He's here, he's here, he's finally here!

  My kids have been waiting over 2 years for this baby to arrive and he's finally here.  No, Kara doesn't have the gestation period of an elephant, but we've been sending the kid's baby stuff to her house for a few years now saying it is for Kara's baby.  It was always kind of a joke, but then when she was actually pregnant, I told them there was really a baby growing and it wouldn't be much longer now.  They have been very excited and interested in this whole baby business.  They even had their own guesses for the baby pool.  Ryker was pretty disappointed that he didn't win the stack of cash that has been sitting on my bathroom counter, but after he got past that, he was excited for his little cousin.

 

 

I don't get that excited over babies, but I'm pretty pumped about this adorable little one.

 

He's a lucky little man to have the parents he has.

 

It was a grueling labor and birth, by most standards and especially by mine.  I was more stressed out with this kid for 24 hours than I was with the birth of my own kids.  My sister is one tough, tough chick.  I knew she was/is and would make it through fine, but none the less, I was a worried mess.  

 

I can't wait to get my hands on that cute little bugger!  As soon as Seth is done crabbing, I'm heading out.  I've decided I'm not telling my kids where I'm going.  I'm sneaking out and leaving it up to Seth because they are going to be pissed.  Kya asks me every day if today is the day we go to Kara and Brian's house.  In church on Sunday, there was a baptism and she wanted to know when Keaton's baptism was.  Every baby she see's she goes on and on about sweet little baby Keaton.  Oh dear, she's going to be one disappointed and angry little girl when she realizes that she's not going to be able to go to most of his first big events.  I told them that we would get to spend lots of time with him this summer, but they are both pretty sure they can't wait that long.  They want to Facetime with him every night and sing him lullabies.  It is taking every bit of self control I have not to make my usually 3-4 calls a day to my sister while they are settling in.  Get some rest Kara, I can't abstain much longer!  And neither can Ryker and Kya! 

 

 

 

 

Wrapping up Wrestling Season

We've been spending a lot of time on wrestling the last few months so I'm actually happy to see it come to an end.  Kya has had to sit through practice 2 nights a week and spend at least Saturday or Sunday of almost every weekend in a gym from 7am to 2:00 or 3:00.  They've been troopers, but we're ready to move on.  Ryker started basketball yesterday and we resume swim lessons again in February.  I worry that they are to tightly scheduled sometimes so I took them out of swim for a couple months.  They have been begging me to go back and want to know when soccer, tball, karate, and dance start.  I worry about finding the perfect balance for them, but I guess they'll let me know if they don't want to do something.  For now, we're back to running around like chickens with our heads cut off.

Keeping occupied with a photo shoot while waiting by the board to find out what mat Ryker will be on.

There he is, the Pin City kid that Ryker lost to in the Championships.  What a great couple of bouts, but both ended in defeat for our little Yellow Jacket.  I took videos because Seth was out crabbing so this is the only picture I have.  He wrestled hard and learned a lot this season, not only about wrestling, but being coachable, working as a team in a structured practice, conditioning, winning graciously, trying your best, and how to learn from a loss and prepare yourself in practice so to keep it from happening again.  It seems weird, but he learned a lot in the 4 month season.  I don't care if he wrestles next year or not, but I think it was a really good experience for him and am very proud of his accomplishments this year.

Antonio giving Ryker a pep talk before his next bout.

Kicking off the new year

The quote of the day goes to Ryker while putting him to bed tonight.

  "I love you in a circle, because a circle never ends.  You can't think of anything farther or longer than that Mom."

Yes buddy, you've got me there.......in more ways than one.

 

We've had a few pretty nice January days so we've been hitting the outdoors a lot.

 

By the time we come in though, it is cold and dark out which calls for some serious snuggling to warm up.

Making banana chips

Seahawk Sunday

 

Watching the landscapers

Checking the plan to make sure they are doing it right.  He approves.  He told our neighbor who did the excavating that it looks pretty good...just like the plans.

This pretty much kept them entertained all day.

First drive in movie:  Nut Job!

Some of Ryker's drawings from school.  I can't save them all so I took a picture of some of the best ones.

