Valentine’s Day 2014

What a wonderful day!  Not many pictures but we were just having too much fun together to pick up the camera.  Ahhh…just as it should be!

Our day began when Hannah woke up and said, ‘Mommy!  It’s Valentine’s Day!’  Nothing better than to wake up with my little love!  I ran downstairs to pick up her little treats and our day began.

Hannah enjoyed parties  at school and daycare in the afternoon and shared her Valentines with her friends.  For supper we went to Mom and Dad’s and enjoyed our time with them before they headed off on their Hawaiian cruise. 

A wonderful day from start to finish!  Happy Valentine’s Day my sweet love!

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Hannah and I had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!!  I take many opportunities daily to tell her how much I love her and Valentine’s Day is just one more opportunity to tell her again and again…and again how much I love her and how thankful I am to be her Mommy!

We had such fun this week preparing for this day of love and I saw a new little girl this year compared to last year and the ones before.  In the past I prepared most of our Valentine cards and she added her adorable little ‘H’.  This year she was confident and independent and capably handled the Valentines prep.  I watched in awe as the writing of her name progressed between the first and last card that she wrote.

This little video made me giggle as she signed her cards while singing, ‘Jingle Bells.’  Hehe!

I also smiled last night at Mom and Dad’s when she signed one of her Valentines for them.  For some reason she started to the far right side of the page and wrote her name from right to left.  The great thing about having a name that’s a palindrome is that it still turned out just fine and no one was any the wiser! 

Hannah handed out Princess Valentines as well as these cute little ones we made.  They’re the same as last year’s with an updated pic but it works since she’s in preschool this year so the kids are new.

Valentine’s Day morning she was excited to see what the ‘Easter Bunny’ had brought her!  (Oh how I love 3!!) 

I was invited to join Hannah at preschool part way through the morning and we were both really excited!!  I joined her during their circle time and was able to hear her sing with her friends.  I loved being with Hannah in her environment!  We started with her making a sweet card

and then a beautiful necklace.

I cannot tell you how excited I was to spend this time with Hannah at her school!  It helped me to realize that I’m going to need to portion out my vacation days so that I can volunteer in her classroom when she begins junior kindergarten in September.  Thank you for sharing your Valentine’s party with me Xiao Xiao!

After preschool I took her to Ange’s where she gave me a beautiful card she had made and then because it was a piano teaching evening, Hannah spent part of the evening with Grandma and Grandpa and her cousin Makenna.  I’m so thankful for the time she has together with my parents each week and since she and I couldn’t be together for supper on Valentine’s Day I was so thankful they could spend that time together.  (Unfortunately by the time I picked her up we were in the midst of a nasty storm and I forgot my camera.  I was just thankful to arrive after seeing numerous cars in the ditch on my way to pick her up.)  When I arrived she gave me this beautiful rose that she had chosen.

Hannah and I are blessed not only to have one another but to be surrounded by family and friends whom we love and who love us!  Wednesday night we stopped in to visit Nana at work and she had this cute little bear that Hannah has named Cinderella, for her.

Thursday evening I received a call from a wonderful friend asking if I could pop over on my way to pick up Hannah.  Deb had stepped up in a huge way last month and watched Hannah for me on a day when Ange was enjoying a well deserved vacation day.  It was a teaching day for me so Hannah shared 11 wonderful hours with Auntie Deb and Uncle Scott.  She came home with many beautiful crafts and homemade cookies that day and I didn’t think anything more about it.  Yesterday I found out they had one more surprise saved for Mommy.  I cried when I opened this beautiful card and saw Hannah’s hand written message of love inside. 

(I also laughed as they shared the photo shoot challenge it was to get the pic above.  30 mins of photo taking to get the one they wanted.  Oh how I understand!  The pic I used with the sucker was one of 80 some taken one day, trying to get the right one…and when she wasn’t laying on the floor or hiding her eyes.  Oy!)

Photo shoot outtakes VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Hannah and I are blessed beyond measure to be Mother and Daughter and at the same time are amazed and humbled by the love that is showered on us by others.  You know who you are and please know that we love you very, very much too!

