In Memory Of...

POD- Sissy's Beads

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these pictures. My favorite is the biggest one where she is looking at them. This is my pretty necklace from Hawaii, compliments of Liz and Sadie (THANKS AGAIN! I LOVE IT!) AnnaClaire noticed it right away and decided she needed it on! Is it just me or is that adorable? Speaking of Sissy, have I mentioned that AnnaClaire can finally say SISSY? It was long in coming, but oh boy do I love hearing it! "Sit-zee!" (said with a squeal).

This one is for Big Brother, Drew

So today we were in the car going over words with AnnaClaire. First we did family. Mama, Dada, and when we got to Drew, she said clear as day "Drew!!" Normally she says "de" or "da", but this was CLEARLY "Drew". We were so excited! I pulled out my camera and took a video. She didn't say it AS clearly for the camera, but still you can tell she is saying "Drew" and not just "de". So Drew, this one is for you!

Ge Ge,
I love you and miss you! Come home from college soon!
~AnnaClaire

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Here's a few from our afternoon. Doesn't she look precious in her dress from Marlene? We love it, Marlene!
and here's a few of me and my precious mei mei. Have I told you how much I love her kissies?

We had a nice day. After Church & lunch, AnnaClaire was outside almost all day. She loved that. She also discovered my necklace and loved it. She wanted to wear it! We went to the antique store and got AnnaClaire a "wardrobe". It's so pretty. Our summer job is going to be repainting it. I'm excited! So here's some pictures of our Spicy Girl. Have I mentioned what a PERSONALITY she has? Oh it's so cute. And... how smart she is? She listens to everything. We were playing pop goes the weasel, and all of a sudden, she started saying "pop! pop! pop!" And then, we were talking in just normal voices, not even to her, and she started saying whatever it was that we were talking about. She is SOOOOOOOOO smart! I love her so! Oh and funny story from the day- we walked home (me and mom) from youth group, and AnnaClaire was sitting on the floor with Mom's walet, all the cash out of it, all the credit cards out of it, everything. With the checkbook in her hand. Hehe, stealing some mall money is starting at a young age with this one ;)

Oh and I can't forget... Today we saw Elizabeth outside and she wanted to say hi to AnnaClaire. Well, she had their dog, Millie, with her. Millie was laying in the grass, and Acie picked up the leash and starting walking! She held on to the hole part and took Mills for a little walk! She looked SOOOOOOOOOOOO adorable doing so!

Last but not least, in honor of the VT students, tomorrow is "No Blogging Day".

"This day shall unite us all about this unbelievable painful & shocking event and show some respect and love to those who lost their loved ones."

"On April 30th 2007, the Blogosphere will hold a One-Day Blog Silence in honor of the victims at Virginia Tech. More then 30 died at the US college massacre."

For more information, go here. And remember to keep the friends and families of these people in your thoughts and prayers!

Gotcha Clothes! (UPDATED)

This week's photo challenge is "Gotcha Clothes". Today, I finally got the chance to dress AnnaClaire in hers. It was very emotional getting them out again. We have the whole ensemble packed away, and I went to get them and they SMELLED like gotcha day. On Gotcha Day, she wore: soft yellow pants and yellow "football" shirt. On top of that were bright red, fleece pants and a bright red fleece jacket, a matching, red hat, ABC socks, and Teletubbie shoes. It was ALL brand new and Amy (our guide) said the red outfit was a very special occasion outfit. I think it is so special that the orphanage dressed her up for her special day (I know a lot of them do). Anyway, I dressed AnnaClaire in just the red outfit, because it is really hot for her to wear all the layers. She was so funny, she was trying to lift the sleeves. The jacket is still big on her, but the pants were TIGHT! The socks (which by the way are two different sizes!) barely fit and the shoes would not budge on her feet. Here are some stats from then (4.5 months ago!) and now.

December 11, 2006

13 months

19 pounds

29 inches

6 teeth

size 4 foot

12/12-18 month clothes (and too big on her!), 9 month pants

size 3 diaper

April 29, 2007

18 months

25 pounds

30 inches

13 teeth (I think?)

size 5 foot, wears a 5.5 shoe

18/18-24 month clothes (a bit long, but perfect through the body), 12-18 month pants

size 4 diaper

Gosh, she has grown!

She was not happy in her outfit. I think it was probably because she was so hot in it, as her cheeks were BRIGHT red, but I do wonder if she remembered it... I did get her to smile for a few pictures before we quickly took the outfit off and redressed her in her dress. Oh-- I had to laugh because under her red hat was a... you guessed it- pink bow!

Sweet little girl!

Busy day~ this will be quick. Right after swimming, I came home and got ready and then went to Caroline's house for her "birthday party". (Not really a party because it's just us 2.) Anyway, we were going to go to the mall, but she still can't walk on her foot (she's my friend who got bit by the copperhead) so we ended up going out to lunch, going to Starbucks, and just hanging at her house all day. They just got a Wii and it is the coolest thing. I am SO not into video games, but the Wii is SOOOOOOOOOOO cool! Anyway, before I left, I made sure to snap a few pictures of Acie. She was so funny, as soon as I grabbed my camera, she sat down and smiled (see first pic) LOL! She knows what it means to get her picture taken! She discovered the spring thing that stops the door and was very entertained. Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

Oh, and no, I haven't forgotten about the FFFF Challenge this week. It is "Gotcha Clothes" and I haven't had a chance to get pictures of AnnaClaire in hers. I'll try to do that tomorrow so look for my FFFF Challenge post tomorrow!

And lastly, I hope you like my new look. I was getting kinda sick of my old one. I just love designing blogs, and I get tired of mine! LOL! Anyway, I am a very pink and green person, so this one is very "me". Enjoy:)

A year and a half!

Sweet Acie,

18 months

1.5

a year and a half

1 1/2

Whatever way you look at it, it means the same thing... You are getting so big! I can't believe it was just 6 months ago that we celebrated your first birthday. You were in China, we went to PF Changs. And now, April 27, 2006, you are 18 months old... a year and a half. In just 6 months, you will be 2! How is that so? For now, I am just enjoying each and every moment we spend together. I don't want you to outgrow the "baby years". You are so cute and I love you so much. We are so incredibly blessed to have you. How many times will I say.. out of all the babies in China & all the families wanting to adopt, God lead us to YOU! He is so perfect! To bring us together like He did! But as we celebrate you're year and a half birthday, I can't help but think about your birth parents who gave birth to you, 18 months ago. Sweet girl, even before then, God knew that you would be a part of our family. For reasons we don't know, your birth parents had to bring you to Chenzhou. I believe they loved you and wanted a better life for you. I wish somehow they would know that you are with a forever family who loves you more than anything! So as you turn 18 months old, I want you to know that I love you SOOOOOOOOOO much. I am so thankful for your birth parents in China, that they left you to be found, so that you could become a part of OUR family! I can't imagine having any other "mei mei" because you are the most perfect one for us! I love you, big 18 month old, and always, ALWAYS will!!

18 things I absolutely love about AnnaClaire: (in no order)

1. her smile

2. her (adorable) personality-did I say on top of that, everyone thinks she is SO smart and can't believe she is ONLY 18 months?

3. her kisses (they were long in coming, but OH HOW I LOVE THEM!)

4. her "pats" aka hugs

5. her laugh

6. her face when she eats... it is so adorable... and when she drinks from a straw

7. her dancing

8. when she snuggles all close and puts her head on my shoulder (and when she does this before going in her carseat!)

9. when she comes over and sits in my lap and we read a book

10. her cute little words, especially her newest one- Sissy

11. when she's playing with her toys- so cute

12. when she waves and smiles at everyone she sees

13. her joy in absolutely everything she does, and her face when she discovers something new

14. her using everything as a phone

15. when you tell her to do something, how she does it (and how if you say how big/cute/sweet is AnnaClaire? she raises her hand!)

16. the way she gets so excited when she sees/hears bottle

17. the way she walks, especially outside

18. the way she lifts up her dresses when she is tripping over it

...and I could go on and on. These are just a few of the things. I absolutely love EVERYTHING about my sweet mei mei!

18 MONTHS OLD!!

Today was our princess' big day! She turned 18 months old! Because she wasn't with us on her 1st birthday, we made it kind of a big deal. The morning started with kisses for Mommy and Sissy. She had a yummy breakfast of oatmeal. We put her "Birthday Princess" crown on, but she kept taking it off, lol. Then we brought out her present and sat her down with it. She picked it up and played around with it before having Mommy help her get it opened. She did like to play with the tissue paper. AnnaClaire's present was nothing "fun", but something VERY cute... a new dress! We got this dress at Janie and Jack and loved it. We found it back in Feb. and got it ahead for her 18 month b-day. (Which is good, because they now don't have her size, even though it is WAY cheaper now!) I got her all dressed up in it and she looked like an absolute doll. We then headed to the mall. AnnaClaire had a blast at the mall today. (Did I mention that she can say MALL? She says it sorta like... "mal! mal!") She was SUCH a trooper while Mom shopped a little. She loved looking in the mirrors and waving & blowing kissies to herself. LOL! There was a lady at Nordstrom, and she gave Acie a balloon that had a rubber weight on it. The whole time, AnnaClaire was so occupied with her balloon with the weight. She also decided that the weight made a great teething toy! She loved going to see the fountian, and the minute we got near it, she started squealing, smiling, and pointing! We had lunch at Chickfila at the foodcourt, and Acie enjoyed her lunch, that we brought from home. She eats so much better at home, and it is cheaper, so now we usually bring food for her with us. We went on a lookout for cream Robeez to go with her flower girl dress, to no avail. We then went home for nap time. AnnaClaire was very good and stayed awake the whole time on the way home, although it was after 1 (she normally goes down at 12:45). She was BIG smiles on the way home, dancing, singing, etc. She took a good nap and when she got up, she had a ball playing with her pop pop, her bubble machine, and her balloon. Then we headed to the neighborhood pool for summer league swim team signups. Acie was a huge hit there! She is going to love the pool. She would point and say "wa wa" and get all excited. She SO wanted to get in it! LOL! Next week, we are heading to a waterpark in VA with Keara and Maura and their Mommy, so AnnaClaire will get her first pool experience! WOOHOO! I didn't see AnnaClaire after signups, because I went straight from there to swimming which went until 8, so she was in bed when I got back. Mom said that they went out and EVERYONE was commenting on how adorable Acie was and how much of a personality she had! OHHH YEAH. Have I mentioned WHAT A SWEET PERSONALITY SHE HAS? At the mall today, all the store clerks where going on about how much fun we must be having with her, because she had such a sweet personality. So, she had a great 18 month birthday. I can't believe she is already 18 months old!

BTW, I did a new home update on the website tonight... www.bringinghomeannaclaire.com.

Story time and water fun! (yesterday)

Here are a few collages with pictures from yesterday. Sorry the storytime one is so crammed full of pictures. I actually like them with lots and lots of pictures. Click on them to view larger!

BTW, check the website, I put a (short) new home update. It's under 4/25 because that's when I started it.

Are you ready for this princess-ness? POD

I took tons of pictures today. I'm talking 139. (I consider that a lot considering it was a perfectly normal day...) But I know, without a doubt, that this is my favorite. I actually haven't even looked at the rest up close, but the minute I took this one, I knew I had my pic of the day. This was this morning. We were playing with cell phones and her ball popper in my room, and I snapped this. There are a few more cute ones that I'll add tomorrow.

Thursday, Thursday. First of all, it is AnnaClaire's last day as a 17 month old. Tomorrow is the big 18 month birthday. I can't believe it.

Of course, we had story time this morning. It was the last one until JUNE. And in June, AnnaClaire will be in the 18-24 month class- The Young and the Restless! (Haha love that name! Right now she is a "Jumping Bean".) It was great & Acie enjoyed herself, as always. She loved playing with this little car with Max, a sweet little boy. They were so adorable pushing it back and forth to eachother. Reading, bubbles, and playing with toys were all hits, as always. Oh and I can't forget DANCING. This girl can DANCE. She's so cute doing so. This morning, she got SO into the opening song. It was adorable. Pix from that to come tomorrow!

Mom says she took a good nap. I was at my last day of Grace and then the usual lunch and Latin with Caroline.

This afternoon, we went outside in our bathingsuits and played at the water table. We had a great time. Acie LOVES her water table. And the hose. I got a few good pix from that, but didn't want to be snapping pictures the WHOLE time. That would be no fun for AnnaClaire! Anyway, I'll post those tomorrow.

So I finally got caught up and now I'm falling behind again. I did half of a home update on the website. Just tons of pictures and half of them are captioned... I'll finish that up tomorrow and add a new one, add collages with today's pictures, etc. Stay tuned. Oh and of course the big "18 months post".

In response to your comment, Mrs. M... Caroline got bit in her backyard. She was just walking around outside and all of a sudden felt something sting her. She looked down and there was a baby copperhead. Her dad killed it and they know there is a mother one somewhere, which they are still trying to find and kill. Right now they are just staying clear of the backyard! (I wasn't with her, but she filled me in.) No fear.. she is fine now, just has a very swollen foot. Oh, and despite all this, she had a great birthday. (she didn't get bit today, it was on Tuesday.)

