summer vacations.

Back to catching up. We've gone on a couple summertime trips this year. In June Kaden and I traveled to to Arkansas with the rest of my family to visit my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins on my mom's side. Steve wasn't able to come, unfortunately, since it's a busy time for work. We missed him being there, but we had a great visit with the fam! We stayed at Uncle Lamar and Aunt Shari's house which is such a fun place to be. We did a lot of hanging out in the swimming pool, eating and laughing/catching up. It was so fun for Kaden to get to meet all them...I love my extended family - they are a gift from the Lord!

Today....

.....was one of those days that I really know and FEEL how blessed I am. God is good. He really is. He wants us to know him and experience him in a real way. His love can be seen and felt in tangible ways. God really met me this morning as I opened his scriptures despite the guilt I was feeling for not having devotions for, I gotta be honest here, weeks. I was feeling condemnation, but genuinely desiring to be met and encouraged in His word. And he was so kind and merciful to show me his faithfulness and his greatness. It didn't matter that I have failed at earnestly pursuing him - he was eagerly waiting for me to turn to him again and embrace me with his love. It was exciting because although I have had the gift of a prayer language for a while now, I think he gave me new words to speak this morning. I had such an awesome time of fellowship with the Spirit this a.m. My soul was refreshed and reawakened and I have been rejoicing in his grace all day. I drove to the oceanfront this afternoon and walked the boardwalk with Kaden enjoying the lovely day and again, prayed and gave thanks for His great love and faithfulness. Tonight Steve is working late at the 'flip' house, and as I perused Facebook I came across a link to a blog written by a young wife and mom in our area whom I've hung out with a couple of times. I don't know her super well and haven't seen her in a couple months, so I looked up her blog to see what she's been up to lately. WOW. As I read I discovered that it was a blog she had just recently created to fill people in on some huge life changing news. She has cancer of the lymph nodes. She's a beautiful 26 year old girl with a husband and a 6 month old baby girl and she has cancer. I was so shocked and so incredibly sad for her. I read through all of her posts and was amazed by her faith-filled words. She was very honest and real about how hard this has been, but you can hear her strength and faith coming through each post...I was so encouraged to see her glorifying the Lord through this awful news. As she faces her fears and all the what if's she is confident that she and her family are secure in the arms of Jesus and nothing can take that truth and the peace that it brings away from her. I feel so sobered and aware of the frailty of this life right now. I feel so aware of the gifts God has given to me to enjoy in this life. I'm so thankful. I thank Jesus for the gift of health, but ultimately I'm thankful to be held in his everlasting arms..thankful that no matter what trials this life brings, no matter how hard or easy it is, and no matter how long or short it is, I get to be WITH him one day and that is what defines me..that is what spurs me on to faith and good deeds while I'm living this life he's given me.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
look full in His wonderful face;
and the things of earth will grow strangely dim
in the light of his glory and grace.

mr. bright eyes

meeting Nana and Bompa

Steve's parents came to visit 3 weeks after Kaden was born. Their trip was planned for the week before, but the flight was canceled due to bad weather...talk about grandparents anxious to meet their little grandsons!!

They are now the proud grandparents of 4 boys! Steve's sister Becky is due in couple of weeks with grandbaby #5, but the gender is still unknown :) And Jess is prego with grandbaby #6 and due in January! Yay for babies and growing famblys!!

Recently...

(phone pic)

Here are a few recents. Little man is rolling over and sitting up now! He's so proud of himself. I can definitely tell he's happy about his accomplishments :) He also LOVES the water. Pool time is one of his faves. He kicks like crazy and smacks the water with his hands and giggles when it splashes him in the face. SO FUN to watch. If you're friends with me on Facebook, then you can see a video of him in the pool HERE.

this was at 4 months

almost 6 months :) love his little personality. (phone pic)

He won't take a bottle (hasn't since around 2 months old), so I'm trying to get him to drink out of a sippy cup! I tried it today for the first time and he was definitely curious about it. He chewed on it and sucked out of it a little, but mostly he just liked holding it himself :) Such a big boy. I'm just going to keep trying every day at one feeding til he gets used to it.

keeping my word..

Ok so here's a little post to back up my previous post :) Let me start back in January when we welcomed our baby boy into the world...that's something worth blogging about for sure! He was born a week past my due date (Jan. 23) on a snowy, icy blue moon, January 31, 2010 (seriously, we had a crazy snowstorm! We drove to the hospital at 4am on ice-covered roads!) After a long labor through the night and half of the next day, he finally came at 2:28 pm on Sunday afternoon. What a joyful day that was!

first bath :)

all bundled up.

oh what a kissable little face.

daddy and baby resting..I think Steve was more tired than I was after the labor ;)

going home outfit

daddy trying not to slip on the icy driveway. bringing baby home!

meeting his older (by 5 weeks) cousin Howard

meeting his 3 year old cousin Duncan

1 week old. precious!

