No longer a baby, but always my baby

Madeleine turned 1 at the first of August. For her birthday I took her to Smoothie King to get a smoothie for lunch - she especially liked being a big girl and sipping out of the straw. For dinner we took her to Chik-fil-a, she loves that place, and we can use all the calories that we can put in that little body. She had her usual chicken nuggets and then got to play like a big girl in the playground.

The next day was her birthday party. We had a birthday pool party at Andrew's parents' home. It was so much fun, Madeleine's birth family was able to come and we had Anne and Shaun, Aaron and Becky, Nana and Grandpa Opp, Nana and Papa Mills, Cassidie and Uncle Scotty-body, Kayleen and Isaac, and all the cousins as well as Erik and Alicia and their cute boys - so quite the crowd! We ordered pizza and swam, I made the best move to turn over my camera and camcorder so that I wasn't worried about capturing memories and was more involved in making them! It was really great to have Steven and Melissa (Madeleine's birth parents) able to come up with Gavin and Aiden (Madeleine's birth brothers), we love them so much and know we would not be able to celebrate this special day without them. I feel deeply indebted to my Heavenly Father for the blessings of such a great family.

I made Madeleine's little princess outfit for her birthday - a tutu, "crown", and princess shirt - I am working on setting up a little business of selling these tutu's - so if you are interested, let me know! I think they are darling and just so much fun! She did great eating her birthday cupcake and blowing out the candle on her big birthday cake and she kept saying Ooooooo after opening each present - so cute!

Thanks to everyone who was able to make it there for her special day!