Diaper shots from yesterday

More pictures of my little love:)

Peek-a-boo, Sissy!

"Why can't I sit in one of these cool chairs when I eat?"
Seriously cute.
" Feeding myself congee!"
"All done! Here's my bowl!"

(these are from yesterday)

Happy Birthday, Caroline!!!!!!!

Today is my friend, Caroline's 14th brithday!!! Happy birthday, Caroline!!! These are a few pictures from over the years (I've known her since 3rd grade)

Also, keep her in your prayers, because she got bit by a copperhead on Tuesday. She is doing fine, just has had many trips to the ER and lots of needles and blood drawn.

The light of my life

Do you know just how much I love this little girl? She is the absolute light of my life. I cannot imagine life without her. Everytime I look at her, I just fall more and more in love. I marvel at God's faithfulness in bringing us together. She was once an orphan, needing a family, we were a family of 5, needing a daughter/sister. And now, God has brought us together and we are a big, happy family of 6! I feel so honored to call her my sister. I babysat her this afternoon, meaning I got to give her her ba ba. As I rocked her and fed her the delightful ba ba, I reflected on her not quite 18 months of life. She has gone through so much. And yet, she is so full of love and joy. I thank the Lord every day for showing us His perfect ways and giving us the perfect baby for our family. Out of thosands and thousands of baby girls in China, God gave us the most perfect match. I love you, AnnaClaire!

Sissy and Acie-bathtime

I have always loved that picture of me in the bathtub. In fact, it is in a "Bermuda Blue" Vera Bradley picture frame, in my bathroom. So, when we bathed AnnaClaire in the "big bath" (which is now where we bathe her) I HAD to "recreate" that picture of me, but this time, it being Acie! I don't know how old I was in this picture, but I know it was taken sometime in 1994 while we lived in Texas, so I would've been a little younger than AnnaClaire. (AnnaClaire is 17 months in her picture- it was taken on Easter Sunday).

Wait, there's more!

When I thought I was done... look what I found! More pictures! (I knew I had them, just forgot about them). These are from yesterday, of AnnaClaire playing with her ball popping thing (which, by the way, is like the coolest thing ever!) There are two of her watching her Baby Einstein movie, because I think she's so cute watching TV.

Just one more thing and then I think I'm all caught up! (besides the home update, which I think I'll wait until Friday to do, since I was going to do one on Friday anyway!)

Who's The Cutest? (video)

This is Acie's latest trick. (Which I taught her-lol). Oh and I'm just warning you that I sound *really* strange in this video (and all of them!) And NO, I don't normally talk so high pitched.

Okay, so is that the cutest or what?

Video- Bathtime teasing & feeding

That's her "new thing" she always does it now! She is SUCH a little tease! (videoed about 2 weeks ago)


She loves to feed herself. But she doesn't get much on her fork when doing so!

Chickfila play place!

And these are from yesterday.. of her playing at the play place! Isn't she so adorable going through tunnels, up stairs, and down slides?

Misc. pictures

These are a few random pictures I have of Little Miss. The were all taken yesterday, except the one of her in her frog dress- that was taken on Sunday, when she found a little "hiding spot" at Moes. The ones of her in in white bow, white panties, white socks, and white shoes make me laugh. The tag on her dress was itching her, so Mom took her dress off to cut the tag off, and AnnaClaire loved walking around in just her white. It was so funny~ruffled panties and all! The pictures in her red dress were taken yesterday morning. She was really, really happy, as you can tell! The one of her in her jammies I love. (Yet again, wearing her Crocs over her footsies!) She really wanted to read, but we were trying to pick up the bonus room, so she just walked around holding her book and Bunny! Did I mention that this girl LOVES TO READ? Mom was getting worried, because she wouldn't sit still to read a book. Now, she loves reading books and she won't stop after just one. Yesterday we read every book in her room! (over 10!)

Hanging out on a beautiful Sunday afternoon!

These were taken after AnnaClaire's nap (and the last two right before bed) on Sunday. As you can see, she absolutely adores her bubble machine and walking her doggie. I love the top one of her walking the dog. Is that cute or what? The 3rd one on the top is an example of when she puts her arms up (as in "why" or "I don't know"). She does it all the time and we always laugh so hard. It is really, really cute when she does it. I think she was doing it that time because the bubbles weren't coming out of her machine! The ones of her in her jammies were taken later that night. One of them, she is drinking out of her new sippy cup that she got at Church and the other, she is doing her beloved puzzle!

A collage full of Friday (4/20) pictures!

Here are more pictures from Friday afternoon. As you can tell, she LOVES playing at the sand table, LOVES her little house, and LOVES her swing. She had a blast at her "3 stations"! I love the top swing one, the smile, the blowing hair... Enjoy!

*SIGH* and germy playplaces!

(This picture was taken this morning. AnnaClaire insisted on wearing her Crocs over her jammies. She is so funny in her Crocs. They are her very favorite shoes. In fact, she cried when I took them off this morning!)

I am so behind on all my posting. I have SO many pictures to post, quite a few videos to upload, and a much needed home update on the website. And the reason for not doing that... I have SO many pictures to post on it! Tomorrow, tomorrow, I am going to totally catch up. And to make things worse, AnnaClaire had a cute "Acie moment" that I was going to blog about... well, guess what? I totally forget! WHY DON'T I WRITE THESE THINGS DOWN?? UGH!

The maids came this morning. They love AnnaClaire. Today, one of them taught Acie how to say "Ola!" So then she walked around the house saying "ola! ola! ola!" A bit of Spanish in her, maybe?

We headed to Babies R Us today to get a few things. We got AnnaClaire this really amazing ball thing. It is pretty awesome. We had fun playing with it this afternoon. It like blows the balls out. Then Acie will go run to wherever the balls fly, pick them up, and put them back in. It's hard to explain, but she loves it.

And then you will never believe what we did... We had time to kill, so we ran to Chickfila. Those of you who don't know me, there's something you must know about me. I am a complete sanitary person. I wash my hands oh 20 times a day. With that being said... today I had to step away from my confort zone and climb up the germ filled play place at Chickfila. The whole time, I couldn't stop thinking "ugh, I am germifying (is that a word?) my brand new shorts... and oh AnnaClaire's pretty dress..." But, needless to say, I got over it and Acie absolutely LOVED the play place. She is also a germaphob (takes after her sis!) In fact, whenever she falls, she always has to "dust off". LOL! Anyway, we went down the big red slide some 30 times. Which of course means that *I* had to climb 20 teeny, tiny stairs, crawl through 2 teeny, tiny tunnels, just to get to the slide. And then, I had to duck through the opening, get all situated and slide down with AnnaClaire! I really am too big for play places! We had fun though:). Then I showed her the little green slide that she could do all by herself. She loved going down that one, too!

The other big highlight of the day, was that Mom and AnnaClaire met Mom's friends, Mrs. E and Mrs. H for lunch at Panera. I had to miss out because of Grace :(, but I hear they had fun! :) They might send me pictures, which I'll post tomorrow (when I do all my catching up!)

So, that was our day. The afternoon was filled with watching AnnaClaire's new "Little Neptune Baby Einstein" video, playing with her ball thing, playing piano, and being babysat for 30 minutes by Will!

Oh and last but not least, I got to thinking... so many people post about how their child is usually happy but of course has their tantrums here and there, etc, and then they post something that shows that they aren't REALLY always happy. But you know... sometimes I forget what AnnaClaire's cry even sounds like... she IS always happy. I hadn't heard her cry (besides her few little whimpers when I took her Crocs off!) for awhile until she cried this afternoon... and guess what she was crying about? Why, because Sissy left the room! (Oh, how I love her!)

POD(s)- car washing fun!

Let's wash! (see the briuse on her cheek? It's STILL there!)

Oh and now it's time to vaccum! I'm going to kiss the vaccum (even though I'm scared of it!)
Oh! Look how clean the car is! I think it deserves a kiss.
These are bigger shots of my 3 favorites from the day. I love them all, but these 3 are my very favorites. Can you tell she loves to kiss things? ;-)

BTW, I forgot to mention in the below post... the reason she is wearing 2 bows in the outside pictures is because we found the pink one in the yard (??? Dog maybe?) and I didn't want to forget it, so I stuck it in my hair. She then pulled it out of my hair and insisted she wear it. Which explains the pink and white bows! LOL! She has turned into a bow girl! In fact, while I'm speaking of bows, every morning when I get her dressed, she pulls on the bow holder and says "Bow!" She always makes SURE that I don't forget that important touch~her bow! (very different from in China when she refused to keep it in! And Sarah Lu would even help her make sure it stayed out! LOL! Good memories!)

Car washing (& swinging)

Today AnnaClaire washed the car with me!! It was so much fun and she had an absolute BLAST. I hope that collage expands, because I got some REALLY adorable pictures of her. My favorite is the top one of her with the bucket. Love that sweet smile and "I'm ready, Sissy!" look on her face! I also love the ones of her kissing the clean car and vacuum. Can you tell we had fun washing? She was such a big "helper" too! She scrubbed, sprayed, and windexed with me! My little helper:). So, that was the highlight of the day~our sweetie prancing around in her adorable polka dotted bathinsuit, washing the car. What else did we do all day? We went to the grocery store, swang, and played in AnnaClaire's house! A fun day had by all! :) Oh and I found some more pictures from Friday (I knew I had more!) they are of AnnaClaire playing in the sand, her house, and in the swing. I will put those together in a collage and add that tomorrow.

Last but not least, AnnaClaire has a sort of new nickname. It is easy to just write "AC" when we write her name, but we never really call her "A.C." because it's not very girlish. So lately I have been calling AnnaClaire "Acie". We think it's pretty cute:) (and even though it seems to sound the same, it really isn't pronounced quite the same. Acie is a little more girly, light, and sweet)

God has moved mountains... Lavender is coming home!

I'm not sure if you have heard about 2 year old Lavender and her story before, but if not... Today I read an email stating that a mother was denied the adoption of her precious girl, simply because of her skin color. This mother had been given PA in September and was LID in November. So, she has waited over 5 months for her TA. And then she heard that she couldn't adopt her sweet girl. After asking many, many people to be in prayer, God has moved mountains.... Lavender's momma got LOA today! What a story this precious girl is going to have! Join Sabrina in praising God today for giving her the child she thought she had lost!

Lavender's Blog
Lavender's Yahoo Group

Froggie dress photoshoot!

This morning AC came in my room a wee bit early for my liking, and climbed into bed with me (well I lifted her!) and played on my bed for awhile. She ate a very nice breakfast for me and then I got her all dolled up in her frog dress, because we finally have REAL weather and so she could wear a sleevless dress. She looked so cute for Church. We had a little photoshoot and she did great! (Oh and her Sara Beth Bow looked GREAT with her frog dress!) She was so good in the nursery. I went in, too, because they needed help. She had a blast and was so sweet. She even kissed some of the kids. LOL!! and AW! One of the ladies was reading to a little girl and asked what the cow said. AnnaClaire, who was on the other side of the room, looked up and said "MOOOOOOOO!" It was so cute! AnnaClaire was so well behaved and happy! We had lunch at Moes and AnnaClaire loved it. We came home and I got to give her the bottle. I love giving her the bottle. She's so snuggly and oh I just love it. Normally when I put her down, she screams. She is fine when I give her the baba, but the minutes I near the crib, she screams and if I put her in it, it's even worse. She likes me to rock her to sleep, not put her to sleep. We think it's because she knows that I play and Mommy puts to bed, etc. lol. Well, this is kinda a problem because I can't babysit if AC won't go to bed for me. And, with a week full of lunches out with friends, Mom needs me to be able to put her down for her nap. Today, she took her baba nicely, as always, and the minute I put her down, she snuggled with her bunny and fell asleep for over 2 and a half hours! When she woke up, we did bubbles with her bubble machine, and just playe oin the porch. She had a ball. Then Mom took me to youth group, which was at this cool place with putt putt, bumber boats, and go karts. It was so fun! Dad took AC on a walk. When we got home, Dad had bathed her and so she played until bed. She played puzzles and peek-a-boo and ball with Will. She is so cute! I wrote down all the words she knows and there are 25 that I can remember! Her language is just coming along great!

I have a few more pictures, but I need to find my charged battery, upload, etc. I have swimming at 5am tomorrow so I need to go to bed! I'll add the rest of the pictures tomorrow. There isn't that many.

I love big bellied babies!

This picture doesn't do it enough justice. It is huge. But, I think you can pretty much tell that:). It's practically the size of a basketball.

AnnaClaire, when you are big and are reading this blog that Sissy made all about you, I want you to know that I love you just the way you are, big belly and all. I wouldn't change that belly for anything, because that's what makes you so cute! (And those thighs!) And, I also want you to know that instead of posting this picture how it was, I made the hot pink bathingsuit, because I knew that you wouldn't want people to see you nakey. (And you have to admit, that my homemade bathingsuit is pretty lovely).

