Paris' 3rd Birthday!

Paris' birthday happened to be the day after we got home from Australia so we didn't do a big party this year, but ended up having grandparents come over for cake/ice cream and then we took the girls to see Disney Princesses on Ice a couple of days later and they both loved it! I can't believe my baby is 3!

Paris at 3...hmmm, what do I say about this little girl of ours? She has always been so full of energy and personality and has quite a few intense moments, but most of the time she is very sweet, funny and entertaining! She is a very smart little girl and can write almost all of her letters, she loves to read books, sing songs, and use her imagination. She is constantly pretending to be different people/animals, and her and Savannah make up little games and pretend play scenarios all day long. She absolutely loves to ride her bike and her scooter and goes a little too fast on both! I need to start being better about keeping track of writing down some of the things that she says because she always comes up with the funniest ideas! Several weeks ago we finally got rid of the last binky and it didn't seem to phase her at all even though she was pretty attached to them at night! She is excited to have a new baby sister and talks about it all the time. Savannah is her best friend and they just love each other so much which makes me so happy. We love our little Paris so much and are so happy to have her in our family.

Australia

This year Bubba's company decided to take the Regional Tech Managers on their own little trip and so we decided to go to Australia! We left on November 1st and came back on the 10th and had a fabulous time! Of course it was hard to leave the kids but they had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and Gramie and Papa, and it was really nice to have a break, especially since that will probably be harder to come by when #3 comes along!

The flight was not very fun, but actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and we both got quite a bit more sleep than we anticipated. We stayed at a great place right outside of Cairns-it was right on the beach so we had an awesome view from our window and got to hear the waves every night while we were sleeping! We went on a gondola ride over the rainforests, went to an Aborigine cultural center, did lots of shopping, got to see a bunch of animals in an animal habitat and drove all over seeing different things in Australia. There were bats EVERYWHERE which was kinda gross and creepy but interesting since I don't think I've ever actually seen a bat before!

Before we left Bubba got scuba certified so that he could dive at the Great Barrier Reef while he was there. I'm not sure if I would have gotten certified or not if I wasn't pregnant, but since I am, I didn't have to decide! The day we spent out on the reef was definitely one of the highlights, although the boat ride out there was pretty awful and was making most of us pretty sick. I did get to snorkel while I was there and it was pretty amazing to see everything that we did under the water. Just a few minutes before I was getting out of the water for the day, I happened to look over and see a huge sea turtle just a few feet away and was able to swim right next to it for a few minutes which was awesome! Bubba had a blast diving and can't wait to scuba dive again!

Overall, it was a great trip and I'm really glad that I can now say I've been to Australia. Thank you Platinum! I'll just post a bunch of pics in no particular order since putting them in order is such a pain!

Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year-it seems to get more and more fun every year as the kids get older and get more excited about holidays! This year was actually the first year that we carved a pumpkin with the kids (I will admit it's completely my fault because I don't really like to do it and until this year I justified not doing it because I figured the kids were too little to know any different)! The girls were excited until Bubba opened up that pumpkin and the girls were absolutely disgusted with what was inside and wanted nothing to do with it so Daddy got to do all the work while all of his princesses just watched! The girls did love seeing the end result though, especially once we got the candle inside of it and put the lit product on the porch so I guess it was worth it..maybe next year they will actually help!

The kids were so excited about trick or treating and had an absolute blast that night. Savannah insisted on being Strawberry Shortcake and Paris wanted to be Dora so that's what they dressed up as and they were both so cute! We had a great Halloween with lots of candy, and nearly 2 months later we still have candy in our Halloween buckets (they only get a piece a day and a lot of days we forget about it)!

We are so proud!

Today was the Primary program in our ward and since Savannah is a Sunbeam this year, it was the first time that she was able to participate. The Primary had their first rehearsal two weeks ago and she was fine with it, but last week she came with me to my classes because she didn't want anything to do with saying her part or singing the songs during their rehearsal. Given the fact that the one time she was asked to say a scripture in Sharing Time, she threw herself on the floor crying when it was time for her to speak, I just kinda planned on the fact that she probably would not actually participate in the program today. Every time the Primary has sung in Sacrament meeting this year, she has refused to go up with all the other kids. However, when it was time for all the kids to go up, she went right up there without any hesitation! I couldn't believe it, but figured she would probably not actually say her part....and again we were so surprised! She went right up to the microphone and said her part perfectly ("Heavenly Father loves me and has a plan for me"). Bubba and I were shocked, but we were so proud of her (yes, BOTH of us got a little misty eyed after she said her part). Savannah is such a sweet little girl but has become a little more unpredictable these days...sometimes she is so shy and not quite so cooperative and other times she is fearless and not fazed by anything! I just wish I had a better idea of which situations would trigger which reaction so I could prepare myself a little better!

