Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christmas Day was really relaxing at our house. The fridge was stocked w/ left overs, so I didn't have to cook! We're still trying to figure out what we want to do as our traditions every year. What do you all do? Any suggestions?

We wake up in the morning with the tree all set up w/ gifts ready to open...The wrapped gifts are for Josh (daddy) and the bags are the boys "stockings". What do you do for stockings? We have friends that make fabric giftbags for thiers. Don't know what I'll continue doing for our family.
Before anyone can touch their gifts I read the story of Jesus' birth from either my bible or a story book. This year it was both. Then we dug into our gifts...
After the chaos settled and we cleaned up the mess, we went over to the mall and watched "the tale of despereux". It was a good movie and rated G, so no inappropriate stuff. I think we might keep this tradition of going to a movie on Christmas day. Then we headed back home, snacked on some leftovers, played and then watched Nativity Story before bed. This has been something we've done the last two years and we saw it on Christmas Eve the year it was in theaters.
Oh and this is my swag that I got for free at the grocery store because it was drying out and they just wanted them gone. :-DMy mom got us this adorable "kid friendly"(it's made of resin) nativity scene. I love it! So cute!

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve this year all snowed in. It is usually our tradition to spend Christmas Eve with my family at my mom's house, but no one else was able to make it up and due to our current vehicle situation my mom would have had to pick us up for us all to come out, so they just came here. I cooked a ham dinner, [that was delicious :-) ] then Josh and I snuck out for a bit to finish up some christmas shopping, exchanged gifts and had some pie.

My mom and dad brought paper plates...they're so smart... it made clean up a breeze!

My ham made my roasting pan shatter and the dripping started running off the counter onto the carpet. Luckily I got it all cleaned up and the roasting pan was the only casualty of the day. Well... besides the rolls that got a little darker than they should be while I was dealing w/ the ham fiasco.

Thanks to my mom and dad, Elizabeth will continue to be one of the best dressed babies in the nursery at church LOL!

The boys all got some new clothes too and a computer game from Grandma and Papa

Snow Pics

Here's some snow pics from our house

(Out my bedroom window looking at Living Room window)

(Out Joshua's window)

(anyone want to go for a drive?)

Happy Birthday to me :o)

(Joshua took this pic of me)

I'm finally blogging on my bday. I had a wonderful day. My mom came over in the morning w/ the most beautiful cake I have ever had for my bday, a little snowman plush and a copy of Frosty the Snowman on DVD. (I'm named after Frosty's wife, if you didn't know LOL) Josh made us breakfast and took Joshua shopping to get me something, but came back empty handed. But, that was ok. We went over to the mall and had a late lunch at Red Robin then walked around for a bit. Back home for some cake and just chillin' with the family. Nice, Relaxing... Great!

(My Cake)

Christmas Survey

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Okay, try not to be a SCROOGE!!!......You don't want ghosts to haunt you, do you?!?

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Usually gift bags. Depends what I'm wrapping
2. Real tree or Artificial??? Real eventhough I seem to be allergic to them
3. When do you put up the tree?? Sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas
4. When do you take the tree down??? First week of January;
5. Do you like eggnog?? I like eggnog, but the feeling isn't mutual
6. Favorite gift received as a child???? hmm...there's too many good ones to choose from
7. Hardest person to buy for? Josh
8. Easiest person to buy for? My kids
9. Do you have a nativity scene??? yup, two actually
10. Mail or email Christmas cards???? Mail, hand deliver and Email
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received??? my iron LOL
12. Favorite Christmas Movie???? Nativity Story
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?? Whenever I have the money to
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?? never presents, but I've regifted prizes
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas???? Hmm....that's another tough one
16. Lights on the tree???? Not this year
17. Favorite Christmas song??? (see playlist below)
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?? Depends on the Weather
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? I'm a scrooge...there is no santa, so there are no reindeer to name
20. Angel on the tree top or a star??? I want a cross for the top of mine. Any one ever seen one of those?
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning???? PJs Christmas eve
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year???? being snowed in LOL
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Blue and Silver
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?? ham, potatoes and all that stuff
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A bigger vehicle (i'm just dreaming here)
26. Who is most likely to respond to this?? No one they did it already
27. Who is least likely to respond to this?? everyone

Yay Lynden!

