I love you baby girl!

Tonight, Mom was putting AnnaClaire to bed, and I was giving her a goodnight kiss. I didn't even ask for her to kiss me, I just kissed her cheek and said "night night, I love you!" and she leaned over and gave me the absolute sweetest kiss on the lips. It was the cutest thing ever. I love her soooooooo much. She used to give kisses a lot but lately, she won't kiss anyone. It was so special to get a "night night/happy bday kiss". I'm sooooo in love with her!

Fist Pancake

I took this picture of AnnaClaire yesterday while she enjoyed her first pancake (half whole wheat, no syrup, made my Sissy:)) She LOVED the pancake!

I also wanted to tell everyone of a little girl, Brea. I know most everyone has probably been following their website, but if not, Brea is a little girl, adopted from China in October 2006, who had to have a heart transplant. She has been in the hospital for a month in a half waiting for that transplant. They got the call that there was a donor heart and she had her heart transplant today! She is doing well. PRAISE THE LORD!!! Please keep little Brea in your prayers as she goes through the crucial "after transplant" hours and then into recovery!

My Birthday!

AnnaClaire and the b-day Sissy!

She's amazing... doing word searchs at a young age!
The Simon Mall dude gave her a balloon!
Mommy's princess' with Sissy's presents!

A CAMERA!!

A PURSE!
Sisters:)

"Ohh I like the hair stuff I got Sissy!"

Make a wish! (I got them all in one blow!!! My wish will come true! Can you guess what I wished for?)

Let's get CAKE!

LOVE this picture. I think it's so cool how it's mainly of the cake, but in the backround is AnnaClaire. So cool!

I WANT THAT CAKE!

"What is this?"

"This isn't bad!"

"I LIKE IT LOTS!"
Sissy's birthday caps off with bathtime!

It was a great day! Last night was sooooo much fun! We ate Qdoba and saw Pride with our swim group. That is such a good movie. Afterwards, we went to Michaels (me and 5 other friends with Sydnee's mom) to get glow sticks. We ended up getting all kinds of crazy hats and such (I got a pink sparkly birthday crown.. hahahahahahahaha) We decorated them.. we had a random moment, what can I say? We swam in Syd's pool and watched movies. This morning we woke up pretty early and they all stuck birthday stickers on my face and arms. LOL. I was COVERED in stickers! We had yummy french toast and watched another movie and just were random. My friend did my hair for me and at like 10:30, I went home. Waiting for me was a balloon and beautiful flowers (I LOVE balloons and flowers and it's a tradition for Dad to get me the two of those things for my birthday!) I got ready and we picked up Caroline to go to the mall around 12. We had a blast at the mall. We were there for 6 hours! It was soooooooooooooooooooooo much fun! It was a blast. I love shopping on my birthday because I always have so much money! LOL! We met Mom, Dad, and AC at 6 in front of Maggianos. OH IT WAS SO GOOD. Fettichine Alfredo=YUM! AnnaClaire loved the baked ziti she ate! We then went home and I got to open my presents. I got everything I asked for (and more:)) I got an AWESOME digital camera. I am so excited about it! It's so pretty! Woohoo, no more using Dad's (which I almost lost today..) it's SOOOO pretty. I can really tell a difference. Not many of the above pictures were taken on it, because I still had to get it all figured out. I also got the Vera Bradley Hipster in Peacock. I love Vera Bradley, if you can't tell. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my new purse! It is BEAUTIOUS! I got our swim sweatsuit (from my Grandma). I love it! Will gave me $$$ (Thanks, Will!!) and AnnaClaire gave me this awesome hair smoothing/shining creme! I love everything I got. Caroline got me a Simon Mall giftcard, my friend Sarah got me a really pretty necklace, and my friend Sydnee got me awesome plaid flip flops! Most of my friends are saving my presents for when we got out to lunch in April (for my party thingy). 2 of my friends are in Hawaii right now and they called:):):) and Drew called too which meant a lot. I had an absolutely awesome birthday. Mom made me my favorite cake- triple chocolate pound cake. It was soooooo yummy!!! I've had it almost every single bday. It is my favorite ever! AnnaClaire got to taste it. It was basically her first taste of cake ever! At first she was unsure and then she flashed a hugeeeeee grin. She didn't want much though, but the piece she ate she seemed to like! Caroline and I bathed her and got her all ready for bed. She was soooooooo cute. She is the cutest thing. It was soooooooooooooooo awesome to be able to spend my birthday with her! :)

It's the small things that mean a lot....

Flowers...
Balloons... (thanks Dad for the beautiful pink roses and balloon!)
Cards...

I received many cards this year and I am thankful for all of them! My aunts, uncles, and grandmas gave me beautiful, sweet cards, my friend, Caroline, gave me the AWESOME ladybug one (WHICH I LOVE, CAROLINE!!!), my Mom and Dad gave me a SWEET, BEAUTIFUL birthday card that I love, and I also got an awesome card in the shape of a purse from Mrs. S. This was very special to me! I was so surprised when I saw a card from Arizona! That meant so much to me! Thank you so much, Mrs. S!! Thank you everyone for all the cards! Also, thank you Meg, Keara, Brittany, Kristin, and Sarah for the cyber cards and Staci: thank you for the lovely homemade card made by Sarah Lu and you that you posted on your blog. Thank you also for all the WONDERFUL comments I've gotten wishing me happy bday! I LOVE that! Thank you everyone!

14 today!

The collage is made of photos taken on each birthday. I found one from every birthday except for #1 (is that sad or WHAT?) and #11. I did find pictures taken around when I was 1 and 11, just not taken on my birthday. The photos aren't GREAT quality, but they get the point across!

I'm 14 today!! 14 years ago, I was born at 4:07PM (Central time) in The Woodlands, Texas! (Near Houston). I was a "surprise" baby and at first, my dad said, "We've got another boy!" Then the doctor said, "No, you've got a GIRL!" The names were either Charles Henry (Charlie) or Emily Ann. Needless to say, since I was a girl, I became Emily Ann. Mom always says, "We were so happy to finally have a girl to fill the house with PINK after 2 boys!" And now as I turn 14, there are 2 girls to fill the house with pink:) Thank you Mom and Dad for 14 years!!

In honor of being 14, my friend and I have decided I need 14 comments on this post! So... 14 please?!

Easter Bunny FFFF Challenge

This weeks FFFF Challenge is the Easter bunny!! Honestly, I didn't even know it was possible to visit the Easter Bunny anymore... we haven't taken AnnaClaire to see him yet, (the Chickfila cow freaked her out, I think the Easter Bunny might, too!) so I pulled out a box of photos. I found this one of Will, Drew, and I with the Easter bunny. I have no idea when it was taken. (We're pretty cute though, eh?) I've included both of them, and then one of AnnaClaire with HER bunny!

Good morning, Sunshine!

This morning, AC ran into my room and put her arms up to be picked up. She loves playing on my bed! She was so happy and I snapped a quick picture of her laughing on my bed. I love how it turned out! :)

Getting the mail! (and more!)

Our little sweetie loves to get the mail. LOVES to. Today, we walked down to the mailbox, and I gave her a letter adressed to Mom. I said "AnnaClaire, lets bring Mommy the letter!" We walked up and AnnaClaire handed the letter to Mom. We went through all the mail doing this. She loves it. She is also sooooooooo smart to do what is asked of her! LOL!

Another cute AnnaClaire thing was tonight when she spilled her water. Mom got a clothe and wiped it up. Then AnnaClaire went and grabbed 2 washclothes, got on her hands and knees, and wiped the floor! Is that cute or is that CUTE?

AnnaClaire loved on Maggie LOTS today. They are sooo cute together!

Other than that, we had story time. AC had sooooo much fun today. She met a little boy and boy were they hugging on eachother! ;-) She had a blast playing with her friends Ellie and Natalie! She still ADORES story time. She is such a hit with everyone including the sweet teacher, Yanna. AnnaClaire LOVES Yanna and Yanna loves AnnaClaire! Today, Yanna was holding AC and AC was ust cracking up laughing.

In other news, AnnaClaire just continues to amaze us and be her sweet self. Today she said "brother"! It was sooo cute. She also said "Will". I am trying to get her to say either Em, Emmie, Sissy, Sis, ANYTHING, but with no luck. She does say jie jie every once in a while.

She is so cute. She LOVES bunny. Bunny now goes pretty much everywhere with us. In the picture of AC getting the mail, the pink thing in her other hand is her beloed Bunny. She is ALWAYS kissing on bunny and runs to find bunny to soothe herself.

She is soo obedient as I said. Today, she had my cord, and Mom said, "bring it to Sissy!" She ran into my room and held it up to me! If you ask her where something is, she will either get it, point to it, or put out her arms in the "I don't know" way.

That's basically it. I love this little thing to death. She is sooooo sweet. Oh I forgot to mention she says BATH now! Mom and I were leaving tonight to get my haircut, and AC got all sad that she wasn't coming with, but she had to stay home because it was almost her bed time. So I said, "AnnaClaire, Daddy's going to give you a bath!" and she said "BAH BAH!" and ran over to the bathtub! By the way, my haircut went well and I LOVE it. It's no shorter, just layered. It NEEDED a cut as it's been since March 30, 2006 since my last cut!

Oh and lastly, I have a VERY busy weekend ahead so I can't promise my daily posting. I am going to try to do atleast one quick post each day. Tomorrow afternoon, I am going out to dinner with some friends and then our swim group is seeing Pride. Then a couple of friends and I are going to my friend, Sydnee's house to sleepover. Then on Saturday it's my 14th birthday and I'll be busy most of the day as my friend Caroline and I are going shopping all day! Plus we're going out to dinner for my birthday dinner and then cake and presents so yeah. I am SOOOOOO excited for my birthday especially since AnnaClaire is home to celebrate with me! yAHOO!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KEARA!!!!!!!!

Well, today is my dear friend, Keara's 14th birthday!!!

Keara, I hope your 14th birthday is AMAZING, PERFECT, and WONDERFUL in every way! Have fun celebrating with Maura! (Your first b-day with Maura home!!)

Love, Emily & AnnaClaire Chenhui

Pix of the day!

(Above) is probably my favorite. This one is of her blowing on the flower!

I also love this one of her and Morgan climbing the play set!

More pictures!

Waiting for Sissy to be called back... too cute!

See te flower in my hair? I'm a Hawaiian girl!
Isn't the view out AnnaClaire's window BEAUTIFUL? With the pretty cherry tree! It even matches her pink and green themed room!
Riding her pop pop car!

Park!!! (by AnnaClaire)

Today after piano, we ran to the park for a bit. It was sweltering hot outside, but AnnaClaire didn't seem to mind one bit! Here's our day translated from Miss AnnaClaire herself:

I woke up and it was already light out. I talked in my crib until Mommy got me out. She got me dressed in my cute little turtle pants. Mommy and Sissy said I looked like a living doll! I had a yummy breakfast or rice cereal and bananas. Yummy! Then Mommy took my bu-bye. I think she said that she was signing me up for April's story time. I saw a lot of my friends at signups. We came home and I watched our pretty new garage door go up! Soon after we got home, we went back out for Sissy's piano lesson. I got to play in the nursery with Mama. I didn't want to leave, I was having so much fun! Finally we had to go, but not before I went poopies! Hehehehehehe! I was so sad. I didn't want to go home! I wanted to stay bubyes! Luckily, we weren't done being bubyes! We went to the hair place to get Sissy a hair cut appt tomorrow. Then we went to the park. It was very hot. My cheeks turned bright red, it was so hot! I had so much fun. I saw 2 doggies- Chloe and Zigi. Chloe kept barking at me and I laughed and laughed. She was so funny. I also met a friend. I had actually seen her at story time signups! Her name is Morgan and she just turned 2. She was so nice to me! She called me a baby. We played for a long time. We went down the slides. played in the sand, and swang. Then Morgan had to go byebye. Sissy wanted us to leave, too because it was so hot. But Mommy said fresh air was good for me so we stayed. We took a walk to the lake part. On the way, we picked pretty flowers. There were some that you could blow on and all the petal things would fall off. I even blew on it. Sissy said I was so cute blowing. Mommy said so, too. I ran around in the grass but Mommy wouldn't let me go far. I then noticed the geese. I wanted to go close to them but Mommy said no! She didn't want me to get attacked by them. I guess she is right! I pointed to the geese and said "du" aka duck. I'm so smart! I also saw turtles, like on my pants. I picked another flower and Mommy put it in my hair. She said I looked like a Hawaiian baby. Sissy's friend is going to Hawaii tomorrow. I wish I was going, too! Then we left. I was sad to go. But Mommy promised me congee when we got home! My congee was yummy. I was ery tired after lunch. I got in trouble for begging for Mommy's food. Then I ran into the window. I cried. Mommy said I was tired and she told me I could have a baba. I got so excited and ran to the fridge. I slept nice. Not long, but nice. We think I got stung by a bee in my sleep. I started screaming in the middle of my nap. When Sissy got me up awhile later, there was a dead bee by my crib. (I guess I'm not allergic to bees! Oh, and we aren't sure this happened beacause Sissy and Mommy couldn't find a mark, but why else would I have woken up SCREAMING AND there be a dead bee right by my crib?) After I woke up, we looked out the window and read books. I like to read books sometimes. Then Sissy put me in a dress and squeaky shoes. The ladies at the Orthodontist love my squeakies. Sissy had an ortho appt. We went to the ortho. Everyone said I was so cute and wanted to hold me. I showed off how cute I was and sat in the chair all by myself. Then I kept teasing Sissy by pulling out my bow. She gave me a toothbrush to hold. I loved that! Mommy and I took a walk while Sissy got her teeth messed with. Sissy is very happy because she gets her braces off on May 3! Finally they finished Sissy's appt. Sissy looks funny because she has to wear a rubberband in the middle of her mouth. Hehehehe! She told Mommy that she wasn't going to wear it on her birthday (Saturday). Sissy is a BAD girl! We went home and I played with brother for awhile. We had fun. I played with Sissy, too. I love playing with toys! Then I helped Mommy cook dinner. I had a yummy dinner. I'm such a good eater, everyone says! After dinner, Mommy and I took Sissy to swimming. I was sad to say bubye to Sissy. I hate it when Sissy goes bubye. I like her to play with me ALL the time!

HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY. STACI!!!

My good friend/travel mate, Staci, turned 15 on Friday! With all our busyness, I forgot to post this, but Staci, no fear... I remembered it was your special day and was thinking about you lots!

Staci, I hope your birthday was absolutely amazing! I know you just LOVED having sweet Sarah Lu home to celebrate with you.
Love ya,

Emily and AC~Sarah Lu's bow friend ;-)

Video- Spin around!

Yesterday, Mom and I were commenting on what a pretty dress AnnaClaire was wearing. Next thing we knew, she was spinning around and around making her dress poof up! She is such a girly girl! Isn't she cute spinning in her dress?

Here's the video! Enjoy:

Mei'd With Love

A few days ago, while AnnaClaire happily played at her water table, I set to work on making her a bow holder. I think it came out nicely. So, I have decided to begin a little business. I will make and sell bow holders! I have all sorts of size/color options. They range from $17-$25. ($10-$14 supplies, 2-3 hours make time) You can also tell me about how many bows you need it to hold so I will know how many/how long to make the actual bow holding ribbon. For more info on Mei'd With Love and to order, go to www.meidwithlove.blogspot.com.

17 months old (&pic of day)

My sweet AnnaClaire,
I cannot believe you are 17 months old today! How is that so? You are getting so big and beautiful! I love you with all my heart. I can't imagine life without you! You make life so interesting, so fun, so special. As you turn 17 months old, I praise our Father for making you who you are. You are perfect just the way you are! I love you more than anything in the world. I remember when I was younger, Mom and Dad would ask Drew, Will, and I if we wanted a baby sibling. I always responded, "No. I want to stay the baby, the princess!" (That was when I was little.) As I got older, Mom and Dad continued to ask us this. Soon I said, "YES! I want a baby so badly! Just please, a SISTER! No more brothers!" Sure, you took my spot as princess of the family, only girl, baby, etc. (hehe) But... Would I change that for anything in the world? NOT IN A MILLION YEARS! My big 17 month old mei mei, I love you so much. I thank Jesus for every moment we spend together. AnnaClaire, although we missed your first 13 months, we have always had a very special place for you in our family. We didn't realize what a hole we had in our family until we got YOU! You filled that hole! I am so glad to finally be with you, along your side as you learn and grow. I love you so much. So, happy 17 months, my sweet sister.
Forever,
Sissy

(the picture is of AnnaClaire spinning in her dress. BTW, I have more pictures from this and a cute video that I'll add tomorrow. The video isn't downloading and I want to put them on together)

Princess AnnaClaire!

The towel says it all... (See the purple crown, the magic wand, aka the PRINCESS TOWEL?)

Bubble Baby

"See the bubbles in my hair?"

Bath & jammies with Sissy!

I absolutely LOVE giving AnnaClaire her bath and getting her ready for bed. With swimming fading out for the season (one more practice this week, than off until the 16th) I was able to give AnnaClaire her bath tonight! We had a blast doing mohawk hair, putting cups on her head, and just playing around. She is so sweet and fun to bathe. At one point, she kicked back in her duck with her feet up (see "kickin' back") it was sooooo cute! I love this girl so much!

new garage door!

Believe it or not, the entire time AnnaClaire has been home, we have been without a working garage. In fact, our 12 year old garage door broke just days before heading to China! And before that, our remote for it broke years ago. AnnaClaire finally got to see that garage doors are suppsosed to be automatic, not manually. Today our new garage door was installed! FINALLY! We orderd it long ago! She was very entertained by it, actually! I love it! It's so pretty and new and EEK!

sand and water fun!

Yay for sand! Yay for water!

Fun fuN!
Filling my bucket!
Awwww
Gorgreous

Playing with her car

It was sooo hot today. Hot enough for AnnaClaire and I to get our bathingsuits on and play in the hose and her sand and water! We had a blast!

New look! (MY 500th POST!!!)

First off, this is post 500 on this blog! Wow!

I started getting really tired of my old look. And, since I've had it for almost 4 months, I decided it was time for a new look! The sides are cherry blossoms. I wanted something Asian but pink so cherry blossoms were perfect! The header I made (which took me forever with the oval shap!) I got the idea off another blog I follow. I am still working on some sidebar things, so the look isn't totally complete. I hope you like it! The poem in the header is the first part of a poem I LOVE:

God's Little Girl
Oh, little girl, your life was planned.
Right from the start from the Father's hand,
He fashioned your frame in ways so grand,
And loves you in ways you don't understand.

And though we've yet to hold your tiny frame,
You've captured our hearts & we long to call your name.
We thank God for you, a gift so sweet and pure,
And pray for you, to know His Son for sure.

And as you grow, may you always know
The Lord is there wherever you go.
We promise to love you thro' all your days and hours,
But never forget, His love is far greater than ours.

Our Father's Son, He freely gave
And all who believe, He surely will save.
Oh, little girl, we're all adopted at so great a price,
But as God's little girl, you're adopted twice.

Paul W. Smith

Our Littly Ladybug

I made this collage with a few of the pictures I snapped of AnnaClaire in her cute ladybug outfit. Isn't she just darling in it? I know the first one is really far away, but I was trying to get the pretty tree in, too! Enjoy!

Pic of Day- sitting pretty

Our little ladybug, pretty as could be...

Ladybug girl!

Yummy orange juice at Chickfila!

I WILL get this triangle in here!
She loves her new shape thing!

Reading her book. This book is called Who's Hiding in the Garden? It is such a cute book and is one of AnnaClaire's all time FAVORITES! (Compliments of the Liptack family! Thanks again!)

It was a good day. What can you expect when you go on a stroller ride, go on tons of errands, eat out at Chickfila (and have a chicken salad sandwich and orange juice!) go home and nap for 2.5 hours, wake up to find that your Daddy came home early, play all kinds of fun things, eat a yummy dinner, go bubye, come home and have a bath, and go to sleep. That's a summed up version of our day.

It was another beautiful springy day here in NC. A perfect day to dress AnnaClaire in her cute ladybug outfit. She is a dollbaby in it!! AnnaClaire met a kitty today. She loved him. She met Charlie, our neighbor's cat. AnnaClaire wanted to pet him, but he kept running away. Finally, she got to pet him. She was soooooo sweet and gentle with Charlie and didn't want him to go home! LOL!

AnnaClaire loves her shape thing. She was having a blast with it. She put all the shapes in and then dumped them out and threw them back through the opening! LOL! Oh she also stacked 4 blocks and then knocked them down. She thought it was so funny that she could knock them down! So cuteeeeee!

Funny Chickfila story/new word: Mom was getting a refill, and the Chickfila ladies were all like "she's adorable!" Well, AC smiled and turned away and they said, "Opp, she's SPOILED!" AnnaClaire goes, "Duh! Duh!" They all started cracking up laughing. It was so funny. So now AnnaClaire says "Duh!" I don't think she means it as what it means, but still. It was really funny that she said it right then. She's a hoot!

BTW, check the website for a new home update with tons of pictures!

Video- Horise fun!

Isn't she cute on her horse? This was taken Saturday!

I'm warning you!

I received an email today from a dear friend of mine. It is a very important email and I thought, "what better way to get it out there than my blog?" So I'm warning you about a (computer) virus going around. Here's the email:

Get this sent around to your contacts ASAP...we don't need this spreading around.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS:

You should be alert during the next days: Do not open any message with an attached file called "Invitation" regardless of who sent it, It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which "burns" the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it. If you receive a mail called "invitation", though sent by a friend, do not open it and shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept!

COPY THIS E-MAIL AND SEND TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW

Thanks, Caroline, for warning me! Pass this on!!

Miss Emily Elizabeth ChenHui

I've talked of my friend, Kayla before... (They got there referral back in February of sweet little Emily from Chenzhou SWI) Well, today, just after 10:30AM China time, little Emily was given to the Hansons!!! Isn't she BEAUTIFUL? Go to their site for more (and tons of pictures) on their amazing GOTCHA DAY! Congrats Kayla and family! She is beautiful!

Oh and I just have to share this.... I was showing AnnaClaire the pictures of Emily, and she started getting all excited and smiling. Then she started pointing at the pictures saying (well it was her way of saying) "baby, baby!"

Pic of Day- Pretty in pink and green!

Here are 2 of the very few photos I took today. They were both taken at Five Guys. Isn't she adorable? I like them both, not sure which I like better...

Happy bday Will!

Happy belated 16th birthday, Will!

The picture of AC was taken today at Five Guys. She was walking around with bread before we left. Hehe, she's so cute! The one next to it is of me and Will with his ballon with $15 taped to it (what I gave him). The top two, I'm sure you can guess.

Yesterday pic of day & swim meet fun!

This one is the pic of the day (from yesterday): I just love it. That FACE! GOTTA LOVE THE FACE!

AnnaClaire loved my friend, Nicole!

"Nicole is FUN!"

Sorry for my lack of posting yesterday. Swim meet weekends are soooo busy. Especially with prelims AND finals! Yesterday was Will's 16th birthday! Happy belated b-day, Will. He was with his friends almost all day, so we didn't celebrate until tonight. More on that later. Anyway, the swim meet went well. It wasn't my best meet ever, but it was fine. AnnaClaire came and cheered me on more yesterday morning. I made it back to finals in my 200 breaststroke, but I added a lot and came in 9th :(. After the session, 3 of my friends and I (and our moms) went out to lunch at Mcalisters before finals. It was sooo yummy! I did a lot better at finals and took off 2 seconds (but was still half a second worse than my best time) I got in 4th so that was better than my prelims 9th! AnnaClaire was there cheering me on, which I loved. :) Before I swam, she was hanging out with me and all my friends. She was having a blast. She loves my friends. She really liked Nicole. She was quite scared to be held by anyone but me, but once she went to Nicole, she loved her. (She still reached for me when she saw me though!) ALL my friends had their phones/cameras out, taking pictures of her. AnnaClaire wanted everyones phones! LOL! It was so cute! She had so much fun hanging out with us. We got a little carried away and all of a sudden realized we were swimming pretty soon, so we ran to Mom and Dad and gave AnnaClaire to them so that we could warm up before we swam. (We made it with plenty time to spare.) After I finished swimming, warming down, etc, we went out for pasta. AnnaClaire LOVES pasta! Pasta gal! We got home way past her bed time (8:20!) and she went right to bed.

This morning started veryyyyyyy early. My swim meet wasn't the greatest, but I did do well in my 200 back. I didn't make it back to finals, but was pretty close to it. Mom and Will were timing so Dad and AC met us after to go to Five Guys for Will's birthday (belated) lunch. It was delicious! After lunch, I met my friend, Dana, at Target and then we went home to her house a little bit before finals. It was fun. We went back to the pool for the 6th time this weekend. It was so fun. It's 85 degrees outside and theres a huge field by our pool, so a ton of people sat outside. It was a lot of fun. A lot of people came to cheer which made it even funner. I got home around 8:30 and we did cake for Will's b-day. It was sooooooooo yummy. Chocolate Carmel Butterfinger Cake is delicious. Ohh yum!

