The Grand Gunnell Gang!

Finally a Christmas post

2012-01-19T15:07:00.000-08:00

I think Dec 23rd we got together with some friends and family. We made ginger bread houses and let the kids play crazy! Then we did a gift exchange with the kids and they loved it. Royce loves having friends over to play with. It's so fun to watch him interact with other kids.

Royce and Reyn putting together a gingerbread house. I think Royce ate candy, lots of candy instead of helping.

Although this picture makes me need to swallow my tongue haha, but it does appear like he is helping. I do think over all though that he just ate and ate and ate candy.

The kids opening and checking out their new gifts :) Royce got Ratatouille, I was more excited than he was. Great gift :)

Our heater was out for a few months. so we got to use the fire place. I love the sound of crackling wood. A fire in the fireplace is so cozy. :)

CHRISTMAS 2011

Reyn: Royce wake up Santa was here with gifts for you.

Royce: No I don't want Santa to come to our house.

Reyn: He just brought you presents, he isn't here anymore.

Royce: Santa said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROYCE!"

Me: Santa said "MERRY CHRISTMAS ROYCE!"

Royce: Oh yeah

I am sad, I didn't get a picture in front of the Christmas tree of Royce. Every year I have had a pic of him on a chair in front of it. This was all I got of him near the tree.

We had to wake him up early to get to church at 9. And get his presents opened and showered and ready on time. It took a minute for him to really know what was going on.

Reyn is always so good and prepares a stocking for Royce and I. I am not that great with the secret stocking stuff. But Reyn always fills them up for the 2 of us. Good daddy and hubby :0)
I like how Royce decided to try to shove his whole head into his stocking instead of just dumping it out. lol

Skipping over to see what is in the big box.

I guess I didn't get anymore pictures. He got more geo tracks for his Cars train track. he was so excited for it! We set it up for him and he didn't want to leave it.

We had a wonderful Christmas. We've been so blessed this last year.

Last week of Reyn's rotation - Dec 2011

2012-01-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

Our drive home was pretty. We were worried we'd be snowed in. But roads were clear all the way home. And we had a beautiful scenery to enjoy.

Royce was jammed packed in the back seat with all our luggage.

Aunt Hannah and Royce walking in from the fun time in the snow. Royce loved playing outside , but it took probably 15 minutes to really get into it. Once he did it was hard to get him to come back inside.

Eating the snow. He thought it was so neat that he could lick it haha.

The snow was so soft and new that it was hard to make a snowman. And while I was trying to pack it down Royce decided to throw snowballs at me. He thought that was pretty funny.

Every once in a while he would decide to help me pack down the snow. With out throwing it at me.

I love windmills. And when we saw this one I made my dad pull over so we could get a picture of it. It's so pretty!

Royce loves to make snow angels!

My truck didn't move from that spot for a good 3 days i think. But dad was able to bring us back and forth to town when we needed to.

Hole in One! AMAZING! It is out on Bourden Ranch Road and it has one of the best burgers i have ever eaten. Doesn't look like it'd be that great. But seriously sooo good!

We've been busy .........

2011-12-06T12:50:00.000-08:00

this post is of the first 2 weeks of our time in Show Low. We had fun, kept busy and now we are so glad to be home.

We went to dads ward and decided it was a good place for pictures. :)

Royce's idea to hug the tree. He is such a funny guy

Putting his puzzle together at grandmas house. He spent hours with the different puzzles.

Papa had binoculars for Royce to see if he could find uncle Donny. It was so cute to look over at him concentrating so hard to find Donny.

Every time I would ask Royce if he wanted to sit with me, He would say to me "no mom I'm watching the football game." He sat most of the game on Papa's lap.

We went to the football game. Uncle Donny is the kicker for Show low. Which has been a hard transition for us. We are still Yellow Jacket fans. SO i just yell for Donny when he gets up to kick his field goal. For the play offs he was 21 for 21 in making his field goals! Even though he is a cougar now, I am still sooo proud of him! He's got a crazy good kicking leg haha! :)

We went and walked the Rim. One of my favorite places still.

Royce running around and showing me his jumping and balancing skills.

Daddy helping Royce make the big jump to the other rock.

We walked the rim

We went out for a drive and got a few pictures with the fall leaves.

TONKA TRUCKS!

A little boys dream! Royce spent hours outside playing with these.

This is my dads house. He lives on some very beautiful property. Royce loved playing outside and running around.

below: Royce fell asleep with Kermit on his hand haha. He is such a funny little boy.

We spent the last 7 week/weekends in Show low for Reyn's E.R. rotation. We stayed at my moms mostly. I sent Reyn up a few times with out us. All the traveling back and forth was wearing us out. We enjoyed our time up there, but we are so glad to be home.

Little lady

2011-11-29T14:41:00.000-08:00

I am 19 weeks! We found out last Monday we are going to blessed with a precious baby girl!!! We are soo excited!!! Due date still remains April 21, 2012.

Royce

2011-10-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't really blogged about Royce in a while. He is such a great little boy! I am so blessed to be his mom! Royce is one of the sweetest little boys i know. He always says "mom I yuv (love) you." And hugs and kisses me all the time. Since I've been pregnant I am tired a lot and haven't been much fun for him. The first few weeks i napped a lot. And as soon as I would lay down on the couch Royce would say " mom you tired?" I'd tell him I just needed a little nap. And he would play quietly while I slept for about 20-30 minutes. He would gently wake me up by lifting my eye lid and say "oh hi mom you wake up now, lets play!" Royce has been such a trooper the last few weeks. I am just so lucky to have him in my life.

This summer he did swim lessons and did really good. He loves to swim! And he is pretty good.

Here he is swimming to Reyn. He just jumps off the steps and off he goes.

These two pics are 2 different times. this was after he jumped off the diving board. Jumping to Reyn (obviously) ha.

Here is jumping in to me. He would jump off the diving board all day if we'd let him.

wearing goggles, he doesn't like wearing them. But he looks cute haha

Royce raced these trucks from the kitchen into the living room and everywhere else. He is pretty good at entertaining himself for the most part. which has been a huge blessing with me not up for playing all the time.

For about a week Royce wouldn't go anywhere with out his sunglasses. He wore them in the house, outside, in the grocery store anywhere and everywhere. He had to have them on.

this was at the indoor swap meet. He always had a phase where he went everywhere with his hat on. he loved to wear it.

One day Reyn yelled for me to come to his room. And this was where he was haha. Silly boy!!!

Royce tucked himself into my bed! We do not let him sleep with us. But he thinks it is funny to get cozy and act like he is going sleep there. Luckily he sleeps great in his own room and his own bed. He's a silly boy.

Royce was watching a movie and he got out a blanket and pillow and just plopped down. this was how he laid for about 10 minutes.

We love Royce so much! He has his moments but what kid doesn't. For the most part he is very well behaved. He is very good with saying Thank you and sometimes good at saying please. Today we were walking into Target and the doors automatically opened for us and he said " Thank you doors!" haha. I scratched my belly (cuz it is itchy!) And he said "mom stop scratching your belly! The baby is in there!" He always points to my belly and says "how's the baby?" Royce will be a great big brother. I feel so so blessed knowing he is my son! He always puts a smile on my face. He always says the funniest things. We love Royce!!

Notice anything?

2011-09-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

3 Years OLD!

2011-08-24T08:41:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROYCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe it has been 3 years!!!

Royce was punching away til the punching bag swung back and knocked him down. then he'd get right back up and punch more. silly boy.

Just working on his tan. After swimming he likes me to lay his towel on this chair and he lays there to dry off.

Too bad we can't get him to sit on the toilet for real. He will sit on the seat, fully clothed. But DOES NOT want to actually go pee pee or poo poo in the toilet. He is terrified of it. Just getting him this far was a huge accomplishment! i hope he will adjust to the idea of potty training a lot sooner than later.

FAMILY BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR ROYCE.

Sunday we had Reyns sisters and their families over to grandma and papa's house(which they weren't there) and my sisters and their hubbies came.

blowing out his candles :)

he looks really scared in this picture haha. we were singing to him, i wonder what was going through his head this very moment haha.

bringing out the cupcake

Lightning Mcqueen tricycle! From the Jensens, Halls and Webbs. Royce didn't know how to take it in haha. He was excited for it and afraid of it.

Checking out his new dump truck with the other mega blocks from Aubrey and Patrick.

giant Cars coloring book!

Reading his birthday card

his new dinosaur dvd from Cj and Amanda

Cars coloring book. - you kind of get the theme of his gifts. CARS everything!

2 kinds of enchiladas, the left is buffalo sauce chicken enchiladas - the right green chili chicken enchiladas. delicious!

Marlo brought fruit salad! I love the pineapple bowls. it was great!

I can't believe Royce is 3 years old! We are so lucky to have him in our home. Royce is just a sweet little boy! Royce has the sweetest personality and spirit. He says the funniest things and does the funniest things. We are always laughing and he loves to entertain us. He is talking so much more than ever before. He loves to say the prayer, anywhere and everywhere. He loves mac n cheese and dinosaur chicken nuggets and peaches and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!. I know not the best foods for him. But we are just happy he is eating something.
Royce loves to sing and dance. Loves to read books and play with mom and dad. Loves Joy school and playing with the kids. Royce has an amazing imagination. He likes to pretend he is a puppy and well other animals, but puppy mostly. He watched the movie Bolt and now he always tells us he has a super bark. And he barks often which i have to remind him he is a boy and to stop barking. While we were in San Diego Royce was whining about something. And i finally said "stop whining Royce, just speak!" And he barked at me haha. Speak to him i guess means bark haha. What a funny kid. It did however distract him and he quit whining and we all got a good laugh out of it. haha. Royce gives the best hugs and kisses and he is so sincere. I love being home with him and watching him learn and grow everyday. Royce is such a blessing in our lives. I am so grateful to be his mom. We love you Royce so much! Happy Birthday son!

San Diego August - lots of pictures!

2011-08-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

We were able to spend 8 days in San Diego this August. Reyn had a break before his clinicals start! So we enjoyed a wonderful vacation with his parents in San diego. They spoiled us rotten! We had such a wonderful time. Lots of eating out, lots of bike rides, lots of relaxing, lots of walking, zoo, beach, etc.

Bay area

Bike rides! :)

LUCHE LIBRE taco shop

Booth for Champions, you need to call 24 hours in advance to reserve this booth. it's awesome haha.

DEL MAR

Beautiful ocean background, beautiful weather, beautiful mom ellen.

Playing KER-PLUNK

Royce was actually pretty good at this game. :)

SAN DIEGO ZOO

Sitting on the bus for the zoo tour.

"dancing bear" that's what Royce called this polar bear. he was rocking back and forth

BEACH

ROASTING MARSHMALLOW! EATING S'MORES

DEL MAR beaching it this time

BDAY CELEBRATION IN SAN DIEGO

Sprinkles cupcake (red velvet)

AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH

LAST DAY ON THE PIER (of course the last day we were there the sun was shining and it was finally warm!)

We had an amazing time, we love spending time together as a family! Thank you Papa and grandma Gunnell for such a great trip :)

Pinning Ceremony

2011-07-22T08:12:00.000-07:00

July 18, 2011

We got to attend Reyn Pinning Ceremony. This time last year it was the White Coat Ceremony! It is amazing how fast the time went. This last year has been very hard with Reyn in school. He is gone a lot studying and in class and working on projects for class. But I am so proud of him! Reyn is doing great in school. The Pinning Ceremony is recognition that the students made it through their first year of didactics. And will go on with their second year in clinicals. I still can't believe we have made it to this point already. The year has gone by fast, now that we are at this point. But getting through this first year wasn't super easy. Reyn just has a week left of finals and then a week of clinicals. Then a 2 week break! He starts clinicals August 22, 2011. His first rotation will be at Perriville Women's prison in Goodyear, Az. What a way to start off clinicals haha. Reyn is going to do great because he is smart and great with people! Reyn I am so proud of you. Of all your hard work and your patients with everything.

I am so blessed to have such a good husband. I am a very proud wife! I have so much to be thankful for. We have great family support during all this schooling. We truly are SO blessed!

My parents and younger siblings also attended but i don't have a picture of all of us with them. There was one from Mom Ellen's phone but it was blurry.

Reyn receiving his pin.

Reyn walking up to get his pin :)

Royce and daddy :)

Reyn's proud parents. ;) we are all really SO proud of Reyn!!!

One year down one more to go! We so got this!!!!

San Diego

2011-06-25T10:26:00.000-07:00

SAN DIEGO VACATION JUNE 2011

The beginning of June we went to San Diego for 5 days. Reyn had his 17 day break so the first few days we hiked Havasupai, then went to San Diego. It was so nice to be there to relax and enjoy our time as a family. We didn't get to play in the ocean and we actually didn't go to the beach much at all. We arrived Monday mid afternoon and it was sunny and beautiful. The rest of the week was overcast, June gloom. We were just grateful for the weather, it wasn't 110 like it was here at home. So even though we didn't get in the water or become beach bums we still really really enjoyed our time there. :)

We went to the Mormon battalion museum in Old Town. Royce working the water.

My first hat ever. I really like it. :) I also like this picture of Royce and I.

Attempting a family photo ha. We just had my phone and just us to get the picture.

Birch aquarium. Kind of a funny story about this. Reyn parents mentioned coming here with us. So we all loaded up in our truck and we headed out to Birch Aquarium. When we pulled up Reyn's dad said "OK we'll let you out here" Reyn said "OK we'll get out and you will go park the truck?" And Doug said "oh we didn't tell you, your mom and I aren't going in, we are dropping you guys off and taking your truck to go shopping." Reyn and I were like "WHAT?!" It was their idea to have us come to the aquarium and they just dump us off. haha. So we went inside and they left, they told us we could call as soon as we were done and they'd be 15 mins away to come get us. Well we walked through the whole thing. There were a ton of kids there, must have been a field trip or something. So Royce wanted to be held the whole time and wasn't being much fun for us. Royce whined most of the time we were there. I think there was just too many kids there and they were extremely loud and EVERYWHERE. So Royce was clinging to Reyn for dear life.

