We are a HAPPY family

One of our family resolutions in January was to "be happy" -- and the past few months have been just that! With a few exceptions, (the cow-herding experience and getting run over by a car) we've been a very HAPPY family. Here is our journey in pictures:

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY, REIDY!
Here is Reid, grinning at his sports themed birthday party. We had to play football, golf, bowling, soccer, baseball, and basketball (can you tell that he loves sports?!). We hit McDonald's playplace for lunchtime hamburgers, and pigged out on the BIGGEST PIZZA EVER at Pirate Island that night! Arrrrggghh!



HAPPY TOOTHLESS COUSINS:
Macie smiles with Isabella, her 8 year old cousin, at a fun cousins dinner at our home in March. Toothless twins!


HAPPY TRAILS:
Danny holds up in bike on his annual Moab 100 miler. He had a great time, even though it was FREEZING cold, because he was surrounded by such cool company (Mike, Bryant, Cory, and Kimball -- you rock!). Instead of coming home with a sunburn (which happens every year), he came home with frostbite! Yikes.

HAPPY TEA PARTY:
Not really. Do you think I would let my children drink tea? Haha! My fabulous friend Raquel (who is an amazing photographer) was doing an artsy themed photoshoot in our backyard and took some pics of our kids for free. Raquel, you are the best!




HAPPY EASTER:
The kiddos pose at a fun friends/family Easter egg hunt with Danny's old MTC buddies. We had a really neat conference weekend -- my parents visited from Las Vegas, we hosted an MTC supervisor reunion at our home, and we helped award a special MTC scholarship (the Jason Dean Hoyt Memorial Scholarship). Next year the Gunnells are finding "the golden egg".

HAPPY TRAVELS:
We got all of our kids passports so we could head to Argentina for Spring break, but after we looked at flight schedules and prices, Argentina wasn't looking so hot anymore. Visiting Grammie and Pops in Oregon looked much better! So we packed up the fam and headed up for an awesome week. Here are some highlights -- the tulip festival, clamming on the coast (which was like a snipe hunt -- no clams were found), flying gliders from the lighthouse, date nights, shopping, and spending time with Grammie/Pops/Lisa. It was a blast!





HAPPY ARBOR DAY:
Once again, Macie won the Arbor Day Poster Contest for the whole state of Utah. Yep, she's a good little artist (she gets it from her mom!). Here we are at the Red Butte Gardens, where she got out of school for the day to receive her award and plant a flowering pear tree with Smoky the Bear, Woody the Owl, and a bunch of guys from the Forrest Service. Brrr! Are you supposed to plant trees in the snow?


HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO:
Ole! Brad and Cass were in town for a week, and we celebrated the 5th with some delish Cafe Rio style burritos, quesadillas, rice, and flan. And, of course, a wild dance party after dinner. Reid was really feeling groovy! We love you, Texas Gunnells!



HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY, DAVIS!
Davis shared his birthday with Mother's Day, so we let him celebrate three days in a row. On Saturday, he got his new Jeep, which he shares with his brothers and sister. As you can see from the pics, he is a WILD and CRAZY driver! Sunday he received his number one birthday request, a bow and arrow. He LOVES it, and carries it with him wherever he goes. And, amazingly for a 3 year old, he is a really good shot. He even requested a bow and arrow cake, which presented a challenge, but eventually turned out. Monday night we celebrated at Chuck-E-Cheese with our Baird cousins, Emmy, and Davis's hero -- Paul Monson. Happy Birthday to our little archer!




HAPPY HITTER:
Reid began T-ball this year with Daddy as coach, and he's an awesome little baller. We love cheering Reid and Macie on at their games, and we think they have the best coach in town! Buzz-ing Bees! Buzz-ing Bees! BUZZ-ING BEEEEES!

HAPPY BABY:
The first four months of his life were super happy, but more recently -- well, UN-happy might be a better word to describe baby Danny. I think it's because he's been getting all those teeth you can see in his cute smile here. And with teething comes ear-aches. We sure love it when he grins and giggles!

HAPPY-FACE FOOD:
Thanks to our friends Faiver and Andrea for the yummy Columbian food! They came over and prepared a dinner that we will never forget... complete with ketchup smiley faces on the arroz con pollo.

