A Free Gift For You...Kinda

Here is another way you all can help with our adoption process. Thanks to a design created by our friend Jonathan Edwards that was printed with a lot of help from a couple in our small group (our great friends the Dortches) we have t-shirts!

The design below is based on the childrens song "Jesus Loves the Little Children". Get it? "Red and yellow, black and white, Jesus loves the little children of the world." Thanks to the Dortches the design is printed on awesome super-soft American Apparel tri-blend shirt. We mention the shirt style and manufacturer because if you have ever felt an American Apparel tri-blend shirt you know how soft they are, not to mention the heathered gray look is really cool.


So I said that we have a free gift for you. We are a family of our word and that is technically true. For a donation to our adoption fund of $25 or more you can get a free shirt! What madness is this? What a deal! You get to partner with us in living out the gospel through adoption and you get a really cool shirt to boot?

If you want a shirt and we see you on a regular basis we will have them in our car so leave a comment, e-mail us, twitter DM @zshanlon or @mywifetweets, or call us and we can reserve your shirt. We have adult S-XL. If you are a family or friend that we don't get to see very often or live far away you can make a contribution using the Pay Pal button on the top of the blog of $25 plus shipping then send us a note and we will mail you the shirt! We hope you like the shirts.

11 months!

One month until Ainsley is 1 year old! I'm definitely going to be sad to say goodbye to these sweet baby months, but I know she must grow and more fun will come. Previously I have forgotten to mention a few things about little Annie, her personality has definitely come out a lot more over the past few months. One thing about her is she is quite the explorer, she loves to get into things (which might be because her older sister now gets into EVERYTHING). One of her favorite things to do is to take a rubber bouncy ball and take it around the house, placing it and dropping it in all sorts of places. I'm not quite sure why she loves it so much, but it occupies her!

I know I have mentioned how sweet she is, but I've seen it a lot more in her interaction with Ellie this past month. She likes to take Ellie's new favorite item, Dolly Madison (a stuffed doll), but when Ellie asks for it back, Ainsley almost always gives it right back (although sometimes they do play tug-a-war, Ainsley doesn't respond well to taking from her). She is always willing to share, and loves to make us laugh.


more things about Ainsley:
-word she likes to say: doggie, dada, kitty cat, thank you (most recent)
-waves hello and bye bye
-points at objects
-drinks from sippy cups, but still doesn't drink from a straw
-stands alone
-walks while holding onto one hand (I think she'll take those first steps soon, we'll see)
-refuses baby food, loves to eat table food (starting to refuse some veggies now)
-feeds 3-4 times a day. I just decided to try to nurse her only 3 times a day, I'm hoping to be consistent about this so I can wean her at a year easily.
-sleeps from 7p-5:30a. About to change this soon though. Right now she is waking up in habit at 5:30a (used to be 6:30a before the time change), I'm going to try to break this habit and wait to feed until she wakes up for the day. She did it this morning!
-naps usually twice a day, 20-40 minutes in the morning and 1-2 hours in the afternoon.
-STILL NO TEETH
-very expressive, her whole face shows what she's feeling (mad, frustrated, happy, sad)
-loves her thumb
-loves to play in the dog water bowl
-LOVES to sing, dance, and clap. Whenever I sing a song, she claps and frequently even sings along
-still loves to bounce
-plays independently, will play for a long time by herself (I find this quite odd because Ellie didn't do this well at all, she always wanted me to play with her. Ainsley even has an older sister to play with, but seems to like playing alone and exploring by herself, although she does love to play with Ellie too)
-likes to read books (short ones), take apart puzzles, and play with the farm animals
-LOVES the chair, she absolutely loves to sit in the heart chair (I think because it's just her size)
-keeps her socks and shoes on, also keeps bows and clips in her hair (Ellie can't do either one of these, never has kept any of these on very long)

I love this little girl! She has been such a blessing to my life and I look forward to many more years watching her grow into a beautiful girl.

Sick Again...

Ellie has been sick again. We just can't stay well around here! This time she was really sick... She had a very high temperature (Friday night and all day Saturday it was up at 104-105 degrees, she threw up a few times, and was very lethargic (which has never happened to Ellie, even when she is sick). All she wanted to do was be in both mommy and daddy's arms (at the same time), she wanted to be wrapped up in a blanket, cuddled in our arms, and not moving. She has slowly gotten a little better. She now acts mostly fine during the day, but gets worse at night (fever comes back and has some trouble sleeping). I'm hoping neither Ainsley or I get sick, we'll wait and see.

So something about Ellie when she is sick and not lethargic, she is the best behaving little girl ever! She has manners consistently, is very obedient, kind and loving, and very sweet. Zach and I actually enjoy it when she's like this, although we wish she didn't have to be sick to act like this. I guess she doesn't have the energy to fight back, be mean, or get mad.

Ainsley and the Chair

Ainsley and the chair from Laura Hanlon on Vimeo.

Ainsley has grown a fond love to this little chair. It really cracks me up how much she loves to just sit in it. She seriously will sit in it for over 5 minutes, just sitting there sucking her thumb.

