Our Year In Review...

This has been another great year for the Croswells! I know that God has great plans for 2012 and I can't wait to see what they are! Today I am reflecting on what has gone on this year, so I thought I would share our year with you.

January-We took the biggest group of students to Winter Weekend and we had a blast!  I also started my third semester in college! I was also named the varsity cheer coach for DHS.

February-We enjoyed some of the most beautiful snow that East Texas has ever seen. We also celebrated my 29th birthday and Boomer's 5th birthday.

March-We went on our 3rd annual young adult camping trip (which is always one of the best weeks of the year) and we celebrated Ashby's 3rd birthday.

April-I worked this whole month as a long term substitute teacher for Freshmen World Geography at the high school which I really enjoyed.

May-I finished up the Spring semester with two A's and two B's and I started preparing for cheer camp.

June-I started the summer session at school and began cheer practice. This would mark my last summer classes!!!! That was a huge relief!

July-This is always the busiest month of the year for youth ministry, but it is also the most fun. We went to the Bogg church camp and we brought quite a few first timers with us and were able to grow many friendships that week. Then we spent a week in McAllen, Texas which I think may be the hottest place on earth. We met a kid named Mike who was struggling with who God is and why he needs a relationship with him (remember him because he will show back up in this blog).

August-I started back to school and football season began. The cheerleaders got lots of compliments on how much better they looked than last year which I was very proud of. September-Josh and I celebrated 9 years of marriage and took a trip to Branson. This was the first trip we had taken by ourselves since our honeymoon. Needless to say, we had a great time!

October-We had our Harvest Fest at church and there was a record turnout.

November-We found out that Mike from McAllen got saved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was great for all of our kids to hear because it showed them that mission trips are definitely worth all the work! We had a great Thanksgiving with our family and Josh was able to see his Aunt Dell with his mom and sisters. Josh and I decided that I will not work when I graduate. In a few years I might but for now I will just stay home with Ashby :)

December was another great month. We celebrated another birthday for Jesus and spent lots of time with our family. 

To sum it all up, this has been another great year! We have a great family, a great church and God has blessed us in so many ways. I don't know what 2012 has in store, but I hope that I can live the life that God wants me to live and be the example that he wants me to be. I pray that all of you have a great New Year's Eve and a blessed 2012!

Until next year...

Small Life, Big God!

As this year is nearing an end I am reminded of how awesome our God really is! When I write a post I don't usually look at the title of my blog, but tonight I was looking through some of the new things that have been added to Blogger and I read the title in my head and just focused on it for just a little bit. As I think back over the past 4 years, I realize that God is so much bigger than my small little life. He made me and he loves me and he cares for me in the big stuff and in the small stuff. When I was at the deepest, darkest time of my whole life, he lifted me up and carried me through. Now, during the small stuff, he is walking with me every step of the way and building me up. I am so thankful that my parents raised me to have faith and believe that God is in control! I'm also thankful that God brought Josh and I together! He has blessed me with a loving family and extended family, two beautiful children, a roof over my head, a dependable car to drive and lots of great friends. This has been a great year and I can't wait to see what BIG things God is going to do in 2012!

Until next time...

Croswell Family Christmas Picture

From the top: Larry, Tara (and baby Rush), Michael, Maren, Susan, Alex, Mamoo, Jude, Ashby, Josh, Me, Max, Tracie and Steve

Lazy Days

How many of you are enjoying some lazy days before the new year? I know we are at the Croswell house! For the past week we have definitely been lazy and not getting much of anything done. Although it has been fun, this is all about to change. It's always nice to have lazy days, but at some point you start to feel like a slob and you just have to get up and do something. How many of you feel the same way?

We have a pile of boxes in our dining room that have been there for over a year and something has to be done with them. Most of them are boxes of Boomer's things that I really need to go through. Part of me wants to go through them and part of me doesn't. Josh and I decided that tomorrow is the day and we will be going through them and keeping a few things, but donating a bunch of it to Goodwill. God tells us that his love is sufficient and we know his grace is enough to make even the worst of days good! 

Until next time...

Our Crazy Christmas!

We are finally back home! Christmas for us started a week ago when we left here Wednesday night (or Thursday morning) at 3am to head to Frisco. We arrived to sleepy hugs and smiles from Steve, Tracie and Susan and we were so happy to be with our family! I will take too long to tell you everything that we did so I'll just hit some highlights. On Thursday we did a little last minute shopping, went downtown Frisco to see the musical lights, got caught in traffic by a really cool house, drove through Deer Field, and sang Christmas carols as loud as we could in the truck! On Friday we hung out and enjoyed visiting with each other, ate fajitas from LaHa, played minute to win it (thanks Tracie and Steve), listened to Josh read the Christmas story, opened gifts, and watched Christmas Vacation. Then on Saturday we just spent time talking and letting the kids play and then it was back home because Santa Claus was on his way!

We got home around 6pm and made a pallet in the living room floor, popped some popcorn, made some hot chocolate and watched The Polar Express. As soon as it went off, Ashby and Mamoo went to bed so that Santa would come. On Sunday morning, Ashby was sooooooo excited about what Santa brought! We opened the rest of the gifts and then were off to church. We had an awesome worship service with no electricity and then it was time for round 2.

