first saw me and realized i was there for the party! so funny.

cool outfit. we were supposed to send in clothes to change into after the parade, but i just sent some shorts and told them to swap out the tutu.

poser

her little ghost cake that she frosted/sprinkled but had no interest in eating

she did not want to take a picture for some reason. and could i look more tired? yikes.

stopping by papa joel and gigi's with the cousins...adam's dad looking like a ghost in the glass (really on the other side of the door :) )

BOO!

at my parents' halloween party. olivia not a fan of being photographed this holiday, i guess.

mckinley, coleman, olivia. not sure what they're looking at.

cute girl with her cuzzies

wrapping the night up with mom!

phew! that felt good. i have soooo many pics from october - january and the blogging process when you have a lot of pictures to post is kind of laborious aka annoying. here's to catching up!

Chop chop!

2011-01-13T21:29:00.002-05:00

Olivia definitely needed a haircut so we decided to go all out and do a little bob, again. I honestly can't imagine how long and crazy her hair would be if we hadn't cut it twice now. I was a little sad today but fortunately hair grows back! For now, it's a cute change. :)

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER:

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An update!

2011-01-10T22:11:00.002-05:00

Everyday I tell myself I am going to sit down and catch up on blogging from October to present day. But then I don't do it. Maybe I'll just keep blogging forward and come back to the end of 2010 when I get around to it. As unimportant as blogging really is, I've decided I'd like it to be semi-important to me because it's a way for me to journal all the photos I take. So, here's a little sampling of how things are going around here. Violet will be one next week and she is as crazy as ever. She's been taking steps for what seems like months and in the past few weeks has started walking more consistently. Now she is up to full time walker status and is cracking us up with how she's trying to up the ante a little and break into a little run once in a while....which usually results in a fall. She loves her sister, big people food and her babydolls. She has a whole gang of them that she rotates through. I believe our baby count is up to 5. She is so sweet and loves anybody. I told Adam if she was a good sleeper (she is not), she'd be a literally perfect baby! Haha. I guess she is still perfect to us though. Love our crazy little sister.

These photos were the result of me being on the phone for 5 minutes and Violet somehow getting the peanut butter open and going to town. Fortunately it was mostly all over her and not so much all over everything else. She hasn't had pb before so needless to say her whole fist was in her mouth when I found her!

All clean in the tubbies!

*Sorry about the bad photos...they were taken on my phone but i had to make them big to fully demonstrate how much peanut butter was all over her. good times!

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pumpkin patch 2010

2010-12-21T14:59:00.000-05:00

seems i never get good pictures at the pumpkin patch. last year's weren't much better. this year, we decided to go at the very last second one night...hence everyone's end of the day haggard appearance. specifically- my grossness, olivia's frizzies, and their non-festive outfits which adam deemed polygamist dresses on the way there. whatever! major clearance at target doesn't go unpurchased in this household (unfortunately) so sue me. enjoy this ridiculously belated post. i just scrolled through my iphoto and feel extremely overwhelmed.

Merry Merry

2010-12-07T22:31:00.001-05:00

I may be very behind on blogging, but at least my Christmas tree is up! Happy Holidays.... Don't give up on this little blog... She'll come back one of these days!

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fall festival

2010-12-02T00:00:00.002-05:00

here is my first attempt to get caught up on blogging. i am sooo behind. so, things might be short and sweet for a while until i'm up to current day... if that ever happens! i think there are probably things to blog before this, so maybe we'll be doing things a little out of order, but that's ok.

back in october, olivia's preschool had their annual fall festival. they go allllll out. we went with olivia's cousins coleman and mckinley. coleman goes to the same school. here are a few pics.....good times.

my little preschooler being camera shy

violet in her second home..the stroller. good sport!

olivia and mom on the train. she loved it.

hugs for cousin coleman and his cotton candy!

they had a camel at the petting zoo. olivia was having none of that. too scary. that's her new favorite thing to say lately. "i scaaaaaaaaaaared!" i wish i could record the voice she says it in. we stayed at adam's uncle's house one of the nights we were in UT and i had her sleep in the bedroom next door. she's usually fine doing stuff like that and likes having a big bed all to herself, but i guess she heard me with violet or doing something she did not quite like, because i heard her yelling from the other room, "HEY! i SCAAAARED!" it was only funny because it seemed like what she was really meaning was, "um- do not leave me in here in the dark to go play with that sister of mine..." but we all know being scared is a good excuse!

