Sunshine and Birthday Cake!!

We've finally had some nice, sunny days here on the westside of the mountains. It's still been cold, but at least the sun has shown up. Ryker was pretty stoked to go outside, he just forgot to show it.
Rock got dressed in his best workout clothes.
Whitni had a doctor's appointment on her knee, and so Grappy brought her over. DeA thought it would be nice to throw a mini birthday for Bampa, so she made a nice Oreo cake. Ryker wanted himself a piece of that yumminess.
Rock got very jealous anytime my dad tried to hold Ryker. There was one time when he wasn't whining about it...
and that time was when he was taking a bite out of every Oreo on the cake.

"Mmm...Oreos"

Later we were able to spend some time in the yard without the aid of snorkels and flippers. Rock likes the yard, and 'helped' weed the flowers by pulling out all the pistols and stamens from the tulips.
Well, it's that time of year again; Aaron's birthday! Some people complain that he's hard to shop for, so he's made a wish list!! Well, calling it a 'wish' list is misleading since there's no reason he can't get everything on the list, so let's just call it Aaron's birthday list of reasonable-and-understated yearnings. Click here to enter!!

Beefcakes and Their Trip

Rock and Ryker had a fun weekend over in Manson. Ryker got more attention than he is used to, and liked chilling with uncle Nick.
Rock loved having cousins around to play with him. Here is Paige trying to get Rock to stick his hand in the 'not' animal hole.
During Sunday dinner they played hide and go seek, but picked some of the worst possible hiding spots.
It was nice of them to wear Rock out for the trip home.
Rock and Ryker slept almost the whole way home from Manson. Rock woke up and realized that we were taking him away from Grammy and Grappy's, and so he was cranky all night looking for attention. We finally distracted him by letting him take pictures of Ryker on the couch.

The boys were both in good moods tonight, so DeA held a little photo session. Rock was making fun of Ryker, so Ryker landed a haymaker on Rock's left chin.
Somewhere along the way the boys both lost their shirts and started an epic flex off.

Ryker kept trying to land jabs and upper cuts; he's not one to give up the fight.

Manson Weekend!!

The other day DeA bought an area rug to spruce up our living room. She was glad to find out that Rock liked it, but a little dismayed that he liked it too much.

DeA wanted to take pictures of the boys before we took off for Manson for the weekend. She decided to start with Ryker.

She noticed something interesting while taking pictures of Ryker.
Hmm...I didn't notice anything funny, did you?
Bampa Dale came over and grabbed Rock on Friday, which gave DeA plenty of time to take pictures of Ryker.
We told Ryker that Rock found out about the photo shoot, and he prepared for some sibling battle.
We caught up with Rock in Manson Friday night. Saturday Rock was snapping pictures of Grammy and Grappy's house.
Whitni was posing for pictures, hoping to get Rock to snap some of her.
Saturday night Chayo and the boys came over for a windy BBQ. She brought some delicious refried beans, and so I invented the hambeanger. An instant classic, try it!
Ryker definitely wanted a piece of that masterpiece.
Always the showman, Rock entertained us with some dinner music.
After dinner Ryker and Chayo enjoyed some bonding time.
Rock went through his Mommy's luggage and found something that he thought she would want. She didn't want it as much as he thought she would.

Stuff

Lil' Rock has seemingly started to be scared of the dark. I tried to put a nightlight in his room, but DeA was whining that Rock got one and she didn't. So, we compromised and we got him one of these new Seattle Sounders jerseys. The yellow is so bright that it is like sleeping on the surface of the sun.
Anyways...DeA is pretty excited about her new Sleepy Wrap. Ryker is pretty content and happy while riding around, and that makes her put on her happy face.
So, Rock has started posing and cocking his head for the camera every chance he gets. I wonder where he learned to do that...

Two Months!!

