St Patrick Day

We love St Patrick day! :) Another day for a celebration of Jesus! We dyed our scrambled eggs green (inspired by the green eggs and ham book...) and we even dyed our orange juice green (milk dyes better...)! :) The Cul de Sac kids book we read that week, Green Gravy, was about St Patrick Day! And we even squirted some green frosting on our desert! (Kind of like in the book...)

Beyond all the green we celebrated St Patrick! (Go figure!) We watched the Sumo VeggieTale that has his story on it (which happens to be Daddy's favorite Veggie story). We watched how he went to Ireland to tell them about Jesus and used the three leave clover to show how God is like a shamrock - three Persons in One. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Thank ya, Lord! Hannie made a shamrock in school to celebrate so we took down our heart butterflies in the window from Valentine's day and hung up her heart shaped shamrock!

Everywhere you look, God can be found!

Celebrate Him!

Happy St Patty's day!

God is Three in One!

Happy Golden Birthday

Ruth turned 5 years old on the fifth of March! Golden girl. She preferred that we said "Happy GOLDEN Birthday!" to her instead of the old "Happy Birthday!" Heh. We celebrated with a golden balloon, golden wrappers on our cupcakes, golden sparkles around her chair and we ate golden grilled cheese! (We spent the evening receiving awards at church for Missionetts and Royal Rangers!) Then on Friday, we brought all of our golden goodies up to the bowling alley for some birthday fun with her little buddies. She invited the three other gals from her class and three friends from church. AND she won the game, which she didn't pay too much attention to anyway! :)

Happy Golden birthday to our sparkly girl!

60 times/31 minutes

"60 times!"

"31 minutes!"

"60 times!"

"31 minutes!"

My littlest two kiddos were arguing over the timing of something the other day... Maybe something like how often one of them bugged the other one? Ruth was sure it was 31 minutes and Elijah was equally as sure that it was 60 times. They're figuring out their numbers... but the argument was a little off... Heh.

Pinewood Derby

Benjamin was excited to make another pinewood derby car this year for Royal Rangers! Whoo! "Lightening." Then he and Hannie were sick the night before the big race and he missed it. BUT, he still has his cool car! :) Way to roll with the punches...

Toby Mac :)

Toby Mac... DC Talk... Whoo! :)

Kev and I received tickets to the TobyMac concert here in Grand Forks as a Christmas present from his brother, Scott! Last week we got to go see TobyMac, Jeremy Camp, and Matthew West. It was a pretty fun night. Heh.

I wore my old DC Talk shirt from 1993. That was the concert Kevin and I attended, along with our youth group, when he chose to give me our first kiss... ahhhh... So DC Talk and Audio Adrenaline will always hold a special place in our hearts, besides the fact that they ROCK. So... back to the present... Our seats were right in the middle about 8 rows back with a walkway in front of us. Toby was up there jumping and jammin when he saw my shirt and pointed to it with a big thumbs up! Yea!!

All around me the people were pretty much standing with some clapping... I spent some of my time jumping just like the youth kids up in the 4th row! Heh.

At the beginning of the concert, I had asked if I could bring in my camera and was told YES (but I could not bring in my granola bar so I snarfed it down at the door quick...). I took my first pic of the opening guy and a security lady came over and told me NO pictures and that she'd take my camera away if I took anymore! Ah! So I had a good struggle for the first few minutes about what to do! I love pictures! I was told it was okay by the first guy. Everyone all around me was still taking pictures! Should I sneak it out again? Forget it? Such a tug of war! Heh. Then I heard my own voice telling the kids that even when it's not fair you need to do what's right! Uff. I knew even if I could sneak a few pics past the security lady... Someone would still see! Struggle, huh. I put my camera away but still watched others snap pictures. When the security lady came back and said they changed the rules and I could now take pictures! I hugged her and thanked her and knew that it was right to put my camera under my seat! Then I happily pulled it back out and started snapping away! Check out some of the pics!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nadesda

He's got me feelin so fly!

God's birthday present to me

What a lovely present for me on my birthday, huh? This is the pic from the webcam over in Yerevan, Armenia! The morning of my birthday! Usually we don't see the Ararat peaks but on my birthday, we got to see them both lit up in a pink sunrise! Thanks Lord! :)

http://www.arminco.com/en/livewebcam

The other "gift" was the Operation World country of the day for my 32nd birthday... was... you guessed it - Armenia! Love it!

http://www.operationworld.org/country/arme/owtext.html

Happy Birthday. Good plans. Future, hope, abundant life!

