Buying land, A NEW BATES SHOW? And more questions

Does Trace still get money from the bringing up date show? Do you guys use birth control? Are y'all planning to have more kids? If so, how many? Did you decide on the land you want to build on? Any update on moving? How did you two meet? Which of Lydia's siblings is Trace closest to and vice versa? What were your first impressions and early interactions? What big trips do you have planned this year? All right y'all, welcome to this Q&A. We got a bunch of questions and we're gonna try to answer them all. And I think we have like 40 questions if we can get to them. Y'all have a lot of questions and if you hear that background sound, Kaya is now mobile. She crawls everywhere and into everything. She's grinning at us. Hi, baby. And she is doing circles around the camera. That is the truth. We're gonna try to get right into it. Like I said, there's a lot of questions. We're gonna try to take our time but also answer as many as we can. Hopefully all of them. And for some of the newer people on the channel that don't know our story, there are some questions about us, how we met, stuff like that. So let's just jump right on into it. Lydia, how did you two meet? We met through your sister Josie. And I did like a photo shoot with her in Florida. And then she hired me for another one locally and I ended up hitting off with her. And she was like, we have so much fun together. I feel like I should set you up with one of my brothers so we could be sister-in-laws. And that was, you know, the beginning of it all. It is crazy that it like all worked out and like we connected so well. I still remember I was working on a job in construction and Josie texted and said, oh, I got the perfect girl for you. Christian has the same values and everything. And I mean, of course, I'm like, okay, you know, send a picture. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. And once she did, I was like, okay, yeah, let's definitely try to meet up. And I think that night, me and Warden came up to Josie and Kellen's house and you were over there and we kind of just hit it off. We ended up talking to like three in the morning, like in the group setting. But it was just, you know, really good finding out about your family, about mine. And then after that, we went on a couple of days and the rest is history. Now we are married and have two kids. Also, might I add, both of us said, no, we do not want to be set up. But then we said, Matt, you know, what's the harm in meeting? That is the truth. So that's how we met. What were your first impressions in early interactions? First impressions of you? I don't know that you're like really fun, easygoing, easy to talk to. Okay. Like conversations, like not like, you know, when you go on dates and they're awkward or you're supposed to be set up with someone that's awkward. I feel like it was very like easy, natural, meant to be. Yeah, I feel like I went into it thinking that Liddy was just hanging out with Josie and Kelton that day. I did not realize we both knew that. I thought the other person didn't know. So I remember getting there before y'all got home. And me and Warden were just chilling there talking to Kelton. Were you nervous? I was sitting down. Yes, I was very nervous. First of all, like the photo is very pretty and gorgeous. So I'm like, for one, she's out of my league. And then of course, it's like, you know, what are the chances that we, you know, all in line, like everything aligns, you know, my beliefs, your beliefs. And then we click. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we have a connection and stuff like that. So I remember y'all walking in. And my first thought was, am I taller than her? Because you were very tall. So I tried to do like sly, like Josie and Kelton have like a little island. I remember y'all walked into the kitchen. So I kind of walked in there, walked to the other side. I'm trying to like, am I tall as her? Like, is she taller than me? I just remember that was funny. Did you come up and say hi to me? Or did you like awkwardly like wait for Josie to introduce me? I don't even remember. I probably said hi, but I didn't know that. I did not realize that. I didn't know. I didn't realize because I thought we were all there just chilling. I didn't realize that Josie told you I was coming for the potential to set up. For me just to meet you. And to see if like maybe I, you know. But we also just hit it off. Lydia shared a lot about her background, mine. And we just, like I said, we talked to like three in the morning. It was just incredible. I remember leaving saying there's no way like there's no way she's gonna want to talk to me. Like she's so much out of my league. There's no chance. I was shocked that she wanted to go on a date after that. Absolutely shocked. Beyond blessed. She is absolutely stunning. Her personality is incredible. Lydia is an amazing woman, amazing wife, and amazing mother. We'll jump on to the next question. But yes, incredible. Good memories, babe. Good memories. I can't believe we've met like that. What has been your favorite vacation together? Oh, probably Hawaii. I don't even know which one of the Hawaii trips. We went for our honeymoon and we went for our anniversary. And I feel like they were both so fun. They're like top two. I can't really pick one. What big trips do you have planned this year? Well, big one coming up, Colorado. Oh man, it's like actually next week we are going to be flying to Denver. With two kids for the first time. Two kids for the first time. She's coming to say hi. Okay. Give me a baby. You want to say hi? Hi. Flying to Denver with two kids a first time. And then we have a couple hour drive to where we're staying. We're going to be bringing you along to that trip. We're super excited. It's going to be fun. We cannot wait. It's going to be great. You don't want to miss it. So make sure you are subscribed to this channel. So you don't miss the upcoming videos that we have coming out