Gunnar meets Lane, Sadness & Excitement!

We had visitors last weekend! :) Our friends, Megan and Justin Vostad, along with their adorable 9 month old, Lane, came to visit us! They got here on Saturday morning, and left Sunday afternoon. Swimming, playing with toys, eating yummy food and desserts, along with riding horses were just a few of the fun things we did together! We have known the Vostads for 5 years now, have went camping 2 times with them, and now this year, they came to visit us in Iowa! The boys had fun together, the little and BIG boys I should say :)

The boys at breakfast! Touching toes, so cute!

Riding the rocking horse!

Daddies and their boys

Lane's 1st ride! Megan got to ride Rex awhile too!

After they left on Sunday, we had bible class from 6-8 on Sunday night over at Galva. It's been an educational class with Pastor, who is amazing at teaching by the way! This is the church I was baptized in, and have went to my whole life. Gunnar also got baptized here, and we were married in it too, so it only seems natural for Nathan to take instruction to become Lutheran! We can't wait until he is a member of our church!

Wednesday came, and it was a sad sad day :( My parents big chocolate lab, named George, got hit on the highway. He was going over to say Hi to the neighbor who was on his four wheeler across the road, and a pickup didn't see him, hit him going full speed. It was terrible. It's one thing to find out your dog got hit, it's another to see it, and Mom and I saw it. After picking the 130 lb brute of a dog up, and laying him by the tree, Dad and I started digging his grave. He's buried where our German Shepard is buried, and Roger, our neighbor, built a wooden cross for us to put outside. Such a hard couple days without George :(

On the brighter side of things, we have found our acreage!! I've hesitated writing this for SO long now! Since the beginning of May we've known that THIS is THE place that we're going to spend the rest of our lives. It's perfect. 6 acres, the only place on the whole section. It's on a few miles of gravel, and we'll be in our own little world again! We cannot wait! August 2nd is our closing date. The gal who lives there now, has 3 kids, with one being in college. She is so sweet and we have all done this privately, so it's been a learning experience to say the least. Thankfully my husband is patient and good with these sorts of deals, and had taken care of most of it. From talking with our lawyer, to the banker, to FSA, we've been put to the test, with much more paper work and all that fun stuff to come I'm sure! It is an old farmhouse, with 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and a large living area and kitchen. It needs work, but that will be the fun part! There is one big barn, corn crib, and 4-5 other small barns. The plan is to start with 10-15 sheep, and build from there. We also have our 10 head of cattle which are with my dads, 2 horses, and 2 dogs. SO, we'll be filling our new place up with our love, and critters! Pictures to come, after Shelley (the gal living there) gets moved to town. I'm sure most of my posts will be about the acreage, since it's a huge step in our life! OH, and we have chickens too! I almost forgot, 7 or 8 chickens! It's so Martha-Stewartish there, with a garden and chickens, and soon to be sheep, along with farm fresh eggs daily! My Aunt who is a master-gardener, is going to help me get the place landscaped as well! So many exciting things! Like I said, pictures to come! No one had seen the place, until the other night, I called Shelley and asked if we could come for a visit. So my parents, along with our good friend, Mike Modrell, got to see the place. The weekend before, Vostads got to visit it, and they were the 1st people we got to show! Wish us luck, I'm sure our stresses are just beginning with all of this "closing" business in the next week!

This post was full of emotion this week! I'm glad people are checking in with us, keep continuing our journey with us!

Always Going

Before I know it another month will get by me and I won't have anything blogged again-ha! The days are longer in the summer, but that also means more time spent outside and less time documenting!

Our 4th was a fun, but tiring one. With family here from Texas, Cedar Rapids, and Pocahontas, that meant many fun family hours spent with them! My aunt and uncle have Skye, who is 3, and she and Gunnar clicked! It was so much fun to see them interact. On Saturday Nathan and I left early, for our dear friend, Andy Korth's funeral. It still feels weird writing that, even though the funeral brought us A LOT of closure. The funeral was in Humphrey, NE, about 20 minutes South of Norfolk, NE in a huge catholic church. I have goose bumps just thinking about it. We left at 6:15 Saturday morning, left Gunnar at home with Grandma and Grandpa, and had ourselves a beautiful drive. We didn't even talk that much, it was weird not having Gunnar, and it was weird going to a good friends' funeral. We said our goodbyes to college friends that attended, and headed back to Iowa around Noon. The wedding was at 4:00, but with me helping in the serving line, and Nathan parking vehicles, we were thankful it was only a mile away, at the Carsten's farm! It was a nice wedding, appropriately themed with John Deere colors, flags, and tractors. Only in Iowa do you see this. We left around 8:30 with a tuckered out little boy, got him to bed, and heard the sound of fireworks outside. At 10:00 the newlyweds shot fireworks off, which was nice for us, a private viewing of some pretty spendy fireworks! We snuggled on the front steps, watching the fireflies and fireworks, while reflecting on the bittersweet day.

