Number 9 is here!

Here is the exciting news... Number 9 grandbaby is here! Dalin Harold Gunnell arrived yesterday at 10:01 pm weighing in at 7lbs 11 oz and 21 inches long. He is a cutie... but of course he is... so are his parents! Everyone is doing great!

Everyone playing Phase 10 while Teresa is in labor!

Teresa won!

Grammy and Dalin

Daddy and Dalin

Mom and dad and Dalin
Yay! Teresa finally gets to eat!!

Exciting!

Something exciting is happening today! That's all I'm gonna say! Ok... I'll give ya a hint... 9 ... that's it... 9 .... Stay tuned for pics!

Craft night part one...

We had another great craft/pizza/brownie night. Thanks to Mikes great WOODWORKING skills (NOT to be confused with CRAFTING skills)... we made some cute snowmen. We all couldn't be there and we want to do some more so we will be doing more this weekend sometime! Here are some highlights:
Everyone is painting.... INCLUDING Erin.... Way to go Erin! We knew you were hiding your crafting skills!

Future crafters!

Some of the finished projects!

Will cut wood for brownies!

Missionary letter...

We get emails once a week now, but they are pretty short, cuz of time and he can only send one email. So we cherish whatever he can get to us. I guess we should have had him get his typping speed a little faster before he left!

I'm going to try to find out about the dear elder thing. If anyone can tell me anything about it please let me know!

Here are some excerpts:

Hey everyone ola!The highlight of this week was that Jeffery R Holland came here and spoke with us and plastered in our heads that we would never ever think about going home! It was a good and powerful talk. 5 out 6 people in our district got their visas but i get to call home once i get mine so act like i will be here forever until i call. Anyone can send emails but i can only send 1 a week. and i can get pictures.... It is still cold here but it hasn't snowed agian. ... 28 new missionaries came in waiting for visas to brazil this week. 3 came from brazil to learn english so we have been talking to them but it is really hard cuz they talk really fast. My companionship is now a trio with the other elders in my room and its working out really well. My other companion was super funny but it was hard to keep him on track sometimes. anything going on in the outside world? Evrything is the same here. We don't have any classes on thanksgiving so we don't know what we are going to do with all the extra time, we have our days planned to at least every hour. I'm staying busy, there is a thing called dear elder and you write emails to it and i get it in letter form you could try that bye

Just one more favorite store....

This is Thursday and that reminded me of one of my other favorite stores.... Real Deals. It's only open two days a week, Thursday and Saturday. It's a decor store. It's on Baseline and McDonald. Very cool stuff and really good prices. Get on their mailing list and they will send you coupons. Here is the link to the Mesa store:
http://www.realdeals.net/AA/flash/index.html

Another new favorite store...

http://www.hobbylobby.com/home.cfm

One of my new favorite stores is Hobby Lobby! I don't know if anyone remembers the little Hobby Lobby on Gilbert and Baseline.... my boys and I went there lots to get pinewood derby parts and it was quite the men's store. There were model airplanes, rockets, cars and always guys standing around talking guy hobbies... they loved it. So when I saw the new Hobby Lobby open on Greenfield and Baseline, I had flashbacks of ... well.... guy crafts! But was I ever wrong. Girls... if ya haven't been there ya gotta go! They are all over the US, and another one is gonna open just east of me in December. I posted the link, cuz you can get coupons on it. Happy crafting!

And the answer is...

Trent did his Winter Formal answer tonight. Somewhere among those hundreds of sticky notes are the letters .... Y... E... S! Be sure to check back for the Winter Formal "picture".

Email!!!

We got an email from Brandon.... well.... Trent got an email. Brandon couldn't remember mine... guess I should of wrote it down for him! We still don't know about his Visa, but he's having a great time in Provo.... except for the cold. He was only required to bring one suit to warm Brazil and I'm afraid he'll have it worn out before he gets there! Here are some excerpts:

...It'sbeen real fun so far and i am learning a ton of things. Hopefully i get my visa soon because its cold here now and I'm tired of wearing only 1 suit everywhere... This week we taught our first lesson to an actual volunteer investigator. We had to go for 5 min introducing ourselves and getting to know our investigator all in portuguese. Then we taught the lesson in english, My companion and I thought we did really well even though we were nervous at the begining. I've gotten to know my roomies/district/other elders on our floor really well now and its like we've friends forever but its only been a week and a half. Tuesdays we have firesides and general authortity usually come but this week we had enzio bousche and his wife. He use to be in the quarom of the seventy and he told his conversion story and it was amazing. ...Sunday was also a very spiritual day because almost the entire day you are listening to talks and we can walk to the temple, which is bigger inside than it looks, and it is very pretty too. I'm doing fine here at the mtc ...Tchao

Winter Formal....

I can't believe it's that time of year again... yep... time for some lucky fellow to be asked to Winter Formal! Trent was surprised the other night when he came home to find his room had been transformed into a winter wonderland! After the ice melted he found that he had been asked by Taylor... I can't reveal his response, so stay tuned for pictures of the "answer"!

Missionary letter...

