Deuces, 2013!

Well, 2013 was pretty amazing. Ryker, one of the two most beautiful men on the planet, joined me and his daddy (the other gorgeous beefcake) in May. 

He came 7 weeks early and stayed in the NICU for two weeks.

Right after he came home we waited a week or so and headed out to CA to visit my family and went to the zoo! I'm pretty sure this is our first family picture.

Sam gave his little brother tons of kisses when he was angry post bath.

Ryker and his Great-great Grandma hung out at Jamestown.

I fake smiled my way through the first morning back in uniform and back to work.

Angriest lumberjack ever! And we bought new couches, curtains and a new TV!

I competed in my first team crossfit competition and we took fifth of 17 

teams!

Ryker loves standing and his brincolin, or Jumperoo.

We saw Santa!

And we journeyed out to Colorado to see family and check out neighborhoods we want to move to when I get out if the Navy in 2015.

All in all, probably one of the best years of my life! This year I got to travel through the newest part of marriage with my beautiful husband by expanding our family. We love that little wiggle monster more than we could have imagined possible. We've both made awesome gains in our health and fitness travels and I can't wait to see what we succeed at in the upcoming year. I've got a few lofty resolutions that I plan on tackling, I'm so excited to take advantage of new opportunities. I would tell anyone to not wait for January 1 to clean up bad habits, but it's just such a convenient start date! 

Happy New Years Eve, everyone. I'll raise my ever-filled champagne glass to cheers you all!

Oh, Colorado

Colorado is just too much, I can't wait to move here. It's not a very snowy winter right now, but my in-laws are at a higher elevation and they got an awesome dusting right before we got here. 

They just bought an absolutely gorgeous mountain home on the side of a mountain overlooking this view. The windows...oh man, the windows! Vic, his sister and his friend, Danny left early this morning to ski and left the rest of us behind to meet up for lunch later in Breckenridge. My bum shoulder won't let me snowboard. Correction, my bossy husband with my best interests in mind won't let my bum shoulder snowboard. It's ok though, I love exploring Breck's shops. 

Ryker didn't do so bad on the plane, but I still probably won't choose to fly with a baby with the next one. I get so stressed over bothering other passengers, I think my heart rate was on burpee level the whole time. I did get some great snuggles when Ryker would nap on me. It's those snuggles that made me look at Vic and whisper very quietly, "this is what makes me love being a Mommy". 

Ryker got the cutest outfit for Christmas and done awesome toys here. He's currently on his 10th hour of sleep, he's pretty pooped from yesterday. I can't wait to get him up and see him in shoes! 

Well, I'm going to enjoy the view and a Property Brothers marathon with my coffee until everyone gets up. Happy Monday!

364 days to go!

Well, Christmas has come and gone. It's unbelievable how fast the Christmas season went by! I didn't think that Ryker would get especially excited this year, pretty much the only thing he gets excited for is being in the high chair and opening his mouth SUPER wide to get a bite of his dinner. He did play in his big Christmas present with a bow from one of his gifts while Vic and I opened up the rest of ours. I was really surprised at how long we got away with that one! 

He did like trying to pull the tissue paper out of the presents! He let me put that Santa hat on him all day long too, without any fuss.

Vic and I had decided while I was pregnant with the little one that we wanted our Christmas' to be spent at home, with our tree. I can't lie, when we FaceTimed the families I was a little bit jealous of all the hustle and bustle. But, Vic and I pulled out Monopoly while the baby was napping, poured some wine and had an epic tournament. It only took four games for me to finally win one! It may seem like a boring night to some, but listening to some Christmas tunes with my man while a fire burned was really all I needed. 

We are trying to get Ryker to get a solid dinner in these days that isn't just formula (I realized we spend $40 on two bags...which lasts like 38 bottles and not even ten days. WHAT?!) I had made a Pumpkin Bacon soup for Vic and I and set aside some chicken, bacon, pumpkin puree and broccoli to puree for the baby. When I smelled it I figured there was no way he would eat it, it was straight broccoli. He LOVED it! Couldn't get enough in his mouth. After bath time he was very ready for bed with his new toy from my Aunt Sarah.

We were supposed to roast our turkey yesterday, which is actually the same one that we were supposed to do on Thanksgiving. Um...it finally was roasted today. The good news is, it turned out pretty good for my first full turkey, considering I don't own a roasting pan. I was going to have a completely paleo day and be back on track and then Vic came home from the gym with Stove Top stuffing. That s**t s the best. I had three bites and stuck to my yummy turkey and veggies. I skipped the gym today like a lazy bum to the get the house ready for our friend that will be hanging out here with the pups while we go to Colorado next week. We can actually navigate our guest room now and I packed away so many of Ryker's clothes that are too small now. That is so hard! All the cute, itty bitty clothes, oh man. 