Park and Fountain!

Here's some pictures from our park and fountain fun yesterday! The pictures under her swinging (of her by her wagon and her with her cup) are funny because she was sliding and all of a sudden she ran over to the wagon saying "ba ba". (She calls all cups/bottles ba ba) She looked in the cup holders, but it wasn't there (that's why her hands are out in the "I don't know" position) Dad went and got it from the car and she drank the entire thing! Also the one of her waving, that is what we call the "Princess Wave". She does that and blows kisses and the way she tilts her head and gracefully waves, it reminds us of a princess. AKA the "Princess Wave"

And the last one, I thought you were due for another cute diaper picture. And, I don't have many of her climbing the stairs! (Did I ever mention that she now mastered going down the stairs??) Oh and the first one on the 2nd collage is of her talking on her "bow-phone" I told you she thinks EVERYTHING is a phone!

Friday Fun

Okay, instead of posting all of my many pictures (there are more from yesterday.... I know this isn't that many.) I'm making collages. Here's one with some pictures I took on Friday. I know you've already seen a couple of them, but I went on and re did them because they are just so cute:). Yesterday on the way... stay tuned!

Mei Meis x 3! and POD

Today after a morning of swimming, errands, naptime for AC, and the normal Saturday stuff we headed to the park. AnnaClaire swang for probably 1 hour out of the 2 we were there. Anyway, imagine our surprise when we noticed not 1 but 2 "mei meis" (we call all little adopted Chinese girls "mei meis") We decided we had our own little China adoption playgroup! One of the families was playing baseball, but we got to talking to the other little girl and her mom. She is from Yunan and is 2. The other one was 3 and from Guangxi. AnnaClaire and the 2 year old (Kate) were so cute together. AnnaClaire just watched everything Kate did. Mom and Kate's mom talked for awhile and they ended up exchanging phone numbers so we are going to have a playdate sometime! Fun! So, of course, that was really cool seeing so many "mei meis" at the park! AnnaClaire had fun at the park. She wasn't as in to sliding, because the first time she went down one, it was hot from the sun. So she would point and say "ha" and get away from it. But she loved the swing and we brought her pop pop car and she rode that all around the sidewalks. She also loved the wheel on the playset. Oh and the doggie. She cried when the lady wanted to move, so I picked AC up! She loved the Doggie! LOL! She is such a doggie girl! After 2 hours of park fun, we headed to the nearby mall quick and had dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. AnnaClaire loved her pea and barely soup there! She was all grins. Oh and she loved the bread, but she wanted to color it with her crayons... gross?! She also got to see the fountain and even got to touch it! I have quite a few pictures from today, but they will have to wait until tomorrow. I am EXHAUSTED. I know I still have a ton from yesterday, too, so beware for a post with lots of pictures tomorrow :). I am posting the POD from today. That face. I told you she loves to swing!

Okay, I know I've said this a million times, but AnnaClaire is CHUBBY. Tonight, after her bath, she was walking around naked and oh my gosh, her BELLY is so big. I took a picture but I need to edit it so not to show her privates. After getting "lotioned & potioned" and dressed, she read with Mommy. It was so cute. I was watching TV and I heard them reading, so I crept over to see, and AnnaClaire was cuddled all against Mom reading. It was adorable. Of course I think Mom would kill me if I posted a picture of her in her pjs, so you just have to take my word that it was REALLY adorable.

I just love my little chubster so much!

Just one quickie...

Okay, this is quick. I just got home from this youth group thing at Church and I have swimming in the morning, so I need to go to bed soon. We had a fun and busy day. The morning was spent in the house while Sissy did school and on a wagon walk with Mommy. We had a yummy lunch at Chickfila and ran a few errands. AnnaClaire took a great nap and afterwards I took her outside where we played in her sand table and made a SAND CASTLE!! LOL! She was so cute making it. She would pat the bucket and clap when I pulled the bucket up. We had a blast! She played in her house, too. She LOVES her house! She is SO adorable in it, too! She also swang for awhile where she was full of smiles, laughs, etc. She is now a total swing girl. She loves it. I had to pry her out so I could go to swimming, and I was literally bribing her to come out! (Saying, "We're going bye bye! If you want to go, you have to come out of your swing!" I know.. I'm so bad!) Anyway it was such a fun day. At swimming we had our "Swim A Thon". It really isn't a big deal anymore because 200 laps is nothing now, but it was still fun because they played music and had raffles the entire time:). Mom and AC picked me up and I went straight to my youth group thing where I've been all night. I'm guessing AnnaClaire had a fun night, too:) I have a ton more pictures, but I'm just posting this one for now. (this is of her shortly before we went to lunch.. she was running around in the grass and I got a few cute shots) I haven't uploaded all the ones I took on Dad's camera (mine ran out of batteries and my spare wasn't charged) so I'll do those tomorrow along with a few others off my camera. Sorry this is so short!

Toddler Art!

This week's FFFF Challenge from Double Happiness is TODDLER ART! AnnaClaire hasn't done a ton of masterpieces. She did one back in February when we first got her "So Big Crayons", but she didn't quite "get it". Yesterday we picked up a lamb coloring sheet at the library and the minute I saw this week's challenge, I grabbed the coloring sheet, her crayons, helped her into her little chair at her table and she colored! She loved doing it, too, and was very proud of her completed work. You have to admit, she did really well considering she is only 17 months old!

Storytime and puzzles!

This morning, we went to AnnaClaire's storytime. She had a great time -as always. She is SO cute when she's there. The first picture was during the "opening song". She loves the "This Morning" song! Whenever the lady hands out shakers, AnnaClaire runs up and gets one. Then when it's time to put them away, she will go run and give it to her! She is such a good girl! :) Today we learned about animals, which was right up AC's alley with her love of cats, dogs, and any other animals! She had a blast, but the best part for all the kids was when the train came by! The room where storytime is is right in front of train tracks, so trains are hard to miss. All the kids RAN over to the window and looked at the train. They were all so excited to see it! The 2nd pictures on the top is of AnnaClaire looking at the train go by. AnnaClaire also loved the animals that were brought in. (They were stuffed) There was a big kitty, bunny, and doggie. The 3rd picture on the top is of her pointing to the kitty. Afterwards, she said "CAT!" It was so cute :) Of course, she also loved running up and looking at the books! The 1st picture on the bottom is of her looking at the book. After playing, doing bubbles, and rolling the ball, we left and did a few errands before I went to my school thing. She then went home with Mom and I spent the afternoon at my design class, lunch with Caroline, and then Latin. I was so happy, because in March we took the "National Latin Exam" and we got our results back today! I got the Gold award which is first! :) After Latin, Caroline and I stayed there until 3 and worked on our Latin homework. When we got home, I took AnnaClaire to get the mail and then for a wagon walk while Mom took Will to get his hair cut. We watched some of her Sunday School Songs movie and played with puzzles. (See pictures 2 and 3 on the 2nd row) She LOVES her puzzles. She will pull all the pieces out and we say "That's a ____. The _____ says _____". Her favorite is the cow. She always answers "mooooooo" when we ask what it says. It's so cute! She also likes the sheep and says "ba!" when we ask what it says. She's still trying to get "neigh" for horse, but she can half say it. She ate like a piggy for dinner, but had a very healthy dinner. Then was the usual night routine of taking me to swimming, playing upstairs, bath, bottle, and bed. AnnaClaire was all doted on when she took me to swimming today:) All my friends adore her. I wish everyone could meet her.... She is sooooooo sweet and lovable and adorable and I am so proud to be her JIE JIE!!

BTW, tell me which picture you like best. I like hearing what everyone else likes! I think my favorite is either the one of her looking at the train (love how she's on her tippy toes!) or the upclose one of her with her puzzle. She was in the middle of saying "ba" like the sheep, during that one!

Calculator-phone video!

This one is the one of Miss AC talking on her calculator-phone! Gotta love it!

Sara Beth Bows

The other day, Mom's friend sent us this DARLING bow. She owns a bow business, Sara Beth Bows. She makes the CUTEST bows (as you can see!) She even has a ladybug bow for all those ladybug lovers! The proceeds go toward Sara Beth's adoption. THANK YOU, JEANETTE FOR THE BOW!! WE LOVE IT!! You can go to their website here to see all the options and order them!

pictures from yesterday

"My movie is so funny, Sissy!"

cute profile of her watching her movie. See the smile??
"I found this cool thing... It looks kinda like a phone..."
"Hi, Sissy!"
"Talking on my calculator-phone"

I forgot to mention last night that AnnaClaire thinks EVERYTHING is a phone. I mean EVERYTHING. So yesterday when she found my calculator, she put it right to her ear and starting talking. It was so cute. I caught "HIIIIIIIIIIII" "DADA" "MAMA" "BUBYE" and yaddy yaddy yad. She was just talking up a storm on her calculator-phone! I got a really cute video of her talking on it that I'll post later.

blogger-ARGH

I've been trying for an hour now to load some pictures. I only had 5 to load and then 1 for a seperate post, and did I have any luck doing so? NO! UGH!

We had a good day. The nurseries were all locked this morning, so Mom and AC had to hang out in the lobby during my piano. Afterwards, we went to the Christian Bookstore and Harris Teeter. At the bookstore, we got AnnaClaire a VeggieTales CD and another DVD. This afternoon we watched her new movie and she really liked it. It's so cute. It's called "God Made Babies" and the one we have is about Moses. It had these little puppets doing a circus. She loved it. She would laugh and smile at all the funny parts! I got an ADORABLE picture of her smiling during it... but I can't post it! ARGH! I'll post the picturs tomorrow.

We had a nice afternoon just hanging out. It's cold again. Not freezing though. Still, it's April for goodness sakes!

AnnaClaire took a big tumble today and is now sporting a bruise on her cheek. Poor thing! She tripped over the table leg and fell on the windowsill. It was tramautic!

Okay, I'm sorry if this totally grosses you out... If you tend to get grossed out easily, you might want to stop reading here, but I just have to tell. AnnaClaire tasted her first boogie today. It was so nasty. It was a monster one, too. And she seemed to like it because she went back for more! EW!! We tried to fish it out of her mouth, but for the first time in who knows how long, she wouldn't even show us her tongue. She must've really liked it! EWWWWWWW. Okay enough of that! Sorry, TMI!

Well, I'll add the cute pics of our litte boog (her new nickname LOL) tomorrow. I did REALLY want to get one of them posted to recommend something, but I guess it'll have to wait!

Oh yeah, Bubbles Oodles by Gymboree are REALLY long lasting! Yesterday we were blowing them and they got all over the porch floor. They are STILL there! WOW! Those are some good bubbles!

Tuesdays, Tuesdays.

We had an excellent day with our sweet pea. It was a normal and relaxing Tuesday. The usual morning stuff- Grace, lunch, nap, and then after naptime, AC and I played piano, she had a snack, and then we went outside! I was so excited because she swang for about 30 minutes and was smiling and laughing the entire time! SHE LOVES HER SWING NOW!!! WOOHOO! She is soo cute in it, too. She adores it! We also had a blast with bubbles. She loves bubbles! We blew them and did her bubble machine, so we had tons of bubbles! Then we played inside for a bit and then Mom took her out and she played in the yard and in her house. She is so sweet :). I know, this is a boring post. I'm so tired and want to get to bed though! And yes, I only took 3 pics. Well 4, but one was blurry and didn't come out good. Enjoy! I can't decide which I like best-- you tell me!

Zoo Yesterday!

Here's some more pix from the zoo. We had a great time. AnnaClaire loved it. One of the big highlights was going into the bird cage thing and getting to hold and feed the birds. AC and I were a little scared, but she sure loved being in the cage! She went napless again, but napped a little on the way to Outback where we met some of Grandma's friends for dinner. We had a GREAT, GREAT time. She also loved feeding the goats again! Such fun!! She even got to pet a cow and was 5 feet away from a turkey! She also loved riding the merry go round and the tram. We bought a year season pass to the zoo, so we have many trips there in our future:)! The favorites were still the elephants, flamingos, and sea lions. She also loved the penguins, but they weren't very atcive this time! She loves ALL the animals. She even says "Mo" for monkey! So cute! She was adorable riding around in her wagon looking at all the animals! We then went to the visitors center and walked through the fountains and drew on the drawing table. We tried to get her picture in front of these really pretty flowers, but she wasn't too happy to pose for them. LOL. She was tired... Atleast she slept 30 minutes before out dinner! She loves Outback! She ate her entire sweet potato and bowl of green beans plus bread and noodles. And that was after her huge lunch of applesauce w/ vitamin, turkey, chese, bread, crackers, and she drank TONS of water all day! She is such a good eater! Anyway, we had a great time! :)

zoo day!

This morning we headed to the zoo again! We had a great day! I'll write more tomorrow as we got home late and I need to get to bed. I also have more pictures from Dad's camera, but I haven't uploaded them yet. I'll add those and some writing tomorrow. For now, enjoy these pictures. The first one was when we were playing diaper peekaboo in the car and the last few are at dinner at Outback.

