Celebrations...

We headed to the Gump (that is Montgomery to those of you yanks who may be reading LOL) to go to a wedding. I was embarassed to be taking a picture of the rocket at the welcome center in Huntsville but heck, my parents did the same thing so here we are. Annslee is pointing to the moon!!

*Click on any collage to enlarge

After the wedding Annslee enjoyed playing the "cymbals" with two plastic plates she snagged from the cake table. She is from Hubei afterall so this is no surprise...next time you see some cymbals you will notice they likely say Wuhan, China on them : ) After all that playing and dancing it was time to go check herself out in the mirror.

My cousins (parents of the bride) just did a huge renovation on their back yard. It is absolutely beautiful. Annslee loved this rock and water wall and even agreed to let me take a few pictures of her. I don't know what she was doing in the last picture but the face cracked me up.

This is my Aunt Fleta (my dad's sister) and she is so much fun. Believe it or not she is 85 years old and I only hope I am as energetic as she is when I am her age. ...plus, she is a great cook (no chance for me there)

We ate and chatted then the music started....you know Annslee was on the dance floor shaking it!!

She had a great time....playing with cousins, helping the bride open gifts, eating, dancing etc... eventually we did have to leave and she was NOT happy. She made the saddest face and Daddy decided to "pretend" to make one, but hers is real.

We left Alabama on Sunday morning to make it back in time for our nephew's birthday party. Annslee of course was in it for the cake and ice cream. She loves taking a bite and offering an ice cream kiss to Daddy and Mama...super sweet

Gabe just turned TWO and so I told her they could share being two for three months and then she held up her three fingers...soon enough baby, don't rush it

She is napping and I think she will take a long one after our whirlwind weekend. Two more weeks until the BEACH!!!!

*if you missed the bungee video...scroll down and check it out

The PERFECT hour...

If you are two or if you are her lucky parents....the perfect hour goes something like this...
Head to the mall, eat ice cream (before dinner of course), ride the carousel and then BUNGEE!!!!

She has been asking to do it and I finally had the camera with me so why not? Here she is looking at the guy running it with a "seriously, I trust you" look... Love that sweet grin!

He took a picture of her and I need to scan it b/c her hands are out like she is flying..super cute. In all of mine she is holding on but when he told her to let go she would.... all she notices in the pictures is that her belly is showing and she thinks it is funny : )

Yes...she is ABOVE the JC Penney sign!! Luckily Mama was taking photos and didn't really notice or I would not have liked it...obviously she loved it though (it is an optical illusion..right??)

In case there was any doubt about how much fun she had..here is a very short video I took with my camera. Next time the video camera is going along to capture more of those laughs : ) People kept stopping to watch and talk about how much fun she was having. I am sure they could hear her squeals of joy all over the mall.

*Oh, and my apologies to anyone I confused with my Giving/Receiving title of my last post. We do not have our referral so no G&R date but Annslee did get her passport in the mail today so she is ready when Vietnam is : )

Giving/Receiving

We have been cat sitting this week for our neighbors and Annslee will be very disappointed when they get home from vacation. We go over there each morning to let him in the house to eat and sleep (yep, he is out catting around all night) She runs back to the laundry room to show him his food and of course he thanks her with some lovin.

This morning I wisely took my camera along to capture her sweet grin as he ticked her chin : )

I also want to thank Miss Kimberley at Seventh Diamond for a wonderful surprise in the mail. She is one of the sweetest and most thoughtful bloggers around and threw an online baby shower for sweet baby Grace. I won a shower prize and told her to just send something for Malia and she sent a onsie and socks (Carter's...sooooo soft) Of course Annslee thought it was for her but I told her she was too big and it was for Malia (insert frown face from her here)



I asked her to hold up the onsie so I could take a picture...this is her interpretation of my request LOL


After seeing her hold it up...I think she could actually fit into it (it is 24 mos size)...not that she would keep clothes on anyway!

Lights Camera ACTION!

Annslee went to her first movie at the theater today and she did GREAT!!! We checked out the listings at the Regal Free Family Flicks and saw that Clifford was showing today. We don't watch a lot of Clifford but hey, it was FREE so I thought what the heck, if she isn't doing well we can just leave.

