Catching Up

The Christmas Wreath for the grave. The kids also wrote notes and drew pictures.The 4 kids at the beautiful cemetery. They loved the winter icicles!

Gunnerson cousins (the cutie babies)

Gunnerson cousins (the boys, those in town)

Gunnerson Cousins (the girls, those in town)

Ella w/ Grandpa George Parker in Mark's new BYU hat

Our Nativity Scene

Steve and Amanda's house on Christmas Eve

Sethy w/ his new toy

Ella w/ her HSM dvd's and her new pink gameboy

Cooper opening his tank from Santa that shoots air soft bb's

John w/ his new piano sheet music

Me w/ my new brown coat from Mark

Mark w/ his Bourne DVD's on Christmas Morning

All of the Gunnerson/Bishop, Thurston, Tanner and Burnett kids

Wow, it's been a long time! I know we don't have a lot of people who check out our blog, but for those who do I thought I should make a new entry (and for our own family's journaling purposes). Christmas and New Years were exhausting, but wonderful. We got to see lots of friends and got to spend some quality time with each of the sides of our families. We have 4 different sides in total. We celebrated Christmas w/ the Gunnerson's on the 23rd of December w/ a Swedish style celebration. The Gunnersons are Swedish, so we had a Swedish type dinner served in different courses and learned more about the Swedish heritage. Bob's sister Christy, and her husbad Jerel, really went to a lot of work to make it a special evening that everyone enjoyed very much. The best part was this DVD slideshow that they put together of our past family Christmas times together dating way back. They gave each of us a copy as a gift, what a keepsake! We went to the cemetery earlier that day to take a Christmas wreath made of bells out to Bob's grave. Our time at the cemetery is always special to us.

We were able to see my mother and grandma and do a little Christmas gift exchange earlier in the month of December before Ella's family birthday party. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of them to post. I was able to see them again shortly after Christmas and we had a nice time visiting again.

On Christmas Eve day we were able to go out to George and RaNae Parker's house in Kuna and have dinner w/ them. It was a quiet afternoon, but it was so good to see them. On Christmas Eve we went to Steve and Amanda's house and celebrated w/ the Bishops. We had more food and Mom Bishop read the Nativity story while the kids acted it out. They were a bit wound up, but cute nonetheless.

Christmas morning at our home was great. It was nice all being together and I love to see the kids excited about their gifts. We went over to Mom and Dad Bishop's house Christmas afternoon.

John had a friend from school over during the break and we also got together w/ the Thurstons, Tanners and Burnetts one day. All of our kids have been friends since birth but we don't seem to see enough of each other now days, so it was great to all get together and let the kids catch up. On New Year's Eve we were able to see some other friends, Roman and Heather, and their family. They are in the process of adopting some children and they'll have 8 kids now! We had lots of good food and conversation and played Settlers together.

Some more of the Parker's (Justin, Mindi and their kids and Gary and his girls) were in town after Christmas, so it was fun to have them over our place for dinner and a game of Cranium. It was nice being with them although the time was short.

Off and on since New Year's we've had sick kids and I have felt sick, so I still don't feel in the swing of things yet, and my house can testify to that. As a matter of fact, the whiteness of the computer screen is making my head hurt and making me feel dizzy, so I think I'll post some pictures and close for now.