I made Violet some shoes. So I went a little overboard. It seemed necessary that she have a pair to match all her outfits. Of course, I still need to make the obligatory pink and purple pairs. You’d be surprised how limited the selections are in the local fabric shops around here. I really had a hard time finding just these fabrics and couldn’t find anything in pinks or purples that I could even settle on. For those of you interested, here’s the pattern for the shoes:
http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/blog/cloth_shoe.pdf

And just to prove that they really are cute on and match an actual outfit…

In other news, Mimi had a mini school program today. I think it was some sort of verification that they are actually teaching the kids something because they had them recite shapes, letters, and even a couple of math equations. Now this is what I’m talking about especially after learning that Annie’s math curriculum actually has math problems such as “If math were a color, it would be –, because –.”

I’m pretty sure nobody had a smile as big as Mimi’s.

Violet received her blessing at church today. Mike did a wonderful job giving our little girl her blessing. The Evans (Jim, Sara, Hayley, and Matt) and Grandma Kathy came for the event. It was a very short visit, but we still enjoyed what little time we had together with good eats and great conversation. I’m glad they made the trip.

All of us after church.

Of course, we took this opportunity to get a family picture.

As usual, Mike couldn’t take it seriously, and neither could the girls for that matter.

Had to get a nice picture of Jim and Sara since they were all gussied up, too.

Grandma and Violet.

Can you believe this is the same dress that Annie wore for our sealing back when Annie was 15 months old (made by the very talented Auntie Sara)?

It always delights me when my babies start to move past just being eating/pooping/sleeping machines and begin developing little personalities. Violet is entering this engaging stage and has graced us with her little smile more than a few times since Sunday. Rather than talk about how cute she is, just have a look for yourself. In case you’re wondering, the battle wound is self-inflicted. I couldn’t stand having those mittens on her any longer, and this is what happens.

Her surprised look. This is pretty much the look she’s had on her face since birth.

WAIT! Is she going to SAY something?

No. No, she’s just sticking her tongue out at me.

Finally, a real smile. Sigh…

You gotta see just one more. I don’t know about you, but I can’t get enough of this face.

Violet went on her first road trip this weekend to go my brother’s wedding which was 3 hours away, and Violet did fabulous. She slept most of the time on the way there and back. I pumped some milk into a bottle, and Violet took the bottle without a fuss. Mike wants to step it up a notch and make a trip to MN for the Columbus holiday. I’m not so sure, and I don’t think Annie even has that holiday off from school. We’ll see.

Speaking of the wedding. We got all gussied up and had a fun time. The girls got to wear tutus, got complimented a ton, and loved every minute of it. They danced the night away with both Daddy and Grandpa Indiana. It was nice to spend an evening with Grandpa and Joey and Josh. I haven’t seen Joey in years (since my own wedding over 11 years ago), so it was nice to catch up with him and meet his new wife, too. Josh and Erin (his new bride) looked great. We also got to meet their little guy, Keegan. The girls were excited to learn about having a new cousin. They love cousins! Glad we could make the trip and see everyone!

The girls absolutely loved their tutus, but Mimi wasn’t very keen on getting her picture taken in it. Three times were not a charm.

Daddy actually got out on the dance floor to dance a few numbers with his 2 princesses. Of course, I had to document that moment. Can you tell that the girls were in heaven?

We could barely get the girls off the dance floor, even to come eat their cake.

The group shots. Grandpa with our fam and another with Josh, Erin, Joey, Rachel, and us.

Violet got a little lively during the night. She actually got quite fussy for a bit, but once the d.j. starting cranking out some (loud) tunes she went right to sleep.

Erin’s grandmother is also a Violet, so we thought it was appropriate to photograph the 2 Violets together.

Another surprise for us on the way home was that Violet start smiling for real at people. I’ll try to get a for a real smile from her and post a picture soon.

In keeping with her tradition of sleeping most of the day, Violet fell alseep in less than 10 seconds flat when put her on her blanket for some tummy exercises. This baby is the sleepiest baby I’ve ever had. Not that I’m complaining.

My mom came for a visit for the Labor Day weekend. The girls were really excited about her being here, and Annie did her usual talking of the ear off the whole time. Since my mom’s last visit was during Christmas, she didn’t really get a chance to see Kenosha. On Saturday I decided to give her a bit of a tour. We headed to the downtown area to eat lunch and see the sites. It turns out that there was a vintage car show taking up all the streets of Downtown, but we still enjoyed our time walking around. We decided to take a quick walk at the Farmer’s Market, too, and Mike ended up being there at the same time as us. It was a nice visit with my mom, and I’m glad she finally got to meet Violet.

We took advantage of some the interesting cars at the car show by using them as photo backgrounds.

Of course, I had to get a snap next to the Charger since it’s one of Mike’s favorite cars.

This car looked like a motorized rickshaw.

In other news, this is what I found on the stairs the other day. My guess is that Mimi snuck downstairs to wait for Annie to get home from school and fell asleep in the process.

I haven’t posted about Mike lately, but he sure has been busy. Canning projects are still keeping him busy. Last week he finally got his chance to can some of the tomatoes he’s been growing all summer. It’s been one of his goals to make homemade spaghetti sauce. The results were really delicious. He did have to supplement with some tomatoes from the farmer’s market though. So far he’s ended up with about 6 jars, but he’s got another couple of batches going now which will be another 6 or so jars. No complaints from me since I love spaghetti so much. Mike has also been busy canning grape jelly. The grapes came from a friend at work. The jelly really turned out wonderful.

So many bright tomatoes.

Being smushed.

The leftover junk.

The sauce. Yum!

Mike is back to work on his jeep motor. He’s involving the scouts again to get the motor back into the jeep.

My mom came to visit for the holiday weekend and to see Violet for the first time. We had a nice visit and did a little touring of Kenosha. I’ll post a couple of pictures once Mike returns the camera to me.

In the meantime, I came across this video and thought some fellow Amigurumi fans and crafters would like to see it. Enjoy!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V5ubAOeOBk

The girls are officially back in school. Annie started back on Tuesday and was so excited. She made sure all her school supplies were purchased well in advance and thoroughly enjoyed helping to shop for school clothes. Annie was intent on getting a new backpack, too, and asked about it daily. When Mike told her that I could just sew up her old backpack it about made her have a psychological breakdown. Fortunately, I was able to get her a new backpack just in time for school. I spent a little more this year and got a “real” backpack without cheesy characters on it. The first picture is one I had to take of Annie to give to her teacher to put on their classroom door. Annie made sure I didn’t forget about this task. The second picture is after Annie’s 2nd day of school. I know I wasn’t the best mom to have only pictures from her 2nd day of school.

Mimi started school yesterday at her preschool. It was just like old times for her, and she wasn’t at all nervous about me leaving her there. She was sad that she didn’t get to start school the same day as Annie. I got to hear about it ALL DAY especially when all her playmates went off for their first day of kindergarten. Mimi was not pleased to get her picture taken. This was the best smile I could muster from her.

Let’s not forget about Violet. Almost 3 weeks old now and getting chunkier than ever. We still love her though:)