Christmas with the Cauley's

We celebrate Christmas with Shane's dad's side of the family the Sunday before Christmas. This year, we went to Shane's dad's house. We had great food, opened presents and spent time catching up with family. We look forward to this every year.

Here are some of the pictures that we took:

Nanny (Shane's grandmother) and Thomas (Shane's dad)

Aunt Christy (Shane's sister) and Bryce

Farrah and Tommy (Shane's brother)

Alicia, Dave, Chaz and Lynda....Alicia is Lynda's daughter, they live in Pensacola where Dave flies for the Navy(???).

This is Bryce's favorite position...on his side with his leg up

Shane cutting up the turkeys that he fried

Grandpa holding Chaz and Bryce

Jacob and Bryce with Caden who is 3 years old

Chaz, Jacob and Bryce....Chaz was born in March and is 2 months older than Bryce

Christmas Day...Lunch

For lunch on the 19th, we had a traditional Christmas meal. My parents came, Shane's mom and Rich came, Shane's Uncle Butch and Aunt Dee came and my cousin Elan, her 2 kiddos, Daniel and Joy, and my Aunt Mary came. You might remember that Joy was born just 3 days after Bryce. We love to get them together to see what they do and compare. Mostly they just looked at each other. Bryce likes to grab ears and he did this a few times to Joy.

We enjoyed our huge lunch and then opened some presents. Then we had dessert, of course :)

Here are some pics from that day:

Elan holding Joy, Mom (Mimi), Dad (PawPaw), Aunt Mary with Daniel, me holding Bryce, Shane, Uncle Butch, Aunt Dee with Jacob in front of her, Rich (Pop) and Gail (Nana)

Bryce has figured out that when the red light starts flashing on the camera, he is to smile. We love playing with him and the camera. He almost always smiles for that red light :)

Bryce and Joy....looks like Joy has something funny to tell Bryce

Daniel, Aunt Mary, Elan and Joy

Jacob and Daniel.....this Nerf toy has been a hit.

Bryce and Joy

Christmas Day

We left for CO on the 23rd, so we celebrated Christmas on Saturday, the 19th. We got up that morning and opened presents with the boys. It was just like any other Christmas day except that this Christmas was very special because Bryce was with us. It is so neat to be able to experience all of the baby first's again and opening presents is a big first.

We didn't want to set up our big 9 foot tree since we were going to be gone Christmas day so we borrowed my parents 3 foot tree and set it up on a table. The small tree took some getting used to in our big 2 story living room. The cats were still able to have some fun. and enjoyed taking naps underneath it and playing with the ornaments. UGH! I remember Boo climbing up inside the 9 foot tree last year and breaking many ornaments. It was nice to not have to mess with that this year. It was especially nice to not have to chase Bryce away from the tree constantly.

Jacob's big present from us was a boombox. Now I get to hear loud thumping coming from his room, which is above the kitchen. He loves to play his electronic drum set through the boombox. He also got some video games and movies and some other toys from us. Bryce got a ball popping toy and some stacking cups from us. We didn't spend too much on him as we knew family would and a 7 month old doesn't need too much.

As soon as presents were opened, we started preparing for our Christmas meal. Shane fried 2 turkeys and I cooked some sides.

Here are some pictures from our morning:

Jacob helped Bryce open his presents but all Bryce really cared about were the bows.

I know...we just coudn't resist putting the bow on his head :)

Two bows...he's really having fun now

Bryce and Sadie

Every year, Sadie gets a bone for Christmas. She expects it and will look through gift bags for it. I started hiding it a few years ago. She doesn't even chew on them much anymore but does look forward to her present.

Hurry up and unwrap that bone!

Jacob and Bryce

Jacob and Moose in front of the tree. Now you get the full effect :)

My Family

The last night we were there, we went to a mexican restaurant on the Arkansas River in Tulsa. It was great food and fun. The kids had Christmas themed balloon hats made for them as you can see in the picture below. We are so lucky to have such a great family. If only they lived closer. Love you guys!

