POD- Cute on the whale

While we were waiting for Mom to pick us up, I took AnnaClaire out to the playground and she rode the whale for a few minutes. I was able to snap one quick picture and I love how it turned out. Ohh my sweet, sweet Bu Bear!

Crocs

This afternoon, we met with my host family for lunch. We had a very nice time. My host family happens to be my best friend from 3rd grade. It was nice seeing her and catching up, as I haven't seen her since I was 10! We had a great time and AnnaClaire did so well for the 1.5 hours we were there! They all loved AnnaClaire and boy did she put on a show for them! After a good lunch and a fun time, we went home where AnnaClaire enjoyed a nice nap and I enjoyed an afternoon at the pool with some friends. AnnaClaire came up after naptime and we stayed until I had to go home to get ready for cross country practice. That was really good! I was very proud of myself because I was the first girl to finish and didn't take any shortcuts (if you are behind, they tell you to skip parts of the trail) or walk. When Will and I got home, AC was in the tub and the minute she heard my voice, she started in with the "Sissyyyyy, Sissyyyyy". I just love her so much:).

Oh and about the Crocs... this afternoon as we were leaving to go to the pool I told her to put her Crocs on and gave them to her. She sat them on the ground in the right position and put them on. It was the cutest thing. And if that weren't enough... the band on one of them ended up in the front instead of the back. So, she pointed to it and had the most confused look on her face. I said "It's oka, Bu" but she insisted it be in the back. So she holds on to me and takes it off, fixes it, and puts it back on. SO CUTE!!! I also love how she stands up when she puts them down. Sitting down to put on shoes is a no no in her mind! You have to be STANDING! LOL!

On another note... it's hard to believe it's the last day of July already! Where has the month gone?!

Pretty Neck Neck for a pretty girl!

Don't you love my purple necklace the ladies at the store gave me?!

Peek-a-boo, Sissy!

Touching the pond

Happy about freedom from her stroller!

I love that little arm moving when she walks :)

This morning we headed off to my checkup. Besides the fact that I almost fainted (pale, broke into a sweat, ringing in my ears, couldn't see anything, dizzy.. the works) when I got blood drawn, it was fine. AnnaClaire was good overall. She made friends with everyone in the waiting room and all the nurses, too. She called them "nurs". It was really funny and cute! Afterwards we went to lunch at the mall foodcourt which was nearby. While we were at the mall, Mom wanted to run into one of her stores and I needed to pick something up as well. At J.Jill, all the ladies doted on AnnaClaire and gave her a pretty "neck neck" (AC's word for necklace). She was so cute with her bling!! They even let her choose what color she wanted. First she said "pur-pa" and then she said "rad". So they let her have both. We ran into Janie and Jack and didn't see anything besides this sooooooo cute skirt outfit. But AnnaClaire doesn't really look the best in skirts because she's such a pudge. We didn't even bother going into Gymbo because they have had nothing lately. So anyway, we weren't there for very long, but we did have a yummy lunch at the foodcourt and saw quite a few other mei meis. Someone even came up to us and said AnnaClaire was beautiful and asked where she was from. Turns out her good friend has a daughter from Chenzhou as well. So that was cool. We went home and Mom put AnnaClaire to bed. AnnaClaire didn't sleep. We were quite worried that she wasn't going to nap but Mom realized she had a poopy diaper and she changed that. But she still didn't fall asleep until over an hour after getting in her crib! We were very suprised when I had to go wake her up at 5! Tonight she got to meet some of Drew's friends and she loved them. She did not want to leave to go night night one bit! Ahh she's so sweet :)

oh btw I updated the website!

Pretty girl for Church

Playing with my latch board

Ring, ring

Doing "soothy thing" with Bunny

Being cheesy with Sissy (yes, she is laughing... not crying!)

As we drove to Church this morning, the car was filled with the word "nurs-to nurs-to". That is AnnaClaire's word for nursery. She said it the whole way there. She was so excited to go play in the nursery. When we picked her up after the service, she saw us and ran over, all excited, and attempted to "tell" us how much fun she had. We went home for lunch and AnnaClaire enjoyed playing awhile. This afternoon, I was gone with friends, but when I got home, AnnaClaire was so happy to see me. She said "Sissy, sissy" over and over. She even asked me to give her her bottle, which made me very happy because I don't normally get to give her her bottle. She's such a sweetie and I love her so much!

POD- Me & My Ball

Big Pink Ball

Sissy helped me pack my purse for the mall today! It has my cell phone and my hello kitty hair clipies from a happy meal (and no, AC wasn't the one who ate that happy meal!) Now I'm ready to go to the mall!

Running outside

This is one big ball!

I threw it down!!

There's an "ah pla!" (airplane)! Mommy and Sissy always tell me that's how I came home from CHINA!

Me and my ball

Chasing after it (with the wind in my hair :))

I love my big pink ball!

Happy girl playing outside with Sissy!

You probably think the mall is the only place we ever go... it's not. But it wasn't the nicest of days, Drew, Dad, and Will all had to work, and I needed school clothes, so we went this afternoon planning to stay for like an hour and a half and then go home for naptime. Ummm no. We were there for 5 hours. Of course I loved that. AnnaClaire was so good. We would've gone home in time for naptime, but she fell asleep in her stroller- first time ever! She's a good little shopper. She ended up with nothing as the only good kid's store at this particular mall is Gymboree and they have nothing that striked our fancy there. AnnaClaire's favorite part of the day was probably purse shopping. She loved all the workers there. They were so nice to her! We couldn't believe when she fell asleep in her stroller. That's amazing for her... So we stayed longer. We had a very fun time and by the time we got home, it was 4:30! We played, and then we got to order pizza. When we went to pick it up, AC remember that both the pond and the animals were nearby! She started saying "wa wa" and "ah-ma-mals" over and over. Everytime we pass something, she points and says what it is... the pool... the animals... the pond.... She's SO smart! We had a yummy dinner and then I had promised I'd take the Bu outside afterwards, so I did that. We ended up playing with her big pink ball at the bottom of our street. We had the best time! We would chase the ball, throw it... AC had a blast! When we finally went in, she played with her little people bus and car and then Dad came home from work and he bathed her. She was so happy to see him. Dad has had a lot of work lately and BuBu has not seen much of her Dada!

Sissy babysat me and then we went to the pool!

My latest thing is climbing into the kitchen chairs.. well all chairs actually! Here I am at the big girl table!

Coloring a picture (now at my table)

pretend drinking Drew's soda.

At the pool with Sissy, Rachel, and Liz.

So happy at the pool

way up close

I'm posting this so it's under the 27th, but really it's the 28... yesterday I babysat AnnaClaire for awhile because Will had a physical. We had a very fun time. AnnaClaire was sooooooo good. She just played mostly to herself. She colored, played with toys... she was such a good girl. Funniest of all was when Drew came home and got a coke. AnnaClaire ran over and took it out of his hands. It was closed. Anyway, she started "drinking" from it and saying "mmmmmm" and "coke!" It was so funny. She wouldn't give it back! When she went down for her nap, I met a few friends at the pool. We had a lot of fun. Mom brought AnnaClaire up after her nap and we played with her for about an hour. Then AC went home and I went to my friends house for awhile. We played our Wii and had dinner at my house and then we went back to Liz's house and slept over. It was so much fun. So that explains why I didn't post yesterday. I did add the 21 month post a few minutes ago, as yesterday was AnnaClaires 21st month old birthday! It's below so check that out.

21 Months!!!!!!!

I love this picture... AnnaClaire had taken Drew's closed coke can and was running around with it pretending to drink it and saying "mmmmm"
It's very hard to believe that our little Bu is now 21 months old. She is growing up way to fast. I love her so much. I can't believe in just 3 short months, we will celebrate her 2nd birthday... how is that so? 21 months sounds quite old... but she will always be our baby... our little Bu Baby...

Little BuBu,
I love you so very much. You mean so much to me. You are getting to be such a big girl. But you will always be my baby sister... my mei mei. I cannot believe you are now 21 months old. I remember last year on this day... your referral package came... and your turned 9 months old. And now... here we are a year later... you are turning TWENTY ONE months old. That is too big. You need to stop growing! ;-) I love you forever. Happy 21 months!
Love, "Ahmay"

A year ago... the FedEx man bringing your referral package (7/27/06)

The package and it's contents.

POD- Sisters by the fishies

Big Sales at the Mall

Ohh look at me in this pretty raincoat and bow!

Aren't I adorable in this rain outfit? It's a little big for now but will fit great soon!

Having fun at Strasburg!

Playing with the kitchen at Education Express. I love playing in there!

This kitchen is fun... but not quite as fun as the Pottery Barn Kids Pink Retro Kitchen...

Watching the merry-go-round (I realized right after I took this that there was a sign that said not to stand up on the fence... so I pulled her off)

Oh boy look at me go!

This is FUN!

Hi Mommy!!!!

Sissy and me (but Sissy is kinda hidden behind)

I rode on the baby horsey!

Being cheesy on the way home!

It was a very normal morning.. just the typical. Will and I had cross country practice this morning. Mom and AC went to Wally World for a few things and when they got home it was already lunch time! AnnaClaire played awhile before her nap and as soon as she woke up, we headed to our big outlet mall about 30 minutes away. Dad has been working late all week and going to this mall is a really fun activity when it's just the girls... (Funny thing is, this is exactly what we did on referral day.. a year ago yesterday!) On the way there, AnnaClaire pointed out all the trucks and cars and said "MALLLLLLLLL". There was one really big truck and Mom said "biiiiig truck" to which AnnaClaire replied "BIIIIIIIIIIIIIG TUCK!" There were also tons of airplanes as the mall is close to an airport. Whenever AnnaClaire sees/hears an airplane (even if it's barely visable...) she points and says sweet "ah pla". I love the way she says it! So we walked in and hit Gymboree outlet first. They had the cherry line but other than that, nothing all that cute so we walked out empty handed. Then to Strasburg... out favorite! They had the BEST sales going on... 1st thing 20% off, 2nd 30% off, and all the rest 50% off! Talk about a good sale! The didn't have much fall in, but had lots of cute summer things and we got 2 dresses that we had had our eye on for awhile now... both for next summer. One of them is white with green, pink, and orange polka dots. The other is white with these really pretty red and blue flowers and flower smocking. They are both bishop style smocked. We also found 2 cute bows and her the cutest raincoat and rainboots. Everytime we got in there, I drool over that adorable pink and green flower rain outfit.. and now it's ours. We got the best price ever on it. I think for both it was $25. Pretty good considering the raincoat was orginially $30! Good thing we didn't get it right away!! Anyway... our favorite lady was working there. Before we had AnnaClaire, we would always run into her and she would always ask about AnnaClaire. She begged us to bring her in once we got her. Well the first time we went back after we had her, just Mom and I went and then ever since then, she hasn't been there! Today, finally, she was there and got to meet our sweet girl. She loved her and AC loved her as well! AnnaClaire was quite the Bu trying on all the stuff and running around the store... LOL! Our next stop was looking at the fishies at Bass Pro Shops which is always a hit. AnnaClaire was blowing all the fish kisses. What a sweet girl! We walked all around going in lots of stores. All AnnaClaire's purchases came from Strasburg. Oh and a book from TJ Max. I got lots of new fall clothes. We had a yummy dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. When AnnaClaire finished she said all done and pointed to the merry-go-round, because we told her she could ride it after dinner. She was very patient while we finished, but the minute we were done, she started squealing and jumping up and down. She loves the merry-go-round. She watched once and then it was her turn. She took awhile to decide which ah-ma-mal she wanted to ride. At first it was this really ugly zebra but we kept looking. She then noticed a cute baby horse and pointed and in her cute little voice said "babee", so she rode the baby horse. She loved it. She had the biggest smiles. Everytime we passed Mom, she would squeal and wave as hard as she could. It was precious. She was not ready to get off when it was over and said "moooooooore" over and over. But it was time to go as it was 8:30 already! It was a very, very fun day. AnnaClaire loves going to the mall!