Ellie Singing

Ellie loves to sing and dance. We have a CD with the songs that we sing at church, Ellie LOVES them. She gets especially excited over Hosanna, and she ALWAYS asks to listen to that song in the car. Let's just say Zach and I are a little bit tired of that song. I love hearing her sing, although sometimes I wonder if I should even call it singing. She has started making up her own songs recently, and that is my favorite.

Here is a taste of her singing and how excited she gets:

Ellie singing my God is so big from Laura Hanlon on Vimeo.

Addison & Ellie

Addison and Ellie get to hang out quite frequently. Currently Addison is coming over 4 days a week while her previous care provider is on maternity leave. We love having Addison over, Ellie is definitely learning how to interact with friends for extended periods of time (which is not so easy). We have many time outs for hitting, pushing, not sharing, and being unkind. For those of you that do not know Ellie that well, she is non stop. She is strong, going all the time, and absolute LOVES to play with someone. She loves having Addison over, but is learning how she should treat her friends. She doesn't have that gentle, kind spirit like some kids, she's more like the outgoing, let's do crazy things child. I love her to death, but she brings many challenges!

Although they may have some bad moments, there are many good moments between the two girls. They love running with each other, doing puzzles together, reading together, and most of the time sharing! I love seeing them interact, especially on their good days. It's really hilarious to watch 2 year old girls interact with each other. They don't have the concern yet about others liking them, they just act without any care of what the other thinks. We get to have a long car ride on Wednesday mornings to church for my bible study. They always converse with each other, and I get to just listen. They love singing songs, and also arguing with each other. One will ask a question, the other will answer with yes or no, and then the other will respond with the opposite. They just go back and forth: no, yes, no, yes, no, yes... until I tell them to stop. I try to teach them about arguing, but they are not really getting it and they enjoy it too much. I know Ellie definitely gets it from both her mother and father. Addison, I'm not quite sure which one. Here's a cute video of them having a conversation, it is just a glimpse of their interaction:

Ellie & Addison Conversation from Laura Hanlon on Vimeo.

The other day I caught Ellie reading the Bible to Addison. It was so cute, and they were actually talking about the story of Jonah and the big fish. I ran to get my camera, and when I came back and was taking pictures, Ellie immediately decided she should pray. She does this quite often when Addison is around, she is always very thankful for Addison coming over and she must tell God thank you. Too cute! This is the only time I've seen her pray without our encouragement except for meal times. Ellie sure does love her friend!

Trick or Treat

First stop, our house:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We had a great time this year dressing up and trick or treating. Ellie was very excited and highly enjoyed the candy :) Ainsley wasn't thrilled about her costume, but liked all the excitement. Ellie was a beautiful pink butterfly/fairy:
Here she is saying cheese, she puts her hand up to her eyes like she's taking a picture, too cute:
Ainsley was a ladybug (Ellie's costume last year):


We started off the weekend by going to the annual HollyFest in our town Holly Springs. It's somewhat like a mini fair, lots of rides, games, food, and friends!
Ellie actually asked to ride a ride, I was shocked! She really enjoyed it:

There was a petting zoo, which the girls loved to look (not pet) the animals. A fun barn to take pictures in:
Saturday night, we went to a cook out/surprise baby shower at the Jamison's which was a ton of fun, I sure miss seeing those friends every week. Brought the camera, but wasn't in the mood to take pictures. Enjoyed talking and being occupied with the girls instead of taking pictures.

We had to get some pictures of Ellie and Addison trick or treating on Halloween. We wanted to go with the neighbors, but enjoyed dinner a little too much and were late. The girls were so cute! Ellie and Addison had so much fun! They looked extremely adorable...



Lastly, one of all three of my loves:

Doctor Visit #3- Bug Bites

So we had our third doctor visit in 2 weeks last Thursday. Ainsley was eaten up by some bug?? We are pretty positive it was a few mosquitoes, but the bites didn't react like mosquito bites should.

Here's the story: We took Ellie to the doctor on Tuesday, she had an ear infection. We then went to pick up her prescription. We went through the drive-thru, where mosquitoes were EVERYWHERE. We know at least 3-4 flew in the window, we think we killed 2. Well when we got home, Ainsley was cover in bites on her right side. We counted 12 bites total, all on her right side. It was so pitiful looking, it was on her face, her arm, her hand, her leg, and her foot. They looked like regular mosquito bites, but then the next day they were very swollen and really red. Still not too abnormal, but then Thursday they had blistered! I didn't know what to think of it and after talking to a friend, I decided just to call the nurse to check in. I didn't think they would want to see her, but maybe just suggest I give her some benadryl. Well, since they weren't quite sure what they were dealing with and it didn't sound like mosquito bites, they wanted to see her. We took her in, over bug bites. The doctor looked at them and was concerned, but since she was acting normal otherwise he suggested benadryl and a topical antibiotic on some of them to prevent infection. So we aren't really sure what bit her, looked more like ant bites but there were no signs of ants! Strange, yet a story to be told.


They still have not gone away, but they do look better. Not all of them blistered, which was good. We'll be going to the doctor this Thursday to check on Ainsley's ears, then again next week to check on Ellie's ears. Hopefully no more unexpected visits this year, I'm thinking yea right on that one...