Our Family Newsletter 2011

Well here ya go - I am a technology dork about everything else, I have been blogging since April - and I am about to make our first annual family newsletter on our blog site instead of the traditional paper one that is sent out in our cards. The best benefit? TONS of pictures and not confined to one page :-)

Let start in JANUARY when Maddy turned 14

In FEBRUARY, Dan and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary and we took our much anticipated and delayed honeymoon to the Bahamas by means of a Carnival Cruise Ship :-) We left from Baltimore for a seven day cruise to Port Canaveral, FL then Nassau and FreePort in the Bahamas. It was an amazing time and it was so wonderful to escape the "real world" for a week (the house, technology, work, etc...) and just have it be the two of us without a care in the world!

APRIL was a time to celebrate

• Easter

• Dan's birthday (he turned 33 this year)

MAY was a definite highlight month of the year!

• My mom turned 50 (check out the blog story @ Mom's 50th) and we threw her a surprise party with all her brothers & sisters. She was completely unaware and was definitely surprised and touched by everyone's love and best wishes

Mom & "Aunt" Debbie

• I graduated from Shippensburg University (it only took three years) with my master's degree in Curriculum & Instruction with a concentration in Early Childhood Education (check out the blog story @ Oh pomp and circumstance) 

• We headed to Pittsburgh to spend a weekend with Chad.  (check out the blog story @ Won't You be my Neighbor) He took us to Pointe Park (where we played frisbee, went to Heinz Field, and many more sights) plus we hit up the Pittsburgh Zoo (I am a HUGE fan of zoos)

In JUNE Maddy enjoyed her last day of middle school (Check out the blog story @ The Last Day) 

In JULY.....

• We went on our traditional camping trip (check out the blog story @ Miller Campout) over the 4th of July weekend at Miller's Grove

• We took our family vacation to Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktowne, & Jamestown. (check out the blog story @ Summer Vacation) It was a fabulous loong weekend and it was stocked full of fun quality family time!

• Also, in July, my father had a devasting event in where a early morning fire destroyed their home and they were forced to demolish their home and rebuild. (I am happy to report now though 5 months later that rebuilding is well on its way and we all have high hopes that they will be in their house by the end of spring!) Thank you to all who have made it possible!

In AUGUST.....

• Maddy started band at the high school level (she will twirl flags for the guard) and we began football season. I was beyond ecstatic that Maddy had chosen for band to be one of her high school activities. I had SO MUCH fun doing this activity myself when I was in high school and I knew it would be an equally wonderful experience for her too! It did mean however though that I had to break my vow of never sitting at a rainy or cold football game again (you say these kinds of things after enduring them for 6 years yourself) but it was TOTALLY worth it. You can even check out a video of the SASHS band show at Band Performance

• Maddy started high school! What a momentous day :-) check out the blog story @ 1st Day

In OCTOBER our lives changed when our beloved chocolate lab, Bayleigh, was unexpectedly and tragically hit by a car and killed early one morning at the beginning of the month :-( Our lives seemed frozen for days and it seemed unreal especially after celebrating the previous day when our German Shepherd, Rocca, had a birthday and turned 3.

You can check out each of the doogie's blog stories at

Happy Birthday Rocca

RIP BayLeigh

Also during the month of October:

• Maddy had her first high school semi formal

• and we had our first snowfall of the year (in October - oh my, the insanity!)

Next month in NOVEMBER we were reminded all month long of the many, many things that we are thankful for (my reasons @ 30 reasons to be thankful) and finished the month off by celebrating Thanksgiving and Maddy completed her first 5K where in Shippensburg it is affectionately called "The Turkey Trot". check the blog story out @ Happy Thanksgiving ) 

This past month, DECEMBER, has been a whirlwind of activities as usual (I can imagine it has been that way for your families as well!)

