Since Christmas...

Get ready for the largest update this blog has ever seen! No, we haven't dropped off the planet, but time gets away from us every once in a while. We've been running full throttle the past couple of months, which has kept us away from our monthly updates. I told myself before the end of 09 that I would do a better job of frequently updating this site. There goes one of my New Year's resolutions. We'll start in December...

The Eickenhorst Family Christmas took place right after Melissa's grandfather passed away. There is a slide show in the Videos section if you would like to check it out. As always, we had a lot of fun.

We got dressed for church one morning and realized that we were put together well enough for our Christmas cards. So we decided to attempt a family picture at church. Mistake. The kids would not cooperate. We were right in front of a Christmas tree at the entrance to the church with folks flocking in for the service. Nate ran off and Anna was busy looking at all of her adoring admirers instead of the camera. Meanwhile, I'm trying to hold it together. Evidence below. Can you tell what I'm thinking in the first picture? Anyway, we ended up getting a photo good enough for our Christmas card.

More church stories...

On Christmas Eve, our church has a special service for kids where they sing children's Christmas songs, have snow blowers, and a special sermon geared towards children. We were having a great time up to the very end. They handed out glow sticks to all of the kids to break and light up during Silent Night. I'm holding Nate as the song begins, and we light up our sticks. As the lights begin to dim, suddenly, Nate starts vomiting all over himself and me. I run out of the church as quickly as possible, trying to catch all of the vomit before it falls to the carpet. We get outside and I start gagging while our pastor tries to help me remove my vomit covered sport coat. Nate's standing there covered from head to toe looking at me like someone just shot Rudolph. Luckily we had clothes to change into because we were going straight to Papa and Loulou's afterwards to celebrate Christmas with them. Melissa bought Nate and Anna matching Christmas pajamas for the occasion, but on the way over there, Nate threw up in the car all over them. That's why you'll see Nate in an oversized t-shirt in the next set of pictures. He was a trooper and wanted to have Christmas even though he was sick.

Christmas morning was absolutely wonderful. We are truly blessed and had a peaceful and vomit-free morning as a family.

Melissa's family made it over to our house later that morning.

Shortly after Christmas we celebrated my birthday.

And Anna ate her first spaghetti dinner.

Melissa's dad flew down from Michigan for a visit over the New Year.

                                     

In January, Nate had quite a birthday celebration. What is typically a day turned into a week long celebration. Papa, Nate, and I, along with the Love family, went to Monster Jam at Reliant Stadium.

Melissa and I and our families all pitched in to buy Nate a brand new swing set. Dad and I put it together just in time for his actual birthday.

Anna felt left out, so we let her play, too.

We had a party for Nate and his friends at Pump It Up. We had tons of fun.

And, finally, as most of you probably know, dad and I are opening a funeral home in Conroe. We hope to open the doors by April. It's kept us quite busy, lately, and hopefully will continue to, but we'll do our best to keep everyone up to date with the latest news. Please keep us in your prayers as we pursue this call.

And that, family and friends, is the short version of our lives for the past couple of months.

Till next time,

Willie and Melissa

Larry Gelinas - Melissa's Grandfather

Late Friday night we received a phone call that changed our lives forever. Nate and Anna's great grandfather passed away to be with our Father in Heaven. I'm not going to attempt to write a short biography of this man because 1) I don't know much about his past, and 2) Even if I did, I wouldn't be able to do it justice.

What I can say is that I knew him for 12 years of my life, and every single time I saw him, including the day I met him, he gave me a big smile, then he would shake my hand and pull me in for a big bear hug. Every time. He loved his family. Especially his grandchildren and great grandchildren. He was an incredible man who I always enjoyed being with. He could make me smile no matter what kind of mood I was in. He absolutely adored Melissa, who he openly referred to as his "favorite", so I know he had good taste in women! Saying that he will be missed is a tremendous understatement.

I have been given the honor and privilege to put together a slideshow of Larry's life for his memorial service. Going through all of his old pictures has been an amazing experience for me. It's obvious that he has lived an incredible life. Once the project is done, I will post it on this site for those who would like to see Melissa's "favorite". In the meantime, here are a couple of our most cherished pictures of Larry with our children.

Although we are grieving, we are also rejoicing in the fact that Larry is with Jesus now. The pain and suffering of the illness that took him away is gone, and he now rests peacefully with our Lord and Savior. We miss you, and we love you, Papa.

Snow and Soccer

What a weekend! Friday, the Houston area experienced a little snow. You know how us Texans get when the white stuff starts falling. We have more pictures and videos from 3 hours on Friday afternoon than we have from the rest of 2009 combined!! Some folks had more snow than others. The snow fell for quite a while at our house, but it didn't stick. That didn't keep us from playing in it anyway.

After all of the snow excitement, we sent the kids to church for Kids Night Out so that we could have a little R & R. Melissa and I dined at The Cheescake Factory, then headed to the bookstore for a quiet evening browsing the ailes of Borders. Saturday, Nate played his first soccer game. He had a lot of fun and scored 3 goals! One of them was for his team! It's all good.

Melissa and I got a work out in at the Y after the game, then we went to Montgomery High School to hear my brother Jake sing in his choir. It was a really neat event. The whole thing was done in Renaissance style. They served us dinner with huge Turkey legs and put on a big production. It was very well put together. The choir was outstanding! The kids have amazing voices. It's very hard to describe with words, but let me tell you, the music they made was incredibly beautiful.

We're off to a fun start in December. It's only going to get better!

An Interesting Month

November always revolves around Thanksgiving. The first part of the month is usually lost in the anticipation of family, football, and turkey. Apparently, that is what happened to us this year, because we have no pictures from the month of November. I usually provide some updates with accompanying pictures, but I checked the camera for our monthly update and there's nothing on it. Oops.

We did have a pretty full month. Nate wrapped up his first season of t-ball, and his first trophy is proudly displayed on our fireplace mantel. We got the Christmas decorations up extra early in anticipation of Melissa's family coming to town for Thanksgiving. We were blessed with the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving with Melissa's grandfather. Three of his four children were able to make the trip to Texas to be with him. I was able to get some great video of him working a few laughs for the camera. He may be sick, but he hasn't lost the ability to make you smile. Nate and I played a lot of football and baseball over Thanksgiving. We visited my parent's house on Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend and got the chance to hang out with them for a while.

I am no longer working in the lumber industry. Dad and I are starting our own business and should have it up and running sometime next year. I will provide more details in the coming months.

Melissa is doing an incredible job at her school. She is truly a gifted teacher. Nate and Anna are growing up faster than I can blink. Below are a few pics we were able to take this past month. Sorry for the lack of pics. Our December calendar is already full, so we'll definitely have more pictures for next time. Until then, here's a classic Nate moment for the Christmas season.

We picked up Nate from Bible Study on Wednesday, and he had made a manger scene in arts and crafts out of those little foam pieces that I can't describe. Hopefully, you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, we asked him who was in his manger scene. He proudly replied, "Jesus, Mary, and Jophus!" Merry Christmas from the Eickenhorsts.

The Beautiful Ladies

Nate and Anna, laid back, eating, and watching TV.

Nate checking Anna's tonsils.

Anna, that pretty smile isn't going to get you a cell phone. Okay, maybe it will.

Playing by the Christmas tree.