And it's snowing...

I was going to title this post "I laughed", but after looking outside I decided to change it. Yep, full on snowing. on nov. 7th.

Well, I really did laugh. Last night that is. We went out to Olive Garden and right around the 4:00pm hour I was secretly wishing that Jim would take the kids out to dinner and put them all to bed so that I be in dreamland myself. I was just so tired. Ahh, but I would have missed out on the wonderful celebration. We spent 2hrs. at a restaurant! That is a Gunn record for sure. And the kids were so well behaved, I was so proud of them. I opened up presents and I received the most wonderful present from my little family. An actual certificate of appreciation, signed and everything by each child. It was enough to bring tears to my eyes.

Here is what it said...
CERTIFICATE OF APPRECIATION
This certificate is awarded to Carol L. Gunn in recognition of valuable contributions to our household, as a mother and wife.
And then signitures follow.

What more could you ask for?

We are 34...

Happy Birthday to us...my brother and I are 34 years old today. Seems old and young at the same time. Mmm.....We will go out to dinner; the kids are so excited about this. It's 4:00pm and I think I could skip dinner and go right to bed! I'll just have to feed off of their energy tonight since my tank is running low.

"Get back in line"...

Halloween here is more of, what do I call it...an EVENT than just a holiday. The quote up above was one that I heard when a little trick-or-treater got out of line when stepping up to get his candy. Not said angrily at all, but the fact that it had to be said in the first place; WOW! There are literally about 400-500 kids going door to door on the street right above us so you can imagine it was surely the sight to see.

We enjoyed our time with the kids and by the 5th or 6th house they began to run up to the doors and get all excited at the possibility of getting more candy. More, more, more was their motto.

Matthew was spiderman, Ella Jane was Buzzlightyear, and Sara was a ladybug.

Fall is in the air...

Fall at our house is in full swing! We've enjoyed fresh homemade apple pies and tonight, pumpkin pie is making its debut. Mmmmm......

I really LOVE my feet!

One year later...

It's been one year since our move from Maryland to Iowa. I was going through old posts last night and remembering what that time was like. It's like flipping through a journal. Except when I go back through old acutal hand written journal entries they usually make me remember moments that I had forgotten about or laugh. These did the opposite. They recalled all the hard things we went through as a family and the individual struggles I had during that time.

This past year has been the absolute hardest one of my life. Making the move was incredibly difficult as I've said before. I had to leave behind my church family and friends in Maryland. You see I've never been a member of a church before and to have to say goodbye...well it was just too much on some days. There are days or moments when this still rings true to my heart and makes me very sad. So many things here are different than from what we left. However not all of those changes are bad! Here we have sidewalks, parks within walking distance, and little friends to play with right around the corner (literally).

The kids are a year older and we've added another child! Sara brings SO much joy to me it's hard to believe she was the source of so much uncertainty one year ago. She is the living reminder that God speaks to me personally and knows what's best for me even better than I do.

Making this transition to Iowa has brought fun things too! For example, we are now raising our kids on a college campus. They are at the Homecoming football game with daddy which is being played in the brand new stadium. It's big news around here and we're excited to be a part of it. It's fun to take them to campus and let the RUN crazy and then visit daddy in his office. It's fun to have the students come over every Sunday night for dinner so that Jim can have a bible study with them after. It's fun to see that we can make friends here too, that Kindergarten exists other places than just So. MD. :) Its' fun to be a part of MOPS and to be a table leader and care for women who need a shoulder to cry on like I needed last year. It's fun to have woods in the backyard so that daddy can take the kids exploring.

So it is with gladness that I remember this time. That it's over, that I don't have to pack everyone up and move, that we have carved out a spot for ourselves, that we have survived as a family. With a sigh of relief I say "whew we made it through the first year."

Good job Team Gunn.

Oweeeee......

Ella Jane took a tumble today on the way home from school. It happened so fast I didn't even see her fall. But I did see the tail end of her rolling. Down the concrete sidewalk. And then came the tears. Oh the tears. And oh the scrapes! These were taken at dinner a few hours later. She's trying to avoid getting her picture taken and I thought it seemed like a good sequence to post. I love that she's smiling in them.

The Northwoods...

We took off for a long weekend last Thursday since Matthew didn't have school the following day. Friends of ours invited us up to their lake house in upper Wisconsin. What a wonderful time we had! This family has three boys, one of which is in Matthew's Kindergarten class and Matthew had a ball doing boy stuff all weekend. He even chose to sleep with them in the loft! Ella Jane loved her time too and both were sad to leave. We are back home now and into our routine again. Tomorrow we have open house at Matthew's school. Makes me feel like such a parent...attending an open house.