bugs, cheese, and more

(just helping her old man with the dishes)

Have I mentioned lately how smart our little person is getting lately?  In fact, Violet said her first phrase a couple of days ago.  It was, appropriately, "I want cheese".

Yesterday, I heard Violet in her bedroom yelling, "BUG!... BUG!...BUG!" and sure enough, when I went in there, she was enthusiastically pointing at a nice big cockroach on the wall.

Other new words she has been saying lately:  moon, knee, airplane, tweet tweet, plus about 20 others.  Glenn and I are going to sit down together soon and make a list for her scrapbook.  Everyday we put it off, that task gets a little harder!  I seriously think Violet has learned at least one new word a day for the past 6 weeks.  It is amazing to get to watch her learn so fast!

The Beach in November

The days have been warm here lately, so on Saturday, we decided to take a trip to the beach!  I've been to this beach in Marina del Rey a few times, but Glenn never had been before Saturday.  It is called Mothers' Beach because it is so great for kids.  Since it is in the marina, there are no waves, and there is a big playground right on the beach.

Violet had a great time, and it was fun just giving Violet all of our attention for a couple of hours with no computers or tv to get in the way.  

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful.  On Tuesday when Glenn finished with school for the week, he mentioned, "Do you realize we could be driving home right now and we'd be there for 5 whole days before we had to come back," I started to be a little sad about our decision to stick around here for Thanksgiving.

But we had such a great time yesterday, and now it will just be even more fun to go home for Christmas (by the way, our Christmas break starts in TWO weeks!!).  We had dinner at our church building, and we ended up having 30 people there for dinner!  Everyone brought something (or five things!) and we had SO MUCH FOOD.  

(I cooked and carved the turkeys.  I wish you could just admire my excellent carving job in this picture, but we didn't take the picture until half of the turkey was gone.)

There were quite a few kids there, and Violet played with them all day long.  We were there for about 5 hours, and I barely saw Violet (besides checking on her occasionally to make sure she was still there, of course).

I am thankful for Glenn, Violet, my health, their health, our big loving families, our ward here in Los Angeles, that Glenn is doing so well in school and enjoying it so much, my computer, the weather here in CA, that my turkey wasn't raw yesterday, and Maggie. 

Cousin love

Melts my heart every time.  I can't wait for them to meet at Christmas!

Our artist

Violet's Aunt Kari Sue gave Violet sidewalk chalk for her birthday, and it has recently become her favorite thing.  Just look at that concentration!

Bye bye, Violet!

Welcome to the world, Margaret McAferty!

My brother's baby was born on Friday afternoon!  Maggie is Violet's first cousin on my side of the family, and we couldn't be more excited.  In fact, Violet said her first name today besides Elmo.  Can you guess whose it was??  Maggie!  She says it so cute.

Some pictures I got from facebook and Annie's blog:

(She is a big girl!  She was 8 lbs 9 oz and 22 inches long)

(My brother with his little girl!  He told me a funny story when I talked to him the day after she was born.  He said that he woke up twice during that first night after they had her.  The first time he woke up, he thought, "Oh, it wasn't a dream!  I'm so happy!" and the second time he woke up, he thought, "It wasn't a dream.  Oh no!")

Annie and Kenny are going to be the best parents, and I CAN NOT WAIT to see them at Christmas!  We will all be staying at my parents' house for a few days at the same time and it is going to be awesome!

Shoes

Violet is very interested in shoes lately.  She likes to pick out her shoes for the day, and tries to put them on herself.  She likes to "help" us put on our shoes (which doesn't exactly make it easier)!  Also, she likes to put our shoes on herself and shuffle around the house:

p.s. Violet is getting her first cousin (on my side of the family) today!  Annie, we are praying for you!