I am the luckiest person alive.

Pink pool fun!

AnnaClaire has this new/old toy, a "lace up farm". Well, we've had it for awhile, but just pulled it out and she LOVES it. She strung all the stuff on the string and then shook the string till all the animals and such fell off for ages this morning. It was a huge hit. I got tons of pictures, and I assure you I will post a few of the good ones tomorrow.

We ran to the Super Wally World mid morning to go pick up a few items. The Bitsy was quite excited to go "bye bye" as always. She literally looked like a princess sitting in her floppy seat being pushed around Wal-Mart. The checkout lines were pretty long, so I took her on a walk around Wal-Mart while Mom bought the stuff. AnnaClaire was too cute walking around Wal-Mart. She looked adorable in her pretty dress, shoes, and bow. Now add a cheesy smile, the princess wave, blowing kisses, saying hi, and RUNNING and you have.. cuteness. That's exactly what she was doing. And of course, everyone commented on what a happy and adorable baby she was. (Which, of course, we already knew.) She really is so happy. On our little walk, she led me to the pool section and showed me every single pool, pointed out the people in it, and pointed out the water exclaiming "wa wa!" I promised her that after her nap I would take her in HER pool. We went on with the checkout, and AnnaClaire and I played peekaboo around the cash register while we waited. Finally we were done and went home where we enjoyed a yummy lunch, bottle, and nap time.

Missy's nap wasn't a model nap, but that's okay. I took her in her pool and she had the BEST time. She loved it. Probably because I was in there with her... Anyway, this time, we kept her beloved crocs on, and I think that helped, too, as she didn't slip around as much. She took 3 big falls into the water, which I thought would result in screaming and all done pool, but she handled it like a big girl and stood right up all three times! She got very brave and would even SIT in the pool! She had an awesome time splashing around (with me... yes I played in that teeny plastic pool with her!) I really, really wanted her to slide, because I knew she would like it. I showed her how I did it a few times, and finally I made her go down it. Like I thought, she LOVED it. She pretty much slid down her pool slide the rest of the time we spent outside (over an hour). She loved it. I would help her climb the stairs, she'd get situated, and then she'd go down with one hand holding my hand and the other on the "rail". She loved it. She had the biggest smiles after every time. I would ask "Do you like the slide?" and she would nod and say "YESH!" and then I'd say "Do you want to slide again?" and she'd nod and say "YESH!" We even went in and showed Mommy how we slid. Anyway, she is sooooo brave in her pool now and loves it. I must say it was 100% adorable when I said "can you sit in the pool?" and she would get in a position, squat, and then kinda realize she was okay and would sit all the way down. Lots of pictures from our pool time.. I'll add those tomorrow, too. Oh and I can't forget... her Crocs were really squeaking when she went down the slide, so she took them off. Well after slipping and falling, face first, in the water, she decided she wanted them back on. She spent a few moments getting the PERFECT- perfect direction, right feet, etc. Then she lifted her foot and tryed to put it in. She couldn't do it without losing her balance, so I put her on my lap and helped her put them on.. NOPE! She wanted to do it standing up! Which worked when I held her hands:) She knows exactly what she wants! So by this time, I needed to go get ready for swimming. I literally had to pry her out of the pool. She did NOT want out! LOL! She LOVED it. She had a (big) yummy dinner and ate her entire bowl of noodles and lots of watermelon! She is so funny in her highchair... especially when she dances in it!

Oh and we had a big landmark today... AnnaClaire said her first "sentence"! She said "Hi Drew!"

And again.. pictures tomorrow!

It's a VIDEO of the day!

I told you my baby sis was funny! This afternoon, Maggie took Bunny and AnnaClaire went over to her, pointed her finger, and said "naaaaa" (no). I really wanted to recreate it in a video, and believe it or not, she did it again! But this time, she gave Bunny to Maggie. hehhee. So... in this video, she shares her Bunny with Doggie and then wants it back. I keep trying to get her to do her little "NOOO" thing, but she doesn't do it until the end. It's still cute when she says "Uh oh!" when Maggie runs off with it. Is that "point your finger and say no" thing not the cutest? No one even tells her to do it... she just does! So there you have it, instead of a POD, it's a VOD! (note: the picture at the beginning of this post is a picture of AC trying to get Bunny from Maggie. It is not the POD, just a picture to introduce the video!!)

AnnaClaire and her rag

Mailing our PP stuff to Miss Rebecca!

I love my (sorta?) new book!

Reading with Sissy!
Running around the kitchen..
Doing Five Little Monkies with Mommy (when you say the "one fell off and bumped his head", AnnaClaire rubs her head- so cute. That's also why her bow is out. Whenever she rubs her head, she feels it and yanks it out!)
Playing peekaboo with her rag (and just so no one says "You shouldn't let her do that, she could suffocate!" It wasn't really covering her face as much as the picture makes it appear... it was just loosley sitting on her face.)
Wiping my face with my rag!
This is my rag! See?
It's a very entertaining rag.
I really love my rag.
I can even wipe my table with it!

Rags are just good for EVERYTHING!
Sitting on the stair with my phone and my rag.
Talkin' on the phone with raggie, too.
Stunning girl.


This girl -my mei mei- is such a hoot. She is so funny. She constantly makes us laugh. On with the "story"... she has these little Gerber rags that our like a dollar at Wally World. Well... she loves them. LOVES them. She knows exactly what to do with it, too. She can wipe her mouth, or the table, or the floor. She is so funny with her little rag. Today she walked around with it ALL morning. She had it in her hands the entire morning and was just staying busy with her rag. Rags are the new best toy!


And, of course, she also adores reading. I can't tell you how many books we read today. A new favorite is her Baby Einstein one. It makes music AND has flaps to open. What could be better? She is soooooooo funny when she dances to the music in it!



This afternoon, we ran by the post office to mail off all the post placement paperwork. AnnaClaire loves the post office. We go there so often and everyone knows us there! It's actually quite funny. One of the ladies (who happens to be the one who helped us send AnnaClaire's care package) always comments on how big AnnaClaire is getting... I got a cute picture of her holding the package before we sent it. When we gave it to the lady to put the stamp on, AnnaClaire was sad that it was going "bye bye". I told her we were sending it to Miss Rebecca (our SW's boss). She responded with a smile and said "Bek-a" (she remembered her friend "Bekah!")



She thinks that pictures are called "drews". We always point out the pictures in our house and ask her who's in them. We are normally doing it with Drew's picture so she knows her bro more (since he is normally in college). Well, now when you ask her "Who's that?" she says "Dewww" no matter who it is. To any picture.



She has finally gotten "Sissy" down pat. I love hearing her say "Sitzee, sitzee". It was long in coming, but it is music to my ears!



AnnaClaire has a few boo boos from her first "concrete fall" last week (very minor with no crying). Today, she pointed out one of the boo boos and I asked her if she wanted a bandaid for it. She nodded and said "YESH!" so we put her little Bob the Tomato bandaid on. She kept looking at it and pointing, saying "boo boo" or "owwie". So cute!



She listens to EVERYTHING. We will be talking and if she hears a word she knows, she will start saying it, or pointing something out that is it. Even if we aren't talking in a baby voice! She really is SOO smart.

Oh and I forgot when I was mentioning Five Little Monkies... She loves that song with puppet. She is really funny because she will dance to it and then point to her head and all, and then when the "mommy calls the dr and the dr says", she points her little pointer finger like "tsk tsk"! heheheh



Well, that's about it for today... Just enjoying our precious little girl!! Oh and tomorrow is the last day of school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited about that!

6 month PP pictures

Mommy, Daddy, and AnnaClaire! (5/28)

Miss Personality! (5/10)
Sweet in the pool! (5/15)
Lovin' to swing! (4/20)

We have been getting everything ready for our 6 month Post Placement (PP). We celebrate 6 months on June 11 and our PP meeting is on June 14. One of the things you have to have is 4 pictures of your child including one of him/her with the parents. Believe it or not, we have very few pictures of Mom, Dad, and AnnaClaire and the ones we do have aren't very good. So in Blowing Rock, we had a little photo session of Mom, Dad, and AC. The best one was a little blurry, but with a little bit of editing, it looks fine. It really was the best picture of everyone and that face on the Missy is just priceless... (The one on here is the non edited version, though). Anyway, here are the 4 pictures we are using for our 6 month PP! You would think that with 14,000 pictures (obsessive? I think so...) I've taken of AnnaClaire, it would be a challenge to pick just 4... Well, it actually wasn't. We knew we wanted recent ones and we wanted her to be doing activities. The "Miss Personality" one is just so her, that we knew we needed that one. The pool one is just so sweet, and she is doing something she loves- playing outside in the pool. The swing one is a personal favorite of mine. I love how everything around her is blurry and then she is all clear and big smiled. Then of course the Mom, Dad, AC one was a must and that one is so sweet. So actually, it wasn't that hard to choose! :)

POD- I love my juice!

I knew this was "it" the minute I took it. That face... it's just priceless.

Our girlie loves pudding!

Listen, my horn is honking!!! Isn't my car awesome?

Riding my new set of wheels!
Enjoying my juice!
More, Mommy, more!
Getting the oven mits...
Lookie at me!!! I have the oven mits!
Sweet little pudding face!
I LOVE pudding!

It was just another typical Tuesday in our house... AnnaClaire was so cute all morning. She loved riding her new Princess Car, reading books, and drinking her favorite "Organic PearApple Juice". (Ohhh that stuff is the BEST!) At one point, she finished it (see the picture of her sitting on the stair with her juice). She started yelling "MORE! MORE!" and ran to Mom saying so. Then Mom said "Would you like MORE?" And she nodded and answered "Yesh!" and ran to the fridge. She is so smart, I can't get over it! Talking about smart... we were playing with one of her cups and I said "What color is this cup?" She looked at the cup, looked at me, and answered "Bwooo". And yes... I was holding the blue cup! Then I asked what color my shirt was... "Ra!" (it was red!) and then to her car "Purpa" and during lunch, I asked what color her green beans were "Geen". Yes, she is so smart!

She got a new book the other day and read it over and over with Drew, today. It's a Curious George book, and the whole time, she says "Mo! Mo! Mo!" (monkey).

For lunch AnnaClaire ate almost an entire can of mandarin oranges. She loves those things! She also ate quite a few green beans. She stuffed a ton of stuff in her mouth, and she spit it all up, which is why she was in her diaper for many of today's pictures.

During lunch, Maggie was begging for my food. Well, AnnaClaire knew that Maggie (and her!) aren't allowed to beg. She looked at Maggie with the biggest eyes, pointed her finger at her and said "NA!" (her word for no.) I just burst out laughing, it was the funniest thing.

After lunch, I was eating some pudding and she was really sad because Will had gone upstairs to study for his exams, and AnnaClaire REALLY wanted to go with him.. so she was very upset that she had to stay downstairs. So I gave her a little taste of pudding. I've let her have it before, and she just has one teeny bite and then goes on doing whatever she was doing. Well today, she would have some and then run over to me saying "MORE!!!!!!! MORE!!!!!!!!!" She is just a hoot. We always make a big deal over when she uses her "big girl words" so she has really been using them lately!

She took a great nap and enjoyed an afternoon of playing with Brothers, Sister, and Mama. She is just the sweetest little thing!

pictures of day- lake & flowers

I just can't decide... which one? Below are the actual pictures.

Blowing Rock pix (yesterday)

Posing pretty by the purple flowers (note: all the pictures are in order after this one.)

On the way to the lake, I got into the wheat thins. Yes, I opened this box all by myself and grabbed a few out!

Eating lunch by the lake!
More fish, please!
Running around, enjoying the fresh mountain breeze!
I love Wheat Thins!
These pretty flowers smell good!
I love the pretty purple flowers! I even said "purple" when I saw them!
Sitting sweet in the gazebo (sp?)
Look at the butterfly!
Where'd the butterfly go? (it flew away)
Sissy and me in the pretty flowers
Look at the fishies eating the food I just threw them, Mama!
Beautiful girl looking at the beautiful lake
She just stood here the longest time just looking at the lake!
Daddy's girl!
I just can't get enough of the fishies!

Oh this breeze is great!
Sweet girl in her stroller (the thing isn't buckled because we were taking her out to go play at the park when I snapped this pic)
Steering the wheel at the park!
I loved the sandbox... but we didn't play in it long because thunder came!
Chillin' in my stroller!
Look at that big doggie! He is 165 pounds!
What's this, Dada?
Daddy helping me down the stairs!
Daddy and me
I just wanted to ham it up when we were trying to get a good Mommy&Daddy&baby shot for our 6 month pp!

Oh boy! ICE CREAM!
I love Sissy's mint ice cream!
one sweet baby face covered with green ice cream!
See my tongue licking it? hehehhe
Kilwins is the BEST!

Licking and smacking my lips in utter deliciousness! (is that a word?)
This is my mini ice cream cone that Daddy gave me! (Sissy said "where's your ice cream?" and this is how I posed!)
Yummy in my tummy!
Sleeping beauty on the way to the Mast General Store!
Daddy, can you PLEASE get me this car?

So big at dinner!
This cup is bigger than my head! (I love the way she looks when drinking from a straw! You can't see the straw, but there was one.)
Dada and me in front of the "Tijuana Fats" sign. I liked my dinner there, can you tell?
Dad, can you buy us this mountain house? PLEASE?
PODs to come!!

A day in Blowing Rock!

