The Muench Bunch

2017 comes to a close. We are having brutally cold temperatures in the negative digits. for the last 3 days of the year. Today it never got above negative, the lows were near -22 and the wind chills just chill me to think of them. I was still recovering from being sick so I stayed home. Mark took the kids just to get them out of the house, to play board and card games with Grammer and Po. It was much too cold to be out any farther than a few miles from home. The highlights that come from this year in our country don't have too many positives. This was president Trumps first year in office and he was a constant in the news. He was the butt of ever joke on the nightly shows. Every little thing he said or did was blown up all over the media. It got old really fast! Trump, well you either tolerate him or hate him. He is arrogant, rude, and crude. I am not a fan of him, however he is better for our country and makes some good changes and choices, he just needs to learn to keep his comm

These photos make me laugh. Through a fun iphone app, the boys created facial hair. I told them that is probably how they will look in 10-15 years.  Luke is on left and Jake on the right.

I hear of families with multiple kids all getting sick at the same time. I cannot begin to imagine. My friend with 7 kids recently had the whole family ill with the stomach flu. That would be just awful. This week both Jacob and Jayden were sick. It started on Wednesday morning when Jake woke up with terrible pain in his ear. He was very uncomfortable all day. I took him to Ames in the morning and the doctor gave him antibiotics along with some steroids to treat his ongoing head cold from allergies. He has been going through a Kleenex box per day. He had a rough two days and would hold a heat bag up to his ear. Wednesday evening Jayden could tell her throat was feeling bad again. She has been fighting a throat infection since Thanksgiving. She had already been on two rounds of antibiotics. By Thursday morning she was a very sick girl. Jayden came and woke me up at 5 AM and told me she was hot and could not sleep. She got to feeling light headed and tried to make it back in her room and

Each year I photograph the boys wearing Mark's shirt and tie. Her it is for 2017

Since our good friends the Buhr's would be gone over New Year's, we decided to get together after Christmas. They invited us to their home for dinner and games. We brought some board games and we played Pictionary. It was nice to visit and catch up over dinner and to have some good old fashioned family time.

 This year on Christmas morning Luke came in our room and was ready just before 8. He waited patiently in the hallway, like we do each year, so we can all walk out to the tree together. The kids were excited as the found their Santa gifts under the tree. Luke got a wood tool set that he had been asking for. Jake got a double drone set and Jayden got a hat box and horse hay bag. The rest of our morning we took our time with stockings and gifts. The kids were each to get something to wear, to read, a want and a need. We tried to stay as close to that as possible. I got spoiled this year! I got a Rhumba robot self propelled vacuum. I also got a pair of twisted X shoes and a sweater outfit. We got Mark a few rodeo rag scarves, flannel shirts, coffee pot, and a cowboy vest. Jake had his drones charged and flying all over the house the rest of the day. Luke took to his tool set and started sawing and cutting shapes in pieces of wood.

Christmas felt like two days, one day was our morning and one day was our night. At 3:00, we headed to Karen and Orrie's for the Muench Christmas. We met early with Blake, Allie, and the kids to exchange gifts. Bridget and Andrew were so cute and sweet. They were very well behaved and everyone seemed to enjoy their company. It was nice to have some little kids in among all the teens and college kids. Grammer works so hard each year for Christmas and does it all. Grandpa sits in his easy chair with his feet up and takes it all in. Karen bought everyone gifts, adults, grandkids, and even boyfreinds, she sewed pillows for the teenagers and young couples, and she fixed a feast of everything. Her feast included the time consuming hard things to make such as homemade noodles, pies, handmade chocolates, peanut brittle, and ostakaka. She outdoes everyone and with a bad shoulder and bad back. We watched some home videos from years back and a slideshow from Orrie's years. The kids (25 a

Christmas Eve was very different from years past. We typically go to my parents for the day and have our family Christmas. In the evening we go to the Williams church candle light service. This year our church had a regular Sunday morning church service and Jayden was on baby duty in child care. Sadly, it has been months, since Jayden has gotten to attend a church service. She is always going places with her horses, trips, and last weekend she had a migraine. When she does go, she has child care. In the evening we each read a Christmas Story out loud. Pretty quiet day for us. Another fun thing we did was recreate an old Christmas photo. I pulled out a cute photo of the kid from 2012. They were sitting on the fireplace stealing Santa's cookies. I had grandma help me find pajama pants for the kids and I had them all pose as close to the picture as possible. It made me laugh and I think we came pretty close.

