Good Traditions

This tradition deserves a blog post of its own. Our friends host a sweater party every year. It has evolved from funny t-shirts and sweaters to a full on costume party. It is always a lot of fun to see what people come up with.

3rd place went to Aaron and Emily, and we wonder why the colors of periwinkle and sea foam ever went out of style:


2nd place went to Luke and Shelley who lit up party in their matching outfits:


and 1st place went to Haily who surprised us all with her voluptuous outfit:


Gabe and I are always just happy to be invited, though he wishes I wouldn't make him wear the Frosty sweater every year.

Good Traditions

As the kids and I were decorating the tree this year I realized that 85% of my ornaments have been received at an ornament exchange party I've gone to for the last 5 years. A friend in my neighborhood hosts a get together where you bring 12 like ornaments and 24 cookies. By the end of the exchange you have 12 different ornaments and 2 dozen delicious cookies to take home. It's a fun idea and I'm glad she took a chance and invited me all those years ago, especially since my ornaments are never the cutest ones there.

Here are the ornaments I've brought:

Lucky for me there are always some really fun things that people bring. They are filling up my otherwise boring tree.

Christmas Fun

'Tis the Season!

I hope Santa didn't make the kids any promises!

A Princess is Born

The time has arrived.
Good Thing #4 has discovered the joy of being a princess. Here she is complete with tights, tutu, and ponytails (affectionately called "princess horns" by her dad).

Need a closer look? Here ya go!

Funny Kids

Chocolate advent calendar purchased December 5th.
90% of it eaten by December 6th.

This is why you don't let your 4 year old be in charge of his own advent calendar.

Funny Kids

This pretty much sums up my LOVE/HATE relationship with play-dough.

Christmas Cards

Gabe's choice for our family Christmas card:

My choice:

Happy Thanksgiving

I am very thankful for my husband and my many children.

Invention Convention

All the second grade students had to come up with an invention for the annual Invention Convention at the school. Good Thing #1 came up with the timely "Easy Baby Care." It was a bottle wrapped in a burp cloth with a binky and nail clippers hooked to it. We hope to market it soon.

Milestones to Note

This is Good Thing #2's Reflections entry, titled "Tower Beauty." It won at the school level and moved onto the next level of competition.

Obviously the judges were astounded by the abstract. I know I'm still trying to figure the whole thing out.

Milestones to Note

On November 7th Good Thing #1 was baptized. It was a pretty cool thing for me to see. I am sure grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We were lucky that quite a bit of family could come. We appreciated you all spending a Saturday morning with us.

Milestones to Note

Thanks to Grandma Baugh for outfitting GT#1. He sure enjoyed his first Pack Meeting.

Kudos to my Husband

In my previous post I made it sound like I made the hotdog mummies and carved the pumpkins with the kids on Halloween. I didn't. It was all Gabe.

He's pretty great.

October Highlights

The month has come and gone, but I neglected to note a few fun things that occurred in October.

One Saturday we actually did something as a family which included a GPS treasure hunt, with vampire teeth as a prize, and then a drive to SLC.


Here are my children behaving themselves like they always do on Sunday afternoons. Aren't they the picture of perfection?

Or not...


On October 20th we celebrated Good Things #1's Birthday. He invited a few friends over for a Halloween party. I think he had a fun time playing games, eating doughnuts and opening presents.



Of course October 27th brought Good Thing #5. Like 2 of his siblings before him, his little heart did not like contractions. Every time my labor would get going, his heart rate would drop. The nurse would stop the pitocin, thus stopping my labor. After a bit of nothing she would start it up again and the pattern would continue. In the end, I progressed enough, pushed his massive girth out, and welcomed another boy into our family. Can you say, "Holy mission debt in our future?" I do admit I had just the tiniest feeling of disappointment that a little Rachel Cathleen was not born this time around, but I am happy as can be to have Joseph in our home. He joined the jaundice ranks that his siblings set before him, but fought it off after a few days under bili lights.




And despite a new baby and a very tired mommy we were able to have a Happy Halloween.
The kids begged for hot dog mummies for lunch
They carved pumpkins.

And enjoyed costumes and Trick-or-Treating.

The Blue Outfit Wins

Joseph Blaine Gunderson
Tuesday October 27, 2009
1:57 pm
9 lbs 2 oz
21 1/2"

Predictions

Good Thing #1 thinks I'm a having a girl, but hopes it's a boy. His boy name choice is John. He likes Mary for a girl.

Good Thing #2 thinks I'm a having a boy, but hopes it's a girl. His boy name choice is Alma and girl choice name is Sariah.

Good Thing #3 thinks I'm having a boy and hopes it's a boy. When I asked him today what name he liked he said, "Jesus." The other day he told my mom we were naming the baby Alma because we always use scripture names.

I predict that I'm having either a boy or a girl :)

I couldn't resist

Of course I don't absolutely need anything for my new baby, I've got a wall of bins downstairs to prove it. But, when I saw the pink dress at the store the other day I had to get it. Besides, they were practically giving it away. I felt guilty for a week since I didn't buy anything for a boy baby. Yesterday, I found the suitable pantsuit.

I think we are all set. I say let's get a move on this thing.

