A Real Update :)

Enjoy the picutres! They are from a few weekends ago... I really need to be better about posting pictures!

These sweet girls are just so much fun :)

Kate LOVES to read books, just like her big sister (AnnaClaire, not me :)) She is such a little sweetie and is such a good and very go-with-the-flow little thing. Her vocabulary has really taken off and she's putting 2 words together. She says "sissy" in the absolute cutest way. It's so sweet to hear :) She still doesn't have much of an appetitie... unless, of course, it involves sweets. She loves playing with toys and is truly a happy little thing and I just love that about her SO much!

AnnaClaire has been doing well, too. She loves her little sister and loves having a constant playmate. She loves just about everything: singing, watching Dora, Calliou, and Barney, doing "paperwork" as in cutting and drawing, talking, going places with anyone, "camping", dancing, doing puzzles... anything and everything. She is about the sweetest three year old EVER with the most loving, generous heart.

Happy Valentines Day

Ballerina Girls

AnnaClaire and Kate have been coming up with all of these great ideas of things to do lately. They have really started to play well together. It's so sweet to see and they are always running around after each other and playing together. What an adorable sight! They aren't perfect together, but it is so nice to finally see them playing together. AC is starting to take after Kate, who is a great player! (AC has never been a great player...) and Kate is definitely interacting more with AnnaClaire. They truly LOVE eachother and over all, get along VERY well together. I just love watching/hearing them play. They are always giggling and AnnaClaire is SO good with her little sister (not perfect, but very good!)

One of their favorite activities is camping (gathering a bunch of stuff and camping underneath Mom's bed, the "tent.") Will goes camping a lot, and they want to be just like their big brother and do the same thing. It's adorable! Anyway, yesterday, they were camping and AnnaClaire asked if she and Kate could put their "toot toots" on and dance. So that's exactly what we did! :) The girls both had SO much fun dancing around in their "toot toots!" Mom and I, of course, had fun watching them... I'm not sure that sight of our two girls TOGETHER in their pink "toot toots" will ever get old.

I mean... just look at them. It doesn't get much cuter than that.

I love you, my sweet ballerina girls!

Wordless (okay... so two words) Wednesday

Sisterly Love.

The Apron Says It All...

My biggest princess and I made some cut-out heart cookies this afternoon! We had so much fun. According to AnnaClaire, "baking the cookies is just as fun as it is to EAT them!" She is such a good little baker and had so much fun rolling the dough with her little rolling pin, using the cookie cutters, putting the sprinkles on, and finally... eating the cookies!

Last Weeks Snow...

I feel a little funny posting snow day pictures (from Wednesday), as it is a beautiful 70 degrees outside today. We didn't have very much snow, but the streets were really icy, so it was enough to cancel school. AnnaClaire, my friend, and I did have fun making a snowman (and used most of the snow in our yard on that tiny thing!) I didn't take too many pictures as I have so many from the last snow day, and I wanted to just enjoy it this time. But here's a few of the pictures I did get. It was all melted by the afternoon... gotta love southern snow days!

Jaya Comes!

We had such a fun morning with Jaya and her mom and aunt! Jaya and AnnaClaire played so well together and just had a blast. So much that when Jaya had to leave, AnnaClaire was in tears! We just stayed in the house and had lunch and let the girls play- it's easier to talk that way. The moms took AC, Kate, and Jaya to the park, too. It was a whirlwind visit, but a fun one all the same!

Thanks for stopping by Jaya (and your mommy and aunt, too!) We were so happy to see you!

23 Months Old~

Kate actually turned 23 months yesterday, but a day late is better than never... I cannot believe she will be 2 in just a month. Makes me sad :(. She's just growing up too fast for her sissy's liking! Time has just gone too fast, especially since we got her at 19 months!

I just love this little girl so much! She is such a sweetie and such a little love! Happy 23 months, baby girl!

Quick Update

I know it's been a few days since a real update... sorry! This week has flown by!

