Coming home!

Here is Caroline, about to leave for a little bit of afternoon shopping. Notice the coordinating necklace she picked for her outfit? She absolutely wouldn't leave the house without it on -- I'm not kidding. It's so weird to think that I share my jewelry with an almost 17-month old.

This week Caroline and I decided that we'll be taking a trip back to the States in January! We're super excited. Okay, and I'm mildly terrified of traveling across the world with Caroline on my own. Sure, I've done it before with her, but she was much smaller and less mobile then. Plus she was still breastfed so an instant source of contentment was just one boob away. Oy! The travels will be very much worth it though, I know. I'm looking forward to visiting with everyone and having my yearly dose of Target, Chick FilA and Malls!

Benjamin is still doing well on deployment! I know I've said it before, but he is deployed with a wonderful group of people and I think that makes things much better for him. He is loving receiving emails from you all! It definitely helps keep him more connected to "home" which is a very good thing out in the desert.

Katy and I are super excited for our trip to Australia, which is in less than two weeks! We depart the evening of Nov 9th and arrive just after midnight on my birthday. We'll come home a week after we leave, on my sister's birthday. We'll spend the first few days in Melbourne where we'll do some shopping, exploring and of course the Britney Spears concert. Then we're flying to Cairns where the adventure portion of our trip beings. We'll be whitewater rafting, snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef and skydiving! Add in some more shopping and exotic meals and we'll truly have a grand time. Can't wait!

Here are some recent pictures of Caroline:

Our little girl, born to shop? She loves carrying around this shopping bag.

I get that same smile on my face when shopping.... :)

Here is an adorable hat that my mother-in-law sent for Caroline. Caroline wasn't a fan of wearing it, but guess who was:

Don't let his expression fool you, he loved it.

And Caroline loved that I stopped trying to make her wear it.

Here Caroline is playing "To Infinity and Beyond!" We took a lot of pride in the fact that we taught her this pose.

If she's not wearing jewelry or a hairbow, she has to wear a tutu. She is 100% girly girl

And finally, some videos:

In this first video, we're telling Caroline to "Shhhh!" It started as a joke one night because we were watching a movie and she was babbling away. The babbling got louder and louder, which was hilarious. I turned to Caroline and said "Shhhh!" while laughing. She started laughing back and imitating my "Shhhh!" The only thing is that she can't quite do it correctly and it's hilarious. At the end of the video, she grabs and runs off with her empty bottle of tylenol. (I had just given her the last dose -- teething again.) Trust me, I put the camera down and threw the bottle away -- I don't let her play with that normally. Also, she took a pretty good tumble during filming but I assure you that no babies were harmed in this movie! :)

This next video is of Caroline helping me with the laundry in our messy laundry room. She actually can be quite helpful!

The last video is of Caroline jumping. I happened to catch on film (while talking to Judy) her jumping. So cute!