Fauvel Family Fun

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T20:36:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that another decade has come and gone. The last ten years has brought many blessings and a few sorrows. Getting married in 2002 was one of the greatest days of my life. Darrell is a wonderful husband and friend. I am truly blessed to have him in my life. The adoption of our son Riley in Sept. of 2008 was and is the greatest thing to happen in our lives. We waited for so long to become parents and God truly blessed us with such a beautiful and wonderful son. We hope in this next decade we will bring home his sister from China. Some of our sorrows have been losing my dad and Darrell's mom. Tomorrow is the 2nd anniversary of my dad's passing. I miss him so much and Darrell's mom too. The hardest part is that they don't get to be apart of Riley's life but we know that they are in heaven having a great time and we know that we will see them again one day. God has been so good and faithful. I look forward to what the next decade brings and trust that God is in control of all things. Blessings to each of you!!

35

2009-08-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

Well I turned 35 yesterday! It was a good day! Darrell took me to dinner and to see the movie Julie and Julia. It was such a good movie. I had been a little depressed earlier in the day and that movie cheered me right up. I'm thinking I need to get Julia Child's cookbook and give a few of her recipes a shot. I'm certainly no cook but I think it would be fun to try.
We ended the day with cake and ice cream with our sweet friends Mark and Mindy. Thank you to Mindy for watching Riley for us while we went out.
I took 35 a little harder than I thought I would. I know I'm still young and all that but there's just something about turning 35 that got me a little down. I'm over it now and I am determined to make 35 a great year.

Riley's Birthday

2009-08-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

Riley turned 1 year old today. We had a great time celebrating Riley's Birthday with friends. He had such a great time and really enjoyed is cake as you can see from the pictures. Darrell and I feel so blessed that God brought Riley to us. We have enjoyed every minute of his first year and can't wait to watch him grow up. We love you Riley!! Happy Birthday!

Florida Vacation

2009-07-13T20:57:00.000-07:00

At the end of June we went to Orlando and St. Petersburg, FL. Darrell had a work conference in Orlando so Riley and I tagged along. We spent most of the week at Universal Studios. We got to stay at the Royal Pacific Hotel on the Universal Studios property. It was beautiful. As you can see from the pictures we had a great time at the parks. Riley even got to ride a few rides in Seuss Landing. At the end of the week we went to our family condo in St. Petersburg and spent the weekend. We had a great time. Riley got to go to the beach for the first time and he even ate sand. I'm sure this won't be his last time to eat dirt. I can't believe my little baby boy is going to be one in less than a month. Where does the time go.

Boston Riley goes to Boston!

2009-07-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

The last week of May we flew up to Boston to surprise Darrell's twin brother for their 40th birthday. This was the first time Riley met all of his Aunts, Uncles and cousins on Darrell's side of the family. We had an amazing time. Riley got to visit 3 states on this trip. Of course Massachusetts, also New Hampshire and Maine. The weather was rainy and cold with a couple of nice days thrown in. It was so good to see everyone and we had the best time. We can't wait to go back up for Christmas.

9 months old

2009-05-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

Riley turned 9 months old on May 8th. Today he had his 9 month check-up. He weighs 21.8 pounds and is 27 inches long. Dr. Wiley said he was doing great and was very healthy. He has one tooth and he is so close to crawling. He will get up on all fours and rock back and forth. He can scoot backwards. He is growing up so fast. It seems like yesterday that we brought him home. He is such a joy!

Easter 2009

2009-04-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter with my family in Lubbock. Riley looked so handsome for his first Easter. He went on his first Easter egg hunt. Daddy helped him find lots of Easter eggs. We had a great time celebrating Riley's first Easter.

Riley and Darrell - Go Red Sox!!

2009-03-29T13:39:00.001-07:00

It is such a nice day today here in Abilene. Darrell and Riley dressed up in their Boston Red Sox shirts and we went outside and took pictures. Don't they look cute. We are obviously big fans of the Boston Red Sox. We hope to take Riley to game at Fenway park when he get's older.

Adoption Finalization

2009-03-24T15:54:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to Ft. Worth for Riley's adoption finalization. On Friday we spent the night with some friends of ours, Marcus and Cassandra Lopez and there two kids, Gabby and Gavin. We had a great time catching up with them. On Sunday we had lunch with some good friends of ours that used to live in Abilene and now live in Denton. They have a sweet baby boy, Sawyer who is one month older than Riley. They had a great time getting to know each other. On Monday we went to downtown Ft. Worth to the Family Law Court and had Riley's adoption finalization ceremony. It is so great to have everything finalized and know that we are a forever family. Below are some pictures of our weekend.

