Korea Shipment DONE!

Man, am I glad that is over! Packers came today! I haven't got much sleep since we have been home from Florida trying to figure out what we can't live without for a year. I had made a pile in the garage and have been out there everyday with my scale adding and deleting...had a certain weight we couldn't go over! Hopefully I got it all. During all this....Ana spiked a 102.6 fever and coughed so much she couldn't talk yesterday so we were at peds. for 4 hours getting chest x-rays and trying to figure it out. All they came up with is that maybe she is just getting used to "American" viruses...she has been sick on and off since before Christmas! They prescribed a 3rd antibiotic and we shall see what happens. We head to Vegas for one last visit with friends this Thursday and I think this will help Ana since all her "favorite" toys left in a "big truck" today! Last weekend without daddy! Yippeee!

Disney On Ice!

Friends of ours from playgroup (Andrea and Jacob Nelson) told us they were getting tickets for Disney on Ice MONTHS ago and invited us along. I was SO excited. We went this past Sunday. Something fun to look forward to while Marc was gone. I can not even tell you how wonderful the entire experience was. Marc and I have done fun things with our friends kids in the past...but after it was over, we went to the car and I just cried happy tears. It was just another neat, special moment for me as a mom to watch MY kid be so happy. I hope I never forget these moments and that I never take her for granted. This is Jacob and Ana with their snowcones before the show started. I figured she'd love it with the ice fetish she has! PLUS it was in a purple cup with a lid! How cool is that? We had fabulous seats. We were in the first row of the bleachers...the people in front of us were on ground level. This isn't even zummed in. She was SOOO excited to see Mickey and Minnie. She danced and laughed and just had WIDE open eyes through the whole show. Pure happiness! This was after the show. Kinda dark but she has her "Mickey Ears" on and was coming down off her "high". The whole ride home all she talked about was Minnie and Donald Duck. So cute.
This was when we got home. Tired girl! She had to take a bath with that cup that night. I'm telling you...this is what it is all about!

Lupita at Wildflower!

Lupita works at Wildflower Bread Company. This restaurant is a weekly favorite for our family. The food is FABULOUS and Lupita and Ana have a neat bond. Lupita doesn't speak much English but Ana and her have a very special relationship. Before we can order Ana has to go find her and give her a hug and Lupita ALWAYS stops and makes time for her with hugs and high fives throughout our meals there. Then before we leave...Ana has to have one more "Lupita hug". This last week we were there and Lupita gave Ana this pink monkey and a sucker. They are sooooo neat together. But what is funny...is now every hispanic female is "Lupita"!

So Happy Together...

When we stepped off the plane in Florida and she saw Marc she was so excited! She screamed until her face turned red, she gave me a huge hug and ran to him and didn't let go. We have a happy little girl again...THANK GOODNESS! Marc got in on this sweet deal with a resort condo and we are calling it "The Palace" because it's amazing! It has plasma TV's everywhere...tiled floors...stainless full up beautiful kitchen...huge fun tubs and showers with every room...I think the sq ft. is bigger than our house! We played in the hot tub on the HUGE patio every night and we listened to the ocean which was RIGHT THERE to fall asleep. Quite the life. BUT now Ana and I are home and we are in full up "moving mode" with appointments everyday and saying my good byes with all the "last" meetings and activities we do. Tonight was my last bunko here. The Korea shipment gets picked up next TUESDAY!

Life Long Friends...The Biebel's!

Brian and Marc are good friends from the good ole college days at Miami. They went to pilot training together and have had similar careers but in different jets. Brian is stationed at Tyndall AFB in Florida which was about a 1.5 hour drive from where Marc is right now. With our military life you meet some pretty special people that you will love forever like family and Brian and Mandy are definitely apart of our military family! Thank you guys for a wonderful weekend! It was Conner's 2nd Birthday and we were so happy we were able to be there to celebrate with him!
Connor and Ana played so well together and were so cute together!

