Andrew's birthday party

For the second year in a row Andrew wanted his birthday party to be a spend the night party. The theme was Spongebob. It was fun, we had many Spongebob games with awards. Then we ate crabby patties that Keith cooked (but they all assembled their own) had cookie cake and ice cream and then watched the lost episodes of Spongebob. They fell asleep around 11:00. Not too bad except most of them had baseball games the next day. They were exhausted. I don't think anyone got the game ball that day!

I'm hoping next year I can talk him into laser Quest or anything else that would not be at home!

Anslee loves...

Someone asked me the other day what Anslee loves right now.
Here is the list:

*playing in water (toilet water, Buster's water bowl, bathtub, the pool, it doesn't matter where the water comes from)

*playing with her brother ~ she wants to do EVERYTHING he does

*Buster!! She also loves playing puppy ~ either she's the puppy or she makes someone else be the puppy. She thinks getting in Buster's crate is so fun.

*princesses! She still loves Ariel from the Little Mermaid. She dresses up in princess dresses and a Tinkerbell costume. For Christmas Aunt DeeDee gave her some "glass" Cinderella shoes and she wears them all the time even though they keep giving her a blister.

*shoes in general. She is the shoe keeper in the house and makes sure they get put in the basket when we take them off. She loves to wear Keith's, Andrew's, Andrew's friend's and my shoes around the house. When we are in the mall she wants to look at all the shoes.

*answering and talking on the phone. When it rings she makes a mad dash to get to it before anyone else can.

*Kayla ~ we have a family we are friends with and she adores their daughter. If she has to go to time out at home she yells "Kayla help me!". Kayla fixes her hair, puts different outfits on her and she doesn't complain once.

*helping do any chores around the house. She LOVES unloading the dishwasher with me, helping cook, fold clothes, making beds and vaccuming is a favorite.

*desserts. ice cream, chocolate, fruit gummy things, icing, skittles etc.

*anything someone else is eating. She won't eat it if it's on her own plate but if someone else is eating it she'll say "can I have some" to whoever is eating. At dinner she keeps asking for the food on my plate even though it is exactly what she has. If I switch plates with her she then wants what I am eating off her plate.

*playing outside. She doesn't care so much what she is doing as long as she is outside.

There are a ton more things. She is just so smart, hilarious and fun. We are having a blast!

Happy Birthday Nana!!

Vists from my parents

Andrew and Anslee are always so excited when Gommy (short for Grandmommy) and Granddaddy come to town. They love the extra activity in the house and Andrew loves to go out to good restaurants just like my Dad.

When my parents leave to go home Andrew and Anslee are both dissapointed.

The Treehouse

Keith is building Andrew a treehouse in the backyard. It is triangular in shape because he is using three trees. After reviewing his work, he has put a brace in the middle of the treehouse because it is so big. The front part will be a deck and the back will be the house part with a roof.

Andrew and Anslee can't wait until it's finished!

sleepy baby

This photo is a rare sight. When we were in China Anslee fell asleep when we were holding her a couple of times. When we were flying to Arizona she fell asleep when Keith was holding her. This is the first time she has fallen asleep with someone holding her at home.

Now that Anslee has given up her naps(!!!) we may see a little more of this. Neither Keith or I mind getting this extra snuggle time :-)

The Game Ball

Andrew loves playing baseball. He isn't the best on his team, but he isn't the worst :-)
Every game the coach gives out the game ball. Andrew got it this game for knocking in the winning run. He was so excited.
Anslee just adores Andrew right now. When she wakes up in the morning she asks if Andrew is on the bus. She can't wait for him to get off the bus in the afternoon.

zoo trip

I went with Andrew's class to the zoo. When I taught school field trips were so stressful. It was nerve wracking to keep track of 21 children in a public place!
Andrew's teacher divided the class up and each parent had 5 children. We only had about 2 1/2 hours to go through the entire zoo and to eat lunch. Amazingly we were able to see all the animals including the baby panda. The children were exhausted when we were done since we had to run to each animal!

T

Author's Party

Andrew's class had an Author's Party. Each child in the class writes and illustrates a story and then all the parents come in and read and sign the children's books. Andrew did a great job writing and illustrating his book and he was so proud of himself.

I have been so happy with Andrew's school. If you look up your school on greatschools.net you can find great information about it and the surrounding schools. Before Andrew started kindergarten, I was impressed with our schools standardized test scores but a little concerned that the teachers were just "teaching to the test". I was so happy to find that this is not the case. His kindergarten and first grade teachers have been incredible and he has learned so much. I also love the ethnic diversity at our school. We have a large Asian and Indian population so Anslee will never feel like she is in the minority.

Doesn't she already look comfortable :-)

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Happy Birthday to my Dad, my sister and to Andrew!

I think it is so cool that they share the same birthday.

It seems like yesterday that Andrew was born. He was born at 1:30 in the morning at just 30 weeks. Keith and I were so excited and scared at the same time. Our Ob told us that he probably would not be crying so we were prepared for him to be intubated immediately and whisked away. But he started crying right away and had an apgar of 8. We were so happy. His 2nd apgar fell to a 4 and they had to intubate him, but we knew by his first cries that he was a fighter and would make it. After 6 long weeks in the hospital he came home. He has no problems from his early birth and is such an amazing little boy.

Easter Weekend

We went to North Carolina for Easter. On Good Friday we went to my sister's house and had a delicious dinner. We also got to hold and pet all the new babies on the farm. This tiny little lamb was a favorite.
Anslee loved watching the ducks get their feet dirty.
On Saturday morning we woke up to several inches of snow. We weren't expecting it at all so it was even more exciting!!

