Welcome home!

Little Zoe all snuggled in her car sear ready for her ride home from the hospital.

Big brother Bryce holding his sweet little sister.

Abbi taking her turn with Zoe.

New big sister Cambria with Zoe.

Welcome home, Zoe!!

Welcome to the World of Wadholms -- Zoë Louise!

Popeye the Sailor man....doot....doot.... ;-)



"Can you hear me now?"



Daddy's singing does have that affect on a lot of people...

Zoe Louise Wadholm (7lbs.5oz. 19 1/4 in.) posed for daddy to take these pictures just an hour and a half after being born into the world (4:40AM Oct.8th, 2008). She's already so photo-genic. Yay, for baby (and Mom)!!!

A visit with the "Greats"

This past August, we made a trip out West--to western ND that is, to see the kids' great grandparents. As David and Heather were up visiting from WV, Julie and I met up at mom and dad's to all be together. We all took the road trip together, and Heidi met us at Grandma Esther's house. Grandpa Artie and Grandma Mary joined us at the house. We had a GREAT time visiting the "Greats" and the kids had a blast tearing up Grandma's house...haha!

It was fun watching the kids play dress-up with the play clothes in Grandma Esther's dress-up chest just like we used to when we were kids. And yes...that is my son in a dress!



Here are the kids with the "Greats."


Bryce, Abbi, Grandpa Artie, Grandma Mary, Grandma Esther, Cambria

Here are all the cousins that got to be there (we were still missing some. :-( Wish we all could have been there).



Top L-R: Brianna, Abbi, Erin, Seth
Bottom L-R: Michael, Cambria, Bryce, Ricky, Elizabeth, Jacob (on lap), Hailey, Sarah

Baby William

I think I must be the WORST blogger in the world!

I was reading back through this page and came across my blog about the anticipation of our new nephew--and here it is SEPTEMBER and I never even updated that!!! Good grief!

On May 15th baby William Joshua Gunderson was born. And because of my pregnant brain and the fact that this happened almost 4 months ago, I don't remember all the specs. LOL!!

However, William is such a CUTIE!! and a sweet little baby!! I got to be the FIRST auntie to hold him (neener neener). :-)

Here are a couple of pictures. The first was sent to me by Cindy. William is 4 weeks old. The second was taken in August when William was just about 3 months. He's sitting with Bryce and Brianna.

Bryce turned 9!!

As usual (just the way our summers go), Bryce got to celebrate his birthday twice (or was it 3 times?). We celebrated early by a few days because he was going to be at camp for his actual day. While we were at the cabin at Lake Geneva, we had the first party. Grandpa and Grandma Gunderson, Gavin and Keiran got to celebrate with us, which was a lot of fun. Bryce got a new fishing pole from G&G and got to try it out that day. He picked his cake and chose to have Carrot cake (I know--what 9 yr old picks that?). I don't have pictures of our first party (don't even get me started on our camera woes!!)

His second celebration was at camp (his second year of going to Kids Camp). His cousin Jonathan (with the help of Auntie Bev, from what I understand) threw him a pizza party! How sweet, huh?

And lastly, as we Gunderson's (or a group of us at least) gathered together in August, we celebrated the cousin's birthdays: Bryce, Brianna, and Sarah. We all had ice cream cups--yummy! And Bryce even got a tackle box to go with his fishing pole! Yay!!

So another year has come and gone...and my first baby is now 9. sigh....so sad!

Italy

Okay--so we've been home for almost 2 months now...and yet I am NOW blogging! How terrible! Again, I blame it mostly on the pregnancy, and just a little on the busy-ness of summer.

