Where was C-3PO between the time of Anakin departing Tatooine and Shmi's death?

Question

My remembrance/assumption is that Anakin left C-3PO with Shmi, to help her, when he left Tatooine to become a Jedi.

Is there canon confirmation that C-3PO kept living with/being owned by Shmi till her death?

Answer 1

Speaking strictly G-Canon. From the script

ANAKIN: My mother...

WATTO: Oh, yeah. Shmi... she's not mine no more. I sold her.

ANAKIN: Sold her...

WATTO: Years ago. Sorry, Annie, but you know, business is business. Sold her to a moisture farmer named Lars. Least I think it was Lars. Believe it or not, I heard he freed her and married her. Can ya beat that?

ANAKIN: Do you know where they are?

WATTO: Long way from here... someplace over on the other side of Mos Eisley, I think...

From this first conversation, Anakin seems to assume that 3PO is still with Shmi. It's never explicitly confirmed in this scene, but Watto doesn't correct him.

A few scenes later...

EXTERIOR: TATOOINE, DESERT, HOMESTEAD MOISTURE FARM - LATE DAY

C-3PO is working outside the homestead. He looks up as ANAKIN and PADMÉ arrive.

C-3PO: Oh, hello. How might I be of service? A am See...

ANAKIN: Threepio?

C-3PO: Oh, my... Oh, my maker! Master Anakin! I knew you would return, I knew you would! And this must be Miss Padmé.

PADMÉ: Hello, Threepio.

C-3PO: Oh, my circuits! I'm so pleased to see you both!

ANAKIN: I've come to see my mother.

C-3PO: I think... I think... Perhaps we'd better go indoors.

Again, this doesn't concretely confirm that 3PO has been with Shmi the entire time, but Shmi was sold to the Lars and and 3PO is living on the Lars homestead. There's strong enough circumstantial evidence to assume that 3PO was sold with Shmi to the Lars family.