HAPPY FEET:
Macie's dancing feet have been at it again -- with ballet recitals and Company showcase performances. Our girl's got MOVES! Her company team is undefeated in competition -- taking first place in every category, as well as winning best of show and the showmanship award!


HAPPY LAST DAY OF SCHOOL:
Reid smiles at his last day of preschool, posing with his sweet teacher Mrs. Linford. I can't believe that he'll be in kindergarten next year! Macie also enjoyed her last day of first grade, shown here performing a Chinese ribbon dance. Our bilingual babe is happy that summer has arrived.


HAPPY GROUNDBREAKING:
This is one HUGE trackhoe in our backyard...
We are building a deck, basement patio, and putting grass in the backyard. Whoo-hoo! Let's hope they can get it done quickly!

HAPPY?
Don't worry. The train wasn't really going to run over my family. It's just a great pose at the Golden spike monument at Promontory Point. It was freezing, and the two grumpiest men in Utah happen to work there, but we tried to make it fun. And we have a super cool golden spike of our own now. Check out our next post of the Spiral Jetty to see the other cool things we did on our weekend excursion...

HAPPY COWBOYS
UN-HAPPY COW
UN-HAPPY COWGIRL
I could write five pages about this heading, but I'll try to be brief.
I met the cow at Cory's house in Alpine. I thought I was going to take a fun weekend trip to Brigham City, where I would watch Danny and his partners pretend to be cowboys. Instead, I found out it was just me and Danny -- and I was supposed to be a cowgirl. Not my idea of a good time.
It started with me trying to feed the cow hay, so Danny could loop a rope around her neck. She hates hay, I guess, because she wouldn't come near me. Instead, her two bull brothers tried to eat the hay. Bad idea. So, we dropped the hay and Danny headed into the pen. I was not dressed for cow-wrangling, but in I went with my black capris and sandals -- into the cow-pies and mud. I was getting happier by the minute.
Danny started running after the cow, trying to lasso her. She was pretty fast. So I got to run through the muck and try and herd her toward the trailer. She hates the trailer even more than she hates hay. She hates it so much that she ran face first into some barbed wire and cut her nose and was bleeding everywhere. I don't like cows, and I was feeling bad for this stupid girl. I was feeling sorry for her for the whole half-an-hour it took for us to finally get the rope around her neck.
Then, my compassion stopped. Because this stupid cow hates me even more than she hates hay and the trailer. After dragging us around in the muck (crack-the-whip style) for another 20 minutes, Danny was choking her with the rope and realized that our tactics were not working. So he told me to get a stick and whip her in the butt to move her towards the trailer. This was a dumb idea. Imagine me trying to hit a cow with a twig in the butt (there were no big sticks in the field). The cow didn't move one single inch. Danny was yelling at me to hit her harder. I WAS hitting her as hard as I could. And instead of moving toward the trailer, the cow was having diarrhea. And she was flicking the diarrhea all over me, because I was hitting her butt with a twig. So I'm covered in cow poop, and Danny tells me to start pushing her. Great. So, I start pushing her from behind. She doesn't budge, and she's still flipping me with her diarrhea tail. So I try the running/jump/karate kick to the butt move. Doesn't work.
So Danny decides that I should hold the rope and he should push her. I told him that I wasn't strong enough to hold the rope. I'd seen this dumb cow move (not when I was trying to get her to move, of course). I finally take the rope and wrap it around my hand, and sure enough -- she takes off running. Next thing I know I'm being drug through cow patties (some fresh), and my hand/hip/knee/clothes are all damaged. I look at my left hand and see that it is swelling up because the dumb cow broke a large blood vessel, and I start to cry. I hate cows.
Well, eventually we got this stupid heifer into the trailer and headed up to Brigham City. Danny has been pushing me to let him bring a cow to our home in Provo, to teach our kids to work. This experience has ensured that we will only have a cow in Provo over my dead body.
This is a picture of Davis at the round-up on Saturday, with the herd that our cows have joined. The morning was spent branding and "fixing" the new babies, and we had a real chuck wagon dinner after the REAL cowboys were done.

CLEAN AND HAPPY:
This is what happens when you let the kids put their own bubbles in the bathtub. They get very happy. And VERY soapy. At least they got all the muck from the round-up off. :)