::toothless wonder::

Chloe's had a loose front tooth (actually they were both loose), for a long time. The one front tooth started to get really loose in the last week or so,. and every time we said Dad was going to pull it, she'd say "NOOO not 'til the 4th day of December" (huh?). She's weird. So then it just was way too loose, and Matt had to pull it. She layed across his lap and he tugged a bit and got it out. She squealed a little and said "you didn't even get it" "Oh really, put your tongue up there and see if it's still there," her dad told her.

silly girl :)

(it ended up coming out on the 3rd day of December)

Matt calls her the toothless wonder :)

::do not open 'til Christmas::

Our blog book is here...

...and I'm trying SO hard not to open it 'til Christmas! It's killing me! I aleady know what's in it, and basically what it looks like, but I SO want to open it and see it!

MUST.

FIGHT.

THE.

URGE!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

::a new tradition::

We love family traditions around here. We had a few growing up-we went to see A Christmas Carol (the play) every year at Christmas time, for example.

(I wish we still did that, but it's kinda tough to take such little kids to a play, plus some theaters don't allow kids under the age of 8.)

Anyway, we have a few Christmas traditions of our own now that we have our own family. So far, it's opening presents to/from eachother on Christmas Eve (always jammies) and new this year is going to be a blog book (which I'm WAY excited about!).

Another one new this year is...

We got it for Chirstmas last year, and got it out with all our decorations this year. It's so fun! I didn't pay too much attention to it last year, but it seems like a fun little tradition & the kids are way excited about it.

This little elf sits on a shelf and watches the kids and reports back to Santa if they've been good or bad. He hops around the house at night and finds a new place to sit every day so he can watch. First thing this morning when I woke Chloe up for school, "I wonder where the elf is today." Then when I picked her up from school, she said her teacher has the same thing in her classroom! So she knows she's being watched! The kids love it. I love how much fun they have with it all...it's so magical to them :)

In other news,

How the Grinch Stole Christmas was on tonight...

...and we all love that movie.

...and we're understanding how Christmas still came "without packages, boxes, or bags."

::a party just because::

A few of us got together at Matt's mom & dad's today for a little party-just because. They had all their Christmas decorations out already, made a turkey, potatoes, corn, rolls, sweet potatoes, all the good stuff :)

Matt got to "carve" (with an electric knife) the turkey.

Amberlee helped him get an apron on-we'd hate to get any turkey mess on his Kobe shirt!!

yuuuuuuuuum!

We played some cards.

And this is why......

....we call her "Grandma Snowman"

;)

::thankful::

Today we are thankful.

We're with Matt's family this year. We switch off every other year. When we're with his family we have dinner at his Aunt Alaine's house (on his mom's side). This year we had 60 people for dinner. I (and my sister-in-law, Stefanie) was in charge of sweet potatoes (MMMMMMM!).

some cookin' in the kitchen...

some of the shoes...

the dinner...

our table...

(chloe sat in the other room with all th other "little girls" when I was doing this post she said "mom next time will you take a picture of me too")

family, family evwy-wheyeh

some football (and the Cowboys won!)

Then it was down to business...

...yep, we're black friday shoppers. 3 years running now. We went through the ads to map out our plan for the next morning. We love it, well Matt does more than me. It scares me a bit. I'm not big enough to really love it-the big crowds make me nervous that I might get trampled and squished. We managed to get all the things we needed and got a pretty good show in too (Toys R Us was nuts!!).

It was a fun Thanksgiving. We're so thankful for family. We're thankful we have somewhere to go and somewhere where we are always welcome. We were all together (for the most part-there were a couple of families missing), and there were 60 of us. I love that. Everywhere you went in the house, there was someone there-and it was nice. Matt has a great family. They have an amazing ability of making everybody feel welcome and loved. I'm lucky to be a part of it :)

::notes::

Chloe....

...writes me notes all the time & sticks them everywhere....

...and I love it :)

::Coopie's 1::

Can you believe this little Bubba turned 1 this week???

He had a John Deere party.

The invitation

"Our 'Deere' little Cooper is turning one.

Come join us for all the fun"

A few decorations...

...from Portie's toy box ;)

On to some birthday presents...

lots of help (as always :) )

the cake...

help with the candle

some tears after the shock of the noise of the song and clapping-poor baby :(

a bit of cake...

the cake carver


party to the right...

party to the left (there were a few downstairs too, I think)

the toy "assembly line"

some playin' with the cousins

all the new toys!!

We had the big family party on Sunday, and his little family party on Tuesday (his actual birthday). He had a little teeny cake and got a little present from us.

It's a "walkin' toy!!" Portie said we should get him that! The kids helped pick it out. They did a great job too, 'cause he really loves it! He walks behind it and does pertty good, but then he gets mad when he gets to a wall and has to stop. He loves to walk!

Cooper had a great birthday!! Thanks, family, for all your love and support for Coopie. He got so many fun toys. He's a lucky boy to have had all his aunts & uncles, all his little (and big) cousins and (almost) all of his grandparents come to his birthday party. He loves all his toys and is so glad everyone could come and so thankful for all his presents. He plays with all of them and loves them! And thanks to Gramma Ruby for the card and $. We'll take him shopping and find him something fun :)