2014 wrestling season

Geez, either I have been slacker extraordinaire on the blog or one crazy busy mom! Let's go with the second choice! It looks like the last post was about Christmas and a lot has happened since then! November through March is the "typical" wrestling season, however as many of you know we are not typical, so the season endures with practices and a few scattered

tournaments throughout the summer. Carter had a great year again! He ended the regular season with a 50-5 record with his only loses at the national level (finished 4th at Winter Nationals and 5th at Liberty Nationals) and took home a 3rd place finish in our state tournament. Not to brag (okay yes I am) but these nationals tournaments are filled with kids from all over the country, with usually 30-40 kids in a bracket, so to finish in the top 6 is pretty impressive. He earned "All American" honors this year for that reason, finishing in the top 6 in 2 national tournaments. He works so hard all year to get better, never misses a practice, watches his nutrition and watches endless videos of some of the greatest wrestlers of all time to learn what it takes to be a champion. He's a champion in my eyes no matter what the outcome is! 

 Oh that's tight! 

 Winter Nationals, Omaha, NE

 Carter and one of his wrestling partners, Noah Kelley

2014 State tournament

Carter has a great role model in his oldest cousin Ben. Jeremy and Carter were able to travel to Michigan in March to watch Ben wrestle in the Michigan state wrestling tournament. Ben is only a freshmen and won the title at 106 lbs. 3 weeks later, he wrestled in the high school national tournament which happened to be in Iowa and won that as well at 113 lbs. So basically he is the best high school wrestler in the country at that weight. Pretty darn impressive. Can't wait to see which college snatches him up! 

Christmas 2013

Is it really over? A quick recap of our holidays! The week before Christmas Claire had a Christmas program at preschool. She was the very adorable reindeer Blitzen and did a great job belting out all the Christmas tunes she had been rehearsing and rehearsing and rehearsing (you get the idea) for weeks! 

The weekend before the big man came, we had to bake his favorite cookies, as we know we have the best recipe around thanks to our dear friend Megan Summers! 

Poor Santa, these are sure to put him in a diabetic coma! 

With Christmas falling during the middle of the week and my work schedule, we attended the Christmas eve church service on the eve of Christmas eve. I always look forward to this and love its reminder of what Christmas is all about. It brings tears to my eyes every time they play out the nativity scene and end with silent night by candlelight. I suspect there was close to 1000 people at that one service and not many leave without wiping a tear from their eye. 

Christmas eve Jeremy whipped up his famous prime rib and crab leg candlelight dinner for us. So yummy!

After dinner the kids get to open their gifts from each other and us. 

 Showing off their excitement before the big opening! But first we need our jammies on! 

Claire sprinkling her reindeer food for Rudolf and the crew to find our new house! 

The next morning they open their Santa gift and we head out to the grandparents, making stop at Jeremy's mom's for brunch then my parents for dinner.

Christmas always feels like a whirlwind! Prep, prep, prep, then it is over! We were once again blessed with too much stuff! Some of the favorites this year: Jeremy: wrestling room decor, money, Husker sign, Dana: New pots and pans, kindle fire, watch, Carter: PS3 games, skateboard, new bat, stuffed animals, Claire: What she thinks is an American Girl doll (knock off Target instead), arts and crafts, a horse stable and Barbie Dream house, Case: Tools, tools and more tools, dress up clothes. It may be months before I find a home for all this stuff! 

Family pictures 2013

Once again, the very talented Julie Glasgow captured our family in photos. As always, I never think any will turn out, and as always, there are a few keepers. Each year there seems to be a funny story to go along with the photos, this year was no different. No matter how you want it to all go perfectly, it never does! Case has a sensory issue with clothes and generally will only wear sweatpants and shirts without buttons or snaps. So when I put his outfit together and on him a few days before the photo shoot, he was pulling and tugging at everything and had successfully undressed himself down to the diaper in less than 3 minutes. So that morning, I dressed him in the car right before our pictures and said a few prayers he would keep his clothes on in the 40 degree weather! He also had nothing to do with smiling unless he was running! We made all kinds of funny boy noises, tickled him, etc and he was stone cold! I can't believe even one of his turned out! That morning I had also spent nearly 20 minutes trying to get my scarf just right. I had played with it all week trying to perfect the look and not have it look like lions mane. I had it all tucked in and just right, opened the door to the car and a giant gust of wind threw the whole thing over my head!! Geez! So, yes, lions mane it is! Here are some of my fav's!