My Pumpkin Lovin' Girl

Ok...I warned you, she LOVES pumpkins..almost to the point of being scary : ) We went to the local botanical gardens the other day to take some pics and she was not cooperative until I pulled out a pumpkin~ then she was a happy girl!!


She started kissing all over this little pumpkin and I said "ok, enough silly" and the bottom two are so HER!! Look at that little grin and those eyes~ we are in BIG trouble over here when she is a teenager!

I finally got it away from her to go look at the coy in the pond~ she got into this "pose" and let me know it was her "big girl" pose

Various groups design scarecrows and they are everywhere~ this was one of her favs (it is Hann.ah Mon*tanna)

This door leading to the Japan.ese gardens provided much entertainment


Just in case you thought she was all smiles~ here is one of her crazy faces! This one was at the end and signaled she was all done for today :)

Give me a P!

P is for Princess.Pumpkin Patch.Pet Shop.Pool.Party~ and that is just what we had! When we orginally planned her party she was all about it being a Dis.ney Princ.ess party but then she developed a serious love for pumpkins and so that was her cake (oh, and then she requested Litt.lest Pet Shop be added...silly girl)

Here she is ready to go in her Cind.erella shirt and pumpkin neclace LOL

Before everyone arrived I snapped a sweet picture of her with her cake : )

She was so excited about blowing out her candles!

I love the look of satisfaction on her face at getting those candles out~ I hope everything she wishes for comes true.

The top two I took while everyone sang to her...she had the sweetest look! Of course she really enjoyed licking the icing off the candles afterwards

I had a very hard time getting pics during the gift giving as 25 kids crowded around! She got a lot of fun stuff and a lot of LPS stuff!

After gifts we headed to the pool!!

Mia had to leave so Annslee came to the side for a goodbye kiss : )

She had such a great day!!! Now she thinks she is 4 so I guess she is taking 9 days away from 3 and adding it to 4~ we will of course do a family celebration on the 21st : )


*Check out Coby's site ... we have video from September and four new pictures from last week! The videos are on a journal page.

We have a winner!

I thought we were going to have it easy this year when it came to deciding on a Hall*oween cost*ume as she started talking about being Ar*iel a while back. She was so set on it that I saw it on sale and in her size in September so I snatched it up. She tried it on and loved it so I thought we were done! Then she started talking about not having red hair (mind you she was a black haired Tinker*bell last year) and we thought of spray paint and wigs...but she was not sold on either idea

Then one day she decided to play the wicked stepmother from Cinder*ella. In case you haven't seen the movie lately this is her rendition of her holding out the glass slipper in Cindy III right before she drops it and it shatters : )

Hey, remember she did love Cindy last year at Di$ney so hmmmmm

I guess somewhere in the back of her mind she also remembered meeting Jas*mine! (just look at that excitement)

I waited a while to make sure she was set on Jas and her matching black hair and when I felt pretty sure I started the bidding~ I won and got the whole outfit for less than the price of just the top and bottom at the store : ) We have been waiting for the mail to arrive all week and yesterday was the day! (yes, she dressed herself in a Valen*tine top and skirt LOL)

We didn't expect the crown and veil but that is her fav part!

I love the choice she made and so does she...she wore this around for a long time after it arrived and I am sure she will be putting it on several more times before the big night!

Oh no!!! This morning she was practice trick-or-trea*ting with daddy and this is the outfit she wore...daddy called her a bag lady~ hope she isn't switching again LOL

I love Hallo*ween and can't wait to hang out with our princess! Oh, her bday party is tomorrow so stay tuned for pics : )

THANK YOU!!!

Linda, Mikayla's mommy, sent us a sweet package for Coby and Annslee. She included this birthday gift for Miss A and she squealed when she opened it : ) She has been wanting LP stuff but I kept pointing out that it said 4+ on all of them so she couldn't get it until she was four (hey, it worked to stall her). Now that she is almost 4 she is thrilled to have this from a sweetie in our travel group. She also sent these adorable shoes for Coby and a much too generous Tar*get gift card. Thank you soooo much Aunt Linda and Mikayla!!

