Malia's getting a sister !

Well, not quite.
I had my heart set on going back to China for a sister for Malia. After my illness, it had me thinking that maybe going back to China was not the right thing to do. So, instead of going back to China we are getting her a sister from Florida! And we don't even have to go get her, she is being "escorted" here by a stewardess on US Air.

She is a Coton De Tulear. They are a small breed that is very smart and very good with children. They are sometimes referred to as the toy Labrador because they are such happy go lucky dogs. The standard is 10-12" tall and 12-15 lbs. They remind me of a Yorkie, only white and a tiny bit bigger.

Here is what she will look like full grown


Ahhhhhh, I'm being attacked by a puppy


I'm soft and fluffy



She really doesn't want to touch the puppy too much.

50th Wedding Anniversary

Yesterday we celebrated Gary's parents wedding anniversary. Wow, 50 years, that's amazing. Try and find a gift or card for that occasion once, lol. They don't make a lot of stuff for that, I guess its because not a lot of people make it that far anymore. Here are some pictures......

Sitting with Aunt Tory


Uncle Dan showing me how Grams scooter works



Hanging out with Pap



Grams 'bitter beer" face. lol. She did not like the champagne.

One Year ago Today..................

Wow, its hard to believe that its been one whole year since “gotcha day”.

Malia has come such a loooooong way since then.
When we got her she could not eat solid foods, could not walk and could barely even stand up. The first four days we had her she had “shut down” and by that I mean she never changed the expression on her face. Didn’t smile and didn’t cry. Nothing. No matter what we did to try and make her smile or giggle she never did. She would not drink anything and would barely eat either. Then on day four, you could see a very small smile, it was minimal and you really had to look to see it but it was there. That gave us hope. From day 5 and on she would open up more and more.

She was walking within 2 months of being home, she just needed to be given the confidence that she could do it.

Today she is the most giggly, smiley, and happy little girl. She has a lot of confidence and is very smart. She eagerly shows us love and is more then happy to receive it too. Here are some pictures starting from the day we got her, you can almost see the changes in her during the first week in pictures.


My dearest Malia …..Thank you for bringing light and love into our hearts…..

Say What?

Wow,
What a week this has been !
It started out last Saturday, I kind of started to feel a little weird but thought nothing of it. By Sunday night I had a raging headache which is again nothing big because I get Migraines quite a bit but this one was different because my normal migraine medication was not working and I had a bit of a fever. I went to my doctors on Monday with the complaint of a major headache and a 101 grade fever. He told me that I have some kind of infection going on but what, he didn’t know because it was nothing obvious. Well all Monday night and all day Tuesday my fever went up and down from 101 to up to 105. My husband finally talked me into going to the emergency room Tues afternoon, so there we sat in the waiting room for 4 hours. For some unknown reason they decided to take an X-ray of my chest and guess what ? As it turned out I had Pneumonia. I had no idea ! I took a turn for the worse overnight and by the next morning could not breath very well. I got majorley out of breath by just trying to over turn over in the bed. I was very scared that this was it, I was going to die. I felt like I was suffocating, and that’s NOT a great feeling! Even though my lungs are not clear, I don’t have a fever anymore so they sent me home today. So I spent the past 6 days in the Hospital. I must give kudos’ to Gary for stepping up to the plate and doing an excellent job with Malia, right now I think he is as exhausted as I’ am. Of course he had help from Dylan , Leigh, and Megan and for that I’m very grateful!

Some new words.

It seems the past 2 or three weeks that Malia is surprising us with more and more words. She now says, no ( and shakes her head at the same time) Leigh (she pronounces it wee) and Dyl for Dylan. She will tell us these big looooooong stories now and with all of facial expressions and body movements (especially the "hand" talking) that go along with the story its real hard not to laugh at her, but you just pretend like you understand and talk back to her. She loves it!

Its hard to believe that we are almost at the one year mark for "gotcha day"

I got hungry for a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing the other night. She loves the peanut butter icing.



These two aren't smitten with each other are they?

A picnic

This past Saturday we were invited to an FCC picnic by friends that we met while in China and it just so happens that they only live 2 hours away form us. We haven't seen them since last year while in China so we thought it would be nice to go see them and to also see what an FCC event is like. It was very nice, and we met quite a few people. I wish the FCC in our area was more active.

Malia and Ella playing in the sand, it was the most popular "toy" there.



The first time she had her face painted.


This guy sang songs with the kids, they enjoyed it a lot.


Sophie even started to dance a little.


Then Ella wanted in the sack race, she did very well.

Family Pictures

So we had family pictures taken this past weekend. We have our last home visit (the 12 month one) this Friday and I thought why not splurge and send China a professional family photo since I have to give one. I do have to warn you though I had to scan these to post them and my scanner is about 10 yrs old. I swear its one of the first ones that ever came out, lol. So the pictures are going to look like they are VERY poor quality.
I think she looks so cute with her big bro's holding her.
This is Dustin on the left, age 19. Dylan is on the right, age 21

I love summer

We really didn't do too much this past weekend. We did get a family picture taken, I will post that later. We went for a swim, then the "girls" sat and watched Dylan ride his motorcycle. I don't know if he plans on racing this year or not.

Pool Time

It's so HOT out this weekend. I just saw on the news that it was 108 degrees in Harrisburg today. Malia and Gary "broke in" the pool yesterday, they were the first in this year. We had a small family cook out yesterday. Dylan's GF and her parents came over for a BBQ and Swim. We had fun, this is what all I did.......

I just lounged around......


Got thrown in the air by Baba.....


Played some B-Ball with Dylan...


Hung out with Leigh and chatted.....


Relaxed with Dylan......


We had a really nice day

We're swinging now !

Whoohoo !
She's a real swinger now, lol. I'm sure I've mentioned before how much Malia likes to swing and now she can do it anytime she wants. And that's ALL THE TIME.

Here is the start of it.




Gary and his friend Gary working on the "2nd floor"


Malia making sure that Baba understands the instructions


Malia making sure that Dylan installs the screws properly.


A picture of the main building, the first floor gets a built-in picnic table yet. lol.


A peek from the balcony.

Its all done, except for the picnic table and the mulch that goes around it.



And now for the FUN part!






Malia gives Nana, Baba, Dylan and Uncle Neff a thumbs up !