Happy 1st Birthday Noelle!

We had two birthday parties for Noelle this year. Her birthday was on March 7th so we had a small, simple family party on the 7th. She loved everyone singing Happy Birthday to her and she LOVED the cake as you can see.



In our Gladney traveling group there were two families who live near us and their daughters are the same age as Noelle, they all have birthdays within three weeks of each other. So, we had them and their extended families over for a big combined birthday party. We ordered a lot of Chinese food, exchanged gifts, made a huge mess, and had a great time. The babies have all grown plump and so cute since China. They have also made a huge amount of progress just like Noelle in every area. All of them wore their Chinese clothes.

Soccer Playin' Girl!

Maddie started playing soccer 2 weeks ago. We had her first game last Saturday- great times! We are so proud of her! Her friend Makenzie's mom told us about it and asked us to play so we signed up- its great that she can play with her friend. Just tonight she confessed she was nervous at her first soccer game-so sweet. She also says, "I'm number 4 because I'm 4 years old!" Cute. Noelle thinks its great too and wants to play right along!
I'm also including a couple of pics of Noelle and Maddie playing which is a common occurrence around here. Finally, Maddie is pretty much reading on a simple basis now so I included a pic showing that. Noelle on 12/11/05 when we got her could barely sit up and was not crawling whatsoever. Now she crawls like crazy, pulls up, and is starting to walk from one piece of furniture to another. Miracle.