So today we had decided to go to Blowing Rock, NC. It's about 2 hours away from our house and we thought it'd be a fun day trip. So after getting AnnaClaire dressed in her cute little red, white, and blue outfit (in honor of Memorial day, of course!) and after swim practice, Dad, Mom, AnnaClaire, and I headed off to Blowing Rock. AnnaClaire didn't sleep at all the way there but she was a trooper the whole time we were there. We had a picnic lunch by this really pretty lake and stayed there for awhile. AnnaClaire loved looking at the ducks, fish, and just running around. She even fed the fish was she thought was just too much fun! She loved standing on this little wooden thing so she could see the water. She LOVES water! She saw her very first butterfly and loved watching it fly towards and away from her. She tried to catch it... with no luck! After awhile by the lake, we went to the park. It is such a cute little park. First we swang, then we did the jungle gym things. AnnaClaire WOULD NOT slide, because they were "ha" (even though they really weren't that hot! She just thinks all slides are!) But she would slide with me. She loved the sand box, tunnels, and just climbing around. Imagine our surprise when we ran into another family with a darling 2 year old daughter, Olivia, adopted from Hunan!! It was fun talking with them and Olivia was so adorable! Who would've thought we would go to Blowing Rock and run into another "Spicy Girl"? We have really seen lots of "Mei Meis" lately. I always love seeing them! Anyway, we soon had to leave the park because it started thundering :(. So we went to the main street and went in a couple shops. It stopped thundering 2 seconds after we left the park, but we had fun shopping. AnnaClaire also met quite a few dogs that she became friends with, including a 165 pound Doggie! He was huge and AnnaClaire thought he was awesome! As we were walking, I saw some really cute (baby) clothes in a window. I told Mom "Mom, I found a store we need to go in!" She said "Where?" And I answered "I don't know, wherever those are". (Pointing to the window with the adorable blue seersucker smocked American flag dresses!) We found the store (the window setting was not in front of the store, it was like advertising for the store.) It was the CUTEST store. They had all these cute clothes, mostly smocked and Lilly stuff, and just really cute gifts like picture frames, bibs, smocks, picnic tables, etc. Anyway, we found so many darling dresses, but what we had really come to see was the American flag dress. They had it in AnnaClaire's size, and we knew we wouldn't be leaving without it. It is SO cute. I'll have to post a picture of it later. We then went to Kilwins which has the BEST ICECREAM EVER!! They had such a long line, but it is SO worth it. I got mint, mom got "Blowing Rock Mud" and Dad got cheesecake. We ate it on these benches on the main street, right in front of the park. AnnaClaire loves eating ice cream, too. We discovered that she didn't like Dad's cheesecake ice cream, but loved my mint, and Mom's mud. She would open her mouth, stick out her tongue, lean over towards the ice cream, and say more when she wanted some. It was sooooo funny. Then she'd take a great big lick. She LOVED it. When it was almost gone, we gave her the last bit that was like a teeny cone with a little ice cream. It looked like a "baby cone" and she was walking around licking off it. It was really quite cute. She swang a little more before we headed off to Boone to go the the Mast General Store. AnnaClaire really got lots of stuff there! Okay... how could we not resist... we found the most ADORABLE PINK AND PURPLE flowered, retro, car (and it's not plastic, either!) It was the last one, was on sale, and we sat AnnaClaire on it and she loved it. It even has a horn that you can press and it squeaks. Now how could we not get THAT? We also saw this adorable pink and green tin tea set that was really inexpensive. We'd never seen a tin one and the colors were darling. We got that to set away until she's a little older. She also got a few books. I love the Mast General Store! We walked around the surrounding street there and then headed back to Blowing Rock for dinner at a Mexican place there. It was yummy. It was very enjoyable because we ate outside. After dinner, we packed up and went home. It was such a fun day! Everyone we saw commented on how cute AnnaClaire was. Oh and I can't forget.. one of the stores has a bubble machine outside that blows bubbles throughout the whole day. It was awesome!! AnnaClaire thought it was too cool! AnnaClaire was so good because she hardly ate any lunch, napped about 5 minutes (from Blowing Rock to Boone), had a late dinner, didn't nap at all on the way home, and didn't get to bed until 9pm tonight! Despite all this, on the way home, she was so cheerful, blowing kisses, doing the Princess Wave, and just plain goofing around. And when we arrived home, she was just ready to PLAY!

I'm adding the "Welcome to Blowing Rock" picture from today, but my computer is being so slow, so I will add more tomorrow! (Besides I took 265 pictures and need to find the good ones to post... which I'm too tired to do at the moment!!) I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend! We sure did!

Happy Memorial Day!

Thinking of our troops:)

picture taken in Blowing Rock this afternoon... AnnaClaire in her red, white, and blue with Mommy, in front of the flag and bright red flowers!

AnnaClaire Chenhui... 19 months old today!

My beautiful Mei Mei,

It is hard to believe that you are another month older. 19 months old! Each month, since you turned 9 months old, we have "celebrated" this day. Every day on the 27th, I wake up knowing you are a month older. Knowing when someone says "How old is she?" I will proudly answer "19 months!" I can't believe that we are now celebrating you turning 19 months old! Wasn't it just yesterday that we got your referral and you turned 9 months old? You are getting so big! With each hug you give, each kiss you give, each hand you hold, each smile you flash, I fall more and more in love with you. You are so special to me and I love you so much. So on your 19 month birthday, I want you to know that you mean the world to me! I love you so much, my sweet BIG 19 month old!

Love,

Jie Jie

(note: AnnaClaire now refers to me as "jie jie". She even pronounces it the right way: gee-ah gee-ah! So happy I am finally something other than "da"!)

Oh and this is it for pictures today! I only saw AnnaClaire for 30 minutes today! (So sad!) She, Mom, and Dad went to an early service at Church and I went with Drew to another Church that he always goes too. Will's at the beach with a friend. Anyway, when Drew and I got home, AnnaClaire was asleep and while she was still napping, I left to go to a birthday party we had. 3 of my friends all have birthdays around the same time, and we all wanted to do the same thing, so we FINALLY had our party (our birthdays were end of March- me, beginning of April, and very beginning of May!) There were 8 of us and it was a surprise for one of the girls so that was fun. We saw the new Pirates. It was not good. Of course, I didn't want to see it in the first place (I'm more of a chick flick gal) but most of us didn't like it. After the movie, we had dinner at Qdoba, opened presents, and had Ben and Jerrys. I got lots of fun stuff including a Vera Bradley towel, lots of fun jewelry, headbands, an M&M machine thing, flip flops, more jewelry, and a manicure set thing. It was so much fun! I didn't get home until 8:15 and AnnaClaire was already asleep. Anyway, I took these pictures of her this morning... cuteness!

Pool Pix

As you can tell, she LOVED it.

Think she has enough people to dote on her?

Friday pictures

I love my bunny oh so much!

This is my soothing thing that I do with Bunny.
Running around the house in my Crocs
Drew's belt is FUN!
Eating Chinese food with Drew!
Yummy!

I forgot to mention that AnnaClaire LOVES her Crocs. LOVES them. She decided she wanted to wear them yesterday. (We swaped them for her sandles when we went out!) Then today, Mom said "go get your bow!" And she came out with BOTH Crocs on her feet (the right feet!) She put them on ON THE RIGHT FEET all by herself. She LOVES her Crocs so much!

Chickfila and AnnaClaire's first pool trip!

(Sorry no pictures... they aren't loading, so I'll add them tomorrow... there's a few from yesterday and lots from today.)

Yesterday we went to our friend's house to drop something off and ended up staying awhile. AnnaClaire was so cute over there. They have a sweet little dog, Millie, and AnnaClaire loves Millie. Millie was a little scared of AnnaClaire though... AnnaClaire was soooooooo good with her though: gentle, kissing, hugging, and loving. AnnaClaire also loved ringing the bell (these are the same people we pet sat for back in March with "Bao"). Oh and she found the Swiffer and started swiffering the floor. She is such a big help! :) Liz and Sadie had a half day at school, so we decided to go out to lunch since we were both on our way out. We ate at Chickfila. AnnaClaire loved it and loved playing outside on the playground with us. She loved seeing "her" Elizabeth and Sadie. At the end of lunch I threw my retainers away *on accident*. We dug through the entire trashcan. I mean one of the workers dug through the entire trashcan. This is why I love Chickfila. He dug through the whole thing and then brought it to the back and dumped it on the floor to look better. He didn't find it :( but that's okay because I'm getting new ones made anyway. I did find my top one, though. They are normally like $100 a piece, so it's good I was getting new ones made anyway! So after a fun lunch together (which AnnaClaire had a BLAST at!) we went home and AnnaClaire took a nap and I went to Liz & Sadie's. We hung out and then swimming and I slept over and then swimming this morning and then we went to the pool! I'm so glad it's open! I love the pool! We have a little group of friends (well a big group... I think theres like 10?!) We all swim either for school or most of us competitively for the team I swim for. Anyway, we were all at the pool and we had so much fun. It was a BEAUTIFUL day for the pool! I called Dad to see if AnnaClaire could come after her nap, and she did. Drew, Dad, and AnnaClaire all came. AnnaClaire had quite the crowd of people watching her every move! (AKA all my friends who are so jealous of her.) At first she was SO scared. She wouldn't even let me take her coverup off, because she knew it meant the water. We let her get used to it, put her sunscreen on, and walked around the pool deck. Then we went in the baby pool and let her see that. There were lots of other little kids her age in there and I think that helped her. First she sat on Dad's lap just looking. Then, she put her toes in, and soon she was standing in it! She LOVED it. She was splashing around, pouring her little watering can (she loves that thing!) and just walking all around the pool (it's like 1 foot deep). She has a little ladybug raft that we tried to put her in she could be "free" in the pool, but she was afraid of it. So we spent awhile playing in the baby pool and she loved that. Then this little girl who she had been watching got up with her dad and went to the big pool. Well, AnnaClaire wanted to do the same thing! So off to the big pool we went. She got in right away and loved it. She loved being "tossed" (we were holding on the whole time... you know what I mean) in the air and spinning around. Then we put her in the ladybug raft and she loved it. She was big smiles and just loving it. There were all these people splashing around and she liked getting a little splashed. She thought it was so funny. We went back and forth, round and round in her raft and she loved it. She liked someone holding on to her under her arms... aw... We spent awhile in her raft and had a good time. Then Dad came into the water and she wanted out of her raft. More "tossing" and spinning. Then I, of course, tried "teaching" her how to swim. Dad held her legs and made them "kick" and I held her tummy and made her arms go! (Her face above water, of course). It was so cute, she would "swim" with her fists. So cute:) After a fun time in the pool, more walking around the deck, and then playing with all my friends, talking on the phone, trying on sunglasses, etc, AnnaClaire, Dad, and Drew went home so AnnaClaire could eat. I stayed at the pool and we ordered pizza. Yummy. Then my friend Rachel and I stayed until almost closing, which was fun. Oh... you will never believe what happened tonight. My top retainer (which is incredibly loose, which is why I am getting new ones) always falls out. When I talk, laugh, anything... today it fell off.... into the pool. Well, it is clear and plastic and pretty small... Rachel and I searched and searched and didn't find it anywhere. I am so good about things like this... and here I go loosing both top and bottom in 2 days!? So, anyway, AnnaClaire's first pool (besides her pink pool and the waterpark) was quite fun and I think we have many more to come. We got lots of cute pictures but they aren't loading, so I'll add them tomorrow.

Oh, Keara, today AnnaClaire wore her little Gymboree bubble that both she and Maura have. I was thinking of you guys!

I've had a few people ask me what I played at my recital. It is "Tarantella" and it is by Beaumont.

Just a quick note...

I'm sleeping over at my friend's house after swimming tonight, so I won't be posting. I took a few pictures that I'll post tomorrow. For now, enjoy my very favorite pictures of AnnaClaire:)

Today's POD

Let me tell you... it's hard to decide after taking 173 pictures today (can you say camera obsessive?) but the minute I took this one, I loved it. I don't know what it is about it... I just love it.

Oh and I did another home update on the website today. I still have a few more pictures to add, but it's mostly done, so check that out- www.bringinghomeannaclaire.com.

My Piano Recital

Playing my song

Walking off the stage
Me and my teacher

Today was my piano recital! There were about 25 kids ages 8-18 that played and everyone did wonderful. I have played piano for 6 years, all six years with the same (amazing) teacher. It was a really good recital and I was very pleased with how my piece went:) Enjoy the pictures!

Park and sprinkler fun!

This morning we headed out to the park and had a fun morning there. AnnaClaire loved it. She brought her bucket and shovel along which was extra fun! She loved playing in the sand, looking at the "Eese" as she called the geese, and playing with the other kids. We swang and went down the slides a little, and also played "tag" for a bit. She loves being outside and loves being at the park, plus it was a BEAUITUFL day and not too hot, so it was a great thing to do to occupy our morning.

After lunch and nap, AnnaClaire and I went outside and played in the sprinker. She LOVED the sprinkler. We put it on low, so she could run through it. She loved filling her bucket up with water from it, too. She just had a blast out in the sprinkler! I think we have many more sprinkler days in our future!

I had a piano recital tonight, and AnnaClaire stayed home, because there is NO WAY our busy body would sit through an hour and a half recital! So that meant Dad had to stay home, too. Drew and Mom came though and we went out for ice cream afterwards. I played well and was very proud of myself:) Dad surprised me with some really pretty flowers when I got home. I'll add pictures from that in a few minutes! Enjoy the slide show, and as always, click "view all images" to see them bigger!

POD- theres's THREE!

