She's here!

If you didn't already know, our new little girl arrived 10 days ago!  And if you follow me on instagram, you've already been bombarded with pictures of her, so bear with me.  I have no plans for the post beyond posting glamour shot after glamour shot of this cute baby girl.  

Here she is!  

Jacqueline Leona LeSueur - born February 11th at 11:45 pm.  She was 7lbs 6 oz (so small!  I didn't think I would ever have a little baby!) and 20.5 inches long (exactly the same as Violet). She looks a lot like Violet did when she was a baby, and I think in a few years I won't be able to tell which girl it is from the baby pictures.  

She has been such a good baby.  I don't know if it just her personality or if it is because I'm not such a rookie at taking care of a baby, but she been lower maintenance than Violet ever was.  Speaking of Violet, she's been the best older sister you could ask for.  If she's been gone for a while, like at the park or museum with my mom or Glenn, the first thing she asks when she gets home is, "Where's my baby sister?" or "Where is Jacqueline?".  She is really gentle with her, and when I nurse Jackie, Violet brings me her book of fairy tales and asks me to read to her.  She seems pretty happy.  I was afraid she'd feel like we suddenly didn't give her any attention, but the truth is, Jacqueline sleeps so much that I've still been able to give Violet plenty of attention.  I'm glad newborns sleep so much at the beginning, because  I feel like it is easing Violet into our new life.  By the time Jacqueline takes more of my time, Violet will hopefully be used to her being here.  A few shots of the girls together:

(watching Dora together; why is this picture so funny to me?)

I should also mention that my mom came to stay with us for a week!  It was a huge blessing that she could take that much time off work, and I'm so grateful that she wanted to come here and work so hard for a week!  She almost never stopped cleaning when she was here, and every day she took Violet out to do something fun.  Also, we lucked out with the timing of her coming out here.  She has had her bags packed in the trunk of her car for weeks (Baby Jackie was 9 days late, in case you don't remember all my complaining a couple of weeks ago) so she could leave work whenever I called to say I was in labor.  Well, I started having contractions around 3 in the morning on Tuesday, but I was reluctant to tell me mom to come in case they stopped and it wasn't really labor.  I told her I was in labor around 1, and she left right away and got to our house by 7 that evening.  By 8 o'clock the contractions were pretty serious and Glenn and I left for the hospital.  The baby came pretty quickly after that!  

Here are some pics of Mom and Violet's time together:

At the park:

At the museum:

(same shirt as at the park, but a different day.  Vi got this shirt for Valentines' Day, and looooooves it.)

At the zoo:

And one last picture.  The two Jackies together!

Photo dump - the last days of 2013

You guys, I'm due in ONE week.  We are getting pretty excited, but I don't feel anywhere near having the baby.  But before this blog gets taken over by pictures of the new baby, I figured I'd post the last few I have of our trip to AZ, even though it was a while ago. 

Our LeSueur family pic!

Picking oranges:

at the park:

Snuggling with Grammy:

At the zoo:

Last, my mom made Violet some really creative snacks and lunches while we were there, so I took some pictures!  Believe it or not, it actually convinced Violet to eat a lot of things she normally wouldn't!  Aren't Grandma's the best?

(lady bug sandwich)

(reindeer pancakes)

(happy girl)

Maggie and Violet

I had so many good pictures of Maggie and Violet together, that I decided to dedicate a whole post to them!  Maggie is Violet's only cousin on my side of the family, and before this trip, they'd only met one other time, last Christmas, when Maggie was only a month old.  However, we facetime with them pretty regularly, and Violet recognized Maggie as soon as she saw her this year!  

We stayed at my parents' house at the same time as Kenny's family for about a week, so the girls had lots of time to become friends!  I think it was the beginning of what will be a life-long best-friendship!

The girls took their baths together:

They took a walks in the stroller, and the wagon several times, with Grammy:

They had matching Christmas dresses!

Violet taught Maggie how to throw coins in the fountain: 

(and also wore Maggie's clothes on more than one occasion, like this black skirt, for example.)

Also, Violet taught Maggie a lot about how to tease her dad!  Violet decided early on that Uncle Kenny was good to wrestle.

Last but not least, there was a toddler-sparkler-sword-fight that was, while closely monitored, as dangerous as it sounds.

Cousins forever!

"I'm a Reindeer"

I am behind on blogging, but here is a quick video to get you in the Christmas spirit!

Big Girl Bed

My parents had a bed they were willing to give us for Violet when she was ready to move out of her crib, so when Glenn's parents came into town last weekend (for his birthday!  A post on that coming soon...) they picked up the bed from my parents and drove it up!

Violet was SO excited about it.  She loves to play with it:  jump on it, read on it, hide under it, etc.  However, if you ask her if she wants to sleep in it, she answers, "Um...maybe when I'm bigger."  Which, incidentally, is also her answer if you ask her if she wants to use the toilet.  We aren't pushing too hard for her to make the switch because it might actually be nice to have a free bed for my mom to sleep in when she comes when the new baby is born.

