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.

We love you, Sammy and Grandma Grossman!!

This was meant to go on the blog a while ago, but just haven't had the chance.  We had to say good-bye to our 11-year old chocolate lab, Sammy, the first week of September.  He just wasn't getting around very well with the growth on his front shoulder. It had been about the size of a volleyball and it didn't really start bothering him badly until this past summer. He didn't really let it stop him much, because he was still trying to catch those rabbits in the backyard and still trying to race the neighbor's dogs up and down the fence.  But the week before we decided to put him down, he could barely make it to his food bowl. Even though we didn't want to realize it, we knew it was time.  We miss him still and it still hurts to write this, but we know he isn't in pain anymore.  This picture couldn't really be any better.

And of course, the next week didn't get much better. We said good-bye to Grandma Grossman. What a lady!! We so wish Hannah would have been able to get to know Grandpa Grossman and the "real" Grandma Grossman, but we know she is no longer in pain and no longer separated from her true love.  We miss you Grandma Grossman and will always tell Hannah about you and Grandpa Grossman.