I just couldn't decide. Mom really liked the bottom one, but I really like all three... so here they are... 3 PODs! The first one is of AnnaClaire with "Bubba" Bunny. She loves Bunny SO much! The 2nd one is of AnnaClaire eating her yogurt. Her face is covered with yogurt and she's doing her cute little thing with her mouth. I love it when she does that! The 3rd one is just a random shot during the day that turned out really cute:)

And yes... nothing special for the layout of the PODs. I'm too tired to do anything exciting...

Today.

The cutest thing of today happened tonight... AnnaClaire had gotten into the dog's water bowl (I mean WAY into it- water all over her dress, huge puddles of water on the floor) and she was told "no" and then we wiped it up. A few minutes later, I look over at her and she is on her hands and knees, with the towel, wiping up the floor. Is that cute or what?

And then, she was going into the pantry. First she came out with the swiffer and started cleaning. Then she came out with a potato. Then a cup, and then I hear something being dragged... I look over and she is dragging the entire dog food can (it's huge!) It was SOOOOOO funny!

She has also decided that her toes taste good. (see 3rd picture on top).

And, of course, she had a blast eating her yogurt this morning! (pic 2 on top).

I also forgot to say on my post where I listed a few things I didn't want to forget... every time AnnaClaire sees something kinda out of the ordinary, she says "WOAH!!!!!" It is SO cute!

Everytime she sees water -hose, faucet, pool, anything- she says "wa wa!" She is a water girl!

Whenever she sees someone, she starts with the infamous "princess wave". Gosh, I love her princess wave!

*TELLS WHO WON AI!!* "My cheering paid off!" (says AnnaClaire)

After 74,000,000 votes, Jordin won!! Congrats, Jordin Sparks!!! We're all happy at our house:)

Go Jordin! (Making a sign!)

You tell 'em, AnnaClaire!

Here are the predictions. I hope they're right! I didn't get to watch American Idol last night (I don't get home from swimming until 9.) But, I heard my favorite, Jordin, did amazing. Anyway, GO JORDIN!!! (BTW, AnnaClaire made this picture all by herself and helped me write "GO JORDIN" on it- she held the marker while I moved her hand!)

"I'm going to make a sign for Jordin!"

"Just adding the final touches..."
"Posing with my sign! It says GO JORDIN!"
"How could she not win with someone as cute as ME cheering for her?"
"Crackers were the trick to get me to hold the sign..."
"GO JORDIN!"
"Isn't my sign so pretty? And true!?"
"Yep... how could she not win with me rooting her on?"
"Yay Jordin! You show America who's best!"
"Whew! My sign is mighty crumpled from carrying it all around the house!"

note: to make this sign, AnnaClaire used ColorWonder markers. These are the best invention EVER!

POD- mowing the lawn

I took so many pictures of her mowing the lawn. Here are a few favorites.

Our little sweetie

Loving my wagon ride!

Precious.
My beautiful Mei Mei
Enjoying her cup after our walk.
Sitting pretty!
Sampling a long piece of cheese at Costco!
Reading her new book in the car!
Hamming it up while eating at Chipotle
Drinking (water!) our of a big girl cup and straw!
Look at how long my hair is! Posing sweetly on Sissy's bed after naptime!

Our little Acie-Baby is just so funny. I am always laughing at her. Everything she does is just.. FUNNY! We had a grand morning with wagon walks, playing inside, and more. (Have I mentioned what a good sleeper she is? I think she was up at like 8:15 or something! And she goes to bed before 8!!) We had a nice wagon walk, but it was quite hot out, so we weren't gone for long. Then we ran a few errands. Costco and lunch. AnnaClaire found a book at Costco and wouldn't let anyone take it from her. She ended up getting it. It makes music but its not like a junky one. Very cute. It's Baby Einstein. We just got a Chipotle nearby, so we tried it out for lunch. We've really cut back on eating out, but today we got to. It was really good. AnnaClaire LOVED it. She was just so cheesy there. We came home in time for naptime and she took a pretty good nap and just hung out the rest of the day. This afternoon, we went outside and played with her beloved lawn mower. She mowed for so long and wouldn't mowed longer if we didn't have to go in for dinner. She is so cute with her lawn mower. I took a few videos and pictures and I'm going to make it into a movie, which I'll work on this week. So lawn mower pictures to come! (Along with 2 collages I keep meaning to post- Paris and another one from the park awhile ago.)

Our Spicy girl sure loves red beans and rice!

Ohh, yummy!

I just can't get enough of these things!
Come on teeth, chew faster! I want more!
I love my mommy's red beans and rice!
I'm a mess after my big dinner! (btw, standing in the highchair is a BIG no no in our house, but Mom was right there, which makes it okay. Don't worry, we don't let her stand in it unless someone is right there!)
Rice and beans all the way from my hair to my toes, and everywhere in between!

Today for dinner, Mom made red beans and rice, which is not only a favorite to Drew, Dad, Will, Mom, and I, but also to Miss AnnaClaire! Hunan Spicy Girl is a perfect reference to our Hui Hui, because, as you know, red beans and rice are pretty nippy. But our little Spicy Girl loved them so much, that when she couldn't get anymore out of the bowl, her face went in the bowl. It was SO funny to watch, that we couldn't dare yell at her for poor table manners! Besides, she's only 18 months old, she can have fun while she eats, right? By the time she was done, she had rice and beans all in her hair, all over her face, all down her bib, in her lap, on her dress, down her legs, and on her toes. It was too funny!

Oh and I'm about to add the other stuff to the 5 months home post, so to see my bedspread and AnnaClaire's embroidery, go check out that post!

POD- Ge Ge and Mei Mei

^The biggest one is the POD. The bottom 3 are of Drew "changing" (Mom helped...hehe) AnnaClaire's diaper and putting on her shoes. I think he is so happy to be home and with his mei mei again!

As for this one, Drew keeps begging me to post it... Don't know why, but today we took about 100 pictures of AnnaClaire, me and him and I think this is the best. (I actually don't like myself in this one, but hey- I don't like myself in any of them and he really wants me to post one...)There were some of us all with bows on, but they didn't come out very well... So here, Drew!

Quality time with Ge Ge

AnnaClaire spent a good amount of the day with her biggest brother. They are so cute together! We went to Super Wal-Mart this morning, a nice little out and about activity for our girl who likes to be out and about! We got lots of stuff there. Once we got home, AnnaClaire helped unload the car and then she played with Drew, ate lunch, and took her nap. Before that, she had a blast spinning around. But then she got SOOOO dizzy and ran into the table. She's fine though. She woke up and played somemore and it was a pretty normal afternoon. We put all her bows in her hair and she looked SO funny. She then pulled them all out, one by one, and gave them to Will. Hehehehe. It was really quite funny.

I'm writing this stuff down while I am thinking about it, because I never want to forget these little details.
-AnnaClaire knows most of her animal sounds. When we ask her "What does the pig say?" She answers proudly "La la la". (You know the book Moo Ba La La La?)
-Whenever we see water -anywhere- she points saying over and over happily "Wa wa! Wa wa! Wa wa!"
-She no longer calls doggies "Doggie" but now they are all "Woof Woofs". If we pass a dog on the street, she points and says "Woo woo!!!! Woo woo!!!" It is too cute!
-Before she goes to bed, she leans over and gives me the sweetest kissies (without me even having to ask for them!)
-If you say "Smile!" she gets the cheesiest look, squints her eyes, and grins!

Oh... I love her so!

Thank you, thank you!!

On Friday, my friend Emily gave AnnaClaire a cutely wrapped gift of this darling ladybug cup. We love it so much! Thank you Emily W. and family for this ADORABLE ladybug cup. We absolutely love it and AnnaClaire does, too. It is soooooo cute. That was so nice and thoughful of you guys! Thanks again!

This came today, wrapped in a beautiful box from "Crabtree and Evelyn". I very excitedly opened it up (although I already knew it was something Vera Bradley!) to find the Vera Bradley "Katie" and lotions inside!!!!!!!!!! Thank you SO much, Mrs. L. aka Ian and LiLi's mommy!! I absolutely love it! That was so nice of you to send me that.

Thank you to both of these awesome people!!

POD (There's a few!)

I told Drew to pick the "pic of the day". This is the one that he picked. We all got a huge kick out of AnnaClaire on the computer. Too cute. Anyway, that's the POD. But these are a few others that I LOVED and wanted to have on their own post, although they are in the slide show. There's another one I like, but I'm saving it for a post I'm going to do tomorrow.

Here are somemore adorable ones!!!

Well, I'm off to bed so I can wake up at 4AM for swim practice!

Hanging out on Daddy's chair!

We have a big joke in our family with my dad about "the black swivel chair". So here is AnnaClaire, spinning around in the black swivel chair, playing with the mouse, and "listening" to her baby tunes (they weren't coming from the headphones). I love all these pictures!!

A beautiful Sunday (slide show!)

We had a gorgeous Sunday today. AnnaClaire looked so cute for Church, in her Easter dress. She did great in the nursery, as always. Afterwards, we went to lunch at Pei Wei. AnnaClaire loved it today! She absolutely loves to eat of chopsticks. She will eat ANYTHING as long as they are on chopsticks! A true China girl!

She played awhile before her nap and then took a pretty good nap. AnnaClaire then had a blast playing with all of us. She looked out the window with Drew, played ball blower with Dad and I, and a big hit- swirled around in the "black swivel chair" to her baby tunes which were playing on the computer. She also learned that the mouse of the computer is EXACTLY like the little tike's computer mouse. Ummmmm... that's NOT a good thing. LOL.

Dad took her on a power walk this afternoon, and while they were gone, I had to leave for "Timothy Project" (our youth group.) It was the last night of it, which was so sad, because it's my last year doing it. It's a really cool program for middle schoolers, and the highschoolers lead. Like 10th girls have 6th grade girls, 11th grade girls have 7th grade girls, and seniors have 8th graders. It was so sad to see it end as I have done it all 3 years and one of our 3 leaders, Katie, has been with us the ENTIRE time. We also still have our exact original group, except a few new people. So it was very sad that it ended. It's always so fun to go there every Sunday night for 2 hours. Katie gave us all a really pretty necklace and it has this ring thing that has a word that describes us on it. I think everyone's has a different word, and then she wrote down a Bible verse that goes along with the word. My word is "Laugh". So, thanks Katie:)

So it was a good day:)

note- to view the pictures larger, click "view all pictures".

5 months home!!

I can't believe we've been home FIVE MONTHS! This picture is one I found when I was looking through photos of out homecoming. I think this was in the Beijing airport right before our flight from Beijing to Newark. I really like this picture. I just can't believe we've been home with our princess pie for 5 months! So 5 months ago, we were celebrating our first moments together as a family of 6 (Drew didn't go to China with us, but flew home from collage the day we flew home from China!) and now we are all together again!! Yay!! So 5 months home/5 months together as a family of 6!

note: please remember that while we were in China, AnnaClaire *refused* to keep bows in which is why she is bow-less in most of the pictures from China, including this one


In honor of 5 months home, I wanted to show you a few of the things I/we got in China. We just got some of the stuff back from the framing place, and I wanted a reason to post them and this is reason enough!! (note: this is not everything we got, just a few things!!!! I would post a picture of the teapot, but it is packed away. You'll have to take my word that it is GORGEOUS!)

<-- Name picture. This is from a kiosk in Guangzhou. Only 100 yuan, and it was ready in a day! It's hand painted and each letter is full of symbols (ie: rooster, since she was born in year of the rooster, ladybug since thats the symbol of adoption, etc.)

--> this is my infamous Great Wall picture that I went on and on about in China. I got this at a gift shop on the Great Wall. It's hand painted (and was painted on the Great Wall the same day I got it!!) They wanted me to pay 300 yuan for it, but I bargained way down and paid 120 yuan for it!! I LOVE this picture. It also has silk around the picture. I think it is my very favorite thing I got in China.

<--This is an embroidered picture of Chinese kiddos playing jump rope. We had actually seen these on a website in the states, but they were expensive. We didn't know they had them in China!! So, when we saw this in Guangzhou, we picked out 3 we like. This is the jump roping one. --> These are my bamboo bookmarks. They have peonies on them, which is China's flower. I got these at the gift shop in the Chen Family Temple. We got AnnaClaire some, too, as a Gotcha gift. I absolutely love these and use them as a decoration instead of bookmarks:)




<-- This is another embroidery from Guangzhou. In this one, they are doing the wash in the river. I love this one.

--> This is my plaque that says that I climbed the Great Wall of China on 12/9/06. It has my name and the date engraved in it- very cool. I got it at the tip top of the Great Wall for one US dollar! (Actually Bekah's daddy bought it for me, because the guy wanted American money and I had none on me, and everyone else who was climbing the Wall on the side we went on wimped out, so it was just me and him).


<-- This is the third embroidery from Guangzhou. This one is of kids flying kites. I love it! They are in a field with Cherry Blossom trees. This is my favorite of the 3. (I think we got all three for 100 yuan! Pretty good!!) --> Here's my beautiful embroidery from the Embroidery Factory in Changsha. This was my most expensive thing I got in China, because it is hand made IN THE FACTORY, and they don't bargain there. Hunan is known for it's embroidery, so I really wanted to get one. I knew this one would match my room perfectly and I love sunflowers, so I picked this one. (It came matted/framed). I LOVE it.








<-- Here's my closianne vase. I love it. I got it at the friendship store/closianne factory (they were in the same place). It was rather expensive (can't remember how much I paid, but it was on the higher side, yet still way cheaper than the US!) I love it. It has fish on it.











