Star Spangled Banner, Six-year old style...

You can tell the girls attend a lot of sporting events, as they have been obsessed with the Star Spangled Banner lately. They ask me to sing it on a regular basis, but I don't oblige when we are in public. However, I ham it up well when we are home. Here is their version of what a six year old hears of the Star Spangled Banner...



I especially like "last dreaming," "rockets mooshing down," and the key change!

Postman's Creed...

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night could keep us from getting our Christmas tree! We made the decision to wait to get our Christmas tree on Sunday, because that was the best forecasted day for the weekend. Instead, this is what we saw as we pulled in to the lot....

Then it turned to this...

Finally we got out of the van to visit with Santa (under cover, of course). The girls brought the Christmas lists they brought for Santa. Well, actually Kaia's was pages from Walmart and Target adds stapled together, favorite toys circled...

After stalling as long as we could, we decided to just go for it...

Here we are all wet (I was the only one who stayed dry by actually using my hood), but feeding the ponies helped make it worth while....

Despite everything it was good family fun. It wasn't until we got home and set the tree up (for 24 hrs to dry before decorating) that we decided that maybe we were a bit too anxious and just grabbed the first tree we saw to get out of the rain. It was worth it though, and not even the weather was able to stop us!

One Tired Girl....

Here's what you get when you mix sledding, tryptophan, and a six-year old after a long day of Thanksgiving...

White Thanksgiving....

That's right, we had a White Thanksgiving, and I would love it to be a new tradition around here, but I don't think that's very realistic where we live. We got a fresh batch of snow while we slept, on top of what we already had, so we began the day by having family snow time...

My crazy family....

sledding...



Once again Mike rotisseried our turkey and it turned out wonderfully. Fixing Thanksgiving dinner reminds me of so many friends and family. My Sweet Potato recipe came from my friend Bonnie, the bowl for my fruit salad belonged to my grandma, the mashed potato recipe from my sister-in-law Lorrie, and my pumpkin cake recipe from my friend Chris. Despite our family being alone this holiday, we reflected on how grateful we are to have so many wonderful people in our lives.

We are also thankful for our country. While it is not perfect, we are so blessed to live in a free country. On a lighter note, we are also thankful for the new couch we got delivered yesterday (our previous one we bought in our first year of marriage)! Guess that goes for the new dryer we had to unexpectedly buy too (after we had already bought the couch). I'm not going to whine though, because so many people don 't have the means to do so...

Snow Days....

So it has been a crazy week of wind, snow, and ice. On Monday I was sent home after 1/2 day of parent/teacher conferences due to unexpected snowfall, which immediately stuck and froze to very cold roads. This made for a treacherous drive home, turning what normally takes me 15 minutes, into a two-hour white knuckle trip home. The first photo was while I was stuck in a standstill, with a rare snowy view of Penn Cove. The second photo is what was causing that backup, two stuck semis and three cars in the ditch. This is only a fraction of what I came across.

The wind kicked up that afternoon, so the kids didn't even get to enjoy the snowfall. Yesterday no one had school, and they spent the morning sledding down some local hills. Conferences were again canceled for me, as well as school for the kids, as the roads are too slick. However, there's not much accumulation to play in, so we have passed some of the time by completing puzzles. We are on our fourth so far, with four more to go....

Orphan Sunday...

November is Orphan Awareness month, and today is officially Orphan Sunday. How can you touch an orphan's life???

For God So Loved - OS from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Want to go to China With Me....For Free???...

That's right, you can go to Chaoyang, China with me to work with the orphans, for free! Okay, you don't have to go with me, and I have nothing to do with the "free" trip, but it is one of the options you can choose! Follow this link to enter the drawing, and you can earn a free Visiting Orphans Mission trip to one of many places around the world. Don't wait, as this opportunity ends Nov. 11!

This video clip explains more...

Visiting Orphans Mission Trip Giveaway from Amanda Lawrence on Vimeo.

Big Blue Test...

Please watch the Big Blue Test video and feel share it with all your friends. Each view between now and Nov. 14 will = a donation to Insulin For Life and the Life for a Child program, run by the International Diabetes Federation, to help provide diabetes supplies to the world's poorest nations.

Look out world....

Consider yourself warned: He's an official driver!

Halloween....

Kellen's work attire....sorry about the blurriness, but this was taken from my phone.

The girls were the cutest fairies...

And don't think that Josh missed out on the festivities, as he has always loved dressing up, and still does! I just didn't get any pictures of him before he left in his gang attire (don't worry, the tattoos were fake!). Thankfully the torrential rain that poured this morning, held off this evening. Hmmm, think I better go taste test and make sure all the girls' candy is safe for them to eat!

Happy Birthday Celebrations...

My day in pictures....



My favorite gifts....

