DragonFest....

Well, this past weekend GAGE sponsored the DragonFest Cheerleading Competition in Kansas City, MO. All seven of their teams performed, but for exhibition only. They looked incredible and if they would have been able to compete - six of the teams would have won their category and the remaining team would have placed second.

They are getting ready for their last competition for this season, which will be the COA Nationals being held at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City on March 29th. Once this season is over, they will start practicing and going through tryouts for next season. If Lizzy can get her Back Tuck perfected over the next couple of months - she may be able to move up to another level...

Lizzy - The All-Star Cheerleader

Lizzy has been very busy lately with her cheerleading competitions with the GAGE Purple Dragon Cheerleading Squad. Along with three practices a week, in January she competed at the "State Fair Spirit Classic" in Sedalia and then the "It's Time to Cheer" competition in Olathe, Kansas. They are so much fun to watch!!!!
Very impressive for 10-12 year olds...

We are so proud of you Lizzy!

Jumpin Jelly Bean

Kendall has been playing Basketball at BVAC in Independence for the past couple of months and he has really improved and learned the basics of the game this year. They have one practice a week, and one game each Saturday. We have started calling him "our little jumpin jelly bean" because he is always jumping around. His poor little feet never stop!

The first few weeks we called him "Defense" - because he would just steal it from the other team and pass it to the bigger boys on his team. The past few weeks, we have got him to actually shoot the ball too. He has made a few baskets this season, unfortunately one of them was for the other team.... We are so proud of him, he is a natural when it comes to any type of ball!

Fonda's Van...

Nissan Quest For Sale - Minor Smoke Damage!!!

For those of you that have already heard about our Family's excitement over the weekend, I thought I would pass along a few pictures to put it into perspective. If you haven't heard already, Kendall had a Basketball Game in Independence on last Friday evening and on the way home from the game Fonda and the kids along with one of Lizzy's friends were just a mile or two away from the gym when they smelled something hot and almost immediately the van filled with smoke. Fonda was able to roll down the windows and clear her vision enough to pull over in the next driveway to check things out. By this time there was melted plastic dripping from underneath the dash and soon it was shooting sparks out from under the dash. She was able to get the kids out of the van and into a nearby field at a safe distance and she started getting other personal belongings out of the van as she stomped out the sparks that were falling to the floorboard. A very nice couple stopped and allowed the kids to sit in their truck and he helped Fonda put snow on the sparks and floorboard to keep it from catching on fire. It gradually got worse and by the time the Fire Department arrived the van was fully engulfed in flames and all they could do is sit back and be thankful that they had the time to get out without any harm. It was about 5 degrees outside so we are thankful that someone had stopped to help keep the kids warm. Once the fire was put out, Fonda and the kids got to sit in the Fire Truck until the Tow Truck came to haul it away. Unfortunately, I was in Sedalia taking Youth Basketball Pictures so I was not there to help. Fonda called John (our brother-in-law) to come pick them up and he got them home safely. We are very lucky to have a great family that has offered us to use an extra vehicle while we try to find a replacement. Unfortunately, we can't do very much at this time - but Fonda does need a reliable vehicle to get the kids to daycare and to and from work everyday. If you know of anyone that has a reasonable, reliable vehicle for sale - please let us know. Or if you have any contacts that may be able to help us find something, please let us know. We would appreciate any help that we can get at this time.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

We spent about an hour Trick-or-Treating
in the neighborhood tonight with the kids
and they had a great time.

Kendall was Captain Jack Sparrow from
Pirates of the Carribean, and Lizzy
was the Wicked Witch! They got lots of goodies
and we ended up walking around with other kids
from the neighborhood so they had even more fun!

KC Cheerleading Spectacular

"5... 6... 7... 8"

Lizzy had her first Cheerleading Competition today since earning a spot on the Gage Purple Dragons All-Star Cheerleading Squad. They competed in the KC Spirit Spectacular at Municipal Auditorium in downtown Kansas City.

Lizzy, Sarah and Cassidy

The Purple Dragons were awesome and received First Place!
Check out the video of their performance at
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8754765312593806873

The Twister Jam Fest in Topeka, Kansas will be their next competition in two weeks. It will be a much larger competition with nearly 90 Teams competing.

