The Brittons

The wrestling season this year was very successful for Ballard.  We came very close to competing at state in the dual tournament and had five wrestlers qualify for state, 2 of them placing, with one of those a state champ.  I don't know all the statistics of the season, but I think the team only lost a couple duals.  This was Nick's first state champ as a head coach and we were all pretty excited!  Most of the following pictures were not taken by me, but I stole them from the Ballard Facebook page for people to see.  One of the wrestlers' moms does wonderful photography and it's so nice to have some of these moments captured!   Nick and Alex coming to see us following his win Alex with his coaches Nick and Alex holding his bracket All of the coaches with the state qualifiers Alex and his coaches right after he won Nick putting the medal on Alex Is Nick actually smiling here? Owen at a wrestling meet Right after...

At the beginning of February we made a trip down to Missouri to meet River!  He was born a little early, but we were so excited to go see him!  He was only five days old when we saw him for the first time, and still so tiny.  Our trip was very welcomed, as we were able to enjoy some really nice weather down there.  Such a huge change from the cold, snowy, winter we have in Iowa.  I think the temperatures were in the 70's for a couple of the days there.  We had to go buy shorts for the kids! My favorite comment from Gracie was "Mom, it's so warm, I could just hug the Earth!"  We left Iowa on a Thursday night and drove home the following Monday.  During that time, we also celebrated my mom's 60th birthday.  Everything worked out perfectly except for Nick not being there. Gracie and Owen with River.  Suge is in the background looking on. Gracie and River Owen, Sarah, and River River all cuddled up in Grandmas Jeanne...

I forgot to take my phone with me when we went skiing right after Christmas, so I have no pictures.  I think Nick has all of them on his phone and Annie took some, as well.  This was so much fun again!  Owen started off with snowboarding and spent almost two hours with one of the instructors on the bunny hill learning how to snowboard.  Gracie stuck with skiing the whole time and Owen switched over to skis when he decided to venture off to the bigger hills.  Both of them did great!  Maybe next time will be in the mountains! Gracie and Ryleigh celebrating Ryleigh's birthday on New Year's Eve We spent New Year's Eve with Nick's side of the family in Muscatine.  We doubled up and also celebrated Ryleigh's birthday a little early.  We had a lot of fun and the girls made it to midnight (Eastern time). Gracie and Raegan playing basketball Owen giving it a try Gracie's basketball season wrapped up at the end of January and she ha...