Dublin Family 2015

A few of my favorite people!

The Crum Family Fall 2015

State Tournament {Texarkana, TX}

We are still in the middle of baseball.  We've driven 3  nights in a row to Texarkana.  Tonight we got a bi!  Woo hoo for not having to drive!  We've lost one game.  One more loss and we are done until next spring.  I'd be lying if I said I'll be sad when it ends! ;)  But shhhhh don't tell anyone else that!  I doubt all the other parents are on the same page as me :)

She's home!

She was gone for only a week

and not really a week

more like a mon-friday

and it seemed like eternity

so thankful she is home

but even more thankful that she served with a happy heart and had a blast doing it

she was Jesus' hands and feet last week

such an example of Christ love

Matthew 25:40

And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.

Switch Camp

This girl right here comes home from Switch Camp today!  I have missed her terribly!  I can't wait to hear all about it and pray that God revealed himself big time to her while she was away!!

Oh, I LOVE the mess out of her!

District Champs

 Yes, we are in the throws of baseball!  This seems to be the norm for our summers.  And I have to say that this summer it's been enjoyable.  Not that the others haven't been (baseball games), but this year I haven't dreaded them as much ;)

Maybe for one, Griff LOVES to go to all the practices and let me tell you there are many...5 days a week.  So that means Alli and I have quiet time...5 days a week :)

But also, Walker seems to have matured and grown alittle since last summer.  We haven't seen as many tears of disappointment as we have in the past.  This makes it easier on this mama's heart!

Our boy is very hard on himself.

But he's doing awesome at shortstop :)

the photo above and below are photo credits to Wendy McKay.

Walker-man win or lose we are so proud of who you are!  I LOVE that you are an encourager!  I LOVE watching you grab a fellow teammate by the shoulders when they come in from a strike out and tell them it's ok you'll get it next time.  Or when a team mate scores the tie point you grab him and hug him and jump up and down screaming!  Makes this mama's heart smile :)

I pray you will be a light on that field!  That God will use you in advancing the Kingdom.

Griffin's birth day!

We celebrated the beginning of the month with a trip to Great Wolf Lodge.  

And today on his actual birthday we had a chill birthday...that have become {honestly} my favorite kind of birthdays!

We decorated the night before while he was asleep.  And when he woke up he was surprised with 6 dollar filled balloons to represent every year of his life {thank you pinterest}.

And gifts and a banner that took his mama 6 years to order...sad but true...bless those 3rd children ;)  Luckily, I don't think he realized he hasn't had a banner before...whew!

He asked for breakfast at Chickfila and he requested for dinner chicken nuggets, curly fries and baked potatoes!  

And this year we tried an ice cream cake...word.

it was a hit!

Happy Birthday Little Man!  Love you!!

Happy 6th Birthday Griffin

Today, my baby turns 6.  I still can't believe he's already 6!  Those years just flew by.  

He is so ready for big school and it's breaking this mama's heart!

He is our big, blue eyed beauty!  Full of life!  

He knows exactly how to charm his mama and get what he wants!

He is the lover of baseball!  Had a great season on the Storm. And can't wait to start machine pitch next spring!

He is his big brother's biggest fan!  Goes to every practice and loves for Walker to "coach" him out in our field....watching them play ball together melts my heart!

He is full force!  Goes all the time!  And goes head first, full steam ahead!  I keep telling myself that one day his determination and head-strong personality is going to be a good thing!

I am so thankful God blessed me with this sweet spirited, tender hearted, gentle giant!  Oh how I love him!  And know that God has BIG plans for him!!  BIG PLANS!  I can't wait to see how he grows into those big plans either!  

Thank you Father for choosing me to mother these 3 children!  I can't imagine my life any other way!  Chaos and all!

Happy Birthday Griffin!!  We hope you have a blessed year!!

Surprise! We are going to Disney!

I'm back...

(me, babe, walker, alli, griffin, and uncle will)

Well, it's been a year!  I can't believe I went a year without blogging!  But since I've dumped fb, I've been asked to please at least blog.  Soooo, because I love this person I will blog...just for him (Hey Uncle Will)  ;)

We just returned home from a surprise vacation with the kiddos!  And while away we were able to visit with my brother.  He moved 6 months ago and we've only seen him once since his move so it was great to be able to see his new home and hang out with him!

About the surprise....we actually pulled off the biggest surprise!  We booked, planned, packed and prepared for a trip to Disney without the kids knowing anything!  It was exciting!  If I can figure out how to post a video I'll add it later!  So over the next few days I'll add some highlights from our trip!  The best part for me was just being with my husband and kids for an entire week!  I wasn't ready to return to "life".  I dreamed of running away and it just being us!  But...life goes on and here we are home!  And really there's no place like home!  And tomorrow it's up at 6 am and back to the real world!

Meet our sweet Ranger!

Our golden retriever.

8 weeks old soon.

Has lived with us for 2 weeks now.

Has quickly become best buds with a couple of members of our family!

Who is so stinkin' cute!

I'm hoping he stays "stinkin cute"!

Reflection

The Reflection contest is going on at the school again this year.  And both kiddos entered again!  Last time Walker's piece one 1st place!  I was a proud mama!

The theme was Diversity means...we opted to go the nature route since we were hiking ;)

If you've read my Facebook you can tell who took what!  But if not try guessing!

Which is Walker's and which belongs to Alli?

Mt. Magazine, Ar and Petit Jean Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving in the mountains!  That was our plan this year!  

Traveling up the mountain we went thru many different conditions!

Clear, to foggy, misty and then quickly it was sunny and clear!

The leaves were still changing in some places!  I was so thankful that all the trees hadn't dropped their leaves!  It was beautiful!  

I highly recommend Mt. Magazine Lodge.  If you have never heard of it, look it up!  It was beautiful!  It had a Great Wolf Lodge kinda feel to it!  And it was set right on the edge of the mountain!  Beautiful!

We plan on going back sometime next year and staying at the lodge and hiking around it!

The friday after thanksgiving we took the kids over to Petit Jean State Park and hiked!

We did a long hike and a short hike of course, the short hike was their favorite!  But they did GREAT on the long hike!  It was a 2 mile hike down to a waterfall.  The falls were huge because of all the rain they had gotten!  

I enjoyed listening to the kids recall some of the other places we had been while hiking.  The photo above reminded them of "the fat man squeeze" at Rock City in Tennessee!  

And at other parts during the hike they all talked about their hike this summer up to the waterfall at The Tetons, up hill in snow!

Thankful for time with my little family, because time is flying right by.

The picture below is of the short hike to Rock House Cave, that we have renamed "Indian Cave".  This cave has pictographs on the ceiling that the indians drew!  How cool is that!  

Anyway, our weekend didn't end up like we planned.  You see our camper has an electrical short in it and we couldn't run our heat.  And up top on that mountain it was windy and chilly.  So one night in a camper without heat was roughing it in my opinion!  Plus it wasn't safe!  So home we came after our hiking.  :(

Thankful for our thanksgiving though!  Stuck inside a camper playing board games is my idea of family time!  It was worth it!!!