Chenzhou Bithday / Christmas Cards

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LilyRose's Page



Paul's Page



Lainie's Page

Makayla's Page

MeiLi's Page

Jayde's Page

YuMei's Page

LilyRose received some birthday cards from other children that were in the same SWI around the same time as she was. We will hopefully exchange birthday and Christmas cards every year so that she has that connection to her very first home. I decided to make a scrapbook so that she could look at the cards and pictures of her Chenzhou sisters and brother. I think it came out pretty good. There's 10 families including LilyRose. I am missing 3 cards and hope to receive them someday soon. Here are the pictures of the book. Let me know what you think about the job I did. Some of the pictures are blurry, sorry about that.

BBQ

We were invited to a BBQ at Vicky and Chris' house. They are the very proud parents of Emily. Emily is from Hunan just like LilyRose. I met them through the local FCC-LI group. I instantly connected with Vicky. We are alot alike and our daughters share a striking resemblance to each other. Everyone that see them notices it. No, that are not twins or anything, but they sure do resemble each other.

Well anyway, they came to LilyRose's b'day party and my husband Anthony and Vicky's husband Chris hit it off and they invited us out for the day. They actually live down the road from my cousins farm out east. We had a really good time and Joseph got to go in the pool. It was heated and like 85 degrees. He had a good time. Emily loved playing with Joseph and I think LilyRose kinda was like "Hey, that's my big brother". LilyRose does not know how to share that well yet!!!

It was a very nice day and we hope to get together a lot more in the future. Enjoy the pics and check out the cute little video of LilyRose and Emily dancing.

Party # 2

Wouldn't you know it. I am way behind again on posting. We had a 2nd party for LilyRose on September 9th for all her little friends and cousins. It turned out really nice. I had the big bouncy pit again for the older kids, but the little ones had a blast in it. I had Elmo stop by, but most of the kids were afraid. We had 3 little girls from the FCC-LI group here and how cute they all were. Nola Ann, Emily & Maya. Just love these little ones. LilyRose was so tired that right after we sang Happy Birthday, she fell fast asleep in the chair. It was really cute. I was super happy that my cousins Janeen & Kristi were able to come. They are on my fathers side of the family and I am so glad that we are able to maintain our connection since my father died 4 years ago. Our kids get along really well and they have a blast together. My other cousins were here also. Gina is a permanent fixture here. lol My cousin Gerard and his wife Elizabeth with their daughter Courtney who is absolutely gorgeous by the way were here, my cousin Michael and his wife Danielle along with their son Tyler (hey Ty, give me a pound) Cousins Siri, Kristi & Mark. Thanks for coming. But a big shout out goes to my very dear friend Liz. I have known Liz for almost 30 years. She was here with her daughter Valerie. Valerie is 2 months younger then LilyRose and I hope they will be able to say they know each other for 30+ years someday. I just love Liz. LilyRose had an awesome time and she has lots of family and friends that love her to pieces. Enjoy the pic.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILYROSE

Today our beautiful daughter LilyRose turns 2 years old.

I am so very thankful that we have her home and are able to celebrate this day with her. We will be home 7 months on the 16th of this month. WOW, time sure flies when you are having the time of your life.

LilyRose had her very first birthday party on Saturday night. I had just a few of the family over to help celebrate her birthday. I am having another party on September 9th for her little friends and my cousins that have children LilyRose's age. I have to say that I am glad I only had a few people here Saturday night as I was still so sick. I don't know what I had but it sure knocked me on my ass for 4 days. I got out of bed at 5:30pm and my company came at 6:00pm. Thank God for my mother and cousin Gina. They did most of the prep work for me and my mother even had to go and order the cake and stuff for me. I was in bad shape. I am feeling a lot better then I did a few days ago.

LilyRose had a really good time though. She got some great gifts too. My mother bought her a beautiful white table and chair set. LilyRose loves it. Her brother Joseph bought her a Yellow Care Bear and a Princess Tea Set which LilyRose loves playing with on her new table and chair set. Joseph also bought her the tiara that you will see in the pictures. Godmother Aunt Gina got her Diamond Stud Earrings. I was 38 when I got my first pair, go figure !!! Godfather Joe and Aunt Maryann got her a motorized Jeep, which she almost knows how to drive by herself, Gold Ball Earrings and the #2 Lenox Train. I cannot wait for Anthony to put up the shelves in LilyRose's room so I can get the train up and out. It's beautiful. She also got some cute clothes and she got a Magnetic Letters and numbers set. This gift came from my aunt that just passed away last week. My cousin Nancy had it for a while and the card was written out way before my aunt passed away. I just wish she gave me a heads up before I opened the card because it took me by surprise and I kinda lost it for a minute. It will be a great keep sake for LilyRose. She also got a Crayola Color Wonder which she loves.

