Is there anything better than a toothless smile?

ALMOST toothless, that is.

I've been wanting to take pictures of him for a while, his top tooth is already starting to grow in a little bit. Still cute though, such a big kidish look.

A long overdue first for Caleb

I know it was time, but still. I'm sad.

Before:

During:

And after:

Handsome little thing, isn't he?! Just FYI, that's Gatorade in his bottle. He had some tummy issues Sunday and we've been going easy on the milk. Getting rid of the bottle is on my list of things to do in the New Year. I'm sure it'll be as easy as achieving world peace. I'm really looking forward to it.

Christmas 2009

Heading to church on Christmas Eve. They clean up nice, don't they? ;)

Caleb pretty much had this "OMG! IT'S THOMAS!" look on his face all of Christmas Eve, it was hilarious.

Emmy and her two wheeled scooter that she asked Santa for at the last possible minute.

A Wii was the big gift this year. I love the look on Em's face in this picture. SO sweet!! It's been a huge hit so far, we've played some different games but the favorite is the new Super Mario Bros. It's four player so we can all play at the same time, which is REALLY frustrating when your children keep pushing you off of ledges and into things that kill you. Is it too much to ask that we pass a level? Frick. It was much more fun when Becca and I cheated by breaking it out before Christmas and playing. She wasn't making me lose a life every other minute. We unhooked it and put it back in the box 10 minutes before they got home from school. I think I'll do that from now on, just play when she comes over and watch when the kids play. They give me a headache. Oh that's right, it was a gift for THEM, not me. ;)

Santa brought Caleb a super cool train table. He loves it of course.

Outside scootering and rollerblading on Christmas day.

Caleb and one of his most favorite people in the world. He loves his "Eb bay" Really I'd spell it Ebay but he says it with a short /e/ sound and not a long one. She's really high on his list of favorite peeps. The other night I asked "do you love Mommy?" and he said "no. Yuh You Ebay."

Merry Christmas!

Well, Merry Christmas Eve! Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Christmas day!

Love,

Basil, Nikki, Jacob, Jonah, Emily and Caleb

Tis the season to make a gingerbread house

Oh the sprinkles. The broom ran away and hid. I didn't need it anyway, they are much easier to clean up if you suck 'em up with the vacuum cleaner. ;)

Sprinkles? Did somebody say sprinkles? I'll help clean them up!

THREE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS! Are you ready? I'M NOT! My eye is starting to twitch, paranoia and panic are setting in. I might be losing my mind a little bit, I'll get back to you.

**********

OMG! THREE DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Santa and some goofy elves

Here's our 2009 Elf video. It's not working when I try to put it directly into the blog, you'll have to click the link.

Click here: Elf Yourself 2009

And Santa is catching up with the times and sent out video emails this year. He's techno savvy like that. All four got an individual message and they were all similar, here's Jonah's (again with the link):

Click here: Jonah's message from Santa

HO HO HO!!!!

Christmas parade

The Scouts had a float in the Port Neches Christmas parade. I think they ate more candy than they threw and they had a blast!

Emmy was our honorary Elf.

Snow

We survived the Port Neches blizzard of 09. All 47 flakes. Man, we were shoveling for days! So what do you do when you're outside freezing your arse off?

You eat popsicles of course. Duh.

The Wolves go to court

We went with our Cub Scout den to meet Judge Burnett. He wore his robes, they did the whole "all rise" thing and everything. Very official. The boys were way more interested than I thought they'd be. They listened to everything he had to say, even when he was saying words like "prosecutor, insurance, litigation, contempt of court" and they had no idea what he was talking about. They still listened. He read through the Scout oath with them and everything, explained a few things and then let them ask questions. They asked questions like "where does the bad guy sit? What if somebody brings a gun in here. What if he shoots you. How long will he go to jail?" Kid questions, but he answered them all. He said that he was impressed with how polite and interested they all were. It was a really good outing!

Whimsical 2009

Looking cute at the rehearsal:

Rocking her cute coverup:

Posing by the present with her picture on it:

Getting fed up with the picture taking:

This years group of Star Wars Choir hopefuls. I mean the Whimsical Angels. Last year's costumes were SO MUCH cuter, were they not?

The infamous butt scratching video. It really was a tiny little scratch, but it looked HUGE from where I was sitting.

She'll be movin' on up next year and will get to be in several different things. Joy. More to do.