just a little update

Chase is playing junior high football this year. He has two games so far with the Hitchcock County/Wauneta Palisade Pegasus. He plays mostly on defense, but is second team quarterback. He loves football, though he is so skinny he is constantly pulling up his pants! Anyway, go #2!

Cassidy is a freshman this year with the Wauneta Palisade Broncos. She plays on the JV squad, and we think she does a good job!

And of course, I just had to include a picture of our pride and joy, Kaia....can't tell I am a proud mom and grandma!

Chase and McCook Football League

Once again, it was time for McCook Football League and the sportster, Chase. For those of you who don't know much about this, it is an awesome experience, but it last for about 15 nights. That may not seem to be too bad, but remember we live here and it is there. By the end of it, I am ready to be done, but of course, Chase thinks it is over way to soon! But we learned alot, and had alot of fun doing it.

Chase is the player in red on the ground. The ball went past the intended receiver and Chase tried hard to get it, but alas it bounced off his chest while he was on the ground.
He made some contact here!

Our #32 is ready to get someone!

He is the one in the middle.

Heading out for the pass.

Staci and baby showers

Staci is now 7 1/2 months pregnant and in the last few weeks she has had a shower from the Applegarth/Fries family, and the Alberts and friends family. They were both a lot of fun, and she got some awesome gifts from everyone! Though in between the two showers, Staci started having contractions and spent a night in the hospital trying to stop them. It was not entirely successful, so Staci was put on total bed rest (laying down only). This was not quite in the grand scheme of things. The Alberts shower was to be a surprise one, and really she surprised us, since all this happened two days before the shower! So, we had to let her in on the surprise, and tell us what she wanted us to do. All in all, we had the shower, with Staci reclining in a chair with her feet propped up! We had a blast with the games that "the cousins" planned!

Grandma Alberts and Staci
"the cousins"

Staci with the cake from her Applegarth shower. She is always a clown. A beautiful cake, I believe, made by Tiffany Bley.

Since I am usually behind the camera, there are not many pictures of me with the kids, so I really treasure this one!

I needed a shot to show how big she is

Cassidy and Chase

I was playing with my camera the other day to see what I could do, and poor Cassidy and Chase had to "play model" for me. They actually had fun, though they will both deny it.

baseball tournament

Chase, being the sports lover that he is, played C team baseball for the Wauneta-Palisade team. They just got better and better each game as a team. Other coaches even remarked on it. So to McDonald Kansas (and no, Chase, they do not have a McDonalds there :) we went for two nights this week. We played Benkelman, Atwood and St Francis for the Championship game! The boys won, and you would have thought it was the World Series as excited as these boys got!!

Chase with his first place medal.

Chase, Sam Greeley and Kelsey Rozelle, (Jim and Patsy Mckinneys grandson)

Chase, Billy Straub, Kelsey and Sam --the four oldest boys on the team.

The Winners!

Oh, what a month....

This has been a jam packed month so far, and there is still alot to come! So, I thought I would do a quick update on everything so far.

Seth is off again for another fire season. He is with the Wyoming Hotshots based out of Greybull, Wyoming. While I am happy for him to be fighting fire again, not seeing him for 6 months is not my favorite thing! Though I like this crew, as they update their site, so I can track where he is fighting fires most of the time. It is usually 2 weeks between days off for him, so it seems like a long time to worry about him. Please pray for an injury free 6 months for him.

Wauneta-Palisade hosted their field day last week, and it was fun to watch Chase compete in his last year. Here he is showing off his long jump skills. Cassidy was lucky enough to be the measurer for this event.
Cassidy has had quite a few track meets lately. She excels the most in the discus and really enjoys it. She placed first last week in Imperial, and in fact in Jr Hi RPAC today, she threw her personal best with a throw over 76 feet and placed third. We are very proud of her!

We have a new a graduate in our family. Kaleia received her Associate of Science degree from North Platte Community College. She will be attending UNK this fall, though not really sure what her major will be. Congratulations, Kaleia!

I am also sooo excited about Staci's pregnancy! She invited me to her ultrasound, and I can't even begin to describe how touched I was. It was an incredible experience to watch the baby move on the screen...in my time, ultrasounds were not really done all that often. Thanks so much Staci, my eyes are tearing up even now.