My Nephew Joseph and his team won the State Title this weekend! It was a very close game that went into double overtime! Although Joseph didn't play in the championship game this year he did play in many of the Varsity and JV games throughout the season and he's only a sophmore! Great job Joseph...Keep working hard! He's #47 in the above picture :o)

Stoney Ridge Farm

We went out to stoney ridge farm yesterday to check out trees and their live nativity. The animals are live, the people are not. I swear I've seen that wise man at JC Penney. LOL
We also enjoyed some hot cocoa and the playground :o)Joshua and Moses the camel (he's real)

Might use this one as our Christmas card this year. Look...Gabe brought his camel w/ him. He wanted to see if their camel would realize that his toy was just like it. LOL

Christmas is almost here!

I've been going a little stir crazy waiting to decorate until after thanksgiving so, I decorated my blog! Enjoy! and listen to the playlist...those are some of my favorite christmas songs :-D

Haircut

Oh and I cut my hair all off. I donated 14 inches to locks for love and had another two or three inches cut off to style it.

Awanas Carnival

Last night was the annual awanas carnival here are a few pics to highlight the night. Joshua was Mario (from the video games) and Gabriel was Luigi (from the same games) and Zaccheaus was a train conductor. Elizabeth was dressed in a onesie that said cowgirl in charge and had a little stuffed horse w/ her, but she was asleep the whole time and I didn't get a pic. I'll have to recreate it for you all a put it on here later. :-)

dr appts

oh i forgot to mention that during all the chaos that is our lives josh and i had some dr appts to make sure we are in good health, now that we have real insurance. my doctor was a little concerned that my thyroid felt swollen and i have a family history of thyroid problems, so he sent me off for some lab work and an ultrasound of my throat. both came back showing everything was normal YAY! so no medications or treatments will be needed. the nutritionist at wic was telling me that a vitamin D deficiency can cause a slightly swollen thyroid, so she suggested that i start taking vitamin D3. she was saying it is actually really good for every women in the pacific northwest to take that because of our lack of sun exposure. in addition women who are nursing are notorious for having low levels and people who don't drink milk also have low levels, so as you can probably sum up on your own i have many factor contributing to that vitamin deficiency. she also suggested i have some blood work done to check my vitamin levels, but i'm not one to volunteer to be poke w/ needles, so i'll just get the pills and start taking them.
josh also went into see the doc and just had some lab work done. just the lipid panel that checks your cholesterol and all that. Everything checked out ok except his good cholesterol was a little low. other than that and being a little over weight (we both are :-( ugh!) he is perfectly healthy. so, now we are both kinda dieting and walking more. josh isn't really dieting, but i'm changing what i make for him and the portions that i serve to everyone. so, he's dieting by force i guess you'd say. on the good side of things i'm 30 lbs lighter than I was before getting preggers. when i got really sick back in january i lost 20 lbs gained it all back plus 1 lb from the pregnancy, but I've lost thirty again since delivery two months ago. so yay for me. i would still like to lose another 20 lbs, but am not stressing over it too much. i know it will happen with just the few changes we have made in our habits. and the fact that i can't eat icecream anymore. LOL

Update

ok, so i know it's been a long time since i updated this so here we go....

we've been super busy lately we have church and evening sunday school each sunday. tuesdays we have classes through our church where i get to do a book study, the younger two are in nursery and the older two get to go to a cef 5 day club. wednesday is awanas and fridays we usually have some sort of appointment to go to. on top of those things we have the day to day stuff like homeschooling, grocery shopping, cleaning, josh's school work and actually spending some time having fun together. it's been kinda chaotic the last couple weeks. i feel like things are calming down now, but i know it won't last long w/ the holidays just around the corner.
i (crystal) am really enjoying the book study i am in. we are reading holiness by grace by brain chappel. it's a really good book, just make sure if you read it you don't have all your little munchkins running around. i find that i need it quiet. so that i'm able to focus on the words more. it's not the kind that you can just quickly read through, you have to think and study what you are reading. which i like.
the boys are doing really well in awanas. joshua is into his third book of sparks and gabe has just moved up into sparks. cheaus is in cubbies now, too. he knows his verses. but won't say them for his teachers. he's so shy at first. i hope he warms up to them and does better there.
josh built us a new computer, so the boys get to use the old one for school. i guess josh needed one w/ more ram and other stuff to do the programs he has to use for school this year. so, the apartment is all turned upside down again trying to figure out where to fit the two computers and all their accoutrement's. this place seemed so big when we first moved it (more than double our last apartment), but we're starting to feel a little cramped after setting up all of Eli's stuff and all the other stuff that we've purchased or had given to us. i'm seriously considering just starting to go through every room and start chucking everything we don't absolutely need. now if i just had the time for that everything would be nicely organized instead of a mess like it is now. LOL
i realized that i never put pics of our place on here. i should do that soon. again, as soon as my online album is accessible again.

