Journey with AnnaClaire

Big news

2007-12-02T15:39:00.000-05:00

Don't forget that I have a new blog... www.andthentherewereseven.blogspot.com
big news over there!!!

Posted lots over at the new blog

2007-11-22T23:21:00.000-05:00

www.andthentherewereseven.blogspot.com

I'll probably keep posting the link just to make sure everyone sees the new one (as I know on bloglines or whatever it is it shows when a blog is updated, so just to make sure everyone sees the link for the new one)

New home!

2007-11-21T20:50:00.001-05:00

I've grown very tired of not being able to post pictures, and also now my background and header have disappeared! So.... I decided to go ahead with a new blog. So please join me at...

www.andthentherewereseven.blogspot.com

Also, I posted a movie I made from our trip, so be sure to check that out. It's on the new blog! See you there!

Oh and also I just posted a new home update on the website, FINALLY! www.bringinghomeannaclaire.com

Disney World!!!!!!!!

2007-11-20T19:30:00.000-05:00

First off, today is an important day on 2 parts. 1) a year ago today, we recieved that glorious call that we had TA and would be leaving in 17 days for our little Bu!! 2) it is the one year gotcha anniversary of many of our friends (Addie, Lucy, Shaoey, Caroline, Sara, and Esther happy 1 year gotcha!!)

Secondly, I had really hoped to post from Disney World, but had no internet and did not realize until our last night there that I needed to request a cord to plug into to access internet.

And thirdly, what you really came here to hear all about... OUR TRIP!

I cannot even begin to explain what an amazing time we had. There is simply no way my 725 pictures will even come close to showing how much fun this weekend was. We finally met "The Chatties". It was only mamas and babies and then Livvy and me. It was just way too much fun. I don't think there is any way to realize the tight bond we have formed with each of these families. The little ones are literally little cousins to me. Most of the families we had never even met before, yet it seemed like we had known them forever. Before I get into the story, let me tell you how the "Chatty Girls" came to be.

On the AWAASN board, there were a group of women who constantly chatted. It was actually AWAA who came up with the term "chatty". Shortly after we were all home from China, Sara's mommy made us our very own yahoo group so not to block the AWAA boards. We have talked since August of 06, when we all received our referrals. We had all hoped to travel together, and although that did not happen, we remained close and chatty. I honestly do not know what we would've done throughout the adoption without these friends, practically family. Over the year, we've gotten closer and closer with each family and early this year we began to plan a reunion when we would all meet for the first time. "Florida in November" was the plan and that's exactly what happened! Not everyone was able to come to our reunion but there will be many more to come in the future, so hopefully we will have a chance to meet the rest soon! As for the ones who were there, let me introduce them:

Addison (b. 10/6/05 a. 11/20/06)
Bekah (b. 11/4/05 a. 12/11/06)
Caroline (b. 10/29/05 a. 11/20/06)
Emily (b. 4/25/05 a. 2/26/07)
Lucy (b. 11/23/05 a. 11/20/06)
Mia (b. 9/27/05 a. 12/11/06)
Shaoey (b. 8/6/05 a. 11/20/06)

As you can see, they are all very close in age!!

So back to Disney World!

On Thursday, Mom picked me up early from school and we headed out to the airport. Addie and her mommy had a connecting flight in Charlotte, so we were actually on their flight to Orlando! That was fun! Addie is a total doll, as is her mom, and we were lucky to be sitting only a row apart on our flight! Once we made it to the airport, we got in touch with Lucy and her mommy who were landing around the same time from New Jersey! We met up with them and waited for our luggage. Lucy is just sweet as could be with the cutest little voice! We got a rental car with 3 carseats and loaded everything in for a packed drive to Mia's house! the conversation on the way went something like this:

"Girls, are you ready to see Mia?"
AnnaClaire, "Mia!"
Addison, "Mia!"
Lucy, "Mia!"
Addison, "MIA MIA!"
AnnaClaire, "MIAAAAAAAA!"
Addison, "MIA MIA MIA MIA"
Lucy, "MIA!!!!!!!!!!"
AnnaClaire, "MIA MIA MIA MIA MIA!"

Gotta love 2 year olds =)

After a few minutes of sleep, many cute 2 year old conversations, and reading directions, we reached Mia's house were we were greeted happily. We hadn't seen Mia since December when we were in China, and my has she grown! She turned two on 9/27 and she is all two! She has a huge vocabulary and is extremely verbal! She's so sweet and was great to share her houseful of toys with all the other girls! We chatted, toured the house, played, and ate a delicious lasagna and veggie dinner! The girls were just darling standing around Mia's little table! After a fun night of catching up, Lucy and her mommy and us went on our way to Disney world. Addie and her mommy stayed with Mia as did Shaoey and Caroline. What was supposed to take less than 30 minutes took us over an hour! But finally we made it and luckily both girls slept, as it was late. We checked in and immediately we knew we were in Disney World. We stayed at the Riverside which is very pretty. AnnaClaire was up a lot of the night just screaming. I'm thinking it was a mixture of tiredness and also fear. She has done this same thing a few times when we are somewhere different, but only on the first night. It was a fairy early morning and we met Lucy and her mommy and went to breakfast. Breakfast was fabulous! Afterwards, we took the girls outside to the nearby park. It was actually quite chilly to be Florida, and we were really surprised to see people in the POOL! It was in the 50s! We let the girls get some energy out before going back to Mia's where we enjoyed a day of fun. Mia's backyard was a hit with all the girls, having a trampoline, swingset, and numerous toys. We had a Chickfila nugget tray for lunch and enjoyed treats from our home states. The day went all to fast and soon it was afternoon. Of course this was not a bad thing beause Shaoey and Caroline and their mommies arrived! Both girls are just precious. We all played somemore and soon Emily came with her mom! Emily is an absolute doll! We played a little longer and made plans for the night to go to Downtown Disney. We called to make reservations at the Rainforest Cafe and the lady laughed when we told her we had a party of 18! She informed us with that many, they couldn't seat us until 10:30 or 11 PM! Yeah right, not with 8 two year olds! By this time it was almost 5, so Lucy, Emily, their mommies, and AnnaClaire, Mom, and I left to go back to the Riverside and get ready before meeting the rest of the pack at 6:15. When we were done we headed over to the food court place where we were meeting for dinner, but they were stuck in traffic, so we went in the store while we waited. The girls enjoyed looking at the many things the store had a playing with the stuffed animals! All of a sudden precious Bekah walked in! Bekah is cute as always, and has grown so much since we saw her in May! I think AnnaClaire remembered Bekah because she ran over and they greeted eachother with a big hug! So sweet! The 4 girls enjoyed playing with everything from animls to swords to tee shirts to noodles as we waited for the other 4. Soon, they got there too and we headed to the foodcourt. However, not before AnnaClaire could make friends with a sweet lady on a scooter! The lady even offered to take AnnaClaire on a ride! All 19 of us enjoyed a dinner together. The foodcourt place is the best place to eat when you have that many! After dinner, we went in the lobby and the girls ran around and we took group pictures before taking the boat to Downtown Disney. We had a blast there. The boat ride was really nice. Downtown Disney was great. We only went into the big Disney store but we were there awhile. Didn't do too much damage there. We got AnnaClaire an adorable Walt Disney World fleece with Cinderella, Aurora, and Snow White on it. So cute!! I got an Ariel pillow =). That store is amazing. It is so overwhelming. It is just covered in everything Disney. There are all different sections. We, of course, spent most of our time in the princess area! All the girls enjoyed playing with these little spinny light things. We ended up getting them all Cinderella ones at the Parade on Saturday. Anyway, after we purchased out things, we went next door for some hot chocolate. It was that cold. We all enjoyed drinking it, the little ones especially. They really did all enjoy being together! We caught the boat back and were entertained with singing as boat drove on. We returned pretty late and said bye to Shaoey, Addie, Mia, and Caroline as the rest of us made our way back to our rooms. Saturday morning we got up pretty early and headed to breakfast before going to Magic Kingdom!!!!!!!!!

The bus ride there was packed. We had to stand which was so hard with our squirming toddlers! Finally we made it to the Magic Kingdom. My goodness, it was an absolute ZOO. We had some issues getting in because they had messed up on our ticket, but finally we made it in took a few pictures by the front and went in where we found Bekah and waited for the rest. Soon they made it and we strolled down the busy Main Street with the most beautiful view of the castle. I started having memories of being there when I was little! First we rode It's A Small World. It was great. All the girls loved it and by the end, AnnaClaire was in the front just dancing to the music... too cute! It really is a beautiful ride. I cannot believe detailed everything is in it! We rode the merry go round which was fun. We also road Peter Pan and ate a really yummy lunch. After lunch we bought AnnaClaire some PINK mickey ears! They are so cute on her! We strolled through the park and went to Tooneytown or whatever its called. AnnaClaire was borderline sleep, so we went back to Fantasy land while everyone else played at a little playground. Strolling did not get AC to sleep, so we rode on Snow White because the line was short. It was really scary, actually! AnnaClaire had her eyes just covered the entire time. We went in a few stores and took picture by the castle before rushing back to catch the train. We missed it, so we rode the next one. It was a nice train ride and we even caught a glimpse of a parade going on! We got back and met up with everyone else and walked over to Pooh. That was a very cute ride. Shaoey, Lucy, and Mia were all asleep by this point and the other girls had just just gotten up. one of my favorite parts of the trip came up next. Addie, Emily, and AnnaClaire all had Sara Beth Bows in, so we were trying to get a good picture of the three of them for Jeanette. All of a sudden, the held hands and the three of them started running around, clutching hands. That of course attracting much attention and we had many sweet comments about how beautiful they were. Someone even asked if they were triplets! They were just adorable. Imagine 3 Chinese beauties holding hands and running around... too cute! Then they decided to spin around in circles and that was just a blast in their eyes! They spinned round and round until we stopped them and made our way to Dumbo! The line was so long but all the girls did great! I guess when your with your friends, or more like sisters, lines aren't so bad to wait in! They all kept eachother occupied and we met a sweet family from Germany with a gorgeous 4 year old from China. They were almost in tears when they saw all the little ones. Finally it was our turn on Dumbo and AnnaClaire loved it as did most of the girls. AnnaClaire loves saying "Dumbo" now. Dumbo was my all time favorite when I was little, as well! Right after Dumbo ended, we headed over to the castle for the highlight of the trip. We dressed each girl in a princess outfit (AnnaClaire, Shaoey, and Emily- Snow White, Bekah & Addie- Jasmine, Caroline- Mulan, Lucy- Cinderella, and Mia- fairy princess). All the girls were precious in their outfits and Emily and AC enjoyed posing for pictures in their matching costumes. We then went into the castle for our Cinderella dinner! It was amazing. We got to get our pictures with Cinderella, and they gave each girl a Cinderella wand. They even gave us a huge table which we all could fit at. It was a wonderful 3 course meal and possibly the best steak and chocolate desert I've tasted in my life. The babies got free pasta and princess ice cream sundaes with a chocolate princess crowon on top, which each girl throughly enjoyed and proved it afterwards when each girl had the most chocolately mouth ever! AnnaClaire definitely loved her and ate the whole thing by herself and was literally scraping her bowl. They had a little show as we ate with the mice and fairy godmother. It was fabulous! The mice were a little scary to some of the girls, but AC did warm up to them. Emily was sooooooo sweet with the mice. She loved them! She even danced with one of them which was just the sweetest site. The dinner which was just amazing and I definitely recommend it! After dinner AnnaClaire and Shaoey were holding hands and took off running through Fantast Land. They were so cute in their little Snow White outfits, running around just giggling and looking at eachother. EVERYONE made comments about how cute they were, asked if they were twins, moved aside for them, etc. They actually ran pretty far before we caught them and yet they still grasped eachothers hands as we walked back. We did a little shopping and admired and castle, gorgeously decorated with beautiful white lights. After about an hour, we went out and got a spot for the upcoming parade. AnnaClaire and a few other girls had fallen asleep by now and AnnaClaire was just darling clutching her wand in her sleep. We set all the strollers up and it was the most beautiful sight. 8 little stollers with a beautiful "Mei Mei" inside, some asleep, some not, just enjoying the company of eachother. The parade was amazing and although AC and Shaoey were pretty scared, it was definitely worth it to watch. Afterwards we talked awhile longer and said our goodbyes to everyone. It was such a bittersweet moment. The weekend had just zoomed by it was hard to believe that was goodbye. I think everyone was teary eyed as we went opposite ways. Emily, Lucy, and us went to order pictures from the Cinderella dinner. We met a beautiful family with the most darling 9 year old from China. It was Tabby's 9th birthday and she was so sweet. We definitely enjoyed talking to them and were excited that they are going to Vietnam in March to get Tabby's 2 1/2 year old sister! Tabby was the smartest, sweetest, most beautiful girl and you could tell she was so excited to see 3 babies from China! The girls enjoyed playing while we waited for our pictures and then we left to go back to the hotel. Since getting the pictures had taken awhile, the crowds had died down a little and we actually got a seat on the bus. The girls enjoyed picking out everything that had Mickey Mouse on it. "Mickey Mouse" is a new favorite word in our house, that's for sure!