Steven Curtis Chapman

Happy Birthday to meee... Steven Curtis Chapman, here we come! :) Kev got me tickets in the artist circle to see SCC on February 7th so we could celebrate my birthday a little early! Whoo-hoo! We drove down to Fargo and grabbed a bite to eat first. Then off we went to the concert! We saw SCC like 2 years ago here in Grand Forks and what a concert. He has a way of making it seem like he's singing to you instead of just being up in front of hundereds of people. This time we sat 7 rows back right in the middle. Pretty fun!

Kev printed out a pic of me and a friend with SCC way back in 1990 or so and we gave it to a gal to give to him... Not sure that he got it but... still... I put some pics on this post so you can see! Almost 20 years ago!

~~~~
And He has given us a treasure called right now
And this is the only moment we can do anything about

Don't miss the miricale of the moment!

I have a dream...

The kids learned about Martian Luther King Jr in January. Love it.

As I was running up the stairs just a week or two ago, I saw a paper laying on the bottom step by the backpacks and shoes and things... It was a paper they wrote in school that started out with the words "I have a dream..." So I thought I'd see what Hannie filled in under that for HER dream... She wrote:

That I would be good to my mommy.

Oh, melt my heart. My girl.

Eli Manning

Whoo-hoooooo! :)

Super Bowl 2008 was pretty exciting. And even more so because Benjamin and I cheered on our fantasy football quarterback for the final, exciting, last two minutes of the game! Whoo! Go Eli!

(One day Crystal said something about Eli having the ball and our Elijah said... "That's ME?!")

Whoo-hoo Giants!

God speaks through kids

I love when I'm studying something and it shows up again and again... especially when my kids are involved!


For the past few months, it seems like I'm learning a lot about how God is with us. I think I have like 15 or so verses that I've "come across" that talk about that. And a lot of them have to do with us not fearing - He is with us! One of the last verses I wrote down was in Isaiah 7 where they talk about giving the child the name Immanuel, which means "God with us." Neat. Christmas time... Immanuel.


Then Hannie comes home and tells me about the names of Jesus that they're learning about and hanging up on their Christmas tree at school. I ask her which one she likes... she tells me - Immanuel! Later, she comes home with a little paper she's written about how Immanuel means God with us! Heh. How 'bout that.

~Snow angels :)

The other thing I seem to be learning a lot about lately is faith! Believing the the Word of God. Trusting Him. Acting on that belief. One part of a study I read talked about putting your hope in God. She talked about how when most people say, "I hope so." usually mean... "But I don't really think so... It'd be nice but..." We should hope in Him with anticipation and expectation.

Wouldn't you know... Benjamin came home with his spelling list a week or two ago. I'm asking words and listening to him spell... when we come to the vocabulary words at the end. I find myself saying, "What does anticipation mean?" Like God was saying... Are you hoping in Me? Anticipating My work in your life? Heh. Get ready!

Anticipate! God is with us!

blog

ok... you can see that I put off blogging until one afternoon when the kids are napping and then BAM... you get a bunch of thoughts I've had over the past month! heh. just pretend they have December and January dates above them all! :)

happy nap time to us!

Crawford Flag

This is the Crawford flag!

The kids thought we should have one of our own... So the colors are all the colors of their baby blankies: Benjamin's is blue, Hannie's is yellow, Ruth's is purple, and Elijah's is green. I chose to put the world in the middle since we plan to travel around the world. And we all decided Daddy's part should be to put in the cross over it all.

We're taking ourselves around the world to share the Hope of Jesus! Whoo-hoo!

"no buggin"

On our way home from school/ballet the other day, I learned a new 10 commandment...

"No buggin'"

According to our sweet little Ruth, that is a very important commandment, especially when it applies to Elijah poking at Ruth!

When I told her it wasn't actually a 10 commantment, she replied that if it wasn't then it was something Jesus said... "'do to others as you want them to do to you'... and if you want them to be nice and if you want them to be mean - then you should be mean!" Just about! :) I told her we never want others to be mean to us, though, so we should never be mean to others.

Her bottom lip stuck out and her thumb was poked back into her mouth. I'm sure she was thinking that "no buggin'" SHOULD be a 10 commandment... Call it commandment 11.

