My Shauna-Our Family

'We were but stones, your light made us stars.'

Lest it be unsaid, and I’m sure that Shauna would prefer it was left unsaid, Happy Birthday to our most beloved Mother Star. Amidst all the action and deserved attention that Miss wonderful wonderful Norah received around her big numero uno, Shauna’s birth date came and went modestly without the same fervor. I’m here to correct that.

Shauna is my beautiful wife, the mother to our kids and the most wonderful person I know. There is no one I know who is stronger, more kind hearted and caring and also the best Super Mario Brothers player I know who...wait, what’s that my son? Oh yeah, scratch that last one Harper, you’re right, you’re the best....around...no-ones gonna ever keep you down!

Ahem. 

Shauna and I met through work. It’s the last place either of us were looking to find someone to fall in love with. Unless you count that one time I mistook a private meeting with the HR representative to be about my behavior and not my charming ways and dashing good looks. It only took one conference call with Shauna after my extended absence and I was hooked. Man, I was kind of annoyed at first. Who is this person that took over my job while I was out, and how does she know so much more than I did when she had only been doing for 6 months what I had been doing for over a year?!? And why did I want to hear her voice again, even if it was to talk about work related blah blah blah. It didn’t take long from there for us to veer the conversation from work related topics to music, far side comics, and other jibba jabba. These conversations went on and on, even after work should have been long over with and we both would have been racing for the door normally. And I hate talking on the phone.

And then I started looking for excuses to talk to her after work, and we started text messaging. No, not the type of text messages that KSL admonishes senior citizens for sending to each other. We just felt that that talking on the phone for 6 hours at work wasn’t enough. Our cell phone bills were increasing.

*NOTE: People reading this that work where I work, these numbers I throw out that sounds like we weren’t working and were just talking are exaggerated numbers and man I am a hard worker...yeah, that’s the ticket.

'There’s a light, when my baby's in my arms.'

One thing led to another, and here we are approaching our 5 year anniversary. Time starts to fly when everything’s in it’s right place. For someone who never thought he’d get married, have kids, live the dream, etc., this is all quite amazing and mind blowing. 

“Letting the days go by, letting the days go by, letting the days go by, once in a lifetime”

Some highlights (historians from the future aka internet nerds, will mock me for missing the million wonderful things I fail to mention):

-Hearing her voice for the first time

-Falling in love

-Seeing her for the first time

-Falling in love

-Meeting each other in person the first time in Vegas

-Falling in love

-Christmas in Arizona

-Falling in love

-Seeing the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show in Vegas 

-Falling in love

-Getting married on the beach in Northern California with our closest family.

-Falling in lo-...ok, you get the idea

-Seeing the positive sign on the pregnancy thing showing we were pregnant with Harper.

-Getting to a place where she could quit and be a full time mommy

-Seeing the positive sign that we were pregnant with Norah

-Norah’s beautiful crazy birth

-Every day afterwards where together as a family we’ve survived the hardest, most wonderful moments of our life together.

'All you need is love.'

Shauna is everything wonderful I refuse to see in myself that she helps me resistingly see, and that which we both see in our kids. She is Harpers mischief. Norah’s smiles. Norah’s fits :). Harpers sweet hugs and cuddles reserved for ‘only momma.’ Norah’s assuming the napping position that is reserved just for momma. The love reserved for Norah from so many strangers that have become close friends and protectors, not just of her, but of momma as well. She is the light that has guided us both through dark times where worried tears wouldn’t dry, not for lack of tissues. The bridge for a family when our sweet daughter couldn’t come home after being born and momma couldn’t bear to leave her side. The strength that seemed completely sapped, only to be restored through sheer willpower.

There is no one like my Shauna. I’ve wasted enough words in a vain attempt to describe how amazing she is and how much she means to me and our family, but it’s a failed attempt. As words can’t do it justice. A picture worth it’s million words would fail in it’s earnest effort. All I can say is that I love her, and that she is everything to me.

