Where does the time go?

When you see someone every day you sometimes don't notice how much they change...then you take a picture of them and it reminds you of others you have taken and you realize how big they are getting *sigh* Yeah, there really was a time when she couldn't even reach the doorknob ; )

~ Summer 2008



~ Summer 2007



~ Summer 2006



Our baby has lost the toddler look and is in full preschool mode now. Thankfully with an October birthday I don't have to send her off the Kindergarten for another two years : )

Three is still my fav age (so far)

We wrapped up VBS and what a fun time we had!!! She loved all the activities and mainly enjoyed hanging out with friends : ) She is so funny and kept saying "Mommy teacher, thank you Mommy" over and over ~ smooch! We had over 500 kids involved this week and it was LOUD and FUN!!


Ranger Dave was our storyteller for the week and in this story he told them to take the heart to someone and say "God loves you" Oh, what sweetness to hear my girl saying it : ) As a side note Dave is Daddy War*bucks in 'Little Orph*an Ann*ie" on broadway (he is a really good storyteller LOL)

This giant grin was because at the Friday night end of VBS party they had a rock wall set up. It was a hard one too with no one belaying for you but Miss A had to give it a try. We walked over and the guy nicely said she could. Yes she is three, wearing sandals and the harness was huge on her!

He helped her up as far as he could reach (about 7 ft I guess) and she continued to try and do more. Poor baby, of course she couldn't do much and all night she kept saying "Annslee try" and looking sad b/c she didn't get to the top. I bet she will in a couple of years!!

This is Sparks and he was there all week and the kids LOVED him!!! There is just something about a fox telling a story I guess : )

Of course Ranger Dave let her help last night. She ran right up there when she saw him and Sparks

Yes, they all fell over right after this picture as Annslee was laughing and pulling them down!

I think one of my favorite parts of last night was when we were going through the food line and she said in amazement "My church has sun chips!!"
Yeah, that is why three is my favorite age so far!! It takes so little to make their little hearts happy : )

VBS!!!

We are having VBS this week and it is so mucy fun!! Annslee loves the dancing and singing of course. I keep trying to catch her doing her songs but then she just turns and smiles ~ poor girl is so used to her Mamarazzi!!






Here we are in one of the 'cut outs' ... I was trying to hold her up so it was kind of hard to do ; )



I have many more to share and their program is tomorrow night so stay tuned!!!

Just checking in~

We are at VBS all week and so we are busy and tired but here is some of our afternoon fun : )




I have some VBS pictures and I will post those later. I am teaching her class and it is so much fun watching her enjoy it : )

Fourth Festivities with Fireman's Foam!

I have always loved this holiday! Annslee loves any reason to celebrate : ) She was thrilled to go to another park for some more fun.

She wanted festive nails and I had the blue polish but needed to go next door to borrow red ; )

The big attraction at this event is the "fireman's foam" We didn't know if she would like it or not and she had no idea what to expect!


She wasn't happy with it at first. She isn't a big fan of having "stuff" on her. The soap was sticky and then grass would stick to that so she didn't want any part of it. However, they also had a huge firehose hooked up and were spraying water to get the soap off and she LOVED that so she kept getting in the foam just so she could go wash off : )


Just to give you an idea of what was happening. Later the foam got well over 6 ft tall but we had moved on to other things by then



We ran into some friends and cousins there. As you can see Gabe and Jacob loved getting in the foam.

We didn't stay at the park for fireworks but came home to do our own "little ones" which Annslee loved b/c they weren't loud : ) She and Jessica watched in style. Some of our neighbors had really big ones so it was quite a show



Sparklers are always fun (not sure about her moves in the first pic LOL) Yes, she still has on a swimsuit!


This morning (of course she slept in her swimsuit) she wanted left over pizza for breakfast. What, is she in college already!!

She did put on a sweater to be doctor to poor sick daddy (they were acting out a M&R episode)


She is napping now and we are hitting the pool when she wakes~good thing she is already dressed for it!

Happy Independence Day!!!!

Here is our little American cutie ready for the party!

I wanted her to wear these glasses but they are kind of big and she thought this was a good look : )

We went to a huge celebration at a park and the police were there on some really BIG horses. She petted them of course and then the nice officer asked if she wanted up. She LOVED it!

Our friend Sara was there and I couldn't resist a pic of these two beauties with their American flag

After having fun in the "kid zone" we ate and then waited for the fireworks to start. A good way to pass the time is a sword fight with a friend ; )

We got our blanket out and she was pleasantly surprised to find "Zoe pillow" I knew better than to stay out past her bedtime without it!

Finally the fireworks started. We have been talking about them a lot. As you may know she has a real problem with loud noises so we weren't sure how this would go. She watches Ru*by & Max and there is an episode about fireworks so we did some pretending about that. They were really pretty and we were really close!

She loved them and stood to cheer!

Then they got louder~ she spent some time cheering and some time holding her ears (or having us hold them for her) Overall, she enjoyed them I think

Time to go home and tackle the traffic. I am proud to report she didn't get in bed until almost 11 and there were no meltdowns

Happy 4th Everyone!!!

The rest of the weekend

Here are a few more pictures from the church BBQ. Her friend Hannah was there and they loved the cow ride. A tractor pulled a string of barrel cows around and it did look like fun



Annslee had already had dessert but Hannah was getting ice cream so Miss A wanted some as well. I told her that she didn't need it so she grabbed Hannah's daddy's hand and off she went (yeah, he got her some LOL)




More cow riding, eating her ice cream and my niece eating an entire pie!!


On Sunday we had a Sunday School swim party and she of course had a blast!

Yes, I know it is already time for a new weekend but I wanted to catch up : )

Annslee's new thing is to say "Annslee try it" about any food (we are LOVING this) and she generally likes what she tries. Last week steak was her new thing.She also tried blue cheese and loved it. We were shocked as it was really strong.Today, they were giving out ribs off the grill outside Kro*ger and I got one. Miss A said she would try it~ well, she loved it and I had to get a pic of course : )I told her that Josie likes them and she yelled "Jo Jo" (Mary you would have loved it!) Yes, she has on a swimsuit~ she sleeps in one, wears one under her clothes, basically is in one 24/7 ~ hey, you have to be ready if a chance to swim comes up!



We are off to one of our local 4th parties and will post on that and the others later : ) Have a safe and happy weekend!

A tradition continues

On Saturday we headed to the church BBQ at the church I grew up in. You can go to my post from last year to see what it means to me. I did want to put pics from the last three years ....my girl is getting so grown up!

June 2008

June 2007

June 2006 (the bottle wasn't hers)


I also had to switch my calendar today from June to July. Usually this means "yay, one month closer to our beach vacation!!" I have to admit today it was a little unsettling as it also means only 2 months left until that September 1st cut off! Please continue thinking of us as we try to remain hopeful that we will receive our referral in time. Many of you know this but our referral for Annslee came on September 1, 2005 so I am finding it hard to think of Sept. 1 as anything other than a day of celebration. I pray my optimism is rewarded : )