Happy 27th to Marcus!

Wow. I am married to a twenty-seven year old. The number sounds old, but Mark sure doesn't seem that way. I can't figure out if it's because I'm so mature, or because he's so immature. Neither one seems accurate. I guess it's mostly because we have reached the point where the number becomes a little meaningless. In fact, I had to do some serious thinking to figure out how old we were both becoming this year; factored in when I graduated, the year we got married, etc. etc.

But that doesn't mean that birthdays are meaningless. Who doesn't secretly love a day that celebrates them?

Well Mark doesn't. Birthdays/holidays are generally a bit stressful for me; I love a big party and hoopla, while he prefers quiet togetherness. It's hard to decide which to go for. Should I do what I think would be awesome, and just tell him to get used to it, or do I celebrate in a more simple way? This year I think we reached a pretty good mix of the two: I secretly stuffed his backpack with confetti, and then while he was in class I enlisted Angel (our friendly security guard) to help me decorate the gym for Mark's lunch break. (He works there between classes.) The crowning decoration ended up being the statement written on the white board: "It is your birthday." (Office!) I then hustled back home and baked and sliced and diced, and returned with burritos, fruit, and a heaping plate of Raspberry Supreme. Wonderful Jeff got the word out to his classmates, and we sung happy birthday and scarfed. Quite precious.

Brotha James (a.k.a. Santiago) bought an ice cream cake. Mark ate it all by himself after I had left. I suppose I shouldn't be mad about that.


That evening we pulled out our lovely new grill for the second time ever and had a feast! Salmon, BBQ chicken, asparagus, peppers, zuchini, and pineapple ... ended up being the best meal we'd had in quite some time. To top it all off, I gave him a new white Sunday shirt and we watched the final four on the Biggest Loser. (WHY did Michael win??)

It was a good day. Love you Marcus, hope I'm getting better at making all your birthday wishes come true.

Happy Birthday to Mom

I don't think I know of anybody in the world who knows my mother and doesn't love her to pieces. She is possibly the kindest, most personable, most real-life person in existence. That I am aware of, anyway. I especially love her now that I am a bit older and am getting to know her on a more "equal" level, dare I say. Of course I don't think I could ever quite match her, it has been great to talk about so many similar life experiences.

So mother, I sure love you. Thank you for being born, for daring to live a good life, and for raising us all. It's cliche but it's true; you never know how much your mom really did for you until you have kids of your own.

Turns out she does quite a lot.

Love you Mama.

Gunn Hotel - 5 Stars

We sure like having people over. Sure makes everything more entertaining. Recently we had Chris and Brooke; one of Mark's buddies from USU and his adorable wife. They are very funny. And they are wonderful babysitters ... I actually got to take a shower, do my hair AND makeup without dancing around and making faces in an effort to entertain Mac.

Lovely.



So of course we tried to treat them reeeeally good. Besides their 5-day Mexican Riviera cruise, we:

• Made much tasty food, including but not limited to: Iron Chef Marinara Pasta, breadsticks, twice-baked potatoes, FIRST EVER BBQ ON THE NEW GRILL (featuring chicken and steak), Sunday dinner (aka roast and potatoes), banana french toast, bonfire polish dogs on the beach ... just to name a few.
• Went out to eat at a couple favorites. Yogurtland was a hit, and curry ... well ... they left us with a lot of leftovers. Thank you.
• Movies on our fabulous t.v. on the fabulous entertainment center (with it's newly-added shelves, thank you Mark), and our somewhat-fabulous surround sound.
• Dominated Bowser.
• Explored the vast selection of the swap meet.
• Witnessed the domination of the Angels over the A's.

• Laughed with the locals from church at a beach bonfire.
• Meandered through a jungle of crazy plants.

Our home is going to be fairly empty over the next few months. Won't you join us?

8 Months

Happy 8 month birthday to my boy! Some fun facts:

• He is a WONDERFUL eater; he'll down almost anything! Sometimes it seems like he prefers little chunks of food over the pureed stuff. Probably feels good on his aching gums. His favorites include avocados, applesauce, mangos, sweet potatoes, bread, yogurt ... and his most daring include Lori's Lasagna and spinach -- if it's been cooked with butter and garlic. This kid loves flavor!
• Two vicious little teeth. Super cute, but don't let him chomp on you. He'll do it.
• He licks his teeth and gums almost constantly, not to mention the drool. It's kind of precious.
• He's really into this squinty smile lately, he does it whether he's happy or sad.
  