I also wanted to mention another really cute word(s) AnnaClaire says. She can't really get her k's down, so everything that has a k in it is not pronounced with a k, but instead a "ttsss". It is so cute. So a bike is a "bitss"! Everytime she sees a bike, she says "bitssss". And she does the same thing to everything with a k in it. I love it!!!

Yesterday...

Just like Will and Ahmay playing with Wii stuff.

I'm not going to smile... no, I'm not!

Sissy decided maybe cookies (animal crackers) would make me smile...

my sissy knows me well... I'll smile now! (I had trouble decided between this picture and the other picture for last night's post. I finally decided with the other because this one you can see the cracker in her mouth. still cute though!!)

Playing in my hot pink pool!

I didn't really write that much about our day yesterday... I was having a lot of trouble getting just 1 post done, much less 2 or 3. It's hard to post when my computer runs out of batteries everytime I don't hold the cord in! Luckily I figured out that I can put the cord under this little part on my bed legs and it hold it in... not very comfy laying on my hardwood floors, but I made a comfy little area. Dad ordered my new power cord and it should be here by Tuesday... it's going to be so nice to have again! Anyway... I babysat in the morning and when I got home we had lunch and AnnaClaire played upstairs with us. Then I took her down for her 1 year referral photoshoot. She was not in the mood for a photoshoot... but I got a few cute pictures:). She took a decent nap and afterwards she was playing on the porch when she noticed her little pool! She starting pointing and saying "pooooo poooooo". Mom had asked me earlier if I would take her in after her nap, so BuBu helped me get it all set up and then we played in it for about an hour. We brought all sorts of things out to play in it with... like coffee mugs, cups, measuring cups, balls... the works. She played with those awhile. She also enjoyed sliding. She loves her slide. She can climb up and go down all by herself now!! She absolutely loves sliding! It was so cute because I would say "ready go" and she would repeat one of the words.. sometimes ready, sometimes go. So I asked if she could put both together and say "Ready go". It took a few times but then she said it... and she said it over and over! It was so cute! She really is starting to put her words together! We went inside and played before dinner. Mom took her on a wagon walk after dinner and when the got back, AnnaClaire was calling "Sissy, sissy." She always does that whenever I'm not with her. She was all excited when she saw me and wanted to play games. She does love her Sissy! (and I'm loving every minute of it!) We played with all sorts of toys like her boxes. She also thought she hadn't had enough wagon for the night and climbed in her little pushy wagon, with all the toys in it, and had me push her around the mud room in it! After awhile of playing she went night night. It was a very fun 1 year referral day!

From Tuesday...

puring water in my cup

Playing with cups

Fun,fun!

I like the "ha tu"

Sissy (Ahmay), me, and another Ahmay! (Emie)

Bathing beauty on the raft!

Slam dunk!!!

Playing with my "ah-ma-mals"

Hugs for Teddie! (Teddie was my first stuffed animal... Sissy bought her last year right after my referral. So just about this time of year!)

I love all my ahmamals!

I forgot to mention about AC and her "ah-ma-mals". I told her the name of all of them and then I'd ask her "Where's Lambie" or whatever, and she would point to the right one!! Smart girl!! She loves all her animals, but when I asked her which was her favorite, she pointed to Bunny and said "Bubba". :)

A Year Ago Today...

...we got the most amazing phone call. I was in my room, reading "The Waiting Child" (which btw is a really good book.) We were about to go to the mall. It was 1:04PM when the phone rang. I ran to see who it was and saw a 703 area code. I knew it was AWAA. I figured it was something about our sn application, so I went back to my room and continued my reading. I heard Mom's voice... "This is such a surprise! We would love to review her file!" It was hard to concentrate on reading... hard not to listen to Mom talking... Tabitha was telling my mom of my sister. As soon as Mom had hung up, I ran downstairs. Mom told me Tabitha had called her about a baby girl (which, of course, I knew already.) She was 8 months old. She was living in the Hunan province. Her name was Chen Xun Hui. The first thing I noticed was that she had the same birthday has Maura, the little sister of Keara, whom I had just met online (and they had just received their referral a month before.) A little sidenote.. Tabitha had tried to call us the day before, but we weren't home to get her call because we were at Target, buying AnnaClaire's carseat, which we thought we were buying well in advance! On with referral day... Tabitha had told Mom she would send the file via email and to email her back if we wanted the offcial referral package. The 15 minutes that we waited for that email to come were the longest 15 minutes ever. Finally an email popped up on the screen that said "Chen Xun Hui". Mom and I were the only ones home. Mom called Dad. She told him what had happened. Dad was so excited. We opened the email while talking to Dad. Dad was begging us to send him the email. Mom and I were speechless when we saw her pictures. There were 2 pictures. In the first one, she was sitting up, wearing a bright red coat with these big yellow shoes, and a big green block in front of her. She was sitting in front of a colorful mat. She had the lightest hair and skin. The 2nd one (our personal favorite), she was laying on her belly, in the same outfit, in front of the same "prop". She had the most beautiful eyes. We were in tears now. She was the most beautiful baby we had ever seen. She looked like an AnnaClaire. Not only that, but the first thing Mom said was "She looks like Will when he was a baby!" We knew this baby was AnnaClaire. We quickly forwarded the email to dad who got the pictures and said "That's her." We were in love. We read over her reports. We researched everything there was to research. We stared at her beautiful pictures. We prayed. About 3 hours after we were planning to go to the mall, we went. We ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. I will never forget seeing 2 "mei meis" as we walked in the mall. We also bought AnnaClaire her first clothes that day... sleepers from Carters. Mom called Dad. "It's her", she said.

I can't believe it... I can't believe it's been a full year since we have seen our beautiful girl's face. The most amazing year... Last year, we had just gotten Bu's pictures... this year, I enjoyed a day of playing with her. Last year, we fell in love with her. Today, she said three very special words to her sissy... "I ove ew!" I love you too, baby, I love you, too.

I am going crazy!!

No pictures today. I took quite a few good ones, but everytime I try to import them, my computer crashes. I am having major computer troubles. My power cord is broken so I have a stack of 5 heavy books on it to keep it in, plus it has to be perfectly flat. On top of that, it keeps crashing. So I really need to bring it in and get it fixed before I lose all 15,000 or how ever many pictures I have. Anyway... I'll try uploading them on our home computer tomorrow.

We had an awesome day! This morning AnnaClaire, Mom, and I went to my friend, Emily's house. They have a pool in their backyard. It was really fun. They put the hot tub on warm and AnnaClaire went in the hot tub for the first time. She liked it! She had a very fun time. She loved shooting baskets in the water basketball hoop. I would lift her way up high and she would throw it in! Emily had a bright green raft and AnnaClaire was sooooooo cute laying on it! She looked like a princess! She also loved blowing bubbles, being thrown, and swimming back and forth between Emily and I. She kicked and everything! So cute! Speaking of Emilys... AC was so confused that there were two "Ah mays". It was really funny when Mom would ask "Where's Emily?" She would look at both of us with this really confused look on her face and point at both. It was funny. After tons of fun, we had a delicious lunch and then had to leave for AC's naptime. She took a decent nap and then played in the house all day. We went out for dinner tonight at Moes. It was very yummy. AnnaClaire loved it! She met a little boyfriend there. As we were walking out, there was a little boy on the other side and he was kissing AnnaClaire through the glass. AnnaClaire was kinda shy through the glass but was waving and saying hi. Well, the minute we opened the door, she wouldn't stay away from him! They were SOOOOOOOO cute together. They would hug eachother and kiss eachother. It was too cute. Little Lawson was 23 months, so they were pretty close in age, too (AnnaClaire will be 21 months on Friday). Finally it was time to go and they left eachother with the cutest hug ever (real hug) and blew kisses. It was so cute. When we got home AnnaClaire played with her princess car on the porch. Then she made up a new game. I would sit on the ground and pucker up and she would run over and give me a kiss. Then I would keep my kissy face and she would run back and turn around to see me with my kissy face... then she would run back and give me another kiss. It was so cute. She had the biggest smiles and laughs. She obviously thought it was a very fun game. Well then I would have to coax her over. So she looked at me, pointed to her lips, and motioned for me to come to her! It was so sweet. Agh I love my sweet Bu so much!!! :)

Counting!!

I have had a lot of trouble with LumaPix lately. For some strange reason whenever I have the internet going and I open LumaPix, my computer crashes... so no POD collage today..

I really liked a lot of different pictures today, but what made me make up my mind is because I wanted a sperate post fo AnnaClaire's latest skill... learning to count!

This afternoon I decided that I was going to teach AnnaClaire to count to 2. We started with 1 finger and said 1. Then we did 2 fingers and said 2. If I say "One", she points one finger and says "One". If I say 2, she points two fingers and says "Two". It's so sweet! So we are beginning to count... I love how she says two, especially. She holds up a little finger on each hand and proudly says "Two!" So cute.

I also forgot to mention a funny thing AC did today in my last post... at Earth Fare, I said "You are such a big girl!" and she looked at me and said "Babee". It was so funny! Most little kids want to be so big and insist that they are big kids... but when I called AC a big girl, she proudly corrected me saying "babee!" I thought that was too funny!

Harry Potter Party Pics

Fred (Becky), George (Sarah), Luna (me), Hannah Abbott (Sydnee), Penelope Clearwater (Liz), Ginny (Meredith), Narcissa (Gillian), Bellatrix (Rachel), and a muggle (Natalie- Rachel's little sister)
Becky and Sarah were Fred and George. Except they weren't very good at looking manly :)

Me- Luna with a very dazed look

Closer up of me as Luna

Piggie Tails and Pool Fun

Running around the house with my book

I'm a so-happy baby!

Uh oh... I fell! But I'm still happy as could be..

