Random Sampler

Excuse this post, it is quite a concoction of random things that have happened over the past few weeks. For some reason I have never gotten around to blogging them, so I decided to throw them all together on one post just to give everyone a glimpse into what we have been doing lately.
Luke played the role of the big bad wolf in the Kindergarten production of The Three Piggy Opera. He practiced his parts so much at home and was very excited to have so many solo's. He did absolutely great! I have a darling video of his singing/acting that I will post when Rick can help me (I hate being so bad on the computer!). Here he is in his wolf costume after the show. I think he really relished his role as the big bad wolf because he would even play the part at recess as he chased some of the girls. One day after school I asked him what he did at recess and he said that he was being the wolf and chasing the girls all around. I wanted him to play more with some of the boys in his class so I suggested that he asked some of the boys to help him chase the girls. He looked at me and said, "but I like being the only boy chasing all of the girls." Of course you do!

Of course Noah had to get in on the action, too!

Even though I have more baby blankets than you could ever need, I decided that each new addition deserves one blanket made just for them. I knew I wanted to use that soft, fuzzy, bumpy fabric that is all the rage right now for this little guy. I went to the fabric store to get it and almost died when I found out it cost $13 a yard, but I figured that I was only making one blanket so it was okay. I did the back in some stripped flannel and ended up with enough extra to make a little comfort blanket with ribbons, too. Like all craft project I take on I ended up HATING the finished product! No matter how many times I measured and cut, I could not keep the green fabric the same as the flannel. The problem is that the "darling" green fabric is stretchy, and the flannel is not. So by the time I had the edges bound it looked terrible. But, after trying so hard I just finished it and know that I will never show it to a real seamstress! I hope the baby doesn't notice the bad sewing.
Just for all of my friends who I don't get to see anymore, I thought I would throw in a recent picture of me. Here I am in all my pregnant glory. Sorry for the choice of clothes, but I had just gotten home from teaching my last yoga class (yahoo!) last night when I had Rick take this picture. I usually don't try to dress in the tightest clothes that I can to show my round tummy! Even though I haven't forgotten how uncomfortable it is during your last couple of weeks, it is always surprising how those little feet can irritate your ribs so badly. I can't believe that I am down to two weeks. In some ways it seems that time will never pass, and on many ways I am dreading the day to come (a topic for a different post about the perils of having a third baby when your two year-old is a terror!). Oh well, ready or not this little guy is about to come.

Ah, spring soccer. I don't know why they even try to have soccer in the spring here because the weather is usually so crappy that it isn't even enjoyable. Luke's little soccer league only had 8 games, and three of them were canceled because of rain or snow. They did make one up, but not the other two. The games that did actually get played were pretty cold!
Luke had a great time playing on his soccer team this season, which is good because they were the worst team BY FAR! I was so glad that he didn't seem to notice that they lost big almost every game (they did tie one). I have never seen such a terrible group of soccer players as was put together on Luke's team. Now don't get me wrong, Luke is no David Beckham, but at least he knew which goal to try for. There were literally kids on his team out on the field with their shirts over their heads doing somersaults! Other kids would come in and out of the game at will whenever they wanted to play, and there were two kids who thought that the point of the game was to jump on the ball whenever it came close! Needless to say, they were terrible. Luke enjoyed himself though and wants to do it again next year. I guess you can call that success!
A few weeks ago as Rick was bathing the boys and my dad and I were watching the Jazz game, there was a very loud bang on the window of my parents house. Right away we knew it was just a bird flying into the window. Perhaps a suicide attempt. No, it actually happens quite often because my parents have so many window in their house that the birds can see all the way through and they don't realize there are windows in their way! My dad went to check it out and came in saying it had been a hawk that flew into the window and was taking it's last breath. I went and told the boys that after their bath they could go outside with grandpa and see a dead hawk. Well, much to our surprise when we took the boys out to see the "dead" hawk it was really alive. It was so stunned by it's recent blow to the head that it let my dad hold it and the boys pet it. Of course my dad had his Birds of North America book right out to show the boys just what kind of hawk it was and give them some interesting facts about it. Always the scientist. The boys just thought it was cool to pet a real live hawk.

