Journey to Kylie

Movie Night

2011-05-31T22:31:00.001+08:00

Daddy had to work a double shift this past Saturday so Kylie and I made the most of it. We had a movie night which is one of Kylie's favorite things to do complete with popcorn and Mommy by her side along with her "buddies pictured below Emma, Biscuit and Cookie". We watched a Barbie movie, Mermaidia. I LOVE spending time with my girl.

We are paperwork pregnant!!

2011-05-18T22:59:00.000+08:00

Our paperwork finally made it's way to Taiwan recently! It has been a loooooong process. We actually started on our second journey in October 2007. We finally updated our paperwork to reflect our major life change in Singapore just last October. I knew I was procrastinating for a reason. The renewal felt like we were starting from scratch all over again. Long story short, we are now looking at adding a new addition to our family very soon. If all goes well, we have been informed that we can complete the adoption process in 6 months! Our hearts are open to receiving the referral of an infant or a toddler.

This past weekend we enjoyed a 4 day stay-cation. It all started on Friday when we attended our first ever and hopefully more to come, Student Led Conference. We were very impressed with this program as Kylie got to show us around her school and share a portion of what she has been learning in her own words. Then we followed up with lots of R & R by the pool side.

Kindergarden teacher Ms. Shave

Kindergarden class room

Perceptual motor

Art show - Butterfly art by Kylie

Pool for primary grades. There are several in the school

Music class

Computer class

Proud of her monkey bar skills

Refreshing drink in the traditional local packaging

We baked cookies

Happy Valentines Day!

2011-02-14T23:45:00.000+08:00

This Valentine we made heart shaped trinkets or charms made out of *aqua-beads*. These were a lot of fun to do and because we had to make 23 of them, we started making them early last month. Kylie soon got tired of making nothing but hearts so I ended up making a few of them myself a few times after she went to bed. This past weekend, we started working on the cards and placing everything together in a small clear bag. She was so excited about giving these out and trying to sort it by her friend's favorite color. Kylie loves all things crafty and she was thrilled when she got to use my crafting tools which are usually off limits, to finish off her project.

Valentine's Day - off to school.

Our good friend and neighbor Hannah also rides to school bus.

Kylie came home with all of these goodies from her classmates.

My favorite people

2011-02-06T18:08:00.003+08:00

2011-02-06T17:58:00.002+08:00

Chinese New Year store display. I love all of the lantern decorations this time of year.

Year of the Rabbit

One of my favorite foods to eat. *Tori-Q* japanese satay - bacon wrapped asparagus-our favorite!

The "Lion*Dancers" method of transportation.

Chopstick skills

2011-02-06T17:30:00.002+08:00

I've been impressed with Kylie's chopstick skills for quite some time now and I just realized I've never blogged about it. So after lunch at our favorite local teppan yaki place today, I decided that it may be fun to have her play with chopsticks and marshmallows while I take photos to document the event. The result are these pictures that I think are so darn cute! We haven't spent too much time teaching her how to use them, she just sort of watched and followed her Daddy. Now she is independently using them like a little pro on her own. I'm so proud:-)

Happy Chinese New Year!

2011-01-30T22:34:00.001+08:00

This digital ecard generated with Smilebox

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-23T22:42:00.000+08:00

Not quite the pumpkin patch we're used to from back home, but glad to have one nonetheless. The PTA from Kylie's school organized the fall event. Kylie's class is decked out with Halloween decor and she is enjoying the activities leading up to the big dress up party.

Princess Play Dates

2010-10-18T23:49:00.003+08:00

It's official! Kylie is completely obsessed with anything princessy. It started almost a year ago but it is in full swing now. Her Bday party was a princess theme, she loves the dolls, books and movies (except for the *Disney ones because they tend to be a bit scary for our delicate girl). She seems to enjoy the *Barbie movies the most and I must admit, I enjoy them too. She has even exclaimed that she wants to be a princess when she grows up. When we ask her what exactly does a princess do, she very matter of factly states that they live in a beautiful castle and dance with the prince all day long. When her friends come over to play, she goes into pretend cooking mode and they "must" change into the appropriate attire. She loves the *Belle* dress which she wears quite often but I'm trying to convince her to wear something else for her school party for photo's sake. I honestly don't recall going through this phase when I was growing up but I completely enjoy it and go along with her.

I think this is such an adorable phase and I wish all of the sweet girls lovely fairy tale dreams.

First Day of Kindergarten

2010-09-18T17:54:00.002+08:00

It's hard to believe that our little princess is starting Kindergarten. Kylie was pretty excited as we had visited her new school a week before and we all loved it. Not only are we delighted with the facilities and resources the new school has to offer but we are also pretty thrilled with her new teacher Ms. Shave. Kylie has to get up extra early as the school is a bit far and classes start earlier than what she was used to in Pre-School.

Kylie gets to ride in the same bus as our friend Hannah who was also our sitter for a while and a new friend who just arrived here from the states. They are both in the pics below. There are two other girls from our condo who are also enrolled in the same school and are a bit older. My biggest concern was that Kylie would be traveling in a school bus with older children. I don't believe this is common in the states. This is no longer a concern as these trips are very well organized with "Auntie's" in the bus to help children get into their seats, assist with seat belts and everything seems to be pretty calm.

Kylie was wearing her PE uniform as this is what was on the schedule for her 1st day. Judging by the pictures that the school posted, Kylie and her new classmates had a blast.

So on her first day of Kindergarten, Kylie was also celebrating her 5th birthday and had a loose tooth all at the same time. I wish time would stand still for just a moment because everything seems to be happening so fast.

A Very Happy Birthday

2009-08-23T23:33:00.007+08:00

Opening presents

Our Rockstar sang Twinkle, Twinkle Traffic Light with her new guitar.

We took Kylie to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants for endless chips and salsa.

Birthday cake with friends at school.

Yummy, white chocolate chip chunk cake.

Our big 4 year old...sigh.

Another year gone by...

2009-08-17T22:34:00.003+08:00

Tonight I tucked my 3 yr old into bed, read her a story and sang a few songs for the last time...you see, when we wake up tomorrow morning my sweet baby girl will be 4 yrs old.

I'm not ready for her to grow up so fast.

Holiday weekend

2009-08-11T22:15:00.005+08:00

We've been keeping busy as usual. I have good intentions of updating more often, but I just don't always get around to it. We just had a long holiday weekend and enjoyed every moment of it. First, I want to thank our friend Jeanne for sending us a care package last week. We LOVED going thru all of the goodies that were lovingly packed. I took a photo but there was alot more that had already been put away. Thanks for being so thoughtful!

Now for our weekend in bullet points:

Friday, Sean and I took the day off. We attended sports day at Kylie's school. It was great to see Kylie participate in some of the relay events. There was a parent and child activity and that is when I realized that Kylie does not have a competitive bone in her body. We had to tie balloons around our ankles and protect them while trying to pop the other participants balloon. Needless to say, she did not care for that little event and was quite frightened about the process. I made sure not to make a big deal about it and sat down gracefully after the other parents enjoyed stomping on our balloons:-)
Afterwards, we left Kylie in school while Sean and I enjoyed a movie date. We watched The Hangover. It was hysterically funny and we really enjoyed it.
Friday evening, we attended a BBQ at one of our colleagues home. It was the home of the head chef from work and we had a fantastic time.
Saturday morning after swimming lessons, I relaxed pretty much the entire day and Sean went grocery shopping.
Saturday night we met up with a colleague and his wife for dinner. We ate at Red Dot and not only did we enjoy great drinks but the food was fantastic. This is definitely a "do over". Check out the link if you get a chance.
Sunday was Singapore's 44th Birthday referred to as National Day. There were parades and fireworks around the town. We opted to stay in and have a BBQ of our own with friends.
Monday we took Kylie to see "UP". I thought the movie was cute but the story line may be a bit too much for my barely four year old.

That's all for now. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. We are enjoying ours:-)

Goodies from home thanks to our friend Jeanne.

Sports day in Kylie's school. Flag due to National Day celebration.

Balancing act:-)

Dinner at Red Dot. Yuummm...

Kylie sporting the Singapore flag tattoo.

Racial Harmony Day

2009-07-26T19:11:00.008+08:00

Thursday was Racial Harmony Day at Kylie's school. All of the kids get to dress up in their cultural attire and celebrate their heritage. Cool concept, huh? Everyday should be Racial Harmony day throughout the world. Kylie enjoyed being able to wear her Asian outfit to school. She looked so cute and she knew it. We had another lovely weekend . On Thursday, we celebrated our friend Nolan's birthday at my new favorite place, Chili's. The restaurant opened up a couple of months ago and I can't get enough of that Western food. Yum! Friday after work my friend Nikkole and I took a bead class and made a couple of cute bracelets. Nikki is a pro making everything from miniature purses to miniature dresses. They are gorgeous! We purchased a kit and crystal beads and well now I'm obsessed with this new hobby. After our class we went to a restaurant, met up with friends and enjoyed Pizza. I LOVE Pizza and there is plenty of it here thank goodness. So far all of the Pizza I've had here has been great. On Saturday after Kylie's swim lesson and on Sunday, we spent the weekend visiting two new malls (new to us:-). Singapore is loaded with shopping malls and they are always packed. It was cool to check out new places to shop. It's a good thing I work because I can seriously see myself checking out every shopping mall on my off time from start to end and that can be quite dangerous to our wallets:-) Kylie is always saying something smart and funny. I keep saying I want to blog about them but I wait so long and then I forget. Well, today she said something so cute and I remembered! She was being very cute and buttering us up for a treat. She said, "may I please have something sweeter than me to eat?" Too cute! Of course, we bought her ice cream:-)

Dress up for Racial Harmony Day in school.

Kylie admiring herself in the mirrow while we wait for the elevator.

My Pretty Girl.

Do you think they enjoy the gorgeous view as much as the grown ups do?...Nah.

Pizza and a Singapore Sling. Life is good here in S'Pore:-)

Celebrating Nolan's Birthday in Chili's Restaurant.

"I'm not tired..."

2009-07-11T23:07:00.003+08:00

"I'm not tired, I'm not sleepy, I don't want to go to bed, I don't need a nap". We hear these words from Kylie ~~almost~~ every single day. She refuses to go to bed by 9pm. Each time I've tried, we have had to guide her gently back to bed at least 20 times and in the end she ends up crying herself to sleep. Knowing that her little brain is actively processing at high speeds, I have relaxed the rules so that we can try to settle her in between 10pm and 11pm. By then we still have to guide her back to her room at least 10 times. On the weekends, she wakes up between 6am-7am all on her own. On the weekdays, it's not so easy as she normally doesn't want to get up and get dressed. Most kids we know LOVE to sleep, but nope not our girl. Today, Kylie had her swimming lessons which normally lasts 45 minutes, we went to the movies (we saw Ice Age), we did a little shopping around the mall, came home and she couldn't wait to color with her new highlighters. I set up my laptop, directly opposite where she was drawing and I was having normal conversation with Sean who was in the kitchen at the time. All of a sudden, there was complete silence with no one trying to interrupt our conversation and this is what we saw...

Notice that our little "lefty" still had the highlighter in her hand? I took full advantage of the fact that she was tired. I woke her up so that she can eat, watch a movie (Toy Story was on), tucked her into bed and read a book of her choice, "Cinderella". Yep, that 5 min. power nap gave her renewed energy. Anyway, she was finally out by 8pm and I'm enjoying a quiet evening sorting photos, digital scrapbooking stuff and of course blogging on a Saturday night - whoop, whoop!

4th of July Weekend

2009-07-06T22:43:00.012+08:00

We had a lovely 4th of July weekend! The American*Association*of*Singapore puts on several events throughout the year for Expats including the 4th of July celebration. There were tons of traditional American food, drinks, bands and a good 'ole fireworks display. We met cool new people with interesting careers and we had great conversations. I'm starting to see why people come to work in Singapore and decide they want to make this place their permant residence:-)

July...already?

2009-07-02T23:05:00.003+08:00

The weeks seem to be flying by. It's hard to believe we've been living in Singapore for 6 months now. It has turned out to be the best and happiest experience for our family. Kylie is learning tons. She can count to ten in 3 languages. She can actually count to 30 in English but the teens get a little fussy at times. Did you know there was an "eleventeen" in our numbering system?!? She can almost write her name consistently. She is learning to read in both English and Mandarin. Her curiosity about life is in full swing. She'll ask why all the time about everything. She is well behaved in school and saves all of her sassiness for her Mommy and Daddy. Her full sentences, reasoning and humor amazes us. And all at the tender age of 3 yrs old.

