Soooooon?

about 38-39 weeks...  this is how Ruth thinks her mama looks!  :)

We are all pretty much ready to meet this little guy!  Hannie follows me around and asks if it's time yet.  "Are you having contractions?"  Elijah loves to feel the baby move and hiccup.  Ruth wants to be able to snuggle "like normal" again.  Benjamin just wonders how he'll get to his next basketball game, I guess!  Ha!  Waiting, waiting.  We thought he might come after Christmas.  I had some good, regular contractions...  but nope.  Still waiting.  Kev asks, "Did your water break?"  Nope.  Heh.  Not yet.  I'd like to be able to be myself again, too, but am trying to enjoy his movements and squirms.  Won't be much longer and he'll be right here in our arms hiccuping.  Exciting days are just around the corner at the Crawford house!

The other day Elijah whispered to my tummy while he lovingly rubbed it, "Soon you'll be here.  And I'll be your master..."  Ha!  We have a little Jedi waiting to find his place among the brothers...  :)  When Elijah was just born and still in the hospital, Benjamin came to meet him and whispered, "I'm your big brother.  And I'm going to take good care of you."  You can see where that's taken the two of them...  Master and Padawan!?  :)  Love our boys.  All three of them!  And our two little girl mamas, too!  (They'll help with everything - but diapers.  They heard boys spray!)

Merry Christmas!

Our Family on Christmas Eve

Christmas in Williston North Dakota!  Who would have ever imagined that we'd all be back in Williston to have another double Christmas with both our families!?  Wow.  Has it been 10 years since we've done that?  We usually do try to get to both our families to celebrate Christmas but this year everyone was right here.  Nice.  Otherwise we probably wouldn't have seen any of them unless they came to visit this 8+ month pregnant lady!  Heh.

The Johnson side of family 

We spent Christmas Eve at church with Kev's family and then at my parents' house for supper and presents.  It was great to be with them and also with my brother and his family.  Emma is two and a half and a busy, smart little curly headed girl.  The kids love their cousin!  We're fairly smitten, too.  Crystal is expecting again this summer and so between the two of us...  well, it's kinda pregnant city!  Ha.  My parents are also having some health issues and Mom fell a few times over the holiday.  That's kinda scary and makes us all concerned about their safety.  You can pray for them and us!  In our family picture at the top, Hannie and Kev are quickly turning their heads in response to her falling in the kitchen...  love my parents...

We enjoyed being together that evening, packed up and headed home to get settled much later than we usually do...  to get up and head over for more celebrations at Ed's and Sharon's place!  :)

Crawford side of family...  doing Nathan's smile!  :)

Kev's two brothers came up to spend Christmas with all of us while his other brother and his wife stayed in MO this year.  So we were just missing two of our family for celebrations.  The kids LOVED hanging out with their uncles.  We probably see these guys the least since they live in MO and OH.  But when we see them...  they are bffs!  :)  After breakfast and skyping with Scott and Saralynn, we all headed to OUR house and had a big double Christmas meal with both sides of our family!  I love that our families can do that.  Our kids are so blessed.  We are so blessed.

Double family Christmas dinner! 

Thankful for Jesus and God's grace and mercy this Christmas.  He is our greatest gift.  Everything we need...  Peace, Joy, Comfort, Wisdom, Hope...  baby in a manger.  He has blessed us with one blessing after another.  Merry Christmas!