Random stuff...

I keep thinking of lots of things I meant to post and haven't, so this is going to just be a lot of random stuff.

I forgot to ever post the rest of Ashton's swimming lesson pictures. He finished Level 1 a few weeks ago and passed, loving every minute of it!

(Can you tell? Oh and yes we DO feed him...he's just a skinny little guy still!)I was going to sign him up for level 2, right after it ended, but didn't and am glad now since he would have missed half of it due to his stitches. Hopefully I can get him in another session in a few weeks or in the middle of the summer.

His favorite thing was getting to float around all by himself in the little floatie.

Gunnar turned 14 months old yesterday! Time is still flying by. He is growing and changing a lot. I weighed him at my Mom's house yesterday and he's now a whopping 22 lbs! He's starting to say a few more words...please (sounds like PEEEE), ow (while scrunching up his face when he gets hurt), and I think he tries to say Ashton (which sounds like Ahhh-eeeee). His red-headed temper is starting to show itself sometimes. He throws himself on the floor and is darn near impossible to get into his carseat and to get dressed for the day...he wiggles so much and is so strong! He still adores Ashton and follows him all around trying to do or get into whatever he is doing. If possible he seems to be growing more and more attached to me and freaks out if I'm nowhere to be seen for a few minutes. I've decided we won't be going out to eat for awhile since he's really hitting that hard to take places stage. He gets so mad when I put him in a high chair he swings back and forth so much he could tip the whole thing over if I didn't hold on to it!

Yeah I'll pass on dealing with that for awhile.

He loves being outside and has discovered that it's a fun game to try to run out into the road before I can catch him. Too bad for him I'm too fast! He also loves to eat rocks and dirt and gets SO mad when we dig them out. He gets right into the sandbox and LOVES it!

He pretty much always has this little brown hat on (as well as sunscreen) because I'm so scared of his fair skin getting burned! He's already sprouting his first little freckles on this cute face! Ashton just barely this spring got a few...he has such different skin than Gunnar.

He got his stitches out on Memorial Day. He did pretty good...but said it hurt a little. The skin was starting to grow over them a little. I think he'll always have a little scar there, but it's healing up pretty well.

And finally today it's been 15 years since I graduated from highschool! I can't believe that much time has passed. I'm getting old I guess!

Last weekend in Wyoming...

I've been meaning to post pictures from our trip to Evanston last weekend and am finally getting around to it tonight. Lars was supposed to go on a weekend fishing trip, so I had planned to take the boys to my Mom's for the weekend by myself, but then he changed his plans, so he just fished for the day on Friday, then drove up separate to Evanston on Saturday to stay with us. We had a fun weekend. There is always lots to do at Grandma and Grandpa Harry's house. Ashton brought his bike, tractor and scooter and practiced riding his bike around on the grass and dirt... ...and rode his tractor around the yard till the battery died. But what he spent most of his time doing outside was...cleaning up the horse poop with Grandma. He absolutely LOVES it! Funny kid! Honestly he helped her till every stall was completely clean! Such a good helper...way to see the job through to the end Ashton!
It was a whole new world for Gunnar too since it was our first trip there since he started walking. He is into everything now! And like most kids his age (besides Ashton at this age) he puts everything in his mouth. He loves rocks and dirt right now, everytime I turn around he's shoving them in his mouth!

He loved riding on Ashton's tractor with him... ...and getting pulled around by him in the little red wagon. (look at those smiles!) I love it!He even got in on mucking the stalls for a little bit until he started trying to pick up poop with his hands! Saying hello to some of Grandma's horses... Saturday we took the boys to this little carnival in town...there were a few rides Ashton was big enough to go on, so he thought it was pretty fun.

The giant slide...The carousel...This guy running the carousel kept trying to get one of us to take Gunnar on, but both Lars and I get motion sickness so bad, we decided not to ruin our day with a ride on the merry go round (sad I know), so he finally talked us into letting him take him for a ride on it. I think Gunnar kind of liked it for a few minutes, then he was ready to get off and get back to Mommy!On Sunday after church, we went back out to the house and let Ashton help Grandma again, then packed up our stuff to go home. It was such a nice day we stopped off at Bear Lake for about an hour on our way.Me and my boys... Ashton absolutely loves Bear Lake! He was sad when it was time to go home. It will be fun to go stay there for a whole weekend next month! It was another first for Gunnar since he started walking. It was just like a huge sandbox to him! So fun!

Here they are searching for "she-shells"...Looks like we'll be heading back to Wyoming this week for a few days while our wood floors get refinished (finally!)