 And now I will overrepresent this small step in Violet's life with too many pictures because I love them all so much:

Violet's Halloween Costume

I just wanted to make sure I documented Halloween before I miss the chance.  I don't have much to say, besides that Violet was the cutest Rapunzel-from-Tangled-post-haircut that you've ever seen.  I actually took the pictures on Tuesday, when Violet got to wear her costume to the library for story time:

On Halloween night, I let Violet trick or treat at one house - the sorority house of one of my friends from our ward.  I think her whole haul was three pieces of candy.  Then we went to our ward Halloween party!  Glenn and I had a great time, and Violet was very good and sweet even though she was the only kid there and seemed a little bored the whole time.

(I just realized that some of you might not be as familiar with the movie Tangled as we are [do you think Violet will EVER want to watch a different movie?], so here is a picture of Rapunzel - post haircut - for reference.)

Underwood Farms - The pumpkin patch!

There is a farm about an hour away from us called Underwood Farms that is a pretty big deal.  They have u-pick every season, like strawberries in the summer, etc.  Their biggest thing of the year, though, is the Halloween Festival, and we went this year!  It was a pretty big deal for us to go, because it is a long drive there and back, and we wanted to stay for most of the day since it takes so long to get there, so Violet didn't get a nap.  She had a great time though, and was so happy the whole time!

I took about a million pictures, so I'll just tell you a little about them as we go to give you an idea of how fun the day was.

We went with a group of moms and kids from our stake, and our group had scheduled a hay ride together.  Violet loved it.  She was completely enthralled the whole time.

These are our friends, Jenica and Ryan, who we drove up to the farm with.  Unfortunately, this is the best picture I could get of them on the hayride together.  I got some better ones later though.

The hayride dropped us off at the pumpkin patch, where we each got to pick a pumpkin!  Our admission price was $6 each, but it paid for everything, including the pumpkin.

A good one of Ryan and Violet together:

I told Violet to make a scary face when she was looking through the vampire.  This is what we got.  I'm definitely scared... more scared that she is going to mug me than that she is actually a vampire...

Violet loved climbing on this wagon, and got all the way to the top by herself!  I heard a 5 year old boy tell his dad he needed help getting up there, and then Violet displayed her impressive upper body strength and pulled herself up!

We all brought our lunches and ate them at the picnic tables, and afterwards the little girls had an impromptu dance party.

There were lots of cool animals, including this emu.  

There were also goats, cows, pigs, chickens, bunnies, turkeys, and peacocks.  It was as good at being at the zoo for Violet!  This morning I wanted Violet to tell Glenn about the animals she saw, and she said, "I saw a BEAUTIFUL peacock!".

A hay bale pyramid:

Ryan and Violet really enjoyed each other's company the whole time.  They play so well together, and I'm glad we've become friends with them recently.

I wish I could remember everything!  It was just such an amazingly fun day.  There were corn mazes we never even got to, a farmers' market where Violet and I picked out some really delicious tomatoes, and a squash stand that had every kind of edible squash I've ever heard of.  Also, there were pigmy goats that walked all over the beams above the play areas, which was hilarious.  Like this:

Pony Rides

Violet got to ride the ponies at Griffith Park this morning!  Unfortunately, it ended up not being a very nice outing, because Violet was really sad/tired for most of it.  She is so good-natured almost all the time, especially when we are out doing something, so it really threw me off when she didn't behave herself today!  I guess everyone has an off day once in a while.

The morning started out great.  We were supposed to meet our friends there, three other moms and their little girls, but we were the first ones there.  The pony rides only cost $3, and Violet was SO excited when she saw the ponies, so I decided to let her ride twice: once by herself, and then again when her friends got there.  

Well, she loved it!  It was the funniest thing to watch, because they just put tiny Violet on the saddle, slapped the horse on the bum, and off they went!  The track is pretty big, and no one walks around guiding the horse or anything!  It made me a little nervous, but Violet was so happy and excited the whole time!  On the second lap around the track, the horse stopped walking for quite a while before a worker noticed and told him to get moving again, and Violet just sat up there patiently, looking around!

Then all the problems started.  When Violet got off, she wanted right back on, and I told her we had to wait for her friends.  Well, one of our friends got lost and didn't get there for about another half hour, and Violet threw a tantrum almost the whole time we were waiting.  Then, when all her friends were getting on their ponies, Violet suddenly clung to me and scream-cried that she couldn't ride the ponies.  I was so surprised that she was scared after she loved it so much the first time!   However, later she told me that she didn't want "the man in the jacket" to put her on the horse.  So I don't think she was scared of the horses, just the worker who helped her up, and I'm sure they would have let me do that if I'd asked, but I didn't realize that was the problem at the time.

