Wesley Can...

...ride a bike WITHOUT training wheels!

For the past year, Wesley has been riding a balance bike that we borrowed from a friend. He adored this thing and was just incredible on it - doing all sorts of tricks and stunts. Giving mommy a heart attack nearly every single time he was on it!

Daddy and I have been using this bike as an experiment of sorts. We were wanting to see if it would make a difference when it came to transition to a 'Big Boy Bike.' Given the fact that he was quickly outgrowing the Strider, we decided that the time was now. However, there was one big problem - Wesley had no idea how to pedal! Because of this, we decided to leave the training wheels on until he knew how to pedal...

This afternoon, I decided to give it a go and let him truly ride for more than the mere 2 minutes he had done prior. Within a few minutes, I realized that Wesley pedaling was not happening as the training wheels were to high, preventing the rear wheel from touching the ground - making it near impossible for him to move. Therefor, the decision was made to remove the training wheels and hope for the best...

Once the training wheels were removed, we made sure that Wesley was fully padded - knees and elbows - and then onto the bike he went. I was fully expecting to hold onto him as he balanced and tried to pedal, but Wesley had other plans...

He literally climbed onto the bike, asked for a push, and took off down the street before I could process that my 4 year old was riding a 2 wheel pedal bike for the very first time with absolutely no help! Within 20 minutes, we had made our way around the block 2 times, as well as showed off for every single neighbor that was willing to watch!

All of us, Daddy, Lil' Robert, Hannah, and I, are SO very proud of him. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect him to just take off like he did! I am still quite shocked with just how simple the transition was from the 2 wheel balance bike to the 2 wheel pedal bike!

I would say that our experiment was a success!

Mother's Day 2013

Today was incredible! Today was exhausting. Today was a Mother's Day that I will forever remember...

Around 11:45 last night, my head finally hit the pillow. Prior to that a certain 8 year old could not fall asleep.  During his in and out of his bed, he woke a certain 6 year old who became too scared to lay down by herself. {Now, let me back up a bit and say that all 3 kiddos, for the past 3 months, have been sleeping in the same room. The boys in their beds with Hannah on a crib mattress under Robert's loft bed.} This resulted in Robert making his home in Hannah's horse bed while Hannah made a pallet on the floor...

After almost 30minutes of snuggling with Lil' Robert, he was finally asleep. As I tried to sneak out of the room, Hannah woke. I laid with her on the floor for nearly an hour and, of course, every. single. time. that I tried to leave, she would wake up, cry, and beg to snuggle longer. I would lay back down, only to repeat the scenario a few minutes later! OYE! Eventually, I gave her my Kindle and told her to read the horse books and I would return to snuggle in a bit...

This worked until 1:15 am when I was awoken by a finger poking me in the forehead! Once again, she woke and was scared. In came her blanket and pillow so that she could make a pallet next to me bed. Back to slumber land she went until 6am...

At some point after 3, Wesley came running and screaming into my room. He needed his mommy 'nuggles'! I pulled him in bed between daddy and I and we all fell back asleep!

As soon as the clock strikes 6am, Miss Hannah woke and needed food! I tried to convince her to lay down that it was not wake up time, but this did not go over well. Tears quickly followed and before I knew it, Lil' Robert, Hannah, Wesley, and I were wide awake and starting the day. Breakfast was served to the 3 kiddos and they were told to sit quietly and eat - Mommy wanted to lay down again!

This worked for a very little bit - maybe 5 minutes - until I was back out here breaking up another fight! So our day started out early and abruptly - but with PLENTY of Happy Mother Day's thrown between the arguments!

Just before 8, we woke daddy so that we could get ready for the nursery. As I was in the bathroom getting ready, daddy, Lil' Robert, Hannah, and Wesley presented me with a beautiful picture. (see top of post)

The rest of the day was spent at the nursery, watching as the police pulled over speeders in San Marco, taking (or attempting to take) naps, Mass (where daddy and I both received Holy Communion with Lil' Robert AND he received the Precious Blood for the first time ever!), and dinner with Grandma...

It was an absolutely fabulous day full of little things from my children at every turn. I truly think this might be the first year that they understood the value of today!

First Holy Communion Pictures

 

My heart is bursting with pride as I sit here. My oldest son has just received Holy Communion for the very first time! He has experienced the joy of receiving the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ! He has officially received his 3rd Sacrament!

When it was time for communion, Lil' Robert approached the altar and bowed before the consecrated host. He told Father Thanh 'Amen' - I Believe - as Jesus was presented to him. Then, Jesus was placed in  Lil' Robert hands and he stepped to the side, made the sign of the cross and returned to his seat - 4 seemingly simple steps that have so much meaning...

 Daddy and I had tears in our eyes as we watched. However, Lil' Robert had a grin that I rarely see spread across his face. He knew just how special today is. He understood the importance of receiving Jesus. He showed Daddy and I that he was truly ready for today. That he understood its importance...

Reflecting on this morning, we are so proud. We are joyous. We are grateful.



