Let the fun begin...or continue : )

The mailman came yesterday and brought a couple of packages to our door. When Annslee saw them she cheered....uh oh...what are we going to do when her birthday is over and the packages are boring again?


Today's fun included a gift from JiaLi and it is beautiful. It was handmade by her mom and it will look so nice in her "big girl" room. Michelle is so talented, generous, wonderful...I could go on and on. We are so blessed to have them as friends. I can't believe it was almost two years ago when we first met JiaLi's daddy in China and couldn't believe he was there by himself (Mama was home with the other four kidlets) and wondered how he would handle it alone. Well, he helped us most of the time since he was a pro! One of our favorite memories was how when it was time to go out for the day we would all pack half our rooms into a diaper bag and Joe would come down to the lobby with JiaLi in one arm, a bottle in his other hand and a diaper in his back pocket! ha ha

When she was opening the gift daddy told her it was from her friend JiaLi so she is doing her 'friend' sign



I wanted her to hold it up for me to see but the best I got was this crazy smile ~ at least the picture isn't upside down : )

The other package was from Aunt Beth (daddy's sister) in Richmond. She has two boys and obviously loves shopping for girly clothes. The leopard skirt and tights are so sassy! As you can see, Annslee really loved the sweater!



GiGi sent a gift to her as well the last time daddy went to Charlotte. We will be watching these movies over and over I am sure.

Can you say spoiled?? Oh, and of course her birthday isn't even here yet...just wait until Sunday!! Thanks everyone for making her feel so special : )

Finally...

Well, after a year of hoping and praying...she is finally getting speech therapy. She goes four days a week and I am hopeful progress will be made quickly. After she was evaluated the speech therapist told me in the 25 years she has done this she has never seen a child with scores like hers (she is around the 15 month old level in expressive and the 4.5 year old level in receptive). I know Annslee is frustrated and so are we. I feel so badly when I watch her try to interact with other children and adults and they have no idea what she is trying to tell them. Adults are kind enough to try and go along but children don't know to do that and so they just walk off. I realize it doesn't hurt her feelings yet but it hurts me for her. She is such a social butterfly but her lack of expressive language is beginning to be a huge barrier for her and I am glad we are on the road to helping her. I know I need to stop being her interpreter but it is so difficult when I know what she is trying to say or what she is signing.

Did I mention I am crazy about this girl?!




Dannye, I told you she loves the Eeyore you sent! In the collage below the story goes something like this.... "Poor Eeyore, he is sad b/c his tail came off ~ here is a hammer I will fix it ~yep, it is fixed ~ Eeyore, smooch smooch"



I have been meaning to post about the Wheeler Family for a while and they really need all the prayers they can get. I do not know them personally but I cannot imagine the pain they are in not knowing what is happening with their daughter in Guatemala. Please visit their blog and give them some support.

Wild Child

I took my wild child to the Zoo in her leopard pants and she fit right in! She remembered that this was the Zoo with the camel rides and of course we had to do it. The lady asked if she would ride alone and Annslee answered that by practically jumping in the saddle : )

She laughed during her entire ride and then really laughed as she fed the baby camel...the tongue tickled her hand....

The zebra was her pick on the carousel and of course I had to make sure her baby was strapped in too


They just finished the red panda exhibit and it was a hit! They were awake today and running around. The zookeeper kept saying the quieter everyone was the more they would come out...well, I am surprised they kept playing with Annslee yelling HI to them over and over LOL

The petting area was very busy but still a lot of fun...in the bottom two photos you will notice she thought the animals were stinky!! They were....

She loves playing in the nests outside the bird area. Here she is telling me that the "baby bird" is hungry..

Seriously Mama Bird...didn't you hear me...I am hungry!! If this picture had volume you would hear her making a very loud bird sound...



I tried to avoid the sand pit...I really did but it was no use. She saw it, she begged, I caved and she had a blast!



This is the face I got when I announced "five more minutes"

My old stomping ground

On Saturday we went to Homecoming at Carson-Newman, my Alma Mater. It was a beautiful day and such a fun time. Hubby always laughs because we get to park right beside the stadium and easily walk anywhere. It is quite a change from when we go to a game at his Alma Mater (UT).

Here we are in front of my dorm. I was trying to explain to her that Mama lived here when I was in college. She kept saying "Daddy??" I told her no he couldn't live here..no co-ed dorms at CNC ; ) Later she would point and say "Anns?" and I told her that yes she could live there someday. Hey, better than letting my baby go off to UT where there is way too much partying!!

I didn't have a CNC shirt for her so we headed to the bookstore and got her one. She of course ditched the bow too so now all the pics have hair in her face LOL We got her a little nerf soccer ball too and she and daddy had fun playing. It is not often we go anywhere without her wanting us to buy another ball..I have no idea how many we have at home! *click on any collage to enlarge to see her crazy expressions better

During our visit to the bookstore she saw this Eagle. I was trying to 'prep' her for seeing the mascot Eagle b/c he is kind of scary looking. She liked this one and notice she has her binoculars

We found a spot to watch the parade and a puppy found someone who liked getting kisses : ) For those of you who love her crazy expressions..here is a fix for you! These made me think of pictures I had of her from last year..go here to check them out but come back here because there is more to see of course...

She cheered for the parade to start. She had never been to a parade so I don't think she knew what to expect but she saw the fire truck and was ready!

These pictures do not capture her parade experience. She could not believe what was happening, people were throwing candy at her!!! She probably was thinking why haven't you people taken me to a parade before now?

At the game we finally saw the real Eagle...she was NOT happy about it. Seriously, I think I have claw marks on my neck (and not from the Eagle) I need to try and get her to make her Eagle face for a pic...she snarls her mouth up and it is too funny!

