Christmas Morning

I was in the kitchen and thought I heard someone upstairs...then I saw her peeking through the railing saying "what you doin Mommy?" I grabbed the camera, woke up Daddy and we were ready!




Santa brought her a Puppet Theater. She LOVES doing puppet shows and now has a stage for it




Don't worry, he didn't forget the trash can she asked for : )



Her favorite thing in her stocking was the bowl with a straw ~ go figure ; )

Each morning she asks "wake up baby Coby" and of course we say no. The minute she hears him she will scream "My baby Coby awake" and runs up the stairs to get him. She then is in charge of feeding him his bottle...it is the sweetest thing ever : )







Checking out Coby's gift from Santa

As expected he enjoyed the paper and boxes best

Toasting with apple juice during the Dis*ney parade

She got an playdough ice cream maker

The beauty of being 4 is thinking a Ginger*bread House that looks like this is beautiful!! Seriously, I must have mixed the icing wrong and it was just not workable...she loved it though so that is all that matters : )

Christmas Eve Recap

We always get together with my family on Christmas Eve and this year it was at my brother's house. Coby loved it because there were a lot of people and noise (I think we bore him)

Here is a pic of all the kids~ funny my nephew Jacob said about Coby coming home "finally another boy" Hmmmm, looking at this pic I think it is Shelby and Annslee who are outnumbered!

He loved looking at the tree with Uncle Gary

Some of the crew (yes, Annslee insisted on wearing her "fancy" dress again...she has gotten good use from it for sure)

Annslee was literally surrounded by gifts~ everyone thinks she is so much fun to buy for! She also is a great receiver as she squeals and hugs : )

I love this hat she got~ it has matching gloves and a purse too

Growing up we got to open two gifts from our parents on Christmas Eve ~ an ornament and new PJs

Coby's says "baby's first Christmas"

Annslee's is a 2008 Beijing Olympic ornament with the Panda mascot

After we got home she left out a brownie, milk and peanut M&M's for Santa

Of course we also put the "magic key" outside as our fireplace is a gas one so Santa couldn't use it

*Coming soon~ Christmas Morning!!!

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!