Beautiful girls

She did great during our photo shoot but was really excited when she saw her cousins Payton and Taylor heading to the beach for their "white dress pics"



I love this picture~ Payton was falling and they are trying to catch her : )

Gigi came down and got in the sand with the girls (this pic is framed in Annslee's room and she LOVES it )

They could only take so much so of course they turned silly on us!

She looks so grown up to me most of the time but when I see her sweet profile I see my baby again!

My Fav Pics from the Beach!

Like everyone else we always do the traditional "white dress" pictures at the beach. This year was really special because Annslee is wearing the dress that our flower girl wore in our wedding six years ago! Her cousin Payton was only 3 when she was our flower girl and so I really wanted Annslee in this dress. She looked sooooo BEAUTIFUL in it too : )








Here is one picture from last year's photo shoot ( Go HERE for more pics from last year )




Beach 2006 (check out that little chunky monkey) Go HERE for more pics from two years ago

Thank you all for your congrats on our newest addition. Can't wait to have beach pictures with both of them next year!

It's A Boy!!!

As you know we have had a wild week with sickness, smashed fingers, getting lost, etc... All that was forgotten at 8:17 pm when my phone rang as I drove toward our friend's house to stay the night ... it was our agency and YES we have a baby!!! I had to get off the interstate and write down his info in a Zaxby's parking lot!

He is 7.5 months old and really cute : ) With Vietnam adoptions you can't post pics online until after your Giving & Receiving ceremony but trust me, he is a cutie. The sweetest thing is in all his pics he has the same two fingers in his mouth as Annslee does ( just the other hand) Annslee keeps saying 'baby fingers in mouth'

We spent our last day at the beach with Annslee perfecting her surfing. We had a wonderful two weeks together and I loved spending it with my girl.




I will post more when I know more. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support!!!!

THE BEACH

Hey everyone!!! I am sitting here in a McD parking lot trying to give an update as I can't pull up any blo*gs at our condo. Just wanted to check in and post a few pics of my beach babe : ) It is pouring down rain right now so I thought it was a perfect time. I mainly wanted to do it so Daddy (who isn't on vacay with us) can see his girl!!



She rode down in her panda pjs of course and ran straight to the water in them : )

We then decided a swimsuit made more sense LOL

Her big cousins are teaching her the fine art of playing video games (yuck)

I can't believe how much she has grown up since last year (and leaned up) She LOVES running on the sand and from the waves.

Our beautiful girl!

Had to get one shot of us in

Her only big issue has been trying to realize she is NOT nine years old. She so badly wants to do everything the big girls are doing and she just can't. They are all so great with her though and so she is having a blast!

There are many more pics to come but wanted to get a few up. You may notice a finger splint in some of them. On our first night here she slammed her finger in the sliding glass door. We did xrays and it was hard to tell with such tiny bones so she wore a splint for two days until the radioligist results were in NO broken bones : ) I have to say she was so great about wearing it and not complaining. I think she enjoyed the attention ; ) She may still lose the nail but hopefully not.

WE MISS YOU DADDY!!!!!!

Nature Museum

She loves to write~ she doesn't color much but prefers a pen and paper. She will sit and ask you how to spell things or names and then write them : )



One of Gigi's neighbors has a membership and let us go to the Nature Museum today. I didn't know if there would be enough to keep Annslee occupied but I literally had to drag her out (well, kind of) after four hours there!! She loved seeing the animals and playing. We also walked to a nearby park to play but it was too hot to stay long.

One thing she did today that was new for her and soooo cute was reading a book without my help. I looked up and she was turning pages and saying "Little boy, no find his mommy, crying, hey birdie I no find my mommy, here she is, hi mommy, love you mommy " etc....

She didn't get a nap but apparently she needed one~ here she is at 5 pm!!! Yes, she has on the PJs JiaLi sent her (she puts them on the minute we get home each day) I tried to wake her but she wouldn't even budge for ice cream...hope we aren't all up at 2 am or something LOL

We head to the beach in the morning. Our internet connection there is spotty but hopefully I can post : )

Confession

Ok...so I don't read blogs about Vietnamese adoption. Ok..I said it. I still read all of you with Chinese children but I just can't bring myself to "join in " the VN thing. Sorry...but I don't really feel like a part of it yet. I WANT to ...I swear I do...but I don't. I should clarify that I do read VN blogs of those of you still waiting with me. I am praying with you and hope we all have news soon. It isn't that I don't care about the families I've followed for these past 20 months who have been to VN and back...I certainly do..I just can't look at your little ones right now. I promise I will be back to them b/c they are so stinking cute I can't stay away long : )

Have you noiced that I have added NOTHING to Malia's site...do I feel guilty~ sure I do but I don't really know what to say. I just feel in limbo with the whole thing and although I know the "motherly" part of me should feel something about our hopefully impending referral....I am really finding it hard to do. I think I am just trying to distance myself and brace for the worst.

