Cowboy Festival

The Cowboy Festival is back in town! After missing it the last couple of years, it was great fun to attend again, and show Cora all the fun.

Another photo-heavy post, so I'm running them small and you can click to enlarge, as you wish...

In the top pic, we took Skippy, the Skipper Club mascot who goes home with a Skipper each week. The last time he came to our house, the most exciting thing he did was go to preschool and Lowes. This time we definitely gave him some fun!

Cora enjoyed the street performances. The gunslinger who came to our church in October was there, as were a couple of lasso experts. You can see Cora and another little girl jumping out of the rope after they were "caught."

Then, we inspected the jail, before heading into one of the music performances.

We really enjoyed a particular Western Swing band the last time we were at the festival, and Hot Club of Cowtown put on a great show again. The trio will be all over the UK in November, including a Bristol show on Nov. 10.

Both girls loved the music; Cora was dancing in the aisle and playing a new instrument she found. She stretched outward the elastic waist-tightener from inside her jeans, and was pretending it was a double bass. The various button holes made it louder or quieter, she said.


We had her reenact once we got outside.

Then, we had some cowboy cuisine - the legendary peach cobbler, a brisket sandwich and a chili dog. No photos because it was super windy, and it was all we could manage to keep the girls settled, feed ourselves and keep the blowing dirt and leaves out of our food.

We finished just in time to see another favorite act, the Messick Family Singers, though Violet missed their act as she finally dropped off for a nap.

Then it was over to the children's exhibits, where Cora panned for gold, washed clothes and ground corn into cornmeal.

Unfortunately, our fantastic family day out ended as they sometimes do, with Cora melting down.

She had hoped to make a leather necklace, but she was being impatient about waiting her turn. Stace warned her about being patient and not being rude, but she didn't listen. We told her she wouldn't be making one, and that resulted in 15 or 20 minutes of crying.
Oh well, we keep strong and carry on.

All in all, our Cowboy Festival day was brilliant, and a great break for us together as a family.

Violet at 1

Some more on our 1-year-old...

Violet's two top teeth have broken through in recent weeks, and are starting to come downward.
She is still chewing on a finger a lot, so maybe some others are also on their way.

She is eating very well - here, she is loving some homemade sweet potato fries.

She has three meals a day, plus usually some sort of finger food snack while we're out and about.

I've combined her midday feedings, so she is now nursing three times a day.

If we are home, Violet still naps twice a day, usually for an hour or 90 minutes in the morning, and 90 minutes or 2 hours in the afternoon. If we are out in the morning, Violet doesn't nap very well, even in the car.

Bedtime is usually about 8 p.m., sometimes earlier, sometimes later. The last few mornings she's slept in until about 8, though that is late for her. Most mornings she's up by 7:30.

Violet's well-check was Thursday morning, and she is very well!

She weighs 19 pounds, 5 ounces, putting her in the 21st percentile, and she's 28 1/4 inches (24th percentile). Her head circumference, 45 cm, is 50th percentile.

Dr. Brockett advised me to be careful to make sure our fair-skinned, blondie wears a hat and sunscreen. And, she now is green-lighted to eat things like peanut butter and honey - that should make lunchtime even easier.

Cora took the photos from our doctors' appointment!

I'm also showing here the latest photos with the doll, and the photo with Violet at 2 weeks. Just a little bit different, eh?

And, finally, a video of Stace singing a birthday song to his baby, with Cora performing an interpretive dance.

Sisters laughing

Ahhhh, the joys of parenting.

The sound of baby laughter and little girl giggles.

Violet thought her sister was being so very, very funny when she pretended to eat the little toy and then spit it out.

I must admit, over the past couple of weeks, I've had a preview of some of the annoyances of life with multiple children...

Like when they're both crying at the same time, Cora because Violet hit her, Violet because Cora took a toy away.

Or when Violet keeps screaming, for no real reason, and then trying to hit Cora.
Or when Cora pushes Violet down to the ground because she had Cora's puzzle piece.

No longer can I leave the girls in the playroom for more than 5 or 10 minutes without checking on them, to make sure both are playing nicely with each other. Sometimes, their seemingly competitive crying does my head in!

But, then we have these moments - the impromptu giggles, the kisses and cuddles, the toy sharing and the love. And I'd love a houseful of children!

At least, until the moment passes.

Visiting friends

Our friends Christy and Mitch and their boys visited on Easter and spent the night, as they made their way from the Bay Area to Arizona for Easter break.

We had group storytime...

...and balance bike-riding to the park.

The babies had fun together...

...and JP especially enjoyed the play kitchen.

The Baby is One!

Our sweet Violet Mae is now one year old.

Wow.

As every parent says at times like these, how did the time fly by so quickly?

Weren't we just in the hospital, welcoming Miss Violet into our family?

At any rate, she has been a tremendous addition. We love her dearly and I thank God every day for blessing me with two beautiful, funny, smart and delightful daughters.