This year, I had the family over for the Wahlert Christmas. After all these years, this was a first. It has been tradition to have it in Williams. I was excited to prepare a big festive meal. I looked up recipes for the perfect ham with seasoning and honey and a sweet potato recipe with fresh cranberries. I dont like trying recipes for the first time without knowing if they are good, but it all worked out. I had some prime rib on the trager gill and a ham in the crock pot. Perfect timing and having everything ready is key. I don't know how people do it so well. It was a challenge for me. I had an hour by hour agenda written down from the time I got up until the food was on the table in order to make sure I wouldn't forget a thing. I had rolls to raise and bake. I had a salad to prepare and toss. I had to prepare the green beans at just the right time so they wouldn't get soggy. I had mashed potatoes that Jayden fixed and I fixed gravy from the ham. All in all, I think every

I gave the boys the week off from school so we could focus on Christmas. I had them help make cookies and goodies. We delivered to several of the neighbors and visited Ila in the nursing home. It was sad to see her, she didnt look so good and had recently fallen. We later found out after 2 weeks they took her to the hospital and she had a broken tail bone and developed pneumonia. This week like the rest of the month was many trips to Ames. Luke went to taekwondo Tuesday, Wednesday, and testing was on Thursday. He tested for his next belt, RED. He is getting one step closer to his black belt!! Luke's instructor seems to like Luke and likes to tease him, even if that means in a headlock. Mark and I went to dinner and the Mannheim Steamroller concert Wednesday. Luke has been practicing his guitar and is prepared to sing at Christmas. He has been working on Silent Night, The First Noel, and Joy to the WOrld. He is doing so good and he is even singing too! Jayden made a trip to the d

After her trip to Chicago, Jayden ended up with a terrible sore throat and was diagnosed with tonsillitis. She was put on antibiotics. A few days later, Mark thought he was getting sick. He woke up Wednesday and went to the doctor. He had a cold that he usually gets a couple times a year. He is a typical male when he gets sick, he sounds so sickly and says everything is achy, he has the chills, but no fever. He coughs and hacks and tells us he is so sick. 48 hours after it started,  he was pretty much better. Jayden on the other hand has been sick and doesn't complain. She had trouble eating, couldn't swallow, but kept up with her school and did what she had to without complaint. Wednesday and Thursday she rode horses even though she still wasn't completely better. Later she ended up going back to the doctor again. Her sore throat was worse, and another round of antibiotics were prescribed. She was tested for strep and mono, both were negative. Later in the month, she had

It is unusual to have such mild temperatures this time of year. We decided to take the horses out on a family ride in the field, everyone but Luke. I rode on Miss Summer. She is only two and is so quiet and broke. I enjoy riding her and Jayden has been anxiously waiting for me to say I will take her as mine. Of course she will cost me. She is pretty nice and every ride I am that much closer to saying yes.   a When friend Allison told Jayden she had a spot on her trailer for another horse to make the trip out to Colorado to see a horse vet, we all thought it was a good plan. Allison took two horses of her own along with Tacie and her horse. Word was the Colorado vet was an expert in equine lameness. Nobody is ready to give up on Ace yet, so we agreed to send him out with Jayden. I wasn't thrilled about the long haul and sending Jayden without one of us. I also knew the other girl and her mom that were going dont use very good language. I told Jayden to take along her ear buds to l

December 16 Time and time again Jayden is letdown by friends. She had been planning all week to have a friend spend all day with her on Saturday and ride horses. On Thursday that friend was unable to come for what reason I am not sure. She asked another friend to come and hang out, spend the day, and make Christmas candies and cookies. That was the plan and all was good until the very morning she was to come, she said she had to stay home and do chores and work in the barn with her Dad. We have heard this exact same excuse on at least 2 other occasions. She has canceled so many times  and Jayden has been so forgiving, but this is getting ridiculous. I don’t think you can call that person a friend if the continually let you down over and over. People just aren’t reliable. Bummed and disappointed, I told Jayden to ask her cousin Jaynie out. Sure enough she was free and came and spent the afternoon. Jaynie is awesome, she is kind and considerate and not only a good cousin, a good friend

December is always a busy month getting ready for the holiday hustle and bustle. I wish it could be more simple. I wish people could just do lots of random acts of kindness, give to charities, love and serve one another, rather than all the gifts. This month we made many trips to Ames. We caught ourselves coming and going all the time. Some nights more than one of us were driving to town and sometimes two trips at once. We joke about moving to Ames, in all honesty, I would like to move to the suburbs when we retire. Mark's been making two trips a week to Huxley to his new chiropractor. He schedules them so he can help take Luke to taekwondo.  Luke has been doing taekwondo this month on Thursday nights with the addition of a weapons class. It makes for a late night, class from 5:30-6, and another 7-7:30. He is learning how to use a staff. Luke is really impressive and he took to it well. The others in the class are much older and more experienced. The instructor worked with Luke o