(This pic is of her and Corduroy, the preschool class bear that comes home with each child a few times a year... important stuff!!)

convert

Have you ever had a time when you had a conversation with someone, only to later think of better things you could have said? Yup, we all have! Heh. That happened to me over Christmas.

Someone was visiting with me about our upcoming missions and about our friends who were missionaries in China. In the end, his question was... "So you're trying to get them to convert?" "Um, I guess... kinda..." Duh-rt...

Yes, in the end, we, as believers in Christ, want others to "convert" to follow Jesus, too. But it's so much more than that. Our desire is to offer out Hope. To give abundant life. To show others that there's a deeper, more personal relationship to be had with God because of Jesus life and sacrifice. Some have never heard the Good News of Jesus love! And some have heard but don't know what it means to have a relationship with the Lord. That is what we're set out to do!

We want to "...hold out the word of life..." Phil 2:16 And usually when the light shines, hearts are changed... converted?

Transformed.
Renewed.

Christmas flu

Christmas 2007 will be rememered as the Christmas of the flu! Heh. Before going home to Williston where my folks live, Benjamin had the flu. He was sick over the weekend of the kid's Christmas program at church. A few days later, it was Elijah. After that, we had a week sick-free. We took off for Grandma and Papa's house... to have Ruth get sick, then a few days later, Hannie got sick - right on Christmas Eve. We celebrated everything on Christmas morning. Then the next day, it was Auntie Crystal. Next day, Uncle Blake... Uff. After we got home from Williston, Kevin wasn't feeling well.

After all that sickness, I'm thankful to be the only one, along with my folks and grandma, who did NOT get sick. Crazy! Usually I'm the only one to get sick! Heh.

Between all the sickness we did have a good celebration of Jesus and enjoyed our time together! :)

(The picture is over Thanksgiving while we were in AR and MO... with Kev's family!)

Teeth and glasses

Miss No Front Teeth
loving on
Mr. New Glasses

fire

Ruth went to the fire station with her class last week. When I drove her home she didn't seem as excited about the trip as she had that morning...

"Ruth, how was the fire station??"

"Mom, there was NO FIRE!"

Fire station... :)

These two schmoopies... trying not to smile, sitting in their box... what fun!

I Am

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Arkansas and Missouri. While we were there we got to spend the nights with children in the room with us. Now, all of them wake up pretty cheerful. But sometimes a little bit earlier than we would choose to wake up on our own! While we were at Kev's parent's house in Hot Springs, it was us and little Elijah sharing a room. He waited until maybe 7 to wake up which isn't too bad. But he was stuck in his pack n' play. So when he would wake up, he'd just start to play. We heard all kinds of goofy things in his early morning play time.

Lijah had two toy puppies in his bed with him and they would wake up "talking" to each other. One day it was,
"yes."
"no."
"Yes."
"No."
"YES..."
You get the idea.
One morning, his puppies woke up saying, "Bow!" to which he replied, "shut!" Back and forth for a while. (Apparently that's what people say to puppies... something we try NOT to say to each other in the Crawford home but to puppies, he must have figured the short form of "shut-up" was appropriate.)
One time it was his baby CPK, Matthew, crying. "Matthew's crying... whaaaaaa!" Only much louder than you just read it in your head!

My favorite wake up conversation in the morning was another repetitive one... Lijah simply said, over and over,

"I am. I am. I am. I am. I am..."

Who knows what he was talking about! Gotta love the 2 year old mind. But I thought right away of the Lord being the great I AM. What a good focus in the morning.

Have you heard the Nichole Nordeman song, I Am? She sang it at the Women of Faith conference I attended with my girlfriends this fall. I understood it better then... let me just share a verse with you... you'll get the idea.

You saw me wear white, by pale candlelight,
I said forever to what lies ahead
two kids and a dream,
with kids that can scream
too much it might seem
when it’s two AM

CHORUS:
when I am weak, unable to speak,
still I will call You by name.
“Oh Shepherd, Savior, Pasture-maker,
hold on to my hand,” and You say “I am.”

When we are in need or ask for Him to help... He says, "I Am."

Women of Faith...

All the Saints

Ephesians 6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

I've been waiting to blog this one for you for a month or so...

Our good friends are missionaries in Asia. So you know that you don't just go blogging about "M" in Asia... Since they are home in the states again, I figured it was safe to share my story with you, or rather how our stories intertwined.