We miss our family and friends back home but life is treating us well here in Singapore so we are going to try to enjoy it while we can.

Bali - Day 2

2009-06-21T21:53:00.004+08:00

(Click image to enlarge)

Bali - Day 2

2009-06-18T21:22:00.014+08:00

(Click to enlarge)

Bali - Day 1

2009-06-13T18:19:00.016+08:00

We arrived back home yesterday evening from our 5 day "holiday" trip to Bali. Words cannot express what a wonderful trip this turned out to be. I can't remember the last time I visited somewhere and didn't want to leave. Sean outdid himself by booking us into a very nice hotel which I can only describe as a little piece of paradise. Kylie had such a wonderful time that when we told her it was time to leave - she started to cry! It doesn't help that we were laying by the pool and had just wrapped up lunch. So naturally she thought we were planted for the day as we had done the same routine on the previous days - lol! At first I thought, geez we are the only ones with a kid. I didn't feel guilty at all. Instead I thought how lucky we were to be able to spend quality time with Kylie in such a beautiful destination. On the second day, we met a family with a soon to be 3yr old and Kylie and their daughter Charlotte hit it off right away. The lovely family is from Australia and we definitely plan to stay in touch. We stayed at a beautiful resort called InterContinental and I highly recommended it to anyone planning a trip to Bali. We enjoyed the private beach, beautifully manicured grounds, delicious food, entertainment and the gorgeous pools. Our 2 1/1 hour plane ride was worth every penny and we are looking forward to doing it again soon...very soon.

We flew on Garuda Indonesia. It was a pleasant and enjoyable trip.

Welcome to Bali!

This is the hotel's check in process. No waiting in line:-)

We were served complimentary lemon grass drinks.

The view from our hotel room.

Our hotel room. The first thing Kylie wanted to do each morning was go out into the balcony.

The beautiful Bali sunset!

Kylie finds a new little friend.

We watched the sunset from the appropriately named Sunset Bar:-)

Our first night we enjoyed pasta from a fancy Italian restaurant complete with a lady serenating each table with traditional songs from Italy. Here is my darling daughter after the waiter placed the napkin on her lap. "Mommy what's this?" "Honey it's the napkin ring:-)"

At the Sunset Bar.

Kylie enjoyed, the pretty flowers that fell from the trees.

Happy, happy!

Singapore Botanical Garden

2009-05-30T21:14:00.030+08:00

Last weekend we went to the Botanical Garden. This place is huge and there were people having picnics throughout. There is a nice little section for kids activities and even a large tree house with fun slides to come down from. We enjoyed a yummy pizza and a pesto salad. We will definitely be back for more food and fun. Enjoy the pics which are in no particular order.

Sleeping*Beauty

2009-05-30T21:03:00.003+08:00

Kylie is an early riser and late to bed. We often struggle to get her to bed at 10pm or even 11pm. She is usually up by 7am or earlier. When she is not venturing out of her room to come join us in ours, this is what we find...

Of course, her Daddy laid the comforter out ever so neatly to get her to stay in her room this time around. There were times that we found her sleeping on her small area rug and it made me sad. Whatever it takes for our Princess to get some rest so that she can grow up nice and strong. Even if I wished she could stay this little forever:-)

Singapore Tour

2009-05-18T12:05:00.000+08:00

Last Sunday we were Tourist for a day! We boarded an open top tour bus and took in some familiar scenery. I've mentioned before that this is a small densely populated island so we were quite familiar with the areas. Nevertheless, it was pretty nice taking in the sites and a little bit of history. The weather was quite nice and we enjoyed a lovely breeze. I tried to upload as many of the 200 or so photos I took but slide only let me upload 50 of them. I will post more so that you can see the lovely island where we live:-) It's quite the little paradise.

Speaking of paradise...we have booked our week long trip to Bali. It's only a 2 1/2 hour flight from here. We take of in just a few weeks! Pretty exciting stuff.

Kylie and her Daddy made me a special Mother's Day breakfast. Yummy!!

Singapore Zoo

2009-05-17T22:28:00.004+08:00

We visited the Singapore Zoo a few months ago and just realized I had not posted any photos. We went with a few of our cool friends and had an awesome time. There is a fantastic water play area and the kids had alot of fun. We plan to visit again soon as we did not get to see the whole place. This close up is one of my favorite pics of Kylie. She continues to amaze us with her beautiful personality. I love her smile!

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T23:19:00.003+08:00

Happy May

2009-05-03T00:20:00.004+08:00

We are enjoying exploring everything Singapore. Looking forward to this months newest adventures!

Hong Kong Day 3

2009-05-02T00:46:00.002+08:00

We went to Ngong Ping 360 in Lantau Island. There we took a cable car journey to a themed village - Po Lin Monastery and visited with the Giant Buddha to experience the Buddhism culture. We were supposed to go to HK island on a ferry as part of the trip but unfortunately Kylie was not feeling well and we ended up leaving the tour early. We were faced with the emergency trip to a foreign clinic with a non English speaking driver. All was well as the Dr. spoke fluent English and gave our girl some meds that made her feel better within a few hours. We still don't know what was wrong other than she was crying because her tummy hurt and she had a fever. Our girl rarely cries when she is ill so we were definitely concerned that it may have been something more. Thank goodness it was not. The tour and the entire trip itself was a great experience and we are already talking about going back at some point. If you are planning to go to HK I highly recommend this tour for a nominal fee of approximately $1500 (HKD) for 3 ppl which ends up being under $200 USD:-) Click here if you'd like to learn more about the cable car and tour.

Construction update - Revised link

2009-04-30T20:21:00.001+08:00

Sorry about the previous link not working. Here's the construction update from yours truly!

Hong Kong Day 2

2009-04-15T22:41:00.006+08:00

We surprised Kylie with a trip to Disneyland Hong Kong!!

Hong Kong - Day 1

2009-04-12T19:37:00.009+08:00

We were scheduled to fly out Wednesday morning at 6:30am and I must have slept for just 1 hour the night before because I was so excited. I was up and getting ready by 3am. Our trip started out with a fantastic taxi driver who was well traveled and had a wonderful personality. We were greeted at the airport by the attendant who conducted the preliminary check in and he was so personable it just made the mood even better. Even Security seemed so pleasant and friendly. I comented to Sean about the positive experience and we both agreed that everyone here in Singapore seem to enjoy their jobs. Sean and Kylie slept thru part of the 3.5 hour flight something I have difficulty doing partly from how stressed I am about flying. This time though, I felt relatively calm and very excited that we were actually on our way to Hong Kong.

We had a fantastic time in Hong Kong and our wallets got an extensive workout. Kylie made out like a bandit as we enjoy shopping for her more than we do for ourselves. I remember commenting to Sean when we first got there that "wow this looks almost identical to China" and he said "we are in China". When I finally looked at a map I had no idea how close we were to Guangzhou. That was a duh moment for me and I don't mind sharing:-) Enjoy the photos of our Day 1 which consisted of lots of shopping.

View from our new Site office

2009-04-05T11:41:00.009+08:00

Our dept. recently moved from the Corporate Office to the new office closer to the construction site. We have a fantastic view of the port and I can see Kylie's school right outside our window. Aside from the shuttle bus driving dangerously close and feeling like it can tip over into a huge crater, being closer to the site is pretty darn cool. We get to watch history in the making daily.

Allthough, I'm a bit shy about this next piece (yes, I'm shy so stop laughing), it is out there and I might as well share. Also, the fact that my hubby posted it on his FB page and my friend Jeanne said I need to post it here:-) I was honored to be asked to narrate the next webcast update for the park. Although I'm only in two scenes, it took several shots (too many to count) to get the one that appears here http://www.rwsentosa.com/video/webcast_apr09.html

Welcome to the world Johnathan!

2009-04-03T19:39:00.003+08:00

My lovely sister had her baby boy!! Welcome to the world Johnathan! We love you, Uncle Sean, Aunt Judy and cousin Kylie. We can't wait to meet you!

Johnathan Alexander Perez

Born March 29 2009

At 4:32 pm

8 pounds 12 oz 20 1/2 inches long

The proud sisters and the beautiful Mama, my sister Yolanda. I love you!!

St. Patty's

2009-03-29T23:24:00.002+08:00

A little late posting but here it is. We enjoyed a little St. Patty's celebration here in S'Pore. We had a fun time with friends. It poured down rain just as the parade started. The parade kept going as we took cover. We managed to catch up with the activities on the other side. It was quite interesting to say the least complete with Asian bag pipers. I got a kick out of that. I took lots of video which unfortunately is still in the camera. Anyway, the committee in charge of putting this whole thing together must have a great sense of humor. There were several Star*Wars characters in full gear also part of the the parade and then photo op. What the heck to they have anything to do with St. Patty's day - lol!! After the activities most of the group went to an Irish Bar & Grill for some good food and more fun. I'm loving this place! There's a little bit of everything for everyone!

Sean and I have our 10 year wedding anniversary coming up in a couple of weeks!! We are planning an exciting trip to Hong Kong to celebrate the occassion!!! Kylie is thrilled and keeps asking when we are going to "Hong Konk". We haven't even told her we are going to Disney*land yet!

Swim*lessons

2009-03-14T14:10:00.003+08:00

Every weekend Kylie would look through our window towards the pool and often comment about the people swimming out in the pool. The people she was referring to are instructors and their eager students with the black and bright orange wet suits. She often told me that she wanted to join them. One Saturday as we were spending a relaxing morning by the pool, I decided to observed an instructor. I was so impressed with how great he was with the little ones that I decided to ask him a few questions. One thing led to another and next thing you know we formed a new little swim team to begin lessons the following week. We feel that Kylie is a pretty good swimmer as evident by our previous videos where she was swimming before she had even turned two! However, the swim lessons are focusing on the importance of breathing techniques. I'm very impressed by how brave and resilient the girls always seem to be. They got a little water up their nose and they were ready to try it again. Our little friend William got a little water up his nose and well let's just say he was not happy about that and let everyone know. The Instructor was pretty good at calming him down although William looked all over for his mom whom I was trying to hide. Thank goodnes it was the end of that lesson. Boys are so silly! -lol! Let's just hope Kylie thinks so until she's at least in her 20's. Here are just a few of the cute pics from their second lesson and Kylie's new friends.

Sentosa*Beach

2009-03-01T22:52:00.018+08:00

We went to the beach today! We got together with a few friends to celebrate our friend Jen's "forty two-rrific" birthday. The beach is located on the island where we work. Although I've yet to join them, some of our colleagues go to the beach for lunch. Enjoy a glimpse of where we work and play. I have to warn you though, some of the photos you are about to see look like we are on vacation, but please do not be fooled...we are working very hard to get this project up and running:-)

The entrance to the Island

The Beach - I LOVE the Palm Trees!

Happy girl!

It's aaaallll good!

Happy in Sing Sing

A visitor

Picture perfect!!

Wish you were here!

The monorail to and from. There are aslo cable cars that we have yet to experience.

We will be moving to this site office on April 1st. The office overlooks the inter coastal and the port for cruise ships. It's beautiful! It was raining when I took this photo.

The Port. Some day my shipment will arrive...sigh...

Universal*Studios*Singapore. Very exciting stuff!

2009-02-23T21:07:00.002+08:00

Kylie LOVES this TV show currently on Playh*use D*sney Asia. It's called Dib* the Magic*Gift*Dragon. She lights up with excitement and loves to dance to the intro. In fact, she just realized that I had a picture of Dib* on this post and ran to her Daddy and insisted that he come see. I believe it's of Korean origin. I'm not sure if this is playing in the states currently but it is as cute as can be. I've added a link of the intro song I found on Y*utube so that you can enjoy the happy song that makes our beautiful daughter beam with such excitement. It's quite a catchy tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVWWw5twmEA

Happy ChineseNewYear

2009-02-11T22:54:00.006+08:00

I know...I am soooo late with this post...I'm such a slacker!! Hope everyone had a happy Chinese New Year. Year of the OX! This is about a fifteen day celebration. We celebrated by going to Chinatown, hanging out with friends playing a game of golf and enjoying a yummy BBQ feast. There were plenty of shows and events throughout the weeks leading up to the big day. I enjoyed every single one we happen to come across especially the elaborate costumes featured in some of the shows. Kylie learned about CNY in school and was very excited about it. She got to enjoy a party in her school complete with dragon dancers and all the gold she could get her little hands on. The gold was filled with a delicious milk chocolate treat she so nicely shared with her mommy:-)

Corporate*partay!!