So it was quite a busy weekend. Happy belated 16th, Will!

Horise fun!!!

AnnaClaire LOVED her horise yesterday! She rode it for soooooooo long. She had a BLAST on it! She was dancing on it and just having a ball. She even is trying to teach herself how to climb on to it!! Big girl!

I have a cute video of her on her horise, which is taking realllllllly long to load, so I'll add that tomorrow.

Friday pictures

"Why is there a COW on my FINGER?"

"Dancing to Old McDonald with my farmer and my cow!" (Sissy had the duck and pig)
"I can get in my swing ALL by myself now! I can also make my swing go!"



Here's more pictures taken on Friday afternoon. Enjoy!

102 days!!! (yesterday)

I had been planning a whole thing for when we reached our 102 day mark with AnnaClaire. Well, it totally slipped my mind yesterday, so I'm posting this for yesterday. What is so special about 102 days, you say? Well. As of yesterday, we have had AnnaClaire 102 days. If you remember, we waited 102 LONG days for our travel approval. 102 days with AnnaClaire has gone by SOOOOO much quicker than 102 days of waiting for TA, that's for sure! Above, is the collage I made showing a picture taken from gotcha day and a picture taken yesterday. You can see how much she has grown and changed in these pictures (except, amazingly, when we got her she was 29 inches and she still is... lol). I can't believe we have had her that long... I love her SOOO much!

AnnaClaire,

102 days together- WOW! I am thankful for every one of those 102 (now 103) days we've spent together. You are so special to me and I love you so much. I remember those 102 long days of TA waiting, each day hoping to get the call, and being sooooo sad when it didn't come. I remember our 102nd day of waiting- November 20, when we finally got our TA call. But then, I also remember the day you were handed to us, 102 (now 103) days ago. I remember that special moment. It wasn't as we had planned, but it was perfect in its own way because that was the day we became a FAMILY. I can't believe it has been 102 days. Each day you have grown and changed in new ways. I love seeing you learn new things and watching you grow. I love you forever. Thank you for 102 of the best days of my life.

With love,

Sissy

SWIM MEET! (pix of day)

Guess who came to my swim meet and cheered me on today? Miss AnnaClaire Chenhui! She had an absolute BLAST! She loved hanging out with me and my friends. She had a little entourage following her everywhere! It started out me and my friend, Sarah (in picture) and then as we walked around, more and more people came to say hi. Soon we had a whole line of people following AC where ever she want! HEHE! Anyway, AnnaClaire had so much fun. She showed off all her tricks. I think we have a swimmer here, as she loved seeing the pool and kept leaning toward it! She was waving a blowing kissies to EVERYONE. And best of all, when I swam, she was at the end of the lane cheering me on:). She only came for 1 event (100 breaststroke) because she would've gotten antsy staying the whole time, and that was my best event of the day. She was my little good luck charm, because I did good, dropped time, and made it back to finals. I LOVED showing her off to everyone and LOVED when everyone went and asked their moms if they could have one and the response was, "But we wouldn't get one as cute as AnnaClaire, so why get one?" ;-) So, AnnaClaire had a great time at my meet. She even tried on goggles! She liked them! Sadly, I forgot my camera, but my friend, Becky, came to the rescue with hers and she sent me the pictures you see above! AnnaClaire also came to cheer me on at finals. I added a teeny bit there, but I was seeded 7th and ended up 6th over all. I just love seeing her at the end of my lane! She's coming tomorrow for the 200 breaststroke, which I'm top-seeded in. Hopefully she'll be my little good luck charm again, and I can hold my spot!

FFFF Challenge- Bubbles!

This weeks Family Friday FotoFun Challenge from Double Happiness is "bubbles!" Instead of just doing like the bubbles you blow with a wand, I have included all three types of bubbles- bubbles, gum bubbles, and bath bubbles! The first picture was when Dad, AC, and I were blowing/popping bubbles in Guangzhou. The second picture was also taken in Guangzhou of AnnaClaire popping Will's bubble he blew with his gum! The third picture was during AnnaClaire's bathtime with all her bath bubbles!

Storytime!

AnnaClaire had a ball at storytime this morning. She is always a big hit there. She is SO into it. She was just daning, singing, stomping her feet to the songs, etc. She bee-lines into storytime, it is TRUE LOVE! We had an awesome day besides when something caused our bookshelf to fall and the book flew off and hit AnnaClaire. She has a little owwie by her eye, poor baby. She was TERRIFIED as the books flew towards her. Poor little thing!!!!!!!! She is so sweet and is really enjoying this warm weather we've gotten! Enjoy the collage. Thank's Double Happiness for recommending LumaPix. I LOVE this program! Sorry about the watermarks. I actually purchased the program, but for some reason, it still shows up with the watermarks. I'm working on getting them off and will update it when I can figure it out! (Any help from people with this program would be GREATLY appreciated!)

FIRST HAIRCUT!!!!!!!!!! (pix of day!)

Yep!!! AnnaClaire Chenhui got her very first haircut today!!! She really needed a cut, as her hair had gotten SO long in the back. But we were worried she would look too old with it cut... (turns out, the first thing Will said was, "Aww it's so cute! She looks YOUNGER!") She got it cut at "Doolittles". She was VERY well-behaved and did GREAT! She didn't cry at all (except she let out a littly fuss when the tried putting the smock on. So she went smockless.) She sat in a firetruck which was a hit and was such a good girl. Cynthia did her hair and did a GREAT job. It was done in all of 5 minutes! They also gave us a cute little picture of AnnaClaire right before she started the cut, a card that says "Baby's First Haircut: March 21 by Cynthia" that has some pieces of hair in it. We only got the back cut - a bob that's stacked. We are letting the front and sides reach the length of the back and then we'll make the big desision- bangs or no bangs! She looks SOOOOOO cute all trimmed up! What do you think?

I made this collage on LumaPix, but right now I am trying it out before purchasing it. When you aren't registered, it automatically puts the lumapix.com thing on... Sorry about that!

Here's the card, picture, and hair they gave us! The picture cracks me up! It looks like someone's referral picture! LOL!!!

Pretty in Pink!

AnnaClaire had a blast playing in the nursery this morning. She had so much fun. She loves the little car thingy. She especially loves doing it backwards. LOL! We ran by the post office and everyone was eating her up! We then ran a few errands, including Hallmark, where AnnaClaire played with the bunny singing thing. She loved it, as you can see. After ________(see next post!) we went to the park. AnnaClaire had a blast. She loves the park!Enjoy the pix!

3 months home, 100 days together: travel tips!

*In honor of being home 3 months as of yesterday, and having AnnaClaire for 100 days, as of today, and my friend Kayla who is leaving tomorrow to go to China, here are almost all of the things you need to know when traveling to the People's Republic of China aka CHINA!*

1. Don’t over pack. You’ll regret it, don’t do it!
2. Take the no jet-lag pills. They REALLY work!
3. Don’t stress over the flight to China. Yes it is long, yes, you will make it to China!

4. Eat enough Chinese food. It is WAY better than American-Chinese food and you will miss it!
5. Take enough pictures. Beat me (1850) if you dare ;) 6. make sure to use the conversion chart http://www.oanda.com/convert/cheatsheet. It was a lifesaver! I had it with me 24/7!
7. Don’t be surprised if your baby is a daddy’s girl/boy. Out of 11 people in our group, I think 10 of the kids were big time daddy’s kids!
8. Buy enough squeaky shoes. We wish we had bought more! Stock up on future sizes, too!
9. Talk to other adopting families you see! It is so fun meeting people that you followed the websites of!
10. McDonalds, KFC, and Pizza Hut all taste better in China, but don’t forget tip 4!
11. Do stuff! Don’t sit in the hotel room all day. It’s not every day someone goes to CHINA!
12. If there’s something you see that you want, buy it. You may think “oh, I’ll see it again...” but you might not! The teapots in Beijing are the best. They aren’t as good in Guangzhou. And even though it’s a pain lugging it to every city you go, it is worth it!
13. If you are in Hunan, make sure to go to the embroidery factory. It is EYE OPENING!
14. Climb to the top of the Great Wall. The views are STUNNING, and then you get bragging rights!
15. Put a towel over the bathroom sink. It will remind you not to drink the tap water!
16. At some restaurants in Beijing, coke is complimentary.
17. The cakes in China are GROSS. Yes, they look BEAUTIFUL. But they are NASTY.
18. Look in every stall before using a squatty potty. Sometimes, they have a western toilet although you think they won’t! (I did not use a squatty ONCE the entire time we were there, and I’m proud of it!)
19. make sure to carry disposable toilet paper. Most bathrooms don’t have any. Also, be loaded with hand sanitizing wipes. The sinks are usually nasty.
20. There is a Starbucks in the Forbidden City. You won’t see it, so make sure to ask about it if you are craving some Starbucks!!! Their hot chocolate is TO DIE FOR! There is also a Starbucks in Guangzhou. It is inside of the China Hotel. 21. Although it only happened once with us, the fashion police are out there! Keep your kids bundled!
22. If you are trying to do the “only family holds” thing and hotel workers are trying to hold your baby, just tell your guide that it is bugging you and they will nicely tell the people to stop. They will leave you alone the rest of your stay. (I know that sounds harsh, but we had a big problem with bonding and the hotel crew wanting to hold AC didn’t help…)
23. Don’t be surprised if there is a group of Chinese people looking at you, pointing, laughing and staring. They might come up and pose for a picture with you (or your baby). There will be even more pointing once you have the baby. Don’t worry, they aren’t laughing at you, they are just amazed to see Americans (especially w/ Chinese babies!)
24. Lucy’s isn’t as good as people claim it to be. Their chicken tenders are AMAZING though. The milkshakes are nasty.
25. Will informed me (I don’t eat red meat) that Chinese hamburgers are NOT good.
26. Speaking of Lucy’s, the bathrooms there, you need a pass to get in. They are nasty, and men, I hear the restrooms for you is a wall. NO JOKE!
27. If you get a chance to go to the orphanage your child is from, GO! It is a great experience!



28. The plates are VERY small. As big as your hand! (That's why the Chinese are so small!)
29. If you are staying at the China Hotel, ask for a taxi to the White Swan, and to get back, go to the White Swan and take a taxi from there back. Bring your key card so they know what hotel you are talking about (most likely they can’t understand English.)
30. Don’t be shocked if there is a car crash. It is very common! Also, don’t be amazed when there is honking ever 2 seconds. They do it when passing someone. Oh and the drive on the wrong side of the street to pass you.
31. BARGAIN! DON’T GIVE IN ON PRICES!!! They won’t let you leave without selling it to you, so just keep lowering the price. When they say the price is final, it really might not me!
32. Enjoy your time. It goes way to fast. You will love China so much!! It is so fun!



Best stores~

Beijing-
The pearl factory for pearls.

We went to some cloisonné place that had a restaurant in it. They had an amazing selection on EVERYTHING you can think of!

Guangzhou-
A Place of Love- BEST store! Ask for Stella, she is so nice!

There is a silk place next-door to the Ladybug Corner. They make anything you want out of the silk of your choice. They are so nice there, too.

There is a place across from Lucy’s that makes pictures that say your child’s name with all sorts of symbols (ladybug- adoption, butterfly- family, rooster- born in 2005, etc). They do a great job. Make sure that you tell them you know someone who got it for 100 Yuan!

Jennifer’s- BEST squeaky shoes. They make it so easy to buy them buy grouping them by size instead of pattern!

A Gift from China- we never saw it, which I am sad about, but the proceeds go to Chinese orphans and I hear it is great!

Jordan’s- He is SOOOOOO nice. He is a Christian and doesn’t work on Sundays. He has really cute squeakies at his store and has good prices. He will also write your child’s name in Chinese!

Music

I have gotten rid of the music playing on my background, as a lot of people have asked how to get rid of it when watching videos. And since I've added a lot of videos lately, and have more to add, I thought it would be easiest to take it off. :)

Also, if you haven't watched AnnaClaire's Story yet because you couldn't figure out how to get the music off, the link is on the side under "movies". Please watch that and leave a comment if you haven't already!

Picture (and video!!!) of day

Love this one! Love the palm under chin. I think we have a little model here!

Oh and here's the video of AnnaClaire imitating the old lady who whispers hush. I don't know if you can hear or not, but she keeps saying "shh, shh" throughout the whole video. I think its the cutest when she says it and puts her finger to her lips... LOL!

