Crested Butte, Colorado - October 2012

Last year we went to Crested Butte Colorado. We hiked up the mountain, shopped and ate well. The trees were turning colors so they were beautiful. An Aspen tree was right outside the house that we stayed at and it was so pretty, it just glowed in the sun. Matter of fact it was so pretty that I purchased a plate that has an Aspen tree painted on it to remind me of it glowing golden yellow color. It was very cold while we were there. There was a coffee shop literally right next door to the house that we stayed in and an ice cream shop across the street.  Need I ask for more? The bears came around every night to dig in the trash, however the trash was locked and of course I was never able to see the bears. Maybe next time...from a far distance.

 

 

               A Beautiful Girl and her Poppy on a Bus Ride up the mountain.

                 They have swings in Crested Butte, Colorado too!

 

Coffee Shop

 

                                        Beautiful Girl with her Dad

 

Beautiful Girl with her Mom

 

                                        
                                        Swinging

                                       Gramma and Poppy with Boog.

Gotcha Day

                         One year ago today we got our beautiful baby girl!!

  

 

One year later here is our beautiful baby girl in her Gotcha Outfit!

 

 

Today was a wonderful day.  One of our cousin's came by and brought his beautiful baby boy and the babies played so well together.  Then we went to an inside play place and played some more. We came home and took a spin in our new red wagon around the neighborhood.  We had lunch and nap time. After that we attempted to take pictures in the Gotcha outfit. We went to Gramma and Poppys for dinner. Daddy brought us Christopher Elbow Chocolates...Yumm-O! We brought Daddy a Reese PB Brownie...which also looked Yumm-O!

 

1st Train Ride - Pumpkin Patch

At the Pumpkin Patch they have a mini train that takes you around the grounds and then through a tunnel on the way back.  My baby girl got her first train ride.  She was a little hesitant at first, but knew that it couldn't be all that bad since there were more kids on the train than adults. lol. 

 

 

                                                   Her face tells it all!

Pumpkin Patch - October 2012

Last October we visited the Pumpkin Patch.  So exciting to take my baby girl with me this year.  We have been going to this pumpkin patch since my niece was really little and then when my nephew came along we took him with my BFF two boys as well.  And our other BFF would come too! We always have so much fun and love the pumpkin donuts...they are so yumm-O!

                                            These Kids Rock!!!!

 

 

                                       Beautiful Girl & Pumpkin

                                         Cute Kids on the Jungle Gym Car

                                                   Corn Maze

 

                                            We are having so much fun!

                                     Love that Pumpkin Donut!!!

                                          
                                Much better than the wind chimes at home!

Moon Festival

Last September we attended our 1st Moon Festival celebration as a family.  They had great food, lots of great crafts and games for the kiddos, the Lion Dance and drums, and the latern parade. They also had a story teller come to tell the kids stories.  Since our daughter was more interested in taking steps, we move out from the crowd to give her room to practice.  She immediately took off and my husband and I was watching our daughter just to see how far she could get and then realized she was about to go right up behind the story teller and possibly interupt her story telling.  So I took off running after our daughter, to keep this interuption from happening.  So yes, our daughter walked for the first time at the Moon Festival.  She was taking baby steps up until that day and then she just took off.  So wonderful!!!

February 21st

One year ago we saw our baby's face for the first time.

 

 

                                          One Year Later

Breckenridge, Colorado

August 2012 we went on a small vacation to Breckenridge, Colorado.  We also went on day trips to Frisco and Leadville.  We shopped, hiked and ate well.

Happy 1st Birthday!!

We celebrated our beautiful Baby Girls 1st Birthday the weekend following her Birthday due to some deadlines that needed to be met after returning to work.  We had a small celebration at home with just immediate family. 

 

 

Birthday Cakes and Candies

 

                                                                    Birthday Cake

                                                                   Birthday Girl's Cake



                          Birthday Girl's Attire

                                                               Birthday Presents

                                                            Birthday Party Guests

 

Minnie Ears

 

                                          
                                                                  Beautiful Birthday Girl

We tried all day to take a picture of the Birthday Girls behind and this is the best shot we got!  Anyways the bloomers match the Birthday attire.

                                                    Happy 1st Birthday Baby Girl!!!

July 4th 2012

              Firecracker, Firecracker, Boom! Boom! Boom!

Nanchang, Jiangxi Providence China

We arrived at Nanchang around lunch time.  We were told that we would get to Nanchang and would be able to go to our hotel and get settled in before meeting our baby girl.  I knew better, I packed a carry on bag especially for our baby girl and dressed for the occassion. And I was right, once we got on the bus we were told there was a change of plans and that there were 80 people scheduled to get their babies the same day at the same time, so our guide was told that no one was there at that time and that it was ok for us to go there immediately to get our little ones.  So that is what we did.  We were so excited we couldn't quit smiling and proud Daddy was snapping pictures right and left to get it all.   On the way there he took the picture of the very fascinating window cleaner (I hope he gets paid well, with no restraints and all....). The building was a white building and we had to go up several floors and down a long hall.  We immediately met the orphange director.  We were the 1st ones in and I could see the nannies holding the babies. I was so excited, I had tears in my eyes.  We were then lead to the room where our babies were at.  We were called 1st and I took our precious little one and held her and talked to her for awhile before her Daddy took her from me.  There was so much paperwork to sign and learn about that it was chaotic.  We were trying to get to know our little one and complete a mound of really important paperwork at the same time. Somehow we mananged.  We got alot of the stuff back that was sent in the care package. So our baby girl had her own backpack of toys.  I also manage to get autographs of the care takers and the Director of the Orphanage.  We also got the Director's business card to stay in touch.  While there we had our 1st family photo taken.  My husband and I were smiling from ear to ear, and our baby girl is not doing so.  I am sure she was wondering what was going on, and who are these grinning people.  Once we left the building we had to walk accross a extremly busy street.  We had just became parents and then we had to walk accross the street with our baby in hand, very crazy.  It was like carrying a very rare precious diamond accross a tight line rope.  Each night my husband would set near the window with our little one and talk to her about her providence.  All the sounds, smells, and bright lights, they would talk about it all.  So cute!  Each morning at 5:30AM we were woke up to the sound of firecrackers outside our window.  Our little one slept through that noise, luckily!