--> This is my beloved feather painting. It's a Chinese lady painted ON A FEATHER!!! How cool is that? I purchased this at one of the shops in Guangzhou. It was the only store I saw it in. They had so many to choose from, but I chose this one. I absolutely love it, and it was so cheap!!

<-- This is AnnaClaire's embroidery. It is double sided and I bought it for her at the Embroidery Factory in Changsha. I absolutely love it. She picked it out. There were 2 I liked, and she pointed to this one. It matches her room beautifully!!

--> This is my bedspread. I got to choose the fabrics and everything and the size and then they made it. I got it at a store on the main road in Guangzhou. I forget the name, but it was near the Ladybug Corner and it had 2 entrances. They can make just about anything. One side of my bedspread is the green with the teal border and the other side is the teal with the green border. I love it! I was worried that I wasn't going to end up with it, because it was supposed to be ready 2 days before we left, but they made it wrong (wrong colors). So then it was supposed to be done the day before we left. Luckily they made it right the 2nd time, so I could keep it! Ohh I loved that store. All the people knew me there from all my bargaining! I got this WAYY down in price. Everytime I went in that store, they all said "Oh, here comes bargain girl!"

Picture of Day- wagon seriousness

I love this one of AnnaClaire in her wagon at the zoo. That face- full of seriousness!

Sniffin' flowers (POD)

I love these ones, too. Thanks, Caroline, for helping me with the color/b&w stuff. The first one is the orginal picture (which I LOVE) and the 2nd two are with the b&w/color stuff. I just couldn't decide between this and the wagon picture. So there are 2 PODs today!

Daddy+Acie Zoo Fun

I feel like I barely saw Little Miss today! I saw her a few minutes before I left for swimming, but then she and Dad went to the zoo. I hear they had a grand time! I didn't go, because my friend's birthday party was at 4. So I had swimming and then Mom, me, my friend Sadie, and her mom went out to lunch at Mcalisters. It was so yummy. We even got the Kentucky Pie for desert. That is *amazing*. After lunch, we ran to the mall to do the Hugs Sweet Hugs thing at Build a Bear. Holly, they do it every May. That was fun. Soon after we got home, I left for my friend's birthday party. It was so much fun. It was a pool party. They just got their pool put in and it was awesome. It was pool & hot tub and there was a diving board and a small waterslide. Very cool. We had a lot of fun. That was from 4-8. So by the time I got home, AnnaClaire was asleep! Oh~thanks for all the prayers about Drew. After getting new tires, and quite a few things replaced on his car, 2 nights in the hotel room, and leaving his backpack (that had his laptop...) at the car dealer, he made it home about 10 tonight. We were all very excited to see him and her made 1 request- that we let AnnaClaire get up to see him. It took all of us to get Mom to do it (she was scared that AnnaClaire wouldn't go back to bed) but finally, she gave in and sleepy Acie made her way downstairs to see her Ge Ge. After a few smiles, and "hi"s, she went back to bed (fell right back asleep!) It's good to have the WHOLE family in one house!

Another game of tag

I've seen this one on quite a few blogs, and lots of people were saying that they tagged anyone who wanted to do it. So, I'm going to do it.

FOODOLOGY
What is your salad dressing of choice? Ceaser
What is your favorite fast food restaurant? Chick-fil-A
What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? Toughie... probably PF Changs or Olive Garden.
On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant? My parents do the tipping.
What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of? Macoroni and Cheese. I literally eat that every day. Kraft Organic White Cheddar- YUM. That and Chinese (REAL Chinese).
What is your favorite type of gum? Trident

TECHNOLOGY
What is your wallpaper on your computer? My most favorite picture of AnnaClaire- the one taken on gotcha day in her green pjs with the HUGE smile on her face and gimmer in her eyes. I LOVE that picture.
How many televisions are in your house? 3
How do you listen to music? My iPod

BIOLOGY
What’s your best feature? I always liked my hair color.
Have you ever had anything removed from your body? 1 tooth. Pretty sure that's it.
Which of your five senses do you think is keenest? Smell. I have an amazing sense of smell.
When was the last time you had a cavity? I've had 2 my entire life, both because I didn't have enough enamel or something on my teeth. Both molars, both baby teeth. Didn't have to get them filled or anything (one got pulled, the other just fell out one day).
What is the heaviest item you lifted last? AnnaClaire, she's pretty big at 25 pounds! (just kidding)
Have you ever been knocked unconscious? Yep. Not for long, though.

BULL____OLOGY
If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? no
Is love for real? Of course!
If you could change your first name, what would you change it to? I love my name. I might change it to Katherine, though. I always liked that name. But at this point, I'm glad I'm Emily.
Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake? I've swallowed many rubberbands (the ones that go on braces)
Have you ever saved someone’s life? Not that I know of.
Has someone ever saved yours? Yep! Jesus!

DAREOLOGY
Would you walk naked for a half mile down a public street for $100,000? No way.
Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100? No one except family.
Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000? Nope. I'd rather just try to get on Deal or No Deal.
Would you never blog again for $50,000? I don't think I could do that...
Would you pose nude in a magazine for $250,000? No WAY!
Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1,000? Nope.
Would you give up watching television for a year for $25,000? I was going to say yes... until I remembered football... So, no. (I'm not very daring as you can see from all my answers)

DUMBOLOGY
What is in your left pocket? I'm in my pajamas and they don't have pockets.
Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie? I watched it too many times.
Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house? Hardwoods everywhere except for bonus room, and Mom & Dad, Drew, and Will's rooms. (Only reason AnnaClaire and I have it is because we recently hardwooded our upstairs hall, and AnnaClaire and I were getting our rooms redone, so we had it put in our rooms. We are hopeful to get it in the rest of the rooms, besides the bonus room, at some point)
Do you sit or stand in the shower? My shower isn't delux... AKA no bench to sit on. So, I stand.
Could you live with roommates? I could if I knew them and liked them.
How many pairs of flip-flops do you own? Let's see... I can't think of them all. Probably like 8.
Last time you had a run-in with the cops? Not ME. (I'm 14... what do you expect?)
What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to go over to China and work in orphanages there when I'm like in college or after I graduate, and then I want to work for an adoption agency and still go over to China a lot for missions trips, working in orphanages and stuff. Once I have kids, I want to be a SAHM.
Last friend you talked to? Dana
Last person you called? My Dad.

RANDOMOLOGY
First place you went this morning? Swim practice- what else?
What can you not wait to do? Go to the beach. August 4!! WOOHOO!
What’s the last movie you saw? Her Minor Thing, I think. It was terrible.

I'm supposed to tag 5 people....
How about:
Staci
Keara
Holly
Caitie
anyone else who wants to do it.

Hugs Sweet Hugs

Not sure if you knew about this or not, but over at Build a Bear Workshop, you can make a bear for an orphan. They are donating them to orphans all over the world. It says you have to be one of the first 200, but we were there close to 2pm and there were a ton of bears waiting to be made. (this, of course, is at the BAB near us). The bear is so soft with a big red bow. It is totally free. All you have to do is drive to your nearest Build a Bear and put your foot on a peddle to stuff the bear!! My friend and I made them after swim practice. She named hers "Anna" and I named mine "Claire" in honor of AnnaClaire. Mom made one, too. Anyway, just wanted you to be aware of this great thing that Build a Bear is doing!! I sure know that if I were an orphan, I would be so excited to be given a soft, snuggly bear! To learn more, go here.

POD- A Sunny Share

I had a hard time deciding what today's POD would be. But when I saw this one, I knew this was it. I love the way the lighting is in this picture!! This was taken early this afternoon at Emily's house. AnnaClaire was outside looking at the pool, and she found this ball to play with. She was enjoying throwing it around, and I snapped this picture right as she was throwing it to Emily's brother. It went along very nicely with today's Seasame Street episode! (We had it on in the background for 5 minutes today- long enough to catch that Elmo and Zoe and someone else were sharing their ball.)

A picnic!

We had quite the morning. All the while, Dad's phone was turned off and we couldn't get a hold of him! What made it busy, you say? As you know, Drew is stranded in Pennsylvania with his car, waiting for it to be fixed. So all that was going on this morning and Mom was on the phone with him talking about what to do about that when Will calls from school saying he can't sit down. He was having some sort of back pain. I think he had a pinched nerve or something (that's what Mom said.) Anyway, he is doing much better now, and can sit down again. So it was quite the morning with both Will and Drew trying to call Mom, plus I had a pool party for this bookclub thing we do with a few of my friends. That was at noon. AnnaClaire and I played on the porch while Mom got everything figured out with Drew and Will. We had fun. She loves her bubble machine, so she played with that for awhile. She also played in her cottage and with her pop pop car. She just loves to be on her porch! At first, I had her in piggy tails this morning, but then we decided on a bow instead, but I thought the pictures of her with piggies were cute:). Anyway, the pool party was at my friend, Emily's house and we had never seen their new house, so we got the full tour. AnnaClaire, of course, was with us and LOVED looking at the pool in the backyard. The pool party was so much fun. Afterwards, my friend and I hung out and played on her Wii. That is the coolest thing ever!! Then we had a Latin awards banquet to go to. It was fun. There was lots of good food and I got awards for everything I did. I got the gold award for the National Latin Exam and got a ribbon and certificate (you only got gold medals in highschool, so I got a ribbon). Then I got a certicate for being inducted into the Latin Honor Society. That was basically the only awards I could get, because the rest were from our State Convention which I was unable to go to. It was a fun night despite it getting quite cold. AnnaClaire came for part of it and had fun. She loved looking at the horses and running around in the big yard. She was a big hit with all my friends, too. The pictures on the top in the 2nd collage are of her with the flowers. The house the banquet was at had a pretty path/garden thing with pretty flowers. AnnaClaire loved looking at them. All the pictures after that are of AnnaClaire playing on my friend's mom's lap. She had so much fun playing "horsie"! Dad and AnnaClaire left once it was getting past her bedtime and really cold. They didn't miss much though, because it was pretty much over.

Goodbye Anonymous.

I've lost it. I'm sorry to all of my anonymous friends, but I'm going to have to block anonymous users from leaving comments on my blog. If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's the comment I came home to today:

Anonymous said...
They layed you on some dirty bushes?! GASP. And you were coming home from the hospital???? Wats wrong with these people?

This was left on my FFFF Challenge post -where I simply posted a small picture of me in the blue bonnets, which is perfectly common to do in Texas. (And that was in addition to the mean ones from yesterday). I have now deleted this comment. Thanks to all the nice people for leaving such nice comments about the mean comment yesterday. If you want to leave a (nice) comment and don't have a blog, just go to www.blogger.com and set up an account. Then you can leave comments. It's 100% free. Sorry again about having to leave you all out, I hate doing this, but I don't want to come home to read a rude comment every day. Love to all and more later.

UPDATE: I decided not to block anon people from commenting, but instead to moderate my comments. So, to my anonymous *friends*, comment away!

My Baby Picture

This week's Family FotoFun Friday Challenge is "My Baby Photo". This picture is of me the day I came home from the hospital. We were living in Texas at the time (which you could probably tell) and my parent's stopped by a field of blue bonnets and laid me in it to take my picture. This picture is now sitting on my mom's nightstand and it has always been one of my favorites of me as a newborn. When I was born, I was 7 pounds 3 oz, 20 inches long, and very healthy. I came into this world at 4:07 in the afternoon on Wednesday, March 31, 1993. I was due on April 1, so I was 1 day early.

Go to www.2happy.typepad.com to see lots of other baby pictures!

Umbrella Girl (POD)

AnnaClaire was chilling on my bed with me this afternoon, when she found my umbrella in my backpack. She was very interested and I snapped a few pictures of her with it. Too cute!

Oh and I ask for prayers for my brother, Drew. He is making the 16 hour drive from college to home which in itself needs a prayer. Well... his car has been really shaky and loud lately and today 2 parts (muffler and something else) fell off and he has to get them repaired which they don't know how long it will take. I think he's somewhere in PA. (Does this whole thing sound familiar? Remember when we took him to college, our car totally broke down on the side of the highway! See here.) So please pray for him to get his car fixed quickly and drive safely home. We are all very anxious to see him as it's been awhile!

Ticklish little thing!

Honestly, I just don't have the heart to blog right now... but for my readers, here's a short post:). AnnaClaire is very ticklish. It is so cute. She just laughs and laughs when you tickle her! I'm sure you can guess which of these pictures she was being tickled in. I love the 3rd one on the top. It just cracks me up! And look at all those toofers! The first one on the top is the result of saying "Smile!" Yes, she smiles when I say smile! (or cheese!) How cute is that? The 2nd one, we were playing peekaboo. Have I mentioned how much she loves peekaboo? The long one in the middle, she was doing her "blubba, blubba, blubba" thing with her lip. She has done that for so long and I think it is so cute. and finally, the second one down on the third row is of her climbing on the couch. She is SUCH a climber now. We have to keep our eyes on our busy toddler constantly, or else she'd be falling off chairs, rolling down stairs, diving out of her high chair. (Okay, that was dramatic, but it flowed well.) Anyway, I know these pictures are all really up close and all, but I still like them. Hehehehehe. I also love the 3rd one down on the third row. So sweet. So, about our day... we ran to the mall this morning to get a few birthday presents for my friends. AnnaClaire was so good the whole time. Believe it or not, we walked out with nothing for Acie. It was tough. Well, we did get her the Pat the Bunny book, which was one of the reasons we went to the mall. But nothing clothes wise. Amazing. Then I had my final Lating class. AnnaClaire napped well and afterwards, she hung out with me all afternoon, and also Will for a bit (and of course Mom, too). I just love her so much. I can't imagine life without her... it must've been so... boring!

