No More Pacifier!!!

Well today is the second day of Miss Ashby with no pacifier! It has been kind of tough but we are definitely not turning back now. I really thought bed time would be the worst but it is actually nap time when she wants it the most. I thought I would share a few pics of how cute she looked with it in her mouth so we can all remember the days! Enjoy :)

Church Camp

Reading Books

Hanging out on the back porch!

I will have to admit that I am a little sad about the pacifier being gone. I don't know if it's that she's growing up a little bit or if it just means that we are entering a new phase in our lives or what but it does make me a little sad. On the other hand it makes me really happy!! No more crawling around on my hands and knees trying to find a pacifier so that she will stop screaming in the middle of the night, no more searching the car, searching the backpack, and no more wasting money on new ones because none of the searching turned up a pacifier!
Thank you God for giving us two beautiful babies that we love more than anything!!

Grandma Brown

For any of you that don't know my Grandma Brown passed away a couple of weeks ago. I have written about her before on my blog but I just want to tell you about what it was like right before she met Jesus face to face.
As I said in my last post about her, she was one of the most awesome Christian women I have ever known. She had 12 children whom she loved very much and lots of grandchildren and great grandchildren that she also loved.
My mom would call and give me updates on her because Josh and I were at church camp and we couldn't go and see her. The first night she called she said that Grandma had been seeing Grandpa all day and then there was something else. She also said that she kept asking him, "Who is that little boy with you?" Mom asked her if it was Boomer and she said yes but we also think that it could have been a baby that she had premature that was stillborn. Who knows who it was....that's just awesome no matter how you look at it!
The next night as we were walking out of the evening worship time mom called back to let me know that my Grandma had passed away. As she began telling me about what happened the day of her death I was amazed at her once again. As people were coming into her room to visit her or care for her or clean up she would ask them, "do you know Jesus?" What a legacy!! Even until the end she was witnessing to people and trying to win souls for the Lord. Oh if I could only be like my Grandma Brown!


This is almost the whole family. When there are this many people it is hard to get everyone to look at the camera and be still so this is the best picture I could get!

Playing Catch Up!!

Just to catch you up a little since I have just kind of jumped back in to this thing:

December was a tough month. It was our first Christmas without Boomer and Josh's dad (James/Papoo) was at home with Hospice. Our normal Christmas traditions were put on the back burner this year because we felt that we could not do our normal thing because it would be too tough. My family came here to our house for a couple of days and we had a blast. It was bittersweet because it was Ashby's first Christmas but it was also the first Christmas without Boomer. Then...we went to Josh's parents for Christmas with his family. Papoo was able to sit in the room with us while we opened presents and had the occasional tear or two. All in all Christmas was sad but good.

January was even tougher than December. On January 22nd we were all in the room singing and praising God when Papoo recieved the ultimate healing and saw Jesus face to face! He also got to see Boomer again! I will never forget, right before he passed away he looked up to Mamoo and moved his mouth like he was trying to say something to her. Who knows what it was...was he telling her how awesome it was to see the angels, was he saying I love you, was he saying I see Boomer, or was he just saying can't wait to see you again??? Many questions but one thing's for sure...He is completely healed and enjoying the most awesome experience that we could never imagine!!

February was the last month of our first year without Boomer. Minr and Boomer's birthdays were this month. We had a birthday party just like we would if he was here. It was hard having a party but I figured it would be even harder to act like it wasn't his birthday. That day was actually harder than the one year anniversary of his death. We had cupcakes and blew up lots of balloons. We invited all the kids we would have invited normally. I made little strips of paper for all of them to write on and they wrote their favorite verse on one side and a memory of Boomer on the other side. We tied them to the balloon strings and then had prayer in the front yard and then let the balloons go. It was also a bittersweet month.

March was of course tough but God also made it a great month. We went camping with about 20 people from church on the 18th-21st to try to be out of our normal surroundings. It was definitely a good idea because we were surrounded by people from church that helped keep our mind off of things. It was an experience that we loved and will try to do again next year. Ashby's birthday was also this month but we decided to wait and celebrate it the first weekend of April.

April was a fun month. We had Ashby's first birthday in our backyard with lots of friends and family. I don't know how much she enjoyed it but we had a blast!

May was another great month. Not a lot happened but it was great.

Through this whole past year we have had a lot of ups and downs but we have had a good year. Even when you think that nothing good could ever come out of certain circumstances God makes a way for things to be okay. We are a living example that GOD IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!

