MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas from the Gump Family!!

We are not able to send out Christmas cards this year because our address book is in OH so we wanted to post a "card" here for everyone.

We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving

We hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We had a full house which was nice. My parents, Kerry's mom, Michelle, Brad and Cynthia were all here. The boys especially loved all the playmates :)

The weather started out awful but by the last 2 days it was sunny and in the upper 60's.

We hope to get home for 2 weeks at Christmas, but we won't know for sure until Kerry finds out his work schedule.

Our OH house is officially on the market (know anyone looking?:) and our house here is all set...everything has been picked out and now it just need to be built!

As you can see from the photos the boys are well. The BIG NEWS is that Sammy decided it was time to be potty trained about 2 weeks ago. He just started going on his own and in 2 weeks...no accidents! I was going to wait until after Christmas since he is not even 2 and a half yet but I guess he had other plans. He is excited to be like "Jakey."

The boys (especially Jake) are also now really into being "Marines." You can see they have all they need for dress up though some is a little big on them.

Hope all is well and talk to you soon!

GO BUCKS!

I had to make an entry on such a big day. Professors Sam and Jake say:
"Buckeyes by 13"

Trick Or Treat

Here are some pics right before we went out trick or treating. The boys are with their friends Lauren and Matthew. Coincidentally Lauren was Cinderella so Sammy was her mouse :)

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everybody!

I had to get some pics up of the boys in their costumes. They were able to wear them a few times this year. While the Grandma's were visiting this past weekend we went to the Emerald Isle Halloween Festival. It was indoor with lots of games and treats for the kids. They don't trick or treat on the island since there are so many empty rental houses.

Yesterday they had a party at school and then last night we headed over to a friend's house for trick or treat.

Kerry's CO while we are in GA moved here with his family and they have two kids who are 3 and 4. Jake used to play with the oldest (Lauren) when we lived there and they watched him the night we had Sam. We actually have photos of the 3 older ones from Halloween 2003....no Sam at that point :)

The four of them made it to about 10 houses before their little legs could not take it anymore :) I am going to get more photos from Maria since we used her camera and post those as soon as I can, but I wanted to get up some of the boys in costume.

Jake was the blue SPD Power Ranger and Sam was Jaq (one of Cinderella's mice). We could not find Sam's costume in the store so Christy's mom (if you are not in the family that is my cousin's wife's mom :) Made it for him and it was ADORABLE! Thank you to her!!

Hope all of you are well and talk to you soon!

Sam has adjusted

Hi again. Well, Sam has decided that the beach is not so bad afterall :) As you can see he will head out into the water now and he gets pretty excited when we start talking about the big waves.

Today is the first real cold day since we got here. It is supposed to be 57 (not that cold...I know). There are quite a few people here renting the houses right on the water since it is cheap season, but it is too cold for most of the other houses to be rented.

I have Jake and Sam signed up on base at the Officer Wive's run daycare/preschool. They have drop in care so the boys can go play for an hour or two while I run errands. Helps make up for Jake missing school. I had him in another preschool here but I was not crazy about it. The one on base is much better and Sammy can stay too which he LOVES!

We are looking at neighborhoods and houses so we can be all set for our move next year and Kerry and I plan to attend the Marine Corps Ball Nov 10th which we have not done the past 2-3 years so that will be nice. A chance to dress up and have a dinner that lasts more than 10 min that I don't have to clean up :)

We hope all of you are well. I'll post again after trick or treat with some costume pics!

Lots of stuff

Hi from NC! We had a busy weekend and we are now settling into our temporary house here in Emerald Isle.

Jake was ring bearer for my cousin Justin's wedding. As you can see he was very handsome and he did a great job! No growling or crawling down the isle :)

We then headed to NC Sunday and got here late Monday night. You can see we have great views. We are second row from the beach with beach access about 25 yards from the driveway.

I took Jake, Sam and Apple down this afternoon. From the photos you can see Jake LOVED it and Sam HATED it :) Sam just kept saying "don't go down there" and then to top it off, on the walk home he got a burr stuck in his heel. Nice afternoon for Sammy :( Maybe he will warm up to it.

It is 80 here today so there were some people even swimming, but it is pretty dead around here...lots of empty beach houses.

Well, time to clean a bit and organize more. 4 months is awhile to live in someone else's house so I need to make it as much our own as I can :) Talk to everyone soon! Visit anytime!

