most enjoyable of 2009

january. look at that sweet, chubby grey bear. i just love this little muscle man.

february. grey begins sleeping in a big boy bed.

march. our 2nd big snow of the year. 

april. time with cousins.

may. tucker ellis cavin entered the world. we were elated!

june. lots of time with daddy before his july traveling. 

july. lots of time with mommy while daddy was traveling.

august. brotherly love.

september. beautiful roses every week from our yard.

october. we watched it rain - a lot.

november. thankful for our time at the beach.

december. the joy of the first Christmas read by Poppie and experienced in little hearts.

can't keep up

Wow. I almost can't keep up with all of things that Tucker has been up to lately. Apparently 7 months marked a lot of firsts for the little guy. Good and not so good.


He had his first Christmas.

He has started using his pincer grasp to pick up puffs.

they make him this happy.

He has started doing this all the time. not quite sure if he's trying to prove something.

and when he sees something he wants, he CRAWLS to it...

and gets it!

He also thinks he's big stuff because he's pulling up on everything. sheesh.

He also has his first ear infection which is making him pitiful. I also think his bottom two teeth are on the brink of breaking through. 


He realized he has a very high pitched scream that gets my attention (and everyone else's for that matter). and have I mentioned he's a momma's boy?! man, i love that baby! i hope i can keep up with how fast he's growing. 

you were born

today, 29 years ago.

to have a very distinguishable laugh (that i love).
to loathe mustard.

to smile so big that others can't help but smile too.

to enjoy the sound and smell of rain.

to love watching a good movie.

to enjoy drinking coffee.

to chop wood.

to hate spiders.

to be a little bit (ok, a lot) more afraid of the dark than i am.

to learn things and want to tell everyone about them.

to be way more organized than i am.

to make others comfortable.

to be a MAN.

to realize your need for Christ and accept His grace.

to become a husband and learn to love your wife unconditionally.

to become a father and strive to lead your children to godliness.

to push and pull others to seek Christ more.

i am so thankful for you today, on your birthday, matthew cavin.

boys will be boys

as i mentioned previously, we had a great Christmas week! Grey and Garrett got to have some unreserved boy time together.

oh what fun

our Christmas was! these three little ones had a great time together. here's just a glimpse.

December 21, 2004

Five years ago today, my hair was a lot more blonde. Matthew's hair was a lot longer. 

Five years ago today I got to experience a day of living in luxury and then put on a REAL dress, like a prom dress. AND my sweet boyfriend who had provided the luxurious day for me put on a suit.

Until five years ago today I had never worn a diamond on my left ring finger. 

Five years ago today matthew cavin told me he loved me for the first time and then asked me to be his wife. I, without hesitation, accepted! and here we are today having the time of our lives!

Five years ago today was such an exciting time in our lives. BUT today is just as exciting in a completely different way. oh how I have enjoyed these past five years from engagement to marriage to having two children that we adore. We are loving this journey that we are on together!

a final farewell

Matthew received our DSLR camera for Christmas (and his birthday) in 2005. He has always had a love and talent in taking photographs and this was the ticket for him to improve without film and such. 

As time went on and we had children and ministry was busy, there was less and less time for him to take the time he wanted to learn and practice what he loves. So, I decided about a year ago to pick up the camera and teach myself how to use it. 

This has been the only thing EVER that I have had a continued interest in. (I hate this about myself) In my continued interest and growing love of taking photographs myself, I decided to see if I could sell our current camera and start over from scratch with the camera and lenses that I choose. All I had to do was put it on Facebook and it was SOLD to my dear friend Amy Hamm! 

I have enjoyed it so much and it has been an awesome camera! I have just opened and put together my new Nikon so it's farewell to the ol' faithful Canon. I know it's going to be tenderly loved by someone that I certainly adore. 

Here are it's few last shots of the boys. 

baking and such

Friday night we had dinner by the Christmas tree and watched Curious George, A Very Monkey Christmas. I am a huge Curious George fan myself so I actually sat down and watched too. During the movie Little Tuck decided to scoot, reach, and thrust himself over to the tree to check things out.

For dinner we made Eggnog Pancakes which were DELICIOUS! I wanted to share the recipe so others can make these delectable treats. 

Eggnog Pancakes

1 1/2 c. flour

1 T. sugar

2 1/2 t. baking powder

1 c. eggnog

1/2 c. milk

2 T. butter

1 egg

1/8 t. cinnamon

1/8 t. nutmeg

Mix dry ingredients (I sifted them all together). Mix wet ingredients and stir them into the dry ingredients. If batter is too thick, add milk/eggnog until desired consistency. Pour warm syrup on and eat 'em up!


***

We had a lazy Saturday and stayed in our p.j.'s almost all day. It was very delightful I must say. Grey and I decided to bake some cookies. 

Matthew put in his request for Potato Chip Cookies. These were a favorite in my house growing up and now Matthew is a huge fan! They are super delicious and I wanted to share that recipe as well.

Potato Chip Cookies

1 c. butter

1/2 c. sugar

1 t. vanilla

1/2 c. crushed potato chips (i use plain ruffles or lays)

1/2 c. chopped pecans

2 c. flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add crushed potato chips and pecans. Stir in flour. Form into balls using 1 Tablespoon each. Place on ungreased cookie sheets and press flat with the bottom of a tumbler dipped in sugar. Bake for 16-18 minutes. (Make sure you keep your eye on them because they brown fairly quickly depending on how thin you make them).

Enjoy! Grey sure did.

dedication

When we found out last year that God had chosen again to allow us to raise up another child is the moment that in my heart I told the Lord that this baby was His. We understand that God, as His precious Word states, knits us together in the womb and has blessed our family with another one of his perfect creations in Tucker Ellis Cavin. 


Yesterday was our public dedication of Tucker to our Heavenly Father. We were given a charge that we are now held accountable to by our church body. There were so many (eleven in our service! and we have three services!) beautiful families being challenged to do the same with their children. It was so encouraging to be alongside other believers who desire to raise up godly children just as Matthew and I do. 


It is one of the scariest things...raising children. BUT God is faithful to provide each and every measure of patience, wisdom, discipline, guidance, etc. to lead them to know and obey His standards. My dependence on God in this area is greater each day with the different demands and challenges that face me.


Matthew and I do desire above all else to seek our God consistently. We will live in the grace that He alone provides each day and teach and guide our children with the Word of God. How great and beautiful the journey is and will be!

classic

I should have known that when I promised myself I would post every day on our celebration of Advent, I really lied. Here it is December 12th and have only posted once about our celebration. We have been up to lots of fun things but I won't be sharing much in this post.

I DID want to share some of the classic "wear the same jammies by the tree" pictures that I tried to take this morning.this is the first year we are able to pull this classic little move and I wanted to document how the morning went.

exhibit a: grey karate chopping thin air while tuck happily looks at mommy and daddy

Where did he get that idea?

exhibit b: his dad.

exhibit c: a solemn grey bear and an over zealous tucker.

exhibit d: oh wow. this is my favorite. we moved to get a little better lighting. this clearly did NOT sit well with grey. again, tuck is still happily ready to smile at any point. nothing phases him. 

exhibit e: and back in front of the tree with two smiling kids. 

I think pictures that aren't "posed" are my absolute favorite. It was great to look back on the not so "posed" pictures. It's pretty much one in 300 (because that's about how many I take to get about FIVE good ones) that you get what you were going for but I would rather have rambunctious little boys!