Brylie/Brody Comparison

I was just talking to my dad on the phone and he asked me if Brylie was as vocal as Brody was in our last post. I remember posting a video of her talking about as loudly if not more loud but just not as long. She seems to want to get attention right away and he waits until he has the attention and then talks in length. It's fun for me to see the videos and realize how similar they are. Time seems to dull the memory and this was a fun period of reminiscing. First watch the video below of Brody talking and then click here to see Brylie as a chatter box.

Sir Chatsalot

AKA Brody! These days, Brody is talking so often and we were in the car for a short visit to Dallas on Friday for a doctors appointment and Brylie and Brody were chatting back and forth in their sibling language. It was the cutest thing and all Brad and I could do was look at each other and smile. Oh how we love these kids and they just keep getting more fun every day! Here is Brody chatting for the grandparents! I'll translate...(Hey grammie, pops, grandpa, and grandma, I love you and can't wait to see you in August when we come visit. I might be able to lift my head off this ground for more than 1 second by then and maybe even sit up by myself. I am eating a lot so that I can wrestle the grandpas next summer and win. I just love my sister and I can't wait until we can play together and torture the dog. It looks like so much fun but I just can't figure out how to move like that yet. My mom and dad are the best and are so nice in carrying me around everywhere. I just love them too. Tell Abby, Mac, Lisa and Melissa hi for me! Love Brody)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

Well, what can we say to help you fully understand what a great father Brad is? While he is very quiet when it comes to his emotions, he does a very good job expressing his love to our kids. I remember a time when he struggled to okay my desire to get Brylie a toddler bed because he said "I don't want her to grow up". He is so much more patient than I am with the kids and cherishes his time with them even more now that it is very limited. He gets sad if studying kept him so late that he didn't get to see them for the day at all and when he runs errands, he either takes one of them or makes it a family affair. All of his decisions are based on what is best for the family and for every big decision, he has planned it out in his mind how it will run the smoothest. And it usually does. There isn't more I would ask from a husband when it comes to being a father! He is so great and on behalf of Brylie and Brody I just wanted to say, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DAD!!! We love you soooooooooooo much!

Our busy life...

Even though we don't go out and do a whole lot (the Texas heat would kill us) I feel like we are so busy. I've taken on giving piano lessons (which I absolutely love!!!) and we have play dates occasionally as well as scheduled walks with friends and cleaning, dinner, etc. You know the regular drill. I've tried to capture some of our busy-ness in a few photos. Enjoy!!



Also, I woke up to these this morning with a little note from Brad! What a sweetheart! He is so thoughtful! I'm so glad he's mine. I love you, honey!

'Good Morning' at the Gunnells

Mornings at our house start around 7:00 when Dad rolls out of bed to get ready for school. He usually wakes Mom up around 7:30 with a kiss goodbye. Sometime between then and 8:00 the kidlets wake up and our day officially begins. We have a pretty good routine with room for special outings but those are few and far between to keep Mom sane. After feeding Brody, this is about how the morning goes. I love our kids! Enjoy the movie!

Growing like mad...

Just to give everyone an idea of how fast Brody is growing and how big he is to date I have taken a picture of a shirt Brad's mom saved from when Brad was a baby. The size is then shown and then Brody in the shirt. He won't be wearing it again. He is also growing out of the 3-6 month onesies. What will we do with all these cute clothes he never wore? Did I mention he weighs about 16 lbs at 3 months old?

Definitely the right middle name...

Today I got an email of a picture of my dad around the same age as Brody is. I cannot believe the resemblance!! I could see some of my dad when I looked at Brody but I also have seen my dad staring back at me in the mirror at times (very shocking!!). This picture threw me off because I thought it was weird that my Grandma Allen would send me a picture of my baby...and one that I hadn't seen before until I read the email the picture came with. Then it all made sense and I realized that Brody received the right middle name...Allen. I'm so glad he resembles such a wonderful person and example in my life! And he has the name to remind him of his potential!! Love you, Grandpa Allen!

Listen to this voice...

So I had mentioned that Brody was cooing. Here's the video for all you fans...