On May 20th Rick and I celebrated out 10 year anniversary! I can't believe that 10 years has come so soon. I have always imagined our 10 year anniversary to be celebrated somewhere on an exotic beach or a fabulous trip to Europe, but bad pregnancy planning spoiled that! We did leave the boys with my mom and sister (thanks mom and Giselle) and went to Salt Lake on a little date. We actually had a really fun time because we went to the same places we went the first time we met. It was fun to eat at the same place and play mini golf at the same place we did 11 years ago this summer. Back then I wouldn't have imagined that in 10 years I would be about to have our 3rd little boy, but even that night I did know that there was something special about Rick (and it wasn't just his rear view, although that was one of my first real memories of him). I was going to do a wonderful post with pictures of our wedding and a picture of us now, but for some reason I couldn't even find a picture of our wedding in my parents house! Oh well, maybe next year. (That is what I am saying about the big vacation, too!)

Finally, one last item to note, we just got our house plans delivered yesterday! Okay, it is just the first tiny step of a huge building process, but at least we have started moving. I am so excited!

"Snow" kidding, it's May 22nd

No, I am not kidding. I just took these pictures this afternoon of the boys out playing in the wet spring snow. Yesterday when we woke up it was raining, but by about 10:30 am it had turned to snow. It snowed all day yesterday and is still lightly snowing this morning. I cannot believe it!
I know that living in Woodland has some drawbacks, but seriously it is almost June! I've tried not to be to grouchy about the crappy weather that we have been having this spring, but I can no longer hold it back... I NEED SUMMER. Rick tried to comfort me last night and tell me that it would be hot soon enough so I should just enjoy the cold for now. I appreciate his efforts to make me feel better, but we both know that it will be snowing again in October, so in May I need warmth.
The boys were actually pretty excited to play in the snow, and it is nice wet snow so they could build a snowman and make snowballs and snow mountains. I guess I should follow their example and just think, "When life gives you snow, make a snowman."

Kindergarten Zoo Day

Ah, nothing says the end of the school year like the Kindergarten trip to the zoo. Luke has been so excited about it for a couple of weeks now, and was not disappointed. When he woke up Tuesday morning he was complaining of a tummy ache. I couldn't believe it. I had to miss my kindergarten zoo trip because I was sick. Twenty-five years later I still feel the sting. So I made Luke eat some toast, gave him some pepto, and crossed my fingers he would feel better. It must've worked because he was fine the rest of the day.
I was able to be one of the parents to attend the zoo with Luke and his class. I was lucky because I only had to be in charge of Luke and his friend. They were both very well behaved and didn't run off once! Even though we were there for over four hours I felt like we were in a huge rush to see everything. The boys were especially excited about the snakes and the small animal house. Oh my gosh, I forgot how much that place stinks. I think that they would've stayed in there for much longer if I could've held my breath forever!
We were going full force the whole day and I didn't even let them sit down for lunch. We ate a little here and there while we waited for some shows to start and even ate while we walked from place to place. They loved the whole day but Luke said his favorite parts were the Elephant show (especially when the elephant painted a picture) and the bird show. Luke was doing his best parrot impersonation the rest of the day. It was so fun to see them enjoy themselves so much. At each animal I kept trying to read some of the facts to them, but they were too busy moving on to the next animal to really pay attention. I finally gave up making it a "learning experience" and just let them have fun. (See Rick, I don't have control issues!)

The bus ride down and back were a little less than fun (picture 60 kindergarten kids trapped on the bus for an hour about to explode with excitement about the zoo), but overall the day was great. I can't believe that Luke is done with Kindergarten and will be in school all day next year. I am so glad that I got to go and share this experience with him. And thanks to my sister for watching Noah so I could be Luke's mom for the day.

Goodbye, Grandma. We will miss you.

Luke and Noah with my grandma at her 80th birthday party. December 2005.

Late last Friday night my cute little grandma passed away. She has been sick for a couple of years, but has been managing it with chemotherapy, medicine, and transfusions. For the last two months she has not been doing very well and even had surgery to remove her spleen and gallbladder. Unfortunately, she was not able to get better and last week she came home from the hospital to be with her family. I am so glad that I have been here for the last two months so that the boys and I could see her more often. I took them up to see her once she was home from the hospital, and although she was in and out of sleep during our visit, I knew she was happy that we had come to see her again. Just the morning of the day she passed away I went up to see her without the boys so I could have a little more peaceful visit. I held her hand and talked to her, even though she wasn't able to wake up and respond. As I held her hand I thought all about how much those hands had done for me. She came to Colorado to stay with my family when my mom had me, and was there to hold me the day I was born. As a child I lived right across the driveway from her and I know she spent countless hours taking care of me and watching me as I played with my siblings and cousins on her farm. She has held my babies as she sang her little lullabies to them and has even watched them for me when I needed a babysitter. Her hands loved to write little cards of expression and I often found them in the mail for no other reason than just to say "hi, I love you." My hands look just like my mom's, and my mom's look just like my grandma's. So I guess you could say that I have my grandma's hands. I just hope that my hands can do as much good in this world as my grandma's have. I love you, Grandma. I will miss you so much.

