slush

earlier this week, the fam ventured east to leavenworth for a snow play day, bavarian christmas cheer, and some bratwursts.

this is what i love about living in the pacific northwest. it might be raining (and how!) where we live in duvall, but drive an hour and a half and you've got yourself a white christmas.

daddy loves to take all his kiddos sledding:

danton looks like he's especially fond of the snow:

caleb and dant enjoying some snow baby time:

(remember afton snow baby?)

the original snow baby:

and one more shot of caleb's first time on the slopes with his old man:

sugar coma

in the past ten days, the ladies and i have baked up four batches of cookies and made one double-batch of toffee.

most of the treats we've given away, but more than a few of them we ate.

which is probably why everything's starting to seem a bit hazy now...

let there be lights

hanging out with dantowna at zoolights last night:

12/12/12

it's (likely) the last repetitive date of all (my) time.

also, little big man is eight months old today.

caleb has recently informed me that the cute little baby rompers i've been putting him in are getting his legs all tangled up and seriously cramping his oppa-crawling-style. he'll have no more of it.

sigh.

and so it begins.

first they want to wear pants, and then the next thing you know, it's time to register them for kindergarten.

ps - happy 34th anniversary to my parents!

cookie bombs

so it's the most wonderful time of the year.

that very special time of year when 95% of my caloric intake comes from sugar and sugar-like substances and mostly cookies.

and for my third batch of cookies this past week, i whipped up these babies:

otherwise known as "cookies as big as your face."

otherwise known as "oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookies." 

recipe here.

really, you might be able to save yourself some trouble and just put a chocolate chip cookie on top of an oreo and eat them together, but kids go nuts over the surprise inside (and also because they're as big as your face).

ever green

be good for goodness sake

so we're back to that and that and that again.

but this was good while it lasted.

merry christmas from the wheelers!

baby toys

an exposé:

several years ago, bryan and i (with the help of a well-meaning and cute-as-a-button five-year-old girl) noted how summer's favorite baby toys were quote/unquote "trash and junk." three kids and many bins of toys later, trash, junk, and i would add "various home and kitchen gadgets," remain the perennial favorites.

disney day five: saying goodbye

disney day four: more is more

disney day three: under the sea

disney day two: happy birthday to you

disney day one: fun in the sun

takes the cake

so i'm overall a pretty decent baker. i mean, no blue ribbons or anything, but white flour delicacies are certainly an area where i feel comfortable.

however, i cannot -- CANNOT -- frost a cake to save my life.

summer's cake was the most delicious made-from-scratch vanilla funfetti cake ever, but it seriously looked to have been put together by an eight-year-old.

ah well, the good news is that less attractive (read: ugly) cakes still help beautiful birthday wishes come true.

as for the rest of the party, we turned our dining room into a giant bed of pillows and blankets where we ate pizza for dinner (and cake later on). then after playing some games and dancing in the dark, we adopted our owls, popped some corn, and enjoyed a movie until parents came by to swoop our party guests off to bed.

hands down, the best part of the soiree was listening in on all the little girl pillow talk. for example, these ladies had a very intense discussion during dinner on who had had root beer before and whose daddy drank soda regularly. it was full of gasps and hushed tones and lots and lots of giggles.

i said a little prayer right then that time would freeze and they would stay like this forever and ever, amen.

or at least that in the next sixteen years root beer would still be the most illicit substance they'd ever tried.