The Muench Bunch

For the past 3 years in a row, we spent our New Years Eve in Des Moines at a hotel. It is a fun family getaway we all enjoy. We started the morning roaming the mall and most important, taking in the shattered Ipod touch. It definitely pays to go directly to the company, the Apple store. The place was buzzing, a small narrow store in the Jordan Creek mall with over 36 employees and tons of people. The place was elbow to elbow. We told our situation and without any hesitation, they replaced it for a new one FREE of charge. WOW! What a relief. We bought a heavy duty new case to hold the Ipod and Jayden was a happy girl texting her friends and playing her games. Jake had wanted a school bus for Christmas in a major way. Santa did not leave one and Mom and Dad had a really hard time finding one. In the mall, he found his bus and had to have it. We made a deal with him as he had a couple Christmas items that needed returned, so it was a fair deal. He was thrilled with the bus, played with it

The boys are so lucky to have such a great big sister. Jayden did not have that luxury when she little. Jayden is so helpful and good to them. She is Luke’s buddy for sure. She will help him in any way from getting him socks, shoes, clothes on, giving a bath, helping in his car seat, making a chocolate milk , you name it. She also will play toys with him or read a book. He adores her too. Recently he was talking about “someday… when I grow up I will live in a big house and sissy will live there too.” I took these pictures New Years because I was sitting by the pool in the morning just watching. You can see how helpful Jayden is just by the pictures. She has a bond with her brothers. Her and Jake were super close when he was little. Now there is more fighting between them, but they still spend time playing and have lots of fun times together.

One special gift Jayden received from Wahlert grandparents was a vanity. Peepaw fixed it up, painted it, and delivered it to Jayden’s room. It looks very nice in her room. Another sign that my baby is growing up. She wants to wear make-up so badly. She gets to wear lip gloss. She likes to wear mascara and does a good job putting it on, but she has to wait until 13. Another gift Jayden received from Muench grandparents for Christmas was a loom kit. It didn't take long at all for her to make her first hat. She spent about half a day and made her cute hat.

The plan was to take the kids and go ride in the indoor arena in Ankeny. Since this Iowa weather has been so crazy, we just decided to stay here and ride horses outside in the pen. It was in the lower 50’s with no wind at the end of December! Jake was kind of in a mood so he didn’t enjoy it as much as the last time. He still did a great job, riding Dakota all over at a walk and a trot. She was a little harder to ride this time wanting to go to the feeder. Mark, Jayden, and I took turns form Tex to Jessie. My parents came down to watch the kids ride too. They sat in lawn chairs on December 28 and watched us ride. We roped the dummy awhile too. What great weather!

As we were getting ready to leave the house and head into town, Jayden dropped her I-pod touch onto the bathroom tile floor and the screen shattered. Her Ipod she has wanted so badly for the past 18 months. The I-pod I was against her getting until the very last moment. The Ipod that has not left her hands since Christmas morning. My heart broke for her as we pondered what to do. It broke even more when Target told us there was nothing we could do. It spoiled the mood for the day and I couldn’t even think straight to continue my shopping, I was in a fog. Jayden had Hannah along for the day which helped a little. We also picked up Jacob’s friend Soren to come and play for the afternoon.

A year ago Christmas, I talked a lot about the drummer boy with Luke. He recognized the song the first time he heard it. He says,” That’s my song.” He has his own drummer boy ornament that plays a little bit of the song. He calls himself the drummer boy and sings the tune when he hears the song. We got a photo of our little drummer boy who was in Jayden’s Christmas skit.

Today in the city of David, a Savior has been born to you, He is Christ the Lord.” And on this very day , we get to celebrate the birth of Christ. As I tell Luke today we get to give one another gifts for baby Jesus’s birthday because we cannot give him the gifts. Santa brings some gifts to share in all the celebrating too. Each of the kids were in their new pajamas furry with snowmen awake around 8:00AM. Luke was the first one up and full of excitment. They waited anxiously in the hallway until we lit the Christmas tree and grabbed the camera. It is such an exciting time. Luke ran to the tree exclaiming "My favorite crane.” Jacob spotted a remote control and said,”Cool”. He even had a letter fron Santa explaining that there were some problems with the exact remote control he wanted, but thought this one would be cool too. Jayden had a little red box that held inside the item she longed to have, an " Ipod touch" and she said, "Awesome!” After the santa gifts and

