and now for something cute!!

While Lily napped, I took this little video of Andrew. It doesn't really show off his singing ability or mine (I don't think either of us are particularily gifted in that area). It's just him being cute and me finally getting him to do some things upon request....but as you'll see not all the things I request. Enjoy!

Memorial Day Fun

We had a great holiday weekend and hope you all did too. We had the perfect mixture of things to do and down time. Saturday, we hit our local Asian Festival. It's something we've done for years and always have a good time. We are so lucky to have this resource for our children. This year we went with our friends who are just weeks away from their referral. It's so exciting to think that next year, their little one will be going to the festival. I think Lily and Andrew's favorite part of the festival was playing in a little bamboo home. There was this little wooden sushi kit that Andrew really got into.

Lily and I had some mommy/daughter time. We caught the new Hannah Montanna movie and I'm happy to say it wasn't too bad. It's a gentle movie and Lily thought it was very "cool." I have so loved having Andrew in our lives for nearly a year. I do miss the one-on-one time with Lily I had for so long. Yet, it makes it so special for us to have our time together talking, shopping, singing to the radio at the top of our lungs in the car and giggling.

Andrew had a blast walking the mall with Bill's parents. He is at such a stinking cute age. He just gets joy in wide-open spaces. I don't know what's different about 16 months vs. 15 months, but it's definitely fun.

Finally, we had a good cook out with our neighborhood pals. It was so relaxing to potluck it, sit outside and enjoy everyone's company. All the kids, even the littlest ones, sat at the picnic table together. It was so darn cute!

Finished Preschool

Yesterday Lily finished preschool. They didn't do a graduation and frankly, I like that. I think preschool, elementary and junior high school graduations are goofy and take away from high school and college graduations. Anyway, it's still a milestone and I can't believe it's come and gone. We picked up this cute little Aurora cake today to celebrate it. The past year has brought so much growth to our little girl. She went from the shy child, who hung back from the crowd, and needed her "warm-up" time, to a confident, social little girl. During our parent teacher conference at the end of the year, Lily's teachers described her as out going, kind and a leader. Wow! It's so great to see that kind of growth. We are very, very proud of her and can't wait to see what the future holds for our sweet Miss Lily.

dreaming of the ocean........

I saw this digital kit by Kay Miller and just had to use it for my blog design. I don't really have many pirate pictures to scrap, but I do have the ocean and beach on my mind. I think it's partly because I'm ready to for school to be over and summer to be here. I also think it's partly due to the fact that this is the first summer we aren't waiting, planning or saving for an adoption and we can actually take a vacation. Nothing is finalized, but I do think there is some beach/ocean time in our future!


Speaking of the ocean, I have to share my mother's day gift. I have this thing for charm bracelets and actually started a mother/daughter charm bracelet for Lily and myself. I've got into the whole european bead bracelets like Pandora, Troll etc. They make so many adorable charms and they are a blast to collect. So, for Mother's day, Bill started another charm bracelet for me. It's an ocean themed and I adore it. He also got my external hard drive fixed with all my photos and scrapping supplies (whew!) As a result, one of the first things I did was do a little layout of my new bracelet. Here it is:

Happy Mother's Day

I hope this post finds everyone enjoying their Mother's Day weekend. I had several people suggest that this holiday would be difficult because of my grandmother's passing. It's true that we miss her, but it is also the first Mother's day that we have Andrew home and there's much to celebrate. Yesterday we had a fabulous day as we visited the historic M.C Illions carousel and Kingwood Center's tulip fields. It was a very fun day.

Lily opted to ride the panda on the carousel...


while Andrew enjoyed the stationary horse. At first, he wasn't sure what to think, but on his second ride he really got into it. Doesn't he have a "little boy" look in this photo vs. a baby look?


Lily enjoyed all the tulips and wanted to be photographed with flowers that matched her coat.


Andrew couldn't believe how many flowers there were and he had to touch many of them.


Both kids had a blast running, playing and exploring the grounds. Even though Andrew has been walking for months, he still gets great joy out of walking in wide open spaces. I love how he looks so serious here as he marches along and I love how Lily looks like she's out exploring in the jungle in this picture!



One last thing I have to share. We know so many families who are in the process of adopting a child from China and Taiwan. Sadly, right now it's a tough time in the adoption community in general. Wait times are way up, parental restrictions are tightening and the number of children being referred are down. All of this leads to a lot of frustration heartache for all those involved. I've always said that it was ok that adoption was hard, but it just shouldn't be this hard. To all my friends, I'm thinking of you and wishing that this is the last Mother's day without your precious children.