holy crap! its christmas time!

merry belated christmas from the krummenachers

its been a busy busy month, so here is a recap of things we enjoyed in the month of december:

FAMILY:

for family night before christmas we had a little family christmas party.

it started at our house with steve's krazy subs for dinner, then we drove around in the rain and looked at christmas lights and ended up at greg and brooke's house for dessert.

garrett, brodie, and cosmo checking under the christmas tree.

(i LOVE this picture!!)

delaina and ken

brooke, greg, julia and angela

alisha and brodie, michael, erika and my nephew garrett

dad, mom and ken

EARLY CHRISTMAS PRESENT:
cosmo painted the frames gray and got pictures to put in them. he made the frame to go around all of the pictures and painted the shelf that holds our last name. i love it! homemade presents are the best! i got it early so my family could see it up while they were here.

FRIENDS:
one of my really good friends "genius mike"
he was visiting from cali where he is a hoity toity recording engineer at bomb shelter studios (look it up!) and its always rad to see him
"...i got a $20 bill...."

watching the UFC fight.
i'm not talking about the outcome once again....

dinner at some fancy schmancy pizza place: la grande orange pizzeria (but say it with a french accent) with dick and erica

dick and cosmo trying out some new root beer

erica, sean, and lafe roasting marshmallows (notice lafe's burly man beard)

lafe and bea had a christmas party with DELICIOUS hungarian food that bea made and then we made smores on lafe's outdoor fire place. i wish i had taken more pictures that night because we had a lot of fun!! thanks lafe and bea!

cosmo playing with bubbles in lafe's backyard...

this is why i love him.

BAKING:

cosmo cutting out sugar cookies for our nursery kids.

(for those that dont know, me and cosmo are nursery leaders... can you believe they trust us with kids?!)

look what we did!! i dont mean to toot my own horn, but we are so nice. except who knew 2 year olds went to bed at 8:30!? apparently we didnt... oops.

cosmo's creation: they are peanut butter rice krispie treats dipped in chocolate. and dont worry, he meticulously placed each little speck of holly on each one.

my holiday wreaths. basically rice krispie treats with corn flakes instead of rice krispies and green food coloring. spectacular.

*WHEW* so that was a quick overview..

christmas eve and christmas day to soon follow.....

a new addition to the family

while aimlessly wandering around michaels, something we like to do in our spare time (even though cosmo will never admit that he secretly loves that store), cosmo ran across this little gem.

at first glance you might think to yourself- 'whats so special about a nutcracker??'

oooh but look closer.

this is no ordinary nutcracker.

this is a MONKEY PIRATE nutcracker.

how could we pass up this wonderful opportunity to have such a find in our home!?!

meet pagota the monkey pirate nutcracker.

yes, we named him.

pagota is currently standing under our tree guarding all of our presents.
who would want to steal presents with this staring you in the face?!
i hope he doesnt scare off santa....

aww...nothing says christmas like a monkey pirate nutcracker...

pick one up at your local michaels store.

the transformation

it started out as part of a halloween costume, but halloween came and went and the beard and hair stayed....and got longer, and longer, and longer.....

i knew he had had it for too long when i actually started liking it.

last week my dreams came true when he decided to shave and get a haircut.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

he looks like a little boy! i love it!

so what does everyone think? before? or after?

pass the turkey please

this post is a few weeks late, but its been busy. tis the season.

thanksgiving was spent in st george utah with cosmo's family. it was nice to get out of the heat and to catch up with his family.

i'm still getting used to this 'spending the holidays without your family' thing.....

cosmo and his brother trent.

when cosmo isnt all beardy, they look pretty similar. i think trent got a few butt smacks from me thinking he was cosmo... oops...
jenn #2 and jenn #1.
this is trent's wife jenn. of course we both go by jenn with 2 n's and since she was here before me, she gets to be jenn #1 and i'm #2. it makes for fun times. she just passed her BAR which makes me feel very unaccomplished figuring she's just a few months older then me...

eva (trent and jenn's daugher) and cosmo playing in the park.
i'm convinced that she hates me. she's way way too cool for school.

the day after thanksgiving cosmo and his dad and brother's went golfing
left to right: jeff (cosmo's dad), todd, trent, brett, cosmo, and david. eva sneaked into the front

prepare to hate me....

ok.. i understand by making the following post that i might lose a lot of friendships, but it has to be said...

i dont understand this....

i remember quite some time ago, my friend shasta telling me that there were some books i HAD to read because it was about vampires and the boy in it is skinny and pale - right up my alley.

