Josh

Josh asked the other day when it was going to be winter because he was ready to play hockey. He does not want to wait until January to play he wants to play right now. The kid is a little crazy. But he does like his sport.

Josh at Goalie camp! He had a great time.
A group of the kids from goalie camp listening to instruction. Josh is in the red pads and orange tape on his stick. Orange of course is there anything else. Not to Josh orange is his color.

Hockey is His Sport!

Savanna and Graceyann

I did Savanna's hair and makeup for her. Don't she look cute?

Graceyann always posing.

The girls got all dressed up and posed for the camera!

Savanna is 12 years old and Graceyann is 7 years old.

Roller Coaster

Things have been a roller coaster here. Jimmy lost his job at LP in April. We have been looking for work and figuring out what God wants us to do next. I'm going to be going back to school for CNA at the hospital in October and then in the winter go back to LSSU for other classes. We thought that we would be moving back down state but now Jimmy may have a job up here. The kids do not want to move at all. Josh wants nothing to do with moving because of his best Buddy. Graceyann only wanted to move so that she could Ice Skate but really she did not want to move. If things all work out the way we think they will we will not have to move. Praise the Lord! Answer to our prayers. Jimmy does not like staying home and taking care of things here at home. Jimmy has been doing a lot of fishing this summer so he has a nice tan.

Josh has been having fun playing street hockey in the drive way. He is going to summer school because he did not want to do his work during the regular school year. He is still struggling with his reading and math. So we have been homeschooling part of the summer and the next three weeks he will be at the school do school work. He is not real happy about getting up and having to go to school. Josh also went to goalie camp for three day this summer. Josh has been playing soccer this summer and doing good.

Graceyann is just been having fun. She has done a few fun things but nothing big. Depending on when Jimmy starts the job, Graceyann may get to go to ice skating camp for a week down state. Graceyann just went on a scouting outing today. Her troop went to the Sheriff department. Graceyann has been playing soccer also this summer. She was more excited about soccer when she did not play. She is doing a fair job. But I don't think that she really wants to keep playing. This week and one more week left then we will be done with soccer for this year.

Praise the Lord!!! God is been good even in the bad times. God has always been there even if we did not see him or think that he was there. Just keep your eyes up on the Lord.

Hello again!

Well I have not been on here in over a month. Things have been crazy here. I quite one job and started a new job. Jimmy has been layoff on and off. Josh is now done with hockey. In the last month we have been gone so much because of hockey. He played during periods of a Red Wing Alumni game then got to go in the locker room to talk and get autographs of the players. At the last tournament of the year Josh got an assist on a goal. He was so excited and of course so was Mom. Josh also tried to be goalie at practice and has decided that next year he was to be goalie. Which will be good because we do not have a goalie next year, our goalie will go up to the next level next year. Graceyann is doing well in school. She wants to play soccer this summer so we have singed her up. The Graceyann flat doll is on it way back home.

For Spring break we went to Grandpa and Grandma's house. We had marshmallow fights, colored Easter eggs, went to the children's museum, played floor hockey with Grandpa, went ice skating and just played hard all day long. We also had a girls day of shopping and a guys day at the property. We had a lot of fun.

Yellow What to do?

Graceyann has been having some trouble in school the last month and continues to not do what the teacher asked of her to do. We have grounded her for the rest of the day when she goes on yellow. But it seems to not be working because she still comes home on yellow. Last week she was on yellow twice and she did not tell us until I looked in her bag today to see what papers she brought home. We ask her everyday how was your day and did you stay on green. Both days she told us that she did not go to yellow. So when we asked today why she did not tell us she went to yellow she told us that she forgot. Which is not true because she remembers everything it was her way to got out of being grounded. We have tried to talk to her and find out why she won't do what is asked of her and her response is because I wanted to do what I wanted to do. What to do?

They Won!

Well we had a little break with hockey this week because we had a February thaw. All week it has been warm so we have lost some snow and ice. Which means that the hockey rink started to melt so we where unable to practice at all this week. But we had a game today in Manistique where they have an indoor rink. We had two games this morning and we won both of them. Which is exciting because we have only won 4 games total this season and we are starting to come to the end of the season. Just 5 more games and 1 more tournament in St. Ignace. Then the talk of the Spring League begins. Which spring league is 6 weeks long and in the Soo because of course we will have no more ice here to play on once it starts warming back up again. Yes again because yesterday the temperature was starting to drop back down to the low teens at night and twenty's during the day. Today the high was 25 degrees out. The ice is back and ready for practice so back to practice on Tuesday.

Bechtel Cheerleader Part 4

Even Poppy joined in on the fun with us.

Jimmy and Josh concentrating on what to do next. It was funny watching the two boys cheer. But they did really good.

Poppy and Josh posing for the camera.
Poppy, Josh, and Graceyann posing for the camera.
What a team they are.

Bechtel Cheerleaders Part 3

Josh and Graceyann taking time out from Wii cheer to pose for the camera.

Josh and Graceyann playing the Wii Cheer!
Graceyann had to put on her cheer leading outfit to be more like the real cheerleaders. Doesn't she look cute?

