In Which We Discover the Gunnells Are Still Alive...

I'd be surprised if anyone actually checks this anymore since it's been almost 3 years since I've updated...  I'll try and do a HUGE life update here soon, but we all know how well that's worked out in the past.  I have an idea though and I wanted to get it down in here before I get distracted by life again. :)

Since Brent has been in school and money has gotten a little tight around here, I've been trying really hard to be on top of menu planning.  I started out with just doing a week at a time, but decided to bump it up to two weeks at a time to cut down on grocery store trips and hopefully stretch our grocery budget a little farther.  We've done really well at that for the last few months, so this month I decided it was time to plan a month of meals out.  I know a lot of people do this for their dinners, my sister included, so I knew it was doable.  After planning two weeks for so long, it's actually been a pretty easy switch for me.  The hardest part is planning a month's worth of lunches since Cal and I are home all day.  Breakfast and dinner = easy peasy.  Lunch = what do we eat??!

Anyways, in an effort to help myself out in the future, I thought I'd post our monthly menu on the blog (maybe by weeks though?).  I have a Food I've Actually Made board on Pinterest where I keep track of recipes I've made and make notes on changes, but you're only allowed so many characters and some times my changes or ideas are a little more extensive than they allow.  Plus, that's just full of recipe links, not actual meal plans.  I also have a spreadsheet on Google Sheets that I make our meal plans in, and it is fairly organized, but in order to keep the spreadsheet neat and pretty I don't detail a lot of changes in there (I'm realizing this all makes me sound a little obsessive about menu planning, lol).  I figured by posting my menu on here, I'd have easy access to our menu plans AND I'd have unlimited space to detail changes/gripes/ideas for next time.

So...COMING SOON...our monthly menu plan and (hopefully) a little update about our lives!

Until then, keep giggling!

Michelle

In Which We Show Gratitude for 2016

Here's our Gratitude/Blessing Jar entries for 2016:

~ Calvin is two!! (June)
~ October Temple Date:  Sealings on our anniversary with our original sealer! ♡
~ I worked at Coach Outlet for the Holidays (November - December)
~ Calvin's speech & signing are really taking off! (mid. April)
~ Dad & Tracy were sealed/married! 3-12-16
~ March temple date (Dad & Tracy's sealing)
~ I worked at the Puyallup Fair (September)
~ We had a Christmas Elf send us money. - Around Christmas, we received an anonymous card in the mail with some money to help us have a merry Christmas while Brent was in school.
~ My dining room chairs went on super-duper clearance at Fred Meyer!!! :D
~ Brent's last day at ACE Parking! 3-11-16
~ January temple date! :D
~ Calvin had fun in nursery at church with nursery leaders Sisters King and Strauss!
~ Play dates with Heather and Logan!
~ Mom & Jonathan moved to Yelm - now they're only an hour away! (April)
~ We're approved for basic food assistance and WIC checks while Brent is in school.
~ We've had Nessie for a year! (December)
~ 5 years of marriage!!! 10-22-16
~ Brent (miraculously) started the Bio Med Tech program at Bates! (March)

In Which We Show Gratitude for 2015

A few years ago, we started a Blessings Jar.  It sits on a table, in our front hall, next to a basket with note cards and markers waiting for us to fill it.  In theory, we write down blessings or things we're grateful for as they happen and then put them in the jar.  Then, on New Year's Eve, we open the jar and look back over all of the good things that happened to us over the last year.  In reality, we rack our brains at the end of the year to remember all of the blessings we've seen, write them down and then stuff them in zippy bag labeled with the year.  I also had the idea to put them in a blog post so they'd be easier to find if we ever wanted to look at them again.  

Since I've been MIA on the blog for the last couple years, I've got some blessings to catch-up on...  So, in no particular order, here's our Blessing Jar notes from 2015:

~ Pantry Shelves! (August)  - Dad and Kyle built us some shelves in our pantry!

~ Nessie came to live with us! (December) - Sarah left for school and we took her cat in. :)

~ Dad and Tracy got engaged! (December)

~ Brent's last Holiday Season at ACE Parking!!!!

~ Mom watched Cal so we could go to tea for Valentine's!

~ Girl Scout Cookies!

~ Church at 1pm!! :D

~ We bought the CR-V! (September)

~ Brent took a stay-cation the beginning of February.

~ Calvin got a highchair!

~ Calvin turned one!!! (June)

~ All of the Gunnell siblings in town in July & August!

~ Gunnell family sealing team at the Seattle Temple!

