Christmas Morning

The glow from the Christmas lights is my favorite.

I had to sneak them on all of the time at night because Josh kept turning them off to save energy. Lighten up man! I talked him into leaving them on all night for Christmas.

Unfortunately that meant that when Kadie woke up at 4:00 am she would STAY AWAKE,

and ultimately wake all of us up at 6:00 sharp. We did let Crew sleep in until 7:30.

The coolest thing Santa brought? Leopard Geckos for Kadie and Laney.

This is "Sassy" below. Laney named her all by herself.

Kadie named her Gecco Lily, but Lily is a little bit scared of giant humans right now.

We aren't really sure if they are both girls. :)

I never knew Santa brought pets. He is sneaky.

We also acquired a little cage full of hopping Crickets that we have to refill every week.

We now keep those buggers in the garage after we found several through out the house that had gotten loose. I got my revenge, the Geckos still ate them.

Where is Crew Boy?

I got so many great gifts this year. Creative ones, cute ones, warm ones. This one is my favorite gift from Kadie. She made it in school. I love the special design she made with the noodles around the edges. I think it hilarious that she drew little boobies on me. And I love that you have to play "Where's Waldo" to find Crew boy. :)

Can you find Crew?

Santa

We actually saw Santa two weeks ago at our first company party to attend for GROCO.

It was an all family event, and the kids loved it.

There was Chinese food which our kids SCARFED down, a puppet show, Santa,

and the kids each left with a gift of their own hand puppets.

Laney was a bit skeptical.

Crew loved Santa, he snuggled right up to his soft beard.

All of us concluded that the fairy elf puppets from

"The Shoe maker and the Elves" story were our favorite. :)

Laney was the most afraid of Santa out of all of us except for Josh. We all had to coax Daddy to sit on his lap and tell him over and over that Santa was a nice man.

Kidding, maybe. :)

Thanks for the fun party GROCO!

Movie Night

Kadie had to give a presentation this week about a family tradition.

Instead of choosing a Holiday themed tradition,

she chose to talk about our movie/pizza night that we do every Friday night.

First we make our home made mini pizza's. Then Kadie is in charge of making fancy movie tickets and pretend money for the rest of us to buy treats with.

Kadie also plays the part of the cashier.

In Kadie's own words...

"Then, Mom, Dad, Laney and I sit down to watch a nice great funny movie."

She did a great job presenting!

The dress rehearsals for this presentation made our little family realize that we love traditions, and we want to start a few more!

Standing

If you look closely, you can tell Crew is smiling in this picture.

He loves to pull himself up and stand, soon he will be moving along furniture!

He is growing up too fast.

Crew...8 months

Crew always has something to smile about, and lately scream about. Yes, he screamed when I took this picture. He is so squealy!

He used to be the same size as this teddy bear...

Now that he can crawl he can see what is at his level. Of course he puts it ALL in his mouth.

Don't worry, this baby food snack was planted for the picture.

Every once in a while he sucks on his thumb...probably because he feels cool doing it.

The thumb is the rebel to the Binky.

The downside of crawling. I have to mop and vacuum every day. :)

He likes to blow raspberries too, and that includes on the floor.

The floor is basically his best friend.

He can barely reach the tree, and he loves to run his fingers over the needles, just like he runs his fingers through hair. It is the cutest thing.

He is getting even cuter if you can believe that!

He pulls himself up onto furniture now.

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Now I am starting to get nostalgic. 8 months old! I can't believe it.

Soon enough he will be one year old!

Happy 8 month Crewser.

Polar Express

Kadie just ran as fast as she could to the front window. The garbage truck was here, still dark outside, and she thought it was the Polar Express train. Love it.