More of What We've Been Up To

In no particular order, here's a hodge-podge of photos and recaps to let you know what we've been up to lo these many months:

We went to Utah right over the Fourth of July for a much needed family vacation and to get a rough idea of homes and neighborhoods for our upcoming move. We were able to take in the Provo Fourth of July Parade:

Brad and the older two kids hiked the "Y" as part of the Gunnell Family Reunion that was going on at the same time. Cass was "pregnant", or so she says, so she stayed at the house with Olivia:

After Brad got back from taking the Utah Bar Exam, the family went into Longmont for their annual Classic Car Cruise where hundreds of hot-rods and classic cars drive back and forth on Main Street.

In August we decided we needed to get to Rocky Mountain National Park before we moved away:

The kids all completed their booklets and became Junior Park Rangers:

Saw lots and lots of elk:

And generally pretended to get along:

Brylie was SOOOOO excited to start Kindergarten, and that meant our first "back-to-school" father's blessing:

And our first bus ride--she can hardly contain her excitement, and the other kids were/are plenty jealous:

And in the way of "oh yeah, we forgot about that" things, we went to a massive hot air balloon launch in May. It wasn't even the main event, but that meant the crowd was smaller and we still got to see 20 balloons launch and were able to get right up next to the ballooners.

More updates will follow once we dig into camera phone photos and once #4 makes her grand entrance.

Finally...

After a long wait and many, many showings (like 40, which may not seem like a lot but with three kids under 5 and being 32 weeks pregnant...it's a lot), we are finally under contract!  The timing of it all is quite a testimony to me that we are not really in control.  We close on the 17th of October and if you recall,  our baby is due October 19th.  But anyone who knows me or my birthing history (and I don't blame you if you don't), I won't make it to that date...never have and hope I won't either!

So now the search begins for a home...and that's the scary part!  We are struggling, to say the least, trying to figure out where to end up.  It's quite frightful actually, knowing we have to move on a certain date, that we'll have a new baby, a kindergartner who loves school almost as much as life itself, and the other 2 who will be wanting lots of attention and playtime but nothing feels right yet.

On another note, I am so sad to have to sell my house!  We got very lucky here and although I know it's what we need to do right now, I fear that this last year has been our year of living in our dream house.  And we put a lot of work into it!  However, I know that sometimes sacrifices are required and bring a higher return of blessings the more difficult the sacrifice. And compared to the sacrifices some of our friends have had to give, this is nothing.

So on to bigger and better things!  We have a lot of decision to make in the coming days and weeks.  And packing to do in the mean time!

Have you been looking for us?

In Utah, I mean. Well, our plans have obviously changed...we haven't moved to Utah yet.  Our house continues to have showings however, no offers.  So we decided, for many reasons, to stay here until our baby is born (through October).  If the house sells, we'll figure something/somewhere to live until the baby comes.

This has been a great lesson (I think I'm starting to figure it out) in patience and trust in the Lord.  I know His way is much better than mine and I welcome it, whatever that may be.  But if you are wondering exactly what that is for us, you'll have to ask Him, we don't know for sure yet but are willing and excited nonetheless!

Not sure if you knew...

The 4th Gunnell child is on HER way!  Expected to arrive sometime around October 19th.  We are thrilled (except for Brody who was a little devastated to learn he would be even more outnumbered)!  

The way time has past for us...

There's nothing I can say to excuse my lack of updating the blog.  I have found other things to occupy my time and frankly, I've stopped feeling guilty.  I would however like to attempt to fill you in on these last few/several months of our lives as you will find much has changed (and will continue to change, I'm sure)

After all the birthday celebrations, we did many fun things, celebrated holidays among other things, and decided to move back to Utah (the company Brad works for is based out of Provo, Utah so that's where we're going).  That has occupied much of our lives recently and will probably for the next little while.

So I'll use pictures with some caption to fill you in on the latest and greatest!

Saw the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile at our local King Sooper!

Brylie finished up her season of ballet lessons with a recital.  She did a fantastic job!!

The Easter bunny found his way to our house and left a trail of candy to Easter books for everyone!

Went on a fun family hike in the nearby mountains.

Got to go see Mitt Romney speak at a local oil drilling site.  GO ROMNEY!  Beat OBAMA! I'd like to add that the kids have been adequately taught how to cheer on our Future President!  And Cass was interviewed by a radio show host regarding the speech Romney gave and her reaction!  

Celebrated Mother's Day and got to remember the wonderful Mother's in our lives!!  We love you!

And lastly, after doing a lot of work in a very short amount of time (including painting the remaining rooms we hadn't painted in our house, and spreading nearly 10 yards of mulch in our backyard), we put our house up for sale.  This is something we are very sad to do because we absolutely love our house, especially now that we've got it exactly how we want it but feel the timing is right.  We only hope that our attempt to sell it "by owner" works out quickly eliminating the need to use an agent!  If you know of anyone looking to buy a home in the Longmont, CO area, please forward them our blog, http://5978scenicavenuehouse.blogspot.com.

My table

So we have been wanting to make a dining room table for a long time now and this particular one because you can make benches to go with it.  Well, we did it! Brad was kind enough to let me do most of the work (break the drill bits by the handful, etc).  I dare say that if he would have done more of the work, it would have turned out better still.  But now I have a little confidence and have caught the fever!  I hope to do a few more projects yet!


There aren't many pictures but here's what we have!

Birthday Land Around Here

We are pretty lucky (or cursed, depending on how you look at it) when it comes to birthdays because they are all within about 2 months of each other.  I guess for me it's nice, to get into birthday mode hard core for a little bit and totally relax when it's all over for a good chunk of time.  Birthday begins with breakfast in bed after which we generally open presents.  For lunch, Mom takes the birthday kid out where ever they want to eat.  Then we have whatever dinner they choose and the cake of their choice.

First was Olivia's birthday...

Then was Cassidy's birthday...

Then was Brylie's birthday...

Brylie had a birthday party this year with several friends.  She loved it!  And it was pretty fun for me to do too!  

Then was Brody's birthday...

And finally, Brad's birthday...we didn't take many pictures because we are lame like that.  Poor Brad but I think he had a good day!