Do you like my pretty neck-neck I made out of my string beads?

I wanna get in!!

In my raft

So sweet... (and such a sweet pic!)

Laughing

Mommy and Bu

All warm in my pretty towel!

I'm a princess in my princess towel after bath!

See the crown?

"Brushing" my teethies!

I love my tooth brush!

Whew.. what a day! The morning started out with my last swim practice of the season. That was sad. I'm going to miss it. We start back up at the beginning of September, so we have about a month off. We swim 11 months and have off 1. This is our 1 month off. AnnaClaire and Mom picked me up and we ran to Earth Fare for a bit. She started asking for Bunny in the car and we had to inform her that Bunny was in the wash! Mom informed me that this morning, AnnaClaire put Bunny in the wash, all by herself, and waved and blew kisses as she closed the door. Isn't that so sweet?! When of AC's favorite books is Pippo and I think that's what makes her be okay when Bunny goes in the wash :). So anyway, when we got back home, AnnaClaire remember that we had told her she could get Bunny out of the dryer when we got home. So she ran to the dryed and I opened it and she pulled out Bunny on first try, although she couldn't see a thing! Then AnnaClaire had a blast playing around the house. We played peek a boo and chase all through the downstairs. She had the biggest smiles of all time! As I mentioned earlier, she ate a huge lunch and then she took a good nap. Soon after she awoke, Mom and I took her to the pool for a bit. She had a blast. She played so nicely all by herself. She was so sweet at the pool. She loved her cups today!! It started getting kinda cold so we left and she played downstais and had dinner before I gave her a nice, long, warm bath. She had a blast (probably because I still had my bathing suit on and was freezing so I got in with her... which makes it all the more fun to bathe in AC's opinion!!) She had already been in the tub for over 30 minutes yet when I drained the tub, she stayed sitting there- in no water- until finally I made her get out! She got all cozied in her princess towel from Grandma. She really did look like a little princess! (Which, of course, she is!) When she got out, she brushed her teeth (well I did and then she did over what I did :)) and I got her all ready for bed in her sorta new pjs. It was the first time she wore the, but we've had them for awhile. They have little cupcakes on them! It's her first pair of 2 piece jammies!

While AnnaClaire slept, Will and I played on our brand new Wii. It is so much fun. Even Dad got into it and he insisted that there was no way he would! I am the champion of Wii sports (which is the only game we have at the moment.) I made "Miis" for everyone in our family.. including AnnaClaire. AnnaClaire's is so cute. It's the short little girl that's pudgy and has black hair that has a little hair thing in it. She is wearing a pink shirt and little denim jeans (they have no babies so I had to work with what they had!) and has the cutest little almond eyes. I'll have to take a picture sometime and post it.

Buttery Bu

Blowing on my noodles

Buttery and happy

I wanted to post this before I forgot... a really cute thing AnnaClaire did today.

We were eating lunch and she was sitting in her high chair waiting for her noodles. All of a sudden, Mom and I hear a loud "AH MEN!" I look over and AnnaClaire is sitting in her hair chair with her hands folded and now saying "AH MEN" over and over. It was so sweet. She is so cute how she never begins her meals without her prayers!

Then we brought her a gourmet lunch of noodles and she took one look and said "ha" (hot). We assured her that no, they were not hot. But she insisted and then... she started blowing on them! It was soooooo cute. I, of course, made her do it for the camera after that cuteness!

She ended up eating a huge lunch... 4 helpings of strawberries and 2 helpings of noodles... after lunch she was COVERED in butter from her noodles. It was so funny. Her hands... her face... her HAIR... just COVERED in butter. It was so cute :)

What would've been our 1 year LID-versary

First of all, today would've been our 1 year LID-versary. I am so glad we have AnnaClaire home safe and sound on this day... Everyone waiting... I'm so sorry for how long the wait has gotten. I am praying for a major speedup and to see many, many referrals soon!! And also to my friend Brittany, who is LID 11/18 so expecting the referral of her little sister in the next batch!! I can't wait to see Lauren!!

Today was a fun day. Just a typical Sunday. After Church we went to lunch and I showed AnnaClaire the lake and ducks. I got a few cute pictures of her. When we got home she went down for her nap. I went to the pool with a few friends for a little while. It was very fun. Dad and AnnaClaire filled the day with errands and then we went to Wal-Mart later. AnnaClaire loves going on errands. She liked looking at all the fish in Wal-Mart! She was very sad when we had to leave them...

Harry Potter Party Pics

they aren't posting... I'll add them later

More petstore

I'm having trouble adding pictures to one post, so that explains the 2 posts. I'm still trying to post some pictures from the HP party, too.

More petstore pictures and 1st corn on the cob, too!

A game of tag- Nicknames!

This picture was taken on April 30. I never posted it because it was on a collage that messed up and wouldn't post. I have been meaning to post it... but keep forgetting. It's one of my favorites.

My family is a family of interesting nicknames... always have been. We somehow come up with the strangest nicknames.

We start with my oldest brother, Drew. His nickname is "Whoosie"... or any for of that you can possibly think of. How my parents came up with it? I have no idea. But he is to this day called "Whoosie"!

Then comes Will... He is "Bump" or "Lump Bump", or anything you can combine with those 2 words. When he was a baby, my grandma called him "Willy Lump Lump" and then it was shortened to Lump which somehow turned into Bump.

I have always been "Sue". Sue, Susie, Susie Q, Emie Sue Q... anything you can think of that has to do with "Sue". How that came to be... I have no idea. But I have just always been Sue. My brothers always call me "Zan". When we were younger we thought of the strangest nicknames for eachother. Drew was "Big Joe", Will was "Bambo" and I was "Zanie". Although Will and Drew weren't called their joke nicknames for long, they have called me Zan since that day.

So with a family of kids nicknamed Whoosie, Bump and Susie, it is only right that AnnaClaire have a strange nickname, too... You might've noticed me calling her "Bu"... that's because that is our sweet girl's nickname... How that came to be, I do know. My mom has always thought that besides the name AnnaClaire, AC looks like a Betsy. So somehow we started calling AnnaClaire the "Little Bitsy Bu". Bitsy-Betsy... similar. For awhile she was just "Bitsy". But then it got shortened to "Bu", which has just stuck. She answers to Bu and points to herself and says "Bu". It's so funny/cute. There are so many ways we call her Bu... she's Bu Bear, Bu Berry, Bitsy Bu, Butles, Butle Bu, Bu Bu, and so much more. edited to add- funny thing is, that after we started calling her "Bu", we realized that she came to us on gotcha day saying "BUUUUUUUUUUUUU". Not only that but being born on October 27, she is a little "boo" baby! She's just our little Bu!

Now, I tag Keara, Staci, and Holly!

Bunnies!!! (POD)

The Harry Potter thing last night was so much fun. I dressed up as Luna Lovegood- complete with real radishes hanging from my ears and everything. We had a very fun time and the sleepover at my friend's house afterwards was tons of fun, too. We stayed up all night just reading and reading and got very little sleep. In the morning, my friend's mom made us a delicious breakfast and we ate outside and then read more, and for awhile, we even got on floats and read in their pool! It was tons of fun. I actually haven't even read the new book yet. (I haven't finished the rest of the series, so I'm finishing those books first) One of my friend's finished the book already (in less than 10 hours!!!!!) and said it was so good. Anyway... after awhile at my friend's house, I came home and Dad and I decided to take AnnaClaire on a little petstore outing! On the whole way, AC said "a-ma-mals, a-ma-mals". It was adorable!! The store was very, very fun. AnnaClaire loved the bunnies again. She was SO cute holding them and was very gentle with them! She also saw birds, fish, hamsters, dogs, kitties, and snakes. She loved the bunnies the best but she took interest in all the animals. She also loved running down the lane just looking at dog after dog, and the kitties, too. She thought it was lots of fun to share her beloved bunny with the cats. Hehe. She's such a little sharer! After awhile at the petstore, we went back home just in time for dinner- where Bu ate her first corn on the cop!! She was so cute chomping on it!!! I have quite a few pictures from today, but I was in the middle of uploading them when my computer shut off and I am so tired. So I'll add those tomorrow. For now, enjoy the POD- AnnaClaire with the sweet little bunny. I also posted some from the past couple days below, so check those out as well!! Hope everyone had a wonderful Saturday!!

Pictures from the past few days

Sissy's physical, Chickfila, and the pool!

This morning AnnaClaire came with Mom and I to my physical to do school sports. She was a ham at the school just running all around, being her adorable self. Afterwards, Mom treated us to Chickfila. It was so yummy! AnnaClaire was a big fruit eater. There were apples in her fruit cup and she loves to look at things that have apples on them, so I told her they were apples. She tried them. She ate a ton! At first she loved them. Then I think she had too many apples because she spit them out. We went to Hallmark after lunch to look at the new Vera Bradley patterns. AnnaClaire is going to love purse shopping when she's older, because she would just walk around with them on her shoulder. We came home and she took a not very good nap. When The Princess awoke, Mom asked me if I could take her to the pool and I took her for a little while. She had a very fun time. She loved playing in her ladybug raft- in both the big pool and the baby pool. In the baby pool, she liked to sit in it and walk around. It was so cute. She also had big fun with her cups and watering can in the pool! The pool is just always a hit... she is a water baby!! She had a pretzel snack (and it's not even funny how cute she was eating them!!) and then Mom picked us up and we went home. Back at home she played, ate dinner, and then she played a new game... stand up and fall down on Sissy and then start laughing! Big fun!

I'm about to leave to go to the Harry Potter dressup party with some friends and afterwards, we are all spending the night at one of my friend's house. I have tons of pictures from today (although I posted one of my favorites at the top... isn't she so cute?) and still have a few from yesterday, so I'll post those tomorrow! :)

Pool day!

This morning we went to the pool for awhile. We had a very fun time. AnnaClaire met a little friend there and they had fun playing in the baby pool together. The little girl just turned 2, so the she and AnnaClaire were 4 months apart in age and so cute together. We even brought lunch to the pool and ate lunch there. It was very fun. AnnaClaire had a blast, as always. I taught her a new trick- how to blow bubbles!! It's so cute when she does it and she gets soooooo proud of herself! So adorable. Around 1, Mom and AnnaClaire left and I stayed with a couple friends. Mom and AC came to pick me up just before 6. There was a "mei mei", Abby there! She was from Hunan just like AnnaClaire. She was so cute. We talked to their family for awhile. Abby was so adorable. She was 3. I wish AnnaClaire had her bathingsuit on so they could've played for a little while. But we were ready to leave, anyway. Mom made a yummy dinner that we ate. AnnaClaire loved it. After dinner, AnnaClaire and I played with the food from her shopping cart. She is so smart. For over half of the foods, I wouls ask her where _____ was and she would pick it up. A few of them she got wrong, but mostly she got them right! What a smart girl! Another cute thing she did at dinner was when we brought her her food, she sat with it with her hands folded and said "God". She wanted to pray!! We told her "lets wait until everyone is sitting". So when Mom sat down, she folded them again. We told her we had to wait for Drew and when Drew sat down she did it again. Then when the prayer ended, she said loudly and proudly... "AH MEN!" So cute!!!!! Tonight she called Dad. She loves to call people. She was just playing with the phone so I asked who she was calling and she said "Dada". So I dialed Dad for her and she talked to Dad (who was downstairs). She's so funny!!!

