My Angel In The Moon.

Well yesterday was a first for both Tricia and myself. We did forget the USB cable for the camera, so we are unable to up-load the photos/vids from Tricia's skydiving, which was totally awesome to watch from the ground and watching her load up in the plane. I will let Tricia post about actually doing it.

I, on the other hand have a cell phone image to share. I never thought I would actually do it, but finally I did. Sophie's birth first name is Hang, which in Vietnamese means "Angel in the Moon". So I had this really cool concept and decided to just make it happen and what better place than Vegas. Studio 21 is the top shelf art studio just west of The Strip on Flamingo Blvd. The business is family run and have been featured on 20/20 and had a big part of the show The Biggest Loser. I had the luck of having Charlie the owner design my art and after almost four hours later the end result is simply amazing to me.

This picture really does it no justice at all sicne it is from a cell but the gold, blue and pink tones really go well. We talked about the size and came to the conclusion that smaller would not make it work like I wanted it to. I am VERY VERY happy with it and it means so very much to me. Our Angel in the Moon, Sophie is so special and wonderful to the both of us. Crazy things we do to celebrate our children. So Mom, Pop, yes all THREE of your children are now "inked" with very special and meaningful pieces of artwork. In case you decided to call and talk about how beautiful it is, my BlackBerry shot craps yesterday morning, so I have Tricia's cell ending in 7670. We are at the airport in Vegas anxious to see our little girl!!! Thanks to YaYa and crew for taking such great care of Sophie!

Diving The Desert And An Angel In The Moon

Well, its another day in Sin City...Sophie is having a blast with YaYa, Uncle Tim and the boys. We are in Boulder City right now at the airport. Tricia and Uncle Bub (her brother) are in a closed room signing papers and getting ready to go to class....TO JUMP OUT OF A PERFECTLY GOOD AIRPLANE!!!!!!!!! Tomorrow Uncle Bub turns the big THREE O so he wanted to skydive...Well Tricia was in, I thought I'd film it from the ground. More excitement for Poppa later on this afternoon, hopefully :-). So This is the pre-post. Lots of pix and videos will come.

Flying with FedEx

Well not really flying with FedEx, as late as I left ATL, many cargo flights were out and about. Poppa is finally here in Vegas landing at 2:18am Pacific.....UGH!!! Sophie had a great first night over at the Chez Riley. Check out the details. http://ourlifeasriley.blogspot.com/ . We are glad she is having fun!!!!

Still waiting, but on the plane which they pulled from the hangar. We finally pushed back @ 1:18am Eastern.

Flying in the Spring FUN!! NOT!

I am sitting in the Delta Crown room in Atlanta....Huge storms rolled through with lightning stikes on the tower, causing smoke in it, with evacuations and ATL closing.... My plane, which came from LAX is now had to divert to Birmingham....still waiting. Below are some pix....on the flightaware.com shot notice the storm cell in the upper right. Flights to and fro Viet Nam went smoother than this... PFFFT!!!

Before the storm....

as it hit...

My plane still diverted to BHM from LAX..........

storms in the upper right....

First Trip.......WITHOUT OUR DAUGHTER!!!

Tricia is at the airport already. Her flight leaves at 7. I leave later this afternoon for a long weekend in Las Vegas for Uncle Larry's 30th. It hit home at dinner last night that this would be our first extended time away from Sophie. She will be staying with Yaya aka....www.ourlifeasriley.blogspot.com, Uncle Tim and cousins Jack and Mason. We know she will have fun with them over the weekend. Still we wonder what she will be thinking? We have told her that Mommy and Poppa are going for a bit and we tell her, like we always do, Mommy and Poppa always come back. But this is not just school this is 1,800 miles from home. It will be a test for sure. What will she think? Will it be like in VN when we first got her? No.....we know it will be tough, but we will endure, as will she. I guess we will have many phone calls and post videos so she can see us :-) Have fun with the Rileys Sophie! We will miss you and see you Sunday night!

