Merry Christmas

It's officially December 26th, the day where the weeks of hard work shopping, wrapping, boxing, taping, bowing, decorating, baking, planning and cooking turn into mounds and mounds of garbage.  How does this happen?  I have made two trips to the dumpster at Jackman Construction, and the kids are busy playing with all their new things, and I am breathing a sigh of relief.  We had a great Christmas and it was great to hear from so many of our friends and family that are so far away.  My favorite present was something that the kids did for me in secret by having their pictures taken and then turned into a collage (2 of which I've shared with you in the blog header)  They each had an individual one and then the two of them all together and framed in an adorable way, I just can't tell you how much it meant to me.  I was wondering for two weeks as I was washing and ironing shirts that I never had seen them wear why they were in the laundry and even said to a couple "YOU NEVER WORE THIS -- WHY IS IT IN THE LAUNDRY??"   And they even took the reprimand and said oh I'm sorry Mom, I guess I was being too lazy to just hang it up.   UH-HUH.  Good job.  We had a good time watching Mr. Kruger's Christmas together on Christmas Eve.  We let the kids off the hook this year on "It's a Wonderful Life".  When I pulled it out the moans and groans were just too much to bear.  We have been making the kids watch that movie EVERY Christmas Eve since Jordan was a little girl, which means even Kyle has seen it at least 6 times.  They kept saying "We've seen this and PLEASE NO!"  Hope you had a great Christmas as well, my New Years Resolution is to try to blog more frequently, as I look at the number of posts I managed in 2010, it's kind of embarassing, life is busy but I really do enjoy looking back and since I have run out of time to scrap book much, this has been my way of recording the little things that make my life happy and as I see how fast my children are growing, there won't be too many more years where I will have this opportunity.  Wishing you all a Happy New Year.
Love to all of you and your families,
Melanie

Sledding on Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a really fun Thanksgiving this year spent in Logan at my sister Wendy and family's house.  They were so generous and are the most fun family.  We also got the treat of seeing all of her children accept for Logan who is still on his mission, and we played LOTS of games.  It was really great to have my Dad and step mom Annie, come up from St. George to play games and eat Thanksgiving dinner with us as well.  As I grow older, these family get togethers seem to mean more to me than ever and I feel very blessed that we were able to have such a good time spending it with family.
Here are some pictures of our sledding outing on Black Friday (much more fun than fighting the crowds at the stores!)

The Eickbush Kids

Megan & Saranie

Kyle, Saranie, Jordan, Connor

Max, trying to make the jump, got stuck!

Monson- made it a little further!

The cousins

Halloween 2010

I only managed to get a few pictures on Halloween, and somehow the older boys didn't get in any of them.  Jordan and her best friend, Ashley were Elmo and Cookie Monster - the best part of their costume are the shoes -- they're quite sexy for Elmo and Cookie Monster I think.

Then we had our Candy Corn Witch and Batman - the Dark Knight!

Jordan gets a kiss..........

from a dolphin!  Jordan was invited to go to Sonora, Mexico with her friend, Marianna and family last weekend.  They got to swim with dolphins and this is the picture she brought home.  Needless to say, Kyle was especially jealous and wants to know when I'm taking him to swim with the dolphins.........????

Have to admit, this is pretty cute!

First Day of School 2010

I have a  Junior in HIGH SCHOOL--

An 8th grader who thinks it's "uncool" and "dumb" to pose for pictures, especially when I lie to him and tell him it's not going on the blog

A sixth grader who I promise just had a hair cut but not the one MOM wanted...

A third grader who is an overly super-poser

And a first grader who doesn't quite know what to think, he's just happy to go back to school where he's the oldest, told he's smart and not tortured by his older brothers--

Yay, back to school = back to a little bit of sane life and a schedule that doesn't require MOM to yell at night!

My New Baby

My cat, Sadie, disappeared a couple of weeks ago, and after being in mourning and looking everywhere, I made a trip to the pound to see if someone had turned her in.  While there, I fell in love with this little tabby who I named Zoe.  She is 6 weeks old and is my new little cuddle partner.  Jordan has her yorkie - Nike , our poodles got too old and we had to have them put down a little after Christmas time last year, so we are a one dog and one cat family now.  I never thought I'd love cats, but I must be turning into an old cat woman (since 40 is a little over a month away).  Anyway, who can argue that she's not the most precious thing you've ever seen?

Some days I wish I could trade places with Jordan............

You know like on the movie "Freaky Friday"?? Just to be 16 again, to have the friendships that are so close that you can tell each other everything, to be carefree, to have your first driver's license and all the newfound freedom that comes with it. To be excited to get your class schedule and see who is in your classes at school. Jordan is going to be a Junior this year, she is a wonderful girl, a great student, has tons of friends and I am so proud of her. Here's some pictures that maybe you would enjoy and see just what I'm talking about..........

