Look who's relaxing on vacation!

Here's Sarae enjoying breakfast in bed, what you can't see is the large flatscreen t.v. she is watching while lying in bed. Next she hit the beach for some sandcastle building and jumping in the waves. After dinner we went on a "walk" and finally she needed to relax by the lagoon after her exhausting day.

I'm Three!!

We had the perfect day for a birthday party at the park! Sarae really loves blowing bubbles and she and Tia found these bubble wands a couple of weeks ago. We bought one for each child that came to the party and they were a hit. Everyone was so good at using the wands, there were bubbles all over the place. Sarae wanted a princess theme for her party and so I decided to make her a castle cake. I took the day off from work to make it and worked on it off and on from 10:00 a.m. til 11:30 p.m. The picture shows you what it looked like at the house. As we were driving over to the park, I could hear the towers falling as we rounded a corner or came to a stop. By the time we got there, there were only 4 towers standing. Thanks to Uncle Jimmy for grilling all of the food for the party!! Thanks to everyone who came to the party! Sarae reports that she had a fun time with her friends at the party and is ready to do it again! : )

Happy Chinese New Year!

We've been so busy, I haven't updated the blog since 2009! Sarae and I celebrated Chinese New Year with our adoption facilitator and other families who adopted. Sarae is growing up so quickly. She is still talking up a storm and is very into the Disney Princess'. Sarae and I both cut our hair short recently. Neither of us wanted to deal with having to put it up in the morning! We hope everyone has had a wonderful new year so far!

Getting ready for the holidays!

Sarae is very excited about the holidays. She loves all of the decorations and now understands the concept of Santa and presents. She still isn't thrilled with Santa himself (still scared of him), but loves the idea of his bringing her gifts. If you ask her if we can leave cookies and milk for Santa, she will say no. I guess she doesn't want him hanging out, just dropping off. The second picture is her and "her best friend, Cody," lying down watching television together and the third picture is her "scary" face . The last picture is her wearing the dancing skirt Tia bought for her. She wears it shopping, to church, to daycare, to sleep and to dance around the house. She loves to sing and when I join in and sing with her in the car, she will ask me what I am doing and tell me I need to stop singing and just drive. Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays as much as we are!

Happy Halloween!

October was a busy month for us. Sarae went to her grandmother's church's fall festival where she was able to go down the blow up slides, sit in a fire truck and eat some yummy sweets. Next we went to Green Meadows farm with the Ziegler family. Those of you who have followed the blog from the beginning should remember Leslie Ziegler as one of the people who went to China with me to pick up Sarae. Her husband and two children met us at the farm for a fun morning. The kids got to hold/pet many different farm animals, ride a pony, milk a cow and finally pick their own pumpkin. The next weekend we went with our friends, Shery, Elyn, Francie and Henry to the zoo for Boo Bash. The kids got to dress up and trick or treat at the zoo. Beautiful weather and lots of fun! Finally, we went to Sea World for trick or treating which was great.

Sarae is growing up so quickly. She is now singing songs like the alphabet song, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Baa Baa Black Sheep. She still has some difficulties with certain letters. She says Mook for Look and Pooh for Who. She is also getting very independent and when I put on shoes on her that she didn't want to wear, she became very angry and stuck her finger in my face and said, "I no listen to you Momma!" A preview for the teenage years I am told : ) Hope everyone had a wonderful October and we'll talk with you soon!

You decide...

Sarae's favorite doll is a Wonderwoman doll that she has named Tia. My niece, Tia, thinks this is the ugliest doll she has ever seen and is not very happy that Sarae calls her Tia. I've posted both of their pictures so you can decide if they look alike : )

Tia, Sarae and I headed to Sanibel Island in August. We stayed at the Sanibel Inn which we really liked. They had bicyles (with children's seats) there and we were looking forward to riding around the island. We got there Sunday afternoon and immediately hit the beach. Sarae made her first sandcastles and while initially was wary of the water, once she got used to it loved it. Unfortunately, Tropical Storm Faye joined us and we were asked to leave the inn the next day. Tia and Sarae did get to walk on the beach that next morning and pick up seashells while I packed. We hope to go back soon.

Butch, (Tia's boyfriend) had to go back to Kentucky to college and we miss him. Before he left he came over and played with Sarae yet one more time. He's great with her as you can see from the picture.

Hope everyone had a wonderful summer!