Happy Birthday Nauna.

Your Norah. Your Harper. Your Geoffrey.


-J

Cutie Pie

Amazing Momma

Jeff here. Shauna has updated everyone on Norah, so I'd like to update you on something else, the pure awesomeness that is Mama Shauna.

I'll let her decide on whether or not to fill you in on the birthing details, but let me just say, it was pretty intense in there! I like to believe I'm man enough to admit there were tears (of joy, and nervousness) being shed. If onions & hot sauce can bring someone to tears, I'm sure that the birth of ones baby can be freely admitted as well.

Shauna has been staying at the hospital for over a week now, to comfort and take care of our beautiful daughter while she gets well enough to come home. After Shauna was discharged, they moved her to what  is called the 'Twilight room.' No visits from any Cullens here, this room is about the size of a small closet & was designed to let Mothers who have been discharged, stay close to their babies that haven't, free of charge. It's got a tv, a bed, and not much else. But it's great that the hospital offers this as an option & we are all very grateful it exists.

Shauna's schedule right now is pretty intense too. Approximately every 3 hours she needs to pump, and then visit Norah for about an 1 to 1/2 hours for some 1 on 1 time and to work on getting Norah to breastfeed. This leaves her about an hour to sleep or eat, usually not both! Just the thought of getting that little sleep has me daydreaming of Ambien. It's a pretty rough schedule, especially for someone who has just given birth & is still recovering from the pain and lack of sleep that come with it, but she hasn't missed a beat, as much as I know she'd like to just lay down and sleep in sometimes :)

I'm really quite amazed that so soon after giving birth, she has been able to completely ignore her own bodies requests for sleep & recovery, and completely devote herself to the wellbeing of our newborn. Especially given the emotional circumstances.  She'd never complain, and I know that there is nowhere she'd rather be than right by Norah's side, but Harper & me could sure do miss her and can't wait until Norah is well enough so they can both come home. As much as Harper likes & continues to ask for Grilled Cheese every night, I know he'd prefer Shauna's cooking!

Thanks for being so amazing baby!

They Say It's Your Birthday!

Happy birthday to the most wonderful Mama and wife ever! I remember watching the Beatles Anthology and Paul telling John, Ringo & George that when he dreamed up the song 'Scrambled Eggs' (soon to get renamed, wisely, to Yesterday), he also dreamed that The Beatles would soon be breaking up and so they couldn't wait until July 30th 1980 to write their hit song, Birthday. Alas, it didn't come out on your birthday but we all know it was written for you. Take for example when they sing:

'La la la la la la la

Yeah we'd like you to dance'.

They're actually singing:

'Shau na na na na na na na

Yeah we'd like you to dance.'

And all those times that you could play their records backwards and hear strange things, they were actually saying 'Happy Birthday to our bestest fan, Shauna.'

It's on the internet(now) so it has to be true :)

We love you so much hunnee, thanks for being the light of our lives and we can't wait to celebrate your special day! <3>

jladsfjkasdfjasdfjklsadfjklas

The above was written by Harper, with no parental input or assistance. We're expecting a call from the NYTimes any day now...Harper now has an attraction to all things shiny, noisy and, well, everything! If it's within his grasp, or even when it's not, he's pulling a leaping' leaner in the direction of the object he so desires and won't quit until he gets his hands on said item, which inevitably ends up in his mouth. Luckily for Shauna, her laptop is a little too big for him to put in his mouth, so instead he happily bangs away on the keys, getting a kick out of the tactile feedback and noise it creates. Only pausing to turn and smile at us, and then he's back at it. We always knew he'd be a geek (hey, with parents like us, it was inevitable), we just didn't realize how quickly he'd head down that geeky path. Well, it is said that the 'Geek shall inherit the earth,' so the geekier the better, right? And of course it doesn't hurt that he's a dang cute lil' geek.

