Our mega birthday month is coming to a close today as we celebrate one very special little girl, Ruby Mei!!!!  It's finally her turn to be the birthday girl!!!!  We have a fun day planned, kicking it off with a birthday lunch with her sisters at The American Girl Store!  She will close her birthday with the Swim Team Banquet.  My guess is, there will be a few friends singing "Happy Birthday" to our sweet girl!

I will admit I am having a hard time believing our first China baby is six years old and starting first grade this year...  She has blessed us in infinite ways since the day we laid our eyes on her in Nanchang five years ago.

My prayer is that Ruby will continue to soar using the amazing gifts God has blessed her with!  

Happy Birthday Ruby Mei!!!  We love you soooo much!!

What an exciting swim team season we concluded on Saturday!  I wish I could put it in to perspective just how much the "Middles' improved since we started practicing in early June.  When practices began neither Sienna or Ruby had officially swam 25 meters on their own.  Almost eight weeks later both Sienna and Ruby made it to the preliminaries of the Western Region Swim Team Finals!  And swim they did!!!!  They both did their very best and I was so proud of them!!!!  Ruby swam so well that she shaved 6 seconds off her best time on Friday to qualify for the "6 and Under" breast stroke finals on Saturday!

Thankfully after barely making his connection in Denver, Jeff made it home late Friday night to cheer Ruby on.  Yesterday was the perfect day for a swim meet!!!  The host club did a beautiful job of making it very special too.  Ruby walked in the opening ceremony with her team and took it all in!  I will admit the whole thing made me tear up!!! 

Saturday Ruby proved to us that she is a competitor.  She came with a winning attitude and once again improved her personal best time in the final race by more than 4 seconds!  10+ seconds for the weekend!   A huge accomplishment for a little girl who couldn't swim the length of the pool when school got out!

It was a great first season!  We will definitely be back next year!!!

Congratulations Sienna and Ruby!!

The 6 and Under Girls at the Champs Finals for Bear Path!

Opening Ceremonies!

The Awesome Big Sister who Supported her Little Sister for two full days!

So thankful Jeff made it!!

A new Friend!!

Getting Ready for her Championship Heat!

A little inspiration for the "Frog Kick"

"Go Ruby!!!"

An Awesome First Year!!

Emme had a wonderful first birthday at home.  Her day started by her sisters waking her up at 8:30 to get the party started!  Traditionally at our house you open gifts right away.  The big sisters were anxious to help.  Emme was so excited about every gift, and she gave out the best hugs after every one!

Emme's enthusiasm about most things is contagious!!  Especially when it involves a party!!

She did not disappoint for her sweet little cake party we had last night.  The expression on her face was priceless when Jeff came around the corner with her cake!

I think Emme Jade enjoyed every minute of being the Birthday Girl!!  So much, she woke up at 9:30 today!!!!

Six more days, and it's Ruby's turn!!

Every birthday for a child is special!  But, when you are celebrating your first birthday with your forever family, I think it is extra-special!  Some of you may remember Emme's precious birthday party in Yangzhou last year.  Her nannies did an amazing job of creating a beautiful party for her from the care package we sent.  The last one she would ever have in an orphanage!  When she looks at those pictures now, she tells us she was just waiting for us to come...  Two weeks later that wish came true!  And all of our lives have been blessed by our precious "Little Bean!"

Happy Birthday Emme Jade!!!  You are, and will always be, forever ours and forever loved!!  

We had another beautiful and fun filled weekend at the cabin!  This is definitely the summer to be in the water!  Last week we loved celebrating Daddy and Sienna's birthdays!  This week Emme Jade is the birthday girl!  And, closing out the month on the 31st we will be celebrating Ruby Mei!!  Whew.. It's like Christmas in July over here!  At some point I will catch up here on all of these events!

Tomorrow we are meeting with our Social Worker, Ava to do Emme's one year post placement.  I honestly can't believe it has almost been a year with our precious baby girl!!  I took some sweet photos of her today!  She has blossomed in so many ways!

Other exciting news, is that "The Middles" are going to be swimming the breast stroke in the club Championships on Friday!!!!  Three kids are chosen from each club, and Sienna and Ruby were selected for our club!!!  I will be cheering my heart out for my little fish!  Six weeks ago they could barely get to the end of the 25m pool..  Now, they are "In It To Win It!!!!"  We are all excited for them to have this fun opportunity!   My prayer is that they both can make it to the finals on Saturday so their Daddy can see them swim.  He can't be there on Friday due to a business trip he can't change... He just may hear Ainsley and I screaming our heads off across the miles!

So, another eventful and crazy week for this house!  Summer is flying by!  But, I can honestly say we are making the most of it!  I will be back soon with pictures of our soon to be 4 year old!!!

It's hard to describe the excitement on Sienna's face as I tucked her in and said,

"I will see you when you are seven!"  She had the biggest smile on her face.  It was obvious sleep was not going to come easily on her birthday eve!

Since it's late and the "Birthday Fairy" still has some things to do, I will keep this short!  I am sure there will be pictures later to share!  I just want to make a point to say that our beautiful seven year old makes us proud to be her parents.  She has shown us on more than one occasion what love can do!  Her gorgeous smile, precious dimple, beautiful eyes, contagious laugh and inner strength inspire me to be a better Mom!  I am very confident that I am the one that has learned more in the last year than our very special daughter!  It was not that long ago that we were just finding our way together!   I am so thankful to say we are celebrating seven years with one very happy and healthy little girl!

Happy Birthday Sienna Grace!  You are  so very LOVED!!

Today we celebrate the man in our lives who loves us to the moon and back!  He is generous, kind, giving, thoughtful, hard working, fun, and amazing!!!!  He always puts us first!!  We are so thankful for all he does for our family!!!  Happy Birthday to our AWESOME Daddy!  We hope you have a very special day and a fantastic 50th year!!

WE LOVE YOU!

Just a quick glimpse at our July and you will know why I have not been posting often:

July 16th - Jeff's Birthday (A very BIG one!)

July 20th - Sienna's Birthday

July 24th - Emme Jade's Birthday
July 29th - Special Visitors arrive!!

July 31st - Ruby's Mei's Birthday

In between we have swim meets, swim practice, swim lessons, cabin weekends, and endless other fun things keeping us busy!  Ainsley had an AWESOME time at camp!!!!  Thank you to all of you who prayed for her!  I have so many cabin photos to post, and pictures to take..  I just wanted to quickly post to say all is well over here..  We are just pre-occupied enjoying our summer!!!!

More soon!

Today Emme Jade will celebrate her first Independence Day as an American Citizen!!  Since Emme loves to celebrate anything, she will be totally in to the festivities with our friends at the cabin!  We look forward to a special day with the Trio!  Missing our big girl..  She loves this day at the lake with friends!  But, praying she is celebrating with the new friends she has made this week!

Happy 4th of July from Northern, Minnesota!