Mid-Season

We are deep in the midst of birthday season here at the Crebbin household. Last weekend was Mike's birthday (along with his twin brother), and we celebrated with a quiet day of football on the couch (at his request), followed by cheesecake.



This weekend we had a Fiesta Potluck with friends to celebrate, halfway between our birthdays. When we originally made the plans we did not know that the Beavs would be playing the Huskies that same evening, and being up here, you know there would be Huskies in the crowd. I snapped the photo below as OSU lost in double overtime. The picture speaks for itself...

Difficult time....

Sorry I took a two week or so hiatus, but some close friends were dealing with a tragedy, and I found it difficult to post something cheery when I wasn't feeling that way. Mike's close friend lost his 24 year old daughter, whom I coached when she was in high school, in a tragic bike accident. Situations like that really make you reflect on your own relationships with family and God. I am really proud of my husband, being such a good friend and listener; so difficult to know what to do at this time, but he was always there for Brian. We both have reflected and appreciate that we have many good friends and family to turn to if we found ourselves in a similar situation:) Enough said....

On a lighter note, Josh had homecoming last weekend. Oak Harbor won their football game on what was a beautiful, warm fall evening. Josh took the same date he took last year, and even got a shout out in the paper as to how he asked her out. I love the fact that Josh let me help him pick out a tie to match her dress! He wears pink very manly:)

They went with a large group of friends to dinner and then bowling, dance, and finally a movie and dessert at our house. I think having dates in a group takes such pressure off, not to mention Josh has a great group of friends!

Sweet 16 and more....

What better way to celebrate your 16th birthday than to go back to school! Well if your name is Josh, and you love to be social, then seeing all your friends again made it a great day:)

Not only did Josh begin his sophomore year, but the girls had their first day of first grade! After a couple years at the Montessori school, this was a big change to public school, but both girls had a great day.


Notice that Jaelyn has on a second change of clothing? If she's already doing this in first grade, then what is middle school going to be like???

Now that Josh is 16 he can't wait to get his license. Just have to find time between volleyball, football, and soccer games to get to the DMV!


Josh loves his new OSU snuggie! Thanks Grandma and Papa:)

Tired kids winding down a busy day by reading a book together.

Answered Prayer....

Since returning from Chaoyang, one of our goals has been to get Wu Jia Wei a tutor, and I am thrilled to share that our prayers have been answered!

We first met Wu Jia Wei two years ago, after she had been left at the orphanage by her grandparents. They had been raising her, but due to age and health, they were unable to care for her anymore. We were told by the orphanage that they would send her to school that Fall, but they did not. Their reason was that she had already attended school through fifth grade, which is the top grade at their boarding school, so she was too smart, and they felt she would get made fun if she went to the next level of school. So their answer was to do nothing! Both years we had worked their with her, she was craving to learn, and Tracie always took a lot of care to help her do school type work. Wu Jia Wei also expressed a desire to learn English. We bought some books to leave with her, but what we really desired was to sponsor a tutor for her.


After much effort on one of our leaders, Ying's, part, the pastor of the Chinese church we attended hooked him up with a member of his congregation that agreed to work with her. She also speaks English! Coincidentally (or maybe not), the same lady that wrote an article on us for the local newspaper happened to be at the orphanage when the two worked together, so we received this photo. I love the grin on Wu Jia Wei's face! Please pray for their relationship, and hopefully I can meet the tutor next year:)

The Deadliest Catch...

Today we attended a salmon BBQ and meet-n-greet with the crew from the Deadliest Catch television show. This was the second annual gathering in our community, but the first time we attended. Four were crew members from the Northwestern, and one was from the Time Bandit. If you haven't seen the show, it's a lot of fun to watch, with lots of excitement, drama, and sometimes even a few tears.

Josh and Jake from the Northwestern. Jake is a local guy from Anacortes, and has seen some rough times. On one of the shows he left the boat early because his sister died, and this past January his father went missing. You can view the website they have set up to help find him.

The family with Edgar from the Northwestern and Mike from the Time Bandit.

Here we are with Matt, Jake and Nick from the Northwestern. After Mike took this photo, Matt put Kaia down and picked me up, but that photo was not very attractive of me, to say the least!

I can already imagine the squeals coming from the girls the next time we watch the show!

Birthday Boy...

Wow, Kellen hit 19 this past weekend, his last year of being a teen! He had to work on Saturday night, so we did a brief celebration that day, then planned to do a more formal one the following evening.

What he didn't know is that we had invited several of his friends to join us for dinner, then back to our house for cake. We met up at a local Japanese restaurant, where we had our own Tatami room and good food. Kellen was a bit rusty on his chopstick skills, but he was good enough to gobble up his sushi!

We met up back at our house for cake and a competitive game of Monopoly. This is the beginning of birthday season for us: four in about the next seven weeks! Gearing up for Josh's next week:)