The Cauley's: Where have the Cauley's been?

Since my beautiful wife is too busy to post these days, I figure its about time someone did :-) Bryce is doing very well. He is sleeping through the night consistently; however, he can't seem to make up his mind what time to wake up. The current wakey time is 6:30, but some days it's 7:30 to even 8:00! That doesn't happen very often though. He does however seem to be happier the longer he sleeps. We have found that putting him down earlier seems to help. We like to have him down by 7:30 and sometimes as early as 7:00. He still has some difficutly napping during the day, but its not that bad.

Tomorrow, Bryce will be 6 months old. Wow, how time flies. He loves to smile and demands constant attention, which he is usually provided. We don't want to spoil him, but he is making it tough :-) He is getting up on his hands and knees and taking that first lunge forward. I expect he will be crawling in the next few weeks. Here is a cute video I took of him this morning. He has become much more vocal lately and this is one of the first giggles caught on video.

Now if that doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will :-)

Bryce is a true blessing to this family and proof that God hears our prayers.

Jacob is training very hard for the BMX Grand Nationals in Tulsa. He is taking lessons from one of the true masters of the sport, three time world champion, John Purse (see pic below.) John is an amazing coach and has helped Jacob improve in just three lessons. The lessons are about 2 to 2.5 hours each. We plan to have two more lessons before the Grands, which are the weekend after Thanksgiving in Tulsa, OK. Jacob has shown significant improvement from one lesson to the next. It is amazing what a good coach can do both physically and mentally. He is not only training Jacob on the bike, but strength training (no weights) off of the bike. Jacob is usually pretty shot after 2.5 hours. John knows how to push him just hard enough; something us parents usually get all wrong.

The Grands schedule will be very demanding of Jacob as he is racing in multiple classes and the Race of Champions. The top ten riders in each age group are invited to the Race of Champions, which is the day after Thanksgiving and the day before the Grand Nationals (It's actually considered a different event, although it is raced on the Grands track.) It gives the riders the chance to win the acclaimed "ROC1" number plate for the following year if you win. It also gives the riders extra time on the track before the Grands, which is highly prized. Each eage group gets a whopping 30 minutes of practice on the track so extra races are a key advantage on a new track in preparing for the Grands the next two days. Jacob is registered to race two different classes in the ROC, 7/8 Open and 8 Intermediate. 7/8 open is a mixture of any qualifying 7 or 8 year old on a 20" bike or cruiser. It's just an "open" race. Jacob is a tough 8 year old so he should do very well in this class. Then he will race his usual 8 intermediate against other 8 intermediate riders. The Grands actually begin on Saturday, with 2 qualifying rounds on Saturday and the final qualifying round and main events on Sunday. Again, Jacob is racing 7/8 Open as well as 8 intermediate so he will be racing at various points throughout the weekend. There is a lot of time between his motos, but I'm sure it will still be somewhat hectic. We are so excited!

Here are a few more pics. Enjoy!