Egg Nog

It's that time of year again...Nog Time. Brandon really likes egg nog. He has been on the hunt for "Custard Nogg" with no success. Instead he found 6 kinds for a taste off. Since I'd rather taste anything else besides egg nog, he got to do this test solo.

I think 'Producers' won or was it Cal Poly...not sure.

Anyone else this excited for egg nog?

Toasty

With a warning like this:

You'd think the kiddos could resist. But they couldn't. Poor Toasty! I hope my kids haven't poisoned themselves.

Toasty left us a most excellent surprise....Mint Hot Chocolate! How did Toasty know this was my absolute favorite?! Hot chocolate is delicious, but add mint and it is FABULOUS! Toasty also left some eatable marshmallows and some Christmas books! Thank you Toasty! The girls are 95% sure that Toasty is either Grandma or Grandpa because of the snowflake stamps. They have seen them somewhere before!

Apparently Wade likes mint hot chocolate just as much as me.

Winter Wonderland 2010

Winter Wonderland was much warmer this year than last and it was fabulous. The kids got to go sledding down the fake hill with the fake snow again, but I didn't get any pictures as I was sledding with them. Brandon had an ART conference in Vegas that weekend, so Brandon's family came with me so we'd actually be able to do stuff...thank you family!

So...the sledding was our first stop, then we went to see Santa and Mrs. Claus. And then...we found the carousel. I don't remember seeing this last year. It was by far the oldest carousel I've been on, but it was free and the kids loved it.

We stopped an were listening to the High School choir performing by one of the designated 'snow zones' when kids get to play in the snow. I wasn't about to wait in the 20 minute line to play in fake snow (or ice), so luckily there was some that came out of the fenced in areas. Bryn gave it a try:

Then realized that snow is really cold and she didn't like that. Oh...and that hot chocolate will definitely burn you when it is hot, making it especially easy to spill down your shirt.

And Torah is just sticking cute:

Pics from A Walk Around The Lake

Making Christmas cards at the zoo:

Finished product of the snowman marshmallow eatible craft in front of someone's house:

And Elles:

Playing at the Gingerbread setup at the zoo.

Santa

A couple weeks ago, we went to 'A Walk Around the Lake'. Everyone leisurely walks around the lake to look at all the Christmas lights and listen to the different musical groups and performers while eating complimentary hot chocolate and popcorn. It was completely fabulous and entirely too much fun. We started off at the zoo and met Santa...and a...much younger Mrs. Claus.

This may be Wade's first real experience with Santa (or at least that he remembers). He didn't get it at all and was super confused...like why does this guy want me to sit on his lap??

Elle is a veteran Santa sitter and of our children, she was the only one to actually venture onto the lap.

I think Bryn could tell that he wasn't the 'real' Santa.

And then on Friday night, we went the Winter Wonderland and found the real deal:

Brandon....

did this to his thumb on the way to check out....

this:

Worth it?

WALL-E....is alive

We were out last Saturday...you know, the day AFTER Black Friday and were shopping. I was in World Market getting some chocolate advent calendars made in Germany in the hopes that the chocolate would at least taste like chocolate instead of waxy ... not chocolate. Brandon had the 3 older kids as his 'partners' and they somehow ended up outside the store. When I came out, Wade came up to me SUPER excited. He is a little hard to understand (understatement) still...even for his Mom. Anyway, he decided to just show me what he was trying to tell me instead. So after some, come on Mom's...we ended up here:

And then I realized he was saying WALL-E over and over! So..it's true...WALL-E is real or at least as real as Santa Claus.

To seal the deal, this morning we were making a sign for Grandpa Cohen and Wade spotted him immediately:

October/November

So...a LOT has been happening around these parts. Elle dressed up for Halloween for school:

And then immediately after school, we left for Phoenix for Brandon's Great Grandmother's Funeral. We stayed the night at some random place...

And got up at like 3:30am to make it to Phoenix for the graveside service. It was an absolutely crazy trip as we were schedule to be moving that weekend. In order to get to Phoenix, we moved a two days earlier...which was...crazy. Anyway...we were really glad we made it to Phoenix and to the service. Great Grandma was an amazing woman, which is part of the reason Bryn has Erma as her middle name.

We were at the hotel in Phoenix on Halloween...so this is how they got candy.