Best of friends

We visited Mandy, Gracie & Alex today! Here are the girls, wearing the matching necklaces Miss Mandy bought them and rocking out to...

Oh, come on. You KNOW what they're singing. :)

It made me laugh that Kaycj introduced each song by saying who wrote it and who was performing it...then I realized she wasn't reading the liner notes, she just knows them by heart.



-- Posted from my iPhone

Merry Christmas from the Pharaons

Santa Photo

Noble did great and even talked to Santa (using Kayci as a translator from Noblese.)

Noble Run!

Noble's new favorite thing to do is run. And run. And run... This video captures that, as well as some of the communication skills that he's been practicing.

Five Years Ago...

Following Kristi's post a few days ago, I found this photo last night from almost exactly five years ago.

Twoothless!!!

Mailing List Cleanup

It's that time of year again.... cleanup time. In this case, though, it's the e-mail list for this here very blog.

Originally, the e-mail list was ported over from Noble's blog when he was born. Many people have been added, but there's the possibility that you may not want to receive e-mails anymore when we update iPharaon. If you wish to stop receiving e-mail notifications, please respond to this e-mail with "REMOVE" in the subject line.

That's it, and have a great day!

Big Man Stuff...Extended

Kristi said the photos need no explanation, but I'll explain anyway...

What was especially cute was that in the first photo I was polishing my shoes. Noble sat, watching intently as I brushed and buffed my shoes. Then he said "mine, mine!" and took the brush and shoe from me and mimicked the brushing motion I was making almost perfectly. He was so proud of himself.

Then he wanted to walk in my shoes, so he put them on the floor and put them on. Then he insisted (by pointing at me and then at my shoes) that I wear big man shoes, too. So I put on my big man shoes and we walked around being Big Men.

Big Man Stuff

No words necessary here. :)

Candy Land

Last night was the Annual Brenham Lighted Christmas Parade, which has become a fun family tradition. I'm the chairman of the Germania Christmas float decorating committee, so the parade is also a big deal for me personally. Anyway, this year's parade theme was "A Candy Lane Christmas" and Germania's float theme was "Candy Land." The float features a Lollipop Forest, Peppermint Woods, Gumdrops, blue and green-colored playing pieces and a gingerbread house that puffed sugar-cookie scented smoke into the air. This year's float was by far the best one we've done, and I was very proud of it.

I was also very, very happy that I got to ride on the float with Kristi and the kids for the first time this year. This was Noble's second year to ride and Kayci's fourth, and I really wanted to experience it with them. I'm glad I did. Riding on the float is a lot different that watching it from the side or even walking along side it.

Kayci is an old pro now, so she knew just to sit in her spot and wait for the parade to start. Noble... not so much. It was a bit of a challenge to keep him contained on the float for the hour we were sitting on the float before the parade started. He did really well for awhile, but then he would get interested in things such as taking off his mittens and hat or just wanting to get down. He was fascinated by the smoke coming out of the gingerbread house. I have to admit that I was, too. But once we started moving, he calmed down and looked at the people going by - and he even waved a little bit, too.

So if you couldn't make it to the parade this year, we want you to know that we missed you and hope you can make it next year. But we also wanted to share some of the photos:

Breakfast...with a side of competition

We didn't get enough snow yesterday to make a snowman. :(. So this morning we had a snowman building competition-inside!

Kayci's first entry...



...Mommy's...



...Noble made this one with a little help...



...and this one with no help at all.



Daddy made Rudolph the craisin-nosed Reindeer,



And Kayci topped it all with this Mommy sculpture, complete with blanket.


- Posted from my iPhone

Best. Daddy. Ever. CaUtIOn: Ick Factor!

Let's recap. On Wednesday, Kayci lost her first tooth. Then, later that evening, she LOST said first tooth. Remember this? What I didn't explain very well is that Kayci got curious, and pried the tape off of the tooth holder...when she did that, it popped open and the tooth flew straight up in the air...then was gone. She was in the game room at CiCi's at the time, and came flying out crying like it was the end of the world. I was more patient than I felt, because I know that Kayci is exactly like me and there was nothing I could do that would make her feel worse than she already did. I got on the floor--you can imagine CiCi's game room floor, right?--and looked. Then moved the machine she was standing by at the time and looked. Then borrowed a broom and tried to sweep out from under the machines. We found a white piece of plastic that Kayci wanted to take home, and I said, sure that could TOTALLY be a piece of your tooth. (Ahem.) So that's what was in the tooth fairy's pouch, the little piece of plastic tooth.