Beach Excitement!

This is Ana's first true experience of the beach. She saw it in San Diego but didn't really get to play. She was so happy and content. It is all her favorite things....water, animals, and something to get her hands into!
She would squeal so loud and laugh so hard with every wave!
She wouldn't get out of the water and on this day it wasn't too cold...cold, but bearable...no she isn't sick yet either! :)
The child was soaked...I was too. But we had a blast!

Gulfarium

Most of the time the weather was too cold to play on the beach for very long so I went to the visitors center to see what there was to do in the area for the week. So one morning while Marc was at work Ana and I went to this Gulfarium. We loved it. Tons of animals and 3 different shows to watch. It was chilly...but worth it. Those pelicans are freezing their little tail feathers off! They were all hunkered down and huddled together!
This was one of the shows. Ana and I were two of the 7 people at the shows....NOT tourist season right now. Kinda nice...ya got your pick of the seats that's for sure...and no lines!

Loving the Beach

Loving my husband!
Loving my daughter! Loving our life!

Jessica and Baby Reagan Morrell!

The Morrell's are good friends of ours from Alaska days. They are stationed in Florida right now about 30 minutes away from where Marc's "palace"is. Ana and I drove to their house one morning to see them. It was wonderful to catch up in person! Reagan is beautiful and I love that she has such opinions at such a young 4 week old age! :) A girl who knows what she wants! Miss you guys! Thanks for all the Korea advice!

Beach Time Again!

This is Ana's last day on the beach...I think we might have a beach bum on our hands! She couldn't get enough of it!

Fabulous time in Florida! SOOO good to see Marc and get all our hugs and kisses to last us til he gets home!

"Love You Mommy"

SO after a couple of days of attitude my SWEET little girl told me she loves me for the first time today! We were running last minute errands before leaving in the morning for Florida and I was getting her out of her carseat and she gave me this HUGE hug and said, "Love You Mommy"!!! Clear as day and no prompting! :) Just as matter of fact... happy little girl! MADE MY DAY...MY YEAR...MY LIFE!!! (This picture is from her baptism...found it fitting of my angelic little girl!) God is SOOO good, He's so good to me.... (it's a song I've been singing today!)

Can Reach the Peddles!

Finally, Ana can reach the peddles and can ride her tricycle that her Aunt Brenda and Uncle Lloyd brought for her. Need to work on the stirring a bit...but overall is doing awesome with it. The weather is perfect here and we go to the park a lot right now. Marc left this past Sunday for his month in Florida. Ana has not done well without her daddy. She has been quite the pistol and has been acting out HORRIBLY. Tonight I went to my monthly bible study class and there were 5 kids in the nursery with two teenagers watching them. One of the teenagers had to be with Ana while the other one had the other 4. I guess she was out of control. We leave on Thurs. to go see Marc for 10 days so hopefully she will connect that he hasn't left her and turns back to her sweet loving self. I have a new found respect for single parents! When we got home tonight, we called Marc to say "night night" and she got a HUGE smile on her face the moment she heard his voice. I'm glad we decided to get tickets to go see him so quickly now! All in all, a very low key week just trying to get the house sold and figure out what to put in the Korea shipment. It gets picked up 30 Jan. Marc gets home 9 Feb. and the storage packers come for the rest of our household goods the 12th of Feb. We drive out of Phoenix on the 16th! I don't know if we will be able to do the blog next week but I will when we get home the following week.

Happy 2007!

We got home from Ohio on the 30th and then on the 31st we drove up to Sedona to celebrate the New Year with the Tobergte's! We were with them 10 years ago on New Years Eve...the New Year's Marc and I got engaged! Just seemed fitting to celebrate with them. We played games all night, solved world problems and reminisced about the past 10 years! What an amazing 10 years it has been! We are looking forward to whatever 2007 has in store for us!

Stitzel Moments!