I told her we were going to see Clifford on the big screen so of course her Clifford had to come along. Her GiGi gave him to her and he is huge....

We got into the auditorium and got settled in. They have booster seats so we grabbed one and she and "baby" had a seat.
Here she is with Clifford in his seat and her baby hiding under her blanket (washcloth)

Mama...when is this movie starting?? Oh yeah, we are waiting on Anna Marie and AJ to arrive too.... notice how OLD this theater is, there is an ashtray.

Here is the crew after the movie...

I was so excited that she enjoyed the movie so much. She laughed, squealed, cheered, gasped and every other outburst she could think of at the appropriate times during the movie. She sat in her own seat the entire time (until the last 5 minutes when she moved to my lap) Having skittles to munch on probably helped with that... we are definitely going back next week : )

We did get up twice during the movie to go potty but that was fine...much better than the alternative.

Family relationships

Annslee is obsessed with family relationships these days. No matter what we are doing or watching she will ask about where their Mama and Daddy are? If they are leaving ..are they going to see their Mama or Daddy?? When her Daddy is home he is to be playing the Panda and yes, it is usually when they first wake up like in this photo.
We brought back a panda puppet from Guangzhou...I wish we'd gotten a lot more those puppets (about $2 each and great quality). Annslee loves the panda but as you can see..."Annslee Panda" has to have her Mama, Daddy and baby Malia each time : )

Here is a picture of our family at the Zoo....yep, Annslee was ready to keep moving and not in the mood for a photo...

As usual the African Wild Dogs were asleep....here she is doing her best to wake them with her very high pitched yell. They twitched their ears but nothing more...


Of course the baby clouded leopard needed to go along to see its Mama and Daddy at the Zoo. She told us over and over that it needed to see them. As we walked along at one point she and Daddy each held a paw. (you will need to click on the collage to see this....)

When we saw the baby cougars (and they do have spots like the clouded leopard) she started saying Mama and Daddy and doing her cat noise.....hmmmmmm....

Once we got to the Clouded Leopard she was THRILLED that he wasn't sleeping in the shade but was on the log instead. She went crazy showing the baby one to him through the glass. Those around us I am sure thought we were all nuts but who cares...

I love her concern for others and always wanting to be sure everyone or every animal is with their Mama and Daddy...we sure love being with her : )

A Day of FIRSTS!

Guess who rode the carousel today without having Mama or Daddy in a choke hold? I was so shocked when she said she wanted to ride the "ZZZZZ" and basically told me to back off....she has always had a fear of the carousel but not today... I think Mia helped with that : )

We were going to the mall anyway but when Miss Jenny called and said they had to go to the mall too we decided to meet up...fun times dancing in Children's Place...yep, some stares and lots of smiles..I love watching others watch our wild girls and putting a smile on their faces..


We finished our first round of swim lessons tonight..here she is proudly displaying her ribbon!

Picture proof she is going under getting those rings..

We headed to the locker room and she refused to let me help her in the shower...yep, she took her first solo shower. She washed her own hair and everything. Anytime I tried to help she shut the curtain on me!

It was a busy and fun day of firsts!!

Summer Fun!

Final day of swim lessons is here and I really think she will miss it. Her biggest accomplishment is going under by herself to get diving rings off the bottom!!! We are so proud of her and she is very proud of herself : )

Here she is right before lessons giving Mama some attitude when I wanted to take her picture....

She is waiting "patiently" to be told she can get in the pool...I love that little grin on her face

The cousins (my two sisters and their kiddos) came to swim the other day and she loved it!

Mia also came for a dip in the pool this week. Notice Annslee had to sport her new snorkel gear in the pool : )

A whole year already??!!

Yep...this blog has been around one year!! I started it after we had been home with Annslee for 8 months and I felt I had 'outgrown' my babyjellybeans site. I really planned on shutting all of it down but I had many family and friends request (more like insist) that I keep posting pics of Miss Annslee so they could keep up with her. I didn't realize in the beginning how big the bloggy world was. Over the last year I have met such wonderful people and watched how we all support each other through this journey. I started out reading the blogs from our China travel group and then was linked to other families who had also been to China or were experiencing the now very long wait to meet their little ones. Once we decided to go to Vietnam for our next sweetie I found out that there are many Vietnam family blogs as well (mainly thanks to Nicki who has a very extensive VN blogroll) Now my China buddy Jia and her family are heading to Taiwan for their newest additions so I had to start looking at some Taiwan familes like sweet Kobi as well. I even have a few non adoption related ones like my friend Maggie who is just fun to read. I need to update my friends list so you can see more of them too. I wish I could meet more of you in person but I feel so blessed to know all of you!!