I just downloaded a new internet and it's not letting me add pictures... I do have a couple that are cute. I forgot my camera at the pool, but my friend got a few pictures. I also have a couple from tonight.

I never know what to name my posts.

I hate to break it to you, but there are no pictures from today. None. These are 2 from May that I love of her wearing the outfit she wore today. This morning, shortly after I woke up and gave the Bu a few kisses, she left with Mom for storytime. I left for swim practice while they were still gone and was home a short amount of time before AnnaClaire went down for her nap and I went shopping for a little bit with some friends. When I got home AnnaClaire had just woken up and Mom and her had left for Wal-Mart 5 minutes before. While they were still gone, I got picked up and babysat 2 kids for 5 hours. So that explains no pictures. That also means kinda a lousy post because there's nothing really to post about.

We are nearing our 1 year referral anniversary on July 25. That's exciting:) Then on August 4, we leave for AnnaClaire's first beach trip!!!!! WOOHOO! I'm so excited about that. I think she will just love the beach! :)

Playing sweetly this morning

I'm going to play with my shape sorter!

my shape sorter is such fun!

I can put all the shapes in all by myself!
The blue triangle goes here!
Looking at all my shapes in there
I'm so big by the big tower that Sissy made me!
All fall down!
Now I'm going to build it back!
Just a few more!
Second to last one! (this picture makes me laugh!)
I'm a big girl making my box tower
This block next
There are "ah-pas" (apples) on my dress!
I love my Bunny!
Giddyup Doggie (Maggie is SO good. AnnaClaire just climbs on her and Maggie doesn't even care. She is such a good dog!!!!!!)
Putting some popcorn in my shopping cart

Shopping
Pushing my cart with Doggie by my side
Eating like a doggie... not good!
Sweet girl!
This afternoon after naptime, I went to get AnnaClaire out of her crib. She then followed me to the computer and wanted to get on with me. I sat her on my lap and we looked at lots of her little friends websites. I was showing her her friend Claire and I asked if she could say "Claire". She looked at me and said "Claaa". It was so cute. So of course I told her that Claire was in her name, too! If we ask AnnaClaire what her name is, she points to herself and says "Ah-na". So I pointed and said "say Anna" to which she responded "Ah na". Then I said "Now say Claire" and she said Claire clear as day!!! She still can't quite get AnnaClaire together, but hey- we are getting there!!! Speaking of words, she always points out what is on her dresses... today it was "Ah pa! Ah pa!"

This morning, AnnaClaire was playing so nice. She went from toy to toy just playing and playing. She is such a good girl. Anyway, these pictures are all from her playing this morning (and a few from lunch). Enjoy. Oh and as for the POD, let me know if there is a certain one that stands out at you for the POD... as I can't decide!!

Have I mentioned that AnnaClaire has DIMPLES? She has them on either side of her nose and then two cute little ones by her mouth/cheek. SO CUTE!!! I love my dimple girl!!

POD- I love my sweet Bu Berry!

Guitar Hero

Can I please play guitar hero?

talking on the caculator phone!
The Bu Bear learned 2 new words today. 1: "Rae Chel" (Rachel) 2: "Pa Tee" (panties). She learned "Rachel" on the way to swim practice. As you can guess, my friend Rachel was in the car with us. AnnaClaire said it clear as day "Rae Chel". It was so cute!

The word panties came after her nap. I was changing her diaper and she saw her little diaper cover/panties and pointed saying "Pa Tee". It was so cute. She is such a sweet and smart little girl!

This afternoon, she went into Will's room and picked up his Guitar Hero guitar. It was so funny. I think she wanted to play! Then she was unloading my school supplies and came upon my new calculator and walked around the house with it up to her ear. She didn't even put it down when we walked down the stairs- nope! One hand help firmly on to mine and the other held the calculator to her ear! Too funny!

Tonight we had our "Allstar" meet. It went well. Our team placed 3rd over all in both dual and tonights meet (against all the teams). We were very proud of that. In addition to 3rd place, we got the sportsmanship award which we have really wanted to get. So that was fun. Afterwards we had pizza dinner and were awarded all our medals and ribbons. It was a very fun night.

Also, I have had SO many people request blog makeovers and other things lately. YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN. I have been so busy and have just not had much extra computer time. July is always a really busy month with swimming. Now that summer league is over and there are just a few more practices for my competitive team, I will have much more time. So if you have contacted me about doing your blog, I will be getting started this week!

What's in my purse?

Ally tagged me in this purse meme, so here we go...

I have many purses. This is the one I use the most. It is the Vera Bradley hipster in peacock and I got it for my birthday in March.
These are the things that you can normally find in my purse... hand sanitizer (could not go a day without that... I'm a germaphob), the camera, my retainer case, a deck of cards, sunglasses, hair scrunching creme, my little change purse thingy that serves many purposes, lotion, my wallet, a mirror (from the embroidery factory in Changsha!!), gum, my cell phone, a koozie, a rubber band, earrings, a clip, lipgloss, and AnnaClaire's referral picture. My purse goes everywhere. I feel naked without it! So, it is filled with all sorts of stuff that I need. and fewer/more things go in depending on where I'm going!

If you're reading this and haven't done it yet, consider yourself tagged.

Yesterday pictures and pod

POD:

Day 3 of the swim meet

For some odd reason, my pictures aren't loading.. which is quite annoying because not only did I have two collages full of pictures, the pod, but I also had a meme to do! So those things will have to wait until tomorrow...

We had another fun time at the swim meet. The day was pretty much like yesterday-- Bu Berry helped me petsit, then came to the swim meet. She had a big time there. She loves my coach. Loves him. She also loves all my friends. Last year, I think I talked about a girl named Anna. She is one of the guys on my team's sisters. Well, she was at the swim meet today! She's 9 and she loved AnnaClaire. She, like AnnaClaire, is from Hunan and was adopted in 1999 when she was almost 2. AnnaClaire loved Anna and Anna loved AnnaClaire. They were really cute together! So that was cool!

There was more pool fun, cell phone talking, food eating, cheerleading, etc. There was lots of thunder which delayed the meet, but AnnaClaire handled it very well. She's such a good girl! The swim meet went well and I swam okay. I have a few more practices left and then we have all of August off before starting back in early September.

Jumping Bean (POD and video!)

Tonight, AnnaClaire learned how to jump! I'm so proud of my mei mei! She was so proud of herself, too. She did it over and over. I think she is very pleased with her new skill. She doesn't always get both feet of the ground, but most of the times, she did!!! When we called Dad down to see, he said "I didn't know one year olds were supposed to jump!" She was the most happy girl while she was jumping... big smiles. I love this picture of her jumping. I also took a short video of her showing off her new skill...

Another day at Sissy's meet!

This morning, AnnaClaire came with me to petsit. She was such a big girl helping me walk the dog! She would even hold on to the leash with me! She has also gotten so good at using her words. At first, I held her. For a little while, she was content being held, but then she wanted to walk. So she started saying "walk, walk". She walked a long time and on the way back, she wanted to be held again, so she looked at me and said "up!" Whenever I said "heel" to the dog, I would hear her little voice say "heeeeeeeeel". It was so cute! She had such a fun time helping me. By the time we got home, we had a quick breakfast and then she helped me pack the car (I was babysitting her). At one point, I left her downstairs so I could run up and get something upstairs and I said "I'll be RIGHT back". Everytime we say that, she stays right where she is and says "righ bac, righ bac". It's so funny. Once back down for a few minutes, it was really quiet, so I went to check on her. Little Bu was sitting on the brown leather chair with one of Mom's books open, reading! It was the funniest thing! She helped me pack the car up for the meet and then as soon as Dad got home, we left. She was a champ in the car. For part of the ride, I had to keep looking behind to make sure she was actually there! She slept a little, but mostly sat with her book and Bunny just looking out the windows. She had another very fun time at the meet. No wonder- she has tons of people just fighting over her! She had a big time playing in the pool, cheering for people, eating, and more. She loves the little pool. She had so much fun in it with her watering can today! She also made many, many friends. She just loves everyone... and everyone loves her! I swam pretty well today!

On the way home, she crashed and slept the whole time until we got to Pei Wei where we had dinner. It was so yummy!

When we got home, AnnaClaire was so excited to see Mom! She ran to her, happily. The night consisted of bathtime, reading, playing, and then... she showed us her brand new trick... but I'm saving that for the next post. After lots of reading, she went night night. Dad and I watched Facing the Giants which is a really good movie.

I hope everyone had a great Saturday!!

Sweet smile at the swim meet (POD)

This is my very favorite picture of AnnaClaire from today. I just love her little smile in it! She had such fun in the pool...

swim meet fun

talking on Rachel's phone

Umm hellllo?
Why are they not saying anything to me?
Wading in the pool!
I like this pool!
Splash splash!
Sweet face
Thanks for taking me in the pool, Sissy and Sarah!
Walking up the ramp

Playing in the water
Running down the ramp!
Kissing Annie-doggie
Eating my congee in the chair!

This morning, AnnaClaire did such a cute/smart thing. She had been playing with her stacking cups and she was missing the top cup (purple). She and Mom had been looking for it and a good hour later, she comes up to Mom, taps her, looks in the direction of her tower, and says "cup". Sure enough at the top of the tower is the little purple cup! Is she not the smarted little bitsy?

She went down for an early nap so she would be ready to come to the meet with me this afternoon. At 2:15, I went in her room to wake her up. I entered very quitely as I really wanted to watch her sleep, as we never get to for fear of waking her. It was such a beautiful sight. She was sleeping on her belly with her little face to the wall. She was clutching on to her Bunny and her cheek was squished against the matress, making her look even more chubby cheeked than normal! She had the most beautiful expression on her face... my sleeping beauty. I could've sat there for an hour just watching her sleep. After a few minutes, I started rubbing her back and talking to her to wake her up. She woke up so joyful and a few minutes later we were off to Shelby for my swim meet! She had such fun at the meet. She loves being with all my friends and they all love her. It's so funny because they all try to get her to say their names! She says them each in a cute little way. It's very sweet. At one point, she went to say hi to my coach and was very enthralled by his clipboard and pen. So he let her color a picture on the heat sheet. She thought that was soooooooooooo fun and drew a lovely picture. I had awhile before I swam my 400 free, so I put her in her bathingsuit and my friend Sarah and I brought her in the little pool. There's a little section of the warm down pool that is really shallow and slants. AnnaClaire loved playing in it! She would run up and down the ramp and splash. She had such fun!

