We're Home!

I can't believe that another month has already flown by...and this month has been crazy! We spent a lot of it getting packed up and ready to leave VA. Savannah flew home with Kassie on the 14th, and then I flew home with Paris and Madison on the 21st. Paris had a little (ok, not so little) meltdown going through security because she didn't want to take off her shoes or walk through the scanner. It was not fun holding a baby, trying to fold up a stroller, get my own shoes off, force hers off, and drag all of us through security with her screaming her head off, but once that was over with, both girls were wonderful on the flights. Madison slept almost the entire time up in the air and Paris just played games on my iPod! Walking into my house was the most wonderful thing...I forgot how much I love my house! The girls are loving having a yard and more space to play and have been so happy to be home. And I am loving the climate...it is so much cooler and actually refreshing to be outside!
Bubba won't be back for a few more days since he has to close up the office and then drive all the way home, so we are just counting down until he gets here and we can get back to normal!

Fun in VA Beach!

I have been horrible about taking pictures this summer, but luckily my sister has taken a few so I have some record of our summer out here in VA. Only one week left and we'll be home which I am SO excited about, but we really did have some fun times out here too!

These pictures are actually from the very beginning of the summer when we took a Sunday drive to see the beach. All winter we told the girls we were moving to VA Beach and when we got to our new apartment, the first thing they asked was where the sand was. So we had to prove to them that we actually were close to the beach! At that point in the summer it wasn't very warm and the water definitely wasn't warm, but the kids had fun in the sand!

At the end of June, my parents came out to visit and we were able to go back to the beach (unfortunately Bubba was super busy that week and wasn't able to go). This time it was soooo hot outside and the water was awesome...perfect beach weather! The girls were a little nervous about the ocean and the waves, but had fun playing in the sand. Paris eventually got brave enough to sit in the waves and she loved it....I think we emptied buckets of sand out of the bottom of her swimsuit a dozen times!

Just this last week we took the kids to the VA Beach Aquarium. This one little girl just kept coming up to Savannah and hugging her...it was pretty cute! Savannah isn't a huge fan of strangers or people getting in her bubble, but I think she thought this little girl was pretty cute too!

Lately my girls make the cheesiest faces for pictures...we need to work on that before we get family pics taken this fall! BTW, this was in front of some type of crocodile.

In front of the shark tank.

Big huge lobster! Once again, the faces are awesome....:)

After the aquarium, we were able to go on a Dolphin Cruise...I'll admit, I wasn't really expecting to see very many dolphins, especially since the boat was not cruising very far from the shore at all, but it was amazing. We saw dozens and dozens of dolphins and they were pretty close to our boat! The girls loved it so much and kept telling me how that was their favorite thing that we've done all summer...it was well worth it, even though Madison was not a fan of the boat and was screaming for the last 20 minutes of the trip!

We're excited to come home and get back into a routine, but VA Beach has been a fun place to live and overall it really was a good summer!

5 months old!

Madison is 5 months old, and just as cute and chunky as ever! She has rolled over a few times now, but doesn't seem to care too much about it. We've started rice cereal and she's not a huge fan, but is getting pretty good at actually eating some of it, instead of spitting it all out. After going 2 months straight without a single night of waking up between 9 and 6, she began waking up 1-2 times a night the day she hit 4 months. She is still a great sleeper and I shouldn't complain about her getting up once in the night since she sleeps from about 8 until 7, but it was hard to go back to being up at 3 am after being so spoiled for a couple of months! She sits up pretty good...not good enough to be left alone in the middle of the floor yet, but she can stay up for quite a while most of the time. She loves chewing on her fingers! She has discovered her feet recently and loves to play with them. She absolutely loves her big sisters and I love that they entertain her so well-its such a big help! In the last few weeks, Madison has become quite the chatterbox! I remember the other girls making noises, but never this much...she will "talk" for 10 minutes straight and she has the funniest facial expressions while she is doing it! (Bubba took a video of it on his phone, so when he is around I'll have to try to get it on this computer). I am so in love with this sweet baby and am sad she is growing up so fast!

I think the other 2 girls had dimples for the first few weeks of their lives, but they quickly disappeared. Madison is now 5 months old and still has the cutest dimples ever - I'm trying not to get too attached in case they disappear, but I'm hoping she gets to keep them!

Big Girl!

