Bronson the wonder boy...

Bronson is my great nephew. His dad, Ben, is my nephew (he's great too)...we don't get to see him very often, so we were excited to see him (and his mom and dad) at Christmas. Here's a picture or two of the cutie face...

This year...

Jack liked his big gift from us more than those silly old gifts from Santa....here's what he got...

Here's a couple more pictures from Christmas. Hope everyone's was merry!

(Avery was a little bit jealous of the guitar)

Merry Christmas!

I was going to gripe about the fact that the powers that be have decided that we have to keep our office open until 5:00 today, despite the fact that the phone has only rung once since 1:00-its 2:41 right now...but I won't. I have lots of things to be thankful for. Here's a list:

• My kids are healthy and hilarious, as is the rest of my family
• I have a roof over my head
• Maybe the traffic won't be so bad on the way home since I have to stay so late!
• The "Santa is still watching" threat still works like a charm
• My kids are currently with their Ami Jackie baking cookies like mad for the man in the big red suit
• The second season of Big Love just came out on DVD
• I am not cooking a thing for tomorrow's dinner with my family

From our house to yours, please have a safe and happy Christmas. I'll try to post pictures from the Hour of Greed tomorrow.

First real snowstorm

Would have been a good holiday card picture. Oh well. May you all have a safe and happy holiday season.

Much peace and love.

Pen, Dan, Avery and Jack

Parent Teacher Conferences

Today we had our first real one for Avery. Most parents (at some point anyway) think their kids are brilliant and kind. Sometimes its really nice to hear it from someone else. Avery is testing in the 97% percentile with the standardized tests they take at her age and is reportedly always looking out for her fellow classmates. Rumor also has it that she speaks lovingly about Jack while at school, which is proof that she is on her best behavior there.

Assorted things my kids have said lately.

The other night I had gone out for a drink with one of my friends and when I got home Avery told me that I smelled like beer. I told her that I didn't like beer, so that wasn't what I had. Jack said "Oh did you have a latte"? Think they come to Starbucks with me too much?

Avery and I have been watching Dancing with the Stars again this season and once she told me that she thought I should go on the show. I explained to her that you had to be famous to be on the show. Anyway, the other day we drove by a nativity scene and I told Jack and Ave that churches put nativity scenes out around Christmas because it was supposed to represent the night that Jesus was born. After about a minute Avery said "Hey Mom. Jesus was famous-maybe he could have been on Dancing with the Stars"

Jack and Avery bring home ridiculous amounts of paper every day from school. Avery happened to make a cornucopia and brought it home. The 4 of us were sitting on the couch talking about something completely different and all of a sudden Jack saw it and said "Oh look at that lovely cornucopia!" Pronounced it perfectly.

Avery's 6th birthday

Ok, I am only a week behind on this one...well, 2 weeks from her friend party...here are some photo highlights:

Take a look at the two cakes. See if you can guess which one I made and which one Mema bought.