Long time since our last post!

 So we haven't been blogging a lot lately... probably due to never having the time. So I'm going to fill some of you in.
 First off, Madison was nominated for homecoming queen! And Brian for homecoming king..... sadly they didn't get it but thats okay! Madison looked absolutely stunning Friday!:) She also did great during her half time dance for cheerleading! Sadly the football boys lost their football game against Ashland. The ending score was 22- 14. But we always have next time.:)
 Second off,  I'm going to tell you about Volleyball! So this volleyball season has been a great one! So grateful to have the team and coaches I do! Our season record is 5-1! But two teams we have already played don't count in the league tournament.:( But we have a great record! 4-0 isn't that bad.. right!:) We still have one league game to play and one regular one! Next week is the league one against Fowler.... the team who won league last year. But we are going to play as a team and hopefully we can pull through! If we beat Fowler we will go into the league tournament as the number 1 seed! That means we will be 5-0 and will be the number one team!:)
 So I believe that is every thing! If not... I guess there will be another blog!:)

              - Hk:)

Game day!:)

So last Thursday, I had my first volleyball game of the season! I was so pumped! Last year during basketball season my friend and I prayed before each game so we decided to do it during volleyball. Its a good feeling to be able to do it just the two of us. And to represent Him while we are playing on the court.
Any ways we lost the first match , and won the second one. During the third match some of us just kinda gave up because they were winning very quick. Then our best server Sierra got us 3 points from a tie. Then her next serve didn't go over. They got the winning point shortly after that. The final score was 25-21. But hey, it was our first game and we are going to kick some butt this year!
After that, Morgan (my sport buddy) and I had to change and go over to the football game to cheer! Yay!! Morgan and I were out of breath when we had to cheer! After all that yelling, I'm pretty sure I should of have lost my voice. And our half time dance went okay. We did great on our stunting, though!The boys were losing kinda of badly during the first half, like 32-7. But the on the bright side, we scored in the second half! The final score was 45- 24, i think. The boys did great! And that is how we did on our first game day!


    -Hk
P.S. Did you know that it is very hard not to lift up your skirt when you're tieing your shoe?!:)

Last First Day

Today was the first day of school. We have a tradition at our house on the first day of school. We take pictures. We've done this for twelve years now. Today was different. Today was a Last First Day. Madison is a Senior this year. Emotions were running high this morning. Before the girls got up, Susan and I sat and looked at our First First Day photo. Madison was very excited that day. A whole new world was waiting on her.

First day of school 8/15/2000

I wasn't there that morning. I don't remember where I was at, but I wasn't there for the First Day photo. I did make it home before Madison came home on the bus. We got an end of the First Day photo. It may not seem like much to some people, but I always look forward to those photos. I will have to look back, but I don't think I've missed another First Day photo.

Last First Day, 8/16/2012

This may be Madisons Senior year, but it's going to be a great year. We have a lot of Firsts to come this year. It will be her first year Cheerleading. (Not only her, but Hannah too) I'm afraid that this school year will go by to stinking fast. It is hard for this Dad to even think about the graduation of his first daughter, let alone to think in six short years it will be Hannah's turn. I guess that is what life is all about. We, as parents, have to do our best and teach them all we can in the short 18 years we have them. I feel like we have done a good job. We have two girls who are considerate, caring, loving, smart, beautiful, conscientious, respectful, God fearing, ornery,

funny, outgoing, helpful and ready to take on the world.

It may have been the Last First Day for Madison, but just imagine what is waiting for her on the next First Day.

Madison and Hannah, 8/16/12

Love you both, Dad.

BJH....Cheer Camp!

This last week I went to Greensburg, to a cheer camp for 3 days. To be honest, I did not want to go. We are mostly made up for newbies. With one returning cheerleader. None of us really knew what to expect.

There is a special class just for the captain. Captain class is where the team captain goes to learn about being good leaders, how to display good sportsmanship, setting goals for the team and for yourself, and so on. We don't have a captain so our sponsor just picks two of us. And guess who was picked...me. The one person who didn't want to go to it. It turned out to be kinda of fun.

Captains class was for 30 minutes at the start of the day. The other 6 hrs. and 30 min. we learned new cheers, dance, and more stunting. I'm the back spot the most easiest , and hardest job. In stunting we got way past last years bunch. We can do a full extension and a half up. The rest of it has to have more then six people. We only have five.... it turned out we were fine.