In the morning we met again for breakfast and talked awhile. We went back to our rooms and finished packing and then it was time to say bye to Lucy and her mom. I feel like Lucy and AnnaClaire share a special bond, as they were both from Chenzhou, and we think they might have been in the same room. It was hard saying bye to sweet Lucy and her mommy. But we made it through and then Emily and her Mommy took us shopping for the day, because our flight was at 7. The rest of the group's were around 1.

We had a wonderful day of shopping and both girls managed to sleep. We had a yummy lunch, met many people, and had a blast playing in the park across the street. Chasing birds, hunting for acorns, and throwing the acorns in the pond were all big hits of the park. Emily and AC were just total and complete dolls running around. So many people asked if they were twins. We bought nothing except for in a store we saw on the way out that we just had to go in. It was kind of a strange store because it had some really, really cute things and then other just tacky things, inclduing a black foofy dress that said, 'birthday babe'. It doesn't sound bad, but oh, it was. Bling pacifiers and wipey cases, red nightgowns... fun times. But we did find the cutest green dress with little pink and green presents at the bottom and both Emily and AnnaClaire got that dress. Emily's mommy and Mom have very similar shopping tastes, as you can see! We have some hilarious memories that will forever be in my mind from being in that one store. We then left for the airport and both girls, once again, slept. Before falling asleep, Emily and AC had a conversation that went something like this:

Emily - "Toes, toes toes toes"
AnnaClaire- "Toes!"
Emily- "My toes!"
AnnaClaire- "No, my toes!"
Emily- "My toes!"
and on and on

As I said... gotta love being two!

Emily's mommy was so sweet to spend all day with us and drive us to the airport (she lives in FL).Thanks so much again, you don't know how much it meant! It was so sad saying goodbye again. Emily and AnnaClaire had such fun times together and I know Mom and Mrs. M did, as well. It was then that our reunion was over =( and back home we headed. AnnaClaire enjoyed wearing her Mickey ears, wearing her Disney World fleece, and holding the Minnie Mouse (she calls it Mickey Mouse) that I got her. She looked like quite the Disney girl and everyone commented on her cuteness. She was pretty good on the flight and loved seeing Daddy at the airport. Dad met us right where we were greeted when we got back from China, which brought back many memories. AnnaClaire loved telling Dad all about her time. We really did have an amazing time. Even after this long post, I still don't think I've explained well enough what a great weekend we had. It was just amazing.

We had someone ask us if we were all family. To that, Mom responded, "now we are". I cannot think of a better way to say that. They really are our family. When all 8 strollers were lined up on the side of Main Street in the Magic Kingdom, tears were brought to my eyes. It is that site that reminds me what a miracle adoption really is. You don't get it until you actually go through it. The bond that forms with other families, people you might otherwise never meet, is unbreakable. Those 8 strollers... it was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. Those 8 girls... all 2, all from China, all once orphans with now a forever family... They are all different in so many ways. They are different shapes and sizes, different haircuts, different personalities. You look at each one and it is amazing how perfect she is for her family. It really is. It is impossible to see any one of those girls with any other family. Adoption is truly a miracle. I think that anyone who saw these 8 beauties would not disagree with me on that one.

To each family who we saw this weekend: We love you all. Thanks so much for a wonderful weekend! Can't wait until next time!!!!!!!

I posted the precious stroller pictures and then a group shot, but I have many more that I'm waiting to post... but there's a reason that I can't say yet =)

11 months together!!

2007-11-11T21:59:00.000-05:00

(not really sure why this is s big...)

Today is our 11 months anniversary!! As I say every month, the months have just flown by and I simply cannot believe we have hit our 11 month mark with AC! Next month is the big one year!!! We are doing really well. Very much enjoying the colder weather that we've been having, thats for sure. So how's Miss AnnaClaire, herself? She's doing just fine. She, of course, fits into the family perfectly. Only God could've chosen such a perfect match for us. She is enjoying every minute of being the little queen of our house! On Thursday, we leave for Orlando to visit "The Chatty Girls", Mom's group of friends, for a girls weekend! A few of the families we traveled with, and a few traveled the month before or after us. Some of them we've never met, but for almost a year and a half they have conversed online, so it will be so exciting meeting up with everyone and meeting all the girls and moms we've heard about for so long! But anyway, back to our 11 months. AnnaClaire enjoyed a fun afternoon at her favorite place ever, the park! We also worked on getting together pictures for our 12 month post placement! It definitely seems like just yesterday we were getting pictures together for our 6 months! Where has time gone?! AnnaClaire also just recently had her 2 year checkup and she is officially 28 pounds and 34 inches! She is one big girl! She is in the 72% for weight and the 55% for height! When we got her, 11 months ago, she was 28 inches and 20 pounds. I can't believe she has gained 8 pounds and grown 6 inches since we got her! She is thriving and is growing just as she should =). She is enjoying every minute of being a 2 year old with a loving family and is definitely not the baby we met 11 months ago, that's for sure!

AnnaClaire, Happy 11 months, baby girl! I cannot believe we've already had you 11 whole months! That's a long time! I have enjoyed every minute of having you in my life and I thank Jesus for bringing you to us. You are the perfect little one for us! Happy 11 months and thanks for all you've brought to my life! Love, Sissy

Happy Birthday, Dad!

2007-11-06T22:11:00.000-05:00

My dad's birthday is today!! We had a very nice celebration. AnnaClaire made him a really cute card. I traced her hand and made it into a turkey and she colored it. It's adorable! Mom cooked Dad's favorite meal and realized she hadn't baked the ham, thinking it was prebaked. So we had mac and cheese, creamed spinach, an apple sauce. For desert we had homemade cheesecake, which is Dad's all time favorite! AnnaClaire brought Dad all his gifts in her stroller. It was so cute! I have a few cute pictures from tonight but once again I'm going to have to hold them off. It is such a pain not being able to post pictures!!!! Happy birthday to my dad! We love you!

Today was such a good day compared to last year on this day. If you remember, all the AWAA people with LOIs around our date got TA and we thought for sure we would, only to not. It was one of the worst days ever and thankfully today was much, much better!

Snow White!

2007-11-03T23:08:00.000-04:00

We had a great Halloween the other day! After school I took AnnaClaire outside on her trike a little. We had a fun little while outside. The weather is SOOO nice here. Like wow. It's perfect outside! It was great trike riding weather, too. I got her in her little Snow White outfit and once Dad got home we carved the pumpkin. AnnaClaire wanted to be just in the middle of it all and we had to make sure she was far away from the big knife. She loved carving the pumpkin! After we were done, we went out and put him by our other pumpkins and fall decor and put the candle in. AnnaClaire LOVED the candle. She just sat there holding it and sniffing it! She loved her little pumpkin! Shortly after that, she ate some congee and I took her to a few houses. She would say "trick or treat" and get some candy and say "thank you!" It was so cute! She loved trick or treating! One of our neighbors gave her glow sticks! She thought those were way cool! I only took her to a few houses and then I went to my friends house and Dad took AnnaClaire up the rest of our street before they headed in. AnnaClaire got a nice little stash of candy. She was the cutest little Snow White ever and had the cutest little pumpkin ever from grandma! It was a great Halloween!

2nd Birthday (cake and presents)

2007-10-29T23:53:00.000-04:00

Here are some more pictures from AnnaClaire's big 2 year old birthday!! I still have to upload Dad's camera and post those. Enjoy!!

Birthday pics (zoo)

2007-10-29T14:40:00.001-04:00

Sorry to keep you waiting! I would've posted one or two pictures on Saturday, but since I can't post pictures, I have to do slideshows and I was just not in the mood to make slideshows. But here's some pictures from the zoo... pictures from presents and cake coming soon :)

Happy Birthday, AnnaClaire!

2007-10-27T23:46:00.001-04:00

So the Bu had a great birthday. I'm not going to go into huge detail as I am exhausted. It's been a great day and I think Miss AnnaClaire knew it was her special day. It was a great one, too. We had a blast at the zoo and saw all kinds of animals, rode the merry go round, and just had a great time. We came home and AC had a huge stash of presents to open. She got all kinds of great things. She was so cute opening them. She would concentrate so hard and work so hard and make sure all the wrapping paper was off before she looked at the present. She got a little clock thing (Mom and Dad), a doll (Mom and Dad), a ladybug piggy bank (our next door neighbors), an iron (me), an ironing board (Grandma), a stroller for her dolly (Grandma), a little dog with a dog carrier (Sara Beth's sweet family), lots of books (aunts and uncles, neighbors, Ellie's family), stuffed animals (neighbors), princess goodies (Ellie's family), ABC cookie cutters (Grandma), a little happy birthday cake toy thing (Mom and Dad), lots of cards, and a balloon. And then.. she finally got her beloved tricycle (Mom and Dad). That's the last thing she opened and you should've seen her face light up when she saw it. She loves all her presents so much. You should have seen her after she opened each and every one. She just looked at it and played with it and then would go open another. Every present she got was a hit. The doll is not her favorite but she loves pushing her around in the stroller. Her little ironing board and iron is a huge hit as well. She's so cute ironing. It's from PB and it is so cute and real looking! She loved ironing washcloths after she opened that! She is so cute pushing around her stroller, too. It's the cutest stroller, also from PB. Of course she rode her trike all around the house. All her presents are just so cute. She is in love with her clock, she kept going to it. She loved it. Every single thing she got she just loved!!! I was amazed at how much concentration she put into opening each present and how excited she looked when she opened it. We did cake after presents. AnnaClaire's cake was so pretty! It wasn't the color scheme we wanted, but it was still pretty and extra yummy! She loved blowing out the candles and was so clean eating her cake. Her favorite part of the cake was the little flowers on it. It was such a great birthday. And the whole family was together for once, which was nice. I have tons and tons of pictures (about 400-500 to be exact) but I'll save those and more about our day for another day. But it was a great birthday and AnnaClaire now responds after being asked how old she is, "TWOOOOOOO!"

Ahmost Two!

2007-10-26T22:59:00.000-04:00

If you ask AnnaClaire how old she is, she excitedly responds in the cutest voice, "Ahmost two!" But not for long.... because tomorrow our sweet Bu will be TWO!! I can't believe it! Where has time gone? How is it almost the 27th already? I remember celebrating the Bu's 1st birthday last year... without her. It was so hard. And now here we are so close to her second birthday! The fireplace is filled with presents. Lots of people have sent/brought over treats for her. Tomorrow is going to be such fun. We are planning on going to the zoo! Drew came home from college today and Grandma is here, so it will be fun. I can't believe my sweetie is almost 2 though. Wow. She's growing up so fast!

I still have lots of pictures to add but I still can't add them so I'm going to need to do slideshows. After the birthday celebration, I'll try to get to that :)

Just a note of thanks

2007-10-22T17:23:00.000-04:00

First of all, thank you so much for all the many comments you have left. I have enjoyed reading each one. We are doing okay. It's still so surreal. Saturday was by far the hardest day. I barely slept on Friday night and all Saturday I just kept thinking about how Maggie wasn't there. It's like I would drop a goldfish on the floor and right away thing, "Oh, Maggie will get it!" But no... I had to pick it up and throw it away... because there is no Maggie to get it. We also always had to shut our door to our garage. We could never leave it open or Maggie would escape. So naturally, everytime we go outside we close it. But now there's no need to close it. It's just the little things like that that our just really hard. We have had amazing friends during this time. In fact one of our neighbors came over yesterday with the cutest little stuffed animal dog that looks just like Maggie, for AnnaClaire. AnnaClaire loves her little dog. Speaking of AnnaClaire, she is doing okay. It is really, really hard because she just doesn't understand the whole thing. She knows Maggie's not here, but it's hard to know what to tell her. We don't want to tell her she was sick or she went byebye, because we are scared that if we tell her that, she might think when she's sick or goes byebye that she's never coming back. Mom ended up telling her that Maggie isn't with us anymore... that she she is in "Doggie Heaven." It's especially sad to be because AnnaClaire has started going to where Maggie's bed was and says, "Uh oh Maggie!" Then she runs over to where her food bowl was and says with the saddest look on her face, "Maggie." On Saturday she went out to look for her and started saying, "Maggie! Cookie!" It was the saddest thing. It's just extremely hard. It's going to take some time. I know plenty of people who have lost pets, but I don't think you realize how hard it is until you actually go through it. On Saturday night, I was babysitting and the girl goes, "So, do you have any pets?" I responded, "Ye........ no.. No, I don't." I was in tears as I answered that question. I have to catch myself. It's hard. I've even called AnnaClaire "Maggie" a few times. It's going to take some major getting used to. But we'll get through it. Like I said we've had the sweetest friends who've brought over things and cards for us. Another one of our friends put their 10 year old cat to sleep today so we have talked with them a lot and gone through our sadness. But yep.. we're hanging in there. Thanks again for all the comments. I so appreciate them!!

