My Little Jumping Bean

Violet looovveesss her jumper.  She jumps like crazy in that thing.  It's pretty hilarious to watch.  She bounces so hard her head bobs around like a bobble head.  Get ready to smile...

Violet's First Thanksgiving

We had an awesome day yesterday hanging out with our families.  Surprisingly I didn't overeat too bad.  My green bean casserole was a dud though.  The beans were not cooked enough.. very crunchy.  My pumpkin cheesecake was really good, what isn't good with cream cheese in it though?  We had dinner at my parents house with all my sisters and then dessert at Justin's parents house with his brother, wife and little Landon.  It was great to see them again, Landon is getting so big! Seeing the two babies together is too cute! They love to just stare at each other.

Justin is off work till Tuesday so we are gonna work on the house, relax and eat leftovers for the next few days.  Oh, and get a Christmas tree.  I would get my tree after Halloween if it would last that long.  That fresh tree smell is amazing...

waiting for some turkey!

at Grandma Dickmeyers checking out Gma's toys

loves to eat her dress

Landon and Violet cuddlin' up

cousins

too cute for words

10 things

10 things I'm thankful for...

1.  My Heavenly Father who loves me no matter what
2.  My amazing husband who works so hard to provide for our family
3.  My incredible, adorable, perfect in-every-way Violet who has shown me what true joy is all about
4.  That Violet has both sets of grandparents living within 15 minutes of us
5.  My 4 super talented and beautiful sisters who are my best friends
6.  That I am able to be a stay at home mom- best job ever
7.  That I have a warm house to live in, food to eat and clothes to wear
8.  That we are all healthy!
9.  My sewing machine and craft room 
10.  That I get to spend Thanksgiving with both of our families!

What are you thankful for? 

Let's Eat!

Violet tried rice cereal this weekend for the first time.  She didn't really eat any of it, kinda just pushed it right back out.  She does open her mouth though when you put the spoon near it so I guess that's good.  Yesterday I tried mixing in some pears with it but she still just made a mess of it.  I decided to try it because Violet won't take a bottle.. like at all.  She absolutely wants nothing to do with one.  Which means I can't go anywhere without her and also I can't go out for date night or anything else at night.  Kinda sucks. 

I've been researching online and I guess around 3-4 months some babies start to refuse a bottle.  They are old enough to know the difference and of course prefer mom.  So, we have been working on it.  I have been trying a bottle of diluted apple juice, still not taking it though.  We will keep at it.  Some babies prefer a sippy cup so I might try that.

 

House Project #1

We moved into our house here in Loomis when I was 9 months pregnant.  Not ideal.  (side note- we live in the house Justin grew up in.. pretty cool huh) So basically we still have boxes to unpack and lots of projects to complete.  We are redoing the whole inside of the house- repainting the whole thing, adding lots of molding, refinishing the kitchen cabinets, and more.  We have already added a new window and new slate tile floor in the kitchen.  As you know working on stuff like this is hard with a baby.  I'm thinking maybe a year to get it near finished.  So until then- you can't come over, its a disaster.

This weekend we actually made some progress.  I've been trying to get the upstairs finished before moving to downstairs and I'm almost there.  Violet's room is complete, I finished the bathroom this weekend and our bedroom is painted and just needs to be decorated (sew curtains, pillows, etc.).  Justin and I also painted the stairwell so maybe another week or so on the upstairs.  Depending on how much Violet lets me get done. 

Justin's mom actually painted most of our living room on Saturday too which was a huge help.  We are actually seeing progress which makes me feel good and makes the dream of completion seem visible. 

So here is the upstairs bathroom, it's very tiny so I kept it simple..

I took a painting I no longer wanted and added some velvet ribbon, a wallpaper scrap and a decorative applique

cute little candle chandelier

I made some cafe curtains

added some chippy red painted hardware

I monogrammed the toothbrush holder ( I am currently obsessed with monograms and velvet)

monogrammed the trash can

It's a glass enclosed shower but I still wanted to do a curtain.  I made this with vintage style handkerchiefs.

also added velvet ribbon to the bathmat

not alot of storage in this small space- had to be creative!

added molding and painted the medicine cabinet glossy red, added velvet ribbon to hand towels

and there u have it.. my bathroom! (Justin uses downstairs)

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday from the baldest, cutest baby u know! 

(and the chubbiest)

Daddy's Funny!