A family tag

Over the course of the last month Noah, Luke, and I have all been tagged by some of our friends. I really haven't been ignoring the tags, it has just taken me quite a while to think of things about all of us that most people may not already know. And although Rick was not technically tagged by anyone I added him to my list because I didn't want to leave him out of our family tag. So here goes, 8 things you may or may not know about us.

Noah

1. Noah has been our "medical problem" child so far. He was only minutes old when they took him to the NICU because he wasn't breathing very well. It turned out he had a mild infection in his blood and had to be hooked up to in I.V. for 72 hours after birth. When Noah was 2 months old I had to take him to the E.R. because he was so sick (and it was a holiday so I couldn't get him into see his doctor!). He ended up with RSV and we went to the doctor almost everyday for two weeks before he started getting better. When he 21 months old, he had to have surgery for his undescended testie and the hernia that caused it. Finally, while it is pretty minor there has hardly been a day gone by since he had RSV that he doesn't have a runny nose! The doctor says it must be allergies, but who really knows. Hopefully he has gotten all of his problems out of the way early in life and will be healthy from now on!

2. Noah has a fascination with heavy equipment. He loves tractors, bulldozers, backhoes, excavators, front-end loaders, cranes, etc. He knows them all by name and came tell you the name of different parts of the equipment and their uses.

3. Noah didn't rollover until he was 7 months, he didn't say "mama" until he was about 18 months, and is just now beginning to be interested in books. I use to be worried that he was late at developing, but now I realize that Noah will NOT be told what to do. He will do what he wants, when he wants to, and not until that time.

4. Unfortunately, Noah inherited stubbornness from both Rick and me, and many times it takes us both to out-stubborn his tantrums.

5. Even though Noah is a "challenge" (to say the least) he can also be very loving. He loves to give hugs and kisses and is always telling me how much he loves me. I think it is so cute to hear him tell my dad "I love you, pal".

6. Noah is a picky eater but strangely enough one of his favorite foods is steamed broccoli.

7. Noah is a total daredevil. It scared me how fearless he is.

8. Noah loves babies. He has always been interested in rocking, feeding, playing, kissing, and holding babies. I hope that he is as good with his new little brother, but we will see if it is different when the baby is taking away some of his attention!

Luke

1. Luke was such a difficult baby! He cried for hours at a time without any apparent reason, and would only sleep if I was holding him. This lasted until he was about 3 months old, and I thought I might loose my mind.

2. Thankfully since the difficult baby time, Luke has grown to be a very easy to handle child. He has a real sense of wanting to do what is right, and gets very upset if he thinks he has done something to make me mad. I hope he continues with this for the rest of his life!

3. Luke LOVES music! He loves to sing, play the piano, and listen to music. When he was just 2 years old he drove in the car with Rick when we moved home from Oklahoma and they listened to classical and western music the whole 20 hours. To this day he still loves to listen to all types of music. His latest love is opera.

4. Much like his father, and unlike me, Luke is pretty shy. He isn't really outgoing and is fairly reserved when he is around other kids. He doesn't like to sing for people and sometimes has to be coaxed to play the piano for them. For some reason, this shyness doesn't carry over into performances. He did great at his piano recital and recently had a starring role in the Kindergarten production of The Three Piggy Opera. (Pics and video to come).

5. Luke is really smart.

6. Luke is not very humble about being smart.

7. Luke is also a picky eater, but unlike Noah, he doesn't have a healthy favorite food. His favorites are mac-n-cheese, pizza, and spaghetti.

8. Luke has very varied interests and has said many things he would like to be when he grows up. Some of them include: math teacher, scientist, astronaut, cereal maker, cartoon artist, dentist, lawyer, and now opera singer. I am pushing for dentist if his children's teeth are anything like his!