Riley is growing, growing, growing

2009-03-08T18:31:00.000-07:00

Riley is now 7 months and is cuter than ever. He is doing new things all the time and is really enjoying a variety of baby food. I feel so blessed every day that God gave us Riley. I am reminded constantly of the unselfish love of his birthmother and am so grateful to her that she chose us to raise Riley. Adoption is such a wonderful thing. I wish more people were able to experience it.

Riley loves to get a bath and we have moved him from the baby tub to a blow up duck tub that fits inside the bathtub. As you can tell by the picture he loves it.

6 Months Old Today

2009-02-08T10:07:00.001-08:00

Our little man is 6 months old today. He's growing up so fast. He is rolling over and sitting up on his own. He's such a big boy. He has the sweetest smile. He has brought such joy to our lives. We feel so blessed that he is our son.

Sweet Potatoes! Yummy!!

2009-01-22T10:32:00.000-08:00

We are introducing baby food to Riley. He really likes Sweet Potatoes. He is growing so fast and getting cuter by the minute. He is developing quite the personality. I'm am loving every minute of being at home with him. He is such a joy.

Happy New Year

2009-01-06T19:02:00.001-08:00

Hope that every one had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We had a wonderful 1st Christmas with Riley. The picture of him is with his monkey that he got in his stocking. We were so blessed in 2008 with the gift of Riley and we look forward to what God as in store for us in 2009. We wish every one a happy and blessed 2009!

Recent pictures of Riley

2008-12-21T20:08:00.000-08:00

Riley is now 4 1/2 months old. He weighed in at 15 1/2 pounds at his 4 month check up. He is doing great. He smiles all the time and he is really starting to chew on his fingers. He like to be sitting up or standing with help of course. We think he is starting to teethe. Dr. Wiley told us we could start feeding him cereal. Our first try didn't go so well. Most of it ended up out of his mouth instead of in it. We will try again soon and see how it goes. We are looking forward to our first Christmas with Riley. We will be headed to Lubbock on Christmas Eve. We hope you all have a very Merry and Blessed Christmas. Happy Birthday Jesus!

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T21:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!! Darrell and I have so much to be thankful for this year. We are so blessed to have Riley in our lives and are so incredibly thankful to the Lord for allowing us to be his parents. The beginning of this year was extremely hard for Darrell and I. I lost my dad on Jan. 2nd and Darrell lost his mom on Feb. 3rd. This is our first holiday season with out them. We miss them so much and wish that they could have met Riley. We know that they are looking down on us from Heaven and smiling. Even though we are missing them and are sad they they are not with us we are also so happy that we have Riley. We have enjoyed our first Thanksgiving with him and we are looking forward to his first Christmas. We hope that each of you have taken time to thank the Lord for what he has blessed you with. Enjoy the video of Riley laughing. It's the first time he really laughed and it's the sweetest sound. Blessings to you and your family. P.S. I sound like a crazy person in this video. Us mom's will do anything to get our kids to laugh. hahaha!!!

My baby is 15 weeks old

2008-11-19T21:07:00.001-08:00

Time had flown by since we got Riley. I can't believe he's already 3 months old and counting. He's getting so big. He is smiling a lot and cooing a lot. We are really starting to see his personality. I think I fall more in love with him everyday. He's so amazing and I am so blessed to be his mom. Here are some cute pictures of him.

Texas Tech Beats Texas

2008-11-04T21:22:00.000-08:00

I am so proud of my Alma mater Texas Tech. They are undeafeted so far this season and beat the # 1 team, Texas Saturday 39-33. It was a very exciting game. Tech is finally getting the respect they so well deserve. Get your Gun's Up!! Go Raiders.

Boston Riley Fauvel

2008-11-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

Well as most of you know we have a new addition in our family. On Sept. 22nd. we adopted Boston Riley Fauvel. He was born on August 8th. He is now almost 3 months old. He is so amazing and Darrell and I feel so blessed to have him in our lives. We are still waiting on our China adoption. It looks like it will be sometime in 2010. We still have our blog for our China adoption but wanted to create a blog for our family so that you could follow along and see how our family grows. We will post lots of pictures of Riley. These pictures are from Riley's first Halloween.