May I elaborate? Focusing on the younger one, since it is her birthday...

Beautiful - nothing more needs to be said.

Funny - Violet loves to make us laugh, by dancing to music, playing peekaboo and blowing raspberries.

Smart - Violet already loves to imitate our speech. She tries to sing along to the "ABCs" and "Pat a Cake," and she can say or has words for Cora, Daddy, doggy, kitty, meow, woof, mmmmm (for food), uh oh, hi and dolly. Saying "hi" and occasionally "hello" to us is a new favorite hobby of Violet's - she'll say it and wave at us, we'll say it back, and so on.

Delightful - Well, anyone who has been around this baby knows she is a delight. If I could guarantee my future babies would be like her, I'd have several more. She loves giving kisses and hugs, and loves laughing at her sister's silliness and listening to Daddy play guitar. She gets excited when we see animals, especially kitties.

For Violet's birthday, we had cupcakes with Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Mel on Saturday after our Easter meal. We also sang and had cupcakes Sunday, with all our family in England via Web cam. It was a joint celebration, as Pop turned 60 on Tuesday, and Nan's milestone birthday is coming up soon.

Violet loved her cake, as you can see in the photos!

I had hoped to do something fun today on her actual birthday, but Violet has a cold and wasn't up for it. She had a fever on her birthday eve, and a runny nose.

Happy first birthday, Violet Mae! God bless you this next year, as you learn to walk (and then run) and talk (and then chatter) and grow into a toddler.

Counters!

The counters are in.




Like always, click a photo to see them closer, if you want to see the color better.

The installers were in and out in two hours, and all went very well.

It was amazing to watch them glue the two large pieces together on the sink wall, and then sand and buff it until I can't even find the seam. And I watched them put them in!


Over the weekend, Stace worked on the trim for the two window openings.

The sink window is finished, and you can see in Photo 2 the track light. As we had hoped, it lights the playroom very well at night, along with the sink area.

Easter week

Easter 2010 - Violet's first!

Our church had an egg hunt...

...and bouncers and fun slides for the kids.

It was Cora's second egg hunt, as she also had one at her class on Thursday......where Cora wore the Easter bonnet she made, from the kit Nan and Pop sent over (along with some Easter chocolate and cute shirts for Violet - thanks!).

Also in the week, we went to Stroller Strides. I'm still attempting to make it once a week. Sometimes, I even succeed. Violet enjoys playing with other babies' strollers after class....

...because then she might find new food to sample.

Meanwhile, Big Sis painted a pot for some tomato seeds.

Strawberries!

On Monday we made our annual strawberry-picking trip to Underwood Farms with our friends Heather and Libi. It used to be our annual MOPS trip, but this year the MOPS trip was on a school day for Cora. But since Heather used to plan all our Underwood trips for MOPS, it's fitting that we went with her this year, too. Our friend Lynnette and her girls and mother also came along.
Heather is an avid - and gifted - photographer. I'm stealing all these from her, since they are so much better than mine! I love the smiles she captured from Cora. Isn't she looking grownup these days? Much less of a baby face. (Sniff!)

Here the girls are, ready and waiting for the tractor and wagon to take us out to the field. Cora thought it hilarious when Libi put her strawberry box on her head. Elyz wasn't so sure.

Everyone's doing it, Mom. All the cool kids have boxes on their heads.

Violet's so cool, she doesn't need a box.

Yum!

Look who's almost 1!

Libi, Cora and Elyz might all be four, but they're ready to get on the bus for school!

Boring, and some videos

After all the excitement and quick progress during our official Kitchen Week, the past week was very normal.
A tad boring.
Kind of like the day after Christmas (or the day after Boxing Day, I suppose!).

On the positive side, I had a friend and her little boy Ezra over for a few hours. We had a nice time catching up, and Ezra and Violet played very well. They were hospital mates, born just a day apart.

Stace and I both worked on kitchen projects during the week. I cleaned out things to get them sorted and put away, and Stace worked on the million-and-one little things that remain.

I'm happy to report that the living room is now free of boxes of kitchen gear! We are just about ready to move the old cabinetry out of the dining room and into the garage.

I also went through my shoes and the girls' shoes. See? Boring. But I thought I'd photograph it for posterity. I picked out probably six or seven pairs of my own to shed, mostly loafers and shoes I used to wear to the Valley Press in my former life. And I went through the boxes of shoes for Cora and Violet, to pull out what will now fit them and better organize the rest.

Yes, we have nearly as many pairs as Payless.

Finally, since the above is all so very boring, I leave you, my dear readers, with videos of Violet talking (she has at least a half-dozen words now) and Cora playing her favorite Nemo Finding game with her favorite orange plastic fish.

Cora is pretending she is the little girl in the movie, who is coming to get Nemo and take him to her home. She reenacts this particular scene many times per day, and is often needing a different bag, or a different twist-tie to close the bag, to keep Nemo in.