Happy Valentine’s Day Hannah XiaoFen!  Mommy loves you!!  xoxoxoxoxo

Valentine’s Day with my Little Sweetie!

Valentine’s Day has taken on a whole new excitement now that Hannah is in my life!  Any reason to express my love more to Hannah is welcome!

We began our day bright and early enjoying her little treats: Princess posters to colour, an Elmo colouring book, Minnie Mouse puzzle, plastic heart necklaces (one of which she gave me and I wore with pride to work that day) and Smarties (Canada’s version of M&M’s)! 

One of the cute things that’s happening right now when Hannah speaks is that ‘s’ is often missed if it’s the first letter of a word.  At times when I can’t quite figure out what she’s saying I try to add an ‘s’ to what I hear and see if I can figure out what the word is.  Here’s a little video taken Monday night where Hannah’s talking about some of the treats she received for Valentine’s Day.

Hannah is all about puzzles right now and she’s very good at them.  Here she’s working on the Minnie Mouse puzzle with a little help from Mom.

A breakfast of yogurt plus a rice cake with jam and Valentine sprinkles.  Normally it would be peanut butter but until we see the allergist (Feb 29th) we’re still avoiding all nuts.

My princess prefers to wear her crown on the back of her head. 

Normally we have pink pancakes for supper but since next Tuesday is Pancake Tuesday we switched it up and dined on spaghetti.  At first she didn’t want any sauce

but then when she saw my dish she asked for ‘tomato soup’ on her spaghetti too.  Ahhh….that’s better!

We hope you had a great day surrounded by people you love!

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

A wish from us to you!
We took a number of pics trying to make a card that we could do this with.  It took a bit but we got one that we’re both happy with.
Here are some of the fun outtakes from our Valentine’s photo shoot.

My cute little Valentine! VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

This is the picture Hannah chose to use for her Valentine’s card.  I think it captures her fun, spunky personality perfectly!

Oh how I love my sweetie and her goofy grin!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

This morning I woke up to the sweetest little Valentine face ever!!  Check out how adorable she was with her Mickey and Minnie Valentine’s pj’s and wild bedhead!

Signing her Valentine’s cards last night, getting ready for today’s V-day party at daycare.

We captured this little video this morning while Hannah was enjoying her breakfast.  She’s recently mastered her version of Happy New Year (for CNY) ‘Happy NooNoo’ and just as she learned that one I sprung a new celebration on her.  She’s working on ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ here and soon it will be ‘Happy Birthday’ that we celebrate!!

My wiggly girl is hard to catch in pics these day but we tried this morning to capture her pj’s and then Valentine’s outfit.

We hope you had a wonderful Valentine’s day!!  We did for sure!  I am forever grateful to God for my sweet, sweet Valentine!

A Craft for My Valentine

Last week I saw Miss D’s beautiful Valentine craft that her mommy found here and I knew it would be one Hannah would enjoy too.  We went about gathering supplies and on Monday when we were cuddling at home since we were both sick, it was a perfect activity.  (Hannah has turned the corner and is doing much better.  Thank you to all for your kind words, emails and prayers.  We greatly appreciate them!) 

Here is Hannah creating her Valentine Window Art.

I love, love, love to hear her sweet little voice chatter away!  I still haven’t figure out what she was saying at the beginning of the video.  Any ideas?  I’ve also noticed how much more concentration she had on this craft than on our Christmas decorations only a short 2 months ago.  Enjoy the sweetness! 

The finished Valentine!

Oh yes, she has my heart!!

 

 

;slkfan;lfsad

My Sweet Valentine!!!

I can say without a doubt that this year is my very best Valentine's Day ever as the little love of my life is here with me!!! There are moments every day that I still find myself stopping and pausing, gazing at my sweet baby girl and almost pinching myself. I still cannot believe she's here and that she's not going anywhere! Before Hannah, I knew love. Now that she's here I know how deep love can be!

Last night I dressed her in these adorable little sleepers to celebrate her 1st Valentine's Day. Too sweet!
Today, may you know the love of many people in your life. I am thankful to have that in my life and the most precious love is that of my daughter whom God has blessed me with. I am thankful to Him daily for Hannah XiaoFen!