Yesterday we headed to Greensboro and got to meet up with Allison, one of the chatty sisters I was telling you about! It was great fun! They wre having a reunion and they invited us to go as well. There were lots of sweet little Chinese girls running around the yard as we enjoyed a nice picnic outside. I have lots of good pictures and stories to share from that that I'll post later. As for now I need to get some more homework done!

We love our Maggie!

2007-10-20T16:07:00.000-04:00

(I have many, many pictures of Maggie, but most of them aren't on this computer. This is my favorite though... enjoy!)

It is with tears falling that I tell you about our sweet Maggie. Last night a very sad thing happened in our house. Our precious Maggie was put to sleep at about 1am today. She had been fine... we never would have guessed she was doing to go so soon. She hadn't really been acting herself lately... not as loud, not really wanting bones, etc. She had also started having accidents inside. Despite this, we didn't think anything about it. Last night Dad went to let her out before he went to bed. She was laying on her bed and no matter how Dad coaxed her, she wouldn't move. Finally she got up and slowly made her way outside, down the stairs, and went to the bathroom. Dad realized she had had another accident inside so while she was out, Dad cleaned it up. About 5 minutes later, he called her in. She didn't come. He coaxed her with treats and started getting worried she had gotten under the gate. He grabbed the flashlight and went in the yard searching for her, when he found her laying in the grass. She still wouldn't move, so he carried her back in the house. At this point he knew something was up and got me and Mom up. He and Mom decided to take her to the emergency vet place, and I stroked her, kissed her, and loved on her... in case I was never going to see her again. I was really worried but I did think, "well maybe it's something they can fix." I mean, we had never experienced any of this and definitely thought she was just not feeling well. I went back upstairs as they left and fell asleep. Around 1:30 or 2, Mom and Dad came in my room and broke the news. They had got there and Maggie's breathing had gotten heavier. They said she looked pitiful as they went in. Right away, they were brought to a room at the vet and were soon informed that Maggie had internal bleeding and tumors. They said they could xray to see how much the cancer had spread, but that they thought it was all throughout her liver and spleen. Devasted by the news, the doctor kept talking. They said they could do chemo or perform surgery, but it would -at best- give our sweet dog only 3 months left of life. He said the best option was to put her to sleep then and there. He told Mom and Dad that she most likely has had the tumors for 6 months. We never even knew. She seemed so active, happy, healthy... we never would've guessed she had cancer. Anyway, Will was at a friend's house, so they tried calling him and the doctor sadly said that Maggie probably couldn't even make it that long. Besides, Will didn't have his phone with him. As Mom, Dad, and Maggie went back to another room, Maggie quickly was put to sleep and with a very peaceful look on her face, she left her pain. It's a very sad day in our family. We have had Maggie for almost 8 years and she would be 8 next month. Although she seems really young, springer spaniels lifespan is 8-10 years so it was normal. I guess we were just expecting more of 10 years... not a month short of 8. It is so weird that she's not here. It's weird that I'm watching football on the sofa and she's not on my feet, keeping them warm. It's weird not to hear her barking everytime someone walks by. It's weird not to hear her collar jingling throughout the house. It's all just weird. Mom and Dad walked into the vet with our sweet dog. 40 minutes later, they walked out without her. Of course AnnaClaire doesn't understand whatsoever. This morning, she started calling, "Maggie, Maggie!" And when Maggie didn't come, she ran to the door and said, "Maggie! Cookie!" (She must've thought Maggie had run out the door and was trying to get her back with a cookie.) I feel so bad. She has no idea that her Maggie is gone forever... Mom told AC that Maggie isn't here anymore... that she went to Doggie Heaven. It makes me so sad. I'm glad that AnnaClaire kissed Maggie goodnight last night (as she always does) because her favorite doggie is not here now... The whole thing is just strange... I keep having to remind myself she's not here. She was perfectly fine! Last weekend we bought her more food and bones... she was fine. We never would've guessed she would be gone a week later. I miss my Maggie pup so much it's not even funny. We are really glad we brought her to the vet though, because the dr said she definitely would have died. I can't imagine walking downstairs to find my precious pup dead on the rug. And then we never would've known why... So anyway, if you could just be thinking and praying for us during this time, that would be great. It's really hard to love something you love...

yesterday

2007-10-16T20:53:00.000-04:00

Here's some pictures from yesterday. When AC picked me up from school, my friend Leah came out to see her. When we drove awah AnnaClaire goes, "Bubye Leah!" all the way home and then today when I got in the car, AnnaClaire goes, "Bubye Leah!" It was so cute! On the way home we always count all the school buses we see. She loves counting school buses! So anyway, here are some pictures from yesterday. I have a couple from today but they are on my dad's camera which I need to upload still so I'll probably add those tomorrow.

We love fall!!!!!!!!

2007-10-14T22:00:00.000-04:00

We have been having the nicest fall weather lately. It's great! We had a great weekend, too. Yeseterday AnnaClaire went with Mom to an open house thing and got some new bows from Sara Beth Bows! I had some friends over in the afternoon and AnnaClaire was definitely a hit. She loves seeing all my friends! Today after Church we went to Pei Wei. it was so good. On the way home AC was trying to sleep but she couldn't keep from smiling because we were tring to keep her awake. It was so funny. First she was trying so hard and then all of a sudden she broke out into the biggest grin. When we got home I went to take some pictures of her in her dress outside and she noticed Tilly (our neighbor's dog) outside. They were out, too, so we talked to them a bit. AnnaClaire loves them so much. She calls the mom "Missie Utt" it's so sweet. "Missie Utt" swang with AnnaClaire for a bit and then we went back home and the Bu took a nice almost 4 hour nap. We greatly enjoyed watching the panthers win... even with their 3rd string QB, while she slept and then went to see the amamals. That was a big hit as always. We ran some other errands and came home. It was a great day as usual... Here's some pictures of the Bu I promised. Isn't she a sweetie? The first ones are when it was still really hot so she's still in a summer dress. We were playing peekaboo behind my computer. So sweet. The rest are just some other shots. One of my favorites is the one of her in the green scarecrow dress (which she wore today!) sitting in the yard. I love that one. It's my "about me" picture thing if you want to see it bigger.
I love fall so much!!

My Little Bu... It's been 10 months now!

2007-10-11T21:21:00.001-04:00

(there's just one picture, but I can't post it so I had to put it in a slideshow..)
I can't believe that it has been an entire 10 MONTHS since we got our AnnaClaire Chenhui. Time has flown so fast and I can't believe here we are in October... celebrating 10 months with our little Bu Bear. Every day I fall more in love with her and I cannot imagine not having her in my life. 10 months... wow.

AnnaClaire, I love you so much. I am so glad you are MY sister. I am amazed that it has been 10 months since we got you. Where has time gone? You have become so smart. Today I got in the car after school and Mom said, "Show Sissy how you count!" and all of a sudden you counted to TEN! TEN! You are so smart! We got home and I was getting a snack. You wanted a snack, too! So I asked you what you wanted and you clearly said "Amamal crackers!" You then asked "wawa pease!" You are the sweetest thing every and I love you so much. Oh sweet girl, 10 months ago you saw us and screamed. You screamed and screamed. You screamed your lungs out... it's no wonder you don't cry anymore... you used all your tears on that day, 10 months ago. But sweetie, I can't imagine it any other way. I love you just the way you are. I love the way you entered our lives, too. Even if you did scream your way to us, that's how God wanted it to happen. Anyway.. 10 months ago you screamed at the site of us, of me. Today, you stood right in front of the doorway to the laundry room so that I wouldn't leave you. You are so full of love and joy. I love you so much. Thank you for 10 months of kisses, hugs, and love. 10 months of joy and happiness in my life. 10 months of you... I love you Bu!
Love, Sissy

Yesterday AnnaClaire came to my history class and put on quite the presentation. I told you how we watched China's Lost Girls. Well, my teacher asked if AnnaClaire could come in so we brought AnnaClaire and lots of special things to show my class. It went well and everyone LOVED AnnaClaire. She went around the whole room and gave everyone a pound. Afterwards she hugged everyone goodbye. Everyone just loves her and they all want "an AnnaClaire". How could they not?! Anyway, with all the going through pictures and stuff to find ones to show, I am once again reminded how much our girl has grown. She was SUCH a baby 10 months ago. She was TEENY. She had the cutest little 2 bottom teeth and the biggest smile. She had the shortest hair and the smallest little face. She was a BABY. I can't believe how much she has grown... I love her so much!

China's Lost Girls

2007-10-08T21:43:00.000-04:00

Today in history we watched China's Lost Girls! We have been watching lots of videos lately in that class, but I have to say I was surprised when I realized we were watching it. Of course, I had already seen it 20 times, but I thought it was really good because all the 9th graders have that history, so they all saw the movie. I just think it gives everyone a better understanding of how AnnaClaire came to be a part of our family... not that we just "got a baby". I had lots of people ask me about AnnaClaire afterwards. I was just happy because it educated everyone in Chinese adoption and why and how they happen. So that was really cool! I was looking through pictures because everyone wanted to see them and I am once again surprised by how much she has grown!!!

On another note, you must have known there is something different because of all the posting I've been doing. After considering it for awhile now, I decided last week to stop swimming. I was way too busy and I was really stressing over school and such. Besides that, I really just wasn't enjoying it as much. I swam for a total of 7 years and it is such a great sport and I'm really going to miss it, but sometimes you just have to do what feels right. I was simply just too busy. So anyway that's why there has been and will be more updates now :)

Pumpkin picking! (yesterday)

2007-10-08T17:01:00.000-04:00

Here's the pictures from pumpkin picking yesterday. I hear it was very fun. As I said there was a lady there who is a professional photographer and she took some pictures and emailed them to us. I labeled those with a little p. This was an event with FCC, which we did end up joining! It sounds like it was lots of fun!

Texas Fight (pictures)

2007-10-08T16:14:00.000-04:00

Here's the really cute pictures I was talking about. Isn't she so cute dancing to Texas Fight and trying to hook em? She's such a sweetie! I'm still trying to figure out a way to be able to add pictures, but I've reached some limit so for now slideshows will have to do.

Also, yep there's a new look! Something fallish, finally. I don't have any of the programs to make headers on my computer so that's just something I threw together on PowerPoint. Also I don't really get the chance to take as many pictures of AnnaClaire (although that's probably a good thing... I took maybe a bit too many!) but those are just a few pictures from Fallish things we've done. She does have some really cute fall clothes though... I need to get pictures of her in them! One of my favorites is this adorable brownish floral smocked dresses that has a matching brown bow and adorable brown shoes. She wore it on Friday but I was at school all day at the games, and I only saw her for a little when she came by school, and I didn't have my camera. She has lots of really sweet smocked dresses for the fall!

Texas Fight!

2007-10-07T21:28:00.000-04:00

The Bu was so cute yesterday during the Texas game. The game that was televised on ABC was the NC State game which was delayed, so they put the Texas game on. Right when it went on, Texas scored and the fight song started playing. AnnaClaire was dancing and humming along. It was adorable!! We tried to teach her how to hook em, but to ones on her finger was as close as she got. Sadly, Texas lost. After the game, AnnaClaire started kissing Mom's feet. AnnaClaire LOVES getting her feet kissed so she started kissing Moms. Anyway, she kisses them and looks up and says "Yucky feet!" It was really funny. I guess she thought Mom's feet were stinky. Then she went around the room and kissed all our feet. She's the sweetest little thing!

I'm still trying to figure out how to get more space on my blog so i can post pictures. So I'll add them later.

AnnaClaire also went pumpkin picking today with FCC! I didn't go because my youth leader came home from college and took me and my friend out to lunch. AnnaClaire had a great time though and came home with a pumpkin and a pumpkin on her face! One of the ladies there was a professional photographer and she got a few cute pictures of AnnaClaire. One of them is on my new header... the one in the corn! So cute!

Catching up

2007-10-07T19:12:00.000-04:00

Here's quite a few pictures of AnnaClaire from the past month. There are a few from the zoo, the airport museum (which she went to yesterday and was a little scared but liked for the most part), and just some other random around the house ones. I have one more from the airplane museum but I have an error message that I have too many pictures so I'll put it on another post.

Rest of the apple orchard

2007-10-07T18:49:00.001-04:00

Here's a slideshow with the rest of the pictures from the apple orchard! Isn't she adorable? Enjoy!

"Ah Better"

2007-10-06T16:11:00.001-04:00

Here are a few pictures I took of the Bu a few minutes ago! Sadly the Texas game isn't televised, but she's still adorable in her outfit, isn't she?! So anyway, on with the sweetest story...

AnnaClaire was playing with her little door toy thing and all of a sudden she said "oww, oww". She looked at me and pointed her little finger and said "oww, oww" again. So I held out my hand and she ran over and I kissed her finger. She looked at me and said, "Ah better!" It was so sweet. I love her so much!

