Looking back on 2008

2008 was such a great year for us! Here are some of the highlights...
Ashton turned 3 and moved into a big boy bed!

Lars turned 33 and moved into a Big Boy truck...I know he secretly misses all those years of driving my little red truck especially in the summer with no air conditioning. After having it since I was a senior in highschool!...we sold it to my Mom and Harry. It was kind of sad for me, but I'm glad it stayed in the family. I have a lot of memories in that truck! On February 26th Lars and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary. I was so pregnant that we just got a babysitter for Ashton and went out to dinner.

Then finally after a long 9 months (that seemed like 9 years...) our second sweet little boy was born on March 28th...9 days early. It was one of the two best days of my life! In a matter of a few hours all of the morning sickness, weight gain and horrible back pain (that had me limping to the bathroom holding on to a ski pole in the middle of the night!) was forgotten and so so worth it, (okay maybe not completely forgotten, but definitely worth it. What a miracle to see Gunnar's little face for the first time and finally hold my precious little baby! After that everything is kind of a blur...Where did the rest of the year go??? Those first few weeks and months after Gunnar was born we spent a lot of time at home and I felt like I spent most of my time on the couch feeding him! Every 2 hours on the hour around the clock...the boy loved to eat & still does!

I think Ashton had the most changes over the year. He finally met his little brother and had to learn how to share his Mommy and Daddy with him. After many hard weeks (maybe months...) of adjusting, he has done pretty well and really loves Gunnar. This summer he earned his big boy bike and has learned how to ride it really well.I just can't believe how much he has grown up and changed! He learned how to dress and undress himself and spends a lot of his time every day doing that. Sadly (for me) he has almost completely given up napping. After much anxiety and trepidation he started preschool! And like I knew he would he got used to it and now he loves it! I love when he comes home and tells me all about it or repeats things that he has learned from his teacher. One funny thing he repeats often that they taught him is that if you drink a lot of soda it's not good for you and it "disappears your teeth and bones!" We have enjoyed watching Gunnar grow and change too and doing lots of things for the first time...like smiling, laughing, rolling over, eating baby food, sitting up, crawling, feeding himself, pulling up to standing, waving, and recently clapping! One of the greatest days was when he was baptized as a Catholic on June 8th.He is such a blessing in our lives and it's never far from my mind how lucky we are to have our two healthy, happy little boys! I just wish they wouldn't grow up so fast. So many times I find myself wishing I could freeze the moment or stage they are in.

We had lots of other great memories too, but this post has already taken me 3 days to finish and most of the other big moments have already been blogged about!