Sweet pea!

Pretty baby!

Fun at her water table!!!

a SPLASH of cold water! (she was so cute, she would spray herself, or walk through the "rainbow" and she would realize how cold it was and give a big ol laugh and drop the hose in surprise!)
Isn't the back of her swim suit sooooooooo adorable?
Sweet, cubby legs and pretty little crocs!

Kissy face!!!!!!!!!
Beautiful!
"DOGGIE! That's MY water table you are drinking out of! I get in trouble for playing in yours, so you aren't allowed to drink from MINE!" (kidding, of course)
She loves her orange lid and blue cup!
"Brr! The water is CHILLY!"

That's not a phone, silly! (Love this picture. That face...)
"Swinging in my bathing suit!"
"I'm a happy baby!"
"Aren't I beautiful?"
"Since I got measured today, Sissy wanted to measure herself, too. I was there to grab the tape measure from her. Oh, Sissy is 5'8, but who cares about Sissy. All you care about is ME, ME, ME!" (just kidding, just kidding, AC isn't selfish!)

Playing with her PINK PIG and YELLOW DUCKIE finger puppets! She loves these! (notice how she's sitting indian style. Is that adorable or what?)
Taking her balloon for a "walk"!
Girl on the go! Notice Goodnight Moon in her hands...
Pretty little thing!
"Hi!!!!!!"

Our sweet pea had a traumatic morning at the doctor. The only good thing about it was that she got weighed and measured. She is a CHUBBY, SHORT thing as I have said numerous times... Are you ready for this?

24 pounds, 29 inches

that's almost a pound an inch.

It was very warm out again, in the low 80s, so AnnaClaire and I headed outside and played with her water table for awhile. She had a ball. She loves her water table, the hose, and everything that has to do with it! I asked her if she wanted to swing, and she nodded her head and said "yeah!" so we went and swang for a little while. Then we went in and I got her all redressed and she played nicely until dinner. She has a new favorite book. She absolutely loves Goodnight Moon. It is her very favorite. She could read it over and over again. She knows how to point out most of the things in it! So smart. My favorite is her imitaion of "the quite old lady whispering hush". I have a video of that and I'll add it in a moment. It's the cutest thing.

AnnaClaire lives up to her province nickname, "Hunan Spicy Girls". Today we ate red beans and rice for dinner. Well, you know, that has a nip to it! Mom let AnnaClaire try it. She LOVED it and ate an entire bowl of it!

When Dad picked me up from swimming, he said, "the precious was precious tonight." She has him wrapped around her pudgy finger, as the rest of us. We are all SO in love with her. She has a PERSONALITY like no other. It is such a sweet, sweet personality! She really is so sweet. We are SO blessed!

black and whites from yesterday

(above, she is holding the hose thing)


(above, I was holding her and the way her face was looked so cool, so I tried taking a pic... it came out really cool looking!)

Video- Talkative baby!

She loves to talk! She just talks and talks and talks. Usually she stops talking when the camera is out, but I snuck it out and she kept talking :) (Taken on CNY- Feb 18)

Video- uh oh!

Here's another video of AnnaClaire saying uh oh.. Doesn't she have such a sweet voice?

Pic of Day- B&W cutie!

Here is one of the many, many black and white photos I took today. Love the face of this one. I will go through them and add tons more sweet, sweet b&w pics tomorrow, so look for those! There are so many good ones...

I also love the ones of her when she got into the chips! heheheheh!

(oh by the way, I did quite a few different posts today- a total of 9- so make sure to read them all! Most of them don't have text and are just pictures/video.)

Kissing the calender kids!

Isn't she so nice?

House fun

AnnaClaire loves her new house!! Isn't she so cute in it? In the first one, she is waving "hi!"

BTW, I added a few videos. I have uploaded all of them to Photobucket, but will add them a few a day so I don't overload w/ videos!

Guess who swang today?

"YES ME!"

"Loving my swing again!"
AnnaClaire is swinging....
swinging, swinging! AnnaClaire is swinging, yes she is!

I am happy to announce that Miss AnnaClaire Chenhui likes her swing again! I am so excited. I have worked so hard on getting her to like it again. She loves to swing, just something about the spot her swing was in freaked her out. Yesterday, bunny and I swang making her want to swing, too. She only swang about 5 minutes, but I knew it was a start... and it was! Today, after swinging a tiny bit with me, I got off the swing (am kinda bit for the 6-48 month swing she has... lol!) but she was not ready to stop swinging. I cautiously put her in and she didn't cry! I started off swinging her slowly and got faster and faster (but not FAST!) When I was pushing her to high, she would let out a little whine and I'd slow it down. She was in it about 30 minutes and loved every minute of it! Soon she was laughing, smiling, and blowing kisses! That's a girl, AnnaClaire!

Here's a video of her in her swing. The first part, she is giving kisses, cuteness!

nice day!

AnnaClaire LOVES balloons!

It was such a fun day. The day started with some inside fun, a trip to Harris Teeter (which involved getting a pretty, purple balloon!) When we got home, we had a yummy lunch then AC took a nice, long nap. When she awoke, I opened her window and we looked out for a long time. She loves looking out windows. Mom came home from getting Will from school and AC was smiling and waving to Mom. So cute! I took AnnaClaire outside and we played out there for a long, long time. She played in her house (she loves it!) walked around the yard, and... I'll save this exciting part for it's own post! Anyway, I took tons of pictures including closeups in black and white that I'll add. So pretty. There are tons, as you have to keep snapping to get a good one (140) so I need to look through those and find some good ones. I might only post a few tonight and save the rest for tomorrow. Mom joined us outside and AnnaClaire played with her shovel in the grass. She had so much fun. Then we were talking about the AWAA calender, and I went to get it. AnnaClaire ran over and started kissing all the kids in it! SOOOO cute! She kissed Klaire on the front cover, and then kissed each child for each month. Then at the end, there are tons more pictures of kids, and she kissed them, too. Isn't she so sweet? We had my favorite dinner for dinner- some sort of noodle with cheese and mushrooms- with carrots. AnnaClaire ate that too. I think she liked it:). We played with blocks and then I went to swimming. I'm so happy because it's getting warm again! As you know, it was very warm last week. Well then on Friday, it rained and dropped to the 40s. Saturday and Sunday were cold, too. Now today was in the 60s and the rest of the week, it's supposed to be 70s and then get back to the 80s next week! WOOHOO!

Look what she found...

potato chips!

"Who ME?"

This morning, Mom called me saying, "Em, come quick with your camera!" I ran down to find THIS. Miss AnnaClaire found the pack of potato chips in the pantry and spilled them everywhere. She and Maggie were enjoying snacking on them... Mom said, "Uh oh, AnnaClaire!" And the put her arms out like "What?" and flashed a huge grin.

Yesterday pix

AnnaClaire at Buffet Dynasty!

Looking at the koi!
AnnaClaire loves her house! Isn't it sooooo cute?

Video- dancing in the car

Here she is dancing in the car at the end of Feb. SOOOO cute. I love when she dances!

Video- cup thingy!

This one was taken last month of her doing the "cup thing" I was telling you about awhile ago. This just cracks me up!!

Pic of Day- HAPPY girl in her jammies from Sissy!

Is this not the cutest picture? Isn't she ADORABLE in her jammies I got her last weekend? They even match the blankie I got her for her b-day! SOOO cute!

Video- AnnaClaire slides on her belly!

This was the 2nd time she did it- the first time threw us for a total surprise!! I was SOOOO excited she did it again for the camera. Of course, I wasn't sure if she would or not, so I didn't catch her getting ON her belly, but she did get on her belly by herself! I have no idea where she learned this, must've been from watching other kids!

Beautiful day with our beautiful girl

This was the view out my window this afternoon. Isn't it LOVELY outside? I love spring!

Jie Jie and Mei Mei
Daddy loves his "littlest precious" as he calls her.

I have more pictures to add but they were taken on my camera which is totally out of batteries. So I have to charge those up and I'll add the rest tomorrow. AnnaClaire did great in the nursery. She started crying when Mom left, but soon was playing happily with her friend, Ben. Afterwards, we went out for Chinese. AC loved it! Everyone was ohhing and ahhing over her. One man came up to us and it turns out he has an almost 3 year old from Hunan!! We got home around 1:10, and put AnnaClaire down for her nap right away. She had a very nice nap, 2.5 hours! While she napped, Dad and I set up her playhouse so that she could play in it when she awoke. The Princess awoke about 3:50 and I took her directly outside to her house (I was the only one home). We played in it. She really, really liked it. She especially likes that it has a phone hanging on a phone hook! LOL! We kinda walked around in the yard after playing house. I even got her into her swing (only because I was pushing Bunny in it! LOL) She ended up swinging quite a bit. She loves to spin in her swing. Hopefully she is on her way to loving her swing again! I heard Mom come home (she was timing at a MUST TIME swim meet this weekend even though I wasn't even swimming in it) Dad and Will had come home from going to take pictures for some project, too. AnnaClaire was so happy to see everyone and was squealing happily (see pic of me and her). We played all afternoon. At one point, AC wasn't getting very much attention (like that's ever true! lol) so she spilled her entire sippy cup on the floor and gave us this "HAHA I got your attention!" look when we figured it out. She's so smart! She enjoyed her bath so much tonight and did not want to get out. She had never taken one that long! I bathed her. She tricked me at the end by standing up and putting her arms out, ready to get out, and then the minute I tried picking her up, she would sit back down and crack up. This game lasted awhile. She is soooooo funny!

I fogot to mention, this morning as I dressed her in her BEAUTIFUL dress from the H. family, I sang "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes" to her. I asked her where her head was and she knew! She didn't know shoulders or knees, but knew toes, too! Then she knew eyes, ears, mouth, and nose! She is such a smart girl! She had NEVER done "head" before! Smartie pants!

Oh and I totally forgot to upload the video of her sliding on her belly... I need to do that! There are also a few more from last month I need to upload. I have really been putting that off... It just takes soooo long! (UPDATE: added the belly sliding one. Still have more, but will post the belly one tonight!)

Pic(s) of Day- sweet in green!

(Above) love this one. I think it is my very favorite. Just that face! This was taken while climbing through the "ear" (tunnel). So sweet!

I also love this one of her sliding. So cute in action:

This one isn't a pic of the day, but I accidently erased it in the last post. This is her playing on the "tongue".

By the way, there is a new home update on the website! Check it out!

St Patty's Day at the Discovery Place!

"I'm going bubye to the Discovery Place!"

Playing with the magnet bugs. She LOVED these!

Sliding
Playing with the block things
watching the spark with Dad
AnnaClaire made the "news"!
Playing at the water table
Riding the John Deere in the kids area! (For you, Aunt Nancy!)
She loved this horse thing! Riding the air chair

"I love my jammies, Grandma! Thanks!"

After swimming, Dad, Mom, AnnaClaire and I went to Chickfila for lunch. They were getting their limited edition MINT cookies and cream milkshakes in. OH MY GOODNESS, it was amazing. Afterwards, Dad, AC, and I went home while Mom ran a few errands and got Will from the PSAT that he took this morning. AnnaClaire napped horribly (not even an hour) but wouldn't go back down. I think it was because her bunny was in the car, because she looked all around for it when she woke up screaming. (it was in the car which Dad had out) after mom got home, we left for the Discovery Place. We had so much fun. AnnaClaire had just a blast. She loved playing at the water table (got soaked though!) She also loved the horse and cow and pig that make noises. She rode the John Deere and played with pulltoys, "drove" the wooden car, climbed through the "tree roots" and the "ear". She loved all this. Another favorite was this magnetic table so that you can move the bugs around. She loved that. After awhile of watching Dad move them, she climbed under the table to check it out herself! Then she made the ladybug go! She also loved the slide. I would go up with her and push her down to Mom. After a few times, she climbed up, turned around and got on her belly, slid to the slide and went down! IT WAS THE CUTEST THING! We had never shown her that or anything. She just DID it! I took a video that I'll add tomorrow. It was so cute! She also was going through the "ear" and to get out of the tunnel of the "ear", she turned around and came out backwards! SO SMART! She did the same to get out of the car. Speaking of the car, there were these 2 little girls who LOVED AnnaClaire. They were doing everything with her. Helping her get in the car, and then taking her for a "ride" in it. They were showing her how to get in and out, etc. AnnaClaire loved it. They were so sweet with her. The older one (still like 8) tried picking her up and AnnaClaire started quivering her lip, crying, and reaching for me. I loved that :). After awhile of fun in the kids room, we headed over to the fish. We stopped by the spark thingy because Dad wanted AnnaClaire to see. She was enthralled. We saw a big globe and found China and showed AnnaClaire. Then I decided that AnnaClaire needed to be on the "news". They have this blue screen there so that it reflects and you can see yourself on the fake news. Me and AnnaClaire did it. It was cool. She thought it was neat seeing herself on TV! She climbed up the stairs and we did this thing called an air chair. AC and I went together. AC was so excited. She loved it. When we got to the top, she started waving at everyone below her (TONS of people). We heard all these people say "AWWWWWWWWWWW!" It really was so cute. She did not want to get out of that chair. She loved it. We went in this other place called "candy unwrapped" and AnnaClaire played on this bouncy tounge thing where when you step on the different spots (taste buds), it makes all this sound. She had so much fun on it! After stopping by for some green nitrogen ice cream, we went to one of our favorite restaurants. AnnaClaire loved it! She was hamming it up for all the workers. She got her first taste of banana pudding and LOVED it! She spit out the cookie from it though... lol. We got home and I gave her a nice bath and got her all ready for bed. Mom put her to bed (around 7:20) and she has been sleeping soundly since! It was an awesome day! Hope you all had a good St Patrick's Day!

