The Muench Bunch

With Christmas music playing and Mark dancing, we put up the Christmas tree. Jacob was very into it this year, unlike most years. He added as many ornaments as he could. Luke on the other hand removed as many as he could. Jayden payed attention to each ornament wanting to know who made it and where it came from. Our tree is over 10 years old. It is a pre- strung lit tree, however several sections have gone out. If you turn it just right, it isn’t too noticeable. Time for an upgrade. Its beginning to feel a bit like Christmas.

THe kids and I went to my parents and spent the night. The plan was the kids would stay at my parents while my Dad and I went to look at a horse. I have had my eye on a particular horse and have been emailing questions. It was all lined up, we just needed to verify what time. I called in the morning and they had made other plans. I was so upset and disappointed. I am so tired of dealing with people when It comes to horses. It is such a pain. After sitting around for a couple hours, we decided to make the day fun. I took Jayden to Ames for a mother daughter day. We haven't gone the two of us since August. We went to a few shops, Jayden had gift cards from her birthday for the past two years she needed to use. We also had a tea lunch at a tea room. I knew that we were overdue for going on one of our SKG Mom and daguther dates, so I thought we would fit it in also. We didn't have our guide and CD with us, but I knew we were supposed to go to an art museum. We went to the Octagon.

Luke has been doing well having a B.M in his potty chair. He has a small plastic potty that sits inside the bathroom where he likes to sit in privacy with a book. He seems to do the best when nobody is in the room. Like any other morning, I was letting him do his business. As usual I hear a big cheer from him when he is successful. For some reason he decided to bring the potty to me. He didn’t get very far and the potty tipped and out rolled a little ball, which he then brought me in his hand. I was so shocked and absolutely grossed out, I ran him to the toilet to get rid of the thing. Oh, the stories we will tell when these kids are grown. I had to write this down or I’d forget.

Last night the relatives came from Mark's family. Lauren, Darrel, and Doug Alexander stayed at our house. This morning was quiet as most everyone slept in with the exception of Luke and I. Luke got in a good morning nap and we headed to the Anderlik house at noon. Melinda has the nicest and largest home, therefore we always have the family gathering in her home. The house was toasty warm with the wonderful smell of all the fixins. Turkey, mashed potatoes, Karen's homemade noodles, Melinda's homemade butter horn rolls, and lots of pumpkin pies. The feast began around 1:30. Everyone ate until there bellies were full. Mr. Luke the picky eater would only eat butter horn rolls and he had 3 for lunch and one for supper. The family was much smaller than normal as we were missing 5 families. The Weilbrenner triplets and families, Chris ALexander's family, and the Ferrari's who came in the evening. It was not the same without those who were missing, however it was a nice tim

Jake has enjoyed his new art set. He spends a lot of time making his detailed drawings. Luke has really taken to his favorite whos. He gets a daily show, favorites include Mickey Mouse, Bear in the big blue house, and the baby Eainstein shows. He likes "Bear" the stuffed animal. It has been a favorite. Jayden got him around 18 months and loved on him, Jacob too was attached for awhile, and now Luke has to have him in his crib to sleep.

During a song in church when we were all standing, Luke went up and down the pew giving high fives to everyone behind him, all the cousins. He was sure funny. After church Mark and his Dad drove the combine and tractor home from the Dayton place. Mark drove Jake in the combine. He said the entire ride home, non stop, Jake was asking his what if??? questions. In the evening, all the families, Anderlik's Ferrari's, and Muench's met at Hickory Park for a celebration of ending harvest supper and Orrie's birthday. As usual, we were on time, followed by half hour late Anderlik's an 45 minute late Ferrari's.

Finally, our harvest has come to an end. What a long and tiring season it has been, for Mark most of all. He went 20 days without a full nights sleep checking dryers in the night. The kids got in on the last day in the field too. Last night, Jake went with Mark right after school in the semi and was in the tractor with Po Po until 10PM and stayed the night. Then, he was up bright and early at 5:30 AM waking everyone else up raring to go. I tried putting him to bed early tonight, but he just couldn’t sleep. Jayden rode most of the day in the combine with Grammer. She got to drive the combine on the last pass. Luke got to ride several times in the buddy seat with Grammer over the past week too.