More thoughts on China- Great Wall

2007-10-04T16:00:00.001-04:00

In history we are studying China so I have really been looking at my pictures from China and showing my teacher. I am just amazed every time I get to the pictures from the Great Wall. I cannot even explain this beautiful place. It is extraordinary. The views are gorgeous. You are standing on it and you have the best feeling. It really is so amazing. The stairs are steep... it's a rough climb. But when you reach the top, you know that you are at the top of one of the most amazing landmarks in the world. China is such an amazing place. I cannot wait to go back someday. I am already excited for that time. If you haven't been yet, I cannot even tell you how awesome it is. When you go to the Great Wall, climb to the top.. There's a girl at my school who's leaving tomorrow for China (not for an adoption) and the thing that I told her was to go to the top of the Wall. Yes, it's steep, its tough, you're tired, but it is so worth it.

So I just wanted to post a few of my favorite pictures. I took all of these. My very favorite is the 1st. I think that is my favorite picture I have ever taken.

And then there's the Bu. Here are a few pictures of her playing with her new toaster the other day... she loves it! I can't believe it's been almost 10 months with her!! She is the sweetest thing ever. She is sooooo mannerly. I cannot believe this girl's manners! She always says please. Whenever she wants something, she said "cup please", "bunny please", "book please", etc. It is so sweet. She has the cutest voice. Her favorite word at the moment is "no" though. Everything is "no". And if the answer is really yes, she says "nooooYES". She is so silly!! The one thing people tell us over and over is that she is smart. So true... she is such a smart little thing!!! I love her so much!!

One of my favorite stories from our trip to China

2007-10-03T15:27:00.001-04:00

Above are 5 of my favorite pictures from our flights home... and now for the story. I'm actually thinking I haven't told this one before... but I could be wrong.

We were to leave our hotel at 5 on the 20th of December. So the night of the 19th we were really busy packing and all. We did realize that we had only 7 (I think?) diapers left... We figured this would be enough, but Mom did ask if Dad could do out and buy somemore. The night went on and the diapers were forgotten. So on the 20th we got up and left quickly for the Guangzhou airport. 9 out of 11 families all left that day and we went on the bus to the airport. We even had to eat breakfast in the bus... that's how pushed for time we were. So we get to the airport and quickly get everything checked and go to our gate. We took off soon after and arrived in Beijing. Well. We quickly realized we were down to one diaper. Yep. AnnaClaire had quickly used 6 diapers and was wearing her last one. We had about 45 minutes before our take off time so we searched the entire airport. You would think the Beijing airport that had some diapers... somewhere! But none were to be found. Dad asked lots of different airport people and we soon found out that there was not one store that sold diapers in the entire airport. Now this is when we started freaking out. There is no way AnnaClaire could wear the same diaper for 14+hours. We had all kinds of people offering us all sorts of stuff to replace diapers. We ended up using some of Sarah Beth's pull ups, even. Thankfully there was a very sweet adoptive family on our flight to Newark that had quite a few extra diapers and shared some with us. But even then we went through all of the pull ups and diapers we were lent. Lets just say Miss Bu went to the bathroom quite a few times that day... When we landed in Newark we stood in line after line of security, check in, getting our suitcases situated. Finally we had some time and once again we went searching for diapers. Being in the US again, we were sure to find some somewhere. We went to one of the stores. None. Next store. None. That same sore had another store a few blocks down and so they told us to go there. None. Or so we thought. We looked up and there was a high up shelf and there was our prize... a small thing of Pampers diapers. Whew. So yep, that's our diaper story. Just a recommendation... if you ever have a very limited supply of diapers or anything really, just go on and get more before you leave instead of just assuming you have enough!

Welcoming fall

2007-10-02T19:50:00.001-04:00

Well I must say I have been very pleased with the cooler weather we've been having. I think fall is finally starting to hit!! I had a very busy weekend but it was so fun!! On Friday night we had our homecoming soccer games and then the dance. It was really fun! Then early on Saturday I left for a Church retreat! We drove to Atlanta on a bus and went go-karting at this huge go kart place. We stayed in hotels and drove home on Sunday and went white water rafting!! It was so much fun!

So how's the Bu? She's great! First off I have to tell about the cutest thing she did today. I got home from school and went to eat a snack and I asked if she wanted one. She quickly shook her head. Then I said "What do you want for snack?" and she said "Amamal cwackers!" It was so cute! She is getting so big and talkative! On Saturday she went to the zoo with Mom and Dad and had a great time! I can't believe she'll be 2 this month. Time has flown way to fast! The Bu still loves to read. It is one of her favorite things to do. She can now count to 3 (sometimes even 4!) It's the cutest thing. She has the absolute sweetest voice ever. She is so funny and laughs all the time. Her little laugh is so sweet. She is always such a happy little thing! She goes to the nursery 3 times a week now... on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. She goes on Tuesday and Thursday while Mom has bible study and from what Mom has told me she loves it and all the workers adore her. She is such a sweetie!! She is starting to get her little girl form. Most people think she is older than not even 2. In fact we had someone ask if she was 2 and a half! She has gotten much taller and is starting to loose her baby fat! Tonight at dinner she was having red beans and rice and all of a sudden she says "Napkin please." So Mom got her a napkin and she dropped it and AC said "Uh oh napkin!" So Mom picked it up for her and a minute later, there she sat wiping her face with her napkin! It was so cute! She is so sweet and careful about everything! She doesn't miss a beat! So yep thats AnnaClaire for you. She's the sweetest thing ever and I am so lucky that she's my mei mei!!!

23 months old!!!!!!!

2007-09-27T22:23:00.000-04:00

Well look who is 23 months old today?? In just one month, our little Bu will be 2 years old! I can't believe it! Time has just flown by. I can't believe my sweetie is just a month away from being a 2 year old. Wow.

AnnaClaire, thank you for all the moments you've brought to my life in the past 9 months. I love you so much. You are growing up into such a beautiful little girl. God has blessed us so much to have put you in our lives. I love you forever, baby girl!
Love, Sissy!

On Monday, my little BuBear came to school for show and tell in geometry! She had the best time and everyone was going on and on about how they wanted an AnnaClaire. She is so loved. She hammed it up for my class and knew just how to make everyone go "aww". She ended my "speech" with a big hug around my neck. I think she was quite happy to finally see this place Mom is always telling her that Brother and Sister are at... school! It was AC's lucky day because a few hours later, she came back with Mom because Mom had to work a luncheon. I was in LA and I saw my black haired beauty running around the hallway and when the bell rang I scooped her up and she ate lunch with me and all my friends! It was great fun. EVERYONE was coming in to say hi and how cute she was! AnnaClaire loved coming to school and I know she can't wait to come back someday!

Apple orchard!!

2007-09-23T14:34:00.001-04:00

On Friday I had the day off of school so Mom, AnnaClaire, and I headed to the Sky Top Orchard in the mountains! We had a great time despite at first it was incredibly foggy, cold, and wet. Once the fog left it was very fun though! The one downer was that there were no apples... there was an early freeze so all the apples were gone. We did buy some at the store and pick some out of the baskets they had outside, too. AnnaClaire fed 2 of her apples to the goats and they ate them all up! There was also a hay ride around the orchard and that was so fun! AnnaClaire met a little friend, Annaniah on the ride and they were so cute together! Annaniah was about a month younger than AC. There were also pumpkins at the orchard and AnnaClaire picked out the cutest little pumpkin. Near the pumpkin patch there was this huge spider made out of hay and black tubes and AnnaClaire stood on it and did the itsy bitsy spider! It was so cute! The orchard had the best apple juice too, and it came in these little apple sippy cups! There were even goats, roosters, bunnys, sheep, and really loud ducks. And I can't forget about the bamboo patch! It was a an apple orchard with tons of different stuff! AnnaClaire also loved swinging in this little bear swing there, playing in the apple house, and posing behind the pumpkin. The first pictureof her in front of the "How tall this fall?" sign took forver to take. She was so afraid of the scarecrow on it, but we somehow got her to standin front of it and do "so big" with the reward of a "very special" acorn. So we had a very great time at the apple orchard! I've posted a few of my favorites from the day, but I still have lots more. I'm working on homework before I go to my friends house to watch the panthers game, so I can't upload them right now but I'll try to tonight.

Ladybugs!

2007-09-19T22:20:00.000-04:00

Today Mom and AnnaClaire met up with 4 mommies who are waiting for their little girls from China and Emma Grace (waiting sister!) at Qdoba. I'm so sad I had to miss out.. it sounds like they had an awesome time!! AnnaClaire "told" me all about it when I got home and said "Emma Gra" all afternoon! It was so cute! I can't wait until all these mommies have their little ones and we can get all the little ones together, too!
When I got home from school AC was soooooooo happy to see me. She was so cute. I just love her!! On Monday she's coming to school for show and tell! Yep.. even in highschool we have show and tell! For geometry. And it's quiz grade. Everyone is so excited that she's coming in. She's going to love it! haha!
Isn't the outfit she has on adorable? Chocolate Soup. $10. I love it! It's her first little pair of jeans! They have little ladybugs on them! So cute!! I have some more pictures to post of her in her darling outfit, but here's a few of Sara Beth's website from today! Enjoy!
Oh and I can't believe I forgot to mention (or maybe that's a good thing?) guess who had her first french fry on Sunday? Yes.. AnnaClaire! We were at Five Guys and she started reaching for them. Almost 2... 5 guys... reaching... so she got to try one. She loved it and even dipped it in catchup!

Maddy!

2007-09-18T22:28:00.000-04:00

Here's Maddy kissing her Mommy and Daddy! Isn't she precious?! Congrats again to Maddy and family!!

Choo Choo, School Bus

2007-09-17T22:19:00.000-04:00

Tonight AnnaClaire, Dad, and I played with AnnaClaire's train tracks. We still had Will's and so Dad and I set them up yesterday. We had most of the little train cars and Mom got a box of other automobiles like a school bus, ambulance, police car, etc. The school bus is her favorite.. she will point and say "schoo ba". It's so cute!! She loves her little tracks with all her cars!! She was so cute with them, too. She is getting so big and so talkative. She says EVERYTHING. I am so amazed. She is such a smart little thing, too. She is the best sense o direction. She goes to the nursery during the week 2 times while Mom is at Bible study. Well it's at a different Church and she calls it the "new nurse". It's so cute!! She's so full of love. Every night before bed, we have our routine... Kissy, hug, love, one more kiss. It's so cute. She gives the SWEETEST kisses. For love, she puts her arms around you and puts her head on your shoulder, and for hug, she hugs really tight. She's the sweetest thing ever. I miss her a lot during the day. School is still going awesome and I love it!!! On Friday we have the day off so Mom and I are taking AnnaClaire apple picking! That should be fun!

Oh and I can't forget... sweet Maddy finally got her family and she is a CUTIE!!! www.maddysstory.com!

Enjoy the pictures. I'll try to check in again soon!

And now it's been 9!!!

2007-09-11T22:27:00.000-04:00

Well by now you must've realized that there's an 11 on the calender.. which means it's been 9 months since AnnaClaire Day!!! I cannot believe how time has flown... my sweet mei mei is getting so big! I mean look at that picture... except those squinty little eyes, flat nose, and big smile... she doesn't even look the same! She has grown so much... gained 5 pounds, grown 2 inches, gone up 3(??) shoe sizes... These 9 months have been amazing. The best 9 months of my life and I would not trade them for anything!!

Little Bu Bear, I cannot believe it has been 9 whole months since you were placed in our arms! I have loved watching you grow these months and I can't wait to continue watching you grow up into the little girl that God made you... a special little girl! I love you so much and am so blessed to be able to call YOU my MEI MEI!!!!

XOXO,

Sit-zee

Nice Matters Award

2007-09-11T15:50:00.000-04:00

I just got home from school and need to work on homework before swimming at 5, but I did want to post this. I was awarded the Nice Matters Award by Holly's Mei Mei and Young Party of Five! Thanks so much to both of them. I've never gotten a bloggy award before.. so it was fun to get not one but TWO! The award says "This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world." I must say I feel pretty special to be given this!

So who am I nominating....

A Quiver Full is one of the sweetest families ever! I cannot wait to meet them! Mrs. S was one of my mom's first adoption friends and she was with us all the way through our process. My mom and she both filled out sn applications around the same time and although we got a referral within a month, it was a year before they got Ellie's referral. But she was still so encouraging (an sent us lots of the sweetest gifts!). I can't wait to see little Ellie in her arms a they recently got LOA. I just love reading that blog.

Princess and the Pea is another blog that you will love the minute you start reading it. I can tell you from personal experience that Keara, Maura, and Mrs. S (and I'm sure Mr., too!) are some of the nicest people we've ever met. We were so blessed to be able to do something with them! Keara takes amazing pictures of Miss Maura that are posted all over her blog. She is a great writer and shows love to all!

