Merry Christmas!!!!

Our Human Vaccum Cleaner

Maddox is now 10 months old and such a joy to our family. He is also on the move!! Looking down at him from the balcony crawling around on the floor he looks like Gollum from "Lord of the Rings." He's fast! His favorite past times include crawling, clapping, pulling hair, and last, but certainly not least, eating. Before we went to Toronto, I had an awful time trying to get him to take a bottle. I had to instruct my mother to hold him in cradle position, with one hand hold his hands down, and with the other hand pry his mouth open and shove the bottle in. It was quite a scene- he acted as if we were trying to feed him poison. So-he hates formula but he loves paper, lint, and anything else he can find on the floor. Some things I have pulled from his mouth to date: paper-clip, marble, ladybug, used dryer sheet, Christmas tree limbs, and, of course, paper is his favorite. He likes to eat the tissue paper from presents and any kind of paper from Bryce's desk- spelling words are the tastiest! I think he has Superman's x-ray vision because he can see even the tiniest piece of nothing on the floor to sample. He is our little Raburn goat!

What a year...

Wow- 2007 has flown by so fast. It is hard to believe that 2008 is just a few weeks away. This past year has been exciting for us. A short recap of our year:

*We have broken in a new house-and believe me, broken is an appropriate word!
*We added a new member on February 8- Maddox Isaiah. He so precious and has been such a blessing to our family.
*Summer was short for us. I went to the Christ In Youth Conference in Savannah with the youth and had an amazing time.
*Clint & I visited Canada with Maddox in June and found out first hand that their socialized medicine isn’t that great.
*I started home schooling Bryce at the end of July. He’s in first grade. He started playing soccer in September. He loved it and is a pretty good player. The kids in the youth group have sharpened his skills by letting him play with them every week.
*Preston started Pre-K at First Methodist Church. He likes it a lot. He keeps us laughing all the time with his straight forwardness and his pure heart. He is also known as “Tell- it-like-it-is-Preston.”
*Clint started band camp the second week of July and had football games every Friday night from September until mid-November. He took the band to 3 competitions and they won lots of awards.
*We went to Savannah during Fall Break and rented a beach house with some good friends. We had 8 adults & 7 children all under one roof- we had lots of adventures & have lots of stories to tell from that trip!
*Our friends, Matt & JoAnna got married in October- Bryce was the ring bearer & I directed the wedding. It was not just a wedding ceremony but a true celebration- we all had so much fun.
*We visited Canada again over Thanksgiving with 186 members of Clint’s band to march in the Toronto Santa Clause Parade. My favorite moment was when it was “snowing” on us at Niagara Falls- so beautiful.
*Bryce has been playing the drums in church some on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. One of our youth, Sallie, taped him playing a few weeks ago so I will post it to share with all of you.

Bryce playing for Wednesday Night Worship