Baseball Fever

We finally got some good baseball weather and are having a little bit of summer after a late very wet spring that seemed to never end. Now I'll probably be saying the same about baseball season, but it's fun to watch the kids improve -- it's Max's 11th birthday tomorrow!

The Tallest Tiger on the Team--

Max has grown a bunch this year and is having fun playing his first year in the "Majors" in little league.  Here's a picture of him (middle of back row) and his team, I'll post some of the action shots soon--

Pirate Party

On the last day of Kindergarten, Kyle's class celebrated with a "Pirate Party" -- here's my little pirate in all his glory-

Sadie is one year old.......

And just like a child, my baby kitty has grown too fast.  Just one year ago, when Max brought her home to me, she was totally incapable of caring for herself, we fed her carefully the kitten formula just like a baby, we slept with her close by and cuddled her as much as we could. 
Just one year later, she is looking like a real grown up cat, chasing our new baby - Jordan's yorkie (Nike) that she got for her sweet sixteen, which I have regretfully not posted pictures of. 
Her latest endeavors are not so sweet, she's a hunter, as most cats are.  She brings her prey into the house, sometimes dead and sometimes alive.  Birds, bunnies, and sometimes animals that we aren't qute sure what they are or were.  We were happy the other night to rescue a baby bunny from her before she got her claws into it, and set it free. 
I never thought I'd be a cat lover.  I guess any animal can be a good pet.  So, here's our little Sadie with Megan -- one year old and still a loving member of our family.

My Final Kindergarten Field Trip

I haven't been on as many field trips the past couple of years since going back to work, so when Kyle asked me if I could go with his class to Albertson's last week, I was thinking I better do it, for a couple of reasons.  One, I don't get to spend enough time with Kyle, Two, it was nearing the end of the year and I hadn't done much with his class and Three, he had recently told me when asked how his day at school was that it was "miserable." I will get to that more later. So, I took a late lunch and headed to Walnut Elementary and of course when Kyle saw me, he smiled and then looked ultimately embarassed that he was excited to see his Mom.  We headed to the bus...  He is now missing three front teeth!

So back to Kyle's "miserable" answer about his days.  When I asked him why his day at school was miserable, he told me that he had gotten beat up at recess, and when probed further about who had been beating him up he had told it was someone named Devin.  I spent most of the tour scoping out the kids to find this bully that had been picking on my little baby.  Well, Devin is in the picture below in the pink shirt and glasses:

So, I said "this is Devin?"  how could she be chasing you and beating you up?  His response "well, there's too many of them, Mom, there are five girls, Devin is just the leader!"  I think maybe he's enjoying this little game and it isn't quite as "miserable" as he wants me to believe!

Here he is with his good friend Kyler.  They think it's cool that they almost have the same name.  Mrs. Curtis doesn't think it's as cool, she thinks it's confusing!

It was a fun day, and I'm glad I went.  Although the Wyoming weather would have us believe otherwise, there are only 21 days of school left until summer!  So, this was probably my last kindergarten field trip, at least with one of my own kids, they are going to be 1st thru 11th grade next year, I must be getting old.

LOOKS MORE LIKE CHRISTMAS THAN EASTER...............

BUT WE HUNTED EGGS ALL THE SAME..........

Our own little Drama Queen

The Missoula Children's theater came to Walnut Elementary again this year and Megan once again was cast in a part. She was a "Camelotian" or a Citizen of Camelot in the play "King Arthur's Quest". Here is the picture from the paper of her at one of the practices. She is standing in the middle of the back row in the blue t-shirt.

Sweet Sixteen

Jordan turned 16 on the 13th of January, she's driving!!  So exciting but I sincerely can't believe she's 16 years old.  Her Young Women's leader made her the most adorable cake I've ever seen.  I mean the talent that it took just blows me away.  The top layer was Lemon with Raspberry filling, the middle was vanilla with cookies and cream, and the bottom was chocolate with fudge.  So yummy and I had to share a picture of this beautiful creation.

Megan turns 8 with a bowling bash and boyfriends

Megan celebrated her 8th birthday at "Pla-Mor Lanes" and I'm not quite sure how to deal with the fact that she is more boy crazy than her 16 year old sister!  Her friends Ryan and Tommy were there along with all her cousins, and her friends Sidney, Sadie and Brooke.  She was happy and crazy and it was difficult to finish the game of bowling in between the boy chases around the bowling alley.  I think it was the longest two hours of my life to date.