Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Golden Moments

Davis holding a REAL GOLD NUGGET! On Sunday Danny met a woman who owned a gold mine, and after church she let Davis come by and see her collection of golden treasures!

I have to write a quick post, just because I have been blessed by such GREAT kids! 
Along with the "gold" obsession that Davis has been engaging in lately, he's also enjoyed a healthy interest in mazes. He made his way through every maze in our Superman coloring book, and I've been printing and hand drawing little mazes for him every day this week. Well.... yesterday Davis was working on his 20th maze of the day, one with a spider that I'd found and printed off the Internet. From the kitchen he called to me in my office and said, "Hey Mom, can you come in here and help me with this maze? I am trying and trying and I can't figure it out! Will you come and help me do it?" Well, I happened to be busy paying the bills at that moment (YUCK!), but I knew that Davis was good at figuring out mazes on his own, so I told him to be patient and keep on trying. "You're good at mazes," I said, "I'm sure that if you keep on trying you will figure it out." He complied and silently continued working on the maze for a few minutes. Then, from the office I heard him get down from the bar stool and kneel down on the kitchen floor. I was so pleased when I heard his little voice:
"Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for this day. Thanks that I could have a fun time. Please help me to figure out this maze. I am trying and trying and I can't figure it out. So please help me to know how to do it. Thanks. 
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
Do I have awesome kids, or what?! Davis had a problem that he couldn't solve, and he knew where to go for help! What honest, pure faith! I have been so blessed with wonderful children who exercise their faith and know where to turn for help and answers to their problems!
Well, I had Davis bring that silly maze into the office, and wouldn't you know it -- it WAS IMPOSSIBLE to solve. It was a joke maze... someone must've put it up on the Internet as a mean little trick. So Davis and I had a good laugh when we figured out that the only reason he couldn't figure it out was because it was a trick maze. And I drew him another maze that WAS solvable.
Life is good!


Sunday, January 29, 2012

January Schmanuary

I can't believe that January is almost over! Time has truly flown by this month, as I rush about in my hyper-nesting mode (just one month until baby Gus-Gus comes!) and manage all of the family fun going on. Here are some January highlights:

 FUTSOL:
16 games in 1 month!
Reid and Davis were both playing (on different teams), and really started to get the hang of futsol in their first indoor soccer season. They were both the youngest/smallest on their teams, but they sure hustled and made it happen! Today we cheered them on at their last games, where Reid scored three goals and Davis scored the starting goal of his game! Goooooaaaaaal!

Cute Danny J cheers his big bros on!
Tired Mom and Macie spent lots of time on the bleachers cheering on our boys
This was a kick for a goal, of course! Go Reid!
He was hustling and broke out of the pack!
This soccer cutie was pretty intense!
Go, Davis, Go!
Down the middle, Davis!


INDIAN REPORT
Macie has had a HUGE Native American Report project for her 3rd grade class, and has spent hours working on her written report and indian craft/project every weekend. Last weekend she learned how to make Flathead Frybread, which is pretty similar to scones or Navajo Tacos. Of course, Davis and I helped out, and it tasted delicious! Now we just have to make it again in two weeks for her whole class... :)
Have you ever seen a cuter cook?
The best sous-chefs a mom could ask for!
Roll it, girl!
Yum! We DEVOURED the frybread!

 GRANDMA GUNNELL'S BDAY
A few weeks ago we celebrated Grandma's 80th Birthday with a super surprise party, and last weekend we finally took her out to celebrate her big day. We are so glad that she was born, and we're thankful for the wonderful Grandma and Great-grandma she is!
We took every crayon at Macaroni Grill, and ate till we were ready to burst!
Enjoying the awesome surprise party!
Macie and cousin Liz had fun together at Grandma's big bash

BYU BASKETBALL
Winter brings BYU Basketball, and this year we've been enjoying our season tickets next to Grandma and Grandpa Korth and Grandma Gunnell. We sorely miss Jimmer, but have hope for our young team to be awesome next year. Gooooo Cougars!
 
A TRUE BLUE FAMILY!
I love to listen to Danny J cheering, "Defense" or " Go Cougs!"

