Golfing with Daddy

Daddy bought Annslee her first real golf club. She had the plastic kind but refused to use them. He also got her some purple golf balls so you know she was thrilled with that. She had a great time and as usual her facial expressions were cracking us up.

I am trying something new with picassa...just click on the photo below and it will take you to the rest of the pictures. You can choose slideshow to see them best. Enjoy!

Golf

Molly update and random pics

I got an email from Lolly and Molly is home from the hospital. She is responding to the treatments and will be under the care of a specialist. They hope she continues to improve but they also realize this is a potentially lifelong illness and they will need to be careful and watch for signs of a reoccurence. I know they appreciate your continued prayers for Molly. I am just so happy she is home from the hospital and headed in the right direction. God is good!

You know I don't do "non photo posts" so here are a few more from yesterday.

When we got home from the festival I tried to put her down for a nap but apparently she thought her power nap in the car was enough. After waiting about 15 minutes and realizing she wasn't going to sleep we headed across the street to the neighbor's to swim.



At the festival a woman was selling things made from old blue jeans and we got Annslee this apron. She loved wearing it and you can see she had taken her ponytail holder out so her hair is wild! Oh, and I will have to post photos of the cute little purses we bought that were made from blue jean shorts (they were called booty bags)

Ponytails & a Strawberry Festival

Last night when dad was on his way home Annslee wanted to show him that her hair would go in a ponytail. I had to rush to put it up and then she ran to the window to watch for him. We didn't even have time to throw on some shorts (for her I mean)

Hey Mama..here he is!!

Daddy..tuck your head down like this


Today we headed to the 66th Annual Strawberry Festival. It is the first time we've ever gone but thought it would be fun. Annslee wanted a purple dragonfly on her face and after that we walked around enjoying all the homemade goodies and fun.

Her love for corn on the cob was satisfied with a roasted one on a stick. She thought it was really funny for us each to eat on it at the same time.

A man was there drawing pictures of people and so we thought it would be neat to do one. He did this in about 6 minutes of a two year old who did not want to sit very still or look at him. She was really busy looking around and seeing what to do next. It is a great drawing but hubby and I disagree about whether it looks like her or not...I vote, not really... but I still love it : )

Prayers Needed!!!

I got a call from one of our China travelmates and their daughter Molly is very sick. She has been in the hospital since Wednesday and hopefully can come home soon. We were in Charlotte this past weekend and couldn't get together b/c she wasn't feeling well. Finally Lolly went online and did her own research after the doctor's kept saying it was nothing...and it IS somethings. She has been diagnosed with Nephrotic Syndrome..a kidney disease.

They are giving her proteins and so far she is not responding but they are hoping she will. Best case scenerio is she responds and is 100 % better...worst case is she will need a transplant. They are obviously so worried and devestated by this news and poor Lolly hasn't left the hospital since they arrived.

As you can imagine they need all the prayers we can send up! Feel free to go to their website and leave a comment and please keep all of them in your thoughts and prayers.

Here the girls are together last December

Graduation!

He finally made it..out of Kindergarten that is! My nephew's graduation was last night and there were over 1,000 people in attendance to see 133 cuties walk across the stage. Annslee was great during the singing part when each class did a song but was soon bored with the rest so we walked outside where a softball game was being played. She was thrilled and even wandered into one of the dugouts. She kept pointing to her head saying she wanted to wear a helment like the girls batting. Daddy found out you have to be 5 years old to play so we have a while. Now when you ask her how old you have to be to play she holds up five fingers then shakes her head and holds up two...letting us know she is still too little.

Here he is..receiving his diploma!

The proud graduate


The graduate with his proud parents

Here he is with his brother, sister and cousin

Annslee with her big cousin who plays softball...probably her new hero

Such a simple request..can you help?

I saw this on my friend Michelle's blog and wanted to get the word out here too. Take a moment to read his story and try to find the time to send a card. Nothing makes me sadder than a sick child but hopefully receiving these cards will put a smile on his face : )


Shane Bernier is a courageous seven-year-old boy from Lancaster, Ontario who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when he was only five. On June 6th, 2006 Shane and his family received some unfortunate news: Shane experienced a relapse after completing 108 of 130 weeks of treatment.
However, despite the bad news, Shane has managed to keep a positive outlook on his situation and has made a heart-warming wish... He hasn’t asked for money or toys or anything of the sort. Instead, his birthday is on May 30th and he would like to break the world record for the most birthday cards ever received. His goal is 350 million cards. With every card, Shane’s courage grows. Something as simple as sending a birthday card could be enough to help Shane find peace and joy in his current circumstances.
Please take the time to send a card to Shane and make his dream become a reality. Share his story with your friends, family and co-workers. If at all possible, get your youth groups, church congregations, employees, neighbours or communities to set aside a few minutes to write a thoughtful note to Shane.
With every card, Shane’s smile grows...