WE LOVE YOU!! Poppa and Mommy

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY MASON

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MASON! WE LOVE YOU-UNCLE HANK, AUNT TRICIA AND SOPHIE!

Easter Trip

Easter trip to Tulsa....Sophie's first experience with egg coloring was so funny. She really loved making multi-colored egss... and hands :-). The weather was super crud so the rabbit had to hide eggs inside! :-( Oh well.....our girl continues to amaze us every single day. Her language skills are just wonderful saying ABCs, identifying colors etc. She still loves to draw, but now is a huge Dora and Hi-5 fan. So enough talk...here are the pix..

OH MY....HANDS...MOMMY! POPPA! HELP ME!

My multi-egg ;-)

Wagon full of goodies

Cheeeeeese!! Headed to church

Lots of people here...I'm kinda shy at first...

Easter with Mommy and Poppa

Huntin' eggs...inside! BOOOOOOOOOO!

Bon Voyage Duda Family!!

FINALLY! After almost 2 full years since their referral, we are excited watch as the Duda family leaves today for Viet Nam to be united with their son Hunter. Their G&R will be on Monday! Follow along http://huntershomecoming.blogspot.com/

CONGRATS TO YOU ALL JIM AND MARY LI!!!

Hank, Tricia, and Sophie!

Fun FIlled Weekend.....Oh Yeah, And I Have A Big Girl Bed Too!!

We had a busy and fun weekend as a family. Saturday was the always fun Wetlands For Kids Day. 2,000 youth packed Busch Wildlife on a sunny and warm day to learn about waterfowl and conservation. All kinds of fun things from live raptors and turtles, to a duck wing maze. Great learning for kids to get them out of the house away from the TV and computer and learn about wildlife and nature. I have always looked forward to taking Sophie and this year was fun. Sophie really was interested in the live raptors and loved watching the field trial dogs.
Saturday night we had a birthday dinner with friends at our house. The Walkers along with Mike and Kayla joined in and we had a great time closing out Tricia's birthday week.
Today, well we decided it was time to move Sophie to a big girl bed, so after nap time, good-bye crib, hello toddler bed. She loves it....so far :-).
Lots of pix to see so enjoy!

Loves the ducks! QUACK QUACK...

Sitting in the Dig-Dig bucket with Poppa

Owls, WHOO WHOO, hawks and falcons...

All smiles and giggles with her "FOOOWER" in her hand.

Walking with Jack and Mason at WFKD 2009

Mother and Daughter

Checking out her new fishing fly for her hat!

Having fun with Poppa today....

Sorry Bear! I cut your head off!!


Poppa and Mommy

Olivia..Sophie calls her "O"

Poppa, Uncle Walker and Uncle Mike...yes the Blues were playing last night...

After dinner fashion show by the girls...LOL

IN MY BIG GIRL BED!!!!

Peaches loves it too!

Party Pix

Looks like we need to change the blog password, since SLB decided to start posting :-) Mommy had a nice birthday yesterday. After work and school we opened up gifts. Sophie gave Trish a silver mommy bracelet with SOPHIE on it and three different birthstones, June, December, and January which are her match month, gotcha month and birthday month.
We also went out and had a nice dinner at Bristol, just the three of us. Happy Birthday Tricia and many many more!

Poppa's girls

The picture Sophie made Mommy at school.


Opening cards at dinner...Sophie used her trademark brown crayon on hers.

Our little family unit

Someone, still unkown threw up this banner, placed a big bunch of for sale and political signs in our front yard along with mailbox balloons.

A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MOMMY!

I am at sckool rite now werking on my writing skillz and playing with my friendz here! I want to say Happie Birfday 2 Mommy. Today she is 31 yearz old! So while I am at sckool I do not have Poppa's black box with all of the pixture we teuk this morning after I eated my wafflez, so I have my first pixture ever with Mommy in Viet Nam. So before Ms. Leslie catches me on the tv with a keyboard I will say bye bye! Mommy and Poppa will put up sum mor when the sun goes down and I go night night. Happe Birfday Mommy! - EYE LOVE YOU..... Sophie...

Hey I still have these colored stix at my house!