Happy 6th Birthday, Hannah Elizabeth!

6 years ago today, our lives forever changed on so many levels...

• We became parents of a precious baby girl.
• We became a family of 4.
• We learned just how powerful prayer is.

 

On the day of Hannah's birth, things could have gone terribly wrong. In most instances, things do go terribly wrong. You see, I had nearly a complete abruption with her...

 These are very commonly fatal, as was the case with my little brother on 12/9/01...

 The fact that she survived with no issues. The fact that I had no major issues. Those are miraculous...

 Hannah Elizabeth is our miracle.

 She has brought so much love and happiness to our family...

 

She amazes me daily with what she comes up with. Her imagination blows me away. Her memory and knowledge of everything is incredible.

She is the best daughter we could ever ask for...

 Her love for anything living is precious. She loves horses with every ounce of her being, much like her mother did when she was little! She adores babies and little children. She is so very compassionate and caring...

Hannah Elizabeth,

I am so very proud of you! You are so very special to me - you are my only daughter! You are the only one I can take to paint nails or play with hair or play dress up.

Just like I do with your brothers, I cherish every single moment together. Every single thing that you do.

As I type this, you are creating words on the floor to create a hopscotch game. You had the idea to make the words. You have a zest for learning that I have never seen. In fact, we have you an entire year ahead of your peers! You, Hannah, began Kindergarten at 4 years old!
 
Hannah, I love you to the moon and back a million, zillion, and one time!

XOXOXOXO,
Your Mommy

Musical Beds...

I went to bed at 11:00...

At 12:00, I woke to Daddy coming to bed...

At 12:42, I woke to a 4 year old crawling in bed with me. After he settled and realized he was not getting chocolate milk, I was able to fall back asleep...

At 1:54, I woke to my almost 6 year old trying to crawl in bed with me. It was quite the ordeal when I explained that she was not able to get into my bed because her brother was already in there. She finally gave in and made a pallet on the floor. Minutes later, the aforementioned 4 year old decided he wanted out of my bed and onto the pallet. When this decision was made the almost six year old began to sob because the 4 year old touched her covers. The situation was resolved and all fell asleep...

At 3:10, the 4 year old crawled back into bed with me. However, when he crawled into bed, he messed up the covers and this required me to crawl out of bed for a 3rd time in 4 hours. After a few minutes he settled and I was able to fall back into an exhausted slumber...

At 4:40, an almost 8 year old, came into my room. He looked at my bed, tried to crawl in. When he realized this would not work, an attitude kicked in that required Daddy's intervention. He finally settled on a pallet on Daddy's side of the bed...

At 6:25 all were up and ready for the day...

One day I will miss this; until then, I will remain exhausted and enjoy these fleeting moments of their childhood...

2012-2013 School Year

We are so very, very excited about school this year! For the first time in 3yrs, as I opened the boxes containing all of the work we need to complete within the next year, I was not overwhelmed. Rather filled with excitement and joy. I sorted each of the kiddos books and placed them in their backpacks - even Wesley has joined in the curriculum fun with his letter, number, shape, and color books - and felt nothing but excitement about the 18lbs of books I was forcefully pushing within! The feeling that this is what my family needs right now is so incredibly nice!

I am not sure what is the cause for the feeling of peace and comfort... I wonder if it is because of our new curriculum (we left Seton and are now using Catholic Heritage Curricula). Or maybe because I am grateful that all 5 of us are excited about school this year. Who knows, but I am beyond happy. Seeing my family excited is so nice! Last year things were a huge struggle - things were black and white - things were boring. I knew if I was bored so were they..... and after this afternoon, I am convinced this was the correct decision for the Riker Family this year!

Also for the first time, I will be teaching 3 different ages, opposed to the 2 of last year. Robert (7) will be entering 2nd grade. Hannah (5) will be entering 1st. Wesley (3) will be doing pre pre-school work. This year will be a lot of work, but I feel so good about this - in fact we have already finished a science lesson and it had more info that our entire science book last year!

We officially start Monday and I will take lots of pictures and will eventually do a post. Until then, it is organizing everything for our first week!

Off to the doctor we go......

Today, I took Robert, Hannah, and Wesley for their annual well child checks. I love our doctor because we very rarely have to wait. Today, I had not even paid yet when they were calling our names. The best part was that their appointments were spread out over 2 hours, but our incredible doctor saw each of them at the same time - no going back to the waiting room and waiting until the appointment time. From the moment we drove into the parking lot until we were buckling our seat belts on the way out, was a whopping 45 minutes!

When we first arrived, the boys were quite hopeful that they would get shots. Why they wanted them, I will never know, but they did. Hannah, on the other hand, was terrified that she would get one. As our fabulous doctor made his rounds through each child, the boys became upset and Hannah became happy - NO shots for anyone.... I was grateful for this because though they thought that shots would be 'fun' I knew they would be followed by tears.... lots of tears!

We also went through and looked at each kiddos stats and growth curve...or lack thereof!

