Christmas Eve!!

The excitement around here is reaching an all-time high.  The boys have been burning off their nerves by building wicked sweet train tracks. 

 There are already good boys, but there is something about holding Santa's visit over their head that has made them especially compliant. 

 Even so Jens isn't so sure about them.

 But they are some good boys.  Even dirty faced and all.

 So, another thing that we've been working on is helping Ryker poop in the fecal receptor and not his britches.  Well, last night he finally did it!  He was super duper excited and demanded to open an early present as celebration (which may have been the promise that someone made despite DeA's protests).

 When Jensley is protected she is a little more accepting of her brothers...

 Lil' Huddy didn't get to sit on Santa's lap so Lindsea found a stand in:

He even made a homemade sled.

 His reindeer wasn't very helpful.

 But she was very, very cute.

 Ryker.

 She's happy because she's hiding behind the couch.

 DeA claims that she is doing Gangman style, but I told her that if that's true Santa is skipping our house.

 Santa Rock disappeared and Woody Rock took his place. 

 ANOTHER DUECE IN THE TOILET!!

 We spent Christmas Eve at Mama Rae's and Papa Dale's house.  We watched Good Tidings of Great Joy and Mom read a Christmas story about a train.  Santa Rock likes trains.

 Yes, we had open flames with Rock, Ryker and Huddy hanging around.  No one died so it worked out just fine.

 Ryker limped to the end and fell asleep in the car on the way home.

 The boys fell asleep pretty quick and we could play with their toys!

 Jens loved it, kind of.

 Merry Christmas Eve!!

Shattering Eggs

Look what Rock can do!

And look what Papa Dale can do!

Jensley

It's not that we love Jensley more than the other kids, it's that she seems to be in more pictures than the other kids.  Part of that is that the boys move too fast for pictures, and part of that is because she looks stinking adorable in her reindeer antlers.

 I know that some of these are blurry, but you can still see her cuteness.

 After church on Sunday I made a fire with the boys' help.  Jensley crawls right over with a big smile on her face to watch the flames. 

 Her arm is moving super duper fast because she is super duper excited.

 Those are little tears under her eyes.  She didn't want to sleep, but finally she did.  That's our sweet little Jens Benz.

Christmas Card Post

Maybe next year we will do real cards, but until then here is this year's family Christmas picture.

Merry Christmas!!

Fire and Stuff

The kids are fascinated by fires.  They love making them, striking the 'mattress', throwing wood and paper on the fire and spreading the ash all over the living room.

Lil' Jens loves to join right in with the fun and ash.

One the fire gets going she stands and watches it like she's hypnotized.

  "So, um, I noticed you haven't used any gasoline yet.  You, uh, going to soon?  I think you should."

 I woke up this morning to one of the saddest things I have seen.  Rock told me that his face was all bloody and when I opened my eyes I saw this poor face.  He told me that he was picking at his lip (notice the crack on the bottom right lip) and it bled.  

 We got him all cleaned up and ready for school.  It was like it never happened, except for the bloody tissues in the garbage and his bloody pillow.

 Jens wasn't too sure about much of anything.  She always dreamed of seeing her brothers bleed, but that was after she landed an uppercut to get them to stop 'loving' her.

Boy Party!

DeA and Jens have spent the past few days down in Medford for Grandpa Hugh's funeral.  Mama Rae, Papa Dale and Lindsea all helped take care of the boys during the day and at night we had what the boys kept calling a 'boy party'.  Saturday we started the boy part right with some biscuits and gravy.

 Then I took the boys down to Wapato Point from some ice skating (sidenote: Sister Toolson - they told us we had to be guests, so I told them we were your friends to rent the skates.  We paid for them and everything, but hopefully you don't consider that a stretch of our current social status.  Thank you!).  Little Cosmo was a lot better at skating than I thought he was.

 There were other kids there that were six and five and he was skating circles around them (literally.  The kids were standing there and Rock skated around them asking if they knew what they were doing.

 Ryker got really grumpy when we got there and didn't want to leave the car.  Sometimes he is like that, so I didn't think much of it.

 Meanwhile, Cosmo kept dominating the ice.

 Even when he fell he looked athletic and surprisingly talented for a four-year-old. 

 After skating we hit Green Dot and split mac and cheese, a sandwich and ice cream.  The boys act like they own that place.

 When we got home Ryker started cuddling with me and acting tired.  He fell asleep and then I realized that he was warm.  He slept for about three hours and still woke up with a fever.  I guess the boy party was just too much for him to handle.

 Rock kept partying and playing.  

 Rock had been getting over a cold the past few days and both lil' guys wanted to cuddle.  So we stole some wood from Papa Dale's pile and got a roaring blaze going.  Rock thought that with a mask I'd let him play in the fire.  He's smiling because he can't hear me say no.

 It was a pretty cozy fire and a good end to the boy party.

 They both slept through the night (mostly, Ryker had some coughing fits that woke him up) but they seemed to really like the 'fire bed'.