Today our Jacob turned 6. He has really matured in the last few months and we are noticing it more and more. We sang to Jake when he woke up this morning, but I have to admit all the excitement of his birthday was over and he was a bit bummed. We had his party last weekend and I let him open his gifts from us yesterday so he would have a chance to play with them before school. He got a drawing easel as he loves to draw and he got a Leapster game player. I had to pry that out of his hands as he was glued to it. Without presents to open I also felt bad as I had really wanted to go to school and have lunch with him today, but with everyone in the field I didn ’t have anyone to watch Luke and I had to take out lunches. I wanted to make his after school time special, so I decorated the kitchen and a little cake. I also found some little gifts I wrapped up that I said were from Luke. We had his little cake which was green with yellow frosting. We also had yellow corn, green peas and yellow

Today was an eventful day. After taking Jacob to school, Luke and I stopped by the Boxholm post office. On the way out, I noticed up the block a lot of what I thought was dust. Turns out there was an explosion at the elevator and within seconds there was tons of smoke billowing out the grain dryer. I had my cell phone and snapped a couple photos. There were two injured and one was life flighted. I emailed my photos to channel 8 news and they showed it on the tv. I thought that was pretty cool. I feel like such a news reporter.

Jacob is full of What If’s…. He is continually saying crazy things, like what if my name was goober nose, what if I had ears in my eyes, what if I had no hair, what if our house was the size of a mountain, what if I was married at 1 year old, what if I was 60 years old, and it goes on and on. It is to the point it about makes you crazy. For every what if, he requires an answer. You cannot ignore him, you must answer him in some way or he gets very mad. The what if’s are any time we are in the car or at the dinner table. Some of the things he comes up with are so funny.

Each year I have the kids do an operation Christmas child shoe box. We do a shoe box per child. The shoe boxes contain toys, paper, pencils, hard candies, toothbrushes and other items. These boxes are sent to countries where children are in great need. This little box is all they get at Christmas. Usually I have the kids go to the store and help pick out items. Whenever we school shop we always load up on extra supplies. This year we got our AWANA club involved. I had the idea of having kids bring supplies to AWANA that can be used in the shoe boxes. Our church along with the AWANA kids had a lot of boxes.

It is mid November and harvest is still going slowly but surely. The corn is so wet l ately it has been Karen in the combine, Orrie in the tractor and grain cart, Mark in the semi. The are all getting so tired and worn out. I really worry about everyone. Mark is so drained and tired and he still gets up every night at least one while drying corn. The end is in sight, but it can't come soon enough . The kids love getting to ride. We even buckled Luke in the buddy seat for some rides and he sits there so good.

Luke has quite a large vocabulary, he is learning new words all the time. Some of the words are easy to understand, and others take mommy to translate. For the most part I can usually figure out what he is telling me. Some words he will only say the first syllable, such as shower-show, button-butt. Any word that starts with the letter “P’ (popcorn, pizza, pretty, papaw, pumpkin) automatically he says pee pee. This isn’t the nicest when you are in public. Luke can say Mommy, Daddy, Sissy, Jake, show, Bear, tractor, Abby, Apple, shoe, water, Daisy, Grammer, Po, Mawgee, water, baby and many others very clear. Some funny ones: Combine- Conkine I Love You – Ub you Ice Cream- Ceam ceam Blanket- Ke Ke also for kitty

Thank the Lord for warm sunny days! We have been given some beautiful much needed sunshine. The weekend was wonderful, 70's and this week is looking good too, 60's. The farmers are needing these warm sunny days to dry the crops. The kids are loving the warm weather too, in fact I let my kids play hookey yesterday... Shhhh . They had doctors appointments in the morning, everyone is well and got flu mist vaccines. Jayden and Jake still remain 20 lbs. apart and have been since Jake was a year. Jake is 43 and Jayden 63. After the doctor, I didn't hurry home and with the sunny day, I just let them stay home and play outside. My mom was here too, so that made even more reason for them to stay home and play. Today I sit on my deck with Mark's laptop in the warm sunshine while Luke naps. "This is the day that the Lord has made." Makes me think of the song. Over the weekend the kids had no school Friday, Jake was Daddy's sidekick all day,riding in the field.

To celebrate Jayden and Jacob's November birthday's, we had a family birthday party at the Hidden Acres Family Life Center. This place is awesome. We had access to our own party room, plus use of the gym and swimming pool. The kids had a wonderful time with all the cousins and family. It was kept simple by ordering pizzas from nearby Casey's. The party was 4-8.