Forgot This...

Remember when I mentioned the Chinese Happy Birthday song on Jaelyn's birthday? Well I forgot that I had some of it on video, and it's too funny to not post. Didn't get the Mandarin part on video, but note how loud the music was. Being the fruit lover that she is, Jaelyn went straight for the grapes. See for yourself what happened after that.

Bring on 2013!

2013 is in with a bang, not because it's a New Year, but because it is Jaelyn's birthday! Hard to believe our sweet girl is now nine. We spent a relaxing day at home, and since the weather was beautiful, she got to ride her new bike.  From the smile on her face, I think she likes it!

As usual, Jaelyn chose to go out to our local Chinese buffet for her dinner. We have celebrated there many times before, but this was the first time where they played the Happy Birthday song over their speaker system, in both Chinese and English, and brought out dessert with a candle. Following dinner we played a family game of Life, then ate the Cake Pops we made earlier in the day with the Cake Pop Maker the girls got for Christmas.  Wish me luck, as her friend slumber party is later today:)

One Last Post....

Still three hours left for me to post one more time in 2012 to make up for the past two weeks....

We had a whirlwind Christmas vacation, as we traveled over 1,200 miles in less than a week, as we had to make it back for a wedding on the 29th.  As always, it was nice to be with family for the holidays, and we were able to pull off a white Christmas for the girls!

We first celebrated Christmas with Kellen and his girlfriend before we left. Kellen was able to be with us in Oregon the weekend before Christmas, but he had to return home to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas.

The rock is what Josh wrapped to foil their gift guess. It really was a date night. Note the nerf gun on the couch that Elizabeth got Kellen and Josh.

In Portland we celebrated an evening with extended family, then more family time with a brunch the following morning. There were a total of five generations at the celebrations.

Bradyn, the newest addition with his personalized Christmas Tree name placer since he slept through dinner:)

 

 

 

One of her favorite gifts, stylish headphones.

Jaelyn made us this ceramic cupcake at school....yum:)

Christmas morn we were on the road early, as we knew there would be snow along the way. Our typical five hour journey took eight hours. The girls couldn't wait to play in the snow, and in fact, Josh and two cousins joined them until well after sundown Christmas night. The next day we celebrated yet another Christmas with Mike's family.

Cousins!

This favorite gift was from Mame....Jaelyn wanted a tumbling outfit too, even though she is not in gymnastics. They put on many shows for us. Kaia always played the coach. It was very sweet.

A large percentage of the less than 48 hours we were here were spent playing in the snow!

We capped off the trip by celebrating Kaia's eighth "Gotcha Day" with our family, by going out to Chinese dinner with good friends in Salem on our trip home. We have been friends with the Whitehursts for nearly 25 years now, since our early days in the Navy. Hard to believe how time flies.

Whew, lots of distractions, but I finished the post with 1.5 hours to spare!  Happy New Year! Tomorrow, Jaelyn's birthday.

Big Day!

So it was a big day for the Crebbin household. First off, Kaia made her debut with the Island Flyer's, as Leaps & Bounds had a Christmas recital today. Kaia's the youngest on the team by two years, yet held her own. I was really proud of her not succumbing to nerves.  She has her first competition in January.


Throughout the day, Mike and Josh were texting me with Josh's progress at the Graham Morin Invitational Wrestling Tournament in Bellingham. Josh made it to the finals, where the girls and I were able to watch him take first place via the Internet! I asked Mike to send me a photo. Typical guy sent me this photo of Josh surrounded by another team's cheerleaders! Unfortunately it's grainy, but I thought everyone would get a kick out of it.

Cocoa's First Christmas...

Trust me, this photo session was not as calm as this picture leads one to believe! Cocoa was so excited to sniff every dog see Santa that I think one of my arms is longer than the other, due to all the pulling. I was surprised by what a calming affect Santa can have.

Just the opposite of Jaelyn's first Christmas with the family. Scrolling through photos recently I came across this one from 2006, after she had been with us about 6 months. She hated anyone in costume, and has only gotten over that in the last couple of years.

But even crying, isn't she adorable? Yeah, of course they all are:)

Like Father, Like Son...

John Fisken, a photographer from Oak Harbor Sports Report, sent me this picture today that he snapped of my boys at last night's wrestling meet. I think it is my new favorite of the two of them. I'll let the photo do the rest of the talking...

Another Letter...

This week Joshua earned another letter that he will wear proudly on his Letterman's jacket. However, this one was not for his prowess on the mat, but rather, a payoff for the hard work he has been doing in the classroom. Last year Joshua really got serious about his future as an architect, and turned it up in the classroom. To earn an academic letter you must have two consecutive semester's with a 3.5 or better. He did just that and more, and now he is continuing that success this year (and that's with three difficult AP classes).

And on the mat this season he is now 2-0! Last night's match is now archived at http://www.soundsportsnet.com/ (look for Mat cats chase away Mt. Vernon).  Next Thursday's meet is supposed to be live on the internet too. It's a double dual, so I believe it begins at 5:30 instead of 7:00.

Keep up the hard work Josh!