Love this little girl's laugh so dang much.  So incredibly adorable.  Video is a little dark but you can hear her sweet laughter! (Penny tries to come in and steal the show at the end)

One of those days...

breathe in.. breathe out... deep breaths are gonna be necessary to get me through today.  Can you say exhausted? I am walking around in a cloudy haze.  Violet woke up 10 times last night. Yes, 10.  Lately she has been going to bed and then waking up like 5 times within the next 2 hours.  Not sure what the deal is.  It's like she can't get into a deep enough sleep to make it past 20 minutes.  Very tiring and frustrating. 

So, my day started with a very grumpy, tired mama.  I went to make a ginormous pot of coffee and spilled the used grinds all over the floor and counter.  Great.  I decided to make a smoothie since I just bought a ton of good fruit.  I pull the blender out and see that it has a whole forest of mold growing in it.  Double great.  No smoothie today.  (and yes the moldy blender is still sitting on the counter, with the coffee grinds) The next part of my morning goes smoothly until I let yorkie #2 out, Penny, and she weasles her way out the fence onto our outer yard which is next to our road.  I go out with baby on my hip and thank goodness see her out there.  Of course she ignores me and won't come back.

I run into the house, plop Violet down and sprint out the front, around the house and corner the little bugger.  Penny has a problem with scootchin' though the fence to play with the chickens next door but this was the first time she made it out to the open road.  Scary. 

Now I sit here, amidst the piles of baby laundry and baby toys, with a sink full of dirty dishes and dog hair coating my floors, wearing the same pajamas I have been wearing since Sunday.  I'm not sure much will get done today.  Today is just one of those days....

Despite all this, how can I not feel blessed with this darling diva..

and how can these socks not make u smile?

Miss Talkative

Violet is becoming so hilarious.  She is quite the ham.  I can already tell she will be in love with being the center of attention.  She loves to make sure everyone is watching her when we go anywhere.  She talks and sings and shrieks as loud as she can whenever we are in public. 

Yesterday at Joann's Fabrics I'm sure the whole store could hear her happily shrieking away.  It's too funny.  And it's not just a few noises she makes, she will do it for the entire time we are in the store.  That plus her constant love of doing raspberries and blowing spit bubbles can only make a mama smile.  Whenever people come up to admire her she loves to put on her biggest smile and flirt her little heart out.  It's so fun to watch her little personality coming out. 

She is no longer just a little baby, she is a little person!

my little ham

taking a Sunday stroll through the park

love her new headband-looks like a crown, and you know we love us a tiara or crown

lovin' on her new toy

we love double chins!

Gleek

"Don't stop.. believin'!" How much do I love Glee? I might be obsessed even.  I got the first season on netflix and just finished it.  I was so sad to see it end.  I am a huge musical fan.  My favorite is Bye Bye Birdie.  I will probably start watching season 2 online since I don't think I can wait for it to come out on dvd.  How amazing is Mathew Morrison.  Love him.  And I might have a small crush on Puck.  Such an amazing show.  Just call me Rachel Berry...

I'm a rookie photoshopper- don't judge!

Digital Scrapbooking

I used to be way into scrapbooking in high school.  It's an expensive hobby.  Not that I have any extra time for more projects but I am hooked on digital scrapbooking.  It's not free but it seems cheaper than buying all the supplies.  I am using the site scrapblog.com.  It is pretty awesome and easy to use.  I would love to do all Violet's pictures but we will see how that goes.  You can make photo books with the pages you create right on the site, you can export the pages to shutterfly or you can print the pages right at home if you want.  I made a few pages just messing around trying to get a feel of the program...love it so far!

Christmas Outfit

I want to make Violet something to wear for Christmas, probably a ruffle skirt but I saw this on ebay and had to buy it...

I love this brand- Mud Pie.  They have the cutest stuff ever.  I just bought her some socks from them that are adorable.  So she can wear this Christmas day maybe and I'll make her something for Christmas Eve.

Shopping for little girls is so fun.  Violet has way too many clothes.  But hey, what if I don't have another girl? I have to take advantage of it!

Monday Funday

Yesterday was a big day for Miss Violet.  Huge.  She is sportin' some new bling... yes that's right, she got her cute little ears pierced! I know some of you are frowning and thinkin' she's way too young but I thought about it a lot before I did, and was totally comfortable with it.  I also read that it was totally fine to do after their second round of vaccinations, which she had recently. We had a pretty fun day in general.  It started with a late breakfast with Aunt Jess and Aunt Megan at the Ugly Mug in Loomis.. love that place..

sucking on a french fry for the first time

Those of you who think I'm crazy to let her suck on that, I assure you it was only for a few seconds.  Her hand-eye coordination isn't that great so she kept rubbing it all over her face.  She hasn't even had rice cereal yet actually.  I am planning on waiting till 6 months but we will see.  They say your baby is ready to try it when you notice them watching you eat and they seem interested.  She already seems ready to try it so it may be sooner than later.  