Oh, and don't worry about the fact that he's using a PC. Once he's old enough to be really dangerous with a computer, he'll be on a Mac :)

J

Nintendo Sixty-Fouuuuurrrr!...Er, MacBook Prooooo!

So yes, that's me. The goofy dude holding the spanking new Apple MacBook Pro that my wonderfully wonderful wife, Shauna, whom you can't see, gave me for my birthday! It was completely unexpected, but it was exactly what I have been wanting (well, besides an iPhone hehe, but we'll work on that). I guess it doesn't help that I work for the competitor haha. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), we have expensive tastes when it comes to electronics. With school coming around the corner though, she knew that I'd need a laptop on the go and picked the perfect model.

She played it up pretty well I must say. Going on about how she wasn't able to find the right gift and that she'd try to make it up for me. I honestly thought I was getting some boxers. She even tricked me by giving me the new Lord Of The Rings book first and telling me that's all there was. Of course she wasn't really finished though. She told me she needed my help putting some of Harper's milk in the fridge and sitting at the top of the stairs was this heavily wrapped box. At first I thought it was Logan's so that he wouldn't feel bad about not getting a present hehe. Then I started to get suspicious once Shauna got our nice camera out and told me to sit down. I literally had no idea what was inside the box, and boy was I surprised once I found out!

Thanks for the wonderful birthday hunnee bunnee (and you too Harperpotamus)!

J

Happy 1 Year Anniversary!

It's hard to believe it's already been one year since we got married! We remember it as if it were yesterday, but so much has happened between now and then. Winning the lottery, buying Bill Gates House, and...oh, well none of thats stuff has happened yet, but even better things have. It's hard to imagine how amazing it is to have a child until you actually have your own. It's the most amazingly wonderful thing in the world and Harper is such a beautiful boy, it's just incredible. Shauna is the best mother (up there with our own Mom's! Hi Mom's), it's so fun to watch her interact with Harper and how he can be screaming in my arms one moment, and soothed and sleepy in hers the next. Having a baby has been harder than I ever thought it would be, and even harder for her after I went back to work and she's taken over the midnight feeding and diaper dealings. She's wonderful at it and I'm constantly amazed at how effortlessly she makes it all seem. Although I do think that she's secretly telling Harper to save all his really stinky diapers for when I'm holding him :)

We still constantly daydream about the beach house and going back some day (preferring sooner than later haha). The next time we go back, it will be with Harper and we'll have so many things to show him and have him experience for the first time, just like we experienced together our first visit.

It's been the best few years of my life, and there's one reason why. She's the most beautiful, caring, funny, smart and most wonderful person I know. She's my wife and the mother of our beautiful baby boy and I couldn't imagine life without her. Thanks for everything wonderful that you do Shauna, I love you. Here's to year 1 and the unlimited possibilities that the next years hold.

Happy Anniversary my heart,

Your two men, Jeffrey and Harper

Original of the Species

It's been a while since the last post and this one felt overdue. Of course this lapse in posting is due to Hurricane Harper, which made landfall on casa de Gunnell 2 weeks ago, crews are still working (usually in the middle of the night) to clean up some of the chaos. Of course, it's wonderful, cuddly wuddly chaos, but chaos nonetheless.

So Harper turned two weeks old on Wed. the 3rd, which is craziness in itself. You can definitely tell he's gotten bigger though, a whole 4 ounces bigger, although it seems like more. He's sleeping better than he used to when we first got home, but still not making it through the night. This of course, is wishful thinking, but if Shelly can do it at two weeks so can Harper! It feels like such a blur of time since he was born, while also feeling like it was just yesterday. He's still the coolest little guy we've ever met, hence the name of this post(plus it was the last song we listened to on the way to the hospital and feels very fitting for the lil' dude).

Have to give a shout out to Shaunas' mama Claudia for flying up to stay with us for a little over a week, helping clean, spending time with Harper and making muy deliciouso Lumpia and Pancit! Remind us to post a recipe if you don't already have it, it's very tasty!