After a little while of playing in the baby pool, she ate her congee and strawberry dinner. She was so cute sitting on the chair being fed! She was a very good cheerleader for my 400. I did okay.

Afterwards, she and Dad went home and I went home with my friend Becky, because we went out to dinner to celebrate her birthday, which was today. It was a lot of fun!

Tomorrow AnnaClaire is going to go with to the swim meet again. She loves going to them, especially when she gets to swim there!!

Introducing AnnaClaire's friend, Maddy!

The day I got home from Auburn (6/26), my mom pulled up pictures of a beautiful little girl. I asked who it was and my mom said "MADDY!!" (of course I already knew that because the just LOOKED like a Maddy!) I was so excited!! That day, my mom's good online friend received the referral of little Madison ChuYan! Maddy and AnnaClaire are exactly 2 weeks apart in age (AC- 10/27, Maddy- 11/10), so that's really cool! They are going to be such great friends! I wanted to post a "congrats on your referral" post right away, but I really wanted to include pictures, and had to wait till they posted pictures before I did. Anyway, isn't she just beautiful?! I can't wait to get Maddy, Elizabeth, Grace, and AnnaClaire together once they are all home, as these were my mom's first adoption friends. Congrats again to Maddy's family on the referral of your beautiful little princess! We've showed AnnaClaire Madison's pictures a lot and she points and says "Mei Mei". It's so cute! Maddy, we love you already and can't wait to meet you (and your family!)

Maddy's blog- www.buckeyesinchina.blogspot.com

POD- Pajama Queen!

These are AnnaClaire's newest jammies. I LOVE them. They have little ice cream cones on them. She was so cute in them this morning! They are from the Gymboree Outlet. I think they are my favorite pjs she has... of course I love ALL her pjs!

"Loved by all and thriving in her home"

We just received our post placement report back, and those are the words our SW used... how true those words are...

Such a cool girl! (she found my little party favor kiddie sunglasses from my friend's birthday while we were in Auburn)

Going for a wagon walk in my jammies!I loved all the pretty flowers that I saw!
Bye bye flowers!
We had a very nice day today. AnnaClaire and I played awhile this morning. When I told her I was going to bring her upstairs to play, she grabbed her "belongings" (her little book and Bunny). She's so funny about that. Everytime we go somewhere, she picks up 2-4 little things (one is always Bunny!) It's like she can't leave without some of her things! It's quite cute. We had fun playing in my room. She loves my pink daisy chair thingy. She sits on it and then slides down. She just loves it. Every time she comes in my room, she sits on it and "slides" down. It's so cute. After we played for awhile, my friend's mom picked me up and drove us to the movies. 12 of us went to lunch and saw Harry Potter today. It was sooooo much fun. We had the best time. The movie itself was good, too. It has been such a busy week. I have to admit that I am ready for a day to just be lazy and be with AnnaClaire all day. This weekend I have a swim meet and AnnaClaire is going to come along. It's an outdoor meet and there's a little 1/2 foot section pool for the little kids. So we are going to bring AnnaClaire's bathing suit and Dad is going to watch her play in the water. Anyway, after the movie we went straight to swim practice and then Mom picked me up. AnnaClaire and her had just gotten back from the pool!! It's not even funny how much she loves the pool! Way different then she was at the Great Wold Lodge, Keara! When we got home, she sat and just started playing in "her" cabinent. There is a cabinent filled with things that she can play with like plastic tuuberwares, plastic cups, etc. She loves playing in there. She just sat playing with stuff in there for the longest time. She is such a good girl. I finally got her to leave her cabinent so I could get her in dry clothes. (her pjs) and after congee dinner, I took her on a wagon walk. We had big fun. Our house has a really steep driveway and our street is steep as well. So AnnaClaire loves going down those kinda fast. She always has the biggest smiles when I pull her down the hills! On our walk we saw a "mow mow" (lawn mower), lots of flowers, dogs, papers, flags, etc. She points out (or I show her) each and everything and says whatever it is. It's so cute! There's a little creek nearby and we passed that and I was pointing it out and she looked at me, put her hands up, and said "up". So I couldn't resist and I took her out and showed her the creek. She didn't want to leave it. She loved the water in the creek. I can't believe we had never showed her that before!! We got home and Daddy was home from St Louis!!!

Another month makes SEVEN!

It's hard to believe that today marks our 7th month with AnnaClaire. I cannot believe that. How is that possible? How have we had our sweet, precious, beautiful AnnaClaire Chenhui for 7 whole months?! Wasn't it just yesterday that we were in Changsha being handed our beauitful girl? But wait... wasn't it years ago that we were handed our precious Hui Hui? The time is flying. But, haven't we had her forever?

How is this happy, outgoing toddler the same screaming, scared to death baby that was made a part of our family 7 months ago? Wow, 7 months has changed her so much! Not only is her hair blacker... thicker... longer... straighter... her face thinner... longer... tanner... her eyes brighter... wider... her frame taller... she is changing so much. She is no longer that 13 month old baby that we came to know 7 months ago... she is now a 20 month old toddler that I love more than anything in the world!!

My sweet little Bu,

Do you know just how much I love you?

I have loved you from day 1. The day we decided to adopt.

I fell more in love the day we got your referral... almot a year ago.

While we waited for TA, my love grew more.

Finally, 7 months ago, you were given to us. You were more perfect than I could imagine. I loved you more than anything. I didn't think it would be possible to love you any more than I did on that day, 7 months ago.

But how I was wrong. Each and every day, I have fallen even more in love with you. I love you with every ounce of love I have, and I know that each day that love will grow even more.

You are the most wonderful blessing I could ever ask for... and I thank Jesus for blessing us with YOU!

Happy 7 months together, beautiful Mei Mei!

Love forever and ever,

"Ah-may" (Emie)

Pretty in Pink!

Here's our little Bu looking out the window with Maggie

Happy girl!!
Me and my Bubba!
Sitting in my chair
I'm SO big!
Hi!
Dancing in my chair
Lookie there!
I love looking out the window!
Eating spaghetti (sp?)

First of all, I have had a few people comment/email me on my lack of blogging. I'm sorry about that! It has been such a busy week. By the time I get home each night, I just want to fall into my bed and get a good sleep before waking up at 6 for swimming. So that explains my not as long, detailed posts and way less pictures.

We had a good day today. I can't believe today is our 7 month gotcha. Time flies with our sweet AnnaClaire!

This mid morning, I took AnnaClaire to the pool. We had a very fun time! She has mastered going under water and was no ettected at all when she took a little slip in the baby pool and fell all the way under. In fact, she loves to go under water and come back up rubbing the water off her face! She also has mastered jumping off the side to me. She was so funny. I would say "Jump, AnnaClaire!" and wherever she was standing, she would move her hands up and start jumping! It was sooo cute. All the lifegaurds were quite happy because she was saying all of their names! around 12:45, we went home so AnnaClaire could have lunch, baba, and nap. A little while after, I went to my friend, Lexi's house until our swim team banquet. We had a lot of fun at Lexi's and the banquet was really fun. The food was amazing. It was outside at our pool and the weather was not very nice. Halfway through it, it started POURING and thundering. It was awful (yet fun). For atleast half an hour, we sat there under the shelter hoping it would clear up. And slowly we saw the rain get lighter and lighter. Finally it stopped and we continued. After the banquet part, there was a pool party and kareoke. Kareoke was the best part. I love doing kareoke. It's especially fun when you are *really bad singers* and you are singing all these random songs with your friends... I love kareoke! After a fun filled banquet (with no more bad weather!!) I came home.

AnnaClaire's afternoon went well as well. Poor baby gets/has the WORST mosquito bites ever. She is just itching and itching them like crazy. I feel so bad :(. And some of them, she itches so hard and then get infected. We put bug spray on, but they seem to still get her. The other day, Mom put it on here everywhere but her face... and guess what? She is now sporting a bite in the center of her forehead... I can't wait till the mosquitos are gone!

As you can see from the pictures, she had a fun afternoon. Mom (thanks Mom) took all these pictures because I didn't have my camera at the pool. Tonight AnnaClaire tasted her first spaghetti (with sauce) tonight and it made a mess. I wasn't there, but there are sauce stains all over her dress (which is really sad because I LOVE that dress!) Mom said she loved it... but it was SO messy!

Hope you had a wonderful day!

No pictures today... so more wedding pictures!

There are no pictures from today, so here are two more from the wedding that my great uncle sent me. I love both of these pictures! The first one is Dad and AnnaClaire dancing at the reception and the second is obviously of AnnaClaire walking down the aisle. So cute.

So our day? It was good. After swimming we went on a few errands and got a few things. AnnaClaire was so sweet the whole time. She just loves errands! We let her walk instead of go in the cart in one of the stores, and she walked SO nicely. She doesn't always walk very nicely when she has to hold hands- Miss Independant!

When we got home we had lunch and my friend came over. AnnaClaire napped very well. While she was still sleeping, my friend's mom picked us up and we went to our summer league meet (which was redone tonight). It was good. We lost by a lot. The people we were against were the division winners. So our record is 3 wins, 2 losses. We won all our home meets and lost both our away meets! We have our banquet tomorrow and then our "Allstar" meet is next week. I just love summer league!

So there are no pictures today. AnnaClaire was sooooooo sweet when I actually did see her this morning. I just love my mei mei!!!!!!! Mom says that AnnaClaire is always saying "Sissy" when I'm not home. Awwwww.

Oh and btw, just in case people are wondering (because I've had many people tell me they always look forward to seeing what AnnaClaire is wearing each day), she wore her cute little white dress with light pink sailboats and her big light pink bow. She looked like a dollbaby! Sorry there are no pics!

Helping Sissy Fold and THE lemon

Today a ton of my friends went to my friend Liz's house to watch the Harry Potter movies. We didn't watch them all, but we were there all day watching the ones we could. And then we are going to see the 5th one after swimming this week. I'm wasn't really into Harry Potter, but it's pretty good. I had already seen some of the movies, but not all of them. After that, we went to our last summer league meet of the season. It poured rain, thundered, and there was lightning, so we didn't get to swim at all. But it was really fun running around in the rain and then trying to stay out of the lightning and warm when that started. We went to Chickfila afterwards...yum! So I wasn't home most of the day... but this morning after swimming, I brought AnnaClaire up to my room and she helped me clean. She was so funny folding clothes with me. She would pick it up and put it down and try to fold it. It was so cute. She is such a big helper! :) These pictures were taken on my phone, so they aren't great quality, but the camera was out of batteries. I need to charge it!



here's the picture of AnnaClaire and the lemon that I took on Saturday. Isn't it so cute??

Lovely Littly Lady (POD)

beautiful girl ready for Church!