2009-01-25T10:40:00.007+08:00

We attended our first corporate party on Friday 1/23!! It was a Chinese New Year (CNY) celebration and it was a blast! The entertainment was pretty darn funny, I participated in my first "Lo*Hei" and of course there was karaokee. We stayed pretty late and in fact, we were the last ones to leave. It certainly helped that there was alot of free flowing booze all night long. By the end of the night I loved Singapore and everyone in it - lol!

We've attended two Lo*Hei's the second being this past Monday. A large group of 20+ from work got together for a nice lunch on a golf course near work. We had a lovely breeze and a beautiful view. Lo*Hei, pronounced "lo hey" is a focal point of Chinese New Year celebrations in Singap*re and Mal*aysia. It is a salad made of julienned vegetables, a few sauces, sesame seeds and strips of raw fish among other items. The salad itself is called Yu*sheng (I found this out while trying to find a link to attach to this post). Everyone gathers around and use their chopsticks to toss the salad up in the air as high as they can for good luck while yelling out wishes for the new year. It is customary that the higher you toss, the greater your fortunes. So you can imagine what an interesting and humorous scene this can be for us. Sean and I enjoyed participating in this tradition. Here are a few photos from my phone camera.

Sky Tour

2009-01-22T09:35:00.012+08:00

One of my coworkers planned and arranged a little outing for us. My department which currently consists of 10 people, decided to go on a sky tour during our lunch break. It was a great way for us to see the progress of our construction site. I'm thrilled to be able to share these pics with you. We live on a beautiful island and every day for work we get shuttled into yet another beautiful island. Our commute consists of a short walking distance to the MRT (train station), 4 train stops, drop Kylie off and right outside her school we catch the resort shuttle bus to work. It just couldn't be more convenient than that. My first day riding to work almost 3 wks ago and even now occasionally, I get goose bumps from the amazing sights on my way to work.

Isn't this picture just breathtaking?!?!

Pic below - Top right is a port. On the left is a huge mall and next to it is Kylie's school. This is the bridge we cross daily. Bottom is one of the hotels in progress.

We watch huge cruise line ships arrive and depart regurlarly. We're getting cruise fever...

Singapore's icon - Merlion

Welcome to IKEA

2009-01-21T00:08:00.009+08:00

Welcome to our *IKEA* showroom. We've become quite efficient in our space planning. Most of our furniture serves multiple purposes. I'm actually getting used to living in half the space than we are used to. There is less to clean - yeah! We've gotten pretty creative with the space planning so the space does not feel cramped. It is still a work in progress but most of you have expressed interest in seeing our new home...so without further adeu...

We are walking distance from *IKEA* I thought big deal...and then I became a fan...

Our livingroom.

The chaise on the sofa is storage space. This couch is also a sofa bed. Talk about multi-purpose!!

Kylie's room is still a work in progress. The bed frame is actually one huge storage area. The bookcase is a bit lonely for now.

This multi-purpose room is Kylie's playroom as well as a guest room and Sean's closet is in here as he was generous enough to let me have my very own in the master bedroom.

More pics to come!

Simple pleasures

2009-01-17T13:42:00.000+08:00

Today we enjoyed a day of leisure. We actually had a lovely long scenic walk and we let Kylie pass out at 3pm. She slept until a little after 5pm which usually means trouble getting her down for the night. But today was special. No worries, just relax and enjoy the simple pleasures including a sugary donut sweet after 9pm. We are not losing it here in S'Pore, we are just enjoying the simple pleasures of tropical evening breezes and enjoying conversations with friends by the pool. Of course, Kylie was wired which was fine as she was having a blast. She finally slowed down around 11pm and she and I came back upstairs to call it a night. Her happiness brought me back to the good old days when happiness for my sister and I meant a glass of chocolate milk and whatever host*ess treat we had in the pantry right before bed. Now as an adult that simple pleasure meant an *appletini* or Malibu* & pineapple topped with an adoring husband and perfect daughter to complete the perfect Saturday.

CNY Preparations

2009-01-15T21:15:00.003+08:00

The whole island is buzzing with Chinese*New*Year preparations. We've been venturing out on the weekends exploring new places. We have not taken any touristy tours yet but we are not ruling them out either. It is so easy to get around town via public transportation. Even Kylie learned the names of each train stop to and from school before I did. Speaking of school, Kylie loves it and she is learning quite a bit. We sat down for dinner Friday night at a new Thai restaurant (new to me) and Kylie showed me that she could write the letter Q, V, X and attempted a few others that were not as apparent to me. But imagine how impressed and proud I was to see that she has learned this in just one week into her new school?

I love my new job. I'm busier than ever and best of all I know what the heck I'm doing. We have alot of fun in the office and everyone has such a great personality. We laugh alot and everyone is working together as a team. From the moment I walked in the office after orientation on my first day, the team had a great laugh at my expense. You see, I had just discovered that Sean and I would be working together side by side and I do mean our desks are next to each other with a short cubicle divider in between. That seemed to break the ice right away and not once did I feel like the newbie or an outsider or a foreigner - well you get the idea. I have to admit it's been great working next to my hubby. He is so helpful and a great resource not to mention he is freakin' smart too. Another perk is that I've had a permanent lunch buddy:-) We will be working together in the same office for a few months. Then we will go to our respective locations.

More tidbits on my new adventures to come. In the meantime I have tons of pictures to share. I just haven't taken the time to crop them. So I hope you still enjoy the real deal!

Photos

2009-01-07T22:08:00.012+08:00

Trying to make up for the lack of photos. Enjoy!

Our new kitchen.

Furniture arrived

Sights around town

A different view of the "silly" bridge.

Pretty decor at the mall.

Kylie's new favorite place in the pool area at our apt. complex

Our condo

2009-01-04T22:56:00.007+08:00

It's beginning to feel like a home. Furniture is in, we have internet and as much as I complain about too much TV, I was going stir crazy without it and we finally have one.

I feel very fortunate that hubby is making sure that Kylie and I have everything we need. It helps too that he made us a couple of dinners and he is a pretty darn good cook. We've gone grocery shopping several times and the prices on food can be pretty expensive like $8.00 for Kraft's Mac & Cheese, $9.00 for a bag of chips and can you believe $18 for Haagen Dazs Ice Cream?!?! We went to CPK with our friends the H's on Saturday and that was such a treat for me. I played Badminton yesterday for the first time and I had a great time. Kylie is enjoying herself. Except for the occassional 3yr old stubborness, she seems to be enjoying herself and her new school. She is such a trooper!

Tomorrow is my first day at work so this is just a quick post. These are some pics of the apt before. I'll post pics with the furniture later on this week.

Kylie was excited about our pool view. I caught her jumping in mid air.

Click on image to enlarge

Barbara - Bruiser is with a friend Yoly who used to watch him for us when we'd go away on vacation. She has another Min Pin and they have a doggy door with a big back yard. We miss him but it is comforting to know he is quite happy and in a great home where I can get updates on all of his mischief. Thanks Yoly!

Kerri - We were hoping to see you guys before we left but we were down to the wire. In fact, we were still purging stuff in our hotel room xmas morning at 2am. We are pretty sure we1 made someone's xmas at the hotel with all of the stuff we ended up having to leave behind - lol!

Lynn - Thanks for being all over it! By the way, I didn't mean to leave my phone holder. If someone hasn't claimed it maybe you can send it to me, pretty please?!?!

Happy New Year!!!

2009-01-01T07:20:00.008+08:00

From our family to yours, we would like to wish everyone a wonderful new year!! We've already had our celebration as our time zone is 12 hrs ahead from the states. We had a lovely evening with friends.

Today we are excited because our furniture will be arriving - yeah!! It took us several hours but we were able to pick out furniture for the entire apt. We will hopefully have everything we need to stay in our apt by today or tomorrow.

I finally have some pics to show you but Kylie is tugging at my arm because it is time for breakfast. So I will post more pics later. Stay safe!

Happy Birthday to my sister Yolanda!! She is a new year's eve baby. I love you Sis!

Kylie calls this the "crazy" or "silly bridge because it is quite colorful. This is walking distance from our hotel.

It actually looks much nicer in the evening with lights

Christmas tree in the main lobby of our new apt building

Signage in MRT (train station) So far we have been breaking a few rules:-)

Our first evening out. In case you ar wondering, I had a nice cobb salad. I am however having a bit of a difficult time finding stuff I like to eat. I'm sticking to pizza and other western style food as quickly as I can find it.

Kylie at the Orlando airport as we were heading out

We made it!

2008-12-29T14:20:00.006+08:00

We have been in Singapore (SG) for 3 days now. The jet lag has taken it's toll on us. Kylie and I have given in to it. Sean kept fighting it and now he is sicky poo with a froggy voice and nasty sinus infection (so we think). We have managed to get a whole lot done and even enjoyed a night out with Kylie on our first evening.

First, I wanted to mention that our flight of 22 something hours was the most wonderful experience. That is HUGE coming from me. We flew "Korean*Air" and we had service with a smile the entire flight experience. I've flown on shorter flights with crabby flight attendants. The crew catered to a sold out flight and they were always eager to please. The service was truly A+. From the moment we took off, the crew started their services and it seemed to me that we were always eating. I completely over planned busy activities for Kylie and I. Sean said that the activities I had planned would have been appropriate for the other airlines he had flown but this one was definitely the best. We had economy seats with plenty of leg room, tv's for every seat, a port for our laptops and free wine and beer...need I say more? - lol!! The flight was smooth throughout and Kylie did not complain once about having to be buckled in throughout the flight. She slept alot, watched TV and we gave her a few gifts here and there which she loved! We still have unopened gifts that I had planned to give her as a way to keep her occupy but we ended up not needing them at the time. I'll save them for a rainy day.

I had a tough time falling asleep on the flights. I tried really hard but my body just refused to sleep in a vertical position. I finally fell asleep for an hour during the last flight which was a six hour flight. I was okay for a little bit but by the time we arrived I started getting a little crabby. I wanted a BED big time!! We barely made it on that last flight, by the way. Our layover was approx 55 min. We arrived a few minutes later from the previous flight then we had to go thru a security check point once we arrived in Korea. We had approx 5 min to run from the gate we had arrived to our next gate. We were hauling 6 carry ons which according to hubby were the heaviest carry ons he has ever had in all of his previous travel - lol!! When we arrived into Singapore we were ecstatic to find out that our luggage had made it as well. That was just the icing on our wonderful travel experience.

My first reaction while riding in a cab to our hotel was how lush and beautiful the landscaping was. The trees are so nicely manucared that they remind me of the little bonzai (sp)? plants. This amazing place is a melting pot of cultures. Everything is in English by the way. I would describe it a little like Manhattan or any big city but tropical, lovely palm trees and 100 times cleaner. There are signs all over about the fines if you litter. We ventured out Saturday night and walked to an area near our hotel that felt like we were in South*Beach on steroids. There was so much to see and do. The restaurants had all sorts of offerings from every culture including a Cuban restaurant which really blew me away to see. The Christmas decorations are over the top. They are beautiful!! All restaurants have outside seating which Sean and I really enjoy. We ate at a restaurant Saturday night and we were seated next to the river were tour boats adorned "with lanterns passed by. It reminded me a little of the famous place in "Italy" with the gondolas minus the lanterns of course - lol!

By the way, we are getting alot of double takes from people who look at Kylie and then look at us then they look at Kylie again - lol! No one has asked us any questions which I would of course welcome and love to talk about our adoption process. I keep joking with Sean that we could never ever let Kylie out of our sight because people are not going to assume that she belongs to "those Americans" - ha, ha!! Everyone is really courteous and friendly.

Yesterday we went shopping for some of my essentials, a hair dryer, a flat iron and an iron! My Chi does not work here and I feel lost without it. My hair is not cooperating with the humidity. Speaking of shopping - WOW!!! Their are thousands of stores in the malls or at least it feels that way. I'm not sure that I will ever get thru one mall end to end. It is huge! So far, we had our walk thru of the apt. Kylie jumped for joy at the view from our apt. I caught a pic of her in mid air which I will post once I overcome the challenges I'm having with posting pics. We have a lovely view of the largest pool I have ever seen in my life. I let Kylie pick out her own room and she immediately went for the master - she is no fool:-) I asked her to pick a different room which she did. Surprisingly it was not the other one with the pool view. I asked her several times which room she wanted and she chose the same one. Kylie is so funny and continues to amaze me. She walked thru each room unprompted letting me know what we needed for each one. She started with the bathrooms and she said we needed soap, toothpaste and toilet paper. She then said she needed a bed for her room and so on. I found it quite entertaining. We ordered our cable, internet and phone services (apparently not as easy as the states). It took us approx 2 hrs to get that done. I can usually get that done with a phone call but here we have to appear in person. Conveniently enough they are located at the mall:-) We signed Kylie up for her new school and she loves it. While we were filling our paperwork, Kylie kept running back and forth to her new playground and us. She kept smiling the whole time. We will take her tomorrow as a little trial run to see how she does. We hope to order our furniture this afternoon after Kylie's nap. The list seems endless at the moment but we are crossing them off one by one.

