Wednesday was our very first "Gotcha Day". For those of you who don't know what this is, it is the celebration of the day that we met our baby girl. On November 26,2007 we were introduced to the most amazing little angel. From the moment we saw her we knew that she was meant to be our daughter. We thank God daily for bringing us together and for allowing us to be her parents.It is amazing to think that it has been one year since we met our baby girl. On one hand it feels like she has always been here and on the other it's hard to believe that it has already been a year.  To celebrate our very first "gotcha day", we took Hannah to Chuckie Cheese. She had a blast playing games and eating pizza. We also took her to Toys R Us and let her pick out a toy.

 

Thursday of course was Thanksgiving and we had a busy day. We had Thanksgiving at Josh's grandparents at 12:00 and then with my family at 5:00. Hannah did very well she had a lot of fun visiting with every one. Today we did the dreaded Black Friday shopping. I go every year and this year I decided to take Hannah with me. She loved it! I told her before I put her to bed last night that when she got up we were going shopping. This morning when I woke her up she sat straight up in bed and said "shopping?!". She was very chipper this morning at 5:30, every one that passed us she would say "Hi" and blow them kisses. We came home around 11:00 and she is now sleeping soundly.  I thought that I would post a few pictures to show you how much baby girl has changed over the past year.

 

 

November 26, 2007

 

 

 

November 26, 2008

 

 

 

I was just looking at my blog and realized how long it had been since I have updated. Sorry for the delay! Hannah is doing great, she is growing more and more every day. She is now 19 months old and she weighs 24 pounds and is 34 inches tall. She has gained a little over 5 pounds since she has been home and grown approximately 5 inches taller. Her vocabulary is unreal! I can't even tell you how many words that she can say at this point , because she comes up with new ones every day! Her doctor is pretty impressed that she is able to speak so well considering she heard only Russian for the first 10 months of her life.

Since my last post we have been to the Rodeo, my nephew Elijah does "mutton busting" (sheep riding) It is pretty cool to watch and he is very good at it. Hannah is amazed by horses and loves to pet them and ride them. She got to ride a horse at the rodeo with the assistance of Aunt Wendi and she was tickled to death. Every time the horse would stop, Hannah would kick her feet into it and say "go, go". She had a blast!

Also we have had our first Halloween. Hannah dressed up like Minnie Mouse and she was the cutest Minnie Mouse I have ever seen! (I'm not partial or anything though! :-)

We took her and my cousin's son Draven who is 16 months old trick or treating and they had so much fun. We put them in the wagon and Josh was able to pull them right up to most of the doors so that they didn't even have to get out of the wagon. They were riding in style! It was the first time either of them had been trick or treating and they were both amazed. Hannah got so excited every time someone gave her candy and she would say " ooh thank you!" We had fun just watching how excited they were.

We have a big day coming up here very shortly. November 26th is Hannah's "Gotcha Day". This will mark one year since we met the love of our life in Kazakhstan. Some people celebrate "gotcha day" on the day that the courts declared their adoptions final but we decided to celebrate our "gotcha day" as the day we met Hannah because from the moment they put her in our arms she was our daughter and we were a family. We are taking Hannah out that day for the three of us to celebrate the best day of our lives! More updates to come soon!