9 months!

  

  

Some things about 9-month old Violet...

- Weighs 20 lbs 8 oz (80th %), is 29 inches long (95th %) and her head is 45 cm around (97th %). What a big girl!

- Crawling really well and getting faster.

- She pulled to stand a couple weeks ago and now she does it constantly. Hooray!

- Another tooth came in on the top, which makes four on the top and two on the bottom.

- Likes to click her tongue a lot, especially when she crawls. It's so cute!

- Favorite sounds to make are: Bah, bah, bah. Ma, ma, ma. Deh, deh, deh. And growling. Lots of really cute baby growling.
- Loves to clap. We were watching the Golden Globes a couple Sundays ago and whenever she saw the audience clap, she just clapped right along with them. Violet really appreciates a good awards show, just like her mom.

- LOVES graham crackers. I take them with me everywhere and they never fail to make her happy.

This little lady makes me laugh so much. She’s always making the funniest sounds, grabbing at everything and generally squealing with happiness all day long. She just ADORES Penny and watches everything Penny does with rapt attention. We love having this little baby girl in our lives!

*Here's Penny at 10 months in the same dress. :)

Christmas Vacation in CA: Long Beach

This was our last day before we had to drive back and it was so fun! Lana's family went to visit some of her husband's family in San Diego, so we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach with my folks.

  Penny had my dad all to herself that day and it was so cute to watch them together.

Love this pic below!

Goodness gracious! There's a baby in that tank!

Oh, wait. It's just Violet's reflection sitting in her stroller. (She didn't care what we did as long as I kept her supplied with graham crackers.)


After the aquarium we walked around the pier a little bit.

In front of the Queen Mary.

Then we had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and Paul got to try on Forrest's shoes.

  

Don't look so sad, Forrest. I'll sit with you.

And that was the last of our Christmas vacation pictures. Can't wait to go back in a few months!

Christmas Vacation in CA: The Getty

If you're doing a southern California vacation, you have to squeeze in a trip to The Getty in Los Angeles. It has beautiful art on the inside, beautiful landscaping on the outside, and admission is free! It felt really nostalgic to walk around since this was where Paul and I took our engagement photos over seven years ago and it was our first time back since that day.

*Paul and Penny in our engagement photo spot, December 2012.

*Our engagement photo, May 2005.

For some reason, it was really crowded that day and both girls were really cranky so the trip was short-lived, but I simply love The Getty!

Christmas Vacation in CA: Knott's Berry Farm

This was one of the funnest days! My folks were so nice to give us tickets to Knott's for Christmas, but on the day we went my dad wasn't feeling well so it was just our family and my sister's family. We had such a good time!

*Our first ride of the day, a little train around the park. (Penny was happier than she looks, it was a little bright!)

We literally spent all day at Camp Snoopy and I wasn't bored for one minute. Penny liked the rides better than I thought she would, and it was so fun to watch her and Max race from one ride to the next.

 

*Violet was happy to hang out with me while Paul and Penny went on the balloon ride.

*Me and Penny in the back with our hands up + Penny all by herself on a plane ride.

I had to share this video of Max and Penny on a ride, they were so cute to watch! 

I was a little excited on the video, haha.

   

After we took the kids home and fed them dinner, my folks were nice enough to watch them while the four of us adults came back for a few hours. It was so fun wandering the park just like in high school trying to cram in as many roller coasters as possible. There weren't very many people there and we just walked on all the rides. So fun!

 

*Awesome blurry photo of us right before we came home.

Thanks for a fun day, Mom and Dad!

Christmas Vacation in CA: Christmas Day

We had SUCH a fun time with my folks in California! It was a nice long break, just ten days of hanging out and doing fun things every day. It did rain a bit but overall the weather was nice and warm. I took a bunch of pictures so I'm gonna break it up into a few posts.

Here's some pics from Christmas day...

Elsa checking out all the stockings.

Opening stockings...Violet got oatmeal puffs and a teething ring. Penny got princess nail stickers and Hello Kitty pens.


Violet's first Christmas present! She was definitely into it.
  
Elsa hugging the Barbie we gave her. I love her little face in this pic!

Paul smolders for the camera as he shows off the new Nixon watch I gave him.

Penny got a Hello Kitty purse from Grandma! She knows Penny so well.

My dad's holding some Instagrams of the girls that I had turned into magnets.

Cutie pie Elsa got a new car!
 
Penny trying on her new Disney princess helmet that goes with her new pink scooter from Santa.

It was so fun watching the kids open presents, and afterwards we got to Skype with my little brother Derek on his mission! It was so much better than just talking on the phone, I loved being able to see him while we got to chat. He sounded so grown up!

And then we just hung out and played with our new presents the rest of the day.


We're going back in April for when my little brother Derek gets off his mission (hooray!) and I can't wait. More pics of other stuff we did to to come...