Feeling Blue?

Not around here! Thanks to the teller at Wachovia, we got blue lollipops! Ellie was extra excited since it was her first!

happy birthday, Scott!

It's a little late, but hey, better late than never! Scott's birthday was actually on Sept. 7th. We spent a relatively quiet day with the family and friends. We had the Klein's over for lunch and cake, and then a family dinner at Dominick's. Yum! Scott got his set of Topps baseball cards, as always!

Katie's First Day of First Grade!

Our baby is growing up!! Monday was her first day of first grade! Hard to believe! Her teacher's name is Mrs. Randall! (no relation) :) We both started at a new school this year. It's called Puckett's Mill. Scott was dissapointed we wouldn't be cardinals anymore! She loves her class, especially since her good friend, Katie L. is in class with her! Our new school starts a bit early, as you can see from the picture, it's not quite daylight yet!! We'll get used to it, I suppose. Ellie is staying with "Nana" who lives in our neighborhood. She loves it there! Here's hoping for a wonderful school year!

Ellie's first haircut!

Well, we were trying to let Ellie's hair grow out, but she wouldn't leave a barette in her hair, so... as you can see in the first picture, those bangs were hanging down on her nose! Bangs it is! They still tend to go off to the side a bit, but maybe when she's old enough to leave something in her hair we can try again! She wasn't too happy about the whole thing in the beginning, but the hairdresser gave her 2 brightly colored combs to hold, so that helped! We think she's cute as a button either way!

new additions to the family (sort of )

Katie had been begging and begging for a hamster, so we got one. Well, it was very unfriendly, so we opted for 2 friendlier gerbils! Their names are Midnight and Cloudy. If you look closely, you can see that cloudy only has three legs! She manages to climb the tower and run on the wheel just fine!

Katie's date with Dad!

Scott and Katie had a date to the Braves game...or should I say the Cardinals game! They played here in Atlanta, but as anyone who knows Scott knows, he was there to see the Cardinals.

Katie had her face painted, ate Italian ice and cotton candy, ran the bases in the kids area, and didn't even complain about actually watching the game! It seems like yesterday that we took Katie to her first game, and she fell asleep! That was 4 years ago! How time flies!!Scott will go again with a friend on Thursday night. Hope they don't get rained out!

Ellie's 1 1/2 birthday!

Since Ellie spent her first birthday in China without us :( , we decided to have her 1 1/2 party instead! My parents were here from Florida, our good friends from the neighborhood, and 3 of the families from our China travel group (the Damron's, Cryer's and Tyrell's) were able to come. It was wonderful to be able to share this with so many friends! Ellie obviously liked the icing best from her cake. She didn't want to touch it with her hands, so she went in face first! I gave her a spoon, but she still just wanted the icing! The picture of the girls on the couch was our remake of the red couch picture we took in China. Not quite as many kids, and not as many tears! Three of the four girls (including Ellie) are from the same orphanage. We'd like to think they remember each other on some level. We hope everyone can join us again in 6 months for her second birthday! :)