Wow, thanks SB

We got an awesome package in the mail from our Secret Buddy. In it was two books about Vietnam! Unlike China adoption/culture books, ones on Vietnam are harder to come by. I have now read both of these and love them. Annslee will love them too and I can't wait to share them with Malia.

Annslee also got some princess jewelry in the package but didn't stand still long enough for a picture of that!!

Thanks again Secret Buddy!

Happy Birthday Daddy!! *Updated

As promised..here are the birthday pics from today : ) If you didn't see it already, scroll down for the video. The first pic is the first time daddy held Annslee on Nov.14, 2005 and I love it!

Here is Annslee last year on Daddy's birthday (9/28/06)

And here she is this year...she doesn' t look like a baby anymore : (


In the bottom two pics she is letting me know how old Daddy is 3-7

She loved blowing out the candles over and over. Seriously, check out those lips! The cake was actually tiramisu..yummm. The banner on the window is from her party last year : )



I think we lit them one too many times..this is Daddy checking out her singed hair!! Luckily, no permanent damage (notice she is still interested in blowing out the candles...)

Later she watched 'Dragon Tales' and read 'Goodnight Moon' with her cool shades. The episode she was watching had Max using some 3-D glasses and she wanted some (this was the closest I had..)








When Daddy gets home from work we will give gifts, have dinner and Annslee has already decided she in charge of blowing out the candles...

I see the Moon & the Moon sees ME

Sure it is a nice full moon but sitting here Mama, it is only a little dot in the sky : )

I told her to point to the moon for me and she thought it was really funny to try and reach up and touch it. Now don't get confused..there is only one moon in our sky..the lower big dot is a streetlight LOL

Cats don't really listen and Charlie did not listen when she was telling him to look at the moon. He was even so obstinate ~ he looked the other way!

* The doctor thinks it is my Rotator Cuff but we shall see. They did Xrays and I will do the physical therapy to see if that is what it is. I hope he is right and PT will alleviate it.

Moon Festival & Fun in the Mail!

Happy Mid Autumn Moon Festival!! I love this holiday because it means fall is in the air and marks the beginning of the "holiday" season. We have been reading 'I See the Moon' by Carrie A. Kitze and of course 'Goodnight Moon' each night. Tonight we will go outside, look at the moon and think of family. I try to send happy messages to Annslee's birth family and think of my own mom and dad who are now gone. In years to come as Annslee gets older we will do a more "organized" tribute to her ancestry and heritage on this day.

I got a handmade Moon Festival card from my friend Michelle and a wonderfully cute reminder from Connie about breast cancer awareness month. Thanks girls!!

I know the poem is hard to read in the pic...here it is..too cute and funny not to share!

In honor of breast cancer awareness, Mama Duck says:

"Attend to your mams,

Get your exams.

Keep an eye on those jugs,

So you'll have many years of hugs.

Take care of your girls,

I consider my friends precious pearls"

Huge thanks to all of my wonderful friends for your sweet words and prayers about our day today. Annslee's speech eval was fine...she is obviously very behind and I know she will finally be getting the help she deserves. They did a receptive test on her and finally quit testing when she was doing "4 year old" questions. Hopefully, this will put to rest the "first year of hearing Mandarin" stuff since she clearly understands everything in ENGLISH : )

Gotta run to my doctor's appointment so I will keep you posted on that. Oh, and the cookies....I looked at the instructions again and realized I am not a baker so I will be enlisting help with this : ) Tracy...got plans later???

I could use your good thoughts

We have a pretty big day tomorrow (besides it being the Moon Festival) In the morning Annslee will have her speech evaluation for the school system. I don't think it is any secret how angry, upset and utterly frustrated I have been for the past year with the lack of help she has received. She did not qualify for speech therapy with Early Childhood Intervention in our state because her receptive skills were so good. She also was in the top 10% for social and adaptive so that "counted against her" as well. She is at least a year behind in her expressive language and now that she is turning 3 the school system is responsible for servicing her. The biggest concern I have is that they have already mentioned her "being from China, hearing Mandarin the first year" etc... I am hoping and praying they do not try to use that as a reason for her delay and therefore want to delay services. She has been home almost two years so I am not taking that for an answer. I hope it doesn't come up because then Mama Bear will have to come out and it won't be pretty : )

I also have a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon to get checked out. My shoulder has been hurting for almost 3 months..yes, I know I should have gone in sooner. Now my arm and chest have joined in so I can't take it anymore. You would have to know me and my family history to understand the thoughts going through my mind right now. Please pray that it is nothing serious.

We are attempting some Rabbit-in-the-Moon cookies tomorrow and I "may" post those. It depends on how they turn out LOL

FCC Moon Festival Celebration

We went to our local Moon Festival party tonight and it was a lot of fun. There were around 70 people there although I know you can't tell since it looks like only Annslee and Mia attended : ) It was held at a local restaurant and people were kind of coming and going. There was an area in the back for crafts so the girls ate then made their way back there (after Annslee tackled Mia of course!)

