Christmas Letter 2008

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the deGreef Family

2008 was a year of n

ew beginnings for our family! 

We welcomed puppies and a baby into our family this year!  Hope (our mini schnauzer) had puppies on the night of May 15th.  She had four puppies.  Three boys and one girl.  They 

all have official homes now.  They are: Doyle, the runt; Sam, the spunky girl; Corky, the HUGE one; and  Gideon, the cuddler.  At first I (Crystal) thought Anthony was crazy for deciding to have puppies around the same time we were having our baby, but it actually turned out really well.  It really helped Grace adjust to her new baby sister as she was completely pre occupied with puppies.  

We were so happy to welcome Zoe Jael deGreef to our family on May 16th!  (Yes the day after we had puppies) Zoe was 5 lbs 9 oz and 21 ½ inches long.  We went in for our weekly appointments and the non-stress test indicated she was in distress so she was delivered by C-section in approximately 20 minutes.  We barely had time to notify anyone in the family as we were literally whisked away to the delivery room.  She had swallowed me conium and had to be admitted to the NICU for the week.  That was the longest week of our lives. We are so grateful that our baby girl is now healthy, wonderful and so full of joy!  We are so grateful for all the support we have in our friends and family!  We are so blessed!  She is now 7 months old  and growing way too fast.  She loves to laugh and does so frequently.  She loves to blow raspberries and laugh at her sister.  She is sitting up and we would be surprised if she isn’t

 crawling by new years.  Time flies! 

Grace is growing right out of her pants.  She is getting taller and taller by the minute.  Grace 

loves her friends and family.  She talks about them constantly because she talks constantly.  We have to remind ourselves that she is only 3 years old.  She has an incredible vocabulary and personality.  She loves anything to do with princesses.  She loves to color between the lines and play with the puppies and her dolls.  She loves to dance and sing.  She sings  “I Can Only Imagine” every night.  We live in a musical!  She also loves to worship!  You can almost always see her upfront dancing on Sunday mornings!

Anthony loves to golf, shoot guns, play poker, back country snowboard, and sometimes work.  He was able to surf almost every day while we were in Kauai.  He was able to skydive again with his brother and our friend George this summer.  He is excited to be able to fly again and will probably be doing it more frequently this next summer.  J  

Crystal turned 30 this year.  She is bowling a league again averaging around 210.  She is enjoying a night out with adults.  She has also started working out on a regular basis and is surprised that she is actually enjoying it.  She is home with the girls, but still does a little work for our business doing payroll and paying the bills.  

Anthony’s Pets is doing awesome.  We are growing in business and have a solid clientelle.  We are very grateful to our hard working employees.  Anthony loves working with dogs and helping people enjoy their pets more. 

We are so excited to have Jeremiah and Meredith living in Utah with us.  They are currently residing in our basement until they find the house God has for them.  It is such a blessing to have our family here with us.  We are learning so much about community and how valuable and vital deep relationships are to us.  It has been an adjustment, probably more for them than for us, but it has been fun to have people to play Catan with every night!  J  

We had a great year with only a few floods in our basement.  We are looking forward to what 2009 has in store for our family.  We know that God has good plans for us, plans to give us a hope and future.  What an adventure!  Thanks for being a part of our lives!  We truly love you and cherish you!  

Blessings!

Anthony, Crystal, Grace, Zoe, Hope and Doyle deGreef