We also got the sweetest package from our Secret Buddy. She always spoils both Annslee and Coby and this time was no exception! Annslee got two games and some Fanc*y Nanc*y shoes and leggings. They are soooo cute! Coby got four new outfits and I love them. Connie will be jealous of the Mommy's Treasure one LOL

The best part about the treasure one is the back!!! Daddy can open that up ; )

One of the best parts of any package in the mail is the packing material. She always saves the tissue paper and wraps "gifts" for us to open. She will hand it to you saying "surprise" and you may get a pen, hairbow, or any other thing she finds. She was overjoyed to see this huge bubble wrap in Linda's package and spent a long time popping it




She would jump as high as she could and then dance around on it...it was loud and fun!!

Thank you so much for our special gifts...we are feeling the LOVE over here : ) I will be posting later about a cyber baby shower that sweet Kimberley is hosting for us on the 25th. You can go to her blog to read about it now.

Celebration of Cultures

Trying to catch up~ On Saturday we went to a local festival called Celebration of Cultures and it was such fun! One of the first things she spotted was a huge world map ~ you got a sticker then put in on the place you were born. Annslee ran up and grabbed a sticker then pointed to China. The girl lifted her up (sorry, I couldn't do it..I was taking the pictures LOL) and she put one on. This is the picture of her putting one on Vietnam for Baby Coby : )


She was the life of the party! In this collage: chatting with the lady in the Thailand booth, marching in the parade, walking around the Maypole and seeing the LION in the lion dance : )


I really tried talking up the Lion Dance as she always has been afraid of it in the past...each CNY she cries.. this time she LOVED it!! The fact that it was outside and not as loud helped but the biggest thing was the "baby lion" that she kept pointing to and waving at

Yep, a little excited!

We met up with Emma Grace and then saw her friend from dance class, Zoe there! (the other pics are her putting her sticker on China and getting a "henna tattoo"

She is literally obsessed with origami these days. There was an episode on Little Bi*ll about it and she was hooked. She folds paper all the time now saying "origami" Here she is at the Japan booth doing real origami and you can see how intense she was about it. She would have stayed there all day!

Painting is serious business too

The hoop races were a blast with Olivia and Lola!

School Daze

She had her first day at her new school today and all went well. Seriously, I don't know why I worry about our little social butterfly : ) The only down side is they nap later than her other school so now she is getting about 45 minutes vs 90 minutes...I think I will be picking her up early and letting her nap at home. At almost four she still will do two hours : )

She made cookies for her class last night and this morning she came in the kitchen saying "write note teacher Mama" So here is the note she wrote to take in with the cookies. The funniest part was when she was making her A in share and she started laughing hysterically calling it a crazy A b/c she made it crooked~ guess the backwards S wasn't that funny LOL

I put one of the cookies on the paper so you could tell what the drawing was supposed to be : )




*Secret Buddy...I got your wonderful gift and am needing to get the pics downloaded to thank you properly...coming soon : )

Finally the gate was open!!!

We have been driving past a pump*kin patch every day for weeks as they got it all set up. Every day she looks and is sad because the gate isn't open...well, yesterday it WAS!!!! I talked her into waiting for daddy to get home to go and she proceeded to get "fancy"

Of course she couldn't get ready alone to go to the patch so she enlisted me to get dressed up with her. She then kept staring out the window waiting for Daddy to get home so we could go. We had on eight bracelets, two necklaces, two rings, one pair of earrings and a crown EACH!

Seriously from the squeals, cheers and kicking feet in the backseat when we pulled in you would have thought we just pulled into Mag*ic King*dom or something

She picked a little pump*kin out immediately and then saw a Pir*ate that talked...she wasn't too sure about him at first so she grabbed Daddy's hand : )

Obviously she thought he was pretty funny the second time around

Then she moved on to taunting him LOL


I love that she is so happy with the little things...now she wants a Pump*kin Patch birth*day cake ; )

It was a great time with our girl!

*she insisted we all wear orange...no, we don't usually match like this ; )

Doggy Kisses

She really loves getting kisses from Sasha : )

We are on day 23 of our 60-100 (business) day wait for travel approval. Also, Annslee will be going to a new preschool on Monday. The class she is currently in is overcrowded and so she is having to change classes AND schools. I think she will do fine but I worry about her leaving her friends and teachers. She is the only girl in the new class but I know they are looking for peers and in language classrooms those are usually girls. Two of her good friends are going to the new school too so I know that will help.

Please keep us all in your prayers : )