'hmmm..a vampire love story'- it peeked my interest, but i never got around to reading it.

shortly after that, my little sister angela came home with the books and raved and ranted about them.

'ok maybe i should give these a shot'

the next thing i know, people went twilight retarded.

and it killed it for me.

right then and there, i took a vow to never read these books.

i guess one of my big faults in life is i hate anything mainstream. yeah its childish and stupid, but i'll openly admit it.

i never read harry potter either. *gasp!*

i've had many many many friends tell me i HAD to read them.

"you'll laugh, you'll cry. you'll fall in love, you'll get your heart broken"

"you'll hate your husband because he'll never be as good as edward"

"it feels like youre being dumped all over again"

these are a few comments i heard.

no thanks.

my little sister went and camped out and saw the movie the first showing they had. she's read all of the books more then once, and is a die hard fan. so when i text her the next morning asking her how it was, her response surprised me "IT WAS A PIECE OF CRAP. More then horrible". she went on to say that it didnt follow the book and the acting and dialogue were terrible and it was way too rushed.

i kind of smiled a little thinking of all the millions and millions of girls camping out to see an awful movie.

but then i started hearing people say they liked the movie?!?

i dont take angela as a person to be a rough critic, so when she said she didnt like it, i knew it had to be garbage.

are people so crazy and caught up in a book that much that they will accept bad movies as good cinema based solely on the fact that they are so in love with the book??

this is all lost on me.

if you want to get out of mainstream america and actually see a great movie based on a novel, there is an independent film called "slumdog millionaire" adapted for screen from the novel "Q&A" by vikas swarup.

it was one of the best movies i have ever seen. its a love story about a boy that goes on a game show and every question he is asked, it flashes back to a point in his life that helps him know the answer to the question. it sounds sort of cheesy, but everything about it was incredible. the concept, the acting, the cinematography, the story.
now THIS is a real love story to get crazy about. (click on "this" to see the trailer)
'its destiny'

bff's

on sunday and monday we were graced by the presence of cosmo's really good friend james.

he was in town for a work conference and paid us a little visit in his downtime.

cosmo and james showing me how tough they are.
they were trying to regain their manhood after that last picture.

it was good to see him and catch up a little bit.
i asked cosmo if there was anything he wanted me to put in this post and he said:
"james is a nice boy and i love him. .... ..... .... dont make it sound gay"
too late.

i dont want to talk about it

this past weekend was the big ufc fight couture vs lesner.

lesner is a big dumb ox and won and thats all i'll say.

i've wasted enough words on him already.

we had a bunch of people over to my parents house to watch the fight.

my dad has a projector so we set up a big white sheet across the wall and the picture was huge.

brodie wasnt really sure what to think of everything going on. this is him hiding under the counter. i wanted to hide down there with him and cry after the fight was over

just me and cosmo. this was clearly taken BEFORE the main event took place.

here are some of our friends that came over:
shane and josie

cosmo, greg, derek, erika, brooke, and morgan

sorry to the people i dont have pictures of. there were quite a few more people there, but i got too caught up in the fights, and then after it was over, i didnt want to talk to anyone.

minus the outcome, we all had a great grand ol' time.
we'll do it again next month when my boy forrest griffin is fighting!
december 27th save the date if you want to come!!
(and yes, i know thats your birthday shasta...... sacrafice for the cause)

my sister, the artist (but say it with a thick snotty french accent so it sounds cool)

my lovely talented mother is the stake music chair lady person.

once a year she puts on a thing called "a night of classics".

it gives people from the stake an opportunity to share their talents.

the program starts out in the chapel where people play instruments and sing classical pieces.

