Nora Turns 3!!!

For all of you who have been following my blog for a while, you know that the Gooden Family (in Knoxville, TN) are close friends of ours. They were one of our first SMA friends and we've been so blessed to have their continued friendship. Their daughter, Nora, is AMAZING. She just celebrated her 3rd birthday and is doing so well!

For those of you who don't know Nora, you are missing out! She has SMA type 1 like Skylar, but Nora is much stronger (obviously - she's turning 3)! Even though she has lost a lot of her movement, her respiratory system has stayed strong and she currently only needs her bi-pap machine for sleeping. Also, she's able to vocalize sounds and syllables, which Skylar never was able to do. Nora sang "This Old Man" to us and my face hurt because I was smiling so big! You can learn more about her here...

I was so excited when I got the message that The Goodens would be coming to Atlanta to celebrate Nora's birthday this year. The American Doll store at North Point Mall in Alpharetta (my home town) was extraordinary and opened up their store an hour early for us so that we could shop without any other kids with germs in the store. We had a nice private room for our brunch as well and it was a wonderful experience. The staff was amazing and Nora's birthday is a day I will never forget.

I am warning you now - I took tons of pictures and had the hardest time narrowing down which ones to put on the blog. The only two pictures that don't include Nora is the one of Kyle's brunch plate because it was so pretty and wonderfully delicious and then one of Kyle later on admiring Nora so all of you can see what he looks like with a buzzed head :) I don't think I've posted a picture of him since he donated his hair...

You can see Nora shopping, choosing her doll, the entire group of us shopping with Nora (including Kyle, TJ and Jaime, Jaime's mom, Nurse Kim and her husband), resting for brunch, blowing out her candles - which is incredible, eating some cake and ice cream, and packing up to leave. You can click on the first image to open the lightbox feature and view the larger images from there. Enjoy!!!