The first snow!

Tanner had been asking about snow and getting excited for snow to come to our house. We read some books about it and were anxiously waiting. It came during the night on Nov 11, so when he woke up, I told Tanner that I brought him a special surprise that's outside. When he looked out the window, he stared for about 10 seconds, smiled and then said, "You brought me snow, Mama!" 

It was really sweet, but I made a big mistake telling him the snow came from me. Now he thinks that every time it snows, I brought it to him. He won't let me say that Heavenly Father actually brings us the snow. He insists that it's me. Oops.

Anyway... After Tanner first saw the snow, he wanted to go play in it. After breakfast, we got all suited up.

He took his brand new shovel from GramZ, walked right out into the grass and started shoveling! He thought I was silly for suggesting he shovel the driveway.

 He liked stomping around and digging. He wasn't too keen on making snow angels or eating the snow. When I took a taste of snow, he batted it out of my hand and said "That yucky Mama. You not supposed to eat it!"

Here's some pics of lunch time.

Tanner loves it when Jeremy comes home for lunch, which is about 3 or 4 times a week.

I put Dallin in the baby bouncer seat, left the room for about 30 seconds and came back to find this. I guess he decided he's too old for it now.

Beautiful bath baby!

With the snow and cold, I'm sure glad we have a playroom.

I think Tanner asked me to take this of him.

The first snow made me want to bake! We made lots of muffins and banana bread. I've never had an urge to bake before. It makes sense that most baked cookies and breads and pastries come from European countries. It's what you gotta do to keep warm!

I finally broke down and let Jeremy give Dallin his first haircut just 2 days shy of being 6 months old.

Bye bye, long-newborn-baby hair!

Hello, short-big-baby hair.

I like the mohawk better.

Tanner got a haircut, too. Jeremy did a nice trim.

Making some apple baby food.

Now, because of the snow, most of the action happens indoors!

BYU vs Wisconsin

We drove to Madison, WI on Fri, Nov 8 to see the BYU Cougars play the Wisconsin Badgers on Sat, Nov 9. It was an awesome trip! The drive was 3.5 hours, we stayed in a cheap hotel, ate at some great restaurants and did a little site seeing. 

I got the boys well bundled up for the game. It felt super cold, but I guess it was just in the 50's. At the time, it felt really cold!

 Tanner was so excited for the football game. 

"Tanner, say go cougars!" (click)

 "Tanner, give me a happy face!" (click)

 "Okay, now give me an angry face! (click and see the pic) Haha. That's a pretty happy looking angry face!"

 We went to the BYU tailgate party. It was a fun set-up with catered lunch, games, Cosmo and the cheerleaders.

 Wisconsin has some pretty cool traditions. One of them is the pep rally. The band performs, cheerleaders dance, etc. (BYU unfortunately doesn't have pep rallies, so this was new for us). One really incredibly nice thing the band does is learn and play their opponent's fight song. They also played it throughout the game every time we scored! Talk about having great sportsmanship!

 

We got to watch the pep rally from inside.

 

Dallin played on the floor. It was perfect timing.

 "Alright, Tanner, let's go to the football field now!" Woohoo!

 Our seats weren't the greatest.  It took a while to find our spot because so many people were on our bench, covering our spots. With everyone's coats and our two babies to hold, it was an extremely tight squeeze. No backs to the seats, either, and no other BYU fans within shouting distance. Jeremy was especially bummed about this. BUT luckily our kids were cute enough for everyone around to be nice to us. One lady held Dallin for 30 minutes for me! Everyone chatted with us (part of the midwest hospitality). And one lady tried entertaining Tanner with her real fur lynx (people still wear real fur?!). Even though it freaked Tanner out, we appreciated the nice gesture.

 I was nervous about the game taking place during nap time. But the boys behaved wonderfully. During the game, they took long naps, ate snacks, and sat happily watching the field and jumbo screens. It was a tantrum free, blowout free, boredom free, wiggle free 4 hours!

Tanner perked up a lot during the last 10 minutes of the game. He yelled, "BYUuuuuuuu!" and "GO Cougars!" and clapped a bunch, except he didn't understand that we don't want to cheer when everyone else is cheering. 

Our camera died when he was cheering, but here's a pic of him sleeping.

Wisconsin does some really neat things at their football games:

The wave: 1st time, it goes around the stadium like normal. 2nd time, everyone does it super slow motion. It looks SO cool! 3rd time, everyone does it super fast. 4th time, it goes in reverse.

Jumping: In between the 3rd and 4th quarter, EVERYONE- even the old people- gets up and jumps to the song "Jump around." Apparently it makes enough shaking to create an earthquake that shows up on the local richter scales!

Band: during 4th quarter, the brass players split up in small groups and go all over the stadium playing their school fight song in the stands. At any given moment, you can hear the beginning, middle and end of the fight song echoing in all directions.

Alas, BYU did not win. But we really enjoyed ourselves. I'm so grateful the boys were so good!! 

 On Sunday morning, we went to church. We were surprised to find some old friends (the Condie family) there from Huntington Beach! It was really cool to talk with them and finally be with someone that knows exactly what it's like to move from the best beach town in the USA to the frozen midwest. They had some good words of encouragement for us. Seeing them was no coincidence!

 For Sunday lunch, we headed downtown to eat at an amazing restaurant that serves lots of cheese dishes. Tanner and I waited outside.

 What a pretty autumn day! The restaurant was right next to the end of some city marathon, so there were lots of runners and families around cheering.

Sitting at lunch with my little family on our little family vacation made me so happy. Look at how beautiful these boys are!

 

And the food was amazing. We started with a platter of Wisconsin cheeses.

 Then burger with fried cheese curds. 

 And an eggplant with blue cheese sandwich. All delicious!!

 For the afternoon, we took a risk. Even though it was nap time, we took our boys to the children's museum. Once again, our kids were so well behaved!! The museum was one of the best I've been to.  

 The view looking up from the baby pit.

 The view from the "engineering room."

 Jeremy's tower.

 Tanner's tower- a balancing marvel.

 On our way home! We stayed at the museum until it closed. Then we drove straight home. It was the PERFECT weekend family getaway!