I took a few pictures of the different fish and sea creatures in their aquariums. I liked this aquarium because of all the bright colorful fish. It is amazing all the different shapes, colors and sizes of fish that exist.

NEMO!

Some sea horses.

All Royce wanted to see was some sharks. There were signs for a shark exhibit and when we walked around to it, there wasn't anything there. Reyn went to ask and they didn't want to give him a straight answer. He said "where is the shark exhibit" and the lady said "oh there were some sharks in the aquariums". he said "well there are signs for an actual shark exhibit" and she said "oh that is closed til next month." So Royce was sad, we were disappointed. There was a little hands on area in the back, where you can hold the sea creatures or touch them. Royce didn't want anything to do with that. He was still crying and mad that we didn't see any sharks. Poor kid. Oh well now we can say we've been to Birch aquarium and we will probably never go back again.

Royce waiting for grandma and papa to come back and get us. Which ended up being a lot longer than 15 minutes haha. Oh well the weather was beautiful and we did have a good time seeing all the different kind of sea creatures. Makes me more afraid of the ocean haha. I was just happy to get to spend time with Reyn and have the 3 of us hanging out as a family.

Royce running down the pier. He is growing up so fast! We are grateful for Reyn's parents for letting us come stay with them for the 5 days. We really enjoyed the vacation. It is always so good to spend time together as a family. With Reyn in school we don't see much of each other. So any time together is precious time.

HAVASUPAI

2011-06-03T14:46:00.000-07:00

Ok these pictures are way out of order. And this post is all over the place. I remembered I had some different pictures to add. so these 3 pictures are an after thought to my original post. Bare with me haha.

this picture was the hike down. I love how everyone is leaning on the rocks and resting.

Sarah, Me and Andrea.

reyn and the dog Rabes that followed us down. haha.

So the plan was that Reyn was going to hike Havasupai with his buddies from his class and 2 of them had their wives going too. I was going to stay in Lakeside with my parents. I didn't do anything to prepare for Havasupai so I was just going to have Reyn go. My dad and Donny were going to also go with Reyn. Well my dad ended up getting shingles and didn't know if he could go. And the Thursday before they were planning on going Donny wrecked his dirt bike. And tore up his knee pretty good. So he was out. Friday afternoon I decided that I wanted to go down with Reyn. So we went out and bought me a pack and got me all packed up to go to Havasupai. Saturday morning we drove to Lakeside, went to a graduation party for some friends had dinner with the family. Then Sunday went to church and finished packing up. *Now this was my first really big trip away from Royce and I wasn't so sure about it. It made me feel so sad to leave him. It was hard for me to get into my head that he will be ok! So Sunday we got back from church and ate lunch/dinner. Reyn and I packed up the truck said "goodbye" to Royce and drove to Flagstaff. Got some food there it was about 6:30 ish when we got to Flag. Then we drove to the Hilltop. We weren't 100% sure we were going the right way. We remembered driving on a dirt road to get to the Hilltop. And there wasn't a dirt road it was all paved, so we just continued driving along the paved road and eventually we saw a lot of cars. And there it was the Hilltop! It was about 10:30p.m. So we curled up in the front seats of the truck and tried to sleep. It was FREEZING! Poor Reyn couldn't get comfortable. Well I didn't get very comfortable either. We didn't get much sleep at all, maybe 3 hours. Our friends arrived at around 5 a.m. and we finished packing up. By 6 we were hiking down. This is when it hit me, "what the heck was I thinking!"

These pictures are backwards. I accidentally posted the last of the trip first.

Oh and my camera fell in the sand before we got down to the camp ground and it quit working. Andrea had her nice fancy camera but a full SD card so she wasn't sure she'd be able to take pictures. I had an SD card and a broken camera so we put the card in her camera. And she got some amazing pictures! It all worked out. My camera is now at Best Buy they are going to see if they can fix it.

Anyway so a few of these pictures are from my camera. Most of them are from Andrea's though.

Reyn and I on our way out. Andrea stopped to take a picture of us. And that was the last we saw of our big group. They hauled booty out of there. Reyn and I were slow and steady. But if I went any faster I don't think I would have come out alive haha.

Here is the mule with my pack. There is no way I would have been able to hike out my pack. Thank goodness for these horses and mules to pack them out for us :)

This pretty little red bird landed in the branch and I am glad Andrea was kind enough to take a picture of it for me :)

Reyn's cousin Jared and I following the trail to find beaver falls. Which we never made it down to. We stopped off at a different water fall area. Apparently we were only 3/4 mile from Beaver falls. so pretty Reyn and I at Mooney falls. it has changed a lot since the last time we were done here.

Climbing down Reyn and I with Havasu falls in the back ground

the cute little LDS church down in the village.

Looking down over Havasu falls

The new fall that was created in place of Navajo Falls. I still miss Navajo falls it was by far my favorite! But when it flooded a few years ago it was wiped out. :(

The group : Tim, Andrea, Joel, Sarah, Me, Reyn, Todd and Jared.

I am very glad I went. We had a lot of fun. We really enjoyed our time with this group. It is fun to get to spend time together and not talk about p.a school. I had fun getting to know Andrea and Sarah better. Thanks for the great trip! :) And thank you Reyn for being so patient with me. I was slow going and got feisty certain times during the hike.

I forgot to post the picture of Reyn with the dog. When we started hiking down a dog came along with us. We read the tag on the dogs neck and said it had it's rabies shots. So the dog was named rabies then shortened to Rabes. Rabes stayed with us all the way down to the campsite. Then he started hiking out with us. We lost him somewhere along the way. thank goodness, because Reyn said if he followed us all the way back up to the Hilltop then he would come home with us.

Hitched

2011-05-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

C.j. and Amanda are married!

May 7, 2011 my little sis and Geegee got hitched!

*****These pictures are not at all in order. They do not even touch the surface of how gorgeous the wedding was and how amazing Amanda and C.j looked. But these are pictures from my camera, the few I do have of Amanda and C.j don't give them justice. But it is my blog and my pictures. So I'll do what I want :)

So Kind of a funny story. - Royce was supposed to be the ring bearer. Well right before the ceremony started Royce took the ring off the pillow and chucked it as far as he could. Luckily Hannah was in charge of the cd player. The ring rolled under a table by her and she was able to get it back on the pillow before the wedding started. Royce was not their ring bearer he didn't want anything to do with it. Uncle Donny got to bring the rings to the bride and groom. Donny had no idea what to do ha, good thing he stepped up though and took over for Royce.

Ok another funny story before we get to the pictures. Right when President Shumway was announcing "Mr. and Mrs Nikolaus" Reyn was handing Royce over to me. Right when I got Royce he let out a toot, not a very quiet one either. All of us on our row were trying so hard to keep it together. And not bust out laughing . Oh Royce only you could be so ornery and still be so cute!

here is my smokin hot outfit haha. :)

i love my red shoes!

my 2 very good looking boys!

4 generation picture. Royce decided to throw a fake fit and fake cry. He was feisty at the wedding. Royce, me, my mom(Royce's grandma) , my mom's dad(Royce's great grandpa).

Royce being a big boy sitting at the table eating his sandwich (sanditch-how he says it)

The best picture we got of the 3 of us from my camera. Seriously Royce would not cooperate the whole day.

Just the 2 of us! We look great :) just saying.

Royce decided he had had it with pictures. He stomped all the way down to the preschool across the street from the church. He just wanted to on the "wee", the slide. This top picture is Reyn bringing him back.

The picture below is Royce storming off in such protest. He had somewhere to go something to do and he didn't want to stay with the wedding line. No more pictures for him.

Another picture of my very active run away boy.

And another one.

The bride and groom cutting their cake!

Amanda's niece (well one them) She loved Amanda's dress and wanted to sit on her lap a lot. It was so cute!

I took this picture in the studio with my phone camera. It is kind of blurry. But Amanda still looks great!

Getting Amanda ready for the pictures and then the wedding! It was fun to have all us sisters in there helping her. Sam Ross was the most help. She did Amanda's hair and helped get everything together. She drove Amanda around. What a great friend to Amanda. Thanks Sam for everything! :)

CONGRATULATIONS AMANDA AND C.J! WE LOVE YOU GUYS!

Wicked wisdom tooth

2011-05-01T15:12:00.000-07:00

*** Viewer discretion is advised! ***

I look awful but this blog is my journal in some ways.. so i am posting about my wisdom tooth experience. And this last week.

my left cheek is still swollen. it doesn't look as bad in this picture. but it is.

this picture shows it a little better than the first one.

I took a picture of my x-rays. the tooth was sitting on my nerve, sideways right up against my back molar. it was not a fun extraction!

On Thursday April 28Th I went in to get my last wisdom tooth pulled. I sat down and with in minutes Uncle Steve waved us in. So I went and sat down he gave me 3 shots. We waited a few minutes for it to kick in. Then he got started. After about 15 minutes in he says "I need the mallet and the chisel." My eyes went HUGE! My heart started pounding and I started to fear for my mouth. After 40 minutes into it he said he needed to take a break. Which was good for me because I needed to take a bathroom break. After the break I asked if the tooth was coming out and he said he hadn't even touched the tooth. He had to break away the bone that was covering the tooth first. And then watch for the nerves that the tooth was resting on. He had two dental hygienists in the room helping, I had probably 4 hands in my mouth at one time. It took an hour and 20 minutes to get the wisdom tooth out. He took 3 x-rays and kept turning back to it every time he was about to pound the heck out of my tooth. It was such a different experience than the 2 top teeth that were pulled. He warned me that it was going to be brutal. I don't think he realized it was going to be as bad as it was. I was his last extraction ever. Thursday was his last day. He said he will be back in once a week to finish up some things he started on people but that I was his last extraction. And it was one of his hardest ones.

So now here I am, today is Sunday, my mouth is still swollen a little, I can't open it all the way. I still have a stitch where the tooth was. I am paranoid about eating on or near the left side of my mouth. I haven't brushed my teeth as well as I want or need to. I still can't really sleep on my left side unless my cheek isn't on the pillow.

This week has been chaos. Monday I had Lena and Joy School here. Tuesday I had Lena. Wednesday I had Joy School again. My last time til we decide if we are going to start up again. :) I met up with a friend Wednesday and then watched another friends kids for a bit. Ran a bunch of errands. Then that night Royce decided to get sick. he woke up every 2 hours and he was running a fever and started coughing. Thursday I had to get an oil change on the truck run another errand or 2 then at 1 we dropped Royce off at Papa and Grandma's house. I went to my appointment spent and hour and a half there. My mom came into town Thursday night. I had Reyn give me a blessing, I am so glad I did. Royce woke up only once or twice that night, he was getting sicker :( I was given Lortab to take for the pain and I took it to go to bed. Well it made me extremely itchy and I didn't get much sleep at all. Friday my mom was here helping me with Royce all day. I felt like I needed to take him to the doctor because he had such a bad cough, fever and runny nose. So we took him in and they said he had a virus and that they couldn't give me anything to help him. I just had to keep doing what I was already doing. Friday night was awful! Royce has NEVER been so sick in his life! He didn't sleep at all he was coughing so hard and crying and he had such a high fever. My dad was in town with Donny and Hannah so He helped with Royce too. I had taken benedryl and a Lortab before bed and an hour after i fell asleep Royce woke up coughing it was so bad he couldn't even catch his breath. It scared the heck out of me! We got him medicine and Reyn sat up with him for a long time. Then my mom came in to relieve Reyn so he could get some sleep. And we heard my mom come out of Royce's room and it made us come out to see what was going on. Well Royce was coughing so bad that it made him puke mucus all over his bed! So Reyn and mom cleaned that up while I sat in the kitchen holding Royce. I am pretty sure none of us slept that night we were all so concerned about little Royce. Yesterday Royce was still pretty sick I kept him home all day and tried to relax. My mom and Hannah went home and Dad and Donny stayed here to help with Royce. Last night he actually slept through the night. We all heard him cough a lot and anticipated him waking up. But he never did. I am so glad. I don't think we got much sleep though, because every time we heard him I think we were all ready to run in and try to make him better. Today we stayed home from church. Royce and I relaxed and Reyn studied. Dad and Donny left this morning. I am so grateful for the help from my family this weekend. I am so grateful for prayer and for the priesthood. I don't think I would have been able to handle the last 3 days if it weren't for the blessing Reyn gave me. Today Royce is still on the mend. I hope to have him all better by tomorrow, Tuesday at the latest ha. This week is going to be a busy busy week so I need him in tip top shape. My mouth is still swollen a little it is still sensitive but I don't feel sick or anything. I gotta make it through this week healthy and be healthy for this weekend. It's Amanda's wedding!

Well there's my life over the last week! I hope this week will be better and I can get the many things done that I need to.

EASTER 2011

2011-04-25T17:30:00.000-07:00

Royce and Remi playing in the sand.

the kids playing dodge ball.

Royce loves the sand box and burying the rake.

Royce's face looks funny ha. But look at that jump! and his hair haha.

Royce loves the trampoline!

Deena and Royce running fast

Royce with his 2 Easter baskets.

Found another Easter egg!

and another....

he doesn't quite see this egg. We had to show him. then he picked it up and put it back haha.

here is the beginning of the Easter egg hunt.

Royce digging into his Easter basket. he was soo excited! and looked so handsome!

HAPPY EASTER!

We really enjoyed Easter this year. Royce is getting so big and understanding a lot more. he spotted his Easter basket and went right to it and started digging through it. it was fun to see his little face light up as he took everything out.

Of course I can't just write about our Easter treasures without including out Savior! I KNOW he lives and I know He made it possible for us to live again as well! I am grateful for my Savior and His sacrifice for me. What a wonderful blessing to know of my Saviors love and all he has done for me.