Cassidy and her Confirmation!!!

A beautiful picture of a beautiful girl!!!

Cassidy was confirmed on Palm Sunday at St John's Lutheran Church in Culbertson. She took her first Communion that day. Congratulations to her for all the hard work and memorization work she had to do the last few years to achieve this wonderful milestone. The family...unfortunately, Kiane had to work and was unable to make it.

All the Confirmands and Pastor Rick.

First Junior High Track Year...

What a beautiful day for a track meet...and in Dundy County no less! It was sunny, warm, with a wind that wasn't all that bad. I had to take pictures of my niece, Leiauna, doing the long jump, which of course she placed in (though I can't remember what place). And definately had to take pictures of Cassidy doing the Discus. Leiauna, both of these pictures, though slightly out of order. :)

Cassidy throwing the Discus. She placed second with a throw of 67' 2 inches. That was awesome.
She also competed in the shot put, didn't do too bad at all; the 100m dash...never thought I would see her in, neither did she, though by the end of the race she did better than she thought she would (didn't come in last in her heat and did a decent time), and actually decided she really liked that race. She also ran in the 8th grade 4x400 relay, which came in last, and Cassidy decided was definately not her race!

Chase and basketball

This last Sunday, the W-P Bronco Boosters held their 5th &6th grade basketball tourney. It was awesome and a lot of fun to watch Chase and his team compete! They worked hard and showed alot of potential! A big thank you to Joseph and Wendy for taking team on! Chase's team is in white, and he, Tyler Davis and Paul Behrends are waiting for the rebound.Chase fighting hard for the ball....I am not sure how well you can see, but look at the intensity on number 2's face.
Chase getting ready to drive the ball after picking it up.

Chase was very excited to have Seth come and watch the tournament.

And of course, Seth had to help coach Chase on moves to improve on!

just some pictures...

In February, I was fortunate enough to go with Cassidy to visit Kiane in Kearney. My youngest daughter is defiantely growing up and becoming a fun young lady! We went out to eat at Valentinos, and the girls gave me a hard time about embarrassing them with whipping out the camera. Of course, the first picture wasn't very good (according to them), so they took over taking pictures...now I ask you, who was embarrassed? No one that I could see!

I also was fortunate to enough to go to North Platte and watch the North Platte Lady Knights play basketball and enjoy time with Kaleia! She is turning into such a wonderful young woman. Here she is with one of her roommates, Ryann Spady from Imperial. Soon, they will be making the transition of becoming roomies when they share an apartment in Kearney together next year.

At North Platte CC, for both volleyball and basketball, they have a Girl Scout night. Afterwards, the teams line up to autograph posters for the Scouts. It is always a fun night. Here is Kaleia, with her "twin" and friends, Jori and Nancy. Before the game, the girl scouts made all the players a shield they decorated and gave to the girls.

Happy Birthday, Kaleia!!!

Okay, I have a confession to make. I was a very bad mom yesterday. I got so caught up in working, and then heading up to Kaleia's basketball game in North Platte and celebrating her birthday with her and Staci, that I totally forgot to make this post! (I know, no excuse, Kaleia).

I still totally forgot until I talked to my newly turned twenty year old daughter, until she told me she wasn't very happy with me. Whoops!! So I told her I would take care of this problem pronto!

This is one of Kaleia's senior pictures that I took...thanks Hanken's for the use of your yard!

Her senior prom.....

This picture is from Kirwin and I's farm when we had sheep....what a fun time we had!

Kaleia in her cuteness....

And as a newborn

Seriously though, I could not be prouder of this wonderful girl! She is a very sweet, giving, loving and fun girl to be around. We may have had our ups and downs, and she may have made some mistakes in her young life, but I love her very much and would not change one thing about her.

Happy Birthday! I love you!

It's official!!!!

The family got great news last night! My baby is having a baby!!!! Yay!

So I thought I would post a picture of Staci when she was a newborn.....

...and a picture of the proud parents to be!!!

Congratulations Matt and Staci!

Can you tell I might be just a wee bit excited?