"Congratulations Lizzy!"

Back to School...

Well, the kids and I are all back to school now....
I have been taking some Staff Group Pictures and Sports Teams at various schools the past week or two. This week we photographed a couple small schools and I spent a few nights at a Hotel in Osage Beach while we photographed Camdenton High School. Today we photographed about 350 Little League Football Players in Sedalia and in a couple weeks we have about 1100 Soccer Players to photograph in Sedalia. This next week may be our busiest week I have ever worked with Inter-State Studio, we have 5-6 cameras going each day this week and we have our crews stretched out all over the territory - luckily two or three days are fairly close to home for me.

Lizzy had her first day of 5th Grade on Thursday - Yes, I said fifth grade. It sounds like she has a great teacher - and as always, she is excited about school. She has really grown up this summer - and she is still enjoying her All-Star Cheerleading. In a couple of months she will start having one or two competitions per month, and we are very anxious to see her perform.Kendall hasn't been doing much other than playing catch with Dad, riding his scooter and bike and playing with the other boys in the neighborhood since we finished T-Ball. He wants to play basketball this winter, but we have not found anywhere that he is old enough to play. We may just have to play soccer or something else.

The start of school brought lots of work for Fonda and The Little Teachers Store. Teachers have been in getting items to prepare their classroom and business has been very steady since the Grand Opening. She has been putting in lots of hours both at the store and home with making new purchase orders to complete special orders to keep the inventory full.

Double Play...

Kendall had his last T-Ball Game of the year on Tuesday evening to make up for a rainout earlier in the year. He had a great game in front of the biggest Fan Club any T-Baller could ask for. Along with Mom and Dad, he had Grandma and Grandpa Harrison, Grandma Crooks, Susan, Taylor and Jordan Crooks, Kennedy Early, Johnny, Kim, Josh and Jacob Dodge and Mason Eaton that all came out to see him play.

He made the only Double Play of the T-Ball Season to end the year. You can only imagine how proud he made Mommy and Daddy with that play... You can view the video of the season-ending double play with the following link.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6182896554749166777

We finished up the T-Ball Season last night with a Pizza Party at CiCi's Pizza in Independence as we all had Pizza, Cake and then Coach James handed out Medals to all the players. Thank You to everyone that came out to see him play and we look forward to many more years on the baseball diamond.

Kids new pet...

Daddy - can we keep it?

Our poor dog was going nuts in the corner of the yard for two days and I could not figure out why she kept going to the same spot and barking. I finally noticed this small box turtle on the outside of the fence behind the evergreen bush, so I pulled it out and took it down to the pond in our sub-division to let it go. The kids wanted to keep it as a pet, but what are you going to do with a turtle, and it drove the dog absolutely crazy already. It was the fastest turtle I have ever seen, every time I put it down - it just took off faster than you could believe; I guess we could have kept it for the next turtle races that came to the neighborhood...?

Bye, Bye Speedy!

Training Wheels

After a few weeks of Kendall riding his bike with the training wheels barely touching, he pulled into the driveway tonight and the neighbor said "Kendall, I think you're ready to take those training wheels off aren't you?" He looked at me and shook his head as a yes, so I immediately hopped up and we took them off. I ran along side him the first two times up and back in the cul-de-sac and he hasn't looked back since....

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8619930605726078992&hl=en

He spent the next thirty minutes riding up and back in the cul-de-sac with the bigger kids with the biggest smile you could ever imagine.

Another busy weekend

First of all we had a great 4th of July, we didn't do anything too spectacular - just stayed around here and spent some time with friends. Tuesday we had our annual gathering in the cul-de-sac, and Wednesday we spent the evening with the Isaacks Family and some of their friends.

Then the kids spent a few days at Grandma Betty's house while some of the cousins were in from Indiana. Fonda and I were lost without kids for two nights in a row, then we went down to pick Kendall up Saturday afternoon to go to a Demolition Derby in Clinton that night. After the Derby, we stopped back by Grandma's House to pick up Lizzy and we came on home.