100 day Challenge

2011-04-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the year, well OK Jan 10Th I decided I wanted to start reading the Book of Mormon. Every night Reyn was getting Royce down to bed and I had about 20 minutes of just me time. So I decided to read. At first I wanted to just have it read by May, then as my reading began I decided to have it read by 100 days. I am so grateful for the time I was able to get to read and to have my testimony strengthened. I learned so many new things about the Book of Mormon and I gained a stronger love for my Savior. I have probably only really read the whole Book of Mormon 3 times in my life. I've started it a few times and just skimmed around. Or I've read it with my family growing up, but family scripture study with 5 kids is hard and I didn't really take much out of it growing up. Well I actually did probably come out of our family scripture reading with something. Because I did have a testimony then. And I did appreciate the time we did read together. I am grateful for that family scripture time even if some times were complete chaos. In seminary i know I've read it but I did it just to say i did it. While Bro Moon would teach us about the Book of Mormon I did enjoy learning and the way he taught. I did come out with a bunch of notes and neat insights. Just me personally studying the Book of Mormon i didn't really try to gain much. Reyn and I read it together our first year of marriage which was wonderful! I am so blessed to have him to teach me things that I didn't really know or understand before. So now doing this 100 day challenge was just for me I am so grateful that i did it. I've always had a testimony in the Book of Mormon I've always had a testimony that the church is true. I just had a lot of neat eye openers while reading. And I feel like I have learned soo much that i am sure i knew before, it just all stuck out to me this time in different ways this time. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and the scriptures. I am so grateful for the time that Reyn gave me to read them . it was and is such a rewarding feeling to accomplish something I had my mind set to accomplish. I finished at 98 days! My goal now is to read the Doctrine and Covenants.

6 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

2011-04-16T08:02:00.000-07:00

Reyn and I at FOGO DE CHAO.

Our dessert :) Reyn made reservations online and it asked for a special occasion and he put "anniversary" so when they brought out our dessert this is how it looked! So sweet!

Light was too bright so we disappeared haha. But that is us standing in front of the sign.

When Reyn came home to pick me up he brought me these :) I love receiving flowers!

We've made it to 6 years! And I am so blessed to have Reyn as my spouse for time and all eternity! Reyn did a good job at surprising me with our anniversary night out. He told me to be ready by 5 and to be dressed nice and to be starving. :) So I was obedient and was ready and excited, and starving :) We really enjoyed the restaurant. We ate sooo much though! I am grateful for Reyn. I am a lucky girl! Happy 6 years to us!

Lakeside trip-Amanda's bridal shower

2011-04-12T10:23:00.000-07:00

Royce making a "snow" angel

King Royce in Hannah's bed. He slept with her the night we stayed up there. Thanks Hannah for letting him take over your bed.

Royce in Hannah's room watching Sponge bob.

Amanda opening all her gifts! She got a lot of really good stuff!

Amanda opening my gift.

the delicious food table! it was SO good!

Dad was in charge of picking up her cake! And this is what he did with it! Oh dad!

SISTERS!

Papa was in charge of entertaining Royce during the shower. I came in to check on them and Royce was just hanging out they were watching A Bugs life.

Uncle Donny playing legos with Royce.

SNOW!

sleet - driving to Globe.

Busy weekend. Friday I had Lena then had to get packed up. Saturday morning Royce and I drove to Aubrey's mom in laws house to pick her up. Then we drove on to Globe to get Grannie. It rained/sleeted/snowed the entire drive! We go up to Lakeside for all the snow! It snowed about 6 inches the whole day Saturday. I was worried that because of the snow that there may not be a good turn out to Amanda's shower. But I was pleasantly surprised at how many people did come! It was great! Amanda had such great support and received SO many great gifts! It was a lot of fun. That night we watched Fire in the Sky. Then Sunday came around and the snow slowly started to melt. The morning was barely 8 degrees! But luckily warmed up some. We went to sacrament then came home and loaded up the truck. The roads were all cleared up by the time we left and We were glad to see Reyn! I have such a hard time traveling and staying over night with out Reyn. I am glad Royce and I were able to go up though. I am glad we were able to spend that time with my family. Royce was very excited to see Reyn, so was I. Well be going back up there in less than a month for Amanda and Cj's wedding! Can't wait!

Royce! / the thompson's visit!

2011-04-06T17:16:00.000-07:00

Aunt Diana,Uncle Vaughn and their 2daughters, Sydney and Chloe came to visit! They stayed with us Friday night and took us to breakfast Saturday! We had so much visiting with them! They drove here from Florida! The plan was for the girls to fly back Saturday and Uncle Vaughn was going to drive back. But their flight was cancelled. And they ended up driving back home Sunday! What a long trip for them! We are very grateful they were willing to drive out and see us! I know they sacrificed a lot coming out here! We really enjoyed them! We will have to make the next trip to them. We love them and are very grateful for the time we got to spend with them! I am so glad they got to meet Royce and Reyn! Great Aunt Diana with Royce! He finally warmed up to her and let her hold him.

cousin Chloe - Royce would go to her and play. it was cute!

aunt Diana, Sydney, Chloe, Royce, me and Amanda

great uncle vaughn! it was so fun to see their family!

OK so Royce loves to wear these particular shoes of mine. he usually just wears them to the kitchen and leaves them in front of the dryer. but this time he stopped to paint for a minute.

Royce and Maddie hung out a little while back. He loves having her here. They are cute little friends.

Royce and Lena blowing bubbles. Royce seriously LOVES blowing bubbles!

My little artist!

Time is just flying bye! Royce is growing up to fast! He loves to do arts and crafts! he loves to paint the most! this kids will spend hours painting and putting together little things. I do sit with him and help him and we paint together. I usually have to make sure i have a good 2 hours to spend painting with him. Royce is an amazing little boy. he is talking so much. Reyn always whistles to get his attention and now Royce says "whoo hoo" to get our attention. it is so funny! we love how much he is learning and how much he is growing. i am so grateful that i am able to spend everyday with him! there are so many things he does everyday and new things he learns everyday I am glad I get see it all. Royce is overall a really well behaved little guy. He is very friendly and easy going. I am so blessed to be his mom. he makes us laugh daily. Royce will be 3 in august! where has that time gone! seriously i can't believe it's been this long with him already! he was such a tiny baby now he is our short little toddler! he is such a busy kid goes nonstop all day! he doesn't nap like he used to. sometimes i can get him to take a good nap. but overall he is done with the nap scene. he still sleeps all night usually 11 to 12 hours a night! which is great! he loves going to joy school! he loves his little friends. we love our little Royce!

Wisdom

2011-03-15T17:30:00.001-07:00

Who needs it haha. Wisdom teeth that is.... Today I went into our dentist, Uncle Steve. I had some bad pain on my lower mouth behind my last tooth my gums were swollen back there and hurting. So I went in to get them looked at and he said "looks like you need your 2 top wisdom teeth removed." I probably looked like I was going to cry. He says kind of with excitement in his voice "do you want me to take them out right now?" um i was in panic mode ha. I have been terrified of this thought of getting my teeth removed. My heart was pounding and I was extremely nervous. Luckily Reyn had gotten out of class early so he was actually there with me at the appt. I ended up saying yes to getting them removed. And Uncle Steve numbed me up went out and got Reyn. He gave me 4 shots and the entire time I was praying for comfort. I actually almost asked for a blessing first. But I just prayed and prayed and i was comforted. it took about 30 seconds to remove both my teeth! I couldn't believe how fast it went! I am grateful he was able to do it so quickly. I do have a bottom wisdom tooth that is impacted. it has to come out it is pushing my teeth together and making them go crooked. so next month I go in again for my last bit of wisdom to be removed. It will not be as easy and quick as my 2 top teeth. it will actually have to be cut open and broken up and then removed. it hasn't broke the surface yet and it is growing in sideways. so i will probably have a blessing for that one. I am glad they are removed and hopefully they will heal to their fullest in the next 24 hours. I am grateful that Uncle Steve is good at his job. I am grateful Reyn was able to be there. and I am grateful for the hygienist that let me squeeze her hand tight when I got the shots. I am also grateful for grava and papa gunnell for watching Royce while we were at the dentist. I really do have so much to be grateful for. I am so blessed.

30!

2011-02-26T08:49:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE SWEETEST HUSBAND AND BEST DAD!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this top picture! All these pictures just prove what a wonderful daddy Reyn is!

helping Royce set up a sand hill so he could drive his tractor over it.

these boys LOVE the ocean!

I love how Royce is showing Reyn his cars and how intently Reyn is listening.

Royce loves the play ground and Reyn does anything to help make it more enjoyable for him. What a good daddy :)

Happy Birthday Reyn! We love you so much! We are so very grateful for you! We are so proud of you as well! Thanks for all your hard work in school, church and here at home. You are a great example. We love you! Hope you have a wonderful day.

(sorry you are spending most of the day studying)

Catch up

2011-02-15T11:44:00.000-08:00

Valentines Day!

Royce and Lena are so cute! Such fun little friends! Having Lena here is so fun and very good for Royce.

Reyn Surprised me with this beautiful delicious Edible Arrangement for V-day :) I made tortilla soup which was so good ;) Good job babe!

Royce helped me make Valentines cards for the kids in Joy School they had a Valentines day party! SO cute! (The hearts are Royce's hands I traced them and then glued them together, I also had him color the pictures on the front)

I also had Royce help me make Valentines cards for his cousins and for grandma Gunnell.

CRAFTS

I learned how to make this bead bracelet! :) I lOVE IT! I have made 3 more since learning. I still haven't gotten them down yet, but I am learning.

I made this Purse photo book for Jill the gal I babysit for.

El Charro

Royce and his cousin Ridge sharing grandma Ellen's soda! (notice Royce's black eye :(, it was there for a good week and a half, the worst he has gotten ever!) *Royce tripped and fell in our closet and hit the shoe rack, instant black eye! I felt so bad. But it seems to be all better now.

COOKIES

Royce helped me make cookies for the super bowl party we had. He dipped his dinosaur tail in the dough and was licking it off.

Sunrise - Reyn and my dad coming down the slopes :)

BACK TO THE SUPER BOWL PARTY - pics got out of order haha.

Reyn and Royce enjoying some IBC cream soda.

All the kids were sent to the AZ room to watch Toy Story 3. They all had such a great time together, running around, playing, watching tv, eating......! It was a blast for the kids. We had AMAZING food too!

ROYCE LOVE THE PIANO AND MUSIC AND DANCING AND SINGING! - I've only got a piano picture to post though.

Trying to reach the pedals and play at the same time. Royce loves his music!

Collage post

2011-01-20T10:07:00.000-08:00

We went up to Globe to visit Grannie and help her clean her house. She was so excited to teach us how to tie this quilt her way. We had a very enjoyable time with her. I love that we can take the time to spend with her. She is a very special lady! I love to sit and visit with her.

Royce LOVES to wear his daddy's shoes! He wears them all the time. He just wants to be like his daddy :)

We went up to Lakeside this last weekend. Reyn went skiing and Royce and I stayed back and hung out with my mom, Donny and Hannah. Royce loves it up there. Donny builds him blanket forts and plays basket ball with him. Hannah is great with him and plays whatever he wants to play. It was a quick and enjoyable trip.

Yesterday Royce and I went to the Zoo with a good friend and her 2 little boys. We had a lot of fun visiting and showing the boys all the animals. Royce really got into this time. He would say all the animal sounds and try to say the animal names for me. Thank you Marisa for the invite. We had a great time! :)

Catch up/random

2011-01-05T15:00:00.000-08:00

I got a camera for Christmas! I needed one so bad! I have been using the camera on my phone for so long! But I finally got one from Doug and Ellen! (well on my christmas tag it said "to heidi love Ashton" haha) yay! I LOVE IT! Hopefully I will have better posts now. Because I have a great camera to capture the moments :)

So one night Reyn was getting all the groceries out of his car and Royce was in and out helping him. Well Reyn came in and Royce didn't so Reyn went back outside to get Royce. And he wasn't outside! And he wasn't in the garage! Reyn started to look harder and he realized that the door was shut to his car. Reyn looked in and Royce was behind the wheel! Royce climbed in the passenger side and shut the door. And was having a blast checking out all the buttons in his daddy's car. So Reyn ran inside and got me and we both got in the car. We let Royce play for probably 5 minutes. He threw a huge fit when it was time to get out. Little stinker! He LOVES cars!

Royce pushing all the buttons he could in Reyn's car.

Our truck hit 50,000 miles in Dec! I wanted to get a picture of it right when it hit 50,000. But we missed it by a mile lol. I still wanted a picture. Our truck has been so good to us the last 2 plus years.

This is just a random sign on a car. I was coming out of Hobby Lobby with Mom Ellen and this was parked by her car.

I know it is weird I took a picture of these flowers on my floor. But I wanted to get a good view of them. They are so pretty! Reyn got them for me when I was having a hard time. He is a great hubby :)

This picture is Royce and his cousin Ridge! They have their good days where they like each other and get along. So I had to capture it on camera to prove it. Most of the time Royce runs from Ridge and doesn't want anything to do with him. But this day he really enjoyed Ridge's company.

This is his new bedding he got for Christmas. When we first put it all on he wanted to stay in his room. He sat on his bed for probably 15 mins. He is very happy with his new bedding and his bed!

We just used the bedding from Royce's crib until Christmas came. He loves his new bed. :)

Also in November Reyn surprised both Royce and I with this new car bed for Royce :) Reyn was looking at all the car beds on Craigslist and showing me all the different ones. Then he showed me this one and asked me what I thought. I told him I liked it and he said "good, because it is in our garage right now"

I didn't get the whole thing covered in powdered sugar before I took the picture. But you get the idea, it was soo good ;)

This was the delicious pumpkin roll! For my first time making it, I'd say it was AMAZING!

Royce was helping me put the powdered sugar on the towel. He loved eating the powdered sugar too.

This is the pureed pumpkin, it was just barely enough for the recipe of the pumpkin roll.

So back in November I decided to take the small pumpkin we had from Halloween and chop it apart. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I think I was chopping and peeling and chopping and more peeling for a good hour! My hands were sore and cut up haha. I know I am a wimp. I just told Reyn that we were going to eat that pumpkin so I was determined to do just that. haha.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2010-12-30T09:13:00.000-08:00

Papa got Royce a fire truck! Royce LOVES it! It will stay in Lakeside though because I have no where to put it here. And Royce doesn't understand how to ride it yet.

