Chuc Mung Sinh Nhat/ Happy Birthday!!

Our sweet boy turned ONE today!!! We missed Annslee's 1st birthday by 3 weeks so it was really nice having him home for this one!

We started off the day with Annslee singing to him...I don't have pics but I do have it on video. Then Annslee went to school while we went to see friends. Tyler is only 7 weeks older than Coby and of course since they are so little they don't really play together. There was a lot of parallel play and a little fussing over wanting the same thing.



Jana and I had to take something to the car so we put up the gate and carried it downstairs as quickly as we could. They did NOT appreciate being left behind!



We got home from picking up Annslee and they went up for a nap. Annslee put on her dress from China to be "dressy" for his birthday. After they awoke from their nap we were surprised by a delivery from Catalyst Foundation for Coby. Annslee of course wanted to assist in him opening it! Seriously, don't you love the "I love you sooo much" choke hold she has on him!

The balloons were a huge hit!




He literally played with them for over an hour~ hmmm, I see more balloons around here!



The gift was the beautiful (and yummy smelling) cupcake and this stuffed lion. The dog in the pic is Brownie (Annslee's dog) and she has named the lion Yellowie LOL



When Daddy got home it was time to open gifts! Annslee was so gracious to help out




We got Chinese food (hey, we went to a Vietnamese restaurant on her Family Day) and then it was time for cake! A few months ago Denise let me know that she had some Winn*ie the Po0h 1st birthday supplies that I could have so of course I said yes. Annslee then announced he should have an Elm0 party like she did on her first one. Hmmmm, so I took the cake toppers she had on her cake three years ago and put them on his cake tonight and she was thrilled : )






I have no idea what he is thinking but the face cracks me up


I lit the candle and Annslee reached over quickly and grabbed his hand saying "no no Baby Coby" She was really concerned about him touching the candle and blew it out quickly! She sometimes "reads" us a story out of the bible and it always involves Baby Je*sus touching a candle and his mom and dad are not happy...guess she thought Coby might do the same : )



Now it is Annslee's facial expression cracking me up....he has no idea what to do with this cake but she sure does!




See, you just put your hand right in the middle of the cake Coby~ it is really fun!


Ok, enough of this...try some icing off this fork!

He never really got into the cake but I still think he had a great day! Happy Birthday sweet boy. We are so blessed to have you in our lives and can't wait to celebrate many more with you!!

Faces of Coby & I will not win mom of the year!

Thank you to all who asked about Annslee's first day back at school. Well, we got up, got ready and all with no problem. It was going GREAT!! I loaded them both in the car and we were on our way. As I approached the school I noticed the parking lot was EMPTY at a little after 7 am~ yeah, they don't start back until tomorrow!! As we turned back into our neighborhood I heard a sweet little voice from the back seat say "Good try Mommy" ha ha The good news is our "dry run" went well : )

We did play a lot today and then it was nap time. Coby woke up before Annslee and so I took the opportunity to take some pics after his snack.

This is his "seriously are you not giving me more veggie puffs?" face

This represents the ONLY thing I miss about my old camera~ now that you have to look throught the viewfinder I find it harder to center when I am trying to make them laugh

Hmmm, that little smirk~ I think we are in trouble around here (not that we weren't already)

Check out those two new teeth coming in the back~ explains the drool but I love that smile! (you may need to enlarge to see the new teeth)

He is a master climber and is already into the cabinets. He puts everything in his mouth and messes with anything he can get his hands on. Annslee didn't so I don't know if it is just being a boy or just his personality. He will be walking soon so we better watch out!

*For those of you keeping score, he has been with us for one month today!!! Amazing what a month can do for a baby (and the rest of his family) Of course the obvious change in pics is his skin and hair which is becoming so much healthier (for those who have asked his hair is more of a medium brown than black) Spending 20 hrs a day in a crib can take its toll but he is really becoming comfortable with us now and showing more of his personality. He still will not play on the floor alone unless one of us is in the room but I hope as he becomes more secure that will change. We are just so BLESSED!!!!

Just some pics

This is how they can be found most mornings~ Annslee insists on feeding him his morning bottle and she loves hot milk then too~ funny how she is holding his and he is reaching up to "hold" hers : )

Last night she wanted to try on the outfit he took off. It is a size 6-9 months and I couldn't believe she could snap it. She wore it around for a pretty long time as she thought it was so funny!

When you fall asleep eating your beloved sweet potatoes~ it is time for a nap!

