Seeing the Man in Red

We went to Bass P*ro Sh0p to see the Big Man last night and it was a success! Annslee had to tell him her requests~ a trash can and candy~ yes, apparently Gigi told her a story about Aunt Beth wanting a trash can one year and she thought it was hillarious and is stuck on that now : )

Here they are waiting to see him



Still patiently waiting....



I let Coby go first and he was very interested in Santa and kept looking at his beard. Poor baby is broken out head to toe as he had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics they gave him for the staph. Pray that the rash clears and the staph doesn't come back as they said he can't take the other one used either so they'd have to call the CDC to see what to do! Ok...on to the cute pics~




Annslee jumped in for a shot together ~ aren't they sweet...I am sure he will be good to them this year



Annslee LOVES Santa (unlike the first two years) and couldn't wait for her time alone with him. I don't know what all she said to him but they chatted for a while and she kept laughing out loud. I just love her spirit!



Enjoying the candy cane she received as she watched the fish~ Hey, this is a great place to do Santa pics as they are FREE and they let you take all the pics you want with your camera. I think the ones I got are better than theirs b/c Annslee is trained to look at my camera LOL




On the way out she spotted this! I think she wanted to go back and tell Santa to add it to her list! She did stop by on the way out to verify with him that he likes "M E M E cookies (M & M)" and yes, he does. She also yelled " I luv you Santa" a few times blowing kisses : )

I know some of you don't remember her initial reaction to the Big Man so here's a little flashback for you : )

Santa 2005~ *we'd been home from China a couple of weeks...so mean of us I know but hey, she is reaching for us so maybe we are bonding *

Santa 2006 ~ *still unhappy but bigger and Santa actually asked us to get her off b/c she was kicking him so hard*




Santa 2007 ~ *LOVES him now and she saw him several times this year and I have lots of smiling ones but thought this was sweet*



Santa 2008 ~ *A picture worth waiting for!!! We didn't ask Santa for anything tonight b/c I think we already have all we need*



I hope you all have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

YAY!!!

Guess who slept through the night~ we ALL did!!! He went down around 9 pm last night and is still asleep (it is 6 am) and Annslee has also slept past her usual 4 am "get up Mommy" time too. I am not saying we are over it yet but at this point just one night of good solid sleep was much needed! All your prayers are working! Also, his bloodwork all came back normal so that is a huge PRAISE!!!

Sunday morning before church I attempted some pictures in front of our tree...Annslee has been instructed to look and be "on the ready" at all times : ) He is looking but no smile yet....

Maybe if I give him a big kiss he will want to smile ~ it didn't work but it sure is sweet!!

I just opted for individuals

At church Annslee's cherub choir sang in the "big choir" loft and they were so cute. The primary choir sang with them so they had the added bonus of being with the big kids up front.

We finally toasted Coby's homecoming. Annslee wanted her pink lemonade in a champagne glass too. She kept saying "see I careful" as she did "cheers" again and again.

Poor Coby only got sweet potatoes for his toast LOL

Checking out the Christmas Trees

On Saturday we all went to the local Botanical Gardens to look at the decorated trees. It was really pretty and the kids had fun. Unfortunately I didn't get "the shot" I wanted but oh well. I did think it was sweet that Annslee was trying to read to him but he was more interested in eating the books : )

She enjoyed checking out the toys around the tree

An attempt at at a family photo



I think he is thinking "this is not Sai*gon is it~ I miss the heat !!!"



Doing some seriously silly poses for me!



Tracy, you will be happy to know I cannot get them both to look. Annslee tries really hard to "make" him look at the camera~pro that she is!




Just a shot of my beautiful girl




*just a side note..last night he got to sleep around 3 am...keep the prayers coming : )

Scary Stuff

Well, we went to his check up yesterday and the culture confirmed that the boil on his head was in fact MRSA!! Yep, the scary Staph infection. Thank God we got him in time to get him home and get it treated! It looks so much better now and luckily none of us have shown any signs of catching it.

The sleep is still not coming. We are up off and on all night and can't really get in a groove. Please continue to pray for sleep and his continued healing.


Because I just can't post without a picture and I thought this one was particularly cute~ Here he is with Daddy in their Ti*tan's gear in Hanoi!

Here is Annslee in Hanoi at a playground we found enjoying time with her new "friends" (click to enlarge)

School Party & General Fun

Annslee went to school for a little while today for her school Chris*tmas party. It was obvious that she has missed her friends. She had such a great time playing and showing off HER Baby Coby : )

Coby had fun too. It is apparent he misses all the noise and other kids he is used to. At home he refuses to sit on the floor and play but at her school with all the kids running around he was happy as a lark to sit and play

We continue to improve in the sleep department and your prayers are felt. He is really enjoying eating more foods. In Vietnam he loved the rice porridge with chicken in it so I am working on learning to make it. In the meantime he is trying new foods here.

