December

 The kids put up our Christmas tree full of family ornaments and memories.  Bobby had his first band concert where he played Grandpa's trumpet.  He was better than I imagined he'd be given only 3 months of training.  He does not like band though so he may just put his required 1 year of band in and then hang up that trumpet.

2nd place finish

 Emmy's team took 2nd at a tournament this month.  Bobby and I got some special time together at Olive Garden where we played trivia.  He put our name in as TEeats.  Team Eckert eats......but we had a good laugh when recognizing that we were team teets.  Emmy and Robb got to join us that evening and a fun night out was had by all.

 

November

The kids both did excellent on the first quarter grades.  They made Honor Roll in the paper!

Bobby got chosen to provide the Veteran's Day speech during Mass at school.  We worked on it together to make sure his ideas could shine.  I helped with composition and word choice but he wrote a beautiful speech.  After the ceremony he received a lot of kudos and chants "Bobby for President!"  He enjoyed the accolades.  Emmy also was chosen as part of a special group to sing at Mass and at the Ceremony.  She was very excited to be chosen to sing on this special day.

Emmy has been having a great hockey season and so to celebrate we ventured out on a day where Bismarck was still recovering from a major blizzard (2 feet in 24 hours).  McDonalds and all other restaurants were closed but the gas station was still open.  Bobby decided to join at the last minute and wanted me to get his treat since he was in his jammies.  We insisted he buck up and pick out his own treat which made us laugh since he was not dressed to be amongst people in public!

Since the kids did so well with their grades, we celebrated with a special meal......Nara Ramen.

 Classes were cancelled for 2 days while Bismarck dug out of an early blizzard.  It was pretty crazy to get this much snow already.

October

My team gave me a nice gift and card for Boss's day!

Bobby can't wait to be a Sumo wrestler for Halloween.  All his friends are inflatable costumes and they are trick or treating together.

We've been tailgating every home game with our friends.

Bobby made this cool collage of our family photos this year.

Our garage has had the never ending smell of meat this fall.  The boys did a lot of successful hunting and of course they had to make their own product.
 

Emmy

 Our animal lover got to spend time out at the ranch with her cats and dogs.  She also met a bird she liked while at a sleepover.  

She was chosen in her religious community at school to draw their ceremony poster.  She has so much talent!  She also came out to U Mary to meet St. Gianna's daughter.  I loved having her here and bought 50 U Mary themed pencils for her to hand out to her friends.

A conference and a fun dinner

I presented at a conference and mom agreed to come with to keep me company!  We met up for a fun dinner with her  long time friend (Eva) and mine (Kristen Bratton).  We had a great night.

We also had a pumpkin martini a few weekends ago in prep for Emmy's volleyball tournament.  She wrapped up her season with one win and a two losses.
 

It's fall y'all

 October was busy!

Bobby's football team wrapped up with 3rd place!  He had great tackles, catches, and a few runs.  He also played in two 3 on 3 tourneys with his Saints team made up of all Saint Mary's boys.  They had a tournament that they used to get to learn each other and how they play.  That first tourney had some tough losses.  The 2nd tourney was 3 for 3 with WINS!  They had a great time.

Family pictures 2022

 It was a WINDY day during our scheduled family picture photo shoot so our photographer wanted to cancel.  Instead we thought our porch and backyard would be sheltered enough to make it work.  We liked how they turned out....except Emmy who found none she thought were good of her.  It's ironic because she is by far the most photogenic of Team Eckert.