Here are a few pictures of AnnaClaire before Church. I love her dress so much. It was supposed to be her baptismal dress, but we are in the middle of switching Churches, she has not been baptised yet. It's a size 18 month, so we decided we better just let her wear it. Maybe it will still fit when we do become members of the new Church so that she can still be babtised/dedicated in it. Anyway... Bu had a big time in the nursery. It was really funny because we saw a family with a mei mei who we had met at the mall before! How wierd is that?!?!?! I thought that was pretty cool. Other than that, it was a pretty normal day. I was at the pool most of the afternoon, but I think AnnaClaire had a good afternoon, too. Enjoy the pictures... doesn't our Princess look darling in her white??

Happy 1st Birthday to my Blog! (& pod)

First of all, here's today's POD. Didn't it turn out well? Daddy and his daughterS. I love it!

And secondly, today marks the one year birthday of my blog. I can't believe it was a year ago today that I started this journal of our journey to AnnaClaire. I also can't believe how far we have come in just one year. I started this blog the day we were DTC, so last year on this day... we sent all our documents to China. In one year, we have recieved AnnaClaire's referral (7/25), sent in our LOI (8/11), celebrated AnnaClaire's first birthday (10/27), received our TA (11/20), traveled to China (12/7), made AnnaClaire part of our family (12/11), flew home to NC (12/20), and since then we have enjoyed close to 7 months of our sweet girl. In fact, it was 7 months ago today that we left NC for China!!! Wow... we've come a long way in a year!! Then, we were 5. Now, we are 6.

I was looking back at my first few posts (you can see my first post here) and I also can't believe how much my writing has changed... Last year I had nothing to talk about! I kinda laughed as I read my posts. They were just so... I don't know... I also can't believe the amount of followers I have gotten in the last year. A year ago, it was surprising if I got one comment. Now, I usually always get a couple to each post (which makes me really happy). Last year I started a counter and I had about 1,000 visitors in 2 or so months. Now I get about 1,000 visitors every week (thank goodness for statcounter so I know all this!) I love the little community that my blog has become...

So thanks to all the people who follow my blog. Thanks for a year of great blogginess! I look forward to many more to come!!

NC Transportaion Museum

AnnaClaire and Sissy in front of a train

AnnaClaire pulling a toy train at the shop
AnnaClaire by the bright red fire truck (don't worry, Dad was standing right there!)
Look at that "Ah-pla"!
Look at 'em all!
Daddy and me by an old police car
Blowing my new train whistle
I wish gas prices were this cheap!!!!!!!!! We're just happy to be under 3 dollars..
Me and my new whistle
Sissy and me by the caboose!
Hi!

I like this green and yellow "train" thing!
Looking out the window on the train ride
Such fun!
I LOVE the train ride!
Looking out the window

Saying hi to everyone around me
Sissy and me at the front of the train... like my conducter's hat? The conducter let me wear it!
I loved to look out the window!
Sissy and me by the train we rode on
Another shot of the train

Steering the train
Hi!
Sissy and me sitting on the top floor of the train
Trying out this old red caboose!
Hi there, Mama and Sissy!

Look at me by the bright orange bus!
Water brake!
We are famous!!! (our picture is the one matted in blue)
Riding on the Roundabout
We had a fun filled day at the NC Transportation Museum! It was a very good place to day trip to only being an hour away. It was not very crowded so that was nice. There were all kinds of exhibits and best of all a train ride! At each of the exhibits, AC would point out all the vehicles. I think her favorite to say was airplane. She would run around saying "ah-pla". It was so cute!! She saw lots of old cars, trucks, planes, hot air balloons, everything. At the gift shop, we bought her a miniature train whistle and she loves it! She walked around the museum just blowing and blowing her whistle. She was very good at blowing it, too. She could actually make a good size sounds come out of it! After touring awhile, we had a picnic lunch and then we rode on the train. It was a very enjoyable ride. There was a little boy who did all the announcing stuff and he was really good. AnnaClaire loved the train ride. She waved to everyone and was just sitting there smiling, enjoyined herself. She took it all in. She even got to wear the conducter's hat! After that, we got to ride the roundabout. That was really cool. There were lots of trains that we could walk in and see, too. AnnaClaire thought all the trains were so cool! After awhile there, we had finished the tour so we headed back home. When we got in the car, the thermometor read 100 degrees- UGH! It was so hot. But it was such a fun day. They were also doing family pictures there and the guy was really nice and the pictures weren't that much- just a donation that went towards the museum. So we got a picture made of Dad, AnnaClaire, and I. It came out really good. It's the POD, so I'll post it in a minute. AnnaClaire fell asleep within seconds of getting in the car. She was SO tired! She slept soundly until it started pouring rain, thundering, and lightning. That woke her up. We had a big storm here. AnnaClaire doesn't seem scared of storms at all. We went out to dinner at On the Border and it was delicious. It was so funny after dinner, Mom gave AnnaClaire a lemon to play with. Of course, AnnaClaire put the lemon to her mouth. It was very sour, obviously, and she it was so funny because a wiggle went down her spine. It was really cute. She had HUGE smiles with her lemon. Sadly, I didn't get a picture, but I did get one of her with the lemon. I need to send it to myself so I'll post it tomorrow. Hope you had a good day! It's 7/7/07... that's so cool...

POD- Smiley Girl

I just put this one together quickly. I love this picture. She has the sweetest smile!!!

Random pics from today

Most of these pictures are from when AnnaClaire, Dad, and I were watching the video from the wedding. She was so funny watching the videos. Everytime she saw something/someone she knew, she started saying it over and over. She's a hoot. If you haven't seen it yet, I did post the video of AC being the flower girl. So make sure to watch that!! The last picture is of her getting a "potato sack". When I was younger, Dad did this to me every night to put me to bed. AnnaClaire loved being carried around like this, as you can see!

Our Sweet Flower Girl (movie)

I finally got around to putting together the flower girl video. (Sorry it's so blurry... it's really clear but when I upload it, it turns out really blurry...) Isn't she just precious? I love how she sees Bunny and points and says "Bubba!" and starts running... and everyone awws and laughs. So cute!!! And then the end where she dances to the music... how sweet is that? Enjoy the video. It's only 3 minutes long, don't worry! Oh and don't forget to turn up your volume. It has to be kinda loud to hear her talking.

And since Will cut off the video right before the bride walked down, here's a good shot of Leah and Matthew from the back.

FFFF Challenge- Stars and Stipes

This week's FFFF Challenge, now by Loving Lydia is Stars and Stripes. Here's the Bitsy Bu on the 4th of July. She had a bigggggg first 4th of July. For more pictures & text, go to my Fourth of July post here.

Pretty girl on the chair (POD)

2 more (convertible ride)

I just don't think the convertible will ever get old... for example, yesterday, she got out and WOULD NOT come inside. She kept pointing to the car and saying "more, more, more". She started whimpering when we came back in and pretty much made Dad take her for another ride! She loves that car...

Pictures from today

So I wasn't really home enough to tell you about Little Bit, but I hear she had a very fun day and took a long nap! I had a really good day, too. For the time in between our two swim practices, we were in my friend's backyard pool. It was really fun because they had a small waterslide and a diving board!!! We had an awesome time, but I was happy to see the little Princess when she came in the convertible to pick me up from swimming! The pictures are of AnnaClaire sitting on the chair while Dad grilled hamburgers for dinner. She loves climbing on chairs and sitting on them!!

4th of July

I think I like to bake cookies!

Rolling the dough (don't mind the blue bow... it was the only one I could find and she needed it to keep her hair out of her face)
Making it into a star!
See all the flour on me?

Brianna and me in the pool

Liz and me at the pool (I took this one and the next one on my phone... not too bad of quality, actually!)
So sweet with her hat on!

This is my tongue. I love my tongue.
Playing with the watering can and bucket a little girl let me borrow!
I'm so cute!
Hi to all my fans!
Hamming it up for the camera

So beautiful
Becky and me playing with the beach ball
Brianna swam with me! (a different Brianna lifeguard than the first picture one)
Brianna and me
Eating my cookie at the Botanical Gardens

This is really yummy!
Liz and me with my cookie
Playing cards with Sissy, Elizabeth, and Sadie
I found my own little seat and waved to all my fans
Please?

What is this thing they call a bracelet?
I think I like it!
So pretty in front of the sun
Bubble fun!
Blowing bubbles

I love bubbles!
Sissy and me blowing bubbles
Such fun!
Cheesy grin
Look at the airplane! I flew on one of those from China!

What a cool flower!
So sweet by the sunflowers
Posing pretty (What a sweet picture!)
Sadie showing me some flowers
Happy girl!

Posing like the statue (she totally did this on her own... we got a laugh out of that!)
Elizabeth and me by the pretty gardens...
Smelling the flowers
I like this one! It's pur-pa!
Sissy and me (aren't I such a goof ball?)

So happy girl looking at the gardens!
Sissy and me looking at another pretty flower, this one on a vine!
Watching fireworks with Mrs. P!
Pretty fireworks!

Whew, that was a lot of pictures. Don't worry, there aren't nearly as many from today!

As you can tell from the pictures, we had a great 4th. First we baked star shaped cut out cookies for our picnic later. AnnaClaire loved helping roll the dough, cut the cookies, and sit on the counter watching! We had big fun doing that!

After we finished baking them all, Dad and I brought Miss Bu up to the pool. She had a biggggggg time at the pool. Everyone there loves her. We walked in and every single lifeguard was like "Look, it's AnnaClaire! Hey AnnaClaire!" They all fight over holding her, although she normally doesn't let any of them, yesterday she did. She had big fun in the water with the Briannas and we ate lunch and then tons of my friends had gotten there and we all took her into the water. She had a fun, fun time. She loved her ladybug raft and then had fun being "free". We took her to the baby pool, too. Sadly, we forgot to bring her watering can, but another little girl was very nice and shared her bucket and watering can with AnnaClaire. AnnaClaire said "Ank ew" when the girl gave it to her... what a sweetie! She had fun with those things and then we gave them back and ate some cheerios. It was a really fun. Little Bu Baby looked really cute in her sun hat. At first she didn't want it on, but then she realized that it kept the sun out of her eyes, she she kept it on. AnnaClaire stayed over 2 hours and then Dad took her back for her nap. I stayed because there was a 4th of July party later. We had a really fun time.

Shortly after 4, Elizabeth, Sadie, and I left the pool to get ready because our families were going to the botanical gardens together! Will and Ben (their older son who Will is good friends with) had other plans for the 4th and Drew had work, so it was just the moms, the 4 girls, and the dads. We had a very fun time. The gardens were near Lake Wiley and they were beautiful!! It was about an hour away, but well worth the drive!

We got there and set up "camp" and had dinner. The P's brought pasta salad and fruit and we brought dessert and rolls. It was a really yummy dinner. AnnaClaire really enjoyed her star cookie that she got afterwards!