Go to Shane's Wish for all the information on how to send a card.

Thoughts on Mother's Day

So I have been trying to decide what to write about my thoughts on Mother's Day. Do I think Hallmark has made a killing on us honoring Moms this one day a year and we should just spread out the love all year long? Sure I do. Do I realize how incredibly hard and depressing this day can be for some women..absolutely. I grew up in a very rural church where on Mother's Day they would have all the mothers stand to be honored. I learned to hate that tradition as the years went by and I never got to stand. I was 36 when I married and had long stopped attending that church and luckily the bigger churches I started going to realized what a painful tradition that could be. I know now that there were women in my church who had lost children, never been able to conceive or never married who also felt the kick in the gut when others were standing receiving their rose.
After I got married I thought church on Mother's Day would now be better. I could spend time with my own mom and dream of the day it would be a shared event for us. That first Mother's Day I was on my honeymoon. I called home from Spain and wished her a Happy Mother's Day and went on enjoying myself thinking there would be many more to come. Unfortunately my mom passed away very suddenly a couple of months later and so the next two Mother's Days were very painful. If I remember correctly we didn't go to church on either of those years (2003 & 2004) and instead just treated it like any other day. In 2005 we had been logged in to China for a little over 3 months and at that time it meant we were halfway to our referral so we celebrated because I finally felt like a Mom! I knew our daughter had been born and we would hold her very soon.
Last year I celebrated my first Mother's Day with Annslee and it helped erased all the painful and disappointing years before. It truly was a wonderful day as was this year and I am sure all the years to come. Being someone's Mama is the most precious gift and I cherish it. I also have a wonderful Mother-in Law and she treats me as her daughter so I am blessed beyond measure for that. I am sad that my mom never got to meet Annslee because they would have been big buddies!
I do know there are many women who are still waiting for it to be a day to celebrate and I hope that day comes soon for all of you!

Here are some more pics from our weekend together!


On Friday night the three of us went to a Thai restaurant that GiGi told us about. Thai is my favorite food so for a Pre-Mother's Day treat we headed out. Of course there was no children's menu but I didn't want a huge dish for Annslee so I asked about making her a child's portion of noodles but was told they didn't do that. However, once they saw Annslee she came out and said "Oh, she is so cute..I will make her whatever she wants" Hmmm...I think we were just given some preferential treatment and I probably should feel bad about it but hey, I needed some noodles LOL
As you can see she dug right in and was also stealing baby corn off daddy's plate. Our server commented that usually she would rubberband the chopsticks for the little ones but didn't need to for Annslee because she was so good with them. She can pick most things up (corn, rice, noodles) and she is equally skilled with her left or right hand which means you never know whose plate she is headed for next. The funniest thing is sometimes she twirls her noodles around them Italian style ; )

Like I said my mother-in-law is wonderful and she and Annslee had a great time all weekend

Walking the dogs was one of our favorite things to do

When the cousins arrived the bubbles came out!

We can't wait to go back....

Mother's Day

We had a great Mother's Day weekend in Charlotte! Here are a few pics from that morning..I will post more later! Just got home and I am exhausted : )


The Princess awakes with her dog of course!



Here is the reason I get to celebrate Mother's Day!


The three girls ready to go to church


I am the luckiest Mama in the world

Guess who we met?

*Update: Maggie is probably having her baby tonight and swears hubby will post during the birth (ha ha) so go over and send her some love!

We went to the park today and met up with Jack and Amelia. We finally met Baby Jack in person and he is even cuter than his photos showed! They have only been home with him from Vietnam for a couple of weeks and they are doing great. The weather was beautiful and the kids had such a fun time. Jack isn't mobile yet so we only had to keep up with the girls...wow, once he is it really will be fun!

Annslee was very good with Jack and gave him kisses. I don't know if she will be this receptive of her own younger sibling. I hope it is a sign of things to come though.

A group shot of the kids was almost impossible since they didn't want to stay still long enough.