Another princess?

So we had the big ultrasound a couple of weeks back and most of you have already heard our big news...I was waiting to post on here until I could scan the ultrasound pics in, but I'll go back and add those later. Anyways, we found out that we are having.........another GIRL! We are super excited, although the first thing that Bubba said when he found out was, "Another princess?!!!!" However, we love the two princesses that we already have and are thrilled to be having another one, even if it does mean even more pink and more drama in the house! I just barely hit 20 weeks so we have less than halfway to go until March 12 but that still seems like a very long time away. I feel great these days and in the last couple of weeks have been feeling the baby move all day (and most of the night too!) which is my favorite part of this whole pregnancy thing. Now all we need to do is come up with a name....we have absolutely no ideas so any suggestions (that you aren't set on using for yourselves) are appreciated!

Catch-up time!

So this is going to be one long post that covers everything we've been up to for the last couple of months!

At the end of August, we had a Mauler Family reunion here in Payson for a couple days and had a great time with everyone...we even attempted some family pictures while the whole clan was here. It was windy and freezing at the time and my kids were not feeling good, but we got a couple decent shots!





At the beginning of September, Savannah started preschool for the first time. I was a little nervous because she is very shy and somewhat resistant to change, and she didn't know the teacher or any of the kids in her class, but she never even looked back when I dropped her off and she has loved it! She loves her teacher, Mrs. Amy, and she can't wait to go every time which makes me so happy. Paris has been a little less excited about and wishes she could go too, but it has been really fun for me to have a little bit of one-on-one time with her and I think she looks forward to that as well.



On September 16, my brother David left on his mission-he was called to the Copenhagen, Denmark mission and is now in the MTC. My girls got to be around him this summer and Savannah particularly was very attached so we all miss him but he is being a great example to all of us and the kids are excited to be able to mail him letters and pictures. If you want updates on his mission, you can check out eldermauler.blogspot.com.



We've been loving fall so far-we've driven up the canyon several times and it is just beautiful. Yesterday we went to the local pumpkin patch and got to go on a tractor ride to a field where picked out some pumpkins and I took a bunch of pictures of the kids since I have been really bad about taking pictures lately.

Here we go again....

Yep, it looks like baby #3 will finally be joining us in March! I have already had several doctor's appointments and so far everything is going perfectly...we had an ultrasound a few weeks ago and just heard the heartbeat yesterday so we are definitely feeling relieved that things are going so well this time around. I'll be 11 weeks along tomorrow and my official due date is March 12! I have felt just about as sick as I did with both girls and so if things go according to history, I should only have a few more weeks of nausea before I start feeling better which sounds good to me because it is really not fun being sick all day and night and trying to keep up with two kids (who don't take naps!) at the same time!

Savannah's 4th Birthday!

Yes, I am cheating by changing the date on this post to reflect Savannah's actual birthday even though I am actually posting this nearly 2 months after the fact!

Savannah is now 4 and I can't believe how fast the last four years have flown by! Savannah has always been so mellow and well behaved (nearly all the time) and we have loved having her in our home and family. I love seeing her personality develop and she is becoming such a thoughtful and sweet little girl. She has always been fairly shy and quiet and is very content to be alone and to observe everything going on around her. There have been many times when I will stand outside of her door at night after she has gone to bed just to listen to all of the stories and songs that she comes up with when she thinks she is all by herself! Savannah loves to read stories and is starting to read actual words on her own which is exciting. One of her favorite things to do these days is to color-actually she has always loved to color and draw, but recently her coloring has become quite impressive-she is meticulous about staying in the lines and coloring every little detail. She still loves everything princess, although I think she is a little less obsessed than she was several months ago-at least now she is not wearing princess attire 24/7! Actually, she has this one denim skirt that she wants to wear every single day and is very upset on the days that I have to wash it because she does not want to wear anything else-I've tried to help her pick out some other skirts from the store that she likes but she doesn't want to wear anything except for this one specific skirt so I guess we'll have to keep trying to find something else she wants to wear. Savannah is a wonderful older sister to Paris and is usually very nice and accomodating to her slightly rambunctious, loud little sister! And yes, she has the most beautiful hair ever! Too bad she is going through a phase where she won't let me do anything with it-she just wants me to brush it and she wants to wear it "long" with nothing in it....aaaaahhhhh!

