A Saturday with cousin Naiyah

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Great Wolf Lodge

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Jungle Jam Begins!!

I had to post the video's below as they are September's verses for the girls for Jungle Jam. I love watching little kids learn and memorize verses from the Bible. It is such a precious thing and I love hearing them grasp some of the concepts and stories in the Bible. I hope you enjoy these as we go through this year with Jungle Jam I will probably periodically update and add videos.

be sure to check out our other family site too.. I know I am crazy... Call me addicted to blogging!

www.millerfamilykiddos.shutterfly.com

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~Lil Red Spikers~

Kayleigh with her future Coach... :)

During the Autograph session the girls got everyone on the team and the coaches autographs. Here they are with COOOOOOPER and Gina Mancuso

With Paig Hubl and Lindsey Licht

With Bridgette Root and Kaitlynn James

With Sydney Anderson and Kayla Banwarth

With our friend Tara Mueller and Hannah Werth

The entire group at the Clinic... This was the most Lil Red Spikers they have had. There were about 350 girls there... yikes!!

Madelyn watching the psych up video "One Heartbeat" in the Huskers "Ready Room" which is where they hang out prior to a match, they can do homework, watch TV or sleep.. it is pretty cool area which is right outside of their locker room. Yah we got to see that too.. :)

Serving at the clinic.

Playing Down by the Banks of the Hanky Panky with Syd...she was so sweet since the girls had a slight meltdown at the clinic to keep them entertained and having fun.

Bumping with Tara at her station - prior to having our meltdown...

Go Huskers!!

All Ready for the Lil Red Spikers Clinic! Here we come!!

Madelyn and Kayleigh participated in the Lil Red Spikers Clinic on Saturday Morning with the Huskers... Other then the overwhelming feeling the girls got because of there being so many people and the tears... I think they had fun.

First Day of School

This is Madelyn and her BFF Alexa.. they are two peas in a pod and ride the bus together.. so cute! I Love that both of them are missing their two front teeth! :)

Madelyn's first Day of school for FIRST GRADE! Eek. I can't hardly believe she is a first grader!! She is getting so big!

wow.. it has been awhile...

Sorry gang.. It has been awhile since I have posted on here. I am lacking on keeping up with this blog.

Here is a funny story for you. The other day were sitting at the table and having supper. We were all talking about our days and Madelyn had said that she saw Mrs. Kvasnicka at school (this was her Kindergarten teacher). Kyle piped up and said I heard her on the radio this morning - (as she is on a Sutton Linder and Sutton eye advertisement for lasik surgery), I pipe up and say I saw her on television for the Sutton Linder commercial she is in. Madelyn laughs and looks at Kayleigh and says "Did you have anything to share with us about seeing or hearing Mrs. Kvasnicka today?" Hilarious!

Don't stick your finger up your nose!!

So I bring the girls home today and they are trying to decide what to do. I remarked that they could go and "pick their noses". So as they are building a fort in the living room I hear Madelyn sing this song... " Don't stick your finger up your nose, cuz your nose knows it is not the place that it goes... you can sniffle you can sneeze but I am asking you.. PAHLEEZE, don't stick your finger up your nose! " I about snorted my drink laughing!!

Kayleigh as she is helping build the fort is singing "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit"...

These girls crack me up!! Enjoy the laughs! we are sure doing that!! :)

Happy Fourth of July!!

On the night of the 3rd of July I noticed that Madelyn's top tooth was really loose. She has been working on this for the last several weeks and the gap between her teeth was getting bigger and bigger. So we decided we could probably pull it quick if she would let us. Well Kyle did the honors and it took 1/2 sec as it was hanging by a thread I think. She talks a little funny now which will make us laugh especially when she tries saying her s's.. :) She left her tooth in a bag for the tooth fairy and got $4 - she was so excited. I guess those top front teeth were in high demand this time of year... Or at least that is what we are guessing. Hope everyone had a great fourth of July!! It was kind of weird having it rain and be awfully chilly... I was out in pants and sweatshirt since it was so cool... weird this year!

Slip-n-Sliding

Kyle came home tonight with a slip and slide for the girls. They had so much fun and we had a lot of laughs watching them this evening.

Dad has to give Kayleigh a little help since she can't get enough umph to get all the way to the other end.

North Platte visit to Grandma's and Cody Park

We just spent this past weekend in North Platte visiting Kyle's Mom. The girls always have loads of fun at Grandma Kim's and we are able to come out and help with some projects around the house. Grandma Kim also uses our visit to make sure that we make a trip to Cody Park for the girls to ride the rides. So Saturday night we spent at the park watching the girls ride the rides and enjoy the yummy ice cream cones.