Journey 2 Sarah is another person we are so blessed to have travelled with! Staci is so sweet and the love she has for Sarah Lu is obvious in all she does. She writes all about her life with her 3 year old sister and has some of the sweetest pictures, funniest stories, and cutest videos.

and here's a picture of my sweet mei mei for those of you in "AC withdrawal" haha just kidding!

Last but not least... I just want to remember what happened 6 years ago on this day. If you know someone who was a part of those terrible attacks, know that you are in my thoughts and prayers as are everyone. In school, we were talking about how days like 9/11/01 will always be in our minds. I can tell you that on that day I was in 3rd grade and we were lining up to go to the playground when a big speaker came on and said that there had been a bad plane crash... or something like that. At the playground, all the 4th graders told us someone was blowing up the school which was pretty freaky to all of us 3rd graders! We had an assembly/prayer service that day and went home from school early where we watched it on t.v. It was a really scary day and it will forever be a part of my mind.

My Little Longhorn!

2007-09-08T23:39:00.000-04:00

AnnaClaire's Tezas outfit came today!! Just in time for te UT/TCU game!! Isn't she darling in it?! With the Texas bow and everything... I'm happy to report that Texas dominated TCU! It was the outfit...

So behind!!!

2007-09-06T22:42:00.000-04:00

I am so behind. I have so many pictures. I need to post a long overdue home update on the website... But for now, here's a picture I love of the Bu. This was on the train ride at the festival. Is she not adorable?! I love this one! it is my background on my computer :). Oh and I also wanted to wish happy one year gotchas to AC's friends Maggie and Maura!!! They both celebrated a year on Tuesday!! Also I want to wish a belated 2nd birthday wish to LilyRose who celebrated her 2nd bday on Tuesday!

Schools still going well. I switched from Latin to Spanish and I love my new schedule. I also love learning Spanish much more than Latin! It is great. I'm doing well, too. I got my first geometry quiz back today and I got a 100. I am so happy about that! I also got a 100 on my LA quiz yesterday. So it's going great! I have lots of friends there, too. I love it!! I am always very happy to get home and see my littlest Bouy, though!

Jr Firefighter (fesival part 1)

2007-09-03T21:58:00.000-04:00

One happy, waving girl with her Daddy on the firetruck

driving the fire truck
AC and the fireman!

This morning Dad, Mom, and I brought AnnaClaire to the festival I was telling you about that has been going on this weekend. Ihad plannd on meeting some friends there later so I went on with the rest and just stayed after they left. We had a great time. First we went to the fire station. The firefighter was so nice! He let AnnaClaire (and all the other kids) "drive" the big firetruck. AnnaClaire thought this was too much fun and did not want to leave the big red truck! She was so funny in it just waving to everyone. She should've been in the parade on Saturday! We walked somemore and stopped to look at the racecars. We then turned a corner where there were lots of little tents set up selling things. I got this really pretty frame that spells out SWIMMING and you put pictures in all the letters. We got AnnaClaire a few little things, too. We then took her to ride a pony! On the way there was a Little Gym tent. AnnaClaire did the balance beam and a few foward rolls on the mat. She had so much fun. I think we'll have to bring her to the Little Gym! She loved it and kept going back for more balance beam. That was her favorite! She then rode a pony and she was so cute on it!!! She loved her pony ride. She rode the smallest little brown one! We walked over to where there was a kiddie train and waited in line for that. It was very fun and AC loved it. After that (about 2 hours there) Mom and Dad left with AC and I stayed and found my friends. It worked perfectly. I had a great rest of the afternoon there. It was so fun. We rode rides, ate snacks, played games, and just walked around. It was really fun. Me and another one of my friends went home with my friend, Ellie, and stayed there for a little bit before we went home. It was a really fun day!!! The Bu loved the festival. It doesn't come again until next labor day weekend, sadly!

I have lots more pictures to add as well as the others from the ranch. But here's some at the fire station!

First masterpiece

2007-09-02T23:20:00.000-04:00

My dad has to make a cd with all the pictures from yesterday because he already erased them off the camera. So.. I don't have any of those to post today. But here's one of my favorites of Maggie and AnnaClaire from yesterday. Aren't they too cute?!

It was a very normal Sunday. We went to Church and AC made her first thing!!! She made a little card that said "Dear Mommy and Daddy, thank you for taking me to Church! Love, AnnaClaire!" and there was a little cheerio cross on it. Well.. while they were waiting for me to come out of youth group, guess what AnnaClaire decided to do?! Yep, she ate the gluey cheerios of her masterpiece! That gave us quite the laugh. We will always pull that out and remember the first thing she made... and her eating the cheerios off it! Mom did realize it before she ate the last 3. Phew! LOL! When we got hom from Church and lunch, AnnaClaire went down for a nap. My friend and I went to the mall and AnnaClaire helped Dad with all the branches in the yard. She was out there all afternoon! She came in full of mosquito bites. She had bugspray on but not before she got about 20 bites! We tryed RumorQueen's recommendation of putting ice on them and they seemed to start going away, so we'll see in the morning!

Last week... Drew gos back to college

2007-09-02T22:44:00.000-04:00

Dad, Drew, and AnnaClaire before Drew and dad left for Boston

Drew's ready!
Bye Drew! See you in October!
AnnaClaire playing with the number at McAlisters last Sunday
Me and my sweet little Bu Baby
I just realized I never posted these pictures from last Sunday. That was the day Drew and Dad left for Boston to take Drew up to college! They had a safe and uneventful drive up (thankfully.. if you remember Drew's drive here...) and Drew has now started his sophmore year! AnnaClaire misses her big bro lots! We are hoping he will be able to come home for AnnaClaire birthday at the end of October. We love you and miss you, Drew!!

AWAA NC Reunion 2007

2007-09-01T22:56:00.000-04:00

Oh what a wonderful day today was!! We left about 9 but mapquest had the wrong directions so we got lost and it took 2 hours to get there... But we did make it! There was a place reserved for our group that had a moon bounce, picnic tables, and food set out. We walked up and there were lots lof little ones in the moon bounce and we recognized Maggie and her mommy and daddy doing bubbles right away! AnnaClaire and Maggie did the moon bounce and fed goats before lunch.They sat by eachother at lunch, too. We also saw a family we know from my old homeschool school. They adopted their little girl, Abby, a year before we adopted AnnaClaire. Abby is 2 and a half. Not only was it fun seeing them (and they have a girl a year older than me that I know) but it was also fun to see them because when we went to the AWAA seminar in Jan 06, their family ran it! So the last time we saw Abby was when she was 12 months old! She has grown so much in the last year and a half!! She was adorable! We also ran into a family from the AWAA WC yahoo group with 2 sweet boys from Russia. They are in the process of adopting another boy, this time from China!! So it was fun getting to meet them! After lunch, talking to people, more moon bouncing, we went to the barn for our 12:45 wagon ride. There were big horse drawn wagon rides that rode all through the ranch and it would stop at different spots so your could feed animals! It was really cool. There were lots of people from the AWAA group on our wagon. Maggie and AnnaClaire sat by eachother and fed animals, played with the food, talked, etc. It really was a cool ride. We gottopet giraffes, zebras, goats, water buffalos, buffalos, emus, osthriches, llamas, and a LONGHORN!! and more. It was really cool. We also saw a 5,000 pound rhino! AnnaClaire was a little shy with the animals on the wagon, which surprised me because she was so outgoing with the goats! It was a really fun ride that lasted about an hour and a half. It really ws a fun place to go! After the ride, we watched a horse getting it's shoe on and then walked around a little longer. AnnaClaire and Maggie held hands when we walked around and didn't let go until we got to the goats! It was the cutest thing! They also enjoyed playing in the water bucket together. That was a big hit! We fed the goats with the leftover food from the wagon, said goodbyes, took a few more pictures, and left. AnnaClaire fell asleep right away, but we stopped at DQ (which was a huge mistake). We left the car running and Mom stayed with Bu. She was still sleeping when we came back but when she heard the doors close, she woke up and stayed awake the rest of the time. She was really good though. Lots of Will's friends came over tonight and she loved seeing all them as did they. We read and did puzzles most of the afernoon, and of course watched college football. Texas' game wasn't televised, but they won which they should've! The App State upsetting Michigan was pretty awesome, too!! I thought it was funny how the aflac question was "Where is Appalachin State?" I guess it just seems like everyone knows that.. but really it's not a very known school. Just here since we are pretty close to it. So anyway that was really cool.

And lastly.. I know there are 80 something pictures the slideshow... but I took 400 so 80 really isn't many. I hope I don't overwhelm people with pictures. There were just so many good ones. If you click on "view all pictures" you can go through them quicker. I still have some that I need to upload from Dad's camera, but I think this is enough for now!

*new email

2007-09-01T22:55:00.000-04:00

Because of my email troubles, I made a new email adress. It is emilyh331@gmail.com. I get a lot of emails from people who read my blog so just thought I should put my new one on here.

AnnaClaire and Maggie

2007-09-01T17:49:00.000-04:00

We had an awesome day today at the AWAA NC reunion at the Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville. It was an awesome time. There were about 15 families there. There weren't as many as normal, but that was fine. Funnest of all was that we finally got to meet Maggie and her mommy and daddy!!! I had met them (at the mall, of course) before, but Mom, Dad, and AC hadn't. It was so awesome to finally meet them!! AnnaClaire and Maggie became friends at once! But anyway, they were ADORABLE together. Maggie will be 2 at the end of this month, so the girls are a month apart. They were SOOO cute together. They ate lunch together, went on the moon bounce together, fed the goats together, rode the wagon together, and just walked around being cute together. They were sooo cute. I took 400 pictures today so I'll do a bigger post tonight, but I did really want to add one of my favorites right now.

Getting caught up!

2007-08-31T23:40:00.000-04:00

Finally here are some pictures from the past week. The biggest hit of the week is beans. AC loves to scoop Maggie food, so Mom thought... why not beans?! She got out lots of bowls and cups, and poured lots of beans in and AnnaClaire sat for so long just scooping beans. She loved doing it! There's also pictures from playing bunny ball, reading, looking at pictures, her new, bow that Jeanette sent for her-- it even matched her outfit the day we got it!!

Long Weekend!!

2007-08-31T17:18:00.000-04:00

Well it's Friday... and that means I have the whole weekend ahead of me that won't be so jam packed! And with Labor Day on Monday... that gives me an extra long weekend! I did finally get everything working on my computer, so I can post on here and add pictures. So here's a picture for now. This is AnnaClaire modeling her new jammies while walking down the stairs. I love this one! I have lots and lots of others to add, but those will have to come at another time because AnnaClaire is begging me to read to her and after that I'm going to a downtown labor day weekend event in our lttle town. So that will be fun! Just wanted to do a short post since I haven't done one in awhile. And finally... a picture! I'll try to post again tonight and if not, tomorrow! Tomorrow will be really fun as we are heading to the AWAA NC families reunion!!

Oh so busy... 22 months (yesterday) and 900 posts!!

2007-08-28T20:11:00.000-04:00

Once again... I'm sorry that there are no pictures today. I'll just have a lot to add once I get blogger working on my computer!!

To Zilya and the rest that are disappointed with my lack of blogging lately... I'm sorry. Please remember that there are many things in my life that come before blogging. The reason I blogged so much last year was because I was homeschooled. Being at school 7:45-3:30, getting home at 3:45, working on homework, going to swimming, getting home at 7:15, eating, and having more homework doesn't leave me much time to blog. So I'm sorry about my lack of blogging.

The past few days have been fun. Sunday was Church. Our Church has been being remodeled and all the construction is now done and so AnnaClaire was in a new nursery. She loved it just as much and excitedly said "nursee" all throughout the day. Everytime we pass our Church, she says "nursee". It's too cute!! It was just a normal Sunday afternoon... Monday was school and it was awesome again. I really like school. I know pretty much everyone in my grade and lots and lots of people in other grades, which makes it really fun. My favorite classes are history and Bible. I did decide to cut cross country from my schedule. It would just have been way to hectic. So I got to go home after school. I did most of my homework in study hall but worked on the rest when I got home.

I played with AnnaClaire all afternoon because we didn't have swimming. We played all kinds of fun games. Her favorite was "Bunny Ball!" I made Bunny into a ball and we played catch with her! She loved that game! At first I asked her "Do you want to make Bunny a ball?" and she said "Bubba Ball!" It was so cute! Then when we were done, she looked at me and said "Ma ma Bubba ba" (More Bubba ball!). She is talking SO much these days!

So our afternoon was great.

Today Grandma left while we were at school. It was fun having her here! She's coming back in October for AnnaClaire's birthday. That will be fun. School was really good again, today. Everyone is so nice and I love it. I've made lots of friends. I also love all the teachers, especially my Bible teacher.

