Blog Resolution!

Just recently I have come across some blogs for people that I know who have been very diligent about keeping up with their blogs and it made me realize that I really want to be more consistent with this blog. I would love to have enough posts to make a blog book for every year so that we have a personal history/record/journal for our family so I'm going to try to post more regularly this year. Of course with having a baby soon and moving for the summer, it might not work out so great all of the time, but overall I'm hoping to do better! Hopefully by publishing this post, I will have more accountability and feel more pressure to follow through with this resolution of mine!

December Summary!

This December was a very busy one but we had a wonderful Christmas season and it was so fun because the girls were so excited about everything. They loved the decorations, lights, parties, snow and everything else and we had a wonderful time!

I got the girls cute red sweaters and black skirts to wear to church and Savannah was not happy at all about it. She insisted that she didn't like black and I told her that I let her pick what she wears every other day and that she needed to wear her Christmas outfit for a few hours this one time...so as you can tell from the pictures she was not thrilled, but she did end up cooperating and I think the girls looked pretty cute. I don't match the girls very often anymore (mostly because Savannah is very picky about what she wears and Paris is actually starting to get that way too), but I think it's fun to have matching dresses and am already getting excited to be able to match all 3 girls!

We had several snowstorms throughout the month and the girls absolutely loved playing out in the snow. They went to go "help" Daddy shovel one day and he ended up making them a little sledding hill in our front yard that they loved. I tell them all the time what lucky girls they are to have such a wonderful Daddy-I think he continues to have more and more fun with them as they get older, and I think both of them are pretty big fans of his too!

Christmas morning seemed to be a big success...the girls loved their new bikes from Santa and Bubba loved getting Beatles Rockband. He has wanted to get Rockband forever but I just don't like the songs/singers/vibe of that game and didn't want the kids around it, but I figured the Beatles version was a little more family friendly and Bubba has always been a huge fan of the Beatles too! The kids love playing drums and guitar with Daddy...maybe they will actually get some of his musical talent since they won't be getting any from me!

The girls were so sad when Christmas was over, and did not want me to put away the tree and all the other decorations. In fact, we still have the Christmas music CD in the car and the girls love it so much that I haven't had the heart to take it away so we have still been listening to Christmas music-both girls know all the words and verses to all 20 songs on the CD! I need to replace it soon though, or I think Daddy is going to go crazy!

December 28 marked our 7th wedding anniversary...it's hard to believe that it's already been 7 years but when I think back on everything that we've accomplished and done since we've been married, it seems like much longer than that! I couldn't ask for a better husband and can honestly say that we are happier than ever and I am so grateful for everything that Bubba does for me and our family. He works so hard for our family (in fact, he actually had to work in Dallas the entire week so he missed our anniversary and New Years) and is such a wonderful father to our girls. Can't wait to see what the next seven years brings us!

2009 was a great one for our family...here is our Christmas card for the year (once again I sent them out late and might not have gotten one to everyone so enjoy)!

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!