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.

Halloween!!

We went all out for Halloween this year, including spray painting Rock.

He wasn't about to go halfway and pretend to be a blonde Superman, it just wouldn't fool people.

Jens was too adorable to pass as a real monster, but after a bunch of candy she was a much more convincing.

Huddy went as a dragon and they had fun having monster fights on the gym floor.

Here's our crime fighting family (Jens is either a crime fighting monster or she can be what we're fighting against, we never really decided).

All of that above here was for the ward's Halloween party.  The next night, the day that really was Halloween, we went to Chelan and walked around the businesses.  Rock made sure that we were all still dressed up and ready to go.

When DeA got to the office the kids were already toast.  I knew it was going to be a long night when they were napping at 5pm and about to receive WAY too much candy.

Once again Jens played the role of the adorable monster.

Rissa was in town to help them wrangle the candy.

On the way home they were just as grumpy, tired and sugared out as we feared.

The hardest part of the whole night (well, besides the poor sleeping and the grumpy sugar crashes) was trying to get the spray paint out of Rock's hair. 

Leaves, Leaves, Leaves!

Our tree was finally done shedding its leaves on the lawn so I dutifully spent time raking them into a pile.  That pile didn't survive very long.

They are luck that they are so darned cute.

Jens always tries so hard to keep up with her brothers and to be included.

Fall makes things pretty spectacular, it is a great time of year!

Superheroes in the Fall

Rock loves being a Superhero, whether it's Superman or Spiderman or Superman doing Spiderman things.

His little sister loves copying him, whether that's falling off the couch or off of the counter, she's always there trying to keep up.

We went to the park with Kendra and her kids to train our Superheroes and to prepare them for naps in the car.

 Rock has some pretty impressive strength, and singlehandedly kept the monkey bars from floating away.

 Ryker was able to help keep the monkey bars firmly planted, too.

 They took turns helping Jens go down the slide.

 One of the boys is a little more dramatic than the other.

 I think they both had fun helping.

  

 Two years ago we had our family pictures taken in the leaves.  Ryker has seen the pictures of him in those leaves and recognized the opportunity for more pictures. 

  They do a good job of looking cute.

  

 After the fun we went to eat delicious food at Lakeview.  They put up a tent to keep in the warmth, but DeA loved it because it kept out the birds.

 "You're not going to tell people that I hate birds, are you?"

 Jens hit a big milestone last week when she became old enough for nursery!  Ryker was excited to have his baby sis to play with.

 She probably would have been better off without Ryker's help.

 Dad picked up some massive pumpkins to carve for FHE.  We let the kids have at those monsters.

 Jens wasn't phased by the gross innards. 

 Neither was Rocko.  He did a good job of carving a Superman pumpkin that even included a hair curl.

 OOOOO....pretty scary.

 Jens knows how to get all dressed up for Halloween.

 Rock had his last soccer game which let Ryker and Jens enjoy the toys.