After sleeping in a little on Sunday morning, John and Mona called to see if we could go out on the boat for a little while. I already had plans to photograph a few baseball games for some of the neighbor boys, but Fonda and the kids got to enjoy some time on Lake Jacomo with John, Mona and Kaiya. They went for a nice boat ride and got to swim in the lake too. Lizzy had to stop early due to Cheer Practice, but it sounds like they all had a blast.

Lizzy is attending Vacation Bible School this week and Kendall has another T-Ball game tonight, so it just keeps on going... before you know it Summer will be over!

Summer Update...

Well, I have my last Youth Ball League to photograph for the season tonight at Whiteman Air Force Base and then I will have almost a month off of work. It is nice to have some time at home to get things done, but it makes it tough on the finances for a few weeks. I will go back to work taking Senior Pictures in late July and then spend the first two weeks of August making the rounds taking staff group pictures. Then by the middle of August we will be taking Fall School Portraits every day and doing sports teams after school and on the weekends. We added two large school districts (Warrensburg and Clinton) to our territory this year so we are going to be stretched on our schedule even more than in the past. I am looking forward to the new challenges and experiences that we will encounter with the extra work load.

Kendall has just three more T-Ball games. He is really enjoying the season and asks every day "do I get to play T-Ball tonight?" I think most of the team is getting a little more tired though, I am seeing a lot more playing in the dirt and rolling around in the grass than I saw earlier in the season.
Lizzy has Stunt Camp at Cheerleading this week, so she is missing a few hours of Summer School on Tuesday and Thursday morning. I'm starting to think that as much time as she spends at Cheerleading that she might as well just move her bed up there... Oh well, she is really enjoying the whole learning experience and meeting lots of new friends. I can't wait until the competitions start.

Fonda is enjoying her new job although she is meeting new challenges every day. She is gearing up for a Grand Opening towards the end of July, so she is trying to get the store layout how she likes it and more inventory ordered to fill the store before school starts. If you are in the Blue Springs area stop by to see her at The Little Teachers Store at 1006 West Main Street.

Day 5...

Friday we had the chance to spend the afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa Crooks to see Grandpa use his Racing Experience Gift Certificate at the Kansas Speedway. As much as he enjoys racing, the kids all went together and bought him a Gift Certificate for a 6 lap ride to see what it is like to go 160 mph in a NASCAR Race Car. We all enjoyed getting to see him do this, and it was neat to be down in the Pit Area of a Major Speedway.

The Grandkids cheered as Papa made his racing debut!

Day 3...

Another day of Fun for the boys...
We started the day by hitting a few (ok, quite a few) Garage Sales in the area, and Kendall is such a sport by walking with me and looking through any toys that he might find and is pretty good about realizing what is good and what is Junk!

Then we picked up Kaiya and headed to Mom's work to help her out for a little bit before lunch. Kaiya and Kendall came back to our house to play for a while before we had to pick up Lizzy from school. We stopped for Ice Cream on our way home from school and then came back to get ready for Cheerleading and T-Ball Practice. After practices we had a nice dinner as a family and then Lizzy went back to Cheerleading practice from 9-10 (Wow- she practices alot, no wonder they are so good). Kendall practices that great form at T-ball Practice...

Day 2 of Daddy Daycare...

Well, we decided to go to the James Lewis Elementary playground today, but due to some construction work at the school they had the school property closed. We then headed just down the street to the Pink Hill Park to spend some time on the playground equipment for a while.
After 45 minutes of playing at the park we decided it was time to drop by and see if Mom needed any help at the store, but on the way Kendall spotted a large helicopter coming in for a landing and it actually landed at the James Lewis Elementary where we originally wanted to play so we stopped to see what was going on. The school was replacing some Air Conditioning units on the roof and the helicopter was removing the old ones and lifting the new ones into place on the top of the school. The helicopter company from St. Louis was very nice and brought Kendall over a sticker while they were hooking up the chains to the first piece and another guy brought Kendall some Safety Glasses to wear to keep the dust and dirt out of his eyes when the helicopter was down so low. It was very cool to see the helicopter lift them up and hoover over the school to put them on the roof.
Well, Kendall's T-Ball game was rained out last night so we hope to get his game in tonight. Lizzy has Cheerleading Practice during the game and I have to work in Knob Noster so we will miss the game, but I am sure he will do as well as he did the first game. Good Luck Buddy!