Turning 2!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYLIE!! We can't believe she's 2!! It's crazy and yet there are days I think I missed a year and she is really turning 3. She is the love of our lives along with her brother and we couldn't live without her. She is a great little mommy to her dolls and an incredible friend to her brother Brody. She is very smart and knows her alphabet and the sounds of each letter. She knows the numbers and can count to 12. She loves to play on the slide at the park and swing. She likes to watch people. She loves to each cheese and drink chocolate milk and juice. We love little Brylie! HAPPY BIRTHDAY Baby Girl!!!

Little Mommy,,,

Today I was playing with Brody and talking on the phone with Brad and heard a little dialogue between Brylie and her "baby". She took the doll and made it touch the blinds after which she said, "No touch blinds, timeout", then after putting her doll into timeout she said, "Wait beep". This continued a few times and I was literally cracking up but trying not to let her hear for fear she would stop. I tell Brody not to touch the blinds several times a day and when Brylie touches them, she goes into timeout because she knows this rule. When I put her in timeout, I tell her to wait there until she hears the beep (from the microwave timer). It's so interesting to hear her "parent" her dolls and I will often hear her say, "No whining" to Brody when he whines. My kids go through the whining stage and I often say, "No whining". She will also say to the dog, "No bark Doze, No bark". What a great girl! I just love her! Brody will be glad, I'm sure, to have another mother.

Smarty Pants

So I don't know if this is a normal age for kids to know the alphabet and the sound each letter makes...I vaguely remember my niece being very smart but I don't remember what the timeline was. Anyway, I was a little jealous when I heard my nephew sing the ABC's with almost perfect diction and realize that Brylie was only 3 1/2 months younger and should be close to doing the same things, right? It was then that I realized that I had a lot to do with her learning and growth so you can bet we work on as much as she'll let me. Unfortunately, she's going to learn all that I know in just a year or two and then it'll be Brad's job to take over. Maybe not that soon but I think I'll have to go back to college just to keep up with my kids. Or they'll have to start teaching me. I think Brody is more like me..."sporty" so I'll be able to teach him a little longer. But lets face it. Kids these days are born with probably 50% of their mothers brain and the closer you have your kids, the shorter time you give your brain to regenerate that half back so I think I'm only living on about 30% of brain and most of that is "new" brain so the seasoned smarts I had are almost all gone and I'm stuck with an immature brain in the adolescent phase where it thinks it knows all and resists more knowledge. OK...now that part has taken over. I'd like to post Brylie practicing her skills and then Brody practicing his. They are very different and we love each one to pieces!!!

The long road 30 years has been...

...actually, I was planning on copying my friend Rachael who did a fun post of herself with pictures of growing up for her birthday just a few days ago. Let the journey begin.

Here I am age 3 or 4. Can you believe my long hair? Bless my mom's heart! She made sure it was done in a braid or something nice every day! At least that's what I remember.I was in 4th grade for this picture.Ah yes, the crimp hairdo. I was in 5th grade. What style at such a young age!!!Here was probably my most rebellious stage...6th grade. You can tell by the look on my face! Too cool for school!Back to being a goodie two shoes. At least that's what this 7th grade picture looks like.
Probably one of my favorites 7th grade.Am I wearing the same shirt? It may or may not have been my favorite shirt...but the hair was drastically different, no? 8th grade.Then there's this jewel. I had just hit puberty when my hair started to curl but only around my face...so weird. My face says everything...NERDBALL! 8th grade.
So here I learned how to put makeup on and went overboard here in 9th grade. Yikes!!And then there's my first year of high school...I'm way naive to what is cool...lets say it took me a little while to catch on. I still don't know why we didn't do retakes...and this is in the yearbook forever!!!Junior Year, I thought I looked pretty hot in this here one...I was just off a Bear Lake trip and was getting over a good sunburn/tan.Senior Year, also getting over a nice sunburn/tan. Unfortunately that piece of hair across my forehead still drives me crazy to this day.
My mission to Slovenia then ArkansasEngagement Photos which turned out nicelyAnd me today!I hope that I have just as many if not more great memories coming ahead. Just like the song says, "Maybe now I've conquered all my adolescent fears, And I'll do it better in my next thirty years"

Aging Gracefully

This is Brad blogging with his annual "Happy Birthday Cassidy" entry because she is too ashamed to do the post herself.