Annslee is really enjoying having Gigi in town

Yep, she is as silly as ever!

I will work on a longer post tomorrow. We go to the doctor in the morning for his check up. I will also get the results of the culture done on his boil when they lanced it. It looks so much better!! They gave us his stats the other day~ He is 16.3 pounds (not even on the US charts), 28 inches (11th percentile) and his head circum is in the 35th percentile. I will post about his appointment tomorrow!

Ok...

Enough of the email and comments about my slacking : ) Seriously, I have a lot of pics and journaling to do about Vietnam but for now I will just do a coming home post to tide you over. He is still on Vietnam time and Annslee is a little too. Last night he screamed from 1-5 am unless he was being held or his back rubbed so no sleep around here. Annslee wants to be in on the comforting too so she isn't getting her rest either. Continue with all your prayers for his adjustment and ours : )


Here he is in the bassinet on the plane. He didn't sleep well in it b/c he is almost too big for it and he is a wild sleeper who needs room to move!

Annslee enjoyed bulkhead because it gave her some play room. This is on the short flight from Hanoi to Taipei (on the LONG one she slept 9 hours YAY)

If you have to ever have a long layover (ours was 8 hrs) then Taipei is the place to do it. This is just one of the great play areas they have. They also have many nursery rooms with couches and cribs ~ Sweet!

They do love their Hello Ki*tty there!

Such a great big sister helping him on his first slide ride : )

She charmed the flight attendants on each flight and here she is in the San Fran airport with the crew. We were waiting for Coby's immigration papers to clear and yes, Mark got in trouble for taking this picture : )

Eating a chicken nugget from Burg*er King in the San Fran airport (we had a 7 hr layover here and no fun play areas) Her first taste of "American" food in almost 2 weeks and I think she is enjoying it!

Our newest US Citizen!!! I forgot to pack a flag for him to hold like I did with Annslee and couldn't find one in the airport. He does have his red straw though.

We were entertained by a "puppet show" at the airport

After almost 34 hours of flying or being in the airport we almost missed our last flight (we would have CRIED) Luckily this was right by the gate and we were happy about that for sure!

Mia was at the airport waiting on us and what a wonderful sight to see!

I think she is happy to be home!!

He loved his baths in Vietnam but apparently not so much now.

Now I fully understand how hard it is to get two looking at the camera and smiling ; 0

Gigi is here!!!

Sweet boy~ he is so tired and can't get his schedule down yet. As you know he loves his two fingers just like Annslee but he also rubs the back of his head with the other hand just like she did!!

We are blessed beyond measure. Our church friends have provided dinner each night and all of your prayers are felt. I promise to post more later!!

We Are HOME!!!

I don't have the time or energy to post now but wanted to let you all know we are home. Poor daddy had to go into work and I am getting things done here...both kids are sleeping.

Here is a pic I have waited on ~ Coby sleeping in his own bed at HOME!!!



I promise I will catch up later!

Heading Home

We are leaving for the airport in a few hours to come home! We will be either in the air or in airports for the next 36 HOURS!! I am not looking forward to that part at all but will be thrilled to sleep in my own bed and brush my teeth with tap water : )

Please keep us in your prayers as we travel. Coby is a very LOUD crier so pray for the other passengers as well.

See you on the other side of the world!!

My Twins

I think blogger is finally playing along but honestly my babyjellybeans site is loading the pics faster so I will just stay over there for now : ) I hope you all are able to see the pics and I love reading the comments. I just wanted to toss this one on here as it is my new favorite!You can also see that he has only one "boil" left. They say it is from the "heat inside his body" He fell and bumped his head and burst the other one and now it is almost gone. I swear I want to just pop this one too!

Pictures, updates, etc

Hey everyone..sorry if I led some of you to believe we are home already..we arrive Monday morning. Anyway, I added a new page to Coby's site and added pics to the Shopping entry. I will try to journal some tonight. Last night's sleep was much better..thank you for the prayers. Our travelmates are doing much better too.

Oh, and the password is removed from Coby's site so everyone head on over!

We are fine!

Just wanting to touch base and let everyone know we are fine. It has been a whirlwind and now he is grieving hard so no one is sleeping. I will try and post more later....

A family of four!

Not sure if this will post as Blogger isn't cooperating....anyway, we are finally a family of FOUR!! You can check out the pics on Coby's site on the sidebar. Love to all!!!

COBY HERE WE COME!!!!

We got our approval!!!!! We leave on Wednesday and will have Coby on Friday (Thursday night here) Yes, you are reading this correctly! I obviously have no time to do much else but get ready so you may not hear from me until we are in Vietnam!!! Praise God all our prayers are answered and sweet boy will be opening gifts under the tree with his big sister this year!!