Our first cold :(

We are dealing with a sick little boy as of now :( I've been dreading our first cold, and it's here. I'm such a germaphobe, but not in an annoying way, just in a good motherly way. Gunnar is also getting two, yes two more teeth in, so that doesn't help things either. After these two come down, the count will be 6! Seems like he just had 2, and now we're almost up to 6! Tomorrow we'll be going to Odebolt to his 9 month checkup. I realize he's already past 9 1/2 months, but since no shots are needed (YES!) I waited until things started to slow down. I'll be excited to see his height and weight measurements, along with discovering the next steps to figuring out our growing baby! Seems like the second I figure something out, he changes, and that thing becomes a minor detail!

We all went to Denison last week, to watch my parent's calves, and 10 head of our own, sell. It was a great day, and everyone came away with smiles for good weights and prices. Here is our big boy, all decked out in a flannel shirt and camo hat, which I must say, he kept on!

Friday night Julie, Evan's girlfriend aka future wife, came home from USD and we all went to Anthon's steakhouse, a tradition for years of celebrating a year full of good looking calves, along with celebrating Nathan getting a job!! The job he wanted too! He's now employed in Arthur, Iowa (25 miles SE of my parents) with Platinum Ethanol. Good hours, great pay, and good benefits! We couldn't be happier. Out of 450 applicants, Nathan was the one they hired, Way To Go! Lots of celebrating going on, that's forsure!

Here's "Aunt" Julie, and Gunnar

Here's Evan with his blonde, Josie (a relative of Libby) and Gunnar the night we went out to eat at Anthon steakhouse.

Gunnar eating a biter biscuit, he just loves these messy messy treats! We get him in his diaper, and he goes to town eating and sucking on them. Here's he's taking a break, and letting a biter biscuit just hang out.

Last, but not least, our last picture taken in front of our Buffalo house :( Even though we're approaching the month mark, not a day goes by that we don't think about Harding County. We did this move mostly for Gunnar, and while things are finally coming into place, and we are loving our family and friends, along with our new life, we had a few rough days missing our little house on the prairie. Harding County, Painter Ranch, and every memory we made in the last 3 1/2 years, will always be in our hearts.

A Whirlwind

3 weeks ago today, I was packing like a mad person, trying to organize things as much as possible before our helpers arrived Tuesday night to move us to Iowa on Wednesday, the 27th of January. We picked a heck of a month to move I realize, but our timing has always been off. Married in October during harvest, oh were my parents and brother thrilled, then Gunnar was born right in the midst of calving, and now we decide to move in freezing middle of winter, January! Least we'll never forget the chaos that goes along with our life changing events! :)
The moving process is never fun, even if I feel organized as ever, it still is a pain. We owe our parents, my brother, and Grant Else a million Thanks and a gift certificate for a massage! How did we get this much stuff, were the words repeated over and over again! And I'm a thrower, I toss everything if it's not in use, and we STILL had 2 large trailer loads. We said our goodbyes on Wednesday afternoon to Painters. That was hard, they have been amazing people to work with, and a beautiful ranch to work on, if not for them, our time in Harding County wouldn't have been as memorable as it was. Harding County will always be in our hearts, and for everyone that made a memory for us while we lived there 3 1/2 years, we are Thankful.
Our plan was to go to Pierre on Wednesday night, then Thursday morning, get up and get a move on to Iowa. It would've worked great, but Mother Nature had other plans. My dad and Tom got gone at a good time, they both had pickups and trailers loaded with our life. My Mom was driving Gunnar and I in our Explorer, and Nathan had his pickup with the girls in the back. We left the ranch at 4:00, and ran into fog the second we left Buffalo. The fog lifted in some spots, but for the most part, it was not good. Then the ice came, and a 4 hour trip turned into 8 hours. 8 stinking hours to go from Buffalo to Pierre, in the dark, driving on a skating rink of ice. Poor Mom, she wasn't familiar with the road, or the vehicle, and while going 25-30 mph for the 50 miles, she handled things great! We got to Tom's a little after midnight, we ate some steak around 1 a.m. and all went to bed. Luckily Gunnar adjusted well, and I got a straight 6 hours of much needed sleep! Thursday came, and the fog was still around. We proceeded to drive to I-29..ahh..finally..interstate! We had finally made some progress, and before we knew it, we were to Chamberlain. The order went, Nathan with Tom's pickup and trailer, since Nathan's pickup had broke down in sorts and we left it in Pierre, and then Dad with his pickup and horse trailer, and then Mom, Gunnar, and I! All was fine until Mom and I see a tire off of Dad's pickup go flying into the ditch, and then bounce up onto the exit ramp. OH great, now what! Sparks flew, along with some gasps from us, and Dad slowly pulled over, 5 miles West of Mitchell. So here we have it, Nathan has a broken toe and is in a wooden shoe, my dad is missing a tire, my son has just woken up and is starving, so there I am in the back of the Explorer nursing him, all while vehicles are zooming by us! Paints a pretty picture doesn't it?? I don't know how I didn't melt down, but I didn't. We decided the best thing to do was to drive to Mitchell, call for some help, and eat a bite at Culvers. Luckily, my Dad's mechanic from home drove to Mitchell and fixed them right up. It wasn't an easy operation, but Lord knows I couldn't explain to you what all they had to do! Anyway, Mom, Gunnar, and I continued on to make it home around 5:00 Thursday night, and the guys around 9:00 that night! Boy, were we tuckered out! To make this week even more memorable, Friday night we decided to finally have our Christmas. Well, just as Gunnar went to open his first gift, the lights went out and power didn't come back on until Saturday around 3:00 in the afternoon! Oh yes, the memories just continue to come! I'm ready for spring!

