The "Undressing" Issue

I love that Ashton can dress himself now, but I HATE that he can undress himself now. Whenever we get home from anywhere he immediately comes in and strips down to his undies or goes and puts on his batman or spiderman pajamas! I don't know why but it drives me crazy! He says "I'm getting undressed for the day." So today he had one of his friends over for awhile and they played really well together for about an hour and a half, but I could tell that it was about time for the playdate to end when they started fighting. By the time the little boy's Mom showed up Ashton was really starting to act up. So we were all downstairs getting ready to come up and he did something ( I can't remember what) that got him sent to time-out. So I go up and put him in time-out and turned my back for maybe 15 seconds to set the timer and my friend comes walking up the stairs and says "What's with the clothes off?" So I'm like looking around like "who has their clothes off?" And she points to Ashton who is still sitting in time out, but is down to his undies! She thought it was part of my punishment for him!!! Ha! In that 15 seconds he had already stripped down. I was laughing so hard that she really though that was part of his time-out! Maybe it should be, then he'd want to get dressed!

Daddy's Boy

I was just putting Ashton to bed (which I hardly ever get to do, because he always wants Lars to) and I was reading him one of his favorite books "Harold and the Purple Crayon" in which Harold draws everything in his imagination with his purple crayon. It came to a part where Harold is wondering what it's like to be an animal and Ashton says very seriously "I don't ever want to be an animal, I want to be an engineer like Daddy." He's so funny! And such a Daddy's boy. He worships Lars. Every morning if he wakes up before Lars leaves to go to work he begs and begs him-"Daddy please don't go to work today." And he can't wait for him to come home every day. I know he loves his Mommy, but Daddy is definitely #1 in his life right now. It did make me feel good the other day when twice he came up and spontaneously gave me a hug! He NEVER does that...so I said to him "Ashton you made my day when you hugged me!" Then yesterday he came up to me and said "Mommy it would make my day if you gave me a kiss." How can I resist that? I have to take them when I can get them!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Today is my 32nd Birthday...wow has it really been 16 years since I was 16??? My life sure has changed since then! It's hard to believe that much time has passed and how different things are now. I have to say that I'm lucky my life has turned out the way it has. The way things were going when I was 16, I could have gone down a much worse path, so I thank God (and my Mom for her constant prayers) that I am where I am today. I have a great husband, two beautiful little boys and so many great friends and family members. So many people called to tell me Happy Birthday today!

Oh also Gunnar turned 4 months old today!And Happy Birthday Jordan (my little brother) who turned 28 today. It's always been fun sharing a birthday with you Jordan...I love you!

Now back to me...

We had a fun day today. First thing this morning after I fed Gunnar, he and I went for a long walk...it was so peaceful. He slept the whole time.

Then I came home to Lars and Ashton making cupcakes for me. Then we all got ready and headed down to Layton to go meet my Mom at Red Lobster for lunch. It was de-lish! Oh and it happened to be our waiter's birthday today too! Kind of funny!

Ashton thought it was so cool when one of the waitresses pulled a lobster out of the tank and let him touch it and told him all about it!After lunch we stopped off at Tai Pan, then went to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. Like I said things have sure changed since I was 16! Oh well it was fun for Ashton. He especially liked digging up the "bones" in the sand. We forgot our stroller, so we rented this little wagon and pulled Gunnar around in it. As we were getting ready to leave Ashton decided he wanted to ride in it and he loved it when I put Gunnar in his lap and told him to hang on tight to him. He kept giggling and thought it was so fun to be able to hold him while Lars pulled them along. So cute!After a long day we drove home and put a few candles in some cupcakes and they sang to me and now we've finally gotten them both to bed! Thanks for a great day hunnie and for my new camera! I can't wait to use it :)

Our Day

After Gunnar woke up this morning to eat at 7:00, I actually got to go back to bed and sleep till 9:30! Thanks for getting up with the boys hunnie! Then we all got ready and went to a birthday party for Ashton's friend Dante who turns 5 tomorrow. Happy Birthday Dante! Ashton had a blast playing in the sandbox, riding his bike, eating pizza and cupcakes and running around with all of the kids.

Dante's the one in grey with the "5" candle

After the party we came home and hung out for awhile, then went to church this afternoon. I have to say how proud I am of Ashton...he was SO good at church! Lars got him a sticker book and he sat quietly and played with it almost the whole time! Usually he struggles to be quiet and sit still for even half an hour. Yay Ashton! And Gunnar slept the whole hour, so we actually got to hear what was going on for once! It was so nice!

Gunnar has learned a new trick and practiced it all afternoon. He can now roll from his back to his belly! He thinks it's so fun and everytime we lay him down he does it now. So cute!

Fireworks!

Ashton and Lars went out when it got dark last night and lit off a bunch of fireworks for the 24th . A few neighbors came over to join in the fun...Ashton LOVES fireworks!

Yes that's him jumping up and down in the striped shirt, then I just realized that in the next pictures he's wearing his black Cars shirt. When his friend Jace came over wearing his Cars pajamas, he just had to go put it on!

Give the kid a sparkler and he tries to light everything on fire with it!

Little pyro!

Cute, Cute, Cute!