cousin mckinley made a special request to have a butterfly face painting instead of whatever they were offering. apparently the other options did not suit her style!

violet with her signature smile

attempt at a family photo. olivia was VERY thirsty and did not want to stop guzzling her drink for a picture. :)

A post

2010-11-12T11:27:00.003-05:00

Here's a little something... I want to post about Halloween when I get a chance.

This is Olivia's preschool picture she just got back. I just took a pic of it on my phone, that's why it looks kind of funny. There were a few where she was actually looking at the camera, but she was making some crazy, mad gremlin face so I opted for this one where she's looking at her teacher or whoever. So angelic with her hands placed together. Haha, yeah right. Happy Friday!

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i.am.so.tired....!!!!!!!

2010-11-05T13:23:00.002-04:00

let me introduce you to a little monster. her name is violet, but her dad has nicknamed her "violence." yes, she is cute as can be and yes, she waves to strangers and deceives them with her big, dorky smile....but she is trouble. trust me.

today i woke up so beyond tired. olivia usually sleeps in till 8am, at least. violet, however, is awake for SURE by 7:15...and this is after waking up multiple times during the night. a couple nights ago she finally started going down at her usual 8 and not waking up until 4, but last night that was spoiled by the fact that she also woke up at 3:30 and 5:30. this is UNACCEPTABLE!!! i don't understand how people with a 3 year old that wake up are still sane. if that is you, you are amazing. i couldn't handle it. i couldn't take it this morning. all the middle of the night activity for the past 9 months has been catching up to me, so you better believe that at 9am, i put violet down for a morning nap (which she of course tried to refuse), put olivia in my bed with me, gave her my iphone to watch pinky dinky doo, and i shut my eyes. of course i couldn't fall asleep...always happens...but luckily olivia is an iphone whiz and took it upon herself to restart pinky dinky doo (i need to download more than one episode) and watch it again. so i got a whole 50 minutes of half-sleep. i did feel a little better though. after that, i pulled it together and loaded up for a few errands. we're home now and they are taking a nap but of course i'm too awake now. this is my chronic problem. when i am overly tired, the only time i feel like i can effectively catch up on sleep is if i lay down shortly after i wake up. if i get up, get ready, do some errands, etc...forget it. i'm up. and then by nighttime, i have long forgotten how tired i am and stay up until 11 or later watching tv. UFGHpadfjskl...as i type this violet is yapping in her crib. of course olivia (my angel sleeper) is out cold.

i KNOW i need to let violet cry it out. all night long. and i'm planning on it. i just have to set up shop for her in the office or playroom since they are sharing a room. poor olivia would probably sleep right through it (she is like adam- a bomb could go off and they wouldn't wake up), but i'll do her the favor of removing the terror from her room for a few nights. it might have to be tonight. i should go set up right now.

anyway, aside from the fact that violet thinks she is invincible and doesn't need sleep, she is also just crazy in general. i think it might be due in part to the fact that i was a more responsible parent with olivia, so now the comparison is not accurate. for example, i would keep the bathroom door shut. then you never have to find your child playing in the toilet. violet is all over the place all the time, usually causing some kind of trouble. but adam and i both laugh about how you can't even stay mad at her, because as soon as you pick her up she stops her fake crying and gives you a funny face or acts like she is telling you something really serious. she is obsessed with olivia and never leaves her alone. when she wakes up from a nap, she scans the room for olivia asap as if she's saying, "ok! i'm here! what did i miss?!!?" the other day they were both going down for a nap and olivia was talking to herself and kind of hyper before she fell asleep, which violet thought was sooo funny. then olivia's voice cuts off because she's fallen asleep and i look in their roomt o see violet jumping in her crib yelling over to olivia like she's saying "noo!! don't give up! just never go to sleep and she'll get us up!" so bad.

