And We're Off!

We are having a blast on our Spring Tour...about a month into it already!  Wow!  We have been in Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee and North Carolina so far.  God is richly blessing and a lot of exciting things have happened, including a church taking us on for support, David learning to read a new word, and Jonathan sprouting 2 teeth!

Here we go!  

David is surrounded by his favorite things: blankie, monkey, cup of milk and toys/books!  

He's ready to hit the road!

After a youth rally in Columbia, MO, we headed to the outskirts of St. Louis for Sunday services with Victory Baptist Church. After the morning service, though the boys were tired and hungry (thus the serious faces!), we snapped a family picture to commemorate our first Sunday on the road this year!

After a great Weds. PM service at Victory Baptist in Columbia, MO, this sweet young lady came up to me and asked to get a picture with me.  She said she wants to be just like me when she grows up :) I think she's already off to a pretty good start...she has red hair and she plays the piano! Haha!

Chubby big boy :)  5 1/2 months old

Looky there....it's Jonathan's first tooth!!!!!

Sunday, Jan. 25, we had a great day with Grace Baptist Church in Roanoke, IL.  We enjoyed fellowshipping with our good friends, Pastor Mark Hiltibidal and his family!

After a wonderful service at Bible Baptist Church in Clinton, TN with the Bates Family (from Bringing Up Bates on UP tv), we had some food and fellowship at Cracker Barrel.  

Jonathan and Bro. Gil Bates became good friends that night :)

So blessed to be able to count this sweet family as friends!  Here they have just a few of their younger kids with them...the rest of their 19 were out of state visiting relatives!

David loves to go on dolly rides in the hotels we stay at :)  Then after Daddy loads the dolly with our luggage, David helps push it out to the van!  If we train them right, maybe one day, we'll be able to sit back and sip tea while our kids do all this work for us!

The faces of Jonathan!  He has two bottom teeth (maybe you can tell from that top left photo) now and is growing up so fast!  He has a calm, sweet, observant personality.  He loves his big brother and watches everything he does with great interest!

On Sunday, Feb. 1, we were in this beautiful country church, Double Springs Baptist, in NE Tennessee.  We had a wonderful day of services there!

Jonathan tried Puffs for the first time that day at lunch and loved them!

On Weds., Feb. 4, I did "school" with David for the first time!  We did this math puzzle game Caleb had found at Ross for just a few bucks.  David loved it and did really well!  We are so proud of our smart boy!

Weds. PM, Feb. 4, we were blessed to be able to sing and preach for Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church in Kingsport, TN.

We had off for a couple days later that week, so Caleb decided to treat us to a mini family vacation in Pigeon Forge, TN!  We went to Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies (best aquarium we have seen, by the way!).  Stay tuned for a future post with more pictures from our mini vacation!

In LOVE :)

David and Jonathan - well named...they are indeed best friends :)

Pastor Morrow from Rosman, NC sure found the way to our hearts!  He took us to an amazing family-run "hole-in-the-wall" Mexican restaurant Saturday evening...we loved it so much we asked to go back again the next day!!!

View from the balcony at Rosman Baptist Tabernacle when Caleb was preaching Sunday night, Feb. 8.

Caleb had met Pastor Morrow through Twitter and this was our first time here at RBT.  To our utter shock and amazement, at the end of the evening service, Pastor Morrow got up and had the church take a vote to begin supporting us! What a surprise blessing that was!

Jonathan is trying REALLY hard to sit up!  He's getting there (notice the top right picture)...he can sit for a couple seconds but then starts to topple :) 

David and Pastor Morrow really became good buddies that weekend - David was pretty thrilled to get to take a picture with him behind the pulpit before we left! :)

Our journey continues south...we have one more mtg this week in NC then head south to Jacksonville, FL for Sunday.  Thank you for your prayers for us as we continue this Spring Tour, for safety as we travel and for us to be used of God to the maximum in each meeting we hold and each life we are able to reach.

Our Fall (in a nutshell!)

