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!

One of those days...

The other day I was having one of those days where what I was doing seemed to be meaningless. I was struggling to find the meaning of what I do each day and why I am doing the things I am doing, primarily with work. My prayer had been to just feel somehow, somewhere Jesus arms wrap around me to make me feel like it was all going to be okay. Well the next morning on the drive into town and daycare this is what the girls and I saw. I had to pull the camera out to take a photo. He blessed me with a BEAUTIFUL sunrise that morning and had I not come into town that morning I wouldn't have seen it. Did you feel it?? He just bent down and gave me a kiss that morning.. it was perfect!

Jungle Jam Virtue and Verse

Here is a quick video of Madelyn's Jungle Jam class saying their virtue and verse. Madelyn pretty much was the leader of the group with saying the verse and virtue. I was so proud of her and her class.. they did such a great job! These kiddos are the same ones we have in Sunday School on Sunday mornings. Kyle and I have taught this group since they were 2. We have been through potty training with most of them and also watched them get so big and learn verses like this! Just makes me want to burst my buttons.. I am so proud of all of them! I just love to see these little ones get rooted and built up in our Lord Jesus Christ and watch their faith develop and grow. Great Job Jungle Jam Pathfinder Kindergarten class! Miss Jen and Mr. Kyle are so proud of you all!!

Jungle Jam Program

We had Madelyn's Jungle Jam program a few weeks ago at church. She was a Jungle Jam Pathfinder this year. We attended church every Wednesday evening through the school year for her Jungle Jam night. It worked perfect as I attended Bible Study while she was in Jungle Jam. This year consisted of learning many Bible verses and discussing virtues like conviction. Madelyn really enjoyed this year and was able to attend Jungle Jam with most of her Sunday School friends. It is really amazing how church has such great programs for our kiddos. Their theme is to see all kiddos rooted and built up in him. We have our wonderful REIGN forest where Jesus is King! The kiddos love it. Kyle and I have a lot of fun though we don't teach on Wednesday evenings we are teaching Sunday mornings which is fun. :) We are excited to get Kayleigh involved next year as a Jungle Jam Explorer.

Here is a quick Kayleigh story.. We were coming home from church the other night and talking about how the day/night went which is our normal routine. Kayleigh just out of the blue said to me from the back seat "Mom, Jesus loves me, he wants to be my best friend forever"

Just melted my heart! Yes it is working with what she is learning on Sunday mornings!!