Happy 3rd Birthday, Baby Girl!!

We can't believe it, but our baby girl turned three today. The day started with Mama singing Happy Birthday to her and of course she joined in singing to herself.  At noon, family and friends came to help celebrate the day.  She was very into the cake and presents this year. It is amazing how much change you see in the little things throughout the years. She chose to have strawberry cake and after much searching by Baba for a Dora image to put on top, we settled for her Kailan characters from her lego set.  She didn't really care.  As we sang "Happy Birthday", she joined in with a big smile on her face. All year she has done a fine job singing to everyone else, and you could tell she was happy that it was her turn.  I wish I could tell you all the comments she had after opening presents, but there are too many to remember.  She was really excited to see all the Dora stuff,  including a flashlight that shines Dora pictures on the ceiling, a microphone, 2 sets of pajamas, 2 coloring books with lots of "tickers", a t-shirt, jewelry, a book with a piano, a movie, booties, a rubics cube and roller skates, which were the final entertainment of the party. She also got a Kailan lego set, a princess dress with tiara, a bag of M &M's, which got a huge smile,  a Veggie Tale movie, a Chinese sing along book with CD, and I probably missed something, but I think that covers most of it.  Thank you everyone for making our baby girl's day wonderful.  She had a good time.

Yes, she is singing to herself. :)

Thanks, Aunt Pam and Uncle Paul!

She watched all the episodes already! They were all
birthday related. Thanks Grandma and Papa.

She was interested in this cube, but was
disturbed when the pictures didn't match. :)

Notice Kailan and Dora did join us for the party?

Thanks Uncle Chad for the Dora book and the tickers.

Thanks Aunt Kandi and Uncle Kevin!

Mama and Baba' s gift. If you read an earlier blog, you
will know why she is so excited in the picture.

She is thinking, "My very own bag of M &M's!!"

Loading up for action....


On the move....

...and down she goes, but she quickly said, "I otay" with a smile, and she got back up.

If I remember right, she got my toes in this picture.

After just a few minutes, she got better and managed to skate
across the room by herself. She amazingly picks up on things so quickly.

As everyone else was loud and crazy, I caught Hannah
sitting by herself playing with her tickers. :) Only for a few minutes of course...

Aunt Robin dancing with the princess...thanks Aunt Robin
and Uncle Dave for the outfit.

And at 9:00 p.m. she was still enjoying her gifts...playing
and singing whatever she could come up with...

Looking up at her flashlight photo. It was really
dark in her room but the flash made it bright.

This is what the flashlight shines and 6 other pictures... pretty cool.  I have a
feeling this will be a nightly activity in her room for a while.


Thanks everyone for a great day. We love all of you and are so thankful for all the family and friends that our baby girl will grow up with.  We are all so blessed!!!!

Welcome, Baby Caleb!!!!

 He finally came...once they finally found "room in the inn".  That was the joke from the start.  My sister-in-law was considered a high-risk pregnancy and was suppose to be induced on the 6th unless there were too many other deliveries that day. Well she was 3 cm and was supposed to go in Thursday morning by 8 a.m., but then they got a call that said she shouldn't come until 9 a.m., because there was "no room in the inn". :)  She jumped on the treadmill and by 10 a.m. she was having stronger contractions and so they headed to Elkhart.  Unfortunately, he didn't come until almost 8:00 p.m. Thursday night. We decided to go visit on Friday night and Hannah was all about holding the baby, but she didn't quite understand why I wouldn't let her hold him by herself. She seemed very proud of him and held him with care. 

Can we pause the time for just a minute?

Our baby girl will turn 3 years old this Saturday.  It is so hard to believe!!!  I love the age she is at now and wouldn't change it for a minute, but I wish we could push rewind just for a second and then push pause for a few days.  She is growing so fast and continues to amaze us with her knowledge and memory.  She makes us laugh on a daily basis. She has been watching an episode of Little Bill where he learns how to roller skate.  She has since been going around sliding her feet on the floor singing, "Roller Skate, roller skate, I get to learn to roller skate."  Last week, we finally replaced the carpet upstairs with wood floors and now she can really skate smoothly.  While making supper last week, Hannah kept sliding around the newly laid floor singing the song and then telling me that she might fall one time, but she would be "otay". So she would slide across the floor, fall on purpose and throw her arms above her head with a big sigh, then say I "otay" mama...I might fall just one time.  That went on for about 45 minutes until I put her in her high chair to stay in one place for a bit.  She is so crazy, but wouldn't change it for the world.  Look how our baby girl has changed....

Wow, what a beautiful face.

Trick or Treat...ARRRRR!!!!!!

As Halloween was coming upon us, I wondered what we should do for Hannah's costume. Last year, our cousin sent us a costume for her so it worked perfectly, but not this year.  As I was looking in the Walmart ad, I showed it to Hannah and asked, "What do you want to be for Halloween this year?"  She pointed and said, "I want to be a pirate, mommy, arrrrr!"  Roger and I looked at each other and said alright, sure. So we make our trek to Walmart and searched and searched and searched some more. No pirate costume, so I asked the workers and said, "Do you have anymore costumes anywhere?"  They said there were a few up front by the entrance.  Oh, Praise the Lord, there it was. Boy did she make a cute pirate.  We could only keep the patch up for a few seconds at a time, just for pictures because she would look at me and say, " I can't see, Mama."   Even though it was pretty chilly on Halloween night, we were able to visit a few friends and family. Thanks everyone for all the candy!!!!

can you tell that she is saying aarrrrrrr!

playing some games at the church fall fun fair

Carefully opening Grandma's card, but it never got opened,
because she didn't want to rip the stickers.

Happy 2nd Gotcha Day!!!!

Can you believe it?  Yes, it has been 2 years since we first held our beautiful girl, Chen Leyan, now named Hannah Kay Leyan Grossman.  We cannot get over how much she has grown and how many things she has learned.  We look back at those first pictures we received of her and just shake our heads.  We are still in awe of how God placed her with us and how it was His perfect plan. So many people tell us to hold onto these moments because they go by so fast and wow, that is so true.  I wish I could just go back one day to when she was little, which at the time we felt she was so big. Look at her now!!! She is such a bundle of joy. So many people say she is so blessed, but we always say that we are the ones who are truly blessed.  

We started our day with some blue pancakes ( just a little food coloring).  Hannah loves mommy's pancakes and somehow she got started on wanting blue ones.  Most of the morning and early afternoon, we spent outside- mowing grass, pulling mommy's flowers, playing on the swingset, raking leaves, and jumping in the piles. When Baba got home, he and Hannah took a nap.  At 5:00, Hannah got her second haircut- her first one was a year ago.  Then we went to the park to play a bit and took some pictures in the tree. We took pictures in this same tree last year and I thought it would be neat to make it a "Gotcha Day" tradition. Oh how well the pictures turned out. Hannah has always been a good picture taker from day one and boy did she give us some good ones this year.  After the park, we went to the Great Wall to eat. Last year, we ordered rice for Hannah figuring that would be the best choice, but instead she ate the fries. So this year we didn't even bother with the rice, we went straight to the fries. And of course, Jonie gave us some chocolate ice cream because it was Hannah's birthday- that is what Jonie calls it.  Even though we did exactly what we did last year, it was a wonderful day. God gave us beautiful weather and time together.

Trying to get Mama with the leaves.

We got the milkshake idea from someone else and it works great.

At the top of the slide....

to the bottom.

Hannah made an H with her french fries at the Great Wall.