Little Girly in Pink

We had a very quick photo session today in the back yard. Here is Violet in all her 2-year-old glory:


And looking very sweet sitting on a big stack of plastic chairs.
She also helped me make strawberry jam. First, I am ashamed to say that yes, I did buy my strawberries from a regular grocery store (we usually do jam back in Michigan ONLY with fresh-picked home-grown strawberries from the farmer's market) and no, it does not taste nearly as good. But it's still better than the kind you can buy in a jar so we make do :)

Violet has been "helping" a lot in the kitchen lately and she stirred the strawberries for me, making some strawberry soup.
The little sneak! I turned around and she was merrily eating up the jam berries! :)
We went to the zoo again (what's new) because... THERE IS ANOTHER BABY GIRAFFE!!! Did I get a picture of it? NO! But I did get a pic of Violet snuggled up next to the giant silverback gorilla "daddy" while he was eating his breakfast.
Jon's dad and uncle came to visit (I forgot to take pictures of them! Ugh!) but they did bring out a truckload of things that we had had to leave in Michigan, and some new stuff too. This was a little desk and chair that all 3 of the boys had used when they were little. Violet thinks is SUPER cool!

On the house front, Jon has been really busy building our new entertainment center. It's getting SO CLOSE and I can't wait to have it in the house and start unpacking all our fun books and decorations that we've had stowed away for a year. Jon and I had fun trying to come up with a design that fit the feel of this house AND would fit all of our stuff. I am always so impressed with how he can actually make it happen!Ask and ye shall receive, Haley! She saw a bit of this cabinet in some of our wall pictures and wanted to know what was in it. So without further ado...

Top Row (starting on the left): Tonka Truck horse trailer, pretzel tin, retro Thermos bottle with the paper wrap still on, vintage Cookie Gun (yes, it's in the box. No, I have not used it).

Second Row: Vintage toaster, glass from Oktoberfest in Munich in '05 when Jon & I were there, old coffee grinder, Tang carafe (I LOVE TANG!), very very old Dutch pitcher that my grandma gave me, and the first of the tiny little blue & white Delft Dutch houses that KLM Airlines used to use as their liquor bottles on the planes. Jon's grandpa (Opa to us) used to work for KLM and we have a bunch of them. They are SO COOL!

Third Row: Heiniken Wooden Shoe, more Delft houses, Delft flower pot, more Delft houses and another wooden shoe (this may be called the "If you ain't Dutch, you ain't much" shelf)

Last Row: Nifty old snack bowl, tin cup from Oklahoma, vintage Stawberry Shortcake mug, VW Bus mug, and a VW bus replica of the one Jon and I took on our honeymoon that I made in my ceramics class in college (yes, time very well spent!).
Yes, we really did drive around the country for 2.5 months in "Marigold" our VW bus. She even got in some wedding pics:

Hurray for Spring!

We've had some great weather here and have been outside enjoying our new yard and driveway (yes, after street-parking for a year, a driveway is a wonderful, wonderful thing!). Violet got some nifty sidewalk chalk for Easter (thanks Oma!) and has really loved using them on the driveway.
Easter weekend I got Violet all bundled up (it wasn't THAT cold - in the low 40's) and we went and checked out a neat little market in downtown Denver. It had a lot of great antiques, crafts and even some food. I'm contemplating getting a booth for Hip Violet there at some point!

Violet all snuggle-deed up. Everyone commented that THEY wanted to be wrapped up in a blanket and wheeled around too. No kidding!
One of the things I picked up was this super cute chair for Violet. She LOVES it! It's the perfect height for feeding her babies.
We had a really nice Easter with Violet's aunt and uncles who are in town. It was a very rare cloudy and rainy day in Denver so we took Violet out for a walk in her rain boots.Luckily it cleared up this week and on Tuesday Violet helped me clean up the back yard. Thanks to my playgroup friends that were all over that morning, I found out that we have a TON of really great rose bushes in the yard. Unfortnately they have not been pruned in years so I have my work cut out for me (literally!). I cleared a bunch of dead branches and stalks out of the way but there is a lot left to do! Plus I think I may have to plant some Concord Grapes on our little arbor since Violet loved them so much last year!*Sneak Peek*
We had a little photo shoot this weekend - the results of which many of you will see in your mailboxes in the near future. Here is a little teaser ;)

Here Comes Violet Cottontail...

Hoppin' down that bunny trail...

Tonight we carried on a favorite Easter tradition in Denver - dyeing Easter Eggs!! Here is Violet (in the baseball cap), Jon, her Aunt Heather, Uncle Trent and Uncle Mike who all joined in the festivities.
Violet was VERY excited about how the eggs looked when they came out of the dye

No really, she really was excited!

(by the way, at the end you can kind of hear the horrible sound our washing machine is making lately, it's very loud!)


Finished product:Our secret egg-dyeing tips: Buy 2-3 of the PAAS kits and double or triple up on the tabs in each cup. Save rubber bands from produce over the year and wrap them around the eggs to get cool stripes.