• Maddy had her first swimming meet (read about it here: Dover Invitationals) when she kicked butt and has really been enjoying swimming ever since
• we celebrated christmas very low-key this year (tamaqua one weekend, christmas day ALL to ourselves- just the three of us, and then new years eve weekend with the Eckenrode families)

And that is our year in a nutshell :-) Hope you enjoyed "creeping" on us! hahaha

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Eckenrode family :-)
We have had a wonderful relaxing day: presents then church this morning, lunch, RELAX all afternoon and playing with our new "toys"

Maddy's "Grand Teton" present

In house, we have a tradition where one present is considered your "Grand Teton" present. It doesn't necessarily cost the most or the biggest in size but it is the one that you will like the most!

We made her hunt for her present this year playing the hot-n-cold game. Evil Mommy hid it under her bed!! haha

this was her all afternoon :-)

Our Tamaqua Christmas

Oh, what an amazing and wonderful weekend! We got to go home to Tamaqua to celebrate the holiday season :-) It is actually our first visit home since August (crazy fall band/football schedule and all) and I have been itching for days to get the journey underway!
First stop: Mom & Tom's. We had a lil history lesson in Jim Thorpe on the way to get our pizza for lunch, exchanged presents, relaxed with tv & games, then had a big holiday dinner with Tom's kids at the table also. (Chad you were greatly missed!)
Off to Dad & Maggie's...We stayed up until 12:30 playing games, exchanging gifts, just catching up and we still ended up going to bed earlier than Dad, Maggie, my Gram, Uncle Tommy, & Phyllis. Walking upstairs to bed, Dan comments "There is something wrong when you go to bed before your Grandmother!" haha Sunday brought a restful morning and delicious giant lunch with everyone again
It was such a wonderful weekend and ended just too soon (they always do though, I suppose)

Thank you Mom, Tom, Dad, Maggie, and everyone else for the all the heartful and meaningful gifts, plus the relaxing and soul filling weekend. We all had a blast!

Cannot wait to go back up on Friday (Chad is taking Maddy and I up) to go to Gram & Pap Miller's anniversary dinner (then I will get to see my whole Miller family) then a family birthday brunch on Saturday morning before we head back to Shippensburg again :-)

1st swimming meet (Dover Invitationals)

well Maddy had her 1st swimming meet today. I dropped her off at SASHS at 6:15 this morning. While we drove to the school, her comment was "It is too weird to be driving to school with the moon shining".
My reply? "Yeah, find a window and see some sunlight today because when I am driving you home tonight, you will be looking at the moon again!"

Here to tell her side of the story, Maddy, herself :-)
    Today was an amazing day. i was really nervous when i got to Dover at first. My event was called and i told the team to please not watch because i will be horrible. They didn't listen. As i got on the block for my 50 free i was a little shaky. The buzzer rang and i was gone. i finished the race, and i was first in my heat with 32 seconds. it was amazing! my coaches were so proud. the whole team watched me do my race. i got out and everyone started clapping and hugging me. they all said i beat some juniors it was again amazing. after my warm up i went into the hall and everyone was yelling my name and really proud. it was a great day!! then for my 100 backstroke race i placed 2nd but not by much. in our 200 relay our lane won and in our 400 relay our lane came in fifth. it was a really good day. :)

We are SO PROUD of her!!!!!!

Holiday Portrait

oh, the holiday card picture....it is always a stumper for me. Partly because it takes FOREVER to decide on a picture because I love so many and partly because  I need to figure out the technicalities of who is gonna take the pic so I can be in it myself :-P lol (it is amazing to see how many pics I am NOT in throughout the year. Always the one behind the camera, yep, that's me! hehe)

this year: what about a collage? I don't want something that is a picture christmas card. I make homemade ones (I need to use my stamping supplies at least once a year!) but maybe I can make a collage on one of these websites that is just a general nonspecific holiday one

The hunt was over on Snapfish. Now I won't show you what the card looks like or what photos I chose but I am SUPER EXCITED about my creation. Double bonus: now through December 11th Snapfish is offering 40% off their holiday cards PLUS free S&H (everybody loves a sale!!!). Check out their homepage for the coupon code or just type in CARDSFS40 when you are in checkout

Happy Card Making :-)