Happy Thanksgiving 2009

Happy Thanksgiving! This is truly my very favorite holiday because it is about what really matters most in life. It is simple. No big flashy decorations or too much money being spent-just spending time with those you love and remembering how very blessed we truly are. We have so much fun preparing and setting up and "pickin" on Daddy's YUMMY turkey. Then we all look so forward to the day- just being together, catching up and making wonderful memories that will stay with us forever. This year Nana and Poppy came along with Aunt LeeLee, Uncle Judd and Hamilton. We ate too much, the kids played and played, watched football, played football, took a walk and then ate desssert! I thought about my little guy today over in China and not here with us-his family. I know he doesn't know what he is missing nor do they even celebrate Thanksgiving, but he is a part of our family and oh how I wish he were here! May the Lord bless you and may you always be thankful and grateful for those things in life that truly matter most.

Check below for more pictures!

More Thanksgiving Photos

Will always smokes a turkey and it is delicious!!!! Great job again! Thanksgiving is also not complete without football? So, out to the front yard they went after dinner and a game ensued-even Aunt LeeLee played! Just so it is perfectly clear that our home did NOT have the picture-perfect magazine look, the not-so-lived-in look..........ta-da..chaos- AKA good ole lived-in, lotsa fun and love goin on and memories being made! Note the dog pen in there too-he still "pottys" in the house so hence the pen! Last but not least, all month long starting November 1st, we each say what we are thankful for that day. In the past I have just written these on note cards or fall leaves and put them in a basket but this year we put them all up on a tree I made for our pantry door. Wow! Look at all we have to be thankful for. It was a great way for the kids, and parents too, to "see" how we are truly blessed!!!

Ya Gotta LOVE Homeschooling!

Well, today we took a field trip to the Riverbanks Zoo with some friends. Two of the 6 kids took a class for homeschoolers that is offered on different subjects every Monday. Our science thus far has involved the 5 kingdoms of living things and I had the kids fill out a worksheet as we visited the many different exhibits. It was neat to see how they all fell into the different classifications- from Animalia down to Monera. We love this zoo-perfect size and fairly close-about an hour away and we have a family membership. It was a cold misty day which was perfect because there was NOBODY there(everybody is still in school!) and the animals were quite active in that kind of weather. The kids had a ball and the moms enjoyed the adult conversation!!!! I have just loved our 1st year of homeschooling and so have the kids-we really are enjoying the time we now get to spend together with each other. Thank you Lord for laying it on my heart!

LID!!!!!!

We got our LID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For those of you NOT in the adoption world, this is our Log-in-date. We are officially "logged in" to the Chinese adoption system. Our LID is October 23rd 2009. One small step closer to our little guy! Xinny hang on, we are coming!

Weekend at the Lake

We spent this past weekend at my parent's house at the lake. It was a beautiful fall weekend complete with color and cool temps! We started off by going on a field trip Friday to the Creation Museum in Social Circle, Ga. This was a wonderful little museum that my parents found and we all enjoyed taking in all the interesting and fascinating sights that our awesome Creator put here on this earth! We followed that with lunch at an old fashioned 50's diner complete with "poodle skirts" and juke boxes and milk shakes! The kids thought it was interesting to see what Nana and Poppy grew up with! Later that night Will joined us and he and I enjoyed an actual DATE!!!! We had a fabulous dinner in town in one of our favorite little restaurants while the kids stayed back at the lake and went on "The Haunted Trail". Sam is big into "scary things" and he didn't get to attend a Halloween party he had been invited to that involved a haunted trail. So, he requested Poppy make one for him. Well, if you know Poppy, he went all out! It was so cute/scary/creepy-right up a 7 year old little boy's alley!!!! They had a great time-of course Jaida was sound asleep during the creepy part of the night. We also celebrated Poppy's birthday-Happy Birthday Dad-I love you! I did manage to get a little shopping in at the great little shops in Madison. I love these places because they get my creative juices flowing!!! I just wish I had time to create more. Will and my dad then attended the Georgia-Auburn game in Athens while the kids and I and Nana "played" some more and then headed home. It was a wonderful weekend and enjoyed by all!