This is my new favorite picture of Ben and Archer.

Violet drew this picture on the back of my brother’s wedding RSVP. It is of him and his bride-to-be holding their baby (she is not pregnant btw) who Violet is requesting they name Calissa.

This came in the Sunday paper a few weeks ago. Whenever Archer saw it he’d say “mama tv”.

And this is as good a place as any to note Archer has a thing for hair. Several times throughout the day I hear him request (demand) “mama hair down”. Usually I’ll ask him to say please and then I’ll let out my pony tail. I don’t know what is stranger, the fact he wants my hair down or that I oblige my toddler’s hair preferences for me.

Ben took this picture of Violet during their morning commute to school. The few times I’ve been responsible for this drive have resulted in her getting tardies so I’m very glad Ben has this job. Violet looks too cool for school in this picture.

I got my first call from the school nurse. It started with a “it is nothing major but…” which did help ease the lump out of my throat. Violet fell off a high bar and onto her face at the playground while trying to do something tricky. When I picked her up from school that day she assured me that tomorrow she’d get the trick right. I was super impressed at her determination but tried to temper it with a reminder to please be safe.

We’ve been adding to our garden! Now we’ve got strawberries, onions, broccoli, bell pepper, and tomato. Archer likes to say hi to the strawberries and onions and fights with his sister over who’s turn it is to water.

And one more picture from this day because I just couldn’t decide which was cuter. He can hip-pop out a pose just like Violet.

This is the valentine Violet prepared for her classmates. I got the idea from Family Fun magazine. Advice if any readers out there ever want to make one like it… glue stick! We used tacky glue but it made everything buckle.

It seems like every week of kindergarten brings at least one super special activity. I cannot believe how many wonderful things Violet gets to do. For Valentine’s Day the kids were to bring in some of their parents’ fancy clothes for a tea party. I found a short dress of mine for V to wear and on the morning of she added the boa and gloves from her dress up box. Violet’s teacher made it extra special for the girls by applying blush and lipstick to their sweet little faces. Violet was stunning. In fact one of the other moms commented to me that they teared up when they saw her because she was just so “over the top”.

And here is my little Romeo. The shirt is a hand me down from a friend and I LOVE IT! Archer loves his red shoes.

Ben and I had a memorable date night. His parent babysat while we got massages at the Chinatown center. I am pretty new to massage. Wow! Let’s just say at one point I had a very muscular adult male fully perched on top of my upper back. Painful, yes at that moment, but otherwise wonderful.

Violet is now 5 and 1/2!

All year long Violet has been enjoying celebrating her classmates’ birthdays during school. Her birthday is in the summer and I hated that hers wouldn’t be celebrated the same way. I asked her teacher if it was okay to bring in cupcakes for her half birthday. Apparently Violet’s was the first classroom celebrated half birthday!

Here she is when her fellow “Beach Balls” (name of her table). The kids were super excited for her. They didn’t care that it was just a half birthday.

Of course we celebrated in our traditional way at home too, with half a cake.

Archer has been making cakes with candles out of blocks and playing “happy” for a month leading up to this. While Violet’s candle was probably still dripping hot with wax he grabbed it and deftly inserted it in his slice.

Halfy Birthday Violet!

Violet had a week for the record books. First major accomplishment: Science fair project! Ben and I gave her a junior lesson on density and she guessed how oil, honey, and water compared and tested her hypothesis. Ben did all the board layout and design work. Violet’s was the most “parent made” of all the kindergartners but really until 3rd grade it’s just practice.

For three weeks or so Violet has been collecting 100 signatures for the 100th day celebration at her school. This was a BIG project for a kindergartener. As bold as Violet can be it somewhat surprised me that she had a hard time approaching strangers for signatures. We took it to Rudy’s, the gym, church, HEB, the school playground and wherever else we knew we’d see a lot of people. The best audience was the school playground because parents of older kids seemed nostalgic about the project and happy to sign and of course the kids were obliging. All other places people were dubious and looking for the catch. I thought the project would never end but Violet “peanut powered” through and saw it to completion.

Also this week Violet was honored by getting nominated by her teacher for Principal’s Pride! I really think her teacher did a spot on job of highlighting Violet’s strengths.

Also, this week Violet had no inappropriate behavior reports. She’s gotten a few for talking at the wrong times lately and one for calling a boy “stupin” (what she thought was a loophole in the name-calling rulebook). This week we got two informal “wonderful behavior today” notes.

And today we celebrated Chinese New Year with the Families with Children from China crowd. Violet was asleep through most of the performances but woke up to participate in the lantern parade and see the dragon and lion dances. It was a fantastic way to end an awesome week!

Violet is standing with a red cardigan beneath the yellow lion and to the right.

I’ve gotten into the very bad habit of getting Archer a donut every time we go to the grocery store. He definitely associates one with the other now. The picture above is after I braved giving him the sprinkle donut.

At 21 months Archer says his first three word sentence “Violet play now”. I think he was trying to say he wanted to play with Violet at that moment. He said it as I was carrying him into his room to put him down for the night. A couple of weeks later and he said a second three word phrase. This time he was “bright light car” while seeing a video of a police car with flashing lights.

Archer is also learning letters. I have no idea how but he solidly recognizes the letter Q. He can identify A and often sees it in “the wild” like the A-frame of our new swingset. He was playing with his alphabet puzzle and picked out the “I” and called it mommy’s bed. Our bed does have a huge head and foot board come to think of it.

One day I caught Archer making this face while looking at Macaulay Culkin’s on the cover of our Home Alone DVD.