Milestones to Note

I now have updated pictures of each of my children on the wall.

37 Weeks and TMI

I've been reminiscing about my children's births. Especially in the context of, "Will this baby come early or late?" So, for those who care, here is a little history.

As I remember it:

Good Thing #1 was originally due November 8th though the due date was moved up to November 1st after my 20 week ultrasound. Imagine my surprise when on October 19th, way before I was expecting it (after all I had been told that 1st babies are always late) my water broke. We had invited some of Gabe's brothers over for a movie and pizza and were just getting started when I had the exciting experience of feeling like I wet my pants. After consulting 2 of my sister-in-laws, they told me that it was my water and I should head to the hospital. I was pretty dumb, as I didn't really realize that meant I was there to stay and that I would be having a baby. I remember being pretty excited when the nurses told me I was having contractions. I was like, "Sweet, these don't even hurt." About midnight, though they kicked in, and I remember being so sad that I would not have any more children since it hurt so bad. After my epidural though all was well and I knew I'd be able to do this again. Well, after a bit of sleep then a bit of pushing (2 hours, HELLO!) baby boy #1 was born at like 7:44 am on the 20th, weighing in at 7 lbs 5 oz.

Good Thing #2 was due July 6th. Since my first baby was early I fully expected #2 to do me the same favor. No such luck. I went to my appointment on the 7th, still very pregnant, where the doctor sent me to the hospital to see if I had progressed enough to be induced. They determined I was, so I was sent home with an appointment to be induced the next morning. The morning of the 8th we arrived bright and early to have a baby. I was indeed ready to have a him as this delightful child came after 3 hours of labor and no pushing. (Yes, I had an epidural-remember I wanted more children). He was 8lbs 11 oz.

Good Thing #3 was due May 2. At my 39 week appointment my doctor asked me if I wanted to be induced and I said, "Sure, sign me up." I thought it was interesting that they didn't send me over to the hospital this time "to see if I had progressed enough..." I went in on the 25th and got hooked up. This baby gave me a bit of a hard time as his heart rate would continue to drop at each contraction, and at the call of, "We might have to do a c-section" I freaked a little (if you've read my 100 things about me list, you will know that I'm afraid of black widow spiders and c-sections). I couldn't help thinking, "Maybe I shouldn't have got induced, since this baby doesn't seem to want to be born." All was well in the end, and boy #3 was born at like 2 in the afternoon. This baby was also 7lbs 5 oz.

Good Thing #4 was due September 14. All I could think with this baby was, I kind of wish it would be born early so it could hit the school enrollment cut off (I dislike the late birthday thing). Well, in fine fashion, this delightful baby woke me up Friday, August 31st, ready to be born. My water broke, so off we went though we took our sweet time getting to the hospital. Baby #4 wasn't born until the evening, since no one was in any hurry to get me going and once the pitocin had started her heart rate dropped like #3. Like the last 3 times though all was well in the end. Baby girl came in at a petite 7lbs 1 oz.

Funny Kids

Good Thing #1 has a lot to look forward to this month. He will be turning 8, getting baptized, and of course there is Halloween. Unfortunately for him our baby is coming sometime this month and this has made planning details for these fun things a little difficult.

Yesterday, we were walking around the block (that's about as far as I can handle) and he asked me if we were going to trick or treat on main street this year like we did last year. I responded, "It depends when the baby comes." He said, "the baby sure is ruining everything." I think we should call it, "Ruin."

Things to Remember

The big boys spent the night last weekend at G-ma and G-pa Gundersons. They had a fantastic time. GT #3 and Gabe joined them the next morning for chocolate chip waffles with 4 different kinds of syrup (how can I compete with that? Thanks a lot Dana), and then a hike to vandalism mountain. It wasn't really called that, but I guess it deserved the name. The boys had a GREAT time.

Fingers Crossed

I love love love my boys, but I can't help wanting another little delight like this:


If only she wasn't so fun, I wouldn't feel so strongly about it.

What I've been Watching Lately...

I finally finished watching Season 2 of Friday Night Lights. This is a pretty good show, except for Jason Street. He bugs me. This show is about a Texas Football team (spin off from the book and movie).

And thanks to my Free 4 week Netflix trial I've been able to watch some Jane Austen movies I'd missed; Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and Emma. I found these versions of Persuasion and Emma to be just ok, but I liked this Mansfield Park version better than the Hollywood version.

Gabe and I have also recently watched State of Play, Run Fat Boy Run, The Four Feathers, and the first discs to season 1 of Chuck, and season 3 of Heroes. I would recommend "State of Play." We both found it entertaining. There was a bit of language, but I think that was it. We also thought "Run Fat Boy Run" was pretty darn funny. There was crude humor and language, but I couldn't stop laughing. Maybe I was just in one of those moods. "The Four Feathers" was also good. It was recommended to me based on my DVD selections on Netflix. I had never heard of it, but it ended up being a great choice (there is war violence), though I hear the book is better. We decided we'd give another disc of "Chuck" a chance since it was pretty good, but I think I'm done with "Heroes," it has kind of become like "Lost" to me...no direction, new twist and characters, new mysteries, and no sign of closure.