A month late and a dollar short...story of my life.  Anywho...we celebrated Juliette's birthday last month.  The Big 4!  We skipped the big party this year for a trip to The Happiest Place on Earth.  And it did not disappoint.  It really was a magical few days...especially her actual birthday which we spent at Magic Kingdom.  She LOVED it.  She loved the rides (She rode her first roller coaster, The Barnstormer!).  She loved meeting all the princesses and characters.  She loved the people watching.  She loved the dancing (oh, and how cute is she when she dances!).  She loved everything.

On Sunday, we (Juliette, Josh, myself and Grams & Pappaw) spent the day at the Animal Kingdom.  Afterwards, we met Emily at Disney Springs for Juliette's birthday dinner at Rainforest Cafe.  Juliette was more excited about her Little Mermaid cake than anything else!

On Monday (her birthday), we headed to the Magic Kingdom...and got there right as they opened.  We were able to ride lots of rides and meet a ton of the characters!  We stayed all the way until the park closed!  It was the best day ever...for all of us!  Happy belated birthday my sweet baby!  Oh waut, you keep reminding me that you are not a baby...so happy belated birthday to my big/little girl!

We had the best Christmas ever!  Having a three year old makes Christmas magical!  It's as if I am a kid again (and I want her to get ALL the Barbies possible!).  

This year we spent a good solid month being festive.  Juliette helped my decorate the trees (Juliette's tree & Mommy's tree...no tree for Daddy). We saw Santa at the Jacksonville Zoo.  We made cranberry cookies from the recipe on the back of the book called "Cranberry Christmas".  We made salt ornaments for the tree.  We listened to LOTS of Christmas music.  Juliette sang "Jingle Bells" a gazillion of times.

Juliette wouldn't nap on Christmas Eve due to all of her excitment for the next day.  I spent the day painting the kitchen and prepping for Aunt Jenny to tile our new back splash.  Juliette spent the day running around the house like a lunatic and watching Christmas movies.  We did put out some homemade chocolate chip walnut cookies, chocolate milk (cause Santa likes CHOCOLATE milk Mommy) and some carrots for the reindeer that night.

On Christmas Day, Josh & I patiently waited for Juliette to wake up.  And of course she slept until later than normal!  She woke up and walked out to see her goodies...and all we heard was "MOM! DAD! MOMMY! DADDY!"  So we got up from bed to see a super excited little girl.  Santa was good to her and brought her everything that was on her list.  She got her Paw Patrol Airplane, her new Dory Watch, Princess Ariel, inside trampoline, American Girl Bitty Baby, and more!  I made some homemade cinnamon rolls (for the first AND last time ever) for breakfast.  They took me a solid FOUR hours to make.  Later in the day, we went to see the movie "Sing" since Juliette has been talking about it for a while now.  Afterwards, we drove around and saw some Christmas lights and grabbed some takeout sushi/Thai food.  A great day was had by all!  

And the next day, Juliette said to me..."I do that again!" 

Juliette has been asking about seeing Santa for a few weeks now.  She is definitely in the Christmas spirit!  She helped decorate the tree (and redecorates on a daily basis).  She helped bake cookies.  She loves finding her Elf, Elfette, each morning.  She sings "Jingle Bells".  She is feeling it.

So I told her earlier in the day that we were going to see Santa.  When it came time to leave, we pilled into the car and I asked her "Juliette, where are we going?"  "To the North Pole to see Santa" she replied.  Duh, of course we were going to see Santa at the North Pole.  I guess the North Pole is just a short drive away from St. Augustine, FL!  In this case, the North Pole was the Jacksonville Zoo and their annual Zoolights. She was super excited to see Santa.  She ran right on up to him and started chatting away.  She asked him for the Paw Patrol airplace, Princess Ariel and a watch,  I have a feeling the big guy will be coming through on those wishes!