GOLD RUSH
Davis is very creative... and he always seems to have a different kick that he's on. A month ago his big thing was his rock collection. Before that, it was Power Rangers. Before that, it was fishing and finding worms. Before the fish and worms, it was pointy objects (pencils and nails) to kill the deer. Before killing the deer, it was cowboy guns and real lassos. Before that it was bows and arrows. Before the bows and arrows, it was slingshots, and fighting knights, and on and on... We try to support him in all of his unique endeavors, but sometimes even we get stumped. The past two weeks he has been set on finding GOLD. I've printed at least one hundred "gold maps" and supervised/assisted hand drawing many many more gold maps. We even made a special "gold map box" to store all of the maps. But now he really really wants to actually "follow" his maps and find the gold!?!
Luckily, I have an enterprising husband who has researched and found a solution. Apparently, you CAN find gold in UTAH, even with a four year old. Danny is planning a gold panning trip with Davis as soon as American Fork Canyon thaws out in the spring. Davis is going to save his money to buy special gold panning equipment. I love this little treasure seeker!

A few of the MANY gold maps!

The sweetest treasure seeker around

LITTLE ARTIST
Danny J has been on a little kick lately as well -- drawing pictures for Grams and Grampy! Last week I think he drew over 100 pictures meant for Grams and Grampy -- which I then have to fold and place in an envelope for him to mail! It is cute to see him get so excited.
His other creative outlet was cutting pieces of paper into a million tiny pieces, but I put the kabosch on that a few days ago (I've now hidden all of the scizzors in the house!). Scizzors + two year old = big trouble and HUGE messes! I'm glad this little guy is a budding artist!

Some of his beautiful pictures!
So many drawings he can't hold them all!
And that's the happy January update. Our January lows have been:

*SICKNESS
Everyone (except for Daddy, thank goodness) has had something yucky this month. I had three weeks of a horrible hacking cough, Danny J and Davis both had the stomach flu, Reid lost his hearing in his left ear and has a terrible cough/cold, Macie got the cough/cold bug, we've had fevers, headaches, tummy aches, body aches, pregnancy aches, etc. Hopefully -- after missing school and multiple MD visits and antibiotics -- we've gotten all the illnesses out of our system and can have a healthy home and family for this new baby to come home to!

*FLOOD:
We were so excited for it to finally snow... but all of that water so fast and so furious ended up flooding the basement gym along the North wall! Danny took care of it all (pulling up carpet, moving heavy exercise equipment, setting up fans and heaters, etc) and even jimmy-rigged a drainage tube outside to fix the problem. He is my hero!

As January comes to a close, we are all hoping that February will have as much fun and happiness in store! I will be especially pleased if this baby comes by his due date and we won't have to wait until March to see him!


Tuesday, January 10, 2012

The Countdown


New Year's has come and gone, but our countdowns are not all done. Here's a record of the Gunnell family calendars...

ADVENT CALENDARS
Davis brought this awesome calendar home from preschool. Each day we added a cotton ball to Santa's beard, until he had a full beard and Christmas was here!
Reid made a chain link calendar -- and boy was he pumped when he hit the special gold link! Christmas Eve!
Danny J loved Davis's calendar, because it was his way of counting down to "Grampy's hot tub!" He didn't really understand the importance of Christmas day, but he was VERY ANXIOUS to visit Grams and Grampy's house!



MY FAVORITE CALENDAR
COUNTDOWN TO THE BABY
This is my favorite chain link countdown. Macie made this 50 days ago, when I had 100 days left until my due date. Now we are halfway through with this colorful "baby chain!" Hopefully we won't have to add any extra days to this special countdown...

NEW YEARS DAY, 2012
We began New Year's Eve in Las Vegas, where we celebrated early with grandparents and cousins on Norwegian time. Then we hopped in the car, drove back to Provo, and stayed up until midnight -- when we toasted sparkling cider in fancy goblets and watched the fireworks sparkle across the valley (we love our view!). And we chronicled New Year's Day by interviewing our kids and photographing them for posterity!



Macie - 8 years old - First day of 2012
Reid - 6 years old - First day of 2012
Davis - 4 years old - First day of 2012
Danny J - 2 years old - First day of 2012

Vegas Vacation

Smiles at the Bellagio fountain show
 The week after Christmas we took a fabulous trip to Las Vegas, to visit my family. I'd been dying to visit, and we had an awesome time! With my brother John and Jaime home for Christmas and my sister Katie and her cute family already living in Vegas -- we had a full house and lots of fun. My parents really spoiled us, too! We went skiing at Brianhead, saw an awesome magic show on the strip (Mac King- family appropriate!), shot off model rockets at the dry lake bed, cheered on our knight at the Excalibur Tournament of Kings, and toasted the New Year a little early (Norwegian time). Oh, and of course we went hot-tubbing every day (Danny J's favorite thing in the world!).
Thanks, Mom and Dad, for a fabulous family vacation! We love you and miss you already!