Also looking forward to Mom, Dad, Shelly and Jared coming up to see Harper as well! Hopefully he gets a chance to meet all his grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and MooShu's soon!

J

Harper

Harper Gregory Burke Gunnell. This little guy is the most amazing little dude in the world. Shauna has already detailed Harpers birth in detail, I just needed to post about a few of the things that amaze me about him.

-His baby noises. Whether he's cooing, burping, sighing, smacking, swallowing, crying, sneezing yawning, or even farting, these noises are the most adorable sounds I've ever heard in my entire life!

-He's strong. I swear that when he grabs my finger he's taking it with him once he's done! Plus, put him and Bruce Lee in a kicking contest, Harper wins no contest. Of course Harper gets this strength only when diaper changing, so not too sure this is even a contest Bruce Lee would want to enter.

-Cute. This kid was born to be a ladies man when he grows up. I know that all the nurses will be nice and say "Oh, what a cute baby!" I think it's in the handbook. But EVERYONE we came into contact with stated over and over how cute he was, and couldn't stop gushing. Personally, me and Shauna think that he is the cutest baby in the world and we've got the calls from 'Guinness Book Of World Records' to prove it.

Those are just a few of the millions of things that fascinate us about our beautiful baby boy. There will be plenty more of these posts, which of course it will come as no surprise if you've been receiving all picture messages that we've been sending.

One last note, we took Harper in for a followup Dr. Appointment today regarding his Jaundice, and the results came back positive, that he does have it. This means we will be doing home photo therapy for about a week or less, where we have to keep him under some specialized lights to help him get better. We keep telling ourselves that we've been so blessed by how healthy Harper is, and that Jaundice truly is a minor issue. This doesn't make this news any easier, as it means instead of holding him, we have to keep under these lights until he gets better. We are staying positive though, like I said, he's in great health otherwise and he's just too dang cute to let something like this get in the way of all the big plans I'm sure life has in store for him. We'll keep everyone posted on how his therapy goes.

Thanks again to everyone for all the positive posts, emails, texts and phone calls. We are thrilled about Harper, and can't wait for everyone to meet him!

J

Happy Almost Birthday Sprout!

Less than 24 hours to go before Sprout is born, and it seems like only yesterday Shauna showed me the pregnancy test confirming Sprout's existence! It's crazy how quickly time has flown by, and I'm sure that starting tomorrow, it's going to feel like we are in a time warp! I guess it's probably flown by quicker for me than Shauna, as I've had it easy in comparison. I still think my belly's been cursed by 'pregnancy sympathy' syndrome. She's been awesome through everything, including my annoying insistence on asking her every 5 seconds if she's doing ok regardless of her prior answer :)

Tomorrow we go to the hospital at around 2pm, with the C-Section scheduled for 4pm. We've requested a no 'Junior Mints' policy be instated in the operating room. Thanks for the life lesson, Kramer :) We can't wait to see and hold Sprout for the first time, and we'll be sure to share pictures with everyone as well, so make sure to keep your cell phones nearby.

J

Happy Birthday Shauna!!!

Happy Birthday Shauna!!!

Here's what was happening the day you were born:

Number-one song in the charts:"It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" by Billy Joel

Famous People born this day:

1470 - Hongzhi, Emperor of China (d. 1505)

1549 - Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1609)1863 - Henry Ford, American industrialist (d. 1947)1926 - Christine McGuire, American singer (The McGuire Sisters)1939 - Peter Bogdanovich, American film director1941 - Paul Anka, Canadian singer and composer1947 - Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-born American actor, body builder, and Governor of California--Whoa!
1958 - Kate Bush, British musician1963 - Lisa Kudrow, American actress

Average price of a dozen eggs:0.91

Roses are #FF0000

Violets are #0000FF

All my base

Are belong to you <3

Happy Birthday Sweetness, we love you!

