A Gunderful Life

A Journey of Sharing

Hello, we are the Gunderson's!  This blog is dedicated to keep family and friends posted on what new in our busy, crazy, funny family life. There will be stories, pictures, and videos posted as often as possible. It is a work in progress.  Enjoy!

The start of an exciting month!

Yesterday was a fun filled day!  It was Clara Grace's first birthday...yay! :)  I can't believe how fast this year flew by.  I guess having 4 kids time escapes pretty easily.  Luke, Selah, and ! started the day by making homemade gluten free chocolate cupcakes with homemade cream cheese frosting for Clara Grace to enjoy.  Don't they look marvelous!  Oh ya Luke decided while we where making cupcakes for Clara that for his birthday he would like a parade.  Because some people have parades on their birthday.  Hmmm don't know how we will pull that one off his birthday is not on the Fourth of July of Thanksgiving.

For Clara's birth announcements I took her pictures in this super adorable yellow polka dot pail.  I thought it would be fun to squeeze a mini one year old session with Clara, in between running Anyssa to school, Luke to preschool (for a fun snow day), picking up Anyssa from school...oh wait she went to a friends house so picked her up from a friends house, then picked up Luke from snow day at preschool, then the mini session.  These turned out so cute.  I had to put these two together to share.

  

I happened to caputer some awesome images of Selah that I love!

So after the mini session (15 minute photo shoot) we had to pick up powder sugar to make the icing for the cupcakes, finish dinner, water the garden then we were able to honor Clara's first birthday.  She was so happy when we started singing her happy birthday.  She is like Selah...loves loves loves music....I think it is a Gunderson gene.

Yummy Yummy cake in my tummy! and my nose!

That is not the end of our super exciting day.... after happy birthday cupcake time I rushed out the door to my wonderful oldest daughter Anyssa's soccer banquet.  She was a freshman on the varsity team.  I am so proud of her.  Isn't she beautiful!

This is her getting her award and pin.

This pictures is fun...not only because it is an awesome picture of my daughter and I but if you look closely it is a photo bomb picture.  Hahaha sister in law Sara I am thinking of you:)  Anybody that does not know a photo bomb it is when someone in the background ruins the sweet picture you where trying to take there for making it funny.

Anyssa with her award and pin.

While Anyssa and I were at her banquet Mike took the kids to our Wednesday small group.  And that was the end of our exciting day!

What A Man!

Mike had air guard this weekend and he met me at a park where I was shooting a maternity session.  I was able to get a quick picture of him with the little kids.  It was Mike's idea. I am so very proud of Mike and how hard he works for our family.  What a man!  He does wear a uniform nicely;)

Up, Up, And Away

Whoo the holiday season from Thanksgiving to today has been a fun time.  We where very busy with traveling to Texas for Thanksgiving, family sessions, weddings, and having family at our house for Christmas and the week after.  Mike and his sisters had a great idea for a gift for Grandma and Grandpa Gunderson, a hot air balloon ride.  How fun!  It was on Ed's bucket list. They where excited.  The ride was at sunrise and Mike and Luke went along to get some wonderful pictures. 

Here are the balloons filling up with air.

A pretty cactus balloon.

Ginny and Ed's balloon.

In the basket and ready to go.

Up, up and away....

Now the hairy pary as Ed said...landing.  That is Luke in the corner running to them.

Ahhhh Grandma and Grandpa Gunderson.  Mikes parents are so wonderful.  They have been married for 41 years.  They said they loved the balloon ride. 

A Swinging Good Time

  

Most kids love to swing.  It brings me joy to hear my kids giggle and see their faces with the biggest smile just to have me push them on the swing.  Luke likes us to push him as high as we can.  A funny side story, MIke was pushing Luke on the swing one afternoon and pushed him really hard from the front and Luke accidentally let go and went flying off. Thank goodness for sand to make a soft landing.  Mike said his face was hilarious.  

 Clara loves to swing. I wanted to share some fun pics and a video of her enjoying the simpler things in life.  

    

I love her silly face in this one.

  

  

Love this video of my giggling Clara Grace.        

It Is So Hard To Wait For Something You Love

Ohh poor Selah......

She just loves her blankey.  And when it is in need for a desperate washing I have to sneak it away early in the morning...that way it has time to wash and dry before nap time.  It doesn't take Selah long to realize her blanket is missing.  When I tell her it is washing she breaks out in tears and.....

cries and cries at the washing machine waiting her blankey.

But when the washing machine is done I have to tell her it needs to go into the drier and the crying party begins again but this time at the dryer.  Then such excitement comes when we hear that dryer beep.  And all is restored in Selah's world when she gets her blankey back in her arms. 

 

Oh so happy! 

And now it is nap time.

Just Like Daddy

Mike worked at the Guard all last week and this weekend.  7 early mornings.  When Mike gets home Luke loves to put on Daddy's uniform.  It is hard to imagine that someday Luke will be big enough to wear Daddy's clothes.  He looks so stinkin cute! 

Happy Halloween

I enjoy Halloween!  I love the anticipation of the cooler weather, pumpkin seeds, the colors, dressing up and having kids just adds to more of the excitement.  I think one of the blessing of having kids is they help you be a kid again by enjoying the simpler things and moments in life.

This was Clara's first Halloween and she is teething.  She has a tooth and a 1/2 on the bottom and her top two are getting ready to brake through.  She has a had a mild fever for a few days.  So she wasn't the happiest cow in the farm this year but she was the cutest!

Clara started waving high a few weeks ago.   So cute.  Every morning she waves hello to everyone.

 And a cute smile....

We had two fun filled days of wearing costumes.  Sunday our church had some fun bouncers, trick or treating and food.  Luke probably had the best time.  He is 5, the perfect age for fun filled bouncer slides and obstacle coarses.  He actually had 3 fun filled days.  He attends pre-school 3 days a week and absolutely loves it.  Friday they had a pumpkin patch and decorated the pumpkins with glue, glitter, and stickers...a recipe for messy fun.

I like to do crafts.  I saw this craft last year while trick or treating and loved it.  I found directions on Disney's Family Fun website .  Super easy, Luke helped and Selah colored one.  The Gunderson kids drink allot of milk so we had plenty of milk jugs laying around.

I had plans for Selah to be a duck for Halloween.  We had a cute costume from when Luke was her age  but she cried and cried on Sunday when we tried to put her in it.  Luckily I had some super cute Halloween PJ's with an orange skirt for her to at least be festive in.  When she was dressed in that she started calling herself a princess.  Which was really funny because she has never seen a princess movie...well Tangled.  We had an old tiara and poof a Halloween Princess was born.

Here are a few pictures of the kiddos before we left for trick or treating.  Luke was a Ninja.  It took him awhile to figure out what he wanted to dress up as but what sealed the deal was when he found out Dayne, his cousin, was going to be a ninja.  Anyssa had her appendix removed last week so she wasn't up to dressing up this year.  She handed out candy while we took the little kids around the neighborhood trick or treatiing. 

The kids where exhausted after only two blocks of trick or treating.  Selah did so good.  She said trick or treat and thank you to almost everybody. 

Here is an end of the night video....I hope you enjoy it, it took forever (like 5 hours to uploaded to youtube).

  

And one last picture to scare you!  Well I might scare you.  Mike and I went to a friends surprise birthday costume party Saturday night.  We literally through our costume together in like 10 minutes well maybe 15 with the stop for a blond wig and red lipstick at CVS.  We went as Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love 90's style. 

Anybody recognize the sweater Mike is wearing? I save allot of clothes from my youthful days.  You never know what you can use to through a Halloween costume together.