The month of October flew by this year.  I feel like with the hurricane, we just skipped half the month.  Now that life is feeling pretty much back to normal, it was nice to be celebrating Halloween!  Juliette had two costumes this year.  One was "Skye" from Paw Patrol and then Nemo.  She was all gung-ho about being Skye.  She wore Skye to her Halloween costume parade at school...which was about the cutest thing EVER!  When I picked her up from school that afternoon, she proceeded to tell me that she couldn't wear Skye again.  "Skye dirty."  So Nemo it was for Tick or Treating!  

Juliette's boyfriend (and future husband), Harrison, joined us for the nights festivities.  They had a blast!  It is so fun watching them running around together.  Probably the cutest little couple to ever walk on this planet.  After walking a few streets, we headed back.  They loved passing out candy almost more than going trick or treating.  And we got to watch Harrison dance for a while.  Such a fun night!  Cannot wait to do it again next year!

Frankenguac

Juliette as "Skye" and the rest of her class shortly after the Halloween parade.

And a flashback to #harryandjuju from last year.  Be still my heart!

Yesterday was Father's Day so we took Daddy to Juniper Springs since he loves visiting all of Florida's springs (did you know that there are literally a TON of springs in Florida to visit?!??!!  See them all here)

We had not yet ever been to Juniper Springs so we thought we'd check it out!  We started off the day by making Josh his favorite breakfast: Biscuits & Gravy!  We then headed to Juniper Springs.  The springs are about an hour and twenty minute drive from our house.  We went swimming first (Juliette and I floated in our awesome new inner tube...thanks Daddy!)  We followed that with a nice picnic lunch and then a walk on one of their nature trails.  Juliette was so excited to see the wildlife...fish, turtles and an alligator!  

We had such a great day!  We are so lucky to have you (Daddy/Josh) in our lives!  You are such a great Daddy!  We love you!

Merry Christmas!  Today was a great day!  Juliette woke up to find all her goodies delivered by Santa.  She was so excited this year!  She got pretty much every Paw Patrol item out there along with a bunch of other fun things.  Her favorite gifts this year are her Paw Patrol semi-truck (thanks Aunt Karen & Aunt Maggie!), her new Thomas train set and her mail box.  It took a while to open everything since she was so in to the first things she opened.  It is so fun to have Christmas with a little person!  

After breakfast, Juliette played with all her new toys.  Since it was 80+ degrees outside today, Juliette & I went for a run/walk around the neighborhood.  So far a fun day has been had by all!  Juliette is still napping as I type this at 5:30 p.m.  So much fun for one day!  And we haven't even had dinner yet! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from The Jones'!

Auntie Em was able to capture the last picture...with both of them looking at the camera! Thanks for joining us Auntie Em!!!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and I am happy to say that Juliette LOVED it this year!  She got the whole saying "Trick-or-treat" thing down fast!  She eagerly raced from house to house.  She carried her basket the entire time and was fast to tell us she did not need any help.  She got a good amount of candy...and being Juliette, she did not eat any of it!  There's always next year!

p.s. Aren't Juliette & her boyfriend Harrison adorable!  Save the date!  

To backtrack a bit...Juliette was not so excited at first to put on her costume.  It took a little while for her to get into character!

Juliette turned TWO 2/13/15.  We celebrated on Sunday with some friends at the house.  We had a great time with a bounce house, food & great friends!  Juliette was not interested in eating her cupcake this year...she threw it on the ground (maybe she isn't my kid after all.  I would never waste a cupcake).  She was too busy running around to stop and eat.  It was a "Chuck-tastic" time!

Juliette is the sweetest little girl.  She is 99.9% of the time happy as can be with the occasional temper tantrum thrown in.  She has back molars coming in that make her cling to Mommy, but she has rebounded well.  She LOVES school and her teachers.  She will be moving up to the two-year old room soon.  We have decided to keep her!

Special shoutout to Grams...thanks for all of your help with the party.  I couldn't have done it without you.  p.s.  Carrots are still disgusting.  Especially after they have been regurgitated out of the garbage disposal.