Italy was completely incredible! We had such a fabulous time!! We got to Padova on the 21st after a long flight overseas and got settled into our youth hostel that evening. We enjoyed 2 Sundays with ICF (International Christian Fellowship), the church we worked with while there--with missionaries Steve and Patti Gray. Rick even preached the first Sunday! He did awesome, of course! :-)

Our week was like this: Mon-Wed we met in the mornings at the church for our devotionals, then we walked through the city of Padova praying at the old city gates (9 remaining). We did 3 each day and it was a beautiful experience to learn the history of the city, to allow God to speak to us at each gate, and to pray over the city and the people of Padova. Patti was amazing as she knows so much history of Padova--it was better than having a tour guide! After praying at the gates, we would go eat lunch and OH MY--the Italian food is above and beyond what I imagined it to be. YUMMY!! They would have a 3 course meal that started with a pasta dish, the second course was a meat dish, and then you ended with your salad or vegetable. And of course, we ended it all with an espresso. After lunch we headed to the church to enjoy the air conditioning (they were in somewhat of a heat wave while we were there) and just relax from all our walking. Then we would head back to our hostel and freshen up--and go do "church in the park". We would meet at a Park in the center of the city that was huge and absolutely beautiful. People would gather there in the evenings to just hang out. So we would start by playing volleyball or soccer to draw people in, we would also walk around and hand out tracts and invite people to our service or just talk to them about what God has done/is doing in our lives, and pray with them. Then we would gather and give testimonies and sing worship songs together. We ended with Rick sharing a short mini-message and prayer. It was an amazing experience as there are so many different nationalities in Padova (I believe over 80). The language barrier was difficult at times, but many from ICF came to help translate for us. We got to be a part of many who came to know Christ while we were there. Then we would end our night by getting some very yummy gelato (Italian ice cream)--there's nothing like it!!!
*below--the water that surrounded the park we ministered in each night, and us holding our "church in the park" service.


On Thursday we spent a day in Venice. It was beautiful, but to us, didn't compare to Padova! We did enjoy the shopping, the canals, the scenery, and taking a gondola ride.
*below--one of the canals in Venice.

Friday we spent the day doing projects around the church.

Saturday we got to be a part of a water baptism with ICF--at the Adriatic Sea! It was a wonderful experience!

This was an amazing mission's trip and we were so sad to leave our new friends and the beauty of Italy (and the gelato).

Italy--here we come!!

The bags are packed, the kids are at grandpa's and grandma's house, and we are all set to go!

Italy--here we come!! Rick and I and 7 others will be flying out today to head to Italy for a mission's trip. We couldn't ask for a better group to go together. What an adventure we will have! I can't wait to post pictures and tell lots of stories when we get back.

We will be going to the city of Padua (or Padova), which is very close to Venice. For our day off, we will get to spend the day in Venice, and yes--we will try our very best to go on a gondola. And if need be, we will have Rick serenade us. :)

Until then, Bon Journo!

It's a GIRL

We had our ultrasound yesterday, and much to our surprise, we found out that this little one is a girl. Why a surprise? Well, my gut instinct (which has been right with the other three) was saying "boy" all along. I guess I shouldn't always trust my gut! haha Actually, all of us thought it was going to be a boy. And when we told the kids the news, Abbi says, "What? I thought God was going to give us a boy?...or twins!" LOL!!! Nope!

I do find it very weird to be sharing this news with everyone already. With both Bryce and Abbi we DID find out, but kept it a secret. And with Cambria we didn't even find out. So it is rather weird to be talking about our little girl already!

We are very excited...and I guess now we need to start thinking of names! :-)

Abbi turns 6

I can't believe I forgot to blog this!! (actually, yes I can! pregnant brain...enough said).

On April 20th, Abbi turned 6 years old! She is getting so big! She is almost done with Kindergarten (only a couple of weeks left), and has grown SO much this last year. Maybe going to school does that?

Here is a picture of her with Bryce and Cambria. By the way, she picked PINK cake with PINK frosting! I could not convince her otherwise! LOL!! And of course, she is wearing her pretty PINK dress!
Here is a picture of Abbi with some of her "loot."

