Photos of our new home...

I promised photos of our move, so here they are. The only room I really have photos of all cleaned up is Gabby's room. Someday I may take photos of the other rooms, but until then you can see what it looked like after all the boxes were moved in.

Where have the Tennessee Gudmundsons gone?

I think a better question is where we haven't been (besides on the internet). Since May we have ... moved to our new home, been to lots of hospital & doctor visits, found out we were going to have a second child (not my idea, I promise, one was plenty for me), gotten new callings at church, started Gabby's official first year of kindergarten, learned how to cook some pretty tasty sodium-free foods, found out that second child was to be a girl (little Izzie will be here sometime between late December and early January), had Tim's parents in town staying with us, celebrated a couple birthdays, won the lottery (okay, so that didn't really happen, but I wanted to see if you were really paying attention), and washed lots & lots of laundry. I think that sums up our lives lately. We don't have internet in our house at the moment, so that's why we haven't been on here in several months. But I promise to try to post an update at least once a month till the baby comes. We love you all!

Our Fun New Diet...

Okay, it's really not fun, but it is new. Gabby was put on a sodium free diet. Basically, if it isn't naturally found in the food, like some veggies, she can't have it. Everything has to be bought specially for her or be home-made with out sodium. Did you know there are almost twenty different forms of sodium found in food other than just salt, like baking powder & baking soda. We read lots of food labels now, and most the time we decide it's much cheaper just to make it from scratch. I'm too lazy to grind my own peanut butter, so I fork out the money for it, but almost everything else she eats I have found a way to make with out any forms of sodium in them. I have even started making my own breads, thanks to a generous donation of a breadmaker from the Strickland family in our ward. My sister-in-law teased me by saying it was the Lord's way of telling me I have to cook, whether I want to or not. She's probably right, but it doesn't make me like cooking any more.

More photos of our place...

So here are some photos of the bedrooms. First is Gabby's room...





Then next up is the scrapbook/storage/office room...



Last is mine & Tim's bedroom...





That's it for now. Maybe next week I will post some pictures of the outside.

Our Brand New Place...

...literaly, it's not even finished being built. We found a great place within walking distance from Tim's work, the church, & some shopping. It has three bedrooms, two baths, a good amount of storage space, and plenty of windows. We will also have a laundry closet again (which will hopefully be filled with a washer & dryer sometime soon). The place will be finished at the end of June, and we can move in July 1st. I took some photos, and we upload more as things progress. Right now there are just walls & doors.

Anyways, here is a grand tour (which requires a lot of imagination since it is still under construction). Here is the view of the living room when you enter. The kitchen is directly behind it and then the dining room.



Another view of the living room...



Our kitchen with the cabinets piled in the middle (I've been assured they will be put along the walls very soon)...



This is the view of the kitchen from the dining area...



Our dining area & back door...



The laundry closet that desperately needs a washer & dryer...



And last for today, one of two identical storage closets in the hallway...



For the rest of the photos, you will have to come back next week.

Tim & Gabby's Puppet Show

I filmed this at that Children's museum we went to a few weeks ago. The sound isn't the best, and there is a lot of background noise, but I still think it's pretty cute.

Easter Photos...

Here's our photos of Easter morning (a couple weeks late).

More Stay-cation Photos

So Saturday of our little trip to Chatanooga, we spent at the Children's Discovery Museum. There Gabby got to dig up dinosaur bones, pretend to be a doctor, play various music intruments, do a puppet show with dad, make some crafts, hula-hoop, and blow bubbles, among other things. We even attended a cooking & an art class. We even attended a cooking class & an art class. Gabby's favorite was probably the water play area. We had a really great time.

Our Stay-cation

So we took a stay-cation down to Chattanooga Friday & Saturday. We stayed at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. After arriving Friday afternoon, Tim & Gabby went swimming, then we ate dinner on an old train before heading out to explore downtown. We found a little cupcake shop where we had dessert, and then we ended the evening by walking across the river and exploring an old river boat.

Our new favorite words...

S-T-O-P and G-O. That what she shouts at us all day long. She loves to show off that she can spell stop and go.

Gabby's 1st Talk

Gabby gave her first talk in Primary today. She was supposed to give one last year, but she just stood there and waited for me to say everything. Today, however, she actually gave her talk. Tim stood up there with her and helped to prompt her, but she did really well. She talked about Isaiah and how he prophesied of Christ. She held up the picture in the new Gospel Art Book that shows Isaiah's vision of Christ's birth. We were really proud of her.