Our snow day on Wednesday, which by the way was a complete surprise, was very fun. There was even ice and snow on the street... enough to actually sled down the street a few times! My friend came over and we played with AnnaClaire. Most of the snow melted by 2 in the afternoon, so it wasn't much of a "snow day", but the snow was fun while it lasted. I went to another friend's house later and we watched Grease... it was definitely nice having a break from school mid-week!

Today, we had our conference swim meet, which our girl's team won! That was very exciting :) Our state meet is in 2 weeks, and it's in Ra*leigh, so we are spending the night and get to miss school! I'm very excited about that :)

Yesterday, we had a swim meet much closer than they usually are, so Mom, AnnaClaire, and Kate stopped by. The girls had SO much fun! Kate was very shy, as she is around big groups of people. AnnaClaire (who is the complete opposite of Kate) was so excited to see everyone and watch the meet. She was the BEST little cheerleader and loved how "Sissy swam right to me! And then she turned and went back and swam to me AGAIN!"

The little girls are both doing well. They went to the train museum with Mom and Dad last weekend... I need to add pictures from that. Kate had a rough day this week and seemed very somber and didn't want to eat... much like the way she was in China. However, that has passed over her and she i snow back to her sweet, happy self!

Tomorrow, a dear friend is coming to visit us! I know I've talked about our "chatty sisters" (named because of all the talking they did on our agency's SN yahoo group... caused the group to start being moderated!) before... they are basically our travel group from AC's adoption, although we didn't travel with all of them. All 15 of our familes has very similar dates and should've traveled together, however the group was kind of split. Anyway, we have remained very close friends with all of these families and Jaya and her Mommy (who live in Colorado!) will be in town tomorrow! Of course, they are stopping by and we are SO excited to see Jaya and her Mommy! I assure you there will be lots of cute pictures :)

That's about it for now. I have snow (not many) and train museum pictures that I'll add soon, and I'm sure there will be pictures from tomorrow, too. Until then~

Sweet Baker

AnnaClaire loved helping me make Mommy's birthday cake on Monday! In fact, making it was almost as fun as eating it :)

Oh and guess what we were surprised with this morning?

Another snow day! Two in two weeks... that just doesn't happen here! Of course, it's 4:30 and it's pretty much all gone...

Winter Formal

Our school had our Winter Formal on Saturday and it was very fun! We had big group of around 10 girls and 8 guys. We had all decided to just go as a big group of friends instead of doing dates. We ended up having a really fun time. I got ready with two of my friends and we ended up missing pictures before, so I have none from that. Mom and AnnaClaire did come to PF Changs to get a few pictures, as they were already right there, but we just got a group shot of the girls because not all of the guys were there yet. Obviously, we had (a very good) dinner at PF Changs before heading to the dance. We had a big sleepover after at one of the girl's houses afterwards, which was another highligh. It was a very fun night :)

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom!

She hates being in pictures, but I did get one of her with Drew. If you know us well, I'm sure you can guess where we dined for the birthday dinner...

If you guessed On the Border, you are right! I think it was actually the first time that we ate out as a family of seven. We've had lots of meals home, but I think this was the first one out. Anyway, I know Mom loved celebrating with all FIVE of her kids :)

We got her a Suzanne Myers necklace for her birthday and it is sooo pretty. Actually, it's not here yet (it's coming next week) but we did wrap a paper that said what she was getting so she could open something. Of course, Booie and I made her a card, too. We had cake and sang once we got home. AC and I made Mom's cake and I have to say it was pretty good! I have some sweet pictures of the cake baker to add later. For now...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!

Superbowl :)

Even though our Pan*thers aren't in the Super*bowl, we are enjoying watching the game! Whenever our extended family is together and there's a football game, we always make a "football pool." Even though we aren't all together, Grandma decided to do a "long distance football pool." Grandma put $100 in ($25 for each quarter) and all of her grandkids and grandkid's wives (13 people total) have 7 squares. At the end of each quarter, we check the score and whoever has that box wins. AnnaClaire won the second quarter!

Halftime was a hit! Can you tell from the pictures? AnnaClaire and Kate loved dancing... they were so funny dancing together! Oh, and did I mention... CUTE?

I'm not a fan of either team (like I said, we are Pan*ther fans!), I'm cheering on the Card*inals... so go Cards!