My attempt at swing pics : )

My sweet friend Colleen was nice enough to post a "swing tutorial" for all of us on her blog. In case you don't know it already, she is a pro at taking pics of her Linlee swinging. Well, I took her advice and tried to do what she said. I think I should have done it without my zoom lens and of course they would look better if she wasn't in a "baby swing" but that is the only kind they have at this playground. Even though they are not up to par with Colleen yet I still love them!











I did take "non swing" pics too of course



Her new thing is wearing dresses ALL the time. She put this one on when she got home from school and at first I told her we could not go to the playground in it...then I thought why not?

Pay it Forward & helping China

I know many around the blogosphere have seen this and I am participating through a bloggy friend who has a beautiful heart for her daughter~ A Mother Singing

Here are the rules: I will send a gift (of my choosing!) to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this "PIF" exchange, & who make the same pledge on their blog. You must have a blog to win!The only thing you have to do in return is PAY IT FORWARD - on your own blog.So, if you want a goodie from me & you are willing to do the same on your blog, let me know!(Note that you will need to give me your snail mail address, which we can work out over private email!!)

I also want to reach out about the devastation in China right now. I know you know about the earthquake and how many lives have been lost (many of them children) Our agency is of course collecting donations for the orphanages affected but they are also doing something else. Go HERE to get information about sending a card to the children. It can be handmade or bought and they would also love a picture of your family to send with it. They want to flood them with encouragement from across the globe : )

Mostly, keep everyone affected in your prayers.

Jump, Jazz & Roll Performance

Tonight we went to Annslee's performance and it was so cute : ) Of course she wanted to show off her purple ballerina outfit and matching bow as we were leaving.

There are nine girls in her class and they are all so funny and cute...here she is with Hannah and Zoe

They did their ballet portion to 'Colors of the Wind' which is of course Poco*hontas but Annslee always insists it is really Mu*lan

She loved doing the ribbon portion but no smiles during her performance~ she is very serious LOL

Doing a running jump is always fun (and blurry)

Their "cheer" portion was done to the song 'Mic*key' (yeah the one we all know and love from the 80's) The funny thing is the only Mic*key they all know is from Di$ney so Annslee liked saying "Min*nie" instead

Her teacher Ms Stacy is great and we can't wait to keep learning from her

Of course our little performer got purple and pink roses. She was thrilled! : )

Mother's Day (cont.)

On Saturday after her soccer game we headed to the botanical gardens to walk around and enjoy the sunshine. Daddy and Gigi were enjoying the museum but Annslee was getting bored so we wandered outside. I started taking her picture and she suddenly started making silly faces : ) *enlarge collage to see better

The funniest thing that happened was when we were in the Japanese water garden and she let me know she needed to go potty. Well, there was only one thing to do so let's just say, the water garden got a little extra watering : ) I do have pics but I will save those for blackmail someday LOL Later when we got home she went potty inside and Zoe came back there and she let Zoe know that earlier she went outside like a dog!!


Here we are on Mother's Day!

Here we are last year : )

She loved doing cheers with Gigi

I got great gifts (massage certificate & pedicure) but the best part of Mother's Day was hearing her sweet voice say "Happy Mother's Day" to us. Well, she finally said it to me ~ in the beginning she would only say it to one person at a time and that was Gigi. She also would not give Daddy much loving and said "not Father's Day" to him ~ silly girl!

Our Mother's Day Weekend (part one)

As you know Gigi came to visit and that is always a treat. We love having her in town (and Zoe too) but Annslee is her biggest fan!! She brought with her a gift from Aunt Beth. It was for Annslee's half-birthday on April 21st : ) We also gave Gigi her gift from us. Annslee loves giving and receiving gifts and there were many squeals of delight!



Like I said she loves having Gigi in town and it is a must that Zoe comes with her. Our dogs are 11 years old and although she loves them she has such a fun time with a dog still full of puppy energy!

Each day she had to put on makeup with Gigi : )

On Saturday morning she had a soccer game and Gigi was there of course along with my two sisters and their families...quite a fan club!

