hot cocoa.

Our hot chocolate machine has been brewing alot of hot cocoa this year. creamy, frothy, sweet sweet hot cocoa. Benson loves it, pretty much because we give it to him barely warm, so its more like chocolate milk but with marshmallows. 

Our cocoa-latte machine, this thing's amazing. I will never make a cup of hot cocoa without it.

I'm not sure whats going on in this picture? Not sure why Benson's face looks ginormous?
And not sure why he is trying to hold his mug with one finger. But me and bryce couldnt stop laughing when we came across this pic.

whitetrash?

wait for it...

there it is.

Not sure yet. wether i am completely disgusted. or completely proud of this.

christmastime

I'm obsessed with Christmas. I love everything about it. Except that its my busiest most craziest time of the year.

And for some reason or another, i am surviving. I give alot of that credit to bryce, who has been my mr brawny lately. Cleaning and picking up all of Benson's messes that take place everyday while im working on the computer. And i feel like there has been other help too. imaginary help that has given me the energy to work late at night allowing me to spend more time with my little family. And allowing me to enjoy every  little christmasy moment that takes place during this magical holiday.

One of my favorite moments is putting up the christmas tree. And it became one of Benson's favorites as well.

We turned on Christmas music, danced, sang, put up the tree and lights. And then we sat back and watched as Bens put all of the balls on the tree. He was loving it and he was in the zone. Every ball was placed with careful consideration. And after it was placed there was either a "yes!" or a "nice!" or a "i did it!"

There ended up being clusters of balls all along the bottom third of the tree. It looked hideous. But i loved it. And i loved that my little guy did it all.

We eventually spread the rest of the balls out. but now i am wishing we would have kept it the way it was.

happy halloween...

from our little nerdy family to yours.

the punkin' patch

I love that Benson loves the pumpkin patch as much as i do. Im not even sure why i love going so much. But it has become one of our favorite little family activites. We didnt even pay the 12 dollars to have access to all of the games, rides, and activities in the back. We just picked out pumpkins. and had fun doing it.

As soon as we walked in. benson knew exactly what he wanted. He ran over to the wagon filled with small pumpkins. looked over them carefully. And picked out his perfect little $2 pumpkin. 

It was a tiny little thing.

I tried to convince him that he wanted a $3 pumpkin, which was a little bigger and a little more "husky" to match his body type :)  

"Here Benson, this one is just your size."

He considered it. picked it up. and then dropped it pronouncing that it was "too heavy."

So he went back to his $2 pumpkin. And never let it out of his sight.

He loves that little pumpkin. 

We brought it home. And it is now a member of our family. It stays indoors. Where Benson greets it every morning like it is a long lost friend... "pumpkin!!"

And throughout the day I will catch Bens and the pumpkin watching cartoons together. playing with cars together. and eating lunch together. 

I've come to love that little pumpkin too.

that time i went to forks.

For our girls trip this year, we boarded a plane, for seattle washington.

Our dear friend Chelsea let us stay in her home. and drive her minivan. and man oh man, did we drive that minivan.

Here are a few of my favorite things. i did with a few of my favorite people. 

1. We rode in Ferry's. Ive never done this before. Where you actually drive your car on a boat that takes you to another body of land. it was awesome. Sometimes we stayed inside when it was cold and sometimes we went up top to take in the scenery and let the wind blow in our hair.

i loved looking out the windows of the ferry. each window looked like its own poloroid with its own unique seaside picture.

2. Whidbey Island. This was our little adventure on Friday. I loved this island. I loved its cute shops. good food. and totem poles down by the ocean.

We ate lunch at an adorable little country store called The Braeburn. 

Where we drank drinks like blackberry sprites and the best strawberry lemonade ive ever had.

And ate things like: three digit grilled cheese (layers of sourdough bread, bacon, and white cheddar), Goat cheese quesadillas, and my favorite, a fresh mozzarella, tomato, and basil sandwich.

We walked through some of the islands cutest shops and then headed down by the ocean. Where we enjoyed the amazing weather, beautiful scenery, and managed to put together our own human totem pole.

 3.  Roadtrips. I love roadtrips with my girls. there's nothing funner. Since Forks was a good 4 hours from Chelsea's home, we had a good roadtrip to get there.  We ate our favorite car snacks. listened to our favorite high school tunes. danced here and there. picked up tribal tattoos. and managed to see some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life.

4. Arriving at Forks. This made the favorite list. It was intense. magical. giddy. exciting.

Im sorry to report that the actual town of Forks did not make the favorite list. but i will share my thoughts and a few photos anyway. Forks was lame. It was ghetto. We tried. We really tried to love it. But it was lame. Everything was "made up" because the actual movie didnt take place there. No, im pretty sure that's not bella's house. Its a random house, that a family lives in, with kids toys out front. But the sign says its the Swan home, so we take a picture by it. And this is how it goes for about 30 minutes. we all try to keep a smile on our face and pretend that this is totally worth the 4 hour drive. Until someone finally breaks. There may have been yelling. there may have been swearing. There was definitely lots of laughing as we all broke down and admitted how stupid forks was. And it quickly became the big joke of our trip. Throughout the remainder of our trip things would be said like: "this is worse than forks." and someone else would say "no. nothing is worse than forks." That night we were all laying down in a hotel room in downtown seattle. When things got quiet, when girls were almost asleep. the statement was said "remember that time we went to forks." And then came the erruption of laughter and a few tears with all that laughter. That made the trip worth it for me. There were many hours of driving. but that 10 minutes of nonstop laughing, thats what I will remember about that time we went to forks.

5. Leaving Forks. Yes, leaving forks turned out to be my MOST favorite part of this whole trip. For when we left forks, we drove about 20 minutes to LaPush beach. Let me paint a little picture for you. We turn off the main highway and follow signs leading us to lapush. For 20 minutes we are driving through, what feels like, a tunnel of huge trees. And youre thinking to yourself, were lost, how could there be a beach close. and then all of the sudden it opens up and there, right there, is the most amazing, beautiful, and breath taking beach i have ever seen. This is LaPush. It's littered in beautiful beach wood. from small pieces to ginormous trees. There are huge rock formations jetting up from the middle of the ocean. On some of these formations there are forests of trees. I have never seen anything like it in all my life. 

6. Downtown Seattle.  My favorite parts were the gum wall. which was pretty gross but totally amazing at the same time. And when I convinced my girlfriends to drive to the space needle so I could take a picture. I unfortunately happened to be the only one who hadnt been to downtown seattle before. so while the space needle was old news for my girls who stayed in the car. It was exciting and fun for me to see the space needle up close in real life.

7. Our last dinner together. It took place at Claim Jumper. We eventually figured out that all we wanted was to share appetizers. lots of appetizers. Thank goodness I didnt have my camera on me to document what our table looked like when all of the food arrived. We had 3 orders of pretzels and cheese, mozzerella sticks, southwest eggrolls, lemon pepper fried zuchinni, garlic cheese bread, and 3 boats of ranch. we ate it all. don't judge.

8. My last favorite thing. being with my girls. talking. laughing. eating. and dancing. as if we were all still in high school.

until next year. love you girls.


(some of our footage from the trip, for those that like videos)