Rockous Claus and His Journey North

Today was the day that Rock's Christmas vacation officially started. He is pretty excited to take a rest from his intense work schedule and enjoy the holidays. He got ready for his trip by helping me check in for our flights while testing out his mommy's baby leash. And no, we aren't bad parents just because we treat our child like a schnauzer.
And, just like DeA tells me when I ask her if we really want to raise our child like a dog, it's not abuse if he likes it.

Grandma Lisa was very nice and took us to the airport in the middle of the night (5 am to be exact). We flew without problems up to Seattle, but then our pilot lost his set of manhood and was too chicken to land in this:

Soooo...to make a long story short, Teri and Mike Schrick were full of the Christmas spirit and let us hitchhike a ride in their rental car to Wenatchee. Rock was pretty excited to see Grammy and Grappy, and to get done with the %$#* traveling. Once he got to Grammy and Grappy's he took a load off...literally."Uh Oh"

Rock knows how excited everybody is to see him, so he cheaped out on Christmas presents and told everyone that having him here was his gift to them. To make it seem more official he put on a Santa costume. People seemed to think that was pretty cute.
He decided that Santa's sleigh was a little outdated, so he cruised around on his new and improved sleigh.
"You know, now that I don't have reindeer I can't take a shovel to their stalls for Marissa's present. I guess I'll just have to make due with what's in here."
"Excellent, now I'll just put that in a burning bag and set it on Marissa's bed. Merry Christmas to her!"
"Hmm...I don't know what this is, but I'll pretend that it's my present to Grammy. She'll love it."

"Oh shoot! I forgot to clean my hands after scooping out Rissa's present. I need to wash up. Better get my sleeves out of the way."


After spreading around all that Christmas cheer, Rock decided to take a joy ride on his Santa sleigh. He likes cruising and wearing his CHiPs helmet, since CHiPs helmets look cool.

And they are pretty adorable, too.

Preparing for Christmas

Rock has caught Christmas fever full throttle. He knows that it is important to share, especially delicious peanut butter and marionberry jam sandwiches.
Nothing makes Mommy happier than having a chance to kick her feet up and relax. Mommy also talks a lot about having people help her do her chores, so Rock is helping her on this one.
Mommy also loves cuddles, so Rock is giving those away abundantly right now...well, three seconds at a time is abundant cuddling for Rock.

'Will you cuddle with me?'

Oh, and naps. Mommy loves naps. Rock has been helping out by letting Mommy take marathon naps occasionally. He especially likes to let Mommy take long naps while Daddy, Melanie, the relief society president and Publisher's Clearinghouse are trying to get a hold of her.
Potty training is another big thing that Santa and Mommy both are pushing. Once Rock realized how fun it was to 'water' the lawn, he was hooked.
Rock knows that Mommy doesn't like packing, so he decided to score big points by chipping in to help.
Rock knows that there is much more to impressing Santa than helping Mommy. It's also important to keep the grandparents happy. That is why Rock is modeling these kickin' sweet overalls from Gma Lisa and Gpa Dave, so they know how much he appreciates it. Oh, and he also has this crazy idea that his daddy is a redneck and has redneck family members...
Where would he get that idea about his uncle?

Being super good is hard work. That is why Rock typically falls back on the best, most sure-fire way to impress Santa: Being adorable.

Christmas Is Almost Here!!

Holy time warp, Batman! Last time Rock checked, it was barely Thanksgiving. Since then he has been so uber busy watching Dad filling out board applications, moving, ordering transcripts, and starting his internship/job that he hasn't even finished his Christmas wish list. But, wish list or not, Santa has to get going. Rock found out that Gma and Gpa Judd had a present waiting for him, and he wanted to get over there to open it.
When he walked in he was thrilled to see a giant present!!
He tore through the paper with fierce intensity, leaving no prisoners. Grandpa Dave narrates the action.

After his quick work with the paper, he got to kick his feet up and enjoy the comfortableness.

Even after we got the chair home the chilling continued. He hunkered down with his remote and his football. What could be better?
"Wait a minute...why is there a flat screen bracket with no flat screen?"

"Hey, Mom, what's the deal?"

"How am I supposed to completely chill in this super sweet chair, when I've got this baby SD TV? Do you think that Santa will take care of that for me?"
"No! You can't make me forget by cuddling me and making me...so...very.....zzzz"
Editor's Note: Rock didn't forget, and he's still working on his Christmas list. DeA thinks that people got a little sick of them last year, but then she said "yeah, I guess everybody just looks at the pictures and skips over your writing anyway. So, go ahead."

On a not-so-unrelated note, Rock loves football!

Grappy Dale's Visit!

Rock really likes this living close to grandparents thing. He has Gma & Gpa Judd here in town, and Grappy Dale and Grammy Rae aren't three days travel by snowshoe away from him anymore. Case-in-point: Grappy Dale makes an annual delivery run down to California. Before he had to go down and back without seeing anyone special. But, guess who lives on that route now? Rock!! And he made sure that the house was in top shape.


Then he went around and tried to find the best places to hang pictures.
Just when he didn't know if he could wait any longer for Grappy to get here, he finally did!
Rock had fun reading the morning paper with Grappy.
He really liked playing football with Grappy. It was too cold to go outside, so they had to ball in the living room, just the way Mommy likes it.
He still has some work to do on his catching.
While the catching isn't there yet, his throwing is coming along nicely. Notice the classic Johnny Unitas pose. Classic.
Does this running style remind you of anybody? Does it?
He has all the classic looks down solid.

TOUCHDOWN!!!

So far Grappy's visit has gone well. He even liked Grappy's sweet magic trick at dinner. He made a glass split in two!