The girls showing their loot of tickets to ride the Cody Park rides! Oh Boy what fun!!

Kayleigh was a bit apprehensive about this ride the first time and we got the biggest kick out of her when she would try to put her hands up. She was so scared and then finally got the hang of it and was having fun! We got loads of laughs watching her though!!

Just for you Grandpa Kelvin!

So I have to explain the title of this post. The day Madelyn was born I remember oh so clearly my father-in-law coming to the hospital to see his first grand baby. He is gushing and oohing over her and just plain mesmerized by the fact that he was now a grandpa and he had a granddaughter. It was pretty sweet and very special to witness. Then as he is holding her and talking to her he says (and I think I can quote this as it is pretty accurate) "Madelyn Jo you can be anything you want when you get older, you just can't be a cheerleader!" Hmm... tucked that away in my mind for future reference.. Oh Grandpa Kelvin how things said can come back to bite you..

So the story behind the photos is this: I told Madelyn at the end of school she could be involved in 3 things over the summer, 2 of them her pick and 1 of them mine. I picked swimming lessons as we swim year round at Country Swim School and as much as we are at the lake or pool it is important. Madelyn picked Nebraska Volleyball Academy (NVA) clinic as well as a volleyball clinic offered at the end of school at Norris. Atta Girl Madelyn.. way to keep that volleyball seed growing! :) Then she surprised me and said that she wanted to get back into dance. We had done dance and cheer both through the daycare the girls go do (there was dance clinic that came to the center to teach dance) and also through our gym. We had gotten out of dance and cheer for quite some time so it did surprise me a little she suggested it. I told her that we couldn't do the dance like she did at the daycare center as they teach that during the school year while she is at school but there are other places we could look into taking dance at. She was up for it and thus we have embarked on Club Kicks - dance and cheer company. Madelyn has joined the Red Rubies Dance and Cheer group and Kayleigh the Pink Diamonds. This is a competitive dance company so the shirts and poms you see are the "uniform" that the girls will wear for recital and competition. It should be a hoot to see what this year brings. Just since we started this in the last few weeks it has been a hoot to watch them learn their cheers, dance and all of the terminology of cheer: High V, Low V, T, Broken T, Daggers..etc... Here we go...

I know your so proud of these girls Grandpa Kelvin.. just bursting those buttons right along with myself.. :) Remember I am the one who danced in high school and college so the "moves" the girls have are definitely from their mother... and Kyle would agree and tell you that! HA!!

Divas and Sprinklers

So I have some catching up to do... it has been awhile. Here are some recent photos of the girls running through the sprinklers in the yard... As you can see they aren't apprehensive about the water AT ALL!! I took a couple pictures of them after cleaning up looking very cute.

Jordan's wedding...

Ahh.. yesterday was such a special day.. and a busy one. We all went up to Omaha to a friends Memorial Day party at the lake and then rushed back from that, threw some dress clothes on and went to our friend Jordan's wedding.

You have probably seen my other posts where I have referenced our "special friend" from the Nebraska Volleyball team. #10 Jordan Larson. She graduated in December from NU and then left in January to play in Puerto Rico - she got back about 3 weeks ago from there and planned a wedding in about 5 months. Crazy girl! We were so fortunate to be included in on her and Luke's special day. I have always said that "what you see is what you get" with Jordan - she is such a humble down home girl that DOES not have any sort of ego with all of the volleyball stardom she has. This is what we love about her. She is completely genuine and real, not what you see some athletes being. So the fact that we got to go to her wedding was a pretty big deal to the girls. I however, had to preface the trip to remind them that we would be seeing Jordan in a DRESS, with makeup on and her hair all done up... not like we are used to seeing her. When she would come to our home to hang out, it was just regular clothes, or on the volleyball court of course we saw her in the #10 jersey. So seeing her all gussied up was a little different for the girls. She was BEAUTIFUL though as you can see from the photos.. as always. She just had this glow about her yesterday so I was thrilled for her. Luke her husband is such a super cool guy and so incredibly good for Jordan.. (I am sure she would tell you that). It amazes me to watch the two of them together.. We just recently talked in the parenting class Kyle and I are taking about the relationship in a marriage. How the husband should be a sacrificial lover and the wife submit to their husband. I see this so much in Jordan and Luke's relationship, which I haven't been around them as much as some. But it impresses me that Luke is letting Jordan chase her dreams with volleyball. He knows how much she loves the game and is letting her go for it and following along for the ride. She told us last night that she leaves for Anaheim, CA Thursday and will train with the Olympic team this summer to get a run for being part of the 2012 USA Olympic team playing in London, England... pretty incredible. Luke is letting her go out there for the summer and hoping that she will be picked up by a pro team overseas at the end of the summer and then they will go together wherever she will be headed.. what a story!!