Overall it is turning out to be an amazing experience for our family and one that we are so thankful to have the opportunity to do. I was a little sad about leaving my job and my home but sometimes you need that little kick in the butt to take one out of their comfort zone and experience what life has to offer. In an earlier post I mention that a very good source told me that SG was beautiful, fun and exciting. That good source was hubby who came to SG to start work and get things in order for us including finding us an apt and school for Kylie. I didn't mention that because well you just never know who is reading this stuff - right? He did a fantastic job as I knew he would. He came back so that we can spend Christmas Eve with the family and we all flew to SG together. He also mentioned to me that he thought SG was paradise. My hubby doesn't use words like that. I'm now beginning to understand what he meant. We are just in awe of everything we are experiencing.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Thank you very much for all of your well wishes. It really means alot to us.

Travel itinerary - Just a few hours to go...

2008-12-25T06:15:00.001+08:00

Just a quick note to say hi. Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday! As you all wake up tomorrow and do whatever it is you do to celebrate, we will be on a plane heading towards our new adventure.

I have not had internet for about a week now. I'm going thru withdrawals. I don't have the itinerary details but the summary is as follows:

12-25-08 Thursday - Christmas Day!

All flights on Korean Air

08:30am - Leave Orlando

10:10am - Arrive Atlanta

11:55am - Leave Atlanta - 15 hour flight - yikes!!

12-26-08 Friday

05:05 pm - Arrive Seoul Korea

06:00 pm - Leave Seoul Korea - 6 hour flight - double yikes!!

11:20 pm - Arrive in Singapore

Thank you for all of your well wishes. I look forward to posting pics as soon as I can.

Happy holidays!!

Eight days until Singapore!!

2008-12-17T22:38:00.003+08:00

Here is sneak preview of the company we will be working for http://www.rwsentosa.com/. I start work on January 5th. We found a fantastic day care for Kylie where they will speak English in the am and learn Mandarin in the afternoon. How cool is that?!?! We also got in just in time as they only have 5 spots left!! Singapore is a densely populated small island. The fact that we didn't have to be placed on a waiting list is a miracle! I am getting super excited!!

Let the count down begin...

2008-12-15T10:45:00.004+08:00

Woohoo!! Ten days 'til we fly out to Singapore!! Bet you thought I was going to say 'til Christmas - lol! No typos, you read it right...we are flying out on Christmas Day!! I'll post the travel schedule later this week for those of you who'd like to follow along our journey while you are opening up Christmas presents! I don't like to fly so I'm trying not to let the thought of an upcoming 26 hour flight enter my mind because I start hyper ventilating. I am however getting very excited and can't wait to start our new adventure. A very good source told me that Singapore is beautiful, fun, exciting and we will have no regrets;-)

I have been busy, working, shopping and packing. I've done more shopping this past week than I've done the whole year. I purchased a second large suitcase and I'm pretty close to needing a third - lol! A girl has needs, ya know?!?! This is on top of my backpack with laptop, scanner and external hard drive and a carry on that will be full of important documents and tons of comfort food snacks. Hubby will have his own backpack with a laptop and camera equipment. Will the airline seriously allow all of this stuff? Kylie will be set with tons of activities to last for days (I hope). Sean had a great idea to have small presents for her to unwrap throught the flight. Isn't that sweet?!?! So I've been busy wrapping presents too:-)

I've been meaning to call lots of people to catch up with them before we leave and time just seems to be slipping by. I miss my bloggie friends, too. I haven't had a chance to catch up and see how everyone is doing. I'm having withdrawals. I'd like to thank everyone for all of the well wishes. I love knowing that you've stopped by. It really keeps me going.

Thank you once again to Ellie's mommy for wanting to spend so much quality time with my girl. It makes my heart very happy, not to mention how much easier it is to pack and not have my 3 year old unpack it all again. Whew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it. I can't wait for the movers to get here to get the rest done. Btw, the movers were supposed to be here last week but that's a whole other story...

Here is a brief overview of what Kylie has been up to. Thursday she received her Christmas present from Grandma & Grandpa Durney from Missouri. It was her very first pair of roller skates and she LOVED them. She let me help her and first and within minutes she was swatting my hands away as she wanted to stand and walk with the skates on her own. She did great! Friday she attended a cooking class with Ellie and she baked her very first gingerbread anything. It was a "choo, choo train" loaded with goodies. I'll post pics as soon as I get them. Saturday Grammy Rita came over to bake a ton of cookies with lots of sugar, sprinkles and m&m's. I took a little break just now to grab a few cookies. They are so yummy and that is why they must go with Kylie to daycare tomorrow - lol! Lucky kids!! Finally, today Kylie enjoyed another wonderful day with Ellie and Sagan this time in "play park" as Kylie calls it.

2008-12-08T08:54:00.004+08:00

So much to do, so little time!! I've never thrown out or donated as much as I have this past week. It feels pretty good. We should have done this a long time ago. I can't believe all of the stuff I couldn't live without at one time or another - lol! The decision making comes down to whether or not an item is worth storing for the next 3-5 yrs or worth shipping and the answer is usually neither. So out it goes. We rented a small storage unit and although I didn't know it at the time, that was a great decision or else the entire house may have ended up there - ha, ha!

Kylie and I went to a lovely bday party yesterday. The party was held in a restaurant where 10 or so kids got to create their very own pizza! I thought that was so cool! The kids loved it! Our dear friend Ellie which is like a sister to Kylie joined us. The girls are perfect together and so well behaved. It is easy to take those two anywhere with no hassles. Then Jeanne invited Kylie to go with Ellie to a cooking class so that I may get a few more hours of packing done. Thanks Jeanne!!

Lots more going on!! The short version is that we have renters for our house - yeah! It's no fun having to keep the home looking show ready while you are trying to pack. I don't care how much people tell me that those coming to our house will understand or that they won't care, we feel that if we want renters asap, the house better look and feel like a mint! Another draw back is how paranoid I feel after a showing. I have to double check to make sure the pool bath door is locked as well as the sliding glass door. They have been left open in the past and sure enough today was no exception. Oh and for the other good news we have a lovely home picked out in Singapore - yeah, yeah! Things are getting pretty exciting around here. Stay tune:-)

The birthday girl, Natalie. All of the kids where given a chefs hat! Pretty cool!

2008-11-28T11:35:00.000+08:00

Today we took a little break from all of the packing chaos to enjoy Thanksgiving with our family. We had lunch in New Smyrna and then dinner in Orlando. It was a beautiful day.

I hope you had a wonderful day with family and friends. We all have a lot to be thankful for.

It's official!!

2008-11-23T10:16:00.007+08:00

I didn't mean to keep you hanging for so long!! Pls forgive me. You guys are pretty darn smart! DH tried to distract you by listing all sorts of different places and you didn't fall for it - lol!! We had some pretty good guesses and some were right on. So without further adieu....we are moving to SINGAPORE!!!!! We accepted our employment offer Tuesday night. Then the mountain of paperwork started trickling in. We had pretty much made up our minds way before that as evident by listing our home for rent with a property mgmt company the Saturday before. As you can imagine, we've been pretty busy. I've gone thru a wave of emotions from feeling a bit sad about leaving my company of 15yrs and leaving my current awesome boss, to this renewed energy and excitement about the amazing adventure ahead of us. We are so thankful for the loving and encouraging support of our family and friends. Thank goodness also for my friends who love to shop! We've sold most of our furniture without having to have a garage sale which I was dreading. We've secured a small storage unit for some of the items that we plan to keep.

How do you explain to a 3yr old this life changing event? We take it a day at a time. Kylie is noticing that some of her toys are disappearing, and she watched our furniture being moved out today. She was happily running around the house today with her cousins who had driven up from Tampa. She was treated to a day at Sea*World which included alot of sugar treats while DH and I ran errands which included purchasing 2 new suitcases. Kylie has been spending alot of quality time with her good friend Ellie so that we can run around and get stuff done. She knows where Singapore is on the map and she understands she will be going on a long plane ride. In fact she told me today she wanted to go "right now" and she gestured to the front door as if Singapore would be just on the other side of it.

Add to all of this whirlwind excitement that I now have laryngitis (not officially diagnosed) but I've lost my voice - ugh!

I'll post some pics at a later date. Unfortunately, we will not be able to share specifics about our jobs due to contractual obligations. I will definitely share lots of pics of our travel and new home. We are moving right after Christmas. No official date yet. Some tidbits - Singapore is an island. Everything that I've heard and read about it is positive. Everyone there "speak a da language" so it should be a good transition as far as getting around goes. It is a big city complete with high rises bustling with lots of activities. Add to this they have tropical weather year round - my absolute favorite. In addition to Singapore being one of the cleanest places and having the lowest crime rate, it is also very strict which is in part the reason for the latter. Singapore is 10,352 miles from Orlando and 13hrs ahead during daylight savings time:-)

We look forward to having you follow us along on this journey. Thank you for all of your well wishes, comments, e-mails and phone calls. We are heading towards a wild ride and we promise to bring you all with us - lol!!!

Lisa, thanks for tagging me. I wanna play but it will have to wait as I started this post at 9pm and it is now almost midnight!!

Let's play a guessing game...

2008-11-14T12:54:00.008+08:00

Lot’s of exciting stuff going on in our house…we’ve been doing some spring cleaning – yes I know it’s fall…we’ve been de-cluttering and may I add it feels like loads of off our shoulder. I’ve started a “for sale”, donate and a storage pile. So are you guys starting to see a pattern here and are now wondering why?

Sean was starting to long for “project type” employment similar to what he did several years ago which required extensive travel. Only this time according to DH, it needed to be a project where Kylie and I could be right along side with him. So, he started inquiring about it. Although I was very supportive, my first thought was as long as it doesn’t involve us moving to another state because I’m not interested. Then it happened, an opportunity became available and now Sean and I had to ponder over what it meant for our family. What if it meant moving not just to another state, but somewhere completely different and totally out of the ordinary? What if not only would DH have an opportunity to be a part of a big and exciting project but I could be a part of it as well? We’d be able to visit a part of the world that we normally would not have gone to on our own. We could possibly vacation to places that we normally wouldn’t if we just stayed here settled and content in our comfort zone. We would have the opportunity to learn about different cultures and expose Kylie to adventures we could only dream were possible?

Well, the thoughts and dreams are becoming a reality. We have both received job offers and we are taking the weekend to seriously consider it. Heck, we are MOVING!!! So, anybody want to guess where we are heading to for the next 3 years or so??? I thought it would be interesting to hear what some of your guesses may be. If you already know feel free to participate by typing in just the first initial. I will post again next week with an update. I’ll give you a hint, it will be out of the country - lol! Did I already allude to that? We will be gone within a month. In the meantime, please excuse me while I go back to breathing in my brown paper bag:-)

New Do's

2008-11-10T11:02:00.003+08:00

Hair-Do's that is. Woohoo! I did it. I was brave enough to go short, short short. I loved it when I left my hairstylist but now I'm in the "what did I do" stage. I haven't cut my hair this short in years. My hubby encouraged it and he loves it. I'm not sure I can keep the fresh out of the salon look. I don't know how to fix this hairstyle - lol! I guess I'll be experimenting alot until I find a quick and easy get up and go look. Is there such a thing? Kylie got treated to a wash and cut and she loved it. Unfortunately her bangs were cut way too short. I've been brushing those to the side and it looks cute with a little hair clip. We've had a jammed packed weekend but I only have time for this quick post. I'll try to post again during the week.

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

Halloween fun

2008-11-01T12:19:00.005+08:00

Hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween. Today was a special day because it was also hubby's birthday. Happy Birthday, honey!! We love you! Just a quick post of Kylie with her costume. Kylie wanted to wear her snow*white costume during the day and in the evening she was open to my suggestion of being a good little witch. She looked so darn cute and many neighbors asked to take pictures of her. After a while she was feeling like a movie star not that she knows what that is. Kylie was such a good girl and sweet in her demeanor. However, before going to bed, she had a total meltdown. I'm almost positive that we should not have allowed her to have a chocolate bar and skittles a 1/2 hour before her regularly scheduled bed time;-) Unfortunately, we have forfeited our parent of the year award - lol!