And lastly, I just wanted to say thank you to all my blogger friends who left nice comments about my lousy comment. It's nice to know that there are people who care.

Dear Anonymous *GRR*

Anonymous said...
Howdy. I was pokin' around this sight and noticed the thing at the top that says what age the kid is. i also noticed that the picture representing the kid is white. with blonde hare. your child is asian. why did you do that? if you are not comftorable with having a child of another race than why did you adoupt from a country.

Dear Anonymous,
Thank you for your very rude comment. I just got home from spending a fun morning with my sweet little sister and then going to my final Latin class of the year. I walked in the door and my mom said "Someone left a very rude comment on your blog, you might want to read it." So, of course I came upstairs to read what you had said and was quite apalled. Obviously you don't read my blog to see the abosolute love I have for my little sister. (in fact, why don't you go read the post I did just last night listing a few of the many things I love about her including her Chinesey hair, eyes, and nose!) I am very proud that my sister is Asian and wouldn't have it any other way. I am in no ways ashamed of her black hair and almond eyes. That's what makes her who she is and that is why I love her. I see no blonde hair on the child in the ticker. And, AnnaClaire is actually very light in complexion, making that child the closest of Lilypie's options to what she looks like. You wouldn't know, because you have never met my adorable sister. I can think of a lot better stuff to do than criticizing the picture on my ticker and I suggest you do find something better to do than leave nasty comments on my blog. I would block anonymous users, but I happen to have many anonymous friends who I want to give the chance to comment. Thanks again for ruining my afternoon.

~AnnaClaire's VERY PROUD Jie Jie~

Let's play tag!!!

Robin (I always feel wierd calling people by their first name, but that's really how I know them, I don't do that to people's faces.) tagged me... I have to list 7 things that few people know about me. It was quite challenging to come up with 7, but I did it!:)

My feet are 2 different sizes. Ones an 8, the other is a 9 and they are both very narrow. Makes it very hard to buy shoes.

My radio stays on all day. I have to listen to music to fall asleep, and I never remember to turn my radio off when I wake up.

I've read the entire Bible. I read it in 13 months and 15 days (which was AnnaClaire's age when we got her- yes, I planned that)

I don't like soda. I gave it up as my new year's resolution one year and even though I've had it since then, it doesn't taste very good. (I used to love Sprite. Now it is disgusting!)

I run pigeon toed, but I don't walk pigeon toed. I actually never knew that until someone told me. Oh and when I'm swimming, I kick pigeon toed (for back and free).

I am very shy. Doesn't seem like I would be, but I am. Around my family and friends, I am SO outgoing, and talkative, but around new people or people I don't see very often, I am very shy.

AnnaClaire is the cutest baby in the entire world. Wait, you already knew that.

So now I'm supposed to tag some people: Keara, Staci, Holly, Meg, Ana Claire's mom- Lisa, Ian and LiLi's mom- Debbie. I expect to see 7 things that I never knew, very soon!

Picture of Day- My sweet little mei mei

-I love the way she greets me with hugs~the best hugs~the kind where she runs over, arms wide out, and wraps them tight around me.

-I love the way she gives her kissies~the best kissies~she looks me in the eye, puckers up, and plants it right on me.

-I love the way she reaches for my hand to grasps tightly onto it, trusting me to keep her from falling.

-I love the way she sits down on my lap, paying no attention, whatsoever, to if she is sitting in the right place, just turns around and sits, and wherever she lands- well, that's great!

-I love the way she drinks from a straw. Her eyes get all wide and she just slurps it all in.

-I love her smile~her beautiful smile~it lights up my entire day.

-I love the way she puts things away, right where you tell her to put them.

-I love how she sits indian style.

-I love the joy she gets out of something new, learning, seeing, or doing. The way she smiles and sqeuals and begs for more.

-I love her eyes~her beautiful, almond eyes. And her hair~her silky, smooth, straight, black hair. Oh and her nose~her wide, flat nose.

-I love her pudge, the infamous "AnnaClaire pudge". Her big belly, her wide little feet, her big 'ol thighs, and her sweet little hands.

-I love the way she squeals, the way she laughs, the way she talks.

-I love the way she loves me:)

And my list could go on and on and on and on. I honestly love everything about my sweet mei mei. I just love her so much. To me, she is perfect. And I think God must just be looking down, saying "I did a good job on her!"

My model and more

This is my tongue.

Reading books

I love to look out the window... some things never change!

Hiding in the closet...

PEEK!!

I see you now, Sissy! (pardon my messy closet)

sweet baby face

Sitting like a lady at the ortho

Trying on my new outfit from the Ryans (gotta love that face-- she was eating fish. A little bribe to keep the hat on!)

Up close and personal
I like to try things on!
Oh! That face! Yet again, eating fish. A little bribe never does you any harm!
I'm adorable in my new dress and hat!
Sweet thing!
Those lashes!

By mid morning, we could tell our sweet princess hadn't been bye bye in over 30 hours. So off we went... We had to stop by Earth Fare and I had an ortho appt. AnnaClaire was such a good girl during that. She sat still, just eating her organic freeze dried fruits (thank you, Gerber.) She looked like quite the little lady sitting in the big girl chair! When I got called back, she followed me and ALLLLLL the ortho ladies were just eating her up. Of course. We got home past naptime and had a quick lunch at home before putting Missy down for her nap, which she slept for 2 hours. When the Princess awoke, she played outside a little and we went on a short walk, which she loved. Of course, Miss Independant thinks that walking without holding on to hands is so much fun. Uhh.. that is a big no no! We then tried on her new outfit. It looked so adorable on her. She was so funny walking all around in it, with the tags on and everything. She didn't want the hat on, but I have my ways (goldfish works like magic.) She played nicely until dinner and than came with to take me to swimming. She really is such a good girl.

Cheesy Grins. Literally.

(these are from yesterday)

Where were we 1 year ago?

My Great Aunt's town and nearby towns in Germany:

Switzerland: Heidelburg, Germany:

The Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, Austria:

Salzburg, Austria
Wittenburg, Germany:
Prague, Czech Republic:

Berlin, Germany:

Potsdam, Germany:

It's hard to believe that a year ago I was on a 2 week long adventure in Europe with my Dad (yes, just me and my dad- poor Mom didn't get to go). My dad's side of the family is initially from Germany, so Dad has some family there. We flew into Germany first and visited Liesel and some other cousins and such. It was so much fun. My favorite part was "Bad Wimpfen" a little town nearby. It was so beautiful. Everywhere in Europe was gorgeous. We were in Germany a few days before heading to Paris. Paris was pretty. We got lost on the drive there, and spent 4 hours finding our way with very rude answers when we asked for help finding our hotel. Anyway, it was fun. It rained the whole time until the last day, where the skies turned beautiful. We saw the Lurve, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, etc. All the big sites. It was beautiful, very large, but pretty. We did a river cruise that took us to all the big sites, which was really fun. Then we went back to Germany, where we went to Heidelburg with some family. They gave us the grand tour. I LOVED it there. It was beautiful. We saw a few castles, gardens, and walked around town. I loved it. I can't get over the beauty. We then went to Switzerland. That was my favorite part of the whole trip. I loved it. It was gorgeous. Everything about Switzerland- including the shopping. It was beautiful!!!! We got to climb this mtn and there was all this snow- in May. It was lovely. Then on we went to Salzburg. (we drove everywhere we went) I loved Salzburg. That was a close 2nd to Switzerland. We did all the Mozart stuff, including a dinner concert, and best of all the Sound of Music tour. That was AWESOME. SO much fun!! It was beautiful there and we had soooo much fun. Next was Prague. It was a very interesting place. We saw lots of cool things about the city, but it was a fairly scary place to be. We did this really cool tour and saw all the "cool" parts of Prague, and I got "babooshka" dolls which I love. After Prague, we went to Wittenburg which was Dad's favorite part. We did all the Luther stuff. It was fun. Then we ended our trip in Potsdam and Berlin. I loved it there. In Potsdam (where out hotel was) we went to these beautiful gardens/castle. It was so much fun. Berlin was really cool and a big hit was eating Starbucks in front of the Brandanburg (sp??) gate. Very cool. We also did the Reichsted (I probably spelled that wrong.) That was awesome!! And, we got to see where the Berlin Wall used to be, which was very interesting. After a fun trip, we flew home out of Berlin. It was an awesome trip and I am now a world traveler with all that AND China (plus Canada and most of the big cities in the US). My Paris collage isn't working, so I'll try that again later, but here's the rest (out of order).

Picture of Day- Sweet Kisses

This was shortly after Bekah and family arrived. We told the girls to give eachother "mwah mwah kissies". This is what happened. Is that sweet or what?? I know it's blurry (I probably shook the camera from trying to take it so fast!), but you get the point of it:) Is that not sweet?

Happy girls together!!!

Here's Bekah, Bekah's Mommy, Mom, and AnnaClaire

...and me with both girls!

AnnaClaire and Bekah in China

Here are a few pictures of AnnaClaire and Bekah in China. My, how they've grown!!!

A fun time with Bekah!

Here's AnnaClaire this morning, getting ready for her sweet friend to come! She cleaned, talked on Mom's cell phone, carried Mom's purse around, went in her Ergo, and tried climbing on Maggie's back. Ha. Love the one of her carrying around the purse and the phone- a true girl!

Here's Bekah and AnnaClaire eating throughout the day. The top picture is lunch, next to it is desert, than snack time, and dinner. The small picture of the 2 bowls is what the desert looked like after they ate it. It was strawberry shortcake. Notice AnnaClaire left all the pound cake and ate all the strawberries... Bekah ate all the pound cake and left the strawberries! HA! My sweet mei mei isn't much of a sweet tooth!

Here they are playing on the porch during the day. They loved the bubble machine, cottage, and pop pop car. Bekah would sit on the car and AnnaClaire would push her- so cute! AnnaClaire is taking out Bekah's hair pretty in one of the picture..

The girls even tried out AnnaClaire's pretty pink pool! They were so funny in it and had a great time:)

And then they ran around in the grass, waved hi to eachother, and played with AnnaClaire's infamous lawn mower! (She loves that thing!)

They really enjoyed the sand table and played at that awhile. The were also quite cute walking in and out of the kitchen... our little bathing beauties!

AnnaClaire showed Bekah all her toys upstairs and they had a ball playing with the door, sliding, swinging, playing with the ball blower, riding the horsie, and tickling eachother!

We had an awesome time with Bekah and her Mommy and Daddy!! They got to our house around 12 and the girls hit off so well. They were soo cute together. When Bekah got here, AnnaClaire and Bekah just ran around together. We told AnnaClaire to show Bekah her toys, and AnnaClaire led Bekah to the porch- of course. They had so much fun playing in the cottage, playing with the pop pop and pop pop car, playing with the bubble machine, etc. We got them a yummy lunch and they were so funny eating together. They would eat of eachother's plates and drink from eachother's sippy cups. Good thing neither one is sick! They gave such sweet hugs and kisses and were just adorable. We played and ate a YUMMY lunch & desert, which we even let the girls try. As I said, AnnaClaire picked out all the strawberries and Bekah picked out all the pound cake! HAHA! I guess AnnaClaire likes fruit more than sweets! Around 2, the little ones started getting tired. AnnaClaire napped for about an hour and Bekah's Daddy drove around to get her to sleep- which she did for about 30 minutes. When both her awake and home, we played somemore on the porch. Dad got home soon after and we dressed the girls in their bathingsuits and took out bathing beauties in the backyard to do the pool. They were SO funny in it. They did NOT want to sit, only wanted to stand. It was too funny. They both loved it- as long as they were standing. They played with their toys, played with eachother, and just had a good time- standing the entire time. They both took a few tumbles and were quite shocked when they fell in the water and got all wet! LOL! But they would quickly stand up and were fine again. They both tried out the slide. AnnaClaire loved climbing up the stairs, but wasn't a huge fan of the slide. I think we just have to take it slowly. Bekah slid a few times, too, but neither one absolutely loved the slide. The preferred just standing in the pool with the toys, splashing around. Then they played with the lawn mower and then we got them redressed and they played at the sand table. They liked that a lot. They were so cute together and just had a great time. We brought them upstairs and AnnaClaire showed Bekah all her upstairs toys like her slide & swing set, her door, her ball blower, her horsie, her music, etc. They had a blast up there. They were so funny on the playset because they wanted to do whatever the other one was doing, but they couldn't do it at the same time! It was really quite cute. The ball blower was a huge hit with Bekah, as with AnnaClaire and they were very entertained by that. They liked getting tickled and bumped by this soft little ball, and just giggling and playing around together. After a yummy dinner, and more eating off eachother's plates and cups, Bekah and her Mommy and Daddy got ready to go back to the place where they are staying (about 2.5 hours away). It was sad to say goodbye, but we had an awesome, awesome time! It was so good to see them again, and see how the girls have grown in the past 5 months! Bekah brought AnnaClaire this darling little plastic golf set and AnnaClaire had fun playing with it tonight. It's so cute. I'll have to get some good pictures of her with it:) Thanks, Bekah, for the golf clubs!!

Also, thanks to the Ryan family for the beautiful dress and hat that you sent AnnaClaire. We recieved it today and love it! She'll look darling in it!

Picture of Day- you pick!

These are the 3 I like the best... Let me know which you like. It can be any of them- these or one on a collage!

"zzzz" (not really)

Everything from poopies to playing, eating to cleaning, and waking up.

Playing at ChickfilaGetting the mail!