Say a prayer for all the people involoved in the VT incident. I have twin cousins who go there, and their classes are in "the" building, but luckily they had none there today. Also, they had friend who 1: had a class there and missed it and 2: had two friends who jumped out the 2nd floor window after hearing gunshots and are fine despite broken bones. Pray for everyone. How awful.

POD- sweet!!!!

I love pictures when the little ones are looking down. So this one was easy:)

AnnaClaire and Grandma

Happy Sunday

I found Sissy's belt!

Modeling my pretty Church dress from Miss Susan (THANKS!)
Beautiful! (See how pretty the top of it is?)
reading before Church
I'm ready to go to Church now!
Ready for my wagon ride with Grandma! I got this sweatsuit from Grandma for my 1st birthday back in October!
Let's go!

First thing in the morning, it was grey skied. Then it rained. This afternoon it looked like this:

and an hour later... (same view... but it looks different because of that WIND!)

Church was good this morning. AnnaClaire looked so cute in her outfit from Miss Susan (thanks so much!!!) She went to the nursery, and clung to Mom. She did go in, but I ended up going, too, because they didn't have enough workers. AnnaClaire is SO cute there. She had a ball! She was so cute playing with a little girl, Ava. They both had on pink dresses and were sharing the toys. Then Ava was eating goldfish, and AC came over and Ava gave her some. It was SO cute! AnnaClaire was a little jealous when I was holding the other kids, so at one point, I was holding AnnaClaire AND Ava. Luckily Ava didn't weigh me down too much because she was about half the weight of AnnaClaire! The "Bible Lady" came again and she loved patting the bunnies. it was so cute. She also loved singing all the songs and dancing! Oh and the bubbles... those are a hit, too!

We ate lunch at Five Guys and AnnaClaire threw her first public fit. She never throws fits to begin with, but this was definetely her first pubic one. She was in her high chair and all of a sudden she started SOBBING. It was really cute because a little boy ran over and was looking at her and asking if she was okay. AWWW. It happened twice, and Mom got her out and all was fine. She got all snuggled on Mom and looked like she was going to fall asleep! We finished up lunch and went home where she took a pretty good nap. We think she might be getting a cold.. ugh.

After her nap, Grandma took her for a wagon ride. She loved it. By that time it was 5! So, she took me to youth group and I guess she had her dinner, bath, and bed while I was gone.

We had really interesting weather today. I woke up and it was really cloudy and HOT. Then the rain started and soon it was POORING. By 2, it was a beautiful blue sky, sun, and warm. By 3:30, it was dark, cloudy, and cold. Then tonight, it was WINDY, REALLY CLOUDY, and FREEEEEZING! What is up with this weather? I like blue skies and in the 70s!

Clothing and Bows

We shop at a lot of different stores for AnnaClaire. A favorite is the Gymboree Outlet. It is much better than Gymboree (atleast right now, it is!) In fact, if you missed the Little Lady line, they have it!! AnnaClaire's teal flower dress, turtle pants, turtle dress, striped bathingsuit, and much more came from there. The bows that she wears with her turtle dress our the curly qs from there. Gymboree has curly qs to match all of their outfits. Those are the things that she wears with her piggy tails.

She also has a few things from Janie & Jack, our favorite, yes quite expensive store. One of my favorites is a beachy dress that we got and will give to her on her 18 month bday.

Her Aloha dress, giraffe dress, and flamingo pants are from Gymboree. The aloha dress was found on sale after summer for $14!! The flamingo pants are from this year and those are a hit in our house!

Her green squared Romper and pink and green romper are from HannaAndersson. We LOVE that store! That is also where her cute eyelet onesies are from there.

Most of her smocked dresses are from Strasburg and the Kids Place (a boutique here). Her bows are from our children's consignment store, and the Kid's Place. Her white bow is from Nordstrom. Oh, her frog and monogrammed dress are also from the Kids Place.

Her jammies are from Carters. Her gingham ones are from the Gymboree Outlet. We also have two pairs (polka dot and best friends) from the Children's Place. We don't have much luck with clothes there, but that is our favorite place for jammies. We also found two great white onesies for $4.50!!

She also has a few outfits that were gifts, and others from our consignment store. Her "Lilly" dress is actually a knock off Lilly brand. That dress (along with another one like it, which was a gift) are new items from the consignment store.

Oh and I can't forget-- SWEATERS! We don't find much at Old Navy, but that is where her white sweater is! Her red one was a gift and her navy one, believe it or not is from.. WALMART! We never buy any clothes there, but Mom came across that cute sweater for $3.50!!!

Hope this answers the questions I've gotten on AC's wardrobe.

One Year Ago...

A year ago, today, AnnaClaire was in Chenzhou SWI getting her pictures taken so her file could be sent to the CCAA. She had 2 pictures taken of her, a checkup, and a growth report.

A year ago, as AC got all this done, she was an adorable 5 month old baby, without a family. Now, she is a precious 17 month old toddler, with a loving family constantly doting on her.

A year ago, this is a little written about AnnaClaire... "Now Xun Hui is 5 months old. Her diet and sleeping are all normal. She keeps regular hours. Her physical development is normal. She is an active, restless, and adorable little baby." Sounds just like her... good sleeper, (yes!) good diet, (yes!) good hours, (yes!) good development, (yes!) active, (yes!) restless, (yes!) and adorable (OHHH YEAHH!!!)

A year ago, AnnaClaire was weighed in at 12.3 pounds! As for height, she was 23.2 inches.Today, she weighed in at 25 pounds! And height is 30 inches! So, she has gained about 13 pounds and 7 inches in one year. Wow. 13 pounds?

I took a few "recreations" of AnnaClaire's referral pictures. She has really grown and really gotten a lot of hair! The first collage is our version of her outfit. The second one (below) she is dressed "normally".
The last two pictures are of AnnaClaire getting weighed (after her bath) and measured (at the Discovery Place). 25 pounds and 30 inches! SHE'S A CHUB! (it was actually a little bit under 25#)

HI DADA!

Tonight after dinner, we were heading home and AnnaClaire was not so happy to be in the car. So, Mom turned off her cell phone and gave it to AC. AnnaClaire somehow turned it back on and then called Dad! It was SO funny! All of a sudden Dad's blackberry started ringing, and then we all realized it was AnnaClaire calling him! It was SO funny! Then Mom said "Are you talking to Dada on the phone?" And AC goes "HIIIIIIIIIIIIII DADAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" It was so cute. She's soooooo funny and SMART!

Fun day

First of all, SORRY about my lack of blogging. I've just been incredibly busy lately! I have still been taking tons of pics of AC (as you can tell!) so no fear. I have worked all night on getting you up to date on pictures I never posted from Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So scroll down to see all of those.

I spent the night at my friend's house last night. We had a good time! We slept in really late which was nice because I am used to Little Miss waking me up at 8! Mom came and picked me up at about 2 and after she got the tour of their new house, we went home. Grandma had just flown in earlier. It is so nice to see her! She's here until Tuesday. So this afternoon, after a referral recreation photoshoot, we headed to the Discovery Place for awhile. We had great fun playing in the kids room, playing on the tongue, riding the air chair, etc. She is SO cute whenever we got there. She loves it there!

We had a yummy dinner which AC loved. She even got to taste some banana pudding! She LOVED it! LOL!

We came home and I bathed AC and got her all ready for bed. She is so sweet. I wish EVERYONE reading this could meet her. She is an absolute LOVE, JOY, HOOT, CUTIE, etc. What more could I ask for in my little sister??

Enjoy all the pictures I uploaded:).

OH BTW, it has been warm here lately, which means more chances to wear her spring wardrobe, but it's going to get cold again tomorrow :(. What's up with this on and off weather??

Yesterday pictures- Cottage

Hello! Welcome to my home!

Come on in!
Isn't my house lovely?
I see something...
This is my window! I like to look out!
Gorgeous.

Yesterday, we had a "bookclub" thing and I ended up going to my friend's house afterwards and sleeping over, hence hardly any blogging yesterday. I hadn't taken any pictures of AC in the morning, and when I went to my house to get all my stuff, AC was napping, so I left asking Mom to do one thing for me: take atleast 1 picture of AC. (Thanks Mom.) She took 6, and they all came out so good! :) As you can tell, they are all of her playing in her adorable little cottage!

Look how I've GROWN!

Our home in NC, April 07

China Hotel in Guanzhou, Dec 06
It's kind of hard to tell, but when we were in China, we put AC in these jammies. We thought they looked small, even though they were 18mo. Well, they were HUGE. She would walk right out of the footsies, they gaped on her, and we had to roll the sleeves a lot. The other night, we put her in them again and they now fit tight! She has grown so much, even in just 4 months!

Storytime pictures (many, many pictures)

These were all taken on Thursday. It took over an hour to upload these, so enjoy! Sorry, no captions. WAY too many and many more to add from yesterday and today! They are pretty self explanatory...

(this one she is looking in the mirror, because the subject was PEEKABOO)

(BUBBLES!!!! I'm gonna pop them!)

(lol.. I'm all tangeled!!!)

More Wednesday Pictures

"Lookie at my movie!"

Watchin' with Bunny.
"Waving hi to the kids in my movie!"
"YAY! I liked that song!"
THANK YOU MRS. JEANETTE FOR MY AWESOME MOVIE!

Pets! (FFFF Challenge!)

This weeks Family FotoFun Friday Challenge from Double Happiness is "Pets"! We have one pet- our English Springer Spaniel, Maggie. AnnaClaire at first was so freaked out by Maggie, but now they are best friends! I love the first picture. It was taken a few days after we got home, right when AnnaClaire started excepting Maggie. I love that one. These are 4 of my favorite pictures of AC and Maggie. AnnaClaire LOVES her Doggie and Maggie LOVES AnnaClaire (only because she throws all her food to her.. hehe)

Left the camera in AnnaClaire's room...

or so I thought! Actually just found it, but I have sooooooo many pics to post and it's late, so I need to go to bed. I can't believe I went all night thinking I left my camera in AC's room and right as I was getting in bed, I saw it laying on my China blanket! I did post some from yesterday, so scroll down a bit and look at those!

Two Little Monkies

Just had to tell you about this awesome business. I recently redid the blog, Young Party of Five. Well, Lisa from that blog has started this business with her friend. They make towels, shirts, capri outfits, etc. They both have darling daughters adopted from China. AnnaClaire's bunny tee shirt was made by Lisa. Anyway, their business is called "Two Little Monkies"! CHECK IT OUT: HERE! All the stuff is SO cute!!! Here is sweet Ana Claire modeling the fishie shirt!

Yesterday (out of order)

Happy girl!

Taking off shoes and socks!
I'm a smiley snuggle bug!
Petting Doggie!
HI!
I love Maggie-Doggie!

Did I mention how happy I am?

What is this, Sissy?
Lookie at this ball!
Playin' in the nursery!

I'm so cheesy! And... I love Moes!

Meme

Okay, I forgot to mention this yesterday on our gotcha day story. I got the idea from Keara and told her she should start a meme. So, she did. If you want to play along, simply right your gotcha day story and add a couple pictures! Comment on Keara's blog if you play along. (Or you can comment on mine, or both)

When is college football starting again?

Blogger isn't loading my pictures *UGH*. I did get one, so here's one until tomorrow when I can add the rest. I took a ton today to make up for none yesterday!

It was a normal Wednesday. Piano in the morning (which meant nursery play). AnnaClaire loves the throw balls. It's so cute. I got an adorable video. I need to post that tomorrow. I also have two others to post, too. After that, we ran to Earth Fare. It was AnnaClaire's first time there. She got to try lots of samples. Did I tell you that SHE EATS EVERYTHING? They had this (I thought) nasty tasting cheese there, but she wanted it. So, we gave her some. She BEGGED for more. She also got to try an organic blueberry muffin. She liked it :). We had lunch at Moes (her first time there, too!) She ate like a pig! LOL! She ate her entire kids plate and was still eating off my plate! We finally cleared it from her! LOL! She has a new favorite thing to do- take off her shoes and socks in the car. It used to be her bow, now it's her shoes and socks. It's so funny! Hey- atleast it keeps her occupied!

She didn't take the greatest nap, because Maggie woke her up. It was rainy again today. Rainy and cold. Ugh! Atleast tomorrow they are calling for sunny and 75! YESSSSSSSS! FINALLY SPRINGLIKE WEATHR AGAIN!!! So since we couldn't go ouside, Mom decided to let her watch some t.v. She has never really watched t.v. before. It wasn't really TV. It was this (ADORABLE) dvd that Mrs. S. sent us awhile back. It is the Toddler Hymns DVD. Let me tell you, SHE LOVED IT. We thought she would just play with it in the background. Um..no! She sat there and watched, danced, sang, pointed things out, waved hi to the kids, etc. We pointed out all the stuff in the movie. It was so cute. She loved it! They are GREAT DVDs. They are real life kids doing real things while singing hymns! So cute! Oh, AC loved it! THANK YOU, MRS. S FOR THE DVD!! SHE LOVES IT! The cutest part of all was when they were signing "Oh, How I Love Jesus". I asked AC if she could say that. This is how our conversation went.