But he loved to sit in it and get pushed around. And he would put his sippy cups in the back.

Cars geo track set from Gma and gpa Gunnell! Royce loves Cars and he loves trains! Best of both worlds!

Royce got a car bed a while back. And we got him Cars Bedding! He loves it!

Every year I try to get a picture of Royce in front of the tree. Well this year he wouldn't let me do the regular sit in the rocking chair picture. Instead he was showing me the mouse he made at Joy School. And when I tried to get him to sit down in the rocking chair he yelled at me. SO no rocking chair picture this year.

We had a wonderful Christmas! We started our Christmas morning opening our gifts at our house. Then we went to Reyn's parents house for the family Christmas gathering. Which is always so nice! WE have a big breakfast and all the family is there. It is a great time :) WE did get pretty spoiled this year. After the Gunnell family Christmas we then drove up to Lakeside for the Borrego Christmas! We really enjoyed our time up there. The whole family was there too! It is just so wonderful to be surrounded by family. WE had a great dinner up there and opened our presents. WE got lots of great things up there too. We are so very blessed with great families. We didn't have a white Christmas though, it snowed after we left. I do like a white Christmas, but I do not like being cold. Royce loved hanging out with uncle Donny and Aunt Hannah. They are so good with him. I am so grateful for our wonderful families. They both take such good care of us. WE hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. And we get to welcome in 2011! SO HAPPY NEW YEAR also! Where does the time go?! Seriously ?!

These are the pictures we had taken a while back

2010-11-10T14:14:00.000-08:00

We had Riguel Uvaldo take our pictures of us. It was mainly pictures of Royce. We didn't get many of the family. But it was pretty much Royce's photo day. Riguel spent 2 hours with us. And was so patient with us. Royce was ALL over the place! Getting him to sit still for a picture was a joke haha. But Riguel did a great job at keeping up with him. And chasing him around to get the perfect pictures! I am very happy with how they all turned out. This is just a few of them. Now I just need to get them printed so I can display them in our house! We are very pleased with Riguel's work. Thanks so much :)

Halloween 2010

2010-11-08T15:54:00.000-08:00

here is our cute little wolfman! I finally got Royce to wear this costume. But there was some bribery used. I had to give him tic tacs and mints. But I did manage to get some very cute pictures of our guy! We love Royce so much! He brings us so much joy! We are very grateful to have him in our lives!

What have we been up to?

2010-10-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

Royce stacking his goldfish on his jello fish. This is during Joy School today.

Royce helping me mop at grannie Borrego's house. He is such a good helper.

Here he is again working hard. :) I LOVE THIS BOY! He is so sweet.

Royce was tucking in his crayons and saying "nigh night" to them. It was really cute.

While we were at grannie Borrego's house we made TAMALES! YUMMY! Royce and I went up there last Thursday to help grannie clean and in return she taught me how to make tamales. We had a wonderful time with her. I am very blessed that I am able to go visit her and spend time with her.

It rained like crazy a few weeks ago and Royce wanted to have the door open so he could watch the rain. he loved it.

Royce loves to paint and color and well he just loves crafts.

We went to 5 Guys a few weeks ago and Reyn was carrying Royce on his shoulders. I just thought it was funny the way Royce was holding onto Reyn's head haha.

Royce's angry eyebrows! He was on a kick where he only would eat his food if he could use tooth picks. So when I tried to get a picture he didn't want me to. He yelled "NO!" to me!

Helping me make dinner. He sat there for well over 20 mins just transferring from the box to the bowl.

We got pictures last Saturday. These pictures are from my phone. I will post the actual pictures from our photographer. I just wanted to post some of the ones I had. Royce has such a great smile!

I love this picture of my boys. Royce was showing his daddy his cars.

this was after the photo shoot. Royce played hard. So daddy got him a drink haha. Well they shared. Sort of. :)

we've been super busy

2010-09-24T15:14:00.000-07:00

Royce at the 2ND reception at the Cox's house. It was so beautiful! (sorry pictures are way out of order)

Royce helping me do dishes last night. So happy playing in the water!

I took him to the park to feed the ducks and play in the sand. He didn't want to leave.

We went to a birthday party at Jump and Shout (i think that's what it is called) And Royce went down the slide on his belly. Sorry the picture is so blurry.

Reyn throwing Royce up the slide.

Royce came running into me crying and I asked him what happened and he said "Bebe Ena" She is only 4 months old and was sitting in her bouncer. I am not sure what really happened but he got another black eye out of it.

Royce tripped and fell and got a fat lip. He's been a disaster the last few weeks

Royce feeding bebe ena. Her name is Lena but he has his own names for her.

We took Royce to the splash park and apparently he loves it now. Before when we would take him he would cry and want to be held. This time we didn't come prepared and he wanted to play.

Coming back from his first day at Joy School. I love how he holds his back pack haha.

Leaving for Joy School. He had no idea what he was in for. He cried like crazy when I dropped him off. I felt awful. In fact I felt so bad that when I got to the truck I cried like a baby. :( But I know it is good for him to spend time with the other kids. And get some learning in as well.

This was at Aubrey and Patrick's reception. Royce tried to stuff the entire cupcake into his mouth! PIG!

This was my first day of Joy School with the kids. We had a good time. I have taught one other time since this. We each take turns having the kids come to our houses. I think we are going on 4 weeks this up coming week. I do know it will be beneficial for Royce. If anything help him come out of his shy shell.

Royce is always hugging Lena. He loves her so much. When we don't have her he asked me "A Go Bebe Ena?" And he looks all over for her. We watch her 3 days a week 12 hours a day. And Royce just can't get enough of her.

This is Patrick! The newest member of our family! Aubrey's husband! Royce finally warmed up to him for a few minutes and I got a picture for proof. :)

this is the outfit I wore to the wedding. He colors were orange, hot pink, brown and green. I was missing green from my outfit. But Reyn had a Green shirt on.

We've had so much going on the last few weeks. It all started with Aubrey and Patrick's wedding. Which all turned out gorgeous! Both receptions looked amazing. And the sealing was amazing! I am glad that I got to take part in it all. I didn't get pictures at all. All I have is my camera on my phone and well you see how great the pictures are. Some really are and some really suck haha. Plus we were just super busy with everything. So we had the wedding, luncheon and then the reception the same night. Two weeks later we had the 2nd reception. Right after the wedding that following Monday I started watching Lena, she is 4 months old and ADORABLE! I watch her Monday, Tuesday and Saturday. On that Wed after the wedding I taught Joy School first time teaching for me first time attending Joy School for the kids. It was eventful. So weekly now my Mon, Tues, Wed and Saturdays are pretty well booked. Which I am very grateful for because I wanted to have as many things I could to keep me busy while Reyn is in school. It makes the time go by quicker and it helps me and Royce stay out of Reyn's way. Royce has been a wreck lately. He fell down and got a fat lip a few weeks ago. Then that same week he fell off the computer chair and smacked his face. He got a black eye on his left eye I think. Then a week after that is when he came into me blaming Lena. And he had a black eye on the other eye. And recently we went to a birthday party and Reyn and Royce were sliding down the slide. And Royce started screaming in severe pain. We looked and he was holding his wrist really weird so the first thought that went through my mind was he did something bad to his wrist. Well after a few minutes he started moving his wrist and we checked his hand. He didn't want it to be touched. Well luckily he is still young enough that he recovers quickly and didn't have a chance of anything broken. That night we came home and I gave him some Motrin and put a cool wash cloth on his hand. Which he kept on until I put him to bed. The next morning he woke up and was still holding his hand up and showing me it was hurt. I am pretty sure he just jammed his pointer and middle finger. They have some bruising on the insides. But he is using them and able to do everything still the same. Every once in a while he remembers they were hurt and he will show me them. But he has recovered pretty quickly. Our lives won't be slowing down anytime soon. But we are happy to be busy. Anything to pass the time with Reyn's schooling. That's all for now, sorry it is such a long and boring post. I just need to keep it up for my journal purposes.

Royce is 2!!!!!!!!!!!!! & San Diego post

2010-09-01T15:47:00.000-07:00

this is our new table! Reyn's dad made it for us! We got to bring it back from San Diego this last trip! We love it! Dad Doug did a wonderful job with this! I think it is his finest work so far!

On our drive back to the condo from Coronado Island Royce sat in his car seat and read all about the car toys haha. The drive was like 15 or 20 mins and he was like this pretty much the entire time.

Royce loves to play in the water

So this picture is so funny! royce spilled some of his water on the table and Reyn was watching him and Royce lifted up his shirt to try to clean the water spill haha! So we handed him a napkin and he cleaned the spill and then some haha. He is such a funny boy!

Royce in San Diego on the bed sporting his new spongebob jammies! He also loves Bob bob (Spongebob)

the bday cake, my mom got it for Royce! He LOVES CARS! He was so so so excited for his little cake!

Royce's new tent

Pizza for the 2nd bday party with my family!

Reyn and Royce checking out all the new toys.

the kids helping Royce open his presents.

The sub we got for the bday party with Reyn's family.

* Well Royce is 2 years old! I can't believe it has already been 2 years! He is so fun and energetic! He has such a wonderful spirit about him. We are so grateful for our little man! We had a swim party with Reyn's sisters and their kids the night before his bday. We had subs and snores. YUM! I didn't do good at taking many pictures and the ones i posted are all blurry sorry.

* Then on his birthday Aug 24th my family was here to celebrate! He is such a loved little boy! He got so many presents. And he does a great job at being excited about all of them haha. He is so expressive! We had a lot of fun watching him open his presents and then bringing them to uncle Donny haha. He got the dinosaur Rex from the movie Toy Story and at first he yelled "dinosaur!" Then once he discovered it makes a noise he was terrified of it. And now he will look at it and say "dinosaur" but if i ask if he wants it he shakes his head no. so maybe he will warm up to it eventually haha.

* We took him to the doc he is 24 lbs. The doc said I need to bring him back in 6 months for a weight check. He said he isn't at failure to thrive but he is barely on the charts. Then the doc said that we aren't very big people so Royce is just going to be on the smaller end. He said Royce looks great and looks healthy just small. So I just need to keep doing what I am doing and try to get him to eat. (which has been an ongoing battle since he turned 18 months) He does however drink lots and lots of milk. So at least he is getting something. Royce is such a great kid. He has his wild fits. but over all he is a lot of fun. He is learning so fast. He probably says about 50 different words. But only when he wants to say them haha. He has started to put together 3 word sentences. He will grab his and my shoes and say "momma shoes outside" He loves to go outside and take walks. We go out every night before bed and let him run the neighborhood. He says more 3 word sentences but I can't think of any right now. I know real good mom haha. Lately though he has been tattling on me to Reyn. If I tell Royce it is bed time and try to get him to relax and get ready for bed he runs to Reyn and points at me and says "dadda, momma..... jabber jabber jabber." But he does it whenever Reyn is home now. If I tell him what to do or what not to do I get tattled on. Oh well haha.

* We took one last summer trip to San diego on Aug 26th. We came back on Sunday. It was a great little vacation. Reyn's aunt Lynn and Uncle Joe came down from Stockton to visit us. And we had a great time visiting with them. We really enjoyed Reyn's 3 week break from school.

Now he is in full swing with school again. And Royce and I are back to just hanging out. On Monday I will start watching a little girl from our ward. I will have her 2 days a week. Then on Wed I start the first day of Joy school here at our house. I am kind of nervous for it. But very excited at the same time. I think it will be great for Royce to interact with other kids. And get some learning time in as well. It will be a busy couple of months. But I am excited for it all. Whatever helps make time go by faster with Reyn is school.

And that is what has been going on with us. :)

Catch up, I'm always playing catch up haha

2010-08-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

church in Felicity, Ca

Stairs from the Eiffel Tower in Felicity, Ca

Center of the World Plaza

looking down at Felicity from the Church hill. All those are huge granite slabs with etching of the histories of Az and California.

The Pyramid. If you are standing inside this pyramid you are in the "Center of the world" We didn't get to go on the tour. Because we went on a Sunday on our way home from San Diego.

Royce is obsessed with pushing this stroller around. But rarely sits in it. which makes walks *sigh* fun? haha. NOT!

The 3 of us in the pier :)

Reyn and I got to go on a bike ride! It was beautiful!

I was taking pictures like a crazy woman with my cell phone and later that day i went through them. And came across this picture! I love it! It is so neat how it turned out. Not even on purpose. :)

Royce kept throwing sand at papa doug.

Royce loved this Tractor! He carried it all over!

So Royce saw these guys playing with this football. And when they went into the water to play in the waves Royce decided to take it!

And decided he should bury it! haha! it was funny

Well Reyn has been on a break from school the last few weeks. He goes back August 30th. So we spent a weekend up in Lakeside with my family. For Aubrey's bridal shower. Which was fun :) The weather was gorgeous! Then on that following Monday we went to San Diego. It was our longest stay yet! We were there for 6 days! We had so much fun! We love the beach so much! Royce was so fun this trip. He is fearless in the water. Which scares the heck out of me. He just runs out into the waves and then gets knocked over. And gets right back up and runs further in the water! Reyn had to stay close by him because he was so crazy out there haha! We really enjoyed our time there. So much that we are going back this Thurs before Reyn starts school. We've had a great little vacation with Reyn home. This week will be busy busy! Tonight we are celebrating Royce's Bday with Reyn's sisters and their kids. Then tomorrow is our big boy's BIRTHDAY! he is going to be 2! I can't believe it! My family is coming down for the 3 bdays we celebrate Royce's, Aubrey's and Amanda's. SO tomorrow night we party with the Borrego's! Then Wed Aubs is going through the temple! SO excited for her! Thurs we pack up and head back to San Diego til Sunday! Busy busy! But we are so very blessed! We have wonderful families that take good care of us :)

Tomorrow I hope to have pictures of Royce's bday! Can't believe it has been 2 years already!