Aunt Megan

After eating we went over to the mall and Violet rode in her stroller for the first time without a carseat.  She loved it.  She loves sitting up and looking around. (if your noticing her different outfit below- had a little poop explosion)

 

We went into Claire's to get her ears pierced, but first we had to buy her a tiara.. all princess's need a tiara-no hair required.

It wasn't a very fun experience.  I felt terrible, she didn't want to hold still and she cried.  She calmed down pretty quickly though.  She looks so darn cute though.  After 6 weeks I want to switch them out for some smaller posts.  The smallest ones they had look big on her.

cutest princess I've ever seen

First Taste of Sugar

My sis Jess and I gave Violet a licorice whip to suck on just to see what she would do.  She loved it!! She only sucked on it for a few seconds and got red all over her shirt. I can already see she inherited my love of candy!

Cutie Patootie

I love my sweet girl but boy is she hard to take to restaurants! She doesn't enjoy sitting in her carseat anymore when awake so I have to hold her in my lap now when we go eat.  We took her to the homecoming rally on Friday and after that we went to Mimi's Cafe.  She was hungry and lately will not have anything to do with a bottle... at all.  So she got very upset and I had to take my food home to eat.  Not sure we will be going out to eat very often in the near future.

at Mimi's before the outburst

Sunday I took her to a baby shower and had to dress her super cute of course...I gave her a celery stick when we were there and she loved it.  It was hilarious.  She was going to town on it, sucking away.  I am going to buy some for her.  It probably felt good on her gums.

who doesn't love a baby in pink leopard?

 After the shower I was feeding her and trying to look at a Target toy ad and she got distracted and wouldn't eat because she wanted to look at the toys.  It was so cute, she kept grabbing at the paper..

 Before bed she likes to hang out with dad... he tries to keep her up till 7 by putting cartoons on the laptop for her.

isn't she making the greatest face ever?

Rolly Polly

Violet rolled over! Yay! She has been trying to lately but gets stuck on her arm.  Yesterday she finally did it on her play gym.  After the first roll she couldn't stop doing it! Now I'm going to have to really watch her. And yes, we got it on tape...

How cute is she.

Graduatin' to the Crib

Violet has slept in her crib for two nights in a row now, hallelujah! As I mentioned before she hasn't been sleeping well at all so I figured maybe she wasn't comfortable in her swing anymore. I put her in the bassinet Monday and Tuesday night to see if it made a difference. The first night she only woke a few times, the second night though was terrible. She woke up every hour. The next day I felt like a zombie, I was back to feeling like I did when she was first born. Not fun. Pure exhaustion.

So Wednesday night I did our normal routine, pajamas on at 6, go upstairs around 6:30 or 7 (depending on how fussy she is), put on her sleep sack and nurse her. She has been fighting going to sleep the past few weeks and keeps waking up after like 15 minutes and I have to start all over. So she did this a few times, I just kept taking her out of the crib and nursing her a little, then putting her back down when she is almost asleep. She ended up sleeping till 12:30, quick nurse session, woke again at 2 and then slept till 7:45. Not bad at all! So last night I did it again. She did have trouble going to sleep, she had a tummy ache which she gets a lot of. It took me about an hour to finally get her asleep. I heard a few cries on the monitor within 30 minutes or so but let her be and she went back to sleep. Good news.. she slept all night! yay! I can't believe how good she is doing in the crib.

I really think she was feeling too crowded in the swing and bassinet. She can stretch out now. I am not expecting her to sleep all night every night but it was a good start. I was really worried that she would hate the crib, so far she loves it! Now I need to work on getting her to take naps there. She has a few times but she really loves naps in her car seat. I still need to finish the book I'm reading on sleeping, so I'm sure I'll have lots of good stuff to implement after that. We are on our way!

4 Month Doctor Appointment

Yesterday Justin and I took Violet for her 4 month checkup. She is still huge compared to other babies in case you hadn't noticed. She weighs 15 lbs 5 oz which is the 84th percentile. Her head is in the 66th percentile and she is 24.5 inches long which is the 60th percentile. So, a small decrease from the 90th percentile in weight! She is healthy as can be and is doing all the things a 4th month old should be doing. She had to get two shots and she barely even made a peep! My brave little princess! She was pretty tired the rest of the day but we did go to the park for her first ride on the swings. She loved it! She absolutely loves being outside. Hopefully it will be nice weather for a little while longer so I can take her to the park more often!

We love the park!

Sleepy after a hard day at the doctors

Watchin' cartoons waitin for daddy to come home