We adore our sweet, firstborn Kaden Isaiah. These last (almost) 6 months have been so enjoyable! He has been such an easy, happy baby! I know I am a blessed momma to have such a content baby boy. We'll take a few more just like him ;) Is that too much to ask??

Having Kaden five weeks after his cousin Howie was born and 3 days after his cousin Kieran was born has been really sweet. I'm so glad he has cousins close in age. I'm sure they'll be close friends. The first few months after he was born were slow paced, happy times. It was still cold and gloomy outside, so I never really felt like I was missing out on things and stuck at home. Then by the time the weather was nice, we were well adjusted, recovered and ready to enjoy it! So far I love being a momma!! More to come later :)

..startin' fresh

Wow. Six months without posting might lead one to believe that I have given up blogging for good. In fact, I have actually thought that I should sit down and blog on multiple occasions, but was then discouraged by my long absence and overwhelmed by all that I would need to catch people up on in our life. But I've decided that I shouldn't let that stop me from resuming this blog. I recently scrolled through all of my previous posts and enjoyed being reminded of different things that have taken place in our three years of marriage, the season of being married and finishing school, working full time, holidays, vacations and lots of random memories along the way. And now that Kaden is a part of our family, and Lord willing more children in the future, I think this is a great way to record not only photos (since you can do that with facebook and other media outlets) but also write down things you don't want to let slip from memory, thoughts that accompany the daily happenings of our life as a little family. How precious it is to be able to go back and have these things brought vividly back to life through images and words and in a sequential manner. So here I go again. I might not be able to fill you in on every little detail of what's past, but that doesn't matter. Here's to startin' fresh!

Hello there.

Just thought I'd do a quick catch up post this morning on this poor, boring ol' blog. I hope everyone had a great end of '09. Our holidays were very laid back and enjoyable. Steve's parents came for a week at Thanksgiving, so it was great to hang out with them and catch up. They'll be coming back in early February to meet their new grandsons! We're looking forward to that. I finished working after Thanksgiving, so I was able to enjoy the month of December getting ready for Christmas and baby's arrival. It's also been nice to get myself into a routine here at home. I love it!

I'm so thankful that I will be able to stay home with our little guy and be fully devoted to raising him (and future children) and being a wife and homemaker! Steve's hard work to provide for us is an incredible blessing to me and I don't take it for granted that the Lord is allowing me to do this. I'm excited about this new season of being a momma. I've just been praying for a contented heart that fully embraces this calling on my life...He wants me to take joy in all that comes with caring for my new baby...the many feedings throughout the day and night, changing diapers, caring for and nurturing him instead of getting a shower and out of my pj's :) I know it will require dying to myself throughout the day, every day, but I'm excited to see how the Lord will stretch me and change me in this new season! I can't wait to meet this little guy!

So anyway, Christmas was spent with my family and we had a great time!

We did presents and ate lots of great food of course. Steve had a few days off, so I loved having extra time with him as well. It was our last Christmas without kiddos so we kinda splurged and went crazy with our gifts hehe :)

On December 22 we welcomed Howard Robert Crabb into the world! My sister-in-law Jess gave birth to their first son, and my fourth nephew!! He is such a cutie and it's been so fun watching him change so much even in the past few weeks. He was born 2 1/2 weeks early, and is doing great! Jess and Brian are awesome parents to this little guy. They live directly across the street from us so it's going to be SO fun watching these boy cousins grow up together.

In other news, Steve's in the process of renovating a foreclosure that we bought in December. He's "flipping" it, and hopes to have it back on the market in February. We're really excited about this opportunity since it's what most of what I made while I was working is going towards. Steve would love to (and hopes to) start doing more of these, but for now we're just starting out and it's been exciting to see the house looking a ton better already! We're praying for the Lord's favor on the whole project and especially when it comes time to sell it!

And now for the countdown! It's 12 days til my due date, so I guess this little dude could decide to come any time now! We are so excited!!!!! Can't wait to hold him and kiss him. I can't believe he's really going to be here so soon. My sister Rebekah is due on the 21st so we're anxiously awaiting the arrival of her little one too...who will be first?!?! I hope she is for her sake ;) I know she's very ready!! It's so fun that these little cousins will be so close together!