Photo Taking

This is what happens when your child gets ahold of the camera when you are busy on the phone. She took many other pictures, but this was one of the few with my entire face in it (even if it isn't a pretty face).

To get even I took photos of her sleeping. Some how her photos turned out much more adorable. This doesn't seem very fair. Oh well, I guess that's just life.

What to say...

... I think the photos says it all. We're just being our usual, silly selves this week. Don't worry I don't let her go out in public in that. On another note, I started another blog, because I keep up with the other two I have so well (Emily, one day I will scrapbook again, and when that day comes I will edit my scrapblog again), this one however is meant to be more of a journal and list of favorites to reference for our homeschooling adventures. If you want to view it it's megabbyandsomebooks.blogspot.com . There is also a link on the side too.

Where Have We Been?

We fell off a cliff... okay, no we didn't really, we have just been really busy. Tim keeps pretty busy with the criminals of Sevier County, and I have been busy with homeschool stuff for Gabby. Yes, to all our friends who we have not gotten around to mentioning it to yet, we are in fact homeschooling.We know that some of you will not approve (don't worry not all of our family approves either), but we know you all understand that when the Lord directs your path a certain way, you just follow faithfully. We are very excited to start this new journey and have been trying to gain all the information we can. Luckily our current ward is refered to often as the homeschooling ward (about 1/3 of all the kids are homeschooled), so we have lots of helpful parents around to glean knowledge from.

Our 5th Anniversary

Tim & I celebrated our 5th anniversary this past week. And for once we didn't spend it with his family, hooray! (It was about time we spent one anniversary just the two of us.) We went up to the Smokey Mountains and ate dinner at the Old Mill Cafe, which had the world's best salad dressing (avocado ranch, yumm...). Then we spent a Gabby free evening in a hotel room with a fireplace. (By the way I know the photos are blurry, we took them with Tim's phone.)

Christmas Day

Christmas morning Gabby woke to find that Santa had eaten his cookies and the reindeer enjoyed their carrot (although I'm not sure why Santa got several cookies, but all the reindeer had to share one carrot). And she must have made it on the nice list this year, because Santa did not disappoint. He brought her play dough (curse him), a doll with pj's that matched hers & lots of other accessories, and a stocking full of Tinkerbell stuff. Tim was more excited about candy and his ties than the Star Wars Clone Wars movies I got him. And I was just excited to finally read the books I bought my self a month ago.

Christmas Eve

Nathan & Emilie invited everyone over for Christmas Eve this year. We had a big dinner, then the kids decorated cookies and opened presents from the grandparents. We ended the evening by reading the Christmas story and singing some Christmas carols.



When we got home, we let Gabby open her gifts from her other grandparents. She was really excited about the Barbie & the Tinkerbell book from Grandma & Grandpa Gudmundson. And I didn't think she'd ever go to sleep after she saw the craft stuff from Grandma & Grandpa Mitchell (what can I say, we girls love crafts). Tim & I also opened our gifts from Web & Yvonne. Tim was thrilled about his new Spanish scriptures and I can't wait to use my gift card to Pebbles (thanks Yvonne). Of course Gabby made sure to put out some snacks for Santa and hang her socks (literally) before going to bed.

Waiting for Santa...

Gabby is a little confused about when Santa is coming. She told me "When it snows, that means it's Christmas. Or if you see the midnight marauder, but don't shot him down because he's really Santa." (If you want to know all about the midnight marauder, you will have to go watch Merry Madagascar.) I think poor Gabby is going to be in for a real shock when she realizes that it rarely snows here at Christmas.

Sickness & Snow...

Gabby has been running a fever since Monday. On Wednesday we had to rush Gabby to the Children's Hospital because she had a fever of 105.3 that would not respond to any over the counter medicine. They ran lots of tests and tried a couple other medications. Turns out she had a UTI and so she was sent home with a nasty tasting prescription. By Friday she was doing just fine.

Which is good because we got snow Saturday morning. Tim & Gabby went out and played in it. I stayed in the warm house like any sane person would do. But it melted by mid-afternoon, horray for me!

Fantasy of Trees

Every year the local children's hospital does a Christmas fundraiser called the Fantasy of Trees. Local people and businesses donate uniquely decorated trees and gingerbread houses that you can go see before they are sold. They also have little crafts for kids, performances from local musicians & dancers, and of course Santa. We decided to take Gabby to see it this year. Gabby had fun in the preschool play area, while Tim & I enjoyed the beautiful decorations (I loved the Harry Potter tree, while Tim was excited about the many Vols themed trees). Gabby told Santa she wants a bear, last week it was a playdough ice cream maker, who knows what it will be next week.