new posts

Hi there are new posts on Gabe and Eli's pages. Check them out.

Elizabeth is here!

Click this link http://elimarieprice.blogspot.com/ or the link to the side under Kids Pics to view the info about Elizabeth.

Zaccheaus Turned 3! and My Shower

Just a little post about Cheaus' third birthday party. We didn't do much, thought I'd try getting away w/ not doing a huge party for one more year. He is really into trains, so I made him a Thomas the Train Cake and put up a dollar store banner that said happy birthday with a train in the middle. We had my mom come over and my nieces Seaira and Sariah stayed the night the night before the party. Josh and I got him a set of tracks and a little drawbridge for his train set he's been acquiring. The drawbridge came w/ another train too. I also got him an oshkosh train engineers hat and a train whistle which were a big hit. My mom and nieces got him some Thomas books and some trains. He also got some other trains on Saturday from my friend Crystal and her mom Susan and knight costume, sword and little knight figurine from Trish and Ben.

Also on Saturday was my baby shower. I had a lot of fun. We didn't get any pictures even though four people there had picture phones and two digital cameras were nearby, but o'well I'll paint you a mental picture. We had it down at the party room in the clubhouse of our apt complex and our theme was "mother daughter tea party" in honor of us expecting our little girl. My mom, great-aunt, sister Shandi (and her girls), SIL Trish (w/ niece Gabby), three friends from church Jessica, Meredith (w/Esther and Josiah) and Annika and Crystal, Susan and Delilah all made it for the party. Annika's son Drew also came, but to spare him the boredom of a girly party we let him come up and play w/ the boys. Which I heard was a lot of fun, as well. We had a huge selection of teas to drink and a nice assortment of snacks. And cheesecake for dessert! Which I almost forgot about serving LOL. We got a lot of amazingly great stuff for baby/us. We got outfits in all different styles and sizes, two really great books (that we've actually been wanting to find to buy ourselves), a picture frame, a baby bath set, receiving blankets, burp clothes, gift cards to target and a baby swing (thanks mom). Shandi also brought me a huge bag full of stuff for the baby that had recieving blankets, lots of clothes, snow suit bunting thingies and a bunch of other stuff. Sorry if I forgot anything, I'm still a little overwhelmed by it all. If you really need to see pictures of some of the stuff, it's on my registry (www. Target.com ) . I had such a great time getting to see everyone and visiting. I have four weeks left until my due date and it's getting really exciting now as everything is coming all together. My room is almost all set up w/ her stuff (we just have to figure out where we're putting all these super cute clothes) and all her little accoutrement's are being positioned throughout the house. AHH! I can't wait! Talk to you all later! :-)

Oh here's those great books I recieved. Both are by Micheal Pearl You should check them out too...

7 Years!

Josh and I celebrated our seventh anniversary yesterday. Nothing too fancy, but still a special day. After I was done babysitting we headed out to Hovander Park (where we were married) with the boys and just ran around and played.

It's really neat to go out there every year and see how it's changed and see the animals. Each year the animals are bigger and the trees grow taller. Kinda represents our growth each year as husband and wife (sappy I know LOL). But seriously, it's really amazing to think each year about what has changed in our lives and all the blessings we have received.

Zaccheaus passed out on the way there, so here's a pic of him asleep in the grass. LOL. After the park we checked out some other spots in Ferndale and headed back home. Josh took me out for dinner at the Keg and thanks to his bday being in two weeks his meal was free, so our anniversary dinner cost us a whole whopping $20 including tip. We walked around the mall for a little bit too, not as part of our celebration, but just because I need to move around more. I'm at 35 weeks now and the less I'm active the worse I feel. So, that was it. No elaborate trips and flashy gifts...Just a nice time with our family and some alone time for Josh and I to talk. Perfect!

