Olso, Norway

Yesterday we got on an airplane and flew to Olso, Norway. It was a 2 hour flight + about a 45 minute train ride into the capital of Norway, Olso. The city reminds us so much of America, with American stores, 7-11's, and everyone speaks English. It is a beautiful big city.
Today we explored the city a bit. We slept in and then had a $50 breakfast. Apparently this is the most expensive city in Europe and I believe it. We decided after breakfast that it was McDonald's and Burger King for us the rest of the time.  After breakfast we went to watch the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace, but it was pouring rain and we were about 45 minutes early so we decided to keep moving.

We headed to Vigeland Park which contains the life's work of Gustav Vigeland, a famous Norwegian sculptor.It was one of the most interesting parks I have ever been to, but it was so cold, rainy, plus Gunnar was getting hungry. So I went and asked in a coffee shop for some water for the bottle.

At this point we decided it was time for the bus and the Viking Ship museum. Getting to the museum would be a long walk on a sunny day so the bus was a good idea. So we hopped on the bus, and thanks to Kyle's map reading skills quickly got to the museum. It was interesting and we got to check out 3 viking ships.

From there we walked down to the water and we were hoping to check out another museum but they were closed for repairs. So instead we got back on the bus, hit up McDonald's and then got to the hotel.

Now, we had heard that Norway has a lot of Reindeer, but we had no idea how cute they were...

We leave tomorrow to catch an 8:11 train to Flam, and to see the Fjords. Not sure if we will have internet, but possibly. Here are a few pictures from today.

6 months

Wow, I can hardly believe it. Gunnar is 6 months old today. I will be taking lots of pictures tomorrow and today was super crazy, so sorry.
Kyle got home around 8:30 pm at which point 3 of his buddies came over for pizza and dinner. It is now midnight and Kyle is taking them home. It was fun to hangout, but everyone was so exhausted. Two of the guys were laying on the benches at the kitchen table so Kyle went and got the air mattress so they could enjoy the movie on that.
Okay, back to Gunnar:

*He is a little firecracker. He is such a happy boy and we feel so blessed. There is no greater feeling then when we walk up to him and he gives us the biggest smiles.
*He is quite fond of Suesse and loves pulling her hair. He also laughs pretty hard when people play fetch with Suesse, he loves watching her chase the rope, it cracks him up.
*He likes to give me big slobbery kisses. Well, they probably are not kisses, he just likes to put anything he can in his mouth.
*We have started introducing him to baby foods. I make most of them on my own, but have some Gerber food on hand for emergencies and our trip coming up. So far he loves Bananas, applesauce, and pears. He hates carrots actually starts throwing up as soon as the touch his tongue. He also spits his squash all over, and turns his head away from it. We are going to try sweet potatoes tomorrow, hopefully he will enjoy them.
*Gunnar has become a pretty good sleeper. He goes to bed around 9:30 and some days even lets me sleep in until 10am if I wake up and give him a bottle at 7. He is pretty restless after 7, but I do get a little extra sleep. He also is a tummy sleeper, as soon as I lay him down on his back he flips himself over.
*I think Gunnar is pretty close to crawling. He has the rolling and scoot thing down pretty good and I am always amazed at how far he can get.

Well, I think that is it for now. I love my little boy. We are behind on the well-baby visits, so he won't have his 6 month until we are back from Norway and England.

A Busy Monday

Gunnar and I had a great day. This morning he spent about 2 hours with Beccy & Barrett so I could go to the doctor. I went for this pesky wart I have had for years an a mole that we were a little concerned about. He said the mole looked fine, but referred me to a dermatologist for the most stubborn wart in the world and said to have them check the mole just to be safe.
Gunnar and I got home and I had a lot to do, but little got done. Kyle isn't home till Friday, so I have some time to get the things done I wanted. I did have time to organize Gunnar's clothes and separate them by size and pack them up nicely. He played in his crib the entire time I did this.

Doesn't he look so innocent?

We had an interesting bath time. Gunnar loves his tummy tub, but lately he thinks that standing in it is way better then sitting. So it becomes this battle of me making him sit and him standing up over and over again. He is strong for a little guy and gets a hold of the top and refuses to sit. He loves standing and looking over the top of the tub. During our battle of getting him to sit, someone knocked at the door. I went to see who it was and was a little scared to open because I was unsure, but it turned out to be the building coordinator. So I have a naked baby and am being interrogated about if I have laundry downstairs. Thankfully tomorrow I plan on doing laundry, so hopefully he gets the mess sorted out. But it interrupted bath time and I think Gunnar thinks he won the stand/sit battle.
He looks beaten, but really he is just so active he is always bumping his head from tipping over. I do my best to keep him protected, but...

His cute slippers

A Halloween preview of my lil' froggie...