~ A new battery made "Joe" reliable again! - Joe is Brent's '97 Civic

~ "Thanks for hosting us!  We love you! <3 Andrew & MB" - Andrew and Mary Beth stayed with us when everyone was in town.

~ Walking Baby!!  Eeek... (August)

I'm positive there were more things we could've included, but those are the things we remembered.

Oh Boy!

Last night was the first of two baby showers that have been planned for Calvin and me!  My wonderful visiting teachers, Amber and Lindzee, planned it and hosted it at Amber's.  It was so sweet of them!  I forgot to take pictures when I got there, but they decorated it so cute!  Everything was yellow, grey and different shades of blue.  There were lots of little sail boats on the banners and signs posted all over.  I'll add pictures later of the decorations they gave me to take home, but until then here's what the invite looked like:

How cute is that?!  The decorations and colors for the party pretty much followed the same theme. :)

There were about a dozen ladies from church who showed up to help celebrate Calvin's upcoming arrival.  We started the evening with a yogurt and donut bar - yumm!  They had these cute little paper bowls with blue or yellow chevron patterns on them that we used to build our own yogurt parfaits.  There was plain and vanilla yogurt that you could top with granola, toasted coconut, sliced almonds, mini chocolate chips, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and black berries.  Yogurt has been one of my "go to" pregnancy snacks - especially vanilla Greek yogurt with fruit and cereal - so I LOVED having a yogurt bar there last night!  There were also little homemade lemon and chocolate donuts that were so good - I think I ate like half a dozen of the lemon ones... :)

After we all chatted and enjoyed the goodies it was time for some games!  For the first game, Amber took me out of the room while Lindzee handed out a questionnaire to everyone asking questions about what I was wearing.  Once everyone was as finished as they could be with that I was allowed back in the room and we went over the answers to see who got the most right.  The winner this round was my wonderful mother in law!  Way to go!
The next game we played was a guessing game of sorts.  There were brown paper bags set up as a banner that read "BABY SHOWER".  Each bag had one of those letters on it and then an object inside that started with that letter and had to do with babies.  We passed all the bags around and made our best guesses as to what was inside each one.  After we were all done writing down our guesses, Lindzee opened the bags so we could all check if we were right.  Briana and I ended up in a tie, but she guessed the most difficult of all (O for Oral jel) so she won the tie-breaker.  That was a pretty fun game and I'll definitely keep it in mind for any baby showers that I might host in the future!
We also played the game where everyone gets a pacifier necklace and if you get caught saying the word "baby" you have to give up your necklace to the person who catches you.  Elizabeth ended up winning that one, I think she ended up with 6 or 7 necklaces!  She was all over that one! :)

After games it was time for me to open gifts while everyone else filled out little slips of paper with their wishes for Calvin!  I got so many wonderful things for little Cal - he is so loved! :)  I'll come back later and post some pictures of the cute things he got!

It was a great evening and I'm so thankful for the wonderful ladies in our ward who took the time to plan or attend the shower last night to show their love for our little boy!

I have another shower tomorrow morning, and I'll try to be better about getting some pictures from this one so I have some pictures to share!

Keep giggling!
Michelle

Getting Up to Date!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I'm not very good at this blogging thing...and I'm willing to bet that my blogging frequency is not going to drastically improve anytime soon.

For those who don't know (which should be nobody since anyone who reads this is probably also on facebook or is family), I'm pregnant!!  Brent and I are expecting our first child in June!  Calvin Barrett Gunnell should be joining our family sometime around Father's Day - my due date is Friday, June 13th.  I just hit the 34 week mark on today, so only about 6 more weeks until we get to  meet our little boy!  We are so excited - and slightly overwhelmed!  There is so much we still need to get done to prepare for his arrival...it makes my head spin sometimes, or maybe that's just a symptom caused by all these extra pregnancy hormones?  So many random things are explained away by hormones...stuffy nose, carpal tunnel, forgetfulness, the list goes on.  It's all worth it in the end though, right? :)  Here's a few of the pictures that I have so far (I didn't take very many at the beginning since I was so sick...nobody wants to see how pathetic I looked anyways, I promise...).

We announced our pregnancy to my extended family (and then Facebook) with delicious cupcakes!  Who doesn't get excited about cupcakes AND babies?! :)

We've had the name "Calvin" picked out for a long time, so when we went in for our gender ultrasound we brought Hobbes with us, just in case!  Good thing we did, he certainly was happy to help us announce the exciting news! :D

This is my most recent bump picture.  April 11, 2014 - 31 weeks!!

