Happy Halloween!

The Rebel "Gunnell" Alliance hopes your Halloween 
was "out of this world!"

 

Ewok Davis, Yoda Reid, Leia Macie, and Jedi Danny

Our clan of Star Wars characters enjoyed a fabulous Halloween -- perfect WARM weather, matching costumes, and WAY-TOO-MANY treats! What a fabulous October night!

These kids were soooo much fun, and so adorable! And I am soooo glad that I am done sewing their costumes!

Check out their snazzy pumpkin carvings on the sides!

Preggo Padme and Pretty Princess Leia

Padme and Anakin -- it was fun to dress up with the kiddos for the night!

Festive Family Fun

Look at these "corny" kids!

This weekend we enjoyed a fun fall break from school, and an even more fun visit from Grams and Grampy! They treated us to Krispy "Screams" donuts, McDonalds happy meals, Cornbellys Corn Maze and Fall Festival, Tucanos, 17 Miracles, an Ultimate Frisbee victory, and a huge BYU win! We had such a great time visiting with them and only wish that their trip could've been longer. We love you, Grams and Grampy! 

Smiling pretty on the royal horse at the Pumpkin Princess Playland

Grams and Grampy helping the kiddos with the duck races. The kids were pretty into it. :)

Buried alive in corn!

Can you tell that Danny was excited when he reached the top of the hay bale mountain?

Our group of crazy Gunnells had a fabulous time at Cornbellys!

After several hours of playing and exploring, we decided to get one last picture of the kids, smiling in the middle of a pumpkin patch. I thought it would be fun to send a picture to my brother Brian. This (above) is the edited photo I ended up with. Doesn't it look cute? Now look below. That is what Davis really looked like in this photo. It was time to go home. :)

Classic. Is everybody having fun? :)

Cornbelly's was better than the Utah State Fair, in my opinion. Activities every 20 feet, and lots of varied, active stuff to keep the kids excited. My favorite line from the day came when we were waiting in line for the "cow train" -- the little cars that are pulled around the farm by a four-wheeler. Reid obviously didn't understand exactly what we were waiting in line for, because he asked "Mom, how do we train the cows?" Hmmm. I definitely was not the expert on that one. :)  Luckily, it was a different kind of" cow train"!
We had such a fun weekend! Thanks, Grams and Grampy!

Mini Jimmer

I just have to brag, I mean blog, about Reid's basketball game today. :) He's been pretty awesome all season, but today was definitely his best game ever! He scored 20 points and dominated the other team. At halftime I overheard the other team's coach focus her entire pep-talk/coaching scheme on guarding Reid. It was pretty funny! The game finished with a score of 28-8 -- so Reid scored more than the rest of his teammates and the other team combined! He was pretty pumped up!  He played the whole game and really hustled! I'm so proud of my little Jimmer! Check out a short video of him playing below...

One Year Older and "Y"zer Too!

 

At the trailhead -- it was such a beautiful day!

Happy Birthday to me! Yesterday I celebrated the big day with breakfast in bed (thanks, Danny and kids!), a morning at the temple (thanks to my VT for babysitting my boys!), a delicious lunch out with Danny before he left for Oregon (I miss you!), a hike up the Y with the kids (my annual birthday tradition), and a surprise Chinese take-out dinner (thanks to our friends, Erika and Clayton!). It was a fantastic day and I felt so special and loved! Thanks to everyone for your kind messages and sweet gifts!

Can you believe I took these crazy kids up the Y trail alone? What was I thinking?!

FINALLY - at the top! I think Davis asked me 200 times if we were "almost there yet?"

Ready for the hike back down -- all smiles because we ate candy at the top!

Train them while they are young. The Y is the way!

Macie's Y in true cheer style!

Rah-rah-rah-rah-rah! You made it, Davis!

Goooooo, Reid!

The Buzz...

 

Here's a picture of the cutest little guy around!

He shoots the bad guys, tackles his big brothers, wins imaginary running races, and gives me the best bear hugs ever. And he's VERY OPINIONATED! I had this Buzz costume out so I could take it to Draper for our nephew, Robbie, to borrow -- and Danny insisted on wearing it at least once a day!

BYU Baby

The joke around the house is that we should call our new baby boy "BYU Baby" -- but the real person who should've been named that is my BYU lovin' hubby, Danny. This year, in typical BYU Homecoming tradition, he reunited with his BYU Cheer Squad buddies and had a blast in the gym and at the game. Here we are with the current cheer squad, wearing our old-school cheer uniforms. Reid has no idea what a lucky young man he is to be surrounded by these beauties!