This will be short. I got kicked really hard at swim practice tonight and something is really wrong with my finger- dislocated, broken, fractured, something. It's my ring finger on my right hand (and I'm right handed) so it is hard to type. Anyway, we had a good day. AnnaClaire was an awesome sleeper. I finally told Mom that I was going to wake her. Which I did... at 9:15 AM. Yes, NINE FIFETEEN. And she was still fast asleep. I tried getting a picture. The last picture on the 2nd collage is what I ended up with- that is why we don't get to look at her sleeping much! The morning consisted of many errands like Earth Fare, Harris Teeter, Target, the farmer's market, etc. We also had lunch at Chickfila which was yummy. AnnaClaire had her eyes on the play place the whole time, so I took her in that afterwards and she had a fun time. Target has the best stuff ever! We got a whole outside plastic dish set- STRAWBERRIES!! And we got AnnaClaire a really cute candy beach towel. Awesome! I felt like all those in China "waiting for the poop". We didn't have a problem with this in China, but today we did. The 1st picture on the 2nd collage is AnnaClaire throwing away her poopies- which were long in coming and made her very unhappy. She took a goo 2.5 hour nap and had a fun afternoon. She went with me to get the mail and we had a blast sorting through it on the driveway. Her towel from Two Little Monkies arrived and it is beautiful. We love it! Thank you, thank you! We had fun being outside and AnnaClaire was just being adorable. The afternoon went fast! Will cleaned our messy porch, and AnnaClaire saw him, so she grabbed a rag, got on her hands and knees and started wiping the floors, too! LOL! (2nd collage, picture next to the one in her crib). We are very excited because AnnaClaire's little friend, Bekah, is coming over tomorrow!!! Bekah and her Mommy and Daddy are in the Carolinas and are stopping by for a visit tomorrow. They were in our travel group and Bekah and Acie are 8 days apart and played lots in China. They are so cute together and we can't wait to have them together again! WOOHOO! So, that will be fun. Look for lots of pictures of two Asian beauties tomorrow!

note- in the "I could just fall asleep" collage, she wasn't really sleeping, just was laying on the floor looking like she was about to sleep.

Lainie & Lilly!!!

Lainie!!!

Lilly!! (and her mama)

Today is gotcha day for many families, including our friends, Lilly and Lainie!!! We believe that Lilly (Kai Shu) and Lainie (Xiang Yi) were in the same room as AnnaClaire (Xun Hui) in Chenzhou SWI. Well, they finally met there families today! Both girls are beautiful!!!! Congrats Barbees and Bryants on your daughters! They are beautiful and I know you are so excited!!!

Lainie- www.thebarbeebunch.blogspot.com

Lilly- www.lillymakesfive.blogspot.com

Happy Mother's Day!

Here's a few pictures of AnnaClaire and Mom that I snapped this morning. My favorite, of course, is the biggest one. That is probably the POD (although I posted another one below that is also the POD).

Mom, you are the best Mom EVER. I love you so much. Drew, Will, AnnaClaire, and I are so blessed to have you as our Mommy and Dad is so blessed to have you as a wife. Thank you for all you do for us, big and small, and for loving us the way you do. I love you so much and I thank God for giving me such an amazing Mommy. Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I love you!

I also want to wish all the other Mommies out there very Happy Mother's days. For those waiting, especially. I know it is so hard for you all but someday, you will be spending Mother's Day with your own sweet child on your lap and you will know that it was worth it all. I also want to wish the first time Mommies a Happy Mother's Day! Enjoy your special day with your special child. And of course, the multiple time Mommies. Happy Mother's Day to you all as well. Give that kid of yours an extra kiss for me!

And while I'm touching the Mother's Day subject... I was so incredibly surprised and happy to go on Sophie Lu's blog today and see that they are in Guat and... GOT OLIVER TODAY!! Congrats Sophie Lu and family! Oliver is so handsome! What an awesome Mother's Day gift for your family!

Picture of Day- horsie girly

A pictures says a thousand words.

By the way, thanks everyone at KK for the dress! We absolutely love it and I must say it looks pretty darn cute on AnnaClaire!

Mother's Day (by AnnaClaire)

Daddy and his sweet girl (Doesn't he look so proud?)

Mother's Day morning
Talking on the phone
Just being cute:) See that sweet ruffled hiney in the top picture?
Looking at her pretty self in the mirrorBubbles on my HEAD! (and getting ready for bed)

(this post is "written by" AnnaClaire) I didn't sleep very well last night... I guess you could call it good mother/daughter time, as I was up for 3 hours overnight. Mommy still loves me though and was happy to see my sweet self this morning. Daddy gave me breakfast of congee. I didn't want very much. I used to eat a lot. Now I don't like eating as much. Then Sissy got me dressed in this pretty dress that we got on sale at Strasburg last weekend. (My friend, Maura has it, too!) Then Sissy and I gave Mommy the present we got her. We got her these really pretty earrings she had wanted. She was very surprised and loved them! Then we went to Church. I was so excited to go to the nursery. I walked right in. Mommy let me bring Bunny in- YAY! When Mommy, Daddy, Will, and Sissy came to get me, I noticed them right away and ran to the door saying "MAMA!" I think I made Mommy's day by doing that. We got home and ate real quick. I was so tired and didn't eat much. Luckily, everyone realized I was tired and Daddy put me down for a nap right as Mommy, Sissy, and Will left for Sissy's swim meet. (Will was timing at it for community service hours). I had a fun day with Daddy. Sissy did good at her swim meet. She won the 100 breaststroke! Sissy finally got home around 5. She said something about going out for ice cream with friends and the line being so long that they waited 45 minutes! It's not fair that Sissy got ice cream without me! I was so happy to see her though! I was watching golf with Daddy and Brother. I clapped whenever Phil did good. I wanted him to win. He did:). We headed for Mother's Day dinner. Mommy wanted to go to On the Border, but they couldn't seat us until 7 and that's too late for me. So we went to Five Guys. It was SO yummy! On the way there, Drew called to say Happy Mother's Day and I got to talk to him. I blew him kisses, said hi, Drew, and bubye. After dinner, I decided to call Daddy. I'm good at calling people. I don't know why they keep giving me their cell phones, but hey- it makes me happy! We got home and finished watching golf. Well, I climbed on my horsie. I finally learned how to do it all by myself! I LOVE my horsie! Then Daddy and Sissy bathed me. It was a fun bath. I got to go in the BIG tub and Sissy put bubbles on my head. It was fun. Then they got me all ready for bed and I posed all cute for Sissy (love the picture I got of her!!) Mommy gave me my baba and I fell fast asleep... I love you Mommy! Happy Mother's Day! --Bitsy Bu--

for the Bible tells me so...

So I don't really have a pic of the day today (did you ever realize that pic of the day is like PICK of the day? Just had to share in case you never thought of it that way.) I guess that's what happens when you take 171 pictures in one day. But I do love this one. Especially with the cool effect that I love. My good friend Caroline helped with the effect. I really need to learn how to do this. I know how, but my program isn't letting me put the pictures in to do it...

*more coming that I will add to this post! So check back!

Dancin' in my highchair!

Enjoy!

Garage sale, shape sorter, and dinner cuteness

This morning started off with a trip to Mom's adoption friend's yard sale. It was fun to finally meet them (don't know why we waited so long, since we live 15 minutes away!) They had a big crowd at their sale! AnnaClaire had a blast. Everyone was so excited to see her and was just awwing over her. They had a Sara Beth Bows booth set up and we did some damage (well not tooooo much). Then we let AnnaClaire out of her wagon and she went and found a lawn mower. Of course, out of all things, she finds a black and red lawn mower. She had a ball pushing it all around and we ended up getting it. We also got her quite a few bows, a shape sorter, and some baked goods (not for her, for us!) We had a great time and AnnaClaire loved everyone there, and their doggie! The 2nd picture down on the first collage cracks me up. They were bringing the dog inside, and AnnaClaire did NOT want to say bye bye to the Doggie. Can you tell?

We got home and I got ready quickly to head to my swim meet. What a swim meet. It was our first long course meet this year, and right before my 200 breaststroke (my best event), it started thundering and lightning. UGH. We waited an hour and a half with nothing clearing up, so they cancelled it. Major pain. It was still so much fun just sitting their snacking with all my friends though:). We then came home and Dad and AnnaClaire weren't home. They came home way later from a power walk. We showed AnnaClaire her shape sorter and she had a BLAST with it. She loved it. She did it a total of 4 times before dinner. She also found her Bible and had a blast with that. She loves her Bible. She loves to pat, pat, pat it. She ripped a page (on accident) and Mom said "Gentle with the Bible, no rip". We said it in a gentle "it's okay!" voice, but she burst into tears. Poor thing. She then wanted nothing to do with her Bible:(. Well, we did tell her that it was okay and that she just had to be GENTLE and then she wanted it again. She really loves it. I have a few ADORABLE pictures that I'll post of her and her Bible in a moment.

Then was dinner time. She has the cutest face when she eats. She said her prayers before dinner. She has finally mastered them! She had organic mac and cheese and loved it. We then, broke into song (us and our horrible singing hehehehe) and AnnaClaire started dancing away. I got a darling video of that (but you might need to excuse our terrible singing!) I'll post it tomorrow-maybe. Doggie was right by her highchair begging, as always, so after dinner, AnnaClaire got her some food, too. She is so cute giving Maggie food! I took a short video that I need to post along with some other videos. I'm not promising when, but sometime in the future, I will post those!

Have a good night:)

Our Mommy

Well, with Mother's day tomorrow, this week's FFFF Challenge (Double Happiness) is "Mothers". I, of course, have the world's best Mom. Here are some pictures of my mom. She doesn't really liked being in pictures, so most of them were taken in China, a few when we took Drew to college, and a few at Drew's graduation. Oh and a few are from home, only since I insisted she be in some pictures! (yes, there are more in the photo albums, but these are ones that I found on the computer.) Anyway, I love you Mom!! Drew, Will, AnnaClaire, and I are so lucky to have you as our Mommy! Happy Mother's day to all the moms out there, including mine!

5 months!!!

It's hard to believe today marks our 5 month Acie Day anniversary. I was thinking about it, and 5 months from today, AnnaClaire will be 2 weeks away from turning two! Oh... I hope the next 5 months don't fly by as much as the past 5 months!

AnnaClaire, you have come a longgggg way since that day, 5 months ago! I love you so, so much. You have blessed our family in so many ways and I am thankful for every second of those 5 months that we've spent together. I love you more than anything in the world. Thank you for all that you've brought to our family. God knew what He was doing when he made you ours!!!!!!!!

Little Bitsy Bu, I love YOU! You've officially been my mei mei for 5 months!

~Sissy~

Oh and check the website, I did two more home updates (one with tons of pictures, one waiting for pictures!)

picS of the day (there's 2!)

I just can't decide. The top one is her doing her hands out "I don't know" thing. I love it when she does that! That was at Wally World when I said "Where's Mommy?" That was my answer. She is alway doing her "I don't know" thing. I love it when she does it... so cute!

The 2nd one is -of course- her swinging at the park. That face. She has a face. Boy, does she love swinging!

Park fun and Bibles!

AnnaClaire LOVES her little pink Bible!

Swinging at the park!
It's a parachute!
Driving!
Running in the grass...
I'm adorable:)
What do I want for lunch?
Sweet playing in the water!
Beautiful.
I love my water table!
I LOVE to swing!

Daddy putting the pool on the car! ;-)
"Ra flo" (red flower)
When can I get in my pool?
Playing in the tub!

Woah! Look at that water!
I love bathtime!
All snuggled up after my bath!
Ready for bed!

The morning started off with none other than... books! AnnaClaire adores her little pink Bible. We keep it in this little drawer, and she pointed to the drawer, and said "bi-bu". Then she will "pat" it (she learned to do this in the nursery!) She just loves her Bible! We then ventured out to the park. We didn't know it, but they had this activity thing at the part, with My Gym, so AnnaClaire had fun doing the parachute, running around, etc with the kids and leaders. She also loved swinging and slid down slides that the sun wasn't shining on (she thinks all slides with the sun on them are "ha"-hot!) She ran around in the grass a little and then we left to go meet Dad for lunch at La Paz. AnnaClaire was so excited when we told her we were meeting Daddy for lunch! We had a yummy lunch and after an okay nap, AnnaClaire and I went outside to play at her water table. She had a good time. She does love her water table and hose! She also swang a little. She loves her swing. I heard Dad open the door, so I said "Is Daddy home?" and she put her arms out in the "I don't know" pose. So then I said, "Should we go check?" and she nodded her head. So out of the swing we came and into Daddy's arms we went. After a few minutes at home, we went to Wal-Mart to try again with the pool. We were beyond excited that this time they had a PINK pool! We did have troubles at Wal-Mart again. Have you ever heard of them not having sissors?? Urgh. I. Hate. Wal-Mart. We ended up getting sewing sissors so we could cut the twine so we could tie the pool to the car BY OURSELVES. Dad was soooooo funny tying it on in the middle of this HUGE shopping center. Oh and then to make it worse, he wasn't sure how well it was on, so we had to HOLD it. Talk about embarassing! Dad was "handy Daddy" and got it tied (with a little help from me, may I add. Oh, but some random man walked by and helped because he didn't think I could lift it. Um.. hello! I swim over 4 miles a day plus run 2 miles before that... I think I can lift a little pool! But anyway, that was nice of him to help.) We got it tied down and then Mom went to look at plants while Dad, Acie, and I went to go get Mom's Mother's Day present. (Which she will love!) On the way home, AnnaClaire pointed to Mom's flowers (which had purple, white, and red flowers in the pot). She said "ra" and pointed to red. It was so cute. She knows her colors! Then she pointed to the purple one and said "pur-pa" and white and said "wi". She is so smart! We even got her to say "flo" flower, so she would say "ra flo!" Little Miss Smart Pants! When we got home, it was already 7. AnnaClaire had a dinner of egg and oranges, and then we bathed her. We had to bathe her in the big tub, because mine is all clogged. She loved it, though, and spent a good 25 minutes playing in it! She absolutely LOVES her baths! Then I got her all lotioned and potioned, dressed, and brushed (teeth and hair). I love getting her dressed. She is always so happy and oh, it is just so much fun to get our Little Bitsy Bu dressed! Anyway, it was a good day. I can't wait to take AnnaClaire in her new pool!