To be that person

2010-07-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

On Monday of this week I drove up to the mtn with out Reyn. :( Royce and I loaded up we picked up Aubrey drove to Globe and picked up Grannie then arrived in Lakeside. I have such a hard time being away from Reyn over night. But I felt that I had to go to the mtn. A dear friend of mine passed away and his funeral was on Tuesday. I felt that I needed to pay my respects to him and his family. He wasn't my close friend probably ever, but Hans was one of those people that if you know him you will always be his friend. I had piano with him when I was younger. He was always good at it and always did what he was told by the piano teacher. I on the other hand never practiced and never progressed. My mom just said I had to do piano for 2 years. So I eeked my way by. Which I thoroughly regret. I wish so badly that I paid attention. I regret that I don't have any idea how to play the piano. :( Anyway this isn't about piano haha. So back to Hans. This man lead a full beautiful life. Although he died young, he had lived more than some that die old. That statement was said at his funeral. And it is the truth. He did ever thing and anything to serve others. Hans had a very sure strong grasp on the gospel. He just had it together. Even though he was a convert you would of thought he was a member his whole life. I really enjoyed hearing stories of his life. The fun he had and the service he gave. He had a beautiful little family that he left behind. Which my heart still aches at the thought of them. But we are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives. To know that Hans is just on another "mission" and that he will be with his family again someday. After going to his funeral and hearing only great things of Hans and knowing that there isn't a person in this world that could say anything bad about him. After that I have realized that I hope to have that same legacy. I hope that someday I can be known as a great friend to everyone I meet. I hope that I can say I lived a full beautiful life. And that I had an impact on somebody. After his funeral I feel like it has really put things into perspective. The important things in life. And it isn't the popularity or the fancy things. It is my family and the gospel and living as Christ like as I can. Just as Hans did. There is a quote "Live in such a way that those who know you but don't know God will come to know God because they know you" -unknown- This quote reminds me of Hans. And reading this quote makes me want to try harder to be a better person. To be a better friend and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I want to be a better wife and mom and sister and daughter. Thank you Hans for being such a wonderful example to so many. At his funeral his brother said that their dad always said "it isn't good bye, it's see ya later" I love that. So see ya later Hans. Thanks for your wonderful legacy you left behind.

busy busy

2010-07-20T13:08:00.000-07:00

I LOVE this face haha! He cracks me up! We went with a friend to the art center for youth.

Uncle Donny and Royce in their fort

Royce's chocolate mustache and goatee

Hanging out in his pool in the backyard.

The last few weeks have been crazy! The last week of June I watched my niece and nephew. I drove out to their house and we swam and hung out. My niece Landis and I went to see Eclipse on that Friday. And I loved it! :) Royce enjoyed the company of his older cousins and seemed to enjoy their dog Casper. He was calling Casper, Basket. Haha. If the kids would yell out to Casper to be quiet Royce would be right behind them yelling "BASKET!" It was really cute. haha. For the 4th of July my family came down. Except my mom wasn't able to she had to work :(. We hung out and had fun. We didn't go to any of the festivities. We avoid keeping Royce out passed his bed time. We regret it every time. So we just came home and put him to bed. Donny stayed with us that week. And Royce LOVED IT! They played with cars and went swimming and they built blanket forts. We enjoyed having Donny here with us for the week. Then my mom and Hannah came down and on Saturday we went dress shopping with Aubrey! It was really fun. We spent a long time searching but came out with the perfect dress in the end. It really is such a gorgeous wedding dress! Aubs look STUNNING! Grannie was down here with mom and Hannah and we went to our cousins reception. That was fun. Good to see the family that we never get to see. Everyone went home that weekend. Hannah was supposed to stay with us for the next week. But she was excited to get home because dad finished her bed. And she really wanted to work on her room. We were sad she didn't stay but we understand. So July 12th Royce started swim lessons. He goes Mon thru Thurs for 10 mins each day. We are now on his 7th lesson tomorrow. He is doing pretty good. He screams nonstop the whole time haha. Well this week he has been doing better. Not screaming so much. He floats really well. And he can monkey walk. And he holds his breath pretty well. Miss Jennifer will have him swim to the wall and grab on and monkey walk. He doesn't like being on his back at all. So when she has him on his back "night night" he screams. Then she has him wake up and he is fine. He just has 2 more days of swim lessons. Then it is up to me to keep his memory fresh of all the things he has learned. It is recommended to go through another session but I don't think I have the energy to go 2 more weeks. It has been such a hectic summer for me. I am just happy that I got Royce the 2 weeks of swim lessons. Last night Reyn had a White coat ceremony for P.A school. They give the 2012 P.A's their white coats that they will be wearing during their clinical rotations. It was pretty neat watching Reyn go through it. Because even though he still has 2 years til he is done at least he is that much closer than he was before. We had dinner with his family and enjoyed our time together. :) Reyn has 3 more weeks of stressful classes. Then he gets a 3 week break. In that 3 weeks time we hope to be in San Diego and Lakeside. Getting out of the heat. ;) I started working out again. I really want to lose another 10 to 15 pounds before Aubs wedding. Which is Sept 3rd! So actually reasonably I will prob get 6 or 7 lbs off by her wedding. And then keep on working the pounds off from there. So there you have it. The busy summer with the Gunnells :) This is really more just for my journaling purposes haha. But there is our update.

My bday post

2010-06-16T07:50:00.000-07:00

A wonderful friend called me up on Monday and asked if i had a vase she could borrow. I said "yes come on over, what size do you need?" She said when she gets here she will see which one will fit. Well when she came she had 18 pink roses in her hand, and said "i was just making sure you would have a vase for these." So sweet! I love them! I am very blessed to have such a fabulous friend!

Amanda came over early on Sunday and had these beautiful flowers for me and cupcakes. I love flowers! Glad I ended up with 2 sets for my birthday!

While in San Diego in April I saw a necklace I really liked. But didn't get it when I first saw it. Well when I went back for it IT was gone! The lady said she didn't have anymore in stock. Well my sis in law was in San Diego a few weeks ago and she saw a necklace she loved and had her mom go in and look at it. And her mom, mom Ellen , started laughing and said "that is the necklace Heidi wanted!" So on Sunday when i opened my birthday gift from the family it was this necklace! I LOVE IT! Thanks Paula for letting me have it. :)

Aubrey made this beautiful little "flower garden" and filled it with these flower clips she made! I love them! Thank you Aubs! And Patrick :)

This picture was taken Way back on Mother's day. My dear friend took it and I finally got it to post :) too bad Royce isn't looking. The other pictures he was but the pictures were sideways and i don't know how to flip them.

I made my first lemon berry fruit tart. It was amazing! I just wanted to post how pretty it was. :)

Well another year has come! I am officially a quarter of a century old! 25!!!!! I don't feel 25 in fact i still feel 18 some days! But I guess it is good to still feel young haha. I had a wonderful weekend birthday celebration. On Thurs we took dinner to our friends house and I brought my fruit tart for dessert. It was a hit! I came home with only 1 piece left! :) On Fri we got to hang out with Reyn's mission buddy and his family. We ate at 5 Guys! ;) And we just enjoyed visiting with them. They are moving to New Mexico and they've lived in Payson for the last 3 years. So we saw them when we could. But now they aren't in Payson for us to visit. :( We really enjoyed our time with them. Sat We had Pei Wei for lunch and Fire house sub for dinner! SO good! I know lots of eating out, but we rarely get to. And now with Reyn in school eating out will happen less and less. On Sunday was my actual birthday. Amanda came over and stayed with Royce while Reyn and I went to church. Royce was sleeping cuz church starts right at his nap time! And so he misses the first 2 hours. And since we have sacrament last Reyn brings him to that. Yes he is inactive, but he isn't worth fighting when he is tired. Anyway so Amanda had to do laundry so she was here while Royce slept. WE had wonderful speakers in sacrament and it was great to sit and listen to them! :) After church we prepared dinner. I had chicken in the crock pot and we made enchiladas :) And the whole family came over, well 2 of Reyn's sisters and their families. Then Aubs and Patrick came and Amanda was here. To top it off Reyn had Paula pick up Sprinkles cupcakes! SOOO GOOD! I had a wonderful birthday! I am so grateful for my family and the love the show me! Reyn did a wonderful job at making me feel so special and being the best husband i could ever ask for! I am so thankful for Reyn! So after all the partying and eating out and good stuff. Reyn started school on Monday! It is so weird to think it is here! And he has finally started the P.A program! I am very proud of Reyn and his many accomplishments over the last 5 years of our marriage! Good job baby! ;)

Sorry post overload!

2010-06-07T13:12:00.000-07:00

I tried to get another picture of us

this is the entryway - so pretty

Here we are at the Fairmont!

getting a picture with all my siblings and royce with grannie. :) we had 3 cameras to look at, so some of us aren't looking.

Here we are with grannie before taking her to my cousins house.

Grannie switched the candles haha, and was showing me that she did. lol

Grannie B-day is June 9th so we got her a cake on Sunday and celebrated early. She isn't here at my house anymore. My cousin is taking care of her this week.

Grannie taught me how to make red chili too! Also delicious!

the finished product! AMAZING!

the green chili without the tomato

grannie peeling the tomato

We peeled them. and cut them up.

Grannie and I roasted peppers! For green chili!

He loved playing with the water and using the hose.

We got a little pool for Royce. We've only played in it a few times, we've been so busy!

Every night we took a walk with grannie. This night Royce decided he wanted to take his barn with him. He carried it the whole walk.

close up of his mustache

Royce's chocolate strawberry mustache.

Alright I a lot to catch up on. On May 27th I had my grannie come and stay here with us. She had open heart surgery and needed to stay down here for doc visits and she needed to have somebody with her at all times. So I was blessed with her in our home. We had such a wonderful time! But before grannie came over I was cleaning the house and Royce got a hold of the baby powder. It was EVERYWHERE! I like to sprinkle baking soda mixed with carpet stuff onto the carpet when I vacuum and he seems me do that. And so he decided to sprinkle the flagstone with baby powder to "help" clean. So when he got quiet I came in and noticed this powder all over Royce and the floor and the door and in his room all over. I just laughed, because what else can I do. he was just doing what he sees me do.

Reyn also surprised me with an evening at the Fairmont in Scottsdale! My mom and Donny and Hannah came down on Friday. My mom and I went to a reception Friday night. Then Saturday Reyn and I did a session at the temple, which was much needed. Then we went to the Fairmont. While my mom and siblings babysat Royce! We had a good time away, I missed Royce so much though! It was our first night away from the little guy. But it was a great surprise. We ate so much! We ate at Bourbon Steak, a restaurant in the hotel. It was so good! I did get pictures of all our food. But I have so many pictures in this post already.

I had Grannie here for 10 days. We had a wonderful time! I am so grateful that I was able to spend time with her. And have her teach me her secret recipes! :) Now that she isn't here I don't know what to do with myself. haha, it feels weird to have her gone. She was good company. Between grannie and Royce I kept very busy. Making her meals and cleaning up after each meal and keeping up with Royce. And trying to keep up with house work. It was a wonderful 10 days though! I'm very blessed to of had the time with grannie. Royce, I think, also enjoyed having grannie here.

Well I think so far that is all that has been going on over the last few weeks. It's already been a busy summer and it doesn't look like it will slow down. But that is ok with me! The busier the summer is the quicker it goes by and the quicker we get out this heat! haha!

Oh ya, Reyn had an orientation today for school. Tomorrow is his last day of work. June 14th is his official start day for school! It is crazy to know he is finally starting school! We are so excited and so scared. Lots of changes coming our way!

San Diego w/ the Borrego's

2010-05-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

Royce at Joe's Crab shack

Reyn and I shared this king crab, it was DELICIOUS!

Here we are with our bibs :)

My dad found a feather and stuck it in Royce's back pocket. Royce loves to throw sand EVERYWHERE.

Our last 20 mins to San Diego Royce had lost it, he was not happy. So i handed him the little tv and he was good almost til we got there.

Well this last weekend was CRAZY! First off on Thursday May 13th we drove up to Lakeside for my mom's graduation. She graduated from nursing school. We drove up Thursday at 12:30p.m ate La Casita! YUMMY! Then drove down to the Show Low auditorium for her graduation. We took part in the pinning ceremony. All of us went on stage and got to hug her and dad put her pin on. She has to take her National Board test still. We are so proud of her huge accomplishment! She put a lot of time and work into her classes. And it has paid off, not just to get the boards passed too. Which I know she will do fine. :) Good job mom! So after her graduation we drove back down to our house. Got home at around 11:30 I think . And woke up the next morning and we all drove to San Diego. My family came with us this time. It was a celebration for mom graduating and a celebration for Reyn starting P.A school. We figure it will prob be our last trip for a while. So we all went except Aubrey. :( She started a new job on Wed May 12th and wasn't able to to with us to graduation or to San Diego. She was very much missed!

Before we went to San Diego on Wed I think it was I took Royce to the doc. He had a really runny nose and was very whiny and clingy. And I wanted to make sure he didn't have an ear infection or anything. Well the doc said he was fine, no ear infections lungs were clear. Just a runny nose, maybe teething. And he had a little fever all week. Until we took him to the doc and all the sudden his temp was fine and they said he was just fine. Well we got to San Diego Friday and that night Royce started coughing really bad. And ended up with croup! UGH! I knew he was sick! Anyway I had some medicine that helped clear his nose and stop his coughing so he could sleep. But Friday night was not a fun night. I am grateful that I am a crazy mom and that I pack EVERYTHING for Royce. I don't go on any trips with out any and every medicine I can think of for Royce. And any and every outfit for any unexpected weather, Royce usually has the most luggage when we go anywhere. But I never regret packing so much. It always comes in handy.