We have had SUCH a busy fall (as you will see below) - between having a new baby, recording a new CD, traveling with meetings in Oct/Nov, the Christmas play, etc, etc, etc....I have gotten SO behind in blogging.  I sincerely apologize!  I have been able to do quick updates here and there, so you know we are still alive and well, but nothing in the detail I would've liked.  Now, we are gearing up to leave for our 3-month Spring Tour next week and one of the things on my to-do list for this week is to FINALLY catch up on the blog!  So...here we go....our fall in a nutshell :)  Enjoy!

Sept. 19 was David's 2nd birthday party! He LOVES Thomas the Train 

(from the toy that he has and a book that he loves to read)

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Opening presents

Playing with the decor (which WAS his toy Thomas, so we let him play with it!)

There were so many people around and so many things going on that this was the best family picture we got that day...I don't mind :)  It's the memory that counts!

Yay for crazy blue and red cupcakes!!! (Interestingly, he didn't scarf the whole thing down like he did last year with his monkey cupcake!  He just licked at the frosting this year)

Good morning, birthday boy!  David turned 2 on Sept. 20! :)

We enjoyed having many friends/family over to our home this fall!  We enjoy being hosted all year long as we travel, but what we REALLY love is hosting others in OUR house!  Here we are with our pastor and his sweet family, enjoying one of our favorite meals: chicken alfredo!

With an energetic 2-year-old and a tiny newborn, recording our latest CD was quite the task!  We were thankful for friends who watched David for us at their home, so we could have the house quiet enough to record (until Jonathan woke up and let us know it was time for another meal!).   This CD took the longest to get completed, but thankfully, we had all fall and part of winter to do it!  Check back here on the blog for more info on how you can purchase one!

We went to a farm one beautiful day in October and enjoyed corn bins, hay bale mazes, animals and this giant bounce house (which these two boys had all to themselves!)

We had a few meetings in October and also went out for meetings every weekend in November.  It was nice to get a small taste of what traveling with two kids will be like in January!

Here Caleb is preaching on a Weds. night at Faith Baptist Church in Bourbonnaise, IL.

We had a week-long Revival in Wisconsin and while there, we HAD to get cheese at a local factory!

Caleb preaching the Revival at Immanuel Baptist in Menominee, WI.

Happy little guy!

We got to be with Pleasantville Baptist Church here in Iowa for their old fashioned Sunday.

We also held Revival meetings there all week.

David enjoying snacks with his friends in the nursery :)

Jonathan charming the ladies already....tsk tsk. ;)

These are the moments I never want to forget...

We had a wonderful day of meetings at Gateway Baptist in Clinton, IA on Nov. 2.  

Two young boys were saved in Jr. Church after Caleb preached!

 (One of them is pictured in the top left)

We had a fun time with our fellow evangelist friends, the Barbers, when they came for lunch one day.

My sweet friend, Cassie, and a few other friends from church took me out for my birthday!

We had a great day at First Baptist Church in Seymour, IA on Nov. 9 (my 29th birthday)!

When we got home that evening, we had a little celebration.  David was excited about the cupcakes!

Gotta love this newborn phase, where they can fall asleep ANYWHERE, with or without ambient noise, and in ANY position :)

Happy Thanksgiving!  We sure are thankful for our two little blessings from God!  

We enjoyed celebrating the holiday at our friends', John and Cassie's, house.

Time to decorate for Christmas!  I had a little fireman helping me :)

Christmas play - here again already!  Has it really been a whole year?!  Caleb and I enjoyed getting to be deeply involved with the play this year, more than ever before.  We helped brainstorm/write the script, find/arrange/orchestrate music, and 3 of us Garraways acted in it! :)  See photo below...

Yes, little Jonathan was the perfect Baby Jesus for us (Mary and Joseph)!  So far, both our boys have gotten to play this part!  We'll see if we can keep timing the birth of our kids just right, so they all can play Baby Jesus at some point! haha (just kidding!)

After the Christmas play, my family (minus my sister Laura and her family out in Utah) came to visit us!  David enjoyed playing with his cousins and getting loved on by his Grandma and PopPop!

My brother, Stephen and sister, Becki and I enjoyed singing and doing some just-for-fun recording together!

