oh.my.goodness.

This is quite possibly the funniest thing I have ever seen.

Everyone needs a big brother like this. Just watch. You have to. It's 2 minutes.

NOTE: I do not think what happened to the sister is funny. Just the brother.

the Smiths are here!!

Our great friends, Ben, Whitney & baby Liam, came to visit! We had sooo much fun and I felt like I smiled and laughed for a week straight. Thanks guys!!

We went to Philip Island to watch the Fairy Penguins come back from their day at sea. It was just amazing to watch all these little penguins come in large groups out of the water, waddle across the sand and up to their burrows. Fairy penguins are only 12 inches tall full-grown. We couldn't take pictures because it would scare the little guys.

Mighty crab hunter Whitney
Whitney walking along the 'Twelve Apostles' beach

The Twelve Apostles at sunset

Baby Liam played the part of a baby koala quite well

More of the Twelve Apostles

Walking down to Loch Ard Gorge. The sound of the waves crashing in the gorge was incredible!

Cannot begin to describe how absolutely freezing the water was!

The rock formations are hundreds of feet high - so you get a small idea of how massive the wave crashes are.

Lunch time! Can you imagine a more beautiful spot to picnic??

Shipwreck beach...the anchor is from an 1800's wrecked ship

Flowers??

The other day Haylee grabbed the bunch of spring onions out of the fridge and carried them around the house saying, "Look! Look! I have pretty flowers!" She kept smelling them, smiling saying, "Mmmmm...these flowers smell very, really yum."

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

Waves

We took the girls to an indoor pool called Waves this past Saturday and they loved it!
Because it's cold here in Melbourne most of the year, we're really glad to have this huge indoor water center close to our home.

Ava trying to grab a handful of water and eat it
Haylee also loved the fountains

Grace is our little fishy....just like her daddy!

Ahhhh, I love this!!!

Oh, this baby is cute!

Clapping!

Haylee is actually quite afraid of the water, but did well. We were very proud of her!

How cute of a bum is this?!?!

9 months

Ava is such a sweet baby. She's so, so good and so easy...and we are very glad for that! I am amazed at how smart she is and how big she's getting. She loves, loves, loves her big sisters and is already starting to try to copy things they do and noises they make. What I love most is that she giggles and laughs when Haylee & Grace do - it's just adorable!

Ava loves kiwi. She wasn't sure about it at first, but then decided it was yummy. She even decided to save some kiwi for later on her forehead :) She doesn't really like to be fed food - she'd much rather me put pieces of food in front of her and then she finger-feeds herself. Miss Ava also loves to drink water out of a big girl cup. What a cutie!