I leave you with this one of Mom and her sweet girl:

Dancing Queen (last month)

I told you she was the cutest dancer in the entire world :)
(this was taken on her 16 month birthday- 2/27/07)

A ladybug sighting!

AnnaClaire spotted a soft, sqeaking ladybug yesterday! She wanted to share her sighting with everyone in the adoption world! I hope her ladybug brings you whatever it is you are waiting for ;-)

Pic of Day- Pushing the baby!

I love these pictures of AnnaClaire pushing the stroller. She loved pushing it! (As you can see above, she also loved 'eating' it!) Isn't she cute? BTW, it is MUCH easier choosing 1 out of 10 rather than 1 out of 96!

Cutie pa-tootie

AnnaClaire tried on sunglasses today.. what do ya think? I think they are.. funny.

Sitting in the chair at Joseph Beth. (Look at that lip!)
Playing at the stove at PB Kids.
Another singlasses picture. They just crack me up! She cried when I took them off and put them back. She really liked them!
"Mama, buy this for me, puh-lease!"

It was an early morning because I had to go take the National Latin Exam. That went well! I think I did really good :). After it was done, Mom and AC picked me up and we ran to the mall. I think it is like our new Friday tradition! (LOVE that! lol) AnnaClaire was pretty fussy while we shopped and we later found out it was because she was hungry. (She ate a TON for lunch! A whole cup of chicken noodle soup at Chickfila, some of my ziti noodles, bread, a juice box, 2 crackers.) We got a really cute sweater at Janie and Jack. We had been looking at it but wanted it to go on sale. Well, it was a double mark down so we got it. We bought it ahead as it's a 2T. We went into Gymboree because Gymbucks just started. They had NOTHING there. I am not kidding. There were a few tacky things. We found 3-4 things we liked in the entire store. We ended up getting these really cute flamingo pants and a really sweet pink dress with flowers and a bow in the front. We almost got the dress from the Tea Garden line (because Miss Maura S. looked SO darling in it!) but, they didn't have AnnaClaire's size, so that ruled that out. Anyway, I really don't recommend Gymboree right now. It was just not cute. They had a few cute things here and there but for the most part, it was not cute. We then went to Joseph Beth so AnnaClaire could run around a little. It turned out we had come right before music time started so AC got to play AND dance. We even saw another "mei mei" (Chinese baby w/ American mom) there! After that, we went to lunch and then we left. We stopped by The Children's Place to see if they had anything because my aunt's friend sent us a giftcard to there. The Children's Place had quite a few cute things! We got AnnaClaire a sweet white onesie (we have been looking EVERYWHERE for one of these!) and another pair of ADORABLE "best friends" footies. They are sooooooooo cute. The have little circles on them and on each one there is either 2 little girls or a little girl and a dog. So cute. And they are PINK of course! On the way to the car, we some how found our way into Pottery Barn Kids. We got a few Easter basket goodies for AC's first Easter. We let AnnaClaire get out of her stroller and play. She loved the Retro Kitchen (that Mom and I are DYING to have!) She also loved the hot pink and green baby doll stroller. We will for sure be getting that sometime soon! She loved it! She met some other kids that had lollipops. She wanted one. (She didn't get one). She loves seeing other kids! We pryed her out of ther about 10 til 1 and got home just after one. She was a b-a-d napper today (1 hr 15 min) but woke up from her short nap quie cheerful. We played awhile while Mom got Will from school. Then Will played with her awhile. He's sad because she crys when he holds her, so he is trying to change that:). Then AnnaClaire went over to my mom's friend's house (up the street) to deliver her a birthday cake! They were over there for awhile and I hear AnnaClaire had a blast! AC brought me to swimming and Dad said she was very tired and went to bed early tonight. It was such a good day. Every day is a good day with this precious gift from God! :)

Sweet feet!

This weeks FFFF Challenge from Double Happiness is "Feet!" I loved doing this one because our girl has some SWEET (AND CHUBBY!!!) little feet! I love her feet! They are so cute. I especially love to kiss them!

Pictures of the day! (yesterday)

(Above) LOVE the smile.
(Above) Those EYES. AnnaClaire has the most beautiful eyes. So almond shaped and pretty...
(Above) THAT BELLY! And that smile. I love this little girl OH SO MUCH!
(Above) THAT FACE! Is it sweet or what? She looks so baffled by the hose.. hehe. Oh, like the pink crocs, pink bathingsuit, and pink bow? She's so pretty in pink, isn't she?!
(Above) LOVE that sly smile! She's a cutie!!!!!

There are just so many. I SO can't decide. Let me know which one is your favorite. These 5 are my VERY favorites from the day.

Itsy bitsy, teeny weeny...

...pink polka dot skirtini!

"I'm a HAPPY girl!"
"I love my water spinny thingy!"
"I'm such a BIG girl!"
"I love the hose!"
Up close and beautiful.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"EEK!"
"Squatting pretty."
LOOK AT THAT SWEET, CHUBBY HAND!!!!!!!!

I think this is like the coolest picture. I was making a rainbow with the hose and she LOVED to go under it. I snapped the picture right as she was running under. Is that not SO cool? (and she LOVED it, she was not crying! I know it kinda looks like it in the pic, but she wasn't!)
"I am just such a cheerful baby."
Drinking out of the hose... (yuck!)
Look at the back of this swim suit. SOOOO cute, huh!?

I don't know what it is about this picture, I just really like it!

"SO BIG!"
"I'm cute."
"HELLO IN THERE?!"
What a FACE she has!

She wore an itsy, bitsy

teeny, weeny

pink, polka dot skirtini...

(that's my version of the yellow polka dot bikini song)

As you can probably tell from the pictures, AnnaClaire and I had a BLAST in the hose and water table. Even Drew was out there with us awhile! AnnaClaire just loves the water. I can't wait to bring her to the beach!! And the pool! She discovered that I can make a "rainbow" with the hose. She loved running under it and getting all wet. She would just crack up laughing. It was so cute! She just loves water. And outside! After playing awhile, we came in and I got her all dressed again for a mini-photoshoot. I didn't get a GREAT picture, but got a few cute ones:) Mom brought home the plastic Easter eggs and AnnaClaire LOVES them. Easter will be so much fun. I think we'll have an Easter egg hunt for Little Miss AnnaClaire who love eggs!:)

Yesterday Story time

Going up to see the watermelon in the "What I Eat" book!

"This is my maraca! It is pink!"
"I met a friend, Will. We are the two chubbiest in our whole group! hehehe!"
"I am so pretty when I sit!"
"Buh-bas!" (bubbles) *oh and yes, the duck is 'flying'! She threw it RIGHT as I snapped the picture!

Story time was so much fun. EVERYONE complimanted AnnaClaire on how cute she was. Of course they always do. One lady said she looks forward to coming every Thursday to see what AnnaClaire is wearing! HEHE! Quite a few people asked if they could trade babies with us. That makes me laugh. Here they have their own babies and they want OURS. Of course, she is staying with us because we absolutely adore her. She met a little boyfriend, Will. They are the chubbiest kids in the whole class. Will is quite a big chubbier than AC, though. Don't they make a cute couple? lol. AnnaClaire has learned to say bubble and they teacher was AMAZED! She came up to us and said, "Do you know that your sweet girl said bubble?" We think she's pretty amazing, too.

Ugh!

Last night I had so must trouble adding pictures. It took me about 30 minutes for a batch of 5. Today, I can't even load them. I have been waiting almost an hour and I am finally giving up... Sorry! I took SOOOOOOO many pictures today, too (96... and it was just a normal day, too!) I know, I know, I take so many pictures. I just have an AMAZINGLY ADORABLE model to photograph! :) So I'll try again with pictures tomorrow. I'll just add text then.

Tomorrow look for:
-Storytime fun in her ADORABLE flower dress
-hose and water table fun in her new polka dot suit
-my song :)
-Cute photoshoot photos!

Pic(s) of Day- Happy water princess!

(Above) is def. my favorite. I just love this picture. Is she cute or what? I also love the following. I just love her smile. It lights up my world.

Our Bathing Beauty!

Today it was 84 degrees outside which is an automatic bathingsuit day. Hehe. We went to the park this morning. It was SOOOOOO hot. This afternoon, I put AnnaClaire in her cute little bathingsuit and we went out and played at her water table for like 3 hours. She had a BLAST. She also loves playing with the hose (and pouring it in Maggie's mouth..hehe) Enjoy the pix!

Morning pictures

"I got my new jammies and my favoritest bunny. It's all good!"

Love this picture!! It was taken at the spinny thing at the park this morning.
Going through the tunnel at the park!

Pic(s) of Day- Water table smiles!

(Above) is probably my very favorite. Love the face, love the walking in motion, love the flopping hands, love the belly, LOVE THIS LITTLE GIRL! I also LOVE these 2:

(btw, the bib is our version of a smock..hehe)

There are tons others I really, really like, but these are probably my very favorites. I also love the one of her pouring the water in the spinny thing, the lookie there one, and of her in her diaper splashing before going in. (you can see those below.) Let me know which is/are your favorite(s). It can be ANY picture I posted today.

AnnaClaire and her water table

"Doggie likes my water table, too!"

"This is so much fun!!!"
"I love my water table!"

"I can pour my watering can into the water in my table!" "Mommy brought me this toy. I learned how to pour water in to make the things spin!"
"I'm a sweet girl with my water toys!"
"Lookie there!"

"A few more splashes before I go in..."

"Helping drain my table of all the water!"

AnnaClaire loves her water table so much. She had a blast! We played at it for about an hour and a half straight! She loves it so much! I think we will have many more afternoons of water fun to come!

Our Precious Girl!

"I love purses!"

"Sliding on the curvy slide with Sissy."
"Climbing through te tunnel at the park."
"Me and Bunny swinging inside"
"I'm SUCH a happy baby!"
Aww.. so sweet!
"I climbed up all by myself, am taking a quick dancing break, and then I'm gonna slide down!"

"YAYYYYYYYY!"

We had a nice morning at the park. AnnaClaire had great fun. The big hit today was curvy slides. She also went on a "tunnel" slide for the first time, with me. She loved it! She also loved going on this thing that spins around and around and you stand on it. Except she liked to sit on it. It was so cute! After the park, she took me to Grace. She had lunch at home and then picked me up. Mom informed me she had gotten in big trouble for playing in Doggie's bowl! Uh-oh. We played a little before she went down for her nap. She took a pretty long one- almost 2.5 hours! While she napped, I decided to get her sand & water table set up. It was SUCH a nice day- sunny and 80 degrees- perfect to play at her water table! I got it all set up and after she awoke, we played. She loved it! We were out there for so long. She just loves it. She got SOAKED playing though. Next time, I'll put her in a bathingsuit! Mom came out and joined us for a while and AnnaClaire played in her diaper. She just loves her water table. Oh, she also wore her Crocs- TOO CUTE! After we were done, I got her redressed in a onesie and she was a "onesie" girl until we went to take me to swimming because she was going straight on a walk afterwards. She went down her slide, swang w/ Bunny in her indoor swing, danced to music, etc. She LOVES her bunny. She won't even let us put it back in her crib. She just adores it! We had a wonderful afternoon. I'm so glad it's getting warm out! We need to get some sand this week so we can play in the sand table part, too!

AnnaClaire bakes cookies!

"I'm going to make some cookies with Sissy."