Why won't my turtle swim?

"I want my turtle out of my bath toy bag!"

"Yay! Got my turtle..."
"Let's wind it up so we can watch it swim!"
"Uh-oh... It's not swimming!"
"Sissy? Why isn't it swimming? Maybe I have to wind it again..."
"And wind somemore!"

"It still won't swim!"

"Maybe something is wrong with it. It's supposed to SWIM!"

"I'll try one more time!"

"SWIM, TURTLE!" sigh...

"Sissy, fix it! It won't SWIM!"

Yes, my dear, it wouldn't swim. Turtle only swims in the water!

Shoes, the grocery store, and just plain fun!

(yesterday.) The morning started with breakfast, playing, getting dressed, and putting shoes one! AnnaClaire loves to "put her shoes on". Of course she can't really do it, and Sissy ends up doing it for her, but it is still fun to try. Isn't she adorable "putting them on"?

We then got ready to go to the grocery store! AnnaClaire was very cute to pose for a picture before leaving. Everytime before we go somewhere, AnnaClaire runs to theses stairs and sits. Her facial expression is what we call the "closed mouth smile". Cute, huh? Oh and then, I said "Let's go, AnnaClaire!" And she went and grabbed her cell phone, her bunny (well she was already holding it) and her "golden golf ball". (It's this plasic thing that held this tee my dad was given. It is also now her new favorite toy!) It was so funny, because she couldn't hold it all, but she was trying SO hard. She's so silly:)

We got to the grocery store and (luckily) escaped her seeing the infamous cars (no, she hasn't been in one yet. She gets SO jealous when she sees other kids in them, but we really don't want to start in with THAT.) What caught her attention instead was the balloons. We got her purple, because we said "What color do you want?" And she answered "Pur-pa". Smart girl, I know!

After a fun time at the grocery, eating bread, and just being cute, we went to see the house that our friend has been building. It was so NICE and HUGE. Every single room had a bathroom and walk in closet. I am so jealous ;-). Anyway, we ergoed Little Bitsy up, and she had a fun time eating crackers and admiring the BEAUTIFUL house.
Then we went home and had a yummy lunch. While her baba was heating, she came across my crocs and thought it would be fun to walk around in them. Can you say cute?
After naptime, we just played around inside. It was not a nice day, so we were stuck inside *UGH*. Here's quite a few misc. pictures from the day-

Our Reader

2 months ago, if you asked if AnnaClaire liked books, it would be an automatic "NO!". But if you asked us today (or in the last few weeks), you would get a "Yes... maybe TOO much!" This girl loves to read. Morning, noon, and night, she always has a book (and Bunny!) in her hand. Always. Her favorite ones to hold are the little foam ones I got her. She loves those. And she likes to read EVERY BOOK WE HAVE. I think her personal favorite is "My Little Word Book" (which is what she's reading in the pictures.) When she wakes up, the first thing she does it point to her basket of books and say "bo". If we don't read to her, she picks one up (normally her "Baby's First Bible" which has a handle) and brings it to us, runs to her room, points to the chair, and smiles really big. So... it's definitely true when I say "Our girl loves books!" These pictures were taken yesterday. I had read quite a few books to her, and then I said "Let's go eat breakfast!" But, no... she wanted to keep reading her books. So she was being all cute, doing these little model poses, pointing out stuff "reading" to herself. So, Mom finally has her wish- AnnaClaire loves to read!

POD

Need I say more?

POD- Dancing Queen

For most of the afternoon, AnnaClaire just had fun dancing to music- the Wiggles, the music from her door & ball popper, the background music from her Veggie Tales movie, and her Veggie Tales C.D. I must say, she is sooooooooooooooooooo adorable dancing. She loves doing it, too. How could I choose just one of them... I love them all! So, enjoy my little dancer!

Horses & ball blowers!

The morning started off early with my ortho appt. I got my retainers and amd now sporting some new rubberbands. Can you say UGH? They take off my braces and what do I get? MORE RUBBERBANDS! Of course! I have to wear them the wierdest ways, too. First, slanted from right to left, than a square, and now from one side of my tooth to the other! Atleast it is only for 4-6 weeks! Still very painful. Anyway, after that was piano and then just a normal day at home. AnnaClaire didn't take a great nap which made for a long afternoon, but she was still sweet and had a blast playing with her ball blower and door, riding her horse, dancing to music, and watching/dancing to Veggie Tales!

She has mastered praying before dinner. We say "what do we do before we eat?" and she folds her hands and says "Ga" (God). Soooo cute!

My Vera Girl

Not sure if "Vera Bradley" is popular wherever you live, but it is VERY popular here. And the girls in our house are huge fans of it:). In fact, over the past 3 years, I have collected 5 Vera purses, the tote bag, umbrella, duffel bag, ditty bag, wallet, 2 change purses, bulletin board, belt, and more (most of it was gifts from family/friends). Plus my mom has tons and of course, AnnaClaire's diaper bag is... you guess it... Vera Bradley! Well, on the other hand, AnnaClaire LOVES purses. 9 times out of 10, the purses on my door handles are Vera Bradley. So, whenever AnnaClaire goes to find a purse, she always ends up with a Vera Bradley purse. Yesterday, I had 3 purses out and she took them all and put them on! It was SO cute! So here she is, my Vera Bradley girl! And no, these pictures were not planned, I just started snapping pictures because she was so cute with all her purses!

Oh, BTW, you should've seen our car trunk for the weekend... 3 Vera duffels, 1 Vera diaper bag, 2 Vera totes. Heh. Saying we LOVE it would be an understatement!

Some from yesterday

Oh, how I love her :)

Monday...

I think I forgot to mention that AnnaClaire kissed a little boy at the mall on Monday... Atleast he was a cute one -plaid shorts, plaid shoes, and a green polo shirt! ;-) He was probably like 2 1/2 or 3. We met him in Janie and Jack (of course) and he and Acie sat together underneath where the clothes were hanging. All of a sudden I hear "mwah" and look and AnnaClaire was kissing him! Ha! We better watch out... It was pretty funny:). And then we saw him again and he said "Mama, theres the little girl again!" and they both got all excited! LOL!

Anyway, all of these pictures were taken Monday afternoon, most on her slide thingy. She loves that thing! She also loves to push Bunny in the swing or climb in the swing -by herself- and swing with Bunny. She's such a sweetie! I'm also including the POD from Monday, even though I already posted it, because I didn't do anything "special" to it.

More from the Great Wolf Lodge

Do these not just melt your heart? Especially the hugging ones...

Here they are in one of the matching outfits we got on Friday. The other outfits we didn't get a chance to get pictures of:( Anyway, aren't the precious matching and playing with cups?!

and here's a few of just AnnaClaire (all from Sunday)

POD- little swiffer

Sorry I've been a lame blogger lately. I know I promised I'd post more pictures from our twinny reunion, which I will do that. This week. Yesterday AnnaClaire had her 18 month checkup. She is right on track in all areas. She got a "yes" checkmark for everything on the checkoff list. She weighed in at 25.0 pounds. They measured really incorrectly, but we know that she is about 30.5 inches. Her sweet doctor brought her this darling book as a little present. She has the sweetest Dr. ever! And the nurses all love her, too. They have her picture all over the office and look at it. Everytime she comes, they all come in our room to see her. She is so loved by all!!! Anyway, besides shots and such, it was a good appt. We then ran to the mall to return a few things and have lunch. We, of course, ended up in Janie and Jack where we found two ADORBALE short sets. AnnaClaire needed some (cute) shorts, and boy is that what she got. One pair is pink and green with turtles and a little green no sleeved polo shirt and the other is like patchwork pink, green, and yellow with the same green shirt. SO cute! We had a nice afternoon as well. I have more pictures from yesterday that I'll add tomorrow.

Today was a low key day. Just hung at home all day, pretty much. (Oh and AnnaClaire experienced her first Veggie Tales- Silly Songs with Larry. Big hit!) We ran a few errands this morning, including the post office where we met a lady with not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 (yes FOUR- 3 boys, 1 girl) adopted kiddos. It is always so fun to meet other adoptive families! I think they were from China, but they might've been some other Asian. Very cute kids who loved AnnaClaire! This weekend, Maura introduced AnnaClaire to raisins and freeze dried Gerber fruit things. We got both those things today and AnnaClaire is enjoying both very much. She took a pretty good nap and had a nice afternoon. I taught her a new trick (thanks again, to Maura!) "Who does Sissy love?" and she will point to herself! Hehe! Gotta love that! I'll add some more pictures tomorrow, including our girl modeling some Vera Bradley purses (mine, not hers.)

POD

Friends Forever (today)

I have more pictures, but here is a collage with a few of both girls. Maura brought this outfit for AnnaClaire and they looked SO adorable matching in it! Oh and in one of the pictures, AnnaClaire looks a lot taller than Maura, but really they are both about the same height. This morning, at breakfast, Maura picked up AnnaClaire's fork, put it in the eggs, and fed AnnaClaire. It was sooooooooooo cute! (See first picture). After breakfast, pictures, and packing up, we went to Church. It was a very different Church. They were all very welcoming. It was a small Baptist Church. They all doted on the little missies. It was a very nice sermon, and the people were so nice.The girls went into a nursery that was for infants- kindergarten (that's how small the Church was) I think there were 2 other, kindergarten aged boys. The girls did great. We weren't going to put them in at first, but they were very restless in ther service. Everyone there thought they were twins in their cute matching outfits. (Of course, AnnaClaire's hair is too fine to have pigtails without ponytails-which we forgot- so she had to have in a different way, but that's okay). After Church, we went back to the lodge for lunch. The twins were soo cute. They walked around eating their freeze dried fruit things just being cute. They would go over this spinny thing with cereal on it and spin it really fast. Then they would dance to the music, put candy away, eat somemore, and do it all over again. It was so funny to watch. They really are adorable together. Everyone on the lodge just loved them! We then had to say goodbye. It was so sad to go:(. We have decided to have annual reunions. Maura and AnnaClaire hugged and kissed goodbye, in which they went toppling over. LOL! After another round of hugs and kisses, we left. I wish we could've stayed atleast one more day. It went so quick. We are so blessed to have them as friends. It was an awesome time and we were continually reminded how blessed we are to have these girls. With each hug, kiss, handhold, etc, we thought that maybe they are touching someone else's life, maybe being the sign to someone else to adopt a baby from China. It was so great to get together with them and we had the most wonderful time. I recommend the Great Wolf Lodge to anyone. It is AWESOME. Oh and believe it or not, the Queen of England was nearby, in Jamestown! Cool! We got stuck in traffic on the way home and arrived home around 7:15. I asked AnnaClaire where Maura was and she did her "I don't know" with her hands. Then I said "Do you miss Maura?" And she nodded her head. You could see right from the start the love these 2 little girls have. Keara, Maura, and your Mommy, we miss you already! Thanks for an awesome weekend. We can't wait until next time! And thanks again for all the stuff you brought us!

I'll add more pictures tomorrow!

Waterpark (Day 2)

Yesterday morning fun in their matching jammies!

Let's go to the waterpark, already!

Oh, boy!

Pre nap fun!

and somemore pre nap fun...

Two princesses!

Chinese lantern making (and playing)

Yummy Chickfila!

Bathtime!

All snuggled in their pink pjs!

note: I'm writing like it's today, even though this is from yesterday.

Today was another awesome day. After hanging in the room a little, we went down for a yummy breakfast. The girls had their eye on the waterpark the whole time! They were already in their bathingsuits, so we went straight to the waterpark. We went in and oh boy did they scream. It was pretty sad:(. They screamed and screamed. Keara and I played awhile and went down all the (AWESOME!) waterslides. By the time we were done with all the slides, the girls weren't so afraid of the water. By the end, they were both very, very happy in it! AnnaClaire liked to play with these fountain things. Maura liked to run around in the water. They also had this thing that squirted water to different levels (red thing) and AnnaClaire LOVED that, too. The waterpark there is AWESOME. It is indoor and inside the lodge. Very cool. It was packed though! We met another family with 3 daughters from China. They are going back for #4 soon! They were SO cute! After being there awhile, it was naptime, so we went back to the room. The little ones played a little, ate lunch and went down for naps while Keara and I went to the snackbar and got pizza and fudge and then went to the arcade for awhile. It was so fun. We won the girls little princess crowns! AnnaClaire had slept really bad the night before, so she took a great 3+ hour nap. Maura, on the other hand, slept really well the night before and wouldn't nap! We had to wake AnnaClaire up to go to the craft room and make Chinese lanterns (at 5). The craft room was so cool. They had all this kid stuff like a play set, the little computer thing, stuffed animals, plus all the craft stuff. AnnaClaire and Maura (well their big sissy's while they played!) made adorable little Chinese lanterns. So cute! We ran into the family with the 3 girls from China, again. (Thought we would since we were making Chinese lanterns!) AnnaClaire and Maura loved doing the slide. Then we went to Chickfila for dinner. AnnaClaire had her first chicken nuggets- hated them. In fact, she picked up all the fruit and left all the chicken there! Then Keara and I took the little bits to the play area. We really are to big for that. Nonetheless, we climbed up, went through tunnels, down slides, etc. They loved it. The tunnels even made noise! Everyone commented on how cute Acie and Maura were. They all thought that they were twins! We went back to the lodge and bathed them together. They loved it and were so cute in the tub together. They ran around the room a little, and AnnaClaire gave Mrs. S a back rub. LOL. They have an obsession with closing/opening the door... Then Maura went to bed since she didn't nap. AnnaClaire stayed up late since she napped so late. She was a very good girl staying quite! Then she dosed off and slept pretty well... until...