We get out at 3 but I ended up staying (and normally will) until 3:30 so that AnnaClaire can nap longer. I got a good bit of homework done during that time, so that was good. I had enough time at home to see AnnaClaire, work on homework, and eat a snack before heading to my first day back at swimming. It was good seeing everyone again. They totally switched the whole team all around so its really confusing but that's okay. I got home in time to say hi to AC before she went to bed. Now I'm eating dinner and I'm about to go finish my last bit of LA and study for my math quiz tomorrow...

Thanks for reading still. I'm still going to try to post every day but please don't quit reading if I miss a day. I'll also try to post a few pictures soon as I have lots of cute ones and I know you're missing your AnnaClaire fix! Heh. She is cute as ever and growing up so fast!!

Speaking of that... guess who turned 22 months old yesterday? Miss AnnaClaire Chenhui, of course! I can't believe she is already 22 months. In a mere 2 months, she will be 2. She is growing way to fast for me! I love her so much and she will always be my baby... no matter how old she is...

Middle name meme

2007-08-26T16:57:00.000-04:00

Robin tagged me for this middle names meme..... so here I go!

You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

1) Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

2) When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name facts.

3) At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

A is for Athletic because I swim and run every day.

N is for Ninth because that's what grade I'm in.

N is for Noodles because I love any food that has noodles!

So there you go! I got off pretty easy with my 3 letter middle name :) So now I have to tag 3 people... what about Staci, Ally, and Keara

In case you didn't notice...

2007-08-26T13:35:00.000-04:00

...I did quite a few posts yesterday. Be sure to check them all out!

Family and kids

2007-08-25T23:41:00.000-04:00

Since Grandma is here, and Drew is leaving for college tomorrow, we thought today would be a good day to take family pictures (I'm sure you know why... have I given enough hints?) Not any GREAT ones, but the one I posted is the best. We also got a few of just us 4 kids. They turned out pretty good. Enjoy!

Look what AnnaClaire got?!

2007-08-25T23:39:00.000-04:00

A potty!

She got it while I was gone and has gone twice (in a row) on it for m&ms. Now she wants nothing to do with it and everytime you ask her if she wants to go potty on her potty and she can have m&ms, she shakes her head and says "NOOOOOOOO"! We'll wait till she's ready to push her, but for now she is the proud owner of a little white potty! (She's getting too big, too fast!)

When does Texas football start again?

2007-08-25T23:34:00.000-04:00

Today AnnaClaire discovered out Texas football and started playing with it. She loved it and kept throwing it back and forth to me. I can't wait until Texas football starts!! Soon!

I missed Sissy!

2007-08-25T23:22:00.000-04:00

Here's 2 from dinner last night. I love this dress on her! Isn't is so adorable?! On sale at PBKids!!!

Random pictures from the past couple days

2007-08-25T23:16:00.000-04:00

I'm back

2007-08-25T23:00:00.000-04:00

First of all, here is finally a picture of Will and I before the first day of school. I am sorry for my lack of posting lately. It has been so hectic. The retreat was awesome! We left on Wednesday and got home yesterday late afternoon. Besides the fact that I broke my big toe and it is swollen, purple, green, and black, it was so much fun. There was a blob, ziplines that went into the lake (that was my favorite), a big double swing that would like raise you to the top of a wire and then you'd pull a string and like fly. There was also a pool with a huge hot tub, a big metal waterslidei n the lake, sand volleyball courts, a soda shop with ice cream, slushies, milkshakes, etc, and more. Our family used to go to the camp every year with our friends but we haven't gone in ages. It's a Christian family camp which many Christian schools here go to soon after starting school. The speaker was really good, the food was amazing, and all the people were really nice. The bus ride was about 2.5 hours.. not bad. It was really fun just being with friends and such. We had an awesome time and we all wished that we could've stayed longer! When we got home AnnaClaire was still sleeping. I got to go get her up at 5 and she was so happy to see her sissy and gave me the biggest, sweetest hug. Grandma got here on Thursday so she's been here, too. So that's fun!

Today a couple of school friends and I went to the movies which was really fun. I have met lots of friends already and they are all so nice. Last night we all went to our school's soccer game (which they won by a lot). We don't have a football team so soccer is the big thing.

We have gotten most of my computer issues resolved. I ended up getting the school computer which already has all the school programs rather than buying all the stuff and paying for all the software to be put on. The one problem is that everything is blocked since it's the school network. So I can't get on any blogs including my own or blogger. So it has really been a pain getting a chance to blog because I'm having to use my dad's computer and he... well never wants to share it! Plus none of the pictures are on this computer and my email is blocked, so I can't email all the pictures. It is quite a task as you can imagine.

Just a note to the many people who have emailed me about blog makeovers. I really apoligize that I have not been able to return many of your emails. I get some of them but I can't respond to them. Plus, as I said, LumaPix isn't on either of these computers and I rarely get a chance to check my email. On top of all that I have been so busy lately!

First Day of School

2007-08-21T22:14:00.000-04:00

I have a good picture of Will and I this morning before school but... you guessed it. I actually have it loaded on my laptop, but everything is blocked because school security is so high... even at home, so I can't get on my blog on there. So hopefully by the time I get home from my retreat (will get to that!) I will be able to go to more websites than Google. I'll also post the pictures of AC at some point when I get back.

School was great! In all the classes we just talked about the year, what we'd learn, and we went around getting to know everyone. A very relaxed first day with no homework. I really like it and I know it's going to be a good year. History is my favorite class at the moment... it's my biggest one with 24 people (out of a class of 72!) and the teacher is nice as are all the people in it. I have all good teachers and all my classes seem to be going very well. I'm talking all honors (geometry, world history, literature, and biology), Latin 2, Bible, and study hall. So it was a very good day and I've already made lots of friends.

After school we had cross country practice and it was not fun in the 100 degree heat!

I finally got home and the Bu came RUNNING to me and wanted me to hold her all night long! It's going to be so different being away from her all day... she was so happy to see her Sissy, though!

Tomorrow we are heading to the mountains for our school retreat (yes, on the 2nd day of school!!!) and I'll be home Friday when I'll hopefully be able to post pictures!

Orientation

2007-08-20T21:00:00.001-04:00

Here's the picture of everyone at Rachel's going away party. The shirts are blue for sadness and they each have a letter on them spelling out "WE'LL MISS YOU SO MUCH"

This morning we went to orientation at school. We were there for like 3 hours and AnnaClaire enjoyed every minute of it! It was fun. I met all my teachers and saw where all my classes are,etc. I've met a lot of friends and they were all there, so that was fun. Everyone loved AnnaClaire. I don't think anyone is used to see a stroller being pushed around the highschool! Si that was fun. Afterwards we went to Chickfila and ran into 3 families we knew (all coming from orientation). That's a place where you see someone you know every time you go there. We got home and AnnaClaire went down for an awesome nap. We had to wake her at 5! (although we didn't get home until after 2.) While she napped, Will stayed home with her while Mom and I ran out to see about stuff for my laptop. It came back today and it is a totally new one!!! I'm so happy! They put my hard drive in it so I didn't loose anything, but it is a totally new case. Scratch free and all! Well anyway, we took it in at orientation to get it booted with all the school software (we use laptops at school) and we realized it runs on the wrong xp. (because mine wasn't purchased through school since I already had it) So we had to take it to Curcuit City to see about getting xp pro installed. Well... they don't sell it anymore because it's outdated so they gave us all this info on ordering it. Well when Dad got home he found that we already had it! So that is good. We are trying to back everything up because I will loose it all when switching to pro. But anyway. AnnaClaire got up with the sweetest little smile! She played in the house and outside until dinner and I bathed her and got her ready for bed. She was so cute in the tub. The minute I put her in, she put her hands in the bubbles and put them on her face to make a bubble beard! So cute :)

Oh and I have some pictures of the Bu from today, but I can't get them to upload again. I'll add those soon!

...

2007-08-19T23:51:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I thought I had pictures from the other day, but I don't... I'm still waiting for pictures from the party yesterday and I have one from the Lion King that I need to add, too, but my pictures won't upload...

On the way to Church, AnnaClaire repeated "nursee" over and over. She's gone from "nursto" to "nursue" and now "nursee". Getting close! She ran right in and ran right to us when we picked her up. We dropped her and Dad at home and then off we went to the Lion King. The Lion King was AMAZING. Wow. It was so good I can't even explain it. The costumes and acting was amazing and it was so fun seeing it with our friends. We went out for ice cream on the way home (yum) and then shortly after we got home, Mom and Bu took me to the 9th grade pool party. It was soooo much fun!!!

Not really much to say other than the Lion King is awesome and if it's ever showing near you... SEE IT!

busy... so busy

2007-08-18T23:54:00.000-04:00

Whew... where to begin! Sorry I didn't post last night. I went to my friend's house and we watched High School Musical 2 and were doing some last minute party preparations for a going away party that some of us threw my friend. So yeah. But yesterday we went to the mall. We got AnnaClaire a few things including this ADORABLE dress from Strasburg. It is so cute. She really doesn't have many fall clothes, so it was good we find a few. At Strasburg, we ran into a lady who started talking to us and it turns out they are adopting, LID in June 06! So that was fun to talk to them. She had just had this adorable baby boy and AnnaClaire kept pointing and saying "babee". That's like at Gymboree, there was a little boy in his stroller, and AC was out of her because we were in there awhile. Anyway, she goes over and starts holding his hand and saying hi. It was so funny. So after a little while at the mall, we went back home and AnnaClaire took a good nap. We ordered a few things from Hanna and we are probably almost good for fall clothes. When the Bu awoke, Mom drove me to my friend's house. We had a really fun time. The cakes we baked looked so good. And the movie was good, too. This morning we woke up and around noon we went to one of our big shopping centers here and got decorations, plates, and t shirts for everyone (we bought blue t shirts and wrote a letter on them and everyone wore one. They spelled out "We'll miss you so much!"), went out to lunch, and got balloons. One of our other friend's who was also planning it met us there and then we went to the pool where the party was and Sydnee (another planner) came and we all set up for 3 hours. Becky (also a planner... there were 5 of us) had to come late because she was seeing the Lion King. But anyway, we got all ready and everyone came and we all stood on the deck with our shirts and Becky's mom covered Rachel's eyes as she came in and we all turned around one at a time and said our letter. Heh. It was so fun. We had so much fun but the whole point of the party was not fun :(. We had pizzas and everyone brought either desert or fruits or veggies or drinks. It was perfect. Rachel was so happy. Everyone who came (about 20) made her a scrapbook page and we decorated the album and put them all in. It was so cool. Rachel loved it. We had fun playing in the pool, eating cake, fondue fountain, etc. It was such a fun party. We are all going to miss Rachel so much. She's moving to Pittsburgh on Monday.

I didn't see AnnaClaire all day, so there are no pictures, but I do have pictures from yesterday which I'll add tomorrow. I'm also going to post a few pictures from the party tonight.

Tomorrow Mom and I are seeing Lion King with our friends, Monday is orientation, and school starts on Tuesday! So we have been very busy, as you can see. My laptop is also at the shop at the moment and so I'm having to use my dad's computer... so it's hard because I don't have most of my programs, none of my favorites list, and my normal email.

I also wanted to just inform everyone that at the moment, I am unable to do blog makeovers because I don't have the program to do them on this computer. Also I am too busy with school starting to really do them. Once I get my laptop and I'm in the swing of school, I will do makeovers. You can email me about them, but it might be 2-3 weeks before it actually happens.

The past few days

2007-08-16T23:55:00.000-04:00

My cheesy little Bu

Jumping

Jumping so big

going into the pantry to get Maggie some food

Feeding Maggie

I was playing with my sunglasses and Sissy turned around and I had them like this! I was very happy that I figured out how to put my glasses on by myself... even if they are upside down!

Riding the trike at Babies R Us (sorry it's blurry... I didn't have my flash on.)

Running to Sissy

Chinese Princess

So cute at the pool with my squeakies

Now that I'm done with beach pictures, I can post pictures and text from the rest of the days. I've already posted about Sunday and Monday... Tuesday, Wednesday, and today. Tuesday I wasn't around much... I slept in pretty late and after lunch I went to my friend's house with a ton of other friends and we made scrapbook pages for my friend, Rachel, who is moving on Monday :(. It was really fun and I didn't get home until dinner time. After dinner, Dad and AnnaClaire went to the park.
Wednesday was a good day as well. I finished all my school stuff like my math packet and summer reading. So that was good. School starts on Tuesday. We also ran a few errands in the morning and had lunch at Jason's Deli. AnnaClaire loved Jason's! She had mac and cheese! We also went to Babies R Us for some organization baskets and we saw a PINK tricycle there. AnnaClaire pointed over and over says bike! We sat her on it to see if it was her size. It was perfect. She rode it around (with help). She loved it. She was trying so hard to do it herself, and she was so close... but she needed a little help. She loved it and she sobbed when we took her off of it. We promised her that when she turned 2. That reassured her and we left with our purchases (including a pink bubble mower!) Babies R Us has tons of pink stuff... tons. Pink poppers, pink trikes, pink everything! Last night there was a pizza party at the school which Will and I went to.
Today was fun as well. AnnaClaire is starting to get a cold which is upsetting. We played at the house most of the day. AnnaClaire did go on quite a few errands this morning. I went to the pool and AC was going to come after her nap, but she napped for 3 hours and by the time she was up, it was time for me to leave the pool for cross country. She did come by to pick me up and enjoyed saying hi to everyone. She drove and picked me up from cross country because Will had work so he couldn't drive us. So AnnaClaire picked me up in the convertible and as I walked to the car, she had both hands waving saying "hi Sissy!" She was so cute and everyone stopped by our car to say hi! It was the cutest thing.
We just pulled out AnnaClaire's squeaky sandals because they are just now fitting her. She loves them. She stomps and jumps so she can hear them squeak. It's so cute! She loves them and they are so cute on her!
AnnaClaire is also really putting 2 words together now. Today she said "Dada work" and "More wawa"!
Well that's about it for now... enjoy the pictures!