Texas has big spiders...and I have bad aim

So it may be 2 in the morning as I write this while I wait for Brody to go to sleep. And I think that at this time of the night the spiders come out to play. As I was peacefully nursing Brody in the office where we have put the rocking chair so that I can nurse Brody during the night where I won't wake the lucky ones in the family who don't have to get up several times, I saw a dark spot in the carpet a few feet away...that moved. I tried to follow it as it was quite fast and in an attempt to turn on the light to see what I was dealing with, I lost its whereabouts. Now I'm still trying to nurse Brody, mind you, but all this movement has peaked his curiousity and now he thinks it's 2 pm. When I can't find the quick moving "thing" I return to my rocking chair and resume to nurse in an attempt to make Brody tired and fall asleep when I look on the other side of the room where I was just sitting to change Brody's diaper and see another creepy crawling "thing" moving. I have no shoe to kill this evil creature but I see Brody's nicely folded diaper lying quite close to both me and the small beetle-bug so I grab the it and smash the diaper onto the bug several times while twisting. And everytime I lift the diaper off the ground to wind up, I notice there is no damage being done. Dang thing!! So I just leave the diaper on top of the thing and resume my nursing but by now Brody is wide awake and ready for a day without naps. And then to my horror, I see the other creeping "thing" crawling quickly over to where I just was trying to kill his friend Mr. Beetle-bug. So this time I decide to get it once and for all. I turn on the light and look and see an enormous wolf spider waiting to counter my movement. So I grab the diaper only to get scared at the very much alive beetle it sheltered and drop it. I pick it up and throw it with all force at the spider which easily dodges my bullet. Bad aim! Shoot!!! I pick it up and throw it again only to miss again and now the spider is behind the speaker at the computer. The very computer I sit at to write this post. So here I sit, feet up on my tippy toes, holding the very much awake Brody, feeling creepy crawling all over my body, seeing countless false dark spots on the carpet and I swear there is something crawling on the blinds at the window making noises. This may be a long stay in Texas! Oh and did I mention that Brad admitted to me that in his younger days living in Texas he used to catch pet tarantulas!?!

We are growing...

And by growing I mean in size not in numbers! *smirk smirk* Look at these kids! We were at Sam's Club today with the cart with double kid seats and I was thinking that in a few months, both Brylie and Brody will be able to sit together and bug each other. And I was so excited for the future. Don't get me wrong, I love where we are at because things are more fun everyday but it's fun to get excited for what's to come also.

Brylie is saying more and more words...and they are more and more understandable too. She makes so many friends at the store or where ever we go with her "hi" and "bye". It's so cute! And she is also so friendly that after someone responds to her "hi", she gives them the biggest cheesy smile ever! She is the weak spot of every old lady we come in contact with.

Brody is growing so quickly! It's almost daily that I can actually see him getting bigger!! He is very smiley and is trying to talk more and more. I am learning how his temperament is which is kind of fun but not all at the same time. His colic is definitely more temperament than gas. For instance, I was holding him the other day and when I didn't have both hands on him holding him, he cried but when they were both on him, he was calm. He kind of freaks himself out which is very "cassidy-like". He is very much like his mom. And Brylie is very much like her dad. How perfect!!

I promised...

...some of you pictures of our van... ......and I thought I would also share the milestone of a TODDLER bed!!! This has been a great step for us but very hard as our baby is growing up. She has only fallen out once and goes to sleep pretty well on her own. We have substituted some of her nap times with quiet time in her room playing since we can't control if she gets out of bed or not without tying her in bed which we thought was a little too "silence of the lambs" for our parenting style. She seems to be doing great with it and loves to sit on her bed when we all go in her room. So this means that the crib can become Brody ready and that's my next step. I think this will be a little hard for me because I will have to allow him to possibly wake Brylie up when he wakes up to eat in the middle of the night. I haven't been that brave yet. But I'm thinking this is the week. If anyone has any advice, I would gladly listen.

Five Years Ago Today...

Can you believe it? I am almost blown away at how fast these last 5 years have gone. Maybe because I have loved every minute of it? Time flies when you're having a good time, eh? Looking back at the last 5 years, there isn't anything I'd change. I'm so grateful for Brad and for all our tough times that have brought our relationship to where it is today. I love being with our little family. I worried a little at moving away from everyone in our families for fear that I needed them to survive but in all reality, all I need is Brad, Brylie and Brody. Not that we don't love having the rest of our families too, you all know how important you are to us, but it's good to recognize that. It's also neat to be able to look back and see how all the paths you deemed as crooked are actually straight just facing a direction you weren't aiming at. That's how we get places we never thought were possible. I just want everyone to know, especially my husband Brad, just how much I have cherished these last 5 years! They give me comfort and excitement as I look forward to the endless road ahead.
Happy Anniversary honey!! I love you!

I'm hot...

