More fun than seems possible!!

Ok...hold onto your seats...here we go with how our last few days went!!

On Friday we were out of school because it was too cold (6 degrees) so Mia came over to visit : ) They hadn't been in the house for any time before they changed into princess gear!

We haven't seen them since Christmas so they exchanged gifts ~ good thing Annslee still had her tree up : )




The funniest thing was that the girls kept shutting Coby out of her room. He wanted so badly to play with them and kept going to Annslee's door banging on it

He would finally give up and crawl away~ sorry buddy, I have a feeling you'd better get used to this

They did want to "hide" from us so he got in on that action

After nap Paige came for a visit!! The girls were busy busy running around, having a picnic and just playing. They didn't stay still enough for many pics as you can see

On Saturday we headed to a friend's house where several families from our 2005 China travel group got together. It was mainly Tonggu girls but there were two Hubei and two Guangdong families there as well : )

Annslee chose the shirts they wore to the party

Here is the whole crew~ siblings and all!! I am sure you can imagine how loud the house got

Zola had this red "dress" she was wearing (it is actually a junior size 7 skirt) and Annslee wanted to wear it all night. She literally talked about it for hours. Finally she got her chance!

Having people help out holding Coby was no problem!

She has always loved Lauren's daddy Steve. In China she would constantly play with his moustache : )

They sweetly threw a shower during the party for Coby and he enjoyed the tissue paper!

I had a lot of help opening gifts

Look at these Vietnamese cuties!!! Darby was glad to finally have a little one from Vietnam among all these Chinese kidlets

The two Hubei Honeys!



On Sunday we went back to the Dorris home for Zola's birthday party

Check out this crowd of party goers!


Zena was the best babysitter~ she held Coby constantly both nights

He found the mini piano and really showed off his talents : )



Annslee would put her leg over the seat next to her to save the seat for Mommy ~ I sat by her on Sat but on Sun she let Tessa have that seat : )

Giggling girls listening to a story

Annslee of course later joined him at the piano


We had such a FUN and BUSY weekend!!!! Hope to see them all again soon!!!

Make Up Party

Lately Annslee has requested we do make up parties! She loves putting eyeshadow and lipstick on me..and doing my hair of course. I then do hers ~ I try to keep the blue eyeshadow on her lids and not over her eyebrows like she does for me LOL Oh, and don't you love our matching hairstyles..you can only see the two piggies in the front but we also have two in the back!

Silly posing girl

If one of us is going to bring back the blue eyeshadow it really should be her as she looks beautiful in anything ; )

I don't particularly like the way either of us looks after our parties but I do treasure the alone time we get to spend together!

Please Pray

Please pray for this sweet family. You can read their story HERE I cannot imagine watching your child suffer like this.



I have two other bloggy friends who need prayer. I haven't asked about linking them so I will just say to pray for C on the loss of her father and P after her eye appointments. Our Heavenly Father already knows the details anyway.

Four years ago today someone made a long walk down a dirt road in Qichun to place a beautiful baby on the steps of an orphanage. I have no idea who it was and never will but someone in her first family had to make that walk. All we know is she was brought there on that day in January. The other thing we know is she wasn't a newborn as the doctor guessed her at a little over 2.5 months old. There are various reasons a child would be kept this long~ was she a twin, were they working hard to find another family member who could raise her, did the birthmother pray that she would be allowed to keep this daughter? I always find myself thinking of her family in China on this day as this is a date we "know for sure" unlike her birthday. I guess none of us who have brought our children home really know that unless they had a birthnote (and that is rare and maybe inaccurate anyway) There are just so many unknowns and I know Annslee will one day have many questions. I wonder if we'll be able to answer them well. What I do know is there were other alternatives and they chose to bring her somewhere safe where she would be found quickly and for that we are eternally grateful. I am sad the journey up that dirt road had to be made but am thankful she is with us. I can't help but realize that all our joy having her as a daughter is in part due to a huge loss for her and her first family. I hope somehow they know she is safe and happy here on the other side of the world and that we can give her the life she deserves.







We took this picture of her on her finding spot when we visited the SWI (*Nov 2005)

The cutest Tita*ns fans around!

We are READY for kickoff!! Daddy went down to the game without us because it is cold and rainy..YUCK! We are ready to cheer on the hometeam from here though...any of you so inclined could do the same : ) Seriously, even you guys from Balti*more couldn't resist cheering for these two cuties!! Oh, and as an aside this was the FIRST picture I took...I got some more great ones but couldn't believe the first one was actually the best ~ straight from the camera too : )

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