PS Please send your email to me at kkgump@buckeye-express.com. I no longer have my address book with me since I am away from my desktop. Thanks!

First Day of School

Hi again. I wanted to get some pics up of Jake's first day of school (and Sammy too:)

Jake started Sept 6th and is loving every minute. He has 2 friends from last year in his class again. They are in the photo with him....Allison (the only girl in class) and Stephen.

Sam is starting to talk in full sentences and the day we took that photo he spent the whole afternoon in his helmet.

We hope all of you are well. Talk to all of you soon!

Time to Catch Up

Hey everyone! I realized I have not posted in awhile so I thought I should get some new pics up.

The boys are both doing well. Jake starts pre-school Sept 6th. He will attend 3 days per week this year and he is eager to see Ms. Karen and his friends again.

Sam is talking up a storm and is as hard headed as ever. He wants to do everything on his own and is not very happy when it does not happen that way :) He is also getting taller and thinner. His shorts that fit earlier this summer are falling down!

Kerry is working on finishing things here on the house and I am just busy with all 3 of them :)

From the photos you can see Jake still likes to make faces and Sammy needs a haircut. We hope all of you are well and we will talk to you soon!

Photos

Hi again. I know I posted not too long ago but I just downloaded our camera and there are some real winners.

You can see Sam striking a pose (feel free to suggest captions for this one). For those of you who know Jake's "Hey Ladies" photo....I think this is Sam's version :)

The boys are also still VERY into Power Rangers and they recently got some new items thanks to Ebay. They love to dress up. Jake would want you to know he is a Dino Thunder Ranger and Sam is Mystic Force :) You do not want to confuse the two...trust me!

Kerry and I are not sure what the Rangers are doing on top of the vehicles, but Jake put them there and we were told to not let Sam touch them!

We hope you are all well. Talk to you soon!

July news

Hi and belated Happy 4th! As most of you know the end of June/early July has been an exciting time at the Gump house.

I broke my arm June 24th when I fell carrying Jake down the steps. My ulna was broken and I had surgery to place a plate in my arm. The good news is no cast and each day it gets better and I can use it more. It was my right arm so I need it back to 100% ASAP!

Jake is well into tball. He is on the Dodgers and so far his favorite parts are batting and laying in the outfield and picking flowers :) You can see in the photo that he has great running form :)

Sammy had has 2 year check up and he is doing well. He is right on track with Jake. They were the same height at 2 years, but Sammy weighs a 2 lbs less. And all this time we thought Sam was the big one :)

In case you are wondering what is all over Jake's face in the one photo, it is tape. They both decided one day that they liked it on their faces. Whatever....it kept them happy for 30 min!

We hope all of you are having a good summer. Talk to you soon!

Cedar Point

We went to Cedar Point with my parents yesterday and it was a perfect day. 70 and sun and we were able to walk right on any of the rides. Kerry and I even managed to get on some coasters between Kiddie Kingdom and Camp Snoopy.

The boys liked alot of the rides, though Sammy was not a fan of anything that went up in the air. We spent alot of time in the cars that go round and round :)

You can see they also had their faces painted. Jake went with a lizard while Sam had his heart set on the "kitty."

I had to post the pic of my dad in the little boat with them...notice the listing to one side :) We were afraid it might tip...especially once he lifted Sam onto his lap, but they made it. You can also see Kerry sitting very comforably in the monster truck :)

Graduation

Well...summer is here now and I wanted to put up some pics of Jake's pre-school graduation. He finished his 3 year old year and you can see him sitting with his buddies from school. He will move up with them to the four year old class next year even though he won't be 4 yet :) He'll just repeat another four year old year the next year. No need to start kindergarten early...it will come soon enough!

Sam is talking all the time now and he can even recite his alphabet (when Mr. Stubborn want to!). You can also see from the photos that he enjoys a good golf hat and he has some nice moves.

Jake starts t-ball next week and we have already been to the city pool 4 or 5 times. It is really great...a HUGE kids area and about 2 minutes from our house.

We hope all is well with you and we'll see you the 17th for Sammy's party!

Power Rangers

For those of you who don't know Jake is really into Power Rangers (so Sam is too by default:). Kerry took Jake shopping tonight and he got a Power Ranger set/costume. I had to post these photos of the boys showing their "moves" as Jake calls them.

You can also see that Sam got a new microphone and thought he would combine the two new toys :)