We're having such a fun summer. Where do I start? Jimmy and I went on a cruise without the kids, couple of pics above. We had fun but missed them of course. We had a huge July 4th party with a 100 ft water slide, Aubrey must have gone up and down it a zillion times, she had so much fun. She is such a vibrant happy settled little girl. It is such a blessing to see her happy. Weve spent some time on the boat and she just loves it. Everything is amazing right now and we are very happy. Enjoy the pics.

Long awaited update

No grand excuses for not getting on and updating this blog in a while. I've just been busy and enoying life. I have been on a diet for the last couple of months, I have lost 25 lbs, still going I would like to loose 10 to 15 lbs more.

Aubrey is doing really well, she is being a typical 3 year old, has finally conquered the potty training hurdle (except at night is still in pull ups). She is so smart and funny, she keeps us moving and entertained all the time. Her latest phase is wanting to do everything for herself, she says "Auby do it" about a hundred times a day. lol

I don't know what we ever did without her, it feels like she has always been a part of our lives. So we got through her birthday and mothers day both big celebrations, Daddys birthday in April and today is my Birthday, I am 25 (again).

Here are some recent pictures from Easter, Zachs Prom, and a trip to Gatlinburg.

So much going on, my posts get further and further apart. Zach went to Nashville and performed for a commercial at the Wildhorse Salloon, we had such a good time. Looks like he might be signing a management deal with the producers of the commercial, we'll see what happens. Check him out on myspace at www.myspace/zachdylanmusic.com . Aubrey is getting so big and talking up a storm, she went through a pretty rotten phase where there were lots of no's and obstinence, she is very independant. But it is getting better now and she always has her sweet moments to balance it out. She sings this song called I'm daddies sweet pie all the time, and then changes it to I'm Mommys sweetie pie, and I'm Gugu's sweetie pie...very precious. As you can see she is beautiful and healthy, her hair is getting long and she loves makeup which she has on in these pics.

All for now.....

Christmas

Little late with this, we just chilled through Christmas, both Jimmy and I had a bunch of time off and we were having fun. We've got some exciting stuff going on with Zach that has kept me off the computer as well. He was "discovered" by a producer/manager after a one day recording studio session I arranged for him as a Christmas gift. The owner of the studio sent some of his cover songs out to a couple of folks because he thought Zach was really good and Viola, the next day we go a call to come to Nashville and meet with them. This was about a month ago, we are set to go back in a couple of weeks and look at a contract. Very verve wracking and exciting at the same time. We have been really busy putting together a more professional demo, arranging musicians to play with him and finding original songs. I have even written several for him. CRAZY HUH? We'll see what happens, say a prayer for us. It feels like everything is coming together as if it were meant to be...... here are some pics from Christmas.

Itty Bitty Pretty One

Young love, Zach and Kaylie:) Pretty girl.

My girl is so beautiful, I marvel at her sometimes when I look into her deep dark eyes and and envy her thick shiny black hair and year round tan:) I hope she can grow up with self confidence and pride for her Asian decent. We talk openly with her about her heritage already at this young age, I don't ever want her to feel surprised by it. As her language skills grow, we are trying to talk more about China. Sometimes I'll say Chinese phrases to her and gauge her reaction you can tell even with my terrible pronunciation of Mandarin that she recognizes it, she will repeat me when I call her Zheng Shuang. Maybe it's time for some Mandarin Lessons, I have a CD ROM my Mom bought us.... anyway just rambling. Gonna add some pics we took this past weekend. Has a nice vacation for a whole week and now I am home with strep. On a side note Zach has an appointment to record a demo with a friend of mine that has a studio this Sunday, I am so excited for him, i hope he is not too nervous to perform well. He usually does pretty good, where did that kid get all his charisma hmmmm:)??

Gotcha Day 1 yr Anniversary!

Wow I can't believe its been a year! I don't know where the time has gone. We asked Aubrey yesterday if she remembered when we held her for the first time and said "I am your Mama I love you, I am your Baba I love you" (in Mandarin), she said "Chinese". It was cute. She is cute and funny and healthy and happy and a little stinker sometimes, and so darn smart. When I think about all the things they told us about Zheng Shuang while we were waiting in those weeks after we found out who our daughter was, about her special needs, her heart conditional and her developmental delays, her poor fine motor skills it really puzzles me. Were they watching the same little girl? My little girl has a healthy heart, my little girl came to me with the the best fine motor skills of any child I've ever known, she could pick up a flea and stick it in her mouth, and she's smart as a whip. I know I am blessed that she is healthy when she was supposed to be special needs, and trust me I feel like it was Divine intervention. After all I overcame personally this year, it has been a blessing not to have to deal with medical of developmental interventions. To spite a few little colds here and there and a staff infection she got over the summer, she has been remarkably healthy. Today we celebrate a milestone, life with Aubrey just gets better every day. We finally learned how to be the parents of a little munchkin again, we have her unconditional love, she overcame he initial insecurity over me leaving the room or leaving her with my mom while I worked (that was a challenge), she has bonded strongly with everyone in our family including aunts, uncles and cousins. Her language is continuing to improve (this is the one area where I do feel that she is a little behind for her age, my sister is a speech pathologist and she says she is within normal speech parameters for her age and feels that she will catch up on her own) she is now speaking in sentences. She is the best girl when it comes to sleep and eating, she will eat anything and sleeps 12 hours at night with a 2 hour nap at noon, could you ask for more? She sleeps in her own room now, did not have nay issue transitioning out of our room, and she goes right to sleep when you put her down. And she is doing well with potty training which we have kind of taken slowly due to my work schedule. Amazing! Now don't get me wrong, we have behavioral issues like any 2 1/2 year old, but she is easily corrected. I just feel very lucky today and everyday to have this beautiful Little sunshine in my life. We waited for so long, it thought it would never happen, and it has. Our family is complete and now we can go on living a happy life. Mama, BaBa, GuGu and Aubrey a forever family! I'm including some pics from our Gotcha Day a year ago today and some from our picnic this past weekend.