Beaver's Bend

At the beginning of this week we went to Beaver's Bend in Oklahoma with 5 of our high school students. It was a blast!! We got to sit in the biggest chair in Oklahoma!!!
We went kayaking, bumper boating, swimming in some stinking cold water, and tubing at the lake!

I think tubing was one of the funnest things I have done in a long time! I laughed so hard my stomach was hurting!


This is me and Emily. I probably stayed on the tube longer with her than Katie but I definitely laughed more with Katie. Katie was already on the tube and I was trying to get on and I flipped the tube over on both of us. I was laughing so hard that I sucked so much water in my nose it took forever for me to get all the water out of my head!! I'll just say one more time....WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!! We will definitely make this an annual event for our High School students.

I'm Back!!!

Okay...I know it has been a little while...maybe a long while since I have put anything on here but I am back. Ashby is taking a nap and I have a new laptop so I am back in business. Sorry to all three of my followers for not updating this in a while (lol). I will try to start blogging at least once a week (more often if I can)! Hope you enjoy what is going on in our thrilling life :)

Thanksgiving Day at the Croswell's

Can you believe it is already Thanksgiving? At the beginning of the week I thought I was not going to get to enjoy all of our family and all of the great Thanksgiving food but thank God I am better and I got to eat turkey and dressing!! We got to Valley View at about 5:30pm on Tuesday evening. Ashby was so excited to see her cousints (that's what Jude calls Boomer and Ashby) and they were excited to see her. Everyone started talking about what they were going to cook on Thursday and it all sounded so good. When we woke up Thursday morning I was so hungry. Since I had not been feeling good I hadn't gotten to eat very much so all I could think about was food! It all turned out great! Michael made the dressing and gravy, Steve cut up everything for the cranberry salad, Tracie mashed the potaoes, Mamoo made the peas, and Susan made the corn casserole (with butter :>)! Papoo was unable to sit up and eat with us so we all went back and said the blessing with him in his room. Susan and Tracie took their food back and ate with him. Ashby loved the potatoes and the peas. She ate a whole plate full so I guess that meant she thought they were awesome! We are all so thankful for our family! I am so proud to be part of the Croswell family. I don't think there could have been a better family to marry into! The one thing I missed a lot about this year was my family. I missed getting to eat Aunt Phyllis' dressing, Granny's mashed potatoes, Aunt Barbara's mac and cheese, Aunt Neda's green bean casserole, Aunt Jeanie's chocolate chip cookies, and my mom's broccoli casserole and bread, but I am thankful that they were all able to be together.
I know most of you are probably wondering...."I wonder how she is doing emotionally?" Well, Thanksgiving was hard but I was glad we could be with Papoo. I thought about Boomer all day long...his first Thanksgiving when he ate dressing, and broccoli casserole, and mashed potatoes and peas and cornbread, and how much he loved looking at tree lights (christmas lights) and how he should be running around playing with Alex and Jude! But, he's not here and he had a way better Thanksgiving than we could ever imagine! I just keep reminding myself that God knows more than me and whether I like it or not the way things are is the way he planned it to be. I know there will only be a certain number of Thanksgivings to come that he will not be here but there will be an infinite number of Thanksgivings that we will spend together in heaven.
I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Don't forget to cherish every moment you have with your family because you don't know how many moments you have left with them.
I hope this finds everyone having a wonderful day....until next time...

Josh's 30th Birthday!

For the past three years I have been hearing..."Christina, I am almost 30!!!" So I thought what a better way to bring in the BIG 30 for Josh than to have a surprise party with some of our closest friends! The planning started about 2 months before the party. I wanted to make sure everything was just right. My mom made the cake, I took care of decorations (with help from Prissy, Brandi, Tara, Larry, and Stacey...thanks for making the streamers look awesome), and my brother grilled all the hamburgers! There were a couple of times when I thought it was not going to happen. I also thought that he already knew what was going on but everything was perfect. Since we are right in the middle of hunting season in East Texas I figured that would be the best way to lure him away from the house. So I called our friend Tony and set up a hog hunting trip for Josh, my dad and my brother in law. They left at about 3 and that's when it all got crazy. We started running around trying to get everything ready. With my mom, my sister, and some friends we got it all done pretty quick. By 5:30 everyone was at the house...cars hidden and being very quiet waiting on the right moment to scream...SURPRISE!!!!! He got there at about 6 and he was totally surprised. Everything went as planned and the party was a success. We had such a great time with all of our friends and family. Thanks to everyone who spent the evening with us celebrating Josh reaching a milestone!