Here's one of the peacocks that were so obsessed w/ me and my pretty dress seven years ago. They are soo pretty!

Oh...BTW Josh had his tooth pulled last Tuesday and found out he needs two root canals, so please pray for him that he can get all that fixed and his gums heal up, they're still pretty painful. Quite amusing watching him try to eat steak last night.

Back from Vacation

We made it back home! We enjoyed out time away, but it wasn't as exciting as we had planned. We did take the ferry over to Port Townsend and camped there one night. It ended up raining, so we decided to head down to the next destination. Dosewallips State Park ended up being in the middle of nowhere and due to constraints on our packing space we didn't have any substantial amount of food with us. So, we decided to keep driving until we found a place to camp near civilization. We ended up driving all the way around the Puget Sound, with a stop in Shelton for lunch (thanks again Shandi for directing us to that park) and onto Dash Point State Park in Federal Way. Other than the mosquitos that were there we liked that park. Until, each of the boys had bathroom accidents, one of which resulted in us needing to buy new shoes for one of them. So after all that frustration we decided to give up on camping and spent the next two nights staying at Josh's brother Jacob's house. We spent the days hanging out with my SIL Trish and her girls and that was a lot of fun. Saturday we attempted to go see the Seattle Center, but it was really busy and parking was a joke, so we went to Northgate Mall for lunch and visited ToysRUs. The closest one to Bham is in the Everett area I think, so it's been a long time since the boys have been there. Then we headed home for some much needed rest and a full nights sleep.

Going on vacation!

We're finally taking our first family vacation ever! So, we'll be offline for about a week. Tomorrow (6-17-08) we'll be driving down to Whidbey Island and taking the ferry accross to Port Townsend (pic below) and camping there for two days.

Then we are going down to the Dosewallips (sp?) river for two more day of camping and some river fishing. Hopefully we'll catch something this time.

Next it's back onto a ferry into Seattle and to a quick meeting with a photographer about a photo package that was given to us for pics of the baby. Then we're topping it all off with our neices' Mary and Gabby's Birthday Party! We should be back late Saturday night or maybe Sunday. I hope everyone else has a good week. Please pray for safe travels for us. Thanks.

Fishing Party

It was Gabriel's 5th birthday on Memorial Day and we had a fishing party for him. He was sooo excited and enjoyed every minute of it. Eventhough none of his friends were able to make it, he still says it was the best party ever. Due to rain the whole night before we had to have the party indoors in our apartment. I decorated the dining room w/ what decorations I had that could be used inside (the tiki torches and fire pits were a no-go) and set up the tent in the living room. We played a few fishing themed games and had camp-out snacks; pigs in a blanket, juices and teddy graham trail mix. The trail mix is the best snack ever, mini pretzels, teddy grahams, and yougurt covered raisens. Best part for us was it's peanut free! So, both Gabe and Cheaus got to have it. Oh, and we had cupcakes and ice cream, too.

All the boys had lots of fun and Gabe got a Leapster from Grandma & Papa (crystals parents) and he thinks it's the coolest thing ever. Even cooler than his gameboy (yay! cuz it's educational, too). We got him a new build a bear moose that he named Moe and he dressed it in camo shorts and an offroad jeep shirt. Moe's outfit is covered in the pic by our build a bear bday party accessories. It's very cute. And of course a party isn't a party until something gets broken, so Joshua took it upon himself to liven things up and shattered our sliding glass door with the magnet on the fishing pole for our fishing game. It was foolish of me to set it up right next to the door, which he pointed out. But, too late now. Thanks for looking at our blog. TTYL

