Happy New Year!

These are the maniacs that came to our house Christmas Eve during the Blizzard!

My Babies above and below, above also my niece!

I know, can you believe it? Here it is 2010 and my last post was October 2009 or somewhere around then. We've had Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years!

I'll try to bring you up to date without boring you. Life is full with our "Ryker Party of 6". Thanksgiving we went to Uncle Joe and Aunt Janet's home and the kids got to play and run around with Breck's side of the family. Christmas and New Years we were home celebrating! We decided to start a new tradition by staying home Christmas day and going over to my folks the day after. We absolutely love it and enjoyed our day so much more. There was no pressure to be anywhere at anytime and so we just hung out. I highly recommend this new little tradition. Christmas Eve we always have friends come over after our Christmas Eve service and just hang out.....eat food....let the kids go wild upstairs.....and celebrate with a Happy Birthday Jesus Cake. Well this year the blizzard came in so our Christmas Eve service was cancelled and many could not make it. We did have some folks come though and let's just say we are so thankful they made it back to their homes safely that night. It was horrible weather and the truth was no one should have been out but some of our friends just don't have the good sense to stay out of the weather....we loved it though! I had a lot of food left over and a big Happy Birthday Jesus cake that didn't get all the way eaten.

We are now in January and the kids are back in school! We just got progress reports and everyone is doing great! Alex is on the Principal's Honor Roll and is thrilled, which we are too! Jared continues to be a strong student. Griffin got rewarded for good behavior and got to eat with his teacher. Tori is managing to stay on green since it is tied to her being able to cheer! :) Hey you got to use whatever works to encourage them to do their best.

All the kids are doing Upwards....Alex, Jared and Griff are doing basketball and Tori is cheering. Jared is still a little steamed about Tori cheering and not playing basketball.....he doesn't get it! I'm sure this is just the beginning of a whole lot of stuff he won't get about girls. All of the kids seem to love what they are doing and are having a great time. Griffin is the only one that is doing two activities... he does gymnastics and has participated in two meets. He is doing great and we are very proud of him.

We do have a new addition to the family....a guinea pig named Sasha, Griff's pet! Larry our greyhound and pet for 8 years died in October. It was really hard on the boys and mostly Griffin. Griff seems to be our biggest animal lover so Santa equipped him to house a guinea pig, so after Christmas we went to PetSmart and he got to pick out his little darling. I never thought I would have a rodent in my house by choice but I do and she is kind of cute! :)

I'll try to update a little more frequently since I know some of you out there are interested in what's happening at our place!

Thanks for stopping by!