Little Ladybug's Journey: April 2014

Easter 2014

Such a big girl

This past weekend we celebrated Easter and the joyous news of Christ's rising from the tomb!

Emily had a very lucky day..meaning so many people think of her on Easter and give her baskets. She is one lucky ladybug!

Her morning started out with her seeing the Easter Bunny's basket he left for her, then she hunted for 12 eggs he had hidden in our house!
After this it was off to church in her new Easter dress!! Beautiful young lady!

After a lovely church service with Nana, Uncle Mike, Aunt Carol, and Christi, and JuJu, we came home where Emily got to have her baskets from Mommy and JuJu. She got to play for a while before we had to head out to meet family for Easter lunch, where she received another basket! WOW!!

After lunch she got to come home and enjoy all of her treasures. What a glorious and lovely day spent with family!
Enjoy,
Kathy

What concentration

All ready for the bunny

From the Easter Bunny...waiting for Emily to find it

Easter morning

Loving what the Easter Bunny left...(nice bead head)

Happy to read the note left by the Easter Bunny

Nana, Emily, and Christi

Pretty girl at church

Such a big girl in her Easter dress

Mommy and Emily

Emily and her JuJu

Emily with her basket from JuJu

Loved all of her things

Emily with basket from Mommy

Pretty new shirt from JuJu

Blue dress from JuJu...Emily's FAVORITE color!

New Cinderella glass slippers from Mommy

Forever Family Day April 12, 2014

Our family...4 years of LOVE

Emily and I have been a family for four years now! WOW, the time has flown right by.

We celebrated by going to the zoo with JuJu and then out to lunch at PF Chang's. We had a day of fun, sunshine, love, and laughter. After getting home from the zoo, I gave Emily her gift of the newest Tinker Bell movie, and then we all sat down to enjoy the movie as a family.

It is amazing that the wee, tiny girl who was handed to me screaming and crying in a government office in Taiyuan, China, is the same girl today.

She has gone through so much in the past four years...met me, her mommy, who was a total stranger to her, bonded with me in the first few minutes, learned to speak a whole new language, learned to trust and to love and how to be loved back. She has had surgery on her teeth, surgery on her thumbs, had lots of dental work done, gotten hearing aids, does speech therapy, is a bright beautiful Kindergartner (almost first grader), who LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to swim and also loves dogs. She is funny, silly, cute, stubborn, caring, loving, and eager to learn new things. She has gone from being a 3 1/2 year old wearing size 12 month clothing to a strong, independent 7 year old who now wears a size 6 clothing.

I could list the changes she has gone through forever, but let's just leave it at she is the LOVE of my life, and I can't even remember what my life was like without her in it!
Love you baby!
Mommy

Kutai's grandma...we had to explain to Emily that Kutai had passed away

Sweet old lady

Darling girl in the petting zoo

What a big girl

Emily LOVES this wee lion to sit on

Celebrating at PF Chang's

Spring Break 2014...Tucson here we come!!!

On the flight to Tucson

We were lucky enough to go to Tucson for spring break this year! My aunt and uncle have a house there and invited us to fly down! We had the very best time. It was my aunt Pam, Julyn, Emily, and myself for five days of sunshine, relaxing, fun, laughter, and LOTS of LOVE!!

Of course, I can't forget the dog Ella. Emily LOVES her Ella and I must say, Ella loves Emily right back!

We only had a few minor distractions on the way. Our first full day there, Emily woke up crying about her ear hurting. So off we went to urgent care to find out, yes, she had an ear infection, BUT, she could still swim during our trip. THANK GOODNESS because that was our main activity while in Arizona!

Our second day there, we came home from the pool only to find that Ella had gotten into my carry on backpack and eaten 5 packs of gum and an entire roll of Sweet Tarts...wrappers and all! Needless to say, Pam had to take her to the emergency vet, where Ella had to stay over night, and Pam had a HUGE bill the next morning!

The third day Julyn had to go to urgent care as she thought she may have strep throat. Luckily it was just allergies, but it was kind of humorous after day three to see what would happen next!

We did lots of swimming, some very good shopping in Tubac, AZ, and went to a VERY GOOD production of Beach Blanket Be Bop. It was great! Emily loved it as did we!

It was great just to relax and really not have to do anything at all!! Thank you Aunt Pam!! We miss you and LOVE you so much! Can't wait till Sun River in July!
Kathy