A Great-Full Holiday

Pops, Grammie, Lisa, Danny, Me, Macie, Reid, Davis, DJ, and Luke all enjoy a "Sunbreak" (15 minutes of sun in a day full of rain!) in downtown Portland.

I know, it's a miracle that I'm actually blogging, but we've had so much fun lately and the kids have been BEGGING me to update and post some of our recent activities -- so here we go! An update complete with all of our *great* going-ons, *full* of fun activities and family, and of course -- written with a *grateful* heart for the many blessings we enjoy.

Fun Family Travels

How! Davis donned his handmade Thanksgiving Indian apparel.

 I'll start with our Thanksgiving trip to Oregon, which involved a *great* drive ("great" as in VERY VERY LONG for our 5 kids, not "great" as in enjoyable!) -- so thank goodness our week there was a truly *great* (wonderful!) one. Although it rained every day, Grammie/Pops/Lisa made our stay pleasant and warm. We enjoyed Danny's birthday, bowling, laser tag, arcade games, the library, the playground, basketball, OMSI, the temple, turtle dice, dinner dates, chick flicks, football, the Wii (the kids are still talking about the Wii!) , and of course -- a Thanksgiving feast! It truly was a blast and we are so thankful that Grammie and Pops and Lisa were so generous and entertaining!

My handsome hubby turned the big 37!

Luke loved Aunt Lisa!

Enjoying the sunbreak with my sweetheart

OMSI had an exhibit called "Grossology" -- which taught us all about boogers and throw-up and gas and urine... you get the "gross" picture. Of course my kids (and Danny) all loved it! :/

Our Thanksgiving Feast -- we ate tons of delicious food, and everyone helped!

My Indian brave and his papoose.

Playing Turtle Dice, a fun gift giving game that Grammie introduced us to. Danny (big Danny, not DJ) jokingly threw a tantrum when he got stuck with the girl's lotion as his present.

 

A Great Basketball Player

Reid, taking it down to the hoop

Backing up a bit, we have a *great* little basketball player in Speedy Reidy. He is a real shooter, although he is one of the smallest kids on his Junior Jazz team. This October he had another stellar season, scoring a season high of 23 points in at least 2 of his games! We are proud of him and happy that he enjoys basketball so much.

Sinking a shot at the net

And another score for mini-Jimmer

 

A Terrible Day

Even the kids knew that the election results were bad

A *great and terrible* day for the Gunnell family was Tuesday, November 6th -- Election Day. Danny is our Republican precinct chairman, and he was so confident in Mitt Romney's victory that we planned a Romney "Victory Party" at our home on election night (we've watched Bill O'Reilly non-stop for the past 6 months, made Romney donations, put-up signs, volunteered in the call center, etc.). We even prepared Romney's favorite "Cheesecake Factory" mini cheesecakes, Romney's Massachusetts Cranberry Punch, and Ryan's Wisconsin Cheese-its! And tons of our neighbors and friends came to celebrate with us. But instead of feeling the elation of a victory, we went to bed depressed and disheartened that Romney lost. :( So sad. Thank goodness we have faith in God and his plan for us... 'cause otherwise I would be truly depressed! Davis and DJ have since cheered me up by remembering to "please bless our enemies, even Obama!" in their daily prayers.

 A Head *Full* of Stitches

She wasn't smiling like this until we got the camera out, let's just say that!

Macie got a head *full* of stitches (well, not really *full*... but plenty enough) Halloween week, after she was injured in a tragic golf accident. :( Danny had been promising for months to take the kids golfing, and after they had worked hard to clean Danny's office on Saturday, he decided to reward them by taking them to the East Bay Executive Golf Course. Sure enough, on the first hole, Davis's backswing collided with Macie's forehead. Danny told me hours later that he could still remember the sound of the "crack" when it hit her. Yikes! Luckily, we have a GREAT Bishop (who is also a MD), who took Macie to his office after hours and stitched her up personally. It was a sad day, but she is back to her beautiful self and now we have a voucher for a future golf date...

We love Bishop

 

Snow Much Fun

We had a *great* snow a few weeks ago, (so heavy that broken tree branches were in the streets for weeks!) and Danny took the kids to enjoy some sledding on the fun hills of Rock Canyon Park. What an awesome Dad! They all had a fun-*full* day!

Macie, Brylie, DJ, Reid, and Davis enjoy the snow

 

Super Baby

How can you not love this baby?!

 Luke is a *great* baby, and I feel like he really is a tender mercy in my life. He is definitely one of the happiest babies to ever join the Gunnell family. He loves to laugh and smile and talk (Dada) and cruise around the house. And he loves to eat! So, often when I am cooking or cleaning or helping other kiddos, I will pop Luke in his high chair and give him some yummy type of finger food to occupy himself with. Last week I had to laugh when I looked up from cleaning the kitchen and found that Luke had taken his bib and twisted it behind him, so he was wearing it more like a cape. It did a great job protecting the back of his shirt from his snack, but his super-bib cape did little to keep the front of his shirt clean! He was pretty proud of his little bib trick...and glad to have momma's attention all on him for a moment!

Super Luke, in his backwards bib cape. Bibs don't work too well this way...

 

Tall Tail

On Wednesday, we had a special family breakfast at BYU -- where we purchased slices of the world's longest CougarTail (a super long, delicious maple bar, made by the CougarEat) to support the holiday food drive. This record-breaking CougarTail was 1/4 mile long and snaked back and forth across the Wilk Garden Court -- it was awesome!  We waited for Cosmo to show up, and enjoyed watching DJ and Cosmo race towards each other and enjoy a giant hug. Yum...  It was a happy morning, and we all left feeling very *full*!

The whole crew hangin' with Cosmo. Since Wednesday, DJ has pretended to be Cosmo every day!

Yum. Enough said.

And that's it for November's update! We are so grateful for our wonderful friends and family, and for all of the fun times we've had! And hopefully my kids will be "grateful" that I blogged for them!