Pictures of our Princess!

We had to take pictures of Lily with her new hair-d0 and her cute outfit from Aunt Sharon! It matches her room perfectly!

Nana stopped by, so we got to take a picture of Lily with her Nana. Then, Nana stayed for the "photo shoot". Lily is definitely beginning to love having her picture made.

She also loves Marie from The Aristocats.

How cute is this outfit! Thank you Aunt Sharon. It looks just like something my Mom would have picked out.

Look how tall Lily is! She had a blast posing for these photos... and many more!

The New Lily-Bob

What a difference a day makes!!! And a new haircut! Lily woke up this morning back to her normal self. We have had a wonderful day together. She is very proud of her new-do.

We have been trying to get her bangs the same length as the rest of her hair. As you can see, we are almost there. But, it is close enough that she can actually wear it all down. For a girl who hates ponytails with a passion- this is the perfect cut for her.

Thanks for the prayers! Now, I am going to pray with lots of faith that God will keep her well for a long, long time!

Pixie dust....

Well, Lily is still not completely better. This virus has taken a real toll on her. I will be glad when this has passed. We are hopeful that tomorrow or Wednesday will be the end of this sickness.

However, even though she is sick... and whiney.... she has managed to wear her new panties with no accidents the last 3 days. She has been really apprehensive about panties for the last few months while we have been trying to change over from her pull-ups. But, it looks like she is finally getting used to the way they feel. Bless her heart- she has been potty-trained for awhile- but the panty thing just was not working for her. She always says "Panties tickle, Mama- fix it!"

Now, onto pixie dust... our friend, Malita, took one of our pictures from Disney and made all of the people disappear. She says it was due to some pixie dust. If you would like to see her cool magic with pictures- click here- http://lifethruthelenz.blogspot.com/ She has before and after pictures. It is so neat!

Hopefully, I will be able to post some pictures of Lily tomorrow feeling better! Keep praying for our princess, please!

Lily's First Virus?

Well, we won't be traveling anywhere this weekend. We had a delightful day of firsts yesterday- the first time Lily threw up on her Mama and Baba at the doctor's office without any extra clothes... the first time Lily got to be out in public with only a pull-up on... the first time we got to wear throw up clothes for a few hours... Lily's first diarrhea also took place yesterday evening...

We could not wait to get home and take showers! Bless Lily's heart- she handled the whole situation really well. She just kept pointing in her mouth with a horrible expression. She would say, "Mama- Baba- (and point in her mouth)- I wanna go."

When we finally were able to leave, the doctor said that she probably has a virus that will last 4 or 5 days. However, it could just be allergy-related with all of the snottiness, congestion, and coughing. Who knows? So, we got 3 types of medication to cover everything. We also have to take Lily back as soon as this passes for chest x-rays, etc. to find out why she is coughing excessively every night when she is sleeping. Could be asthma or just the fact that she is Asian. She may need her tonsils and adenoids out soon. The good news is that her bloodwork came back perfect. So, that made us feel a little better.

Please say a prayer for Lily. I want her to feel better as soon as possible.

Adoption Group Gathering

We started the afternoon at a place called Wee Bounce. Lily had never done anything like this. She was very shy at first. Then, I got in with her, and we had a blast. Of course, we didn't realize we had to have socks. So, Jamie had to run home and grab a pair for himself. Once he got back, we both played with Lily and the other girls. They loved sliding with Jamie!

Here is a picture of Kenli (in pink) and Keaira after sliding with Jamie. Lily had already jumped up and gotten to me before I could snap the picture.

Here she is sliding by herself on the big slide.

She loved crawling through the obstacle course.

This is Kenli with her Mama, Amy. She organized our event, and she planned some cute crafts for the girls to do, too.

Do you see how much fun Baba had while he was playing?

After every slide, Lily had a huge grin on her face.

"One more time, please!" said the girls.

This is the shot I tried to take of everyone sliding together. Of course, Lily ended up coming down first with the others close behind.

Afterward, we all went to eat at our local Chinese Restaurant where the ladies know Kenli and Lily by name. The girls pictured are: Amy, Lily, Kenli, Ellie Lu, and Keaira.

We had so much fun! Lily has had a huge weekend. She slept so well on Saturday night. Then, on Sunday, she was moved into her new Sunday School class of 2 year olds. She cried and screamed for 40 minutes. Normally, we would have gone in and gotten her, but we were just across the hall. We checked on her over and over again. Then, after that horrible beginning- she was great. When we went to pick her up, we found her playing in the floor with a sweet, quiet little boy. She was in no hurry to leave so we sat and played with her a few minutes. Her little eyes were swollen. Then, we asked her if she was ready to leave. She said, "Yessss." When we went outside, we asked if she had a good time at Sunday School. She said yes, and then told us all about what she did- washing potatoes that were dirty, playing "ashes", and she told her her whole Bible story (which we only understood bits and pieces of). When she tells big stories now, she talks quickly and changes her voice like she is really telling a big tale. It is really sweet. Hopefully, this change won't be so bad for her. We wouldn't have pushed it except she really needed to move out of our toddler class. We had prayed and prayed about the move, and God just took over the whole situation as soon as we walked through the doors Sunday morning. So, we knew it was what had to be done.

