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!