MODEL ROCKETS
With all of the fun activities we enjoyed, I wondered what the kids favorite activity was. ALL of the kids picked shooting model rockets with Grampy! It was tons of fun -- and brought back lots of memories from my childhood, when I used to shoot off rockets with my dad. Thanks for treating us to four new model rockets and lots of fun launches!
Macie's rocket was the tallest, by far. She and Grampy put it together, and it looked pretty cool!

Reid had Dad help him create his rocket, and it was a fabulous one! This baby shot so high into the sky we would lose track of it until the parachute deployed!

Davis's special rocket had a compartment so that you could "send things into space." He put some worms and bugs and berries inside to send up -- they sacrificed their lives for science...

Grams tiny rocket was called "Scrappy" -- and it was! This little baby flew high!

Danny wasn't posing for the camera -- but he was PUMPED to shoot a real rocket into the sky!

The boys get all the rockets ready for take-off. Grampy had quite the professional set-up!

John and Danny race for the catch

Danny J fires his rocket away! Blast-off!

The race was on -- everyone ran to try and recover the rockets as they parachuted down!

Mud happens. Poor Danny was chasing after a rocket and parachute when he discovered the only mud puddle in the whole dry lake bed. Being up to his ankles in the sticky stuff did not make him a happy camper... :)

TOURNAMENT OF KINGS
No utensils, no manners, fighting knights and an awesome bad-guy who had a flame-thrower. This was the perfect show for the little boys of the Gunnell family!
Spain! Spain! Spain! The kids are still chanting this at home. Our knight was the best!

The knights were actually quite talented, and we had lots of fun cheering loudly and getting rowdy! The boys were especially enthralled with the show!



Holiday Highlights


 Yes, I am blogging this a little late. Christmas 2011 in 2012. Oh well. Life happens. It was a fabulous holiday season for the Gunnell family, and we had tons of fun! Here is the proof of our happy holidays -- with lots of photos!

STAR PERFORMERS
Davis was an adorable elf for his preschool Christmas program!
Macie wow-ed us with her flexibility in ballet class

VISITING WITH SANTA
We headed to the Riverwoods to meet Santa - and he looked like the real deal! It was cold, but fun to take the whole family to meet St. Nick. What did the kids ask for?
Danny told Santa "Power Rangers!" -- luckily, Santa delivered!

Davis asked for a "rock collection." We love this little rock-n-roller!

Reid was dying for a big basketball hoop. Santa brought golf clubs to our little sport instead... because Grammie and Pops had already taken care of the awesome new hoop!

At first, Macie wanted "a surprise." But when she sat on Santa's lap, she decided that she wanted some new snow skis. She's already tried them out now -- and she makes a super cute snow bunny!

How can you not smile when Santa is around?!

I love my Danny-boys!

 FESTIVE FUN
We all enjoyed a free skate day at Seven Peaks Ice Arena. Reid is an AWESOME skater!

Ginderbread houses were fun, as always. We had to use lots of green candies and frosting (Danny J's favorite color) to decorate Danny's baby house!

Davis made his all by himself -- and it turned out awesome!

Reid got fancy with the icing -- and with his funny face!

CHRISTMAS MORNING
We woke up early (we had to be at church at 9 AM), watched the kids rush downstairs, and enjoyed opening our stockings and playing with Santa's gifts. It was a fun (and quick) Christmas morning as we rushed to get ready for church!
Merry Christmas! It was a happy morning!

Santa delivered -- Power Ranger fighting swords and masks!

Macie smiles as she opens her stocking

Reid with the new clubs! He's had some lessons from Dad now, and he's pretty good for a 6 year old...

Watch out! Danny J is out to kill the "nighloks" (the bad guys in Power Rangers).

After church, Davis was ready to dig in and open up all the presents we'd left at home!
We had a Very Merry Christmas, and felt so blessed this holiday season!