Other than growing a human being, I haven't really been up to much the last 7 months or so.  Brent, on the other hand, has been working super hard in school and at his job!  He's pretty much amazing. :)  He's been at his job since March 1st of last year and he's worked his way up a little on the totem pole.  He is now the night shift supervisor/team captain.  He still does valet, but now  he mostly is the cashier and directs things on the drive at the hotel.  This position came with a little bit of a raise and is full time!  Full time = insurance = we can have a baby! :)  He also just had his annual performance review and pretty much rocked it!  He got a small raise and was told that if he's interested in moving up into management in the next year or so to just let his bosses know!  Way to go, Brent! :)  He works so hard for us and we are so blessed to be able to get by on his income alone!  Heavenly Father has really been taking care of us and helping us to start expanding our little family. :)

I'm almost to the Dr's appointment every week phase of pregnancy, so we do lots of trips up to South Hill for that.  We started our Childbirth Preparation Classes (or as we like to call them, Baby Poppin' Classes) 3 and a half weeks ago.  We meet every Tuesday evening at Valley Medical Center with about 14 other couples.  It's a seven week course with a reunion after all the babies are born - probably sometime in late July or early August.  I know a lot of people say that the classes aren't worth the time or money - the baby is coming out whether you're prepared or not - but, I'm really glad we've been able to work Brent's schedule around this so we can take them together.  It's nice to be able to at least pretend that we'll have any idea what's happening when we head to the hospital, lol.  So, that's where things stand for us right now.  We're just making sure we're registered for all the things we think we need, I'm getting ready for my baby showers next week and we're just working on getting things ready for Calvin's arrival!

Keep giggling!
Michelle

Not Your Grandma's Peach Cobbler!

So, we've been buying peaches from Costco the past few weeks and they are delicious!  So juicy and perfectly ripe - yummy!  I've mostly been using them for fresh smoothies with my new Vitamix (so excited about that purchase!!) or slicing them up with a bowl of vanilla greek yogurt!  I'm going to use them to make some Peach Chiffon Pie for a pie contest at our Relief Society monthly meeting next week too!  I'll share that recipe when I've got pictures to go with it.

Last night though, I didn't just want a smoothie or peaches with yogurt.  I wanted something warm and gooey and peachy and delicious.  So, I headed to Pinterest, of course!  And there, towards the top of my feed, was exactly what I was looking for!  Butterscotch Caramel Peach Cobbler.  Yep.  I was drooling.  So, I headed over to Parsley, Sage and Sweet and  took a quick peek at the ingredients and directions and then we were off!  About an hour later, this was in my kitchen, smelling delicious and begging to be eaten.

Mmmm...I think I'll go downstairs and get some more. :)

We  had no problem obliging and dug in to bowls topped with whipped cream, or in Brent's case chocolate ice cream and whipped cream...lol, love that man! :)

A few notes and then I'll get to the recipe for you.

• This is one of those magic cake recipes.  As you assemble the layers DO NOT STIR!  Add each layer gently, not mixing at all, and as it bakes the batter will rise up to the top, creating a lovely crust.
• I used an 8x8 glass pyrex baking dish.  It was a tad small and ended up bubbling over (hence the foil underneath the pan in the picture).  Next time, and there will be a next tiime, I'll use a 9x9 or double it and throw it in a 9x13.  If you don't have a 9x9 just put a foil lined pan underneath your baking dish to prevent a sticky mess.
• The recipe calls for a stick of melted butter in the pan, but I thought it was too much.  Maybe it would have worked out better if my pan had been bigger, but I had about a quarter cup of melted butter puddled on the top of my cobbler when I pulled it out of the oven.  I think next time I'll just melt half a stick of butter in the pan.
• You can use this as a base recipe for any fruit cobbler.  I think it would make an amazing apple cobbler - yumm!!  If you want to make a berry cobbler Lisa suggests, and I agree, making the simple syrup, letting it cool and then stirring the berries in right before you spoon it over the melted butter and batter, otherwise you'll end up with a jam cobbler...That's what I did here:  cooked the peaches and simple syrup, set them aside to cool while I made the batter and then stirred in the raspberries right before spooning it all on top.

Now, on to this delicious recipe!

Butterscotch Caramel Peach Cobbler

From Lisa at Parsley, Sage and Sweet

For the peach layer:

1.5 - 2lbs of fresh peaches, pealed, pitted and sliced. (about 3-4 large peaches or 3-4 cups)

3/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar (I think ours was light brown...it was good though!)

