My little gymnast

Today we went to our first class and to say she had a blast would be a huge understatement. When we walked in her eyes lit up and she literally squealed with joy!! She ran straight for the trampoline and loved jumping and falling down and bouncing back up.

I thought she was going to spend all of her "free play" time on the trampoline but then she spotted the monkey bars! She got on the rails all by herself and was able to get across about three rails before falling. I was really impressed with her upper body strength. Of course she then wanted to swing her legs up and try dangling upside down....great ; )

During the session times she got to walk across bars like a bear, do a head stand and of course flips!!

I knew she would enjoy all the tumbling, climbing and jumping but I was totally thrilled at how well she did during circle time and taking turns with the other kids. I really loved watching her cheer for the other kids when they took their turn.

We can't wait until our next time.

Our referral weekend tradition continues....

For the third year in a row we spent our referral weekend celebrating with Mia's family. When they arrrived of course Annslee tackled Mia!

We had planned on going down to the pool but we adults opted to hang out at the house and let them just play in the front yard. We went outside to set up the pool, water table and sprinkler and the girls watched anxiously from inside. Annslee has 3 of her much loved orange pillows and she let Mia hold one of them...a huge step for her!!

They had a blast just playing in the water.

We came inside and ate then it was time for ice cream. As you can see they really wanted that freezer open so they could get to it : ) They also enjoyed playing upstairs and then 'pretending' to be asleep. We can't wait to keep this tradition going...the girls really do have such a great time together...and so do we

Here is a picture of the girls from last year (Sept.2006)

Go here to see more of the girls together last year.

Just for your viewing pleasure here we are 2 years ago holding the pictures we had just received...we look more rested but we certainly weren't having as much fun!

Two years ago today

I was sitting at my desk at work and stalking the boards...the first referral came in but not as far out as my LID so I still had to wait (we didn't have RQ back then)....oh my gosh, what a wonderful day!!! Last year I wrote about the one year anniversary of our referral and included journal entries from the actual day..go here to read that. I promise it is worth reading so you can see how crazy I was that day wondering if my LID would be included! This was back when they were doing a month at a time and so it covered January 26 through February 27...yep, left off one day in February. I remember my DTC Lovebugs group being so upset about that. We had so many with a Feb 28 LID and it was hard for them and for those of us who were sad for them. I cannot imagine how it is now with only days at a time referred. I know I was amazed to realize that our gotcha day (11/14/05) was just in this last batch of referrals!

I will put one thing I wrote 2 years ago here for all my waiting mommy friends. This is what I wrote about looking at our referral packet after it arrived. I just want you all to know it WILL happen for you : )

He got home and with shaking hands and anxious hearts we tore it open and there you were!!! We stared at your face because it was absolutely beautiful. In that sweet moment all the paperwork, struggles and months of waiting disappeared. We were getting the first glimpse of our precious baby girl : )There was also a lot of paperwork in the package with details about you! Most of it was in Mandarin so I knew I would need to take it to our neighbor Jenny to translate. I grabbed the Acceptance document and Daddy and I signed it immediately. There was no question on that one..you were OURS and we were one step closer to bringing you home.

As many other parents do, we take a photo of Annslee on our referral anniversary holding her referral photo (she was 6 months old in her referral pic)

Here she is on the one year anniversary. If you click on this link it will take you to all the pictures in last year's photo session : )

September 1, 2006



Here is our photo session from today....she is growing up so fast!








Seeing her face for the first time was so incredible and then having to wait 10 weeks to travel was torture. It seems like she has been with us forever and we cannot even remember what we did before having her in our arms. She is everything we wished, hoped and prayed for in a daughter.

We love you baby girl!!

Fairest of the Fair

Last night we went to a local county fair and Annslee had a blast! I grew up going to this fair and I swear it was bigger back then (or was I just smaller??) I was a little concerned when we got to the gate because you had to be 36 inches tall to ride the rides and I didn't think she was that tall. I put her up to the mark on the wall and she barely was tall enough. I am still not sure she is 3 feet tall but she made it in on their mark so that is all I cared about . Anyway, we met up with Mia and her Mom and Dad and the fun began! When the girls saw each other they literally ran into each other's arms so make sure you make it to the end of the post and check out the video!