Aug 10 (last of the beach pics)

2007-08-16T22:57:00.000-04:00

Here's the last of the beach pictures. Since she is barefoot in all of them, you can see how white her little footsies are compared to her tan little legs! Heh. Anyway, I love these pictures. Enjoy!

Aug 10 (first batch of white dress pics)

2007-08-15T23:56:00.000-04:00

Here's a start of the beach pictures in her white dress. I don't know what happened, bit something went on when I was uploading and they didn't all go, so i have more to add that I'll do tomorrow because I'm going to get ready for bed now. Enjoy!

Aug 11 (last day at Fripp)

2007-08-14T23:34:00.000-04:00

Here are pictures from the 11th. Lots of dune and alligator ones... I love all these. I couldn't decide if I liked the one I posted or the one of her sitting on the dunes smiling, but I decided on the alligator one for the POD. Enjoy!

Aug 10 (beach day)

2007-08-14T23:20:00.000-04:00

Most of the pictures from the 10th are pics of AnnaClaire in her white dress on the beach and such, but I'm going to add those later. Here are the ones from playing on the beach, and I'll add the porrait ones in a minute. There are tons of those... hard to narrow it down!

Aug 9 (beach and pool)

2007-08-13T23:40:00.000-04:00

I love how the pic at the top (my favorite from the day) is blurred around the edges. It was so hot at the beach, that everytime we got the camera out (and glasses, too!) the lens would fog up. While it ruined most of the pictures taken right after turning on my camera, I love the effect it gave that one.

Aug 8 (Guys deep sea fish, girls shop.. then pool)

2007-08-13T23:05:00.000-04:00

Here are a few pics from the 8th. The guys went deep sea fishing while we shopping. Will caught 1 fish, Dad caught 3, and Ben caught none. One of the fish Dad caught was used as bait to catch a shark that some men caught!!! They also saw dolphins. We had a great time shopping and when we got home, we went to the pool. So here's pics from then.

Yesterday and today

2007-08-13T22:51:00.000-04:00

I feel like I've been doing so much catching up from the beach and now very much posting about whats going on now! It's very low key... haven't taken very many pics because I have enough to add from the beach. But here's one I took yesterday of AnnaClaire in the shirt we got her at Fripp. She was wearing her adorable white dress w/ Robeez to Church and I forgot to get pics. But after Church we were just hanging around the house and she went to Marshalls with Mom, so I put her in her new little shirt and jean shorts. She looks so big!

Today was another low key day. Mom and AC went on errands all morning while I slept until 11:30. Boy, that was nice. We had lunch and AnnaClaire went down for her nap around 1:30 and she didn't wake up until 4:30!! Before she went to bed, we told her "take a nice 3 hour nap, sweetie!" and she did! ha. So we were all happy this afternoon. And I got lots of my summer reading done which I am not almost done with!! AnnaClaire watched her little Moses puppets video toady and she was so funny. She was just clapping for it all the time and had huge smiles. After cross country we went to the grocery store quick for some ice cream and AnnaClaire came with and we went in the convertible- big hit! We got her a purple balloon, but she let go of it and we couldn't reach it :(. Oh and she wore her little ladybug dress today.. love it!

Aug 7 (4th beach day)

2007-08-12T23:49:00.000-04:00

Aug 6 (day 3 beach)

2007-08-12T23:35:00.000-04:00

Aug 5 (beach day 2)

2007-08-12T23:17:00.000-04:00

here's some pics from our 2nd beach day and 1st trip to the beach pool! The pod from the 5th is at the top.

Aug 4 (seeing the ocean for the first time)

2007-08-12T22:56:00.000-04:00

Here's a slideshow with the pictures from August 4, when AnnaClaire went to the ocean/sand for the first time. As you can see, she LOVED it!! At the top of the post is my favorite picture from that day. I'm going to do that with all the posts from the beach... favorite picture of the day and then the slideshow with the rest...

August 4 (on the way to the beach)

2007-08-12T22:38:00.000-04:00

pretending to drive while Daddy loads the car

I love this one... in the smack dab middle of all the stuff yet happy as could be

trying out the beds

the beds in Sissy and Caroline's room are comfy!

happy to finally be here

Instead of posting one long post of pictures, I'm going to do them by day. Here are August 4th on the way to the beach and arriving. Then I'll do first time at the beach (Aug 4), Aug 5, 6, and so on. That way it's not so many to look at at once. Click on them to view larger. I probably won't get done with all of them tonight... but at some point I will. I'll probably end up doing slideshows for each day, as pictures get to be a bit much for the days that there are a lot.

8 months

2007-08-11T23:19:00.001-04:00

8 months ago, our sweet little Bu Bear was given to us. I cannot believe it has been 8 whole months... that's a long time! 8 months ago, AnnaClaire was a very unhappy baby, in Hunan China. Today she wrapping up her beach trip... a very happy time had! I really is hard to believe it has been 8 months. She has changed so much in those months... (I can't get powerpoint to work, so pictures will have to do..)

Sweet Bu,
I cannot believe 8 months ago, we were in the civil affairs office in Changsha, just having been given our sweet baby- you. I cannot believe it has been that long... and that time has just flown by! 8 months ago yesterday, you were spending your last day in Chenzhou SWI. Yesterday, you were sitting on the beach, playing in the waves... in the sand... sliding down the frog slide... 8 months ago today, you were put in Mommy's arms to forever stay... you sobbed and sobbed... and today... you went on a bike ride, a golf cart ride, you said bye to the beach and went on a long car ride home... you ate ice cream at Dairy Queen... you had a wonderful day. The whole day I couldn't help but think about today 8 months ago... life has changed so much... I love it!

Not only is today our 8 month gotcha anniversary, but it is also our 1 year LOI anniversary, Bu!! A year ago, our letter of intent to adopt you went to China! How has it been a year already?!?!?! Wow!!! I love you so much my little Butles!!

Love,
Sitzee

Here's a pic of that day 8 months ago... that face!

We're home from the beach

2007-08-11T20:02:00.001-04:00

We made it home safely today. We had the most amazing time ever this week. I think I can truly say for all of us that we were not ready to come home. AnnaClaire is quite the beach baby. She had the best time. I know I've already told about our first 2 days, but I am going to tell about the whole trip and I can't remember what I've written, so sorry if I repeat anything... and this will probably get long as I tend to ramble... I have tons and tons of pictures to post (we took over 1500) which we are uploading as I write. Here's one that I absolutely love of me and my Bu on the marina yesterday morning.

We worked out a very nice schedule while we were there. AC would awake fairly early and Dad and she would go on a nice, long bike ride. Sometimes a golf cart ride, as well. They would go to the marina and look at boats while Dad drank his "ha ju" (hot juice aka coffee). One of the days, we all went to the docks at the marina and AnnaClaire sat down and patted next to her and said "sit". She knew her routine! At 9:30, we would all get up and eat breakfast and head to the beach in the golf cart around 10. 12:30 or 1ish, we would come back for lunch, watch tv a little, and AnnaClaire would nap while we headed back to the beach. About 4:30, we'd go to the big pool a couple blocks down and come home whenever for dinner. It worked out just great. That was basically AnnaClaire's schedule and the rest of us would just go along with it or do something else instead. Oh and every night, Caroline, AnnaClaire, Dad, Mom, and I would go on a golf cart drive and Caroline and I would take turns driving- very fun.

AnnaClaire loved the beach. We got lots of comments about how sweet, happy, precious, cute she was. Most of the time we were on the golf carts, she would sit on my lap in the back. So she would see all the cars behind us. And to every single car she saw, she would wave and blow kisses. So cute! She loved the beach. She was so cute in her little water shoes and skirties, bows, and beach hat. She is a total beach baby. Her favorite thing was going out in the waves with Daddy. She was so happy out there in the ocean. She liked to be on Daddy's shoulders, best. She would also "surf". So funny. And we would ask if she was catchin' a wave, and she would start waving! haha! The tidal pools were also a big hit as they are a great size for her! And of course playing in the sand was big fun for Miss AC. One of the days when she and Dad went on a bike ride, they went to the little store and AnnaClaire got a sand truck. She loved that thing. She played it a lot in the sand, as well as her watering can and cups. She loved pulling my boogie board all over the beach, so we got her her own little $6 boogie board and the was the hit of the week. She woud pull it all around the beach and also she loved to sit on it while I pulled her. A few times, she would lay on it in the tidal pools while I pulled her, but she was a little scared to lay on it in the water. We went on quite a few seashell hunts and she would sit on her boogie board and I'd pull her and she would pick up the shells she wanted and put them in her little truck. It was so cute. One of the days we found a starfish!! AnnaClaire thought that was so cool! The pool starfish was dead :( and 2 of his legs fell off, so that was upsetting. On one of our seashell hunts, we saw someone flying a kite and AnnaClaire loved the kite. The whole week we saw lots of kites and AC would point and say "KII". It was adorable. Next time, we will have to bring a kite. AnnaClaire also loved jumping the waves in the ocean. And then when a big one came, she would run away from it with the biggest smile. She is a BEACH BABY, no doubt about it!!!

The pool was also a huge hit. Not only did AnnaClaire meet her one friend I talked about, she also met little Ellie, who just turned 2, adopted from Hunan in January!! So that was cool. They were so cute together splashing in the pool. The biggest hit of the pool was the little froggie slide. AnnaClaire went from needing someone to help her up the stairs, sit her down, and push her to the person waiting below to walking over, climbing the stairs, sitting down, and pushing herself. She would just need someone to get her at the bottom so that she wasn't in the next kid's way! I got a video of her doing the slide, that I will post at some point. Also at the pool every day, she would sit on the lounge chair with Daddy and Mommy and eat pretzels!

On Wednesday, Dad, Ben, and Will went deep sea fishing and Caroline, Mom, AC, and I went to the outlets near Hilton Head (an hour away). We had a yummy lunch at Moes and did lots of shopping. For the first time ever, we went shopping and managed to not buy AnnaClaire a thing. On the way back in, we stopped at this really cute store and Bu Baby obsessed over the little light up flamingo. Of course, we did not need a $48 flamingo, but the very nice store manager did see how much she loved it and gave her a little fluffy flamingo pen! We got the cutest oven mits ever at that store... pink with green frogs and green edged ruffle stuff!!!!

Yesterday we awoke early and headed out in the golf cart to the marina, golf course, and beach and got precious pictures of AnnaClaire in her white dress that we got with Keara and Maura in May. AnnaClaire looked darling in it and we got some amazing pictures. With dad and me taking pictures, we have tons of really good ones and it is going to be hard to narrow it down to the best (we are trying to pick a few for a collage picture frame). On top of that, there is a photo contest for the beach's calender and I want to enter one of the pictures for that. I can only enter 1 and that is going to be SOOO hard to choose. Anyway, AnnaClaire behaved so well for the hour and a half photo shoot and the pictures turned out great. You should've seen her at the beach! She did not care at all that she was wearing a dress. At first, she was pretty timid of the water, but after a bit she was standing in the water splashing and running around. Then she started throwing the sand (one of her other favorite things to do at the beach). She must've realized it was going to get on her dress, because she started "dusting off" after a minute. Anyway, that's okay about a wet and semi sandy dress, she is a tot after all :). We didn't to dune pictures because we figured we had done enough pics for one day, so we went back to the house and got ready for a fun day at the beach. This morning, Dad and I took AC back out and we took pics of AnnaClaire on the Fripp alligator and also quite a few on the dunes in her little sailboat dress. Also yesterday, we went in the beach store and got AnnaClaire the cutest little Fripp shirt. I have had my eye on it this whole time and yesterday Mom came with to the store and we got it. We also liked a little fish one and we tried them both on her and got the original one... guess what it says... "Peanut butter and jellyfish kiss! Fripp Island". It's so cute!!!! Everyone in the store was telling her how much they loved her little shirt! (and she made friends with all of them.. and was even playing ball with the cashier!)

