Friday, August 9, 2013

By the way...We're Expecting!

I almost forgot that I had a blog!  If there's anyone out there who still blogs you might like to know that we are expecting our 4th kid this November (18th-ish).  I'm feeling great and the kids are really excited.  Ruston is of course hoping for a boy, I don't mind either way.  Girls are familiar at this point.  We figure there aren't enough suprises in the world these days so we (like the other kids) have chosen not to find out what we are having.

Business is good.  Family is healthy. Kids starting school in a few weeks.  I'll post more later if I remember.  Just keeping this one short and sweet.

Alesha

Saturday, January 19, 2013


Happy New Year!!

2012 was a great year for our family and a busy one too!  We wanted to fill you in on all the fun adventures we shared last year.  Our biggest adventure was that in June we moved!  Needing to be closer to Ruston’s office, we moved to a fantastic house in Nyssa.  It is within walking distance to school, work, the park, the library and anything else we need.  We love it!

Other fun times include – Our end of school vacation around Oregon. Going to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, the Beach, hiking around Silver Falls and going to the High Desert Museum in Bend.  The circus came to Ontario and Elli got to ride her first elephant!  Ruston took Elli fishing where she caught her first fish.  My parents moved from the Portland area to Nyssa to be closer to us – this has been my favorite part of the whole year!!  We went to the McKee Family (Ruston’s Mom) Reunion in Moroni, UT.  We saw lots of cousins and the watched the Manti Pageant.  Fun times!  On the way home, we stopped in Lava Hot Springs for another family vacation.  We played at the water park and went hiking in the Minnetonka Caves.  Later in the summer, we went cabin camping with Ruston’s parents in Unity, OR state park.  A tradition we hope to do again!  We held our first annual Halloween party with friends from the area.  It was a blast and another tradition we plan to continue! Christmas was spent in our very own home and was perfect in every way!  

Ruston and I got to take TWO vacations without kids this year.  One to McCall, ID with lots of hiking, mountain lake swimming and a trip to a luxury spa.  And the other to Fresno, CA where we visited the Fresno Zoo (always a favorite thing for me), the Fresno Temple and spent several days in Yosemite National Park.  Ruston was in photographer heaven.  He even had to buy another memory card, because he filled all his other cards within the first few days!  It was so beautiful there.  We can’t wait to go back someday.

Cami (2) Our friendly, babbling baby.  She talks constantly to everyone who will listen, we just don’t understand very much of it!  She is getting better at talking as each month passes and its fun to watch her becoming less of a baby and more of a little kid.  She wants to be potty trained, but I forgot how time consuming it can be!  In, out, on, off…seems like I never have time to really start.  Perhaps in the next few months?

Addison (5) is enjoying preschool this year in Nyssa.  This past year she danced in a ballet class and will make the most of every opportunity to play princess or dress-up.  She loves learning and pretending.  She has even started reading simple words.  We are very proud of her.  Addison has had the hardest time adjusting to our new home.  She frequently asks when we are moving back to Grandma and Papa’s house.  It’s very sweet.  She loves her grandparents so much!

Elli (7) has started 1st grade and is making lots of new friends.  She participated in clogging in Vale and took guitar lessons too earlier in the year, but now is focusing on her school work.  She loves reading books about ocean animal life and lions.  She has a pet gold fish and is trying to convince us that she “needs” a guinea pig.  We’ll see about that!

Alesha – My life has gotten even busier than I ever planned.  With the ending of the Miss Malheur County pageant program this year I needed to find some other outlet to make a difference in the world!  I joined the Nyssa Parks and Recreation committee and also started a Neighborhood Watch program around our local park.  This has been very worthwhile and a fun way to get to know people in Nyssa.  What I wasn’t planning on was getting called to be Primary President in our ward.  85 kids – Yikes!  That has been a challenge and a lesson in patience in multiple ways.  But it’s all very rewarding and I am learning to be more organized.

Ruston has been quite the busy business man this year.  He was awarded the Benefactor of the Year from the Miss Malheur County Scholarship Program and gave to the community a Free Dental Day, helping many people in need.  He also has expanded his dental services to include braces.  He is in the middle of very extensive training to learn how and has already seen tremendous growth in his business from this venture.

We hope your year has been fun too and we hope to see you sometime this year!  If you are ever travelling between Utah and Northwest we are right along the way!  Stop in to say hi.  Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,
Ruston, Alesha, Elli, Addison and Cami Munk

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Busy, busy, busy!