"We put all the butter in... See?"
"Now, I turn on the mixer."
"And I help Sissy pour the flour in bit by bit while it mixes."
"I like the measuring cup!"
"Sissy gave me a teeny taste of batter.." (don't worry it has no eggs in it.)

"This stuff is TASTY!"

"YUM!"

"The cookies are in the 'ha' oven!"

"They're done, time to get them out of the oven!"

"Now we have to sprinkle on the sugar..."

"And they need sprinkles, too!"

"I made yummy cookies with Sissy!" (notice, she is picking one up!"

My little sugar lips

"Look at the completed cookies! They are so yummy!" (notice she is liking all the crumbs off her hands.)

Today AnnaClaire and I baked cookies. Each Monday, I bake a sweet for the week. So today, AnnaClaire and I made sugar cookies! This was her first time baking! We made our Great Grandmas famous recipe. They are so yummy! AnnaClaire had a ball making them. She sat on the counter for a LONGGGGGGGGG time, so intrigued! She love helping me. She especially loved eating dough. (part of cooking is liking the spoon/eating dough!) She knew she was only aloud to eat it off the mixer spoon, though! She's smart. She kept dipping her finger on the spoon to get some. She loved it! She doesn't like any sweets, but the dough, she loved. And it has no raw eggs in it- even better! After getting them all on the cookie sheets, we put them in the oven and waited. AnnaClaire kept pointing at the oven saying, "ha!" That's how she says "hot". It is so cute. She says it to anything in the oven/on the stove. When they were out, she helped me sprinkle them with sugar and sprinkles. She knew not to touch the cookie sheet because it was still a little "ha". She is sooo smart! She helped me put them on a plate and WALA! The cookies were completed! While I was snapping a picture of her with the, she grabbed one and stuffed it in her mouth. Hehehehe. They are really soft and small, so she loved it! She only had a teeny taste, though. So baking cookies is a new favorite thing. We were amazed by how still she sat, just calmly baking cookies! We have a future cook, I think!

Oh and yet again, there is no pic of the day. It is too hard! I took 66 pictures today and I JUST can't decide. I love them all! Tell me which is YOUR favorite, though!

Beware: naked baby on the loose!

"Where's your big belly, AnnaClaire?"

AnnaClaire LOVES her corn popper car. She absolutely loves it. She is so stinkin' cute with it, too. Today she wanted to ride it with just her diaper on, which was pretty cute :) Here's a video taken last night of her on her car:

I'm so cute, yes I am!

(Drew is looking at her, not blinking) "Brother did my "bow job". What do you think? I love him anyway.."

"Shadow of Sissy and me on a walk!"
Such a sweetie.
" It's a pretty day here and Im taking advantage of it on a walk with my sissy!"
Jiang, baby.

"I'm so smart! I know the purple one goes HERE!"

As you can tell from the pictures, today was another fun day. AnnaClaire woke up about 9 (but "her" time it was 8). Our poor, poor AnnaClaire is teething really bad to the point of swollen and bleeding gums. Poor little thing. She is SUCH a tropper through it all! She has really been sucking on her finger lately, too. She went through a few outfits today (lambie, ladybug, back to washed lambie) so that explains the outfit changes. She had such a nice day. We baked and rode her car, went for a walk, hung out with Ge Ge, played outside, went on errands, played piano, just the norm. She is so sweet. Today marks 1/4 of a year that she became OFFICIALLY ours!!!

AnnaClaire's First Carousel (Video)

Of course when I was videoing, she wasn't laughing and smiling... still cute though!

3 amazing months together!

Today is our 3 month gotcha anniversary! Check the website, too! I can't believe we have had our girl 3 months. 3 AMAZING months!

Cute pix

Today there is not pic of the day. There were way to many I liked! But here are a few pictures taken tonight that are especially cute! :)

AnnaClaire rides a carousel!!!

She LOVED it! I have some video that I'll add later.

Concord Mills fun!

"This is my beloved tongue!"

"Playing house at Kids R Us!"
"I'm so big pushing the cart!"
"WOW! Look at those fish!"
"I love fish!"

Today after Church (AnnaClaire did GREAT in the nursery with me!) and lunch and naptime, we headed to our big outlet mall. First we stopped by Toys R Us and Babies R Us. At Toys R Us, we had a 20% off cupon, so we wanted to get a sand/water table, look at picnic tables, and look at the houses. We ended up getting a sand & water table and a little cottage for the backyard. AnnaClaire loved playing house! She even had a playmate, Luke, who is almost 16 months old! They had fun together. Everyone loved her squeakies, as always! We walked across to Babies R Us while Dad got the cottage and water & sand table loaded. We got a few things we needed and saw this cute Popper Car. AnnaClaire LOVES little car things, and she loves her corn popper, so we got her the Corn Popper Car. Then we went to the mall because Dad needed some pants and he NEVER goes shopping, so finally he asked if we would go shopping with him. So we all went there. We stopped in the Gymboree outlet (which is sooo much better than the normal store, may I mention!) and got AnnaClaire the CUTEST teal dress with a flower on it. I got her these cute PJs for Spring that match her blankie. I see them everytime and want to get them for her, so finally I did. I love them! At the Polo Outlet store, I somehow found my way to the baby section and found the cutest green floral skirtie bathingsuit. We got it :). It is so cute!! It was also a good price. We walked around a little more, stopped at Starbucks and then we went to Bass Pro Shop. Thanks, Sarah Lu, for recommended seeing the fishies there! AnnaClaire LOVED the fish. She had a blast watching them. She was sooooo cute with them! We walked around a little more and ended at the big mall carousel. AnnaClaire watched it go around 2 times (which she loved doing) and then we rode it. She LOVED it. See next post for details and pix on that!

She DID NOT want to leave the carousel. She loved it so much. After tears and trauma, we got her in her carseat and headed home for a yummy dinner, playtime on her new car, bathtime, and bedtime :)

Pic of Day- Like my pretty dress?

GE GE!

Airport!

Kissing her doggie!

In the new car on the way to pick Drew up from the airport!
Happy at the airport!
LOL! It wasn't moving, don't worry. She actually climbed on it. I think just about anyone would claim this cutie as their baggage ;)
Walking with Ge Ge and Dada
Trying on her new shorties with her cute new shirt!

I think she likes her newest outfit!

She's teething pretty badly which means lots of moments with the finger in the mouth...

This afternoon, we picked Drew up from the airport. The last time we were at the airport was when we went to (guess where) CHINA! All of a sudden as we pulled up, I had a huge memory rush! I'm ready to go back now!!! I loved China so much! I started remembering EVERYTHING about our trip as we pulled up. Some of the things, I never even really remembered and all of a sudden, things just came to me! I am SO ready to go back!!!!!!! :) Someday, I will. It was really good to see him again! It's his spring break. AnnaClaire didn't go to him right away, but has warmed up to him! :) We also went to our kids consignment store and got these so cute shorts (for $1.99!) to go with her new (ADORABLE) shirt! What do you think? This is her very first pair of shorts! I actually think they are quite cute! Believe it or not, they are 2T. That's our little chubsters... And they actually fit and don't fall off, too! We had dinner at On the Border (Drew's choice-yum!) I saw a play, Jane Eyre, that my friend was in tonight. It was sooooooooooooo good! I think AnnaClaire had a nice night and now she has retired to her crib. She was soooooooo sweet all day! Oh, BTW, the smocked dress she is wearing... it was one of the very first dresses that Mom and I got her!!

Check the website as I did a new home update tonight!

Pic of Day- AnnaClaire's bunny shirt

"Thank you, Mrs. Young for my bunny shirt! I LOVE it!"

(and here's a few more pix with her new shirt...)

Oh and also, I just put the right date on AnnaClaire's Story. So it doesn't appear at the top anymore. If you haven't seen it yet, just click on the link on the side (at the very top) that says Movies: AnnaClaire's Story (30 min). Please comment after watching! :)

Littly Panty Girl

I think these ruffly panties are so cute. Isn't she adorable with just them on?

My Mei Mei

Our water bottle lovin' diaper cutie:)
"What shall I cook today?"
Squeaking around the mall.

First off, I think you need to hear our "Cute AC story". This morning, AC came waddling into my room and I noticed she didn't have a bow in! (Which has gotten really bad, BTW. She has really been taking them out lately!) So I said, "AnnaClaire, where is your bow?" She pointed to where her bow should be and said "Boa!" Then she left. A minute later, I went to check on her. She was in the bonus room pointing at Maggie saying "Dodgie, dodgie!" I thought she wanted me to pet Maggie, so I did and she kept pointing saying, "DODGIE!" I then realized that Maggie had AC's bow in her mouth! AnnaClaire is SOOOO smart! She knew exactly where her bow was and when I asked her, she brought me to it! Is that not so cute?

We ran to the mall this morning. Yes, we go a lot. It is just a great activity with the Little Missy. So we went. We shopped a little, returned some stuff, and then went to lunch at the foodcourt. We had Chickfila and in the line, we ran into a mother with her 2 daughters. They were both adopted from China and SOOOOO cute. One was 3.5 and the other was 6.5. They were really cute and loved seeing "The baby from China like me!" The lady laughed when she heard AC squeaking "Ohh, the squeakies!" After ordering our food, AC and I went and found a high chair, while Mom waited on the food. I let her walk holding hands. She attracted SOOOOOO much attention in those shoes. EVERYONE turned around "Her shoes!" "She's so cute!" "Ohh, the shoes are squeaking!" "Look at those shoes!" "Oh how adorable!" "Is that the shoes? AWW!" "Where'd you get those, I need a pair for my girl!" "Those are the cutest things!" You get the point. We finally found a highchair and then found a table. While we were eating yummy Chickfila, we saw yet ANOTHER mei mei (a different one) with her mama and dada. We talked to them awhile. Turns out their Chloe Grace is a Hunan Spicy Girl, too! She was from Changsha #1 SWI. She was sooooooo cute. Chloe was 2.5 and just adorable! We got to talking and another lady came up and said she overheard us and wanted to congradulate us on our girls and that she had 2 children adopted from Thailand and India! After lunch, we had more squeaking and then headed home. We let AC walk through the mall and I think the shoes she was wearing were her loudest pair... She was just squeaking and squeaking. Everyone made comments on how cute she/her shoes were. She was sooooo happy, too. Just squealing away! The picture I got it REALLY blurry, but you can see her face of how happy she is. I also got a video I'll try to post although she didn't smile and squeal for the video! (uhhhhh!)

She took a nice, 2 hour nap this afternoon and then went with me to get the mail. BY THE WAY, THANK YOU Mrs. Young for the money and ADORABLE bunny shirt for AnnaClaire. (pictures to be posted later tonight). She looks absolutely precious in the shirt and it fits her great! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Anyway, when we went to get the mail, she wanted to walk a little longer, so I took her to the end of the street. A bus drove past, and she was TERRIFIED. She turned around and clutched on to my legs and the lip started to quiver, but I scooped her up before she could start crying. She was so afraid of that bus!

We played in the backyard all afternoon. She is so busy! She LOVES when we keep the porch door open, climbing in and out of the house. She loves it. She could do that for hours.

She is such a good girl. We are so blessed!

Did I say she is busy? Today she took down ALL the cookbooks and made a little pile and sat on them. It was so funny. She loves going through cabinents, and helping Mom load the dishwasher. As soon as you put something away, it is back out. But that's just what babies do:) And, she is busy in a SWEET way!

FFFF Challenge- Hands!

This weeks Family FotoFun Friday challenge from Double Happiness is... HANDS! AnnaClaire has the sweetest, pudgy hands EVER. It was quite easy finding goot pictures of her hands. In fact I found too many!

(Left to right, top to bottom)

Showing off her hands. Hands are good to eat with. Clapping hands.

Holding her "poopies". Holding Mama's hand. Laughing and showing off hands. Referral picture hands. Sweet hands holding Mama's keys.

Chubby hand delivering a note. Cute hand holding her cup. Sweet hand holding on to the swing.

If you tend to die of cuteness, don't look... (pic of day)

Hey-- I warned you she was cute!! (this is the dress we got monogrammed the other day! Is it cute or what? ACH- AnnaClaire Chenhui H..........)

And here's another cuteness picture. It's not the pic of the day, but I had to include it here. This was this afternoon. We were bouncing up and down and she was just CRACKING UP LAUGHING with her cute little laughs. I just had to snap a picture (which was hard to do while keeping her laughing!)

Falling into the toys?

Okay, so this isn't AnnaClaire (she is standing right behind with the black hair and pink dress in case you couldn't tell!) but I HAD to post this. This is at story time and yes, the little girl is falling in to the toy basket!!!!! Mom rescued her, don't worry. Is that not just too funny?

