W I L L O W is ☝🏼

Birthday Girl in a
5th generation high chair

It’s remarkable how quickly the first year of life has flown by for this little peanut! 

We love you Willow!

Thankful for FaceTime in moments like this so Auntie Liv could help us celebrate all the way from Germany

The Great Grandmas

What a special day! We had 40+ friends and family at our house to celebrate the first year of life with this precious little girl. Emma had the cutest decorating ideas and Chris and I took care of the food. We found out that Willow is a BIG fan of frosting, it might take a few days to detox. Ha

First consecutive steps taken Oct 25

Says (has said) mama and dada 

Loves to point at everything

Eats well but no veggies

Nurses once a day

Sleeps 7:30pm-6:30am and 2 naps

Sleeps with 6 pacifiers and pink kitty

After mommy & daddy, Mimi is a fav

Has 8 teeth

Weight: Up from 3rd percentile to 24th!!

Dear God,  On this special day I lift up our precious granddaughter. As she celebrates her first birthday, I pray that you bless her with strength, wisdom and unwavering faith. May she always know your love for her and that her worth comes from you alone. Thank you for the indescribable joy of being her Mimi. In Jesus name, Amen

 

28 and Counting

This year we celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary!

Here are some pictures over the last 30th years

I am so thankful that we chose each other. It hasn’t always been easy but it’s been well worth it. I love you Chris! 

College 1994

Kansas 1996

San Diego 1997

Phoenix 1998

New Home Arizona 1999

Yankton SD 2003

 Around 2006

Grand Island NE 2008

Ugly sweater run Omaha 2012

Book Tour 2013 or 2014

Christmas 2015

Florida 

Grand Canyon 2014

Napa Valley 2016

2019

Emma’s Wedding 2021

25th Anniversary Mexico 2021

Husker soccer Lincoln 2022

Gun Range Omaha 2023

New Grandparents 2023

Denver Broncos NYE 2023

 

Merry Christmas 2023 : Peace

Peace: Doesn't it seem elusive? And yet this time of year we talk about it all the time. 

-The Prince of Peace

-World Peace

-Inner Peace

-Find your own Peace

-A Peace of Pie...ha, I'm kidding

We attended two Christmas Eve services because I love our home church but also wanted to attend with Emma and Joe at their home church, Revival. Their pastor spoke about peace (Shalom). He wrote it out in Hebrew and talked about each symbol which gave such a clear view of what true peace is.

Reading from right to left the symbols are

shin - destroy

lamed - authority

vav - attached

mem - chaos

"destroy the authority attached to chaos"

Oh I love this! Isn't that beautiful? The Prince of Peace is one who came to destroy the authority attached to chaos. The Prince of Darkness causes all chaos and Jesus has overcome the evil one. We can find our peace rooted in Jesus. When googling "peace" I get words like "quiet, tranquility, serenity, ease". To be honest my life does not look like those words but in the midst of my loud, difficult, jumbled life I can find peace in Jesus. I am choosing peace. 

 

passing the light is my

favorite Christmas tradition

My Church 

This peanut brings so much joy!

Christmas Eve services with the Marvins

Christmas Eve Eve

After a day of eating, gifts and games we went for a walk in Aksarben to look at lights and ultimately get cupcakes at Jones Bros, which was probably Joe's plan all along. As you can see, Chris is in shorts. It wasn't that nice, he is just crazy. That said, it was a very nice day for late December in Nebraska.

Poor Papa spent Christmas in the hospital

But he enjoyed teasing Joe that he had a much larger room

Finding the silver lining where you can

After 10 days at Methodist hospital Papa is headed home today. There will be some changes with food and exercise and maybe medical treatment but we are so thankful for God protection. 

cookie decorating

Show choir "family" christmas

They made me judge their gingerbread houses. In true show choir fashion we had a drum roll then 2nd runner up, 1st runner up and champion. Ha! These kids are so funny!

All in all we had a wonderful Christmas and look forward to celebrating with the extended Raabe family in January. We haven’t seen my mom over Christmas in more than 7 years since she always chooses to be in Texas with Larry. Seriously, sunshine and warm weather doesn’t sound bad in December. We were supposed to see mom in Small town Kansas on December 26th until Mother Nature changed our plans with 100% snow packed highways. 

”For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.“

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭9‬:‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

 

Months SEVEN & EIGHT

J U L Y   2 6

A u g u s t   1 6 

I just can't believe I am going to be a Mimi, aka grandma.

I can't wait!!

Emma has dealt with so much illness through out this pregnancy. Being a mama is hard, she's already rocking it! She makes me proud!

 

Family Fun in Florida 2023

I'm a couple months behind in posting this. Hopefully I can back date the post to June

Our family hasn't taken many vacations over the last 25 year. And of the few we have taken, all of them have consisted of staying with family or friends and always dictated by a soccer trip either before or after the vacation. This time...we took a real vacation, planned months before and dates carefully picked so everyone could take time off work and Reagan had NO conflicts with Husker soccer or school. Chris and I worked extra hours and sold stuff from the basement to pay cash for this trip to Florida with our family of 6.

Bad luck hit when Reagan tore her ACL during a spring game in Colorado in late April. She made the decision to travel with her team to Iceland (duh...trip of a lifetime) in May and then have surgery June 1st (3 days before our flights). I may have cried several times. Thankfully I was able to be with Reagan on surgery day and spend the night the next several nights before jumping on the plane on June 4th. But I really missed her in Florida.

We stayed in a wonderful VRBO owned by someone in Nebraska. The master plan community was perfect until we realized there were no coffee shops within a 30 min drive. WHAT? How is that possible? We had a great pool, golf cart and enough space for everyone in the family.

ME & MY GUY!

I could have spent many more hours/days at the beach

This trip taught me that I am more of an ocean-beach girl than the rest of the Raabe clan

The family at the ocean

Joe's first time at the ocean

Fort Meyers Airport is small enough that this is how we deplaned

Gotta take a selfie

We had the chance to catch up with a couple Nebraska friends who now live in the Fort Myers, FL area. Emma and Sierra graduated HS together. Sierra has a super cute apartment with a great view. She's living her best life.

Chris, Joe and I took a hike and got caught in an absolute downpour about half a mile from the car. After looking for wildlife the entire hike, as we jogged back to the car Joe nearly stepped on a HUGE yellow snake. He tried to warn us but it was raining so hard we couldn't hear him yelling at us.

Who doesn't love this?

Take me back to the beach

One of our favorite parts of the trip was this "SwampTour" down the Peace River on an incredibly LOUD airboat. We saw a gator nest and some gators along the way and then suddenly we turned around to get a closer view of this bad boy...about eight and half feet long.

Our last day we spent some time with Jim and Lindsey Heck and the 3 girls.

Nebraska transplants...oh how I miss them!!

The Heck household has a cute puppy, a snake, and several reptiles.

Liv loves snakes

The eye of Hurricane Ian hit Fort Myers, FL in September 2022, nine months later there were still many signs of the devastation Ian dished out. This picture is a boat graveyard outside of a restaurant. 

Not sure when we will take another vacation but I have started a travel envelope. 

Lots of big things coming up in the Raabe family...

Baby Willow - October

College Graduation - December

High School Graduation - May

When will we find time to travel???