Ryker's first Christmas is on the books...I can't wait until next year! I hope you all had a very, Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Hasn't this year just flown by? I swear having a kid makes life go by faster. Even though he has no idea what is going on, I'm so excited to share this Christmas with him. He likes to be held and walk around the house, so I take him over to the Christmas tree a lot and show him the many sports and science fiction ornaments that we have. My tree is so devoted to boy things, I've got my one sparkly, leopard print ornament to represent the estrogen in the house. 

Since it's been way too long since my last post, I'll get you up to date with the other happenings in the Kassel house. Remember when I posted about the competition? Just a couple weeks after that, the paleo challenge at CrossFit Rife ended and everyone had great results! I was so happy to find a way to lose the baby weight and get stronger without being totally miserable. That being said...as soon as I wasn't help to the challenge eating rules I went completely out of my mind. For the last month, Vic and I have basically been eating like I just got out of prison. I've slowly been getting better and better every day and I'm moving back to eating as clean as I had been on the challenge. It's just so silly to not stick with a program that worked so well! It definitely takes some work and planning, but that great confidence that I found about my body is totally worth is. 

On a different note about my body, I had a pretty epic shoulder injury right after the challenge ended. A few months ago, I finally got comfortable with snatches and overhead squats. I had been afraid of both of them because of the shoulder mobility involved, I've always had a bum right shoulder. Well, I went to a WOD based on snatches one morning and went to snatch 55 pounds. The last time before that workout that I had done snatches, I had snatched 55 pounds, and had done 4 rounds of 7 with that weight. So, needless to say, I wasn't worried about being able to get that lift that morning. The first pull, I got to my chest and dropped the bar. It just felt weird. I thought about lowering the weight but figured I'd give it one more shot. Oh, I got that weight overhead....and then I dislocated my right shoulder. There is no other way to say it...holy shit, that hurt. A friend at the gym rushed me to the ER and here I am now, awaiting surgery to reattach my labrum. The doc isn't sure if he'll need to do more until I have another MRI, so I'll let you know how that goes!

Good news is, I got a cortisone shot that has really been helping me regain my range of motion and strength. I've kind of pouted ever since my injury and I've only been to the gym like 7 or 8 times since I hurt myself. But today, on Christmas Eve, I went in and was able to front squat 65 pounds! It's short of what I was doing before, but I'm able to get the bar in front rack which I couldn't do a week ago. Gains are gains! 

My friends Misty, Kristy and I, (yep, Misty, Kristy and Christina, that's a lot of isty, right?) are working together to train for the Shamrock Half Marathon. I'm excited to really hit it when I get back from Colorado for New Years. I've definitely learned how great it is to have the support of friends when it comes to workouts! It can really make all the difference.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas Eve and Christmas! Since we decided that we want to spend Christmas with our tree in our home from now on, we won't be with our families that are out of state. As sad as that is, I love cudding Ryker and singing "Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer" and watching Christmas movies, snuggling on the couch with Vic. Can't complain around here, life is good. 

Ryker: 7 Month Update

I can't believe it is already the day before Ryker's first Christmas. It blows my mind that he is a few days shy of seven months old! My little guy loves standing on our laps, yelling very loudly to let us know he is awake in the morning and he giggles like crazy if you kiss his belly. He's basically amazing. We saw the pediatrician earlier this month for his six month check up and after all of my first mom "Is this ok? Is that ok?" kind of questions, the pediatrician said "I hate to tell you this, your son is absolutely perfect." His adjusted age would put him closer to just over five months but you would never know it! He's met all of his milestones and he has stayed on the weight and height scales for his birth age so we are all good. 

For Christmas, we got Ryker some new books to read before bedtime and a Fisher Price Jumperoo. I searched a whole bunch of reviews and such before I chose which bouncer/exersaucer whatever you want to call them, and the jungle Jumperoo looked like a good choice for us! He likes it for a good chunk of time and then he all of a sudden doesn't like it and is very adamant about getting out. His poor little legs barely reach the floor on the lowest setting, so I think he just gets frustrated. We put the batteries in it for the lights and sounds but we barely ever turn them on, luckily they can be switched on and off and we don't have to constantly listen to it. 

Funny story...our nanny fills out a little form for us everyday with his naps, diapers and his activities for the day. She would always write "30 m en el bricolin" which I read as "brineolin" for the longest time. Of course, since I'm pretty sure brineolin isn't a word, I couldn't find anything about what it was or why you would spend 30 minutes with it. I finally asked a friend at work that speaks Spanish about it and she was like "No! Brincolin, it's the jumper!" So, after learning the origins of brincolin, we now only refer to the Jumperoo as el brincolin. It's just so much more fun to say!

He's starting to enjoy his Bumbo chair more. He doesn't have a whole lot of interest in sitting up on his own, he'd rather be standing so we'll see how long it is before he's just sitting. The Bumbo seems to help a little! A friend from work got us Sophie, the giraffe teething toy and his little friend, this crazy nipple/mushroom looking guy that Ryker really likes. If I put the tray on the Bumbo and put his toys on there he is a pretty happy guy!

We're taking the little guy on his first trip to Colorado soon, I'm so excited for him to see snow for the first time!