In deference to my mother-in-law's wishes, I will not be posting pictures of the blessed event, but instead I'll just post a few pictures from the years (many of them) since then:

Where the blonde hair comes from:

Where the manipulation comes from:

Helping Brylie sleep:

Keeping Brody awake:

We love Cass and are blessed to have her in our lives!! Happy Birthday!

Back to the grind...

Here we are after 2 long weeks of awesome rest and relaxation, back to the old routine. And I must say that I'm glad to go back. We seem to stay up much too late, eat terribly and get relaxed on things regarding the kids that would otherwise not be allowed. I love the vacation but there is definitely a time when it gets old and I long for the routine back. This also happens after a long trip somewhere. I can only be away from the routine for so long and then I want it back. So even though I loved having Brad here all day, everyday, I'm glad that we are back to the regular life so that we can be normal again. We need those vacations but we also need the normal to come back too.
Brody is getting closer to walking and is still scaring me to death daily. My heart is in good shape thanks to his scares.We also gave Brody a little buzz because his hair only grows on the top and the back...his sides are scarce, kind of the opposite of an old man, so he gets this little mohawk and it was getting rather long. This was his 2nd buzz. He loves the clippers so I don't have to deal with tears when I cut it. Thank goodness! I find this hair cut makes him look like an old man...balding.

Brylie is so smart! She knows all her letters and can recognize them by sight. She also knows what sound they make. She is almost as good at her numbers but she gets confused with 2 and 5, or 6 and 9. Aside from this, I would like to think she's our little genius just like her father was and is today. And I hope I can keep up. Dora is just too boring to keep her attention. Her hair is getting long enough that we can do ponytails! I love this because she often complains saying, "eyes". Meaning, her hair is in her eyes and she can't see. I know the feeling and hate it as well!

And a Happy New Year to you!!!

We are having a mighty fine day here at home with runny noses, coughs and sore throats! And to top it off, it's probably RSV. Brody's cough got bad enough last night that I took him to the ER only to find out he has the dreaded RSV. You'd think I wouldn't be so afraid of this haunting virus since we've been through it at more critical times in our kids' lives but it is still scary at 3:00 am when you are feeling your baby's chest to see if he's working too hard breathing. We were so exhausted last night from that visit and from being sick that we went to bed before the New Year even began and didn't think twice about it. I hope it was a safe and happy transition for everyone! So here's to a most excellent 2009 from the Gunnells!!

The Festivities

This year, our Christmas was quiet, or as quiet as it can be with a 22 month old and a 10 month old. I guess it was quiet in the sense that we were at home with just our little family. We have only had 2 Christmases alone, our first Christmas as "marrieds" and this one. I loved it!! Except for not seeing our families, I wouldn't have it any other way and I don't think we will ever spend Christmas away from our home again! (We'd love visitors, though) It was fun to finally take the place of the iconic fat one. It's just another reason why kids are so fun and worth all the trouble and hard times they put you through. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures during because we had our hands full either opening gifts or supervising a little one. But we did videotape it! Here are some pictures after the event had taken place and we were enjoying the time together!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Our Christmas Greetings

DANG IT!!!

I have never been a swearer. In fact, the one time I swore since getting married was in front of Brad and my sister, Paige who was living with us at the time. And they just laughed because of how ridiculous it sounded...I'm not a good curser because I don't have much experience. I have never heard my parents or my husband swear so I don't really know what words to use and what words to add to them to make a phrase that gets the anger out or makes me look "cool". It would be hard to make me look much cooler anyway. So you can understand my surprise and dismay when I first heard Brylie say "Dang it!". I do know however, who she got it from but I didn't realize just how often I say it until she made me fully aware! And I must say it A LOT because she does too. So I have tried to correct her and say, "Brylie, don't say that word, it's a naughty word, Mommy is sorry she said that, please don't say that.." to which she responds, "Dang it!" I have watched her look at Brody with her concerned eyes and darling nod and say, "Dang it!" three or four times in a row or be dressing her doll and repeat over and over, "Dang it!" I have tried ignoring her or saying, "why don't you say, "Oh Man!" or "Nuts!". Nope, those aren't cool enough, I guess. It just is another thing to add to my weaknesses list and hope I live long enough to fix it hoping that in my quest to overcome that list I don't screw up my kids' lives. And all I can think of say right now is....Da---, er, Nuts!!!