Lions, Tigers and Bears...

Well, actually our zoo doesn't have Lions or Bears but we do have Tigers! Today we headed to the zoo and my animal lover had a great time as usual. Buying a zoo membership last year was a very wise investment. She wanted to see the cows of course..I should tell you that our Zoo is built on an old farm and the house is still there so they have cows, horses, sheep etc... She then wanted the elephants and tigers. Luckily all of them were really close to the fence so we had some good looks at them! The funniest thing is she literally YELLS out the animal sound to each animal as we are near them. I think she thinks it will get them to come even closer...it never works but it is entertaining. Of course since we are outside I can't really say "use your inside voice" so everyone gets to hear it!

It was pretty hot today so we went to the Rain Room. It has large fans on the ceiling and mists of water. Of course I had to practically drag her away. The promise of the snow leopard helped.

And here he is!! When we got to the exhibit they were shooting a commercial so he wasn't out yet as they were still "setting the stage" Annslee was not happy about this but we occupied ourselves with the Red Pandas. She isn't too thrilled with them as they don't look like "real" Pandas. I keep telling her we will go visit Lauren soon and see the real Giant Pandas in Atlanta. When they finally let the leopard out I knew we were in trouble. She was so excited to see him and after a pretty long time I started suggesting we move on. She was not into that idea. Even the lure of brushing the goats didn't help. Finally I had to just pick her up and take her out because there were a lot of other kids trying to get a front row viewing.


THIS is the face I got after removing us from the Snow Leopard : (

Now who wants an unhappy girl at the Zoo on a beautiful day in May...not me! So I started doing our little joke we do with the Barney song "I can see it on your face" You know..when you're angry, when you're sad, when you're happy...works everytime.

When you're ANGRY

When you're SAD (notice she is almost cracking a smile)

When you're HAPPY ...well, by this time she was ready to go do something else so the happy face wasn't her usual big cheesy grin but at least she was a happy girl again!

As we were getting ready to leave we had ice cream...she took my spoon so she had two. Now there's the HAPPY face I was looking for earlier!

*Yes, we did come home and swim in our backyard pool..but I didn't even take my camera out with me. Shocked I know, but Mamarazzi was on a break : )

Non stop girl!

We had a fun time on Sunday going to the Arts Festival at the park. This is an event that always occurs the first weekend in May. Our wedding reception was held at the Parthenon in the park so we usually try to go every year since it was going on the weekend we got married. I remember being concerned about all those white tents at my reception ha ha

Here is Annslee and Daddy with the Parthenon behind them!

They were selling these coconut filled monkeys and of course we had to have one. She thought the "pina colada" tasted like ice cream...yummy.

All the artwork is by local artisans and it is all very unique and pretty pricey. She really liked these backyard water fountains. Of course she liked this one best and it was almost $600 so needless to say, we don't own it

Before we left we had to swing. Here she is telling Daddy to push her HIGH!

When we got home Daddy went to hit some golf balls while we headed to our pool out back.

Then it was time to dry off and have dinner. You might be fooled by this cute smile into thinking she was ok with going inside...not really!



Never fear..we swam again the next day!

Birthdays, Horses and Thomas

We went to a birthday party..yes, a 3 year old party on our anniversary, and the theme was Wild Wild West. Little did we know there would be a real horse there. Annslee was squealing with excitement. She wanted to pet the horse repeatedly and then said she wanted to ride. Well, once she got up there she decided it would be better if Daddy held her hand as they rode around the cul-de-sac.

She had such a great time that she wanted to ride him again. This time she decided to do it all by herself! She loves all animals so much and it is so fun to watch her with them .

Another big hit at the party was Thomas the Train. She rode it several times and then towards the end of the evening Carson was on it. She held her hand out and he kissed it as he rode by. On the next go round they hugged but that was a mistake as hugging derailed the train. No one was hurt so I guess the hug was worth it.

Random cuteness!

Just a few photos that didn't get put up from the last few days. Daddy pressure washed the house while the girls went to feed ducks, swing and play outside. Hardly seems fair huh?

Here she is watching him work. She was mesmerized by it but gladly agreed to go outside and enjoy the day with Mama.

She "walked" her dog, pushed him in the swing and "rode" her scooter!

Daddy worked hard and so he cuddled up on the couch with her for a while.

Creme cheese on a bagel with cinnamon sugar to dip it in...a trick she learned from her cousins.

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO EVERYONE!!!