Family Week

We had a great week with family last week, I've just not been up to sifting through pictures and posting about it all yet. Keyton, Liz, Jarom, and Emeline were in town, Shad got the week off work, and Kevin, Dad, and Jen spent tons of time with us all after work/school too. It was a super busy week... extended family gathering, family pictures, temple open house, day in Idaho with grandparents, games, special dinners, walking around Temple Square, shopping.. but so great. Check out all about it on my mom's new blog. Thanks for coming to visit Keyton and Liz!

Cora, Cora (a little updated)

Cora latest quotes:
~"Don't worry Mama, I fix it tomorrow" ... it's always tomorrow...
~"I do it myself!" ...all too often :)!
~"You got it!" ... we have no idea where this came from!
~"I'll feel better when the sun comes up" ... after a bonk
~"Perfect!"
~"I want something different..." ...and then the hunt begins for what that different thing might be
~"ta-da!" ...to be said after major accomplishments
~"I show my daddy when he gets home from work" ... said after most major, and minor, accomplishments
~"How work today daddy?" ... to Kevin on the phone

Cora's loves:
~Holding hands with Violet, and Emeline
~Having Mama play the piano while she dances in her tutu
~Taking care of her babies in the cradle and rocker Pata made for her
~Playing with the beautiful marble toy my grandpa made for her... only during Violet's naps, because we've discovered that Violet pops marbles in her mouth asap
~Making Violet laugh with peek-a-boo, shrieking exchanges
~Coloring, dressing dollies, making crafts
~Going anywhere, playing with friends, the park, going on walks...
~MARSHMALLOWS! they have them in nursery and now it's her food of choice. Too bad for her I don't comply often!
~Her princess book that has buttons to play songs, her favorite button is a Sleeping Beauty one that starts out saying "My dear Aunt Flora"; Cora think the book is talking about her!
~Her new imaginary friend, whom we gather is a monkey, or whose name is Monkey, who she orders about on occasion
~fingerpainting

Latest accomplishment: Cora knows all her colors! Something just clicked in the last week or two.

Craft Night (Updated)

We had a family craft night a week or so ago, and here's the final product! They are magnet boards we mod-podged scrapbook paper too. Super easy, and now Cora can play with her ABC letters in her room!

We got our magnet boards already assembled at Roberts. I got mine with a 50% off coupon, it was $17.50 with the discount. We painted the inside and outside edge. And mod-podged paper from a mini pack I bought discounted and embellishments that matched too. I also tied some sheer ribbons around it as well. All in all a pretty cheap craft, and Cora has used it tons already. She loves having the letters in her room, we mounted the board on the wall so it's just right for her height.

Wow

Last night our whole family slept through the night! I can't even remember the last time I got 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep! Hurray!

All About Violet

(I do have pictures and video for this post, but not accessible yet! Soon I hope!)

Violet went in for her 9 month appointment last week. She is 28 inches tall (80th percentile) and 18.5 pounds (50th percentile). Here's a little bit of what she's been up to lately...

~Violet is now a super fast crawler and follows us all around the house. She likes the go over to the top of the stairs just to hear us shout "No Violet!" and come running. She's also mastered stairs (up only)... I've found her at the top of the stairs after she's wandered off from the office in the basement! Now we just need to work on her down the stairs skills.

~Not only does Violet like to climb stairs, but chairs and anything else she can manage too. We lowered her crib mattress to make sure she doesn't climb out!

~Violet has almost mastered her walking toy... She can do it but not control it particularly well yet. She yelps when it gets going too fast and her little legs can't keep up. She can also stand unassisted now for a few seconds at a time, is she so desires. She's a super fast cruiser and that's her primary mode of transportation when there's furniture around.

~Violet loves to play with Cora. Her face lights up when Cora comes in the room or gives her a hug. In the car they have fun exchanging screeches, and at home they do pretty well too, unless Violet is particularly fascinated with Cora's hair or hair bows that day.

~Violet now has 8 teeth! Four top teeth and four bottom teeth. She is still gnawing on everything she can though, so there must be more of them she's working on.

~Violet loves to give kisses. She thinks it's hilarious and wants to do it over and over. They are wet and slobbery! Pretty cute though too.

~Violet can't keep a pair of socks on her for the life of her! Good thing her little toes stay warm all by themselves, she is a master at taking her socks off as soon as I can get them on. She likes to play with her socks and stretch them all out and make them nice and wet.

~Violet's favorite toys include: cars, toys with buttons that light up and play music, anything she can chew on, the piano, and especially the remote. Her little grip is usually in the right place to either change the channel or turn up the volume. She also loves peek-a-boo and will lift the blanket up in front of her face by herself to play along.

~Violet is eating solid foods three times a day, all the baby foods and lots of table food. If I'm eating something she will screech to let me know when it's her turn for a bite. It seems she is always hungry and will eat just about anything. She is working on drinking out of a sippy and almost has it down.

~Violet recently learned how to shake her head and thinks it is so funny. She also likes to kick her legs when we hold her up... Kevin calls this her 'fish out of water' trick.

Snow Time!

Before Christmas we had a few big snowstorms with lots of snow! We went out at dusk the shovel and play when Kevin got home from work. Cora made some snow angels and thought that was a blast. It took her a few tries to get the hang of it though... the video is dark, but you can see her waving her arms in the air in response to us telling her to wave her arms (in the snow) to make her angel. Pretty cute! She still talks about making snow angels when she sees snow.