THE FIRE ALARM WENT OFF! It was 5:21 AM and all of a sudden we hear all this ringing. It was SO loud. It was very, very scary. We woke up right away, grabbed the babies and a few belongings and ran out. It being so early in the morning, we weren't thinking and went all the way down the hall even though we had stairs right by our room. Luckily, it was just a false alarm and everything/everyone was okay. Still, very, very scary and very loud. It was also very cold outside. We were all shivering, Mom and I couldn't see without our glasses/my contacts. The little girls were AMAZING and didn't cry at all. In fact, AnnaClaire waved, blew kisses, and smilied at everyone! It was quite the experience. AnnaClaire went back to sleep and we started the morning around 8:30. More on today later...

The Twins Meet (day 1)

AnnaClaire and Maura took right to eachother!

AnnaClaire was GREAT for the 5 hour car ride!

Maura and Acie hanging out in the lobby!

Shopping twins in their matching strollers!

They had a blast running back to the hotel room!

...and were so cute in their diapers & matching jammies!

(this is my 3rd time trying to post this post and FINALLY it works!) AnnaClaire was AMAZING the whole car ride. She slept a little, but for most of it, she just sat there with Bunny, looking out the window, pointing to trucks saying "tuck!" and pointing out the different colors of the flowers. Lately, she has been pretty restless in her carseat, so we were worried. We were amazed at how well she did! Have I mentioned how attached to Bubba (Bunny) she is? She will not go to sleep without her. I think that she did so well in the car because she had Bunny with her. She loves her Bunny! Anyway, we arrived at the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, VA at about 2:45 on Friday. Maura, Keara, and Mrs. S were already there. We were soooooo excited to see them. The twins took right to eachother and had a blast hamming it up for all the people there. They ran back and forth in the lobby, just having so much fun. It was so cute! They are absolutely precious together! They would trade toys, share, laugh together. Oh, they were precious together! After settling into her hotel room (and then moving to a new one because it had a leak!) we decided to go shopping. (What can I say... 6 girls... what do you expect us to do?) They had some outlets about 5 minutes from the lodge, so we went there. Maura and Acie were precious in their matching strollers! They were so good the entire time. They especially liked playing in the chairs at Gymboree! We got them a few matching outfits at Gymboree and Strasburg. Oh, Strasburg! They had some good sales and we got the twins a beautiful pink and yellow flowered bishop smocked dress and also this pretty & simple white portrait dress. We went in a few stores for me and Keara and then went back to the lodge for dinner. They had a good buffet there. Maura and AnnaClaire screamed when Wiley the Wolf came out. Good thing we never brought AnnaClaire to see the Easter bunny or Santa! (Well actually Maura started screaming which made Acie start screaming LOL). After dinner, they both wanted to walk (run!) back to the room, so they did. It was so funny. Maura was trying to get her bow out, and AnnaClaire decided to help... LOL! When we got back to the room, the girlies played in their diapers. Maura thought AnnaClaire had a nice belly (see which picture I'm talking about... 2nd on the top on the last collage!) They were so funny just chasing eachother around, helping get their bottles, etc. We then got them in their matching jammies and they played somemore. They were so cute. They would hug eachother and knock eachother down (on accident!) It was so funny! Our first day together was AWESOME!

No, no!

This week's FFFF Challenge from Double Happiness is "no, no!" AnnaClaire really doesn't have too many no no's (not our sweet thing!), but here are a few that I have caught pictures of. They are in no particular order.

1. Unrolling toilet paper. OH, it is such a pain when she does that! She has only done it 2 or 3 times because she knows that it's a "no, no!"
2. Getting into the laptops! This is possibly her worst(?) "no no". It is quite annoying and she has taken numerous keys of my computer by touching it!
3. Getting into bags! She loves to pull everything out of bags. It isn't a big time "no no" but I will admit that I don't exactly enjoy picking up everything she pulls out of my bag!
4. Getting into cabinents that aren't hers! AnnaClaire has 1 cabinent that is "hers". She knows it, too. We will say, "AnnaClaire, go get a cup out of your cabinent!" and she will run over, open it, and get a cup. But, the rest are not hers.
5. Climbing up the stairs with no one behind her. This is a big "no no". She used to do it ALL THE TIME. It is now pretty rare, but sometimes I see her doing it.
6. Pulling her bows out! To me, that is the most annoying "no no" she does! LOL!
7. Playing with CDs. She always seems to find CDs/DVDs and play with them. I get so worried that she is going to break it and poke her eye or something.
8. Playing in the Doggie's food/water. That is her worse "no no" (Not MY mei mei! lol) She doesn't do it nearly as much anymore, but she always gets her hand spanked -by Mommy- when she does this.

So, my sweetie isn't PERFECT... but pretty close to it ;-). I mean, every toddler has a few wrongs!

Sweet Little Friends

Today we were walking down the hall to go decorate Chinese lanterns when all of a sudden, the girls reached out and held hands. They walked all the way down the hall, hand in hand. It was the cutest thing ever. Especially in their matching pants:).

Maura and AnnaClaire- so cute together!

We are here. The little ones are PRECIOUS together. We are having so much fun and shopped way to much today. The twins have a matching wardrobe:) LOL! Pictures to come!

My cutie (POD)

Packing to see Maura!

Tomorrow, we are going to meet Keara, Maura, and their Mommy in Williamsburg for a GIRLS WEEKEND! I am so excited! Keara and I have emailed back in forth for about a year. We are 2 days apart in age, and AnnaClaire and Maura are both October 27, 2005 girls!!! (Hence the often reference as twins). Today, we packed AnnaClaire. It was hard to just pick a few outfits to bring! Can't wait Keara, Maura, and Mrs. S!!!

B&W- with some color (thanks Melanie!)

Today I got an email from a teenage girl in Spain. She had put these cool black and white with color effects onto the frog dress picture. Imagine my surprise because just yesterday, I had been trying to figure out how to do this, to do to the bottom picture! She then did it to the other 2 pictures, too. I am so excited. I LOVE the way they came out. Thanks SO much, Melanie! (Also, Mrs. S, aka chicknboy, you had said the POD from Tuesday would look good in B&W... it does, doesn't it? Especially with a pink bow!)

Sissy got her braces off! (WOOHOO!)

This morning AnnaClaire discovered the blow up hammers and lais Daddy brought her from work. She was so cute with them! See 1st collage.

Today, I got my braces off!!!!!!!!!! YAHOO! I've had them on and off since I was 10, so it is good to have them off for good! All the ortho ladies loved AnnaClaire! She's a big hit everywhere we go! We then went to pick up Acie's flowergirl dress. Oh my goodness, it is so cute! She tried it on and everyone in the store ran over to look. She loved admiring herself in the huge mirrors. I wish I could've gotten a picture, but it said no cameras:(. Besides, I wouldn't have posted it because you haveto wait until the wedding day to see it! We ran to the mall quick to pick up some Robeez to go with. She is going to be an absolute doll at the wedding. While at the mall, we stopped by the fountain. AnnaClaire LOVES fountains! She took a great nap and afterwards, we ran to pick up my retainers and stopeed by Target. If you tell AnnaClaire to smile, she does. It is so cute! (see carseat picture in 2nd collage).

AnnaClaire has been using her words a lot lately. When we pass a pond, she points and says "wa wa". When she wants something, instead of pointing and grunting, she says whatever she wants. Whenever we pass a dog, she says "woof!" We have also been working on names lately. She can't quite say her own, so to her, she is "Na Na Cla". This makes me laugh because in Changsha, we had a waitress whom we will always remember. Her name was "Na Na"! LOL! She also has Will, Drew, and Maura down! Today she even said "Sarah" when I was trying to get her to say "Sarah Lu". So cute!

From yesterday and the day before

Here's my cutie the past two days. I have lots of pictures of Elizabeth and Acie, but I don't really feel comfortable posting pictures where you can really see someone else's kiddo. The one on the bottoms is of AnnaClaire kissing her and the one in the middle is of AnnaClaire giving her the cup. So sweet, my girl is! Oh and the 2nd picture on the top row- that's what we call "the lip" is that adorable or is that ADORABLE?

Another one I love- from yesterday

Have I said how much I love her?

A lot.

Lisa B, thank you so much for the outfit, we love it SO much! (BTW, Meg, it was a baby shower gift)

Our Day (and POD!)

Okay, I am having so many problems uploading pictures, so for now you just get the POD. I'll update tomorrow with the rest of the pictures (as I took quite a few today). Today we went to Harris Teeter and ran into 2 of AnnaClaire's friends: Elizabeth and Ava. Elizabeth lives around the block, and her mommy was getting her haircut and needed someone to babysit Elizabeth, so after Teeter, she ran Elizabeth to our house and AnnaClaire and Elizabeth played together. They were darling. The best part was when they were both sitting at AnnaClaire's table eating their lunch. It was so cute (as you can see). They are adorable together and they are only 6 days apart in age! Anyway, Elizabeth's mommy came a little after 1, after a fun time of pop pop cars, playing in the cottage, doing bubbles, and reading. AnnaClaire kissed Elizabeth goodbye and then she went to bed and Elizabeth went home. It was such fun to see the two together! AnnaClaire loved having a friend here. After AnnaClaire's nap, we needed to go to the mall to return some stuff. Well, the stroller was in Dad's car. Luckily we had the Ergo. AnnaClaire hasn't been in it in FOREVER. Oh boy, did she love it! She got all snuggled against Mom and so enjoyed being in it. To our surprise, after we took her out to try on a dress, she happily got back in, squealing and smiling as she did so. She absolutely loves her Ergo! She now goes in it to the side, which she probably likes better than the front~she can see more. Not only that, but she is a total Mommy's girl now. As most of you remember, she wouldn't go near Mom in China. She was an absolute Daddy's girl. That has changed, for sure! She still loves Daddy, but she is definetely a Mama's girl! When we got back from the mall, we played outside until dinner. It was a good day:). More pictures tomorrow!

Oh and also, I have decided to do something special with the picture(s) of the day. Instead of just posting them, I am going to create a "layout" for them. Enjoy!

More from yesterday

Here are the pictures from yesterday. I love the top collage with all the sunlight pictures!!

A few favorites from the day

Today, AnnaClaire was by the window and I got tons of GREAT pictures of her in her jammies. It was PERFECT lighting. I have tons and I need to go to bed, so I'll add some more tomorrow. I also love the last one of her reading a magazine. So here's the PODs (pictures of the day)! Enjoy! And look for more tomorrow. BTW, the top 1 is probably my very favorite.

Guess who got his driver's license....

AnnaClaire's (and my!) big brother, Will, got his license yesterday! I can't believe it! He drove me to swimming yesterday (very scary, may I add). I was the first person to drive with him without an adult. He's a really, really good driver. It is just so wierd to me that he can drive. My brothers and I are really close but it just seemed normal when Drew got his license. It's very strange to me that Will can drive now. Probably because we are only exactly 2 years and 1 week apart in age. He's a good driver:). Anyway, he is very excited to "finally" have his license! He drove me to swimming again tonight. Obviously not only is he enjoying his new freedom, my parents are, too! :)

And yes, he is posing by pictures taken of him when he was little.

More from Yesterday

Here's a few more from yesterday... the last one... how did her Wal-Mart sticker get THERE? LOL! We had a horrible experience at Wal-Mart resulting in getting no pool (which was the whole reason we were there!) UGH! I hate shopping at Wal-Mart! They REFUSED to help us put the pool on the car, AFTER someone had told us they would help us. And then when we spoke to the manager, she made up all these excuses! I HATE WAL-MART! LOL! But AnnaClaire loved her sticker:). I still don't know how it got on her bottom... lol! And the top one... she LOVES to read now. But that deserves a post of it's own~tomorrow.

Outside Fun from yesterday

We had a big day at the park yesterday. Well first, she played on the porch. We loved her cottage to the porch and she loves playing in it on the porch. Our porch (which by the way is so dirty- sorry!) has been taken over by plastic! LOL! Anyway, she was adorable playing in her cottage. She loves that thing. Okay... the park! We had a blast. AnnaClaire thought everything was hot. She would point to the swing and say "ha", point to the slide and say "ha". Everything was "ha". Her favorite thing was the rocking swing thing that we could all sit on. She loved that. She also enjoyed one of the slides, but wasn't into sliding at all this time. But best of all was just riding her pop pop car around the park. She was so funny because there was a 1 year old boy who wanted her car, so she "shared" it with him and she was just DYING to ride it the whole time he was on it. She finally got it back and was smiling from ear to ear! LOL! I got some adorable pictures of her on her car, but my collage won't post! UGH! So I'll post that tomorrow. It's soooooooooooo cute!