Jeffrey, Dexter, Dottie, Noodle and Sprout

Of Mice and Greyhounds

So Saturday we took the puppies (yes, we still call them that at ages 5 & 6) to the vet. They needed to be caught up on their shots so we can board them while we are up (down) in SLC. Pretty much all the boarding places around town are booked up boarding-wise for the 4th, plus the fact that we need 3 kennels doesn't help matters. So we found this local Vet that got raving reviews from everyone that sees him. The only downsides were that the place was a little run down, and there are no appointments, you just show up when you need to be seen. The upside is that you'll get seen as long as you show up, the downside is that it might take a while.

So we show up a half hour early like everyone recommends, and there is a already a line out front. No biggie, there aren't too many people. We chill in the car, let the dogs out for some air and wait for the place to open. Once it does, we grab the dogs and head to the waiting room. Bad idea. This waiting room is teeny and packed full of pets and people, us and our 3 crazy (crazy meaning Noodle) greyhounds don't help matters. We try to get our names on the waiting list while keeping the dogs under control and someone steps on Dottie's foot and starts yelping like mad! Everyone's giving us the stink eye, so we make like tre's and get outta there...We decided, wisely, that Shauna would stay in the car with the girls, and me and Dexter (the calmest of the 3) would wait in the waiting room. We go back in and everyone asks questions about Greyhounds, and how fast they run, and 'do they run faster than cheetah's, cause I heard they are the fastest animal in the world.' Thankfully a chair opens up so we take a seat, and Dexter starts shedding like mad cause he's nervous and gets spooked easily. Plus, there is no AC in this tiny room full of humans and their sick animals and it's the one day that Seattle isn't raining, it's like 100 degrees. That John Denver was full of crap!

I'll give a quick run down of the different animals in the room. A sick beagle mix drooling like a leaky faucet who would start baying at everyone and everything, poor guy. A german shepherd, chow chow mix (only half a blue tongue). A cute pug puppy. A very angry cat that I believe would have ripped us all to shreds had he not been safely confined in his Hannibal the Cannibal restraints. The noises this cat made was unbelievable! Two kitties in a box that kept hissing at Dexter. An older sick miniature schnauzer whose owner was nice enough not to mind that Dexter farted or that he kept stepping on her toes and pushing against them. Countless other dogs and owners who couldn't stay in the waiting room cause there was no more room, but they put their names on the list nonetheless. Did I mention this Vet also has some great rates, that are like 35% less than what others normally charge?

Needless to say, it was finally our turn to go in after two hours of waiting, and one by one we brought the puppies in for their shots and checkups. Everyones doing great except for a few minor things. The doctor didn't think Dexter's farts were a major thing, but then again, he doesn't have the joy of experiencing them on the day to day basis that we do. They were all pretty well behaved except for Noodle who started bucking like a wild bronco the minute she got out of the truck. Next time we'll be making appointments during the week when it's a little bit less crazy, and hopefully the line won't be the same length as the one to get U2 tix.

J

Happy Father's Day...To Me!

Well, I've still got a few months to go before the title of Father, Dad, Ol' Man Murray/River/Winter, etc. is bestowed upon me. Regardless, Shauna was kind enough to surprise me with a great gift, my very own Michael Scott talking bobble-head!

If you're a fan of the office, you'll immediately understand how great this is! 'That's what she said!' She actually ordered the Dwight Bobble-head, but Amazon messed that up, nonetheless, it's totally awesome and I will never get tired of pressing the button to hear him talk over and over and over again...

It's funny how getting closer to having a baby makes you appreciate how great your own parents are! I'm just remembering all the parent teacher conferences, principals office visits and I just know Sprout is probably gonna pay it back to us ten fold!

So here's to all the Dad's out there, especially my own and all he did for us when we were growing up. He was always there for us no matter what. Especially when it was shoe shopping time and Dad would take us to get the nice, expensive shoe's and not the more 'cost effective' shoes that Mom preferred. :) I love ya Pops, happy father's day!

Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers!