ok, enough babbling. long story long: violet is a crazytown, USA resident and is giving me a major run for my money. but luckily she is funny and cute and our favorite bad bad baby, so we love her anyway! she still only has 2 teeth, has recently started standing alone w/o furniture and has started saying a lot things. obviously just kind of copying sounds at this point, but it's pretty funny. earlier today i was telling her to "stop!" (shocker), to which she replied, "DOP!" she also says "ohhhhnonononononoooooohhhhnonono" in one big run-on word usually when she is mad or wants out of her crib. she says baby appropriately and is obsessed with hers. i need to get her a new one for christmas because this one is about done. it has been through many near death experiences, including, but not limited to, being dropped on her head in every store in town and getting tangled up in the stroller wheel. poor baby. i'll have to try and get it on video....she loves to find it and say "bay.....beeee."

she also says "go! go!" a lot when she is crawling around and "ha!" (with a wave) when she's in front of the mirror or prompted by someone...so maybe she is figuring out what those things mean!

baby loves her baby

ok, all done! we'll consider this a journal entry for our little vi vi. here are a few shots (in no particular order) of her for fun...toodles.

spaghetti head

a rare moment...asleep in the car. not a bad pic for being taken on my phone, huh?

mad face after a nap

shopping at nordstrom rack....trying on accessories, of course!

sunny day at the park

soo mad at me because i wouldn't give her any more yogurt!

and still mad at me even after i gave her more!

hanging with mom in the car...

dragging her baby out of the playroom. love that little weird half smile.

she totally thought she hit the jackpot. don't worry- it was empty.

so happy i am 2 for 2 on kids that looove the beach.

hanging out in her room one morning

trying out the cinderella dress up. she is sooo child #2. olivia only wanted to wear dress up shoes, so i put V in the costume. that's always how it is. "olivia doesn't want it? give it to violet. olivia doesn't like that? give it to violet. olivia won't do it? make violet do it." so funny/sad!

church trunk or treat!

being a dork in her highchair

stopping by papa joel and gigi's to trick or treat!

she got a can of tomato paste out of the pantry the other day and was trying to chew on it. weirdo.

**note- i started this post yesterday and then last night violet slept 8:45-6:45, and that's with no crying!! waahooo! she also took a great morning nap but of course now, olivia is zonked out and violet is playing around underneath the table where i am sitting. awake.

Yes-arooni, posi-tooni

2010-10-27T15:03:00.002-04:00

Folks, it has happened. Dora is done-zo. So much so, in fact, that i just deleted the series recording on the dvr. I guess she (Olivia, obviously) has been sort of phasing out of the over-a-year addiction for a while now. She's picked up some new favs and has been busy doing other things I guess. But anyway, I'd say it's officially over. She never wants to watch and yesterday when my mom presented her with a little mini stuffed Diego and Dora that she bought, olivia threw the Dora on the ground. Of course violet snatched it right up and was so happy. Poor girl/2nd child.... Already getting the reject toys. Cute thing was, Olivia gave the Diego a big kiss and extra long hug. So in case you are dying to know, she's moved on to Diego and pinky dinky doo. Looooves pinky. Which I'm actually happy about because it's only on one time a day at 8:30am, unlike Dora that is on approximately 15x a day. No more dvr full of dora! PS my title is a little insider for all the pinky dinky doo fans out there. :)

Here she is when she first got diego. She flipped it right over and said, "rescue pack! A rescate!"

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Busy Bees

2010-10-17T23:10:00.002-04:00

I feel like I have a lot of blog catch up to do. For now, a couple pics of my beach babies. We were there for a little 3 day stay this week and it was so nice. Breezy and borderline cool but mostly warm, always sunny and 100% cloud free. Heaven! More later.

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Proud as punch

2010-10-10T22:31:00.002-04:00

The best part about from this little report from Olivia's teacher is the note on the side about cleaning up. Translation: on other days, your child is a diva and won't help. Nice. They only get these if they are really bad or really good so woo hoo Olivia!

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Phone pics update....

2010-09-28T18:27:00.005-04:00

A sampling of our life lately via pics from my phone..i don't know why i cannot get rid of the huge spaces between all my photos.. sorry.

Violet checkin on her baby doll

Olivia enjoying some popcorn at the beach!