Arranged Marriage

Kyle and I were thrilled when we got the news that Gunnar's future wife had been born. Loralynn Marie Wilson was born on Thursday night and Gunnar had the opportunity to go and meet her Saturday. I wouldn't call it love at first sight, but Gunnar was interested in her ears and thought they would make great toys and be good for pulling on. His daddy also helped him give Loralynn a kiss which she was not a fan of. The fathers of the bride and groom, Dan and Kyle preformed a short ceremony in the hospital to seal their baby love for each other (this is all on video, but for some reason I cannot get it to upload to the blog). As their parents we know that over the years that they will learn to love one another!

All joking aside, we congratulate our friends Dan and Sandra on the birth of their daughter. God has truly blessed them with a beautiful daughter and we couldn't be happier for them!

I am not sure why I didn't get a picture of Sandra or I holding the baby, apparently the boys were baby hogs (or picture hogs). Also Gunnar isn't looking to sure about all of this...he looks so confused.


Here is Gunnar later in the day playing with Suesse. Suesse is so good to him and lets Gunnar poke her and pull her hair. He got her eyeball the other day, which she wasn't a fan of, but she only did a little growl. I think it will be pretty funny to watch the two of them once Gunnar starts crawling, which I am thinking could happen any day now.

Change

What a change...going from a blond to brunette. It is going to be a hard adjustment. But honestly, I am tried of constantly having damaged hair and having to pay tons of money to keep it up. So today, I said "yes" to change and went back to my natural hair color, or at least close to it. They made it about one shade darker and had to add golden hues so it wouldn't turn my hair green (which would have been very bad). Kyle says it looks really good, but honestly I am not sure what he thinks, I am not even really sure what I think of it. Gunnar still loves me, so that is good!

Gunnar loves eating. He gets so excited when he is sitting in his high chair...he knows the good stuff in one its way.

In the picture below I am reminded so much of Kyle. Kyle has this signature look he gives when he looks in the mirror and Gunnar is getting pretty good at the look himself

I am so lucky to have such a happy boy. He only is fussy when his teeth are hurting, he is hungry, or sleepy. I love him so much!

Banana Boy

Gunnar had his first banana today. He enjoyed it very much. We even went out and got him a high chair since he will finally be using one and can eat some fruits/veggies with us while we eat at the table.
The first picture shows how happy he was most of the banana eating experience.

This is a picture showing how Gunnar feels about his daddy counting "1...2...3..." before he takes a picture. Apparently he is against counting.

After he calmed down from the traumatic counting he enjoyed the rest of his banana happily!

Big Gun

It has been a busy 14 days, and no camera cable made it hard to keep things updated, so we went and bought one for the camcorder which we have been taking our most recent pictures with. However, my little digital camera still has some pictures I need to post, we are just waiting for it in the mail.
Kyle has been doing a combat tracking course the last two weeks and just loving it. It meant that we missed out on a 4-day weekend and 3-day weekend, but for him it was worth it. We had plans to go to Rome for the second time and once again the trip fell through, but thankfully it all worked out. We also planned on going to Europa Park with different people both weekends, and it never worked out. Instead it seems like we went on a Monastery tour as both weekends we checked out a different monastery...strange!
Last weekend we went to Kruezberg Monastery with a group from our Bible Study. It was a cold, wet, deary day but we made the best of it. The monastery is famous for its beer, which was brewed on site by the monks until about 1985. Today the beer is brewed by laypersons under the supervision of the monks. Apparently this is the best beer around, I wouldn't know. Gunnar was the star of the show in his little outfit, all the little old German ladies couldn't get enough of him.
This weekend due to the weather we canceled Europa Park again, it has just been awful! So instead we stayed close to home and went to Bamberg then Kloster Banz. This is a monastery that has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. In the Baroque period (17th century), the Banz Monastery was rebuilt they way which we saw it. The church’s foundation stone was laid in 1710 but it wasn’t finished until 1770. With its beautiful stuccowork, the frescoes and altars at this church make it one of the finest works of German Baroque architecture.

We also stopped by the Vierzehnheiligen one of Germany’s famous pilgrimage churches. It is a pilgrimage destination because of several miraculous visions. Vierzehnheiligen is a magnificent piece of architecture, mixing Baroque and Rococo styles. We actaully walked in during a service on Saturday evening, so we didn't stay long in the church, just quickly looked around and headed out.

It was a good day trip and all three of us enjoyed ourselves. I can't believe how little time I have left with the three of us being together. We are really going to miss Kyle. We have a little over a month left with him, so will be cherishing all the time we get.
Here are just a couple of Gunnar...
He loves the water. I took him to the pool last Tuesday and he loved it. I am pretty sure he would have stayed in all day. But, we had to go home and he settles for a bath. He thinks bath time is the best time of the day. To bad our water is so hard, he only gets one a couple times a week.

Here is Gunnar's "Big Gun" picture. The hat says "Big Gun" and is referring to a product that my dad sells for Reinke. We had the hat and thought it was fitting for Gunnar. We also put the very real looking airsoft gun in his hands. He thought it was all pretty neat, maybe to neat.