Kylie's 1st family portrait

2008-10-26T12:21:00.003+08:00

Recently, Kylie's artwork turned from scribbles to very carefully thought out circles and more concentrated scribbles. She would name for me what she drew and I would encouragingly (is that a word) say "oh is that what that is - I see - great job"! Then the other day she drew a picture of Bruisy our dog and darn it I can't find that piece of artwork anywhere. But it did look like a pretty good version of our dog for a 3yr old and she even drew ears on it. I actually thought Sean helped her with the shape of the head but he looked just as impressed as I did. Then her drawing progressed to people with arms sprouting from their heads. On Tuesday on a short drive to school with her Daddy, she asked for a pad and pen. Sean was so proud of her work and made sure that Kylie showed me as soon as I saw her later that day. At the tender age of 3yrs and 2 months she drew the 1st of what I'm sure will be many more to come family portraits. Notice how proportionate the scale is for Sean and I compared to herself and our dog. I am so impressed and of course had a little knot in my throat as we mark another milestone of Kylie growing up way too fast in my eyes. Do you suppose this is how Picasso started out? -- wink.

It's funny too how one of my favorite sitcoms this past Sunday had a scene in it about children's family portraits from the child's p.o.v and how embarrassing it can be at times for parents - yikes!!

Credits: Kensington QP-One memory at a time - GDS

Fairy princess

2008-10-21T11:20:00.003+08:00

We had a lovely weekend at Sea*World this past Saturday. Kylie was styling in her fairy princess outfit which she loved. And yes it was one of my bargain finds at under $5. We usually pass a DJ area with fun activities for the kids and this time Kylie got to participate in the hula hoop portion. She tried and laughed and tried some more to get that hoop to wrap around her little waist. The closest she got to hooping it up was when the hoop wrapped around her little ankles for approx. a turn in a half. Her look of surprise indicated victory in her own little head. Her smile was contagious. We met with Kylie's cousins from Tampa at Sea*World and again on Sunday at Downtown Disney.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-15T12:06:00.001+08:00

Saturday fun

2008-10-12T10:02:00.001+08:00

Today Kylie tried out in gymnastics for the 3yr old class. It would be the first time that she took a class without her mommy or daddy right at her side. She was so excited prior to getting there and once there she didn't stop smiling. She listened to the instructor intently and tried to keep up as best as she could the entire time looking over at us smiling and waving. We are so proud of her. I was beaming with pride and I couldn't take my eyes off of her at times I wiped away a tear or two. It was just tears of joy watching our little girl growing up so fast right before our eyes. She had so much fun and we hope to start her back up next month. After class, bet you can't guess where we ended up once again...this time sporting one of the bargain finds. Dress $10, hair bow made by me $3, shoes - hand me down from a friend Khatie. She loved her dress and walked around picking up her dress in her dainty way with one hand on each side lifting it as she walked by. All I can think of is that she must have gotten that idea from watching any number of princess stories. We also had the pleasure of catching up with the Zanegoods totally unplanned. Kylie was exhausted and fell asleep in her stroller which is a rare, rare thing. It was a lovely day.

Ghost*buster

2008-10-09T08:46:00.001+08:00

Today while Sean was making dinner, Kylie grabbed on to his leg and said that she was afraid of ghosts. Since we want to ensure that we raise a fearless leader we encouraged Kylie to not be afraid because ghosts are not real. I realize though that some people may disagree. But for the sake of my story there is no such thing as ghosts:-) She insisted that there were ghosts all around at that very moment and she made the decision to confront them. Our little normally dainty girl caught a ghost. She then leaned over said imaginary ghosts and began to pummel "one" to the ground with her arms extending in and out, left and right her little fists clenched tight. I watched silently probably with my mouth open as she declared victory. I knew without a doubt that she must have learned this from a little boy or girl in class today. So let this be a warning to all ghosts, you are not safe in our house:-)

Sea*World Trick or Treating fun

2008-10-06T08:23:00.010+08:00

I've been waiting with much excitement for this month because our favorite place to visit on the weekends started their trick or treating event. Every weekend Sea*World will be having a nice long section of the park dedicated with treat stations every few feet and photo ops with sea creatures and mermaids. Kylie's cousins spent the weekend with us and it was twice the fun watching the kids get so excited about the activities. I scored a huge sale on costumes which means Kylie will get to choose a different one each week if her little heart desires. Gotta love bargains! Kylie enjoys playing dress up on a regular day so imagine what fun it is for her to be able to actually go outside in them. The little luau outfit on the pics below where just put together Saturday morning. It wasn't one of the items I purchased recently. It came together as a last minute idea which drives my impatient hubby crazy because it didn't come together until right before we were heading out - lol! This is a special time of year including this month because it is hubby's birthday followed by Thanksgiving and then Christmas and it all includes spending time with family. Cheers!

Click image to enlarge

Visit from the Murphy's

2008-10-01T08:21:00.001+08:00

This past weekend we were thrilled to have the O'Murphy's from Delray spend the weekend with us. We met thru our travel group as we were using the same agency and our girls are both from Wuwei. Although we do not have the opportunity to see each other often, we have kept touch and we have so much fun whenever we do get together. We went to Uni-versal on Friday, Sea-World on Saturday and even enjoyed a little pool time and water play on Sunday. The Zanegoods joined us for dinner on Friday. We all enjoyed getting together and the girls had a blast!

Moon Festival weekend

2008-09-22T08:40:00.008+08:00

The "Geek Squat" lives in my house and I happen to be in love with him!! Woohoo, Sean had my laptop up and running the very next day even better and faster than it had been running before the whole bug incident. But I knew Sean would get me up and running in no time. He is so freakin' smart! I would love to back up my statement by sharing some of the intricancies of the bug but if I did, you guys would start yawning and you may even fall asleep and miss all of the wonderful layouts I decided to share below-lol

We had a really nice weekend. We met up with other adoptive parents at a Moon-Festival event downtown. It was really nice to see and catch up with families we've met before and some families we met for the first time. On Sunday we were invited to a princess birthday party. Although pics of little princess and pirates would have been cute, most of the kids and some of the adults spent most of their time in the pool. Ahhh have I mentioned lately how much I love living in FL? We still have a few weeks left for pool and water play for our little fish.

This week we are looking forward to Jim, Lisa and Madi spending a nice long weekend with us. We traveled together to pick up our Wuwei beauties two years ago.

In the meantime check out what's been keeping me busy this past week. I'm learning how to use certain elements like torn edges, paper curls, changing photos to black & white, sepia, etc. It's a digi thing and I'm hooked:-) Enjoy!

Laptop caught a bug

2008-09-18T10:55:00.007+08:00

I was going to create a cute layout of our wonderful weekend but I decided to surf the net one more time for that must have embellishment. Then, it finally happened...we caught a bug. Never mind that I have the N*rt*n antivirus protection on. These nasty, pesky little creeps still figure out a way to try to ruin a fun little hobby for me. Thank goodness my wonderfully, handsome hubby (yes I'm sucking up big time) is also a computer geek. I'm sure he'll get us fixed in no time. In the meantime, I've jumped on my desktop for a quick blog update and then off to bed.

Hubby and I have been trying to catch a movie at least once a month. It's a bit easier to do now with his wonderfully wide open schedule:-) Last Friday we saw the new movie "Burn-After-Reading". It was surprisingly a dark comedy and I guess I must like that sort of thing because I found myself LMAO!! We really enjoyed the humor and surprising twists and turns. Friday night we met friends at the park for a family movie night. The featured movie was "CARS" and Kylie talked about how she saw a movie with her friend Amanda the next day - too sweet! Saturday my SIL came over for sort of a day trip "a kinda we'll see how it goes type thing" and next thing I know we finally said goodbye to each other on Monday morning - lol!! I sorta had a little something to do with that. She mentioned that she would spend the night if she ended up having a cocktail or two and I made sure to give hubby the gentle nudge to bring them on. We went to our favorite stomping grounds, Sea*World and then we had a little play time in the pool. Thank goodness here in FL we can use our pool for another couple of months. Of course we also went to the park and the kids enjoyed the water play area. The kids played beautifully together and we all had a blast.

Lately Kylie has been into Princess and Pirates all on her own. She TELLS her Daddy that he MUST be the Pirate.

Family movie night at the park

Sea*World fun. Not sure what my SIL was saying. Was she singing Opera?
Water play at the park. I love this pic. And if you are wondering, what's with the hat? Sean had a fancy, shmancy chemical peel and must protect his face from the sun for a few days.

New blog look

2008-09-08T09:29:00.003+08:00

Today I spent most of the day neglecting my family while I obsessed over how to makeover the look on our blog - LOL! Luckily the instructions my friend BarbaraZ sent me who by the way is a wealth of information made it seem pretty simple. Is as if she was in the room holding my hand guiding me through step by step. Thanks Barbara! The longest time was spent trying to create the banner with the endless digi kits I've collected in the past year. I'm by no means done with the new look but it's a start. I have to figure out how to make it all fit nicely. Thanks to my hubby also for being so understanding and supportive and giving me a few hours to myself. He and Kylie ran some errands while I played today. Here is a video with Kylie singing her ABC's with what sounds like a slight accent:-)

Family Day Anniversary

2008-09-04T09:38:00.004+08:00

Today we celebrated what is commonly known in the adoption community as "gotcha day" or our "forever family day". Whatever the preference is, today marks our two year anniversary of meeting our beautiful and precious daughter who has forever changed our lives in ways we would have never imagined. Kylie fills our lives with so much joy and happiness. There is nothing we wouldn't do to ensure her safety, health and happiness. We have become stronger and better human beings because of her. We value our family more than anything and our bond grows stronger with each and every day.

Mommy and Daddy love you more than words can say baby girl!!

Gotcha/Forever Family Day 09-03-2006
Our Family 08-31-2008

Our 1st ER visit

2008-09-02T09:49:00.006+08:00

Sean and I have been together for 11+ yrs and I can honestly say that we have yet to visit the ER for any reason (knock on wood) that is until this past Sunday night. Kylie came home from a wonderful playdate and complained on the ride home that her forehead itched. Once at home she kept scratching and upon close inspection it turned out she had a minor scratch on top of a little shiner. I was not alarmed at all instead I wished that I could take away any discomfort she was feeling. Poor Bean. The next day we had a lovely time visiting one of our favorite places Sea-World and the day went on as usual. Sunday evening in the middle of a movie, Kylie asked us for juice and I was a bit concerned at how different she seemed to look to me at that moment. I asked Sean in the faintest whisper as to not upset Kylie if he noticed the same thing I did. Once he confirmed that he did, we immediately went into action contacting our after hours pediatric nurse. Kylie's profile was no longer the one that we knew of instead it was a slightly enlarged forehead area. The little indent between her nose and forehead were no longer there. The after hours nurse suggested that we take her to the ER as the first 72 hrs were critical for head injuries. Sean and I immediately went into action as if we've done this a million times before.
DVD player...check
coloring book and crayons...check
snacks...check
and so on. We pretty much planned that we'd be spending several hours in the ER. We never panicked or let Kylie think there was anything wrong. When it was time to dress her into warmer jammies, Kylie asked "where are we going mommy"? I told her we were going for a ride. She then asked "where are we going Daddy"? She received the same response. Once we arrived I expected to fill out tons of paperwork. It ended up being just one page and I was barely done signing my name when Kylie was called in for the registration, blood pressure, heart check and all that jazz. We barely waited 10 min in the waiting room when we were called in to see the Dr. We couldn't believe our luck! The whole time Kylie was happy as can be. I guess anything was better than having to go to sleep. Have I mentioned how difficult it is to get her to bed each night despite the routine? But I digress... She was never scared or seemed concerned. It's almost as if she was enjoying the attention. The Dr. said it seemed that Kylie had a Hematoma and judging by how alert and happy she was, there was no need to put her thru x-rays or cat scans. He said that the Hematoma will continue to drain down and to expect bruising or black eyes and to notify our daycare of such so that they don't call the authority on us. Yes sir! That was it. We were on our way to the hospital at 10:30pm and Kylie was finally in bed by midnight. Is that amazing or what? I'd like to think that we will not have to visit there again but if we do, we are ready. Sean and I don't work well together on home improvement projects or even picking out furniture but I was really impressed with how we each instintively seemed to know what our roles were in preparing for our first ER trip and took swift immediate action. Wink.