Olivia heading out to sea

Violet really went for it playing in the waves this time. She was wiped out, obviously.

I made a new recipe Sunday that was delish. Here is violet enjoying it...

And here is Olivia napping through dinner at 630! (she went down at 2:15. What can i say, we keep it low key on sundays)

And here is a picture of our dinner. Yes, that white spot on the plate is calling out for a big, fat piece of garlic bread but I opted not to make it for fear of death by carb overdose. But my plan probably backfired because it just left more room for pasta or salad...and you can guess which one we chose!

See the recipe here...

A first for these 2. It's the only way we can shop and have room in the actual cart for food!

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New stuff

2010-09-22T19:47:00.003-04:00

We got 2 new chairs for our living room and they came today. Olivia came in and apparently noticed our new items because for like 20 minutes, she could not get enough of her newfound seat! I guess she just wanted to help break it in.

Went to the beach today... That's about the only place I can go and not be annoyed at the obscene temps at the end of September. I'll blog pics of that and all the amazing things we've been doing (not) later. BTW- did anyone slash everyone watch biggest loser last night?? Holy depressing. Every other story had some tragic death in it. Too much. But I guess that's the point of the show. I told Adam I sometimes want to be a trainer because I like the idea of giving people the tools and opportunity to get to the "other side" and see how much happier they can be..... But then I remembered I like mcdonald's and don't particularly love working out. Nevermind.

Goodbye baby carseat...we won't miss you

2010-09-17T15:33:00.006-04:00

Babies-r-Us is doing this exchange program right now where you bring in an old highchair/carseat/stroller and you get a coupon for 25% off a new item in one of those categories. I have been sooo ready to move Violet to a big girl car seat so I figured now was a good time! And, my infant carrier has seen better days so I had no problem trading up. They're doing it to get older models of stuff out of the community...newer/better safety features nowadays... Anyway. Violet thinks she is a big timer like her sister now. The whole way home she wouldn't lean back- she wanted to sit upright at attention in case something exciting happened.

She'll still face backwards for a while but I don't think she minds. She can watch Olivia's every move which is what she loves to do anyway! Bonus: this print was on sale so I got an even better deal. Definitely dulls the annoying-ness of the fact that we have to own 2 gigantic car seats that take up my entire backseat. Luckily the 2 babies using them are so cute! Do you love Olivia's sock feet in the background?

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in case anyone is wondering...

2010-09-16T14:01:00.002-04:00

this is REALLY good. olivia loves to it too. she just had some with her lunch. yes, i give her popcorn with her lunch. sue me. it's high in fiber and better than plenty of other options like chips. thankyoubye.

Potty talk (really creative pun, I know)

2010-09-15T12:49:00.005-04:00

Luckily, if I need someone to talk to while I'm going to the bathroom, this little one is right next me in the shower. Don't worry about how I had my phone in the bathroom to take this picture.

Fine with me if she wants to play in there.... Hopefully she doesn't attempt to turn the water on though!

(Sorry for the borderline TMI-nature of this post....)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

proud to be an american

2010-09-13T15:29:00.000-04:00

can't imagine being in this situation but i'm sure it happens a lot.. probably should've posted this on 9/11 or something, right?

Coming Home from Ryan Southwell on Vimeo.

had to remember this

2010-09-11T22:36:00.001-04:00

before school on friday... it was "God Bless America" day in her class so she had to wear red :)

olivia's preschool carpool is in a little U shape. you hold up your number and they bring your kid and buckle them in. easy peasy. usually they make their way a few cars back to see numbers and start gathering those kids so by the time you are rounding the bend, your little tot is ready. i love to try and get a look at what olivia is doing waiting with her little class before she sees me. yesterday i saw the cutest thing. the carpool person was getting her from her teacher and her teacher was kneeling down in front of her blowing a kiss-- i guess she was probably wanting olivia to do the same. instead i saw olivia wave/say bye bye and then literally jump in to her teacher's arms for a hug. then she ran to the car with the carpool lady. i'm sooooo happy she likes her teacher and that this is working out well. it was really cute to see.