We got another letter from Brandon! He already wrote stuff in Portuguese... he's only been there a week! .... so here are some english excerpts:
We are learning so many things right now, with the amount of stuff we do it feels like I've been here forever but at the same time I just got here! I already know how to say a prayer in Portuguese. ... we are learning the restoration in Portuguese and we have to teach it on Thursday! ... The food is good... We also have to go to a lot of devotionals and they are very spititual and the speakers are really good. Surprisingly I've slept pretty good compared to the other elders. Some are still homesick.... We had gym for the first time today... I about died because of the thin air. I'm sitting here doing laundry... there are 5 other missionaries in my district waiting on their visas, so I'm not the only one. I'm learning a lot and growing spiritualy.... see you later... Elder Brandon Lewis

He also said he will be setting up email soon, so maybe we'll get some pictures soon!

HAPPY VETERAN'S DAY!!!

I just want to thank all the military past and present for working so hard to keep America free. A great BIG extra special thanks goes to Dustin who is far away from us in Afghanistan... working while we sleep to do his part in preserving our freedoms and to his sweet family for supporting him! Also thanks to my brother for serving 30 years! And also thanks to those on the other side now... my dad, my uncle and my grandpas and all others that served. Our country is great! God Bless America!!!

Letter from our missionary!!

YAY!!! We got our first letter ... in snail mail.... no email yet. Here are some excerpts:

Hey family - I have to write this letter to tell you guys that I'm alive and they didn't kill me. It's pretty cool here my companion is in the same predicament as me and he is going to Goiania too..... I am a senior companion..... Our floor is really energetic and the guys are funny.... It's pretty cold here... The food is good...tomorrow we start portuguese with the Portugal elders so it's a little different. ... There is a sister in my district from England and I can't describe how cool she sounds when she talks. ....Talk to you later! Brandon

It's great to see his sense of humor and that he's having a great time. So now it's waiting time again .. hopefully an email..... waiting.... waiting....

withdrawals......

Wow.... I think I'm on family activity/party withdrawals.... life was back to the normal routine this weekend.... whatever normal is and I'm sure it won't last long. So our weekend went something like this.... Friday evening Mike and I tried a Bavarian restaurant. Very YUM! I think one of my new favorite foods is spaetzel! Then after a yummy homemade breakfast on Saturday morning, I did the coupon thing and saved lots of money at the grocery store and Mike did the around the house stuff and Trent was at a service project all day. Saturday night was our traditional steak dinner, then Trent went out with friends, and Mike and I watched a movie on our comfy couch... Church on Sunday was great, even with an empty spot on our bench... Sunday afternoon was quiet... AND cloudy, soooooo.... I HAD to bake... Mike requested brownies... and I tried a new beef and broccoli stir fry for dinner. Sunday evening was still quiet... Mike was reading and Trent was gone... so I watched the food channel with my bowl of popcorn.... alone..... Brandon and I used to watch the food channel a LOT.... (he'll never know I told the whole world this bit of personal info!) ... and one of our favorite shows was the Food challenge. So even without my food channel buddy, I enjoyed the show and stayed up til WAY late.... 9:00!

The MTC experience!

Brandon's mission officially started on Wednesday! After our great Thanksgiving feast on Sunday, we spent Monday and Tuesday shopping and eating out. Yum...Tuesday night Teresa made one of Brandon's favorite meals.... Hawaiian haystacks.... YUM again... Then.... Brandon packed and we were up bright and early to catch our flights! We landed with a bit of snow coming down and it was a LITTLE chilly... in the 30's! Then we drove to Provo (in lots of snow) and along the way we met up with some long time family friends... with Sarah while we ate lunch at McDonalds... (yep Brandon's last lunch at McDonalds!).... then we met Jana at the MTC. The routine at the MTC was slightly different than when Dustin went... but the memories flooded back at we entered. We had a nice orientation that started with a very fast and lively "Called to Serve" a few short talks and of course the "Called to Serve" video!... and then it was goodbye... final hugs.. then out the door... we went to the right and Brandon went to the left! THEN.... drive back to the airport for us (in the snow) and home before 8. It was a fast great experience. Next step.... waiting for an email from Brandon...... waiting... waiting... waiting....

With some of the neices and nephews Tuesday night

Ready to go At the Phoenix airport

Landing in the snowAt the Salt Lake airportDriving in the snow!McDonaldsSarah and her kidsWaiting for BrandonAt the MTCGoing inJana and ParkerMom and her missionary

Back through the snow!

Happy Thanksgiving already!

Thanksgiving.... along with the Thanksgiving chicken... has already come and gone at our house! We did the big celebration before Brandon had to leave.... We had a visit from the Thanksgiving chicken.... (hey... we're on a budget)... and of course LOTS of yummy food. The evening ended with a family devotional and Brandon being set apart as a full time missionary. We truly have LOTS to be thankful for!

No Visa!!

Well.... Brandon was suppose to leave for Brazil today, but his Visa hasn't come!..... Soooo.... The church called the other day and said.... no problem... (they are so calm and it was no big deal) ... we'll just send him to Provo til his visa comes. Sooooo.... we are actually VERY excited! He will get two MTC experiences and we are flying up to do the MTC orientation with him! We all leave tomorrow!

Brandon getting all his stuff ready to pack!