Anyway, it was a beautiful wedding and reception that we got to be part of.. I must say it was even pretty cool to do the electric slide with pretty much the entire Husker Volleyball team old and new... Stalls, Maggie Griffin, Kayla Banwarth, Amanda Gates, Rachel Schwartz, Nancy Metcalf, you name them.. they were pretty much there.. pretty incredible. It was also really cool to see the owner of the Puetro Rico Volleyball team she played on and one of her teammates come to the wedding and speak at the reception.. (I will say they can dance!!) .. All in all, we had a great night and Kayleigh and I had a blast dancing with everyone at her dance.. doing a little shaking our groove thing! HA!

At the end of the night we went up to say goodbye and thank Jordan and Luke and of course.. even in a wedding dress Madelyn can't say anything to her "hero".. she did give her a hug and Kayleigh went over and threw her arms around Jordan.. pretty cute! They just think the world of her and I know they want to be #10 when they grow up. :)

My dog should be Marley....

Okay - some of you have heard the stories from our yellow lab Jada. I am now the first to admit that the idea of getting another dog for Christmas wasn't my brightest... I simply didn't want Kayleigh to be frightened of dogs anymore.. which she isn't and she loves the dogs now. She would freeze when we would open the back door and would see Abby (the 8 yr old Choc lab)staring her right in the face. So this was my problem solving idea... get a puppy that will grow as she grows and she won't be scared.. Brilliant thought! not so much.. So we find this adorable little yellow lab at a farm in Milford and pick her up right before Christmas and surprise the girls. We had her in a box and everything and wrapped up for the girls. They were so surprised... It was precious. It immediately solved Kayleighs fear of dogs. She loves her dogs now and feeds them usually every morning.

Well then we decide on Jada for a name.. cute name. I did suggest Marley due to the movie (which I hadn't at the time seen) and Kyle said NAH - everyone is naming their dog Marley now.. Well turns out she should have been Marley. Since we have adopted her we have been through the following due to her destroying it:
- heating blanket cord
- outside cable line
- 5 gal pickle bucket that did have their water - she chewed in 1/2
- 3 leashes (she would turn and take one bite and snap them in 1/2)
- 4 collars - these were Abby's collars that she would jump on her and chew them off of her.
- swings from the swing set
- rope ladder on the swing set
AND NOW WE ADD:
- the left and right seatbelts in the 3rd row seat of our Honda Pilot.

Today I had the day off of work and was suppose to take the dogs into the vet. Jada had a pre-op appt as she will get spay on Tuesday. Abby had her yearly checkup and shots. To give you an idea of how complicated this trip was for me... Abby weighs in at 82 lbs and Jada at 44 lbs. I won't tell you what I weigh but they pretty much man handled me at the vet. It was a disaster. I am sure people were laughing as I got twisted up in the leashes and almost got the legs taken out from under me by Abby. So I have this idea after our appointment at the vet I will kill some time and take them to the Lincoln Dog Run.. Great Thought! we will run off some energy and then I will pick the girls up from school. We head off to the Dog Run and I get inside and get brave enough to let them off of their leashes. This is the only spot in Lincoln that you can have your dog off a leash in city limits. So they take off running. They were having a ball of fun. I watched them chase other dogs and Abby take a leap off a cliff into the pond and with Jada right behind her. They are labs so of course they are going to play in the water. We get done and when I call them, they both come right to me, I hook up their leashes and we head back to the car. I am thinking this is great, they did so well minding and they were having so much fun we will have to do this again. I then went to pick up the girls and on our way home to Hickman, Madelyn informs me that Jada has chewed the seat belt. Are you kidding?? Nope. She isn't.

So apparently we are to learn something from this ding dong of a dog... If any of you have seen the movie you know what I mean. I can't just give her away - she is to darn cute. Someday I am thinking I will look back on this blog when Jada is like 9 or 10 years old and laugh at what a time we had with her when she was a pup.. or at least I hope I do! And the dog saga continues..

The Wedding Dreaming begins...

We went to a friend of ours wedding a couple weeks ago in Cook, NE. It was a beautiful wedding. Madelyn had one of her friends Mackenzie there so she had fun at the dance with her. It was so precious to watch the three girls sitting on the floor during the bride and grooms first dance and then the wedding party dance. It was so cute as you could just see how the dreaming of their own weddings has begun. Obviously going to be a LONG time from now, but they say every woman dreams of her wedding since being a little girl. I just captured that with my camera.. too cute!