Peyton (our neice) and Ana were inseparable the entire trip. They are just a year apart and played so well together! This kitty was so good with them.
Our neices playing together at Grannie's house! There was a little closet that they keep squeezing into!

The girls having a tea party at Grannie's...so sweet! Gracelyn is 7 and is the "mother" of the group! She took such good care of Ana!

This is my favorite picture of the Stitzel's...such a loving family!

Our Tartar-tots!

When we were in Russia meeting Ana, the Dear's were getting to take home their little girl Nadya! The Dear's live in Dayton...about an hour away from Marc's home. We plan to visit them everytime we go to Ohio to keep our little girls close in hopes that they will be good friends someday since they are from the same region in Russia...Tartarstan! It was a wonderful visit and Nadya is beautiful! We have such a special bond with this family and I know it is the beginning of a lifelong friendship!

Christmas with Marc's Dads Side

On the 26th we had Christmas over at Aunt Pam's house. We got there early afternoon and spent the evening opening gifts, watching Christmas movies, and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner. Thank you for everything! Donald opening a gift card to Applebees from me...inside joke!
Pam opening her gift from Ana...a matruska doll from Russia!
Ana putting lip gloss on Brent, Marc's cousin! Doesn't he look fabulous?

Christmas Day Dinner

On Christmas Day we woke up and went to Grannie's for breakfast, Aunt Pam's for lunch, and then Matt and Angie hosted Christmas dinner for Angie's family. Ana adores her cousins! They played hard all week long...this is one of my favorite pictures of them!
Peyton got this mask for Christmas. Ana had so much fun with it.

Ana REALLY enjoyed her Aunt Angie's punch. Another full day of Christmas fun!

Christmas with Marc's Moms Side

Marc's brother and family just built their dream house this year and we celebrated Christmas at their house. We were there all day opening gifts, playing games, and eating! That night Matt and Angie watched Ana so that Marc and I could do the candlelight service for Christmas Eve. Ana got some dress up jewerly! Angie and our neices are in the background.
Marc's brother Matt and his Grannie. Marc has gotten his Grannie a stuffed animal for Christmas for many years now and it's still one of his favorite gifts to find every year for her!
Marc's mom and her husband Jim. Thank you for a fabulous Christmas!

Airport Entertainment

This is what happens when you have a 5 hour delay in the airport! Of all the days for Phoenix to have FOG! Ana did great and we made friends with everyone on our flight! One sweet lady even made Ana a scarf to pass the time.

Christmas Morning at Our House

Santa came early to our house since he knew we were going to Ohio. We woke up on the 22nd and opened our stockings! We let Ana open hers first and then she played while we opened ours. We played with our toys and then after lunch we took our tree down and put all our decorations away. I'm glad we did because it was nice to come home and not have to deal with it!
Ana's Grandad got her that rocking chair! She LOVES it! Thank you! Santa even came for Tom and Pooks! It was like she knew what to do...she went straight to her stocking and sat in her chair and opened all her gifts! AND she woke up crazy early too....
This is a Little Mermaid candy necklace...she drooled all over herself as she ate it all gone within 5 mins! Hilarious!
She was so happy to get this harmonica! Another thing to spit and drool on...FUN MORNING! Thank you to my family for all our wonderful gifts!

Our Christmas Eve

Marc, Ana and I had our Christmas Eve on the 21st of Dec. because we left for Ohio on the 23rd. Our 1st Christmas as a family was amazing! We opened the gifts that were under the tree. Ana's face was priceless with EVERY gift she opened. Ana helping her daddy open HIS gifts!
She got this sweet bear from her Uncle Tommy and Aunt Judi. Thank you!
She's been wanting a guitar for awhile now...check out the cool dress up shoes she got too! TOO CUTE! She had a blast and hasn't put the guitar down yet!

Christmas Guitar

Christmas Guitar
Video sent by mstitzel

This was Ana's big gift!

How Many Can I Have?