Our little chubby bubby Ryker is two months old now! The little guy is growing up so fast, just to think that when he was born he lived in Oregon, his dad was unemployed and his brother didn't wear clothes. Now most of that has changed...except for the clothes thing.
He's finally starting to show his personality and giving us some smiles. The smiles come out a lot more when Rock is sleeping or at the store with me.

People complained that Rock looked scared in the first stroller picture I posted. So, here is a picture of the two of them after our walk the other day. Rock just sits and giggles the whole time, and Ryker sleeps, so DeA loves the stroller more than she loves some of the people in the house right now.
Rock is getting excited about the M's recent winning stretch, and so he took me into the backyard for some infield practice. He pulled out his fungo bat and started hitting grounders.

"Hey! Look alive!"

"What the deuce was that? You call that hustle? I call that crap!!"

DeA was invited to go to the boats in the Bellevue Mall by Sarah in our ward. She was pretty excited until she realized that she had to take the boys. Rock loved climbing on the models of the ferries.
DeA was trying to put clothes on Ryker when Rock snagged his pants. Amazingly they still fit him, kind of.
They look like football pants or manpris. Not sure that this fashion is going to make it outside of places like France.
Rock likes to help with Ryker. He has seen us try to burp Ryker by patting his back, and so he will 'gently' pat Ryker every chance he gets.
Yup, he's really helpful with Ryker. He even plays Hide and Go seek with him.

So, today I checked my application on the Washington State Department of Health website. They've been processing my license for almost two months now...they really wanted to let their bureaucracy flex its efficient muscles as much as it could. But, tonight at about 6 pm my pending status changed to active!!

Woo Hoo!! After three years of school, four rounds of national boards, one random Oregon board, and then the Washington exam I'm finally an official licensed doctor of chiropractic! Now, to celebrate I'm going to go change a poopy diaper.

Longer Update

I know that the last post was a little short, so I'll make up for it on this one. Rock and Ryker both had a pretty good day. The first thing that happened is Rock tried to show off his pre-cut hair style. DeA decided that it was time to tie him down and cut his hair. If you don't remember how he reacts to hair cuts, then click here.
I don't think he knew that he was showing off before his haircut, he probably was just showing off how cute he is.
Rock knew that we were trying to get out the door, so he helped get Ryker all bundled up.
Then he stopped and posed again.
Yup, another pose. These kids love attention.
We loaded Rock in the car, and he was pretty excited to go 'bye-bye car', but still had no idea where he was going.
At the mall he went into Old Navy and played with their dog. He tried to feed him some granola bar and then ride him like a pony. The doggy didn't really play back.
The little girl's sun glasses were all smeared, but Rock decided to pretend that he didn't know anything about that.
After getting his hair cut (he actually did pretty well...but don't ask DeA about that. She conveniently disappeared out of the MasterCuts during the cutting) we went to a birthday party for Ezra, one of Rock's friends. He was pretty excited when they pulled out a pinata, and thought about throwing a soccer ball at it.
But, in the end he decided to whack the bejeeberz out of the scary pink starfish.
Notice the classic batting stance, the high hands and steady gaze. He's seeing .407/62/186 on his baseball card already.
After the starfish was finally destroyed he bled Tootsie Rolls and Now & Laters.
Rock was slowly going through candy, but some people (okay, someone) decided that he wasn't going to get enough candy before the greedy people stole it.

'Ugh...so much candy"

Nothing washes down candy like a chocolate-frosted cupcake.

Rock's manners are getting better all the time. Mommy is teaching him important things like to only break wind at the table if someone pulls your finger, and that burping is okay as long as you blow it in someone's face. He also knows to say "God bless you" when someone sneezes (or pretends to sneeze).

I briefly mentioned how my dad went to Moses Lake to pick up a jogging stroller for us in the last blog post. Well, Rock and I finally tried it out tonight and it was a big success. I kept hearing Rock making noises, and when I checked to see if he was crying I found him giggling. I guess he was giggling at the fact that he beat me everywhere we went.