These two munchkins are practically twins!  Cousins born 2 days apart!  Originally due 3.5 weeks apart, Julia came late, on August 12 and Jonathan came early on August 14!

Someone is loving time with Grandma :)

We got to eat a meal at an amish family's house.  What a NEAT experience!...not only was the food unbelievably amazing but the hostess and her daughters were so sweet and friendly!  They not only cooked us delicious food (that just kept coming and coming!), but they also sang a song in german for us (by request) and answered tons of our questions!  

And Mrs. Miller's husband gave us rides in their buggy!  David loved it!  

4 generations represented here (my dad's mom, my dad, his children and grandchildren). We so loved having them all visit!

After a week-long flu bug that Caleb and I both caught, we were able to muster up strength to celebrate Christmas with our boys!

Reading the Christmas story about the ultimate Gift, before opening gifts!

David enjoyed opening his gifts, AND helping daddy and mommy open theirs :)

My favorite shot of the day!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a blessed New Year as you live for the Lord!  We appreciate your prayers as we pack up and head out for our 3-month Spring Tour (Jan 14-April 6).  We will be traveling south (hopefully to warmer weather!) and will try and keep you all posted on how our meetings go and what adventures we have along the way!

Jonathan - 4 months old!

Jonathan is such a blessing boy! I just love how his face lights up with you make eye contact with him.  We are sure enjoying every day/week/month with this new addition to our family!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

We have been so blessed this year...I'm incredibly thankful for the husband and boys God has given me!  To think that last Christmas we were just finding out that Jonathan was on his way!  Now he is 4 months old!  We hope and pray each of you dear friends has had a wonderful year of serving the Lord as we have, and that you have a very special Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior with your loved ones!  Thank you for your faithful prayers for us - we look forward to embarking on an exciting year of travel in January!

Update on the Garraway Boys :)

Believe it or not, David is 26 months old now and Jonathan is 3 months old!!!  Time is FLYING!  We sure are enjoying life with these two little blessings!  Are you wondering what they've been up to lately?  Well, here is an update on the little Garraway men for ya!

David is all boy - he loves walking around the house all day wearing his fireman hat (even enjoys wearing it to bed...not sure quite how that works out, but he tries!), playing basketball with his little 3.5 ft hoop from Goodwill, reading books with Daddy or Mommy, being silly and trying to make his little brother smile, helping Mommy cook, and learning his letters and numbers!  Recently he learned how to read his first word: "Mom"!!!!  He knew what sounds the letters made, so I helped him sound it out and taught him that it said "mom".  Now, whenever he sees the word, he scrolls his finger across the word and sounds it out "Mmmmoooommmm" :)  He is pretty proud of himself (and so are we!).  He can count to ten if the numbers are in front of him.  We are working on memorizing the numbers so we can count from 1-10 without looking at the numbers.  He loves to pray (he bows his head and folds his hand and repeats each word after me).  He loves his Bible (we read a few stories from it before bed each night) and already knows who Jesus is (thanks to his little Bible and the Christmas Play DVD which he loves to watch)!  It's amazing to see his little mind soaking in all these things, especially spiritual truths!  What a responsibility we have, to teach him right things and protect his innocent mind from evil.  A few resources we HIGHLY recommend for teaching your children spiritual truths are:
- Bible ABC's Memory Book
- My First Bible
- Christmas Peace (our church's Christmas Play DVD)
Hopefully these things can help you as you teach, train and guide your children in the way they should go!

Jonathan is growing and changing each day!  His face LIGHTS UP when anyone gets up close and starts smiling/talking to him!  He is going to be a people person for sure!  The ladies in the nursery are already falling prey to his charm - they say he smiles, giggles and coos at them all the time!!  He has started laughing (not a full on laugh yet, but little newborn laughs)!  He loves when Daddy takes his hands and helps him clap! :)  He sleeps 8-10 hours straight at night now, which has been NICE!  He has a strong neck and loves to sit up on the couch propped with pillows and watch his big brother play!  He is a sweet and precious boy...we are so thankful for this gift from God!