Christmas at the Craigs

It's been a great Christmas so far. This is us opening of gifts from Mike and Katie and family.

I have recieved a cat calendar from my brother Mike for Christmas for as long as I can remember.

They even remembered Olive. This is her excited face. Can you tell?

I think Matt liked the Cowboys grill. What do you think?

Thank you Mike, Kate, Natalie, Mandie, Shaun and Timmy.

Kathleen's birthday tea

Celebrated Kathleen's birthday by going to tea at the Lavender Tea House in Sherwood. This was my first tea experience and it was quite fun. Scones, girl talk, funny hats and a tasty cake. What a great time. Thanks for having a birthday Kathleen!

Burnt Lake Hike

Back in May we did a hike on Mt. Hood and ran into snow. We never found the Lake because of all the snow on the trail. On the way back we saw some llamas enjoying a ride through town which just struck me as funny....really I find anything having to do with llamas funny. We went back in July with our neighbor dog Cooper and did the hike again. The snow was gone and the lake was found! Beautiful. (clearly, it has been a long time since I've blogged and I cant recall how to rotate the pictures.)

Grandma Lang...

In March I flew back to Rockford to say goodbye to my Grandma Lang. She wasn't doing well and I was glad I made it back in time to see her. She passed away the day after I arrived. My cousins and I agreed she had a way of making every grandkid feel like secretly they were her favorite. Grandma was a believer and I'm sure she enjoying heaven now. It is a great comfort to know I'll get to see her again some day.

Despite the sad circumstances, it was fun to get to see family and friends. I thought I'd share some of the funny/good things that happened:
1) Hearing stories from my uncles about their “wild and crazy” years growing up.
2) Getting to meet Jackson, my cousin Erin and her husband Matt’s little boy, for the first time. What a charmer. He is 2 and speaks in sentences with multi-sylable words.
3) Hanging out with family. My nieces gave me a manicure and Timmy helped Natalie put my hair up with the use of paintbrushes.

4) Getting to seem my good friends Laura and Aaron. We go way back. I’m so excited for them. They are pregnant with their first.

A new car...

Silver (my car) had seen better days so we’ve been praying about a new car. It seems odd that we got rid of our 9 year old car and kept the nearly 20 year old vehicle but they just don’t make ‘em like they used to (say that in your best old man voice). I bought Silver 2 weeks after I graduated from college. I had my degree, my job offer and now all I needed was years of car payments, right? Soo silly:-) I think a little bit differently theses days thanks to our friend Dave Ramsey.


After several hours spent at a dealership one rainy Saturday here’s what we came up with:

What do you think? Is it me? What should we name it? oh, it's a nissan versa by the way.
P.S. Don't get any ideas. The mini van next to the new car is a rental Matt had for work.

Prayer for direction...

Matt has been looking for a new job since the beginning of the year. We really feel like the Lord is leading him in this way. He had a talk with his boss to let him know and his boss has been very supportive, understanding and flexible. Matt has learned a great deal from his current position (and as you know has some great stories to tell) but it just isn’t the best fit for his personality or his skills. He is looking to move from the consulting side of engineering to the client side and hopefully work for the Army Corp of Engineers or some other government municipality. While this isn’t the ideal time to look for a new position we truly feel like this is where God is leading us. It’s tough to know though when things seem to be moving slowly and now Matt’s boss is asking for a timeline so he can plan on when he needs to hire Matt’s replacement. We know the Lord has a plan and it will all work out in His timing. Can you pray for us? We would really appreciate it.

Test Flight...

Over Valentine’s Day weekend we went to California with Bendrea. The purpose of our trip was to give Matt a “test” flight since he had done some therapy to help him with his flight anxiety. (It’s called NLP and you can ask him about it if you’d like the details). Bendrea just happen to be up for a trip and we also met Scabby along the way.

It was a good time. We went to Sprinkles cupcakes(so delicious), Universal Studios and we went to some friends of Bendrea in San Diego who had the fanciest house I have even been in. I felt like I was on some TV show or something. It was amazing. How was the flight for Matt you may ask? Well, despite a rocky start to the day (our flight was delayed and we got booked onto another flight but our luggage had already been checked to our original flight so we were very skeptical about it’s arrival) Matt did really well. He was able to keep calm and he even was comfortable enough to get up and walk around. This is normally not something he’d be ok with. He said it was the best flight he has had in 20 years. Praise the Lord! He wants to do a slightly longer flight next-probably Chicago- and go from there. I’m hoping to be able to get him back to New Zealand and Australia before too long:-) Yeah!!

Yummy Birthdays

My brothers and I surprised my mom and bought her a ticket to come and visit Matt and me over her birthday. We had a fun time just hanging out baking, shopping, and crafting. She helped me with the assembly line of cards for a card exchange I did. I don’t think I could have done it with out her. We had some yummy dinners at Cheesecake Factory (for her birthday) and Mama Mia’s (for my birthday). THE Mother (owner of Mother's and Mama Mia) came and chatted with us while we were eating which was fun because I’m a big fan of hers (I wish I would have gotten a picture). We enjoyed a delicious ice cream cake from BR. I think that was the 3rd year in a row that I got an ice cream cake. Mmm. Definitely gives you something to look forward to about turning another year older.

We know how to show mom a good time….we took her to the cat show!Don't these cats look like they are enjoying themselves? Of course, there was cake at the cat show that we also enjoyed. This was our 3rd year attending the cat show. Let us know if you would like to join us next year. Anyway, good mother-daughter time. Glad you could come, mom!

nature on Whidby

We traveled up to visit Rob and got to do some nature watching. Check out the animals that live at his neighbors. 2 dogs, 3 cats, 4 horses and 5 goats or something like that. They enjoyed checking us out.
We also did some bird watching on the island. Saw a bald eagle and several herons among other things.

New Year's Eve

We had a very spontaneous New Year's Eve party which turned out to be a ton of fun. About a dozen folks joined us for yummy food, some Buzz on the PS3, my favorite, the celebrity game, and a midnight toast. When the clock stock 12 we heard a strange noise coming from outside. Tammy and I went to investigate and it turned out to be our neighbor Kelly blowing a conch shell. He ended up joining us since his crew had already gone to bed. We all put our resolutions in a jar that will be sealed until next year. I think this party will be a yearly tradition.