Stinkin Cute!

I am calling this picture stinkin cute, because you can see the diaper pail in the background!

She is pulling up to crawl now, she will get on all fours and rock.  I have been working with her on how to move her hand in coordination with her knees.  She is very close to getting it!  Then I am in trouble!  We have came a long way in the short time that we have been home.  She wouldn't even lay on her belly for less than a minute without making a fuss about it. And now she loves to play on the floor for hours at a time. It is wonderful to see my baby learn all these new things! She is so stinkin cute!

Beijing

While in Beijing, China we had a tour guide named Sherry, whom I adored.  She was so bubbly and so much fun.  She took us the Tienamen Square and the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace.  It is forbidden to tell why it is forbidden.

She took us to Dr. Tea, which we attended a tea ceremony and bought some tea.  In China they do not like Dr. Pepper, because it tastes like cough syrup to them.  So they have the Dr. Tea.  Also China serves Poke, which to me taste like Pepsi and Coke mixed together. 

She also took us to the Jade Factory, the Pearl Factory , and the Silk Factory while in Beijing.

In Beijing we attended a Chinese Acrobat show and it was so funny because it was at 8PM and we were all still suffering from jet lag so bad, that everyone in our group that attended fell asleep during the show.  Everyone sitting in the complete row was asleep. 

Also we learned about the bathrooms in China, they are rated and trust me you do not want to go to bathrooms that are rated less than 4 and a half stars.  Because they might not have a toliet, paper or water. 

We attended Easter Sunday church there which was great!
 
The meals were well, lets put it this way, I lost 8 pounds while in China.  When attending a restuarant for meals, you did not order your food, the waiter and waitresses would bring to you whatever they had for you and it was family style.  There were a few things that were ok to eat. 

All the elevators in the hotels required you room key to get from floor to floor.  The morning that we were leaving Beijing to go to Nanchang to meet our baby girl, we locked our key in our room and I believe we were on the 14th Floor.  We had to meet everyone in the hotel lobby at 5:30AM, so we had to take the stairs while carrying our carry on luggage .  We find the stairs and then locked ourselves into empty room which leads to the door to the to the stairs.  By this time it is 5:25AM.  We pulled and pushed on the door and could not get it open and the door that we came in didn't have a handle to get back out.  I think Don and I both had visions of missing our flight to get our baby girl and being stuck in the room until someone finally found us days later, so with that Don was so mad he kicked the door in and it flung open to the stairs.  By the time we made it down to the lobby we both needed showers again, because they were not in air condition.  But we made it and was able to get on the flight to our baby girl.

Miss Hollywood

Care Package

Here is a picture of the care package that was sent to our sweet little one while she was still at the orphanage.  This package has quite the story. It took almost three weeks to get there.  I was at my wits end and pulling my hair out, just trying to get it delivered.  We used Ann at Red Thread in China.  She is wonderful!  However, I do not have the same opinion about UPS in Brookside.  I do not believe I will ever use UPS ever again. When taking the package to the UPS store I was told that I needed to have a tracking number in order to send anything to China  and that I needed to pay the price to ensure that my package would be delivered.  So I took there word for it and the package was finally delivered (no thanks to UPS and after screaming on the phone to them for everyday for all the weeks that it took to get there).  It got there on a Monday and we got her the following Monday. I stayed up late almost every night working on this package for our daughter, it included a photo album, heirloom questions book, doll, purse teething ring, Baby Einstein musical toy, some Gerber puffs, baby blanket, Twizzler for making the nannies happy, some decorative soaps for the nannies, 2 disposable camera's. We received all of it back except for the photo album and the doll.  This turned out to be just fine, because I made a duplicate photo album, just incase this would happen and when we were shopping the other day, my little cutey saw the doll on the rack at the store and just had to have it.  So she has everything that was sent!   

China Flower Shower

I really wanted to post about this shower before we left to China. However, due to time I was not able to and have ever since regreted it.  So here is what I wanted to post.  My two very best friends from grade school and two other very dear friends gave me the cutest and most thoughtful baby shower the Sunday, April 1st before we left for China.  They made the table decorations with chinese takeout boxes filled with pink tissue and a picture of our sweet baby on the outside with cute little flowers.  Attached to the boxes were pink, white and green balloons.  On the tables they sprinkled confetti flowers.  The invitation said something like April showers bring China flowers.  How darling and clever!  So the flowers in the confetti went along with the theme.  One very dear friend made mints and chocolates in all sort of baby shapes.  My other dear friend, who's name I dearly love too, made the cutest cupcakes with flowers on top to go along with the theme.  They spent a lot of time and thought preparing for this shower.  One of my best friends made the banner on the cake table out of scrapbook paper, how clever! I so enjoyed the day and loved every minute of it!