Christmas Part 2

Kimber joined a friends church choir and they had their Christmas performance a couple days before Christmas. It was a a great story and very entertaining! Kimber had a singing solo, as well as dancing part with two of her best friends. There was a slight problem with the music before they started dancing so I could grab this cute picture of them before they actually did their dance.
Christmas Eve morning.
Konrad's brother, Doug and his family, came up from Sacramento for Christmas. They stayed with us and as you can see we had lots of fun! I'm assuming Kimber took these picture, but I'm not 100% sure, I didn't even know they were taken until I uploaded to the computer.

Scotty and Sam and their lego creation:

Cousins!

Watching Polar Express before heading over to Grandma and Grandpa Crabtree's:

Sam during the Christmas Story:

Allison:

Grandpa helping Jaden lead the opening song:

The cutest baby ever - Miss Addison - who just happened to love her Uncle Konrad:

Scotty and Grandpa, Scotty is reading a poem:

Joseph (Scotty), Mary (Sam), and the donkey (Doug)

Most of the cast: (Scotty, Sam, Jaden, Alli, and Kimber)

Christmas Morning:

I was a horrible photographer on Christmas morning. Normally I take TOO MANY pictures so this year I put my camera down earlier than normal - it was way too early though, especially b/c my camera and I aren't getting along very well right now and too many pictures are coming out blurry!

Anyways I snapped a few pictures - nothing that great, but oh well! Sorry girls!

Kimber opening her stocking:

Allison and her stocking:

Sam and her new Scooby bank that she got from Kimber:

Allison playing tea party with her webkinz:

Sam painting her Toy Story 3 canvas:

Kimber and Konrad loading songs onto Kimber's new MP3 player

Back at Grandma and Grandpas....

Baby Addison was the center of attention - sitting on the table while we all enjoyed her. Allison also wanted to be the center of attention:

Konrad:

Addi:

Sam, Tyler, Grandpa, and Addi:

Jaden, Grandma, Sam, and of course super model Addison:

Somehow Macie and Kayla avoided my camera the two times I pulled it out - next time I'll do better! I really just need to strap the camera to myself when family is in town, I always forget to get it out!

We had an amazing time with Konrad's family. We don't get to see his brother's very often so it was great to see two of them and their families. We REALLY missed Todd and his family - hopefully we'll get to see them soon!

Other fun things that we did that I didn't document with pictures:

-saw Tangled and LOVED LOVED LOVED it

-saw Secretariat - I liked it, the girls got bored in the middle, but enjoyed it more towards the end

-played at Chuck E Cheese for an evening - I even beat each of the Crabtree brothers at basketball

-went to the bouncy place at the Supermall

-played game after game of It Came To Pass

-played a few other games

-put together puzzles

-played many games of bowling and Mario Cart on our new Wii (thanks again Grandma and Grandpa C.) We also sang a few times - but seeing as though the rest of the cousins aren't really into singing and dancing we didn't pull out the singing and dancing games with them - we'll break them out tomorrow!

-Ate too much, especially too much sugar

-Konrad and I went and saw The Christmas Story, a musical. It was great! If it wasn't already done playing, I'd tell you all to go see it. It really was fun!

I'm sure there is more that I am forgetting, but it's getting late and I'm not thinking straight! Okay, so it's only 9:13, which really isn't late, but to me, it is :)

It's been a great Winter Break - only a couple more days left - we better make the best of them!

Merry Christmas!

We pretty much just stuck to family when it came to sending out Christmas cards - so here is a blog version for all you friends out there.

Merry Christmas!

We hope this letter finds your family happy and well and enjoying this wonderful time of year.

2010 was a great year for our family – we did a lot of fun things including touring the Vancouver LDS temple, spending two wonderful weeks in Hawaii with the entire Riding family, a few camping trips, and just enjoying our day-to-day life. We also found out we are expecting a baby, due in April. It's a boy this time....a whole new experience for our family!

