June 29th, 2005
Hey there!
Just a Crawford update here!
Summer’s already whizzin’ by us! Can hardly believe it’s almost July! Wow. We’re headed back to Williston for the Fourth to celebrate, and to remember Joshua. That’s kinda gotten to be our tradition for the fourth of July. We’ve already been back to Williston twice this spring/summer. The end of May, I wanted to get back to the high school graduation of Boomer Evitt, one of my favorite “little” boys that I used to babysit! Heh. We mad a quick trip to Kansas City to visit Kev’s folks and Scott and Nathan. We also got to have supper with his Aunt Linda and Uncle Jim, too. The kids would tell you all about the water park that we went to down there… Pretty fun. Benjamin was getting pretty brave out there with Uncle Nathan along side him! (Ruth and I, on the other hand, got dumped on after about 5 minutes there! And Hannie fell and skinned her knees after about 2 minutes there! We all recovered and enjoyed the park, too, though! Elijah slept through the whole thing!)
Benjamin graduated from kindergarten this May. He even got to wear a gown and cap! Pretty fun! He got the Fruit of the Spirit award for Goodness—he knows right from wrong and tries to do right and to make sure everyone else is following the rules, too! :) He was fun to watch up on stage, swinging his tassel, tying his shoe, swaying back and forth, trying not to pick his nose! Our boy! Now he’s busy enjoying t-ball! Whoo-hoo! He loves it. He’s on the Grand Forks Twins team, which is the bomb just in itself! Plus, he’s got a little friend from church out there on his team with him. He loves hitting and running and outfielding… pretty much every part of t-ball! He does prefer to be pitched the ball instead of using the T but hasn’t complained about it at all. So that’s been a fun experience for him. He’s looking forward to 1st grade when he goes to school all day and “won’t have to take a rest in the afternoon!” He loves school and we’re proud of his excitement to learn. His teacher said she’d guess that he’s reading at a 3rd or 4th grade reading level already! He is self motivated and reads books all the time! He usually spends at least an hour reading to himself before bedtime! Pretty cool. My favorite is coming in to tell him to turn off the light to see him on his belly with his feet up behind him, head in his hands, reading his Bible! Totally cool. Mr. Six Years Old! OH, and his latest excitement is his first loose tooth!! The other one is kinda coming in behind the baby one instead of under it but it’s pretty loose so I think it’ll come out one of these days here! He told me he thought he’d get a dollar for it! :)
Hannie Mae Bananie… She’s looking forward to preschool up at Riverside Christian School along with Benjamin. She’ll be going M, W, F mornings this fall. The only bummer is that Mrs. Schimke won’t be teaching. She’s just taking the kindergarten class this year instead of both. So she’ll have a new teacher but I’m sure she’ll be fine with it. She’s learning the rules of being in class right now through ballet lessons! Pretty CUTE! She wears a little black leotard and pink tights with pink ballet shoes. She has loved the lessons so far. She’s learned to warm up, to “skate” , to “leapfrog”, and to work with a partner. Whenever I go to pick her up, she always comes bouncing out with a smile on her face. It’s a little more fun, too, since our two new little neighbors go to class up there, too! Hannie is still full of spirit! Papa Eddie made the comment that she’s quite the little character! Yup. When I go to put Ruth back in bed… Hannie pretends to be asleep by laying still and softly shoring with a little grin on her face! Character.
Two down, two to go… :)
Ruthie girl is a beautiful little two year old. Long, dark eyelashes, blue eyes, and soft curls in her red hair. She’s got spirit along with her big sissy and a smile to die for like Hannie, too! Ruth usually has a bump or bruise somewhere on her little self. But whenever she gets knocked down, she’s usually up and ready to go right away again! Ruth can count to ten and gets a few right after that, she is learning colors, letters, puzzles… all that good stuff! She knows several songs and will stand up to perform them for us. Anything Miss Pattycake or “Happy Birthday” are what we hear the most of! The biggest thing she’s learning is to get along with her brother and sister! Heh. Two years old! She also likes to be a big helper doing the dishes and helping with laundry, things like that. And she loves being outside. She’ll get on her own clothes, socks and shoes to go out with Benjamin and Hannie. She likes to dress herself and has asked me, “Ruthie try” to get her diaper on by herself! I told her, once she can diaper herself, she should be going to the bathroom to use the toilet! Soon enough we’ll start that excitement!
Baby Eli is growing sooo fast! 5 months old already and wearing 12 month infant clothing! He was in the 90th percentile for height and weight last time we were at the doctor. He’s a bundle of smiles and giggles. He rolls over from his back to his belly and maybe over again. I haven’t seen him do that but he’s been farther away than before when I come back to check on him. He does have sisters and a brother to help, so I’m not sure which happens! :) Lijah’s eaten his first bowls of mushy rice cereal already and seems to love it! He also seems to love to be held but I think it’s just so he can sit up good to look around and watch all the excitement going on at our house! When we put him to bed, he usually prefers to just be laid down and for me to stick my finger in his mouth! Ha! Both he and Ruth didn’t like the pacifiers we had for them. They just wanted my finger! Whatever works! We’re enjoying getting to know him more now that he can interact with us and play around some. Ruth will be glad when he’s a little bigger so that she can have her own playmate!
Kev’s still finishing up his thesis about Acts and Luke. I’m still home with my lovies. Kev’s still busy with work and ministries at our church. I’m still coordinating MOPS. The latest thing we’re up to is checking into missions in RUSSIA! We’d like to do some long term missions over there but are starting out by checking into a 7 to 10 day trip to get a feel for the culture and things! So you can keep that in your prayers for our family. It’s cool because we’ve been praying for unity between Kev and me (and for our family) and both feel united on this/these decisions! Unity is cool! We’ve purchased an Unforgettable Languages set of tapes to start understanding the language and are excited about the few words we know! The kids know a few, too, and most likely Benjamin will know way more than us very soon! :)
So there’s our June update for all our loved ones! Hope you’re excited about whatever it is God is doing in your life! Whatever you do, do it all for His glory! (1 Cor. 10:31)
Poka! (Bye!)
We love you,
Jill
Ephesians 3:20
