A month to Celebrate

So much has been happening this past month that I have felt like I have hardly had time to breathe!! We celebrated some wonderful things and had some wonderful times. Sarah's Lao Lao and her Gigi just came for a visit and they were here to celebrate Sarah's 4th birthday. Can you believe that she's turned 4 already?? I'm in shock at how quickly she's grown. On October 31st, we also celebrated her "Gotcha Day!" This was the third anniversary of the day that we met Sarah in China. I have been thinking about all that has happened the past three years and how much Sarah has grown...how much she has blossomed and what a joy she is. It's hard to fathom how much I love her and there really is no way to describe it. I know that you other mothers can relate, but trying to express it in words is pretty much impossible.

I wanted to document some of the ways my life has changed since God has blessed me with my daughter and what brings me joy on a daily basis.

I love the unsolicited hugs...

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I love it when she gives me a "shower of kisses" and kisses me all over my face with pursed lips cause she's laughing at the same time.

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I love it when she says, for no apparent reason and completely out of the blue, "Mama? I sure do love you."

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I love it when she looks over at me when something is funny and we share eye contact for that moment before she bursts into laughter.

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I love the way she got embarrassed when her Baba had the staff at the restaurant sing to her "Happy Birthday."

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I love the way I was the only one she wanted when she started to cry after they sang to her because she was embarrassed, my poor little girl.

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I love the way she wants me to pray for her when she gets owies.

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I love the way she will pray for me when I have an owie, too.

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I love the way she will correct anyone who says, "Oh my G-d" knowing that she's

only allowed to say, "Oh my gosh" cause she says it hurts God's feelings to say His name like that.

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I love the way she added "ez" to the end of plural words... eyes-ez, toes-ez, shoes-ez because she knows that she needs to make a word plural.

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I love the way she dresses up like a princess and insists that I call her Ariel, Cinderella, Aurora, or whichever Princess she's being that day.

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I love the way she talks to her stuffed dogs, like they're her kids.

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I love to over hear her talking to her toys and dolls when she's playing.

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I love to hear her singing to herself when she has no idea anyone is listening.

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I especially love to hear her belting out, "I want to be...Part of your world!" just like the Little Mermaid.

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I love it when she wakes up in the middle of the night, comes to me and tells me, "I'm not having good dreams, Mommy, will you pray for me?"

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I love the way she dances at church on Sunday during worship, round and round as her dress twirls around.

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I love how excited she is to see me when I pick her up from preschool and the

huge hugs and kisses she gives me when I get there.

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I love watching her at her swim lessons...she's just so happy to be in the water and having so much fun that she has a constant smile on her face.

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I love the way she always wants me to read her stories and the special Mommy

and Sarah time we have before bed every night when I read to her.

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I love sitting at the table coloring with her for hours if I let her.

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I love teaching her new things every day as she grows.

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I love how much she remembers after only telling her once.

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I never knew how much I would love her.

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I never knew how it would feel to be loved so much by her.

Happy Early Birthday Sarah and Lia!

Today we had our October play date and we had cake for Sarah and Lia, since they both have birthdays in October! We let the girls put the candles on the cake, which explains their placement! Sarah had 4 and Lia had 3! The girls had lots of fun! I only got these photos because my camera broke, can you believe it!!! I'm so upset!

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday Sarah and Lia,
Happy Birthday to you!
...and many more!!!

Frosting Mouth!

Nice teeth, huh? Eh, nothing wrong with a little green mouth at your big brother's birthday party!

My Baby Started Preschool!

Well, today was the day! My Baby started Preschool today. *sniff sniff* She's so big now. It was just the other day when we met her in China! I can't believe she'll turn 4 this month and that she's old enough to survive away from me for 3 days a week/2.5 hours each day. My Baby's growing up!!! Yes, I had a moment this morning. I was driving to the Preschool to meet Troy and Sarah there (after I got off work) so I could see her "off" to school, and I lost it! I'm a cryer anyways, but the tears were definitely flowing. I decided to get them out of my system before I got there, so I'd put on a happy face for my girl. She was so excited, it was adorable. Here are a couple of shots I took just before we went into the building.

In this one, I told her to smile-looks like a grimace, doesn't it?

