Christmas Season!

It's a day after Thanksgiving tradition to decorate Mama Rae's fake Christmas tree. Ryker was very happy to see the bright lights come out of storage.

  You can tell that we aren't a tall family.

 Papa Dale had the privilege of flying in Santa from the North Pole. We went down to meet them by the Building Supply. 

 It was below 20 but the kids were more than excited to see Jolly Ol' St. Nick in Grandpa's helicopter.

  Obviously they were pretty excited when the chopper arrived.

 All of the excitement wore DeA plum out.

 Jensley has become something of a cowgirl lately, especially when the brothers are gone/asleep and she can ride without their interference. 

 But sometimes she doesn't slow down enough to rest, which leads to a total collapse by the front door from time to time.

 Every night before bed she locks herself in the bathroom and says "I doing my eyes" then she comes out with interesting eyeliner designs. 

 Lil' Rock might be growing up too fast.

 Ryker asked Mama Rae for a scard and of course she delivered. He has almost worn that thing out after only a few days. He wears it everywhere and freaks out if he forgets to grab it.

 I don't get to keep many pictures of her, but DeA is looking as good as ever.

 The ward had a nativity with over 100 different sets along with cookies. We were assigned an hour to attend which meant Ryker had some quality DS time.

 Homework consumes Rock's life, it is amazing how much homework they give first graders.

 A few days ago the kids wanted pancakes for dinner and demanded that they be allowed to help. So I lined them up and let them help cook the pancakes. But when it came time to clean up the mess from their "help" they were no where to be found.

Sunday lunch was at Megan and Travis' house a few weeks ago and the kids discovered their new kitty.

They loved the kitty and just wanted to cuddle his furry little tail...

But the kitty didn't love them back and scampered off. At least Jens wasn't overly dramatic about it.

So Ryker turned his love and affection over to the dog. Now he understands why dogs are so much better than cats.

DeA had an early morning workout which meant I got to enjoy a "Take Your Jensley to Work" day. She enjoyed lounging in my office chair and doing no work all morning.

When we got home she asked to play Hide and Seek. She is hiding from me in this picture and I'm the one taking the picture...so think about that hiding technique.

Ryker is still really cuddly and enjoys climbing on to your lap and then completely ignoring you for as long as he can.

Since he knows his letters he thinks that he can read. That makes book time a little...slow.

At least he gives DeA loves while he drives her absolutely batty.

Jens might as well be a teenager because she is bossy, sassy, opinionated and wants to sleep all the time.

She is still fascinated with her belly button, even in public while wearing a singlet.

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We made apple cider the weekend before Thanksgiving and had our usual quality assurance team helping out.

I'm surprised that an juice made it into the bottles.

The workers did a good job, too. Just not as good as the taste testers.

Eventually Jens just walked up to Papa Dale and put her arms out for him to lift her up.

Within minutes she was checked out for the afternoon.

Ryker nominated himself as lead forklift driver and anxiously awaited an assignment.

Unfortunately that assignment never came and he at a whole apple for nothing.

Everything worked itself out when Papa Dale swooped in and whisked the boys away to the hangar.

Rock has been begging for quail nuggets instead of the store bought and processes chicken nuggets. There is a covey of quail in the bushes between our house and the neighbors' houses that he's been asking me to ambush. I told him that sweet Marie probably didn't want to hear a shotgun blast right by her house and suggested that he catch them himself. He grabbed a big bowl, a picture he drew of a work and a stick and started quail hunting.

Unfortunately he wasn't able to catch anything, but it wasn't for a lack of trying.

On my half day of work I took the kids up to Top Shelf with the plan to leave them in the warm car while I shot some quail. They insisted on helping me hunt them and even wore the camo ear muffs that Ruth got me for Christmas last year. It's amazing that with this help we didn't see a single quail within range. We saw plenty about 100 yards away flying off, but surprisingly nothing close.

PLAYHOUSE!!

Papa Dave and Mama Zista have been working hard to build the kids a homemade playhouse. They surprised the kids by hauling it up here when the visited last month!

They couldn't even wait for the house to get off the truck!

Papa Dale borrowed a forklift from the shed to help unload it.

Cheeto's parking spot made the perfect place for the house.

The playhouse traveled without a roof, to keep the number of flying shingles on the freeway to a minimum. The kids immediately got to work helping shingle their new pad.

Some help was more helpful than others, but some help was also cuter than others.

Notice the safety glasses and real drill that they used.

This wasn't some shoddy tract home playhouse, this baby is custom built to match Dave and Lisa's house. According to Rock the only thing missing is a miniature Buddy on the back porch.

The kids got right into the middle of it and "helped" a lot with the ridge.

That's a big hammer for such a little Ryker.

Rock looks bored, but he already had his turn pounding nails.

The guys did a good job and finally the playhouse was all finished!

All the hard work wore lil' Gyker out.

Everyone was pretty proud of their hard work.