Santa!!

Santa made a visit to Manson yesterday, Jens was pretty excited to go see him

 Well, we thought she was ready...

 Yeah, turns out she wasn't ready (sorry about the blurry pic, it was the best I could do and DeA refused to put her back on Santa's lap for another shot).

 The boys were more than ready and told him all the things that they wanted for Christmas.

 Even removing the hat and beard wouldn't calm Jens down enough to sit on his lap.

 It took cuddles with Mama Rae, M&M's and chocolate milk to get her to chill.

 Speaking of chill, last night was the Ward's Christmas music concert.  Ryker at lots of goodies, 

 Jens ate lots of goodies, too.  Rock isn't pictured because he embarrassed his mother and was put in permanent timeout for making faces, bouncing up and down and singing in Minionese during the primary portion.  His explanation for the antics was "I didn't know what to do so I thought I was supposed to try and be funny".  Lucky for him that let him off the hook since his Mommy immediately placed the blame on Papa Dale and me.

 "Bellybutton!"

Cider and Ice Skating and Creeps!

We made cider the weekend before Thanksgiving (whoa, I need to get back on the ball with posting) and ended up making a lot more than we are used to making.  Ryker had fun, but thought that it was the grossest apple sauce he'd ever tasted.

 Jens and the boys found the perfect big boxes for playing.

 "Dad, close the lid and tape us in!"

 "Peek-a-boo!" 

 She saw Bampa on a forklift and demanded to drive it herself.  Not a ride, but she wanted to drive.

 When it was time to go they refused to leave the box behind and carried it all the way to the car without help.

 Jens has been in nursery for a few weeks now and is getting the hang of it.  When Huddy snuck in with her she showed him exactly where to sit for treats.

 Oh, and this wasn't Jens' fault, despite what Huddy keeps trying to say.

 "Hey!  Where are the snacks?"

 Ryker can be an elegant gentleman when he desires.

 Rock has been begging, nagging and pleading to go ice skating for a while now.  It was finally cold enough for Wapato Point to open their rink and so he finally got his ice skating out of his system.  Ryker was happy to just cruise the ice without skates so that he didn't fall.

 Still very elegant. 

 Rock was pretty happy.

 Jens got out there a little bit, but was mostly happy to snuggle with Mommy.

 Speaking of snuggling, she finds creative ways to snuggle.

 "Bellybutton!" 

 Ryker fell asleep playing "Lego Ironman Avengers" while the babysitter was watching them.  DeA demanded that I pay her 1/3 less since Ryker was out of commission, but I refused and paid the entire $4 for the night.

 In other news, DeA hated this:

Some Catching Up to Do

A lot has happened since our last post, much of it has been great.  Jens got to show Papa Dave how snugly she can be when she wants.

Papa Dave showed Jensley how Secretariat-y he can be when he wants.

Jens transformed into the Pink Knight.

When Rock was a baby he would wake up and want to go go go.  Ryker usually woke up grumpy because Rock disturbed him by going going going.  Jensley is different.  Jens wakes up and wants to snuggle and cuddle and be adorable.

She's pretty good at all of those things.

Oh, and she's pretty awesome as the Pink Knight

Always vigilant, always pretty.

Jensley also got to go flying with Papa Dale.  She loves jabbering into the headseat and spitting on commoners down on the ground.

Oh, and she also loves eating the Starbursts that Papa Dale has to drop to kids.

Ryker stayed home with DeA and so we buzzed the house.  He was so excited to see the chopper that he slipped and fell running out on the deck.  Can you see him sprawled out next to the BBQ?

Fall flying is pretty awesome.

Rock was co-pilot and gunner.

Then they gave Papa Dale all the help he could handle getting Whirly back in the hangar.

Jens thought it was all pretty fun.

Rock won't really pose for pictures unless he is threatened.  In this picture I told him to smile or he'd go to bed without dinner.  It worked, but DeA is worried about my ability to follow through on that threat (not that I wouldn't follow through, but if it is worth sending Rock to bed without dinner just because he doesn't like getting his picture taken).

Ryker loves getting his picture taken and never needs to be threatened with loss of food.

One morning I did trick Rock into thinking that my phone was a mirror and stole some pictures that way.  He was checking out his Superman curl.

DeA and I went the temple Saturday while Nick watched the kids (thanks Nick!).  Afterwards we took the kiddos to Chuck E Cheese's.  Jens had a blast.

The boys had a blast...trust me, they are there somewhere.

I even had a blast setting high scores on the real games.

DeA taught the kids the strategy of climbing up the lane and putting the ball in the 10,000 point hole.

Rocko tried opening his toy with his teeth and that caused his previously slightly loose tooth to become very loose.  Then he wiggled that tooth all the way out of his head.

Uncle Nick had a flag football tournament in the evening so we cheered him on.  It was a lot of fun and the kids did about four laps on the track...that meant that everyone had a very good night's sleep.