Greetings from the Horken House!!

Winter has announced itself with a bitterly cold day, but it's the perfect kind of day to get in touch with all of you. This Christmas season has been quiet for us so far, which gives Dave and I time to think about the real reason that we celebrate "Christ"-mas. God always had Jesus in mind because He knew that we were all going to need a Savior--and at just the right time, He sent the angel Gabriel to speak to Mary and Joseph about carrying out His wonderful plan for all of us. Glory to God in the highest!!

Here are some 

"Snippets From The Horken House" 

2016

(oldest to youngest)        

Tim and Heather

Our oldest grandson--Teagon-- is a Computer Science major at UNO. We get to have 

lunch with him when he has time between his studies and his job. We are just 

glad to have this young man in the Omaha area.

              

Jade, our oldest granddaughter, graduated from high school last Spring. 

She is in her first year at UNL in Lincoln. She is well

into her first year and is doing well with her studies

and with managing her college life.

Jagger loves his music. He is part of a Christian band called "Cashmere." 

He and his fellow band members are involved at the 

Music Conservatory. Jagger also plays in the praise and worship 

band at Sunnybrook Church. 

Jagger was involved in football as a freshman

in high school and also enjoys hanging out with his buddies.

  

                                                                                 (Alivia -on the left- with KaSandra, her cousin.)

     

     Alivia enjoys her world of dance, girlfriends and family. 
     Dave and I were able to see her dance, which was so fun.

     

Jared and Stephanie

      Eliya and Stephanie enjoying a fun moment. Eliya is a freshman in high school 

and is very busy with her studies, her family and friends, and her 

dedication to competitive cheer.

She also loves to give her grandpa a bad time whenever she can!

Josiah (our 8th grader) began Taekwondo last Spring and is progressing rapidly. 

We are so proud of his discipline and dedication in doing his best.

   
  

Hannah (on the left) and Eliya have their eyes set on a competition at Disney World 

in the Spring. Hannah likes to spend time cooking and when she's not cooking or cheering, she can be found with her nose in a book.

 Dave and I enjoy playing Pickleball with friends. We are looking at an indoor 

facility so we can keep it going all year round. It feels good to be active!

We wish you a very Merry Christmas 

and all of God's blessings as we enter this brand new year!

Love,

Dave and Karol

2017

P.S. If the indentions are crazy on this post and you know how to help me, I welcome your advice. It looks perfectly fine on my draft and then when I post it, they do their own thing. Not going to work on it anymore!

Hello From The Horkens

It's a wonderful time of year to get in touch with family and friends. We hope you are all doing well. David and I are enjoying our third year in the Omaha area. We are grateful for so many things--for being close to family, for health, for friends and especially for Jesus who brings us peace and joy in the midst of everything that is going on in our world.

One of our joys is having a wedding this summer!  Tim and Heather were married on June 5th. We are so glad to have Heather and her daughter, Alivia as part of our family. What a wonderful addition!

Summer also brought some fun times with the kids.....

Eliya and Hannah's competitive cheer team qualified to compete at Disney World in April. They work so hard and it paid off!!

Josiah went out for cross country this fall. Again, a lot of work is involved. We are so proud of him. He's refilling his tank here after a meet.

Teagon's Graduation- May 2015

Teagon is a freshman at the University of Nebraska Omaha. 
We are happy to have him close.

Jagger- Teagon- Jade

Fishing with Alivia and Jagger. The big question??
Who's going to get the biggest fish!

 Homecoming Parade- Jade

She made a beautiful queen candidate!

We are so grateful for the great friends that God has brought into our lives when we moved to the big city.

Our Lifegroup from church enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner together in our home.

Within a three week period we "accidently" met six couples in our neighborhood. Because it was so "coincidental," we decided to get together once a month for food and fellowship. We've been doing that for over two years now and we are having a ball! 
Good friends are truly a gift from God.

As another year comes to a close, we pray that your Christmas is filled with the peace and joy that only God can truly bring.  Have a very Merry Christmas. 