Get ready for us Mom :)

Preschool Graduation & Stitches...what a day!

Today actually started off pretty well. Ashton and Gunnar both actually slept in till 9:00!!! Well I guess Gunnar didn't really sleep in till then if you count the 4 times he was up in the night (with a fever) but after getting up at 6:00, he went back to bed till 9:00 and has seemed to be feeling much better since then. That never happens...he is pretty much always up for the day by 6:00. So of course I didn't go back to bed because after laying him down I thought he'd be right back up like most days and I didn't want to go through the pain of having to get up again, so I just stayed up and got things done instead. Amazing what you can get done in 3 hours with sleeping kids!

Anyway when Ashton finally woke up (and somehow didn't wake up Gunnar)...I went into his room and asked him if he wanted to have breakfast in bed for his special day. Of course he said yes, so I made him some chocolate chip pancakes and brought them in on his tray. He loved it!Today Ashton graduated from preschool!

Well his first year of preschool anyway...(he won't turn 5 till January) so he'll do one more year at Melody Lane before going to kindergarten.

On our way...Off to school last Thursday for his last full day...He has absolutely loved his school. I can't believe his first year is already over. It seems like a week ago that he was so nervous when I was dropping him off that first day and I cried on the way home! He has grown up so much since then and I think preschool has been a big part of that. They had a cute little graduation ceremony this afternoon where all of the parents could come. They showed us their sign language that they have been practicing, sang a song and helped their teachers read and kind of act out "The Hungriest Caterpillar". Then the teachers presented them with their diplomas...and everyone went outside for a snack. Ashton also got to bring home his journal that he's been keeping over the last 9 months. It was cute to see all of the stuff he's drawn in it and funny stuff the teachers wrote in their that he's said. My favorite page is the one that asks what kind of car Ashton wants when he grows up and Ashton said "A gold colored one that goes faster than the police, so they can't catch me!" Such an Ashton comment!

Here he is playing on the little playground one last time till next year...Here he is saying goodbye to Teacher Katria...She won't be back next year, so hopefully he'll get another good teacher.

After going home he played over at Tyler's for a long time then he came home and I suggested that we go down to the school park for a little while till Daddy got home. I told him he could ride his bike while I pushed Gunnar in the stroller. He's never ridden it that far without training wheels, so he was excited to go. We got there and he had brought his little school journal along so rather than play on the park stuff at first he just wanted to look through his journal. After we were there about 5 minutes, his buddy Jace came running over...they happened to be there watching his sister Jessa play soccer, so he saw Ashton and came over to play. Here they are practicing their sign launguage letters together.

They did that for a little while, then went to play on the equipment. Gunnar was down playing in the wood chips, so I was trying to follow him around and make sure he didn't eat any. I see Ashton climb up on one part of the equipment with Jace and as I'm watching Gunnar I all of a sudden hear Ashton fall hard, then scream bloody murder. I ran to him and picked him up and immediately saw blood in his mouth and he's telling me he hit his chin. . At first I think that he just bit his tongue because all I can see is his mouth full of blood, but then as he tilts his head up I see a huge gash in his chin...the skin was completely popped open. He had been trying to go down those horizontal bars that are kind in the shape of an arch down to the ground and he fell in between two of them catching his chin on one of them. I hurry and grab Gunnar and run over to the stroller and remember that we have nothing with us, but some water and wheat thins. Usually I at least have some wipes or kleenex. And I have to admit I kind of started to panic a little. Ashton was bawling and the cut was bleeding pretty bad. I had just talked to Lars and he was on his way home, so I called him again and told him to get to the park, that Ashton had fallen and cut his chin pretty bad. I threw them both in the stoller and wheeled them over to where Jace's Mom and Dad were sitting to see if they had any wipes. They did, so I tried to kind of wipe it off and I guess he must have heard me mention getting stitches to Lars or to Adam or Tallie, so from that point until we got to the emergency room he just kept repeating over and over (between crying) that he didn't want to get stitches. After they checked us in up there and took us back to a room, they cleaned it off and told us that he for sure needed stitches and that they'd try to numb it topically and that hopefully they wouldn't have to sedate him to do the stitches. He still was just crying and crying saying he really didn't want to get stitches. It just broke my heart to see him like that so scared. I was trying to stay strong for him and not break down and cry with him, but it was so hard. My poor little sweet boy with that big gash in his perfect little face. I just wanted to hold him and take his pain away. After they put the numbing stuff on, I could tell he gradually started to feel a little better and Lars and I just kept reassuring him that he would be fine and that if he didn't get stitches it wouldn't heal right and that as long as he held really still it wouldn't hurt and it would be done really quick. Pretty soon he started saying okay...I'll get the stitches and I won't wiggle at all. And "really I just did that at the park so I could see what it was like to get stitches". Once again classic Ashton. He's so funny with the stuff he says. By the time the doctor came in after it was all numb, he was laughing at stuff Gunnar was doing...and was chatting away with the nurse and doctor. Then the doctor gave him a shot in the cut to numb it even more and got it all stitched up. 11 stitches Total. Luckily I got ahold of Gunnar's Godmother Angie and she came up to the hospital and took him out of the room for half an hour or so while Lars and I held Ashton's hands as he was getting the stitches. We were so proud of him! He did so good...he held completely still and was so brave! Once again all we had were our cell phones, but we snapped a couple pictures before the bandage went on. It will probably scar a little, but at least it's kind of under his chin and won't be too noticeable. We finally got to leave the hospital a little after 8:00, so we stopped off at Wendy's to grab some dinner and Ashton was already trying to tell the guy at the drive up about his stitches!

