Three Years Already?

Three years ago in a cold damp room in Wuhan, Hubei China we met the most beautiful girl in the world. There were 10 other families also meeting their daughters and it was a pretty intense "delivery room" with lots of flashes, smiles, hugs and many tears (both happy and sad) She was handed to me first (or maybe I just grabbed her) and she cried. Daddy took her and I didn't get to hold her again for a few days. No worries...she is Mama's girl now : )

Family Day 2008

Family Day 2007



Family Day 2006



Family Day 2005



I love looking at and comparing these pictures every year. She is growing up way too fast!!

I didn't take her to school today so we could go to the community center and make Thank*sgiving crafts. She made a turkey out of her little feet and hand prints and it is so cute.

She also made a little tree and it said "Annslee is thankful for...." and she wrote on each leaf what she is thankful for. You will have to click and enlarge to read them ... in case you can't read her handwriting they read in the order she said them~ God, Coby, Love, Milk, Tree and Moon~ oh, my sweet girl...guess Mommy and Daddy are just a given and don't need a leaf LOL

When Daddy came home he brought flowers for her

Then it was time to open a gift bought for her when we were in China. She got a mirror with a jade handle.

Here is a pic of her jumping off the tent in the play area at the mall into daddy's arms~ I think she thought it was fun!

We went to dinner with friends who we only knew through email until tonight. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant that we wanted to try. When we told Annslee where we were going she said "Mine famee day, go eat China food" LOL Annslee had a great time with Sofia (who is 4.5 and from China) and Ava (who is 2 and from Vietnam) They are such beautiful girls! On the way home Annslee announced "Sofia mine best friend" When daddy asked what about Mia or Amelia, she said "all best friends"


Annslee, you are the most precious gift and we are so blessed and honored to call you daughter. I hope we can be the parents you deserve.

Thinking of Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the third anniversary of our Family Day with Annslee. I can't help but think back on how excited and nervous we were as we arrived in Wuhan and went out to dinner one last time as a couple (well, with our entire travel group too) We will celebrate tomorrow and I will have pics to share but for today, here is the family day picture of my neighbor and her daughter. They met last week and isn't she the cutest!!!! They will be home on November 20th and we can't wait to meet sweet Wendi!!!


She has been cutting out things from the Tar*get paper lately..things she would like, or Coby would or Trey (her friend from school) She has been telling us that she doesn't want to have Chris*tmas this year...just skip straight to Valen*tine's Day. When asked she says "Annslee lot present birthday friends all done" ha ha Well, today she announced she did want Chris*tmas and then said "know why... open Coby presents" LOL



After her "shopping" she decided to get silly on the floor



I sure do love this girl!!

Let me sleep

We got this last night~ apparently he wanted to sleep and not be videoed no matter how much his mommy wanted it : ) Yep, still got those fingers in his mouth. When I showed Annslee the video she kept saying "oh, no cry baby Coby big sister Annslee hold you" She also does NOT want his crib moved out of her room. She says if he cries in the middle of the night she will tell him "ok baby Coby Annslee right here" SWEET!!

Who needs sleep!

Apparently not Annslee~ well, she needs it but that is no fun when your aunt and uncle are in town!! She had a great time playing princess with aunt Linda

They brought some gator gear to our nephew Isaac (no reason to bring it to our girl) but she did have fun with the mask

Snuggling is always good too

On Sunday we went to my niece's house to watch the game and visit. She loved playing with her cousin Christian. He is only 6.5 months old but weighs 4 pounds more than Coby does at 10 months! She wanted him to sit in her lap so bad but he kept falling over : ) She also wanted to make him laugh by making crazy faces at him but as you can see he didn't know what to think so he cried. Poor Annslee didn't understand so we had to assure her that it was just what babies do. She was so great with him and the other baby that was there (he was only 4 months old) She fed them their bottles and played a lot. She is going to be a great big sister!

After her shower she put on daddy's shirt...when we commented on how big it was she announced that when she got bigger it would fit~ I hope not!!

We had such a great weekend visiting with family and hated to see it end!

My Sister is in Town!!!

My sister came in from Florida for the Vandy game and we are always so happy to see them!! They brought this super cute outfit for Annslee and a coordinating one for Coby~ can't wait to see them together in them!

We all went to dinner and Annslee was sure to give hugs to her cousins (here with Jacob)

and Isaac (who needs a haircut)

Occassionally she had to stop the hugging to touch up her makeup

Back to the hugging..with Shelby

An attempted group shot..Isaac is looking sort of crazy and Gabe has a mouthful of chocolate..great!

So I thought..well, let's just do a silly one then!!

Poor Linda, they always bring cold weather with them when they come. It was 82 degrees the other day and the high is 55 today!

E*bay Auction

My sweet friend Missy has put some of her beautiful Matil*da Jane clothing items up on E*bay and all proceeds go toward our travels to bring Coby home. Go HERE to check it out or go to the sidebar and look under our Vietnam Journey to link to it. I am amazed at the support we are receiving and feel so blessed that some clothes her gorgeous sister Paige wore will now help us out!