Savannah will be starting preschool this year-I can't believe she only has one year left before kindergarten! It makes me sad to think of her going off to school-I can't believe what a big girl she is now! We love Savannah so much!

Florida Trip!

This is very overdue, but hopefully I will get caught up soon! At the end of May, Bubba had to go to Florida to visit offices in Tampa and Orlando and since we had some frequent flyer miles that were about to expire, we decided to go with him for the week and spend a couple of extra days there for a mini-vacation! We got tickets for Sea World and Disney World and the girls were so excited for our trip.

The entire 7 days we were there, it was pouring rain for all but a few hours....not exactly what we had in mind, but we still had a good time for the most part although it will probably be many years before we are brave enough for Disney World again! The day we went to Sea World, the weather was actually pretty nice and it wasn't very crowded so that worked out well and the kids loved the dolphin and whale shows. I had never been there before and thought it was a great place for the kids-they had some little rides there too that didn't have lines so we went on some of them multiple times in a row without even having to get off!

A couple days later we decided to try Disney since the Weather Channel was predicting a slim chance of rain compared with the other days so we set out that morning and we were about 5 minutes away when Savannah started throwing up all over! She is now 4 years old and this was the first time in her entire life she has ever thrown up-we couldn't believe it but luckily we had a change of clothes in the car so we cleaned her up and she seemed to be fine so we kept going. We got on the bus to the monorail, got on the monorail and we were about 1 minute away from the park when it started to rain. We headed into the park and it started to lighten up a little so we got in line for the first ride we saw...The Teacups! Not the smartest choice for a kid who just threw up but she really wanted to ride on them so we got in the 30 minute line and rode the teacups. Then it started pouring rain, so we rain to the Small World ride since it was indoors. We didn't have to wait too long for that and the kids loved the ride, but when it was over it was still dumping rain outside so we decided to eat lunch and spent about 30 minutes walking around in a restaurant waiting for a table to open up since everyone was trying to get out of the rain. Then, we finally found some ponchos to purchase (prior to this, we were the only ones there without ponchos and we were completely soaked), so we headed out again and waited in line for another ride....and of course now that we had the ponchos, it stopped raining. We waited for about 30 minutes and were in the next group to go on the ride when they shut it down because of lightning...nice! We were just leaving the ride when it started really dumping...like 10 times harder than any rain I've ever seen before so we ran into the nearest shop and waited for about 20 minutes to see if it would stop. When it was apparent that it wouldn't, we decided to go find the princesses, since that was the thing that Savannah had been most excited about. It wasn't very close to where we were but we finally got there and only had to wait about 30 minutes to see Aurora, Belle and Cinderella. Savannah loved seeing them but of course was too shy to get in pictures with them by herself so we all got in the pictures, dripping wet with our ponchos...lovely! By this point, it was still raining and we were done so we left the park and went back to our nice dry hotel. Bubba and I keep joking that our kids probably will never want to go back there, seeing as how it was such a wonderful experience for them!

The rest of the week Bubba was working while the girls and I hung out in the hotel, hitting the swimming pool anytime there was a break in the rain (only happened twice), and drove around trying to find things to do. Too bad there really aren't very many indoor activities in Florida! We did go to the aquarium in Tampa which was pretty neat, but other than that we just hung out. The kids loved being in a hotel and actually slept well which was great. The flights weren't even too bad thanks to coloring books and a Dora DVD! Even though the trip wasn't quite what we had anticipated, we still had fun and it was nice to see Bubba a little more than we would have if we had stayed home.

SEA WORLD





While we were eating our ice cream, this squirrel came right up next to us to have a bite so we kept giving him pieces of our waffle cone...he was eating it right out of our hands. We had to put a stop to it when we saw Paris letting him eat off of her spoon...one that she stuck right back in her own mouth for the rest of the bite!












FLORIDA AQUARIUM IN TAMPA

DISNEY WORLD