After a long haul from Buffalo to home, I think we are still trying to recuperate! Most of our things are in storage in Holstein, and we are getting settled in my parents basement. We've been looking at a few acreages, and Nathan has had some interviews, so we just have to remind ourselves that everything WILL work out sooner or later. Gunnar is adjusting a little more everyday. At first he wasn't used to ALL of the people, but he's getting more used to socializing, which is a good thing. After we got home on Thursday, we were in charge of watching the Else clan, the 3 kiddos that I grew up babysitting for. Grant and his wife were going on a week long vacation, so we stayed at their house and cooked, cleaned, and took them to any school or church things they needed to go to! Nothing like seeing how having 4 kids would feel like, even though they aren't in diapers anymore, it is still a lot of work! All in all we had a fun time over there, those kids are like my own, so everyone adjusted just fine!

Gunnar is now 9 months old. Yikes! He's been out, as long as he was in! He is so funny, and usually always has a smile on his face! He's working on his 5th tooth, with both tops and bottoms in place, now another one on top is coming through! He does great with eating his foods, but has found that he doesn't care for peaches. Maybe that will change, but this is the first food he's really shyed away from! He is so close to crawling, and can stand alone for a few seconds at a time. He loves to have you hold his hands and walk with him, which is just crazy! He can stand for quite awhile, holding on to furniture. He zooms around in his walker, and watch out, because he's pretty fast!

We had a date night Saturday night! My Mom and Dad watched Gunnar while we went out for supper with Mike and Katie Modrell, and then to Dear John, the movie.It was such a fun time, and we're hoping to get together quite a bit, since they live only a few miles North of my parents. Superbowl was fun, we're not much for NFL, but we are much on eating yummy foods and hanging out with friends! We had a small party at Evan's house, with Mike and Katie. Gunnar did good, getting passed around to everyone, and we all went home with full bellies!

Here are a few pictures that I've snapped lately of Gunnar...Enjoy

Getting spoiled by Grannie Annie...which happens quite a bit! :)

Gunnar's new John Deere tractor! He is such a big boy balancing on it!

Uncle Evan and his buddy

I am hoping to keep up on blogging, I couldn't believe 3 weeks had gone by as fast as they did! I had a few emails and messages, wondering when I was coming back, mostly for Gunnar updates, but I'm hoping to keep everyone updated, so keep checking in! Stay Warm, and thanks for all of the messages or emails, and prayers and concerns checking in on us.