12 weeks

Well, I am 12 weeks pregnant as of today and am very grateful that the morning sickness and tiredness and all that yucky stuff are almost completely behind me. It's been about 2 months now since I found out I was pregnant and I am still a little bit in shock and a little bit in denial for the most part, which I think is kind of good, because when I start to think about the reality of it all, I get kind of overwhelmed.

We had honestly almost officially decided that our family was complete with 3, when I found out that I was pregnant. I got pregnant at a time I never should have been able to and the whole thing has been crazy timing wise, so we figure it was definitely meant to happen this way, especially given my history of so many miscarriages. I have already had an ultrasound and just heard the heartbeat last week...so far everything is going perfectly. I'm just trying to figure out exactly how I am going to manage it! Having Savannah and Paris so close together (16 months apart) was difficult but now that they are older, I love having them so close in age. Madison and this baby will be barely 15 months apart and while I'm sure it is going to be absolutely nuts with all these little children, I'm sure that these two will love having such a close buddy as they grow older as well. I feel like the jump to 3 kids has not been too bad, mostly because there is more than 3 years between Paris and Madison. The older two are old enough to be helpful and independent while I need to be taking care of the baby and they love playing with her which has been so nice. But even loading all of them in the car and going anywhere and working around nap schedules and preschool and school schedules and everything else has been a little bit nuts, and I can't even imagine leaving my house with all 4! Especially these days with Madison all over the place and getting into everything....yep, that partial denial thing is a good thing!

Even though I am a little freaked out right now, I am grateful for the opportunity I have to have another baby and am grateful to have all the children I have...even though a lot of times it is hard and exhausting, I wouldn't trade it for anything! So now we are just anxiously waiting for January so we can find out if we are going to be an all girl family or if Bubba will finally get a buddy around here!

Paris is 4!

I can't believe this little girl is 4 already! Paris continues to be quite the little personality! This year Paris started preschool which she absolutely loves, except for some reason she has decided that she doesn't like finger painting and refuses to get any paint on her hands. Quite the change from the little girl who loves making messes! Paris loves all things princess and Strawberry Shortcake and loves playing with Savannah...those two keep each other entertained constantly which is so nice for me! Paris is pretty shy when she first meets people but once she gets warmed up she loves to talk and is pretty dramatic in nearly all of her statements which is pretty entertaining for all of us. She loves dance class and she is always singing at home as long as she thinks no one is really listening! Paris is super smart and has continues to surprise us with how many words she can read...we've been working with Savannah on reading and I think Paris has just picked up a lot of it...she can read a ton and loves books which I love! She continues to be very stubborn and headstrong, but I'm sure that in the future that will serve her well...it just makes for good lessons in patience for her parents! We love this little girl so much and are so happy to have her in our family...Happy Birthday Par!

We had a family party the night before her birthday...it was my first ever experience with fondant and was kind of stressful, but I thought it turned out ok for my first try!

Birthday morning-opening presents!

She wanted to go swimming for her birthday so we went to the rec center in Lehi and had a great time, especially since Uncle Landon, Aunt Melissa, Austin and Cody got to come too!

Happy Halloween!

This year Savannah wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake again and Paris wanted to be her sidekick, Raspberry Torte. And then they wanted Madison to be a strawberry to complete the theme...I thought they were pretty cute! We were just going to spray their actual hair, but once I realized they would be wearing their costumes 5 different times this year, I decided to spray wigs so that we didn't have to keep washing out their hair since it's a pain! The wigs were a little crazy and Paris really wasn't a fan, but they were pretty cute little girls!

On Halloween, it looked pretty stormy so we decided to go to the mall to trick or treat in case the weather didn't cooperate for regular trick or treating. We got to the mall 30 minutes after the trick or treating started and every single store (except for like 3) were out of candy already. What a nightmare....a mall full of children and no candy! So we left with a couple of tiny little Tootsie Rolls and luckily the storm cleared up by the time we got home so we were able to get some real candy.

The day before Halloween, Savannah got to be in a little parade at her school and she was so cute!

Pumpkin Carving

Last year, the girls wanted nothing to do with touching pumpkin guts and this year was no different so Daddy got to do all the work once again. And I am really upset with myself because we didn't even take a picture of the final result. Bubba did a great job though and the kids loved watching him carve their pumpkin...with all these girly girls, I'm guessing this might just become the tradition at our house!

Pumpkin Patch!

Every year since we have lived here, we drive down to Santaquin in October and go to the Red Barn to go pick out our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch there. This year they had a fun little maze built for the kids and we had a great time going on the extremely slow tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch and then trying to carry all of our kids and pumpkins back with us! The Red Barn makes the best donuts in the world around Halloween, so of course we had to buy some of those too and I'm pretty sure that was the best part of the whole experience!

Our little ballerinas!

In September, both girls started taking dance lessons and so far they have loved it! They are in the same class and I think that helped both of them be brave enough to give it a try and so far it has been wonderful. Their first performance is in a couple of weeks, so we'll see if they cooperate when it is time to perform in front of other people, but it has been fun to see them practicing all their moves together at home! In these shots, Paris was being slightly more cooperative....surprise, surprise!

First Day of Kindergarten!

I'm so behind on blogging, but will try to catch up this week. Savannah started kindergarten last month! I kept thinking she would be hesitant to start school, since she is so quiet and shy, but she has been nothing but excited about it. A week before school started, I took her in for her kindergarten assessment and she flew through it...I was so proud of her for answering the questions! I knew she knew all of the stuff, but wasn't sure she would actually talk once we got there...but she did a fabulous job! Her teacher was very surprised at how much she knew...Savannah read her a book, wrote her letters, and even got the subtraction problems right...which the teacher said had never happened before!

On the day school started, Savannah insisted she wanted to ride the bus so we walked her down to the bus stop and she didn't even hesitate to get on...I admit that I was nervous about how she would get to her classroom once she got to the school so I followed the bus and made sure she went with all the kindergartners to class...she handled it all like a pro. She doesn't tell me too many details about what she does at school, but says she likes it, and so far recess is her favorite part!

In the last couple of months, Savannah's reading has just taken off...it all finally clicked and now she reads everything! At night, I usually find her reading in bed with a flashlight, long after I thought she was already asleep. She reads to Madison and Paris too, which is so nice for all of us! I'm just surprised at how fast it all clicked...and I'm super impressed with how well she reads. A lot of times kids read really slow at the beginning, stopping at every single word to think about it, but she just flies through, hardly hesitating unless it's a word she doesn't know. Since reading is my favorite thing to do, I am so happy that she seems to have inherited/developed that same trait!