Love, Dave and Karol

P.S. Love to hear from you!

dkhorken@gmail.com
kahorken@gmail.com

Or you can find us on Facebook and Instagram!

Hello everyone!  It's time to get in touch once again.  Now let me see.....hmmmmm........how did I upload the pictures last time???

Okay!  I guess it wasn't as hard as I thought.  This fall Eliya (age 12) and I made purses.  She made them for some of her closest friends.  She barely needs my help!!

A family tradition-- Casey's Doughnuts with Grandpa

We enjoyed some of Jagger's football games (age 12) this fall.

Dave and I had lunch at school during Grandparent's Week.  Here we are with Hannah (age 9)

Dave and I got in on a few of Jade's volleyball games.  (Age 16)  

She's so fun to watch!

We had a beautiful, long Indian Summer.  Stephanie "enjoyed" some time on the bike trail with her Dad.  David and I spent a lot of time near the lake on these beautiful afternoons.

David and I got to experience our first Husker's game since we became Nebraska residents.  We prayed really hard for nice weather, because we had experienced some cooler temps--the kind that required a winter coat!! It was actually hot that day!  A great time!!
This is one of our first "self-ies!"

Another beautiful day in the park for Josiah's 11th birthday party. He's the smiley one leaning near his cake.

We went from a beautiful fall with warm temps--to snow.  Someone forgot to warn our geraniums so they were caught off guard. Can anyone say dumpster?

That's our guy (Jagger)in red--going for that basketball!  What happened to our toddler??  He's now taller than Grandma--and proud of it!

Our oldest grandchild just turned 18 and will be graduating from high school this spring. When we first met him at age four, we never anticipated this day.  It came so fast!!

David and I have a monthly get together with some great people from our neighborhood.  In December we had a "Beach Party."  We wore summer attire even though our feet were freezing in our sandals!

Every time we leave that gathering, David and I comment on how fun it was to be with such great people.  Friends are truly a gift from God. 

We are in our second year of leading our small group from church.  Here again, we have enjoyed such great friendships.  We get together weekly and have some inspiring discussions--and yes, lots of laughter. 

The only bad thing about blogs is that they often end up "all about us."  I thought about discontinuing this blog because of it, but then I missed you all--so here I am again.  Please send us an email and let us know what is going on at your house. (Pictures are not necessary.)  Our email is kahorken@gmail.com.  And remember, you are always welcome at our home.  We have room for you to come and stay --so bring your jammies and toothbrush.  We would love it!!

God bless you all as we approach this

SEASON OF JOY

in knowing Christ!

Love, 

Dave and Karol

As summer is winding down, it's time to get in touch once again.  I don't know where the summer went.  It was a fun summer but went much too fast.

Rob, Marg, Eliya, Hannah and Jagger 

We enjoyed our annual trip to Ham Lake.  We call it our week of creating memories.  Dave's brother and his wife generously make this possible for our family and we are forever grateful.

Eliya

Skiing 

Jagger and Josiah

Tubing 

Jagger, Uncle Rob, Hannah, Josiah, Eliya

Fishing on the pontoon with Uncle Rob

Hannah and Jagger

Watching movies at night  

Dave

And just plain relaxin'

        Hannah and Eliya (who belong to Jared and Stephanie)

We enjoyed doing fireworks with the kids on the 4th.  My brother and sister-in-law (Roger and LeeAnn) were here visiting and we enjoyed an evening of good food and fireworks displays all over our neighborhood. Great fun!

Jade (our 16 year old granddaughter) and her friend Michelle

The girls came twice this summer to take part in volleyball camps and UNO and Creighton.  We had great fun hanging out in the evenings.  We adopted Michelle as our granddaughter because she melted right into our family.  They are trying to find time in their busy school schedules to come for another visit.

Dave, me, Bonnie, LeeAnn, Roger, Jake and Terry

My cousins from Colorado and California came for a visit and visit we did!!  It was so fun to get caught up again after (what I hate to say) had been a long time.