In this one I told her to say, "I'm going to Preschool!" You can tell how earnestly excited and happy she was about it.
This is after we picked her up, something happened to the photo?? She's riding the horse she made in class, she had a blast today...only had to sit at the "quiet table" once??!! I guess she misbehaved once. They said that she's really smart. I told them the main reason I put her in preschool was for the socialization, because academically she was doing great with me at home. The one woman made a comment that she could tell Sarah was an only child, but she said it in a nice way...if that's possible? Still, she had fun and can't wait to go back tomorrow. *sigh*

Visiting Uncle Robert & Aunt Trish

Troy's brother and his wife came to visit us for a few days and we drove to see Bailey & Braden for a few hours. He wanted to see his niece and nephew! They took them shopping for a toy and Braden chose this huge spider from the Halloween decorations aisle. (Only Braden!) They had a fun time and I took this photo before we left to drive back home.

The Reptile Show

When Troy's brother was in town, we went to the Reptile Expo. Sarah had a lot of fun over there. Check out this HUGE snake that she got to pet! It was 15 feet long!!

Swimming Lessons

My Little Noodle started swimming lessons over ths summer. She was taking group classes but we've switched to private lessons. They are much more worth the money because she only got like 5 minutes per lesson with the teacher in the group lessons and this way, she gets 30 min. each time. Anyway, I took my camera the other day and got some cute "learning to swim" photos.

Practicing her kicks


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Twirly Girl

Sarah wore this cute outfit last weekend for church and decided that she HAD to twirl in it. I mean, of course! What else can a girl do in such a full twirly skirt??

The State Fair

The past couple of weeks was our State Fair. We decided to take Sarah and we had a lot of fun. She rode this bouncy swing thing, they strapped her in and lifted her in the air on these major bungee cords and Troy helped her to jump really high and bounce. She LOVED it!! I thought she'd be a little afraid, but not my girl! She had a blast and the most beautiful gleeful smile the whole time. I had more fun watching her than I'm sure she had on that thing.

Troy would pull her legs down so she'd bounce up really high.


You can see how happy she was about it and wanted to tell me all about it when she was done!
Sarah's Baba couldn't resist getting the Chinese hat at one of the vendors...and then he just HAD to put it on.

My happy girl

This is her cute butterfly balloon that a clown made for her. It didn't last the night and popped one piece at a time throughout the evening, it was still cute while it lasted.

My latest Creation

This is the latest quilt top that I finished. It's called Dance of the Dragonflies. It's a really cool technique that I learned which uses folding fabric in order to create the curves. I think it turned out great and I'm proud of it. Now I need to get cracking on making some Christmas gifts!

A Play Date with my Friends!

Last week I got to go and play with my friends, Chelsea and Miranda Joy. We had SOO much fun and we dressed up like Princesses. I love to play with my friends and we had a blast!!

My Daughter-The Mermaid

Sarah's Lao Lao sent her this ADORABLE Ariel outfit and she just HAD to wear it to church today. Isn't she cute? This was at church this morning.

Chinese Class Zoo Trip

I don't know if I ever mentioned that we found about a Chinese class for toddlers and this summer Sarah took her first Chinese class. What was nice was the I went to it, too. That way, I was able to reinforce what she learned and we both learned some Chinese. For the last class we went to the zoo and had lots of fun!

Here is Sarah and one of her classmates playing and having fun!

They were playing Ring around the Rosies, so cute.

"And, we all fall down!"

Sarah got ride our new Carousel. It was so beautiful, with the most interesting animals to ride and they were all hand painted. Sarah rode the baby giraffe and loved it!

My latest Quilt

This is the latest quilt top that I finished over the weekend. I love the colors, but then again, I love anything with purple. This was the first one that I really chose the colors all alone. Usually I need help, but this time I braved it out and I think it turned out great.

Notice those cute little toes on the bottom? Sarah HAD to help her Baba hold it up and then decided that she HAD to be in the photo! I couldn't resist a little tickle when she wasn't looking! :)

Chinese and my Frog

After church a few weeks ago, Sarah decided that she was going to be a frog. Don't you love this one? In mid-air...absolute look of glee on her face, piggy tails flying!
This is DA, the Chinese symbol for BIG, Sarah learned this from her Chinese class she's took this summer. If you saw the character, you'd know how she looks like it.
And this is XIAO, Sarah's version of the Chinese symbol for small.