Anyway, now she has a delightful cough and some sneezing after her weekend of being around tons of kids. We have a big weekend planned for this weekend, so we are really praying that she will get well quickly. Please say a prayer for her- we are supposed to visit our wonderful travelmates and friends- Beth, David, Liana, and Marah and Jamie's brother, Gene, and his wife, Holly. We have been looking forward to our last little vacation before school starts back. Thanks for your prayers!!

More Chocolate Milk Walls....

Here are a couple more shots of Lily from our family reunion weekend... One thing she definitely needs for Christmas is her own camera. She keeps trying to take pictures with everything- legos, her ViewMaster, etc.

Here she was playing ball outside. She loves to run and play... as long as there are no bugs around.

I had to post some pictures of our new chocolate milk walls- as Lily says...

Jambalaya (a.k.a. Jo-Jo to Lily) is enjoying her afternoon nap in our living room.

Here is our living room with the new walls.

This is the foyer area which leads to the upstairs, downstairs, and kitchen or living room area.

Here are the stairs going upstairs. You can see the downstairs has not been painted yet- it will begin on Monday.

Here is our bedroom and Lily's bed, too! :0)

This is our dining area in the sunroom off of the kitchen.

Here is a part of our kitchen with the open-window overlooking the dining area.

Here is another shot of one side of the kitchen. There is a sitting area in the kitchen, too.

The area where the fridge is has not been painted yet. But, everything should be finished this week. We are so excited about having everything done!

Come back Tuesday- we had an adoption gathering today. We went to Wee Bounce and out to eat Chinese afterward. We had a GREAT time! Thank you Amy and Ira for planning everything. Lily had so much fun, and we also had lots of fun! Just wait til you see the pictures of Jamie on the Bouncing Slides-- I will post those on Tuesday!

Memories from Disney World...

I hope this video will work for you. On our computer, it has a bit of a delay here and there. But, hearing Lily talk about Tinta-Bow has become one of my favorite things. Even today, weeks after our return from Disney World- we hear about Tinta-Bow coming from the top of the castle every day! She really made an impression on our little princess. But, then again- she can fly! How cool is that!

12 hours and still sleeping...

This is Wyatt- the cousin Lily cannot stop talking about. This picture was from a few weeks ago when we visited him at Aunt Sharon and Uncle Tom's house.

Lily also decided that she loved Aunt Nancy's dog, Laney, this weekend. It has been a rocky road for the two of them. But, Laney finally decided to love Lily back. She spent a lot of time on the day giving Laney presents- actually all of Laney's toys from her basket- but Lily said that they were presents. Plus, she also gave Laney her big purple ball and her books. So sweet!

This is the laughter that followed every time that Lily would give Laney kisses.

Here is a moment with Mammow out on the front porch. Lily discovered "honeybirds" a.k.a. hummingbirds, this weekend, too. Here she is pointing out all of things she is seeing with Mammow. They were having a big conversation together.

Poor Lily. She is so tired from this big summer we are having. I think everything has finally caught up with her. She went to bed last night at 7:15 and it is 7:30 and she is still sleeping with no signs of waking up. So, that is why I had a little computer time this morning.

Back to bed, Maaaa-Maaa!

Before we left for Kentucky, Lily's Nana came over for lunch. She brought some corn-on-the-cob that she had made. This was Lily's first-ever taste of corn-on-the-cob. She loved it!

We got back last night from our family reunions. Lily had a great time playing with all boy cousins, and she learned how to stalk other people carrying a nerf gun. She had the best time. Of course, her cousins were so sweet to her. When she would pretend to shoot them, Wyatt would turn around and raise his hand claiming to "surrender in a peaceful way" for Lily. She talked about playing with Wyatt every day since, and today she told me she wanted the 2 Wyatts to come over and play. Of course, she was talking about Wyatt and his brother, Alex.

Saturday's reunion which was my Mom's side of the family had everyone in attendance- 21 people. Then, Sunday's reunion which was my Dad's side of the family had over 40 people. I lost count at 40. We had two big days of good food and great family times.

Then, this morning, we had to get up at 6:30 to be ready for the painters who are painting our walls inside "toasty". But, Lily calls them chocolate milk walls. I like her wording better. Since the painters are here- that meant no nap for Lily. So, we are both going to be ready to turn in about 7:30- and I am not joking. We are completely worn out! Hence the title of today's blog- this morning when I went to wake Lily up- she said, "Back to bed, Maaaa-Maaaaa!" over and over again.

So, hopefully at some point this week, I can blog more about videos, pictures of the reunions, and my gorgeous daughter. The painters will be here for at least 2 weeks- so we will see how much computer time I can get in!

Tinta-Bow Clothes

Lily loves her Tinta-bow clothes. She asks to wear the 2 sleeping outfits we bought her each night. So, I am having to wash clothes often or talk her into wearing something else that she used to love. So, she wanted to show off her "aqua tinta-bow" when we got home.

I am going to try to post some videos when we get back from our weekend in Kentucky. But, I am worried they may not work properly. We will see...

Have a great weekend everyone!!!