January 2018 to December 2018

Another year has gone by....... Below is a look at our 2018:

Celebrating Chinese New Year on February17th with Bateman and Sewell families in Birmingham

Happy "Year of the Dog" Chinese New Year....Enjoyed yummy food and festivities at Alice and KC's house

Celebrating 11th year Gotcha Day in Cincinnati, Ohio - 3/18

Ella and her friend Katelyn attending the cotillion spring ball - 3/18

Celebrating Ella's 12th birthday with friends ice skating and rolled ice-cream 😋

Ella made 100 peanut butter dog biscuits to sell at school fair

End of year band concert at middle school...Ella, Libby and Ayla

Early May 2018, surprise visit from Dawn (Ella's Godmother)!  We had fun weekend shopping, eating, attending Ella's end of year band concert at middle school and lots of laughs 😊

June 9th, Happy 4th birthday Oreo...you are loved!!!



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Photos below were taken while in Minnesota and South Dakota visiting family and friends for a week in June!  We enjoyed short visit with my cousin Teresa Athey in Willmar MN. Watched horse races at Canterbury Park and visited the largest candy store in Minnesota with the Morton Family 💜  We picked up my sister and niece in Milbank, SD and drove to Aberdeen, SD to visit my Uncle Roger, Aunt Dolly, cousins Brent and Barry.  While in Aberdeen, we enjoyed swimming, playing at local parks, eating and fishing (unfortunately the fish we not biting..ugh)......lots of memories were made 😍

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Early July, Ella went to Aviation camp in Huntsville, Alabama with Abby Sewell. This was Ella's 1st sleep away camp...she had such a wonderful time with Abby that they want to do it again next year!

Sibling snuggle time ....love them!

At the end of July, we enjoyed a "moms/kids' only 4 day get away trip in Gatlinburg, Tennessee with McFee's and McMulligan's.  We rented a cabin with a pool table and hot tub.  Everyone had so much fun relaxing, cooking, baking and playing games!!  We will definitely be doing this every summer woo hoo!!!

Aug. 6th -  1st day of 7th grade.....

Biscuit and Oreo....so precious 💚

November Middle School Symphonic Band Concert at Reinhardt College

 Before Thanksgiving was spent with the Sewell family in Blue Ridge, Georgia. We rented a beautiful 5 bedroom cabin with spectacular mountain views for 4 days and 3 nights!! We went horse back riding, rode an open train car tour and played lots of pingpong!  This was a wonderful get away with precious friends that are like family 💛


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Christmas was spent at mom and dad's new beautiful house in Lake Worth, FL.  We went to a Manatee exhibit,  walked through a nature reserve, went out to eat and played cards - exploding kittens. They let us bring the dogs (thanks !!) and their favorite place was in the screen room so we relaxed out their quite a bit which was sooo nice!

The dogs were not allowed on the couch so they found comfort on the area rug....sweetness!

See you all in 2019 😏

Hi all....below is our summary of 2017 captured in photos!  

Enjoy....Sending hugs to all 😍

Mid January - Visit from David, Nicole, Alex and Ethan...very fun weekend!!

End of January -  We thoroughly enjoyed Paul's company sales award trip to Lake Tahoe, CA ⛄....keep working hard honey so we can tag along on these trips ha ha!!

2/25 - Celebrating 10 year gotcha day...wow look at these Chinese babies 💟

2/28 - Ella's second time to donate her hair 💇 (11inches) to cancer patients....love her !!

3 /24 - Ella and I ran 5k 🏃🏃 at her school.  This was her 1st 5k...she did so good!!!

4/22 - Oreo had a playdate in our backyard with Ms. Mary's granddog, Olive 🐶🐾🐶

4/29 - Ella molding clay with her new pottery wheel.  She got this from her Godmother, Dawn...this is her favorite birthday gift 💗!!  The bowl came out beautiful!!

5/6 - Ella wanted to spend time at the nursing home memory care unit for her 11th birthday instead of party.  She invited a few close friends and we planted flowers🌷, ate chocolate chip cookies🍪 and enjoyed the outdoors with the residents.  She had a great day!!

5/21 - Our sweet neighbors treated us to an ice cream 🍨 social because we decided to move back to Atlanta in June.  We were incredibly fortunate to have wonderful neighbors during our five years living in Alabama.....miss them so!!!

5/23 - Fun evening spent at Brocks Gap Intermediate School as Ella received end of 5th grade academic achievement awards for "A" honor roll and receiving Social Studies highest average score in her community.

6/3 - Enjoyed a great night at the Regions Fields watching the Birmingham Barrons Baseball ⚾game.  We had so much fun with our sweet friends the Sewell Family 😍

6/3 - The movers just left with all our belongings but we had to get hugs and doggie kisses from Ms. Mary and Checkers 😢

6/3 - Above is visual example that moving is exhausting zzzzzzzz

Early June - Ella and I went to Minnesota/South Dakota for a week.  We really enjoyed family time with my extended family!  We had so much fun as the photo above shows many memories were made 💓🎣🎨🍪😍

6/9 - Happy 3rd birthday Oreo 🍦

Early July - We spent 4 long, fun filled days at Universal Studios!!!  Ella is a avid Harry Potter fan and she was in heaven! We really enjoyed ourselves through Ella's love of Harry Potter 💟

7/14 - We adpoted a friend for Oreo.....Biscuit (9 months old) cockapoo - cocker spaniel and poodle mix.  He was found by animal control and ended up in the shelter where a foster family took him into their home and we adopted him 🐶💛

End of July -  We traveled to St. Louis, Missouri and spent a long weekend with the Morton Family!  Fun times touring the Budwiser plant 🍺, Science Center, Zoo  🐘, ate at Pappy's Smokehouse (the best barbeque!!!) and played multiple games of our favorite game Qwirkle - our favorite game!!

8/7 - Ella's 1st day of 6th grade at her new school...River Trail Middle School

Ella chose the trumpet for band class and she loves it!!

After school fun with neighborhood friends (Alya, Lily, Katelyn and Madison).....playing in the pool 🏊 and picnic 🍱 in their handmade fort in the woods!

11/15 - Happy 1st birthday 🎈 Biscuit!!  He got a doggie birthday cookie/treat which he shared with Oreo 🐶

11/15 - 6th grade Band Concert!  Ella and her friend Ayla (she plays flute)....sweet friends!!

11/18 & 11/19 - Ella and some other band friends from school were invited to participate in the Atlanta Trumpet Festival.  The afternoon concert on the last day was amazing and Evan came to support his sister 💛

11/23 - 5k Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day......Ate a fabulous Thanksgiving meal at our sweet friends KC, Alice and their daughter Katelyn's house 🍗🦃

12/11 - We got snow...yeah!! Snow day = no school = sledding, snowman making, snow ball throwing = hot choclate and cookies ⛄❆☃ 

Family Selfie with our fur babies Oreo and Biscuit!  

Happy New Year and many blessings to all in 2018 💖😍