Christmas morning picture overload!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  I've been absent from blogging while we have been in Arizona, and I have loved it, but I have so many good pictures of Christmas morning that I couldn't help dropping in to post them.  Our whole trip has been wonderful, but I am looking forward to coming home in a couple of days too.

My brother-in-law took TONS of pictures of Violet on Christmas morning, and here are some of my favorites:

Starting out the morning with a drink of chocolate milk!

Violet and Aunt Kari Sue matched!

More chocolate milk...

A sweater from great-grandma Audree:

Violet's present from Glenn and I:  Her first hockey stick!  She knew just what to do with it!

We have already read this Dora book to her about a hundred times;  thank goodness it is short!

Blocks!  I have enjoyed building with these more than Violet has so far!

Violet's newest words:  Bubbles!!!! and POP!!!

Chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast!

Violet colors at last!

I love to color, so I have been eagerly awaiting the day that Violet will show some interest in coloring.  A few days ago, for the first time, she actually sat and colored for about ten minutes, and I was so excited!  It was really cute to watch because she chose each color so carefully, and though it might not look like it, added that color very purposefully to her picture.

the final product!

(I might frame it)

Violet says the animal sounds

In case you can't understand her, Violet can say the sounds for dinosaur, bear, cat, dog, bird, and fish!  Also, she obviously didn't want us to be video taping her, hence the "NO NO NO NO NO NO" you hear a few times.  

in case you are having trouble viewing that one:

The best Christmas present so far...

Nothing like free parking at the beach to start your Saturday off right!

We went to Manhattan Beach on Saturday morning to get our pictures taken, and had some fun afterwards too.  We didn't know before we went, but there is a cool little free aquarium at the end of the pier.  Violet loved touching the starfish and making fish faces at the fish in the tank.

It took us about twenty minutes to walk back down the pier because Violet was so obsessed with looking over the edge:

On our way back to the car, we decided to stop at Wahoo's for fish tacos, which was a delicious treat.  The best thing was that it never rained!  We were worried about taking pictures on Saturday because it rained for two days before, and it rained Saturday afternoon, but the couple hours of dry skies overlapped with our trip to the beach.  Lucky us!

Family Pictures!

We finally got family pictures taken on beach, which is something I've wanted to do since we moved here!  My friend Brittany is getting very good at using her fancy camera, and agreed to take pictures of us as long as we promised to have low expectations.

Well, of course they turned out beautifully!  Violet was very nervous at the beginning, but by the end had relaxed a little.  Also, there were so many cute candid pictures of Glenn and Violet together.  I wish I'd held her for more of the pictures so I could have some cute ones with her!  Oh well, I'll just remember that for next time.

Here are my favorites:

(this is the one I will probably get printed big and framed)

(love Violet's face in this one.  She looks so earnest.)

(I wish this one wasn't a tiny bit blurry, because I love it SO much!)