A Year in Review

Before it gets too far into 2009 I wanted to post some of my favorite pictures of 2008. It was a great year that brought us many adventures. Enjoy!! (Warning LOTS of pictures!)

First bath with JaredFirst time meeting Jayson

First time meeting Grandma

4 Generations

Hanging with Granddaddy All bundled up!
Finding a new mattress


Nap time
"babies love to lay on a pillow on the floor"

Nothing is better than a lullaby from Great Grandmommy

4 Generations
Saying bye to Great Granddaddy (Cayden adores him!)
Playing video games with Daddy
Opening night of the Graduation ExhibitGraduation Day

Little Beethovens

Giving LOVE

TRAPPED!!
Happy Birthday!! Partners in crime



A day in the mountains
YUM!!
Pumpkin Patch

Happy Halloween!

Trip to the museum
Happy Thanksgiving!

Sculptures!
'Chill' Birthday Boy

Chillin in the car on the way home from Utah

Making a mess (and so good at it!)
Chuck E. Cheese bus driver!

Ending the year with LOVE!

2008 was a wonderful year for us. We grew not only as husband and wife but we grew as a mom and dad. We are so thankful for the wonderful things that happened this year and look forward to our adventures in 2009. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

LOVE TO ALL!!!

Christmas 2008

I know I'm way behind but I wanted to share our Christmas with you. We had a wonderful Christmas. We spent Christmas eve at my parents house. Jared and I decided to surprise my dad with something special. It's his family tradition to play bingo on Christmas eve. When we were out shopping on Christmas eve we came across a bingo set. It was on sale so we bought it along with some prizes. So we spent the evening playing BINGO. It was pretty darn fun. Then we read the Christmas story. After that it was time to go home and wait for Santa to come.

Christmas morning we woke up and opened stockings.It was so fun to watch Cayden He was so excited about everything.

Our Christmas Tree

After stockings we had breakfast. A few years ago Jared and I decided to combine our Christmas breakfast tradition. So we have oatmeal, cinnamon rolls, and scrambled eggs. It was quite the breakfast. I couldn't fully enjoy it because I was still getting over a stomach bug. But Jared and Cayden loved it! When breakfast was done we moved on to presents. It was so much fun watching Cayden open presents. Thanks to everyone who gave him one. He loved every present he got!! He is so good at opening them too. My favorite present this year was a painting that Jared did for me. He says its not quite perfected yet but when its done I'll post a picture of it. Its AWESOME! I cried when he gave it to me. He has never given away any of his artwork so it made me feel special that he made one for me.

Blocks from Grandma

Once we finished opening our gifts we got dressed and headed over to my parents house. We had such a wonderful day. It was so fun to have the family together. We played games all day and then had a very informal dinner. I wasn't feeling up to eating, some people weren't hungry when dinner was ready and some were so it was kind of a "the food is here if you want it" type meal. It was really strange not to sit down with everyone and eat but it was still a wonderful Christmas.

Our Christmas "mess"

Playing Apples to Apples

Now on to other things.....

We want to wish Jared's sister Jenny a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! We hope you had a wonderful day. We love you so much!!!!

~Love To ALL~

Happy Birthday!!!

I want to wish a very happy birthday to my big sisters.

(Kimmy on the 2nd and Bethy on the 3rd)

(Sorry guys this was the most recent picture of the 3 of us)

I can't believe how old you two are getting. I'm just glad that I will always be younger than you. I couldn't have asked for two better big sisters. I'm so thankful for the closeness that we have. I hope you both had an awesome birthday. We love you!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Our wonderful niece Rylee turned four today!!!! Happy Birthday Rylee!!!

I wish we could have been there to celebrate with you. You are such a special girl and we love you so much. We have had so much fun watching you grow. We hope you had a wonderful birthday!!! We hope to see you soon!!!
~ALL OUR LOVE~

(This is one of my favorite pictures of Cayden and Rylee!)

Cayden's First Birthday!

Last Sunday we had a small party for Cayden. We just had family over to join us in celebrating our little guy's first year. We had meatball subs for dinner and Cayden thoroughly enjoyed his.

Then we moved on to presents. Cayden caught on quickly to the fact that there was a toy inside the paper. He got pretty good at opening his presents.

Once we were done with presents we sang to him and ate some cake. I worked with him for a few weeks trying to teach him to blow. He got so close to blowing out his candle.

(Thanks kimmy and mom for helping me figure out how to do the cake and for coloring the frosting)

When Cayden first got his cake he, very nicely, picked off the frosting. Then I think he got bored with that and decided to just dig in.