On a precautionary note, if your little one experiences a head injury followed by vomiting or acts lethargic, seek immediate attention. Per the Dr. the first 24 hrs are critical rather than the 72 hr window that the nurse mentioned.

My little purse camera came in handy for documenting our scary event. I'm not sure that the pics really show the swelling on her forehead, over her eyes or even above the bridge of her nose as much. But believe me, it was a cause for concern and we would not have slept thru the night without having it checked out by a professional. Thank goodness all is well - whew!

Birthday and ramblings - long post

2008-08-27T10:37:00.008+08:00

So much to do so little time!! I’m sure I’ve written before that I use this blog as my journal so the following are just ramblings and tid-bits on what’s been going-on around our household:

My external hard drive crashed and it really sucks. I guess it couldn't handle a little minor fall to the ground. I’ve spent a good portion of this past week recovering and organizing files. All is good now and much to my DH’s dismay I am now backing up my back up files and then some. Can you believe we do not have pics of Sean and me prior to our wedding? Yup that was due to data loss on his laptop caused by a leak at his work office. Somehow I’m overacting because it doesn’t seem to bother him any. So I’ll be hitting up family and friends for pics of us from 10yrs ago now that I have a better grasp of this whole digital picture, filing, backing up and scanning system thingy.

Kylie got her big girl bed a week before her 3rd birthday. She lu-uh-uvs it!
Kylie started her new class in daycare. Loves it!
Kylie is talking TONS!! Nothing within ear shot gets by her. She repeats everything and I do mean everything. Sean and I have fun trying to figure out where she got certain phrases. We often look and call out to each other “school, you or me”. A couple of months ago we were riding in the car and Sean and I were talking to each other as we usually do. Kylie yelled out to us “Be Quiet”! Sean and I just looked at each other and she said it again. This time she said it with a little southern accent “BE Quiet”!! I want quiet up in hea”. (not a typo) We tried to not laugh too hard so as not to seem like we are approving that little behavior. Sean and I knew immediately that she got that little phrase from her teacher Ms. Sharonda. Kylie often mimic’s and pretends to be Ms. Sharonda when she wants to play being the teacher. We like the teacher too as we often observe her giving Kylie big hugs and seems to be very attentive towards her as much as she can. Kylie usually runs to her and that is usually enough to tell my heart that she is going to be just fine for the day.

Kylie likes to be the leader. When we take our walks around the neighborhood or even play in our house, she wants/must be the leader. If our dog Bruiser ‘gawd forbid’ gets in front of her, she gets upset. She got to be the line leader in school for a week for being such a good listener and I think it kinda got to her head:-) She has become quite competitive. She still doesn’t like to go to sleep although she is now finally acknowledging and letting us know when she is tired. But silly us if we think it means that maybe she should take a nap. She would often get upset with me if I even hinted, suggested or asked if she was tired. Once she is in bed though, she usually sleeps thru the night. Occasionally she’ll show up to our bedroom in the middle of the night at least once or twice a week. It hasn’t really been an issue as it doesn’t happen very often. Last week we had a little Tropical Storm named Fay and I just assumed the winds were a bit noisy against her window and it may have woken her up once or twice. Heck it woke me up a few times but that doesn’t mean much as I am a very light sleeper.

Our girl is quite sassy but very reserved outside of our presence. I would describe her as the little Warner-Bros frog (still trying to find a clip of it). Very shy and gentle around others but quiet Sassy in the comfort of her home. I believe the word the Chinese officials used to describe her was “obstinate”. I can’t imagine why…sarcastic grin:-) Not to be misinterpreted as if I’m complaining. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we wouldn’t have it any other way. We are so thrilled that she is able to communicate and convey such a wave of emotions. After all, that is what makes us all the uniquely wonderful human beings that we are.

Now for some tidbits on the birthday party: The day started of partly cloudy but still fair enough to be able to enjoy the park and splash area. After hanging the balloons, bringing out a few chips here and there, we all went to the splash area for the kids to enjoy. Pizza arrived and within minutes it started to rain. No sooner had we gathered around the pavilion when the skies opened up and a monsoon came over us. Everyone held on to their kids and each other for dear life. Tropical bursts of wind gusts with rain made it difficult to see a few feet in front of us. I called out to whoever was listening that we are taking the event to our house. Luckily we are just minutes in fact we live right outside of the park area. Everyone scattered and the women and children headed towards their cars first. The wonderful men in the group came back after settling their families in their cars to help pack up despite face pelting rain. Our friend Joe grabbed the pizzas and cake, and the men help take balloons (which meant the world to Kylie) and whatever they could to help Sean get the stuff back into the car. I remember seeing mini marshmallows, chips and stuff splattered all over the ground. I’ll never forget my sweet baby whining “my birthday, my birthday, my birthday” as we tried to make our way back to towards the car. It made my heart sink. We reassured her that her friends were coming to her house to sing happy birthday. In her sweet little sad voice she said what she always says to us “okay”. Back at the house we dumped clothes and towels into the dryer, everyone settled into a spot with their families, enjoyed pizza, beverages and beer. We sang the Birthday song, served up some cupcakes, Sean poured Lauren and I an 'appletini' and all was right with the world. Everyone was such troopers and helped make Kylie’s 3rd birthday special. Despite the minor storm, we had a memorable celebration and we have the best friends 'evah'.

Kylie's 3rd Birthday Celebration

2008-08-18T09:36:00.003+08:00

Thank you to all of our family and friends who sent Kylie birthday wishes and those who were able to join us in making Kylie's birthday celebration a special day. We are humbled at the outpourring of love and support from each of you. Listening to Kylie tell us her version of her birthday party is absolutely priceless. I will post more pics and details during the week. Had a busy weekend and I gotta get to bed soon. Enjoy the layout.

Fun with family & friends

2008-08-08T20:52:00.003+08:00

On Saturday we went to New Smyrna to visit with family. Sean was having such a great time he decided to spend the night. Since we have a little doggie at home, Kylie and I came back to look after him and it turned into a lovely girls night at home. On Sunday we had the pleasure of having Ellie over for the day. Kylie LOVES hanging out with Ellie so we had a wonderful day together. Once daddy got home early in the morning the activities started. The girls played in the bounce house, went swimming and baked cupcakes with Sean. After the girls had their nap time we went to our favorite hang out Sea*World. We love that place! The hospitality suite is a nice bonus for us grown ups to take a little break while the girls enjoy feeding the ducks. This past Wednesday we also had the pleasure of looking after Natalie while her parents went on a much deserved date night. After a long day, bounce house and swimming the girls were still bouncing off the walls! I cannot believe that I forgot to take pics of our wonderful evening.

All in all it was a busy week and the following week will be even busier. We are preparing for Kylie's birthday party next Saturday. Our baby girl is turning 3 and growing up way too fast (sniff, sniff).

Pics and things

2008-07-31T06:22:00.009+08:00

Is it really the end of July? Every month seems to be flying by. I know I'm always saying the same thing but that is exactly what it feels like.

I'd like to say a quick congratulations to Don and Be who are finally home with their beautiful china doll. We look forward to meeting Joanna Mei very soon. By the looks of it you guys are already giving her the tour around town.

Congrats to Tammy for jumping in the Sean band wagon to spend time with family. It has been and continues to be an awesome experience for us. I know it won't be long before Caris becomes the world traveler with all of the traveling you guys do already. I hope that means you will frequent FL more often:-) We will definitely come meet you and will probably wear out our welcome mat at the Bonita Springs Estate, lol!

Barb - I am so thrilled to hear that you continue to follow our journey. The girls are growing up so fast. I loved seeing the reunion pics and Emily is beautiful! I use the Foto Fusion software as it is by far the easiest program to use for the simple layouts. It does not require a learning curve. I'll send you the link soon. Thanks for posting to let me know you are checking in:-)

Now for some pics:

I love this pic of Kylie with her Daddy. She adores him and so do I:-)

Our big girl!

Future blogger:-) Kylie has now successfully learned how to navigate the right handed mouse although she is left handed. We may eventually purchase a left handed mouse.

**Can one of you bloggers out there help me figure out how to enter double spaces in between paragraphs? I've tried several options and nothing seems to work. Thanks!**

Weekend outings

2008-07-23T12:07:00.005+08:00

Wow, I didn’t mean to wait so long before my next post. We have been incredibly busy enjoying quality time with our family and friends. We are having a fantastic summer and we don’t want it to end.

Last weekend we attended Lily Keefer’s 3 yr old birthday party. Geez Krista can you believe you are the mom to a 3yr old?!?! The theme was Strawberry Shortcake and the decorations were oozing SS all over. It was beautiful and Ms. Shortcake herself made an appearance. Kylie had a blast and kept inviting SS to her house. It turns out Kylie wants everyone to come to her house now. It’s her new thing. The party was all beautifully planned and executed. Great job Dave & Krista! It was also my niece’s 4th birthday. She lives in Tampa and we were sorry to have to miss it. Happy Birthday Ani! We love you!!

This past weekend, Kylie got to enjoy Saturday afternoon with Jeanne and Ellie for lunch then the Orlando Art Museum for a little culture and story time. Sean and I enjoyed a nice quiet lunch and we were able to breeze thru some errands. What a huge difference when you don’t have to strap in a sassy 3yr old each time. Then around 5pm Kylie came home and in turn we got to watch Ellie and Sagan so that their parents can enjoy a nice relaxing dinner. Sean of course cooked up a delicious meal which the girls ate every bit followed by an ice cream treat with their choice of sprinkles. Sunday we met the Zanegoods at Aqua-tica in the morning and then we met the Keefer’s at Ep*cot in the afternoon. My new “extra” day off a week, Sean and I try to catch a movie.

Kylie’s favorite things to say:
“That’s my favit” (favorite)
“What’s that? what’s that? what’s that???”
“I need to” We’ll ask why did you do that and she’ll say “I need to”
“You come to my house”
“I no wanna nap”
“I no wanna rest”
“I no wanna sleep”
“I no wanna quiet time”

And she shrugs her shoulders…a lot. Very entertaining our little one…she knows way too much. Also, not that there was ever any doubt but we do not need to get her hearing checked. She can hear us just fine…trust me. She hears Sean and I whispering to each other or she must have somewhere along the way learned to read lips. She has mastered the art of selective listening. Oh and we can no longer say things to people in front of her, about her. She completely understands EVERYTHING we say and it has come back to haunt me. My little girl is growing up way too fast…

Sean is enjoying being a stay at home dad for the summer. I believe that the one on one attention Kylie is getting from her Daddy have both helped develop her vocabulary and it has spoiled her rotten! Kylie enjoys her cooking lessons with her Daddy and I do believe she can crack an egg better than I can – lol! DH on the other hand enjoys adult conversation now more than ever! Ha, ha! He is a loving and wonderfully attentive father. There are a few and “interesting” employment opportunities presenting themselves but we are not ready to give up our summer vacation just yet…or are we…?? Stay tuned.

Going to bed now. It's late, I'm tired and blogger is not cooperating with me tonight. I'll post more pics later.

Holiday weekend

2008-07-10T11:10:00.005+08:00

We had a fun filled holiday weekend. My SIL & family spent the 4th with us.

We went to Sea W*rld in the morning where Kylie and her cousin Ani had lots of fun. After nap time the girls showed off their swimming skills in the pool. The girls had a great time and played well together. Saturday morning we met up with family and friends for a little fun in the sun and water play for the kids. Judging by this pic I think Kylie had a nice time:-)

Saturday night Sean, Kylie and I went back to Sea W*rld in the evening. It was great to see the shows in the evening. After one of the shows we came across loud funky music and "mermaids & mermen" in an area usually dedicated to pearl diving. We were delighted in Kylie's excitement in interacting with the swimmers and dancing to the beat of the music. It is tough to tell from these pictures I placed into a collage but I thought I post them to give an idea of what it looked like. I took lots of video and they all turned out pretty dark and blurry - ugh!Sunday is such a blur. We are enjoying our summer and Kylie & I love having her Daddy around. It feels like summer is flying by way to fast. Kylie will be 3yrs old next month and I still can't believe how fast time is going by.

Playing the violin

2008-07-08T03:26:00.003+08:00

Kylie joined her friend Ellie for Violin lessons last week. Kylie seemed to really enjoy it so she is getting the opportunity to join Ellie again today. Here is a little video our friend Jeanne took of the girls practicing some notes. Enjoy!

