The Democrats are coming!!

Oh wait, they're HERE!! And they've brought their t-shirts with them...
It's pretty crazy! These t-shirt stands started popping up at any vacant lot last week, and downtown is officially a ZOO! Luckily we rarely go down there anyway even though it's only a few minutes away. But it's pretty nifty to watch the news shows on TV and see downtown Denver in the background.

And something every Obama supporter should have? Not a tee-shirt! Check out this make-your-own Obama, made by my new favorite shop here in town, the Fancy Tiger. Click Here!

Not only the Democrats showed up this weekend... my mom and Guy did too!! We are SO excited to have them in town for the week. My mom has lots of meetings at the DNC but we spent a great weekend with them and hopefully will be able to hang out some more the rest of this week.

We are glad to have two more people to help us "walk Violet". She is turning into quite the walker - as long as someone is holding her hand! She hasn't taken many more steps since our last post, but she LOVES to walk now. Here is Guy taking Violet for a walk after breakfast.
My mom and I went into Golden (home of the Coors brewery... yummy!) yesterday. Here is my mom and Violet in front of a cute horse sculpture. My mom was (I think) trying to get Violet to look at the camera. Instead I got this great shot. Sorry Mom, I had to post it!!
Then today we drove up to the mountains and went to Evergreen, CO. We happened to be there on the weekend of their art festival, which was also on the grounds of their historic museum. It was pretty cool! Here are some pictures from this afternoon:

Guy, Violet and Mom in front of a cowboy sculpture:
My mom, Violet and Guy outside an old woodworking/printing shop:
My mom, Jon, Violet & I
Our little family

And here is another video of Violet walking with her push-toy. She is FAST! And she can make it almost halfway around the block. But even if she is tired she does NOT want to turn around! The little stinker! We're not sure where she got that stubborn streak from... hmm...

** VIOLET WALKED!! **

SHE DID IT!!! Violet officially took steps today. We have her on video taking a couple of steps, but just moments ago she walked to me from the coffee table which was at least 3 steps. It's AMAZING!!!

Here she is, taking a few steps with daddy:


And here she was earlier today showing off her mad skills walking one handed:


You can bet they'll be MUCH more of those soon!!

Do you speak Jinglish?

Because if you do, we need your help! We've now named Violet's own little language "Jinglish" (Josten/English). She speaks it very well. We do not. Here is a little example of her language skills. She does this every day when she gets up from her nap - sits on my lap, reads a book, and jabbers in Jinglish. It's so cute and funny and she makes the BEST facial expressions. We couldn't pick just one video, so here are two. Any ideas on what she is saying? Sounds important to me!





Dear Aunt Becky: I am soooo sorry it took my lazy mom SOOO long to get pictures of me rockin' out in my AB/CD shirt. I sure do love it and wear it all the time. Here I am testing out Daddy's drums. I can play really good!
(yes, she is sitting on an overturned bucket for her "throne" - we're getting her ready for her debut on the street corner)
Ah, a girl after my own heart. Sitting on her pony, reading Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm. For those animal lovers out there, it is the BEST KIDS BOOK EVER!! Violet just loves it. It's a Vredevoogd Family Favorite.
Violet and Piper swingin' on the tire swing at the park. HOLD ON Violet!
We went to the Children's Museum today - despite the fact that Violet and I have both been feeling under the weather lately. We had to get OUT of the HOUSE! :) So we braved it with our friends Bryce and Piper (and their moms, of course!). It's hard to tell, but they actually were having fun here:
They had these super-cute costumes for the kids to dress up in. Here is Violet as a dragonfly. When she gets a little older, they have a squirrels, worm, etc. that we're for SURE getting pictures of. So cute!

Pictures in the Park

Violet and I went to a local park today and took another round of 18 month pictures. Here they are!

Jackpot!

So last time I posted I was hoping to catch Violet doing all her Violet Tricks, such as saying "Wow wow wow" "Uh-oh" and so on and so forth. We hit the jackpot this week during lunch. She is such a goof! She has really been figuring out her facial expressions (since we're only up to about 10 words) and MAN can she give us the "Evil Eyebrows" when she wants to! So funny.



And one more for the road:

It's FAIR SEASON!!

What? Did you think just because we moved across the country we were going to STOP going to county fairs? Ohhhhh no! This weekend we ventured out into the 100 degree heat and went to the Boulder County Fair. It was GREAT! I got my fill of farm animals, we sampled some homemade fair food, and stepped in a lot of crap. That's what I call a perfect morning!

Here is Violet checking out the horses. She LOVES her horse books. She was completely freaked out by them in real life. I have SO much work to do!
What else? Petting the goats. There were incredibly friendly goats at this fair that just LOVED to be pet. I was in Goat Heaven.
Even Jon got in on the action...
And some chickens.

A cute little ice cream/gelato shop opened up right down our street. We got Violet her own teeny tiny cone of Blueberry Gelato. She LOVED it!
In other news, I am happy to announce that I have started my own teeny tiny business! I started sewing bibs for Violet a while back and was having so much fun (and had SO MUCH fabric) that I decided to start my own store on Etsy selling them and some other goodies.

Check it out here:

www.HipViolet.com

Here is a sample of what I'm selling... you can click on the images to go to the listing.




For those of you not familiar with Etsy, it's a really nifty website featuring all handmade items from around the country. Anyone that is crafty can set up shop and sell whatever they make. You can find fine art, ceramics, clothing, accessories, and of course BABY STUFF. Plus I like that you buy directly from the crafter. I think you'll like it!

Anyway, keep me in mind if you ever need that perfect gift for a baby shower or just want your kid to look "hip" when you go out for dinner. I'm happy to do custom bibs for special occasions!