Thanksgiving with MawMaw Blackwell and the Clovers

Before we leave the country, we wanted to stop in to see Chris's family. We all met in Baton Rouge because MawMaw lives there. It was a fun time to catch up with everyone. Chris's mom is one of 6 kids so you imagine the amount of people there with there family. It is always a delight to eat the food and visit with family. Here is a picture of Cohen with MawMaw and one with the girls and MawMaw. While we were there, we opened up gifts from our cousins from Chris's side and we decorated MawMaw's Christmas tree for her. The kids seemed to have a good time. I have put some pictures on my web gallery.

Mom and Dad come see us for early Thanksgiving

Grammy and Papa came to see us to have an early Thanksgiving before we head to Baton Rouge to see Chris's family. It was a fun and busy time. Chris was working on getting the house ready to sale while I was working on getting our bags packed and trying to figure out what goes to Grandparents, to China, and to storage. We managed to fit sometime of hanging out and the girls enjoyed spending time with there Grandparents. They actually got to go to Rylan's thanksgiving party and Rylan got to practice on Grammy her beauty techniques. She says when she goes up she wants to be a make-up girl to include fixing/styling hair. Here is a pic of her masterpiece!!

Our Lifegroup has a going away party for us!!

Although we are not leaving for 2 weeks, it seemed the best time to have a going away party was the weekend before Thanksgiving. The dates has been changed and I had thought the time was the same. I was wrong. Saturday morning, Nov 22, I got a call at 11:30 am to see what we were up to. My dear friend, Neysa, had called. I told her we were just getting our house ready to show to sale. She said everyone was at the park and that it started at 11:00 am. I thought it wasn't til 3:00 pm. We were all in our pjs and had to scramble to make it there. We did and we had a great time. It was really special to see everyone there and meant a lot to our family to be able to say goodbye. Here is some pictures from the party and you can go to the web gallary to see more. It meant a lot to all of us. We are very grateful for all the love and support you have shown us the last three years. Our church home has been our family and you all will always have a special place in our heart.

We take a family picture!!!

Since we are headed out of the country..we decided to try and get a family picture to send out to everyone. We asked our precious friends who take pictures professionally to take our pictures. They are very talented and it is truly amazing that they were able to get any good pictures at all. The kids did not have the best behavior and we were crutched on time with it getting darker earlier. They did a wonderful job and were very patient with us. We are very appreciative of them and cherish their friendship. I hope you enjoy the pictures!!

Rylan completes gymnastics

This fall both the girls completed gymnastics and seem to enjoy it. Avery still has one more class, but Rylan had her last day on Wednesday. She loves it so much and is very good at a forward roll. Attached is a video and picture of her doing her gymnastics!!

Avery has her Thanksgiving Feast!!

This week, we also had a special event at school. Avery had her Thanksgiving feast. She has been working on saying some lines for the feast because she was an Indian girl. She was very cute!! They also sang some songs that were adorable. One song was being thankful for family and friends and then they each went around and said one thing they were thankful for and Avery said..her daddy. It was very sweet and made me greatful that Chris is back to stay in our lives for a very long time. I never thought I would be ready for China, but I think God put me in this situation to want to go back to China so we can be a family again. I have attached the video of her singing and put pictures of her and her friends on the gallary so please look and enjoy!!

Daddy comes home!!

The day was November 15 when daddy came home to be with us. He ended up getting in around midnight and we all didn't go to bed til 3 am. The girls were so excited to see there daddy and Rylan asked everyday where daddy went when he leaves the room. She has become his shadow. Chris couldn't believe how big his son had gotten. Attached are the pictures of Cohen with his dad. It is hard to imagine that he is already 6 weeks old in this picture!! Come Monday, we must get ready to prepare for our move to China. We meet with a realtor and will try to get our passport and visa for Cohen. We will have a busy week to say the least.