Jacob, Zach and Sydni

Debbie and David Lee

Davena and Glenn

Me and Randy

The kids showing off their balloon hats

Everyone enjoyed getting to meet Bryce. He had a great time on the trip too and loved all the attention he got. Here are some pictures of him playing on the floor at Davena and Glenn's house:

More Grands

You might be wandering what I was doing with Bryce while at the Grands. Well, Shane and Jacob were busy most of the time with warming Jacob up to race, racing, etc. Bryce and I had a little area in the stands were we sat. We spent some time in our pit and some time just walking around looking at the vendors and such. Bryce is such a trooper at these events. There are so many people to look at and the races to watch. He never once complained of boredom or just being tired of being there. He was so good. I think he has just grown used to being at these events as he has been going to them since he was a couple of weeks old.

My family also came to watch the races a lot of the time. It was great to have them there and Jacob loved that they came to watch him. I loved having someone else to help me with Bryce and to give my back a break from holding him. When he was tired, he napped great in his stroller. Here are some pics of my family:

Uncle David Lee, Aunt Debbie, my brother Randy, Dad holding Bryce and Mom

Randy, Jacob and me

Here are some pics we took during some down time:

My three boys

Happy baby

Bryce and his daddy

The Grands

On Saturday, the national race started. This is a separate race than what we raced on Friday. This is the final national race of the year. Again, Jacob raced in 2 separate classes...mixed/open and class (see previous post for description). This time we did not miss any moto's:) On Saturday, the first 2 moto's were raced. Unfortunately, he did not qualify that day. On Sunday morning, he raced the third moto in both classes and qualified to move on.

Just to give you a perspective on how long our days were, there were about 350 motos for ROC on Friday and about 450 motos for the grands. It takes close to an hour to do 150 motos as long as they are running more than one moto on the track. Each race takes about 45 seconds. It goes fast but we did have some periods of waiting 2+ hours. Not to mention the fact that our days started very early. Sunday was different in that the races went so fast that Jacob barely had time to eat. After the third moto, there were quarter finals, semi finals and then the mains. Jacob made it to the quarter finals in his mixed/open class...again, a huge accomplishment. He made it to the semi finals in his class race but missed making it into the main by one place.

To tell you that Jacob handled not making it into the main well, well, I would be lying. Shane called me (I was in the stands) and asked me to come see Jacob. He was hysterical with anger, then crying, then anger. He felt like he had been cheated. He hadn't. It's just that racing the best means lots of hard, heavy competition involving elbows, knees and strategy. It took him about 30 minutes to settle down before we could all just take a deep breath and forget racing and enjoy the mains.

On our team, 4 people made it to the mains. Our best winner was a mom who races the 40-45 class and brought in a 2nd and 3rd place finish. I believe our team came in 11th out of 30+ teams. I hadn't expected the grands to be so tiring, so exciting and that they would make me so nervous. I was a wreck waiting for Jacob to qualify. There was one day were I couldn't even eat for 7 hours. I just wanted him to do his best and to be proud of himself, whether he made it into the mains or not. I think, in the end, that is what happened. He had a lot of fun and is proud of himself. Now he knows what he needs to work on to improve for next year. Tulsa, here we come again!!!

During our down time, there were lots of things to keep the kids busy. Below are some pictures of Jacob riding a big wheel and playing Rock Band:



Here are some pictures Shane took while he and Jacob were waiting to race:

Jacob and his friend Bryce waiting in the chute to get to the starting gate.

Jacob with Brad and Bryce Leach

Our teammates, Darren and his boys Blake and Rayne in back

Jacob ready to race

The Drive and Thanksgiving Day

On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving (yes, I am just now getting around to writing about Thanksgiving), we drove to Tulsa, OK for two reasons. One, so Jacob could race in the BMX Grand Nationals, which is the final and biggest race of the year, and two, to see family. We are lucky enough to have family to stay with and to not have to stay in a hotel which, lets face it, is no fun with a baby. It took us about 9 hours to get there. Shane, the boys and I stayed at my cousin Davena's house in Jenks, which is about 20 minutes from the arena in downtown Tulsa. Jacob got to spend lots of time with his cousins, Zach (9) and Sydni (7). My parents and my brother Randy, who flew in from Denver, stayed at my Uncle David Lee and Aunt Debbie's house in Haskell, which is about 30 minutes from Davena's house. They were kind enough to drive in every day to see us.

