A special day for our big boy...

And today is his 1st birthday!!!
Here is a year in review

His profile in the ultrasound. Fresh out of Mommy (hallelujah)!Brody was a month early and his lungs were immature so here he is wearing the CPAP mask in the NICU to help inflate his lungs at 1 day old. One week after he was released from NICU, he got RSV and was hospitalized twice and on oxygen. This is him finally free of everything at 6 weeks! Here he is in our new home in Texas. He has always been so sweet and smiley! 2 months And bald! 3 months And silly!! And oh-so precious!!! 5 months
Sportin' the BYU cougars! 6 monthsI just want to squish and kiss those cute cheeks! 9 monthsDressed up for church! 11 months

It has been a wonderful year and we are so happy to have Brody!
Happy Birthday Goober!!

Look at those organization skills...

Lately I've noticed some organization skills in Brylie and I thought I'd post about it since it is so cute! Brylie will be a great mom, to her younger siblings (much to their dismay, I'm sure) and to her own children one day. She loves to tuck her dollies into bed for a nap or for the night, she is always trying to pick up or hold Brody which usually results in someone crying, and she is very good at cleaning up after herself and others. I expect her to be a "neat" child as she rarely likes to have any sort of dirt on her. She will complain that she dropped food on her bib and want me to clean it off. Well, the other day we were getting ready to eat dinner and Brad set out the plates, cups and silverware for us to eat off in no particular order or setting and in no time, Brylie had set the table. And she did a darn good job for being 2!! See how easy it is to think of her as older? We have some stacking cups and boxes that the kids love and lately she has been using them as soup bowls, pretend soup of course, but one day she got the kiddie spoons out and organized them and this was the end result. Some days I don't realize what she's doing while she's playing and when I go to clean up, I notice the intelligence behind her play.

Best buds

I hear these two laughing often with each other in fact, I can't put them down for a nap at the same time because they will just laugh and play in their room. I thought this video was so cute and is such a nice thing to see as a parent.


I also saw Brody cuddle the dog after we came home from somewhere. I thought it was so cute that these guys really love each other.

And finally, I gave Brylie a bath while Brody took his morning nap and got some fun snapshots of her just out of the tub.

Birthday celebrating...

I know Brylie's birthday is long past but this being our month of birthdays, I don't mind dragging out the fun at all. We didn't have a party for Brylie and won't for Brody but we had a fun cake that we wanted to share with friends and wanted to celebrate somehow with the kids so Friday night we went to "the Jumping Party" here in Waco, which is a warehouse filled with blowup slides and enclosed trampolines, you know the things and then Saturday after we had a fun giddy-up horse cake and had some friends over to help eat it. It was a great time!!! Stay tuned for Brody birthday photos followed by Brad birthday photos. All in a months time!!

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!!