We had a great time. There was a band there and AnnaClaire enjoyed dancing to the music. We played cards, blew bubbles, and took AnnaClaire down to the actual garden part which was beautiful. They were all sorts of really pretty flowers. AnnaClaire absolutely loved them. She would touch, look at, and smell all the flowers. It was so cute. She also really liked the fountain. There was a statue, and AnnaClaire walked over to it, looked at it, and posed JUST LIKE IT. It was so funny. I turned on my camera and caught a picture just in time. It was so funny.

After a pretty long time at the gardens, we went back to our seats and got gelato. It was so yummy. Soon the fireworks started. They were great. My favorite was a yellow smiley face one- so cool. AnnaClaire loved the fireworks. The loud sound did not bother her one bit. She had huge smiles and said "woah" the whole time. It was really cute... all of a sudden we'd hear this little voice start saying "woah! woah!"

We had a wonderful, wonderful first 4th of July with AnnaClaire. We planned to go to the botanical gardens pretty last minute, and I am so glad we did. I will always remember AnnaClaire's first forth as a very special one!

By the time we got home, it was 11 and of course AnnaClaire was wayyyyyy ready for bed. She slept great for another day of fun today!

AnnaClaire's First Fourth

So I really should be sleeping right now.. swimming at 6:30 then going straight to my friend's house and straight from there to our second practice of the day... anyway, we just got home from one of the funnest 4th of Julys ever. We were at the pool all afternoon and then drove down to the botanical gardens about an hour away. We went with our really good friends. There was a band, picnic, and fireworks... we had a blast. AnnaClaire loved every minute of it. I haven't looked through all my 350 pictures from the day yet, but from the ones I have looked through and remember, this is my favorite. Star cut out cookies are just the best, says AnnaClaire!

I'll post way more pictures and text about AnnaClaire's first 4th of July tomorrow!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!! I hope everyone has a great one!

picture taken before our swearing in ceremony:December 19, 2006, Guangzhou.

Beautiful AnnaClaire (POD)

Love this one... that face.. full of thought... How I love this sweet princess!

by the way, do you see her little bruise by her eye? Poor thing took quite a tumble yesterday and is now sporting a good sized bruise. The bruise is actually in the shape of a heart... kinda cool although not cool that she has one in the first place.

And then there were 800 (posts)...

Sitting sweetly on the stairs

Looking around
Posing by the American man
I like his "ha" (hat)
Happy girl
Sweet little thing

I really am amazed with my sweet sister. She is so smart. She honestly knows her colors. I know I've said that a few times but hey, that's pretty genius for a 20 month old, right? She will just out of the blue start naming her colors. Like today. A truck passed. Her little mouth opened and I heard the word "whiii". Sure enough, it was a white truck. Same thing with the red truck, the blue truck, and the green truck. She really does amaze me.

She knows names. She was reading her "Who Loves Baby?" book and I hear Emie. I look over and she is pointing to my and saying "Ah-may, ah-may" (that's how she pronounces Emie). Gone are the days where she can't say "Emie" or "Sissy" or "Em" or anything... and she could say Jie Jie, but never did. Now I have so many names... Emie, Sissy, Jie Jie... And I love them all... especially when her sweet little voice utters them:). Anyway, then she starts pointing to Maggie saying "Mage". She has never ever called Maggie "Maggie" but always "Doggie".

She is such a chatterbox. The past month or so, she has really started picking up on so many words. She is always talking. Always saying her words. And half the words she says, I never even knew that she knew them. It's so cute. Especially when she is reading to herself and she points out all the things she know. Today we were reading one of her books and in it were lots and lots of monkeys, but in the book, they said "chimps". She pointed and clearly said "Mo mo". She knew that they were monkies even though we called them chimps. In her "Quick as a Cricket" book, whenever we get to the "quite as a lamb" part, she puts her finger to her lips and says "shh". And when we get to the "hot as a fox" part, she says "ha, ha".

This afternoon, we went outside to go swing and she saw her lawn mower and started saying "mow mow mow mow mow". She swang for a little while mom picked up the house before we went bubye. Well, after awhile, Mom came out to tell us it was time to go. I asked AnnaClaire if she was ready to get out and she shook her head and said "neeeeee, neeeeeeeeee" "morrrrrr". I then said that we were going bubye so she needed to get out. I unstrapped her and she pulled the latch back up and as tightly as she could, held it to her chest, saying "mor mor mor". I told her we were going BYE BYE and she let go and decided that going bye bye would do.

When we got home, she walked down the sidewalk to see our "little man" that my mom has standing in front of our house. She really liked him. It was cute. Then we heard a car and look down and it was Drew coming home from work. AnnaClaire started waving and running down to see him. She ran into his arms with a big smile on her face. It was SO cute.

She had a big afternoon at the phone store. What could be better than a whole store filled with her most favorite thing? lol!

Sweet Little Ladybug

I love her facial expression in this picture. I'm not sure if this is my most favorite picture of the day (one of the bath ones or the one in her pjs is probably my very favorite), but I do love it and I wanted one with her outfit on so I could use the ladybug kit I just downloaded!

Little Bu

Aren't I so cute in my ladybug outfit?

YAY ME!
Helping out with the many loads of wash
I love my shopping cart
Playing with my new ball toy- this was my gift from Leah for being the flower girl!

I played with this for so long. I LOVE it!

This is just so much fun!
I like the box, too.
Bubble head!
So much fun in the tub (yes, that is a laugh/smile not a cry!)
Aren't I a cutie patootie?
...bopping them on the head...
Look at my bubble beard!
What gorgeous eyes!
I love my rubber duckie Squirting myself with Duckie
Since everyone is always askinng for pictures of me with Sissy, here's one. This was shortly after Sissy got home from swimming, after my bathtime. As you can see, my sissy makes me laugh so hard!
Peek a boo!
I match my room!

Have I mentioned how much I love my litte Bitsy Bu Bu? This morning she came to pick me up from swimming. She flashed me the biggest grin. She said hi. She said "luv ew". She blew me kissies. She is so full of love!!

When we got home I got her dressed. I was very happy that she was still in her jammies because I rarely get to change her now. It was cooler out, so I put her in her adorable ladybug outfit. It came with a headband, and I pulled it out and she pointed and said "neck neck". She calls necklaces "neck neck" so she thought it was a necklace! Then she tried putting it around her neck! It was so cute. When I told her it was actually a bow, she started saying "neck neck bo". So now headbands are "neck neck bos". Of course, she wouldn't keep the neck neck bow in, so we ended up doing piggie tails, but she was still absolutely adorable. We were home most of the morning. I got her ball toy set up and she loved playing with it. She just LOVES that toy so much. Leah knew just what she'd like! She pushed around her shopping cart, helped do laundry, played with toys, read books, and took a trip to teeter until lunch, bottle, and bed. She took a record long nap of 3 and a half hours! That's insane!!! 1:15-4:45! Really soon after she woke up, she came with Mom and me to take me to swimming again. Right when we pulled up, she started in with her "bu byes", kisses, and waves. It's so sweet whenever she does that!

When I got back, she was still awake (7:50ish) since she napped so late. So I got to give her her bath. She had the best time in the bath tub tonight. Right when I put her in, she started putting bubbles on her head. She remembered that I always put bubbles on her head when I bathe her! It was so sweet! She had big fun. She played with her cups, ducks, and other toys. The biggest hit was when I played "Little Bunny Foo Foo" with her bunny washcloth. She loves Little Bunny Foo Foo! I had her just cracking up. 30 minutes later, she shook her head no when I asked her if she was ready to come out. Finally I just had to pull her out. Yes, she had big fun in the tubber!

We went into her room to get dressed and and started playing peekaboo behind her curtains. She thought that was BIG, BIG fun. She had the biggest smiles. She is such a smiley baby! She is also a very talkative thing. She learned about 5 new words today. She just picks up on things so fast! For instance we were reading her Baby Einstein book and I was telling her how the gecko had big eyes. A minute later, she pointed and said "geck geck"! Little Miss Smarty Pants! Oh and another cute moment... I was still in my bathing suit when I was getting her dressed, and she pointed to me and said "Wet" and I said "Yes, Sissy is wet and AnnaClaire is not wet." I didn't even use the word "dry" and she pointed to herself and said "Dry!" It was so sweet! She also knows many of her colors and her family members. Today in the car, I asked where Daddy was. AnnaClaire put out her arms in the "I don't know" way and I said "Daddy's at work" she then repeated "Daddy work". We did the same for Drew and Will and then I asked where Sissy was. She pointed to me. "Where's Mommy?" she pointed to Mommy. "Where's AnnaClaire?" she pointed to herself and said "Meeeee".

Have I mentioned how cute it is when she says "Good girl?" We are constantly telling her she is such a good girl and she looks up and repeats in her cute little voice "Goo gurl". It is the sweetest thing ever. I need to get a video of her saying that...

A few notes

First of all... to anonymous, regarding your comment which read: "Im just curious... Why does she always wear such BIG bows? Not to be rude or anything, but those bows are way too big for such a small girl!" The answer to that is simple. We live in the South. So our girl is dressed like a true southern girl- smocked dresses and big bows! (although I must admit we really aren't a very "southern" family...) Also we happen to like big bows and think they are very cute. If you saw a picture of me when I was AnnaClaire's age, you would not think AnnaClaire's bows were very big because mine were twice the size.

Secondly, I wanted to recommend someone to you all if you ever need help making your pictures look "cool". Melanie of Blossom Memories is very happy to add a little flare to your photos. She makes many of mine b&w and color, as I don't have a program to do that on.

Thirdly, I posted at the end of last night's post that I had updated the website, but it was a really long post and you may not have gotten that far... so I just wanted to say again that I did do a long home update with a picture slideshow. Go to http://www.bringinghomeannaclaire.com/ to see that.

And lastly, here are a few pictures from the ride home yesterday...

I'm so cute with my Fuddruckers hat on!

Fudds Girl
Hi, Sissy!
Look at that big peach! (when we passed by it on both the way there and back, she would point and say "Pitch, pitch, pitch" over and over. She can't quite get the "ea" but pitch is close enough to peach, right?)

AnnaClaire's Quilt

Well we have it and it is BEAUTIFUL. It is the most beautiful quilt I have ever seen. I just love it. AnnaClaire loves it already. Here is a collage of pictures that I took when we got it. For many more pictures, captions, and a description of the quilt, go here. Thanks again Maryellen!!!

My beautiful flower girl

I am so very proud of you.

