Lexi is 11 months old!

1 Week Home!

We are home! It has been a week, the fastest week of my life! We are so happy to be home. Lexi did wonderful on the long flight home. She only had one poopykins on the plane ride. It was the short flight from Guangzhou to Shanghai and there were some empty seats so Bryan just took her back there and changed her. He then brought her back to me, said he was going to go pack up the diaper bag and throw away the diaper but he never came back! Yep he ditched us. I guess he figured if she did one of those stinkers again he wanted to be far away! Haha! No really, he said he just didn't want to disturb the people trying to get back to his seat. Right?? Funny guy! The flight to SanFrancisco she had no bad diapers, was just as happy and playful as can be, quite the celebrity too! I think all the flight attendants wanted to take a break so they could visit with this little hunny! With all the flirting and attention grabbing she was busy doing, she hardly slept at all so we were pretty darn tired when we got in to Phoenix. She did cry out at take off and landing and was really pulling on those ears. Once home she did amazing meeting her sibblings and Grandma. She was going to them by that evening. By midnight she still was crying every time we tried to lay her down and her ears were so red from pulling on them. We headed to the all night pediatric urgent care and found out she had a double ear infection. By 5 am we were home, medicine taken, warm bottle and asleep! (For a few hours anyway)

We had lots of family come in for Thanksgiving so there have been many new faces, new voices and new things going on. Baby Cakes has taken in all in like a little tourist! She is so social, so friendly, so happy, so funny and sooooo sweet! She does not like people to get too close when we are outside of the home but when we are home she feels safe and secure. She knows who her family is, she loves her family!

2 weeks of having Lexi in our arms and here is what she can now do.

Pick up food with pointer and thumb and put it in mouth

wave bye bye in both the baby up down way and the princess side to side way

play patty cake and sing catty K catty K over and over

say mama, dada, bubu, baba

click her tongue

smack her lips

make a kissy face

gets up on her knees but still not going anywhere

eating lots of baby veggies

bops bunny on the head during little bunny foofoo

loves her bath more than anything

sleeping in her own bed (crib)

Likes her carseat and riding in the car for short times

turns pages and loves books

does all the pages of pat the bunny

will sit for long periods of time just playing on the floor with her toys

loves loves loves music

loves to dance and to watch the girls dance

when we do songs with motions she does the motions to the upcoming parts as soon as she hears the right words

her memory is amazing!

We just love our little girl!!

Thanksgiving

We had so much fun celebrating Thanksgiving with family! Lexi loved all of her relatives and had smiles for everyone. The weather wasn't really that cold yet so we heated the pool and took Lexi for her first swim. She loved the pool and swam with Daddy and Uncle Ed. She looks so cute in her bathing suit!

Bye, Bye China

We are in the van on the way to the airport. Lexi woke up bright eyed and ready to shake her tail feathers at 3am. I thought she was just excited about going home but it turns out she is running a high fever and now the loosy poopsy's have kicked in as well. It's going to be a long 24hrs! These diapers could land us an entire section of the plane for ourselves. Yikes! My next post will be in 3 or 4 days from home!

Passport in hand!

We have Lexi's passport with visa in hand! We are ready, oh so ready to come home! We did our "Red Couch" photos today but since we have gone through 3 travel groups since we arrived here....2 gone and the 3rd arrived today, we had no one to photograph on the red couch with Lexi! So she did it alone and that was enough cuteness for the whole couch regardless! Daddy with Lexi in her Chinese Dress

Daddy's girl

Red couch

Red couch

Red couch

Guess who's finally coming home?!

Well, after nearly a month in China, we are so happy to say WE'RE COMING HOME! Yes we are! We headed to Breakfast at 8, met our guide to go to the Safari Zoo at 9:30 and as soon as she saw us she gave us great news! Lexi's passport number had already been faxed to the consulate! The next great news came at noon, her passport was on it's way to the civil affairs and expected to arrive in time to overnight it today! It will be here Friday morning! Woo hoo. Our guide said we are absolutely for sure all 3 able to leave for home on Sunday morning! Our flight leaves at 7am. I am sooooooo happy! So so happy! God has moved mountains once again! And to make an already great day greater, we spent 6 hours at the worlds coolest safari zoo today! All my cyber friends, when you come to China to get your child, you have to arrange a trip to this zoo. It is incredible. We were so close to these animals, all of them and we held baby tigers, fed them, made friends with darling chimps, amazing! It was only 17..50 American dollars and that includes the safari ride that takes you right through 1000's of animals in their outdoor habitats. They come right up to you for photos. When you see the photos you will think they are pictures of pictures... they are real! The 3 of us loved every second! Lexi is having a tough time at night. Once she is down she is down for at least 10 hours but she wakes up crying hysterically 2 or 3 times before she is really down for good. It breaks my heart because I don't know why or how to help her get over it. We just hold her and try to wake her up enough to see its us. Then she falls back to sleep, we lay her down and she does it again! I am so ready to stop living this hotel life and I think she is too. Feeding bottles on the go all the time or on the bed with just the wall as my support...my back is tired of this. We are on the go all the time just because they keep us on the go and because we don't like sitting in our hotel room. Little Lexi needs some routine and a nice schedule. Poor thing has been taken from one extreme to another, I am sure she will be happy to get to a home as much as us! At the zoo Baby tiger