Sorry for lack of posts

Hi all~It's been a crazy couple of weeks around here, so I haven't gotten around to posting in a while. Gabriel got pink eye and had to go to the doctor for a RX, but it cleared up really quick and he didn't have to miss out on too much. Joshua was scared he was going to get it, but he never did (neither did anyone else, praise God). He kept saying I don't want pink eyes, I like my blue ones. So, we had a quick lesson on what pink eye really was and that most likely his eyes will stay blue his whole life.
We did the Walk for Life and had a blast. I didn't reach my fundraising goal, but was able to raise a little to help out the Whatcom County Pregnancy Clinic. Of course I forgot my camera again, and never took out the cell to take any pictures. Zaccheaus was amazed by the playground w/ the bouncy castles. He thought it was this place off an episode of Blues Clue's called wacky wild world and couldn't get out of the stroller fast enough to go play.
We got to go down to Auburn last weekend and spend some time w/ Josh's brother Ben and his wife Trish. It was so nice out and 92 degrees. We went to the lake and the kids swam while Josh fished. He caught his first fish of the year and we were all too busy playing to notice. He let it go though, it wasn't that big. I did some shopping at the Super Mall and got some good deals. I got the older two new outfits for $10 each (just pants and a shirt) and got Zaccheaus an oshgosh train conductors hat. I'm saving it for his bday in July. It's going to be a train themed party. He loves trains.
Oh speaking of birthdays, Gabriel is turning the big 5 on Monday! We're having a little fishing party for him at the playground behind our place. He's really excited and can't wait to see all the little surprises we have in store for him. I will remember my camera for this one, so watch for pictures soon.
Other than all that we've just been busy w/ appointments, end of the school year stuff, etc. The boys finished another year of Awanas. Joshua finished his book the night of the awards ceremony, so they will both be starting new books next fall. They're getting so big so fast. Joshua will be going into the 2nd grade and Gabe is starting Kindergarten. I've already started collecting things for our curriculum next year (we home school). We're going to keep working through the summer though. We will still take a little time off when the baby comes, but we're a little behind this year w/ all the craziness of life, so we'll just keep plugging away at it. That's the beauty of home school. Less time constraints.
Enough of this novel I have going here. I hope you are all well. Take Care. ~Cry

Fishing

Thanks to my transfer cable being lost here is an update on the last two weeks of our fishing adventures...

We went to Lake Paden on opening day and it was packed. We had to hike up around the lake to find a good fishing spot and then realized that we forgot our net by the car and forgot to lock the car, so back I go to make sure everythings still there (i had left my keys/purse in the trunk, so it was possible for there to not even be a car waiting there for me...AHH!) Get the stuff everythings ok, cars still there start hiking back. But, wait where were we at? I knew it was past the bench, but couldn't find it. Couldn't hear Josh & the boys, so I just went back to the docks and waited. They couldn't leave w/o me since I had both sets of keys. But, now I was going to miss out on their first catch. Well...they didn't catch anything and about an hour later they come hiking back down the trail and we go out on the docks. We met a nice older man who showed us some of his tricks and even let Joshua reel in two fish.

The other two boys didn't catch anything, neither did Josh or I. For me it was enough to be outside on a sunny day and have no one fall into the lake. LOL. We had lots of fun and I even got to see an owl up in the trees while I was searching for my family. Met lots of nice people and even got a bit of a tan.

Last weekend we decided to go out to Silver Lake. I was raining when we left, but news reports said it would stop by the afternoon. So everyone bundled up and got all the gear together again. Tried out our new super duper lure, suggested by the man at Lake Paden. But, no fish for us again. Again we made the most of our day at the lake. Had a picnic lunch and made a fire in the bbq to keep us warm. We were there a good portion of the day, but I think we would do better in the warmer weather or with a boat. The fish were jumping like crazy, even saw one fish jump completely out of the water, but nothing was biting. Most of the people on the shore weren't catching anything. Someday we will figure this fishing thing out and we'll be set.

Here's Josh and the boys at Silver Lake. Didn't get many pics out there. My camera was getting rained on.

In other new...(LOL)...I have my next Dr appt on Friday and will schedule my glucose testing for gestational diabetes. Also on Friday, Josh and I are having a date night. Our church has started up a Friday night free babysitting service once a month. We might go see a movie, since we earned free passes at the grocery store. A whole night to ourselves for free, doesn't that sound great! Then on Saturday we have the Walk for Life (see previous post). And of course on Sunday it's Mothers Day. :-) Everythings winding down for the year. School, activities, Awanas and it's making me anxious for August to come. I'm a very impatient person and I can't wait for this little girl to come join us. TTYL- Crystal