Happy Halloween!

Wonderful Birthday, Wonderful Family

I have to say the older I get, the less I care about birthday presents, the more I enjoy some rare special moments when we're all together. And with Kellen being a junior now, who knows how many more birthdays I can enjoy being all together.

We started off the day watching Kellen run at his league championships. He really enjoyed his first season of cross country, and is looking forward to it again next year. Afterwards we took the kids to a pumpkin patch where we rode a train and dodged the puddles for the perfect pumpkins. Kaia and Jaelyn insisted on carrying their own. Boy, those pumpkins are pretty tough, as they never cracked after being dropped several times. As you can see from the pictures, everyone had a good time. I also posted a picture of Joshua in uniform. This is from last week's game. His season ends on Wednesday. He really learned a lot his first season of football.

As for my birthday, it's not like I don't enjoy presents at all anymore...I got some great gifts, but I especially like the gift the kids gave me. It's a great CD of a group called 12 Girls Band. They are from China, but not your typical Chinese musicians. They play authentic Chinese instruments, but in a modern way. Check them out and let me know what you think.

Evidently they like dance class....

The girls obviously enjoyed their dance class so much last week that they decided to sleep in some of their outfits! Last night they went to bed in their pajamas, but when we checked on them a bit later they had obviously changed! They have been practicing their first position every night so that they have it perfected by this week's class. It is so funny to see two 3 year olds concentrate so hard so they can get their heels together and toes apart.

The bottom two pictures are from their first class last week. Kaia seems to be the Michael Jordan of ballet, because in two of the pictures Mike took of her, she has her tongue out. They will be studying ballet, tap, and Chinese dance in class. Of course, we will post some videos, so check back often!

I'm still here...

Sorry it has taken so long to post again, but life gets hectic for the Crebbin family when school starts back up. All waking moments when we aren't at school, volleyball, Kellen's cross country meets, Josh's football games, grading papers, or folding clothes, are spent as a family. Thus, not much computer time.

Since I last posted, Kellen celebrated his 16th birthday (still not kissed!), Joshua his 13th birthday (eight 12/13 year olds spent the night the first weekend of school...what were two teachers thinking), and we got a new van. Yep, we're a two van family! We went without one for 2 1/2 weeks, and boy was it tough cramming us all in the Pathfinder (that is 16 years old). With Dodge offering 0% financing for 6 years, we just couldn't resist. Dad, the picture of the van is for you!

Well that is about it, as I have to get back to folding clothes! I will post more when life is not so mundane....

Photo Session

So a week ago we had family photos taken. We didn't have the typical posed pictures, but instead the photographer followed us along the beach and took pictures of us playing. Even the teenage boys had a blast! I also told the photographer about the Celebrating Adoption program that I blogged about a couple weeks ago, and today I found out she signed up to participate in the program! Also, she wrote the sweetest blog entry about our session and posted some adorable pictures. The proofs come in later this week, and I can't wait to view them all. You can see a few of them at http://momentsintimebylori.typepad.com
If these pictures are any indication, they will be hard to choose from! I might be spending more $$$ than I planned.

One funny thing....there's a darling picture of the girls squatting down and looking at something on the beach. They look so sweet and innocent....well Kaia was actually enjoying smashing the guts out of a dead crab as Jaelyn cheered her on!

Summer's Last Hurrah

Summer is quickly coming to a close. I start back to coaching volleyball on Monday, and Kellen is foregoing tennis this year to give cross country a try. Joshua is at church camp this week and begins football in a week.

The pictures are from our camping trip to Pearrygin Lake last week, near Winthrop. Aunt Julie and Ellie met up with us, and we had a wonderful time, despite the yellow jackets.

Celebrating Adoption

I came across this site through one of the yahoo groups I belong to (I keep telling my husband they're for educational purposes!), and some of you reading my blog may be interested. It is a great opportunity; I'm only sorry I didn't know about this earlier.

Photographers all across the country belong to this organization called Celebrating Adoption. If you have adopted within the last year, you qualify for a free portrait session. There is no sitting fee, and you get the set of proofs for free. Just find your state and call one of the photographers listed. Sounds simple to me. Check it out at http://www.celebratingadoption.org.