All 3 of our girls have different personalities, and Paris happens to be the firecracker of the bunch! And that's putting it mildly! She is the sweetest little thing, very dramatic, very funny, and very stubborn. When Savannah was potty trained about a year and a half ago, she did it within a matter of days and it was so easy-she just decided one day to do it and that was it. I thought Paris would be even easier to potty train since she now had the example of her big sister to follow. I kept bringing it up with her and she flat out refused to have anything to do with panties or toilets...no way. I didn't want to push it because I figured she would do it when she was ready, but then her 3rd birthday came and went and I knew she was capable of it. I still put it off though because Madison was born and then we moved to VA, but as soon as we got settled here, I decided that we had to do this no matter what.

The first month was awful...I didn't want to push too hard, but she just wouldn't even try and every time she had to put panties on, we had a huge meltdown. Then I would finally get her to try to sit on the toilet and she'd sit there for a while with no results and then two minutes later she would have an accident. I was ready to run away but I stuck with it and took away the diapers and pull-ups (except for when we left the house - I'm not that big of a glutton for punishment!) and stopped fighting with her otherwise, and somehow she has just figured it out over the last couple of months. She doesn't have any more accidents and does all of it all by herself...I'm still not sure how we got to that point, but now that the whole experience is over, her and I are both super proud of her and she is officially a big girl!

4th of July

We were pretty lame this year and didn't really do anything for the 4th...it was Sunday and it just seemed like a lot of effort to keep the kids up so late and try to find somewhere around here to go see fireworks...so we just stayed home. However, I did have cute patriotic clothes for the kids to wear and tried to get some pics. Paris wouldn't even touch her red, white and blue shirt because "blue is a boy color and I don't like boy colors" so she is not in any of the pictures. It's really fun to find things for her to wear these days! Speaking of which, Savannah refuses to wear shorts this summer...she will wear jeans (it is over 100 degrees here almost every day) or skirts, but will not wear any of her cute shorts. AAAAAAHHHHH! Anyways, if these pictures don't make you feel patriotic, I don't know what will!

4 months old!

Our baby girl is now 4 months old, and once again, the time is going way too fast! Madison had her 4 month check up yesterday and is now 24 inches long, and weighs 16 pounds, 4 ounces! Yep, she is short and chunky but couldn't be any cuter or healthier! She rolled over for the first time last week (tummy to back) which was exciting and we still have not gotten her to laugh. All of my girls have been kind of slow to laugh and never did very often as babies...and we have tried everything! She still smiles constantly though and is still such a wonderful baby.

Savannah is 5!

I can't believe that Savannah is 5 today! It does not seem like it has been that long, although at the same time, I really can't remember what it was like not having her in our home! I guess 5 just seems like a big step since it means that she will be starting kindergarten in a few months, and I'm not sure I'm ready for that. Savannah has always been such a sweet little girl and as she gets older, her thoughtfulness just increases. Kassie took her on a date for her birthday and they went for ice cream and then Kassie was going to take her to the mall and Savannah told her that she thought Paris would want to go to the mall too and so they came home and picked her up. I think Savannah and Paris are both going to have a hard time being separated when Savannah starts school...they truly are best buddies and do everything together!

Here are some things about Savannah at age 5:

1. She loves to color and draw...we have hundreds of pages of artwork and all of it is really good!
2. Her current favorite princesses are Ariel and Sleeping Beauty.
3. Her favorite color is pink.
4. Her favorite food is macaroni and cheese.
5. She loves to ride her bike.
6. She plays with her Polly Pocket princesses for hours every day.
7. She LOVES Madison and talks to her constantly when she is awake!
8. She is learning how to read and can read lots of books these days!
9. Savannah is excited about starting kindergarten in the fall.
10. She loves to swim!
11. She likes to watch Strawberry Shortcake and princess movies.
12. She is so good at sounding out words and writing them...we love seeing all of her lists and letters that she writes all by herself! And we can usually read them without any help...yep, she's pretty smart!

13. She is 41 inches tall and weighs 39 pounds.

For her birthday she got a new dollhouse and has already spent hours playing with it. We figured that with 3 little girls, it was a good investment. We tried to go swimming, but only had about 10 minutes to swim before the thunder and lightning started so we went home and had macaroni and cheese (at Savannah's request)! We love Savannah so much and are so glad to have her in our family.