Pictures continued 4....then we are done for now!

And the gift we all were waiting for...Will's new combine from Grandpa. We were glad Grandpa had found something since Brice and I searched Sioux City (well...not until 12/23 of course) and found nothing "farm" for Will.

Christmas hugs

Cutie passing out presents with her bow on :)

A Thomas the Train set, "Awesome" was the quote from Will



Lisa is enjoying her first time being pregnant, just a few short weeks left :-) So she requested a '4 generation picture'. Me on my 3rd time has been avoiding the camera as much as possible...
In the picture, my sister Lisa, my Mom, my Grandma Wittrock, me, and Gabbie in the front



Gabbie and I at church

Attempts at a Christmas family picture

Gabbie likes to make up her own rules to games, the pouts when we redirect her. Something to keep working on this year is Gabbie's willingness to follow directions

A long overdue picture of the 2 of us :-)



Okay, that's all the updating I have I think! Now onto January and the start of a new year. I enjoy January and February for some down time after holidays are done and we've tackled our pre-tax appointment. Well, maybe I'll do our Christmas cards first, then enjoy the down time :-) 2014 looks to be just as great as 2013 was with a healthy family. A few changes in store for me with working that will free me up to achieve a couple goals professionally that I've been looking forward to for a few years. We may get our downstairs bedroom done by springtime. And Brice has his "commercial kitchen" on the brain so we'll see what comes of that :-)

And more pictures continued 3

Gabbie dressed goofy and pretended she was the "elf on a shelf". We weren't supposed to touch her

Trying to decide if he's going to be good in church or not...

The loot from Santa

She loved that the Elf special made her dollhouse furniture

Will enjoyed the camera he got

Reading with Grandma a new book

Pictures continued 2

Lucky the tree fit on top of the van, since shortly after we bought the van the truck broke down. Our next purchase will be a horse and buggy

Gabbie and Dad at her first school concert

Kisses, Will obviously loves it :-)

Attempts at a family Christmas card picture. Still haven't mailed them out anyway

Reviewing the list

Will wasn't letting go of my hand, good thing he was too naughty to request a gift anyway

Pictures continued 1

Back to Halloween...someone enjoying his ice cream and the bird at the care center

She says "Its a girl for sure, look at that hair"

Cheesy smiles for Thanksgiving! Gabbie is wearing her new scarf...I was knitting it when she decided I was done and cut it off, so we made a short scarf :)

With cousin Jackson

Disney on Ice, she loved the Little Mermaid part

Picking out the Christmas tree...had to climb to the top to find the perfect one of course!

Will's knees after the climbing...

Halloween, Gabbie's birthday, and beginning of November

Its been awhile I guess! Had been neglecting the blog in an effort to get ready for our taxes and Christmas I suppose. Here are some pictures from the late part of fall...my computer is slow to upload pictures so I'll add more later of Christmas

 

 

We hated to waste even one apple with the great production year we had! The kids and I got a workout one weekend sorting apples; saving the good ones and giving the rest to the pigs. We got them all cleaned up and are still trying to eat them. I should get more ambitious about making some applesauce.

 

 

Halloween party at dance class

He just looks like a little terd to me!

Gabbie wanted to make her own birthday cake!

I woke up Gabbie the morning of her birthday because I was so excited. The lack of equal enthusiasm on her face is obvious...when will I learn my kids do not like being woken up? She wanted to eat at Pizza Ranch for her birthday, so we did that a couple weeks after the 'actual' birthday; she had an Ariel birthday cake this year :-) I'm hoping the picture is on my phone since I couldn't find it on my camera. The sad part is as I wrote this I couldn't even remember if we had a birthday celebration for her...either it was a long fall with harvest or my memory is slipping!

A bumblebee, who refused to wear his hood with the antennae on it, and a spider witch!

Had to go share our goodies with Grandpa Simpson!