Story time fun and adjustment compliments!

She tasted cream cheese for the first time this morning. I think saying she liked it would be an understatment!
Feeling the different textures on her feet at Story time!
Pretty little princess rollling the ball!
Bubbles!
She loved that ball!

This morning was AnnaClaire's story time. She loves it!! We talked about feet which is why she is barefoot in every picture. Quite a few people came up to us and said how cute she was... Think they were wrong? (hehehhee of course not!) My mom was talking to one lady who had a 13 month old baby and Mom said that's when we got AnnaClaire and she said, "Oh! She must be what... 18 months now?" She couldn't believe it when Mom said she was 16 months meaning we had only had her for (less than) 3 months!!! She has adjusted SOOOOOOOOO well! We are so proud of her! Later this afternoon, we went to the tailor to pick something up. The tailor is Chinese and she was very happy to see AnnaClaire. She asked all about her and it turns out the lady's father is from Hunan as well! Cool!!

Pic of Day (AND VIDEO!) carseat fun!

The top one is the pic of the day, but here's a few more too-cute-ones-not-to-post:

and I'll end with a *MUST SEE* video of our princess.

Whenever I sneeze, AnnaClaire fake sneezes. It is the FUNNIEST thing. She THROWS her little head back and then puts it forward and makes a sneezing noise. Lucky me, I caught it on video:) Notice at the end, I say "she's so cute!" and she answers, "YEAH!" Hehe! I have a few more videos to add as I have been saying the past while. I will work on adding them tomorrow!

Our day.

We went to Church for piano lessons and I taught AnnaClaire how to go down the stairs before we left!
We picked out fabric for AnnaClaire's quilt (we ordered China Doll for the backing, but needed some in between fabrics)
We went to the park (I didn't go, so I snapped a pic of us two before AC and Mom went... BTW, she wasn't looking because she SO was ready to go since I said "you wanna go bubye park?")
We stayed hydrated.
We (she) took our our (her) bow. Tsk, tsk.

It was a good day.

AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!

This morning, my friend Kayla who is soon getting her sister, Emily, from Chenzhou emailed me. She emailed me because a lady, Mrs. B, had emailed them asking for the link to a slideshow I had made with Chenzhou pix for Kayla's family. Kayla's mom emailed her back and also told them our website. Later this afternoon, Mrs. B emailed my mom and included their blog adress. So we were looking at their blog and their Lainie looked REALLY familiar! She was also standing on the exact rug that was in AC's room in front of the same color wall and everything. I went and pulled out a picture that we have of AnnaClaire and her 5 "room mates" at the orphanage and saw a girl I thought was her. I viewed the video and sure enough, it was the same room and the girl looked just like her, too. Mom emailed them back attaching the picture and it turns out Lainie wasn't the one thought she was, but she is another little girl in the picture! Not only that, but they live 25 miles away from us! So, tonight we got an email from them and she told us about a blog of another family (who is with their agency and lives in SC) adopting a Chenzhou girl, Lilly (who is 10 days older than AC) and we think there is a picture of HER in the same room, too. Mrs. B also said that she knew that a family with their agency adopted the "girl in the blue with the nanny." Well, guess what? The girl in the blue with the nanny was AnnaClaire's best friend in the orphanage!!!!! When we asked if she was being adopted, back in December, the nannies said in the next month or so, she was being adopted! And it turns out, she was and is now home with her forever family!!! So they are sending the picture to the families using their agency and we could maybe find out who adopted AC's best friend! So out of 6 little girls in AnnaClaire's room at Chenzhou, we know of 4 of them that have/are soon to be adopted! HOW EXCITING IS THAT???????? And now we can have little get togethers once they are all home! By the way, Lilly and Lainie's families both sent LOIs in December and are now waiting for TA to bring their Chenzhou sweeties home!!!

Okay, I'm excited, can you tell? Who would've thought that when we saw Chenzhou SWI almost 3 months ago, that the babies we were looking into the faces of would almost all be finding their forever familes?! I hope that we somehow hear the other 2 get forever families as well.

Now who could do this besides God? Out of ALL the families adopting from China, ALL the kids in Chenzhou (AnnaClaire was the 2,108th child adopted from there and I know of many more who have been adopted from there since December 11! And I know many more still remain there...) And the two we know of so far live in NC and SC?! Is that a miracle or what?!

Referrals, referrals, referrals!!!!!!!

AnnaClaire says YAHOO to everyone getting referrals... notice she's getting her very own call, just like everyone who got referrals! :)

WEBSITES OF THOSE WITH REFERRALS: I found this link quite helpful. It has tons of websites listed of those in the newest referral batch!

Pics of Day- Swimmer to be and sliding fun!

I love this picture of AnanClaire sliding. Isn't it so sweet? It's probably my favorite of the two...

But, I also love this one of AnnaClaire holding my swim cap! (You can also see her new outfit well) I think she is a future swimmer like her Sissy!

Tuesday Fun!

She LOVES swinging at the park! Double click this one so you can see THAT FACE!

After swinging and sliding, we took a walk by the water to another smaller park that is part of the HUGE park we were at.
Before we left, I just had to try AC in the funky looking swing. She actually liked it!
Park fun makes a girl thirsty! (She drank 2 1/2 sippy cups full of water! And then at lunch, she totally soaked through her cute, new outfit.)

This morning we headed off to another park. See a trend here? This one is very large. It has a lake that you can do paddle boats, a few bike trails, and 2 different play set parts. First we went to the larger, newer play part. AnnaClaire swang for a long, long time. There was a line of 4 baby swings and she'd swing in one for awhile and then want out and in the next one until she went all the way down the line and tried them all out. There was a big slide that we went down and she LOVED it! She was squealing happily at the bottom. She likes to slide! Mom went and got the stroller from the car and the minute AC saw Mom with it, she ran over smiling. We put her in and took a walk by the beautiful lake to the smaller play area. It was a nice walk and AnnaClaire loved looking at the ducks! We played at the other play part for a little and then headed to the car, stopping at the wierd swings first. AnnaClaire drank soooooo much water this morning. The straw sippy cups really are best for her. They are the only ones she can use. She LOVES her straw cups, too. It makes me laugh that she can't figure out how to use the "normal" sippy cup for her age but she is a pro at using the straw ones for 2+! LOL! She drank so much that she totally soaked through her outfit! By the way, do you like her cute new ladybug outfit?! It's the one we got at Gymboree the other day (I know there's not a GREAT pic of the outfit, but there's a good one in the next post.) I went to grace and AC had lunch- turkey, organic cheese, watermelon, and then they picked me up and AnnaClaire was SOOOO tired so she went down for her nap kinda earlier than normal (12:30) Mom got out of her room about 12:45. She woke up at 4:05. YEP!!! 3 hours and 2o minutes!!!!!!!! That's our girl! We like that much better than her usual 1 and a half hour naps! LOL! Since she had such a nice nap, she was so happy the rest of the day. She "talked" to Daddy on the phone. She is so baffled when she hears a voice but doesn't see it. It's so funny! Dad came home from work early and got to feed Little Missy her congee, cantalope, chicken, and egg.

By the way, Keara, in response to your comment... yes it is another trait the twins have in common. My mom and I were just thinking about that today! What is it with being afraid of the swings?? LOL! I think we need to work on that one. hehehe

Oh and in response to another comment... The matching dresses (AnnaClaire and her doll) were found at a local boutique! They are pretty cute together, huh? Oh and for anyone wondering, yes, it is a Christmas dress, but it really isn't that Christmasy looking and it still fits GREAT, so why not wear it:)

Pic of Day- HELLO!!!!!! (yesterday)

I LOVE this picture. I think it is soooooo funny. She's "talking" on the cellphone, sitting on the dishwasher. And with her mouth open like that, she seems to be yelling "HELLLO!?" Hehe, that's my girl:)

Here's another one I forgot to add in the below post...

"I love being in my Ergo!" (notice the finger in her mouth... she's teething pretty bad...)

Davie Park! (yesterday)

" I still love my big, pink ball!"
"This is my tongue. And these are my maracas!"
"I proclaim that I am Princess AnnaClaire III, the princess of all blueberries!!"
"I'm so big climbing the stairs to the slide!"

Mama loves her girl!

"Sissy and Baby sliding!"

"I am the princess of North Carolina!" (we are on top of the castle.)
"I love to slide with my sissy."
"Riding the rooster because I was born in the year of the rooster!"
Climbing through the tunnel!
"Sliding all by myself!"

"Ready, set, GO!"
"Sissy and me climbing the big rock!"

"We climbed all the way to the top!"

"Swinging with my jie jie, Emily"
"There are so many different slides at this park! This is the castle slide and I'm going down it with my sissy!""Hi, I'm AnnaClaire Chenhui!"

"Can we puh-lease go bu-bye??????"

"I'm such a happy red cheeked girl after my nap!"

We went to this HUGE park yesterday. I mean HUGE. It had one really, really big play area, a castle play area, a toddler play area, and a baby play area. AnnaClaire's very favorite was the baby play area (the yellow one) because she could climb up the little stairs and go down the little slide all by herself. She also loved climbing stairs, sliding, climbing the rock, and swinging with Sissy. We were at the park a good hour before we ran on a few more errands, had lunch at home and put AnnaClaire down for a nice, 2 hour nap. The afternoon was filled with outside time and playing with her toys. We are very sad to say that AnnaClaire is TERRIFIED of her swing. She used to LOVE it. The past few times, she has kept looking behind her when in it. Yesterday she SCREAMED in it and refused to sit. We are really guessing that *something* scared her and that is why she looks behind her and is now afriad. We are trying to teach her that the swing is okay and nothing is going to happen to her in it! We really want her to like her swing again! I'm sure it will come in time. It is very odd because she loves the swing anywhere else (the park).

So it was a great day. It has been SO beautiful out these past few days (as you can see from the blue-sky pictures!!!!!!) We are so thankful for this nice weather. If only it would warm up again!

AnnaClaire's Dirt

(I had been meaning to tell about this story awhile ago, but just haven't had the time!)

When in China, as you know, we were able to visit AnnaClaire's orphanage- Chenzhou SWI. The one thing Dad REALLY wanted while we were there was to collect some dirt from the orphanage grounds. It was a really, really rainy day and the dirt was red mud! It was a bit of a pain bringing it home, but so worth it. Dad worked hard drying it, but it just wouldn't dry. He literally baked it in the oven and it broke apart into little, dry chunks. A few Sundays ago, we put it in this little jar and tied a ribbon around it. I hope that when AnnaClaire is older, she can appreciate "her dirt". Chenzhou SWI is such an important part of her, being where she spent her first 13 months, so having this dirt is priceless. I am so thankful we were given the chance to see Chenzhou SWI and get this dirt, a very important part of who our Chenzhou sweetie is!

Cheesy Girl!

More tomorrow :) (and TONSSSSSSSSS of pictures!)

Pic of Day- AC and her doll matching!

Today after I got AnnaClaire all dressed, I gave her the little doll we got her for her birthday and took a few pictures. I think the 2 I got are cute! My favorite one is of Mom holding her and AC kissing the doll. Aren't they cute in their matching dresses? I think so! :)

She went to the nursery today!

"I am such a happy and cute girl dressed for church!"

"I got my bracelets on, I'm ready to go!""I like the new car!"
"It's so big and I'm so little!" (I <3 this picture!)
"So cute in my lambie outfit!"

