The Return

"Hi Gym.  I'm Kelly...nice to see you again!"

Yep, I made my return last night!  Just for a quick Body Pump class, but I'm definitely feeling it today.  Hoping to make it a more regular occurence.  Yea!

Fun Weekend

What a FANtastic weekend we had.  Good friends in town + Mom and Dad visiting = great times!

Saturday, Mom and I went to Kirsten's with Violet to visit little Paxton, Vienna, and Cambell.  V and C were in town from TX and PA and it was our first time meeting them.  So cute!  I think my mom enjoyed it and I know she got a kick out of seeing all of us with our little ones.  I'll post pictures of the little person get together when I get them.

Saturday night, Mike and I went out to dinner and met up with the grown-ups at Jill and Matt's.  So nice to just hang out with good friends and catch up.  We didn't get home until midnight...big night for us!  :)

Little Christmas Nugget

Look at me with the whole couch to myself...bring on the Sunday football!

December!

Where to start.  Last week, Violet and I visited the lady who will be watching her.  It was so funny.  When we walked in, all the little ankle biters surrounded us like a pack of wolves.  Literally, I was standing there with Violet in the middle of a dozen 1-3 year olds.  They were so interested in the new baby.  So cute!  I'm still really happy that Violet will be going there and I totally trust her and her assistants.  It's just weird to imagine leaving there without her.  She's getting to be such a good baby and fun to be with.  The only thing I'm somewhat concerned about is her napping.  She's not so good at it and so far, only has gone down for an extended amount of time in her swing.  She isn't good in her crib during the day.  I'm trying not to overreact, but I hate the thought of her crying at daycare in a strange bed without me around.  I've been working on her crib napping the past few days and we're getting there.  She's up to about 20 minutes.  Not good, but better than before.  She also has to be able to get herself to sleep without someone rocking her.  We're getting there on that, too.  Lots of work to do and I'm back at work in less than a month!  :(

So, Christmas is in about 20 days.  Did you know that?  Holy crap.  I actually wasn't even going to get out all the decorations this year and even considered foregoing the tree, too.  Just the thought of cleaning, pulling out the boxes, and putting everything out exhausted me.  It's such a chore.  But I guess the snow on Saturday flipped a switch in me and before I knew it, the house was decked out in red and green and pine-scented candles were a-burning!  I'm glad I did it, too.  I love the house decorated for the holidays.  But I DO dread packing it up, already.

Tonight we bundled Violet up and went and got our tree.  It's standing naked in the living room now.  It'll be nice to add decorations to it throughout the week.  Still need to put the outside lights up, too!

Snow Nugget

Violet witnessed her first snow today!  Yippee!!!

Chatty Cathy

I can't get enough of her talking! Such a little chatterbox....

Roll-y Poly

A couple of weeks ago, Violet started to roll over from her back to her stomach. This usually happened when she was all swaddled up for bed and her arms weren't in the way. She'd lift her little legs up and throw them over and end up on her belly, crying, because she still couldn't lift her head well. Obviously, it wasn't a purposeful roll.

Since then, Mike's been working with her every day and this past weekend, she got lots of training at home with Grammy and Grampy. She's now officially a high roller!

I got a few twirls on camera today...don't mind the dust bunnies!!

Thankful

I think it's probably pretty obvious what we're thankful for this year. Our little sweetie has pretty much become the center of our world, whether we like it or not! She spent Thanksgiving Day with her Tracy grandparents and was such a good girl. She laid on a blanket on the floor next to me during the dinner and just talked up a storm, entertaining us.

Friday morning we hit the road at 6:30 for Towanda and with only one bottle stop, made it home in 5 hours! Rock on! Friday afternoon was the Cashdollar Thanksgiving dinner. She wasn't quite as well behaved for that meal and Grammy spent most of it entertaining/feeding her in the living room while the rest of us stuffed our faces. Here's our little naked baby literally drooling over dinner, though. Love that big belly.

Friday night, Mike and I saw "Blind Side." GREAT movie. And so nice to come home to Violet already changed, fed, and sleeping.

Saturday was a big family get together. Little Anna just loves Violet. Or "Biolet," as she calls her. She cracks me up.

She kept covering Violet up with her "blankie," aka burp cloth. Ha!

"Tickle, tickle!"

The two new Grammy's and their grandbabies! Violet still has some work to do in the neck strength department. It's hard work keeping that big noggin upright. Henry is such a cutie!


And finally, some videos showing how big she's getting.


Violet is talking up a storm on our way back to Towanda Friday morning!


On our second bottle stop Monday, heading back to VA.


And everyone else probably would be bored by this video, but I love it. She was fascinated by the toys hanging from her car seat. They didn't do anything fun, but she couldn't take her eyes off them and I couldn't take mine off her.