then you move into the gym where people can display their art - painting, sculptures, stained glass, quilting, photography, scrapbooking, and the list continues.

so back to the title of the post-

this year, my little sister erika got to display her art.

erika never ceases to amaze me with her creativity. the ideas she comes up with and the way she executes those ideas has me in awe. she has such a fresh new awesome way to look at things. i'm guilty of stealing a lot of her artwork. i'm one of her biggest fans.

all the whimpey girls by erika's table

erika the artist, jenn, angela, alisha, and julia

(all the girls but mom! i think you can see the top of her head directly behind angela's head)

my awesome little brother michael and me

gotta love those dimples!

i went back to my parent's house afterwards and was greeted by this cute face ready to pose for a picture. i couldnt resist. brodie is starting to be a little chatter box, and will say your name a billion times until you pay attention to him.

my husband's new hobby

between school and work and trying to keep me happy (which he does a fantastic job at, by the way..) my husband decided to start a blog of his own. not about the journeys of everyday life, but about his 2nd love (me being the 1st of course) root beer.
go here to read his blog: http://cosmosrootbeerreviews.blogspot.com/
its actually been alot of fun finding new rootbeers and trying them with him! if you know of a good root beer you want him to review, send it our way!

a series of unfortunate events

no pictures with this post but this story was too good not to share.

tonight we took a little outing to frys.

it was a normal night, nothing too exciting or different from any other regular ordinary trip to the grocery store. we were standing in the self checkout line minding our own business, swiping the last of our purchases over the machine,

and thats when it happened.

out of no where this high school (maybe jr high? i can never tell anymore??) girl runs and jumps onto cosmo's back and wraps her legs completely around his body and her arms tightly around his neck. she might have thrown in a few kisses on his neck, but it happened to fast to really be sure of this.

cosmo turned around and faced me with a bit of confusion in his eyes.

i look at the girls face expecting to see someone i know, but nope. dont know her.

i say outloud to cosmo, who is still confused, "i have no idea who that is."

the girl sees me and hops off cosmo's back and turns him around to look at him.

COMPLETE HORROR comes over her face.

she had no idea who cosmo was.

faster then i could even think of something clever to say to make the moment even more awkward, she ran off to meet her friend on the other side of the checkout without saying a word.

cosmo stood there in complete shock and still a little confused about what had just taken place.

i was laughing so hard i couldnt even see straight or stand up. tears rolled out of my eyes. the poor girl walked away from our view in pure embarrassment grasping tightly to her friend with her head buried in her shoulder.

even now as i'm typing this i'm laughing just thinking about the looks on that girl and cosmo's faces.

pure entertainment at frys.

flight of the krummenachers

we were getting a little stir crazy and had some plane tickets that we needed to use, we missed our friends richard and erica, so we decided to fly out to buffalo ny to see them! i was excited to get out of the heat and get to wear my winter clothes!

on the plane ride over therethis is for my dad!

playing on the playground with ella and ruby. i loved that it wasnt 100degrees outside.

timbits (donut holes) from tim hortons. a popular donut place out there

riding richards little scooter. i was scared

this is what fall looks like for all of you arizonians.

on the plane ride home.

thank you dick and erica for letting us come visit and eat your food and drive your car! we heart you guys and cant wait to see you in december!

keep reading the next couple posts for more of our adventures from the trip!

oh canada...

cosmo served his mission in canada, which is right up the street from buffalo, so while we were there, we had to make a trip up there to stop at a few favorite places..

this is poutine.

its french fries, gravy and curds of cheese.

soo bad for you, but oh soo good!

this is the best place to get poutine! a little shack in the middle of a parking lot.

oh fall. how i miss you.


michael baxter and cosmo.
cosmo is good friends with him from his mission, so we met up and had lunch together at licks


according to cosmo, this is the hands down, very best place you can get a hamburger. this is my second time eating there, and he'll divorce me for saying this, but i've had better...... dont get me wrong, they are good, but a little too 'onion-y' for my taste....

at the border coming back into the USofA, the security guy laid into cosmo pretty thick with questions. i laughed a little bit watching cosmo get flustered.. maybe its his terrorist beard that they were suspicious of....