Cousins!!

We didn't do the big family group picture this year and that is disappointing. That also meant no big cousin photo but I did manage to take a few myself : ) Obviously we spent most of our time with these four but there are 7 others who aren't in these.....

This collage was on Friday night for the High School Musical 2 premiere. There was a dance party before the pizza and movie started : ) You can see Annslee danced some and then decided she would be the photographer for the event.








She really enjoyed having so much play time with the big girls!!

My Beach Bum

One of her favorite things to do was wave jumping! She especially loved it when cousin Will helped Daddy jump her really HIGH!! I really needed the video camera for this because you could hear her squeals of delight as they did it over and over!

Most mornings we made it down to the beach ahead of everyone else. The older kids liked to sleep in and watch some TV for a while but Annslee was happy to go along with me to the water. Daddy golfed a few mornings so we had some "girl time"



We had a rule this year that she was great about doing. We told her she had to yell Mama or Daddy before heading to the water. She was so excited about filling her bucket that we were afraid she would just walk to the water on her own but she usually remembered and it was a very high pitched LOUD yell but we didn't mind : )

A water squirt bottle was one of her favorite toys and she used it to spray herself or chase others.

Ok Mamarazzi ...enough already...I am trying to just chill out!

Last year it was all about the ocean but this year she enjoyed playing in the sand as well

When she wasn't jumping the waves, she was riding them ; )

Beach Time

As I said before she loved the beach, pool and family attention this year as much as last. She ran into the waves gathering water, played in the sand and of course begged us to take her to the pool : )

In case you were wondering, Mama was at the beach! I am behind the camera most of the time but Daddy snapped this one of us playing.



There are two distinctive sets of kids on our beach trip. In the "older" set there are 9 kids in the 6-9 year old range and then the "younger" set has 3 kids aged 4 months to almost 3 years old. Annslee is the oldest of the younger set and this time next year there will be three new babies at the beach! However, at this point she wants to be one of the "big" kids so she joined in on the bingo game. At first Payton was helping her but then she was doing it on her own : )


As usual she was very expressive about her excitement when the tide came in!

We did miniature golf one night and she loved it. She was excited every time her ball went in.

Here is our family picture. The wind was blowing very hard as you can see...

Back to reality & a huge thanks..

Our vacation is over and we are home trying to unpack and put things away. I am organizing the 500+ pictures I took and as any of you with a toddler knows, about a fourth could be deleted .. I promise more beach photos are on the way.

I was delighted to find a package on my porch from my Secret Buddy. I loved participating in our China DTC secret buddy trade while waiting for Annslee. It really helps make the time pass and for me, makes our upcoming baby seem "real" I love getting things for Malia and it convinces me that she really will be home to enjoy it all someday : )

It arrived beautifully wrapped but Annslee was napping so I had to wait to open it

My sweet secret buddy was kind enough to include something for Annslee! She was obviously thrilled with her Disney Princess sidewalk chalk! It also helped her accept that the rest of the goodies were for Malia.

Here is all our loot!! WOW...two pair of cozy Carter's PJs, a beautiful ladybug nightlight (which Annslee insisted we try out), a door hanger with Malia's name and a dragonfly on it and of course the chalk.

Thank you so much SB... you are the BEST !

A glimpse...

As you may have guessed we are having online issues here at the beach...but I finally was able to get on for a second so here are a few more pics : )



Here she is with cousin Payton...these two are inseparable




She is trying to tell me she hears the cousins calling her from the beach so we need to hurry..this is her impression of how they are yelling for her LOL



Of course not one photo has all of them looking ...



I am flipping out over the lack of internet ha ha

Vacation begins!!!

Our beach vacation began by meeting up with Daddy and then heading to our cousin's house. They have a pool so I am sure you can tell where this is heading....

As you can see from the pictures she is getting great at swimming underwater. The problem is she doesn't seem to realize she needs to come up for air, so like Josie's mom said, we feel like we are "saving" her all the time. Of course Miss Independent keeps getting angry with us for daring to touch her when she can do it all by herself!!




She swam a lot but was willing to take a very short break with Mama : )



She then decided she needed to go off the diving board like the big girls were. It is 9 feet deep so I told her she had to wear her floaties (she was NOT happy) so she would pop back up for me to get her. Finally she talked us into not wearing them but no pictures of that because Daddy and I both had to be there to grab her!



I think Cousin James may have gotten some huge brownie points by making her homemade ice cream..she even sat in his lap for a while. Gage is only two months younger than Annslee so it was fun watching them play. They played a lot of hide n seek!!

We are at the beach now YAY.... here is a sneak peek picture of my beach girl. I love this photo but believe me, she is not so serious 99% of the time she is here. Just like last year, she heads straight for the water and loves jumping the waves with the bigger cousins (of course Mama or Daddy are holding her hand) There will be plenty more coming : )

The Graduate

Tonight we went to Annslee's graduation from Rainbow Early Intervention. As you all know (from listening to me gripe about it) she didn't qualify for our state's early intervention but she did receive services from our local agency. Tonight they held a ceremony for all the kids who will soon move into the school system as they turn three. Miss Donna will still be coming to our house for a few more months and we will really miss her when that is over.

Here is the proud graduate! She was able to choose her cap and gown color...no surprise that she chose purple : )

As she marched across the bridge to receive her diploma she became very serious.....

YAY...I did it !!! She proceeded to carry it around cheering for herself.... you go Annslee!!!

She spotted Miss Donna and had to jump in her lap. She was busy holding her daughter Ainsley but was happy to have another little one on her lap.

