My Celebrity Husband

I am married to someone who's been in People magazine. Ok, so it was just his name and our house in the article, but I'm still impressed. ;) (Click on the picture to read the article that's in the December 21st issue just released today.)

Is this not the sweetest...

...personalization of a snowblock maker that you've ever seen?!
Dave told the kids that on the first day of snow this year he would give them a present. A couple of days ago, when it snowed, the kids reminded him of his promise. With great fanfare, Dave handed out snowblock makers to each of the kids. The kids were so excited, but quickly noticed that they were all purple. To tell whose was whose, they personalized their snowblock maker with permanent marker. The boys simply wrote their initials. Caroline, on the other hand, decided to sign her full name. I LOVE how she wrote Elizabeth!

The kids have loved having our Elf on a Shelf...He's a scout elf for Santa, here at our house to keep an eye on our kiddos. He reports back to Santa each night about their behavior. Every morning he hides in the strangest places, and the kids all try to be the first to find him.

The kids (in birth order) each gave him a name, and so his full name is fabulously unique. Our Elf's name is Buddy (after Will Ferrell's ELF) Kranslin Fred Zart. Love it!

Two last things:
Happy birthday, Karen! I love you, my sister!
Our article in People should be on newstands tomorrow!

Snow Crazy

The kids in this picture (our's and some friends) have had more than their fair share of playing outside in the snow for the past couple of days. When the kids get home from school, they don't even take their snow clothes off, not even for a snack. They just stay outside.

After coming inside, we warmed them up with hot chocolate, and then pizza.

Guess what their plans are for tomorrow? I almost didn't have the heart to tell them that they have swimming lessons. (Doesn't that sound like a GREAT activity for December?!)

And so it begins...

Snowpants, boots, coats, hats, mittens, scarves, throwing them in the dryer all the time...
Rosy cheeks, snow forts, snow ball fights, sledding, skating, gargantuan snowmen...

Hot chocolate, marshmallows, whipped cream, chili and hot soups...Happy kids! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Woo Hoo!

I just finished creating and ordering our Christmas cards online tonight! There's nothing like putting things off until the last minute.

It feels like it was just yesterday that I was ordering this Christmas card!

I took Henry to get his allergy booster shot tonight. REALLY, it's such fun to bring all four kids to a doctor's office and wait in the waiting room FOREVER. To add to the fun, a woman from People magazine called to interview me for the article about our neighbor's and our Christmas lights. I still can't get over the craziness of this. They are publishing it on FRIDAY! :) So, there I was, trying to keep 4 kids content (especially the three year old) while trying to sound coherent for the interview. I am praying that they only use quotes from Dave and our neighbor, Chet!

I'm off to bed early tonight...Good night all!

What do you want for Christmas?

Henry wants a camera and an IPOD Shuffle.

Seth wants Legos, Legos, and more Legos.

Caroline is requesting a Fur Real Puppy, a Barbie dollhouse, a PURPLE camera,

and TWO LOOSE TEETH.

Evan requested only one thing from Santa.
He really, really wants BUZZ LIGHTYEAR.

And one last picture from today...Here's our 2009 gingerbread house!

LEGOLAND!

We went on a scout trip to Legoland yesterday. What a fun day!

Santa Success and More News

We went to visit Santa at our town's Christmas Stroll last night. I prepared Evan by telling him that he could sit on Santa's lap to tell him what he wanted for Christmas (Buzz Lightyear, by the way). He seemed OK with it, that is until we got close to our turn. Evan informed me that he was not going to sit on Santa's lap, he was just going to stand by him. Then, a little boy who went just before us started crying just as he was placed on Santa's lap. Evan told me, "That baby is crying. I am not going to cry. I am a BIG BOY." Last year, our youngest spent .000000001 second on Santa's lap. This year Evan sat on the big guy's lap for as long as we wanted. That is PROGRESS!

The 4 Nosek kiddos (hat-heads and all) with Santa--Wow, was it a cold night!
Seth, Evan and Caroline with our library mascot, Watson
Firefighter Evan

This is why we always turn off our Christmas tree lights. Our firefighters did a controlled Christmas tree burn that made quite an impression.

A local bank set up a life-sized Candy Land game. What a fun night!
Finally, if you are following our Christmas lights news story...MSNBC ran it, as well as the Daily Mail over in the UK! Click here, or more specifically here, for a link to their article.
Yahoo.com picked it up too...How funny to open my email and find this...(Click for a close up.)