Uncle Mike made the cutest snow bunny with the kid's help. We used Easter eggs for eyes, a carrot nose, and black jelly beans for the mouth. On top is Mr. Potato Head bunny ears. Anslee couldn't bare to impale another peep on the snowbunny's other arm, so she is eating it instead.
It was great getting to spend time with my parents, two of my sisters and their families and my brother who brought his girlfriend I hadn't met yet. We had a wonderful time.
Terri

Andrew and I had this conversation Driving home from Sports Authority tonight :

Andrew said "Mom, there is something that I've really been wondering about for years."

I asked him what that was and he said "How did God decide to put my soul in this body?"

I said I didn't know and asked him if he felt like his soul fit pretty well in the body he has.

Andrew said " Yeah, I think it does. But you know how some people are born that can never walk? I think their soul is too great for their body and too big and that it has to kind of crumple in the legs to fit in and then they can't walk."

I might have written before about a conversation we had before he turned four.

We were in the kitchen and Andrew said "Mom, I know why babies cry when they are born."

I asked him how he knew and he said "Because I remember when I was born. I was up in heaven with God and Jesus and God told me I was going to have to leave him to go be born. He told me I would come back to be with him again but I still didn't want to leave. So when I was born I was crying so hard because I was already missing God and Jesus. But then I grew to love you and Dad. :-)

He thinks so much deeper than I ever did (or do!). His teachers have always said that he's an old soul and I agree.

On a lighter note, do you know what the appropriate attire is for grocery store shopping? You can wear anything as long as you wear a hat.

Anslee wore this pitcher to the grocery store and thought she looked so beautiful. She wouldn't take it off. She drew a lot of attention! :-)

Terri

North Carolina trip

We always have so much fun with our friends. We had our annual trip together at the beginning of March. Last year Anslee was the youngest, but this year there are THREE more babies. Everyone had another baby except me (thank goodness!!). The count now is three girls and seven boys. I think we need at least two more girls. Maybe next year there will be more babies!

Anslee and mom at the Nature Center

We were so excited to get snow!! Every year we've been together it has snowed. Andrew and Samuel wanted to go down the hill in the sandbox lid. The lid didn't move but we took a picture anyway. Andrew stayed outside for about 30 minutes after everyone else went in. He said he didn't want to waste the snow :-)

I found this photo/description on yahoo news. Isn't it beautiful?


A resident crosses a bridge shrouded with fog at a park in Beijing February 21, 2007. A dense fog covering Beijing cut visibility to a few dozen metres and paralysed flights in and out of the national capital on Wednesday, disrupting China's week-long Lunar New Year celebrations. REUTERS/Claro Cortes IV (CHINA)

In the mail

Andrew loves getting mail and packages. He was so excited to come home from school and find a package on our front doorstep.

Enclosed was a bird's nest sent from Auntie Glenda. Andrew pointed out a shoestring, Christmas ribbon, lint from a dryer and a piece of a candy wrapper the bird had used. He didn't want to mess it up, so he didn't take the plastic wrap off.

When he took it to school and pulled it out of his book bag, he got a great surprise. It had a beautiful blue egg inside that with all the jostling, had worked itself to the outside of the nest.

Andrew thinks this is the best package he has ever received!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year!

We had a blast yesterday. We went to the China town area and saw a great show. There were plays, drums, singing and throwing candy and money (which hurt when it hit your head!). Andrew's Chinese teacher met us there and gave both he and Anslee red envelopes with money and candy.

We tried authentic Chinese food ~ which as we found out while we were in China is nothing like the Chinese food we eat around here. :-)

After the show we went outside to watch the dragon dance.

Anslee and Andrew both fed money to the dragon. Anslee ran ahead and ran straight to the dragon to put her money in the mouth. Then she kept running back to us to get more money.

Chinese New Year lasts for fifteen days, so we still have a lot of celebrating to do!

A new building

Anslee's orphanage in Fuling is being relocated and built higher up a mountain. When the Three Rivers Gorge dam is completed her old orphanage will be completely under water.

They are still asking for donations to complete the building. If you would like to help, click here for the details.

This is a picture of the entrance when we were there. I'm sad we won't ever be able to bring Anslee to the orphanage to see where she lived for the first ten months of her life, but the children who are still there will have a much nicer place to live.

Our neighbors

Anslee and Andrew love playing outside. We have had such a mild winter until now that they have been able to play outside a ton. Yesterday and today have been bitterly cold (for Georgia!)

so they have been inside. If it is not going to snow, we are ready for spring!!

Exciting news...

My sister and her husband are going to have a baby!

My nephew is going to have a sibling!
That will bring my parents a total of 12 grandchildren!

I am so excited!

Can you tell by my use of exclamation marks?

Terri

Reality check

I love my sister! When I am having a rough day she always makes me feel better because her day is always much harder!
I called her yesterday and was telling her about all the things I had on my "to do" list for that day. She listened and gave me advice. Then I asked her what she had done yesterday. She gave me her usual huge long list and then said when she and her family got home last night they were checking on all the farm animals because it was really cold (17 degrees).
The pigs and the sheep were missing. They had to treck all through the woods looking for them. When they found them they had to be herded back to their pens and enticed to enter. It took about an hour in below freezing temperatures! My chores look much easier after hearing that.
I remember one day after talking for a while she told me the day before that one of their goats was dying during kidding. They had to put the goat down, deliver her babies by c-section, run to the house and get a lamp electric cord, and strip the wiring out so they could intubate the babies.... Can you imagine starting your day like that?!

Anslee helping with chores on the farm.

Andrew feeding chestnuts to the pigs.

I'm off to start my easy day :-)

T