After our afternoon of family time, this year we decided to do something different, rather than attend my parents Williams church, we attended our church in Ames for the Christmas Eve program. I really wanted to go knowing it was Pastor Paul’s last sermon. I knew it meant missing the hometown local church tradition, but my parents were game for going too. I had hoped Wade and Carina would go too, but “things” always get in the way. We dressed up, took some photos, and headed to Ames arriving on time. Knowing it was the only service for the weekend, I thought it might be crowded, Mark thought so many people would be traveling and out of town. I was right on this one and it was packed. Not a seat left, literally Mark, Jayden, and I sat on a cement step, along with lots of others. It was a great service, lots of songs from the band and Pastor Paul’s wife with candles lining the stage. Pastor Paul gave a good sermon as always. Then we pondered whether to head home or eat. We found a Chine

Christmas Eve Mark and I headed to my parents as the kids were already there. We arrived before noon. Dinner was yummy ham, mashed potatoes & gravy, green beans and lots of other fixins. As we all sat down to eat, in no time people were finished, clearing and rinsing plates and putting food away. As Mark and I sat there finishing our meal, food was being put into Tupperware and into the fridge. Now there has to be some kind of happy medium between my parents and Mark’s presents. Here we had the food swiped away and at Mark’s parent the food sits out so long I am afraid it will start growing something. Truly 7 hours of turkey, prime rib, and casseroles sitting out 7 hours. Then they get put into Tupperware and put in the fridge for another day. Soon it was gift time as the kids were super anxious. Luke got to start the day as the youngest. I think you could have wrapped anything and he would have been just as excited. He has waited since his birthday in January to get to unwrap a gi

The kids stayed over with grandparents and I met some of my high school classmates for lunch. We met at our old stomping grounds, Godfather's in Webster City. I think I ate there just about every Saturday night in high school. The gals that could make it, Jessica, Abby, and Tracy. We talked for hours. It was fun to catch up. Jessica just moved to North Carolina, so I am missing her.

I kind of felt like the Grinch today when his heart grew three sizes. For the past 18 months I have been adamant about Jayden not getting an Ipod touch. I have my list of reasons, but something changed, something softened my heart and I felt it was time. Jayden is super mature, responsible, a good kid, helps at home, does awesome at school, and not only helps a ton with her brothers, but also puts up with them. Yes, she deserved to have one more than anybody. I told her about a month ago when she was on a kick that she "really really wanted one for Christmas", that I didn't want her to be upset, but she wouldn't be getting one. She has talked about one for months and just this week her best friend got hers early for Christmas. With my change of mind, I realized I only had 3 days until Christmas. Was an ipod touch going to be a hot item that I may not find? Surely not, those things have been around for years. Mark and I made a late last minute dash to Target in Ames. I

There are days, several of them when I just want to pull my hair out in anger. I have those days and today was one of them. Nothing out of the ordinary for us. It started out a good day, I got to volunteer in Luke’s pre-school room during his Christmas party. It was fun with the cute little activities they played and how happy Luke was to have me there. It was also a very nice day out, temps almost to the 50’s. Still no snow and feeling more like spring than fall. The stresses of last minute Christmas wrapping and packaging and last minute ideas are stressing me out. Did I get enough for this person, should I get more for them? The kids, are they going to have the same number, will they be happy with what they got? Will Santa bring that very special thing that they have on their list or will Santa not succeed? It is too late for last minute Amazon or ebay orders even with super extra shipping, trust me I checked. I have learned to test things with batteries before Christmas morning, su

I take an annual photo of the boys each year wearing Daddy’s shirt and tie. This shows how little they are and how much they have grown and how much they still have to grow to catchup to Daddy. I let thier personalities show too.

I always enjoy coordinating the kids outfits for Christmas. I found the boys black vests first, then decided on shirts. Jayden's dress was something we saw earlier this year a both loved. We ended up buying it on Black friday. It was the last one and in a size 12. I think it was mean't to be.

It was so nice for a December day. 50’s you could even go without a coat. We have had one day of snow and since then the ground has been dry and the temps up. Mark took Tex for a ride, then we put the kids on for a ride. I really like that horse, he has such a nice temperament. Linde, our neighbor has been working in our shop building horse stalls. These are the same stalls Mark bought shortly after we started dating. Luke and Jake like to play with the horse feeder. They pretend it is a cage and shut each other in. Sometimes Luke shuts himself in and cannot get back out.

Jayden had an early morning basketball game in boxholm against there own school 5th graders. The 5th grade girls are tough and have a very driven coach. They played hard and the game was close all the way to the end. The 5th grade girls won by 4 points.