It is so funny to watch them do their artwork because they are so serious about it LOL

Here is the proud artisan displaying her necklace, Chinese lantern and rabbit in the moon plate

She had a great time with all the crafts (no surprise) and then decided she needed some ice cream before we left.

Tracy and Amelia showed up just as we were leaving so I didn't get any cute pics of them together. It was sweet because when Annslee spotted Amelia coming in she held up two fingers and did the sign for 'friend' letting us know that she now had two friends there ~

Our afternoon

I found her using her binoculars to look out the window to see if Daddy was coming home soon : )

We went to a safety fair and she got two balloons! Actually she ended up getting two more since these two ended up being "shared with the clouds"

She did enjoy driving the fire truck...notice one of her balloons flew away during this but the fireman went to get her another one

She is watching Dora "from afar" and honestly, after seeing her I don't blame her for not wanting to get too close

See what I mean??
She only took a 45 min nap today and fell asleep on the way home from the event...guess that explains why she was kind of grumpy while we were there....

Go to Chili's and help St. Jude

Follow this link to find out all about eating out and supporting St. Jude. All you have to do is eat dinner and children with cancer reap the benefits : )

Please continue lifting Miranda and her family up in prayer! Her counts are up and she has a little more energy so I know our prayers and good thoughts are working. The bottom line ~ children should not have to deal with cancer!

What you get when you find a disposable camera!

The other day I found a disposable camera with one picture left on it. I took a pic of my crazy girl and then went to get it developed. This is what I found~I put them in chronological order since it goes back to early this summer : )

My little ladybug by the pool



Doing one of her favorite things....crafts!!



Hmmm...is that how you are suppose to play with the water table?!



She is showing me how Ariel's dad looks when he is angry LOL


Now she is letting the dogs know Ariel is NOT something for them to play with (mind you they never touch her stuff...but just in case I guess)

Gabby is asking us to get her a pony for her birthday....

My little climber at gymnastics

Here is the picture I took last night when she was quietly drawing. Does this even look comfortable?

Prayers needed

These are four beautiful sisters who are the daughters of Tiffany...a woman I used to work with at a telecommunications company and am now lucky enough to know again through Mary Kay. On September 6th Miranda, their youngest daughter, was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma. She is now undergoing treatment and they are faced with the task of controlling her pain with morphine and explaining to her about her hair loss as best they can to a three year old.

Please go to Miranda's site to read her story and sign the guestbook. Most of all please PRAY for this family as they are facing this scary time.

FCC Playgroup

Today was our montly FCC Playgroup outing and it was at the Zoo this time. We arrived and the weather was beautiful! Only two of us showed up today but we had a great time. We hadn't seen Amelia and Jack in a while so it was fun catching up with them : ) As soon as Annslee saw them she did her 'friends' sign and was all about Amelia for the rest of the day.

Hey Mister Stork could you please bring me my baby sister!!

Of course a huge hug from Annslee is a must have!!

Before we left for the day we had to go to the bouncy area. Seriously, they ran across and jumped off at least 50 times!!

Yes, it wore her out and she slept on the way home and is sleeping now : )

Dear N*F*L

it is ridiculous that my 2 year old needs a ticket to attend a game. I just don't think we could pass her off as a 23 month old LOL We have 4 season tickets but had already sold two of them to this game so we headed downtown to see if we could grab a cheap one for Miss Annslee. Well, I guess since we were playing the Sup*er Bowl champs and since we won last weekend, cheap tickets were not to be had. We sold our two and came back home to watch.






Don't worry we won't be missing any more games..it is just difficult with 4 tickets to find one person who wants to go with the 3 of us. Hurry home Malia...we have a ticket with your name on it!!

Birthday and Yard Sale

Did someone say birthday party?? Sounds fun to me!

We went to eat pizza with the cousins for Shelby's birthday and Miss Annslee thought everyone deserved a huge HUG!

These 25 cent bouncy balls were great entertainment : )

Hugs for the birthday girl

We had our neighborhood yard sale today and Annslee thought reading the paper with Daddy was fun. The ice cream truck came by (at 10 am!!) and she really thought that was great!!!

Fun with the Zs

We went to gymnastics today and then over to visit our travelmates and friends. Annslee loved playing with Zola (who was in our China group) and Zara (her oldest sister) but today she and Zena really hit it off! The girls are beautiful and mom is such a great hostess!

The dress up trunk was a big hit.Here is their group picture and they were all pretending to be cold : )




Of course Zola grabbed the purple dress and Annslee wanted to fight her for it.


Ok..pink is fine as long as I have wings!!







It is hard to see but she is doing the sign for 'friends'




Zena came to sit but Zara jumped in...Annslee was not amused






Zena was sneaking up on Princess Annslee and being a rabbit : )