We had a low key weekend and that was perfect! Annslee goes back to school tomorrow after being out over a month. She says she doesn't want to go b/c she will miss Baby Coby. I am sure that is partly true and also she wants to stay home with me if he is. Hopefully things will go well in the morning : )

Also, Coby has added Daddy to his list of words..we have been saying DaDa over and over but he actually says "Da Dee" Annslee is soooo anxious for him to say her name. We told her to try getting him to say NaNa but she wants Sissy, which is harder. Funny, sometimes when he just babbles she says "Coby say big sister in Viet Vam" as in he is saying it in Vietnamese LOL

New Year's Eve

This is late but wanted to post it anyway. We didn't do anything major as we prefer to stay home. This didn't stop Annslee from dressing in her holiday best LOL

Coby also decided to get festive by trying to eat his foot

I thought I'd get a pic of them together on NYE in front of the tree...well Coby didn't agree with my plan!

Our neighbor's got home from China with their daughter Wendi in November and they came over to visit with us

Wendi's mom took a turn holding Coby

He loved playing with the girls

Wendi had never done "dress up" but Annslee was happy to show her how!

She also introduced her to the joy of watching "Tink*erbell" It was really funny b/c her English is coming along and she would literally repeat everything Annslee said. At home, her Dad speaks only English to her and her mom speaks only Mandarin~ She sweetly calls Annslee JieJie all the time.

Annslee really wanted to watch the ball drop but this is how she looked at 11:45~ soooo close!

I hope you all had a safe and happy new year!! I know 2008 was rough for many and we all had our ups and downs. For our family two wonderful things happened this year~ Coby was born and he came home with us and for those things we are grateful. I hope 2009 has many belssings in store for all of us!

2008 in Review

Every year I go back over my posts and put in the first sentence of the first post of each month. Sometimes it is interesting and sometimes not..but here goes : ) I snagged this idea from Nikki a long time ago so do it on your blog too if you like!

• We started off our new year going to the pediatrician.
• I know she enjoys her dance class and gymnastics is so much fun.
• It was 60 degrees today and will be 70 tomorrow!
• I wanted to get this "on paper" so I wouldn't forget ~ She has had an explosion of vocabulary lately.
• Our agency is still trying to sort through child dossiers and we still don't really feel confident about a referral.
• We've done the free movie at our theater, dance class, the pool daily, picked up our revised homestudy to send to VN, gone to VBS kickoff, and every afternoon we have gone to swim lessons : )
• On Saturday we headed to the church BBQ at the church I grew up in.
• Daddy had his 20 year high school reunion and we went up a little early to play at the Zoo!
• Three years ago today we received the call that would forever change our lives. The words "you have a daughter" were such beautiful music to my ears.
• 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.
• Well, Princess Jas*mine made her debut last night.
• I usually love flipping the calendar over to December. It means Chris*tmas is close and the holiday season and all the fun that means is starting. A local radio station plays holiday music all day and it is on in my car. My tree is up and the house is becoming festive. I must admit though that this year it also is all a reminder that Chris*tmas is so close and yet our son is still so far away. I am still hopeful that he will be home for Chris*tmas and we will all be around our tree enjoying our day together. Please join me in the prayer that it really happens. In the meantime I will still try to get in the Spirit of the holidays. Having a very excited four year old definitely helps with that : ) (I put the whole paragraph for this one ~ just thought it was appropriate )
  
  
  Now a photo look back..starting with a picture from January '08 and ending with one from December '08!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Wishing all of you a Happy New Year! May 2009 be a year of joy and peace for you and your family!

How to have fun in the bath

for Coby at least, the answer is~ add one Big Sister!! He has not enjoyed bath time at all until tonight when we put Annslee in with him and he LOVED it. He splashed around and had a great time. He loved it when she poured water in his face~ yep, I think he will be at the pool all summer like his sister!








*A video would have been better as getting pictures was kind of hard and the laughs were the best!!*

Playing with friends

On Saturday night we decided to go to a local Vietnamese restaurant and invited a few local families to join us. Only Tracy and her crew were able to and we had such a good time.

Annslee showing off the peace signs she learned in Vietnam...it cracks me up that kids all over Asia seem to do this and I have no idea why?

Our attempts at a group shot were not very successful as either Jack didn't want in or Coby wanted to crawl away! (Annslee and Amelia are from China and Jack and Coby are from Vietnam)

We then went to the play area at the mall and Coby loved it b/c there were tons of kids and noise

Annslee is saying "look at Mama"

Ok..they aren't looking at me but up at the Daddys making faces...still pretty good

Super cuties hanging out

Ok..now at least Coby and Ansnlee are looking~ Jack and Amelia were still interested in our "helper" : )

Minutes before the "I am a baby, it is late melt down" : )

* On a sidenote...he said his first English word. Well, we are pretty sure he said it in Vietnam too but now he is doing it consitently. When you wave and say bye bye to him he does it back. Clear as a bell too. Now he does say Ma Ma over and over but he was doing that the day we met him referring to the nannies. He now may be referring to me but since that was also a Vietnamese word I guess bye bye is his first English one : ) We really didn't realize how non verbal Annslee was until now. Coby literally "talks" all the time!!