• He is ridiculously wiggly. Loves climbing up your torso when you are attempting to hold him.
• Still not quite crawling, still hates being on his belly. He will get on all fours occasionally, and has other ways of getting around. Namely hollering till I pick him up.
• He likes to pretend to be a bird; he flaps his arms at everything.
• Things that are very funny include Dad sniffing him like a puppy (Mark feels that Mac needs a dog, and as this is currently impossible, he's willing to fill in for now.), belly eating, little brown teddy bears, flying through the air, and peek-a-boo.
• Fingers are still very tasty.
• The bouncer is his favorite toy, for about 10 minutes at a time.
• Toy trucks are great; flashy, chewable, and movable.
• He is starting to "kiss", but we need to teach him to tone it down a bit. Tongue is always included.
• He loves to squeal and babble. Quite the talker.
  
• He is occasionally stranger-shy, if tired enough. I kind of like it; he snuggles very close.
• And one of my most exciting mile-stones, he is finally on a two-a-day nap schedule! We'll see how long it lasts.
  

5 Year Olds

I teach them at church. They are hilarious. I wish I could laugh out loud without making them feel silly. Here are some favorites from last week's lesson:

Shannon (my team teacher): Does anyone know what healing is?
Kaden: When a scab turns to skin.

When asked what everyone had done throughout their week, little red-haired Nathan rubs his head so very tenderly and says: "Wull, my hair looks really nice." I want a red-head.

Shannon shows them a picture of a kid receiving a blessing, and Nathan states: "That boy is being prayed."

We played a game, and it greatly affected Miles. This was his closing prayer: "Dear Heavenly and the Father . . . thank you that we could play a game, even though the girls won. We know it doesn't matter."

I can't wait for Mac to say cool things like this, I hope I remember to write them all down.

Day of Mothers

It was my first. Official one, anyway. I was just starting to get round at this time last year! So I was contemplating what I wanted to write about Mother's Day, and I'm pretty sure I could go on for page after electronic page. I LOVE Becca's post, she gave some real, comprehensible life to my feelings! It's just ... hard to describe, I guess. Being a mom just makes me feel more of everything.

I've been talking to a couple friends of mine who are about to have their first baby, and it has been so fun! They ask questions about preparing, and I remember doing the same. Gee, what a crazy time of life that is. So many emotions ranging from giddy excitement to plain fear. And also a desire to know what to feel; it's just crazy. Anyway, what it really boils down to is that nothing can prepare you, but you'll be fine. We can be around kids our whole lives, but it is just so different when you have complete responsibility for such a little person, who happens to be an exciting mixture of you and your sweetheart, all bundled in a helpless, irresistible package. It's very busy work, but a different kind of busy from anything you've ever experienced. So really, nothing can prepare you for it. But in that desperate scramble to nurture and provide without any real guidelines, you end up pouring all of your self into it, and that ends up being exactly what your little one needs.

It's just ... very important.

So, in honor of this great day, we called our mothers, notified them of some nifty little packages in the mail, had an enormous breakfast (thank you Mark!) and enjoyed church, Sunday Dinner, naps, walks, Pete's Dragon, books, Mario, and cookies interlaced throughout. Best of all we had Brooke and Chris with us, who happen to be visiting from Logan. They are hilarious, an absolute riot to talk to.

And Mark said some very nice things. "Plain and precious" comes to mind. There is just something about a sincere compliment from Mark ... it's very wonderful. And we are getting a grill for a combined Mother's day/Mark's birthday present ... can't WAIT!

The sister missionaries stopped by, they had made this for me!






I love these ladies. Thank you Sister Choi and Sister Funaki!

Craftyness

Well I am not yet very crafty in the clothing sense, but my friend Lindy surely is. She made a lot of stuff for the young women's fundraiser we went to the other night, and they were a hit! In fact, she will make you almost anything for a small fee. If you are an aspiring photographer or just want something unique, let me know and I will pass it on to Lindy. She is quite skilled. These are her specialty:


She makes all sorts of colors!

Fundraisers

Last week was a week of fundraisers. Apparently here in California, Girls Camp and Scout Camp are ridiculously expensive. Which should have been obvious to me; everything is expensive here, even the outdoors. Probably especially the outdoors, as they are more difficult to come by. Well every ward holds a fundraiser or two so the kids can earn a little cash to get to their fun-filled week of spiritual and personal growth.

First we went to our current ward's fundraiser, a 50's sock hop and auction. We had burgers, a bake sale (my rollo cookies were a hit!), and basically looked cool:

Yeah, Mark's got a comb in his pocket too.


The next night was our old ward's Luau/auction fundraiser, and we just had to go! As a sizable portion of the ward is Polynesian, it ends up being quite the cultural experience. An enormous, real Hawiian BBQ by our very favorite Darren Hatori, and several traditional dances! The boys did the Haka (spelling??), the young women attempted some hula dancing, and they even brought in some real Tahitian dancers; one of the young women competes on a team.

This is Alvin, he sang and played a Ukulele. WOW that boy can sing. And he's huge. I told him and he said "Why thank you." We had him hold Mac for a while in hopes that some of that would rub off.

