The Rojas Family: February 2008

Here is one of the cute pictures that Becky Eastman took of Ranger in Texas. This is probably my favorite age to capture their precious little faces but the hardest age to get them to sit still for a picture. He would not sit still or pay attention to me making a fool of myself in the background trying to get him to look and smile. He just wanted to run from one prop to the next and explore everything. I'm suprised she got one of him sitting in the cart because as soon as he climbed in he climbed out again. Crazy kiddo.

Papa and his Buddy

My dad has always been so great with all of my boys. The boys love their Papa and get so excited to go visit him or even talk to him on the phone. Ryder and my dad seem to have a special bond. Ryder always wants to go see Papa and ride Barkley with him, go to work with him, and walk with him to Big Papa's house. For Valentine's my mom and dad sent the boys some cards and in one my mom had put a picture of my dad with his deer that he had just hunted. Ryder was so upset that it was in Redden's envelope and not his. My dad was sweet enough to take the time to color Ryder this picture and it meant so much to Ryder. His eyes got even bigger than they are, if you can imagine that, and he went running around the house showing off his picture to everyone. He's had two friends come over since and he makes sure to show his special picture that is now hanging up on their magnent board-probably a permanent fixture in our house. Thanks Papa for all your love you show to my boys!

When talking to Ryder about why he loves his Papa so much, here are a few things that he said.....

Papa always talks funny like Donald Duck.
Papa is so nice to me and takes me to DBacks games and lets me ride Barkley.
I like it when Papa pretends like there is a baby buffalo in his belly. (My dad owns 3 buffalo)
Papa always makes silly eyes at me.
Papa lets me eat lots of candy at his office and pick out golf balls.

Jump on It! -- for Valentines?

For Valentine's Day we got a group together and us girls decided that we were going to Jump On It. It is a really fun place for kids---and adults to jump on trampolines all hooked together. They even have some trampolines angled against the walls to bounce and do trick off of. We took the kids once for family night and thought it would be a blast to get a little more wild with just a group of adults. I finally mastered a back flip off the trampoline on the wall after biting it a few times. We had so much fun. They have foam balls to play ball tag or to just start beaning eachother with like we did. Not what you would think of for your typical Valentine's date but, after being married for almost 10 years and being together for 13, this is what Gabe and I like to do! Chasing eachother around and having a few wrestling matches always bring us back to the good old high school days. Which brings me to why I am so mad at him today! We were wrestling at the place and I got him down by pulling his shirt over his head and pulling him down into a hedlock/leglock. Jason got a GREAT picture of it and we were all having a good time looking/laughing at it. Well, now that I have a blog to share my memories, I think he is going through my camera and screening which pictures are available to post because that picture is mysteriously gone! What a bum head! I can't believe he would erase that. I guess I will have to be more careful about where I leave my camera. I'll get him back. Stay tuned for a future post dedicated to Gabe.

God Bless TEXAS!

Texas, Texas, Texas...... How we love and miss Texas! Gabe and I got to go visit Texas a couple weekends ago and it was so beautiful. It was in the high 60s and low 70s and felt awesome! Nice to get away from the freezing cold. Two days after we got home from that wonderful weather we had a horrible storm here and it took me like an hour to get home from the Smith's grocery store 3 miles down the road. We do love the beautiful mountains and lake here though. In Texas we got to see some of our friends and see how big all their kids have gotten in the last 2 years. We enjoyed the wonderful visits and parties they all planned for us and Becky took some cute pictures of Ranger. Oh how I miss Beckys pictures! You are all definitely part of our family! Thanks for everything and thanks to the Smith's for letting us stay and party at your house! We love you guys! We are still waiting for someone to take us up our offer and come stay with us and go skiing. You guys are welcome anytime!

Ranger vs. Mr. Sketch Markers

It's hard to tell who won the battle between Ranger and the poor markers who got sucked and chewed on. Yuck! Gabe and I were downstairs attempting to clean out and organize our storage room when I looked over and saw my liitle monkey sitting on top of the kids tables. When I said, "RANGER!", he looked up and I about died laughing when I saw his little face and hands covered in yummy blueberry marker. He had the lids off of about 6 markers and was going to town on them. What can I expect when I buy the boys my favorite smelly markers from when I was a kid. Ryder has come upstairs several times from coloring with several little dots on his nose. Pretty funny. Hopefully it's not too harmful! While we were cleaning through old memorabilia, Gabe found his groovy glasses from when he was a kid. Ranger kept putting them on and it made for a priceless picture!

The Dinosaur Museum

We went to Thanksgiving Point and took a trip through the Dinosaur Museum with Ryder's preschool classs. Ryder has been asking to go there since we moved here a year and a half ago so he was excited to finally get to go in. We saw lots of cool dinosaur bones and lots of neat ones from the ocean. Ryder's favorite part was getting to dig for the dinosaur bones and getting to play in the watery sand with the miniature dinos. Ranger sure enjoyed himself as well with me chasing him all over the museum. He now thinks that is a really fun game to play with me when we are out and about in public. Keeps me young I guess!

Did Nanny really get married? AHHHHHHH

We got to go to Arizona for my sister Natalie's wedding (like a month and a half ago) and we had so much fun being able to see them get married and to have some fun hanging out with the family. I still can't believe that my baby sis is married. Weird. The girls got to have some time together minus kids and it was FUN!!! Congrats Nat and Tommy! We love you guys!