We had fun hanging out with other familes and watching the kids. She is going to be tested in the next few weeks by the school system and if I have to camp out at the school board I will but she WILL be getting the help she needs soon. I don't know why they test receptive and expressive together but luckily the school system doesn't so I know she will qualify for speech therapy. Ok, Mama rant over...I will go look at my happy girl now : )

Football Time...at last!!!

Well, it is finally football season and we are thrilled. I love summer but there is something magical about football season beginning. We love to go to the games and can watch them all day on a Saturday or Sunday, so when Mia's daddy called and said they were heading over to watch training camp practice of course we wanted to go along!

I found Annslee's jersey and she grabbed her football and we headed out!

Mama, I am ready to go! I know I am her Mama so I am terribly biased but she looked so stinkin cute!!

When we arrived we found Mia and the fun began. They threw the football around, looked for ducks in the river, fought over the football, ate some Cheez-Its and generally made a lot of noise ; )


They found a little pile of sand to play in and this picture is for Mia's mama. I kept telling Annslee I was going to show it to Miss Jenny to prove she was putting sand in Mia's hair...ok, Miss Jenny you can "get her" now!! I loved these pictures of the girls running!! They are laughing very loudly and I really enjoyed the looks on the faces of those around them...yeah, they are good at spreading joy!



Did I mention it was HOT...no breeze either. The girls were drenched in sweat and looked like they had been swimming. Of course, they didn't seem to mind


I was at B*rder's last night, looking for a "beach read" and Eddie George was there....man, he is HUGE in person... ha ha Of course that was just another football moment for the weekend.

New Look!!

I left a comment on mommy24treasures about her new blog design and how I wish she could help me. I swear I never imagined that she would spend her time doing one for me!! I got an email this morning saying she had made a header for me and had chosen some of Annslee's expressive pictures to use and what did I think? I LOVE IT!!! I sent her my username and password and so here it is. I am so touched that one of my bloggy buddies, whom I have never met in person, would take the time and initiative to do this for me. Big cyber *smooches* and {{hugs}} to my friend!!! If you haven't already, you need to go check out her blog and her beautiful family.

Here are a few pics of Annslee with a new look ; )

An afternoon outing

Well, our yearly Zoo membership is officially up. I will renew of course! We decided to go after nap and amazingly the animals seemed more active in the afternoon. It was HOT but we managed to last until they closed down : )

Here she is at the "old entrance" hanging out with the Lions...the only ones at our Zoo. I am not sure why both of them have a paw on a ball since anyone who has been to China knows one clearly should have a paw on a baby lion...guess they haven't been to China. It reminds me of our trip when one of the moms in our group kept asking our tour guide "what does the ball symoblize?" You know, everything we saw seemed to "mean" something. Finally our guide just said "sometimes a ball is just a ball" ha ha

The lion needed a hug from Annslee and Cloudy (her clouded leopard)

We have never seen both tigers out and about...they were even playing in the water!!

The Red Panda is her second favorite animal...of course the Clouded Leopard is still number one!

I have to wonder if this is what the Zoo keepers want..to see my sweet girl's face when the African Wild Dogs are not on display..AGAIN!! They were at the vet this time and this sad face is for real : (

I couldn't take that face for long so we headed to the rain room and then the carousel : )


Back by popular demand..VIDEO!! We were in the bouncy area and a young guy (around 17) who works at the Zoo was walking around reminding everyone that they were closing in 15 minutes. Annslee decided he would make a great playmate and he sweetly agreed. I know the quality is bad and I am not sure why but you can still see her letting Cloudy jump and then she follows up behind him : )

A Meme

I was tagged with a meme by Kimberly over at 3 peanuts so here goes.... after reading you can go check out her three cuties on her blog..


5 Things I Was Doing 10 Years Ago
1) being 31 and still single (that would end up lasting 5 more years LOL)
2) teaching high school
3) dating the wrong person/obviously since I married the right one 5 years later
4) showering everyday and going potty without company : )
5) weighing less than I do now : (

5 Snacks I Enjoy
1) chips & guacamole or salsa
2) fresh fruit
3) cheese
4) anything mint (mint choc chip ice cream, York pep patties)
5) is coffee a snack..hmmm..I do love it

5 Songs I Know All the Lyrics to:
1) any Barney or Backyardigans song, the Dragon Tales, Lazy Town & Sagwa themes
2) any church camp song
3) Sweet Home Alabama
4) most country songs
5) watching Singing Bee I realized I know all the words to Take Me Home Country Roads (John Denver)

5 Things I Would Do If I Were a Millionaire:
1) bring more babies home and donate to their orphanages
2) save/Invest so we wouldn't have to worry about $$
3) college fund
4) redecorate the house/curtains/some new furniture
5) donate to some charities

5 Bad Habits:
1) Snacking
2) Procrastination
3) Blogging (according to hubby)
4) Being a slob
5) Not always sending cards (bdays, anniv, etc...)

5 Things I Like To Do:
1) Spend time with Annslee and hubby
2) Think of new fun things to do with Annslee during the day
3) Blog, read blogs/adoption boards, etc..
4) Read books/magazines
5) Be a stay at home mom

5 Things I Would Never Wear Again:
1) tube tops
2) permed hair
3) blue eye shadow
4) a "real"bikini (I do the tankini thing now)
5) anything without a bra (especially the tube top)

5 Favorite Things:
1) my laptop
2) comcast dvr
3) my camera (shocked I know)
4) flipflops...seriously, I love them (sorry Kelly)
5) Target..ha ha

Anne is right..she tagged me for this one too last week but I was too excited about posting the Bungee jumping to remember. Go check out her blog..she is a sweetie : )

I am suppose to tag 5 people now but instead I will just say..if you want to play along..do it!!