My favorite part of the evening was after we opened and gave him the toy cars he got he ran to the kitchen to roll them on the kitchen floor. It was so much fun watching him explore and play with this new toys. I think he had a fun day. I just wish he could remember it. Oh, well.

Thanks to everyone who sent gifts, cards and wishes or called to say happy birthday. Even though Cayden didn't have a clue it meant a lot to us.

LOVE TO ALL!!!!

Happy Birthday Cayden!!!

Today our little boy turns 1 year old. We can't believe how fast this year has gone by. It is crazy to think that a year ago I was in the hospital waiting for him to "arrive" and now he is one.

We have so much fun with our little man. He is such a smart little guy too. A few weeks ago he was really fussy. So he went to the diaper bag and dug around a bit. He finally found what he was looking for. When he brought it to me and I looked to see what it was I was shocked. He had found his Tylenol and brought it to me to give to him.

He brings so much joy into our lives and we are so thankful that Heavenly Father sent him to us. We are so thankful for the opportunity to be parents and look forward to many more years of fun with our little "Mado".

We Love you Cayden, Happy Birthday!!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

This year for Thanksgiving everyone was in Denver. It was so great to have the whole family together. Mikey came straight from a job in NY. Beth and Matias flew in from Omaha. And Kimmy, Tyson. and Spencer came down from Loveland. This was Cayden's first Thanksgiving so we were pretty excited. On Thanksgiving day we got up early and went over to my parents house so Jared could play football with all of the boys. Tyson didn't go play because he was cooking this year to give my parents a break. The boys played hard and had fun. They all got a little bruised and were extremely sore the rest of the weekend but they had fun. After football Jared and I ran home to clean up and then went back to eat. I decided I'd make homemade rolls this year. (Thanks Jess for the recipe!!!) They turned out great. After we ate everyone hung out and we played games. It was a great day.

All of the boys (minus Tyson because he was cooking)Me and my rolls


Cayden with his first Thanksgiving feast.

We realized right before we were leaving we didn't take a picture of the 3 of us



What would a Crabb family gathering be without a "shake face" picture??? The key to taking a good "shake face" picture is to get your cheeks really loose and try not to smile in the shaking process.

Timmy is the best at doing the "shake face"

Black Friday rolled around and I convinced Jared to get up at 4:30am to go shopping with me. Mikey, Matt, and Timmy came with us. I didn't have to beg them to come though, they came on free will. We weren't very successful, because people are CRAZY, but we had a good time hanging out.

We always try our best to put our Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving. This year we succeeded. I was very excited. We bought new decorations this year to change it up a bit. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Jared even let me put the star on top this year.

Cayden putting on the first ornament.

On Saturday we went to my parents house for breakfast. Jared was very excited to go for breakfast because Tyson was making biscuits and gravy. After breakfast we went outside, in the snow, and took pictures for our Christmas card. After finally getting a good one we let Cayden walk around in the snow on the deck. I think he liked the crunching under his feet. After everyone was ready Tyson transformed the living room into a photo studio so we could get a family picture. It was our first one with spouses and babies. It was quite the experience but we had fun doing it. I'll post those pictures when I get them.


Cayden playing in the snow

The "studio" (Jared was practicing being "FIERCE")


Later that evening, after everyone had more leftovers, we finally did an activity that Kimmy planned. She bought marshmallows and made frosting so we could do winter sculptures. We had one hour to make a "winter scene". We split up into teams and went to work. Jared and Mikey were on my team and we decided it was important to brainstorm. After a good brainstorming session we began our work of art.

Our winning team (pre sculpture)

After an hour of hard dedicated work this was the outcome...

Santa's sleigh and reindeer (artists:Mom, Dad, Chris)

A Nativity Scene (artists:Kimmy, Tyson, Timmy)

Jebediah and Streamer (artists:Me, Jared, Mikey)

We felt a little bad when we realized that the other teams did nice holiday sculptures. We saw marshmallows and thought snowman. Then we decided it would be funny to have a dog relieving himself on the snowman. We did like our sculpture though.

So that was our weekend. We had a great time and enjoyed being together and with family. I'm excited for everyone to return for Christmas!!!

Now just for fun. We took over a hundred pictures of Cayden for our Christmas card and these are 2 of the cute ones. Enjoy!!!

LOVE TO ALL!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.

At this time of year I always think about the things I'm thankful for. At our dinner table on Thanksgiving we have to say one thing we are thankful for. However, there is not just one thing I'm thankful for. So this year I think I'll write a few things I'm thankful for in my blog and share it with all of you.