that being said, i need to structure my short tuesday/friday 3 hour "break" better. some days i try and pre-plan what i'm going to do the night before, otherwise it totally wastes away in 2 seconds. case in point--yesterday. somehow all i did was go to the grocery store and i'm pretty sure i was NOT there 3 hours. not sure how that adds up. oh well. happy weekend!

i picked her up from school with lunch and bathing suits so we could cram in a quick hour at the pool. she is not quite ready for a nap when we get home from school so the pool is our favorite time killer....as you can see, she loves mom's "gasses"...

labor day in the pool

2010-09-07T21:06:00.000-04:00

we had a pretty low key labor day. did a few things around the house, went to west elm and ikea to look at a desk (note: do NOT go to ikea on a holiday...death), and then we broke in to adam's sister's house to use their pool. they were out of town and we had permission. :) olivia loves swimming and violet has only been one or two other times so she had a good time. she was very serious about her splashing.

twinners

apparently there was something in the water...doesn't it look like they're both looking at the same thing?

best i could get of my busy swimmer girl

she seriously thought she could swim and wantd adam to just let go

trying to swim laps!

love that face. she was loving adam throwing her up in the air.

she fit like a perfect little wedge in the tube

i don't even know what to say about this one. she looks a 200 lb boy with some slick hair (today someone at the grocery store commented on "what a cute boy" she was. she kept saying he this and he that and seriously referencing how she was a HE like 25 times so i was just hurrying to get the car loaded up so she wouldn't notice she was wrong and feel awkward and embarrassed. it doesn't bother me at all, she kind of does look like a boy.. .but a super cute one! she was wearing a freaking dress too, btw. people have said it when she has a pink blanket also. HELLLLLOOO?)

just lounging!

fun times

2010-09-06T23:23:00.000-04:00

friday night we watched the byu game with our friends tyler and rachel. olivia had a blast running around in her cheerleading outfit constantly trying to put her grubby hands all over their TV (sorry!) and violet looved meeting their little guy jackson... they are about 2 months apart. we had a good time. i just had to document my little cougs in their finest fan gear. and maybe i got carried away with the polaroid app on my phone. whatever. they aren't the greatest quality photos but they are pretty cute!

this is just a funny one of my mad little girl the other day. jail bird in her crib wanted OUT and i just decided to take a picture instead. mean mom.

blueberry baby

2010-09-03T13:54:00.005-04:00

so, this post is actually serving a legitimate purpose. i have a question. do you think it is totally necessary that i give violet baby food? i'm thinking the answer is no. for some reason, she doesn't really care for it. i mean, i might be kind of impatient and maybe i haven't let her experiment with it enough to realize the proper thing to do with it is actually EAT it, but i can only take so much sweet potato puree spit in my face. however, she loves big people food. she will munch on whatever little bits i give her like she has a full set of teeth, even though she doesn't even have one. she's really only had a few different breads and small pieces of fruit, but she loves it. my only concern would be that she won't get as well rounded nutrition this way, probably, since with baby food, you can cram in the vegetables before they know what's going on. i would give it to olivia still if i could. just the other day i mixed a jar of violet's that she was clearly not eating into olivia's spaghetti in a desperate attempt to get her some vegetables. she had no clue and i was feeling very satisfied that she got like 315% DV of vitamin A from my sneaky sweet potatoes. olivia eats approximately 200 servings of fruit a day, but vegetables......maybe 2 a week. or maybe zero some weeks. well, i don't know.. maybe it's not that bad. but i do know it's not enough.

anyway......i don't know if i should keep shoving the baby food on violet until she finally likes it, or if i should just give her teensy, barely-there pieces of whatever i'm eating and see how she does....

today she had blueberries for the first time and she was a big fan. looking for the perfect little piece to eat!

too sour!

"can you stop taking pictures of me while i eat? it's embarrassing."

delicious!

all done! (not sure why i neglected to take off the white shirt.)

