My parents are on vacation

so my grandfather (Abuelito) is staying with us for 10 days. It has been a hectic couple of weeks as my sister, niece and nephew visited and then the next week, my aunts came for a visit. We enjoy it, but it is a little crazy.

I accepted a new position at work and I have been busier than usual. I haven't posted in a while and all of that has contrubuted! Meanwhile, as you can see above, I have achieved sucess in getting Mia's hair into pigtails. We are trying to grow out her bangs, let's see how long it lasts.

Mia is growing up so fast, her vocabulary is growing daily and she now feeds herself with an adult fork. She is so proud when she does it, as Mike and I jump up and down screaming YEA!!

We are sooooo looking forward to our very close friends , moving near us in May. We have managed to keep in touch with many of our friends, but a 2 hour distance kinda puts a kink into gets togethers as we were used to often. Grandaddy comes up often to visit and we get down there to visit as often as we can. Our yearly trip to Marco Island is 6 weeks away (who's counting) and we are so excited for the rest of the group to finally meet Mia. Mike is staying home with Mia now as his position was seasonal, so we get to take full advantage of the summer : )

T U M B L I N G

M I A ! !Mia started a toddler tumbling class this week. She loves to run around on the spongy floor and interact with the other children. She is one of the youngest in the group as the age ranges from 18 months to 3 years old. She hangs in there and follows the other children. Her favorite part I think is the big trampoline.

I just thing she looks so cute in her pink leotard!

Mia visits Mickey and Minnie!!

We took the kids to Disney and they had a ball. Our friend Stacy brought her son, Giovanni and Mackenzie, my friend Tami's daughter came along as well. Makenzie and Kenedy are the same age and they are so cute together. Grandma, Grandpa and Abuelito (Mia's great grandfather) joined us as well. It was exhausting but a great time was had by all. Mia slept in today and took a 3 hour nap.

Too much fun I guess!

SMILEY COUSINS!!!
Giovanni, Mia, Mackenzie, Torey and Kenedy

Happy Easter!

Look what the Easter Bunny brought me. . . . .

MY COUSINS !!!

BEACHTIME!!!!

What a beautiful Sunday at the beach. It was a little breezy, but sunny and fun. Mia enjoyed playing in the sand and I got to relax a little while Mike and my dad fished. Stephanie came up this weekend and Tami and the kids joined us as well.

I can't believe how time flies and we have been in our home for 1 year now!! I took a picture of our house last night and looked for some other photos from when we first moved in showing the same angle. We love our new home and are glad that we made the move. Mike travels back south for work and he sees the traffic difference starting in Palm Beach. For now, things here are relaxing and peaceful and we truly enjoy our home. Our neighbors are nice and the kids love Mia! I can remember waiting and waiting for our little Mia and it seemed like we had been living in the house so long before we traveled to China. Time flies. . . . .

Soaking in the sun and

getting a little wet!

Mia woke up on Tuesday and POOF her bump
was gone! As you can see from her picture,
she runs everywhere! Her aunt Deanna was very upset I posted her bump, but after all this blog is a journal of her first year with us as a family. Mia seems to be a tough cookie and I have a feeling we have many more "bumps" in the future!!!!!!

Mia's first Noggin'

So our little Mia was running in our bedroom and tripped and whacked her head on our footboard. She actually cried for a short time, but started to wail when we tried to put ice on it. She is acting OK and it is starting to go down as we speak, but she has her first LUMP! I called my mom to tell her and she said"Thank God It didn't happen on my watch!" I was going to post some fun pictures from the weekend, but these had to come first :).

Like My New Shades?

Mia's First Baseball Game!

Spring Training is in full swing and we decided to take Mia to see the Marlins play the Dodgers. Now that we live 15 minutes from the LA Dodgers Spring Training Stadium we thought we would introduce Mia to a little baseball. Mia enjoyed the music between innings and clapped her hands when the crowd cheered. We stayed the entire game and had a great day!

Mia meets some of her Marco Island family

We traveled to Winterhaven and stayed with the Stones for a couple of days and we were treated like Royalty. We had gourmet meals and special treament. As many of you know, Mike and I have been vacationing in Marco Island for the past 10 years or so in June. We have gotten to know the same 6 families over the years. They have known us since Mike and I were dating and they were so excited to hear we were adopting a daughter from China. We thought we would have been to China and back by last June, however; we traveled in August. The girls played with Mia and entertained her while I actually was able to chit-chat and have a cocktail or two. I didn't get a good picture of all the girls, but Savannah, Caitlyn, Jessica and Rebecca said they would watch Mia one night while we are in Marco so Mike and I can have a nice dinner out : ) ! JUNE can't come soon enough!!!!

!