Ahhh...spending time with friends

smiles and hugs

precious friends

two Lilys

two Morgans

more hugs for me and you

Cuteness

sleepies

Lily & Daddy

What I loved about today

One of the things I loved about today was reading Lori's post about, "What I loved about today" ~ It is very uplifting and positive. I liked it so much I thought that in Lori's honor I would do a little variation:

I loved that my St. Bernard knows that my husband is out of town and wants to be by my side and sleep on my bed even though it's warm and muggy.

I loved that my son came to talk to me after he got home from work to stick up for his sister and try to get her off being grounded.

I loved that Lily-out of the blue-said to me, "I uv ooo". I kissed her so many, many times and told her I loved her back as I hugged her so tight....she might regret it now ^_^

I loved that although we had some overcast skies the weather was cool for walking with Lily in the stroller and Benjamin on the leash.

I loved that my husband made me a cup of coffee this morning like he always does on the mornings that we wake up together.

I loved that our neighbors stopped and wanted to chat like always when they see us on a walk.

I loved that I could hear the frogs in the creek in back of our house tonight.

I loved that it was cool enough to sleep with the windows open.

I loved that my children like to read ~ both finished the new Harry Potter book in less than 24 hours...and Mark worked a 4 hour shift at one point. Oh...and of course they ate....read, read, ate, read, ate, a bit of work for Mark....ate, and read. :)

Happy Birthday Lily!

Yesterday was Lily's 2nd Birthday! We started celebrating over the weekend by going to the Cabbage Patch Museum in Cleveland, Georgia. It's really cute how they took an old house and made it like a hospital for cabbage patch babies.

Then yesterday we went to the Georgia Aquarium ~ the world's largest aquarium. Lily loved the whale sharks and belugas. We stopped by Williamson's Brothers BBQ for a late lunch/early dinner on the way home and then had cake, ice cream, and presents. But you all have to stop by The Swallow at the Hollow in Roswell, Georgia. It's the absolute BEST BBQ and they have live entertainment from the Blue Bird Cafe in Nashville...

...after we got home we had such a nice surprise when Mark and Angela's friends stopped by ~ they went all out buying presents for Lily. They love her and think she's the cutest!

We looked everywhere for Little Einsteins (not Baby Einsteins and that's all we could find) party hats, table cover, plates, cake, etc...Lily LOVES Little Einsteins. But, Lily also loves Sesame Street so we found some really cute Elmo stuff...Lily calls him "Melmo" ^_^

Two Months!

WOW!! Lily has been home with us now for TWO MONTHS!

I should just explain the picture to the right....let me preface by saying that there are no problems with Lily and I bonding. Nope~there's no doubt in Lily's mind that I'm her mommy.

Today Angela and I had appointments for a dental cleaning. Our dental hygienist and dentist are flexible and understanding TO SAY THE LEAST. When it came time for my turn Angela did her "Jie Jie best" to get Lily to sit with her and read Dr. Seuss, play with the cell phone, or even play in the box of toys in the waiting area.....but, Lily would have nothing other to be right there with me. She sat on my lap like a stone watching and processing everything the hygienist did~not even making a sound. Angela couldn't believe it and had to snap this pic. After the dentist came in and gave her final "OK-don't brush so hard and see you in 6 months" Lily wrapped her arms tightly around my neck hugging me tight and gave me a bunch of sympathy kisses square on the lips. Usually she'll give you her cheek when you ASK for a kiss, but this time I didn't even ask. She is the CUTEST.

Lily laughs all of the time. She has many different giggles and laughs, but when she thinks something is simply hilarious she has the cutest belly laugh.

Deb at Hiking Through Life with Ian and LiLi tagged me for a nickname meme. So here it goes...

...it's funny because we had several nicknames for Lily before we even met her. We also knew our daughter's name would be Lily before we ever saw a picture of her as well. While we were waiting for travel approval we would occasionally refer to Lily as "Lily Bean", and even shortened it sometimes to just "Bean". Then there were also times we would refer to her as "Lily Pie", "Lily Cake", and "Lily Pad".

Then there are Mark's nicknames...sometimes I'll call him "Marcus Welby"....or just "Welbs" for short. I've never even seen the TV show Marcus Welby, MD that was on in the 70's. Lately Mark's hair has gotten a little long and I'll call him "Shaggy" from the Scooby-Doo cartoon. He looks so much like Shaggy when his hair is long because he has a goatee too. He's going for a hair cut this week ~ I'm jumping for joy about that!