So Saturday we walked down to the farmers market and got some amazing cherries! And played a little on the beach. It was pretty chilly, so we weren't going to play in the water. Royce just throws the sand he didn't care to go into the water this trip. He knew it was too cold to get in. We ate at Joe's crab shack for lunch and it was pretty good. Reyn and I shared a king crab bbq flavored. I have never eaten crab that way. And it was fun and way messy! Royce didn't eat most of the trip. Poor little guy was pretty sick. :( We just bundled him up and I would give him medicine and we would just each take turns holding him. He did love to hold our hands and walk with us. Which was great cuz it wore him out pretty good. He still got pretty good sleep after Friday night. He would nap for 2 or 3 hours and sleep at night 10 to 11 hours. The rest of the time we were there his croup cough went away he still has a cough. It just doesn't sound like a seal anymore.

Sunday we went to Coronado Island and hung out at Hotel Del. It was fun for my family they had never been there. So it was fun to take them over there. And we ate at Miguels! YUM! We LOVE Miguels! After that we drove back to the condo and put Royce down for a nap I think some went out for a walk while Royce slept. Once Royce woke up we all went down to the bay area and let Royce swing and play. Then on our way back to the condo we stopped for pizza. It was pretty good :) We had planned on coming home Sunday. But we all decided to stay one more day. So Reyn called in sick and we got to enjoy the rest of Sunday and made Smores :)

Monday morning we cleaned the house and packed up. It was sad to leave, but at the same time I was ready to get Royce home and in his own bed. It was a good long weekend. Royce being sick on a vacation is so hard on me. It is so draining! Over all we had a great relaxing trip.

I wasn't good at getting hardly any pictures this trip. I forgot my camera every time we did anything. Except I had my cell phone on me. But I didn't take more than 10 pictures the entire trip. Oooops.

Well that was our weekend. Busy busy!

Squaw Peak (Piestewa Peak‎) whatever peak hike :)

2010-05-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

We made it to the top! Well not quite the tippy top, it was too jagged to go all the way.

After the hike, the walk to the truck seemed like forever haha.

Last Saturday Reyn decided we needed to go hike. His partner from work came with us. And had to head to the top without us. I am in such horrible shape! But Reyn being the patient hubby he is stuck with me. And got me to the top. We did end up having an enjoyable time. It did get warm near the end. But it felt good when it was over. My calves were killing me for probably 3 days after. But it was that good kind of kill :), the kill of accomplishment. We are glad we were able to go on a hike nearing the summer. Probably the last hike for a while. Reyn's parents were able to watch Royce for us. So it all worked out :) I love spending time with Reyn. And I am thankful that he is patient with me and loves me.

Trip to Lakeside

2010-04-28T13:26:00.000-07:00

Gpa Borrego found this and had to buy it for his favorite grandson :)
Royce loves hanging out in the back of the truck. He yelled at me when I said he had to get out.
Reyn loading Royce in to the truck - getting ready to head home.

Well On April 24th we went up the Lakeside. My good friends from were getting married up there and had a beautiful reception. Every turned out so nice! We had a wonderful time at the reception seeing friends from high school. And visiting with the bride and groom on the dance floor. haha. That was the only time we were able to talk to them and it was when we were getting ready to leave. They had a wonderful dinner and I am so sad to say we didn't stay for dessert. My family kept Royce while we went to the reception. He didn't even care we were gone. He was having so much fun with his aunts and uncle and gma and gpa. We were gone about 3 hours I think and when we walked in the door Royce didn't even give us a hug or anything. Little stinker. Oh well. At least he had a great time. We got to visit a lot of people while we were up there. It was a lot of fun. I love the weather up there. But still not enough to bring me back up there. haha. I am sad I don't have more pictures to post I am terrible at remember to take pictures. Well that was that trip. Our next post will prob be San diego again in a few weeks. We are trying to get as many trips as we can in before we get in the routine of school.

5 year Anniversary

2010-04-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

Well Thurs April 15th Reyn and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! We took a vacation to San Diego! Reyn's parents came with us and helped out with Royce. They watched him while we went to a movie, they spoiled us to breakfasts, lunches and dinners. They were great company. We had a wonderful time. I can't believe it has already been 5 years that Reyn and I have been married. Where does the time go. I was telling Reyn that every year has brought us something new and exciting. SO every year is like our first anniversary together. Our first year of course was exciting because it was our first year. Our second year I just worked like crazy and he went to school like crazy. Our 3rd year we went to our ultra sound and found out we were having Royce and Reyn finished his bachelors and then he got a job and then we had Royce. Our 3rd year had a lot of exciting events. Our 4th year Reyn worked and worked and worked. I have been able to be home with Royce. Which has been a huge blessing! This year we have Reyn starting P.A school! SO it has been a very eventful 5 years. Many things have gone wonderfully for us. We have been so very blessed in so many ways. We feel like we met our 5 year goals. And now onto our 10 year goals! :) We are still very much in love and get along very well. I always hated when someone would ask us if we have had the "big one yet" - meaning the big blow out fight. Well I am happy and lucky to say that so far no we haven't. We are best friends. We get along so well. We don't have the perfect marriage by any means, but what we have works for us. I am so grateful for such an incredible husband. Reyn is so patient with me. Especially when I feel like a psycho path some days when it comes to Royce. We love our little Royce, but he sure can be defiant. And Reyn handles him so much better than me. Which teaches me to have better patients with him. Reyn is so good to us, to me. Some days I feel like I don't deserve him. Anyway we can't wait to see what this next year brings us as far as school. Reyn said I have to start preparing meals now. Which over the last 5 years I haven't had much opportunity for that. His schedule always keeps him out late. And I haven't had to make any dinners. Except for myself, which usually is a bowl of cereal. And then food for Royce. But now it is time for me to step it up and start cooking real meals and we finally get to have dinners together. I am very excited and very nervous. I like to cook, but I wouldn't say I am good at it. I have to start preparing a detailed shopping list and use up all the groceries each week on 3 meals. :) It's going to be good and interesting haha.
Well Happy 5 years to us! I love you Reyn ! Thanks for being the amazing husband you are! I will work on being the amazing wife and mom.

Catch up

2010-04-09T19:27:00.000-07:00

Well photo over load sorry! The pictures aren't in order and my computer doesn't let me write under each picture anymore. SO bare with me haha. On Mar 23 my family came down and hung out for a few days. It was their spring break so they came down to see Royce and be away from Lakeside for a bit. We went to the zoo. Royce really seemed to enjoy it I had Eva also that day and she was a good girl. Royce loved the flamingos and ducks the stared at them for a long time and jabbered on and on about them and or to them. It was so cute. He growled at almost every animal except the ducks he gave them a gack gack. haha. We had a great time with my family. Reyn had to work while they were here so Royce did all the entertaining. Which he doesn't mind he is such a funny little boy.

A while back Reyn brought home a news paper article on brownies. The ultimate brownie. So the other night I decided I was ready to make them and surprise Reyn. They were delicious, extremely rich though. One bite was enough for a few hours. I never got through one piece in one sitting I had to just graze haha. Anyway they turned out delicious and Reyn was happy :). It was a good surprise.

I had to post the silly pictures of Royce. He is getting so big. He is such a joy to have here. So the other day I put both kids in Royce's room to play while I tried to clean. I heard precious laughter from both babies. And I came in the room to find diapers scattered EVERYWHERE! I couldn't even get upset because both babies were having so much fun and laughing so hard. It was so funny and messy. Good thing they are cute. And their laughs are so contagious! They probably played with the diapers a good 20 minutes. I just let them throw them around and be crazy. The damage was already done so I just let them get it out of their systems. Royce and Eva are playing more and more these days and really becoming good little buddies. It has been really nice watching Eva because it gives Royce a sense of a sibling, kind of. He loves playing with Eva. When she is taking a nap and he woke up from his he walks by the pack and play where she is and he says "shhhh" and puts his finger to his lips. It is so cute. He is always giving Eva kisses and hugs. He is such a sweet little boy.

One more thing I want to talk about, so conference was AMAZING! I just love listening to the talks. I love that they spoke of families. And the importance of motherhood. I love that I can be a stay at home mom. I feel so blessed to be here for Royce for everything. And to witness first hand all his new discoveries. And I love that Reyn supports us and wants me to be a stay at home mom. Money gets tight at times. But Reyn and I know the importance in me being home with Royce. And we have been extremely blessed because of our faith. I am grateful to be apart of Royce's everyday life and growth. He wears me out often but I wouldn't change it for the world. I have so much to be grateful for. I have the most amazing husband who loves me always and always. I have an amazing family, both my side and Reyn's side. Reyn starts P.A. school in June we are both so excited and so scared. But we know we will be taken care of. Well that's all I have for now. Next week we are going to San Diego for our anniversary. SO hopefully I will have some good pictures :)

Horse back ride

2010-03-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

Saturday March 13th we went horse back riding with the Jensen's and Doug. We had a great time. We were able to have some girls from the ward watch Royce. Afterward my bum, hips, back and knees were killing me. But we had a good time. This is just a little collage of all the group. And some pictures of the dam and the ride. We enjoyed our time just riding in a single file. Our horses all thought they were hungry and kept stopping to eat. We had to kick them along and tell them who was boss. Good times. :)
I am way behind in posting. So bare with me. lol

P.s! Royce is 19 months today! Can't believe it! He is growing and doing wonderful! We love every minute with our crazy energetic 19 month old!

100th post!

2010-03-10T14:45:00.000-08:00

Well it's only taken me 2 years to get to 100 posts! I just figured I better post about it :) Since I don't have much else to post about today. ;) Just wanted to post a few pictures on 100 :) ya know, for entertainment. 100 years old, still healthy - the number 100 , just thought it looked cool. and 100 roses! love it!

Birthday post

2010-03-01T12:16:00.000-08:00

Well Friday Feb 26th was Reyn's birthday! He got the day off so we could celebrate! :) FUN FUN! Deena and Chip had an extra ipod nano, so I bought it from them for Reyn. Got a sweet deal on it :) Reyn loves it! And he wasn't even expecting it so that was even better. He will be getting a laptop soon for P.A school, so his family pitched in for one. We ate at Joe's farm grill in Gilbert. It was only our 2nd time eating there. It was delicious! I think Reyn had a great birthday. WE got to hang out all day. I know Royce and I enjoyed having him home. I am so grateful to be his wife! He is an amazing husband. He is so patient with me and so loving. And he is the best dad ever! He loves Royce so much and Royce loves him. They are little buds. I love to watch them interact and play together. I am very blessed to be married to my best friend. Reyn I hope your day was as wonderful as I thought it was. Thank you for being the greatest husband in the world! I love you!

p.s. I don't have many updated pictures of Reyn. I haven't been good with the camera lately. And we haven't really gone anywhere lately. So no pictures of trips or anything.

18 months

2010-02-25T07:09:00.000-08:00

Well yesterday Royce turned 18 months! He is learning and growing so much. His latest thing is sweeping, raking and mopping. He takes my broom out as often as he can and tries to help. We got Royce his own broom and dust pan at Toys R Us so he can help. And not carry around the giant kitchen broom. His broom is just his size and so far he likes it. At Reyn's parents house he carries the rake around everywhere. If i mop he is right behind me "helping." He likes climbing on everything that he can. He is still to short to get on our couch by himself. But he climbs into the drawer on the computer desk and just hangs out. He loves basketball, and he loves when Reyn helps him make baskets. He is a good boy. His vocabulary is still growing strong. He loves planes, trains and cars. He loves to play with Eva and she finally plays back. Before he would try to show her things or he would talk to her and she would crawl away. Now she is interacting back. It is fun to watch them play together and listen to them jabber back and forth. Royce just went to his 18 month check up and get his last shot til he is 2. Our doc brings in his dog once in a while and the day Royce was in the dog was there. Royce was going crazy, barking at the dog. And pointing at it say dog is his own way. He pretty much just says "Dddoo" Having the dog there was good for Royce it made getting the shot a little easier. He is such a tough guy :) Royce is still a little/big guy. He is only in like the 10% of the charts. But doc said he is developing just fine. And looking at his parents he doesn't have much of a chance. lol. So as long as he keeps gaining weight each appointment and keeps on developing then all is well. And so far he is doing great. He is such a smart baby. We love everyday with him. Even the not so easy days. I just wanted to blog a bit about Royce. I will be blogging again tomorrow.

Late Post of my Valentines day

2010-02-17T09:00:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning I woke up we got ready for the day. And Reyn said we are going out tonight. I asked who we were going to have watch Royce. He said it was already taken care of. So I pretty much left it at that. We had a pretty busy day Saturday. Reyn took Royce to Chase Field with our Brother in law. They got a tour of everything. There is a picture of a tire here posted - and it is for the players to hit, kick, throw things at, just take out their frustration. Reyn said they had a pretty good time. It's just hard to do much with an 18 month old. He was too small for the games and bouncy toys they had. Reyn ended up just carrying him around the whole time. But fun none the less. :) I was visiting my good friend and her baby in the hospital. Then I picked the boys up and Royce got a nap. Later around 7 p.m Aubrey showed up to watch Royce. Reyn told me earlier during the day that I had to dress nice for the dinner. I was getting pretty excited. I really didn't think we would do anything or much for each other for Vday. But Reyn sure surprised me. We pulled up to the Hyatt hotel and had 2 men open our doors for us. Valet parking, I knew it much be good :) Reyn asked if I was getting excited, of course I was! Then we walked into the hotel and Reyn asked where the Compass room was. And we were pointed the right direction - we got to the elevator it went fast, we got to the 24th floor and I noticed something was spinning. Making me feel dizzy. Then we got right in - Reyn had made reservations 2 weeks ahead of time! Good boy! We sat down, and we slowly rotated around and got a good view of Phoenix. It was wonderful! We had good food good service good views! And even better dessert! It was a fabulous surprise! I am so grateful for Reyn! I have been blessed with such a wonderful husband! We had a great time on our date just talking and laughing. He truly is my best friend. Thank you Reyn for such a great surprise. I love you!