Violet is REALLY into her babies lately. She feeds them, takes them for walks, reads to them and puts them down for a nap. I was in the kitchen and when I went out to find Violet I found she had made a little bed on the floor (notice the babies sleep with their bowls and spoons) and laid down with them. So cute!
Later when she took her nap she INSISTED that all her babies nap with her. Here is how she slept.
I also finally caught Violet singing on camera. She doesn't sing a lot, but she did sing to her babies here. I have no idea what song she's singing but it sure does have some good hand motions!


Today we spent quite a while outside in the great sunny spring-like weather. We are LOVING our new backyard! It's all grass and fenced in so Violet has a blast running around.
Here is a video of her newest trick - she can FINALLY walk down a single stair by herself! It has taken a while for her to get the balance to do it and now she is QUITE proud of it!


And she also loves to play with Porter. Here they are hanging out together.


Happy Bunny Day!

Just a little hole in the wall

Let the fun begin! Well, for me. For Jon it's more like work!

This weekend Jon and his brother Trent knocked a little "window" hole in our kitchen wall. I feel like I spend so much time in the kitchen and really wanted to be able to see/hear into the living room better. So a hole in the wall it is!

Before:
From the kitchen... Sadly this built-in phone which I'm sure was very hip in its day, met its maker this weekend. It LOOKS cool, but the one time I picked it up there appeared to be about 2" of grease on the mouthpiece. G-R-O-S-S! So I was not sad to see it go!

During:
Thank goodness fr plastic sheeting! Jon and Trent were COVERED in white dust, but the rest of the house stayed pretty dust-free!

Why does my house look like ET?
After!!

From the living room looking into the kitchen.

We LOVE it already! Jon still has to do the drywall but it's really perfect and makes things so much more open and bright.

Violet and I seem to be coming down with a cold so we spent the day quarantined in our bedroom watching movies. Here is Violet all snuggled up in bed.
Next up, the entertainment center! I can't WAIT to see what Jon comes up with for it!

Whose Blog is this, anyway?

Because I have to take it over for a minute!

While I was home I had the honor of spending the day with my good friend Kara and her 9 week old twins. They are SO CUTE and it was great to see what a day-in-the-life of being a mom of a 3 year old and twins is like (yes, it's about as much work as it sounds!) :)

Here I am with Nate and Brynn. Contrary to the picture, Nate does NOT have a broken neck. He was actually quite comfy this way! They are wearing their Hip Violet shirts with owls. So cute!
In the afternoon, Nate fell asleep on my lap and Brynn snuggled up with her mom. Kara and I were able to have a great talk each snuggled up with a baby. I LOVED it!
You can see more pictures of the twins and keep up with them at their blog here.

THEN I got to see my horse!! Well, he's not technically mine anymore but luckily his new mommy doesn't mind if I come up to see him when I'm home. I MISS HIM! It is still very surreal to me, having spent the last 20+ years around horses almost every day and now I am lucky if I get horse time once a month. BUT I am forever grateful to Julie (Max's new mom) - she takes such good care of him and loves him as much as I do! For instance, if you notice he is both CLEAN and slightly FAT. Keeping any horse clean in a Michigan winter is a feat, but a white horse? Nearly impossible! And I struggled the entire time I owned him (from birth until he was 11) keeping weight on him - Julie seems to have found the magic potion to keeping him looking like he should!
Give me another smooch!!
Horse hugs are the BEST! (okay, 2nd to kid hugs, but still!)
The coolest thing was that he recognized me! I haven't seen him since last summer, and when we pulled up I rolled down the window and talked to him. His ears perked up and he started sniffling, then walked up to the fence!! It was really sweet. He did the same thing later after we came home from lunch and Julie agreed - he knew who I was! I just love that!

_____ Now Back to our Regularly Scheduled Violet Blog ______

Violet loved to help my mom in the kitchen. Here she is "helping" crunch up some walnuts for our yummy waffle breakfast.

Later on she peered over the bowl of cheesy-potato mixture. She loved being a "big kid" and sitting on the stools!
We also were able to go and watch her cousin Claire's dance class. Violet was quite mesmerized, especially since a lot of the songs they danced to were from her favorite Disney movies! Here Claire trades her tap shoes for her ballet slippers.
Aren't these kids adorable? Claire is on the far right. 1st position!
We also got to stop by and say hello to Violet's 2nd cousin Sophie. Many of our family members comment about how much Violet looks like both Sophie and Claire. There is no denying that they are related (especially with the matching hair here!).Now we're back home again - to the new house! It feels great to come home to a place all our own, I just wish the boxes would magically unpack themselves! Porter has already discovered the neighborhood cats and has taken down a few pieces of fence, so Violet got on her boots and went out with her daddy last night to fix it up.We're expecting another blizzard here this weekend (this one I get to be here for!) so wish us luck!