Go Graceyann!

J0sh doing Wii Cheer. SHH he is concentrating on what to do next.

Way to go Josh!

And the winner of the Cheer off is Josh!

Bechtel Cheerleaders Part 2

Here are some pictures of Mommy, Josh, and Graceyann doing the Wii Cheer.

We were all laughing and having a good time goofing around.

Please put your hands together for the Bechtel Cheerleaders!

Please put your hands together for the Bechtel Cheerleaders!

Last night we were playing the Wii Cheer. We had a blast playing. I thought that everyone would enjoy these videos that I took. Sorry that they are so dark but you can see some of what they are doing. The first video is Josh and Graceyann and the second video is Josh and Poppy.

Queen of the hill!

Yesterday we had a heat wave so we went outside to check on the outside of the house and make sure that everything is OK and to put some salt on the driveway. We also cleaned the snow out of the back of Jimmy's truck. Well everyone but Graceyann she was being to prissy. She did get on top of the snow mound and pose for the people that drove by. So we announce the Queen of the snow hill. Lets hear it for Graceyann Bechtel Queen of the snow hill.

Smile

Graceyann lost another tooth this week. Say cheese so we can see that big gap of missing teeth. So has now lost all of her front teeth and waiting for her adult teeth to come in. So both of the kids are missing front teeth.

Kids getting ready for Awana's!

The kids where getting ready for Awana's two weeks ago. Josh was helping Graceyann practice reading her verse. Josh has been really excited about going to Awana's. He was excited when he was able to get his vest to put his awards on it. He is doing really good. Graceyann is doing good but she is not as excited about going. He is behind but is getting better at it.

Josh showing off his new vest with his book and bible.
Both of the kids as they get ready to leave.

Good luck this week guys.

Bad Morning

Sunday was an early morning for the kids. They sure did not want to get out of bed. This is what they looked like getting ready to go. Josh sure did not want his picture taken. This is Josh with both of his hoods up to not let me see his face with Graceyann in the mirror.

Graceyann was trying to crack a smile for the camera.
Can we go back to bed it is to early to get up? That is what both of the kids told us that morning. It was a long, long, long day. The kids got very upset with every little thing. It also took us longer to get anywhere because they did not want to move. We did get checked out of our hotel and to the game on time.
Everyone was ready to just get home so we could recoup from the long fun weekend.

Graceyann with her friends

Graceyann, Rachel, & Alison

These are some of Graceyann's friends that she played with while the game was going on. She is such a mother hen with the little ones.

Guys do ask for directions!

Yes guys do ask for directions sometimes!

We could not find the hockey rink on Friday so Jimmy stopped and asked a cop how to get to the rink. He started to tell us how to get there then he said I will just show you how to get there. So we got a police escort to the rink and for proof I took pictures. We had pasted the road about 3 times when we were trying to find it ourselves. Big Ben and Parliament!

So all you guys out there you can stop and ask for direction it saves a lot of time and frustration.

Passed Out!

The kids had so much fun this weekend that they just passed out on Saturday night. They had a hard day of playing. They never even moved the whole night.

Shh don't wake the children.

Pictures of Josh from the tournament

Here are a few picture of Josh from the tournament.

Josh waiting in the locker room
The team waiting to get on the ice.

Josh waiting

The start of the game. Get ready.

(Josh is playing right refense)

Static Electricity!

We got to the hotel on Friday and Graceyann got on the bed and this is what she looked like. Just a little static electricity.

There was so much static electricity in the room that when you moved the blankets you could see sparks.

Josh the punk

Josh got a new hat this weekend and he did not take it off but only to play hockey and go swimming. The hat that he got surely fits his personally of being a punk. He wore it side ways the whole weekend.

Josh playing his game boy.
He is still wearing the hat but he does take it off some now.

LOS TRES AMIGOS

We went to a mexican restaurant while in Marquette. They had sombreros that you could wear so we put them on and took a few pictures. Don't the family look just adorable.

Just for Katie part 2

We did do some shopping this weekend and here is just a couple of pictures of store that we went into.

I did have fun getting these pictures for you. It was fun also going into the stores to look around. It was a change from what we have in our little cities that we live in. Just so you know I did go into Target 3 times in 1 weekend.

LIFE IN THE BIG CITY!

LIVE IT UP!

Just for Katie!

These are for you Katie. Hope that you enjoy.

He did enjoy this just for you.

We are back safe and sound

We are back from Marquette. Josh did fine he did not eat much all weekend long but other then that he had fun.
We shopped, swam, relaxed by the pool, played hockey on the ice, in the hallway of the hotel, at the pool, in our rooms, where ever more then 1 boy was hockey was going on.
As far as the hockey games go they won 1 game and lost the rest. The kids did have fun and learned so things. That is what matters the most that they had fun. Pictures will be posted at a later date. As a side note Katie I have some pictures that I will post just for you.

Update on Josh

Josh feel much better today (Friday) so off to Marquette for a weekend of hockey, swimming, shopping, hockey, hockey, and more hockey. He will play at least 4 games this weekend. OFF WE GO!