Mommy's helper

Yesterday I actually got Gunnar down for a nap in the morning, so Ashton and I went outside for a little while. I started trimming back some of my very overgrown bushes and pretty soon Ashton had gone and gotten his little green scissors and put on some of my gloves and started helping me. It was so cute! And so nice to actually get to spend some time with just him. We don't get to do that very often and I feel bad about it because he used to have me all to himself and I'm sure it's hard on him sometimes. Anyway he talked and talked and talked (shocking I know) but he was saying some cute things. At one point he was telling me "People have to help God clean up the world", and then after trimming one bush he said "Now God will keep our plant safe." Here are some pictures of my little helper...he was so proud of himself when we were done. Surprisingly his little scissors actually cut pretty well!

Thoughts for the day...

I'm still not getting much sleep...and still hoping that Gunnar will start sleeping through the night any time now. But on the other hand it's such an awesome thing that he is so dependent on just me that I try to not let it bother me too much each time I get up with him at night. I just stare at him wanting him to stay this little forever... I always have this sense of time slipping away from me while the boys are little. I have to remind myself that there's nothing I can do to stop it. I just have to enjoy it while I can. I can't believe that almost 4 months have already passed since Gunnar was born. It's so hard to keep up with the house these days, but I'm trying to not let it bother me when all of the dishes, and laundry aren't caught up on. Yes it drives me crazy, but this saying is constantly going through my mind...

"Cleaning and Scrubbing can wait till tomorrow, for babies grow up we've learned to our sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs and dust go to sleep. I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep."

My Mom has this hanging on her wall, so I've always had it memorized, but now that I have kids it really means something to me and I try to remember that I can clean my house any day, but I'll never get these precious baby moments back. I'm trying to treasure each day with Ashton and Gunnar...their fun little stages go by so fast.

Gunnar's new thing is putting his little hands together and just staring at them, like he's just realized that he has them, then he chews and chews on them. It's too cute! Oh and he's definitely found his voice...and it's LOUD. He really squeals now!

And the past few days Ashton has been playing non-stop with a little fly box that Lars gave him filled with flies (for fly-fishing). He takes them out and puts them back in and rearranges them and tells me he's organizing them for when Daddy takes him fly-fishing. All the while wearing his spiderman pajamas (that yes he earned back after the Walmart fiasco). He won't take them off! He doesn't even want to go play outside because he knows I'll make him put real clothes on! Oh well...I'm choosing to not fight that battle.

Ashton decorating his brother

Ashton has really been into stickers this past week. He's been putting these little stars on everything..and this is what I found him doing one day when I had taken Gunnar's sleeper off to get him dressed. Too funny!

Praying for sleep!

Everyone pray that Gunnar will sleep through the night again-he had an awesome night last night after MANY not so good nights of eating every 2 hours again! Last night he slept from 9:00 pm till almost 5:00 am! And Ashton never woke up either!! Yay! I love my sleep!

Speaking of sleep...Ashton NEVER falls asleep in the car and I think he's trying to give up napping. Most days I still try to put him down and he lays in his bed talking to himself for half an hour or 45 minutes. So yesterday I decided to not even bother and we went to Walmart around 2:00. He sat in the cart and was sooo good the whole time. Right up until the check-out line at which point he kept messing with the thing that the bags are on that spins around. So I told him like 3 times to knock it off or I was going to take back his new spiderman pajamas that he was SOOOO excited about. So when he did it again, I took them from him and he had a huge meltdown! Of course there were about 5 people in line behind me as he's screaming his head off and the guy ringing us up couldn't figure out how to enter my giftcard and kept adding $20 on to my already big total! Finally I just told him I'd use it next time and he figured it out so we could leave! So after crying the whole way out to the car, he finally calmed down when I got him in his carseat and on the way home he actually fell asleep! Yes this is a miracle...the kid is usually still bouncing off the walls at 10:00 at night even with no nap. So I just had to share this news and a picture I took with my phone-

Recent visitors

A few weeks ago, Uncle Jordan (my cute little brother) came to visit us and meet his new nephew.

Mom came down so she could see him while he was in town. It was great to see you Jordan.

Come see us more often! Ashton loved having you here and has been saying he wants to see you again!

Also not last weekend, but the weekend before my Mom brought my cousin Neil down to see us. We rarely get to see him and he's actually never been to our house, so it was fun! Remember you have a room waiting for you downstairs Neil...Thanks again for dinner and for coming to see us :)

And thanks for bringing him Mom!

My cool stroller!

Oh how I love my new double stroller! I just have to show it off...

We try to go for a walk every day, most days they both like it.Here is how it was when Gunnar was tiny-Ashton sat in the front and Gunnar laid in a little infant bassinet type seat in the back.

Now that he has outgrown that here is how it looks ... it's pretty cool how it can be used either way. The part where Gunnar was laying actually folds up into what is Ashton's seat and the seat that he used to sit in comes off and clicks on the back to become Gunnar's new seat.

Thanks Dad & Michelle for going in on it with us, it will definitely get plenty of use!

I thought it would grow back quick!

Okay, so I cut Gunnar's hair about 6 weeks ago-it was driving us crazy! It was getting really long and nappy in the back and stuck straight up, but he still had none on top. So I decided I would just give it a little trim. Well Lars was trying to hold him as he was freaking out while I was cutting it, so he said-" Just shave it all off and it will grow back in even", so I got out the clippers and did just that! Immediately afterwards I was sad and regretted it. He looked so different and as you can see in recent pictures, it hasn' t grown at all! By this time Ashton had already had 3 haircuts-his grew so fast! Oh well he's cute as a baldy too! Oh and we think he's going to be a redhead. It's still really blonde on top, but the back is RED!