Cameron, Stephanie, Andy, & Max: Violet at 4 1/2

Violet is an absolute joy in my life. A 4 year old is just about the cutest thing ever and add in that she's our first (and only) girl...and it's just even more fun! There's so much I want to remember about her at this age:

There are still a few words she says wrong and I love them: "marote" (remote), "umputer" (computer), "ewnicorn" (unicorn), "cindergella" (cinderella), and probably others I'm not thinking of.
She LOVES school. Her teachers are Miss Wendy and Miss Jill who live pretty close to us. The school is called "Bright Eyed Owl" and it's been such a great school!
She's done tumbling and dance this year and has totally loved tumbling! She asks most mornings if she gets to go to tumbling. It's been fun to watch her get stronger and just watch her naturally experiment with moving her body more. She even surprised me by doing a flip on the tramp--I had no idea she could even do one! Dance: she has loved a little less this year. I think it may be our last year. She always says she doesn't want to go. The one perk of dance is that she's doing it with her friend Venna and they usually have a playdate after.
She has been an absolute nightmare to potty train. NIGHTMARE. She has an accident almost every day. We've been through so many different incentives. Literally everything I can think of. I think I've thrown away 50 pairs of underwear at this point. No exaggeration. I don't know why she doesn't want to do it? She definitely can. It's really funny--every time she has an accident she finds me and says, "The truth is...I had an accident." I'm not sure where she picked up "The truth is..." but it really cracks me up.
She is incredibly social and wants to be playing with friends every minute of every day. She plays with our neighbors Ford and Monroe most afternoons. They love to play on our bounce house and especially love sitting on it while it inflates. I hear them giggle for hours. It's really sweet. She also loves to play "family" with her friends. She loves to play with Lauryn (they were having weekly playdates earlier this year), Harrison (they play a lot!), Leo, and she's had fun playing with some friends from her school class: Cora, Georgia, Brigham, and Scarlett. She will have played with a friend all morning and if she doesn't get to play with one in the afternoon she bursts into tears and says she never gets to play with friends ha ha. She still loves to play with the Avarell girls: Ella, Addie, and Kinlee will always have her heart. She also loves to play with the Richins girls: Brielle, Ella, Ayva. She doesn't seem to notice that most of these girls are quite a bit older than her. :)
She loves princesses and all things girly. Even at the library, I notice she just looks for pink book bindings to pull off the shelves. Her favorite princesses change but she especially loves Elsa, Ariel, and Cinderella.
She loves to sing and has the cutest voice. She loves the Justin Bieber song "As I Am" and always asks the Alexa to play it. While she does quiet time she's always blasting CDs and singing along.
There's definitely more drama and emotion with her than we've seen with our other boys. It doesn't bother me too much, but I think Cameron notices it more. ;) He says I give into her too much.
She has such a cute relationship with her cousins Penny and Grace and absolutely loves to be with them. It's been so fun to see those relationships develop as she's gotten older!
She loves me so much. A total mama's girl. And I don't mind at all. She always wants to be with me, wants me to get her ready for bed, etc. She even gets me in the middle of the night sometimes because she misses me or climbs into bed with me if she has a bad dream. Of course it's not my favorite, but it's very sweet. I feel like we'll have a special bond forever. I always tell her she's my favorite girl. And I have a random saying that ended up developing I say to her a lot: "Who's the best girl in the world? Violet! Violet!" She sometimes sings along and sometimes acts like I'm really annoying and says, "Why do you always say that?" like an angsty teenager.
She is very fun to give things to because she gets so excited about every detail. And she remembers who gave her most gifts she had. "Oh mom you're so nice to get me these clips! Look at how they sparkle! And this one is like a mermaid! This pink one reminds me of a princess!" She gets so excited and really finds joy in the details. She loves pretty things.
She loves clothes, her hair, makeup and looking in the mirror. She loves picking out her jewelry, her stick on earrings, her hair clips, etc. She loves to look in the mirror at herself, ha ha. She likes picking her clothes too, but I've somehow gotten away with picking those most days if I lay them out the night before. She mostly want me to do her hair "like Avery's hair" (she saw Avery with pigtail braids once and it really stuck) or sometimes "like Penny's hair" (pigtails). She's always talking about being pretty--when she looks pretty, her friends being pretty, etc. I've been really trying to talk to her about how being pretty isn't very important and that it's much more important to be kind, smart, helpful, and lots of other things.
She loves to color and do crafts. She can spend a lot of time coloring.
She's been working on learning her letters and knows a lot of them. She knows how to write her name now!
She has a very specific (and demanding) bedtime routine. She wants several blankets laid carefully on top of her and the order of blankets changes night to night. She wants a full water bottle on her night stand. She wants a book read to her plus lots of books for her to "read" next to her. And even with all this...she still ends up crying most nights when I shut the door.
She is the sweetest sister to Davis (most of the time). There was a random occurrence at the end of last year when she pushed him down the stairs (eek), but most of the time she's really sweet to him and tries to bring him things to make him happy. They love to play together too. I think she makes him laugh harder than anyones else.
She can be the sweetest thing, but she's also the pro button pusher of the house. Especially with Andy and Max. Cameron notices it more. I probably let her get away with too much. :)
She loves to play games! She went through a real Candyland phase earlier this year. She likes to play bigger kid games with her brothers too.
She loves longggg baths and bath bombs. She's usually playing pretend (she's probably our biggest pretend player so far) in there and singing some sort of gibberish song.
Her favorite shows: she cycles through them but in the last year she's loved Vampirina, Doc McStuffins, Mickey Roadster Races, Booba (I hate this one), Cocomelon, etc. I always want her to watch princess movies (she's my only girl!) but she has a strong preference for "shows" above "movies."

How we adore our big-brown-eyed Violet! Davis has been at a hard age this year, and Violet has been such a blessing. She brings so much joy to my life. She's my little sidekick and I love her so much.

This pic is from a year or so ago! she looks so little.

cute shot from a hike

I love this one of her.

Super into dress ups and always comes up with some interesting combinations.

Out for a ride with Monroe.

She loves Nora and Venna so much.

Best friends forever

She loves her baths!

She gets really competitive during Candyland.

Cutest shot of Violet and Ford.

She got to be my model for a giveaway image I needed for Modern Maxwell.

The most magical picture from Nash's bday party.

Violet got to come to Rachel's baby shower!

On Violet's actual birthday! She loves Chick-fil-a (especially Chick-fil-a sauce).

She loves to bake and cook with me.

Lunch date! Jersey Mike's is her favorite.

She also loves PB&Js and peanut butter spoons.

I just think she's so magical.

Another dress up win.

I think this is when she successfully wrote her name for the first time!

On one of her post-dance playdates with Venna.

Stilly dress-ups with Lauryn

Playing with Harrison

Our babysitter Alexa came over with her friend and did a princess afternoon with Violet and got her all dressed up! So sweet. Violet loved every minute.

Abby usually comes over to watch Violet on Friday afternoons and they have the sweetest bond. Violet LOVES her. Abby usually paints her nails on Fridays. Also we bought this dress for Disneyworld and she LOVES IT and wears it constantly.

The cutest portrait Andy did of Violet.

I took Violet shopping on a Saturday afternoon a few months ago and she seriously came alive, ha ha. She loved every minute. I think we have a future shopaholic on our hands.

She loved this new dress so much she wanted to take a picture. She also had me take a picture of the back of her hair so she could see how I curled it. :)