Winter Drags On

It was nice to have MAXAMILIANO!!, Leo, and Hadley here to help with the post-Christmas blues. The girls enjoyed some of Ginger's delicious beef.

 Hadley was a nice little heating rock on the colder days. 

  Leo and Hadley put on quite the show for everyone in the house.

 Everyone except Max, he didn't like the babies stealing his attention. 

 Rock had a doubleheader up in Winthrop at their cool little rink. He played defense, which isn't a position that he feels comfortable playing yet.

   The moms kept complaining that it was cold, but Leo laughed at them for being weak. 

 No gloves, no hat, 15 degree weather...yeah, we are great parents. 

 DeA looks pretty in any weather. 

 Jens eventually needed to thaw her fingers and ears. Hot cocoa did the trick. 

 If nothing else, Rock sure looks and smells the part of a hockey player. 

 Rock took his turn getting to cuddle with Leo. 

  All too soon the kids went home. Leo wasn't sure if he was happy or sad to go back to Vegas. 

 Max was pretty sure that he was sad to go. 

 The winter sky is pretty darn pretty. 

  I guess if she closes her eyes really tight she can pretend that the sun is accompanied by 80* weather. 

 DeAndra and I are leasing an orchard up in the hills. We drove the kids up to see what we were getting ourselves into. 

 They seemed excited. 

 Ryker's favorite room at Hampa's house is his Ryker cave in the basement. 

  We took the kids to a Wenatchee Wild game. It's like Rock's game, just more people and the concession stands are open. 

 Jens was bummed that she didn't get to go on the ice with Rock (for a youth hockey fundraising thing). She blamed her mom for not getting her to the spot in time, but thankfully the mascot threw a t-shirt right to her! That made her forget about going on the ice.

 The Wild lost in a shootout, but it was a fun back-and-forth game. 

 DeA doesn't look like a psycho ex-girlfriend, especially not with that towel rack looking like a big loop earring.  

Christmas Break

The kids went hard during Christmas vacation. You they are running thin when even Rock crashes.

 Rock proclaimed that his New Year's Resolution was to get "jacked", "ripped" and "swol". 

 He worked pretty hard during his workout, he even got a little sweaty. 

  DeA's favorite part of Christmas is clearing out all the decorations and burning the tree. She hates clutter, even joyful holiday clutter. 

 The kids enjoyed the show. 

 Rock had a little break from hockey, but he was happy to showcase his skills in front of MAXAMILIANO!! and his family. 

 DeA even got to see him play. With mutual on Wednesday nights, she hasn't been able to watch him play very often. 

 The post-game celebration took us to Bob's Burgers. MAXAMILIANO!! was happy to pose for pictures.

 The poor guy never gets any attention. 

 We had a lot of fun together. 

 The fun and late nights caught up to lil' Gyker. He spent a day on the couch staring at Looney Tunes.

  Mom and Dad's wall clock is coming along nicely.  

CHRISTMAS!!

The kids complained all December that Christmas would never get here. But, finally, Christmas Eve arrived. Jens and Ryker had their room decorated for the festive night. 

 They tried to fall asleep. Oh, how they tried to sleep. But they were just so excited. They started to panic because Santa was going to pass on by because they were awake.

Exhaustion finally won and the kids fell asleep. Rock woke us up about 6:15, and then he got his brodder and sister up, too. Mama Zista and Papa Dave were up shortly after.

They were excited to see the pile of loot, but little did they know I replaced all their presents with gifts for myself! HAHA!!

Well, that was my initial idea. DeA vetoed it and made me get them real gifts.

DeA's gifts to me contained a not-so-subtle hint. That hint: I stink. 

Jens loved her giant bear. 

The kids were pretty happy.

Rock loved his new hoverboard. 

The rest of the morning was spent assembling and playing with the games and toys. 

Rock made me caramel bubbles for my present. It was a great treat.

DeA loved her new vacuum. She is going to burn it out running it through the house six times a day. 

Eventually we received word that Mom, Dad, KC, and Heather were up and ready to party. 

The hoverboard was pretty popular.

It was a fun day, and then the girls showed that genetics are pretty strong with this group. 

Amp Up to Christmas

Mama Zista and Papa Dave came to visit for Christmas! There were lots of late night cuddles. 

 The kids competed to make the best breakfasts. Ryker did his Krusteaz pancakes, while Rock tried his hands at scrambled eggs (and pancakes, because he has to be better than his brother).

 All of the fun wore the kiddos out.

 We played some intense games, like Pracheesi where the boys learned that DeA loves Jens the most.

  DeA had bumped both Rock and Ryker from the board without much fanfare, but when she was forced to bump Jens things got weird. She started crying

Jens started crying. The boys realized that they were not their mom's favorite kids.

Ryker ran to Mama Zista to cope.

Rock tried to figure out how to exact revenge on his mother with Christmas Day approaching quickly.

Our friend Luis brought us a ton of delicious tamales! It's a Christmas miracle!

One of the fun projects during break was cooking with Grandma.

Leo enjoyed the extra hands that were around to pet him.

Mom and Dad came around to join in the holiday madness.

DeA looked as pretty as ever.

Family selfie! 

Winter Grind

Winter is a fun time of year, for the first ten minutes. Then you realize it is dark, and will stay dark, until March. Ryker gets through it by giving Leo the attention that he craves.

  We have been going to Wenatchee three times a week for hockey. That means a lot of late dinners. This one was at Taco Time, where they call tater tots Mexi-Fries. That makes a lot of sense. 

 Mom had Dad put up a giant wall clock. It doesn't look like much here, but it turned out great.

We did Olive Garden after another  hockey practice. Ryker ordered mashed potatoes to go with his fettuccine and bread sticks. He's definitely not on a keto diet.

Leo came to the office to help the staff get into the Holiday mood.

 Funshine lost another tooth! Now she looks like a Jack-o-lantern.