Here's our 2013 in a Nutshell.
It seems like 2013 passed by so fast. We celebrated Josiah and Caleb's 1st Birthday. We are so grateful to have this boys in our life. They brought so much joy in our life and the challenges we faced being a parent to them really brought us to God closer. They sure are being use to sanctify us.
Caleb, started walking a month before his birthday. He loves to listen to music and is a wiggle worm. Josiah, isn't walking yet at 1, he babbles a lot and loves to climb furnitures. They both are crazy for watermelon, on their birhday I made a lovely cake for them, but they didn't care for it instead they devoured a a huge chunk of watermelon.
On February we all went to LA for the second time. We planned to go back to the Philippines for a visti but my passport expiring and the only way I can renew it through the Philippine consulate in LA. We made a vacation out of the trip too. We stayed in Santa Monica and also went to Disneyland. The boys had fun looking around and watching people. Caleb even danced in front of the band while they play jazz and they gave him some mardi gras beads. They loved meeting some disney characters too. We rode the carousel and the tea cup rides and watched the parade.
We also found out that we are pregant while we are in LA on Joshua's birthday. It was a surprise to us that we got pregnant and we were both happy and nervous at the same. Happy that God gave us another baby and nervous about the added responsibilty we will have and we know that it would be a difficult year for us, being pregnant and taking care of two toddlers and also starting partnership development.
Easter came, and we celebrated it in the farm. The boys always enjoy it when they are there. This time we let them ride a goat. Also this month we started preparing for our partneship development for our mission. We wrote a 4 part letter describing who we are, how we get into the ministry and why Philippines.
In April, we moved to a rental house. We thought that the boys needed more space. We move to small house with a big backyard, the boys loved it! they played a lot outside, we bought them a sand box and spent a lot of time playing in it.
In June, I was 5 months pregnant. We made a road trip to Alabama and Georgia. We met my sister and her family in Dauphin Isalnd, AL and spent several days in the beach. The boys enjoyed a lot, Caleb likes the beach and Jojo loves the pool. They also enjoyed playing with their cousin Aubrey. After Alabama, we drove to Georgia to visit Joshua's eldest brother Samuel and his family. We enjoyed hanging out with them and the boys loves the attention their cousins are giving them.
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| Jollibee, a Filipino fast food opened here in Houston so we visited it. |
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| They got their first hair cut last summer. |
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| Sand box is one of their favorite. |
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| And loves finger painting. |
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| And lots and lots of paintings |
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| Excited to be big brothers to their baby brother. |
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The Greenlaws (Joshua's older sister's family who are missionaries to PNG) arrived last summer for a a furlough and we are enjoying our time together with them. They are one of the coolest family I know.
Over the summer we also started our partnership development for our ministry to the Philipines. We sent our letters and held some gatherings. The first one was with my sister's church, we got to talk about us and our calling to do missions. We had several mission information gathering like this and we were able to talk in front of our church too. At the end of the year we were able to raise 40% of our financial support.
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My parents came to stay with us for a couple of months to help us with the boys and the new baby.
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| Got to pick some pumkins. |
October is an exciting month. Baby # 3 was due this month and I'm so ready to pop this month, but baby boy has another plan, he wanted to stay a bit longer. My due date was Oct. 28, and two weeks prior I'm already expecting him, even tried to induce labor.
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| The boys supposed to be the 3 muskeeters but the 3rd muskeeters didn't show up for the Church's Fall Festival. |
Then came holloween night... and there he was a cute chunky baby in my arms. We named him Rafael Anselm Nacion Crank. Rafael means "God heals", because he healed Raffy, when he was born he was unresponsive because of the hard labor we been too, apparenty he is big baby and he couldn't descend so he can't come out. After 3 hours of pushing we decided to have a C-Section. Anselm means "divine protection" because God has protected both Joy and Rafael during the delivery.
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| Rafael Anselm Nacion Crank, born October 31, 2013, 9:05pm. 9 pounds 10 oz, 21inches. |
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| Big brothers loves their little brother. |
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| Went to the Renesaiance Festival with my parents and the boys. |
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The Crank Family welcomed 2 new babies this year. Vesper, Daniel and Jenny's baby girl was born a month before Rafael. They are grandchildren #15 and #16
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| We hosted the Thanksgiving dinner this year and we watched Doctor Who after the feast. |
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| We went for a short vacation in Fredricburg, TX and was there for Christmas tree lighting and the boys got to meet Santa for the first time. The photo shows how it went... |
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| The boys enjoyed collecting rocks and throwing it in the pond. |
We got to spend a weekend with Granny and Granddaddy too in Fredericksburg.
Christmas was fun, we got to celebrate it with most of the family. We attended our church's Christmas Eve service and got to have a Filipino Christmas Eve dinner with my parents. Then Christmas day, we woke up early and got the boys' Christmas gift ready. We got them Thomas the train, we put it up and covered it with box, so when they woke up they removed the box and they were so happy to see Thomas and Percy. Jojo keep on saying "Thomas, Thomas", so cute.
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| Spend Christmas afternoon in the farm with the Crank family and there were baby goats which the boys loved |
My sister and her family drove down here from Birmingham to spend time with us after Christmas. Below are the 4 Nacion grandchildren. Aubrey and the boys had fun playing with each other.
The year seem to passed so quickly but looking back there are lot of things that happened, the boys have grown so much and we became a family of 5. So it is just fitting to end 2013 with full happy hearts and thanksgiving for all the grace, blessings and fun memories God has given our family.