As he was heading to bed tonight I told him how proud of him I was for being so brave and strong and I said "Goodnight my sweet boy" to which he replied "Goodnight sweet girl". I love this boy so much...thank goodnesss he's okay. I told him to come get me in the night when it starts to hurt. It could be another long night.

And what a day!

I guess with two boys we are bound to make a few trips to the emergency room, but I hope we don't have to go back for awhile!

Love at First Sight...

So yesterday I had to run a couple errands in town and we stopped in to Old Navy. If you've been there lately you've seen all of the mannequins at the entrance or if not you've probably seen them in all of the recent Old Navy commercials. It was funny a couple weeks ago when Gunnar was really into saying "Hi" to everyone we saw anywhere, we went in to Old Navy and he was so excited to see all of the smiling (fake) faces looking right at him and he went crazy looking from one to the next saying

"hi, hi, hi, hi, hi!"

Anyway yesterday Ashton ran right up to look at all of the mannequins. One little girl one in particular. I couldn't drag him away from her. Finally I got him to leave her side to go try on a couple things, then when I went to check out he ran right back over to her. Pretty soon he started hugging her and I hear him talking to her and telling her he loves her! Ha! Then it's time to leave and he gives her a big smooch on the mouth and tells her

"Bye little girl...I'll see you next time, I love you."

The girl at the check-out was laughing so hard!

Man I love this kid! He never fails to keep us laughing! All I had was my cell phone, but I hurried and grabbed it to snap this picture.

Funny kid!

On a side note, he's been playing a lot with the little girl that moved in next door a couple months ago. She's 5 1/2, but they play so good together. The other day I knew he must have been playing with her when he asked me "Mommy, what's "in love" mean?"

Too funny how different girls are than boys!

Goodbye Training Wheels!!

I think this picture explains it pretty well.

Ashton is SOOOO excited that he has his training wheels off of his bike! He asked Lars to take them off on Saturday, so he did and he practiced with him a little that day holding on to his seat. Then a little more Sunday afternoon. Yesterday of course Lars had to go to work and Ashton didn't really want me to help him, but finally decided that I was good enough. I held on to him a couple times and the next thing I knew he was doing it all on his own! When he did it for the first time on his own, he jumped up and said "Yes!" and the smile on his face was priceless. Success!! The rest of the day he practiced and practiced and practiced first perfecting going downill by coasting a little with his feet off the pedals, then putting them up to pedal. Learning how to start himself going uphill was a little harder and at one point I saw him getting pretty frustrated.

He was so funny though...he stopped, turned to me and said "If I was thinkin' about saying a bad word, I just hold it in right?" I was laughing so hard! But so proud of him for not saying whatever he was thinking.

(Oh...and to him bad words are...stupid, hate, kill...he knows he can't say those words in our house. Luckily he doesn't know any of the real bad words yet! Okay besides when he used to go around saying "We say dang it, not damn it Daddy")
Anyway it was nice that Gunnar took 2 good naps yesterday so I could be out there watching Ashton getting so excited about learning to ride his bike without training wheels.

What a fun day and BIG moment in a little boy's life!

I am so proud of him!

And I really can't believe how quick he caught on and how dedicated he has been to practicing. A bunch of the neighbor kids were playing outside yesterday afternoon and I told him he could go play with them, and he said...

"nope I'm gonna keep practicing riding my bike." Way to go Ashton!

Happy Mother's Day...