Finally, there's Angela ~ aka "Bunny", or "Bunny Fru Fru". Angela's nursery was decorated with bunnys everywhere when she was a baby, and she was always tiny and cute like a bunny ~ still is at 5'2".

...I realize that this journal mostly has pictures of Lily. I've got to round up my teens (make sure Mark makes that haircut appt :) and take some new photos. Besides, senior pictures are just around the corner and we need a new family photo too!

A little bit of this...and a whole lotta that...

Today marks the day where Mark, our 17 year old, hit the milestone of passing his driver's test and receiving his driver's license. I gave him the biggest hug~and I got the biggest hug right back! It still amazes me that my son is big enough now to give me a hug lifting me up off of the ground. Would have been a GREAT picture, but I'm usually the one behind the camera. CONGRATULATIONS Mark! I know it's one of many new accomplishments yet to come this year.

This girl LOVES to play in water. Lily absolutely hated water (unless it was in a glass to drink) for about the first week or so that we knew her...screamed BLOODY murder when we would give her a bath...we actually apologized to the girl that stands in the hall at the White Swan waiting to push the elevator buttons for each customer. We thought for sure that she was thinking that we were in the room torturing Lily 'cause she would scream SO loud....now take a look at that sweet face~she loves it. Tell her she can play in water and she'll drop what she's doing immediately and run to the pool or the tub. Next she'll be loving the ocean like her Mommy and Jie Jie.

Lily's grandma from Pennsylvania (my mom) is in town for the month of July. She is loving watching Lily be Lily and seeing how big Mark and Angela have gotten. We live only a 10 minute drive down 140 from Historic Roswell so we took my mom to Bulloch Hall for a tour this week and had a great lunch at the Magnolia Cafe.

FUN

so what color do you think my first popsicle was?

gerber daisys on our porch

We love living in metro Atlanta, Georgia~one of the reasons we chose to move back. A beach house is about the only thing that I can think of right now that could make me move away again. Georgia is home...it's the first place (we've moved many times in the last 8 years) that has truly felt like home since I was a little girl in my home town in Pennsylvania. When we moved to Marietta, Georgia in 1998 we would go into downtown Marietta for parades and other local festivities...and to eat out and to shop. We thought we'd (for old times sake) head down to Marietta for the July 4th parade. Lily wasn't to sure whether she liked it at first because of the loud noise, but the "I love to have fun, wave to people and talk to them" girl won over.

waiting for the parade

here come the loud firetrucks
waving to the firemen

I love this little girl...

her daddy loves this little girl too!

American even down to my toes

daddy letting me touch the water in the fountain at the square

I have say that Lily is blowing us away with how much she is speaking English. We've lost count as to how many words she can say. She understands so much more than she speaks~you can tell by her responses to whatever you say. Now, occasionally when we're counting the steps as we climb them she'll throw in a Chinese number (like "ba" which is the #8)~it's so cute. But, she is seriously putting 2 and sometimes 3 English words together to communicate to us. I just can't believe that she has been home with us for 7 weeks~ she has just flourished. She has bonded so well with us and runs around our home like she owns the place...wait a minute-SHE DOES...and everyone in it. We love her so much and can't imagine how we lived without her before.

Lily can also put away guacamole like no one's business. She'll give up on the tortilla chip after a few huge scoop fulls (after all it's only like a utensil to her) to then toss it to the side (or give it mommy) only to use a spoon to eat it.

We went to see the fireworks on Riverstone in Canton on the night of the 4th. We met up with some old friends, (Johnny, Kim, and their son John) that live in Marietta. It was so great to see them and catch up. We were all wondering what Lily was going to do when she saw and heard the loud BOOMs of the fireworks. She didn't scream or cry...when the first ones were set off she watched with this serious look on her face like she was processing it all...then grabbed me around the neck really tight. I almost said maybe we should leave, when she put pink blankie (her most favorite blankie) over her head and her thumb in her mouth until they were over.

I'll end this post with a little mention that it's my 100th post. I started this journal in April 2006 when we began our paperchase to build our dossier for China. Time just seems to zoom by at times.