I HOPE and PRAY our baby is out there and coming soon but I can't lose any more sleep over it ~ well, actually ofcourse I will : )

The Olympics!

Finally the night arrived. We are always excited to watch the opening ceremony but tonight was special!

I sat there with tears streaming down my face as I watched my daughter watch the opening ceremony. I thought she would be so bored but she was cheering and smiling saying "China" over and over and pointing to the people saying "Chinese like Annslee?" LOVE IT!!

The strangest thing that has happened was when they were singing the Chinese National Anthem she was standing in front of the TV swaying and singing...the words weren't really the words but it was kind of freaky! I asked her is she knew the song and she said yes : )

She also is screamed fireworks a lot!!! She did enjoy naming everyone she knows who is Chinese too (that took a while LOL) and she was so cute as the parade of countries happened. When the US marched in she said "mine team" and then when China came in she announced "mine team too" : ) When Vietnam came in I asked if that was her little brother's team and she said "no, China love Annslee big sister" Well ok then!




The top pick made me laugh..is she concentrating that hard or something : )





This is the hat we brought back to Gigi from Beijing. We called it the albatrose the entire trip as it had to be carried by hand at each airport : P



I hope you all enjoyed! She will be a bear tomorrow as she refused to go to bed and watched till the end. Can you believe how awesome the whole thing was!

Sick girl, updates, and cousins

We drove down to visit Grandaddy the other day. He enjoyed seeing all three of his grandkids together and they had a blast on the farm

Aunt Dana made the girls matching dresses while we were there. Annslee has never had a strapless dress before and kept saying "ooh la la" over and over. She really does need some straps on it though as it keeps falling down and then she announces "boobies!!"

Here are the cousins on the couch : )

Madison (one of Gigi's neighbors) wrote a book about Annslee's visit. It is called "Ooh La La, Annslee's Here"

After reading the book they all went upstairs for a movie night!

I took Annslee to the doctor today because she is still coughing so much. Yep, she has bronchitis and is heading toward pneumonia so now she is on some hefty anibiotics. Of course as a typical 3 year old she isn't really even acting sick and is still running wild as usual! Please keep her in your prayers that these meds work and she is feeling better and can enjoy the beach without a coughing fit : )

I did talk to our agency and they are "still hopeful for our referral" but indicated that "it will go down to the wire" In other words, if it does happen it will not be in the next couple of weeks. We are hanging in there but keep those prayers coming!

Checking in : )

Daddy had his 20 year high school reunion and we went up a little early to play at the Zoo!


There is a butterfly exhibit and no matter how hard she tried they would not land on her hand

She loves riding the camel : )

It was in the high 90s so running through the water mist felt great

For the first time ever she rode that carousel with me not on with her. Later we looked at the sign and noticed you had to be 42 inches to do that and she is only 38 inches (we are such rebels LOL)

Here she is with Daddy in front of the house he grew up in : )

I sat on a bench at Daddy's elementary school!

Future Blogger alert!

We said bye bye to Daddy and headed to Charlotte. Gigi took us on a train ride downtown and it was so much fun : )

Of course silly hats are always fun!

We are having fun in Charlotte with everyone. A few families with our agency got a call yesterday saying they would not make the Sept. 1st deadline (our phone didn't ring) I am going to call in the morning and hope for an update...keep praying and thinking of us!

Outta here!

Here is Miss A with some of her latest fashion statements...be sure and click on the collages to enlarge them : ) Yes, she is doing her surfer pose in a couple of them LOL





We are heading to Gigi's house for a week and then on to the beach for a week...hope to post while we are gone but no promises : ) It will be nice to see everyone and have something to occupy us as August ticks away toward September 1st.

Here she is as we loaded up the car yesterday