A teeny tiny bit of news...

Teeny tiny as in about 2.5" long at the moment...
Yup, Violet's going to be a BIG SISTER in June!!!

You'll all have to wait until then to find out what it's going to be... we're kickin' it old school again and waiting until then for the big surprise!

So far I've been feeling... poopy! Starting right at 6 weeks on the nose the lovely nausea (all day, thank you!) and food aversions started. Poor Jon can't make coffee or eggs anymore for breakfast. It seems to be letting up now at around 12 weeks but I was sick with Violet until closer to 14 so I'm not holding my breath. Plus I've heard from a lot of people that the higher altitude can make you feel worse and I believe them!

In other news, last week it was really really warm here (in the 80's!) so Violet got all dressed up in her cute little skirt and we took some pictures. I love her little toes!Then we went out in the backyard. Violet chose her own boots. She's very fashion forward, don't you think?We hope you all have a super fun and turkey-filled Thanksgiving!

It's a good thing there are a lot of parks around here...

Because I'm finding it's an excellent way to get some of Violet's TODDLER ENERGY out! Plus I've been carting her around in the car a lot lately (we're kinda-sorta on the house hunt here in Denver so we've been doing some drive-bys) and I feel like I better reward her for nicely sitting in her carseat for a while, kicking her monkey mirror and talking jibberish while she reads "Once Upon A Potty" to herself (p.s. don't think because she reads the book, she has ANY IDEA what the moral of the story is! She is still pretty sure her potty is where you store the plastic french fries from your play kitchen.)

There is a really great toddler-sized park not far from our house that is at a school that they closed down. Sad that they closed the school, but happy that we can hang out at the park during a school day. Plus it's all fenced in so there is no fear of a Wild Toddler escaping.
Violet attempts the "Mesh Barrel of Death" to make her way to the slide. It looks like it would HURT to crawl though, but it must not. I didn't try it myself.
Dude! Look at that hair!
And some VIDEOS!! Here she is being a silly goose at the above playground. I like how "ghetto" we are - the playground equipment has graffitti on it and there are sirens in the background (flashes toddler gang sign)


Even though I like to equate living with a toddler much like living with a 25 lb wild ape (so cute, but also prone to throw food, scream and hit you in the face for no apparent reason), it's moments like these that give me warm fuzzies:


If only we could all bottle a bit of that toddler energy and giggles.

When her Aunt Leah was here to visit last week, she got her a much needed baby stroller which has QUICKLY become her most prized possession. She wheels it around the house. She wheels it around the neighborhood. Jon, me and anyone who happens to stop by (Uncle Trent & Mike have also been victims) must now spend countless hours swaddling all three of her favorite babies in the same blanket so she can carry them around for two seconds, unfurl them on the floor and come back with the blanket and 3 babies for re-packaging. It's pretty funny (for a while).
She has also picked up a LOT of words lately (finally!). She says "Babies" all the time, but this morning we were watching the neighborhood fox do his morning rounds in our backyard (so cool!) and she said "foxie". She also attempts to say "Anna" (alalala) and "Leah" (lalala) after we talk to them on the webcam. She seems to FINALLY be repeating stuff we say, which is both good and bad as we really need to start cleaning up our language around the house.... quick! :)

Well, that's about it for us this week! We had the first snow of the season this morning, which, in true Denver fashion (I've heard!) melted by the afternoon and the sun was out the rest of the day.

I also had my second craft show with my Hip Violet things. If you get a second, check out my Hip Violet blog and see how it went!

Visitors!

We've been lucky enough to see both my sister and my brother over the last month - it's SO NICE to see them both (at different times!). My brother and his girlfriend Kelly came to visit on their way home from a Michigan/Wisconsin roadtrip. We took them up Lookout Mountain so they could see some mountains up close again.
Violet and I posed as Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley at the Buffalo Bill Museum.
Last weekend we took Violet to a great school with an awesome playground right down our street. She had a blast!



I can't believe this myself, but my sister was here this weekend to visit and I didn't take ONE PICTURE! I'm sooo sorry, Leah! We did have an awesome time hanging out, shopping and watching Violet and her crazy toddler antics.

The Smallest Voter

We voted! Already! They do early voting here in Colorado, and we got mail-in ballots to make it even easier. This week we dropped them off in person so we could get the full effect of voting (start 'em young, I say!). We got "I voted" stickers and Violet immediately put them in the proper sticker places. On her cheeks.
And two on her shirt.
We also carved pumpkins - ahhhh, I just LOVE the smell of freshly cut pumpkin! Violet was so little last year that this year was the first time she could help. Here she tries to figure out what she's supposed to do with the spoon we gave her.
Ah-ha! Scoop out the seeds! Got it!
She kept peering over the side and either sniffing at the pumpkin or giving it a kiss. It was hard to tell which!
Yesterday we went trick or treating around our neighborhood. It was very different from our old "everyone drops off kids by the carload & you can hardly walk down the sidewalk" neighborhood. We only passed a few other trick or treaters, and walking around our block we only found 5 or 6 houses giving out candy. Which really was okay, just kind of sad. We got PLENTY of candy to last us for a while :)
We hope you all had a great Halloween!