1/4 Cup Butter

1/2 Cup Water
1 Cup Fresh Raspberries (Optional)

For the Batter:

1 Stick or 1/2 Cup Butter, melted in baking dish

1 Cup Flour

1.5 Teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1/2 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Milk (If you want a thicker crust only use 1/2 Cup)

1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1.  Preheat oven to 350 F

2.  Combine brown sugar, water and 1/4 cup butter in a saucepan and mix well.  Bring to a boil and simmer until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved.  Stir in sliced peaches, and simmer for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and let stand while preparing batter.

3.  Melt the stick of butter in your baking dish.

4.  In a bowl, combine dry batter ingredients.  Slowly pour milk and vanilla in, stirring until smooth.

5.  Pour batter over melted butter, don't stir!  The butter will float to the top, but that's okay.

6.  If using berries, stir them into the syrup mixture now.  Then carefully spoon the fruit and syrup over the batter.  Again, don't stir!  Keep those three layers as separated as possible

7.  Place in the oven (I put a foil lined cookie sheet on the bottom rack in case of spillage) and bake for 40-50 minutes.  The batter rises to the top while cooking and will be golden brown when it's done.  Serve warm with whipped cream, ice cream, yogurt, whatever suits your fancy!

8.  Enjoy! :)

So, there you have it!  I hope you try this out, especially as the summer progresses and peaches become more readily available!

Keep giggling!

Michelle

Once Upon a Time, I Blogged...

Like I've said before, I'm not very good at this whole blogging thing....but you can't say I didn't warn you! :D

So, what have we been up to, you ask?  Well, let me tell you!

Last time I blogged I shared a delicious recipe with you - did anyone make that ice cream?  It was seriously to die for!  The best ice cream of my life!  I can't wait until next Easter so I can buy more of those mini creme eggs and make it again! :)

Before that post though, there was a recap post leaving you hanging with what happened to our lives after our trip to Utah in October and our adventures in Seattle to see Wicked!  A lot has happened since October, and I'm not very good at blogging so nobody knows!  Okay, so chances are that if you read our blog you are family or we know you in real life and we're probably Facebook friends so you really are privy to what's going on in our lives (I really just wanted to use the word "privy"...).  And our lives are so exciting...let me tell you...*cue crickets chirping*...Okay, so yeah...we're actually kind of boring.  Anyways, enough of this rambling paragraph.  Here's what we've been up to since October (yikes!  That was forever ago...)

So, the holiday season was lovely.  We did Thanksgiving out in Port Townsend with family on my mom's side.  Delicious food and good times were had by all. :)  Christmas we stayed pretty local.  Brent's family, except for his oldest sister and her family, came over for a few days leading up to Christmas and a day or two after.  We had a full house!  People were sleeping in every room, including the laundry room/pantry!  It was crazy and fun and wonderful!  We did Christmas Eve and morning here and then we all went to go see Les Mis - which was amazing!  After Les Mis, Brent and I made the rounds to go see my family and finally came home and passed out - it was a busy day!  New Year's Eve was just a quiet night at home, watching the Space Needle Fireworks on Komo and toasting with Martinelli's Sparkling Cider. :)

I continued to work at Eddie Bauer through the holiday season and into the new year.  I quit at the beginning of February after 2.5 years back from school and almost a year before going to school.  I originally put in my 2 weeks because I thought I had another job lined up, but that fell through.  I probably could have stayed on at EB, but you know how it is when you've already mentally said goodbye to a place - I was done and a little burnt out on retail.  Since then, I haven't really been looking for a new job.  We only have one car and live almost 3 miles from the nearest bus stop, so I've just been staying home and trying to be all Suzy home-maker. ;)

On Valentine's Day, Brent interviewed for a new job in downtown Bellevue and then we headed down to Sumner for a Valentine's tea at The Secret Garden Tea Room.  I've been there several times with family and friends, but this was Brent's first time there - and I'm so glad he enjoyed it! :)  It's an old Victorian mansion turned into a tea room and gift shop and it's just lovely!  They serve full English High Tea  services, along with light teas and a lunch menu.  I highly recommend checking it out! : )

My husband is kind of a ham...and I love him, a lot. :)

About a week after Valentine's Day, we took a weekend trip down to our honeymoon spot in Gig Harbor.  It was so nice to just get away and celebrate us for a few days!  We stayed at the same place that we went to on our honeymoon, The Waterfront Inn and in the same room even (they only have a few rooms).  It's a cute little place, right on the water and down the street from Anthony's.  The only bummer was that since our honeymoon they've stopped serving breakfast. :(  We are so glad that we chose to go somewhere close and affordable on our honeymoon - it's so nice to be able to go back and not break the bank doing so!