We got to Overton around 3pm and the fun began. Noey and Jennifer and their kids were there and we opened gifts and then mom and dad sent the kids in the bedroom to see the bicycles they had bought for them. This was followed by screams for about 5 minutes. They finally got outside and rode their bikes on the porch because of the rain. One of the highlights in Overton was Christmas caroling around town. We went to 5 houses of friends and family and it was a blast! Monday and Tuesday were spent hanging out, riding bicycles, visiting with Granny, playing games, staying up late, eating, and laughing!

We arrived back home last night around 6pm and were in bed by 9:30! For the past 3 years Christmas has been really hard, but this year, Christmas was great! Not saying that I didn't think about Boomer or that I'm perfectly fine, but this was just the first year that I wasn't totally consumed in thoughts about him not being here with us. God is good and he always provides exactly what we need. 

I hope that everyone of you had a great Christmas too and were able to spend time with your family and do all the things you wanted to do!

Until next time...

Minute to Win It! (Josh won)

Tara and Alex

Ashby and her 4 Wheeler from Santa

Dad reading the Christmas story

Ashby and her new bicycle!

Jude's Masterpiece!

 

 

Frisco Lights :)

Last night we decided to get out and enjoy the sights and sounds of downtown Frisco at Christmas time. The whole downtown is lit up with lights that are synchronized to music. There's just something about Christmas lights and Christmas music that make you feel like a kid all over again.

Here are some of the things we saw last night...

Ashby, Alex and Jude

This was one of the houses in DeerField

 Ashby was getting really tired

If I can figure out how to post a video I will be posting it soon.

Until next time...

Peanut Butter Balls :)

Mixing the peanut butter...

Rolling the peanut butter...

She was trying to make a square...

 The finished product! She was so proud of herself!

Christmas Baking!

I'm finished with school for the semester, Ashby's done with MDO and the kitchen was calling my name today. I've never really been much of a baker, but since Ashby loves it so much I thought we would spend the whole day baking cookies and making goodies for our family. We started off making peanut butter balls. Ashby rolled out about 30! Then we moved on to chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies. I really don't think I've ever done this much baking at my house since me and Josh have been married, but it was a lot of fun and I'm so glad we did it! The recipe I used for my sugar cookies is my Grandma Brown's and every time I eat them it brings back great memories of her house. I hope that when Ashby gets older and makes these cookies at her house it will bring back great memories of these fun baking days!
Until next time...
(I will try to post pics of the baking soon)

Christmas Time!

This is going to be a busy week! Ashby and I are hanging out today and getting our house ready for our staff Christmas party tonight! I am so thankful that God is allowing us to minister with such a great group of people. This Sunday marks our 4 year anniversary on staff at South Union, but it feels like we have been here forever! I know that it is very easy to get so busy at this time of year that you fly through the season and never really think on why we celebrate Christmas. Not that we've forgotten or don't know, but Satan does what he does best and makes us too busy to concentrate on what really matters. When I was growing up we always had a stocking for Jesus on our mantel. On Christmas morning we would write a note to Jesus and tell him things that we hoped to do better in the coming year. This year we will be rereading all of those notes and I wonder what kind of job I have done on actually doing what I said I would do. I'm thankful for the way my parents raised me and I hope that Ashby will always be able to look back on Christmas traditions that brought her closer to God instead of what "stuff" she got. 

I hope that you can all take some time this week to thank God for sending his son as a baby to sacrifice his life for us so we could have an eternity with him!

Until next time...

At Night Bird...

I just wanted to add a little bit to one of my previous posts. I told you about "heavenly peas," but I forgot to mention "at night bird." Every time she sings the song she ends it with "at night bird." It took us quite a while to decipher this phrase as it is not as easy as "heavenly peas." We were in our pastors office a couple of days ago and she was singing Silent Night to him and it hit me! She's saying "at thy birth!" This little girl has definitely been exactly what we needed. She is hilarious and sweet and stubborn and loving all at the same time and I know God is forming her to be something special!
Until next time...

Heavenly Peas

Ashby sang in her 3rd MDO program Sunday night at First Baptist and she did a marvelous job! The two songs that they sang were Holly Jolly Christmas and Silent Night. She practiced so hard on both of her songs and she knows most of the words. The first time we were practicing it at home she did a great job, but I noticed something towards the end of the song that I thought was funny. At the end of Silent Night she sang, "sleep in heavenly peas" instead of "heavenly peace." Before I started laughing (to myself of course), I asked her what heavenly peas were and she said, "They're the kind of peas you eat in Heaven." I love her so much and I am so thankful that God gave us such a sweet and cute little girl!

End of Semester!

Well, another semester has come and gone! I only have one more final and I will be finished until January! Now it's on to my last semester...EVER!!!!!! Josh and I talked a few weeks ago and decided that I will not go to work immediately following graduation. We are planning on having another baby (sometime) and I would really like to be able to stay home with the baby. For those of you that know me well, you know that I'm very excited about this! 

Everything at church is going great! We are in the process of doing dirt work for our new children's ministry building and I know that God is going to bless in this new endeavor. Once it is all complete I will share some pictures with everyone. Youth ministry is also going great! We went to a Casting Crowns/The Afters/Sanctus Real concert last weekend and it was AWESOME! I don't know about you, but I love Casting Crowns. I think it's because we can relate to them because they are all youth workers.

As far as Christmas goes...I am really missing Boomer (as always), but God has blessed us in so many ways that I could not possibly feel sorry for myself! Every year presents new and different challenges, but for this year we are doing good. I hope that all of you are enjoying a wonderful Christmas season together. Remember to enjoy the time that you have with your loved ones because you never know how much time you have with each of them.

Until next time...