Apparently Annslee was doing flips over it too...ha ha



A few people have asked about Malia so I thought I would give a little update. I usually do all that on her website (there is a link on here) simply because we will get a CD of it for her to keep like we did with Annslee. We have been logged in now for a little over 3 months. As you may know from reading that journal we got our 171H last November so we should have been logged in sometime in January but there were meetings in Vietnam and one thing led to another...so here we are. Our agency has only received one referral so far (on July 2nd) but they are hopeful more are on the way soon. The earliest we would get a referral is mid August but it could be much later. Unlike it was with China, we will have no warning that it is coming so you can all be surprised with us : )
Yes, we are very busy with Miss Annslee but are also very anxious to have our second child home. I know there is always the argument about whether it is easier the second time around..believe me, waiting stinks no matter how many kidlets you already have keeping you busy. The wait is different this time though. I haven't shopped (gasp...) like I did waiting for Annslee. By this time in the wait for her I had tons of clothes, toys, etc... I have bought exactly 3 things for Malia and they all involve Annslee. She has a big sister/little sister frame (hmm...does that even count?), a bib announcing her love for Annslee and matching St. Pat shirts for next year (packed away so no photo)




I did help the Easter Bunny pick out some things just for her at Easter so maybe that will help me feel less guilty ; ) The pig was b/c we think she will be born in the year of the pig and the cross reads:

Before you were conceived I wanted you. Before you were born I loved you. Before you were here for an hour I would die for you. This is the miracle of life. ~ Maureen Hawkins



So here I am a year later with almost 26,000 hits on my blog meter...thanks for hanging in with us!! Oh, and go over and give your congrats to JiaLi's family. She is Annslee's Qichun sister and now they are heading to Vietnam too for their sixth blessing!

July playgroup & Mia at last!

Today we had our FCC playgroup for the month at the park to feed the ducks. Annslee was really excited because Mia was coming and the girls hadn't seen each other in almost a month. She said Mia (or her version.... Mmmmm) over and over on the way to the park. We got there and they weren't there yet but luckily Kim was there with Ben and Evy so we got out of the car and headed for the ducks. However, all the kids had to go potty and there were no bathrooms so we did what we had to do...yep, Annslee went pee pee outside for the first time. It was so funny because she does the Chinese squat ALL the time but when she really needed to I had to show her how. Of course now she may want to do it all the time outside ; )

Mia did arrive and the chase was on!!

Once we got the bread out we realized there were no ducks but geese and pigeons instead (yuck) The geese were pretty agressive and the pigeons liked flying up in their faces. There were a couple of ducks in the pond so we fed them but the edge was so close and none of us wanted to jump in after one of the kids...

We headed to the playground area and the kids had a great time

No matter where we are Annslee is always picking up rocks and sticks...

Our playgroup turnout was small today but it was such a good time

A ladybug and three little dragonflies

Today we got to meet up with three of my bloggy buddies and their beautiful daughters! I have followed all three of their journeys to Vietnam and back and was thrilled to see their daughters in person at last! We met Susan for lunch a while back but it was while she was waiting to travel. Today she had Lily Ana in a ladybug top she said was just for Annslee..

Here we are with our kiddos: Susan & Lily Ana, Me & Annslee, Kelly & Lucy and Sherri & Gracie .... don't we look like proud mamas : )

The girls did great at lunch and Lily Ana took a little power nap. Kelly got to practice holding two but Lucy was ready to have mama back all to herself. I did get to hold Lily Ana for a minute but Annslee got very upset and tried to push her away and kept pointing at Susan letting me know she needed to go back to her mama (poor Malia)... I am happy to report that later on she did let Daddy hold Lily Ana and said she was "sharing" ha ha

I know hubby makes fun of me for my blogging and what he calls stalking other bloggers..ha ha...but look you do meet such wonderful people that way!!