My little Asian Princess

Isn't she just beautiful? The kids had their school program this last Monday, and the theme was "Children from around the World." The kids were encouraged to dress up as kids from other cultures. With the help of my friend Kayla (I could NOT have come up with this stuff without you!!), Abbi was dressed up as Japanese (with REAL Japanese chopsticks and a fan from uncle Clark and auntie Racinda from their stay in Japan), and Bryce was a very cute Guatemalan dude. My camera spazzed out before I could get a picture of him (bummer), but thankfully I have him on the video camera. The kids did an EXCELLENT job at their program. Bryce had several lines to say, and as a surprise to Rick and I, he also had a SOLO!! He did GREAT!

Baby: food

I find it very funny that when describing what the size of a baby is while in utero, food is always used as the analogy. (at least in all the baby books I've read and the websites I've gone to)

First it was the size of a pea.
Then it was the size of a plum.
Then a lemon, a grapefruit, a turnip (my personal favorite),
and right now? The baby is a green pepper.

And why is it that when the baby only weighs 5-7 ounces, I've already gained 10 lbs? These questions and many other pregnancy related ones have stumped me! Although most things can easily stump me these days. :-)

And speaking of babies....we are eagerly anticipating the birth of our new nephew by Josh and Cindy (well--Cindy will be doing the hard work). We have a poll going for when the baby will come and how much he'll weigh, etc. but most of us have already had our dates pass by with no baby to count for. Come on Baby Festus!!! (that's his name while in utero).

Oh where, oh where have the Wadholm's been?

What has happened to this blog anyway? It's almost like it has been abandoned!! Well, here's the story...

The beginning of February, we found out we are expecting Wadholm #4, and ever since then, Jenn has had terrible pregnant brain (or as a dear friend has referred to it--placenta brain). At first it was the morning sickness and the extreme tiredness, but then it was the forgetfulness. And Rick has been busy, busy, busy finishing up this semester's classes. His brain has been too full of "smart" things to do any blogging (not as smart thing). However, maybe things will pick up a little here now as Rick is done for the semester and Jenn has moved into the more energetic 2nd trimester (sorry, that doesn't helped with the forgetfulness, though).

We just got back from our District council and had a wonderful time. We love to be able to catch up with old friends (not that our friends are old...heehee), and also to see family in the cities. Jenn sat through some meetings, but then played hooky to shop with a friend (hello!! We were in the cities!!!).

We had fun getting to see Racinda, Rick Sr., and Beau for supper. Clark and Racinda bought a house and some of the family was/is up to help with a few renovations. We didn't have time to go see the house, so we're hoping they send some pictures soon (hint, hint). We missed out on seeing Clark though, as he was having so much fun redoing the kitchen floor, he didn't join us. The best part was getting to talk pregnancy things with Racinda as we are only 1 week aparat. She is looking so cute!! Here is a picture of us showing our baby bellies.

Not to be outdone, Rick and Ron had to pose with their "baby" bellies, too! LOL!!

Cambria cuts her hair

This actually happened sometime in February (I can't even remember exactly when now), but Cambria decided it was time for a hair cut. I thought she was being a good girl and washing her hands after using the bathroom (thus the reason she was in the bathroom so long), but I was sadly mistaken when she came out with one hand behind her back and proudly proclaiming, "Look what I did!" Oh she was so pleased with herself. Before I even looked at her hair, I had her show me her hand--so she pulled it out and sure enough, it was full of hair. THEN I looked up and saw that she had chopped a nice chunk off the front. Oh dear! I kind of "fixed it."

These pictures don't even show how good of a job she did since I took them after I "fixed" the botched job. But now she has nice, short bangs!

Happy New Year

Yes, I do realized that it is the 23rd of January!! But for this blog, it is a new year! What's happened since my last post? Let's see.....Christmas, more Christmas, and even MORE Christmas (that's what happens when you have a big family), a wedding, a conference, school resumed, and 2 birthdays....yep, we've been pretty busy here!
Here's a picture of all of us this Christmas--and of course Cambria decided it was the perfect time to throw a fit--oh well!Here are the 4 older sisters in my family: Julie, Heather, me, and Heidi

Here is Amber on her wedding day--what a beautiful bride!!Here is Cambria getting ready to eat her pink birthday cake! Hooray for 3!!!