Anna's Favorite Pony

Anna is still loving her pony Butterscotch.  She loves to sit on her pony for a TV and juice break.  She also loves to dress Butterscotch in loads of jewelry and bows as she pretends they are in a parade or going to a princess ball.  Through the winter, Anna had to make sure her pony had her blanket on just right before she could go to bed.  Even read her a story.....about horses of course!  This girl is crazy about horses!  She loves to gallop around the yard on her stick horse named "Thunder" with the wind blowing through her hair.  On more than one occasion she has moved her dolls out of the doll house and moved her "My Little Ponies" back in.  Thankfully we only have to walk down the street for her to watch our neighbors horses run around and that is one of her favorite things to do as well.  

High Museum/ Chinese New Year

Earlier in the year we celebrated Chinese New Year with our friends at a very authentic Chinese restaurant. It was a beautiful Dim Sum restaurant as they brought out so many little plates of dumplings filled with surprises!  A couple of the kids tried some chicken feet.  

The food was so authentic in fact, we were all still quite hungry after we left and ate again when we got home!   On a separate outing, our families also enjoyed being together as we viewed the Terra Cotta Warrior exhibit at the High Museum in Atlanta.  China is so rich with history as the ancient artifacts tell so many stories.  It was quite an experience to see the warriors faces up close, each one unlike any other.  The families also made their own small terra cotta warrior out of clay, after the exhibit.  We enjoyed our little "visit" back to China minus the long plane trip!   

Where Have We Been?

Well, I started Anna's Lifebook in January and what can I say?  It took over for several months as I scrapbooked our journey to Anna with heartfelt details of so much of her story....our story.  The most amazing story of God bringing her to us and us to her.... as a forever family.  Very emotional.  Many very late nights and working before the dawn. You all know how hard it is to find extra time for projects as we also keep up with our households and families!    My hope and prayer is for this to be a treasure for my precious girl all her days. My desire is for her to see our loving Father's hand in every detail of her life.  I am further down the road of this amazing adoption journey, by having done this book for my Anna.  As you can see in the picture, my dining room was a disaster off and on,  for quite some time.  Note how Anna had to work on her "own" scrapbook while I worked.  I just gave her some poster board and she then took all of my scraps....cutting and gluing like crazy!  For the most part our project is now complete and we are now back to the blogging world again!  Also blogging friends, I printed all of my 2008 blog in a book.   Hopefully another keepsake of sorts for my children as they can remember back over our family activities during the years. My plan is to backtrack and post some about our year thus far and try to play catch up!   

Will's Recovery

We just wanted to thank everyone for your prayers and concern for Will's recovery from his knee surgery in December.  He is now through with physical therapy and should continue to improve with time and use.  He is out of commission for this basketball season but hopes to play soccer again in the fall.  These are some shots of him playing soccer before the injury that actually took place in one of these games.  

Christmas morning

Wesley and Will are happy with their XBOX and games!  They were adamant about getting up before Anna came in to see her gifts from Santa.  They wanted to see her expressions as she first came in the room.   They ended up having to wait as the princess slept in a bit....we do not awaken the sleeping princess unless we have too!  We actually had a thunderstorm Christmas Eve which is unusual for this time of year, therefore she went to bed later than usual. Anna was concerned about Santa and the lightning!  We had a great morning as we all got to enjoy the fun of Santa again through Anna, watching her priceless expressions as she opened gifts, and more importantly the gift of being together as a family as we celebrate and cherish the greatest gift of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ;  Immanuel--"God with us".

Santa delivers Butterscotch for Princess Anna

Anna was thrilled to get her request of  "a horse she could keep in her room" and she has named her pony....Butterscotch.  Butterscotch makes galloping sounds and neighs when you press on her ears.  Anna drags Butterscotch by her reign, through the house as we have hard wood floors so pony can slide!  It is so funny to see her treat Butterscotch like a real live pony, dragging her from room to room (she is heavy!) and talking to her, as well as "feeding" her and giving her water. She also loves to dress in her princess outfits and pretend she is riding off to her castle.  Anna loved all her presents this year and she was so surprised and excited over each one.  After unwrapping a gift she would say, "Thank you, this is what I have always wanted"!  

Christmas Eve

After attending Christmas Eve services at our church, we took the kids' annual picture under their stockings. We always wait until Christmas Eve to hang their stockings.   As you can see this activity excites Anna as she realizes Santa will be officially on his way!   The boys laugh that Anna's stocking is quite a bit bigger than theirs.  Of course there is sentimental value as the boys have had theirs for many years and did not want new ones,  therefore when our precious Anna came along there was no way to match hers with theirs. Well, so it goes the princess has the biggest stocking and she is rather proud of that fact!