After the ponies, we went to another part of the park where there are a bunch of old train cars you can play in and around.  Violet loved them, but by that time she was ready for lunch and a nap, so we headed home after just a few minutes of playing at the trains.  But not before getting this cute pic of the four girls together!

Pumpkin painter

I bought a tiny pumpkin for a dollar at the grocery store the other day because I thought Violet might like to paint it.  I was right!  She painted it this morning and enjoyed every second of it.

The masterpiece!

It was even a learning experience for her, because she kept requesting purple paint, which we didn't have, and learned really quickly that when I mixed red and blue for her it made purple.  She though it was very cool.  Now it is out on our front step, and she has mentioned several times how excited she is for everyone to see it as they walk by.

The Little Mermaid at El Capitan!

Violet and I had such a fun morning!  A couple of friends of mine had planned to take their daughters to see The Little Mermaid at El Capitan theater in Hollywood, and they invited us to come!  El Capitan is owned by Disney, and it is right on Hollywood Blvd in one of the busiest areas of Hollywood.  We actually had to cross a couple of red carpets and walk by a few film crews to make it from our parking structure to the theater.  

(This is the face Violet makes now when I tell her to smile.  What follows is the face she makes when I say, "Make a really sweet, normal face."  Trying to get good pictures is a lost cause.)

The inside of the theater was beautiful, and before the movie started, there was a live performance by "Princess Sophia" who I guess is a character from a tv show.  Anyway, Violet thought it was cool, and there was a burst of confetti from the ceiling at the end of the song.  And all of this before the movie even started!

My friend only bought one ticket because she swore her daughter would want to to sit in her lap the whole time.  I bought two tickets, because I KNEW there was NO WAY Violet would sit in my lap.  Well... Veronica sat in her own chair the whole time, and Violet never left my lap for the whole movie.  Don't we know our daughters well?? (not.)

Since the showing was meant for toddlers, they were allowed to get out of their seats to dance or play in the aisles if they wanted, which made it pretty un-stressful since I didn't have to worry about what I would do if Violet got restless.  Then I didn't even end up having to deal with that since Violet relaxed on my lap the whole time!

A froyo date

I hope the rest of you ladies did something amazing during priesthood session.  Have I mentioned that all my friends moved away from me??  At least all my friends from my ward have, so last night during priesthood session, Violet and I had a ladies' night all to ourselves.  We just had dinner at home, but then we walked over to the frozen yogurt place near us for a date!

We had fun, and the most amusing part for me was watching Violet pick out her froyo and toppings.  Here is her awful concoction:  apricot yogurt with m&ms, gummy bears, gummy worms, and frosted animal crackers.  She asked for fruity pebbles too, but I drew the line there.  I was afraid it was going to be so disgusting she wouldn't eat it!  Of course, she loved it.

Conference weekend is definitely one of the times I miss living around my family.  All the girls in my family and Aunt Judy's went out to dinner, and it looked sooooooo fun.  Only three more conferences til we live in AZ again though!

Spider Pavilion (and also How Glenn Is Amazing)

Glenn did the most amazing thing this morning!  He participated in a race sponsored by the dental school.  There is a big pool of money that everyone who runs the race gets a share of.  If you finish the race in under an hour, you get two shares of the money.  If you also beat the dean of the school, you get three shares of the money.  The race is 5 miles, which I think sounds hard anyway, but it is also up a mountain the whole way!  So you race 5 miles to the summit, and then you can go back whatever speed you want, because the race is over.  ANYWAY, Glenn did it in less than an hour and beat the dean!  I'm so proud of him!

Since Violet and I had the morning to ourselves, and today they opened the spider pavilion at the NHM for members only, we decided to walk over there.  Here was Violet's reaction to the spiders:

And then she promptly turned around and left.  Haha!  I don't blame her though, the spiders were creepy.  Here is the best shot I got of one.

The big ones were about the size of your hand, including the legs.  Violet did enjoy making a spider crown after we left the real spiders, and wore it the rest of the time we were at the museum.  She kept telling me, "Mom, I look so cool!".  

I also managed to get a couple of pictures of Violet in parts of the museum BESIDES by the polar bear and dueling dinos, for once.

Sabertooth cats are one of Violet's favorite things right now, so I got a picture of her with one of those:

Fun with antlers:

A haircut!

One of the last days we were in AZ, Violet got a haircut!  I just wanted all her hair evened out; it was pretty scraggly around the bottom.  Although this before picture makes it look REALLY bad, but that is because we had just taken it out of pigtails.

She did really well during the haircut, mostly due to the ring pop.  She did start to cry at the end, and insisted that I hold hands with her the rest of the time.

About 5 inches were cut off in the back!  I felt like I hardly recognized Violet for a few days afterwards!  I didn't take any after pictures, but yesterday at the museum I took some pictures that show off the new 'do pretty well.  Enjoy!