Sissy- "Oh"
AC- "Ohhhhhhhhh"
Sissy- "How"
AC- "Haaaaaaaaa"
Sissy- "I"
AC- (points to eye) "AIIIIIIII"
Sissy- "Love"
AC- (puts her head on my shoulder- her sign for love)
Sissy- "Jesus"
AC- (points toward the t.v./sky)

Our afternoon was good. I had swimming early today, so I got to bathe AC and get her ready for bed. I loved doing that!

P.S. Make sure to look below for a 4 month gotcha post!

4 months- Gotcha story (REALLY LONG!)

~update~ Keara gave me this idea when she posted their Gotcha Day story. And since it is our 4 month gotcha anniversary, I decided to do our gotcha day story. She has now started a meme, so if you want to play along, go to her blog and enter your link!

Gotcha Day~December 11, 2006


I remember this day like it was yesterday. I will never forget it. I’ll never forget one single detail. It was the most incredible day of my entire life. After having AnnaClaire’s referral for over 4 months, it was so good to finally GET her. We were supposed to fly into Changsha the morning of the 11th, but everyone in our group ended up traveling the night before. We still weren’t totally on China time, so we were up by 5am. The night before, our guide, Amy, had told us that we wouldn’t get AnnaClaire until 4pm. She had asked if we could get her at 10am, but the orphanage was 4 hours away, and they didn’t want to leave that early. So we waited until 4. I remember counting down the hours. I remember Dad video taping me for 9 minutes telling everything we had done so far in China. I remember Will and Dad going to Ai Best (like a huge Wal-Mart superstore, but it wasn’t Carrefour) and getting all kinds of American snacks while Mom and I talked about our day finally coming. When Will and Dad got back, they had many stories to tell of their experience. We snacked on all kinds of American snacks, just waiting for 3:00PM when Amy would come to our room. I don’t know how in the world we did it. But finally, Amy knocked on our door, about 2:50. She let us know all kinds of things, how to pronounce AnnaClaire’s name, and what her nickname was (Hui Hui), etc. Finally around 3:25, we left for the Civil Affairs Office. It was the longest car ride. (Not really, but it sure felt like it!) I remember looking at everything, so I could remember everything about China. I remember seeing a huge Ferris wheel, and Amy said there were carnivals held where it was. Finally we got there. It was a run down building behind a gate. It looked like really old office buildings. Amy said that we would get AnnaClaire on the 3rd floor. We walked in. It looked like just an old, old office. We went up this elevator to the 3rd floor. There were tons of families in the room. Apparently, they had gotten their babies that morning and were coming back to complete the adoption. They were all so happy; the babies were all so cute. I couldn’t wait for it to be our turn. We waited and waited. AnnaClaire wasn’t there yet, Amy told us. She took Dad back so that he could start on some paperwork and get the orphanage donation ready. A few minutes later, we heard a screaming baby come off the elevator (we realized that she had a huge fear of elevators, as she cried in every single one we were in! But she would’ve screamed anyway, I think.) Mom looked at me and at the same time, we said, “I bet that’s AnnaClaire”. A nanny walked in holding the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. She was red faced and screaming, tears streaming down her face. She was clinging on to the nanny. She was wearing this big red outfit (that Amy later told us was a special occasion outfit). She had a fur hat on and was sweating. She was so cute. We knew right away it was her. Mom could tell by her nose. I knew it was her because of her eyes. With her was a beautiful girl, whom we recognized as Lana. Dad wasn’t back yet, so they couldn’t give us AnnaClaire. Meanwhile, Will videoed the whole thing. Mom and I kept looking back in the room that AnnaClaire and the nanny were in. We were crying (of happiness). We finally saw her. It was such a good feeling. All the while, AnnaClaire is screaming. FINALLY she calmed down. A split second later, Dad and Amy rushed back, so the nanny came over with AnnaClaire. Right when we came into view, she started screaming again. Poor thing was so scared, so confused. The nanny handed her to Mom, and when she got to Mom, another nanny pulled her back and said “No! We must check see if right baby!” The other nanny took AnnaClaire back and tried to calm her down again. They looked at our TA and looked at AnnaClaire, called “Xun Hui” (to which AnnaClaire responded) and then said “Okay! Right baby!” (We of course knew this all along). So they gave her back to Mom. The screaming started again. We each had our turn. She stopped crying a teeny bit for Dad, but not for long. Mom tried giving her a bottle, but it didn’t help. I then got my turn to hold her. She looked at me and stopped crying. She didn’t cry almost the whole time I held her. By now I was in (happy) tears. I finally was holding on to my dear Mei Mei (in fact, as I type this, I am in tears!) And better yet, the crying had seized. I am sure the whole room of people was so happy she had finally stopped SCREAMING ;). Mom held her again and then Dad took over videoing so that Will could hold her. She hardly cried for him either. Then the screaming started again. We tried everything. Finally she calmed down, while I held her and “rocked” her on the table. AnnaClaire was taking everything in as all this happened. She was just darting her head around looking at everything. She was alert from the get go! Amy was so good, the whole time, she was working on all the details. After everything was done, we left to go back to the hotel. Outside, AnnaClaire didn’t cry at all. She loved it. Many Chinese people stopped to look at her. I remember one old lady in particular. She stood nearby until we got in the taxi. She just stared at AnnaClaire. I even saw some tears fall from her eyes. We had to take two taxis and AnnaClaire went in Mom’s and mine. She loved it and almost fell asleep. When we got back to the hotel, Mom, Dad, and Amy talked for awhile. Amy translated AC’s Half the Sky reports and showed us everything Chenzhou had given (AC’s finding clothes, her chop, a map of Chenzhou, her HTS reports, a picture of her when she was found, etc.) AnnaClaire cried and cried. She didn’t like the hotel room. Will and I took her out to the hallway and played with the toys. She loved the xylophone. She also really liked a big ball. When she started crying again, we went back to the room. Amy and Mom & Dad were almost finished doing paperwork. Amy called the front desk of the hotel and they ordered us Pizza Hut. We bathed AnnaClaire while we waited. She was a little scared, but not bad and didn’t cry much at all. But it was after her bath, and after getting in her green princess jammies that changed her. I brushed her hair with her ladybug hairbrush. She loved it. She cooed and smiled and tried brushing my hair. From then on that night, we saw smile after smile. We were falling in major love. Absolute L-O-V-E. Our pizza came. It was so good, but I didn’t eat much. I couldn’t take my eyes of the beautiful baby that was in Mom’s lap. AnnaClaire drank a formula bottle. We were happy because it was American bottles and American formula and she ate it GREAT and loved it! We played with her toys, playing peek-a-boo, etc. She just laughed and laughed and laughed. After a long and amazing day, AnnaClaire went to bed late (9ish) and slept wonderfully. I remember Mom and I looking at websites that night, because we knew of SO many people who had gotcha day that day. All the while, we kept peeking over to see Precious sleep. She made the most beautiful noise as the slept. She was perfect, we were in love.

I cannot believe it has been 4 months since that day, December 11, 2006. I remember the day like it was yesterday. Yet, it seems so long ago. AnnaClaire has changed and blossomed so much. She is a joy. She hardly ever cries. She is always smiling (but I don’t always catch it on camera, because she stops smiling as soon as I pop it out! LOL!) She is love. On Gotcha Day, she looked terrified. You could see in her eyes how absolutely terrified she was. But now, she has a different kind of look in her eyes. She has the look of love, of happiness. She has a family. She is happy. She has gone from a terrified baby to a happy toddler. My sweet Hui Hui, I love you more than anything in the world! Thank you for all you have given to our family. You mean so much to me! Although our gotcha day wasn’t perfect, it was perfect for us. I wouldn’t change that day for anything in the world. I thank Jesus every day for giving you to our family! I love you, AnnaClaire HuiHui. Thank you for being my little sister.

Here's a slideshow with many of the pictures taken on Gotcha Day! Enjoy! BTW, I am not in many pictures because I took them all :-)

LOL!

Need a laugh?

My friend, Rachel told me to do this...

Go on Google
Click on Maps
Click on Get Directions
Enter New York, New York to Paris, France
Read line 23 :-)

None, Zero, Zip

Believe it or not, today was the first day since we've had AnnaClaire that I haven't taken a picture of her. I am so upset. Irealized that 5 minutes after she had gone to bed.(Rawr!) Nonetheless, I did take A PICTURE. Just not of AnnaClaire. It was of my finished Starbucks. Don't ask why in the world I took a picture of that, I know it is completely random. But anyway, there is my Starbucks in all its glory. The second picture is a picture of AnnaClaire (taken a few weeks ago). That is what she wore today. I love her flamingo pants. Of course, she had to wear a long sleeved shirt today because it was SO cold! We had a good day. Pretty busy, but fun. I don't think AnnaClaire was feeling her best today. Might've had a little fever. She was still sweet though :). Did I mention that she LOVES her bubble machine? It is a huge hit here in our house! She played with it for a longgggggg time today. She also had fun with Will after school. And then she got pretty fussy, so she got "ergoed up". She LOVES her Ergo! Mom wears it on the side, so she can still get things done- works like a charm! School and swimming started back up today. It's going to be hard to get back on track!

Ice Cream!! POD

Tonight, we went to Marble Slab after dinner. We didn't get AnnaClaire anything, but we were nice (since she RARELY has anything sweet!) and gave her a taste of our ice cream. Dad had "Cheesecake" with choc. chips and I had "Double Dark Chocolate" with brownies. (MMMMMM!) She started with a taste of Dad's. It took a few "Lick it!"s for her to realize what to do, but she LOVED it! She would then stick out her tongue and lean forward for another bite! It was SO cute! She got a few licks (with like a miniscule bit of ice cream for each bite!) of both flavors but it was pretty obvious that she like mine the best! I think we have a chocolate lover :). (Too bad, sweetie, chocolate will only be given to you on rare occasion!) Of course, she wasn't all that fond of my chocolate cake. Maybe she is just a chocolate ICE CREAM lover! ;) The POD is the bottom one of her eating the chocolate ice cream.

Hanging out with Sis!

This morning, after I woke up, and we ate, I played with AnnaClaire for awhile. We had so much fun! First, she climbed in my bed a played with her cell phone. She was really enjoying sitting by me and playing with her cell phone while I checked on some blogs. Then, after she pulled the "K" key off my computer, I decided that it was time to play on the floor. We played with her 2 cell phones, made voice recordings on her striped one, played with waterbottles (she was so dramatic with her waterbottle poses! LOL!) Then, I pulled out some playdoh that I randomly had. She LOVED the playdoh. It is hot pink. She was sooooo funny with it. I would tell her not to eat it, and then I would say "good girl!" and she would lean her head over and give me this "yes, I know, I'm a perfect princess!" look. It was so funny! She loved the playdoh. I thought it would go right in her mouth, but I was wrong! After playing awhile, Mom brought up her baba and she took a nice nap. While she was napping, I headed over to my friends house. They just got home from Hawaii this morning!! (It's the same people I was petsitting for, my friends Elizabeth and Sadie). They gave me a birthday present of a really cute beach bag and a hot pink Hawaii towel :). Funfun! Oh and I can't forget about the LAI (is that how you spell that??) It's soooooo pretty and smells sooooooo good and they saved it all the way on the plane ride and everything! I was so excited! We hung out at their house all day. It was so good to see them again! They showed me all their pictures from their trip and it was just beautiful! They are so lucky to have grandparents who live there! Anyway, then Sadie had to go so I went home and AC and Mom were gone. When they got home, AC ate and then we ate. After dinner, Dad, AnnaClaire, and I went to Circuit City and Marble Slab. YUM!! AnnaClaire had basically her first taste of ice cream. She loved it! (More about that in the next post). When we came home, Mom surprised us with some good news! You know that lifesaver ladybug hair brush AC has... Well, that is actually the 2nd one. The original was lost in China and found the night we got home. A few days later, it had disappeared again. We were so upset, as this was very special to us. It was the turning point for AnnaClaire! Well, Will is coming home from Boston tonight, and Mom was making up his bed with clean sheets... under Will's bed, was the HAIRBRUSH!! She of course put it right away. We are NOT going to loose it again! Now if only we could find the very special "orphanage toy", a pink rattle thing that AC's nanny gave to her when we visited the orphanage.

Dancing to the Wiggles (Videos)

I just had to have it's own special spot for this picture. I wanted to take a picture of AnnaClaire at lunch with her bib on, and she wasn't cooperating when all of a sudden, she looked up at me with the CHEESIEST grin! Is she cute... or is she cute?

Here are 2 videos of AnnaClaire dancing to the Wiggles:





Oh and in case you are wondering, I forgot to mention that AnnaClaire was by far the cutest I saw in our entire Church!

Texting buddies!

AnnaClaire texting her friend, Maura!

and Maura texting hr friend, AnnaClaire!

Today, while I was getting dressed, I looked over and saw AnnaClaire sitting in my closet with her phone out, "texting". Imagine my surprise when I saw on Keara's blog that Maura was texting, this morning, too! So here are the twins, hours away, texting eachother! Aren't they cute?

