Well… Hello, there…

I certainly didn’t mean to, but it seems that I took an unintentional blogging break.  I hope you are off to a great 2013!  Our family is.  We are entering this year with very full hearts.  We’ve spent almost every day of the school break with either family or friends.  My sister, who moved to CO in the summer, was here with her family and I tried to spend every extra moment with them.  God blessed us with even some unplanned visits, and I soaked up every minute.  Our family also traveled back to Nashville this past week to see friends, eat in our favorite restaurants, shop in our favorite stores, and drive down familiar streets.  As we were driving home Thursday night, I told James that it seems like all of our hearts are full.  We were filled to the brim with fellowship with loved ones and experiences, and we are now ready to face 2013 head on!

I have quite a few blog posts in my head – things I’ll share that I’m doing as I get back on track, and back in control {or under the Holy Spirit’s control} in my heart, body, and home.  I also have a give-away coming this month.  I just need the time to sit down and pound it all out.  Our Christmas decorations are still up, and we haven’t finished unpacking and settling in at home, and I haven’t yet prepared for tomorrow’s Sunday School lesson.  So those things first. 😉

Can’t wait to catch up with you through blogs, twitter, facebook, or instagram.  You’ve been on my mind and in my prayers.  God has God-sized, God-glorifying things planned for us in this new year.  It’s always exciting to me to imagine what is instore.  Some of it will be hard, and some of it will be easy.  In the end… all of it will be used for good.  God promises – Romans 8:28.

Here are a few pics of what’s taken my time, mind, and heart lately, and what’s filled me to the full.

This is the whole gang of the “Crawford” family – all but our Daddy, who has lived with Jesus for 16 years last week.

My brother Chris’ family.

My sister Rebecca’s family.

And our family.

The two youngest nephews – I could just “eat ’em up!”

Some of my most favorite little people in the world!

My sister gave me the funnest – not funnIest – but funnest gift… because, after all, I like to celebrate my inner-princess.  Don’t you?

We also got to celebrate my sister’s birthday, and her precious son, Crawford’s 3rd birthday.

In Nashville, Abigail got to visit with her friends Haylee and Kristen (and Haylee’s dog, Prissie).

We also got to celebrate Abigail’s “birthday” – which is actually in July – at her favorite Mexican restaurant.  She has celebrated every birthday there for as long as we can remember.  Last Thanksgiving, they let us celebrate her, and they did so again this year.  The sweet workers remembered us and were glad to give her the song, dessert, hat, and face full of whipped cream.   My not so little girl was happy. (And my friend, Christy, photo-bombed this pic.  See her on the right? haha)

Nathan got to spend lots of time with his friends Hunter and Zach, and a little visit with his friend Dustin.  We got a good laugh at the difference in the sizes of Hunter and Zach vesrse Nathan.  Nate weighs more than both of them put together – and those crazy boys proved it as they both put on Nathan’s pants – at the SAME time!

That cracks me up!  I didn’t get pictures of the visits with some of my friends, nor did I document any of the time spent with James’ family and our new Sister-in-Law, Amy.  Wish I had!

One more goofy thing I’ll share from the Christmas break: My sister and I finally recorded something we’ve been doing for years.  When we were in in our teen years and would wash the dishes after supper, we would sing silly songs.  We’d do our own renditions of  “Clang, Clang, Clang Went the Trolly” from SNL and add in all kinds of songs we’d adapt to our humor.  We would sing off key on purpose and laugh so hard we could hardly stand up.  One of the crazy things we did was to sing “Chop Sticks.”  This year we recorded it for posterity’s sake, as I am sure it will be valuable to our children and grandchildren one of these days.  NOT.  Though it did make us laugh.  A lot.  I posted it on FB the other day – but if you haven’t yet seen it, I know you won’t want to miss this!  (insert sarcasm)

(If you are reading via e-mail, click here to see the awesomness.)

Hope you have a fabulous weekend, my friends.  Much love to all of you~

PS:  Tomorrow is Epiphany ~ The 12th day of Christmas…The day that we celebrate the truth that the wise men sought and found Jesus – and that we, too, will find Him when we seek Him with all of our hearts.   He is worth the search.  He is everything.  May He reveal Himself to all seekers in the most personal of ways!  🙂