And now onto Christmas!!!!

I wish I could share how I feel about Christmas with everyone I come in contact with! I have this sweet nostalgia that I get starting back when the crispness of the fall air arrives. And it doesn't get old for me until I remember the nostalgia that comes in the spring in preparation for summer. I love this time of year and now that I have kids, it is even more enjoyable although they probably won't remember much. I will! We put the tree up Thanksgiving evening, I say "we" because Brad brought it in from the garage and put all 3 pieces together and left the rest to me. Three hours later, he was asleep and I was enjoying that sweet nostalgia I talked about earlier. The next day, it was so fun to show the kids the new tree when even at 6 am, Brody noticed a new silhouette in the window. They have been surprisingly good at not touching! Christmas is such a fun time of year and I look forward to the excitement we have ahead of us sharing this new holiday with our kids.

Our late Thanksgiving report...

I don't know why but I feel like I can't get ahead...or caught up for that matter. Daylight Savings really screwed me up this time. I thought it was the kids but I think it's me. So that is what I'm blaming my poor blogging on lately to make myself feel better. It's really due to pure laziness!

This year for Thanksgiving we stayed in Texas and had several friends over from Baylor Law School and a family in our ward who wasn't traveling, like us. We had such a good time!! This was my first Thanksgiving that I prepared (I like to say I prepared it but really, Brad did most and let me think I did...love him for that!!) without my parents there to supervise. It went really well. Thank goodness for Pop Walton's BBQ joint, probably the best BBQ in Waco, for smoking our turkey making for a delicious non-traditional taste!!! We had lots of good food from our guests and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

As we said goodbye to our last guest, we noticed it was uncommonly quiet and went to look for our noise makers and low and behold, this is what we found. Luckily the guests had left and we didn't have to worry about serving this FUDGE.It was so funny and even after seeing us notice her, she went on eating like we weren't even there. Notice she is using the very dangerous bottle opener as her eating utensil. Thank goodness she didn't cut her mouth although I don't think that could have stopped her.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Texas! We are so grateful for our darling little family, for our wonderful families far away and our awesome ward family here in Texas. We are also very grateful for the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I can't imagine life being half as meaningful without it. We truly are blessed as we contemplate our circumstances at this time of year!

Brylie is "coming"...

This is one of the cutest videos I have ever seen. Maybe because it's my child but it's so funny. She has learned by watching us how to walking when you are "stalking your prey". And where did she learn to say "coming"?



I thought this was fun for all those family members who haven't seen Brody since he was 2 months old. This is how big he is and the next milestone next to getting some teeth (assuming he'll get teeth). We have so much fun at home and these kids are the reason why!!

Our Dare Devil!

Remember me talking about having daily heartattacks with Brylie and the stunts she pulled and continues to pull? Well, they are about to increase in frequency and intensity with Brody! I can't believe the things he tries. He has been crawling since October 18th. Not too long right? Well, he would rather be on his knees or standing no matter where he is. This is quite scary for the paranoid overprotective mom. Sometimes I just have to close my eyes and pray. Honestly, I think twice about having more children because I can hardly handle the possibility of them getting hurt in the growing up process. And they aren't even 2 yet. I know I am in for it!! Yea, he did fall after this one and the walker came right on top of him. Poor guy! I was in the kitchen praying for him when it happened.

Getting ready for bed...

I found these pictures on our nice camera...I forget to check it too and found these cute pictures when I did! I know you are all interested in our bedtime routine. Mostly, I just wanted everyone to see what a great dad Brad is!! I am so grateful for him!!

New video of Brody

I think this was the cutest laugh and since Brylie didn't laugh very much for us (I was never funny enough for her) I just relish in the guffaw we get from him. I also included some more of his waving and clapping. We absolutely love these kids!!

Halloween and other fun stuff

We have been busy with life and Halloween was quite a fun holiday for us as you can tell from the pictures. I think it was more fun for Mom and Dad to watch our kids enjoy the trick or treating as short as it was. We had a lot of fun parties to attend that made things more fun than they would have due to the inability for me to think of fun things to do. My poor kids!! Luckily, we have fun friends to do the thinking. We hope everyone had a good Halloween!!