It's been a while

2010-02-08T17:17:00.000-08:00

Royce - He has been sick for the last 3 1/2 weeks. He got his first ear infection on Jan 20th. And it turned out to be a double ear infection! We gave him his antibiotics faithfully for the full 7 days. He seemed to be doing fine. Then a few days later, he was tugging on his ear again! We had a really rough few days fever at 104 degrees! We took him to the doc and he had another ear ache again. Apparently it never healed from the first ear infection. SO the last few weeks have been miserable for Royce and us. He seems to be on the road of recovery. But that was what we thought 3 weeks ago. I just hope this really is the end of his sicknesses for a while. Poor little guy tries to be happy - but he is so miserable that he is just fussy and clingy. He hasn't been eating very good since he's been sick, so he has lost 1/2 a lb. It's been so hard seeing him sick and not happy. As long as he has motrin or tylenol in him he seems to be happy. SO the last 2 days I have been consistent with the meds - that's what the doc said to do.

So on a brighter note, Royce and Eva are becoming little buds! It's so cute to watch them play together and interact. He is always giving her kisses and hugs. And always trying to get her to smile or laugh. It's so cute! He is a sweet little boy. We love Royce so much! We are so grateful for him. Even when he is sick :). Hopefully he will be up to his healthy happy self soon. We are doing all we can to get him better. :)

Self motivation

2010-01-08T10:04:00.000-08:00

Well it is a new year! Can't believe 2009 has already come and gone! This year I have decided that I need to lose 15-20 lbs still! I can't handle feeling so big I'm my body! I don't fit into my clothes like I want to. And I still have my belly from having Royce. I do not like it! I need to lose as much weight as I can before becoming pregnant again. Which is still prob a year away. If all goes as planned. :) SO I do have sometime to really get my butt into shape! I just need to do it. I didn't realize how busy my life would be with Royce. And I started watching Eva again- which I love! I just don't give myself enough time to exercise and get myself into the body that I will like. I feel dumb blogging about this haha. But I feel like if I get it written down that I want to lose weight and see it then it could motivate me into it! haha. Pathetic. Well so far this week I have worked out only 2 times 40 mins each time. I need to do some exercises today. I must get my butt into gear! I need to feel better about the body I am in. That's all ;)

Christmas with the Gunnell's

2009-12-30T12:14:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Reyn got the day off. SO Christmas morning Reyn came and woke me up and we opened our presents to each other. Reyn made Christmas special this year! HE is such a great husband. Then we waited a little bit and Royce woke up. And we got him his breakfast and then into the living room to open his presents. He didn't really know what to do. He was just so excited to rip the paper off. Reyn got him a Cardinals jersey - # 11 Fitzgerald. :) Royce wore it all day. haha. After we got all our gifts opened and cleaned up a bit. And packed up the truck. We drove to Reyn's parents house to open presents with Reyn's family. We had the big gift for his dad in our truck - an air compressor. And on the way to their house the wrapping paper blew off. haha! SO we had to re wrap it before taking it into Reyn's parents house. We had a blast opening presents there. The whole family was there. We had breakfast and made the kids sing Christmas songs. It was fun. Royce just kept bringing me everyone's bows and ribbon from their presents. haha. I had like 20 of them in my lap by the time we were all done. He loved watching everyone and when one of the kids would get excited so would he. After opening everything at Reyn's parents we headed to Lakeside to be with my family. It was wonderful being up there. Royce loved walking around in the snow. He would fall and try to get up and then because he has a large head would face plant in the snow. Poor baby has chapped cheeks and forehead now from that. But we just played out in my parents yard. My brother and little sister pulled us around on the sled around the drive way. It was fun :) We didn't stay out very long, it was sooo cold! We had a really good time with my family. My mom made a really good turkey dinner Christmas day. And my grandma and aunt came. Saturday we hung out and just enjoyed the day. Sunday we went and fed the ducks. Royce's first time. He loves to quack like a duck. He says "gack gack" haha! it's so cute! He followed them around and tried to talk to them. We got to church early so we could be there for Donny. He got set apart, he is a teacher now, no more deacon! It is crazy! He is growing up so fast! We are all really proud of him for doing what's right. We just stayed for sacrament. Then came back to my parents house loaded up the truck and came back home. It was a busy enjoyable weekend! We had a very wonderful Christmas. We are very blessed. We have great families! We have so much to be grateful for! We hope everyone has a HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2010 here we come!

16 months already!

2009-12-24T10:24:00.000-08:00

Well Royce is 16 months today! I can't believe it! He is so much fun! Growing so fast! HE is a happy over all healthy little toddler. He's mischievous and always getting into something.
The first picture of Royce is his haircut! We finally cut his beach baby hair. Sad to see how much it made him look older. :(
Second and 3rd picture - i let him check himself out in the mirror. He just talked to himself and loved it!
4th picture the stinker got into the drawer in the kitchen and emptied everything out. he was very proud of his accomplishment. Me not so much haha.
5th and last picture, royce stole my corn dog off my plate. and chomped away. haha. He didn't eat much because he did already eat. But he really wanted it. so off he went with it.
We have a ladder in our computer room area and Mr busy body started climbing it. so we need to really watch him now in everything he does.
He is always doing things to make us laugh. he still fake sneezes often. for attention and for trying to distract me from him getting in trouble. He is constantly smiling at me and kissing me. He is such a loving little boy! We are so grateful for his precious spirit that he brings to our home. We love every minute with our little guy!
Merry Christmas Eve today!
And a Very Merry Christmas tomorrow!

Disneyland trip

2009-12-10T11:58:00.000-08:00

Every year around this time, Dec 7Th we celebrate Stephanie's birthday. She is Reyn's older sister that passed away 20 years ago. We get together in her loving memory and celebrate all the things she loved in her life. This year we went to Disneyland. There was about 18 of us all together. Reyn's siblings and kids. We had a wonderful time doing the things that Stephanie loved to do.

On Saturday December 5Th we left for San Diego. We stayed the night there with Reyn's parents ate at Lotsa Pasta! Yum! Then Sunday afternoon we headed to our hotel in Anaheim. We stayed in the Paradise Pier Hotel. It was pretty nice. The whole family was there. It was good to have all of us together hanging out. Monday morning we all went to Disneyland. Which was FREEZING! It rained all day! It was quite the adventure. We all headed out to the park at 8 a.m or so and by 10:30 I had had enough. It was so hard to be out in that freezing rain with Royce. I did have a lot of help, it just wasn't enjoyable worrying about Royce the whole time. If he was warm if he was covered. All that stuff. We did get to go on the Indiana Jones ride. Marlo (Reyn's older sister) watched Royce so Reyn and I could go. Then we did the Pirates of the Caribbean. Royce was wide eyed the whole time looking around. Not sure what was going on. He was pointing and jabbering to me. It was cute. Then we did the Haunted mansion ride. Royce and I rode with Landis (our niece). Again Royce was just wide eyed taking it all in. Monday afternoon after lunch the 3 of us (reyn, royce and I) all went up for a nap. Around 6 we went back out to the park once our clothes were dried off. Which by the way I ironed dry. The jeans and socks and sweaters. I didn't know how soon we would be going back down so I wanted everything warm when we did. So we went back out and went to California Adventures. Where Eric (our bro in law) grabbed Royce from us and told us we had to go on the Soaring Ride. SO we did. And we really liked it. After that we went to the Toy Story Ride. Where you wear 3D glasses and you have a string to pull your "gun" and hit as many targets as you can for points. That was a fun little ride/game. I had Royce on my lap so I didn't participate in every target shoot out. After the Toy Story ride we had to run back to the hotel. We had dinner reservations. We had a really enjoyable time with the family at dinner the food was good. The waitress brought us out 2 of everything because the kitchen was "so far away" from our table. So she didn't want to have us not get a drink because she wasn't to us right when we needed her. Then Ellen, Paula and Doug presented a gift to the kids. They had individual books made for each sibling of things that they did with Stephanie during her time here. It was really neat. After dinner we all headed up to our rooms. Then we all crowded into 1 room and had cake - red velvet with chocolate chip and cream cheese frosting! DELICIOUS! I think that was the kind of cake, haha. Anyway so then Marlo presented Doug with a gift she had put together. She made a memory box of all of Stephanie's things. Accomplishments, pictures, likes, many things that represent who Stephanie is/was. It was pretty special! After that we all went to bed. And went our separate ways on Tuesday. We went back to Disneyland for a little bit. Hit up Toon Town and let Royce run wild. We got a picture with Goofy. And then headed on out. We took Deena home lucky girl got to sit in the back with Royce the whole 7 hours. Well we stopped in Blythe for dinner and gas. Royce was pretty good on the way home. Oh I forgot to mention Royce was sick before we left for California. He must of had a virus or something. SO that was the other reason it was really hard with him. There is nothing worse than a sick kid on vacation.
Sorry this post is so long, it's more for journal purposes for me than anything.
That was our vacation to California! Enjoy!

15 months and 7 days

2009-12-01T15:32:00.000-08:00

royce loves playing in his little bus! it's a great learning toy for him.

Royce and cousin Jhade. Royce linked his arm with hers. sooo cute!

Royce playing with uncle Donny's hummer.

Checking under the hood

Royce loves to read his books. And I love that Royce loves to read his books.

He saw I had the camera out, so i had to take a picture of him.

we went into Aunt Amanda's work and we dressed him up.

Royce loves to try to get Eva to laugh. They are good little friends. it's fun to watch them interact.

Well I totally suck at updating about Royce! He is our little fifteen month old now. I can't believe it! 3 more months and he will be in NURSERY! So weird! Where does the time go?! Royce is a lot of fun. He is learning to communicate with us through sign language. I need to continue teaching more words. SO far he signs more, eat and please. Which him just knowing those 3 really helps. It keeps him from screaming at us to get what he wants. We just have him show us what he wants more of and he sometimes does please. I've been trying to teach him milk and all done. But it all takes time. I am just glad he is communicating with me. Royce just recently started folding his hands and jabbering a prayer when we are saying prayer. It's so fun. He is learning so much! We really have to watch what we do and say around him because he is a little copy cat. He says mom, dad, papa, ball, down, and i think he tries to say cool. haha. which cracks me up. I know he says more things. but I'm not sure what they are I'm not even sure he knows what they are. haha. Royce LOVES music. He will dance to any kind of music. He also loves spinning in circles. We call it his spin mode. we have to watch him carefully because he gets pretty dizzy. He also does a little jig. haha. where he just quick steps in place and sometimes moves his hands too. It is soo soo funny! He is a good little boy. He loves other kids. His new thing lately is waving and saying hi! he will wave at anyone. and says hi to everyone. it's so sweet. he is a joy to have in our home. we are so grateful for our little wild boy. He loves when Eva is here. they play together so well. he tries to sit on her. she pulls his hair. and neither cry about it. so it must not hurt either kid. it's been good for Royce to have Eva come over here 3 days a week. it is teaching him patience. and it is teaching me patience and how to manage 2 kids. Luckily though our next kid won't be 5 months younger than Royce. Haha.
Well that's the latest on Royce. I suck at updating on him like i used to.

weekend pictures

2009-11-25T09:20:00.000-08:00

Well this last weekend Nov 21 and 22nd my family was here. So we had Thanksgiving on Sunday. Since my parents and younger siblings were here and my 2 sisters both had work off we had our Thanksgiving early. It was delicious! We then went over to the temple and took family pictures. Which Royce is getting harder and harder to get pictures with. HE always has to have something to entertain him. So the cell phone the football. Whatever kept him quiet and kind of focused. We had a great time with the family.

And this Thursday Royce and I are heading to the Gunnell Thanksgiving. With out Reyn :( Then that evening my 2 sisters are coming over here for some Mexican food! Tacos and beans and salsa and chips! SO MUCH FOOD! Oh well it's the holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Diaper cake

2009-11-18T08:15:00.000-08:00

Well on Saturday we went up to Lakeside. My good friend Cynda had a baby shower. So I made her a diaper cake! My first time making one. I loved how it turned out. Cynda and her hubby are big hunters. I always say Cynda is my redneck friend. :) SO on the cake there is a white tail deer and some bear slippers. And some of the ribbon is in pink camouflage. She loved it! It was so fun to put together. We had a great weekend up there. We didn't get to stay long. But we enjoyed the time with the family. Royce liked climbing up and down my parents stairs and playing with uncle Donny's hummer.

P.A school here we come!

2009-11-06T08:11:00.000-08:00

REYN GOT ACCEPTED INTO AT-STILL! It's here in Mesa! It was our first choice! SO EXCITING! He starts P.A. School in June 2010!

CHANGES

2009-10-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

today Reyn and I have been married 4 and a half years! whoa, haha

Royce looking for more cookie

waiting for the cookies to bake, i told him the oven was hot, so he was blowing on it. haha

helping momma make cookies. he was having so much fun.

licking his plate - he had spaghetti

Well many things are changing with Royce. Little stinker quit eating his baby food. He only wants to feed himself now. SO I have to make sure everything I give him is made a finger food. HE is still learning what a plate is and still figuring out the fork and spoon. He empties off the plate onto his tray every time. Why do i even bother giving him a plate. Well i want him to learn that a plate is where his food goes. instead of his tray. But it's a learning/growing process for him. so i spend a lot of time sweeping and cleaning around his area. He is becoming such a big boy. We have to stop leaving important things around now, out of his reach. Because he is getting tall enough to reach everything. He gets on his little tippy toes and blindly grabs for things and pulls them down. Another thing i have to watch out for is paper and books. he is our little goat. he eats paper, envelopes, his books. lots of chunks taken out of his books. I must not be feeding him enough if he feels the need to eat paper. Weird little billy goat boy haha.

Reyn got accepted into Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. It's a Physician assistant program! It starts in June 2010. Right now we aren't 100% sure where or what we will be doing. Reyn has an interview here in Mesa, at a P.A school called AT-STILL tomorrow morning. So we will see how that goes. He has 2 more interviews coming up both in California. So we will just see how these other interviews go. And then weigh out our options. But for now for sure Reyn is in a program! WE are so excited, it's an answer to our prayers! SO now we have the next 7 -8 months to plan and we finally have a light to the end of our tunnel! We are so blessed.