We started out on the carousel then we spotted a Dragon ride. Well with her love of Dragon Tales she just had to ride it. We let the Daddy's go along and do the spinning (I did ride it later and thought I would puke LOL)

Mia wasn't really sure she wanted to ride and it is hard to see but in the first pic Annslee is patting her back and trying to reassure her...too sweet

Daddy went to get the girls some ice cream while we let them ride some more. I don't have a picture of it but at one point Annslee and Mia were holding hands and Annslee raised Mia's arm and gave it a kiss Awwww

We were still on a ride when she spotted Daddy with her ice cream and she started yelling STOP to the guy running it...she really wanted off for her treat. This picture is for Emma's mama, yep she is wearing a bib ha ha

As you can see she polished hers off way before Mia so I think she is checking Mia's out !

She rode everything she was tall enough to ride and really wanted to bungee but you had to weigh 40 pounds so she couldn't do it. She did enjoy picking out little boats and won this Dalmation who then went on rides with her.

She loved the helicopter ride and kept saying HIGH as it lifted her up in the air




Riding the horse was another highlight of the night

It was hot and she was sweaty but loved going down the big slide with Daddy

Here is the promised video...this was taken when we first arrived : )

*I added this to the Foto Challenge of BFF this week over on Loving Lydia..go check out others : )

Third time's charm

I have been tagged with the middle name meme by 3 people now so I guess I really better do it. I was tagged by Kelly, Rony and Anne ... Dannye said she tagged me but I was not on the list so she can't get onto me for taking so long LOL


You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had. When you are tagged, you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged & to read your blog!

I am using Annslee's middle name JiaNa.

Joy in everything. I try to find joy in this journey to our second daughter. With our wait for Annslee I was all consumed with it and frustrated a lot. I admit in the last few weeks I have really been that way with this journey but I am trying to work through it. I also find immense joy in watching my beautiful almost three year old *sigh* go through her day. She really does get so excited about the simple things and I am working on learning from her. I love watching her discover new things and her laugh is certainly contagious.

Intense fear, dread and feeling utterly inadequate to answer the hard questions I know are coming. I won't go into a lot of detail here, that post is coming, but Annslee has already asked the "tummy" question and I just sat there not knowing what to say. I have read all the books, listened to BTDT parents and still I was not prepared! Yes, we talk about China, airplanes, etc... but of course I thought we had a year or so more before this came up! I know we are living in a bubble right now and we are just Mama and Daddy but the day is coming when that will not be enough.

An amazing family. I love spending time with our family and extended family. We have a large family by most standards and it is so much fun. Watching Annslee play with her cousins is particularly wonderful. I love, love, love being a SAHM now. My birthday gift this year was turning in my notice at work and it was the best gift I have ever received. Yes, it is a very difficult job but so rewarding.

Never throw things out. Seriously, I am such a pack rat. Hey, you never know when you'll need something again, right? I am a clutter bug too and keeping my house straight with all my stuff and a two year old is really no fun!

All things Asian, Adoption, and Annslee!! I love reading about China, Vietnam and adoption and hopefully learning all I can. My favorite food is Thai and I would love to learn how to cook Asian food at home so I could have it more often. The Annslee part..well that is obvious!! What is not to love about a girl who gives huge hugs and kisses!!

I know this Meme has been making its rounds so it is difficult to tag someone who hasn't done it already. I will tag Michelle , Kim , Mer, Stacie , & Sherry

Just my crazy girl

When Elmo is talking about jackets and it is 100 degrees outside of course you have to put on a jacket too! I am happy to report we are about to experience a cold front, highs in the low 90's this weekend..YAY



The other night she came running to me wanting me to see what she had drawn on her Magnadoodle. She kept doing her sign for scissors and when I looked there they were. I thought she did a great job!



