Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from The Cravens!

Tis' the Season!

This year we decided to be more sentimental and cut our Christmas Tree from "the hill" property in Groveland...Lindsay's parents'. It feels much more special the the price was right! Free! Casey loves being boy with daddy!

This year we decided that we would all eat our Thanksgiving feast while the kids were napping. It was much more enjoyable for all. Casey and Madison had their special Thanksgiving meal to themselves. Casey's favorite was the sweet potatoes of course!

Madison enjoyed the pepper for some reason this time....

A few weeks ago, we signed Madison up for a ballet class at our local community center, literally a 2 minute walk from our house...it's great! She is such a "girlie" girl in there too.

Casey enjoyed his visit with Grandpa while mommy and daddy were away for mommy's birthday.

He's our biggest imitator, troublemaker & sneaky boy in the house right now. Take your eyes off of him for just a second and he will be into something dangerous.

And of course, as many had expected, Madison WAS Tinkerbell for halloween. Big surprise huh!

Hope all of your are enjoying the holiday season already! Be blessed!

A great day for some firsts...

Casey experienced his first time painting with his sister the other day. He enjoyed painting himself, the dogs, and eating it more than anything!

Once he got a hold of the paintbrush, he decided it would be a good idea to stop eating it and start painting, especially the dogs...but they kept running away too quickly for me to take a picture of this.

All done!

Sister paints all the time with grammy. She is a pro!

First haircut from Papa!

Cabo Cruise & Disney! Our ONE BIG vacation for the year...

Back in February we found out that Carnival had some great deals on their 4 day cruises. So, we decided to use some of our tax return and book a basic 4 day cruise to Catalina and Ensenada. Tim and I have already been on this cruise for our high school senior trip, but we figured that you can't beat the price that we got and Tim's family had never been on one yet. So we all booked for November near my birthday. Carnival, however, decided they would drastically change the dates on us, so they upgraded us to a 5 night/6day cruise to Cabo San Lucas for the same price we had already paid! Nice! Carnival has upgraded since we last took a cruise...of course, since everyone is in school, there was not much partying going on. That was kind of nice...Maddie loved Camp Carnival for kids...we were finally brave enough to leave her on the 3rd day since she was going stir crazy with nothing to do. Casey was such a trooper...he rode in the car 12 hours (thanks to the world's worst traffic) to Auntie Carrie's house on our way down to San Diego, and not a peep came out of him...he sucked his thumb w/ blankie in hand the whole way! He survivied the ship, with nothing for him to do on it, a big bummer since he was under 2 years, he could not even go in the kid's area at all.

Cabo was awesome! Very, very humid! But this tropical setting is exactly what we were looking for. Our goal has always been to find ocean water that is warm and clear, and as you will see in the pictures, it was! Tim and I went snorkeling and took a tour by the famous arch to take pictures just like every other tourist. That is where the sea sickness began for Tim. The catamaran we were on was very bumpy and on the ship that night, the ocean was very rough. It felt as if we were dropping to the middle of Earth at times as I was laying there in bed on our last night. I think everyone was sick that night.

Finally, it was time to "debark" and make our way to Disneyland! 5 days on a ship was quite enough for us! We checked into our roach coach motel...:( Well...it was alright because it was giving us a huge deal since it was Tim's birthday, and we could walk to the park. We met our friends from Washington and spent one day with them, and the next with just our little family of four. Maddie met her favorite fairies in Pixie Hollow ( a new addition to Disneyland this year), but I do NOT recommend going to Disneyland during the Halloween season. Their firework show is completely evil...with ghosts flying around...and chanting the dead. Very weird for a place that is supposed to cater to small children. 2 days in Disneyland and California Adventure was quite enough, especially since Maddie and Daddy got food poisoning from the "House of Blues" restaurant! I had to drive the whole way home with this....and Casey, once again, was a trooper. 7 hours of driving in complete silence and not a peep out of him!

Needless to say, I think we are all Disneyed out for a couple of years now, and definitely will never take our kids on a cruise again until they are much older (although I am hoping that Tim and I can take one to Hawaii for our 10 year anniversary, wishful thinking huh! I will have to do much convincing of Tim, since the last night of sea sickness ruined it for him).

Visit the weblink below to enjoy more vacation pics!

http://picasaweb.google.com/timlincravens/CaboSanLucasAndDisneyland2009#

It's been a while...