2008-07-01T09:32:00.002+08:00

Two years ago this month we received the most exciting news from China. We had been blessed with the most beautiful baby girl. I recall asking our case worker "is this the call" and she said "yes". She went on to give me the details as I nervously wrote down every word. That is until she got to the part of were Kylie was from. "She is from Gansu"....Me - Gan what? Where is that?? I was prepared for her to be from any other part of China, I had done my homework. But no blog or no one ever mentioned Gansu. Little did we know how fortunate we would be to visit a part of China that most people will never get a chance to see. It was an incredible place full of beautiful tall mountains on the border line of Mongolia. The tall mountains where in the colors and shades of teracotta and rust. This was no Beijing. Looking back this place was no Guangzhou. It was different and it was our daughter's home. What an incredible experience. Fast forward two years and no matter how many times people told us having a child would change our lives forever, you have no idea exactly what that means until you go through it. Sean and I looked at Kylie's picture together for the first time and tears of joy ran down my face. I still get very emotional when I look at Kylie's referral pic. Sean and I could not have planned nor prepared for the most beautiful, smart, happy, well behaved and sassy girl. We love you Kylie and you fill our lives with so much pride and joy.

I LOVE your smile!

2008-06-25T10:56:00.003+08:00

Father's Day/Birthday weekend

2008-06-17T11:23:00.007+08:00

We had a wonderful father’s day weekend filled with lots of fun activities. Our weekend started on Friday as we headed towards the beach in Clearwater. We had a nice relaxing time and took lots of pics of Kylie enjoying the sand and water. We then headed over to Tampa where we spent the night at my brother & sister in law's house. Kylie played with her cousins Ani & Keane. The next morning as we were preparing to head back home to a birthday party, I asked my SIL if Ani my niece could join us for the fun filled weekend we had planned for Kylie. Not that we would have minded having Keane too, but it would have been to traumatic for him to leave his mommy. To my surprise and delight she said yes. Ani & Kylie played so well together and had such a blast. They played at the park, water play area and jumped around in a bounce house. There were lots of giggles as the girls enjoyed tons of food, sno-cones, friends and of course cake! There was a caricature artist and we had Kylie’s first caricature drawing done.

Finally we celebrated my birthday on Monday. I’m officially 40 something;-) Sean cooked us a scrumptious filet mignon dinner and then we had the yummiest chocolate cake for dessert. Sean had every little detail figured out and it was a wonderful birthday. If I had to sum up what the favorite part of my birthday was besides my wonderful husband going out of his way to make it a special day? It is the beautiful clip of my baby girl willingly wanting to perform her version of the birthday song on camera for her mommy. It just could not get any better than this. Enjoy!

Kylie, Ani & Ellie

Kylie's caricature drawing

Pool fun

Digi layouts

2008-06-12T10:58:00.003+08:00

I'm really enjoying learning about this digi scrapping stuff. It helps to have such a beautiful subject to work with:-)

credits: Paper by Digitreats, elements tbd, font Scriptiva

Credits: Paper by Digitreats

A magical moment...

2008-06-11T10:54:00.005+08:00

Imagine our surprise when we were able to see the princessess by just waiting in line for approx 10 min. This on the day when I chose to leave my good camera home because I didn't feel like carrying "the bulky one". Kylie was thrilled to meet some of her favorite characters. I snapped away with my little camera that could and here are the unedited pics. Enjoy!

Vacation pics

2008-06-02T10:16:00.003+08:00

I'm happy to say we've been pretty busy. I wanted to make sure I posted more pics from our vacation because we had an awesome time and we can't wait to do it again. We've been enjoying quality time together visiting with whales, dolphins, rats and princeses. Kylie is enjoying spending lots of time with her Daddy. Just this evening she asked to dance with her Prince and I asked oh you want to dance with the "Prince"? She corrected me matter of factly and said no mommy "my Daddy is the Prince"...duh silly mommy. Anyway, it was precious. Sean of course was happy to dance with Kylie the princess herself was all dressed up for the ball. Kylie is talking tons and sometimes she speaks so fast we can't figure out what she just said as she tends to omit some words every now and then. She scolded Daddy today and it took us sometime to figure out why after their pretend snack. It turns out Daddy was supposed to excuse himself from the table. So you see, we have been quite busy enjoying quality time with our little one who has so much energy and keeps us on our toes. Enjoy the pics

I didn't want to end this post on a sad note but I think it is worth noting. This past Wednesday the three of us spent the evening at a Memorial service for a co-worker's daughter. She was 25yrs old and died tragically in a car accident Sunday evening. My heart aches at the unimaginable thought of anyone having to bury their child.

Rest & Relaxation

2008-05-21T06:15:00.004+08:00

Enjoying family time at the panhandle. Kylie is having a blast with her cousins. Enjoy the pics!

It's ALL about Family...

2008-05-09T11:03:00.016+08:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies and mommies to be!

Daddy is home, Daddy is home!!! Kylie kept asking where is Daddy? The answer was always the same, "Daddy is working, honey". Then one day Kylie stopped asking and started matter of factly stating daily that her Daddy was working. This made us quite sad as that is not how we had envisioned our life to be once Kylie was home. Once it was made clear to Sean by his employer that this was the expectation, Sean and I had a heart to heart conversation and decided to no longer stay with his employer. Not another week nor even another day. It just seemed pointless to continue when it was expected and not appreciated. It is a decision that we did not want to have to make but one we felt was important for the sake of our family. We realize that not everyone has an opportunity to make those types of decisions and it was not an easy one for us either but one that we felt strongly about. HOLY MOLY - we are thrilled beyond belief and have not looked back! Both Kylie and I are enjoying having Daddy all to ourselves. For those of you who know Sean he is the most amazing, unselfish, giving, hard working, loving and funny guy. Projects are being accomplished around the house, and long neglected home improvements are now in full swing. I come home to yummy dinners and the BEST part is Kylie has been spending loving quality time with her Daddy. Sean picks up Kylie from daycare, they go to Sea W*rld, Mag*c Kingd*m and Aqua-tica together. I love to hear Kylie's excitement when I get home from work and she tries to explain what fun things she and her Daddy did together. We are enjoying and actually planning weekend outings together. Additionally, I am now working 4 days on and 3 days off and we have a wonderful beach vacation planned. Oooohhh life is good. We are very thankful to have a loving supportive family and caring friends. I especially want to thank my friends Robin and Jeanne for immediately going into action on ways to help us and always checking up on us. Your encouragement and support mean the world to me. We are very hopeful that the next career opportunity for Sean will value the work/life balance because we will not have it any other way. Life is too short to not focus on the stuff that is REALLY important to us. Starting a family did not come easy for us and we could not have asked for a more perfect daughter. We plan to enrich, cherish and nurture our daughter's life in every way that we can and that includes being there for her and loving her unconditionally. She fills our lives with so much love and happiness. She is growing up so fast right before our eyes and we are just in awe of her. Feel free to raise your glass with me and as my father in law always says "here is to family...everything else is bullshit". You gotta love it:-)

Fun with Daddy

Helping Daddy make breakfast

Preparing to jump
Kylie loves this and insists that daddy lifts her up as she giggles with such delight and I watch with panic hoping that her little shoulders don't come out of their little sockets:-)

If you wish upon a star...

Kylie giving her Dad instructions on where to go next

I love this pic! It looks like a portrait. It was taken at Disn*y's Fort Wild*rness while we waited for the bus shuttle

Lately, Kylie has been enjoying pretending to be the mommy. Too cute!

We have babies!! We wondered no more why the Ducks where enjoying hanging out by our pool so much. There was a lovely little nest behind one of the rocks by the pool. Bruiser was banned from going out in our back yard for a few weeks.

This was the ducklings 1st swimming lesson and they could not figure out how to get out of the water. After what felt like hours, Sean decided to build this little ramp for them. It felt like it took hours for them to figure out that they can finally get out of the water this way. Too stinking adorable!

Sean thought I was nuts for taking a picture of my new faucet to post but if you've seen my old faucet you'd be doing a happy dance for me.
Kylie inspecting Daddy's handy work

We rarely have pictures together (I plan to work on that). I finally asked someone to snap a picture of us and this is the result. Kylie was almost cut off and clearly focused on the ride and what creature was creaping out of the water next.

Play dates

2008-04-29T09:52:00.006+08:00

BFF's - Natalie & Kylie

Fun in the sun - BFF's, Ellie, Kylie & Lily

Ellie, Kylie & Sagan

Happy Anniversary!

2008-04-13T11:32:00.003+08:00

HAPPY 8TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY, HONEY!! I LOVE YOU!!

Wuwei Princesses - Bonita Springs

2008-04-10T11:22:00.002+08:00

We had a FABULOUS weekend!! It started with a 3hr drive to Bonita Springs to meet two of Kylie's buddies from Wuwei. Kylie did great on the car ride. She actually napped for part of it. She was very excited about going to see Caris and Madi. The Welsh's were on a mini vacation from chilly Maine and the Murphy's had a 3hr drive from sunny Del Ray. It was a wonderful little reunion and the girls had a blast. Thanks to Tammy's parents for opening up their lovely home and allowing us to spend the night. The accommodations were first class. Seriously, their house is gorgeous! Our reunion started with the girls exchanging gifts, we had lunch, hung out by the pool and then had an awesome dinner. We then chatted some more over a few drinks, while the girls settled down with a little TV time and then they were quite tired. After a good nights rest, we reconvened over a huge, yummy breakfast. We snapped a few more photos and had to get back on the road so that my hubby can get back to work that afternoon. It was an awesome weekend and one that was made possible thanks to the wonderful journey of our adoption process. We would not have met these wonderful families otherwise.

How not to wear goggles...

Happy April!

2008-04-02T09:33:00.002+08:00

Geeez, it's April already?!?!

We had a lovely weekend. We went to Kylie's second movie this past Friday. Unlike her first experience in a movie theater, this time we didn't have to leave 20 min before the movie ended. Woohoo! We saw Hort*n Hears a Wh*. It was adorable and Kylie seemed to really enjoy it along with her popcorn.

On Saturday we had little visitors stop by our pool. A pair of ducks to be exact. Kylie and I were pretty excited and Bruiser was barking up a storm. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pics. Sean then reminded me that it was all fun now but wait until they make our pool their home and dirty all over our patio. Always the voice of reason that hubby of mine. Well I ended up spending part of the morning scaring them away because they kept coming back. Eeek!

Later on Saturday we ended up going to Sea W*rld. I love it when we have no specific plans and we can be spontaneous on what we want to do for the day. We watched a show and then our water girl played in the splash area. We had a really nice time.

On Sunday, we started the morning off with bagels at our favorite shop and then off to the new water park Aqua*tica. We decided that annual passes were in order so we took the plunge. I LOVE living in FL! So much to do and wonderful weather all year round. Kylie is enjoying every minute of it and we enjoy every minute with her.

I love you baby girl!!!

This month will be very busy for both Sean and I. I'm looking forward to one weekend of lounging around by the pool and doing absolutely nothing, maybe next month:-)

March Desktop

2008-03-31T10:08:00.001+08:00

Happy Easter

2008-03-25T11:31:00.003+08:00

Happy Easter!

2008-03-24T10:31:00.002+08:00

Weekend activities

2008-03-17T10:41:00.016+08:00

I'm usually several weeks behind on posting our weekend adventures. Instead of trying to catch up, I've decided to post current events and eventually I'll post previous pic on digi layouts. (At least for this weekend, anyway). Our weekend started off on Friday with an outing to the new water park Aqua*tica. It was a bit cool but Kylie loved it and we loved her giggles. Aqua*tica's sandy area. Kylie was enjoying the feel of the sand running thru her fingers.

Sweet smile.

On Saturday I had the pleasure of babysitting our little friend Natalie. I took the girls to the new water play area nearby and the girls had a blast. We were joined by Kylie's other friends Kyla & Shea and their parents. After the water play, we came back to our house and the girls played non-stop from everything to dress up, to taking everything out of Kylie's closet and placing it on the floor, chasing each other and screaming to pretend cooking and the slide/climber in the patio. Somehow I was the one exhausted by the end of the evening.

Sunday started off with a day at one of our theme parks. Here's Kylie relaxing by a shady area enjoying her favorite...popcorn. Does she look relaxed & comfy or what? :-)

Lovely little ham
After the theme park, Kylie was still wired with no nap so we made another trip to the water play area which she absolutely loved.

Sean captured Kylie's beautiful little footprints

Oh yeah, after dinner this past Friday, Kylie and Mommy got a new toy. It's a jogging stroller so that I can get ready for bikini weather which is fast approaching. Wish me luck!

