Raining...

It's been so rainy and stormy the last couple of days. We are so thankful we have not had any damage and that everyone has been safe. We've been inside a lot more than usual and she's been keeping busy emptying the bookshelves and pretty much rearranging everything in the house...

Hi!

She is loving saying "Hi!" to everything lately. She has such a sweet little voice!



Sorry for the camera angle on this one. Our camera still works but we cannot see the screen so I have no idea what pictures or video look like until I upload them. We are not having good luck with technology these days.

She's growing up, it's official

Something about her in this video looks so big. Maybe it's the walking, carrying around her "find the duck" book, putting her ear against the door to listen to the trucks, or maybe it's everything. She's really more of a toddler now than a baby: CRY.

Hugs and Kisses

We're pretty affectionate around here and the proof is in the big hugs and kisses Violet's been giving us lately. What's better than a huge hug and on-the-lips kiss from a 1 year old? Seriously. Sometimes she does get a little too kiss-happy and tries to slip me the tongue, but I've told her those are kisses for mommies and daddies only! HA!

Shoes!

She is officially a shoe girl! The Grabers sent us a care package of shoes and she was so excited to try them all on. She was partial to the black shiny ones, of course. I've heard many stories about when I had "black shoe day" when I was little and about how I would line up all of my shoes. Since she doesn't look at all like me it's good to see things like this to remind me that she really is my daughter and has my DNA :-)

Videos

Daddy taught her how to make a "wubba wubba" sound and they do it all of the time!



Trying a lemon

random

The last nap in her little carseat :-(



Mega crazy nap hair


She pushes the springform pan all over the house and puts the angel food cake insert in it the correct way. This girl will be making homemade cheesecakes in no time!

Drum illusions

For her birthday we got her a little drum and instrument set and of course her favorite part is the lid!

Farm Birthday Party

Thanks to the generosity of some friends, we have a borrowed laptop until we get a permanent replacement in May. God really does provide even the smallest things!

Violet's friend Jake had a HUGE 1st birthday party and it was so fun! Her favorite part was the petting zoo. Here she is ready to go in and check out the animals.



Just hanging out by some goats.



Trying to decide if she should give the goat its bottle.


Petting an alpaca was so fun!



Loving the daddy time! I love how they are holding hands :-)

downtime

Due to a catastrophic tea-related incident, we are without a home computer for the next month or so. Nate still has access at work but I have to go to the library or use a friend's to be able to do anything important, and unfortunately uploading pictures and updating the blog isn't going to be as frequent. Thanks to the Grabers, we'll get a refurbished computer in early May and we'll be back in business!