...and I'm talking about temperature here. I think I must always do my hair curly here because even if I try to straighten it, it will go curly. Here is a picture. I knew the humidity would get to me and I even prepared myself, I thought. It's just very hard to see born and raised Texans "shiny" and think, "they probably consider this normal" as I sweat profusely, my makeup running off me as I walk through the air conditioned mall with my sweaty baby. Now Brody's complexion is "shiny" to match his "shiny" personality. Speaking of his personality, he has been getting so much better as far as his colic goes. It seems to be less and less each day and he is letting me do more and more. Although he has impeccable timing! Whenever we have some kind of plans, that is the time when he will be fussy. I hate to look forward to when he's older because I know it will be here before I know it and I will long for these days but I do look forward to the days when his "shiny" personality frequents him as often as his "shiny" complexion.

Our New Digs and Brody Smiles

So I know we have already been here over a week...I just haven't been able to get pictures on the computer and then internet didn't come when we thought it would. It has been a hassle to say the least and Brad hasn't even started school. That starts Monday but we'll get an idea (I think) of what it will be like because he has mandatory orientation today and tomorrow. Actually, I don't think I will even know how bad it will sometimes be. Maybe that's a good thing. The great thing is though is there are quite a few ward members in the same shoes as me who lend each other support. I am so grateful and have never felt so welcome in a ward the first Sunday. We met so many nice people. This will be so helpful for times when I really miss my family and friends of Utah. So I promised pictures of the house...it isn't quite finished but I figured you've waited long enough. But our internet is so slow, I may not have the patience to update as often as you'd like.

Here's the entry way...

The view from the door...
nice couch, huh?

The family room...

The dining room...

The office...

And the kitchen....

...no the cabinet isn't pink...that's just the lighting. I didn't include bedroom pictures or the laundry room or bathrooms. Maybe next post. You never know. Or maybe, we're just waiting for you to visit...anyhow, things are looking more put together and organized.

In other news, I was starting to worry (because what would I be like without a dose of worry) that Brody wasn't going to smile at me. He would smile at his Grandma Allen but I couldn't ever get him to...until now. And now that's all he seems to want to do for me (except for cry...he always wants to cry). I just love his cute smiley face and he is getting quite chubby. I fear his eating habits may have caught up with him. Here are his latest pictures. I just want to squish and kiss his face all day long!

Our final farewell...

...to the old and on to the new. We finally made it and I am quite proud of Brad and his choice in housing. We live in a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom duplex that is nicer than the remodeled house we just moved from. I hear we have some great neighbors and a big back yard. To be honest, I couldn't have done a better job. Plus, when the kids and I got here 2 days after Brad, he had set up almost the whole house. What a great guy! A BIG THANKS to Grandma and Grandpa Allen for all their work!! Grandpa drove the van behind Brad in the moving truck and helped move both out of our old place and into the new. And Grandma played Mom #2 throughout the whole moving process. We really appreciate their willingness to take time off work and come help up this last week! Another big THANKS to everyone who came to help pack or load the truck! We had so many people come that we started loading the truck around 9am and were done around 10:3oam. It went so fast and smoothly. I really have to give Brad all the credit! I wasn't really worried about this whole move. I guess I just knew that Brad would have thought of everything. And he did!! I sure love him! As soon as I get things a little more organized, I will definitely post pictures of our new digs!!

The Joys of Moving...

I don't know if you can really call them joys but to be honest, it hasn't been that bad. You might get a different answer from Brad because he has been dealing with a lot more than I. Anywho, moving is always nice in some ways because you get to throw away anything that you don't need and have an excuse to poo-poo your hesitation. I can't believe all the crap we have collected since we have been married. Even in these 2 years we've lived in our house. It's amazing how we can accumulate stuff so quickly.

Brody's blessing

Last Sunday Brad blessed Brody in church. Thanks to all the family who could come for making it a special day for us. We feel so blessed to have this darling little boy in our family and thank Heavenly Father for our children. We truly have the cutest and best kids ever!!! Enjoy the pics!

Brad's trip to Texas!

So Brad just got back from his trip to Texas to scope out Baylor Law School and to find a place for us to live. He got lucky and found a place and hopefully we are approved. We find out today! Also, he was able to connect with a few long lost buddies and go to a Rangers game. I have never known a fan as loyal as Brad. Despite a bad season or more, he is still cheering them on like always. Here are some pictures. Here is Baylor Law School, the green of Texas and the house where Brad grew up in Double Oak, Texas. Below is the Ranger game.

Our vacuum...

So we have the perfect setup at our house...our carpet stays quite clean due to our dog. This has been quite helpful especially when we had Brylie for when she spit up or dropped her cheese or cracker crumbs etc. This video shows just how much he loves to "clean up".

And here are more pictures of Brody!! and Brylie.