AnnaClaire and Grace

On Friday afternoon, we ran into a lady who commented on how AnnaClaire reminded her of her her own daughter, Grace, from Korea. She informed us that Grace was 9 and that she would just love AnnaClaire. She told us that she was Leah's aunt (making Grace Leah's cousin). Later that day, we went down to the pool and Gracie and her family were down there and begged that AnnaClaire come in the water (even though she had no swim suit). AnnaClaire had a ball playing with Grace. There was just a connection between the two of them. They just knew that they looked alike (well of course Grace did). Out of the 200 + people at the wedding, there was someone else that looked just like them, that had a family just like eachothers. They loved eachother. Grace and AnnaClaire went everywhere together. The two Asian beauties just adored eachother. AnnaClaire loved playing with Grace, loved being with Grace and Gracie was everywhere AnnaClaire was. It was really so sweet. This afternoon, Grace took AnnaClaire to the playground and played with her. It was so sweet. I hope we can sometime see Gracie and her family again, as these two girls just loved eachother. Enjoy the collage! There was also an adorable picture of Gracie with AnnaClaire on the wedding day, but my camera was out of batteries. It was so cute though because both girls were in their adorable wedding attire and were hugging.

She did great!!!!!

(she was so happy in the car- can you tell?)

(picture one.top- playing in the closet! picture two.bottom- knocking on the door! picture three.top- reading on the chair! picture four.bottom- enjoying the hotel! middle pic- knocking on the door!)
(picture 1- walking down the "aisle"! picture 2- look at me go! picture 3- "yay AnnaClaire!" picture 4- on the way to the rehearsal! picture 5- Leah and her dad rehearsing! picture 6- the rehearsal!)
(AnnaClaire, the happy couple, relatives, the cake, center pieces, singing, the limbo)
(she picked up the blow dryer and started "blow drying" her hair. Notice where the bow ended up from all the commotion!)
(*top to bottom, left to right* picture one- Grandma and AC. picture two- Matthew *the groom* and AnnaClaire *who was being silly*. picture 3- Chris, me and Matt. picture 4- the deer in their backyard. picture 5- Playing by the vents. picture 6- running down the hall. picture 7- sleeping beauty awoke!)
(the first one is of AnnaClaire getting dressed, all the rest are random shots before the wedding. Didn't she look GORGEOUS?)
(picture 1- AnnaClaire snuggling with Mommy. picture 2- looking at a cute little baby. picture 3- "putting on" lipgloss. background picture- walking around... beautifully...)
(the actual wedding...)
(some random shots from brunch this morning)
(*left to right, top to bottom* pic 1- a few of the kids at brunch. pic 2- AnnaClaire at Aunt Linda's. pic 3- looking out the windows. picture 4- AC and Aunt Linda. pic 5- AnnaClaire and Philip. pic 6- AnnaClaire laughing. pic 6- our family and Liesel who came from Germany! pic 7- AnnaClaire was enthralled by the grandfather clock. pic 8- Grandma and AC reading.)
(isn't she beautiful?)
The wedding was amazing. Be prepared for a very detailed account of it... I know you don't really care about all the details, but I want this to look back on some day. If you haven't noticed, this blog is like my journal.. just it's online.

Friday morning we set of mid morning for Atlanta. AnnaClaire was amazing on the ride. Absolutely amazing. I was shocked at how well she sat just reading and keeping herself occupied! She slept a little, but not even that long. Midway through, we stopped at Chickfila where I enjoyed a Mint Cookies & Cream Milkshake. I cannot believe they are getting rid of those things. They are the BEST. Maybe they'll decide to keep them... Anyway. We arrived at the hotel around 2:30 I think. We saw my cousins in the lobby so they all got to meet AnnaClaire. Then we went to the room and got all unpacked and such. We had to go pretty soon after to the rehearsal. AnnaClaire was a total dollbaby at the rehearsal. We got there and she was hugging on everyone's legs. It was so funny. It was hard to keep a straight face while the lady explained the rehearsing. The first time AnnaClaire went, she did really good. She practically ran down the aisle into Matthew's awaiting high five. We tried it a few more times and it went downhill from there. It was an outdoor wedding and extremely hot at rehearsals. Plus, AnnaClaire was very hungry and very thirsty. After a few times, we found the nice cool car and went back to the hotel before the rehearsal dinner. We went to the pool for a little, but we had forgotten AC's bathingsuit, so we weren't planning on swimming.. just dipper toes in. Of course she ended up just swimming in her diaper because a family we met was down there with their cute daughter from Korea, and she really wanted to play with AnnaClaire. From there we went and got dressed and then went and talked with many of our relatives in the lobby. AnnaClaire loved them all. She took especially to my dad's cousin "Uncle Howie". She loved him. Probably because he looked a lot like Dad. After talking awhile and getting ready, we headed to the rehearsal dinner which went great. They had really yummy food, a video with pictures of both Matt and Leah growing up, a "how we met" story, singing, dancing, the limbo... that type of thing. Mom took AnnaClaire early because AC was so tired, but the rest of us stayed and we had a good time. It was so fun. The day of the wedding, Saturday, we went searching for breakfast and had a yummy one at Atlanta Bread Company. AnnaClaire loved her bagel and juice from there! We even saw a little girl who was staying at our hotel. She was 21 months old and AC and her were so cute together. After arriving back and getting ready, we went to my aunt and uncle's house for lunch and talking. It was very fun to catch up with everyone.
Many of our relatives we haven't seen since our family reunion in '03! Everyone of course loved seeing AnnaClaire as well. Matthew was in and out during the "party" but for the time he was in, you could tell how excited he was about his upcoming wedding. The best part of our time there (for me anyway) was when Maryellen brought in AnnaClaire's quilt. She has worked months and months on it and it is absolutely gorgeous. It is by far the most beautiful quilt I have ever seen. I'm going to put the pictures together and do it's own post sometime this week, so I'll save the details for then... it is gorgeous though. Maryellen, we cannot thank you enough! We were fortunate that AnnaClaire napped upstairs in her portacrib. When she woke up, we went back to the hotel to get ready. Will had been at the beach all week and the family that he went with drove right past where we were, so we had planned that Dad would meet them and get Will on Saturday, so by this point, Will was with us, too. Back at the hotel we all got ready and then Dad took AC, Mom, and I to the place because we were supposed to be there for AnnaClaire to be in pictures. It was fun getting to go in the bride's room and see them all getting ready! AnnaClaire got dressed there, too, because we didn't want her dress to crumple in the car seat. Her dress was so pretty. It came with a light pink sash, but Leah had one made to match the bridesmaid's dresses and it was so pretty. She wore her Robeez ballet slippers and a bow that was made by Sara Beth Bows. She looked so pretty. Leah gave her a FG gift of a cute picture frame that says "flower girl" and a ball toy. (thanks Leah!) While we waited, AnnaClaire was so good. She just walked/ran around, hugged people, said hi to everyone, "applied" her lipgloss, etc. She had a big time. Around 7, we got to go in golf carts down to the wedding site. It looked beautiful. There were many chairs set up and at the front was an arbor and flower petals thrown all in front of it. It looked beautiful. The wedding party filed in and then it was AnnaClaire's turn. I was praying so hard that she would walk down the aisle. Everyone was looking at her. She wouldn't walk. She kept going back to Dad. So Dad gave her a little push. All the while, I was holding Bunny out and wiggling her and coaxing AnnaClaire to me. She started walking slowly down. Then her eyes fell upon Bunny and she stopped, proudly said "Bubba" and walked all the way down the aisle, smiling, being all cute, right down the center. As she neared her beloved Bunny, she started just running and smiling the biggest smile. I handed her Bunny and whispered for her to go to the front and them come back. She went to the front and started dancing to the piano music that was playing! She then started running BACK down the aisle. I caught her and she started crying... she didn't want her job to be over. She did amazing. We are so proud of her!!! Mom took her to the back so she wouldn't be noisy and distract everyone. Then the beautiful bride and her proud father walked down. Leah looked gorgeous. She is so sweet, too. She has the most beautiful smile. Matt looked so proud. The wedding continued and it started thundering and lightning. It was actually so romantic. It also kept it cool outside, so that was nice. They went through the wedding and it was just beautiful. They kissed and there were some closing words and right as the last groomsmen walked out, it started raining. I think everyone there was praying that the rain would hold off and it did. We all made it in before it started pouring. It ruined the idea of outside pictures, but they took them inside and there was snacks, too. AnnaClaire was really funny because she was just standing over the vent and her dress was just puffing up. It was so funny and she was just enjoying herself so much. The rain cleared away so the wedding party (that means AC, too) went outside for some pictures on the golf course. Then there was a lovely dinner. First there was a prayer and after it, AnnaClaire said loud and pround "AH- MEN!" I mean so loud that eveyone turned around. It was so cute! Then there was the usual stuff- dancing, cake, the traditional wedding stuff, more dancing. The bride and father and the groom and mother were my favorite dances. They picked really good songs for those, too. then everyone started dancing and it was so much fun. AnnaClaire was such a trooper. She loved dancing, too. I got some priceless video of it. Oh and then I would ask her "Who was the best flower girl?" and she would raise her hand! SO CUTE! Many people were coming up to us commenting on how well she did, too. I must say.. she was as close to perfect as you can get! After tons and tons of dancing and eating, it was almost midnight. I cannot believe how well AnnaClaire did. She was still up and dancing that late. She is SUCH a trooper. We went out and blew bubbles as the happy couple came out and drove off to their town house (Leah has been living in it, but Matt hasn't, so they decided to spend their first night in their house). They flew to Maui today for their honeymoon, so that is exciting! When we got back to the hotel, as you can imagine, AnnaClaire fell right asleep and slept soundly. You could just tell she was so tired. But I think she had an amazing time and she sure looked amazing :).

This morning we headed to brunch and stayed for awhile. It was a very good brunch at their clubhouse. AnnaClaire had a blast playing with all the kids, especially Grace. She was so tired, though. She is just such a trooper. We keep having to remind ourselves she is only 20 months old... she did amazing.

We went back to my aunt's house and said goodbye to everyone and then we were on our way home. AnnaClaire did great in the car again. She fell asleep right as we put her in her carseat. We had Fudds for dinner and she liked her grilled cheese. She was so cute with the little Fudds hat on. As soon as we got home, she was pushing her shopping cart and kissing Maggie. I think she's glad to be home.

You might have noticed that there are very few pictures from the wedding and none from the reception... my camer ran out of batteries as they were doing the rings. I was so mad. But you know... there were so many other people snapping pictures, I'm just not going to worry about it. I will get pictures. It was actually sort of nice living the moment and not just worrying about taking pictures of it. Anyway, once we get pictures, I will post them. I'm also going to try to figure out how to post the video of AnnaClaire walking down the aisle.

Oh and lastly, the reason I never posted while we were there is because internet cost. We weren't at the hotel enough to pay for internet. I did try to post at my aunt's house, but for some reason it wouldn't work even though they have wireless... Also, if there are any typos on this post, sorry... I don't really feel like proofreading at the moment. Especially since this is so long...

Oh and I can't forget to mention that I finally did a home update on the website! http://www.bringinghomeannaclaire.com/.

And while I'm remembering things... I thought I'd inform everyone in the need of a ladybug sighting that today, I walked into my room and there were quite a few ladybugs all over my room! Hopefully it's a good sign! ;-)