We went back to the house and got the bike and took AnnaClaire on a bike ride to return it and then drove back in the golf cart (Dad drove the golf cart behind me and AC on the bike so we'd have it to go back). We packed all up and while the guys loaded the car, AC and I went on a walk and looked at the golf course. Then the guys took us on a golf cart ride to return it and we went to the docks and looked at all the boats. Mom and Dad picked us up and we stopped by the house for a quick picture and then checked out and headed home :(. I have to say that I don't think AnnaClaire was very happy to be leaving the beach, as she was not as good in the car as usual. She was still good though and loved showing off her hand motions to the Itsy Bitsy Spider, the Wheels on the Bus, and When you're Happy and you know it. We stopped at DQ on the way and we got blizzards and got AnnaClaire a little kiddy cup of vanilla which the guy gave us for free (I think all the free stuff is because they all think she is so cute ;)) We got home about 5 hours later and Will was already home unloading the car with Maggie by his side. AnnaClaire got out of the car yelling "MAHEY! MAHEY!" (she can't quite get her g's in Maggie down") We had a relaxing night although you could tell the Bu was very hungry and tired. She had yummy mac and cheese for dinner and is now sleeping soundly.

As you can tell, we had the best time ever. I cannot wait to go back to the beach next year. I wish we were able to go more often, as it was such a hit. We all had an awesome time.

I am working on pictures and it will probably be a few posts of them and maybe a few days before I have all the ones I want to post, posted. So stay tuned for those.

And also, I can't forget about... today is our 8 month gotcha anniversary. Not only that, but it is our 1 year LOI anniversary!!! I'll post a little 1 yr/8months post later tonight, although we don't have LumaPix on this computer and my computer is not working, so it will be simple.

Beach fun

2007-08-09T23:25:00.000-04:00

I just thought I'd do a quick post and let everyone know that we're still alive and we are still having an amazing time at the beach. Unfortunately, I still can't upload pictures, but I have tons of cute ones which I will put into a slideshow and post when we get home. We get home on the 11th.

Beach Baby

2007-08-05T22:51:00.001-04:00

We are here in Fripp I have the cutest pictures ever of Miss Acie BuBu, but I am having trouble uploading them. We are having an awesome time at the beach. AnnaClaire absolutely loves it. She is so cute here. She was pretty good for the 5 hour car ride up here. Mrs. L (Ian and LiLi's mom), we passed Doodlebugs on the way in and I thought of you guys! We stopped at Publix on the way and Dad, Will, Ben (Will's friend), and AnnaClaire drove to the beach house. Caroline (my friend) me, and Mom did tons of grocery shopping and then met up with the rest of us. Our beach house is wonderful. It is very basic but perfect for us. You walk in on a screen porch into a really pretty decorated living room and there's the kitchen and breakfast nook. Then on either side there are bedrooms with 2 double beds, a porch, and bathroom in each one. There are stairs that lead to the master bedroom/bathroom. AnnaClaire is sleeping in the bathroom of Mom and Dad's room. It is working out wonderfully. Anyway... Soon after we got in, we decided to take AnnaClaire to the beach. We were going to go to the pool, but decided on the beach instead. It was so awesome to watch AnnaClaire at the beach for the first time. How did she react? She LOVED it!!!!!!!! We forgot her water shoes so we were worried that she wouldn't walk in the sand. Boy were we wrong! SHE wanted to walk down the dock all by herself. Then we got in the sand and we picked her up so she wouldn't be scared of the sand because all the sticks. Once we got to the better part, we put her down and she looked at it like it was the funniest thing she had ever seen. Then she literally took off running around the sand. It was so cute! Then we took her to the water level and she just watched it. She was SO brave. She was just running into the water. We had to tell her to stop so she wouldn't go to far out. She loved it!!! She would jump over waves and just admire the ocean. She just loved it. It wasn't long before she wanted to go farther in. Dad, Caroline and I took her in (pretty deep actually). She loved it. She loved being thrown in (and then caught, of course). She just loved it. We only stayed for an hour because it was late already and then went back to the house for dinner. We had spaghetti and AnanClaire loved it. We got her this little booster high chair to sit in the chair but it has like a tray and all. She is so cute sitting in it and eating!! She slept well in the portacrib in the bathroom so that was good. When she awoke, Dad and she went to the rentals place and got a golf cart and a bike with a baby riding thing on the back. Then she went for rides in both. She liked both. I need to get a pic of her in the bike. It was her first bike ride!!! She was really cute in her little turtle shorts! We had waffles for breakfast and then headed down to the beach. She loved it again. She played in the sand, water, tidal pools. She also came in the ocean with us and "rode" waves. Dad would hold her over them and walk with her so it was like she was riding them. (Because we were all body surfing and boogie boarding). It was really funny because we'd ask her if she wanted to "catch a wave" and she'd start waving!! After a fun morning, we rode the golf cart back to the house and had lunch and AnnaClaire napped. Dad stayed in the house with her and we all went back down to the beach and pool for awhile. It was very fun. AnnaClaire soon awoke and Dad and she met us at the beach to pick us up and Mom, Dad, Caroline, AnnaClaire and I went to the bigger and funner pool that had a baby pool with a water slide!! Fun stuff that was! AnnaClaire liked going through these little fountains and then she went down the slide for ages. She started not being able to do it by herself at all and by the end of the time, she was climbing the stairs, sitting down, and only needed a little push to get her down! She met a little friend that was a month younger and they were so cute together. They would hug eachother so sweetly. She had pretzels to snack on and then we went back for dinner. She helped Dad grill burgers and Caroline and I went for a beach run. When we got back, dinner was ready and it was delicious. Afterwards, we took AC for a golf cart ride to find deer to feed the leftover hamburger bun. Here, the deer are not scared of humans at all. They will come so near you. They ate the bread out of AnnaClaire's hand!! It was so cute. I got some priceless pictures. She loved the deer. We had to work on not scaring them by running up to them. But she soon got the hang of that. She would point and say "deer" and then we even say a baby that was SPOTTED (BAMBI!!) and she pointed and said "Baby" over and over. It was so cute. She told the deer byebyeand we took a short drive back to the house only to find 10 deer in front of our house!!! She loved all them, too. We went back to the house and she is now sleeping soundly in her bathroom. lol. I will try to update again soon and maybe I will be able to add pictures. Just take my word that she is absolutely adorable here. I can't get over it :)

Beach Baby

2007-08-05T22:51:00.000-04:00

Cute little hair cut!!

2007-08-03T23:53:00.000-04:00

I had two other pictures to post, but they aren't loading. Hopefully the POD will. Anyway, one of the others was of AnnaClaire with the big red ball at Target. We asked her if she wanted to see it and she said yes. 5 minutes later, we got to Target and she noticed it and said "RE BALL!" She remembered! My little smartie pants:). The 2nd one was a really cute one of her eating her noddles at lunch. She was just in her diaper, bib, and a little hair clippie, because we have bad luck with stains whenever she eats stuff with sauce. She has the biggest grin and her cheeks are covered with sauce. It's really cute. I'll post them at some point. At the moment this one isn't posting either :(. It's a really cute picture of AC getting her hair cut. I already posted it, but it is the POD, too. She has the cheesiest smile and has the clips sticking straight out of her head. It's so funny. While she got her haircut, she had the cheesiest smiles the whole time. She is such a cheesy thing. And she knows it!

I'm bringing my computer to the beach, but I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to post all that much. I will a little bit, but don't expect anything long. I am so excited to go to the beach... AnnaClaire Chenhui's first beach trip!!!

2nd haircut!

2007-08-03T23:29:00.000-04:00

Sweet in her carseat

Happy at the mall

She loved dipping her chicken in Mom's BBQ sauce! And then she decided it was better with no chicken!

The morning started off with a drip to the kid's haircuit place for AnnaClaire's haircut. Boy were we glad we made an appt... it was packed! AnnaClaire really needed her hair cut. She hadn't gotten it cut since March (which was her first haircut!) and it was getting very long. She got to sit in the duckie this time and it was even better than the firetruck she sat in last time! It wasn't long before she discovered that the duck wasn't just any duck... it was a ROCKING duck. That, or course, made it hard for the lady to cut her hair, but we were very good at making AC look wherever she needed to and the lady finished the doo up quickly. We had wanted to get her bangs, but the lady talked us out of that. We probably will get bangs cut next time. For now she has "natural" bangs that are really cute, too. In the back it is all bobbed and stacked- so cute. Now she has her new doo and is just "bu"tiful for beach pictures this weekend!

We ran a few errands in prep for our trip and went home. Dad got home early at 2:20! Dad and I went camera shopping (I think I have talked about my broken camera before... well it's a long story, but it costs just as much to get a new one as it does to fix it, so we went on and bought a new one and now I have to do stuff to earn it off.) and when we got back the Bu had awoken. She was so happy to see both Sissy AND Daddy! We weren't home long before we headed out to the mall because Dad needed some shorts before the trip. We ran into a family with twin mei meis!!! Mom and I were slapping ourselves 10 minutes later for not saying anything... they were SO cute! And then in the food court, we ran into Leah's Mommy and brother. They are LID in December 05, so they are finally nearing their referral. We talked awhile to them and had a yummy dinner followed by a short stop at Babies R Us for a portable highchair and diapers. So I think we are good to go and we are all VERY ready to go to the beach tomorrow. AnnaClaire says "beach, beach, beach" every time we get in the car. I think she's going to love it!!

A trip to FedEx

2007-08-02T23:58:00.000-04:00

What could it be that we were doing shipping a package at FedEx, that was picture worthy?! ;-)

(oh and I'm not sure what that look on AC's face is all about... silly thing, she is!)

Purses, purses

2007-08-02T23:52:00.000-04:00

This morning, AnnaClaire came upon my little Vera Bradley thing (that can be used in so many different ways and I love it!) and she insisted that she bring it on errands. It was just her size and she was so funny with it! Whenever she wears purses, she lifts her arm way up so it will stay on. It's so funny! (ex: 1st picture). We packed it all up with her cell phone, her keys, and she decided her turtle and brush should go in too. Then we ran a few errands. When we got home we ate and AC napped and I went to a pool party that someone threw for all the new girls and their host families. It was really fun. I went right to cross country after that and AnnaClaire was happily awaiting Will and I outside when we got home. I just love my Bu Baby!!

more from yesterday

2007-08-02T23:31:00.000-04:00

they're sleeping all cuddled!

where'd kitty go?

As for the bone story... AC's latest thing is going into the pantry and giving Maggie all the bones she sees. She makes trip after trip into the pantry and gives Maggie bone after bone after bone. Of course it's annoying picking them all up, but she's a good helper, Doggie is happy, and it's so funny when she does it! Yesterday we asked her to help pick them all up, and she carried the bag around while I put them in it! hehe

Cute little froggie girl

2007-08-01T23:43:00.000-04:00

Sissy heard me reading and she came over to see what I was doing. There I was, in the middle of the mudroom, sitting in my wagon (with all my toys!) reading my book. Sissy thought it was too cute of me!

Big girl sitting in the chair waiting

Reading the parenting magazine

This morning we headed off back to the doctor because we had to get some stuff signed. While we waited, AnnaClaire, being her cute little self, climbed into the chair and read parenting magazines. Hehe she's so funny! Mom had to return something at the mall and our dr is really near by, so we ran to the mall to return that. AnnaClaire had fun in the store. We would go from mirror to mirror and I'd say "who's that?" and she would answer "Ah-na" in her cute little voice. She also read the J Jill catalouge and pointed everything out. So cute. We then went home and enjoyed a yummy lunch before AnnaClaire went down or her nap. She slept so good- 2 and a half hours! We had to run by Michaels, so we went to the Petstore, too. It was a big hit again. There were lots of new puppies who were all sleeping cuddled with eachother and AnnaClaire thought that was just so funny. There was a bigger puppy and he was jumping on the glass and AnnaClaire would put her hands out to his paws. It was so funny! She held 2 bunnies and they were both so sweet. She loves her bunnies! When we had to leave, she went to each different animal and waved and said bubye. It was so cute!!

I have a few more pictures... from the petstore and some bone pictures (I'll explain that later) but they are taking awhile to post and I'm exhausted and almost out of batteries. So I'll post the other pictures tomorrow.

We go to the beach on Saturday!! I can't WAIT!

POD- Cute on the whale

2007-07-31T23:33:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-31T23:22:00.000-04:00

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!

2007-07-30T23:51:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-29T23:23:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-28T23:48:00.000-04:00

Big Pink Ball

2007-07-28T23:14:00.000-04:00

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!

2007-07-27T20:32:00.000-04:00

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!!!!!!!

2007-07-27T19:13:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-26T23:53:00.000-04:00

Big Sales at the Mall

2007-07-26T23:32:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-07-26T23:15:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-07-26T23:05:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-07-25T23:15:00.000-04:00

...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!!

2007-07-24T23:12:00.000-04:00

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!!

2007-07-23T23:45:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-23T23:20:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-23T23:05:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-23T15:39:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-22T23:45:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-22T23:25:00.000-04:00

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