The last ride in our first (and what was supposed to be our last) mini-van. I was aware of an oil leak that the van had, just didn't realize how big the problem had become until I was stranded on the side of the road on my way to work. And of course I picked a day when Brice couldn't easily come help me. Luckily it worked out, I have helpful co-workers and my father-in-law gave me some instruction on the phone. So, Brice and I did some chatting and within the next 36 hours had purchased a newer van. I really wanted a Prius as I HATE my gas bill every month. However we find ourselves in a lot of situations where the van is handy and are glad we stuck with that. I had only had the other van for 3.5 years, but somehow had put almost 95,000 miles on it without having put money in it other than for maintenance. I probably would have kept plugging away with it if it wasn't for the fact that it was supposed to be our 'good' vehicle. And the value of it was not much more than what the estimate was to tear it apart and find the oil leak. It was just annoying...close to holiday time, and had a few other unexpected expenses at the same time. But it is what it is! The kids were not happy at first as this van does not have a DVD player (heaven forbid). 8 weeks of owning the new one and they are still alive without the option of watching a movie, its amazing.

 

Lisa's baby shower; I'm proud of my creativity! (And thankful for Pinterest)

Those diaper cakes are more work than they look like...

The Momma, due mid-January!

Gabbie always acts like she has such an important job to do!

 

 

Fast forward a bit to December...Gabbie and I did a good chunk of baking this year and she was very creative at decorating the cookies!

 

Kisses :-)

Baby update

Okay, the last update that I can think of. We can hardly believe we are halfway through this pregnancy to meeting baby #3. The time is flying! I haven't taken the time to journal or take 'baby bump' pictures as I have in the past. I have made a VERY conscious effort to not gain so much weight this time as has been my habit. Still swimming, running, walking, trying to eat right, etc. Has it paid off?
NO. I weight in 22 pound gain at 20 weeks. Wonderful. The doctor is not worried as he looked back and I gained it all in the beginning with the other 2 also. But that's the problem...then I have the joy of carrying it around the whole time instead of just at the end. Oh well. On the plus side, according to our ultrasound from Wednesday the baby is nearly 1 pound, where average at this point is 8 ounces. So...that accounts for 6-8 ounces of gain. I don't want to think about where the rest is at!
The ultrasound went well, but the pictures really aren't worth posting. I don't mean that rudely, just that the tech was having a lot of trouble as the baby started moving quite a bit and she really couldn't get the 'classic' picture. But that's fine with us. We'll see it early in 2014, God willing. According to the ultrasound we are due in late February, doctor has figured March 7th based on dates. I guess we'll just have to see! Either way it will be late based on history, but I'll take that over too early. The two we have keep us on our toes so for now this one can stay where it is :-)

Gabbie as flowergirl

Gabbie was honored to be the flowergirl at Jim and Chloe Wallaces wedding on September 20th! It was a beautiful day for an outdoor wedding. Here are some pics...

 

Watching the dancing

Just before the wedding

Waiting for the bride

The boys at rehearsal

Gabbie and Bob the ring bearer

Its always fun to get Will dressed up so he can ruin it!

 

Seattle trip

I should have known trouble was up today when I hadn't heard from Will in several minutes...I had started this post last night and forgot about it, and found Will messing with the computer this morning. So, these pictures somehow got out of order and I'm not sure how to rearrange them. Here are some of my pictures from our trip to Seattle in early September, in random order :-)

Seattle had a great aquarium; these are always one of my favorite parts of visiting bigger cities

Gabbie does well on airplanes! She has already asked me "when is our next vacation?" Unfortunately for Gabbie the next Hundling vacation will hopefully be just Brice and I!

There was a really fun music museum

At the aquarium there was some places where you were allowed to touch the starfish and other fish

Gabbie enjoyed taking pictures with her "IPad"

On Lopez Island where we met Grandma Linda's roommate from college (Creighton) who owns the pharmacy on the island with her husband

The travel planners

The ferry we took to the island

There are always fun creatures to see in other places, like slugs :-)

An outfit at the museum, I believe this is one of Loretta Lynn's outfits from one of the music awards ceremonies

   
'
o