the fudge hut

its only december 15th and we've been spoiled rotten!

yesterday we received a christmas package from auntie rik (she has our family for christmas this year) with strict instructions to OPEN the package upon arrival! we had no problems with that. (well, actually, the kids did have a problem waiting until chris got home. in fact ellie carried the box around all afternoon singing little ditties like, 'its wikki's birfday!". i dont know why she thought rikki would send us a gift on her birthday, but it was cute nonetheless.) so when chris got home from school, the kids each took turns opening one side of the box. inside was a treasure beyond measure

FUDGE! glorious, delicious FUDGE!

if you know my family at all, you know we LoVe fudge. in fact, id even venture to say that some of us are fudge connoisseurs. we enjoy fudge so much, that one year for our humungous browne family reunion with ALL the relatives, my mom arranged a fudge tour to visit all of the fudge shops in the tourist town of estes park, colorado to sample all the various fudges. that was the summer i went to college in 2003. its a summer i will never forget... for more reasons then just the fudge, i promise!

now, on to the fudge!

there are 5 varieties and chris carefully cut a little away from each flavor for us to sample. it was divine! and oh so soft! its from the fudge hut in washington. there is so much fudge we will have to have a fudge fest with mom & dad and bo & lari in the very near future because if anything is going to pack on the pounds over the next week or two, its a box o' fudge!

these pictures are not very focused (i was too busy drooling over the fudge to switch the lens), but you can still see the joy on the kiddos faces!

i think jack enjoyed the fudge the most. he even made up a dance for it. they both liked it so much in fact that when we put it away, this is what they looked like:

"why, WHY must you put away the fudge???"

thank you rikki for spoiling us in such a sweet delectable way! cant wait to see you in 9 days!

mystery gift

yesterday when we returned home from church, we saw a big blue bag hanging from the side door. jack ran over and grabbed it. when we got inside and pulled out the contents, this is what we found!

there was no note. just a hilarious santa head! we laughed and laughed and LAUGHED. so to whoever gifted us with this wonderful surprise- THANK YOU! we have enjoyed it immensely! i wanted to send it on to another home and hopefully have it pass around, but chris said, "heck no!". maybe after a few days he will warm up to the idea of spreading the christmas cheer!

and just a little picture of ellie from a visit to grandma and grandpas yesterday. she thinks she's very independent!

sheesh, its about time!

after waiting for a while to sell our car (which totally paid off), we finally made the decision to get a honda odyssey. and we really, really like it. ellie loves it because its red and jack loves it because its red, which, naturally means its fast. jack is also ecstatic about having his own "coolers" in the back. thats what he calls his air vent.

it's called dark cherry pearl. but i like to call it "the cherry pearl" like "the black pearl" from Pirates of the Caribbean. not because i feel like a pirate when im driving it (that would just be weird) or like ive struck gold. but mostly because i'll use any excuse to picture johnny depp. (dont tell chris i said that)

we've only had it for a day, but im sure we will be especially glad that we have it in two and a half weeks when "mr. sir" arrives. whats up with all the nicknames you ask.... i dont know. but i do know that mr. sir already runs the show around here.

farmers market

this morning we went to the famers market with lari, ev and soph at coconut point. it is SO NICE out right now with cooler weather. in fact, i should have brought some jackets for us with the wind, but oh well, we survived the "cold". after the market we headed to the little park that they have at the shopping mall and then checked out some of the christmas decorations. here are a few photos of our fun expedition!

ellie picked a humungous cinnamon roll from a german bakery to share with ev and jack picked out a chicago red hot/hot dog... he takes after me i think!

ev grabbed a sprig of cilantro and chomped away! it made me laugh as he shoved it in real quick! i loved these pics so much i decided to doctor them a little and make a cute collage of the ev man.

did i mention it was chilly?!