Royce loves to be outside

2009-09-30T09:01:00.000-07:00

his first time on the swing. He was pointing at an airplane asking "What's that?"

first time going down the slide, not much of a reaction

Riding on the Zebra, he was so thirsty he didn't really care about anything else.

Going for a walk in our neighborhood. He stops to look at everything on the ground and in the air.

Well I am sooo glad that the weather is getting better! I love winters in Mesa! So nice! And now that it is finally cooling down we can go outside! Which Royce LOVES! He always wants to go on walks and ask me what everything is. Not that he knows or really understands what he is saying. But it's cute and fun to talk with him. And have him jabber back at me. He says a few things that I think he knows the meaning. But over all it is just jibber jabber. We have so much fun with Royce he is getting so big so fast! So we are really trying hard to soak it all in. And enjoy every minute of him.

Update

2009-09-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

Well today Reyn flew out to Philadelphia. He has an interview at PCOM, a Physician assistant program. He interviewed with PCOM in Jan 09, but was put on a waiting list. This year he was invited to go to their first week of interviews. Which is a very good thing. :) When he interviewed in Jan it was their last week of interviews. SO there is a good chance that they like his application and they could give him a seat at their school for their upcoming classes. Him interviewing now gets him into the June 2010 classes. We are hoping and praying that he gets accepted. Tomorrow he interviews he will do just fine we just hope they agree and accept him.
Reyn also has 2 other interviews in October. One on Oct 23rd, he flies out to California to interview at USC. And then the other one here in Mesa at At-Still on Oct 30th. We are very excited for these interviews. We are praying that somewhere will let us in so we can start the next chapter in our lives. We are anxious and ready to get P.A. school done and over with. We know it will be rough, but the end result will be well worth it.

On another note Royce is growing sooo fast! He is mostly walking everywhere. Still a bit wobbly and does settle for a crawl once in a while. He follows me around the house now sometimes happy, usually whining, haha. But he is so much fun. He is always trying to get us to laugh. His latest thing is fake sneezing. Donny would fake sneeze every time he saw Royce and it would make Royce laugh. Now Royce fake sneezes to make us laugh. He also does it so I will say "Bless you" to him. Which makes him laugh too. He is so funny! We love our little guy. He keeps us busy often. Right now he is cutting his molars. Well trying anyways, they have not been soo fun to deal with. He is actually in a lot of pain and isn't eating half as good. And he gets grouchy. But hopefully these dang molars will come in soon and we won't have to put up with grouchy Royce too much longer. Poor bub.

Well that's about all to talk about for now.

BUSY BODY!

2009-09-03T20:34:00.000-07:00

Royce discovered that he can reach the piano. He is always playing :)

He loves his new rocking chair. He is always climbing on it and standing on it and moving it around. He gets it to the piano and climbs the rocking chair and then stands on the arm of it and gets on his tippy toes and tries to climb onto the piano. So i have to watch him even more now, he is a busy busy boy! (like his kissy face?)

This picture! He is pretty much walking! He will walk from the couch to the tv. And from the coffee table to the couch. He randomly just stands up and walks where ever he wants to go. He is still a beginner, but soon to be an expert. He is such a big boy! I can't believe he is just about walking full time. It is a sad/exciting/rewarding feeling! i can't believe it! (like his tongue hanging out?) it helps him balance i guess. Well our little baby is becoming our little boy! We love you Royce!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET BOY!!!!!!

2009-08-24T21:03:00.000-07:00

Royce's new walker/rider from his aunts and uncles on the Gunnell side

he hauls booty with this walker, til he hits a wall or a couch, then he whines til i turn him around.

Royce and his cousin Sayla in Lakeside, playing with his new barn from gma and gpa Borrego

the kids all surrounding the walker/rider

the giant pizza's for the par-tay

Royce in his new rocking chair from Gma and Gpa - and uncle and aunt Borrego

Eating his 2nd cupcake ever in his life so far. He didn't devour it like he did the first

Eating his first cupcake so far in his life. He loved it. Made a huge mess.

Well our little man is a year old today! He is soo much fun! We love every minute with him. He is growing up too quick for us! I am not ready for him to become a toddler. But it is coming rather I like it or not. We went up to Lakeside on Sat and had a little family (my mom's side) party for Royce. He loved when we sang to him, he was soo excited. He loved his cupcake, well half of it. We had a great time up there with family. Royce got some cute clothes and a rocking chair and a little barn with little animals. Then we came back home. And we had a party for him with Reyn's side of the family. He got his walker/rider. And some more cute clothes. A pair of shoes from Nama & Bopa Gunnell. And he got another cupcake. He is such a joy to have in our home. We love our little boy so much! He is such a blessing. Happy Birthday Royce! We love you son!

San Diego August 09

2009-08-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

Ah another amazing trip to San Diego! We got to go for 5 days this time :) We had such a wonderful time! Our friends Clay and Jewelia came up for a few days and we enjoyed having them there with us. Their baby is a week younger than Royce, sooo cute :) We did a lot of walking and relaxing. The weather was gorgeous like always. SO we just soaked it all in. We are so grateful to Reyn's parents for allowing us to spend time there with them. They are so gracious every time we go. They spoil us rotten. We really appreciate them. And their house in San Diego ;)

11 MONTHS OLD ALREADY!

2009-07-24T21:41:00.000-07:00

Being a goofball, this is what happens when he is very tired, he gets slap happy crazy.

I got him to stop laughing and acting silly.

what is this face, haha, he is too cool

we shared a banana, this was his mouth full.

Well another month has come and gone, our little boy is almost a year old! Yikes!! He is a little terror, haha, into everything and anything. Royce is learning and growing so much! We love our little boy. He is such a fun little guy. I just wanted to make sure I posted that he was 11 months old today. Since every month I have posted for him. Most posts are about him. But today is one month closer to a year old! Time flys when you are having fun!

We got an elliptical!

2009-07-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

Well over the last few months we have been discussing how we would like to have our own elliptical. So yesterday Reyn went on Craig's list and searched and searched and called around. And we came across this awesome machine! It is a big heavy elliptical, so far no problems with it. I worked out on it for 10 minutes and almost died. haha, but it will be easier the more I push myself, and allow myself to ease into it. I am so excited for this purchase!

KITTY RESCUE!

2009-07-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

Jeff came over to assess the situation with the cat - which happened to actually be a kitten. Poor little guy :( Well Jeff didn't think he was going to be the hero of the night. He was just seeing what could be done with out having to tear our fire place apart. Earlier in the day we had a Chimney Sweep come out and see if he could pull the kitten out with his snare. Well that was unsuccessful. The kitty pushed itself into the corner and was hissing and putting up a good fight. He did tell us that if someone was small enough they could possibly go through the damper and get the cat out. But we would have to break the damper. And put someones face at risk of getting clawed off. So he recommended we have the fire department come - which there was no way we wanted them over. They would bring in hammers and axes and break our fire place to pieces to get the cat out. We know this because we called a fire fighter who is a friend of Jeff's. So then the other recommendation Gary Poppins ( The Chimney Sweep guy) had was to call his friend Jimmy who does masonry. He could give us an estimate and let us know what it would take to get the cat out. Which was cutting a hole in the fire place, reaching in and pulling the cat out and the repairing the hole. Well we were not about to pay hundreds to thousands of dollars to get a cat out that wasn't ours. So we didn't have Jimmy come out and give the estimate. So we were kind of at a loss with what to do. Around 6 p.m Jeff called me and said he was going to come over to check it out. He shows up in a white t shirt and tan shorts! haha! Anyway- This is bad, but he brought a gun over with him to possibly kill the cat and take it out of it's misery. And then light a huge fire and see if it would burn the cat and the smell. When he got here he poked his head in the fire place and noticed that he could fit his hand up into the damper. So he went to the roof and used the 2 by 4 to poke the kitty and try to get it cornered so he could reach in and get it from inside. So about an hour went by and he was still trying to figure out how to get the cat to stand up and he could yank it out. It was so funny! Very comical night - watching and listening to him and his son converse about how to get the cat cornered. All of the sudden Jeff arches his back and shoves his arm further into the damper yells out and then pulls out this screaming meowing kitten! We put it in the cat trap and offered it some tuna. Which it would not take, still scared out of its mind. Poor kitty! But Jeff got it out alive and we don't have murder of a cat on our hands! Such a relief. And we didn't have to leave our house! It was an amazing event. A life was saved and we have peace and quiet in our fire place again. Jeff looked like a coal miner when he was all done. The area around the fire place was covered in soot. And Jeff left my shower and bathroom messy with soot. And he left his clothing here for me to wash - while he wore home Reyn's clothing. But we didn't have to pay any money, we didn't have to kill anything and we got to sleep at our house with out a cat meowing loud as ever.

San Diego

2009-07-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

Royce throwing the clumps of sand.

hanging out in the stroller.

OK well we went to San Diego the last 4 days. got back last night. it was such a wonderful trip! we didn't want to come home. but we are going back next month so it's ok. Royce was a good boy. he is so easy going. as long as we let him get his naps in he is fun. we got up there Friday night late. and it messed Royce up - he is in bed between 8 and 9. And we had him in the truck driving at this time. So we get to San Diego at like 11 p.m and we stayed up and talked with Reyn's parents for a bit. which kept Royce awake. then the whole night he was up like every 2 hours. we finally had to put him in our bed, which we never do. and he kicked us and kept us awake -while he was asleep. little stinker. so Saturday i got I'm back on his schedule of naps and he slept all night :). we took him to the beach. when the water got to his feet he would raise one foot. it was so funny. he never cried while we were in the water or sitting on the towel in the sand. he didn't like the sand too much though, he only wanted to pick up the clumps. and when they broke he would throw it. he is our little water baby, he loves it so much. we had a great time with Reyn's parents they were there with us sat and sun. then Mon morning they left. so we had the condo to ourselves Mon and Tues. it was such a relaxing trip. i love San Diego. i can't wait til we go back in august!

So on another note when we got home last night, we heard a cat meowing in our fire place. The stinking cat is stuck in there. We can't reach it, it is stuck between the wall and the fire place. I called Animal Control the lady said they won't/can't help us. ! What good is Animal Control if they won't get the dang cat out of my fire place! Ugh! So they told me to call a Chimney Sweep company. I did, and I had to leave a message. The guy will/should call me back tonight at 6 or 7 to make an appt. Mean while I have a cat stuck, and it is loud and annoying probably scared to death! It is such a pain in the butt! Our neighborhood is full of cats, so i already don't like them and I am allergic to the dumb things. It just makes me mad that our neighborhood has like 50 stray cats running around. And one of those cats is in my fire place! Ugh! Hopefully we will be rid of it tonight or tomorrow. Poor cat, but poor us for listening to that awful meowing!

10 MONTHS OLD!

2009-06-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

This little crazy baby is 10 months old today! Holy cow! Haha! These are a lot of the faces of Royce. He is growing so fast, and becoming very vocal. He sings and hums and spits and does random shout outs. He loves to chew on the remote and cell phones. He is standing up on everything and now lets go for a minute and then drops to the floor. He always goes to the tv and knows he isn't supposed to. He manages to push one button usually the power button. And Reyn or I go after him and he stands there yelling, haha, it's funny. but we try not to laugh, because then he keeps doing it. He follows me around the house now, and climbs my leg and says "mmmammma" it's cute. He discovered the blinds in the house and goes to them often. He still LOVES to swim. He loves other babies. He is very social and happy. So far he sleeps about 10 to 12 hours at night. And he takes a 2 hour nap in the morning and another 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Some days vary. But over all he is a good sleeper. We are so blessed to have him in our home. He is such a joy in our lives. He is such a busy little person. We love him and are thankful for his sweet spirit.

It's been a while

2009-06-15T10:18:00.000-07:00

eating his puffs :)

my ice cream cake

my new shoes :)

Bubba swimming with Gpa Borrego

Well it has been a while since I have last posted. This weekend was a busy fun weekend. My sister Amanda came down on Wednesday she helped me with Royce. Saturday was my birthday. The family came down except Aubrey. It was weird to not have Aubrey here. She was missed. We hung out on Saturday, went swimming ate at Texas Roadhouse, and I got my ice cream cake ;) YUM! Sunday off to church and then say our goodbyes to my family. Except Amanda. She is here til this afternoon. She is getting ready to move down here. And is getting what she can done for MCC and for institute and all the fun stuff. :) I had a great birthday got money, shoes, beach towels and I think we are going to get the automatic start put on my truck. So that will be my bday and father's day gift to both Reyn and I. :) Thank you to my family for coming down and spending time with us. And for the great gifts ! I love you. Thank you Reyn for being the greatest husband ever.

9 MONTHS OLD!

2009-05-24T18:45:00.000-07:00

Our little man is 9 months today! Holy cow, where does the time go?!? 4 days ago he learned how to crawl, it's so funny. So far I'm ok with him crawling because he doesn't know he can get anywhere yet. He just crawls to you if there is an incentive, a cell phone, or keys or something entertaining to him. He won't crawl on our flagstone flooring yet, I wouldn't either. So that is limiting him to just the carpet in the living room.

We had to lower his crib mattress yesterday. He learned how to stand up in it, and cry at the door for us. Little stinker. Also yesterday Reyn left him in the living room surrounded by his toys. Reyn walked around the corner to make sure he was doing ok. And Royce had Reyn's cell phone in his mouth. Reyn said he left his cell phone on the couch on a pillow. So Royce crawled to the couch and pulled himself up and found the cell phone. Royce jumps on the couch every time he is on it. He pulls himself up onto everything. He is getting so big. It's scary how quickly they grow. We love our little boy. He brings so much joy to our home.

Royce Crawling

2009-05-22T12:55:00.000-07:00

He was wanting to get to Aunt Aubrey's phone.

Royce LOVES the pool!

2009-05-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

After swimming, I had to

We took Royce swimming on Saturday. He LOVES IT! He is our little fish. It's so fun to watch him play in the water. He splashes and laughs and kicks and dips his face in. Haha, it's so stinking funny! He will be in the pool often this summer ;)