Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Daddy is now in his last year in his 30's and for 4 months I am only 4 years older! We have been doing this huge event at our church all weekend and we got home from it last night late so we did presents then.

Annslee giving herself bunny ears : )




Now she moved over to Daddy~ Coby just wanted to get to that tissue paper!



Awwww...sweet father and son pic



I think he enjoyed the unwrapping : )



Just for fun here is a pic of Annslee in 2006 ~ the first time Daddy was getting help opening gifts : )

Hey we've been called Batty before

and now we've taken it literally : ) Annslee has talked of being Bat*girl since last Hallo*ween when her BFF at school was. I honestly thought she would change her mind about a hundred times before this year but she hasn't. She tells stories involving Bat*girl and Bat*boy (aka Coby) with Mr. Freeze Man (daddy) and Cat*woman (mommy)~ hey, why are the parents the villians?? LOL

Yesterday I found Coby's costume and told her I had a surprise for her. I put it on him and let him run out...I think you can tell she was thrilled as was he!



Seriously how cute are they!!



I thought he would rip the mask off immediately but he loved it. He ran all over the place laughing and was especially thrilled when Annslee showed him the cape.



Yep, I think he is ok with the choice of costume Annslee made for him. I told her she likely has one more year and then he will choose for himself : )



Annslee's Bat*girl costume is still in the works. She wants the pink one (of course) so I am on the search for the cheapest one. She tried it on yesterday at the store and trust me, she looks super cute in it!!

Bragging rights

Yep, I am their mommy so I get those : ) Not that I don't always have reason to brag on my kidlets but a few things have stood out recently about Coby so I wanted to get them on "paper" so I won't forget.

One thing we have noticed from day one that I have never mentioned is the fact that he has ALWAYS chewed with his mouth closed. Now you have to know us to realize how big of a deal that is. I remember when Annslee was around 2 1/2 and we would tell her "chew with your mouth closed" or "chew and swallow first before you talk" people would tell us she was too young to learn that..well, she wasn't and she does it and frankly I am happy about that. I am around lots of kids who chew with their mouth open or talk with food in their mouths and it is GROSS!! Anyway, back to the point Coby has chewed with his mouth closed since the first time we gave him solids. I think in the beginning it was mainly b/c he only had those four front teeth so it worked better but hey, it stuck.

Speaking of his good manners~ the other day at A's soccer practice he kept "dropping" aka throwing his cup. One of the other moms who is nicer than I am kept picking it up and handing it back. I overheard her say "you have such sweet manners, I wish my 5 year old would say thank you" That was when I overheard him and noticed he was saying "tan ooo" each time!

Speaking of speaking (lol) he said his first phrase ..two words together and they were "want dat" and of course it was in reference to food : ) and on the same day he said another one "bye NaNa" when I dropped her off at school. I could do a whole post on his speech vs. where Annslee was at this age but this has gotten long enough.

Oh, and he can point to his nose, mouth, eyes, ears, toes and hand when asked. Maybe Annslee could too at this age and I just don't remember.

Ok..here is a token pic to reward you for reading through all that. He had A's picnic basket and would go to the door over and over saying "BYE"




My original intent was to do a post on Coby but then I picked Annslee up from school and she had a book in her back pack. Sometimes at school the teacher brings in books and lets them pick one to take home. I pulled this one out and was surprised as she doesn't watch Clif*ford and the book seemed too "baby" for her. I asked her if this was the one she picked and she answered "yes, for my brofer Coby, he loves dogs and need to learn his ABCs" I then asked her what other books were there and she named some that I knew she would love. She then handed it to Coby saying "I help you read this Coby" I just had to add this to my bragging post~ I am so proud of what a sweet big sister she is!





*Just so you know she did NOT wear this outfit to school. Everyday she changes immediately when she gets home into a "mis matched outfit" which is her current fashion statement : )

Random cuteness

Apparently watching your dog kiss your sister is pretty funny! We have been amazed since day one how gentle he is with animals~ he yells "dog dog" when he sees ours.



