Noelle's birthday part 2

Noelle had a wonderful 2nd birthday! She had lots of family come and some friends from church.

Poor thing fell into a wall just before her nap so when she woke up she was in a fussy mood. But as soon as she got the hang of opening her presents her mood changed....the sugar from her cake and ice cream help too I'm sure : )

Here are a few more pictures from her party....

Farm from Gram & Gramp....Thank you!

Proud new owner of a potty....that she LOVES! Thank you Papa & Mimi!

Resting with Dada after a long day.

Happy Birthday Noelle!!

My baby turned 2 years old today!

Here are a few pictures. I'll post more later today...I hope.

Just a few more pictures : )

Thank you Nicole!!!

Thank you Nicole for thinking of Noelle and sending her these clothes! They are so cute! I'll post each outfit as she wears it!

For anyone who doesn't know, Nicole and I were DTC at the same time and we have become friends. They switched to SN's like we did and have been matched with a beautiful 4 year old little girl! They are leaving this Thursday to bring home Emmali Su! Nicole had bought some outfits for Emmali thinking she would be younger and now that they won't fit her she mailed Noelle several outfits that are sooo cute!

That was sweet of you to think of us while you're busy getting ready for your trip.

We'll be praying for your family as you travel to China this Thursday!!!!!!!!!!

So check out their travel web site by clicking HERE

New Swing Set!

Some very special people bought this swing set for little Noelle!

You know who you are : )

THANK YOU....SHE LOVES IT!

Robin's First Day of High School!

Labor Day Pictures

Robin & Noelle enjoying their first picnic!

6 Months home with Noelle...plus Noelle's Adoption Video

We can't believe Noelle has been home with us for 6 months already! Where does the time go?

Stephanie just came out to the house to do our 6 month post placement visit which went great! That will be off to AWAA this week.

Noelle is learning so much....she can now help count to 5 and copies everything we say : )

She loves to watch Barna (Barney) and Ni Hao Kai-lan. Her favorite thing to do is eat snacks and read every book she owns with her Dada. Of course she loves her older sissy and loves it when she plays with her. In the evening she loves to cuddle with Mama and have a warm bottle of soy milk : )

I know we've said it before, but we feel soooo blessed that the Lord chose us to be her parents!

We love you Noelle!

Noelle ~ Gotcha day Jan. 21, 2008

Noelle ~ July 2008

Noelle's Journey Home.....It's kinda long...38 mins.

Pictures of my girls

After six months we finally found a flag for Noelle to stand beside to take her picture.

Robin & Noelle

A visit from the Steiger Clan

We had a busy but fun weekend! We held the adoption meeting here at our house and I invited the Steiger family to come up and share about their recent adoption of Jordan from Ethiopia. I was so blessed that they came and shared. It was wonderful to see them again. We met the first time last Nov in Mass. at a SCC concert. We both had just received our referrals for our girls so it was neat to see each other now that we have them home! Jordan is a doll!

What a smile : )

We also met Alice another AWAA family who adopted this beautiful little girl. This is just an amazing story of God's goodness. Selam is best friends with Patty and Jason's daughter who will be coming home Lord willing later this year. Who would imagine that two best friends who live in Ethiopia would both be adopted into Christian families who live about an hour away from each other....in Maine?! God is so good!

It was a wonderful day even with the rain! Everyone seemed to have a good time and right after lunch it stopped raining so the kids could play outside while we had our meeting. I was so happy that the other AWAA families came too! It was so nice to see Mike and Kristy and Alice! Thanks for coming!

Thank you Fil and Lenka for coming it was so fun to visit with you and see all your precious children!

I'll post some more pictures when I get them from Lenka.

Noelle enjoying the sun

Miss Noelle playing in her pool

Robin and sissy getting a tan

Noelle and Daddy

Noelle and Momma

Robin running in the parade.

I think this year was my favorite 4th of July!

Most years we just stay home and don't really do anything. I'm not really sure why. When Robin was a little girl we use to go to the parade and fire works and get together with family. But it's been years!

This year was different! We started our day by going to the parade which was a lot of fun. Robin actually ran in it! They have a race every year and she wanted to run this year with a friend. She did a good job! It was a little over 2 miles and she ran it in 15 min! Way to go girl! I wasn't able to get a picture of her, but my mom did so as soon as I get it from her I'll post it!

Noelle enjoyed the parade. She loved the candy, was scared of the clowns : )

After the parade we had a couple families come over for a cookout. Robin had two of her friends over and they did lots of swimming. Noelle also had a little friend over and they did some splashing around in her little pool.

I didn't make Noelle take a nap today with all that was going on. It was so exciting it being her first Independence Day and we didn't want her to miss out on anything! She did so good all day, but by 5:00 she just couldn't stay awake any longer! I only let her sleep for about an hour because I wanted to make sure she would sleep at night.

Later in the day Robin went to a friends house for a sleep over. They went to the fireworks and had a good time. We skipped the fireworks because we didn't want Noelle to get any mosquito bites. If you don't know what I'm talking about see the post below.

So we had a great day and are so blessed to have our two girls!

We love you Robin and Noelle!

Happy 4TH of July!!!

More pictures and tales of Noelle's first Independence Day to follow.

OK, Cheri I know I should be posting more : ) I feel so busy now having a toddler running around getting into everything!

We are all doing great! As you saw in the last picture post Robin has successfully finished the 8Th grade! She is VERY excited to be in high school! She's enjoying her summer, but misses her friends and I know she would love to back in school already.

Noelle is doing good. When we had Robin's party Noelle got several mosquito bites, a couple on her face and neck and a few behind her ears and in her hair. She was only out for maybe a half hour total because her allergies were acting up horribly! I brought her inside and gave her some benedryl to help with the allergies and the itching but it didn't help. Over the course of a week the bug bites got really big and seemed to be spreading. She couldn't get any relief from the itching so I took her to the doctors. They said it was a good thing I brought her in because they were getting infected and they were especially worried about the bite by her eye. They said if the infection spread it could cause her vision problem in the future. Who would have thought all that from a bite? Not me! They put her on two medications and within hours it was clearing up. Unfortunately it looks like a couple of the bites have left scars on her face : ( I hope they go away with time. The doctors told me to keep her inside this summer and not to let her get bit by mosquito's.....do they remember that we live in Maine? They told me this summer and next summer I shouldn't let her get any bites. By her third summer she should be OK. Well I'm not sure how she's supposed to build up an immunity to them if she never gets any bites? So what I'm trying to do is keep her inside in the morning and evening. And if she gets some bites and they start to look weird I'll at least know what to give her before it gets infected.

On another note Noelle has made the switch from baby to toddler! She is running everywhere and climbing on everything! She is doing some serious exploring : )

I guess I'll end my post here for now. I have lots to do today. I will take pictures tomorrow and post again soon!

Have a wonderful 4Th of July!!!!!

Pictures

Noelle fell asleep for the first time in her high chair : ) She's so cute!

watching some veggie tales

Pictures of Robin's 8th Grade Graduation Party

Robin had no idea we were having a party for her!

Noelle's allergies were really acting up....poor baby.