December 22, 2007

MY PRETTY PRINCESS DRESS!!!






















My sister made the most beautiful Christmas dress for Annalei this year. Annalei thinks she is a Princess and twirls every time she puts it on. Mommy won't let her keep it on very long because it has to make it for Church tomorrow and for Christmas day. So here is just a rough draft of what she will look like, we are minus the tights, shoes, pearls and our hair was bed head!!!
Thank you Aunt Pam, I feel like a "PRINCESS"!!!!

DECORATING COOKIES!!!!

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PICTURES with SANTA!!!











This was the year for Santa photos!!! Annalei has decided he is a really cool guy!!! We were very shocked when she jumped right up on is lap and NEVER wanted to get off. She won't go to hardly anyone and we have a rough time leaving her with someone when we need a babysitter so I may have found the perfect sitter from now on!!!!

December 3, 2007

4 LITTLE DANCING ELF'S!!!

Click on the link below and check out the adorable dancing elf's!!! Be prepared to laugh!!!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1155283276

November 29, 2007

KIDS CHRISTMAS PHOTO'S!!!

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A few weeks ago while we still had some beautiful November weather, my friend Kindra took some GREAT pictures of the kids around our little town of "Gosport"!!! Believe it or not there were some really nostalgic places for them to be taken. There were to many good photo's not to show them all, so I put together a slide show to show them off!!!

Thanks again Kindra you did an awesome job!!!!

HALLOWEEN 2007!!!

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OK, I know I am a couple of months behind and it is the wrong Holiday to be celebrating but since my computer crashed at Halloween I never got to post my cuties all dressed up!!! I put a slide show together of all the fun we had during the month of October, between carving pumpkins, the fabulous Halloween party that Kindra and Kelby put on and then of course "Trick or Treating" where we are still eating the candy they got.

Hope you enjoy watching because we sure enjoyed all the FUN we had doing it all!!!

November 21, 2007

WE ARE BACK AND READY TO UPDATE!!!

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The computer has made it home from the hospital and everything was saved!!! I am so excited to be able to post pictures for the holidays!!! There is so much to update and I am going to start with Dalen's 8th Birthday party at Caribbean Cove. It's an indoor water park and we went over "Fall Break". The kids had a ball and the parents were exhausted afterwards. Thank you so much Debi, Scott and the Smith's for taking off work and coming and joining us in all the FUN!!!!

Aunt Molly thanks again for the wonderful cake. We all enjoyed, like always!!!

November 2, 2007

PLEASE STAY TUNED!!!!

My computer has crashed and is making a fast dash to the emergency room!!!! There is so much to post and so many fun pictures to see from Dalen's 8th birthday party at "Caribbean Cove (indoor water park), Halloween party where the kids and adults had to dress up, to trick or treating and then this weekend the kids are getting their pictures taken for Christmas cards.

So, please pray that the computer doctor can get things fixed in a flash and keeping fingers crossed that no pictures have been lost!!!! Hope to return real soon!!!

October 23, 2007

MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL!!!!












WOOO HOOO!!!! We are on a roll again 29-7 against the Jaguars!!!! Can the Colts do it 2 years in a row???? Are family was ready for the big game last night, we even let Dalen stay up until 10:00 (I know shame on me) to watch the game!!!! He is so obsessed with football right now and as you will see he is posing with one of his new birthday gifts, a trash can!!!! What kid asks for a trashcan for his birthday???? Everything he asked for his birthday and now Christmas is about football or the Colts!!!
GO COLTS GO!!!!!

October 20, 2007

WEEKEND with MY GAO SHAO SISTER!!!














































A couple weeks ago one of the famlies that we traveled with to China came to stay for the weekend. We had a wonderful time and the girls had a lot of fun playing. They arrived on Friday and we had dinner and celebrated Dalen's birthday with Red Velvet cake!!! Then on Saturday the dad's took the girls for a ride on the 4-wheelers. Gigi even decided to drive all by herself!!! After the day of fun riding and we got ready and the mommy and daddy's went out for the evening to the Purdue vs Ohio State game!!! Let me just remind everyone that my husband graduated from Purdue and Matt & Gigi are HUGE Ohio State fans!!!! Guess which side we sat on?????? OHIO STATE, Chad stood out in his Purdue attire with all the Red and White Buckeye fans, but Chad had NO smiles at the end of the game when OS beat us 23-0!!!!

I am so glad we live fairly close to each other because it will give us the chance to keep the girls in contact with each other. It still amazes me after just spending 2 weeks in China and sharing such a magical moment on "March 19, 2005, Our Gotcha Day" with other 8 other families that we will all share a forever bond for a lifetime!!!!

October 1, 2007

OWEN VALLEY PLAYS @ RCA DOME!!!

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Our High School team every year gets a chance to play at the RCA Dome where the Indianapolis Colts play at!!! You can imagine it is a big deal for the football team and of course the cheerleaders. Since I use to coach the OV cheerleaders it is always fun to still go and watch them, and now my other adopted daughter (as we call her) Brooke is on the JV squad. It doesn't look like I will ever get away from all that "Rah, Rah" stuff!!!! Mommy even decided that Annalei needed to look like Brooke, so she now has a "Patriot" uniform to wear to the games. What has Mommy created??? My friend Gina has a son Mikey that plays for the OV team his # is 21, I had a hard time getting a good picture of him being so far away.