How can my girl sleeping like an angel....



wake up with hair like this??!! Seriously, I go through bottles of hair detangler...what is up? She looks like Medusa (the hair I mean...not my sweet girl) I think I should send some to Johnson & Johnson and get her in a commercial : )

*Yes, she has been wearing her Ariel nightgown every night. LOL

Meeting friends

On Sunday we were lucky enough to meet up with Emma and the Boys for lunch and some playtime. We "met" them in our DTC group back in 2005 when we were waiting for our daughters Annslee and Emma. We had planned on doing an SEC red couch photo but they ended up travelling three weeks before us so we never got to do that photo or meet in person. Both of our daughters are from the Hubei province and so of course we have to stay close : )

We took a boat ride in the hotel and here is our group photo. I wasn't able to scan it yet so here is a picture of the picture. It isn't as good as the real thing but you can still see how beautiful their family is : ) and of course 2/3 of ours is too LOL Oh, and check out the cute green ladybug purse Emma brought Annslee : )

While we waited for them to arrive Annslee was looking at the fish. I asked her what the fish were doing and this was her impression. Not really sure if the fish were standing on one fin or not?



As you all know, Annslee is an agressive hugger and poor Emma got a few of these. Aren't these Hubei honeys beautiful!



They just got back three weeks ago with their sweet son Sam. This picture didn't turn out very good (I need a new camera...indoor shots are an issue) but I still wanted to post it b/c Sam received one of her big hugs as well. Oh, and that is a Curious George tattoo..she has one on each arm.

At the restaurant Annslee was intrigued by the man playing guitar. Daddy requested 'Brown Eyed Girl' and she obviously enjoyed it. Our friends were impressed with her pole climbing abilities and we all made the joke about Daddy not liking his daughter on a pole. I have to say, in her defense, she thinks she is Spider Woman and likes to climb walls as well.

There was a huge water works display and water was shooting up in the air splashing all of us. My water girl thought it was great!



She did fall at one point on the slippery stairs and cut her lip. Julie told her a story about Emma cutting her lip and it seemed to calm Annslee's cries. However, she still was in a bad mood about it and hopes of a group kid photo were put aside.



Daddy held her for a while after the fall and she watched the fountain safely from his arms



A final goodbye hug...I love this picture. Annslee is so into it with her eyes closed and Emma is sweetly just hanging onto her



Of course a kiss goodbye was in order too



I cannot say enough what an amazing family they are and they have 5 gorgeous children. The three older boys are so great with the little ones. We had such a great time hanging out and hope we can see each other again soon!

Everybody does it

and I am no exception. When packing for the beach every Mama looks for the perfect beach outfit for that photo session. You know the one, you force your toddler into a dress, drag them out on the beach and then say "come on...smile, enjoy!!" I had my little white dress hanging in the closet all ready but one night I had her in her flower dress and just thought she looked so beautiful I took her to the beach and took a few.I love this dress on her..the colors are perfect. The wind was blowing so hard I thought it would knock her down but she thought it was pretty funny. The only thing she didn't like was the sand blowing so we made sure we went down to the water to alleviate that. Of course my sunlight sensitive girl then let me know the sun was in her eyes : )

As usual I waited until our last night at the beach to do her planned white dress photo shoot. I need to do it earlier in the week when she is not so sick of seeing my camera in her face LOL Obviously I think she is beautiful but I have to admit she was not happy doing it and so it wasn't that much fun for either of us. Luckily we brought her kite along and she was so anxious to do that for the first time it made her cooperate for a minute.

Daddy got the kite into the air and this was her reaction seeing it. She had watched people flying them all week and wanted to do it herself so she was pretty excited!

Here she is actually holding the string...flying a kite for the first time. I think it is pretty clear how much fun she is having! (don't worry, Daddy had the handle/string in his hand so she is in no danger of being hurt by holding it like this....)

Daddy took over and she enjoyed trying to jump up and catch it.


After jumping for the kite for a while she headed to the water and did some jump and spin moves. I tried to catch her facing me but never did. When I looked at this one I noticed how far off the ground she is...such joy!

My beautiful girl...I am one lucky Mama!

*ok..I know you are all sick of the beach pics so you will be happy to know this is the last one : )