like our trip. And also we'll talk about later. But the possibility of building a house in 2026. We'll get to that later. She's excited. Hey. Say, are you excited to go flying? Yes. You want to read a question? What music do you both listen to? I listen to a whole lot of like Baby Shark, The Wheels of the Bus. That's hilarious. Anything that Ryker likes. You think that's funny? We listen to or I listen to like country music. And then also like some a little bit of CCM. A little bit of southern gospel. A little bit of bluegrass. But mainly like country. I listen to pretty much like most genres. Once I had kids. Like if I would play my music, Ryker honestly would beg for me to turn it off. That's hilarious. So I think he hates my taste in music. But I used to, I don't know what it would be like more like soft pop or like chill. I like anything chill now that I have kids. I used to like more hype music. Are your kids going to grow up speaking both English and German? That's the goal. Whether or not I succeed. Up to me, I guess. And my mom that I. It does help that she only talks German to Ryker. Yes, so I feel like at least a little. Yeah, I think they're going to learn it. Whether or not they're completely fluent. I think I'm going to have to put more of like German in their schooling when they get to that age. But my goal is just for them to understand it and kind of be able to speak a little bit of it before they get to first grade. Which child is more like Trace and which is more like Lydia? They're slowly all morphing into you. No. One looks like you and one acts like you. So I would say Ryker has a lot of your personality. That is like what you like. Almost down to like snacks. You have the same taste in snacks. Which is weird. But yes, it's true. If you like something like if you pick a flavored milkshake, he will like yours over mine every time. Personality also very similar, right? I would say so. Yeah, except it's a little OCD. That's for me. Wouldn't you say Ryker has more of your personality? She's a little sassy, a little bit fun, chill, maybe a little bit like me. All right, moving on. If you were a pet parent like us, you know how stressful it is when your pet has something going on and you can't get to the vet right away. That is why I'm so glad that we started using Dutch. Dutch gives you 24-7 access to licensed vets from wherever you're at. And their vets can create a treatment plan for over 150 different conditions. And they make it so simple. You just answer a few questions about your pet, pick a time, and get to talk to a real vet right from your home. What I love the most is how it takes the stress out of pet care. No waiting rooms, no packed schedules. And their vets can treat most pet issues virtually. Things like allergies, ear problems, anxiety, and even UTIs. They even ship your customized prescription treatment plan straight to your door, free shipping. And Dutch is just a one-time membership cost, which gives you unlimited vet visits and follow-ups. Plus, members save around 20% on prescriptions. And most people save almost $650 yearly on vet costs. If you want vet care that's affordable, convenient, and honestly, so much less stressful, scan the QR code on the screen or check out the link in the top of the description. It's been a game changer for us and our sweet Maui. Are y'all planning to have more kids? If so, how many? Kaya, you want a sibling? You want more? More babies. More. I feel like we are both very content where we are right now with both of our kids. We love our kids and we're trying to make sure they get the most time from us as possible. We love them to death. Do we think there might be kids in the future? Yes. Yeah, I would say we're very content, but I don't know if we feel done, if that makes sense. And you've always said, you said like when people ask, you can't put a number on it. You just know like when your family feels complete and you don't feel like it's complete at the moment. Yes. I feel like to me, kids aren't a number. I'm not trying to hit a set number, if that makes sense. But two is just like right now, so perfect. Very true. But look how cute they are. How can you be like, okay, I'm done? They're just so cute. Do you want your kids close together in age? I love the age gap of these two. I think you're right. I don't know. Like, obviously we only have these two, so I don't have any other age gaps that I've like really had. So, but I love this age gap. I like not having one that's a single one by itself. So it's not like an only child that has no one to play with. That's a very good point. That makes sense. All right. Will Ryker be homeschooled or go to public school? Probably homeschooled. Hopefully come out knowing, you know, two, three languages, baby. Wouldn't that be nice? All right. Would you ever consider a home birth? Whoa. Yeah, I think that's out of the question. We love where you go. I might do an unmedicated one one day. Maybe. Yeah. I feel like I almost had her unmedicated, but I wasn't mentally prepared, but I couldn't. And I would have had her faster if I didn't expect for another girl. Do you guys use birth control? That's a personal question. I feel like. That is very personal. That's very personal. I really want to answer that. Any update on moving? How fast can you build a house? How fast I'll be moving. That is probably okay. That's a good point. All right. How is the property or house search going? You want to answer that? It's actually going really well. We believe we found the land. We're still trying to work out all details, but we think we have location and land. And now we're in the works with contractors and building plans and houses and trying to figure out which direction we're going to go. Yeah. There's like lots of details, options and all that. Like it's an overwhelming amount of information. So we're trying to figure all that out. We are very excited and we know it's going to be a busy 2026. A lot of work. I'm going to be trying to do a lot of