March Madness!

You know that scripture in Jacob that says "... the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream..."? Well, life is FLYING by these days! I feel like I was pregnant yesterday (and I still look like I was pregnant yesterday!), but Luke has been in our home for over a month now! What a whirlwind it has been -- so busy, but full of happy times and good memories. Of course, I can hardly find a free minute to blog, so here is a mostly photographic journal of the last month for the Gunnell Fam.

 

 THE HARDEST PART OF HAVING 5 KIDS 

(see the kid below)

Danny J, needing attention, dumped out a new gallon of milk (our last one!) and filled it with soap. What is he thinking when he does these things?

Since adding baby #5 to the family, many people have asked me what life is like with 5 kids. I can honestly say that I thought it would be a little harder than it is (and it may get harder in the future...) --- but I had such visions of horror before little Luke was born that surprisingly it's been a lot better than I had imagined. :) It's fun to have this sweet little one added to the crew! The hardest part so far? Well, besides having not nearly enough time for each of my kids and my hubby (not to mention time to myself! I wish!), Danny J has been the tough one. He needs mom. He loves mom. He is not getting enough of mom. What is mom's problem? Well, I am surgically attached to a newborn baby 80% of the time. So he's been acting up ("acting up" is a grand understatement) to get attention. And its not just the daily tantrums I'm talking about. The soap in the milk carton above is just one small example of what I'm dealing with. He is creative in his destruction. We've had marker on the couches, pencil drawing on the stairs, a Costco pack of string cheese that had each piece bitten through, poop on his hands and in the carpet, bath toys and sippy cups that were cut up with kitchen shears, many dumped out drawers, croquet mallet dents in the garage door, etc! And that's what he does when I'm feeding Luke. When I'm not with Luke, Danny is trying to wake him up or smothering him or pinching him or biting his big toes off (no joke). So, it's a little bit of a struggle here. Despite Danny's desperate attempts to get attention, I know he loves Luke and I hope (fingers crossed) that they will grow to become great friends and loving brothers someday. Hopefully sooner than later!

 DAY TRIPS WITH DAD

Reid, Macie, and Davis pose in Brigham City -- after a fun filled day snow skiing with Daddy

 Danny made use of our Seven Peaks passes this year by taking the kids skiing at Wolf Mountain Resort several times this winter. Here the kids are after a long skiing day, making a detour to Brigham City to take photos for Dad's work. I haven't been out of the house much, so we were all grateful to Dad for making time for the kids to have fun!

PANNING FOR GOLD

The happy gold miners!

What better activity can you think of for St. Patrick's Day than looking for gold? After a busy morning of basketball (Reid), dance competitions (Macie and Reid), bridal shower (Mom and Macie), and rock show (all the boys) -- we came home and went panning for gold. The boys had picked up a special gold panning kit at the Spanish Fork Gem and Mineral Show and brought it home so that we could give it a try. Now we just have to keep our gold safe from those tricky leprechauns! (they made a St. Patrick's Day visit to our house, but we couldn't catch them in Davis's leprechaun trap!)

My lucky little leprechauns

Davis, the gold miner. This gold might end up in his leprechaun trap next year...

The gold flakes we found!

 BIRTHDAY BOY

Cute Reid smiles at his pre-birthday celebration. The Cravaths made us a yummy dinner complete with a chocolate chip birthday cake for Reid!

 Reid's 7th birthday was a happy day - complete with breakfast in bed, lots of phone calls and presents from loved ones, treats at school and with his hip-hop class, dinner at In-N-Out, two yummy cakes, and a late night silly movie (Despicable Me). This handsome fella was the center of attention (which he LOVED), and we are so grateful he came to our family seven years ago!

Birthday morning - Macie and Dad made Reid a special breakfast of pancakes and bacon! Sweet sister!

Breakfast in bed -- what a lucky guy!

Whoo-hoo! BYU clothes and a webkin make for a happy birthday boy!

This crazy kid blows out his birthday cupcake. Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. YUM.

Smiling with his presents -- new laser tag guns!

 FAMILY AND BLESSING DAY

Lisa and Robbie

I don't know why we are so lame, but somehow none of our baby blessing pictures turned out. I downloaded 40 blank pictures off our digital camera after the happy blessing day. It stinks. So just imagine Luke looking very daper in his white tux, surrounded by handsome Gunnell and Davis family members. We had the blessing after a wonderful week of Mom Gunnell ("Grammie") visiting and helping with the kids. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all you did for us while you were here! We truly appreciate all of the meals, cleaning, laundry, babysitting, and playing with the kids! We love you Grammie! And we are grateful to all who came and supported us for Luke's blessing day. You are awesome!

Grandma Korth and Pops visit at the lunch following church

Grams and Danny after the blessing

Davis enjoyed the cakebites and cookies

I was maybe (maybe?) a little stressed out after all of the blessing preparation. Can you tell?

 Anyhow, March was wonderful and I hope that April will be just as great!