Allison turned 5 this year. She is still in preschool, her third year, and does it twice a day, two days a week. I'm pretty sure she'll be ready for Kindergarten next fall :). Beside preschool, Allison took a couple ballet/tap classes, which she loved, and enjoys play dates with her friends. She is starting to read and loves to try to sound out words. She is also excited about the fact that she will be a big sister soon and can't wait for her little brother to come out.

Samantha turned 7 this year. She is in 2nd grade and loves school. She is becoming quite the reader, although prefers to read with Konrad than by herself. She loves math and P.E. at school. She is still constantly on the move and loves anything that bounces or allows her to bounce. She recently got a pair of moon shoes, add those to her pogo-stick and exercise balls she is in heaven! Sam played soccer and volleyball this fall and seemed to enjoy both.

Kimber turned 10 this year, and is in 4th grade. It's been a big year for her. She is the 4th grade senator at her school, she had one of the leads in our Stake's production of The Music Man (she was Amaryllis), she has solos in her school program and a friend’s church program, as well as just finished playing volleyball. She also took a Hip Hop dance class last spring. She still loves to read, read, read. She also loves hanging out with her friends, making necklaces, and writing/drawing.

Ashlee feels old, and is having a baby. Enough said! :) Okay, besides that I started teaching 2 preschool classes, one 2-day and one 4-day class. I am also still teaching aerobics once a week. Up until yesterday I was also still the Primary President in our ward, but am now adjusting to the fact that I don't get to attend Primary anymore :( I loved the 3 years I got to spend with the children in my ward and will deeply miss being in there. I am slowly adjusting to the fact that we are adding another person into our family – it is getting more and more exciting as we get closer and closer, but also a bit scary as well! Hopefully we can figure out how to take care of a baby boy!

Konrad is still working for Pharmacy One Source, selling software. He is still playing volleyball as often as he can, but has given up basketball for now because he is getting old and his knees can't take it anymore. He is still the Ward Mission Leader and does a great job working with the missionaries in our ward. He also coached Samantha's volleyball team. His big dream at the moment is to move our family to Costa Rica, but he hasn't won us over yet...we'll see what next year brings :)

We are so grateful for all we have, especially at this time of year. We are grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ, and are trying to keep the real meaning of Christmas alive in our home this year. We are thankful for all of our friends and family and hope you are all doing well and that you have a very Merry Christmas!

Love,
the Crabtree's

Christmas Part 1

We had Christmas with the Riding family last Saturday, b/c Michelle and her family were in town.

Decorating graham cracker houses:

After graham cracker houses, we had dinner and the kids played. We also tried to come up with lots of things to do to delay the present opening. Just kidding, but by the way Sam was acting you would think that is what we did! That child was so excited - all day long she kept asking "is it time yet, is it time yet?" Oh to be 7 again!

Sorting out presents:

Cute Kenzie:

Kimber's new doll - she loves that thing and she, "KC", is always with her.

Samantha's new favorite past time - - using her moon shoes!

All the grand kids - I can't believe how big they are all getting!

One tradition in our family is having a Christmas pinata. The kids love it. Well other than Natalie - who was in complete shock and kept sobbing "you broke him, you broke him" and asking everyone to stop hitting it. It was pretty sad, but cute, how upset she was. I'm pretty sure we got some of it on video - so we can show her when she gets older how upset she was.

It seems like the past few years, my dad has put the broken pinata on his head - this year Allison decided that she was going to wear the reindeer instead of Grandpa:

We had a great night celebrating with the family - thanks for all our fun gifts!

Last night we put together our Gingerbread train - note to self, next time buy the one that is already put together. We quickly took this picture and then watched as the train collapsed. Oh well, they had fun doing it.

A Fun Filled Week

We had a busy week last week! It was a lot of fun - but we were worn out by the end of it all :)

We bought a Living Social deal for ice skating. The girls have been dying to go ice skating, so when this deal popped up we decided to go for it. It wasn't until the day of that I started wondering what we had gotten ourselves into - 3 kids and only 2 adults - one of which is prego. How were we going to survive? The first time I took the girls roller skating was pretty stressful and included about 90 minutes of tears and "You are the meanest Mom in the world" comments.

