Huxman Family: Where does time go?

I keep making a small vow to myself to be better about updating the blog, and then --- whoosh --- the time flies by again and it's a month later with so many things happening it's hard to decide what to include. So, this may be like a "Christmas letter" - trying to give a little bit of a number of things that are happening.

Tyler's recreation basketball season ended. These 9 boys did pretty well - 5-2 - and 7 of them played in one MAYB (Mid-America Youth Basketball) Touranment.

I was an assistant coach and spent many hours at practices and games.

Ryan's recreation basketball team ended the season 7-0 (they had 6 players on their team and there was another 6th grade boys team with 7 players that ended their season 7-0 also). There is a great group of athletes in his class. They have continued on after the season for the last 3 years and played in some MAYB tournaments. Last year they played in about 8 or so. This year we are getting ready to play in our 4th one - we've gotten 2nd in two of the tournaments so far. Here is a picture of the "huddle" during one of the tournaments. The coach has spent MANY hours doing a great job teaching these boys fundamental basketball which will definitely pay off for them. They are fun to watch!

Tyler had a vocal music concert with the 3rd - 5th graders. I believe he enjoyed it a little more than his face shows here:) He had not been feeling the best the couple days before this, although he never really ended up sick - just had a headache and cough. As a whole, the kids sounded great!

Tyler and his buddies after the program during the ice cream social put on by our Parents as Partners group. Tyler is the second one from the right.

Andrew had one weekend with two major birthday parties. One was a "Super Hero" party and they went all out. They were supposed to dress up as a super hero - and you can see he was Spiderman (thank goodness for old Halloween costumes:) The face painting occurred at the party - amazing job - I was shocked when I saw him and how real the paint job on his face was. He had a blast!!!

The next day, another preschool friend had a bowling birthday party. This was Andrew's first experience with bowling, and he had a great time! I was concerned there might be a hole in the floor at the start of the lane, but I guess the floor held up. He has since had his second bowling outing as his Cousin Luke just had a bowling birthday party this last weekend (but of course I forgot my camera).

Grant enjoyed his time at the bowling alley too:)

Happy Birthday Tyler! It is amazing that it was ten years ago that we were so unsure of the journey we were beginning. What an amazing adventure it has been, one we wouldn't trade for anything. Tyler has taught us joy, determination, persistence, and has blessed us with an incredible spirit and love of life! He is a blessing each day, and we're thankful for our NFED family that he's given us the opportunity to know.

Here are all the cousins at the family birthday party.

I was a bad mom because he had a friend birthday party with 7 other boys - 6 of them spending the night. I some how did not get one single picture of any of it, so unlike me. Oh well, I don't think I'll "reenact" it just for pictures:)

Then continuing on with the "mom" thing, we took the older two boys out of school on the Wednesday of the Big XII tournament and drove to Kansas City to see 4 tournament games. We had a GREAT day and just felt like it was an opportunity we wouldn't be given every day. The tickets were available from some friends so we took advantage of the chance. As a teacher, this is not something I do often - but well worth it for the enjoyment for the kids (and of course as parents too).

March is always one of my favorite times of year because of basketball, basketball, and more basketball. As a player and coach it always started with the State Basketball Tournament. This year celebrated 100 years of the Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) and they recognized all the previous state championship teams. My senior year at Moundridge High School, back in 1991, we won the state championship for the first time in school history (our boys team won that year also). This happened to be the 20 year anniversary of that also. Here I am along with 3 of my teammates from our championship team in 1991. It was quite a rush to step out on the Bramlage Coliseum court again and see all the Moundridge fans as our girls team was getting ready to play for the state championship again.