Four Gunnells in Spring

Sometimes I take pics on my phone and they come out pretty well. Other times, not so much (I'm still trying to decide whether I'd actually use a manual camera if I had one...my phone is just much more convenient (and less heavy, fragile, cumbersome, confusing, difficult to upload and edit, what else...). 

This spring, us Gunnells have been like busy little honey bees. 

I saw this sign at TJMaxx the other day (I'm sure you already have seen it on my Instagram if you follow me, but it's cool if you don't;) and I love it and came very close to buying it but I had to narrow down my cart a bit. But then I realized later that ironically I just deep-cleaned the oven and stove top and even under the stove top in preparation for our pending move. I was hoping to stay on top of keeping it clean for the next two and a half months so it won't be such a chore when the day comes. I hope that still makes me a good mom. You can definitely test my floors for stickiness though. Or any other surface in our apartment.

Aside from trying to keep the blasted oven clean, I have gradually been packing away our unimportant crap (which, I've realized, is most of it) and given away/sold quite a bit. 

I've also been doing lots of schoolwork and lots of playing outside with Tenley. I kind of feel like I've been drowning lately. Not from the playing. Definitely from the overload of schoolwork. But there's only two and a half weeks left in the semester, and grades don't matter that much anymore so I'm kind of just hanging in there. 

These sum up what else we've been doing lately:

After my BYU English class

Blurry, but too cute with her little pony. And I love that she sat down on that ball after seeing me do it haha. 

We went fishing on Memorial Day for the first time in forever. We went much too late in the day, but it was still relaxing and fun to take Tenley and Declan together.

It looks like Dalin is holding a wand here haha. He's about to curse someone. 

I love Declan's concentration

My good childhood friend, Emily, got married and my cousin Whitney, best friend Sarah, and Emily's cousin Melanie were all there:)

Back with most of the old group from Laconia Ward! Payson, Melanie, Whitney, (me and my two crazy kids), Mack, Mike (not from Laconia but he's the groom;), Emily, Sarah, Seth, and Andrew. 

This was from our TJMaxx trip. Tenley had to kiss Declan's head.

She loved how soft the dog bed was. She kept saying "pillow! mine?"

Tenley's favorite part of Popcorn Popping is taking "an armful and mak[ing] a treat: a popcorn ball that would smell so sweet" haha. She's always really eager to get to that part. 

Happy highlights:

+As we were going in to TJMaxx, we were just exiting the car, when an older gentleman saw that I had my hands full with the kids and offered to help me, so I had him carry the little trash bag from our car up to a garbage for me so I could hold the two kids. It was really nice of him. 

+Also at TJMaxx (apparently I must have looked like I was struggling), the young man who checked me out (of the store...I feel like I have to clarify that) offered to carry my bags to the car because he could see I was a little overwhelmed (Tenley was probably yelling or something...I just tune her out) so he walked us out to the car, loaded my trunk, then offered to buckle Tenley in her car seat for me so I let him. I was so appreciative of his willingness to help. 

+Right after TJMaxx, at Tropical (tied with Cafe Rio as my favorite place right now), the guy who took my smoothie order poured some into a little cup with a lid and straw for Tenley. He was really nice. 

+Tenley still cannot say the alphabet very accurately, but it turns out those baby alphabet apps actually are good for something. Tenley hadn't played the abc app we downloaded a while ago in a couple months because she was bored of it (and I hadn't really let her use my phone as much) but recently she clicked on the quiz in the abc app where it gives you four letters to choose from and the voice says, "Find the F!" or whatever letter, and Tenley was getting them all right! I kept hearing the little "F!" that happens after you select the right answer. I couldn't believe how well she did. But it makes me happy that she can identify so many of the letters! 

+Another app that has turned out to be useful was the English learning app that has a body parts category. The voice says, "Click on...elbow." Tenley did super well on the body parts! She would touch her own "knee" or "hair" after clicking on the right answer. It cracks me up. 

+We're still working on numbers...Tenley refuses to say "one" but always says "two!" or even "three!" as we count. But when I say "Say one," she always just says, "two." Once though, I asked her what came after one, and she answered all the way up to five. So I think she knows, she just refuses to say them most of the time. 

+Tenley loves birds and our stinky neighborhood cats (I've seen 5 different ones...I'm not a fan). She always points them out a mile away and says "Cat!" or "Bird!" which is pretty cute. 

+I've tried to be more fun and spontaneous with Tenley. We noticed the sprinklers were on watering the new plants just put in recently, so I grabbed Tenley and we jumped in puddles and through the little sprinklers and got so wet, but it was a blast. A muddy, messy blast, but well worth it I think. I love seeing the joy on her little face. 

That's us these days. Did I mention those first three random acts of kindness all happened on the same day? I don't think it was National Help-A-Struggling-Mom Day, but it might have been.

Happy Sunday, friends.