Ok, so it's been a year (almost) since I last posted.  I think blogs are becoming a very outdated thing.  I've always been socially late in everything!  Everyone is facebooking, but I just don't have time.  There's not enough time in the day to make comments on moment-to-moment stuff.  By the time the family is fed, house is cleaned (or close enough!) and everyone else's needs are taken care of there isn't a moment to spare in my day.  How do you juggle your social media and your life?  I'd love to hear from you.

Our big news is that we moved this summer!!  We needed more space and Ruston wanted to be closer to work.  We now live on a nice, quiet street in town which means we can walk everywhere!  School, office, library, bank, store, you name it!  The house is pretty big, so there's lots of room to spread out our stuff.  My cookbooks have come out of the storage unit (after four dusty years) and are displayed in the kitchen.  Ruston's beautiful chinese artwork is displayed through out the house too.  We miss grandma and grandpa, but are so happy to be on our own.  Our new address is 810 Reece Ave. Nyssa, OR 97913.  If you didn't get a card that says "we moved" then I don't have your address.  Reply to this post with your address (I won't publish it) and then you can be sure to get a christmas card from us.

But in other news, Elli has started 1st grade at Nyssa.  She loves it.  She knew a bunch of kids in her class from church so she has instant friends.  She is learning subtraction and about the human body.  She is also happily waiting for the classroom guinea pigs to have their babies.  Big news for 1st grade!

Addison is in preschool here in Nyssa.  She has two wonderful teachers that she adores and is learning letters and even wrote her own christmas wishlist today.  It's not entirely readable, but in her own 4 yr old way - it's perfect!  She is still crazy about princesses and hippos.  We aren't sure how the hippo thing got started, but this year for christmas she wants a whole family of plush hippos.  Could be worse I guess!!

Cami will be 2 next month.  She is trying out a few new words, but still doesn't say a whole lot.  She loves her sisters and her baby doll.  She loves to color (sometimes on the couch) and hates having her teeth brushed.  She is a ham in front of a camera and will often be found singing "twinkle twinkle" at the top of her lungs through the aisles of walmart.  It's classic!

On a side note...what do you get the two year old girl with two older sisters for a birthday or christmas?  She has enough toys, dolls, clothes, hair bows and "stuff" to fill a semi.  She doesn't even know what a birthday is.  Does she really need more?  We did a charity birthday last year and donated the money we would've spent on gifts to the JDRF.  We could probably do that again, but I thought I should get her something.  I need ideas of consumable (not necessarily edible - just something that can be used up) stuff that a toddler would enjoy.  What do your kids like?

Ruston is incredibly busy these days.  He is still working at his own office in Nyssa and has recently added Braces to his list of services offered.  This has been a huge boom to business.  He is actually in California this weekend (and 6 more times over the coming year) to learn how to do it.  It's a big investment in both time and money, but it will be worth it in the end.  He also works at the State prison still and teaches sunday school when he is in town.  He recently returned from an unsuccesful moose hunt in canada this past week with his dad.  He says he had a good time, but decided that it was basically a really expensive camping trip.

My life is pretty much the same as usual.  Being a mom is the greatest job ever.  Some days the pay isn't enough, but then I see my girls playing nicely together or hear them loving my dinner and it's all worth it.  My prayers are petitioning for our family to grow, with no success yet, but hopefully by Christmas we'll have news.

This summer has been filled with vacations and it's nice to finally be settled down again.  The family went to the Oregon Coast and Bend.  We went cabin-camping at Unity State Park with grandma and grandpa.  Ruston and I went on an anniversary weekend to McCall, ID and then on another vacation to Yosemite Nat'l Park in September.  Both were amazing trips - without kids!

Oh, other great news is that my parents are moving out this way from Portland, OR!!  They are working on getting a house just outside of Nyssa with some property.  It will be great to have everyone close for the holidays.  No more traveling at Thanksgiving/Christmas for us!  We've done it too many years in a row.  It's too hard.  I'm looking forward to spending some time at home.

I'm planning an awesome Halloween party this year too.  I'm thinking the Sat. just before Halloween.  I'll post pictures afterward. It should be great.  The kids are having a blast decorating the house with me.

Hope things are well for you and yours!  Comment if you want.  I'll try to be better about writing on the blog...in my free time (haha)!

Love, Alesha