In August, I started feeling a tooth coming in. After a visit to the dentist, some x-rays, and a met with an oral surgeon, today I had my wisdom teeth pulled. I went in at 8:30, Mark was to take me home at 9:30. I recall sitting in the chair, getting my I.V. and I was out. I remember being walked to another recovery chair with lots of help. My legs did not want to work. I heard someone call my name and I saw a clock 10:00. Another mention of my name and the clock said 10:15 and I was asking for a bucket. There was the nausea I am so used to. Finally at 10:30 Mark walked me out the door. I think I slept the whole way home. Once I stood up to get out of the car, more nausea. Mom was at the house with Luke ready to help in any way. They escorted me to my bed where I crashed for a few hours. The rest of the day I just felt queasy. I only took one pain pill right when I got home and never really had any pain. Glad to have that over!

Today we went to a MOPS Christmas day. It was fun to visit and make crafts. I have only made it to 3 meetings this year and may not be able to go next semester, bible study has moved to Tuesdays. The highlight for Luke and I is getting to have lunch with Lisa,Mallory, and now baby Madden. Luke loves to be around Mallory, they have so much fun together. Luke hasn’t taken regular naps since he turned 3. Now with the time change, he has taken 2 or 3 naps a week. He likes to lay down on mom’s bed with me and he has to hold my hand till he falls asleep, so precious. He has this little Johm Deere nap mat that we roll out on the bed too. He thinks it is fun to take a nap, pretty good deal. I usually have to wake him after two hours or he will keep sleeping. Sometimes he falls asleep in the car in the evening. That doesn't work out so well. I try to wake him so he can get a bite to eat and he just cries.

Tonight was Jacob’s school program grades 1st through 3rd. The pre-K and Kindergarten have a program before so the parents are like sheep being herded in and out of the gym. The gym is always tiny, crammed, and hot. We sat like sardines at the top row of bleachers. The music teacher had all the students on the stage at the same time. Jacob’s class all wore reindeer antlers and for a couple songs wore sunglasses. The songs were cute and there was a little story to go with them. It was short and sweet and Jacob had a nice fan club with both sets of grandparents.

It has been very cold lately, so today was a heat wave to 40 degrees. We started out the morning Luke went with Grammer and Po for the day, Jayden and I helped in Jacob’s second grade classroom at Cornerstone. He liked having me there. After church, we made a quick drive thru run for lunch and then headed to Ankeny with the horses. There is a nice indoor heated arena. Today we were fortunate to be the only ones there. We had Tex, Jessie, and Dakota. We all rode and were there for almost 3 hours. Jake started out being led and ponied, then he rode Dakota all by himself. He did awesome riding her all over the place and even did some trotting. You could see the pride in his face as he tried hard not to smile. He rode the whole day with a grin on his face. We praised him and you could see his confidence rise. It was a great day as we all got lots of ride time.

Jayden had a basketball game in Jefferson. She continues to improve each game. She does really well on defense and got a few rebounds. The ball is still the hot potato she can’t wait to get out of her hands. I sure can’t blame her as there is a swarm around her when she does get the ball. She even got fouled and had to shoot free throws. She isn't quite strong enough to get more than air in her shot. She has good aim, but needs the muscle. I know she hears it constantly and is getting sick of it, everyone is telling her she needs to eat more. She has genetics to be thin, which is a good thing, but sometimes its not always that great. In the evening Mark' parents and mine, Jayden and I went to the Cornerstone Christmas dinner theatre. The show was the J.B. and Linda performance complete with a delicious meal. Mark stayed home with the boys for the evening.

Since Allie has graduated, her life has not been the path we hoped she would chose. After two semesters of school, she dropped or failed her classes. She has kept her job, however McDonald’s is nobody’s dream job. Her home life has been a whirl wind of ups and downs with her mom and Dan separating then getting back together with chaos in the middle of everything. Currently Allie is taking another semester in college and living in the middle of an unstable home. She seems to like drama and wants to be in it. Recently, her little brother was taken from their home and the house was searched and arrests were made. Allie was in the middle of it all. There was a big article that made the front page of the Boone paper about the arrests and now everyone knows. She is headed down a road of disaster. Sadly, at this time in her life, we don’t feel safe even having her around our home. She is 19 and has to live her life and learn on her own. It seems everything Mark and I have ever tried to encour

Tickle monster is something I have played with the kids over the years. This year I came across a book with tickle monster gloves. Oh I had to have it and it is perfect. Luke loves to be tickled. I think he is my most ticklish child ever. He asks for the tickle monster often and Jake still loves it once in awhile. There is nothing better than the laughter of little children. I wish I could bottle it up and keep it with me always.