While our friends were over in Asia, they found themselves in some trouble. (Among missionaries, so we've found out, we are considered family and therefore "Aunts and Uncles..." So since that's how our kids refer to them, that's how I will, too... I'm not sure how gently to tread still.

Our uncle found the police at his door one day and was taken downtown to have a visit. There they questioned him about his friendships and his purpose in Asia. I think it was about six hours that they held him with some of that time spent in prison. You can imagine how scary that would be. His family didn't even know what was going on and he didn't know if or when they'd let him go. They had apparently been told he was there as a missionary.

Okay, so that's a wild story, and I'm sure that since they are back in the states, they would love to tell you more details! (Let me know if you want more info...) :)

But that's just their side of the story! Here on this side of the world, it was night time and I was climbing into bed reading my God's Word Day by Day by Beth Moore. It's just a short page of verses put into prayers. My prayer for that day was about the armor of God. As I got to the end of that familiar verse the last line stood out to me... Be alert and keep praying for the saints. I kinda laughed and thought of these specific friends of mine and chuckled that they could be considered "saints" as missionaries over there... Heh. Then I thought I should be alert and pray for them. So I spent just a little time praying that God would make Himself known to them, that they'd know He's there with them, and that He would be there Encourager. I even thought of the book Safely Home by Randy Alcorn where the angel stands by the man in jail...

The very next morning, we saw our uncle on Skype and he told us he had just gotten home from prison in Asia! He told us the time and I figured out when that would have been corresponded with my prayers... EXACTLY the same time! Seriously! Can you believe that! Isn't the Holy Spirit awesome!?

I've heard stories of that and know that it could have even happened to me in the past and I may have not known or don't remember it now... but it was really exciting for me to SEE God alive and active. Working. So cool.

The rest of their story is that he was imprisoned again for a longer time and they have been sent home to the states. They'll find a new place for missions work and trust God to work all things together for good...

The rest of my story is that I can't wait to hear from God again! Speak to me, Lord. I'm so excited to hear Your voice.

Let us stay alert and keep praying!

yellow makes me sing

Okay... gotta tell you guys some quick, cute kiddo stories for a minute! :)

The other day, when the kids and I were driving home from Wed night church (Kev was still with the youth group...), the van's gas-tank-is-low light came on. Usually that means there's a few miles left to go before it's out (although I've never actually run all the way out!). But when Benjamin saw the light on, he figured we needed gas right away! Since it was like 9:00 on a school night, I chose to just go right home and worry about the gas the next day. As I drove past the gas station on the way home, I hear a little 8 year old boy voice from the back seat, "Mooommmm, are you being foolish??" Ha. Maybe... but it was a hoot to hear it from my little Benjamin! (BTW, we did make it home, no problem!)

Elijah is really enjoying singing lately. He sings, "Blessed name the Lord... Blessed name the Lord!" (Blessed be the name of the Lord...) And he still love "I'll fly away, oh Louie, I'll fly away..." One of his favorites from a Veggie CD we have is "Oh Shenandoah, I long to see you... long to see your rolling river... AWAY! I've found a way across the wide Missouri." Kev loves to hear our little guy sing that one. Heh.

Lijah's also learning grown up phrases... you almost gotta hear him say them... but just picture a little two year old in pullups... :)

"Lijah, do you have to go to the bathroom?"

"Not really."

"Lije, come sit at the table"

"In a minute."

"Eli, it's time to go inside."

"No way!" (Not just the simple "no" anymore!)

Those are just a few examples! Heh.

Ruthie came home from school the other day and told me, "Triangles are CUTE." Heh. Yup, I guess they are!

After church a week or two ago, I heard Hannie singing, "Yellow makes me sing..." I thought, triangles are cute and now yellow makes us sing... then figured out from the song we'd sang that morning in church... "hallelujah, hallelujah, Your love makes me sing..." She said, "Ohhhh!" (But don't mention it to her... she does NOT like feeling like she's being laughed at... she was okay with us laughing a second over how cute it was. but...)

Cuties.