Do You Have a Few Hours and a Big Box of Tissues?

If so, I would like you to meet someone who in the few hours that I got to "know" her, made my world a better place.

When you go to meet her, please start first by going to the top left of the blog and click on start from the beginning.

You will be so glad that you listened to her story. It's a story told by her amazing mom.

Trust me, she will make you a better person. You will soon read why.

Please take a moment out of you life, to meet Audrey Caroline.

Introducing the Drama Mama....

When God closes one door, He opens another!

Meet the "Drama Mama." She is beautiful even with icing colored teeth!



The Drama Mama is the nickname I have lovingly given Harrison's new friend who just moved in a few months ago across the culdesac. She has become Harrison's new sidekick and they love meeting every night on the long driveway for a couple hours of play. Were we so hoping that Harrison would find a new little playmate to become best buds with and we are so grateful for the Drama Mama. Yes, and you probably guessed it....she is a bit dramatic, but we love her!



When we heard that The Little Mrs. was moving to Australia, we were heartbroken for Harrison (and ourselves). She and Harrison had been best buds for a long time and I just wasn't sure how Harrison would do without her around. While we wish she was still here, we are thrilled with the newest addition to the Drama Mama to our lives. Nothing is better than pulling in the neighborhood and seeing the Drama Mama calling Harrison's name from the top of her driveway. Also, she actually comes over to see if Harrison wants to play. For those of you that know our house, we don't have many people that make the long trek down the driveway!

King of the Mountain

Pa had a load of dirt delivered and Harrison put it to really good use! His favorite part was to climb to the top and scream "I am king of the mountain." He invited his friends over to play and they all had so much fun, but I forgot to take pictures of the gang. The ran up the hills, down the hills, ran into the hill, road bikes up and down the hill...who would have thought a pile of dirt could be so much fun. When it was time to go in that night, Harrison was so dirty.

The kids have been playing outside every night and there is not a single night that they don't come in covered with dirt and exhausted. Although, we have some clay stained clothes, it beats sitting inside and watching tv. The one BIG downside - ticks. Yuck, the mere word give you the heebee geebees, but its the price you pay to live in the woods.

Where Does the Rainbow End?

My friend, Heather, and I were driving last weekend after a brief rain and came across the most beautiful rainbow. It was actually a double rainbow, but I don't think that part came out in the pictures. We pulled over in Faith's parking lot and got some fantastic pictures of the beautiful church and rainbow. Harrison said the rainbow was God's painting and he is thrilled that his church school was the "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow! We agree!

100 Good Wishes Quilt for Baby Sissy

I need your help!

The secret is (ok, maybe not a secret but I like to pretend it is not true) that I am a expert procrastinator. Its something that I excel at, which is actually not a good thing. I have been trying to reform my ways after one of my dear friends called me out as a procrastinator a couple of weeks ago (yes, you Larken). Ok, back on task...

I need your help!

I have procrastinated too long and really need to start on Baby Sissy's 100 Good Wishes Quilt. What is the quilt? Its a tradition for families adopting from China to create a quilt with spcial fabrics from 100 different people - friends, family, and even those that do not know you, but desire to celebrate your new child. There are great stories about the history of the quilt, but I am supposed to be working on a project for work so I have to keep this short - see, I am such a procrastinator! Now the hard part - this is your part....I need to ask a favor of you (yes, you the readers). Would you like to participate in Baby Sissy's quilt and can you spare a square?

For those of you that would like to participate, the fabric needs to be 100% cotton and cut into approximately 1/4 yard square. In addition, we would be touched if you could also send a blessing, poem, or special words for Baby Sissy. The "wish" for Baby Sissy should be no larger than 4" x 6" so that we can create a scrapbook of all of the 100 wishes. We would be so honored if you choose to participate!

Please feel free to pick what ever special fabric you find or that means something unique to you. A few friends have asked if we have a theme or a look for the nursery....are, you kidding me....I am a procrastinator and Baby Sissy's room is still the "storage" room. On a serious note if you really want some help with what style to pick, I truly love (and, hopefully Baby Sissy will too) shabby chic, toile, and the fabrics with the adorable Asian girls or Asian themes.

If you would like to participate in Baby Sissy's 100 Good Wishes Quilt, please send me an email at armiller1972@yahoo.com and I will email you our address. Thank so much!

Oh, and speaking of procrastinating....did, I mention we have not even picked a name yet. My good friend Amy logged her vote today and in fact has resigned herself to calling Baby Sissy by "name." Amy, lets see if anyone else comes up with the same suggestion! I like somewhat unique names (yes, Ashley growing up in PA was a name no one heard of - things obviously changed when I moved to GA). If you have any suggestions - leave us a comment!

Movin' on up!

As more PAs are announced in our yahoo group, the closer we get to Baby Sissy. We are now number 10 on the list. If the batch of files sent from China are around the same number that was sent this last time, we really could be next. The problem is, we don't know whether the next batch will be in a few days or a few months. The closer we get, the harder the wait becomes.

A Final Kiss with the Little Mrs.

(This all actually happened last week, but I didn't want it to get lost and not have the Little Mrs. see it in Australia so I moved it up till today.)

Tonight we met the Little Mrs. and her family for dinner and a local pizza place. We picked a great spot outside on the patio where we could run around and have fun. Unfortunately, about 1/2 way through dinner a large family was seated next to us that didn't find us as amusing as we found ourselves. Harrison and Emma had a blast running around, being silly and just enjoying each other. Emma leaves with her family early Tuesday morning and we really hope that one day we get to see her again. She almost had me crying off the bat when I went to help her in the restroom and she said.....Ashley, I love you! I almost started boo hooing there, but had to keep my cool :) The truth is , we are just crazy about the Little Mrs. We all tell her everytime we see her how much we love her and how beautiful and special she is. You should see her face when Pa tells her how much he loves her - its adorable!

After dinner we convinced everyone to go out for icecream. It was so yummy and the kids ordered eyeball sundaes! What a special treat! Emma insisted that she ride in our car and then didn't want to ride home with her parents, so Mike agreed to take her home. As soon as we got in the car, she started asking to spend the night. Tomorrow is our big day to do taxes and we quickly remembered that Emma didn't sleep much during her last sleepover...so, what did we do? Of course we immediately told her that she could if her parents said yes. We knew it was our last time so we certainly were not going to pass it up! Lucky for us, her parents said yes and we headed home.

Once home, the kids immediately went to get Pa. Pa came up to play for a while. Then, Emma walked straight out the front door. I was getting changed so I ran through the house yelling her name. Did she stop? No! This was not like her at all so Harrison and I flew out the door after her. We caught her on the way down to Pa's apartment. When we asked her what she was doing, she told us that her special flashlight was in Pa's place and she was simply going down to get it. Makes sense and as we all know, Pa has good flashlights. We grabbed the flashlight and went to play making lights in the trees.

The kids later headed in to play and boy were they riled up. It was WAY past Emma's bedtime, but I can never get her to go to bed on time. They all headed upstairs and decided to attack Mike. He loved it!

Yes, they are smelling each other's feet. Harrison is a bit obsessed with it and the Little Mrs. was happy to play along.

After a bit of a hard time, Harrison and the Little Mrs. are both asleep. We had to make a Harrison and Emma sandwich to get them to finally settle down and Emma thought it was really neat that she got to be the jelly. We did have a few tears, but hopefully they are the last for the night. We are just so thrilled we get this one last opportunity to spend the night with the Little Mrs.

And, of course the next morning IHOP was the selection for breakfast.