And the newest soccer star......

Ridge Lawson!!! He is soooooo excited to start soccer this year! As you can see from the smiles from ear to ear - he LOVES it! This is mostly a soccer clinic where Daddy helps Ridge learn soccer skills. So I'm sure he also loves the one-on-one time with Daddy!

Ridge has really come out of his shell since he started playing soccer. He runs up to his coach now when he sees him at the YMCA. He also has been volunteering to do things for his coach as well. We are proud of Ridge and his willingness to come out of his shy-shell! :) Not to mention he looks stinkin' adorable in his shin guards and cleats!

Soccer Star

Grady is playing soccer again this year. These are some pictures from his very first game. He was able to score a goal and we were so proud of him. He has come a long way in his ability to play this year! His team is short on players, so there aren't many minutes that he doesn't get to play! He is pretty tired after a game!

High 5's all around! Grady has some really nice boys on his team this year! These high 5's came after Grady scored a goal!

Here are some more pictures of the newest princess in our lives. Little Ms. Bunny (what we have decided to nickname her since she was our Easter present!) We are not expecting the nickname to stick like Yummy did with Anders, however, you never know!

Peaceful bliss.....

She has a little bit of hair - enough of a covering to make mommy happy! So far it is black which mommy desperately wants her to keep! We shall see - she is beautiful no matter what color the hair is!

Parents lookin' a little rough here - phew! Need to get home to get some sleep!


Our little strawberry tart is ready to go home!

The kiddos were ready and waiting for us when we got home. All but Anders had a temperature, so we hadn't let them come to the hospital and made them stay back a bit when we did get home. It was rather crushing to the big kids, but they understood not wanting to make Caylor sickly!

Anders was funny - all he wanted to do was wave "Hi" to her. I had never seen him wave hi to anyone before - just goodbye, so that was neat! They were all dying to get their little paws on her!

All in all - everyone has adjusted pretty well so far. We have some that like to hold her, some that are more interested in her "toys", and some interested in poking her eye and other body parts trying to name them!

We have been very appreciative of these 2 special people that have been with our crazy family the whole time. My parents got here the Friday before Caylor was born on Sunday. They took on 5 kids, 4 of whom had pretty high fevers, crazy sports and church schedules, becoming a homeschool teacher, and building us a table that we all would someday fit at. They have worked tirelessly and never complained (that I have heard!) :) about doing laundry, wiping poopy bottoms, or getting up in the middle of the night to comfort a crying grandbaby!

To them - we say THANK YOU beyond belief!!! We love you and will miss you!!!

Caylor Lindy

I would like to introduce the newest member of our growing family:

Caylor Lindy Batchelor

Born April 4, 2010 at 4:30pm

9lbs, 10 oz 19 inches long

Caylor came with great gusto! Being Easter Sunday, we were at church when the contractions started - again! So ignore and move on was my motto this time around. The contractions will persist if it were to be the real thing! By the time we got home, I sunk into bed and tried to get comfy - huh! I moved to my bath tub to try and get "more comfy". By this time the contactions were intense and close together - time to go by 3:00pm! Of course, being Batchelor-Style, we hadn't packed our bag yet, so Ryan scrambled to get some things put together. We headed off in the car with 4 of the 5 kids left at home with fevers! About 7 minutes later we had to turn around because we had forgotten the camera - and we all KNOW that is not going to work! I also hadn't downloaded my Easter pictures from that morning, but there was no time for that - I wanted my Epidural NOW!!!

I got to the Birth Center and they immediately took me back and started assessing me. I rated my pain at a 5 only because I knew it would get much worse if I DIDN'T GET MY EPIDURAL SOON!!! I was checked and told I was alreay at a 6 - so then I wanted to change my pain scale to about an 8! EPIDURAL LADY - WHERE ARE YOU??? They did their best to get it going, however, it was not destined to happen! Ugh - another birth filled with humour memories due to this crazy lady when she is in pain!

