The Muench Bunch

 Mark and I were invited to our first New Year's party in a really long time. I was super excited. My closest Ames friend Carolyn invited us along with 5 other couples. One couple couldn't make it and with all of us there was 12 . I knew all the ladies and met 3 of the husbands I had not met. Mark knew 4 people and met a lot of new people. All the families attend our church. It was a great night of food, drinks, games, laughs, and conversation. Carolyn set out a charcuterie board and they had lots of drink choices. The ladies visited a lot about weddings, all having kids near the age. Carolyn and I are on the same page. Jayden and her daughter got engaged within a few weeks of one another and Jayden's wedding is March, and her daughter April. We played some really fun games that got everyone laughing and having fun. We played games that you had to describe a word, act out a word, and come up with famous people names and figure out who wrote them. Ken was the most hilarious

 O Darla, you are so sweet, yet so viscous! Darla has been so much fun in the house. She is cuddly and loves to sleep on my shoulder when I am at the computer. She follows me everywhere. She loves to bat things across the floor and carry them in her mouth. She is so funny and she has enjoyed crawling up into the Christmas tree. We all enjoy having her cuddle in our lap. Mark tolerated her for a brief encounter. He really isn't a fan. She is a bit much for Coco. She is little yet very aggressive towards him. She attacks Coco,  who is 16 lbs and she is all of 2.5lbs. She doesn't back down when he gets aggressive back and tries to teach her a lesson. She is a little crazy. The end of December, she has become more aggressive, so much so that she may be kicked outside for awhile. She has started to aggressively attack our hands when being petted. She pins her ears back and goes into attack mode and bites hard. It is not nice and she is starting to get too aggressive . How can she be

 I am a Great Aunt, that sounds really old, so I will just refer to myself as Aunt and the babies as nieces and nephews. Titus turned a year the end of November and this was his first Christmas with all the family. He is getting so big and crawling. He is getting so close to walking. He has been sick a lot this year and had a good cough at Christmas.  Lace is just the most darling little bug always dressed wearing the most darling clothes. Jossie spends time making sure that her little doll has her outfits all a match with hairbow, shoes, and hats. She is the most well dressed child and I don't think she wears the same thing twice. She had multiple Halloween costumes and multiple Christmas outfits. Everly is coming up on her second birthday in January. She is a busy little girl active and always going. You rarely see a smile out of her and she talks jibberish. She is always dressed very cute in her own Granmda Melinda picked style. I would call it maybe a prairie/vintage style? She

 All the while Jayden and Noah were back in Iowa, it was cold, windy, and unpleasant. They were here for a 3 day, 20 to 40 below wind blizzard. The day they packed up and headed home, the temperatures started to raise and we got into the 30's. That felt like a heat wave and we all started to creep out of our warm home. Even the horses started to venture farther out and I took off their insulated blankets. One morning, they started to get brave as I looked out and saw Tex and Raony on top of the giant snowdrift in their pen. I panicked and realized all they needed to do was go another few steps and they would be over the fence. It really is a funny thing to think about a horse walking over their fence. It has happened only one other time in my life. I quickly ran and threw on a coat and my boots. I didn't zip up or grab gloves and barely had my feet in my boots when I saw Roany running through the backyard. He managed to get out and thankfully Tex ran the other way in his pen. I

 On Tuesday evening Dec 27th, we had Jayden's rescheduled bridal shower by Grandma and Carina. We had to reschedule due to the crazy weather. Grandpa helped assemble the backdrop Carina brought consisting of multiple pallets. I felt it was a lot of extra work for Grandpa. It's always interesting at events like graduations, showers, etc., that certain people you expect will be there don't come and people that you wouldn't expect to come do. It was a great turn out and Jayden got lots of really nice gifts. There were around 30 people, a mixture of friends, family, and relatives. Some guests that traveled far, my Aunt Jolene and Uncle Duane came from Des Moines and plan to come to the wedding. Alison, a barrel racer that rides in our arena came. Our neighbor who is a flight attendant came and got Jayden a pink suitcase. Sue B and Amanda P came and got Jayden the nicest Myra Clay pottery. Cousin Libby and both her kids came as she was busy with them. Everly is always on the

This was by far the coldest Christmas I can remember. We have  had blowing snow and wind chills down into negative 40 below zero! On Christmas Eve morning, the winter snow blizzard was finally calming down. It was still single digit cold with some light blowing snow. Interstate 35 had been closed for the past 24 hours and was newly re-opened, but travel still was not advised. Mark had to start his morning pushing snow. He began at our house, then the neighbor lady, cow barn, Aunt Betty's, and lastly his parents. We decided to leave the shop drive until after Christmas. Aunt Betty's had snow blocking the exhaust on the furnace, which lead to the furnace shutting off. Fortunately both of the girls were gone for the weekend. Mark spent much of the morning working on that. He had to drive separate and arrived in Williams at 6PM. The kids and I made it to Williams just after noon. Everyone was excited for a Wahlert Christmas Eve with Noah. Levi took to Noah right away and was even c

 12/18/22 We picked Jayden up at the airport at 7 and took her to Johnny's Italian for supper. It is always such a treat when she comes home.  Jake worked at Peterbilt until midnight. He likes working with the night crew and sometimes works until closing at midnight.. His semester ended on the 14th.      12/19/22 Jayden and I had an Ames day. We did our last minute shopping, got stocking stuffers, and ate at Panera. Mark came to town at 3 to do his Christmas shopping with Jayden. He got all his shopping done in a little over an hour at one store, Western Edge. Jayden and I met Donna and Riley at El Azteca. It was so fun to visit with them. Donna was Jayden's youth group leader for several years and Riley is her daughter who is Jayden's age. We had lots of laughs and stories to share. Riley was married last year and is newly expecting.      12/20/22 I had committed to babysitting Titus for the day to help Ali out. I wanted to bring him to our house to watch him rather than g