This is the view from the door of our room - isn't it wonderful!

Night time view of the harbor.  Gig Harbor is such a cute place!

This is the back of the inn.  Our room is the bottom left of the picture.

They have kayaks available for the use of the guests, so Brent took one out for a bit.  I stayed firmly on solid ground, although he did manage to coax me out on the scary, unstable floating dock to help him get the kayak in and out of the water.

He went pretty far out into the harbor.  He had a good time out there. :)

I promise he wore a life jacket - you can see it on the dock in the lower right corner of the picture!  He took it off to make it easier to get out of the kayak.

Brent got the job that he interviewed for and started work as a valet for the Hyatt at the beginning of March.  So far, he's doing great there!  His good work ethic and responsible nature are being recognized and he may end up with a promotion soon, but nothing is for certain yet.  It's not the easiest job and the environment is definitely not as wholesome as his last job (which was working in the cafeteria at the LDS temple in Bellevue), but we have definitely felt like he was lead to this job for a reason!  What a blessing to be able to rely on the Lord to help us in all aspects of our lives! :)

Brent is still doing school through Brigham Young University Idaho's online program.  Things are going well there and and he is working so hard!  I'm so proud (in a righteous way! ;) ) of him and all his hard work as he balances almost full time work with online classes!  He's such a wonderful example to me! <3

Since about March I have been helping out Brent's older brother and his wife by watching their little girl, Edie.  I watched her for a few weeks when they were between nannies, but now I just look forward to spending most of my Fridays with our adorable niece.  She is almost 18 months and when she says "Aunt Chelle!" my heart kind of melts. :)

How adorable is she?! :)

On March 26th, Brent's sister, Julie, had a lovely baby girl!  A few weeks later their son Henry, who is 4.5, came to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's house for his spring break!!  It was so fun to have him here with us and to get to play with him.  Grandma was able to be home from work Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but I got some one-on-one Henry time on Tuesday and Thursday. :)  We watched Star Wars III and went and saw The Croods.  We ate at McDonald's and played in the Play Place and we bought sidewalk chalk and played Hopscotch!  Edie joined us on Friday and we all had so much fun playing together!  I just love all of our nieces and nephews so much - I'm so glad that I became an aunt when I married Brent - it is so much fun!  It kind of blows my mind though when I think about how I can love our nieces and nephews SO much....I have no idea how my heart is going to avoid exploding when we have our first child...the amount of love parents have for their children is beyond me!

My sweet Henry!  This was our Star Wars night, complete with popcorn and ice cream! :)

"Letterscotch!  I love letterscotch!" 

He told me to draw Snow White's castle.  I think it looks more like Rapunzel's castle, but it was acceptable. :)

We went and saw The Croods, which was actually a pretty good movie!  Henry had lots of fun eating popcorn and playing the race car game in the lobby. :)

On Friday, Grandma made a small fort for Henry and Edie to play in - they had so much playing together and later Henry got to eat his pizza in the fort! :)

So, that pretty much brings us up to speed!  I do have a few recipes I want to share with you, but that will have to wait until another post, because this one is getting pretty long For now, we're just hanging out at home (well, that's mostly me) and working and schooling (and that's all Brent). We do have some fun things coming up in the next couple of weeks.  My Grandma's birthday tea party that my sisters and I are putting together is this coming weekend.  Brent's oldest sister and her family fly in from Boston in about a week and a  half and they'll be here for a few weeks.  Brent finishes another semester of school at the end of this month and then we'll be moving!  Not very many people know about that though, so...SURPRISE!!! :D  We're going to try not to make a habit out of moving ever summer, but so far we're 2 for 2.  This next move should last us a while though.  Brent's parents have bought a second house about a mile away as an investment property - and they want us to be their first renters!  It has been absolutely wonderful living here with them (we all get along great!), but it will be so nice to have our own space again!  We plan on being there for the next 3-5 years and it definitely gives us some room to expand our family (this is NOT an announcement, just so you know!) since it has 4 bedrooms.  It also gives some extra rooms for when all of Brent's family comes for sleepovers - yeah!!  Party at Uncle Brent and Aunt Chelle's house!!!  Haha!  We'll post more pictures once we get the keys, which should be in a few weeks!! :)  Until then, here's a picture of the front of the house. :)

Soon to be Home Sweet Home! :)

Well, my dears, I think that's about all for this post!  I'll try and blog again soon!  Until then...

Keep giggling!

 <3 Michelle