Ryker's posse.  I didn't think much of it that Eva was crossed out, but since I took this picture, I've gotten a little more of a glimpse into the pre-school drama.  Apparently, Eva is hanging with the girls now and Ryker and Larkin are a little upset about it.  Ryker even thinks Eva likes Kya more than him.....here we go....

Here's the posse you can always come back to no matter what buddy.

Wrasslin'

Posing with the trophies.

 

His first meet, he weighed 56.1.  Now he's at 60.6.  These holidays are really taking a toll on him!

1st place at the Burlington Holiday Classic

He won a t shirt too, but we let him upgrade to this sweatshirt and paid the difference.  He picked what went on it.  Yes, that is a wrestling belt across the pocket....hahah...  Way to go champ!

No one is more proud than this super fan!

 

Look at that form!  No one's getting up from that pin.

 

Keeping busy between bouts.

Ready to take on a 72 pounder in an exhibition match.  The kid never got to wrestle at the meets because there was never any 5 year olds as big as him.  Ryker volunteered.  We never expected the match that kid gave him though.  He was awesome!  He introduced Ryker to some "big man" take down moves...haha.  Ryker had to get mad and get aggressive.   It was his best match of the season at that time.  He lost, but he wrestled the best we'd ever seen him.  It also gave us a good opportunity to talk to him about winning AND losing and just working hard to be better each time because before this match, he had pinned pretty much all his opponents.

I'm surprised that all these have Ryker on top because this kid had him down a lot too.  I had to put down my camera because it was such a good match so I think I only got the beginning and Ryker did have the first take down.

Chopping the arm

 

First day of school

Miss Kya has been begging to start preschool.  First we told her she had to be potty trained so she knocked that out right after she turned 2, then we told her she had to be 3 and she was ready to go the day after her birthday.........finally we started her in January.  While Ryker was using his advent calendar to count down to Christmas, Kya was counting down to starting school.  Once Christmas was over, she was asking every day when it was going to start.  While picking out her clothes a few days early she was heartbroken because she didn't have any jeans to wear.  Ryker always wears jeans to school so she thought she needed some.  I took her shopping for the first time ever and discovered that she has quite the taste for flare!  I held up numerous pairs of jeans only to have her tell me no.  I finally asked what exactly she was looking for in a jean and she informed me that she wanted decorated jeans.  Hmmmmm....  After further questioning, we moved on to another store with bedazzeled and crazy stitched jeans.  She settled on a pair with rainbow stitching on the pockets and a pair with big jewels on the front.  She also picked out numerous other items that I had to tell her no to including a Seahawks jersey.  I told her Ryker had an old one that she could wear.  We did leave with a new raincoat and skirt that she was pretty pleased with.  Who knew at 3 that they would have such specific taste?!

All decked out with her new rainbow pocket jeans, hello kitty shirt, and light up shoes that she got hand me down from Addison.  

Big bro was pretty excited for her to go to and he's been doing a good job looking after her according to the teachers.

Ryker wanted one of Kya and I since it was my first day going to the gym without her.  That made Kya sad, not because she wasn't going with me, but because I had to be alone without her and Ryker.  Don't worry Kya, I will manage somehow.  (Yeehaw, 3 hours to myself!!!)

It was a pretty exciting car ride that morning.  Kya has her plant for school and they talked all the way there.  Ryker gave her a pretty thorough run down of the daily pre school schedule plus interesting characteristics of all his classmates that she'll encounter.

The Celebration Continues....

These two photos are actually from Christmas day.  I missed them somehow.  Kya and Toby had a good time with the olives.

The day after Christmas we went to Rick and Gail's to hang with the cousins.

Ida Mae, Asa, and Ryker

Kya and Julianna

Cori and Conner

Piano recital by the youngsters

To the beach!

Tree full of monkeys

 

The next day Asa came over to build his rocket that we had gotten him for his birthday.  They did a lot of playing while Seth did a lot of building.  Seth was pretty excited about building his first model rocket anyway. 

I don't have pictures of the launch the next day, but it was pretty successful.  I think there are a few more rockets in our future at least according to Kya.  She's ready to build one next!