When I get behind on blogging, I end up bombarding y'all with a ton of pictures at once. So thanks to those few of you who stick with me ;)

November. It's been a busy month. It's not a coincidence that once our weather actually cools down, we feel energized and actually WANT to be out and about. So we've been doing a lot and making tons of memories with our girl. Our girl that has actually hit her terrible twos, oh, about 3 1/2 months before actually turning 2. She is all about the crying, whining and tantrums lately. Full on tantrums. She means business when she's in tantrum mode. Lord, help me. I'd be lying if I didn't say it's been completely exhausting and I miss the girl I had just a few weeks ago who rarely threw a fit...I'm also slightly terrified of what's going to come the older and more strong willed she becomes. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, right? 

This month, we celebrated my dad's 60th birthday, visited some with Ronnie's family too and then went to Wurstfest with Ronnie's sis and her boyfriend. So fun!! We hadn't been to Wurstfest since the year before I got pregnant and it was a much needed fun night out!

Then we took this girl to the Zoo for the first time! I'm looking forward to when she's older and able to participate in more things like the museum, water parks, etc. but for now, this was perfect and she had a blast, especially at the Butterfly House! (Disclaimer: By going to places like the Zoo or Sea World, for that matter, I'm not saying we agree with what they're doing. AT ALL. And we feel guilty every time we're there. But sometimes there's not a whole lot of places to take a small toddler and these places just work for us. So no judging, ok? :) 

ANYWHO.

Violet's also become obsessed lately with dress up - particularly with my clothes. She'll find something of mine and bring it to me wanting it on. It's adorable. She's noticing what her clothing looks like too. She'll bend over and stare at her leggings if there's a pattern on them. ha. She talks our heads off and I'm really happy with the progress she's making in that department. Her most recent words include "munk" (monkey), "hoo hoo" (for owls), and our favorite... c-o-c-k. Yup. That stands for clock in her world and we think for truck too. And wouldn't you know, it's one of her most repeated words. Fun :) She's just the best (when she's not throwing a tantrum, of course ;)

We just put up the Christmas tree last night - haven't decorated it yet - and she LOVED it. She even kissed it. ha! I'm so excited for the holidays with her!

Novembah

I always get so excited for November 1st because that means I can no longer be called crazy (well, maybe I still am) and start my focus on Christmas!!

Pandora's Christmas music station is already going, I'm holding my coffee mug as if it's absolutely freezing outside (80 degrees. Brrr!) and I'm writing my wish list as well as my Christmas gift shopping list!

I'm just so excited that NOVEMBER IS HERE!!! But before we move on to all things Christmas, I'm gonna talk about Halloween one.last.time.

V's First Halloween didn't turn out as fabulous as I thought it would but what can you do - at least she won't remember. Ronnie got stuck at home with a paper so he had to miss her first Halloween! :( First bummer of the night.

Second, it was warm and kinda humid out. Yuck.

Third, Violet wouldn't crack a smile for anything. She was just not feeling it. (Did my boredom with Halloween wear off on her already?!). And daddy not being there DID NOT HELP. She finally snapped out of her funk but not until we went back inside, stripped her of her costume and she got to just sit and play with Grandma. Homebody like her parents, I think :)

No matter what though, it was just so fun to do this with her for the first time and (being the biased mom I am) I think she was the most adorable baby ballerina ever. Her outfit was one my co-worker handed down to me from her daughter so my mom altered it a little (V's a shorty), added ribbon to shoes I already had and then made her a tulle bow. Easy peasy and it was just precious.

 

Once I squashed the ballerina into her stroller (ha!) my mom and I took her up and down the street and we had fun just being a part of the crowd. A lot of people in my parents' neighborhood go all out with the decorating so there's always a huge crowd of trick or treaters. We had fun handing out candy, visiting with the neighbors and taking tons of pictures. We didn't actually trick or treat (people know the candy is for the parents!) but it was still fun!

The neighbor's house across the street and V in her stroller looking bored. ha!

My mom and her neighbor friend took lots of good pictures but this is the best of what I had on my phone. I really need to get a new camera since ours crapped out on us. After we went back inside, we ate some pizza, drank some wine and my brother and his girlfriend stopped by to hang out. Lots of laughs and overall it was a good first Halloween for V!

So now that Halloween is over, who's with me on the crazy train for Christmas?! YES!!! Come back tomorrow for a Christmas-ey giveaway!