Like Shauna said, I'm here to describe the momentous experience that was the ultrasound waiting room. Momentous you say? Yes, quite. You see, we weren't the only ones in the waiting room. There was the receptionist, some random couple, Bill Gates and his pregnant mistress, the janitor, another receptionist...BILL GATES!!! (click picture for maximum viewing pleasure). And we have the pictures to prove it! Shauna was laughing too hard, or the picture would have come out better. Plus, we had to be all discreet and everything, being a paparazzo is harder than it looks. How do we know it was Bill? For the doubters out there, take note of the crossed legs and hands on his knees, such Bill behavior. His eyes to the sky as he contemplates the wonders that will be Windows 7. So what was it like to be in the same room as the inventor of BASIC and Windows 95? In a word, productive. As soon as we got home we were both motivated to break out Word and Excel, nerding out until we could nerd no more.

PS-This is obviously not Bill Gates, and he obviously does not have a mistress. However, the below link is one of our favorites, and it really is Steve Ballmer, formerly known as Microsoft's second in command. Enjoy!

Developers!

J

Dexter vs. Squeaky Toys

Here's one of our first videos using the Flip. There is some slight compression so that it will play smoothly online, but doesn't look too shabby. Looks even better when played locally on the hard drive.

Dexter, our hero, is quite the dashing leading man, and as you can see, Sinister Squeaky Toy has no hope of survival. Danger! Excitement! Dexter!

J

Be Your Own Señor Spielbergo - Flip Video

We recently purchased a Flip Video-Ultra(yep, the orange one you see to the left here). We were looking for something cheap, lightweight and convenient that we could use to take quick videos of Baby 1.o when he/she arrives without worrying about about flying oatmeal dirtying up the lens of a super expensive camcorder. It's about the size of a bulky cell phone, and actually takes pretty good video(640x480). We got the Ultra version($129 on Amazon)that stores up to 60 minutes of video(runs on 2 AA), and the cool thing is that it will break them up into chapters for you. For example, if we take a 3 minute video of the dogs chewing up the furniture, and then later a 2 minute video of us chewing out the dogs, it will save them as separate videos, instead of one 5 minute video. This makes it easy to upload mini-clips. It has a built in USB connector which makes it easy to connect to your Mac or PC. Lastly, the interface on the device is incredibly easy to use. Basically there are about 4 buttons. Play, record, Trash can and then a 4 way track pad that you use to zoom or navigate stored videos. We'll upload some videos soon to show the overall quality!

One last thing, for those of you playing Mario Kart Wii, add us as a friend so we can race! Our code: 3308 5053 2476

J

Cravings for the Pregnant and Non-Pregnant Alike

Although we can't take credit for this yummy concoction of deli delights, we certainly don't mind doing so, as we've been digging this for quite some time. If you've seen Spanglish, you'll recognize this as the sandwich Adam Sandler makes about halfway through the flick. Outside of adding avocado and making it a little more vegetarian friendly, this is the original recipe in all it's glory:

* 3-4 slices of Morningstar Veggie bacon strips(the real stuff works as well although you'd be surprised at how good the Morningstar ones are!)
* 2 slices of Monterey Jack cheese
* 2 slices of toasted rustic country loaf(we also like sourdough)
* 1 tbsp of Vegenaise or Mayo
* 4 tomato slices
* 2 leaves of butter lettuce
* 1 teaspoon butter
* 1 egg

* 1 Avocado(only need 1/2 per sandwich, so make two!)

Preparation:

1. Cook the bacon until crisp, drain on paper towels
2. Place slices of cheese on one side of toasted bread. Place in toaster oven or under broiler to melt.
3. Spread mayo on other slice of bread top with avocado, bacon, sliced tomato, and lettuce
4. On non-stick skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Fry egg, turning over briefly when the bottom is set (up to you if you want to keep yolk runny or not. I think if you're pregnant it's better not to keep runny)
5. Slide finished egg on top of lettuce, top with other slice of bread
6. Place sandwich on plate and slice in half, letting yolk run down sandwich

Enjoy!

J