The half time show was a hit. She loves watching a band and every now and then would cheer or turn around and 'play' an imaginary instrument for us (when she wasn't standing on the rail of course)

We had a great time with only a few melt downs for our napless girl

More birthday fun from a bloggy buddy

We have been out of town for a few days and when we got home late last night a package was here with Annslee's name on it. She was sound asleep so we had to wait until this morning to find out what was in it. This morning she tore into it and found what sweet Dannye had sent her for her birthday! She tore into the box to fine Eeyore (Dannye has been reading carefully and knows he is her favorite!), a bouncy ball with Eeyore and Pooh on it and a tiara and wand!! Oh, and I can't forget the homemade birthday card : ) The funniest part was when Eeyore was "helping" her open gifts. LOL

Thank you so much Dannye! What a sweet thing to do and she loves all of it. It is amazing the people you 'meet' on this journey just through the internet. We have never even met Dannye in person but hope to soon : )

Our morning

We got up this morning and I reminded her it was gymnastics day!! She cheered and then I had to 'stall' her because we don't leave until 11 am to go. I did manage to get her dressed and even put her cute matching headband on. She had some quiet time with her baby. She really loves all of her babies but this one is clearly her favorite.

As we were leaving she did need to run back to turn off the light... or did she turn it on??

As always when we arrived she threw her shoes off and ran into the play area...today she was able to do this move all by herself. (Michelle, I think she does look like JiaLi in this pic )

Lucky girl..the flying trapeeze came out today!

Back flips were fun too! I can't figure out how to flip this video...so just turn your laptop sideways LOL

I wanted to add it b/c she loves doing her "booty bounce"

Moving On

Well today was the day we have been dreading...Miss Donna visited for the last time. She has been coming to our house one morning a week for a few months to work with Annslee. As you know, she didn't get speech therapy from Early Intervention but we have a group called Rainbow and she did get service from them. We love Miss Donna and Annslee anxiously awaits her on Tuesday mornings. I am so sad she is no longer eligible to receive service from them because she is turning three but we will see Miss Donna next week at our meeting with the school system. Yep, she is gettting new teachers and finally speech therapy. Love you Miss Donna!!

We gave her a goobye gift...a Backyardigans toy : ) Oh, in case you can't read it, her shirt says 'Stop staring I know how cute I am!'

Go Team Go!!

Sunday was a ton of fun as we headed to the game. Daddy dropped us off at the Kidzone and he went to park. We had only been there a minute when the cheerleaders came by. Annslee got a poster and of course her picture made with one of the girls. Yes, this is a Tita*ns cheerleader...I bet you thought it was me LOL

Last year she didn't really enjoy the Kidzone but this year...the slide was a huge hit!! The baby had to go down too and in the last pic with Daddy she needed her sunglasses on like him (you may have to enlarge to see it better)

She also enjoyed throwing a football..she was so proud of herself for figuring out how to hang her sunglasses on her shirt like we do sometimes : )

We got inside the gates just in time to see the Paratroopers land on the field. Being so close to Fort Campbell (101st Airborne) we always get great flyovers at our games.

I think she really liked it!

The giveaway today was a car flag and she thought it was a great thing to wave and dance with.

She is very serious about the National Anthem...even if we are watching a game at home, when it comes on she stops and stands very still in front of the TV with her hand over her heart..too sweet
Of course she had her binoculars at the game too . Notice Daddy is looking at the game and she is looking up at some balloons floating in the sky : )

It was a fun day....it was hot (93 degrees), we were sweaty, she stayed awake the entire game and danced, cheered, ate fries and a corndog, and generally had a great time..oh, and we WON!!

*in answer to Johnny's comment...Wycheck was a free hand-me-down but it is almost too small so she will be sporting a #10 soon ; )

Seriously, is it fall yet??

It was a beautiful day so we headed to the Botanical Gardens to stroll around. They had a scarecrow exhibit going on (most of the heads were pumpkins) and they were pretty neat looking. The biggest problem getting into the fall spirit....it was 91 degrees!!

They had an art project that the kids could do. We read online that it was a fish painting....hmmmm, didn't realize they meant that literally : P

I thought the fish was stinky and gross but Annslee didn't mind a bit. She painted it and then daddy pressed it on a piece of paper to make her artwork complete.

I wanted to dress her in some cute fall outfit for the day but it was just too hot. Hey, Winnie is always a good pick I guess. After painting we walked around and she needed a snack break with daddy : )

The scarecrows were great and different organizations had made them for display. This one was called "hen pecked" LOL I was thrilled that Annslee stood close to it for a photo. Last year she loved all the scary stuff but this year she hasn't so I wasn't sure how she would react but she seemed to like the scarecrows.

There was a lot of walking and she really enjoyed all the ponds and the bamboo.

One path we were on had a sprinkler set up to water the plants. Miss Thing thought it was set up just for her to play in!

Here is her artwork!



Oh, and Happy Birthday JiaLi!!! Head on over and leave our sweet travelmate a note : )

First Birthday wishes and gift arrive

Well, we are 16 days from Miss Annslee's birthday and today's mail marked the beginning of the celebration! I got the mail while she was napping but Daddy wisely suggested leaving her goodies in the mailbox for her to find. I did some video but here are a couple of snapshots : )

First opened was a card from Lauren. She loved the Hello Kitty stickers and of course the dog card...thanks guys!! I told her it was from Lauren so she is holding up her L



Next she opened her much awaited movie from GiGi. I was videoing that so here she is showing off her treasures. This face cracks me up!



Yes, she is still in her Ariel nightgown...some days there is no need to get dressed LOL