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.

Birthday Celebrations

I thought I'd post a little bit about the things we've been doing the past week to celebrate Ella's birthday. I usually try to celebrate a little early so it's not quite so close to Christmas. Last Saturday Ella had her first friends party. She got to invite 5 friends and we went to Paper Cottage and scrapbooked little photo albums. They were so cute! I had no idea they hosted little b-day parties until my good friend Michelle told me. It was so much fun and all of the girls loved it! Ella doesn't like cake, so she chose Krispy Kreme donuts and chocolate milk. It really was a good time. One of the little girls met us there, but I drove the rest of them and discovered 5 little girls can be very LOUD and super giggly in the car.

On Sunday we had family over for cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. That was great also. The cousins played a few little games like Pin the Tail on the Donkey and trashed the house. That's always the sign of a good time, a trashed house, right?! Here are a few of the pictures from our birthday activities.

Happy Birthday Ella My Ella

Mark often times calls Ella, Ella My Ella. Well, today is Ella our Ella's 6th birthday! We'd like to wish her a very happy day! She is a very special little girl to us. She was the mildest, sweetest baby in the world, my easiest by far. She was very content and had big gummy grins for everyone. She is my miracle baby, as she was conceived after Bob's chemotherapy when doctor's thought his body would not be able to help us have more children. We were blessed to have her join our family while he was in remission (he got sick again when she was just 7 months old). Her gentle nature was a blessing to me while her dad was sick and dying. Because she only nursed, she would stay with us in the ICU (where there is a policy of no children) and the nurses would comment they didn't even know there was a baby in the room. I never thought I'd have a daughter, I really felt I was going to have all sons, so she was a pleasant surprise. Even after two ultrasounds said she was a girl I didn't believe it and decorated in yellow and brought a yellow outfit to the hospital "just in case". Sure enough she's all girl as she loves dolls, dress-up, princesses, make-up and jewelry, barbies and singing and dancing to High School Musical. Away from home Ella is very quiet and shy, but at home she holds her own with her brothers and has gotten to be quite spunky since she's started kindergarten. We all love her so much! She brings a little bit of heaven to our family each and every day. Happy Birthday sweet Ella!

Ella's Winter Dance Recital

Gotta love the tummy

You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile

Ella and her good friend Abby Harmer

Ella with Grandpa and Grandma Gunnerson after her performance

What a fun and busy day we've had! Tonight was Ella's first dance recital. It was at Caldwell High School in their Auditorium. She danced really well and really knew her routine. She's been taking this Kinderdance ballet/tap class for the past three months or so and unfortunately, dance may not be her thing. She doesn't really love it, so she's opted to not take it anymore, we were just finishing out with the recital. It was a fun experience! With her being my only girl, I am obviously not up on the etiquette of dance recitals. Almost everyone there had bouquets of flowers for their little performers, we had nothing to give Ella afterwards. I felt bad, but I don't think she thought too much of it. She danced to a song from Annie called, You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile. Here are a few pictures of our little dancer (soon to be a non-dancer).

Cooper's First Piano Recital

Calvin

Bailey

Cooper

Cooper has been taking piano lessons for a few months now and had his first recital this morning. It was at an Assisted Living home in Boise, where they played for the elderly that live there. It was a really nice place. He did well and played Silent Night. Here is a little picture of him and a video of him playing his piece. It was so fun to see so many old ward members and friends. Amy and Dwight were there, Bailey and Calvin each played and did well too! I've put up a couple pictures of them. Sorry the video is so poor in quality, it's just from our camera, but you can hear him play at least.

John's Christmas Piano Recital

Tonight was John's piano recital. The Christmas recital is always my favorite to go to, I love listening to all of the holiday music. John played, Joy to the World, and did a great job! He is going to play the same piece as a musical number in Sacrament meeting this Sunday, he's just going to slow it down a little bit and play the ending different so it's a little more reverent. He really loves playing the piano and likes to perform as well. He doesn't even seem to get nervous, I'm not sure where that comes from, certainly not from me. Here is a little video of him playing tonight.

Christmas ~ Our favorite time of the year

It certainly is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. I thought I'd put up a picture of our tree this year. As pretty as those fancily decorated trees look with a theme and everything, I like our tree w/ lots of different decorations, each w/ a meaning and story behind them, decorated by the kids. The Gunnerson Family is really into ornaments and we have ornaments from Bob that were his from his childhood. Great Grandpa and Grandma MacKay would give their grandchildren ornaments for Christmas each year. My own kids have quite a collection started for themselves already also. We have so many fun ornaments that we can't put them all on the tree each year. It makes me sentimental each year when we get out the ornaments and I think about who gave them to us and remember those Christmas times and other events in our lives such as marriage and the birth of children, etc. Anyway, I love our tree this year and I love to sit in the room in the dark and quiet w/ only the tree lights on, there's something about it that is so peaceful to me.

We braved the mall last weekend and went to see Santa. Unfortunately, Cooper was at a friend's house so he wasn't w/ us. We took Ella's friend and our next door neighbor, Priscila. We had a good time and got dessert at the mall too. Amazingly, Seth wasn't afraid of Santa, and was very proud of himself for sitting on his lap. He was hugging his baby tightly, though. John still doesn't think he's too old to sit on Santa's lap. I guess he has the rest of his life to think that, right? Well, here are a few of the pics.