Danny smiles with his old cheer partner, Jos.

Fun to have the family down on the field!

Who-hoo! Running the flag onto the field! Still lookin' good!

Can a Felon Become a Mission President?

So, last Thursday morning I'm awakened by Danny rushing into our bedroom and announcing, "Oh no! I think I just killed a deer!"
Yep. He'd woken up early and was reading his scriptures when he saw one of those stupid deer in our yard, coming to eat more of our plants. So out came the pellet gun to scare the dumb deer away. Only, the pellet must have gone strong and straight to the heart, because as soon as Danny shot it, the deer toppled over and fell down the hill and landed in front of our door.
What was Danny to do? He wasn't trying to kill the thing -- he was just trying to protect our yard and scare it away. And he didn't want to eat it, but he didn't want to waste the meat either. Pops always taught him "If you kill it, you eat it." So, Danny decided to do the "right" thing and call animal control and let them know what happened.
Next thing we know, there are THREE COP CARS at our house. Since Danny is the dangerous criminal type and a serious crime had been committed, you know. Haha! The cops were telling him that it was a felony offense and Danny was guilty of poaching and that it is against the law to even shoot a BB gun anywhere in Provo City limits, even on your own property! And, since it was a "serious offense" involving the death of a deer, each deer of which is "highly valued ($400) by the state of Utah," the cops had to call in REINFORCMENTS -- the Department of Wildlife and Forestry. Three cop cars weren't enough. We needed four to handle a serious criminal like Danny.
All of this (possibly charging Danny with a FELONY!), because Danny tried to do the "right" thing and tell the cops that he accidently killed the deer. A tiny deer he could've easily put in a bag in a park dumpster and nobody would've ever known. DANNY called the cops. He wasn't a dangerous or sneaky criminal caught in the act, or turned in by neighbors. He was a good guy who was trying to do the "right" thing. And getting treated pretty harshly because of it. Was calling the cops really the "right" thing to do? I'm not so sure anymore.
So, several hours later (I'm not exaggerating -- the cops wasted our morning on this), the police and  wildlife guys finally left us with a ticket/citation and a fine.
Later that night I was talking with my bookclub ladies about the whole ordeal, and mentioned that if we packed our bags and moved to Argentina in a few months, they'd know why (we'd be escaping the law!). My friend Linda laughed and said she thought Danny would be called as a mission president in Argentina instead. Oh really? For some reason I don't think that they call convicted felons to be mission presidents... :)  If he can escape this felony for shooting a deer in his yard with a BB gun, maybe there's still a chance. I do think Danny would make an awesome MP someday! :)

Here's Davis "finishing" the deer off with his bow and arrow.

And the mighty hunter is finishing it off some more. He had to get it from every angle.

Beehives Boating

The Beehives were begging to go boating, so we took the boat out to Utah Lake (for the first time this year!) and brought the whole family along too! The kids loved tubing and wakeboarding. Reid had the longest wakeboard run of the year! Macie was a wild and crazy tuber, and even Davis braved the giant waves that submarined him! I love this family!

I know pregnant women aren't supposed to go wakeboarding, but who could resist a short little tame run, right? Then I wiped out (see below!). After that, I figured I'd better play it safe and be a good mom and ride in the boat. :) Sorry baby. Maybe someday you'll be an awesome wakeboarder because of the extra practice you got from the womb?

Here's Reidy on his LONG LONG run! Hooray!

Danny had some rough water, but was still looking good!

When we got home, Dad caught a fly in the kitchen by the wings with his bare hands. Amazingly, 20 seconds later, Danny J walked up to me and showed me that he'd caught a fly too (look carefully in his hand above and below). I guess we had a lot of flies in our kitchen! Thank goodness for my two fly-catching Dannys!

And the Baby Is...

A BOY! HOORAY!

We had our ultrasound 2 weeks ago, and according to tradition -- we instructed the technician to not reveal the baby's sex to us while we were there. She sealed the ultrasound image of the gender in an envelope, and after Reid's soccer game that evening we headed out to a special dinner where we all made our boy/girl predictions. We were leaning heavily toward a little girl (everyone voted that it was a girl, except for Reid) -- but SURPRISE -- when we opened the envelope we found a little boy looking back up at us. How exciting! One more boy, and Danny will have his dream basketball team! :)

Here is the cute little man's profile! What will we name him? We had lots of BAD suggestions at dinner (BYU baby, Cosmo, Bronco, Jimmer, Leafy Palm Tree, etc.) -- but my favorite names right now are Luke and Andrew. We'll let you know who this fella really is in 4 1/2 months!