Olivia

1. I have always loved to watch T.V. As a child I remember my brother and I sleeping on the couch on friday nights so we could wake up at 5:00 am and catch cartoons right as they came on the air. This was before T.V. was broadcast 24 hours a day and sometimes when we woke up the colored lines would still be on the screen and the loud "BEEP" would be coming out of the speakers. I still love to watch T.V. and some of my favorites shows are The Office, Lost, The Amazing Race, Survivor, So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing With the Stars, Jon and Kate plus 8, and What Not To Wear.

2. I desperately want to be on the shows What Not To Wear and The Amazing Race.

3. When I was growing up my dad and grandpa had milk cows and I would help them milk by putting grain on the ground where the cows were suppose to come to eat. I don't know if this has any correlation, but I hate milk. I only drink it because I know that I REALLY need to.

4. When I was going to BYU I was a cadet in the Army ROTC. I never really intended on being in the Army, but I did get to do some cool things. One semester I was on the female Ranger Challenge team and we went to two competitions in California. We were the only female team competing against all male teams or a few co-ed teams. We didn't win either of the competitions, but we always beat a few teams. The events in the Ranger Challenge are; a Physical Test ( 2 mile run, 2 min. push-ups, and 2 min. sit-ups), rifle marksmanships (shooting an M-16), a timed weapons disassembly/assembly (on either an M-60 or and M-16), land navigation course, rope bridge race (getting your team from one pole to the other with just one rope and a few caribeaners), hand grenade assault course, and a 10K ruck (army back pack loaded with 25 lbs.) run. The summer after my sophomore year I also attended the Army Airborne school. I went to Ft. Bening, GA for three weeks of training and the final week of jumps. I made 6 different jumps and was never so happy to be done with anything in my entire life!

5. I am the most frugal person ever! I can't make myself buy anything if it is not on sale.

6. I love to exercise, and I love to eat. I think it is a good thing that I like to exercise because I have no will power when it comes to food. This is the reason that despite ample amounts of exercise I will never be skinny.

7. I have run in one marathon, and will probably never do another. I hated waking up everyday knowing that I needed to go out and run. I do want to do a sprint triathlon and am planning it for next spring/summer.

8. I love to read. My favorite series ever is The Work and the Glory. I LOVE Jane Austen. And despite my reluctance to read a "children's book" I loved the Harry Potter series.

Rick
(These answers are by me, if you asked Rick he may come up with something totally different!)

1. Rick is the second of six boys in his family. I believe my fear of never having a daughter comes from this fact.

2. Rick is very musical. He plays the trumpet, French Horn, piano, and guitar. He is also a very good singer, but he is too shy to really let that fact get out!

3. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Rick. He is always telling me about his new idea for making millions. If it weren't for me being the "voice of reason" he probably would be a millionaire right now.

4. Rick is a closet cowboy. In fact, right before and during his mission he wasn't even in the closet about it. He was a wrangler and loud western shirt wearing guy. It was only during our last move that I finally convinced him to send his last western shirt to the D.I. He still has his boots, belt, and hat.

5. Rick has best been described as "random". When his dad described him to me this way it just clicked. I never before understood why he had so many interesting money making ideas, why he didn't seem to remember conversations we would have, or why he was so messy. Now I get it. His thought are so "random" that it doesn't even occur to him that leaving a wet towel on the bed isn't the greatest idea. Rick often reminds me that some of the greatest minds were also pretty scatter-brained.

6. In our division of labor, Rick ended up with the bathrooms. I HATE cleaning the bathroom so Rick always does it. I consider myself very lucky that he doesn't seem to mind this particular chore.

7. Rick is a very hands-on dad. When he is home he does just as much to take care of the kids as I do. He changes diapers, bathes the boys before bed, reads stories, and helps with making them eat dinner. I count down the minutes until he is home from work. Seriously, when I hear his car pull in I tell the boys "Daddy's home, go get him!"

8. Rick has the most diverse hobbies of anyone I know (it goes back to that "random" thing). He enjoys woodworking, golfing, basketball, music, cars, working outside, riding horses, tennis, fishing, ping-pong, and debating issues with Ryan and Spencer.

Well, that is it! Sorry that it is pretty long, and somewhat rambling, but I hope you feel you know the Gunnersons a little better now.