So, yesterday at 2:30 I was sitting at the table working. The back door opened, and in came James. 2:30 isn't his lunch time or any kind of break time, so I was curious. As it turns out, he'd been sitting at work, stewing over the fact that her FIRST lost tooth was gone. (He wasn't at CiCi's with us the night before since it's float week around here.) So he went over to CiCi's and talked to the manager and looked around.

James walks in, and tells me he has a happy for me. I'm a little weirded out that he's home at such a random time, and wondering why on earth he thinks I need a present when I'm in the home stretch of my work day. He digs in his pocket and pulls out...a tooth. Only, it's so, so obviously NOT Kayci's tooth.

I just had to laugh--it was absolutely crazy, that he'd done what he did AND that he FOUND a tooth. AND that there's more than one tooth--the ick factor!--floating around CiCi's. Hee hee. When Kayci got home, I showed her the tooth, just in case. She looked at it in horror and said, "it's HUGE. Mommy, mine was a BABY tooth. Eww!"

And so the best daddy story ever is born. And the lost tooth? Still hanging out with all the other lost teeth, young and old, at CiCi's.

Lost!

Kayci lost her first tooth today at school!




...and lost it again at her celebratory CiCi's dinner. Sigh.



-- Posted from my iPhone

Bittersweet

Look what Bitty taught Bubby last night. Too big!



-- Posted from my iPhone

Hidden Option C...

Last year we put the green box in front of the Christmas tree to protect it from our crawling Bubby. This year, the threat is even more real...he climbs, he jumps, he falls down on top of things, he loves to play with balls and anything shiny..but we put the green box there and prayed it would do the job. The good news is, the box is doing the job we put it there to do. Noble...never mind, I won't say it and jinx it. But being that it's Noble, he did find ANOTHER way to use the box.

The other night we watched a little bit of "Elf" before the kids went to bed, to ease back into school routine after a great vacation. Well, Noble wasn't too happy when we turned everything off to get ready for bed. James and I both got busy putting Kayci to bed, and we thought Noble was playing. Turns out, he had something bigger and better in mind. He climbed up on the green box, pulled not one but TWO remote controls out of the bucket and turned on the TV AND started up the Apple TV. Seriously??

We're in big trouble. And yes, we did stop to snap a picture before we pulled him down.

We have liftoff!!

We got our new mattress about a week ago, but today was our first chance to go pick up the bedframe. Hmm. It's...tall.



-- Posted from my iPhone

O Christmas Tree, continued...

Kayci's new pink tree is so fun! We put it up this morning and she's been working on it in between watching the Santa Clause and hanging out with us.




Noble likes the giant singing snowglobe, and I think it's cool that he's surprised when we sing along. Christmas probably feels like some big inside joke to him...




We just put up our tree, and it's gorgeous! For the little green house, the best fit is a tall, skinny fir. Add some lights and lots of memories, and voilà! It's Christmas! We didn't plan to do the tree without him, but this worked out well. It was fun to see Noble's face when he woke up.










































Posted from my iPhone

O, Christmas Tree

On the way home from Ronny's yesterday, we stopped at the Christmas tree farm in Elgin just to check it out. It was lots of fun, and we found the perfect Pharaon tree in the fir barn. We can't wait to see the finished product!












-- Posted from my iPhone

Marble Falls!

NOW it feels like Christmas! We had a blast at dinner and then down at the lake. Funny--we ran into another family we know from Brenham at both places! Here are a few fun shots...

Noble sat on Santa's lap...but he wasn't excited about it. At all.




After he got a candy cane, though, he livened right up. :). Kayci had fun chasing him through the lights!








A couple of family shots:









Here's the view of our hotel from the lake, then the lake from our balcony.









Did I mention we forgot a camera on this trip? What are the odds?!

Finally, a sweet shot of our exhausted kiddos in their new pajamas. And to all a good night!



-- Posted from my iPhone

So far, so fun...

We just checked into our hotel in Marble Falls for a quick rest before dinner at Bluebonnet Cafe and lights by the lake. It's been an awesome day already--breakfast at Ronny's, then a leisurely (and scenic!) drive to Fredericksburg. We spent several hours there and hit all of our favorite spots. :)

In the car before we were even out of Austin...


...she's writing a letter to Santa, thanking him for the gifts Taylor brought (pjs this year). Too sweet!


First stop inFredericksburg, Wheeler's for lunch...


...followed by some shopping, and a trip to Clear River for ice cream...


...and rides on Old Paint. Kayci's an old pro, but...


...Noble wasn't a fan.


No matter what we tried.


After a few more stops, we headed to the car to hit the road. Noble liked THIS ride!


We visited Luckenbach--it's awesome, as always--and now we're enjoying the view from our room in Marble Falls. And dreaming of pie...but more on that later!


Happy Christmas season!
--Posted from my iPhone