Some more pictures

I love my bath!! (First bath in the big tub!!)

It SWIMS! (my turtle)

Hi!

I got my ladybug brush and my Easter chicky!
So sweet!

Tonight we bathed AC in her big bath for the first time. 1st of all, we wanted her to see her new turtle swim. She loved it! 2nd of all, I wanted to recreate a picture of me when I was her age. I'll post those 2 pictures tomorrow once I make a collage with them both. Anyway, she liked her bath in it. I still think she likes bathtim better in her ducky though. She looked so little in that huge tub! After bathtime, I got her all snuggled in her jammies (she needed her fleece ones! Did I tell you the thermomenter read 29 this morning? Umm... it's APRIL!) Then she played with her chicky and her brush before reading for awhile with Dad. She is becoming quite the reader! =)

An Easter Egg Hunt!!!

Today we had a nice Easter Egg Hunt. AnnaClaire had a blast. She as so cute picking the eggs up. She would see it and point and walk over, pick it up, and throw it in the basket! It was so adorable! We used our decorated eggs from yesterday. She had such fun. Actually, we all did!

Easter Best

Sissy and AnnaClaire

Mommy and her girls
The proud parents and the Princess

For Easter, we all got in our "easter outfits" (well Dad doesn't really have an Easter outfit). Then we were off. AnnaClaire went in the nursery again, which was nice for the Easter service. She looked like she was about to burst into tears when we left, but she was fine. The Church service was very nice. Lately our Church hasn't been crowded at all. We have a big Church, and it was nice to see the Church FILLED with tons of people, like it used to be! After Church, we went to Pei Wei for lunch. It was delicious. It's not a big "Easter spot" so it wasn't crowded at all, which was nice. We came back and AnnaClaire was SO ready for her nap. We had to fight with her not to fall asleep in the car. (Why is it that when you want them to fall asleep -hinthint, ZOO!- they don't, but when you don't want them to fall asleep -hinthint every day between 11:45 and later- the do!?) We got home and she went right to bed. She took an okay nap. After her nap, I wanted to get some pictures of her in her white slip. She wanted nothing to do with that. I got a few that turned out okay.

I love bunny!
I love this one how she is standing on her tip toes. So cute! She actually did open the door (which was closed tight!) She's amazing, what can I say?
Yay! A smile for the slip pics! I should've known not to MAKE her sit down.

The next few pictures are so that you can see the detail on the smocking in her dress. the one of her standing is so you can see her sweet shoes!

the Easter Bunny comes!

AnnaClaire was an early riser this morning. She must've been really excited about Easter! :) Since I couldn't get a picture of her in front of our goodies, without her screaming, here is a picture of just the stuff. She got a PINK AND PURPLE Little People school bus, a bunny finger puppet book, a pink and green "wind up & watch me swim" turtle, an adorable Easter chick stuffed animal, and a Wiggles c.d. from the Easter bunny. I gave her the 4 little foam books I talked about yesterday. She was very pleased with her treats... I got a Vera Bradley BULLITEN board!! (Can you tell we are major Vera Bradley fans?)

"The Easter Bunny came and brought ME lots of goodies!"

"My pink bus is AMAZING!"
(Look at that face!! lol) "If I press the driver, my bus SINGS!"
We put in her Wiggles c.d. and she had a jolly good time dancing to the Wiggles. She loves the Wiggles c.d. I think we have a future Wiggles t.v. show fan!

"Dancing with my daddy!"

"I climbed on this chair all by myself!!" (notice her hair is falling down from all her dancing!)

After Easter bunny fun, she had a yummy Easter breakfast of yogurt with her vitiman. She wore her adorable new Easter Bunny bib!!

"I love Easter so far!"

After that, we played in my room while Mom and Dad got ready. She found all sorts of cords to play with. She also discovered Dad's camera and thought it was quite interesting.

"Why don't I have one of these?"

"Wow, what are all these pictures of me doing on here?"

Before Church, she played with her plastic eggs and tins some more. She loves these things! They are even better than toys!

"Look at my eggs!"

An Easter dress fit for a princess

These are most of the good shots of AnnaClaire's "Photoshoot" yesterday. I think they came out really well. I got a few of her smiling, but for the most part, I wanted it to be very natural looking. She really does look beautiful in the green grass and in front of the pink flowers! The ones with the eggs weren't taken during our egg hunt (that was today), she just kept dropping all the eggs!

Happy Easter!!!

AnnaClaire wants to wish everyone a VERY happy Easter! AnnaClaire's dress is pink with flowers and white ribbon smocked through. We found it at Strasburg Children a few months ago. This is one of the many, many pictures I took. I will post more tomorrow. (It used to say Happy Easter, Love AnnaClaire, but for some reason that didn't show up, so this is just the picture.) Remember the true meaning for Easter as you celebrate~ it's not about the chocolate or bunnies, the eggs or candy, the treats or pretty clothes, it's about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and rising 3 days later. He has Risen, He has Risen indeed!

POD- sitting cutely

I don't really have a FAVORITE picture from today (because really my very favorites are the ones in front of the flowers, in her Easter dress which I'm not posting yet). I do love these 3 pictures so much. I love it when she sits down! The middle one, I was taking pictures of her with her eggs and baskets, and all of a sudden she sat down and grinned. It was like the was posing! LOL! There is also one that makes me laugh in the petsitting collage. It's the one that says "Where did Bao go?" I think that one is so funny. the look on her face is priceless in it! I just took too many pictures to pick a VERY favorite. But I do love these 3!

Whoops, forgot this one!

These are all kinds of wagon shots taken at the zoo yesterday. Isn't she soooooooo cute in her wagon?

Petsitting & tongues, babas & finding adds

AnnaClaire loves to come with me to petsit. Today, she rode in her wagon. She was all smiles the whole way there. We even had a kitty sighting today! She loves "Bao" as she calls him! (his name is Balto but she can't get the lt). She also loves to "help" scoop Bao's litter and throw away his poopies! SO cute!

This one was taken on the walk home from petsitting. Her tongue is still by far her favorite body part!

Daddy giving me my baba. I love my dada and I love my baba!

AnnaClaire's finding add newspaper!

We had a very fun day today. It started out with "Saturday morning errands". Ever since I was a kid, Dad has always taken us on errands every Saturday. So today we went again. We went to Target and got a little something for AC's Easter basket and exchanged 2 things, Costco where we got AC these cool foam lift & learn books, and Panera where we had a yummy lunch. AnnaClaire loves Panera! She had organic grilled cheese on whole grain bread, organic yogurt, and organic applejuice. We are big into our organics, so we love that Panera serves all organics to he kids! We had a delicious lunch. Then we went to Blockbuster to return a movie. We got home about 1 and AnnaClaire took a nap right away. While she napped, Mom and I ran up to Babies R Us and Toys R Us and got a few things. They were having a great sale at Toys R Us and they had an AWESOME, pink ______ that we got AnnaClaire for Easter. We also got her a Noah's Ark Little People thing for later, because they were having such an awesome sale. We got her a little pinic table (also on sale), too. At Babies R Us, we got a few essentials that we needed. Best of all, was the raft we found. It's not just ANY raft though... it's a LADYBUG raft. Actually it's not a raft. It's a baby float thing. SO cute! http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2316447. We had been looking for one and had settled on this pink blowup Target one, but when we saw the ladybug one for the same price... well, we had to get that one instead. We stopped by Chickfila and I got a mint cookies and cream milkshake (ahhhhhh yum!) before heading home. Once home, we decided to do our Easter photoshoot today. It is supposed to get REALLY cold tonight and we didn't want our azealeas (sp??) to freeze and die. So I dressed AC all pretty in her GORGEOUS Easter outfit and took tons of pictures. I'm going to make you wait to see them though, because I don't want to unveil her Easter dress until it's Easter. Maybe I'll consider posting one picture at midnight ;-). After dinner, Mom, AnnaClaire, and I decorated Easter eggs. It was really fun. I talked more about that in the below post, so check that. We dressed AC in her bunny pjs in honor of Easter and she had a nice baba from Dad before falling sound asleep! Also, I added a new home update on the website.

Last but not least, a few weeks back, we ordered AnnaClaire's finding add from Brian Stuy. We received the add today. It is great. You can get just the photo copy of the picture and description for $30-$40, or you can pay $75 for that AND the entire newspaper that the finding add was in. Chenzhou SWI provided us with the photo copy of the add, so what we really wanted was the newspaper. It was pricey, but well worth it. It is the original newspaper! It is really pretty cool. You can also get a translation of what it says for only $5 more. Also, AnnaClaire's add appeared in the Hunan Daily on December 7, 2005. We left for China on December 7, 2006! I thought that was really cool! AnnaClaire is the 2nd baby in the 2nd row. It is so strange to see AnnaClaire so young. We have a picture of her the day she was found at 1 day old, but the more pictures I look at of her when she was younger, the more I think, "how was she in an orphanage?" She is so outgoing, friendly, and social. I just can't see her living in an orphange. I know that she was so well taken care of in Chenzhou!

Happy Easter everyone!

Decorating Eggs!

Tonight AnnaClaire and I decorated Easter Eggs! It was so much fun. AnnaClaire had a blast doing it! She thought it was too cool that they would go in white and come out pretty colors. She was such a big helper decorating! We also got to write on them in this "special crayon" that stayed white while the rest of the egg was colored. So we have personalized, colorful Easter eggs for Miss AC! Fun! After we were done decorating, we gave AnnaClaire all of the plastic eggs so that she would leave the real eggs alone. We also gave her all the egg coloring cups and these retro Easter tins that we have. She had so much fun playing with all this stuff and was so cute doing so! Tomorrow we'll have an Easter Egg Hunt with her eggs!

Spring Dresses!! (FFFF Challenge) UPDATED

(ADDED 4/8/07)

Double Happiness' challenge this week is "Spring Dresses." As you can probably tell, AnnaClaire usually only wears dresses, so this one was quite easy for me. Of course, with all this cold weather we've been having, she hasn't had many chances to wear her cute spring dresses. Here are a few though! Notice the long sleeves in some of the pix ;-). She's our cute little spring girl! Enjoy! UPDATE: here's her cute Easter dress!!! Isn't it LOVELY? For more pictures in her Easer dress, view all posts from 4/8!

A few more pictures

Okay.. this one cracks me up! We were going on a trail that wasn't wheel friendly, so we had to life AC up the stairs. We were laughing so hard. She looked like some queen or something, sitting on her throne! LOL!

The next two were in collages, but I just had to include them here, too.

The first one is of her sleeping. I rarely get sleeping pics, because she always wakes up when we look at her sleeping at home. So I have to take advantage of when she sleeps in the car. I love watching her sleep! She is such a sweet pea sleeper! The last one is of AC hugging on Ellie. She loves her new elephant! There is no pic of the day today, WAY to many pics. I have included MOST of the pictures in the collages I made. I know it is really hard to tell what she is looking at in the ones of her posing with animals, but a lot of them are like that.

Zoo pics!

Don't forget to click on the collages to view bigger! Sometimes, they don't enlarge... I hope these do! The last one is pictures I took in the car because she was SOOOOo happy. And then a few sleeping picures on the way to dinner. Enjoy!

AnnaClaire goes to the ZOO!