Baby tiger

Feeding the baby tiger

Bear

Koala's

Monkey baby

Monkey with daddy

Panda

Panda

Panda

Panda with us

Dinner

Eating an orange

Night, night

My Chinese American Girl!

We received A call at 3am letting us know that the American Consulate had agreed to let us keep our appointment for today! Another step closer to home. We can not leave without the visa stamp on Lexi's passport so that passport has to make it here by Friday morning at the latest. We will continue to pray that everything just keeps moving along so I do not have to stay here with Lexi any longer than Sunday. Bryan will for sure need to leave Sunday regardless. I do not feel anxious about it, I think it will all work out! So, we were sworn in today, Lexi will be an American citizen the second she reaches American soil! So here's our little Chinese American girl!

There's something about LUCY......

Every time we go to eat at Lucy's Lexi does the most Gigantic up the back poopy ever! Since she is such a sweety she waits until Daddy asks for the check...but none the less she does this every time! I know TMI but hey, just keeping it real! So.... since Little Miss Poopy Pants keeps having these massive Blow Outs, we have had no choice but to send some of her things to the laundry service. I have been trying to avoid this since the things Bryan and I have sent have come back much different than the way we sent them. Bryan's white shirts are now dark gray, with hints of blue and purple. Well just as I thought, Lexi's clothes came back a totally different color as well. Some of it rather tie dyed looking! So, much to my dismay... oh so sad about this... my girls at home will be too... LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE TO DO A LITTLE MORE SHOPPING WHEN I GET HOME! Bummer NOT! As for the shopping here, not much I couldn't live without. I have had a terrible time even finding a simple souvenir for my kids. I'm glad they have asked that I just bring them home a baby sister! We can do that! Today we went to the wet market. It was going to be Bryan only but he thought it was so amazing he just had to rush back to get Lexi and I. Wow what a sweety! It was GROSS! I mean it was soooo interesting?? Many many animals for sale. Fresh! Really fresh! You pick the animal, they bring it right back for you. Oh my word were there ever a lot of different things! And a lot of different smells. Ones I don't care to ever smell again. I have posted photos so you can feel like you were there with us! Tomorrow (your today) is our Consulate appointment. We never got a response to any of our emails so we are showing up and getting on our knees if they say come back when you have your baby's passport. P.S Tanya lea, thank you for all your sweet comments! You are such a doll and I absolutely love reading them. Jenny, thank you for your prayers! We will be home soon. I know you would probably love to see your husband again, I am so sorry this has taken so long. Please stay off your feet and call us when we get home so we can help out with meals and the house. Jen, I loved talking to you and John today. Give Mikey a big smooch for me! Mission CC, thank you all for lifting us up in prayer, taking over my Taxi service with the kids and for being our Arizona Family! We love and appreciate you so much! Janice, thank you for your support, your sweet txt and emails and for giving up your evenings to get Rylee to dance! I know you would much rather read your book where there are no screaming kids! We love you. Watt Family, you are amazing. You have so much on your plate already and yet you have gone totally out of your way to make sure my son has boy time and away time. And as if that were not enough you have spent time at the house with the kids, driven mounds of times to dance (even on Saturdays), and blessed my family with your love and your time! Thank you!! Nat, my BFF, I love you girl! I miss you so much. You know I'm crying right now and I know you are too so no more said! Kim, my sis, you have kept me afloat. You have lifted me up when I felt I would sink and you have supported me and built me up through all of this. I love you so much. I am so blessed. Mom, thank you for holding the family together. For giving up a month and putting up with all of this! For loving me and letting me follow my heart. My kids, Oh how I miss you! I love you so much and I am soooo very proud to be your mom. You have been so amazing during this time. Helping each other supporting each other, Q driving everyone everywhere. All of you have made this so much easier because of your amazing Faith and Hope and Strength. You are such amazing children and such blessings to our family! God is Good, ALL the time! Cutie pie

first shoulder ride

flying

Ride em cowgirl

Cage free

chicken feet

chicken heads

chicken parts

half price pig

scorpions

Papa John's

Rice on a bike

Rows of chicken