the work, the inside stuff. So we'll tell you more when we know more, but we are in the works of going over house plans, building plans, houses and stuff like that. Hey, why does my kids always turn into daddy's girls and boys? You love Dada? Yes. Look at the camera and tell me which one do you think she looks like? Did you decide on the land you want to build on? Yes. We showed you a couple of different land options last week or the week before. Yes. We, we found the land we wanted to build on. I feel like when we like actually purchase the land and have everything done, then we will share. Are you planning to buy a home or build from scratch? Like we just mentioned? Yes. We are in the works of buying land and we want to build from scratch. She's trying to eat me. What style of home do y'all want to build? Like I said earlier, we're still in the works. We feel like we want it to be what? Like farmhouse. We've looked into barn dominiums. We looked at a different, a lot of different places, but we've not set in stone exactly which one we're going with. What do the next five years look like for you and your family? I wish I knew that too. I would like to have a little peek ahead. Probably. Down the road. Probably we will be in the house that we built. Maybe have another kid. Maybe. Maybe get another cat. Maybe get a dog. Can't go away with a dog. Maybe get a horse. I don't know. Does Trace still get money from the Bringing Up Bates show? Do you? Yes. A little every year for the last couple of years. Interesting. It's not a lot right now. It's just like a little bit from rarities and stuff. But yes, we do, which is a blessing. Is there a Bates TV show in the works? Not that I know of, of the moment. Maybe another family or sibling of mine might be in the works, but nothing that I know right now. How do you demonstrate your faith with your children? In just like little ways, like obviously go to the church and just... Like praying with them at night, Bible stories, Bible studies, stuff like that, I feel like is how we do that. Ryker loves the David show in the middle. He's like, David, I want to watch David. So like little ways like that. He loves, I think his one of his favorite songs, which I love singing to him at night is Jesus Loves Me, which is amazing. We love that. We love showing that part of our life to our children. What is your favorite Bible verse? Mine is Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all thy heart. In all our ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. I feel like that is just means so much to me as my life versus just always make sure to put your trust in Jesus Christ and he will direct your path. So that's my favorite. I don't know what my favorite Bible verse is at the moment. One of my favorite stories is Ruth, I would say. I love that. I think it's a great story. Mine changes all the time though, depending on what I've been reading. Do y'all visit the Florida siblings often? We used to more before we had kids. I feel like once we have two kids, it's just harder to travel, but we would like to visit them more. It is always fun when they come back to the house for family events or we get to make it to Florida to visit them. Jane Jane is doing the best she can for everything going on. I do like to call her weekly just to see how she's doing, but also she loves sports. I love sports. So we always talk about what's going on with the football playoffs. She loves college basketball. She likes any sports, but it's always fun to like, if there's a big game on, I like, I always like to call her to make sure she's watching it. And she always on what channels is on. So yes, I love mama Jane. At the moment, we don't have a trip planned, but it's more like a last minute. It's usually a last minute thing when we're like, oh, let's go down this weekend when we're free. Yes. Which of Lydia's siblings is Trace closest to and vice versa? Your siblings, probably all the ones that live like close, obviously Josie's. And then I would just say whoever like lives in this area I'm closest to. And then the younger ones, which I hang out with a lot, which aren't that young anymore, I guess. That makes sense. I'm close in a different way with, I mean, a lot of your siblings, of course your brothers. I feel like me and Josie, we talk a lot about hunting and building and barns and stuff like that. Sports and then like soccer. And then with Christian, he did editing our videos so long. Incredible editor, incredible stuff like that. And we do fantasy football. So we talk about football and stuff like that. So I feel like, and then Daniel, he's doing construction. So we talk about like that. We're close to Hannah Daniel. So I feel like I'm close, like in a different way with all of them. Depending on like what month. Yeah. I feel like, yeah. It depends what I'm into or what we're talking about. Cause I feel like I'm close to all your siblings. I don't think I can just pick one out. Do you still attend Gil and Kelly's church or a different one? We still are members of my dad's church. And then sometimes we do like to visit Lydia's church and the church that you have been going to. We love that church. And it also is nice because we can go to that service and then go spend the rest of the afternoon with Lydia's family. We try to spend Sundays with your family, but our home church would be my dad's church. How often do grandparents babysit? It's very random. I feel like they'll go through phases where you're like, your mom is here like two, three times a week. And then phases where it gets busy and it's just like maybe once every two weeks. I don't know. Well, we see both sides about once a week. The problem is we live so far. So for like, if we want to go on a date night or something, it is easier just for your family to be watching our kids. My family has to drive like three hours. But I would say my family does more of like the longer trips if we go on a longer trip. So then it makes sense to drop them off and pick them