(other notes for me...aka....not required reading for you! ) violet has now committed to a real crawl... no more army. and she also mastered sitting up from the crawling position. it's funny to turn around and think she's just crawling around, only to see her popped up sitting so straight waiting for some attention. she is starting to be really interested in what olivia is doing 24/7, and she will take little detours on her crawling path to go over and get right in olivia's business. sometimes olivia is okay with this, but lots of times she is not. today olivia was looking at a book with me and violet came over and rested her hands on the book for some support while she looked at it too and olivia totally pushed her hands off the book. but she did it all delicately like, "mmm. no thank you. you are not welcome here." so mean! i kind of understand though... olivia has been kind of whiny to me the past few weeks and i think she is probably just sick of violet being everywhere she is. they probably both need more individual attention i guess. ahh. anyway, back to violet. she still sleeps soooo bad at night and i'm seriously going to lose my mind. if she goes down with olivia at like 830, she will usually wake up again at like 1230, but definitely at like 330. sometimes she skips the 1230. it's like no different from when she was 2 months old?? i've been feeling sick the past week and i swear my body is shutting down from lack of sleep. i'm gearing up to let her cry it out all night sometime soon. i just feel like i need to get her solid food routine down a little better during the day so i don't feel too bad when she's screaming her head off. for the 20th time.. i did not know how easy i had it with olivia. i mean, to my credit, i was a little more organized with her whole schedule...but still... she was much easier to work with! one day bad baby will sleep through the night... and at this point, that is going to be the best night of my life!!!!!

PS- speaking of sleep, adam and i downgraded from a king to a queen in this house.. we felt like we had to because our bedroom here seemed smaller. we were wrong. a king can totally fit. worst decision of my life. we sleep bad too. we are going to have to make the switch again for our sanity but it's so annoying because it's such a waste! so combine this with the above and now you know why i am a zombie.

i don't know what to call this post

2010-09-01T14:15:00.002-04:00

last night we made our way to a wholesale appliance place. unfortunately, we are in need of a new clothes washer and a new dishwasher. (i don't really know who says "clothes washer," but i felt the need to differentiate.) it took some restraint to not go ahead and get the new dryer as well so my delivery could be a shiny, new complete set. but, we decided to keep our current dryer and only replace the piece of junk washer that came with the house. it's seriously from 1960. the dryer is newer. anywhooz. it was a quick trip and we found what we wanted in no time. correction: we found what we wanted that was in our price range. who knew you could have appliance envy? maybe someday i'll have a w/d set that costs like $3,000. do the clothes come out ironed and folded?

i'm sure you probably don't care about this family purchase, but i wanted to blog these pics from our adventure. this place doesn't have AC, so i was dreading it... but i knew it would be no biggie with the kids. we went there for our oven/microwave during the renovation and olivia loved it. she just runs all over the place sweating to death with super high power fans blowing on her from every direction. i know what you're thinking. sounds awesome!!!

i asked for a "cheese" and this is what i got.

these pictures do not adequately reflect how much she was sweating.

somebody else did NOT like the no AC situation. at all.

"hi folks. can i help you find something today?"

here's a project we finally finished this week. in reality it took a total of only a few hours but we just kept putting it off. i don't have a before picture, but they were an ugly cream color with no seats at all. that's what was holding us up. had to find the weekend energy/time to cut the wood. done and done!

what happens when you share a room

2010-08-30T14:06:00.000-04:00

olivia decided she would like to do some puzzles during violet's nap. so she did. please do not mind the alarming amount of stuff shoved under violet's crib. i haven't put their crib skirts on yet. i have some easy-to-access baskets of toys for violet under there, but they inevitably get dumped out on an hourly basis.

my crazy child contemplating how she can bust out of her crib and join in the fun!

i really don't remember when olivia started doing this but i feel like it's too early?? she is very interested in all ways OUT of the crib. not sure how much longer i have before she tries one of them on her own.

"what? it's fine. i'm already well rested."


this is the face olivia gave me when i asked her why she woke baby up. PUHHHLEASE, mom.

i went back and forth before we moved about whether or not to have them share a room. so far, it's actually great. they both like to play in there and i'm so glad we put carpet in there since everywhere else is wood. makes it a little easier to let violet play around on her own/experiment with crawling/sitting/climbing. this has only happened once so far and i guess it's just a note to self to shut the door completely when one of them is napping and the other isn't. right now it's the best of both worlds-- zonked out at the same time! wahoo!