Robert (7): 42lbs (8%) and 44.5in (6%)

 Hannah (5): 36lbs (23%) and 41in (19%)

Wesley (3): 28lns (12%) and 35.5in (6%)

 
Since they were all so good, I took them to a park down the road from the Family Medicine Clinic. I had packed up some old biscuits, monkey bread, hamburger buns, and bread so that  could feed the ducks. All of the kiddos loved this and at times, I had to remind Hannah and Wesley that the bread was old and meant for the ducks NOT them! Once we ran out of bread, all of us ventured to the playground where they climbed, ran, and played on the swings.

While we were swinging, we were greeted by a lady with a microphone and a man with a camera - they were from channel 4 news and wanted to interview us in regards to how the smoke was affecting us. The funny thing was, I had just given the kiddos the 2 minute warning as it was starting to give me a headache! Anyhow, they interviewed me and filmed the kiddos playing. It should air Wednesday morning during the 6:30 segment. As soon as I *hopefully* find it, I will post it on here!

So, it was a great morning. Our kiddos are healthy, happy, and albeit slowly, they are growing! I found myself doing the math today to see just how much they have grown since that first day ....

Robert: 7 times bigger than he was 7yrs ago

Hannah: 6 times bigger than she was 5yrs ago

Wesley: 6 times bigger than he was 3yrs ago

Thank you, God for Robert Edwin Hannah Elizabeth, and Wesley Keegan.

Birthday Party.... #1!

This is the first time that we have had a 'real' party for all of the kiddos. We rented a bounce house, bought 3 separate cakes, concocted a deal with Sno Biz to have sno cones, etc etc. We created and sent invitations to family and a handful of our intimate friends.... since this was the first real party, we did not want to overwhelm ourselves with the possible chaos of inviting a large group of people.....

The air dancers

After deciding to have the party, we chose a date - March 31. It is a Saturday between all 3 birthdays (March 2, March 22, and April 8) and it worked for our extended family. Well, we never planned on inclimate weather and as the week progressed and the chance of rain rose from 10% on Monday to 70% last night to 100% this morning, we knew that things were not looking good. When the rain first started, Hannah and I ran inside, grabbed our Rosaries and said 2 decades. By the time we were done, not only was it raining, but now it was thundering and lightening as well - UGH! Daddy and I went back and forth and finally, after seeking the counsel of an outside party, the decision was made to move it to tomorrow.....

Little Robert's Dinosaur Cake

Daddy and I made all of the phone calls and were ever so grateful when all but 4 families would not be able to join us tomorrow. The kiddos were quite bummed about this, so Daddy and I spoke for a moment and then decided to have those families over today instead.....

Hannah's Cinderella Cake (decorations will be added tomorrow)

So, after these decisions were made, Daddy made the trek to Publix to pick up the 3 birthday cakes for the birthday boys and girl. As he was turning into the driveway at 1:50 (party was to begin at 2), the sun began to peek through the clouds. By 2:45, it was out in all of its glory, so Daddy and 2 other daddies went out with brooms and towels and cleaned the bounce house so that the kiddos could play. And that they did until just before 4 (When the party was to end!). So, I guess that we could have still had the party today since our prayers were answered, but in the end I am glad that we did it this way.... It was much more intimate and a way to test the waters for tomorrow!

Wesley's Monster Truck Cake - He wanted to use his for our Mini-Party today!

Praise God, all of them, Robert, Hannah, and Wesley had a great time. I am so glad that those few families were able to join us today because the kiddos were so very upset about not having any party today.

Wesley testing out the bounce house on Friday!

Mommy and Hannah

Hollis, Robert, Lucas

Big Wesley, Robert, Lucas

Enjoying the bounce house!

Hannah and Robert having a great time!

Big Wesley and Robert

Wesley going.....

....going.....

.....gone!

Cake time!

"Happy Birthday to ya'll! Happy Birthday to ya'll! Happy Birthday Robert, Hannah, and Wesley! Happy Birthday to ya'll!"

It took *multiple* attempts to light the candles thanks to a few anxious kiddos!

We had to sing 3 separate times so that each kiddos could have a turn blowing out the candles!

The cake was good :-)

Aside from the bounce house, the presents were a huge hit! Thank you to all for pampering my kiddos!

SO much fun was had by all!

Robert received airplanes and Hannah a kitty cat that purrs! Wesley was given puzzles! Thank you Mrs. Gretchen, Mr. Troy, Hollis, and Hayes!

Robert trying to break into his transformer - Thank you Mrs. Marsha, Mr. Tim, Wesley and Cooper!

Hannah and Robert playing and Big Wesley swing high as the sky while I get super sweet snuggles from Baby Emerson - Thank you, Mrs. Julia, Mr. Andrew, Xavier, and Felix for coming and sharing your sweet one with Mama Mary!

A huge thank you to all that came out and celebrated with us today. It was so much fun to celebrate each one of our children. To let them know just how very important and special they are.  We love you all!