Dad had off work today for Good Friday, and I'm on Spring Break. Will flew up to Boston to see Drew for a couple days, so it's just us girls and Dad. So today, we headed up to Columbia, SC, to the zoo. We had some doubts, because it was supposed to be cold and cloudy. But it ended up being a BEATIFUL day (a bit cold, but gorgeous blue sky!) First, we set up AnnaClaire's cute wagon. We were then off to the zoo! It was about an hour and a half away, but there ended up being TONS of traffic, which turned out to be beacuse of a survey crew~ugh! But, we finally made it! We ended up eating lunch in the trunk of the car, and AC in her wagon, because no coolers were allowed in the zoo. On the way over, someone was asking people if they wanted 2 free tickets, because they went on a field trip, so had them payed for and didn't need them. They gave them to us! So it ended up costing $9.75 to go to the zoo. AnnaClaire LOVED it. She loved being in her wagon, she loved looking at all the animals, and she loved seeing all the people! I was SO surprised at how into all the animals AnnaClaire was! She would look in the cages for them, and when she spotted them, she would point to them. It was so adorable! Her favorites were the elephants. She LOVED the elephants and whined when we left them! Her other favorites were the sea lions, the flamingos, and the penguins! We had so much fun! We saw all sorts of animals! We really were incredibly surprised at how much AnnaClaire loved the zoo. She just took it ALL in! After looking at most of the zoo animals, we headed over to the farm part. She got to feed goats! She LOVED feeding the goats! She thought it was so funny! She also saw bunnies, a llama, a cow, and chicks! When she saw the cow, she said "moooo!" It was so cute! Did I mention how much she LOVED feeding the goats? We then wanted to take her for a pony ride, but she was too small, so we rode the merry go round instead. She loved the merry go round! We rode on the panda bear! After that, we walked across this bridge with BEAUTIFUL water beneath. We walked a short path that was in the "forest". We met lots of people on the way, including kayakers! AnnaClaire was so funny waving to them! It was too cute! We went up to the visitor's center and saw the big fountains, which AC loved. We then went through to catch the tram back down to the zoo part. First, we stopped by a kiddie picnic table that had crayons and you could write on the table! AnnaClaire and I wrote "AnnaClaire" on it. We went out and waited for the tram while playing at the fountain. While there, Mom met a older couple who knows my grandma's best friend! It's a small world, considering my grandma lives in TEXAS! So that was cool. When we got back to the animal part of the zoo, we saw the flamingos. AnnaClaire LOVED them. She thought they were so cool. After that, we went and saw the penguins. They were so cute! They would dive in the water, swim really fast and jump on the rocks. It's hard to explain, but it was awesome. AnnaClaire loved them. She was a little timid by them, but loved watching them! Across from the penguins were the Asian birds, so we of course saw all them. We then saw more animals. By the time we were done, we had seen all the animals! It was so much fun. We then stopped by the gift shop because I really wanted to get AC a stuffed animal from her first zoo trip. We got her this adorale Gund elephant (since the elephants were her very favorite!) Mom and Dad didn't want to get it for her, because she's not a huge stuffed animal person. We gave her a few different ones, and she wanted nothing to do with them. Finally I found the elephant (which is what we wanted all along!) and I gave it to her to see if she liked it. She put it to her face (which is her way of doing "love"), gave it a kiss, and squealed. We named it Ellie Elephant. It is so cute! She is soooooo adorable with it, too. She loves her Ellie! After that, we headed back to the car. AnnaClaire was SO good the whole day. We were gone from 10:30-8:15 and she didn't nap on the way there at all. She was happy the entire time! She slept a little bit on the way from the zoo to dinner, but not long. She was just SUCH a tropper as her schedule was totally off. We had dinner at Crackel Barrel (AC's first time there). It was yummy. I always feel so southern when we go there... but it is so good! And hey.. we do live in the south! We got home around 8:15 and AC went to bed RIGHT away! I can't believe how well she did with no nap until 5:30! She absoltuely loved the zoo and we know we will have many trips back!

I made a few collages (and have a few more to make) but for some reason they aren't posting. I'll try to get them figured out tonight. If not, I'll post them tomorrow!

Oh, BTW, she learned a few more words- zoo animal names!! Her little voice is so cute!

Blog Updates

I just wanted to point out a few changes I made to my blog last night. First of all, I changed the inner from the creamish to white. It was really bugging me cream, beause it just DIDN'T go with the cherry blossoms, and was giving a very dull look. I like the white MUCH better.

Secondly, I have added something I have wanted for awhile... sidebar titles. The pink things with the hearts. I have also erased some things from my sidebar, beacause it was getting really long.

And last but not least, I have a new profile picture. I LOVE this picture of AnnaClaire.

Nothing to drastic, just wanted to tell you!

POD- big grins!

I love this picture of AnnaClaire. Look at that sweet baby-face!

I forgot to mention two things in my last post. 1: AnnaClaire has lately been "shrugging" a lot. It is so funny! She like lifts her shoulders to her chin. It cracks me up. There are two pictures in the night time fun collage of her doing this.

Also, there is one picture of her in the night time collage. In it, she has her head thrown back, and is laughing REALLY hard. I thought I would let you know that so you're not like "that's an interesting picture.." Which brings me to... SHE IS TICKILISH!! It's so cute! She just cracks up when she's tickiled (sp?) She has been laughing a lot. She is always so happy! Even though she has been teething hard, it doesn't seem to matter to her.. she is ALWAYS happy!

Pop Pop in the cul-de-sac!

It was a good day. A very good day. Story time was fun this morning. AnnaClaire was busier than normal there. LOL! Afterwards, she discovered the kiddie computers. She LOVED those and didn't want to leave them! They don't even DO anything. She just plays with the mouse! It's so funny! (See 2 pics in first collage next to the pop pop car one). We then ran to the bridal store to check out the flower girl dress that Leah picked out for AnnaClaire. OH MY GOODNESS, it is gorgeous! AnnaClaire is going to look Beautiful (with a capital B!) in it! We had lunch at Salsaritas because it was in the same shopping center and it was lunch time. Yum! On the way back, we passed the church where a funeral was being held in honor of 2 local police officers that were shot over the weekend. It was so sad. One of them had a 3 year old son and his wife is pregnant, due in June. We need to be in prayer for these families. I don't know who would shoot people like that. Anyway, there were SO many people. It is a HUGE church (fills 5,000) and was cramed wit cars. There was a fire truck with a HUGE American flag on it, it was so cool looking. I took a picture, I need to post it. The whole street was crowded (and keep in mind this is a VERY busy street) with people having picnics and waiting for the procession. It was quite the sight. We got home and AnnaClaire played bubbles for awhile. She LOVES her bubble machine. LOVES it. She is so entertained by it and just sits on the porch doing bubbles. It's adorable! She took a nice nap and was SO ready to get up. She was sitting on her crib bumper, and when her door opened, she jumper up, RAN to the front of the crib, bounced up and down, and smiled. She is really too cute. She played nice for awhile and then we went on a walk to take care of the Kitty. There were no kitty sightings, but she enjoyed exploring the house and taking the kitty's poopies out. On the way home, we stopped and talked to ou neighbor for awhile. Then AC and I ran in, got AnnaClaire's pop pop car and headed to the cul-de-sac to play with her pop pop car. On the way, we stopped and said hi to our new neighbors who have a 17 month old, too! We played with AC's car for awhile. Then I pushed her down the street in it (I was holding on the whole time). She LOVED that. She adores her pop pop car so much! After her dinner, bath, and getting her in jammies, we played with her door for awhile. She then discovered my shoes and thought they were so cool! I'm sure you can tell those pictures (on the 2nd collage). She was so funny in them. Oh yeah, AnnaClaire has mastered climbing on to the couch. (See bottom pictre on the 2nd collage). We had a blast playing, and then it was time for night night. I got to do something I haven't done in a really long time (and I've only done twice-- once in China, and once when I babysat her)... give her the bottle! I LOVE giving her her bottle. She gets all calm and just lays on you OH it's so sweet. Then she let me rock her and rested her head on my shoulder... it was the sweetest thing. I just love her so much. I look into her eyes and I can't imagine not having her. She is perfect for us! Of course, she wanted me to rock her all night, not put her in the crib. lol. Mom came to the rescue with that!

There is a picture in the first collage of AnnaClaire walking. I posted that because she is holding her pupper. She made sure that she had her Old McDonald finger puppet when we went to get the mail. She is so funny!

Oh and I can't forget to mention AnnaClaire's newest word. She learned it today. "Mei Mei"! (Wonder where she learned that one... is it a sign?) It's sooo cute when she says it. She says it in a really quiet voice... so cute!

One of her new favorite things is walking around saying "SHH!" She does it all the time. She smiles really big and goes "shh, shh". It's SO cute. Especially when we are in a quiet place. Like today at the bridal store, (she was soooooo well behaved, BTW, and didn't touch a thing!) she whispered hush. And it was a quiet type store, too!

I am so clumsy!

My mom always tells me to wear slippers in the house, because I am ALWAYS running into things. Sorry if you get utterly grossed out by feet (like I do) but I just had to post this. I ran into the chair. Can you see how one foot is BRIGHT RED and the other is WHITE? Um... I am SO clumsy! (The picture doesn't do ths foot justice. It was like TOMATO red in "real life"!)

6,446... PICTURES

(AnnaClaire shows off her model pose in her pretty new dress)

Sure we don't have many pictures from AnnaClaire's first 13 months, but we sure have enough to make up for it. Since we've had AnnaClaire, I have taken 6,446 picturs. Six thousand four hundred forty-six pictures. Um.. no wonder my mom and dad call me the paparazzi!

Other tidbits about my pictures:
-I haven't gone a day, since a few days before we went to China, without taking atleast 2 pictures.
-I bring my camera with me everywhere. If it's not with me, there's a good reason!
-My total count of pictures is 10,649. So about 4,000 were taken pre AnnaClaire (of course, we do have more on our other computer, probably another good 1,000-1,500) In other words, in 4 months, I have taken more pictures than in 4 YEARS.
-My battery that used to last me weeks lasts me maybe a day.
-AnnaClaire has gotten so used to a flash going off in her face, that she doesn't even blink any more.
-If I ever don't have my camera with me, I feel naked.

Video- Bubble Machine!

(Don't forget to turn off the background music-- red x on the adress bar, or stop/pasue on the music video in the side bar)

Video- Harry the Harris Teeter Dragon!

As you can see, Harry didn't move! I finally had to shake him! LOL! She was still cute dancing to the Harry song! LOL!
Turn the music off in the background before watching!

Pictures

I love the way she sits indian style!

LOVE this one of her at Target. It is in the collage, but I thought you needed an up close of it-- I think this is the pic of the day! :)
Our girly girl... Purse, cellphone, pigtails, pink! (Sunday)
Playing tag with Will

It's a Sissy kinda day

This morning, I babysat AC so mom could get her hair cut. We had a great time. First, AnnaClaire sat with Maggie and was soooo adorable. See first collage. During this time, I ate breakfast. We then went out on the porch and blew bubbles for awhile. AnnaClaire was loving them. Then I decided that we would go on a walk. First, I had to shower. This was quite tramautic for AnnaClaire. She thought SHE was the one getting a bath. She wanted to sit in her duck, so I put some towels in there (it was still wet), put her in it, and gave her tons of random things to keep her happy. At first she was perfectly fine with this. Keep in mind that we are IN the same room and I am TALKING to her the entire time I'm showing, PLUSE, I had the shower curtain pulled over so she could see my face. Umm... once the water started running, she screamed. I went really fast and she was fine. Then I gathered both Maggie and AnnaClaire up, and we went for a walk. We walked pretty far considering AnnaClaire was walking, not being pushed in her stroller. She thought it was great fun walking with Maggie. She waved to all the people and dogs that we passed. She is quite cute. On our walk, we passed Mom boy, did we wave like crazy to her! LOL! We got home and AnnaClaire was quite fussy. She has also been quite sneezy today and was running a fever before her nap. (not sure if this is from her shots yesterday or if she's coming down with a cold.) After a yummy lunch, she was just showing tired signs, so Mom went ahead and laid her down for her nap, after giving her advil. She took a nice, 3 hr nap and woke up refreshed and fever free! Shortly after she awoke, we went on ANOTHER walk, this time in the stroller. I was petsitting for my friend's cat, and I thought AC might like to come with and see the kitty. AC was so excited when we got there. She helped me bring in the mail. They have this little animal bell on their door so that they hear when their dog wants out, and AnnaClaire thought that was very cool! She also helped me carry the Kitty's poopies to the trashcan. Then I called the kitty so that we could pet him. AnnaClaire yelled "DOGGIE! DOGGIE!" I said, "AnnaClaire, it's a kitty! His name is Balto!" And then she started calling "BATO! BATO!" It was so cute! We finally found the cat, meowing up a storm! AnnaClaire thought that was so funny. She was timid at first, but loved petting Balto. For pictures from our petsitting excursion, see the 2nd collage. We got home and decided for our afternoon outing, we would go to Target. We hadn't been there in AGES. I forget how much I like Target. They have EVERYTHING. They also have a very nice selection of toys. We got AnnaClaire the "My First Bubble Blower" that both Maura and Maggie have and are so cute with. So now AnnaClaire is the proud new owner of her very own bubble machine! We got quite a few things for her, considering we went in to walk around and get a bubble machine! She got these like a ball, a book, a few Easter things, and mostly other outdoor stuff. There are a few pictures from Target on the 2nd collage. I'm sure you'll know which one's the are! We got home around AnnaClaire's dinner time and Mom cooked her up an egg. She ate a very nice dinner. Then I took her outside to try out her new bubble machine. She LOVES it. She was soooo cute with it. We are still trying to get the hang of putting the handle up and then ALL the way back down and up again to get the bubbles to come out. She does know how do to it by herself, after a few tries with Mom first. I have a video of this that I will work on adding tonight or tomorrow. I have so many videos to add! To see pictures from her bubble fun, see the 3rd collage. Daddy soon came home, but not after Will and I babysat a little longer while Mom was on the phone. AnnaClaire had a blast playing tag with Will! After sitting with us for dinner, Dad gave AnnaClaire her bottle and she went "night night". As for the 3rd collage, that is some pictures I found on Dad's camera, and then some taken from today that didn't fit on the other one random shots one. Enjoy!

I have a few more pictures that I want to add seperately in their own post along with videos to do. I'll try to upload atleast one tonight!

I did it, I watched American Idol.