Enjoying her reward

for voting or at least behaving while I did : ) Annslee was thrilled to see the Kri*spy Kre*me donut we received yesterday on her plate for breakfast this morning. It was a really cute star shape sprinkled with red, white and blue~ she announced "Tensee Titans" Yeah, same colors LOL







Although the election didn't go the way I hoped, I pray we can all come together as a nation and support our President. No matter who you voted for, he is OUR President and I will respect the decision the majority of our nation made. Tonight at church our minister talked about how wonderful it is to live in a country where we can change our leadership without a coup or bloodshed~isn't that the truth!

November 4th

Today is of course election day and Miss A got up this morning, announced that Hall*oween was over, and promptly put on a Valen*tine outfit : ) I asked her if we were just skipping ahead to V-Day and she said "yes, Annslee love Valtimes day" Well, ok then..that will save us a lot of $$ at Chris*tmas won't it!

As you see her outfit is short sleeved and a short skirt (don't really know why they do that since VDay is in Feb) but lucky for her it is in the 70's here today so she was good to go.



I know it is against the law but Miss A did some campaigning as we waited in line to vote. As she will tell you constantly "I no love long pants" and she was thrilled to go bare legged today~ as people in line commented on being hot, Annslee said rather loudly to all who would listen "Annslee right, no wear long pants, all people in trouble no listen to Annslee" Seriously, she said it over and over.... guess she is voting to outlaw long pants : ) Of course everyone was entertained by her and kept telling me she was very entergetic~a nice way of saying out of control I guess. I was very proud of how nicely she stood in line and didn't complain. After voting (we only had to wait an hour...yay) we went to Kris*py Krem*e for her free donut and to Star*buck's for my free coffee just to thank us for voting : ) They did a story on a woman who is 106 years old and has never missed an opportunity to vote~if she can still get to the polls all of us can! We are blessed in this country to be able vote so go out there and do it!

Today also would have been my Dad's 78th birthday but he passed away in June '06. I always think of him but especially on this day. We miss him terribly and wish he was going to be here to meet Coby. He only knew Annslee for 6 short months but he loved her dearly. When he died we cleaned out his wallet and there were only three pictures in there~ one of my mom who had died 4 years earlier and the other two were of Annslee.

Annslee & her Pappy circa Dec.2005

Catching up!

On Saturday we went to El Dia* de los* Muertos which is a "Day of the De*ad" celebration in the His*panic community where they honor their ancestors. It was a really neat event and super crowded. They had lots of crafts for the kids, music and food! Annslee had a great time and the weather was perfect. She didn't have a nap and she had stayed up the night before until 11:30 b/c Daddy told her it was a holiday so she could stay up all night (he thought she'd go to bed at 9 or so but she didn't) and surprisingly she still had the energy to run wild!

Painting a gourd~ serious concentration

She found the creek so she rolled up her pants and walked in

There was a lot of chalk art and she made her contribution

Kimberley sent us this sweet outfit for Coby~ the bottoms say "Silent Night~ Up All Night" : ) Thank you so much sweet friend!! I can't wait to see him in these!

Our travelmates and friends Mary, Todd and Josie sent gifts for all of us. Mary made a beautiful blanket for our baby and sent these awesome clip things that turn anything into a bib, she made this tote for Miss Annslee and beautiful notes for me. They didn't want to leave Daddy out and promise to bring him some Vietnamese beer when they visit : )

Happy Halloween!

Well, Princess Jas*mine made her debut last night! This is one girl who thinks more is better when it comes to make up and glitter!!

She wanted us to dress up too but Daddy took the easy way out...can you guess who he is?? If you watch "Little Bi*ll" you will notice he is dressed like Big Bill ~ Annslee thought it was hillarious

Here she is with some of our neighbors and with me (I had a Malefi*cent costume but then she decided I should be a cat like Little Bi*ll's mom is in the Hall*oween episode)

Heading up to the first house~ I know she is mine but she takes my breath away : )

As the night wore on it got cooler so she had to wrap up between houses as Daddy pulled her in her "Magic Carpet"

We finished up the night at our neighbor's house across the street. They are grandparents and they LOVE Miss Annslee. They had been saving this princess bar for her all night. She was beyond thrilled!

For a quick look back:

Tink 2007

Minnie 2006 We didn't get to China in time for 2005 and obviously missed her first one in 2004! Hope you all had a safe and happy night! Just in case you were wondering she has already decided about next year ~ she wants to be Belle and Coby will be a fireman~ we shall see!!

Two down~ One to go!!

Yesterday she went to her My Gy*m party as Tink*erbell. She originally wanted to go as Bel*le but I suggested she choose this as she could do more b/c the dress is shorter. She LOVED getting all made up and even after a bath and shower last night the glitter aka pixie dust was still in her hair : )



Today she went to school as Au*rora and has a ton of glitter going on! My girl loves getting made up..we are in big trouble. She wanted to go outside to pose with her pumpkin daddy carved last night~ she requested a silly face

She needed to look inside of course

My beautiful girl headed to school~ I am going later for her party~ I am sure there will be more pics to come

Now we only have one more Princess to come~ looking forward to seeing Jas*mine tonight!

New Pics of Coby!

Hey..just letting you know there are new pics of our son on his website so click on over!!

Also, on the post below I used Flic*r to upload them as it made them bigger and I think clearer...but oddly it also "centered" my entire blog. The sidebar and all other posts??? Anyone know why?

Because I can't post without a pic here is Miss A on her way to ballet Tuesday