This next pic was inspired by my bloggie friend Colleen. I couldn't pass by this place and not think of you. I smile everytime you write so fondly of this place. Enjoy!

Digital Scrapbooking pages

2008-03-04T11:23:00.011+08:00

As I've mentioned in one of my earlier posts, my latest obsession is digital scrapbooking. I have tons of photos that keep accumulating and not enough time nor the desire to pull out the store currently located in the guest bedroom closet. I still enjoy paper crafting but not the mess, hence the digital fix. I am sooooo excited to finally be able to showcase some of my creations although it has taken me forever to figure it all out specifically the software, layering etc. Ahem (clearing my throat)...I'd like to thank my daughter for her beauty and inspiration, my husband for answering all of my repetitive annoying questions without complaint and then letting me tune out for hours on end, and finally the wonderful designers who share their talent and ideas, you've made a fan out of me.

Please feel free to offer constructive criticism...I often don't notice the harsh shadows or errors that I read about in the forums. I also need to work on my journaling big time. If I post these on the blog or any public forum, I have to credit the designers and deservingly so as they put alot of time and hard work into it. Please remember I'm a newbie so be gentle. Here are my favs so far:

Digitreats one of my fav designers among a few so far. I got this layout idea from Pamela who is also generously creating the kits. I love her designs, layout ideas and templates.

Maria Stones - Girly Girl kit - I loved Maria's layout so much that I tried to duplicate it inserting my own kid's pic of course.

Shappy Princess - Festival kit - My own layout! Go me - hee, hee!

Quick Page by CFrank - Living Doll Designs

Quick Page by Kristin Cronin-Barrow - Sweet Shoppe Designs. This is a set of quick pages she made for her daughter's birthday and I think they are beautiful! I'm not sure where I got the #2 & font but as soon as I do, I will add the credits.

I was playing around with the software and came up with this great layout. Not sure why I have the watermarks. I'm hoping someone from the FF group can chime in. I used the default dpi and I thought I was using freebie paper...maybe not?

Thanks for looking!

Mind your manners...

2008-02-26T23:33:00.008+08:00

Like most parents we know, Sean and I pride ourselves in continuing to teach Kylie about manners. She started saying her "please" and "thank you" as soon as she started to talk. We kindly had to remind her every now and then but it soon became second nature and Sean and I would just glance at each other with great delight and satisfaction when Kylie would mind her manners without being prompted. Kylie to this day will pick up her bowl and slurp her milk or soup which doesn't seem to bother me as much as it does her Daddy. She still tests the limits every now and then when she tries to put her foot up on the dining table and giggles although she knows we are not pleased. Well, I should not have been surprised yesterday when a co-worker informed me that Kylie had frosting on her hair from eating a cup cake in honor of said co-workers son's birthday in school. Huh? She then went on to tell me that Kylie had the spoon in one hand and then dived in face first to eat her cupcake! I laughed out loud at the vision in my head and then I just about fell off my chair when I received pictures via e-mail of our pumpkin's face planted on her cupcake! This one will be another one of those priceless pics in my library of photos. It just goes to show that no matter how much we try to instill good traits in our kids, they will do their own thing as soon as they are out of our sight...sigh.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2008-02-14T04:01:00.002+08:00

The year of the Rat!

We got together to celebrate the event at our favorite Japanese restaurant, Nagoya Sushi. The servers are wonderful and the food is fantastic! I forgot to take a pic with Kylie and my favorite server Vivian. We are regulars there so I'll make sure to follow up with a pic:-) The girls looked great and played wonderfully together. I love looking back at this pics. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. I love seeing their happy faces.

House o' mouse

2008-02-04T10:46:00.000+08:00

Kylie continues to impress us with her vocabulary each day. Just the other day we heard her tell her teddy as she was getting into the tub for her bath "teddy, watch me take a bath". Yep, 5 whole words together. Lately when Sean or I call her pumpkin she corrects us by telling us her full name. She is starting to count to 20 although the teens get a little mixed up. Too darn cute!! But if you are not a regular visitor with Kylie, don't expect her to communicate with you any time soon. She will often stare blankly so as not to make eye contact and she will not say a word. That is just fine with me because at some point I will be preaching to her to not talk to strangers so why pressure her now? Kylie is also refusing to nap on the weekends. I know that in daycare they can get her to nap even if it is for an hour but refusing naps already? She is only 2 1/2 aren't kiddos supposed to take naps until they are at least 5 yrs old? Also, although we have an evening routine, she is also not wanting to go to bed by 8pm. So needless to say, things have been quite interesting around here with our little 'spicy' girl and this mommy tends to be tired...alot. Our little girl is expressing herself vocally, pushing the envelope towards independence and we wouldn't have it any other way. We LOVE our sassy girl who can also be a little dainty princess.

And now the reason for the post title. We went to the house o' mouse today and I keep wondering if this place ever has a 'non-peak' season. We had a wonderful day and both Sean and I enjoyed the precious smiles and animated personality that come to life when Kylie is having a blast. I was particularly excited that Kylie enjoyed a hug from Minnie and even better, Kylie flashed us a cheese smile to our delight. Usually Kylie will mimmick her friend Ellie when hugging one of these characters but today she was on her own and boldly venturing out. We were all too happy to snap away hoping for that one fantastic photo. Too bad the sun was in her face as you will see. We finally redeemed our season passes today so we will try and try again for that great shot! Enjoy the pics!

Kylie's favorite thing to do whether we are at a theme park, zoo or grocery store! Up Daddy, shoulder!

Train ride!

Check out the piggies in the wind

According to Kylie all castles, whether they are in fairy tale books, movies, the fancy Morm*n temple not too far from our home or even the castles she builds with her blocks, they are all Cinderella's castle:-)

Waiting not so patiently to visit Minnie!

Isn't this Minnie wonderful? Is as if she had been waiting for Kylie all day:-)

A little dance

The sunny shot!

CHEESE!!

OMG! Did she really fall asleep in the car!?!?! Our sweet angel.

Our favortie pic!

2008-01-27T10:38:00.001+08:00

How does anyone pic a favorite pic out of hundreds...dare I even say...possibly even thousands of photos of their children? It's not easy for me! This one in particular warms my heart and it so happens it was taken this morning after breakfast. It was a cloudy day but as you can see there are no cloudy days with all of the sunshine radiating from our little princess. I hope she brings a smile to your face and your world as she does ours.

Enjoy the pure cuteness!

2008-01-10T13:07:00.001+08:00

We had a great holiday with Kylie. Sean and I were really excited to plan ways to surprise Kylie on Christmas morning. It is especially exciting to see things through her eyes and we get caught up in her excitement. It seems like she totally gets the story we were telling her, too! She repeated it back to us like this "Santa?? Chimineee (Chimney)?? Stocking?? Presents! (with a satisfied smile on her face). Tree?? Presents! (another satisfied smile). Chimineee?? I am not embelleshing. She repeated those same words to me one evening while going through our nite, nite routine. Our two year old totally got it! We are amazed by just how much she understands. We are starting to curb our conversations in front of her because she repeats everything back to us. This has got to be the perfect age for toddlers. Kylie is such a joy to be with and she keeps us smiling constantly. She is now transitioning into the 2 1/2 year old classroom at school. Next thing you know, we will be celebrating her 3rd birthday in August. I'm not ready for her to keep growing up so fast...sigh.

Christmas morning

2008-01-10T12:18:00.001+08:00

Christmas Eve in Tampa

2008-01-10T11:20:00.001+08:00

2007-12-24T14:25:00.000+08:00

SN - QP Christmas 1

From our family to yours. Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday!

Catch up

2007-12-11T10:56:00.000+08:00

I'm not ready for Christmas, really. I started decorating late, I started shopping late and well now there are just three, no make that two more weekends left until Christmas. Don't get me wrong I'm very excited about the holidays. Kylie is much more animated and expressive and we are looking forward to watching her open presents. She enjoys the lights, music and holiday decorations. When I hung up the garland over the fireplace and plugged it in she got so excited and said thank you mommy 3x in a row. I just stared at her in wonder and of course it made my heart melt. She brings so much love and joy into our lives. I guess time really does fly when you are having fun:-)

Well alot has happened since my last post. I've posted pictures with blurbs to fill in the gaps. I am however happy to announce that there have been no poopy incidents since the last post:-) She used to wonder off to do her business and after alot of conversation from her Daddy and I that she should not poop in her princ*ess and D*ra panties because we would have to throw them away, she finally got it. Yes licensing works and we've given in to it. Kylie loves her big girl panties and we always let her pick out her own each day. In the past several months she's only had one pee accident in school and it happened right after nap time. She is one of only two kids in her class who have mastered the potty training. Sorry if this is too much info on the potty process I often enjoy reading what works and what doesn't when I come across it on other blogs:-) I would say from start to finish it took Kylie less than three months to successfully use the potty. Whew!

Here is how we've been keeping busy

Baking cookies with Grandma

A nice cup of milk and a kiss & hug from Dad to go with the cookies

I had the pleasure of watching Natalie one Saturday and the girls had a blast together

My SIL came to visit with the family. We were all quite impressed at how Sean can turn a simple soup and salad lunch into a gourmet meal. Yep, I'm a lucky lady as my husband enjoys preparing meals for us pretty often. Thank you honey!

Soup, chicken sandwich with mixed greens, avocado, brie cheese and chips - Doesn't it look Yummy?

We are enjoying the new long awaited state of the art park that just opened up walking distance from our sub-division. The pictures do not do it justice. It has 2 volleyball fields, soccer, baseball, and a basketball court to name a few, a huge water play area for the kids, doggie parks 1 for large dogs and one for smaller dogs, ampitheather, picnic areas, and an awesome playground all of it over looking a gorgeous lake. We load up the red wagon for Kylie and take a nice leasurely stroll to the park. I am soooo excited and so is Kylie. I have pics of Kylie having a total melt down as we were leaving the park the first time we visited. Feel free to come over and visit with your little ones, you will not be dissappointed.

I'm not sure what this thing is called, but Kylie had to hold on tight as it spins her around based on her balancing on it. What you don't see is a nervous Dad just an arms length away reaching out as Kylie was trying to find her balance on it:-)

We went to Downt*own Disn*ey with the Zanegoods for our first picture with Santa... Thank goodness Ellie was there or else I don't think Kylie would have even been bothered with sitting on Santa's lap. Ellie is quite experienced with Santa but look at Kylie's face...can you just feel the love?
"It's not you Santa, it's just me"

Speaking of Ellie...the Zanegoods are expecting their beautiful Korean delivery this Friday and I couldn't be happier for them. We are all awaiting to see Sagan's beautiful sweet face in person.

Journey to Kylie

Movie Night

We are paperwork pregnant!!

Happy Valentines Day!

My favorite people

Chopstick skills

Happy Chinese New Year!

Pumpkin Patch

Princess Play Dates

First Day of Kindergarten

A Very Happy Birthday

Another year gone by...

Holiday weekend

Racial Harmony Day

"I'm not tired..."

4th of July Weekend

July...already?

Bali - Day 2

Bali - Day 2

Bali - Day 1

Singapore Botanical Garden

Sleeping*Beauty

Singapore Tour

Singapore Zoo

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy May

Hong Kong Day 3

Construction update - Revised link

Hong Kong Day 2

Hong Kong - Day 1

View from our new Site office

Welcome to the world Johnathan!

St. Patty's

Swim*lessons

Sentosa*Beach

Happy Chinese*New*Year

Corporate*partay!!

Sky Tour

Welcome to *IKEA*

Simple pleasures

CNY Preparations

Photos

Our condo

Happy New Year!!!

We made it!

Travel itinerary - Just a few hours to go...

Eight days until Singapore!!

Let the count down begin...

It's official!!

Let's play a guessing game...

New Do's

Halloween fun

Kylie's 1st family portrait

Fairy princess

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday fun

Ghost*buster

Sea*World Trick or Treating fun

Visit from the Murphy's

Moon Festival weekend

Laptop caught a bug

New blog look

Family Day Anniversary

Our 1st ER visit

Birthday and ramblings - long post

Kylie's 3rd Birthday Celebration

Fun with family & friends

Pics and things

Weekend outings

Holiday weekend

Playing the violin

I LOVE your smile!

Father's Day/Birthday weekend

Digi layouts

A magical moment...

Vacation pics

Rest & Relaxation

It's ALL about Family...

Play dates

Happy Anniversary!

Happy ChineseNewYear

Welcome to IKEA