Annslee spends a lot of time reading what she calls "my Bible book" I love listening to the stories she "reads" Sometimes they are real Bible stories and sometimes we hear other characters such as Silver*mist and Bat*girl added in : )



Yes, he still loves the cabinet



Annslee started soccer and they didn't have enough sign up for her age division so she is on a U6 team. There are kids almost two years older and with a lot more experience but she is doing great. Luckily she didn't tap into my gene pool so she has a lot of natural athletic ability. Here she is doing her "game face" for me LOL



She is on team Bra*zil and I had to laugh when I saw this pic of 4 of them surrounding the ball and the one member from team Gre*ece just watching~ with a little communication the four of them might get a goal : )





They don't really keep score at this age but A's team won and the best part of any game is running through the tunnel of course!!


During her practice or games Coby keeps busy by rolling in the grass and pouring water on himself (seriously check out the grass in his hair)





Oh, and Annslee has a note taped to our front window that reads "Party at my house" She wrote it and taped it up and is really hoping someone will walk by and see it and come on in. If you happen to be in the neighborhood stop by : )

Getting some sugar!!

This morning as I walked into the living room Coby was giving Annslee kisses over and over so I grabbed my camera and finally caught a picture of it. He was also pointing to her saying "NaNa, NaNa" What a blessing it is to witness their love for each other.



As if seeing that wasn't enough this was the view out my front window



On this day especially I hope you all have seen a glimpse of God's blessings in your life.

Just letting you know

I started selling Usborn*ne Books today!! Many of you already know what a great product they are and I would love to have you get in on the awesome deals available. My homeschooling buddies really need to get with me as we have books you can definitely use!! Please email me at titanlala@ yahoo.com or leave a comment and I will get you all the info!!

As promised

Coby now has his gameday gear too! I admit not many people look good in orange but I think it is safe to say my kids look great in it : )



Check out all those teeth!! He is drooling like crazy getting all 8 in at one time!





We swam a lot today and then had to put on our team attire to go to get our free chicken sandwich at Chi*k fil a! Annslee had her jersey on too and I wanted a pic of them together but she changed too fast when we got home so I'll have to do that another day. I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday weekend!

Football season at last!!

Today is gameday and we were so excited!!! Annslee found a dress to wear and poor Coby didn't really get in the action (we went out tonight and bought him a jersey so no worries)



For fun here she is at the White Sw*an in China in November 2005




Hope you all enjoyed the first weekend of college ball!!!

Beach + Cousins = FUN (at least for Annslee)

I know to all my face*book friends these pictures are repeats but I just wanted to get them on here too since this is my "scrapbook"

Annslee had a BLAST with her cousins at the beach. I love watching them hang out together.















One of the funniest things was Taylor and Annslee pretending to be twins. They took on the names Lexie and Sasha (their dogs' names) and split their ages so they were 6 1/2. They kept asking if we thought people really really believed them LOL



I mean can you tell who is who?? They obviously look nothing alike and there is a 3 year age difference but they are both Beautiful!





I haven't talked about how Coby did at the beach but I think this picture will give you a glimpse. It really was a rough week for him (and us) as he was in total shut down/panic mode. This was the first time we had been anywhere since coming home with him and he didn't handle it well. He slept a lot and I mean taking 4-5 hour naps each day as a way of escaping. He would not let anyone hold or touch him without a look of panic coming over his face. He literally had to be touching me or Daddy every moment. Annslee was so wrapped up in her cousins so we really had the time to give to him which was nice. It was so hard and sad to watch him suffer like this. The only time he was happy was on the beach and I think that was because he had more "space" and of course we were right there with him. He was sooooo happy to be home and I think it was mainly a sense of relief. Hopefully he will continue to learn that he ALWAYS comes home with us and we will ALWAYS be his family : )

Four Years!!

" We would say your name a hundred times a day, like speaking words of faith, and with a mixture of hope and fear and trust, we prayed for strength to wait".

~From Geoff Moore's song "Swept Away"

I can't believe it has been four years since we first heard those sweet words "you have a daughter" and every day since has been such a blessing.

Every year we take a picture of her holding that first picture we saw of a chubby and terribly cute 6 month old : )

9/1/2009



9/1/2008



9/1/2007



9/1/2006



9/1/2005 (toasting at the Ti*tans game)



Here are some more faves from today. I can't believe how grown up she suddenly looks!! I look at her and think of the words to a song out right now "you're beautiful baby from the outside in" She really is gorgeous and she has the sweetest heart to match! She says and signs I love you a hundred times a day and gives the best hugs and kisses~ we are so BLESSED!!









You can go to the archives for past Sept 1st posts. Happy Referral Anniversary to all our travelmates and all my Lovebug friends!!