To save all the "lovely" details, Caylor was born healthy and strong. She had a poop in utero - so they did bring in the Big Wig Dr. but she was fine! She even got an 8 on her first Apgar and then a 9 on her second one!

Proud Daddy - again! :) He got his second daughter that he soooo wanted!

Aaaahhh - feeling much better now!

Our cutie!

Caylor is not fond of baths or being naked. Hopefully this will change since this is pretty much the only time she cries!

More pictures to come.... when there is time..... so don't hold you breath too long.....

"It's Cool in the Furnace"

Grady had the chance to be a star at church the other night. He performed "It's Cool in the Furnace" which is a small musical with a drama. When we started attending our church regularly, Grady started participating in a children's choir. He was excited to do this since he LOVES music, however, he felt he was far behind the others in learning his music. Let me tell you, that boy practiced, and practiced, and practiced, and practiced! He got all of his words down before the performace! I was able to help him a little bit, but he initiated a lot of the work on his own! The director told the children they needed to practice their music twice a week and Grady followed those directions EXACTLY!!! He is so funny!

One of Grady's favorite parts was playing the kazoo's. I now hear that lovely instrument daily - but it makes my heart happy that he was able to minister to others at such a young age!


Quite the performer!


What a cutie!

Exploration Place Field Trip....aka - Family Fun Day!

So Teacher Jenny decided to take her homeschool class on a field trip. Exploration Place is a family hands-on science museum. All of the activites are designed for younger children to dive in and explore around with. I invited a chaperone (aka Daddy) to be our bus driver and parent helper for this field trip. He took a day off work to spend as a Family Fun Day and we were truly excited about that after him having to travel so much with work.

So off we went . . . .
by the way . . . . this was our first adventure in our new van - which was very exciting just by iteself! :)


First stop - a seesaw that played music! Pretty cool to these students!

Ellison always out to make a new friend - anywhere!!! I asked her if she wanted to come along on our adventure - I think she was a little overwhelmed at our school size!!!

This set of pictures is at a castle themed area where much fun was had. Here is Grady galloping away from the bad guys!
Master Hudson and Master Grady

Spring loaded sea horses kept Anders attention for awhile!!!

This gives you a better picture of part of the museum! Since we registered as a homeschool, we got in quite cheap for a family of our size!

Ellie played us some beautiful music!

At dinner Ryan and I asked the students what their favorite part of the museum was. This particular event got many, many votes. They called it a roller coaster and I was surprised at how much speed they could get on this wooden contraption!!! This "roller coaster" was in the toddler section, so my older ones were able to go pretty fast on it!

Trying to dig his was out of a nap!

Ellie's potato head creation! This was mommy's - err, I mean the teachers favorite part - to sit and play with all the Potato Head pieces!


For a family with the majority being boys - this part of the museum was a total hit! ALL of my boys love trains - we have an electric train - it just hasn't gotten set up here in KS yet! We are hoping to get her up and running soon! This electric train model was a set up of Wichita in some earlier year - perhaps the teacher should have read more about the train model! :)

The next set of pictures the kids got to go into a contraption of some sort and feel what it would be like to be in a tornado. They all enjoyed it and gave the teacher some great photo ops!

I had some "boys" in particular that really enjoyed the last section of the museum. The Flight Area. Of course, I lost my chaperone's help during most of it! :) Here is Ellie and Hudson flying a simulator of a hang glider.

We had a great time on our Family Fun Day / Field Trip!

There she is....our new wheels! And I am loving it! So much space and room to move around without having to climb over anyone or anything!
Only part of the crew wanted to get in and explore! We are all moved in now and I will have to update when I get a picture of all the car seats in it. We are ALL enjoying the space!
We decided to go with a 15-passenger instead of the 12 for more cargo room. We are planning on taking out the very back seat that sits 4 to make room for groceries and Sam's runs. We also are looking forward to traveling and putting suitcases and such back there!

Peek-A-Boo!

Come and see us and we'll take you for a spin! :)