My Big One-Year-Old

If I said this year has gone by quickly, I would be making an understatement. I can't believe that it was an entire year ago that I had my little baby, Elijah. What a year it has been. I love this little boy so much. He is such a social butterfly! He loves to go to everyone. He even had to have a cabinet contractor hold him the other day. He loves, loves, loves people. He loves all of the attention his big brothers give him. He is good natured and always lets Luke and Tess carry him around. Lately he is showing quite a bit of independence, and I feel it is just a taste of what is to come! He is almost totally eating big boy food, and drinking lots of milk. He is a total PIG! He eats and eats and eats. Last week I bought him his own half gallon of milk and only a couple of days later it was already gone. Although he is a big eater, he is still very small for his age. He hasn't gone to his one year Dr.'s check-up, but the last time I weighed him at home he was about 18 lbs. I will get his offical one-year stats in a couple of weeks.

We had a little cake and ice cream party for him a couple of days after his official birthday. He wasn't too interested in opening his presents, but thankfully cousin Evan was here to help him out. He thinks that he MUST hold the spoon whenever I feed him, and eating his cake was no different. He wanted a spork, but later decided to dig right in with his hands.

Happy Birthday, Elijah. I love your happy, smiling, little face.

My Healthy Little Eater

Despite my best efforts, it appears that Elijah is NOT turning out to be a very healthy eater!

The boys set up a "store" and got out a bunch of food to sell. Apparently they didn't get the Oreo's put away before Elijah found them.

If you have ever met a Gunnerson you have probably had some of their homemade root beer. Apparently Elijah is a true Gunnerson because he LOVES it. (Apparently I am not a true Gunnerson because I like it quite a bit less than Eli.)

More pics

Looking from the kitchen out the back.

From the great room to dining and kitchen.

With Trusses now on.

Almost finished framing.

Staining the front door.

The work continues...

Well, except for all of the work going on on the new house, we have been having a pretty boring life. I can pretty much catch everyone up with just a few short sentences.
Rick: enjoying his weeks off of work spending time with the boys and working on the house.
Olivia:mommying and teaching cardio and yoga classes.
Luke: counting down the days until school is out (1 1/2).
Noah: LOVING having his dad around and working on the house.
Elijah: getting 5 new teeth at once, and NOT being happy about it.

The house is going great! All of the walls are up, inside and out, and it is SO fun to go in and actually see everything all laid out. I get excited everyday when the workers go home and I can go over and see what new things have been done. Today they were working on the porch and even needed a crane to lift the big beams into place. I love it more and more everyday.

Noah helping get the septic tank ready to be buried.

Putting on the big cross beams.

A view from the front.

A beam coming in for the front porch.

Rick helping get the straps around one of the big beams.

Construction begins!

To say that is has been a long time coming would be an understatement; but we have finally begin the construction of our new home! It has all been so fast, and I hope that the rest of the process goes as smoothly and quickly as it has so far. Surprisingly is has not even been two weeks since the first crew started work. They came on Thursday and poured the cement footings. Friday they set the forms for the foundation, and poured those on Monday. Wednesday the framers started work on the floor and by last Thursday we had our first wall. By the end of today the entire first floor will be framed and they will start tomorrow on the second story. WOW ! What a lot of work. We have found that right now is a GREAT time to be building a house, because no one else is and contractors are begging for work. We hope that this means we will be in by Thanksgiving, not Christmas. (Although secretly I am hoping for Halloween!) Rick and Noah sealing the foundation.
Noah has been so excited to go out and work everyday. He has had the opportunity to work in the trackhoe and backhoe a lot because my uncle is doing our excavation. He is the hardest working little boy. He always wants to be out working with the men .

The first wall!
This is the wall separating the garage from the house.

Luke, Grandma Gunnerson and Eli, Rick, and Grandpa Gunnerson standing in the garage looking at the first of many walls.

The first wall went up on Thursday, and here it is today.
This is a picture of the back of the house from my parents yard.

I know this picture isn't of anything important, but I just thought I would show how well we are protecting those wetlands! We've had heavy equipment drive on it, a dumpster park on it, all of the crew's trucks park on it, and lumber stacked on it. But, building a house there would be out of the question.

A Little Perspective

Life is all about perspective.

A couple of weeks ago we were enjoying some fabulous spring weather. When Luke got home from school I encouraged the boys to go out and enjoy the nice warm afternoon. Not long after they went out to play, they came back in to ask if they could put the sprinkler under the trampoline. I told them that it wasn't quite warm enough for that (it was probably about 65 degrees). So Noah quickly made a request that he has been making all winter long, which I have been denying until it "gets warm". He asked if they could play with their shirts off. I said yes, and off they went.

It really made me reflect on how much in our lives is all about our perspective. When we lived in Las Vegas I kept the boys in pants and long-sleeved shirts until it was 70 degrees outside. Shorts weren't an option until the 80's came along. Now we live in the frigid north and once the thermometer hits 65 I am letting them play outside without their shirts! Yep, now 65 degrees is warm.

It's amazing how differently we can see things when we look at them from a different perspective.

Spring Break St. George Style

How much fun can one mom and three boys have together for one week in St. George? LOTS! We did actually get to have Rick with us for the first couple of days, and he even stuck around on Monday for Luke's birthday, but the rest of the week was just me and the boys. We spent our time riding bikes, playing in the sand, flying kites, going to the park, bowling, seeing Monsters vs. Aliens, visiting with Chelsea and Jack, skinning our knees and elbows at Jumping Jacks, watching movies, reading books, and just enjoying each other. It was really nice to have no time commitments, responsibilities, homework, or bedtimes! Ah, but all good things must come to an end. At least spring has come to Woodland, and we have started working on the house I will have Thanksgiving dinner in.

Luke celebrated his 7th birthday on the 6th of April. He choose to go to Jumping Jack's and play for a few hours and enjoy lunch at IHOP.

My happy handsome little boy enjoying a warm day at the park.

On one especially windy day we found a kite in the closet at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They think of everything! The boys loved getting it up in the sky as high as they could. Of course I ended up getting it out of the sage brush and winding up the string.

Luke has a love/hate relationship with bowling. He loves to bowl, but hates to loose to his little brother. Even though Noah can barely get the ball down the lane, he still manages to knock more pins over than Luke EVERY TIME. So, no big surprise that Luke ended up crying and pouting when the game was over and he lost to Noah and Jack/Chelsea.

Oh, I could just kiss those boys to death!
At the park they found a little stream and spent more time wading in the water than playing. Good thing we have LOTS of water on our building lot. I am sure we can dig a little stream of our own.