Chase Me Daddy!

I might have already told you about how ever since Violet could crawl Justin does the "Jaws" music and Violet freezes and then goes as fast as she can in the other direction.  It is hilarious.  She loves being chased.  She will walk towards the other room and then look over at Justin to see if he is gonna come get her.  I got one of the chases on video...

Porch Makeover for Less Than $20

My front porch was needing a little TLC.  I took a break from working on the inside of the house to cutesy it up.  All for less than $20.  The only thing I had to buy was a small can of paint for the front door and some annuals.  Everything else was stuff I had at home already.

I love the navy blue door! I really wanted red but that would be too Christmassy with the green trim.

My mom had given me the Faith sign, I painted the frame gold and added some rosettes.

burlap/rosette wreath- love this.  Violet's birthday theme is strawberries so I wanted to do a strawberry theme wreath.

wooden plaque that I had- added some paint, used my new chevron and monogram stencils.  Also added fabric tape (my new obsession) to the edges.

sorry about the glare.. saw this great idea on a blog I follow- SamsterMom... I created the sign on Picnic (another new obsession- creating printables on Picnik).  No more knocking Mr. UPS man!

Used pots I already had- some I spray painted and then 6 buckets of annuals.

the rest of the decorative items I had already.

this old bench was in our backyard, my MIL just informed me that its from an old church.  How cool is that? Now I love it even more!  I spray painted it navy.  The gingham bunting is my favorite.  I bought oil cloth scraps from Beverlys craft store and created this cute number.

I love how it turned out!  I get so happy when I drive up to it!  Bright, cheery and homey!  

Hopefully next year we are going to paint our house a buttery yellow with white trim and then I can have my red front door.  I dream of a sweet yellow farm house... with one of those red barn looking sheds they sell at Home Depot.  But for now, love the new porch!!

Father's Day

I just wanted to share the present I made for Violet to give Justin for Father's Day.  Simple, cheap and cute.  Every since Violet was born, everyone can't stop talking about how much she looks like him.  So he started saying the term, "Just like daddy" on a regular basis.  I think he even made up a song for it to.  So I decided that would be good inspiration for his present.  I took a pic of V on his ride on lawn mower first.  Then I painted a frame I had, created a mini sign on Picnik and modge podged it on.  I added fabric tape to the outside of the sign (have you seen fabric tape? Its amazing).  

Popsicles

Violet loves popsicles!  Ice cream, frozen yogurt, anything like that.  Usually I hold it for her but the other day she insisted on holding it.  She loved it until her hand was frozen from actually holding onto the popsicle part.  She doesn't quite get that she has to hold the stick.

 

On another note, V is walking pretty much 100% of the time.  Crazyiness.  Still can't believe she started walking at 10 months.  She gets better and better everyday.  The girl can cruise.  Anyday now she will be running, probably away from me! I so need to get one of those backpacks with the leash.  You heard me, I will so be one of those moms.  

1st Family Vacation to Southern CA!

We road tripped on down to sunny socal to do some relaxin'.  Violet was a decent traveler as long as I sat by her and entertained.  We made sure to stop for lunch to let her stretch her little legs.  Not terrible but not something I want to do regularly either.  We spent the majority of the trip in Mission Viejo visiting Justin's cousin Ryan and his wife Jenn.  They have a pool which made our trip the more amazing!  When you have a baby going to the beach alot is hard and alot of work.  So we spent most our days laying out by the pool.  We went out to eat lots of yummy food and basically tried to relax.  Violet also slept decently there which shocked me.  She took  two 2 hr naps daily and only woke about 3 times a night (funny that that's good huh).

We did venture to the beach once and V loved it.  She ate handfuls of sand, felt the water on her feet and did a few face plants.  It was so fun to see her enjoying it.  She was covered in sand when we left.  Infact, her carseat is still a sandbox practically.

We spent the last two days of our trip in Mission Beach at Justin's friends house from college.  They have two little girls, three and 13 months.  Violet had soooo much fun.  It was the highlight of our trip to watch her have so much fun with the little girls.  She was in heaven.  It makes me want another girl even more so V can have a little sister.  She would absolutely love it.

We had a great time and great company but were happy to be back home... where there are gold fish crackers crushed in the rug, dog food dumped all over the kitchen and the chance of twisting your ankle on a toy is great.  Love it.

Here are a billion pics of our trip.. hey, it was our 1st family trip, of course I had to go picture crazy...

{Love us}

V's 1st time swimming!

 

think I took enough pics? 

Walking Videos

Here are a couple short videos of Violet walking.  It's so wierd to see.  She is like a little person now.  Okay, maybe more like a drunken sailor but hey, she's getting there.