2 more teeth out!

During Christmas break Brayden lost both of his top teeth. The first one came out while he was eating bread on Christmas Eve. For some reason he refuses to actually pull them out so he does anything else he can so they will just fall out! He didn't even know it fell out - I had to tell him to spit his bread out because I noticed his tooth was missing - and sure enough there it was! Unfortunately, we think Grams threw his tooth away:( I had set it on a napkin in the kitchen - which went missing... Brayden was ok with it though.
Here's a picture of him after losing the 2nd tooth - Gary pulled this one out! Brayden is scared of me because he knows I get way to intense! I want that tooth out - NOW!
Just a random story - while we were in Ft. Wayne, Brianna decided she should put a booger in Brayden's mouth!!! I didn't see it happen but my mom did - she said it was stringy - YUCK! When Brayden told me the story later - he said he was "kind-of mad at Brianna"! I would have been furious!!! He's so sweet! Such a gross funny story!

Christmas part 1 - 2009

This year we had to celebrate Christmas a day early because unfortunately I had to work 12 hours on Christmas day... We ended up having a nice couple of days though. On Christmas Eve Eve (our Christmas Eve), Brayden had the stomach flu so we all kept our distance... The rest of us managed to avoid it somehow. These pictures are out of order like always;)
We suprised Brayden with a family gift from Boston - the Nintendo DSi! We thought he would be so excited when he opened it - but for some reason his reaction was so boring (probably because he had been so sick the day before)! Either way, we know he loves it - and here is a picture of what we had hoped he looked like when he opened the gift:) The kids gave me an adorable Precious Moments - Brianna as a princess and Brayden as a pirate - too perfect!

Here is Brianna opening her gifts on Christmas morning - she loved everything she opened! She kept saying, "this is just what I wanted!" She was so much fun this year - loved every minute of it!

Here is a picture of Brayden secluded on his sick couch Christmas Eve! This is as close as we would get to him - poor little guy! Like I said, it was still a nice day spending time together at home - just long distance!

This year we tried out the Christmas at the zoo! Aside from the beautiful lights, our favorite part was doing the scavenger hunt in the Gardens - they had a live reindeer too! Here's a picture of all of us - hard to come by!

Just loved this picture of Brianna:)

This year we got many of the kids together from our street for a gift exchange - the kids got along great! Left to right: Caleb, Cameron, Brianna, Brayden, Sophi, Brayden Polley, Chloe, Evan, Collin, Isaac

An evening with Santa and Disney on Ice

A couple weeks ago we took the kids to see Disney on Ice - Brayden's favorite part was the Halloween celebration (he's come a long way!) - Brianna was in heaven the whole time (she loved all the princesses!) Little princess (eating a sucker) with her daddy!

Me with my handsome momma's boy:) If you look closely you can see he is missing a tooth! He has several more that are loose!

At South Creek they hosted an evening with Santa. Unfortunately, I was at work, but Gary took the kids.

Getting ready for Christmas!

One night we decided to take a quick family picture to give to a few people (I'm not very good about Christmas cards). As you can see we're not really dressed for a picture - but everyone was looking and smiling! The kids were so cute with Santa this year! I think this is the first year I didn't have to walk over with Brianna! Brayden wants a Spongebob snowcone machine and a zero gravity remote control car... Brianna wants the Disney Princess Castle and make your own jewelry...

After decorating the house for Christmas - the kids got into a pretty typical pose:) I'm so glad they like each other (although the times that they argue are increasing).

As I get out our Precious Moments Nativity Scene - I'm teaching Brianna all about it! Gotta love the look on her face!

This year we made a Gingerbread village! This set was really cute - has 5 different houses/buildings to decorate! Of course Brianna did a lot of chewing!

A little behind!!! Thanksgiving 2009

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Lukas and Jodie's house in Zionsville with Gary's family! We had a good time - the kids are having more and more fun playing together as they get older.
Here's a picture of Landon - he was sleeping during the picture we took of all the kids: Here's a picture of the rest of the kids - Sam, Brianna, Brayden, Grace, Grant, and Logan:

Brayden once again got the smaller half of the wishbone - we're gonna have to work on strategy for next year!

Our contribution to the meal this year was fruit - so we decided to jazz it up and bring a fruit turkey:)

Here are the kids doing "The first Thanksgiving play" at our house! We frequently get a show after I come home from work!

Gator GREATS

Brayden and his friend Sophia from his class tried out to sing the Gator GREATS song on the morning announcements and they won. I was able to watch them yesterday - they were a little quiet - but it was really cute:)

Halloween 2009

We had a very fun Halloween this year! I took the day off of work and my parents came down:) Brayden decided he wanted to be Dracula (because he's been so scared of Halloween in the past I was really shocked that he wanted to be Dracula - but I decided to let him to see if it would help him get over some of his fears. Amazingly this year Brayden was so brave -still afraid of our neighbor's decoration though;)
Here is a picture after trick-or-treating! Enough candy for a few years! Every year we go trick-or-treating with our neighbors - here's most of the group with a few missing:

Cinderella! Thankfully she recovered from the flu soon enough to go out!

Beauty and the Beast!

Our pumpkins this year: TinkerBell (Lee Anne), Cinderella (Brianna), Ghost (Brayden), GI Joe (Gary)

For school Brayden had to pick a vocabulary word and make a hat to wear that represented that word - he chose Rattlesnake!

Happy family (who just finished passing around flu/pinkeye/ear infections)

The ladies:) (There's a little place on Thompson and Arlington that we like to go to every year to pick out pumpkins - this is a picture inside the blowup haunted house they have there.)

I was able to go with Brayden's class on a field trip to Waterman's. Usually we go there as a family every year but Brianna was too sick. Besides, it was a complete mud pit! Here are Brayden and Nolan! Aside from all the mud, we really had a good time!