I don't know how much soccer they got to see but Annslee did have a good time

Running through the tunnel at the end of the game is always a highlight

Happy Mother's Day!!

I want to wish all of you a very Happy Mother's Day...sorry, we are busy with Gigi in town so no time for a long post : ) I did write pretty much how I feel last year so go HERE to read that. I have taken the time to upload a couple of pics ...enjoy!

My silly girl!



Speaking of silly~ here she is making faces at me!



She is in heaven with Gigi in town : )

I especially want to wish all the waiting moms a Happy Mother's Day...you ARE mothers already and someday you too will get to celebrate this day in grand style : )

Preschool Program

Yesterday was Annslee's musical program at her preschool. You cannot even imagine how cute they all were singing together and doing their nursery rhymes. This is a language development preschool so we parents were extra proud to hear their little voices!

Here she is with her teacher Ms Roxanne. The teachers all comment on how lovey Annslee is and she must kiss each of them on the cheek each afternoon before leaving : )



She was so cute sitting there waiting her turn and watching her friends perform

They did many songs and one of my favs is their ABC Rap (who let the A out...etc...to the tune of who let the dogs out) where they sing the letter as they do the sign for it.

They did a color song and Annslee's color was "black as a cat" and she proudly held up her picture

Finally it was time for her "solo" as she recited Baa Baa Black Sheep. She did GREAT!! I love the first pic as she looks kind of nervous

By far our favorite part was at the very end. The class was ready to do the Macarena (yeah, you read that right) Annslee got to go to the microphone where she yelled out "Let's Dance!!!"

Here is her sweet class. Some of her best buddies in class will be heading off to Kindergarten in the fall and I know she will miss them. They are such a great bunch of kids!

Our Weekend

On Saturday we went to a local Children's Fair to benefit a childcare center. Annslee had a great time (as always) She ran around, played games, jumped in the "castle" and danced! After eating a hot dog the "big girl way" aka on a bun she was hot so found a shady spot under a table : )


She wasn't really that interested in the firetruck but the fireman was so nice and she finally agreed to hop in the driver's seat



After lunch we were watching a lot of kids get up and do karaoke and mostly doing Hannah Mon*tana songs and Annslee was dancing a lot. They kept asking if anyone wanted to come up and sing and A kept raising her hand. I finally told her to go on up and she DID!! She sang Itsy Bitsy Spider and it was so stinking cute : ) With all her speech delays this was a huge step for her and we were so proud!!

*Doing the spider part
*Out came the sun
After church on Sunday we met up with some friends at the park for a local artisan fair. It was also our 6th wedding anniversary and we always spend it at the fair. Our reception was in this park so it has special meaning to us.

Here are the kids enjoying the wonderful weather!
Annslee particularly enjoyed her ear of corn : )

While there we ran into another friend from church and Annslee was thrilled~ he is an older man so I don't know about that hand holding LOL

We spotted a unicycle and she had to try it out

This tree was too cool to pass up

and what trip is complete without a ride on a catfish!

The weather was perfect this weekend and we had a lot of fun doing family stuff!! I honestly think she may have petted over a hundred dogs during our outings too. It is funny because we tell her she has to ask first so the second she spots one she starts saying "ask" and now when we are driving down the road if she sees one in a yard she yells "stop ask" ha ha

Just Because

I wanted to post some cute pics of our girl enjoying the warm weather ~ just because I could use a smile : ) I am lazy and just did collages so you will need to click on each one to really see them.

She is very serious about her tennis stance and yes, I bought her a new helment since this one is obviously too small LOL

She had fun with Joelle in the jeep and then big sister Julia came out to fill up their gas tank
Our agency is still trying to sort through child dossiers and we still don't really feel confident about a referral. One thing we do know is that they have told us that IF we do get a referral we are looking at a boy at least two years old. We aren't really prepared for that but we are trying to pray about what God wants for our family because we are not in charge : )

In the meantime we just enjoy our sweet Annslee!