I used to be really into this show. Back when it wasn't popular. But slowly, each year, I have become not so into it finally coming to this year, when I had absolutely no interest in it at all! I haven't watched an episode yet this season. But, I just had to see this "Sanjaya" dude everyone was talking about. I also wanted to see Jordin Sparks, as my brothers knows her! He went to one of the Kanakuk camps last summer, and she was there. So, of course, she has the whole camp cheering for her. I was very pleased that she was in the top 3 this week. Anyway, I thought for sure Sanjaya would get off this time. He is HORRIBLE. Why are people voting for him? It's not American Worst, it's American Idol. And that hair has GOT TO GO! How was he even in the middle three? He is by far the worst. I would be really mad if I were in American Idol and I got off before him. I also am not very wild about Haley. When she was in the bottom 2, I thought for sure she would be the one to leave. But no... Gina left. I actually thought she was pretty good... Anyway, just had to talk about American Idol for a bit...

Go Jordin!

Answers to comments

In answer to a couple of comments--

For my collages, I use LumaPix (recommended to me by Donna from Double Happiness). I love this program. For only $39.95, I highly recommend it. It is also VERY simple to use.


Someone had asked if I was going to reveal my birthday wish. If I do, it might not come true ;-)! but I will give a few hints. (that will probably give it away). What I wished for happens to be a chinese word with 2 words in it. Both words start with an "m" and end with an "i".


Thank you thank you for all the comments. I LOVE reading comments, so PLEASE comment!


Oh, and also, I'm up to 11 on my 14 goal! Thanks to those 11 people, and 3 more people... feel free to comment! It's the "14 Today" post on 3/31.

My little model (POD)

Can you say... CUTE? (this is her new dress, new shoes, and one of her new bows)

(BTW, I have quite a few videos from today that I'll add tomorrow)

Ducks, prayers, Harry and a cute new dress

Whew! It was a big day! AnnaClaire had a traumatic morning with some more shots. She won't need more until her 18 month checkup, which is coming up (way to soon). She was such a sweet girl all day long, despite her pain in the morning. She really is such a good girl! So go-with-the-flow, too. I babysat a little while Mom took Will to get the new Guitar Hero game thing. We ate yummy beans for lunch. I taught her how to pray. It was soooo cute! In the collage of her praying, there are also pictures of her eating, because she was so cute feeding herself. She didn't take much of a nap, nothing comapared to her 3 hour one yesterday! Once she woke up, we headed to the Kid's Place to get her some Church shoes for her Easter dress and for her flower girl dress. She was so cute trying shoes on! The ladies at the Kid's Place are so nice. They love AnnaClaire so much! We didn't really need any more spring/summer clothes for AnnaClaire, but you know... everyonce in awhile, you see something that you can't possibly pass up. That happened. It is this D-A-R-L-I-N-G pink gingham dress with green gingham, ruffle trim at the top. There are the cutes smocked froggies on it. It was MUCH TO CUTE TO LEAVE HANGING. AND, there was only one left, and it was AC's size. It was calling our name. Awhile back, we got this absolutely darling quilt square from a family who lives nearby (you know who you are). The quilt square has these darling frogs on it that are really girly looking. This dress totally reminded us of this adorable quilt square. So anyway, we got that. We also got a few more bows (a girl can never have too many bows!) Then it was off to Renfrows, a cute little hardware store in our small nearby town. We went there, because they just got their teeny Easter chicks in, and we wanted to show them to AnnaClaire. AnnaClaire loved seeing the chicks. She kept pointing and saying "Du! Du!" It was so cute. We ran to Harris Teeter, and on the way in, a little girl was riding "Harry". AnnaClaire got all excited and wanted to do it, too. We decided maybe she could do it on the way out. Our Teeter trip was uneventful except for the fact that the cashier gave us our bread free, "for the baby". Hehehehehe. I thought that was so funny. They all know us at Harris Teeter. He remember us and then decided we didn't need to pay for our bread (Mom wasn't sure if he rang it up or not, so Mom said something and he said, "well if not, it's because of your sweet baby.") LOL! Our total only came to $.37 (yes, I mean 37 cents!) because of some sort of automatic cupon and free bread. Anyway, on the way out, sure enough, AnnaClaire pointed at Harry so we thought, "why not let her do it?" (of course Mom was like, "Noooooooo, now she's going to want to do it every time!") But AC ended up doing it anyway. For some reason the motion didn't work for her, so there was only this funny little "Harris Teeter Harry the Happy Dragon" theme song. It was pretty lame, but AC danced along. lol. We then went home and soon after, Dad walked in the door! We were so surprised that Dad was home so early (for him). He took AnnaClaire for a stroller ride at the park. They had a great time. First, AnnaClaire modeled her cute new dress (and shoes and bow). She looked ABSOLUTELY PRECIOUS in it. She will be wearing it lots! We had yummy "sketti" for dinner. AC had some w/o the sauce. She liked it so much. She was flashing all these cheesy grins at us. She is such a little HAM! I bathed her. She is always so sweet for her bath. She loves taking them. She is such a tease!! She will stand up to come out, and the minte I get the towel and stand up, she sits back down and starts laughing. It is so funny/cute! She was sooooooo adorable while I got her "lotioned and potioned". I couldn't help but snap pictures! I hope no one minds viewing all my pics by collages. It is SO much easier than posting them all (which takes FOREVER) and then it also organizes them. I do know that most of my pictures lose their good quality when I zoom in for the collage, so sorry that a lot of the pictures are blurry. Also: to view the pictures larger, simply double click on the collage and you will get a HUGE version of it to up closely view all the pictures.

Oh... No, I don't NORMALLY take/post this many pictures, but I just couldn't resist. She was so cute all day.

Funs thing to do when bored...

AnnaClaire is napping and I'm pretty bored, so I found some interesting internet things to do... in the DNA one, i wrote the wrong thing, I meant shopping as in spending way to much money!

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

POD (pic of day) Smiley Girl

Love, love, love this picture. Her smile melts my heart!

Busy Girl!

AnnaClaire was a very busy girl all day long. Starting from when she barged in Sissy's room and woke her up a little too early for Sissy's first day of spring break! But, she's just too cute to resist, that I didn't mind being woken up by her! (see bottom middle picture).

She loves the cabinents. Most of the pictures on this collage were taken while she was in the cabinents. She has one which is "her" cabinent, because it has all our plastic stuff in it. There are a few glass things in there, and she knows to leave those be. She is such a good girl! One of the pictures is of her with a CD. She discovered the cabinent under our tv today, which is the home of numerous cds. She had such fun pulling them all out and running around with them! LOL! She hung out with Ge Ge Will more than usual. They had a great time together! AnnaClaire loves both of her ge ges. In the picture of Will and AnnaClaire, Will was playing his Xbox, and AnnaClaire thought she would try, too. (She is holding the controller- lol).

In the afternoon, AnnaClaire and I got in our bathingsuits and played in the hose and water table for about an hour. It was so much fun. She water was SO cold! AnnaClaire would just crack up laughing everytime she got sprayed. She is soooo cute playing in the water! I decided not to take any pictures outside today because 1: I didn't want to get my camera wet, and if I want to actually play with her, it's hard to keep it dry, and 2: I decided we needed a little time WITHOUT the camera. Of course, when I don't have my camera out, is when she is the smiliest! I did catch one ABSOLUTELY PRECIOUS smile at lunch time which, of course, is the picture of the day. I'm sure you know which one it is.

Dad came home early and we enjoyed black beans and rice for dinner. AC loved the black beans and rice! Then Daddy took her to the park and they went on a nice long stroller ride. They came home after 8, so we quickly bathed AnnaClaire and she had her ba ba and bed. She is soooo sweet at bedtime. She's always really, really happy. She is so cute when we get her in her jammies, because she just giggles and "helps" you! So cute!

First Pancake & Fountain Fun (videos)

Here are 2 videos taken on Friday. The first is of AnnaClaire eating her first pancake. The second is of AnnaClaire at the fountain. She loved the fountain! She was so talky by it too, saying DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA over and over. She really was so cute by it!




Remember to turn the background music off before watching! To do this, press the red X on the adress bar, or go to where the music video is playing (under archives) and press pause or stop!

March 30

I just realized that I didn't get a chance to post on Friday, and I still haven't added pictures from then! AnnaClaire tried her very first pancake. She loved it! The three pictures on the top of the collage are from that. I made her "baby" pancakes to eat. They were a huge hit! We continued our Friday tradition of going to the mall. AnnaClaire had a blast! We didn't shop at all (bought NOTHING the enitre time we were there!) We just walked around with AC, played at Joseph Beth, and ate at Chickfila. We had a very nice time. AC was SO much better in her stroller than the last time. When we got to the fountain though, she wanted OUT! She LOVES the fountain there. She was such a big girl standing on it! But Sissy and Mommy were always right behind her for fear of having another fountain swim! (When I was just a little older than AnnaClaire, I fell into the fountain and took a little swim!) She even got to throw a dime in! She loves throwing it in! (See the last picture). She also loved running around the fountain area and being cute so that passerby would stop and admire her (see middle picture). She loved playing at Joseph Beth and found this ADORABLE book she absolutely loved. It was the sweetest book and it had this button that if you pressed it, it would sing this song. She wouldn't let go of it. Mean Mommy didn't want to pay $10.95 for it though (just kidding, Mom, you aren't mean). There is a picture of her sitting in the chair at Joseph Beth. In that picture, she is holding her beloved book. I think we will probably get it for her at some point. Maybe her 18 month birthday (which we might have a small "we missed your 1st bday" party). After a yummy Chickfila lunch at the foodcourt, while a children's choir sang (AC loved that!) we headed home and she took a nice "napper time". The picture of her with the wooden spoons was taken in the kitchen when she had all this cooking stuff out. She is our little cook!

New Song- Find Your Wings by Mark Harris

Okay, I just couldn't stand not having music on my blog. Soooo it's back! I know it is quite annoying when watching videos, but it is quite simple to turn off. Either go to your adress bar and click on the RED X or else go to the side of my blog (just under my counters and archives) and press PAUSE/STOP on the music video!

The song is Find Your Wings by Mark Harris. I love this song. Whenever I hear it, I always think of AnnaClaire!



Find Your Wings - Mark Harris
It's only for a moment you are mine to hold
The plans that heaven has for you
Will all too soon unfold
So many different prayers I'll pray
For all that you might do
But most of all I'll want to know
You're walking in the truth
And If I never told you I want you to know
As I watch you grow

Chorus:
I pray that God would fill your heart with dreams
And that faith gives you the courage
To dare to do great things
I'm here for you whatever this life brings
So let my love give you roots
And help you find your wings
May passion be the wind
That leads you through your days
And may conviction keep you strong
Guide you on your way
May there be many moments
That make your life so sweet
Oh, but more than memories

Chorus:

It's not living if you don't reach for the sky
I'll have tears as you take off
But I'll cheer as you fly

Chorus

Great sites for adoption links

So I was looking at blogs and came across a website. It has TONS of links of adoption websites! Check it out here!

AnnaClaire's words (videos)

AnnaClaire was very good yesterday and actually repeated back all the words I asked her to say! I had been wanting to do this and finally got a few videos of her, so you can here all her cute little words!!

This one is of her saying most of the words she knows. Isn't her voice so sweet?


In the above one, I forgot "hot" and "uhoh" so here she is saying those two words:


This one is of her saying bath and a few other words that I forgot in the other 2. I think those are all her words, but I might of forgot a few...


Oh and check the website (www.bringinghomeannaclaire.com)! I added a new home update last night.

Pic of Day- sweetie!

LOVE this picture of her with my camera screen cleaning kit. That smile. I'm so in love!

[AH yes, spring break this week!]

April Fools Day!

Sissy gave me a wipe to wipe my hands that Doggie licked, and I knew exactly what to do with it, and wiped my hands and face!

I took over Sissy's balloon!
And Sissy's camera screen cleaning kit...


So cute!
I climbed on the couch ALL BY MYSELF! I am so proud!
Hanging with Doggie!

Making a call before church!

I like this remote thingy!
Riding my horsey
emailing my buddies (hehe j.k)
Aren't I adorable from the back, too?


This morning AnnaClaire was a VERY BIG GIRL and went to the Church nursery all by herself. My friend and I were going to go in with her, but she walked right in and quivered her lip a little and then started playing! We were so proud of her!

We had such a good day. It was just a normal Sunday- so low key. AnnaClaire was soooooo sweet all day long. Enjoy the pictures! They aren't in order, sorry about that!

Oh and I took a few videos of AnnaClaire saying all her cute little words. I will post those tomorrow along with videos from her first cake and first pancake!

Guess who is going to be...

....A FLOWER GIRL??

Yesterday my cousin Matthew and his fiance, Lia, called Mom and Dad to ask a very special question. They have asked if Miss AnnaClaire Chenhui could be the FLOWER GIRL in their upcoming wedding (June 30). Mom warned them about the unknowns of having a then 20 month old as the flower girl. They said they don't care if she totally messes up, they want her as their flower girl. So, in a few months, AnnaClaire will be walking down the aisle, in her very first wedding, as the FLOWER GIRL!!! Is she going to make an adorable flower girl or WHAT?

Until June 30, AC and I are going to work on flower girl training. Hehe!

(the picture was taken at the park when AnnaClaire was holding the flowers- good practice!!)