Unfortunately we lost but it is still a great experience for them all!!! Dalen loved it and hopes the school will continue to do this so he will get a chance to play at the new "Lucas Oil" stadium someday!!!

September 25, 2007

ANNALEI'S GYMNASTICS!!!!











Annalei started gymnastics 3 weeks ago and she LOVES it!!! She is already doing her front somersault and backwards somersault, she has started working on a cartwheel she walks on the beam and swings on the rings and the bars. But most of all she has learned to end every trick with a pretty finish!!!


We are hoping this will help with the clingyness when we are out in public and she will start trusting others to help her. She will go in her own class when she is 3 so luckily we have 9 months to work on that because as of right now she would not go with out mommy. She seems to be doing better at every class, so there is hope that I won't always have a Velcro child.


If she never makes it to the Olympics at least she will look cute trying. She loves to wear her new little "Gymnastics Suit" as she call it.

SURVIVOR CHINA!!!!



OK, so how many people are Survivor fans????? Well, as you all know we are glued to it every year. Chad swears he could do it but since he downloaded the application like 4 years ago he has done nothing with it. I truly think he would be voted off real soon once they see how nasty he can get without FOOD!!!

With Survivor being in China this year we decided to have a little Survivor party and serve Chinese food. My two nieces needed haircuts so I said you can come but we have to be done by 8:00 and if the haircut is not finished "THEY WERE OUT OF LUCK" because I was sitting down watching my show no matter what. Luckily we finished right when it was starting so they are not running around with an unfinished haircut. My sister and her new "Fiance" came with my nieces so we all watched the first episode together.

So, far I am liking "GRAVEDIGGER" what about those muscles!!!! Looking forward to this Thursday at 8:00, nobody better call because I WON'T answer!!!!

September 20, 2007

ANNALEI"S NEW HAIRCUT!!!!













Well as we all know that Annalei's mommy is a hairdresser and she has decided that Annalei's hair is a little to stringy!!! So, what is a hairdresser to do, CUT IT OFF!!!! Daddy is still not to sure if he likes it because he likes her ponytails but with mommy being a hairdresser that I am we can still do ponytails!!!! She has a long time that she can have long hair but for now while we have new hair growing in to make it thicker we have decided it looks a lot better short and of course she still looks adorable short or long!!!
P.S. Don't you just love the cheesy smile? That is the only smile we get now when we take pictures.

FOOTBALL TIME!!!!







Dalen has decided to take a football clinic before next year when he will be playing full tackle and wearing all the gear. It was not really a sport that mommy thought he would like or that mommy really wanted him to do. But as we all know you have to let your kids try and let them make that chose. Well, he really is doing pretty well until they started playing a true game. What ever position he may be playing, which lately has been tackle and full back, he wants to run after the person that has the ball and not guard who he should be. So, we have some more learning to do but he really does seem to LOVE the sport. I constantly have a football flying through the living room while he dives for it and I am waiting for everything to be broken real soon!!!

August 23, 2007

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!
















It is hard to believe that my little guy is already in 2nd grade this year. He was up and ready early that morning waiting on the bus. Mommy use to not let him ride the bus but "Grandma Chip" thinks mommy needs to unloosen the Velcro strap just a little. Annalei was up that morning to see "D" (that is now what Annalei calls him) off on the "Big Yellow Bus". She does not understand that he is off to school, she just thinks "D" is on the bus all day long.

Where does the time go? I just wish I could keep my kids little "FOREVER"!!!!

August 21, 2007

SUMMER RECAP!!!













































Well now that I finally have the time to update again I am going to rewind from the reunion. After we returned home from Pennsylvania we went back to baseball. Dalen's team did really well all season they only lost 2 games. Tournaments started and they ended up 4th place. GREAT JOB, you boys had a great season!!!

After baseball we went to the Morgan County fair. Dalen is in mini 4-H, he did 20 projects, he showed Daisy (the dog) in the pet parade, he showed his goat named Daisy 2, and he showed a sheep named Chevy!!! Then he rode his bike in the bike rodeo on Thursday. As you can see we spent a lot of time at the FAIR!!! Can't imagine what it will be like once he is out of mini 4-H and showing more animals!!!

After the fair, we went camping for the weekend with the horses and Gina, Scott, Khrista, Brooke and Madison came with us. We had a great time and we even got Brooke and Madison to finally ride a horse. It was their first time ever riding and Chad told them if they would ride he would ride also. Chad is not real fond of horses, but he did follow through with his promise!!!

After our camping weekend we had our "Lazy Day's" festival here in Gosport. It starts on Thursday and goes through the weekend. They always have live entertainment, good food and a parade that Dalen and Daddy always ride in on the fire truck. We also entered Annalei in the baby contest, which of course she was the cutest baby there but did not win!!! Daddy even wanted to show her off and was the one that took her in front of the judges!!!!

So, now that summer is over we had to get ready and get back in the groove for school!!! All mommy can say is "I NEED A RELAXING VACATION ON THE BEACH"!!!!!