Tonight we will have a little cake to celebrate her birthday with just us and then one more party on Sunday. I think LilyRose will love all her parties and all the fuss that is just for her. Can you believe the birthday girl just woke up and has a cold and a cough. I can't believe it. Oh, boy this is going to be fun. Oh well, I guess we will be spending some time in the doctors office today. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Dutch Wonderland/Hershey Park

We left Sunday morning for Hershey Park. We went with 2 other families. One of the families are good friends of ours. Joseph and their son Vincent are good friends and Anthony and Vin's father Nick are their Soccer Coaches. We got to PA at like 11 am and went right to Dutch Wonderland. The kids had the best time. LilyRose got to go on so many rides. Some of them she loved and some of them she didn't love. We had to stop 2 rides because she was crying so hard. I had to laugh because the rides she cried on were the ones Anthony put her on. It was really funny that she gave him "that look" that she is famous for when she's not a happy kid. She was amazed at all the different rides and sounds and she had a ball. I got to go on 2 rides here. The old fashion car ride with LilyRose and the bumper cars with Joseph. I am not a big ride person, but it made Joseph happy so of course I did it. My neck was not happy but Oh Well. Then we went to check into the hotel which was right across the street from Dutch Wonderland. It was ok, not a place that I would want to stay at again. We were going to go back to the park but the kids wanted to go and eat and then go in the pool. So we went to the Texas Road House. What a great place. Of course, the kids we having Peanut fights. They put huge buckets of peanuts on the table and they were throwing them at us. We had to have 2 tables because there were 11 of us and LilyRose. She was so tired by this time and her heading was hitting her chest until the food came out and boy did she get her 2nd wind. It was really funny. After that the kids went to the pool and LilyRose and I went to bed.

Monday we got up at the crack of dawn and had breakfasts and headed to Hershey Park. We got there at 10 am right when the park opened and it was a mad house. I have been there 3 times and it was never that crowed. They waited like 2 hours for a 3 second ride. LilyRose and I did alot of sitting and walking around by ourselves. I did get to go on 1 ride though. I went on the "Whip". I love that ride. Joseph was embarrassed because I was laughing so loud and throwing my hands up. To bad, I had fun. I have to say that I was really surprised at Joseph. He went on roller coasters that I didn't think he would go on and he had a ball. There was one called the "Mouse" and it had no sides so you feel like your gonna go off the sides when you go on the turns. It was so crowed that we were sure when they got on and I didn't have my camera ready when they went by, but I will never forget Joe's face. He definitely had skid marks happening. LOL.

Then they went on this Flume ride. It goes really high up and then has this steep drop and the wave that happens is HUGE. They had a full boat and the wave was one of the biggest. It looked like a really fun ride but I am afraid of heights so I wouldn't go on. I was looking for the characters so I could get pics with LilyRose but they were no where to be seen. LilyRose went on a lot of rides and she really liked all of them expect the ones Anthony went on with her. LOL He took her on the baby slide and she was screaming on the way down. I have a pic but you will have to click on it to make it bigger so you could see her face. All in all we had a great time. We were at the park until it closed. 12 hours of walking and waiting and walking and waiting. Poor LilyRose was so done. Then we went to the Chocolate Factory and took the tour and LilyRose loved it. Then we shopped for a little ( i didn't buy that much candy) and headed back to the hotel. We ordered pizza and picked it up when we got back. We went out by the pool and ate and the kids went in the pool and of course LilyRose fell asleep so I went back to the room and went to sleep too.

Tuesday was a very relaxing day. Cathy, the mom from the other family stayed back at the hotel with the kids while then went into the pool and we all went to the "Amish Village" We did some shopping and had a nice 2 hours out. I was starting not to feel well though and knew that I was getting sick. I had the worst body aches I ever had. We went into this store that sells Shoe Fly Pies b/c Nick loves them and I walking around looking at all the stuff and it finally hits me that everything in the store says " I Love Intercourse" WHAT????????? I was cracking up. I was going to buy a t-shirt for my mother that had the logo on it but they didn't have her size. To bad it would have been a funny joke. I have to say the baked goods were awesome. I did not try the Shoe Fly pie though. We went back to the hotel and hung out by the pool the rest of the day. The other family that came with us left, but there girls stayed with Susan and Nick. We went back to the Texas Roadhouse and ate and then went to play Miniature Golf. LilyRose was out cold so I stayed in the car with her. By now I am getting sicker by the minute. We went back to the hotel and I went right to bed.

We got up Wednesday and packed up and ate and went to the outlets. I did some shopping and got the kids clothes. I got a few things for myself too. We got on the road and came home. By the time I walked into my house I was full blown sick. High fever (haven't had a fever in years) my body felt like a truck was rolling over me every few seconds and my throat was on fire and the couch was deep and painful. Forget my head, I can't believe it's still on my shoulders. My kids were so happy to see Grandma, that even though I was so sick it made me smile that they love her so much. My mother of course made the biggest scene when she saw them too. Thursday was a bad day for me. I could hardly get out of bed. I unpacked the suitcase and did 4 loads of laundry and laid down when LilyRose took her nap. My mother had to go and order LilyRose's birthday cake for me and get all the other stuff I needed. We are having her very first party on Saturday night for the family. Today was a little better, I still fell like crap and have a slight fever that comes and goes and my body is still screaming for mercy. I am going to go to sleep now. I hope you enjoy the pics. Remember to click on them if you want to see them close up.

Joseph got another trophy last night and the coach said a nice little speech for each boy on the team as he gave them the throphy. It has his name and jersey # on it. It is really very nice. Joseph had a great season.

Thanks for stopping by. Watch for LilyRose's 2nd birthday party stories and pictures. She will 2 on September 4th.