Each year the people who put the camp on does an all American cheerleader. You get a certain ribbon and certificate for being nominated. Well on the last day I got nominated. I was happy till I learned you had to do three jumps, and a cheer in front of EVERYONE! And I do not like being in front of a lot of people. I wasn't going to do it. Then I told my parents. They were all for it!:/ After hours,and hours of polite discussion. Ha..Ha. They told me, I did it or I had to quit. Well I wasn't going to quit so I had to do it. After waiting 3 hours the day of try-outs I was convinced that I wasn't doing it. But I did it....I messed up twice but other girls did too. I'm glad my parents, Madison, and everyone else believed I could do it, when I didn't think so.

-Hk :)

P.s. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be getting in front of everyone. (Don't tell my family though!)

"I can do all things through Christ who strengths me" Philippians 4:13

Brave!

While the Broxtermans' and the Hudsons' were out, Hannah and I thought it would be fun to take all the little kiddos (except Hayden. Not quite old enough to go yet! ) to go see Disney's new movie, Brave! I think their parents were a little concerned about whether or not we knew what we we're getting ourselves into, but the night went great and I'm pretty sure we all had fun!

It was a little crazy getting the food and drinks ordered for everyone but once we had found seats (Right up in the front..) and finally settled in to watch the movie, the kids were quiet as can be! Besides the occasional questions here and there, of course! :) Both Hannah and I liked the movie and the kids quoted different parts the whole way home.

The car ride there was pretty entertaining itself with all the singing and dancing that was going on! I think we listened to the song, "Call Me Maybe" at least 7 times. I'm pretty positive that by the time we got there both Brock and I were over that song! ha. After the movie we decided to stop at Sonic, so the ride home was much quieter since the kiddos all had ice cream. On the way home we (Hannah & I) that the ice cream was our little secret since we weren't bringing any home for the adults, that would've worked great except for the fact that 3 minutes before getting to the house Easy spilled his! Though he thought all was fine because according to him, "It was alright! It only got on his shorts, not the car!" Here's some pictures from the ride there!

the only normal picture!

dancing away!

They are just like their big cousins! We've taught them well! (:

Hopefully, sometime soon our other little cousins on dad's side can go with us too!

*cough* Kevin & Kyle!*Cough*

-mk.

Summer..hmm.

Well first off I'm going to say my mother's birthday is in less then a week. 5 days exactly!! We are spending her birthday at the lake. Happy Early Birthday Mother Of Mine!!! A plus of this is the Broxtermans are going to be with us!!

This June I started summer basketball! Our first games did not go that well. We ended up losing all three games. But one of the better teams that we played, we only lost by like 10 points! That's good compared to our Junior high season games where we lost by like 15+ points every game. This last weekend we won are first game!! :D It was against South Gray. We did pretty good since we only have 3 eighth graders and the rest of our team is made of 7th and 6th graders. Our game before that we played Spearville, that should of been ours. We lost by 9 points! A lot of thanks goes out to our wonderful coaches! Now I just have to convince her to coach us in Jr. High ball!

Well thats all for now. Hopefully I can get Madison to blog about life guarding!

-hk

Fathers Day

Yesterday was Fathers Day. The day when kids honor and spoil their dads. My day was no exception. I got two hand decorated coffee cups from my girls. I also got a Clive Cussler book(my favorite author), two new spatulas(I like to cook), and the best card ever. I also got some drip line fixin's from my wonderful wife.

This song has a lot of memories attached to it. We used to sing it to the girls when they were little. Several years ago, my sister Nola made a CD of songs for our Dad. Bushel and a Peck was one of the songs. Both of the girls love the song. It was the perfect Fathers Day card for me. I cried like a baby when I opened it. That made the girls cry. We're a pretty emotional family.

We went to church in the morning, came home, the girls helped make dinner and we just relaxed. Later in the afternoon, Madison treated me to a movie. We saw Rock of Ages. We both thought it was good. The music was AWESOME!! I think we sang along to just about every song! Some of the other movie goers did not have the same thoughts we did. They thought it was the worst movie ever. Oh well, not everyone has good taste like we do.

I thought about my Dad a lot yesterday. I thought about the different Fathers Days we celebrated with him. For church, I wore a tie tack that the girls made Dad one year. It says 'Dad' and has little tools hanging from it. I had lots of compliments. Anyway, my Dad was heavy on my heart and on my mind. This year will be four years since Mom and Dad died and went to Heaven. I try not to be sad when I think about them. It won't bring them back and they are in a lot better place. They don't hurt anymore.

So, yesterday was Fathers Day. The best one so far. I look forward to spending many more with my girls. I love them both more than they will ever know. We may not always see eye to eye about everything, but we're family. That reminds me of a quote they put on my coffee mug:

"Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten."

I hope you had an awesome Fathers Day. I had a great one.

Ivan