Last Saturday night, Annette and I attended a Valentine's dinner put on by our church at Ventano's, a wonderful Italian restaurant in Green Valley with a sweeping view of the Las Vegas strip. We were entertained by our friends, Whitney and Marianne Phoenix, who were just terrific, and by a special appearance of one of the top Elvis impersonators in Vegas, Brendan Paul. Brendan owns the Graceland Wedding Chapel on the Strip, has appeared as an Elvis impersonator in a number of films (including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with Johnny Depp), and is a friend of ours from church. His wife Deedee is a doll, and they have two boys around Connor's age. You always know when Brendan is at church, with his height, and abundance of jet black hair.
For a while we had two Elvis impersonators attending the same church service, sitting on opposite sides of the auditorium. I imagined that they would glance at each other in a competitive sort of way, and give each other the Elvis snarl.

Leah Orsack sings in my choir, is a soloist on my praise team, and a dear friend from church. Our kids all love Leah! She interviewed Celine Dion today as part of her job as producer for the 4PM newscast on KLAS-TV Channel 8 in Las Vegas. It was a thrill for Leah, who adores Celine. Congratulations, Leah!

Another Simpson family milestone...
Connor lost his first tooth Friday afternoon. He was so excited. I know that, because he kept telling everyone, "This is so exciting." I haven't figured out how much cash the tooth fairy should give, but it's a bump up from the 25 cents I got as a kid (which was pretty good back then).

When my wife's Grandparents moved from their Fort Worth home of over 40 years last year, they allowed us to go and pick a few items from their affects to take as keepsakes. We had travelled by plane, so we selected a few small items (otherwise, I would have had so many great tools!).
I picked up a first edition hard back copy of Pastor David Wilkerson's classic, "The Cross and the Switchblade." Later I found out Annette's grandmother Estelle was David's secretary when he moved his ministry to Texas.
Last April I attended the Pastor's Conference at the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York (it was incredible), and David Wilkerson was a late replacement speaker for Tony Evans, who coudn't get in to NYC on account of bad weather. Wilkerson was inspiring, and I decided that I should send him the book at his Manhattan church office, to have him sign it for my newborn, Caleb, as a keepsake. I did, and he sent it back with the inscription: "Caleb Benjamin- Stay close to Jesus! He's all that matters. David Wilkerson"
By the way, I read it again on my way back to Vegas when I got it, and it was a fast, terrific, blessed read once again. I now need to reread "Run, Nicky, Run!"

In May of 2006, Connor and I went to Ceasar's Palace Forum Shops to look around and have fun at FAO Schwarz (Connor played the giant piano, a la "Big"). We passed baseball great Pete Rose signing autographs, and although I wasn't about to shell out $99 for a signed ball and a photo op (I hated the Big Red Machine. I'm a Dodger fan!), I saw a couple guys go up and get a quick pic. I didn't have a camera, but I did have the videocam. So we cruised up, and I shot Connor shaking Pete's hand with my video camera.
I forgot all about it until recently, so when I saw it, I took a photo of the video on my computer, and here it is...

Here's three recent...
Caleb enjoys his first taste of sugar at his first birthday party, attended by family and a few special friends. He dug in on his cake and really enjoyed it.

This photo of Connor is one I took recently to post on hid casting agency's website. Connor has gotten some call-backs on commercials, but hasn't got his first job yet.

The final photo is of Chloe comandeering Caleb's bouncy seat. Caleb still wanted to be a part, so he climbed in under her feet. Only Chloe!

Time flies... Caleb, our baby boy, turned one year-old yesterday! We love our little Carebear (that's what Annette and Connor call him, because that's what it sounds like when Chloe says "Caleb"). I call him Bootie, for no particular reason- the same way my nickname for Connor has always been Booch and Chloe is Babiness (my baby princess). ANYWAY-
Caleb is having a party tonight at our home- cake and ice cream for our special boy, with some of our friends who love him. Enjoy the photos of my little Vegas baby boy!

We had an eventful day. This afternoon was our monthly Senior Adult luncheon at church, and I asked Connor to join Annette and I in entertaining. It was his first time to sing with mom and dad on stage, and it was a pretty big deal for Annette and I. He did great, and was received very enthusiastically.

Then as I was getting ready to go home, I got an e-mail from our TV producer friend Leah, which outlined the activities of the Presidential hopefuls campaigning in Nevada. Henderson is a popular place for the candidates to come, and I read that Mitt Romney was going to visit one of our favorite restaurants, Claim Jumper, which is about a mile from our home. I picked up Connor, drove to the restaurant, and we got to see the media rush up close. My experience from my days in the media allowed me to beat the crowd rush and get a great vantage point really close to the Governor. Connor actually took the closeup photo of Romney below (that's me holding the cel phone, taking a photo)- I was amazed, and proud of my five year-old. Afterwards, we both got to shake his hand. (PS- for the record, Annette is a Fred Thompson supporter, and I am leaning towards the great Arizona senator John McCain, but hey, Romney could possibly be the next prez, and besides, it's fun to go and see all the hubbub.)

This weekend Green Valley was blessed by the ministry of music guests Michelangelo Caggiano and John Weist. Michelangelo has been a good friend since our days as members of North Phoenix Baptist Church. I loved to hear his Christian Rock band, Michelangelo and the Difference. He and John were really great, and besides the songs (he did one of my favorite MaTD tunes, "Tell Me Something About You" from his Under Rower CD), many of us were blown away by John's use of a percussion instrument called a Cajon. It's a box he sits on, and which he alternately slaps and pounds in rhythm. It was pretty cool. Here's a photo of Connor with our friends.

Chloe loves the TV show, "Yo Gabba Gabba!" She really loves to sing and dance to all the songs they perform. I captured this on Christmas Day, and it has become number one with a bullet on our video countdown list. We howled with laughter when I showed it the other night. Hope you enjoy my little princess!