Hard to believe this little girl is now 2 years old. :)
We celebrated on her birthday with ice cream sandwiches and tonight we had cake and ice cream with grandparents.
Violet loves to cuddle, and is very empathetic towards others (she's sad if other people are sad). At the same time, she's also quite the daredevil and I'm sure will be the first to break her arm in our family. She's always so cheerful except when she's not- then she'll give you the biggest crusty and you need to stay out of her way. ;)
Jaxon had his preschool graduation yesterday and he was so excited because it meant we would finally be able to go to McDonalds to celebrate. He was looking forward to it ALL year.
Here's a little snippet of his graduation. He loved this song. :)
Easter kind of sneaked up on the Easter bunny this year. I decided against getting Easter Sunday clothes because Jaxon had just received a new Sunday outfit for Christmas, and Violet got tons of dresses from an amazing sale at Jolene's. But we had a fun Easter party with Mamie and Papa and the cousins that Saturday!
My mom made these rice krispie nests and the kids filled them with coconut grass and jelly beans for eggs.
Then we had an Easter Egg hunt in the backyard. The kids got sooo much candy. I've had to help them eat it, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for my children.
I've been having fun with Violet's hair lately now that she'll sit still for 10 minutes and let me touch it. Let's face it, I could've been braiding/curling her hair for months now, but she was too young to sit still so she just looked like a wild child everywhere she went. But now she looks like a little girl!
Getting ready for church!
My grandma actually sewed this wool coat this for my older sister when she was little, but she had no girls so it's Violet's now. :) I think she's a cutie.
We had a very chocolate-y Valentine's Day yesterday. :) We decided to celebrate it a day early since our Sundays are SO CRAZY and we barely see Travis at all.
Since we're still working on Jaxon's reading, yesterday morning I left a note telling him where to find his Valentine's Day treats.
Then after breakfast and our daily list of to-dos, we went to my parents to make chocolate covered strawberries. I think the kids ate more chocolate than strawberries. In this clip (since there's no captions), I ask him how the strawberries taste, and he says "They're very good, thank you!"
As my mom said, he was thoroughly enjoying himself. Especially when he just licked the spoon. Thank heavens no one else was using that bowl.
Violet was also able to participate in the sugary mess...
While the strawberries were setting, they enjoyed a Valentine's Day craft with Mamie. I thought this was so cute and so easy!
I had to pre-treat chocolate stains on his shirt during this time, ugh
That evening, we had our traditional lasagna by candlelight dinner followed by chocolate covered strawberries, and our traditional cheesecake which we still haven't made a dent in because we are chalk full of sugar.
I kind of made a new tradition this year. I found this cute door cover of a tree and you put hearts all around it with people's names on it. It's supposed to be for classroom doors, but it worked great for the kitchen. One day after preschool, Jaxon and I sat down and wrote names of people we loved on each heart.
During Valentine's day dinner, we asked Jaxon to point out the people he wrote on his hearts and tell us why he loved him/her. It was a very sweet Valentine's Day! :)
We're kind of in survival mode this winter. Despite my best efforts of trying to get out of the house with the kids, we're still experiencing some cabin fever. We've mostly just hunkered down till the first signs of spring. Yes, I know we've got a ways to go. So we've tried to keep ourselves busy.
Christmas presents help keep Jaxon busy. He's found a new interest in all things electrical (along with the usual mechanical)... a potentially hazardous hobby to be sure.
Jaxon's work
Playing with his circuit set
And then this is just typical Jaxon...
Violet just keeps herself busy by the usual methods...
We replaced our closet doors so I thought it'd be cool to let them use the old doors as a slide. Perfect indoor activity, right? Although now Violet's scared of it and won't even let me slide down without it causing tears. But she loves to watch Jaxon slide down for some reason...
This is a fun game Jaxon made up. It's called, "Da vezen campan", which is Aught (his made up language) for chase. I love seeing them play together.
