Family photos!

9 months old and all over the place!

Violet has become a hard little lady to keep up with lately. Before, she was just crawling around whatever room we were in, but now, she seems to want to see and explore every room in the house. She loves pulling up on everything and cruises around a little here and there. She is one active little lady. She plays hard, so she sleeps pretty hard too. Still 2 naps a day, around 1.5hr each (sometimes longer) and goes to bed around 7:30 or 8 and sleeps til 630. Kinda the same schedule its been for a while. She loves playing in her crib and her stuffed animals, especially her stuffed foxes. Who knows... She loves the baby food we make for her, but more and more lately, she wants to eat what we eat. She graduated to a bigger car seat and has 2 top teeth in, and more seem to be coming quickly. Violet loves to stand using only one hand and grab for other things, but she's still a wobbly mess, so I'm thinking we've got a couple months still until she walks, which I am perfectly ok with. My baby is too quickly becoming a toddler- I don't mind if she takes her time a little bit in these last few months before she's ONE. Hard to believe that milestone is just around the corner.

Scott is still doing great at Target. Black Friday is quickly approaching- side note, its not even black Friday anymore because all the stores now open on Thanksgiving. Stupid. Anyway, at the holidays approach, he gets busier and busier, but still finds time to be the best dad and a pretty kick ass hubby :).

As for me, life is good. I find myself often saying many prayers of thanks for how lucky I am. I have such a good family, mom/dad/sister/brothers, husband, hubby's family, and of course Vi. I'm doing what I love. But in all honesty, I do struggle. The balance is no joke. Trying to be a good resident, mom, wife, sister, daughter, and then in the meantime trying to work out, study, and help out around the house occasionally- its all a little overwhelming sometimes. Who am I kidding- its hard a lot of the time. I just try to take it one day at a time and do the best I can. I know I can't be great at everything and that's ok. Sometimes though, it just kills me to not be more present for Scott and Violet, but I'm not pursuing this dream just for me. I do it to provide for my family one day- in hopes that Scott can retire and be with our kids. I do it to be a good role model for Violet. To show her that while its hard as hell some days, you can be a mom and have a career at the same time, if you want to. I just try to remember that life wasn't meant to be a walk in the park and I live for a good challenge. And I hope that Violet can appreciate just how hard I'm working for her one day, rather than scorning me for being gone!

So that's our life right now in a nutshell, organized chaos. And I love every second of it :).

Fun fall photos!

This is some kind of new record for me. 2 blog posts in less than 2 weeks. Guess I'm motivated because I'm done with nights and feel alive again lol. Fall is so much more fun with a kiddo. Painting pumpkins, dressing up, playing in the leaves - I love it all. Violet just caught a nasty cold again - 3rd of the season. Gotta love daycare. So she has not been as enthusiastic as me, but she's been a good sport while her mom soaks this stuff up.

 

 

Her fave thing right now - mickey mouse clubhouse. Don't even ask me how many times I've seen this damn DVD....

Violet's first Halloween!

Going for a bike ride on a beautiful fall day. One thing I have to thank working nights for - being the thinnest I've been probably since my junior year of high school. Unfortunately, its skinny fat. Time to get some muscle back!!

 

 Love this little beauty and love watching her explore new things

 

Up next... Thanksgiving and Christmas. It just keeps getting better and better!!!!