Sunday was when all of my Mom's family came to our house. We got all 3 horses out and gave people rides who normally don't ride-ha! We ate ribs, home made ice cream, and entirely WAYY to much snack and junk food! It was a fun day, and once again, we had a tuckered out little boy.

Everyone took off on Monday, except for the Texans, who flew out on Tuesday. Then it's that empty quietness that you have to get used to all over again. I love having family around, jumping in on different conversations, and getting made fun of for things I did when I was little. Another 4th done, which means another summer going quickly!

We've been doing a lot of riding lately, so I told a friend of mine and my Mom's, that if she ever goes riding, to let me know, and I'll jump in with her since I have such a reliable little ranch horse. Well, she emailed me, and started making plans for Thursday night. A friend of hers lives in Sioux City, by Stone State Park, a beautiful park known for their horse trails, camping, etc... So yesterday was the day, I had Rex all saddled, fly sprayed, my camel back water thing ready to go, a sandwich, granola bar, visor, bug spray, first aid kit, cell phone, camera, toilet paper, and whatever else we would need just in case we'd get stranded somewhere-ha-I prepare for the worst situations! :) SO, Jen pulls up, I run down and grab my horse, jump into the trailer and BAM...he stops. Comon' buddy, lets go. We've done this a thousand times, lets go. NOTHING. He stopped short of jumping in the trailer. It's hot, humid, buggy, and I don't have time for this, it was something so easy. Loading in a trailer, once again, we've done this how many times?? I mean to tell you, the thoughts of how I'm going to kill this horse were racing through my head. It's not that he was scared...oh no...he is stubborn. YES, I can hear my husband already, "he's a lot like his owner, hahaha"...whatever. We worked, and beat, and pleaded with this gal darn piece of crap horse (in all honesty he's an amazing lil' ranch horse, been roped off of, lots of experience) but at the time, many many swear words were coming out of my mouth! We tried our hardest with a rope, his lead rope, and many other techniques, but while time is ticking and an hour sneaks by, it's already 5:30! I told Jen to go, called my saving grace, Mike Modrell, and he came down to help me. He whispered something good to Rex, probably went something like "Rex, you better load. You're owner has her own shotgun, and she doesn't miss" haha...No with a lot of work and Mike's techniques, he got him inside my Dad's trailer. Just a long and frustrating afternoon! I'm sure there will be other times to go with Jen, it's just frustrating when something that simple ruins your evening. I owe Mike a nice steak supper for all of his help! :)

Nathan is off this weekend! The guys are busy chopping, and I'm sure once Gunnar is up from his morning nap, he'll be out in one of the tractors too! Nathan will work this week from 6-3, which I love because he's out the door by 5:15ish and home by 4:00ish, so we have plenty of time to do things together. He'll have to work next Saturday until 3:00, but when he gets home, we'll have some visitors! Megan, Justin, and Lane Vostad will be coming to visit for the weekend! Lane was born in October of last year, so the boys are 6 months apart! It will be fun having them visit, and it will be even more fun getting to see little Lane and Gunnar play together!

Gunnar is going like crazy. It usually looks like a tornado has torn through the house! His teeth are still bothering him, but one for sure has popped through, with his gums still being swollen, I'm hoping some more come through. Darn teeth. He's usually the entertainment when we have family or friends over. The other night he showed us how he can walk forward, backwards, and side to side! After everyone laughed, Gunnar started clapping, SO cute! He was 14 months on the 30th, which is hard to believe!! He has figured out how to throw and kick the soccer ball, which was so funny watching him figure it out. He likes to throw the soft baseball around too (which makes Daddy just a little bit proud ;) Everyday is an adventure with Gunnar, he rarely cries, and isn't scared of too many things yet either. I know I need to sit back and relax, there's bound to be more bumps and bruises, especially when you have little boys!

Here's some pictures of all the boys and Gunnar!...

Hanging out with Daddy before going riding

"Unc" holding G before moving cows

Papa on his red horse! :)

Gunnar's turn to ride!

Riding Daddy's horse, Cheryl!