Time has escaped us once again! Here are pics from Maddie's 4th birthday on Aug. 24th! She was in Tinkerbell heaven with her "little friends" and "big kid friends" (teens from our youth ministry). Signing off....

Casey's First Birthday!

It was a success! Thank you to Tish Gabri....who remembered that parents have no time to take pictures at their own kids' birthday parties.

Visit the link below for the pictures! Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/timlincravens/CaseySFirstBirthday#

There's a first for everything...

There's a first for everything in life....these are just a few that we experienced this last couple of weeks. Madison's first sunflowers finally bloomed for the first time. Tim is hoping to get some seeds from them later this summer.

Madison harvested her first carrots...this took forever by the way! Each one she pulled out was like seeing a big carrot for the first time.

She is very proud of what she has grown.

This last monday Madison began her first swim lesson class.

This was also the first time she has informed me (mommy) that she is a supermodel.

We finally saw our good friends from Washington for the first time since they have moved up there. It took a wedding to bring us all together.

And...just to leave you all in suspense, I will post Casey's FIRST birthday pictures next time. I am waiting to receive them from my cousin.

The Perfect Family?!?

Here is a story of our day at Lake Natoma a couple of weekends ago. We finally had a free day, so we decided to explore a new lake with the kids. A friend from work told me about Lake Natoma near Folsom, so we packed a lunch, swimsuits, a blanket and the kids. What a perfect day for the lake. It wasn't as hot as we would have liked it to be, but it was sunny enough for shades. Casey really thinks he's hot stuff wearing his, and Madison is terrified of getting wrinkles around her eyes because of my answer in the car about why we wear sunglasses.

So we get there and are pleasantly surprised that parking is free and beach access is free. Great for our budget! We find a picnic table in the shade once we realize that the blanket is not going to work since there is loads of goose poo everywhere. We happily eat as we look at our surroundings seeing that there is only a small amount of people there. For a weekend, this was awesome! Finally, Madison insisted that we take her to the water...

She found a rock, which she calls her "island" and forces Tim and I to stand on it for what seemed like an hour. As I am watching Tim and the kids play in the water (you will notice that I did not go in....nor am I in a picture because it is was like Tahoe water and you will never see me in a picture in a swimsuit at this point in my life yet) I glance over right next to us at 2 young families right next to us. They seemed like they were close close friends, both had kids the same age...a boy and a girl...maybe they have been friends since college. Of course the mommies are in impeccable shape, all the while they are nursing their newly born infants, while their husbands were out in a canoe with the boys. Since Tim and I have been married, we have always had a knack for reading each other's mind or just thinking about the same thing. Sure enough, he was gawking at the families next to us as well...

We finished our time in the water and decided that it would be a good idea to burn some calories walking on a trail around the lake. As we were walking, we spilled our guts to each other about what was on our mind. Yep! You guessed it! He was thinking the same thing as me....why does their families have to look and act so perfect!?!?!?!? Everyone is in perfect shape...their kids are peacefully digging in the sand....the babies are napping on the towels....while the blonde mommies sit and veg and chat about who knows what....the dads are daring each other to jump in the freezing cold water. Our family however, during this time....well....Madison was screaming at us to get on her "island", Casey was mad that he had to sit in the stroller...but then decided he didn't like the cold water, Tim and I are of couse are not in shape at all, there is no time to talk, no time to sit as our kids prevent us from doing so....and I could go on! Once we spilled our guts to each other....we felt better and then God reminded us through these pictures that our family really is the perfect family....for us anyway. We may not be in shape yet....but we keep telling ourselves that once our kids are older, we won't be so homebound and can be more active. Our kids are uniquie, full of energy and smart. Their challenging personalities will be great for leadership someday I imagine. They are not content with the average, boring....unactive life. They want adventure and unpredictability and we are along for the ride!

Enjoy the unpredictability of life! It is where the best memories are created! Signing off....

Updates!

Just a few updates from the last month or so. Things with the youth ministry are busy! We took a trip to Great America with the teenagers for Christian Concert Night!

Madison was excited to see Dora, but had no idea who Diego was. She did NOT like Diego!

But....she really loved Blue!

And...she really love Dancer the miniature horse...

Grandpa Dave helped Maddie plant a garden this spring. She planted sunflowers, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, pumpkins, squash and zucchini. Here is her first zucchini!

And as always....Casey is a part of our life experiencing new things everyday. It finally dawned on us that he might actually enjoy riding in Madison's old car.