But....it appears our roller skating adventures helped out in the ice skating department. There were many crashes - but absolutely no tears. Just laughing, laughing, and more laughing. I'd forgotten how tricky it can be to ice skate and I've never done it with 1-2 children in tow. Konrad and I managed to stay on our feet the whole time - I'm sure that was due to the fact that we were traveling at a child's pace :) and not trying to do anything fancy, no triple-sow-cow's or anything.

Allison and Sam demonstrating their form:
Allison getting her skates tightened:

Sam on her own - she only held on to someone a few times, she is definitely the bravest of the bunch:

All smiles, even after a big crash:

Allison:

Kimber on her own:

Allison in action. She did really well and would skate by herself as long as she could stay pretty close to the wall - if she had to pass a group of people she preferred holding on to one of us:

Next time we will have them wear their snow suits - to help with staying warm and dry as well as adding a bit more padding.

Kimber had a solo in her school play - here she is with her bestest school friends:

We threw a Mother/Daughter Christmas party - we just did some crafts, ate food, and exchanged ornaments. I was a bit worried about the ornament exchange (we did it like a white elephant gift exchange so people could steal ornaments), but in the end all the kids wanted their ornaments stolen so they could open another present :)

We also had 2 preschool parties, 1 4th grade party, 1 2nd grade party, 2 volleyball parties, 1 birthday party, 2 choir practicies, and the last two volleyball games of the season. It was a crazy week - but we really enjoyed it.

Hey Santa, Hey Santa!

Let me tell you what happens when there is a Santa emergency at the church Christmas party.

See, Santa got stuck up North - lots of air traffic up north, I guess - and wasn't going to be able to make it to the party. I sent a few men on the hunt for someone to be a Santa helper - when no one could do it - I turned to this guy.....
And said you've got to do it. Luckily the elves had dropped off a Santa suit at the church, so he could some-what look the part. As I heard from a parent or two standing in line with their kids "Looks like Santa did some P90X this year"....

When asked why I didn't move the hair from his face I told him I was trying to disguise him from our girls - it worked for Alli - until everyone in the ward ruined it and kept talking about it in front of her. She had no idea when she was on his lap that it was her dad....not sure how she missed it seeing as the other two and their two friends kept whispering "That's Dad!". I think she was just caught up in the magic of Santa though and couldn't see how that could be possible!

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Each year I like to put their letters to Santa on the blog - they have been wanting to mail them off for weeks now and seeing as though Christmas is on Saturday, I better do this so we can get them in the mail today!

(letters are typed as written)

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Dear Mr. Claus,

Since I am ten now my list will probably be a little shorter! :)

What I want this year is...

1. an Ipod

2. DS games

3. Webkinz

4. beads

5. calanders

6. clothes

7. all of the diary of a wimpy kid books exept for dog days, and the do-it-your-self book!

8. Liv girls

Thank you for reading my letter! I hope you and Mrs. Claus and all of the elve's and raindeer have happy holidays!

love,

Kimberlynn Crabtree

p.s. Mom wants me to get a new helmet! :)

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Please Sata I have a list of some thing I want for Crismas!

DS games

D.S (Scoobydoo) pleses!

Scooby doo Games pleses

Thank you thank you very much.

Sam

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:Allison:Crabtree:

Pink DS

art BiN

PonY

art Bin stuFF

nAiL POLISh

LIV GiRL

SOPhie

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We are super excited in our house for Christmas to get here! 5 more days!!!!!

Allison's Ballet/Tap Recital

Allison's recital was today. She did a great job - she definitely acted as "boss" though - made sure the other girls stood in their spot, told them to turn if needed, and told them when to exit the stage. It has to be someones child right? She really did great though - she knew most of the dance and didn't have to watch the teacher the whole time.

Isn't she cute?