Last year I posted twelve of my favorite moments from 2012. It was fun to go through all those memories again and pretty easy actually to pick my twelve favorites. Reading that post this year, I still remember each and every moment and exactly how I felt in each of those pictures. Sweet memories and so many changes! I want to continue that for 2013 because the Crocketts have had lots of fun times this year too! Gaines had a lot of milestones in 2012, and again in 2013 just different - mostly personality:) Last year I did it by months, and it worked out. This year I am having a harder time sifting through everything! But here it goes...
Number 13: {Age: 23 months, Month: March} Gaines' intuitive nature to seek and find! I love his mind :)
Number 13: {Age: 23 months, Month: March} Gaines' intuitive nature to seek and find! I love his mind :)
Number 12: {Age: 23 months, Month: March} Gaines' reaction to bubbles on Easter morning and afternoon. This couldn't have been his first exposure to bubbles - could it?!!
Number 11: {Age: 23 months, Month: March} Our zoo trip with friends! Gaines could care less about the animals. He ran the entire time. His energy wears me out!
Number 10: {Age: 25 months, Month: June} Family vacation where Gaines turned into a toddler! He grew up a lot this trip :) Gaines' love for the swimming pool! He surprised me by loving the water and jumping and jumping and jumping.
Number 9: {Age: 30 months, Month: October} Gaines' love for dinosaurs that came out of now where! He surprised me so by loving this costume!!
Number 8: {Age: 27 months, Month: July} Gaines asked for a cake, and I spontaneously delivered! He was on cloud nine!!
Number 7: {Age: 28 months, Month: August} Gaines' first day of preschool! He was made for school :)
Number 6: {Age: 23 months, Month: March} The moment I (and maybe Gaines too) realized he enjoyed playing with Emily and cousins. Up to this point he was pretty much scared of them :) He had a blast this weekend.
Number 4: {Age: 24 months, Month: April} The one picture in 2013 where I first realized I had a 'little boy' on my hands. My baby was grown up :(
Number 3: {Age: 29 months, Month: September} Impromptu family play days. Nothing sweeter than watching this little guy take in all the lovin' and attention from Mama and Daddy.
Number 2: {Age: 28/30 months, Month: August/October} Probably the runner up for 2013 and what I should always remember about this year...the year of building houses! After this year, Gaines may be an architect. We have built hundreds of houses out of anything you could imagine. Again, I love his mind :)
And drum roll please.....
Number 1 favorite moment of 2013: NEW JOBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is well over due so no additional comments are needed from the Ayers peanut gallery. I have probably written this post in my head at least ten times over the past three months. (Wow. I can't believe it has really been three months.) Typing this out has been a little harder for some reason. But coming up on the end of they year, I want to document what 2013 was like for the Crocketts....a side we don't share a lot.
Scott and I both changed jobs this year. And both have been a dramatic change for us and for our family. Scott started his new job the beginning of May. We have prayed for his change for years. Years. And it has been nothing short of an answered prayer - a prayer that we couldn't have even prayed. We couldn't have imagined a more perfect fit for Scott. We are so grateful for his new job, coworkers and friends!
My change - I knew in my heart was coming but had no clue what it would be. I posted back in the spring about a schedule change and why I chose that. The nagging feeling never left. It has been so evident of God working out all the kinks between Scott's job/schedule change, my schedule change, and ultimately my job change. We could not have worked out minor details of Scott's new job if I had never changed my schedule just a month before. God had it all timed. I was just impatient. Once I began taking steps in faith, God began to reveal the next steps. I struggled a lot over the past year with having a true faith and an active faith but at the same time not taking control. I call it a 'true' faith for me because saying I had faith and actually living my day with faith were two totally different things - especially when you are impatient. Many words from a preacher I listen to taught me that we don't just sit on the sidelines and wait for God, but God wants our faith to be active. At first I was confused and got that mixed up with taking control back and making things happen on my end while still telling myself God will provide. That's not how it works - but staying in active communication with God and putting our energy towards our relationship with God. He will reveal the details when we aren't expecting them.
So - an opportunity came up that if I was offered a couple of years ago I would have laughed in your face. But so much has happened in the past two years. While there was a lot to comprehend, process, and consider with this change, I was really at peace with it from the beginning. There has been so much negative feedback and questions and squenched faces I have received in response. I quickly chose not to talk about it and share my personal motivations, goals and convictions with people that didn't really care to understand. I think that's why I put off the blog post. Part of me regrets that and not having those fresh comments of excitement when my faith was fulfilled. There was a lot of faith taken with this step and this change - something that God started working in me a year ago. I am exactly where I need to be for my family and for my sweet child. This change has relieved so much pressure and commitments where I am now able to devote that time to Scott and Gaines - the way it should've been all along. I loved my profession, but looking down the road, that is not what matters. But my job as a wife and mother does. This is not an end to my profession but rather a re-routing. The last week at my old job I had to travel to the coast. I guess Gaines was getting older, but he kept asking where I was. The morning I was driving home I talked to him on the phone. He said, "Mama, you coming home now?". I cried. Yes, that solidified any questions I had regarding this decision. I struggle with letting something consume me so I still have to remind myself of the reason for this decision and constantly keep everything in perspective.
We are so thankful for God's provision in 2013. It's hard to think about what else can happen in 2014 with these two big events that have changed our family!! But we are ready :)
My change - I knew in my heart was coming but had no clue what it would be. I posted back in the spring about a schedule change and why I chose that. The nagging feeling never left. It has been so evident of God working out all the kinks between Scott's job/schedule change, my schedule change, and ultimately my job change. We could not have worked out minor details of Scott's new job if I had never changed my schedule just a month before. God had it all timed. I was just impatient. Once I began taking steps in faith, God began to reveal the next steps. I struggled a lot over the past year with having a true faith and an active faith but at the same time not taking control. I call it a 'true' faith for me because saying I had faith and actually living my day with faith were two totally different things - especially when you are impatient. Many words from a preacher I listen to taught me that we don't just sit on the sidelines and wait for God, but God wants our faith to be active. At first I was confused and got that mixed up with taking control back and making things happen on my end while still telling myself God will provide. That's not how it works - but staying in active communication with God and putting our energy towards our relationship with God. He will reveal the details when we aren't expecting them.
So - an opportunity came up that if I was offered a couple of years ago I would have laughed in your face. But so much has happened in the past two years. While there was a lot to comprehend, process, and consider with this change, I was really at peace with it from the beginning. There has been so much negative feedback and questions and squenched faces I have received in response. I quickly chose not to talk about it and share my personal motivations, goals and convictions with people that didn't really care to understand. I think that's why I put off the blog post. Part of me regrets that and not having those fresh comments of excitement when my faith was fulfilled. There was a lot of faith taken with this step and this change - something that God started working in me a year ago. I am exactly where I need to be for my family and for my sweet child. This change has relieved so much pressure and commitments where I am now able to devote that time to Scott and Gaines - the way it should've been all along. I loved my profession, but looking down the road, that is not what matters. But my job as a wife and mother does. This is not an end to my profession but rather a re-routing. The last week at my old job I had to travel to the coast. I guess Gaines was getting older, but he kept asking where I was. The morning I was driving home I talked to him on the phone. He said, "Mama, you coming home now?". I cried. Yes, that solidified any questions I had regarding this decision. I struggle with letting something consume me so I still have to remind myself of the reason for this decision and constantly keep everything in perspective.
We are so thankful for God's provision in 2013. It's hard to think about what else can happen in 2014 with these two big events that have changed our family!! But we are ready :)
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