On Thursday, Shane took Jacob to two separate practice sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Each practice session lasted only 15 minutes. He was able to make it around the track about 5 times. In between his practice sessions, we did manage to have a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with our family. Davena did an awesome job preparing a meal for all of us and didn't need my help much at all. She looked so calm whereas I would have been all stressed out cleaning and cooking for that many people. I promised myself that I would try to do better next Saturday when we have Christmas here....yeah, right :)

Jacob was signed up to race the Race of Champions (ROC) on Friday. Only the top 10 riders in the state in an age group are invited to race that day. He raced two separate classes... 7/8 mixed open and class. Mixed open were 7 and 8 year olds (boys and girls) in the novice and intermediate class. Class is just all 8 intermediate boy racers. There were two moto's (or two chances to get in to the main event). Unfortunately, this was our first time and we got a little confused and he missed his second moto in the mixed/open class and did not advance in that class as a result. We were so bummed and will not make that mistake again. So then we only had class left. There were a total of approximately 40 8 year olds in the 8I class. Jacob advanced through quarter and semi finals and made it to the main event! We were so excited and proud that he made it to the main. He came in 8th place. Only 3 riders on our team made it to the main for the entire ROC on Friday. This was a huge accomplishment and the highlight of our weekend.

Here are some pictures of the track:

The starting gate

The track...starting gate is upper left and finish line is to the left of that by the orange JBL sign.

We are lucky in that our team manager designs and builds tracks for the ABA and he did so with the grand's track. All teams have a pit area that they can hang out in, cook in, keep pets in, etc. We had a great pit area and went back and forth between the pit and the track to eat and rest. Here are some pics of our pit area:

Thor/Stmpo pit area

Another view...see all the bikes?

Jacob, Shane and Rayne

It's Official!!!

Baby boy is now Bryce David Cauley! He is legally ours in the state of Texas. We should receive a new birth certificate in a few weeks.

On November 19th we drove up to Dallas and stayed in a hotel downtown. My mom and dad made the drive too. The next morning we were at the courthouse by 8am. Friday's are official Adoption Day for the Dallas area. All hearings are held at the juvenile courthouse just outside of downtown. When our name was called we walked into the court room and went to stand right in front of the judge, who was very, very nice. Apparently, they like to have the adoption's first thing in the morning before getting to the juvenile defendants to lift up the mood in the room. There were a lot of people in the court room, all waiting for their case to come up and all either juvenile's or their unhappy parents. I was suprised to see so many people there and they were all looking at us but pleased to see the smile on their faces when we were done.

First we were sworn in. Shane, Jacob and I all raised our right hands. Jacob was so cute in front of the judge :) Then, our lawyer basically read some statements/questions and Shane answered either yes or no to them. Some of them didn't make any sense to us but we were instructed to say yes to those. I just had to affirm that I agreed with all that Shane said. Then we were done. Here are some more pics from that day:

Waiting for our name to be called.

Being sworn in

Listening to the judge

After we were done, we went to Pappasito's to celebrate. Our wonderful friend, Sherry, joined us. Then mom and dad drove to Longview to see family and we drove to Desoto to ride the bmx track there. It was rainy and cold that night but Bryce and I sat with some friends that we have made there in front of their heater to keep us warm.



We are so thankful to finally have the adoption made official. We keep contact with Bryce's birth mother and she was especially on our minds that day. If it weren't for her and her amazing bravery, Bryce would not be with us. We had something very special to be thankful for this Thanksgiving...Bryce!

Love to all,
Laura