We did it. I mean SHE did it! She went to the nursery and did GREAT. Usually I do the "barnyard" which is the 3 year old nursery, but today Mom had asked me to go in the toddler nursery with AnnaClaire. So I did. It was her first time and she LOVED it. When Mom and Dad left, her little lip just started quivering and she pointed to the door and made a few grunting noises. She started crying and I picked her up and she stopped. The rest was history. She played SO nice with the kids. One of them totally pushed her out of the way and kicked her, which I thought was mean, but AC handled it well. Guess that's how this age kids are... AC was great sharing and everything! She just had a BALL. She did NOT want Sissy to hold any of the other kids, though. I was holding one sweet girl, Jane (the one we played with at the park the other day) and AC looked up at me and started whining. So I picked her up. Well, she didn't want to sit still on my lap, so I put her back down and she put her hand on Jane's shoe and tugged lightly. She wanted to play with Jane! Throughout the whole time, AnnaClaire kept making sure her familiar face (me) was still there. I was normally right by her side, of course, since it is hard to stay away from her! :) They had a bubble machine there that blew TONS of bubbles. AnnaClaire got really into that and was popping, stepping on, and catching bubbles with the other kiddos. It was adorable! The cutest time would have to be when the "Bible Lady" came. She first passed out little pink and blue Bibles to all the kids. She told them a little story about how God created Mamas and Babys (and we are learning about more family members next week!) She passed around a Mama stuffed kitten and each of the kids pet the kitten. Well when the kitten got to Miss AC, she picked it up and starting showing off all her tricks! First she "loved" it. Then she gave it a kiss, then she waved to it, gave it another kiss, etc. I had to pry it out of her hands so the next baby could get a turn! LOL! We also learned how to "Pat the Bible". AnnaClaire LOVED patting the Bible. She did it over and over again! We had snack time and played some more. We also had music time and AnnaClaire showed how she could dance with her arms in the air! (Still need to add that video, don't I!?) We played a little body part game, but AnnaClaire pointed to her tongue everytime. LOL! She loves that tongue of hers! Soon Church was over and Mama and Dada came to get her (well us) She got SO excited when she saw them and squealed and flapped her little hands. SOOO cute. She did SO well in the nursery today. I think we will do the Sissy's in the nursery more often! We went to Pei Wei for lunch and ran into our friends adopting from China (LID in March 06) It was so good to see them again and I think they liked seeing our sweet girl! We went straight home after our yummy lunch and AC took a nice 2 hour nap. Meanwhile, Mom and Dad went shopping for another car (long story). They ended up getting a Suburban at Carmax that has a lot of miles, but was a good price and exactly what we were looking for in another car! So we introduced AnnaClaire to our newest car. She seemed to like it. She flashed a huge smile when I put her on the seat to snap a pic, but I missed the smile and my camera went out of batteries... So the one I posted will do. AnnaClaire and Dad played in the backyard all afternoon and I went to Brusters with Caroline because it was "wear your pjs and get a single scoop waffle cone!" YUM! It was soooooo good. Worth it to wear PJs in public! Anyway, I love pajamas:) We walked over to the church (its down the road from Brusters) for youth group. AnnaClaire came all squeaky clean picking me up and when we got home, she had night night time and Dad had a fire going in the backyard, so Will, Dad, and I had dinner bye the fire.

It was such a wonderful day. I love this little girl, MY MEI MEI, so much! I hope you enjoy the pix. Pictures are nothing compared to the REAL THING, but they will do! I wish EVERYONE could meet my sweet sister!

Pic of Day- Sweet with her new Keds!

Isn't she a cutie patootie checking out all the shoes (and wearing her new ones)?

AnnaClaire got...

Yep! EEK I LOVE THEM!!!! I (somehow) got Mom to buy AnnaClaire hot pink Crocs! I know they aren't the most attractive shoes (but boy are they comfy and great for swim practice and meets and I love them no matter what they look like!) You gotta admit... they are pretty darn cute on little ones! So are they cute or what? We got the smallest size (6) and they are a little big, but should fit nicely this summer. I have the same hot pink Crocs (in a much bigger size...) so now we can match! They are soo cute and teeny! They even fit inside of mine! She LOVES them! When we brought them home to her, we tried them on her she took it off and kissed it. How sweet is THAT? She loves to hold them, too. I just LOVE her new Crocs!

By the way, check the website because I added a new home update!

Shoe Shopping Fun!

"I got to try on shoes today!"

"After trying them on, I blew kisses to the lady who helped us!" "Do you like my Keds?"
"Everyone thought I was SOO cute!"

"We had yummy Five Guys for dinner!"

I know it seems like we go to the mall all the time... Yes, we do. It is such a good activity with AC. Well today we had another reason. It is hard to shop with AnnaClaire and I needed shoes to go with the dress I got yesterday for the wedding. So after swimming, Mom and I headed to the mall and did some shopping. It was fun! We got home around 3 and Dad and Miss AnnaClaire were in the backyard. While at lunch, we had seen an adorable girl with these cute white Keds. Mom realized that AnnaClaire probably needed some. She has outgrown ALL her squeaky shoes in size 20s. The problem is... we didn't get the most practical colors in the next sizes and there is only 1! She can sorta fit in the size above that and there are 2 pairs of that size. So that's 3 pairs of squeakers-- hot pink, green, and teal! The hot pink go with alot, but they other two- not so much. They are darling, just not as practical as some of them she has now. It's hard to think of all that while shopping in China, LOL! We though 15 pairs was enough! So anyway, we had seen these cute white Keds with little flowers at Stride Right. But we couldn't get them because we didn't know what size AC was. SO we got home and then decided to go back to the mall with AC because she REALLY needed shoes. She was wearing her teal ones which so clashed with her outfit. (and usually we'd just be like, whatever. But they REALLY looked bad. LOL!) SO we headed back to the mall. Anyway, we had a few things to return that we had gotten two sizes of to see which was better, etc. We also wanted to her get new gingham dress monogrammed that we had forgot this morning. So back we went. We went to Stride Right first and got AnnaClaire the adorable keds. They looked SO cute on her. She loves them. She kept looking down at them :). She was so stinkin' cute getting her foot measued, too. She is a 5 wide, but is wearing 5.5 wides. She was also pretty stinkin' cute trying on her shoes. She looked like such a big girl sitting on the chair! lol. We got her the Keds and since it was buy one, get the 2nd 50% off, we got her a pair of white fisherman sandles we had been wanting. Those looked sooooo darling on her too. She also got another pair of shoes from Nordstrom, but I'm saving that for a seperate post :).

We then headed to get her dress monogrammed. It looks SO nice. The place is a kiosk in the mall (same that did her bib) and they do it right in front of you. But, it takes awhile. AnnaClaire got a little impatient, so I took her out of the stroller and we walked a little bit and she blew kisses and waved, laughed and smiled at EVERYONE who walked by. They all made comments on how cute she was! It was the cutest thing. She looked like a princess in a parade or something, blowing kisses to all the passerby. LOL!

We then called Dad and decided to meet for dinner at Five Guys. (Oh and we ran into quite a few people we knew who loved seeing The Miss.) Five Guys was yummy. AC had my personal favorite~ a veggie cheese. It is all these veggies on a bun with cheese. She had green pepper, mushrooms, tomatos, cheese, and the bun. She hardly had any bun, just tons and tons of VEGGIES! She loved it!

When we got home, she played a little and then I had bath duty. After I got her in her diaper, Dad called me down. Did you see the lunar eclipse tonight? It was really, really cool! (That's what he called to me for) AnnaClaire wa so confused because all of a sudden, we ran downstairs and she was just in her diaper! lol. Dad trimmed her nails while telling me about lunar eclipses and then she went to bed. Well first Sissy finished doing lotion and jammies. While doing that, she looked up at me and said, "Emmmmm-MAH!" (I think she meant it as in Emily) It was really, really sweet:)

Pic of Day- into hot chocolate...

Somehow while I was getting ready and Mom was saying bye to our neighbors who are moving, AnnaClaire found Will's hot chocolate mug. I heard rattling dishes and ran in to see this! The bow had been pulled out a few moments before (which she rarely does), and she was licking the spoon that was covered in chocolate! UGH! And Will is sick, too. I REALLY hope the Princess doesn't get sick! When is my family (INCLUDING ME!) going to learn to keep the dishes out of her reach!? She looked quite proud that she had found the chocolate (that wasn't hot anymore-leftover from last night) and although it wasn't good she got into it, she's pretty cute with that chocolate on her cheek and hair sticking up. I like this pic :)

I also love the one at the top of the last post with her juice. You can even see her little dimples in that one!

Learning to shop at an early age:)

"Enjoying my organic apple juice at the foodcourt!"

"I loved playing with the train at Joseph Beth!"
"The toaster was fun, too!"
"But my FAVORITE part was running down the ramp!"
"When I got home, I showed Daddy my new ladybug maraca!"

We had a wonderful day with our sweet girl today. We went to tha mall around 10. AnnaClaire was so good the whole time! We dress/shoe shopped for my cousins wedding for awhile, and she just sat contently in her stroller the whole time! What a go with the flow girl! Then we went to Chickfila at the foodcourt for lunch. AC really enjoyed her soup and juice. We then ran over to Joseph Beth (it's in the mall sort of) and let AnnaClaire play in the play section they have in the kid's area. She had a good time. She met a new friend, and 11 month old boy and a 3 year old boy. She also loved playing with the trains, toaster, puzzles, and best of all, running down this ramp they had that went to the children's book part! She was just laughing away running down that ramp! It was soooo cute. A little boy brought her a ladybug maraca and she loved it. We ended up getting it along with a bee one, too. They are cute, wooden ones and she likes banging and shaking them. After playing awhile, we headed back out through Nordstrom but first stopped at Gymboree and got a few things. We got AnnaClaire another pair of play pants. She was in DESPERATE need of some! They are cute- pink with ruffles at the bottom and little flowers. We got the ladybug onesie with really cute trim to go with, ladybug clips to do piggy tails, a sunhat (ladybug, yet again) and a few more hair thingys oh and more bubbles. It is all sooooo cute! And she really needed more pants. She has 2 pairs and one is getting more like capris! So now she has another pair of precious pants! After Gymboree we headed home and I had the task of keeping the Princess awake on the way home. It's only about a 15 minute drive, but it was hard! She dosed a few times but finally Mom's cell phone kept her awake and she ended up napping for 2 hours! She was sooooo happy when she woke up. Soon after, Dad came home and she LOVED walking outside with Dad and showing him her new stuff! (About the socks in that last picture, I know they don't match! We had seen a little recommendation on those socks and realized we had some, so we wer seeing what they looked like and she REALLY liked them and didn't want to take them off!) It was a great day:) We are just SO enjoying every moment with this beautiful girl!

Storytime- yesterday pix

Gimme Continued!

Last week, the FFFF Challenge was "Gimme!" (10 things you like that start with ___) This week is the oppisite- 10 things you DISLIKE that start with ___. I was assigned with the letter j, so here we go! This was pretty difficult actually, but I'm pleased with my list.

(left to right, top to bottom)

1. Jellyfish. I HATE jellyfish and am VERY afraid of them!

2. Juice (orange). I love apple juice and pear juice, but hate all other kinds of juice, especially ORANGE JUICE!

3. Jelly. GROSS!

4. Jellybeans. I have never liked jellybeans. I'm more into chocolates!

5. Jalapenos. Way to spicy! Yuck!

6. Jet-lag. Who likes it? (the picture is "no jet-lag" pills. They ROCK! When you go to China, TAKE THEM. It is a teeny pill every 2 hours-i think- and they really worked!)

7. Japanese bettles. All bugs disgust me and these are no different!

8. Junk Emails. I hate when I get all these junk emails. Such an annoyance!

9. Jamming. I really don't like loud music. I like to hear when everyone is talking! I love music though!

10. Junk. Although when collecting it, it doesn't remind me as junk... it is, and I DON'T like it! (no fear, that is my old room awhile ago. I don't let my room get THAT messy, now!)

Pic of Day- Green tunnel! and more storytime fun!

I really like this picture. I took it at "Story time" this morning.

As for storytime, we had a great time. AnnaClaire throughly enjoyed herself! It was great! It was about 15 12-18 month olds. They started off with a little song and stretching. AnnaClaire just danced and danced, although she was pretty shy at first! Then they read a touch and feel book and all the kids got to run up and feel all the animals. After that was a finger puppet show, more music, another book, and then the parachute! AnnaClaire loved dancing to all the music and everyone thought she was so cute doing so. She also loved running over to see the pictures in the books, though she would always wait for Mom to nod and point before running over! So sweet! Then the parachute came out... She was actually VERY afraid of it at first, but once they laid it on the ground, she liked walking on it and helping Mom rumble it. She was adorable doing so! They brought out tons of toys and all the kiddos played for awhile. She was so good sharing and enjoyed looking at all the different things. Her favorite part was the green tunnel. It was funny because one kid would go one way and she would go the other and they'd stop in the middle and just stare at eachother and then both turn around and go out! LOL! She had a blast! We can't wait for Thursdays now!

Also, let me take a minute to brag about my princess...
You know it is sad when someone walks up to US (keep in mind there are about 15 other kids there) and tells us (while she is holding her own little girl) that our sweetie is SOOOOOO cute and that she could EAT HER UP! Yeah, yeah, we know!

It was sooooo rainy today which made it such a pain with our outside loving girl. Thank goodness for story time! That and SCREENED IN PORCHES! We were out on the screened in porch for an HOUR while it was pouring rain! She's an outside girl, alright!

I took tons more pictures, but I have been adding pix on the home update on the website, so I'm kinda picture uploaded out... I'll add more tomorrow!!!