I am thankful for...

• A loving Heavenly Father who blesses me EVERYDAY
• the atonement of Jesus Christ
• the happiness of living the gospel
• the knowledge of the true church
• my temple marriage
• forever families
• fathers blessings
• LOVE
• a soccer ball that was kicked at my face over 3 years ago (I love you Jared)
• a special, wonderful, loving husband who honors his priesthood
• my husband who reminds me everyday that he thinks I'm beautiful
• a perfect little boy who brings so much joy into my home
• my mom and dad who raised me in a home full of love, fun, friendship, learning, and a little chaos
• my big sisters and our closeness, friendship, and differences
• big brothers that protected and took care of me as well as setting great examples
• little brothers who helped (or forced) me to learn to share
• late night talks and laughs with my sisters
• late night talks with my parents on their bed
• Grandparents who were as much a part of my life as my parents
• family trips to Disney World and Sebastian Cove
• my Granddaddy who never missed a soccer game
• my Grandmommy who gives so much love I can feel it just thinking about her
• the love of my nieces and nephews and the joy they bring to me
• all of the lessons I've learned from my parents, grandparents, siblings, and husband
• the mistakes I made and was able to learn from
• my friend Megan who has always been and will always be there if I need her
• food in my kitchen
• shoes on my feet
• clothes on my body
• a roof over my head
• my bed
• warm blankets on my bed

My list can go on and on. I am so thankful for so many things that it would take me forever to write them down. But I hope that I never forget the things I'm thankful for. Sometimes I think I take for granted all the wonderful things I have in my life. My challenge to everyone is to take time today to jot down a few of the things you are thankful for. You might surprise yourself with how long your list gets. HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone!!!!

~LOVE TO ALL~

The DAM

So I haven't had time to sit down and blog lately. Mainly because by the time I get home I don't feel like sitting on the computer for another 30min. or Jared is on the computer animating. But, today I don't have to work so I get to stay home and hang out with Cayden all day.


This morning was the perfect morning. I got to sleep in a little bit. Cayden woke up happy. But best of all we woke up to our first snowfall of the season. It is cold out but absolutely beautiful. I always forget how pretty it is right after it snows. It put me in a really good mood.

Ok, now for the DAM. On the first Saturday of every month the Denver Art Museum (DAM) is free for CO residents. I thought it would be fun to go this month since we hadn't been for quite a while. Jared and I always enjoy our time at the museum but this was our first time taking Cayden. He LOVED it. We took his stroller in with us but he just wanted to get out and walk around. It was fun to watch him explore. My favorite part was watching Jared walk around and share his love of art with Cayden. It was quite the fun Saturday. (The pictures are dark because I wasn't allowed to use the flash.)

Anyone hungry? Cayden wanted a snack after seeing this painting.

Jared showing Cayden some ancient artifacts.

Walking around trying to get into restricted areas.

This is Jared's favorite Monet in the museum.

Cayden at the "drive in"

I forgot to showcase this picture. For our Halloween Party we had some awesome food. In fact we went a little overboard and ended up with too much food. We had TONS of candy, I made a cake that was shaped like a pumpkin, cheese fondue, bone bread sticks, "magic wands", cookies, pumpkin shaped brownies, punch, hot chocolate with ghost peeps, and brains. Jared created the brains. We had two but were able to bring one home to enjoy later.

"Hello Clarice"

As far as life goes, we are doing well. Jared has applied to more animation positions and we are hoping to hear back soon. I keep praying it happens quickly so I can quit my job. Cayden is getting more teeth, which is always fun. He also loves to clap his hands, give kisses, and throw his hands in the air when he is done eating. If you ask him if he is all done up they go. Its so cute. One if his favorite songs is 'The Itsy Bisty Spider' when I say "out came the sun" he puts his arms up. It is so much watching him learn things. I just love being a mom. I can't believe he is almost a year old already. Time goes by SO fast.

Anyway, we hope all is well with everyone.

LOVE TO ALL!!!!

More Halloween Party Pictures!!!

Just got some pictures that my mom took so I wanted to put them up too! Enjoy!!!

The whole family(this was taken when the party was over just before we all went home.)

Matt as Indiana Jones

Tim as the "football coach"

Daddy and Cayden

Kimmy and Tyson as pirates and Spencer their parrot

Mom the cowgirl

Chris the recovering brain surgery patient and Daddy the doctor


We were very impressed with everyone's costumes. Thanks to everyone who came and partied with us!!!