up. What are your favorite German words or phrases? I feel like one of your favorite words is Schmetterling. I used to say that all the time. Someone, one of my brothers... Du bist schmetterling. Oh, I can't say it. Du bist schmetterling. I don't know who taught him that. One of my brothers definitely did. I don't, it doesn't even, it's not a word or phrase that any of us use, but he thinks and your siblings think it's funny. Yes. I don't know. I don't have a German. Do you have an English phrase that you love? It's random. I love you. I love that. There you go. What are your favorite skin and hair products? I don't know. I feel like, let me think. What are my skin products? Water. Fresh water. Warm water. Cold water. Hair products. Level three. That's the brand I use. Okay. Oh, I think this was meant towards you. Um, I don't know all of my brands either. I honestly use whatever I see Josie recommending. I go ask her if I need something new, but... Hi, baby. But I use La Roche-Posay a lot for cleaners with my skin water allergy and stuff like that. Any products you recommend for new moms? Off the top of my head, we love the Duna car seat to travel that turns into like a little stroller. It's so convenient for like running errands with the other ones. Other product, maybe the magnetic like sleepers for the newborn phase especially. Just having one or two like with Riker, we had two and we just constantly washed and used those at night. That's my off the top of my head. How did you get started in photography for young beginners? Um, honestly, I started just taking photos. I love doing it of my siblings, my friends. Then I started posting on like my back in the day Facebook. And then other people just saw them and they're like, hey, would you mind taking some family photos? And then I just started doing that. I started advertising and then it just went from there. So just kind of taking as many photos as you can for free for people until you get to like a level where you feel like you can start charging a little bit. And then it just went from there. What board games or card games do you love playing as a family? We go through phases and we do a lot with my family. We play a lot of games at your house. So I feel like we were just playing the other day. We played life at your family's house. We play Sky Joe was huge for a while. Sky Joe was the other one. We put apples to apples. I love card games. I love spades. I love hearts. That's the one that we've been playing a lot lately. Hearts. We also love hand and foot. Every once in a while, we'll play Monopoly. That's a long board game. So we both families love games. Dutch Blitz. So it is always fun to play them. How do you keep the house clean with kids and a cat? She's laughing at me. She's like, good luck, mom. I say live in a very small apartment. Then it's easy to clean. That is one of my favorite parts of living in this small apartment. No matter how much my kids make a mess, like it will never take the two of us more than an hour to fully clean everything. Oh yeah, for sure. And put everything up. I would say, how do I do it? Every time when the kids go down for a nap, I pick up all the toys so my house is clean after that. I can relax during that time. And then once the kids... It's like bedtime now that Riker's older. He helps us too. We just pick up. So twice a day, we pick up everything off the floor. And then we just vacuum. And sometimes I have one of those vacuum mops. Love that. And it just cleans. I run it now, especially that cat is crawling at least once a day. Would you ever take a trip to Australia? Whenever I'm allowed to travel, yes. When we get all the immigration stuff figured out, 100%. That would be so much fun. I'd love to travel to lots of places. Australia seems like such a fun place to visit. What hobbies do you enjoy together? We've been doing right now, skiing. Yeah. Although you can fly right past me. No. I love going with you because I love when you started seeing you progress. And then also it gives me time to work on things as well because it's very easy for me just to do one thing, one thing and only do what you're good at. So I love challenging myself to do better and do different things. So right switch, whatever. And it's a lot of fun just watching Lydia progress through the years because I feel like two years ago was your favorite time ever gone. Uh-huh. And we think this year will probably be the best. So I'm very excited. I had so much fun. I went to like top. I did like miles down the back country. But I would say that like it changes. A year ago was like pickleball. We like playing together. We like going to family walks together. We like playing games. Both of us love game, like game nights with family. That's just a few of the hobbies I can think of. Probably hiking more, which we love to do. Did she just say Dada? Tell me that didn't sound like Dada. It did sound like. We got to play that back. She might have said Dada. No, no, no. Say Mama. Dada. Mama. I think she knows how to say your name, Trace. That would be amazing. Dada. Ryker would mama first. So well, you guys just heard her say her baby first. Yeah, but that's some of her hobbies. I feel like it's good to have something you can do together. What's one thing you're excited for this year as a family? Building a house. Yes, I think that's going to be like our favorite thing. I think Ryker loves machines, building and everything. So I see myself just bringing the kids and like letting him watch the building process. I'm so excited. Well, thank y'all for coming along for this Q&A. It's always fun seeing all the questions y'all have for us and answering as many as we can. Hopefully you enjoyed it. We cannot wait for the upcoming weeks. We don't want you to miss it. So make sure that you are subscribed to our channel. So you do not miss the upcoming videos. I am super excited. You can tell I love doing things with family. It's gonna be a lot of fun. See y'all next week. Bye. In Colorado, baby.