Sherry, Aunt Jodie, Roger, LeeAnn, Dave, Karol

While Roger and LeeAnn (and Tucker) were here from Florida, we were blessed to have my Aunt Jodie and cousin Sherry (and Corky) visit us from Des Moines.  More visiting and catching up.  

The Rays, The Horkens, The Roberts

Time with friends at Lake Okoboji.  We took a tour of Lake Okoboji on the Queen II.  It was a beautiful time.

Dave, Josiah and Jagger

Grandpa and I enjoyed watching two 3D showings at IMAX at the Henry Doorly Zoo.

Eliya and Hannah

One more celebration...... and then it was back-to-school!!

It was a great summer---lots of company with family and friends!!  And now that it's all said and done....David and I are enjoying the memories.

We would love to hear from you--pictures or not----it doesn't matter.  YOU are the one who is important to us!!  Just drop us a line!

God bless you,

Dave and Karol

Whoa!  Where have I been??  All the excuses that come to mind seem so lame so I will spare you.  Mmmmm......I sort of have one that might work......we switched from a PC to a MAC and when we transferred our pictures, I felt like 10 years worth of pics got thrown into one barrel.  That may be an exaggeration but I became emotionally frozen when it came to sending out my blog.  How's that for drama??

Every Friday night during the summer we have live concerts on the plaza.  Sometimes we take the grandkids along.  Here Josiah and Hannah are playing cards while listening to the music.  

At the end of the school year, one student's art was chosen from each grade and is framed and hung in the hallway for a year.  Both Eliya and Hannah were chosen this year.  This is Eliya's self-portrait.  (age 12)

Here is Hannah's artwork.  (age 9)

 Josiah and Grandpa's favorite past time- playing pool.

Dave and I had a wonderful time with our friends in Branson, MO.  Another couple invited us to stay in their lovely home while we enjoyed the sights and sounds of Branson.

We stopped in Albany, GA and spent some time with my sister and her family.  Here we are with Tina, our niece and her husband Kim.  They are missionaries from the Philippines and were home for a time.  It was a joy to get caught up and hear all about what God was doing in their lives and ministry.

After Georgia, David and I traveled to Englewood, Florida and spent two weeks with my siblings.  This is my brother, Roger and I.  (Roger was getting prepped for a Nascar weekend so thus--the beard!)

We enjoyed two wonderful weeks of sunshine with Roger, LeeAnn and Tucker while Nebraska experienced a bitter cold winter.  Only thing we would have changed--is that we would have stayed longer.  We got in on the cold when we returned!!

Jagger just completed his first year of Middle School.  We enjoyed watching his basketball games.  (He's the one in the white.)

Teagon will be a senior next year.  He did extremely well on his ACTs.  Teagon loves to read books, which is dear to Grandma Karol's heart!

Jade will be a junior next year.  We enjoyed one of her Spring track meets.  She also plays varsity volleyball, is a cheerleader and is on the dance team.  And somehow she manages to study.

Jagger, Dave and I enjoyed riding our bikes across the Pedestrian Bridge in downtown Omaha.  You can stand in both Iowa and Nebraska at the same time!  We had a lovely time that day riding along the river front and down through the Old Market district.  There are fun things to do in Omaha!

I am teaching Hannah to cook this summer.  Every Wednesday night she comes over and we make a recipe.  She copies her recipe and puts it in cooking notebook.  The school year is too busy for such things so we are making the most of the summer.

We have had some cousin kick back times which are always fun.  We are gearing up for our week at the lake real soon, so next time I will post those pictures.

We had some unusually warm weather in March so Jagger and Eliya went fishing at Halleck Park.  Great fun!!

Well, I hope that has brought you up to date of what has been happening at the Horken House since the beginning of the year.  I promise to do a better job at my blogs now that I know that it is possible!!

Love you all,

Dave and Karol