He recently had some ear (or maybe teething?) pain. He kept asking for a band-aid for his ear so I obliged. Then he wanted it off and it didn’t come off easily and he cried. I don’t think it helped. I was taking Archer to the allergy doctor and was prepping for the visit. Every time I said “doctor” Archer would make a sad face (see picture above) and say “head” in a sad voice while patting his head. I had no idea what he was talking about. A couple of nights later we read “No More Monkeys Jumping in the Bed” and I finally put two and two together. At the doctor visit Archer tested positive for peanut, cat, egg, soy, cantaloupe, apple, and pea allergies.

On a whim the other day I asked Archer to jump. My heart nearly burst when I saw his effort. I love it! He is growing up way too fast.

The jeep wasn’t the only thing Archer begged to ride 24/7. He also loved zipping around in this old golf cart.

And he had a blast playing in the dirt. This trip I introduced the kids to ant lions.

We were in Bushnell for Thanksgiving at my aunt, uncle, and cousin Katie’s house. We missed you D.J.! I don’t usually get pictures like these of hum drum every day stuff so I thought I’d share. Violet and Ben snuck away and were laying on a pile of inflatable mattresses playing a computer game.

Katie was WONDERFUL with Archer. By the time we left they had even developed some inside jokes. It was a wonderful visit altogether. Besides being able to spend time catching up, we also got to enjoy the new disco hot tub (lights, music, waterfall?!), outdoor movie watching, and my favorite cat in the world, Toby.

Violet really took to this dune buggy frame.

In addition to target practicing (this year with a bow and arrow), it has become a tradition to take family Christmas pictures while at my aunt and uncle’s. Here is the whole gang. My brother is standing behind my soon-to-be sister-in-law Julie!

Mom and Dad

BBV&A in Florida.

Violet with Aunt Becca and Uncle Chris. Aunt Becca is pregnant with Violet and Archer’s first cousin!

For some reason we got on the subject of coconuts before our trip to Florida. I have childhood memories of working for hours trying to crack a coconut so I told Violet we’d look for one while we were there. I have no idea if there are coconut seasons or not but I was thrilled to see coconuts galore streaming out of some unknown person’s curbside yard trash. I deftly snatched two for Violet; one for cracking open and one to keep.

Here’s a little video Ben made, edited, and added music to all on his phone. Violet got to show the video to her class along with the coconut she brought back.

Picking oranges is one thing Violet strongly associates with visiting Grandma and Grandaddy. She thoroughly enjoys this annual tradition with Grandaddy.

My parents got this jeep a few weeks before our visit. This isn’t the best picture but I feel it just screams sheer joy!

Still loving it.

12/1 Celebrate Violetiversary!

Violet chose to go to Din Ho for dinner with a bubble tea in tow. After that we headed to the photo booth. We watched Violet videos, shared memories of our first day together, and said a special prayer for her Taiwanese family.

12/2 Cut out paper snowflakes

Probably Violet’s favorite of the activities. You can find Archer’s on the far left.

12/3 Set up the nativity
12/4 Buy special 2011 ornaments

Violet chose a chicken ornament and Archer found a sparkly truck to hang on the tree.

12/5 Decorate the tree to Christmas music

12/6 Enjoy a candy cane
12/7 Have hot chocolate
12/8 Feed the birds. It’s Christmas for them too!

Something I once read that St. Francis did to celebrate the birth of the Creator. Unfortunately Archer was asleep however I think these birds would have trampled him!

12/9 Have dinner in front of the Christmas tree
Poppy spent the night with us this night and joined us for chili dinner under the lights. Archer wasn’t quite ready for this one yet.

12/10 Make apple pie
12/11 Make a gingerbread house

12/12 Have a family Christmas sing-a-long


My favorite activity!

12/13 Make presents for classmates

Found lots of ideas on pinterest. Violet chose to make snow globe soaps.

12/14 Wrap the presents
12/15 School Christmas Party!
Snowman themed party with almost one parent there for every kid. Pretty crazy but lots of fun.
12/16 Sleep under the Christmas tree
12/17 Plant some Christmas strawberry and onion plants?
(okay so this wasn’t on a slip of paper but this is what we did that day. I think we missed the real activity).
12/18 Find some toys to donate.
12/19 Make Christmas playdough
12/20 Get presents for family
12/21 Wrap presents for family
12/22 Watch a special Christmas movie
12/23 Make Haystacks with Grammy
12/24 Go to a Christmas service, take a drive to see Christmas lights, Read The Night Before Christmas
12/25 It’s Christmas!!

Last day of our Disney adventure was spent at Animal Kingdom. Just before this picture we had said goodbye to our beloved Cybex Callisto stroller. Sadly it had one trip too many and no longer had the strength to hold a child. A worker in a gift shop volunteered to chuck it in the trash for us. I miss you, dear stroller!

This picture was taken outside what I thought was a pretty intense dinosaur-themed ride. Violet and I went on the ride together and half way through it I wondered what kind of mom I was to subject her to it and figured it must be traumatizing my dear girl. After a dinosaur popped out of the woodwork and gave me the fright of my life I turned my body into a human shield over Violet in order to protect her. Turns out Violet loved it and immediately asked to go again with Daddy. Probably because she missed the entire ending.

The bird show was more my speed. Here is Violet raising her hand to be a volunteer bird handler. I wish she would have gotten picked! The show even featured chickens!

When Archer gets the phone he likes to take 200 or so rapid fire self portraits. We have a lot of these. Isn’t the ceiling pretty?

Archer caught naps whenever he could.

Thanks for all the good times, Disney!