And the Hatori ladies, my favorites!! Somer, Ilaina, and Kiani. We were in young women's and pregnant together. I'm not going to lie, I'm going to do everything I can to get Mac and Kiani married someday. I am all for arranged marriages, as long as it's me doing the arranging. I think my wishes might have a sporting chance ... Mac definitely got into the haka (kept flapping is arms and squealing while the boys were dancing) and he could not take his eyes off the Tahitian dancers! So if Kiani can learn to wiggle her hips like crazy, I think it will be a done deal. :)

Dad

Well . . . I have wanted to blog about all my family members on their birthdays, and already I have messed up!!! Dad's birthday was April 17th, and I forgot to send him some blog love. Gee I should do all the Gunns too .... I'll contemplate that.

So Dad, sorry this is so belated, but happy happy day!

My Pops is fantastic. He filled our minds with beautiful, creative stories; inspired us to dream, to love, and made sure we learned how to work. He is definitely a man who believes strongly in self-sufficiency, but I always knew he would do anything for us. My dad is not super open with people he doesn't know, though he is always kind. Somehow he pulls off two very different personas: one a stern, intimidating hulk of a man who squints his eyes and purses his lips when he isn't happy. (Like say, his oldest daughter happens to have a bunch of friends over and some of them are boys and are hanging out in her room ... gee I still remember him coming in and just staring at everyone with his arms folded, till one by one they disappeared. I think he melted them with lasers from his eyes. Oh I was so mad!) But those who know him at all know that he is just a big cuddly teddy bear who loves to laugh and is quite passionate and imaginative. No boy I ever dated ever saw that side of him, (except for Mark, which is one of the many reasons I just had to marry him) but all my girlfriends just thought he was precious.

I love to see Dad with all his brothers and sisters. Our Thomas family reunions never fail to be quite thoroughly entertaining. Dad picked up the role as the peace-maker, I think. Where most of the family is strong-willed and sarcastic, Dad is forgiving and sincere. Its fun to see their personalities bounce off of one another. I remember being probably ... ten or something like that, and my hilarious cousin Paige decided to label each family. I'm not sure what everyone else got pegged with, but my family was titled the goofy family. I'm pretty sure I was offended. As I have grown a bit, I have learned how true it is, and now love it!

Thanks Pops, for being so wonderful. Now I have turned him into a Grandpa, or Bumpa as we will call him, and wow is he good at that. I think the years have worn away almost all of that "stern" side of him I remember as a kid, and Mac is going to be spoiled rotten. Can't wait.

Week 2 Break Adventures

This was another superb week. We had a fantastic spring break; I'm really glad we stuck around and got to know our area a bit better. Now we know more fun things to do if you ever come visit us! Here are some lessons learned:

• Visiting teachers can be fun. Incredible, actually. Especially when they provide you and your husband with tickets to accompany them to an Angel's game for visiting teaching that month. Mine must be inspired. Thanks Janae.
• Tide Pools provide hours of entertainment. Poking anemones, finding shells, even seeing enormous slugs, cute barking seals, and dolphins. Lindy and Ryan know all the secrets of Southern California.
• People in Corona del Mar are wealthy. Their houses are fun to stare at.
  
• Mark does not even need to try in order to annihilate everyone at Clue. In fact, he will just guess on his third turn and win. Twice. In a row.
• Jeff is slightly less recognizable without a bandanna. Mac enjoys the colorful foreheads. He also thoroughly enjoys Jeff's adorable date. He is already a lady killer. I'm going to have my hands full in the future, I think.
• Bridger loves my homemade Cafe Rio burritos. Gabe does not. However, Gabe likes them more than pumpkin pancakes; there is no dry heaving when forced to have a bite.
  
• Gabe does, however, like buttermilk syrup.
  
• Mac loves Bridger's face. And Gabe's. And Madelyn's singing. And Colin's studliness.
• Mac likes little people.
• Ceely has some awesome friends.
• If you happen to go to the beach and it is windy and miserable, try again the next day. If it is again, go a third day. It's destined to be good weather one of the three; this is California we're talking about here.
• Don't ever park in the three minute parking and leave your kids in the car while you buy a delicious raspberry-cream cheese donut. You will be confronted by a mean little woman.
• Mark is a good boy scout; he can roast twenty hot dogs and fifteen s'mores in a stolen fire pit at break-neck speed with ease.

• Movie night should be every night.
• Ikea will never let you down.
• The sound of crashing waves will put Mac to sleep every time.
  

• Hot tubs are great for relaxing after a cold windy day at the beach; also good for cleaning off a bunch of sandy, sticky kids before they go in your house.
• Everyone should have Ceely and Alicia come stay at your house. They will spoil you rotten.