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)!