To all of you Moms out there!

Especially mine and my Step-Mom and Lars' Mom! Hope you all had a great day. We love you!
I had a great Mother's Day weekend. Lars let me sleep in on Saturday which really would have been gift enough since it NEVER happens anymore. Then he watched the boys all morning while I did some more scrapbooking. Then we got ready and drove to Layton for the afternoon and went to Red Lobster & Target. We mostly celebrated on Saturday because on Sunday Lars cooked at our church's Mother's Day Brunch and I had to count money for church in the afternoon. After all that was done (and I somehow survived church by myself with my two wild, LOUD boys)

Here they are on our way to church...Gunnar finally in a big boy carseat for good!

...we headed up to First Dam and had a picnic. Ashton and Gunnar were being so cute while we ate our sandwiches and in the car on the way home. Just laughing at eachother and Ashton was sharing his sandwich and chips with Gunnar so nicely...

Ashton was laughing so hard at Gunnar because he was trying to pull his sock off with his teeth..

I just kept looking back at them and once again realizing how blessed I am to have them. Mother's Day is an important holiday to me not only because I like to remind our Moms how important they are to us, but also I waited a long time to be a Mom and there was a time that I thought I would never get to be one, so I think it's a big day to celebrate! At the end of the day when Ashton was getting ready to go to bed he came and gave me my hug and said "Happy Mudders Day Mommy...I love you!" What could be a better end to the day than that?

A lost Lovey...

Tonight I went in to read to Ashton and tuck him into bed and realized his Lovey wasn't in bed with him. This happens all the time and we just go look around and usually find him in the living room or downstairs in the family room. Tonight we searched the house up and down about 4 times getting more and more frustrated as we looked. He was NOWHERE to be found! As I started to get really worried that he was gone for good this time I couldn't believe how sad I felt and how I almost started to panic.

For those of you that don't know Lovey, he is Ashton's first and best friend that he has had since he was 3 months old. His Aunt Shelley made him for him and gave him to him the weekend he got baptized. From then on he slept in Ashton's crib with him and by the time Ashton was about 11 months old he was already VERY attached to him running around with him calling him "wuvee". He took him with him everywhere we went...on walks, in the car, to all of his grandparents houses etc...But more than anything he always slept with him. I remember one night when he was about 20 months old or so and he was very sick throwing up. We had to give him a bath in the middle of the night and he cried so hard for Lovey that I eventually just ended up throwing him in the tub with him! On many of our walks there were times when we'd get home and realize that Lovey was gone. We'd get in the car and retrace our steps looking for him, sometimes finding him in the middle of the road. One time we didn't realize he was gone till it was naptime and as I thought back the last time I'd remembered seeing him was on our walk that morning. So we got in the car and went off looking for him again. I prayed and prayed to St. Anthony that we would find him and that someone hadn't picked him up. Luckily even 6 hours later or whatever it was we found him in the middle of a sidewalk that we'd walked on that day.
Anyway Lovey is a BIG part of Ashton's life and I was just imagining how heartbroken he would be if he never got to hold him and sniff him again. He still (at 4 1/2) walks around sniffing him all day long. I remember when we were finishing our basement and Ashton was "helping" Lars downstairs, I wouldn't let him take Lovey down with him. So I saw him one time set Lovey down on the chair before he went down, then walk down a couple stairs and turn around and come back up, sniff Lovey while saying "Just one more sniff", then go downstairs!

He's so funny! Back to tonight...eventually after almost an hour of looking we told him that he'd just have to sleep without him and we'd try to find him again in the morning. He was sad, but I talked him into snuggling with Five (his stuffed dog that he's always slept with too...and yes HE named him that). After walking out of his room it was still just driving me crazy that we couldn't find him. So I prayed again that I would find him and I just kept trying to think of what could have happened to him. We knew we hadn't taken him out of the house at all today, but we'd looked EVERYWHERE! All of a sudden it came to me where he was as I was walking back to my room to look there again. He was in the top of my closet because I had thrown him up there this afternoon because Ashton would not get dressed, so I had taken him from him, then we both forgot about him! I was so relieved to find him! And excited to take him into Ashton and see the look on his cute face when I told him I found him. The biggest smile I've ever seen. It would have been the very first night in over four years that he'd slept without him...so I'm so glad I found him.
It's funny I always picture myself years down the road when Ashton's all grown up pulling Lovey out of wherever we store him and smelling him remembering these days with Ashton. I guess when something is so important to your child it becomes just as important to you.

Thanks St. Anthony :)