Goodbye 2011...

If you know me, then you know I love 11's. I have for as long as I can remember...I just have a weird thing with the number 11. So as we say goodbye to 2011, and hello to 2012...here are a few things that I will remember most about our 2011:

• Ashton turned 6 on the 6th of January!
• Lars turned 36 on the 24th
• We celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary on th 26th of February...
• Gunnar turned 3 on March 28th!
• I got to take a very fun memorable trip to California to visit my cousin Neil in April.
• Ashton lost his first 2 teeth that month too!
• May...oh May that was when things went downhill when Lars tore his achilles tendon.
• Surgery, crutches, a walker, lots of down time for Lars in May, June and July...it was hard to put it mildly.
• When he was still on crutches we bought our new boat...(that cheered him up a bit:)
• I turned the big 35 on July 28th!
• Then during physical therapy in August, 3 months out from his first surgery...it was devastating when Lars re-tore his tendon. It was his biggest fear and it happened. We couldn't believe we were starting all over again.
• Crazy, but with it re-torn we still went on our planned river trip and had a blast!
• Then when we got back...another surgery...this time with a specialist in Salt Lake.
• Months and months of recovery to start all over. Those were some hard months for all of us.
• A couple of room re-do's :) Our bedroom and Gunnar's fun Monster room.
• Ashton started 1st Grade!
• Gunnar started preschool and totally surprised me by going willingly, not crying at all and loving it!
• Halloween is always memorable...this year with Gunnar as a boxer and Ashton a Clone Trooper :)
• I really figured out my camera and continued to learn more about photography and took lots of friends' family pictures!
• We had a wonderful holiday season spent with family and once again counted our blessings :)
• One thing I will definitely remember is Lars having to spend so much time doing exercises for his leg...he is still doing them when he comes home for lunch and when he gets home at night. It will be weird when he doesn't have to do them in all of his free time!
• And I will remember our boys at these fun ages. All of the funny, cute things they do everyday! And well the not so funny stuff too. I say it all the time, but I love this time in my life with them and am so grateful to have them :)

Overall 2011 was a great year. Even though we didn't get to do a big family vacation, we still did lots of fun weekend getaways and even continued on with our end of the summer Bear Lake weekend even though it was only 10 days after Lars' second surgery!!
We stayed home on New Year's Eve and played games with the boys...Twister and a fun new game Ashton got for Christmas called Shut the Box. Ashton made it till 11:30! Gunnar till 10:30 :)

Now here's to 2012!

Falling asleep everywhere...

The couple weeks around Christmas I got lots of pictures of Gunnar falling asleep everywhere except for his bed!

I think with everything going on and getting to bed a little later lots of nights...he was just exhausted because usually he and Ashton only fall asleep in their beds.

Anyway...here is our very sleepy Gunnar :)

(on our way home after fishing all day the day after we stayed in Lava..)

 (Christmas Eve...I think I already posted this one, but I love it. Love him :)

 (Right before we pulled in the driveway after getting home from Price...slept here for 2 more hours :)

At the one Aggie basketball game we've been to this year...he ate his very blue snow cone, then asked me if he could lay down and fell right asleep :)

 (And on New Year's Eve...he made it till 10:30, then followed me into my room while I was taking out my contacs and immediately laid on the floor and zonked out. I couldn't believe he made it that long!)

Basketball...

Remember how excited I said Ashton was to start basketball? Well he was REALLY, REALLY excited....more so than he ever has been about starting anything. So we were really looking forward to it and thought he'd really have fun with it. I think he did a little bit at first, but then after the first couple of games he got pretty frustrated because he never got the ball. No one would ever pass to him and therefore he never got a chance to do anything that makes basketball fun, like dribbling the ball down the court or shooting, or making a basket! It was frustrating to watch too, just because it was so blatant how a couple of the kids would pass to eachother or to anyone else but him. I don't blame him for losing interest, but it was sad to see because of how excited he was to sign up.

(This picture of him after the last game pretty much shows exactly how he felt about the whole experience :(...)

So we had signed him up for the junior jazz league that started a couple weeks ago, but before it started he decided he didn't want to play...so we didn't make him. Oh well, maybe next year. Lars even helped coach his team and was going to coach again so hopefully he'll take an interest again. I think at this age it's more fun for him to just go to the rec with Lars and practice and actually get to shoot the ball and play!

Trip to Price...

The day after Christmas we drove to Price to celebrate with Nana & Papa, and Aunt Shelley, Ali & Hunter.

With our new games and a new movie, it was a pretty peaceful drive :)

We stayed for 3 nights and had a great time. The boys will play non-stop with Hunter for days, just pretending and running around doing all sorts of stuff at Nana and Papa's. So that equals relaxation for Lars and me :) I read the first 2 Hunger Games books on my new Kindle while we were there and went for a run 3 of the days. We went for a long walk at a new trail there on the other day.

The kids all opened presents from Nana & Papa and from eachother. The boys got new jammies and slippers and money from Nana & Papa, and they got cute locking money boxes & dollar store gift cards from Aunt Shelley and the kids.

We got Ali and Hunter Itunes giftcards to be used for their new I Pod Touch's. Which my boys now want! thanks a lot you guys!

Oh and thanks to Lars there a bunch of games on my Kindle now, so all they want to do is play it too! Stinkin' Angry Birds!

The big news there is that Papa is now retired as of the end of the year. So we took everyone out to dinner one night to celebrate. 

 It was a nice relaxing visit.
Goodbye Nana...

Oh and Gunnar fell asleep a few minutes before we pulled in the driveway and slept here for a couple hours :)

Christmas 2011...

Started at 5:30 am!! Ashton burst into our room yelling "It's Christmas! Can we get up??" We tried to tell him to go back to bed for an hour, but there was no way he was going back to sleep...he started crying, saying "But it's Christmas!!" So we got up and let him go in and try to wake Gunnar up. Usually Gunnar is our early guy, but he would not wake up! It took lots of shaking and talking to him to get him to finally roll out of bed and get his slippers on. Tired little boy!

Then we made them stop at the top of the stairs and wait while we got the cameras ready...it was all they could do to sit still for 2 minutes!

Look at those tired eyes :)

And mine were too, I had hurried and put my glasses on (that aren't quite the right prescription), so I couldn't get my camera focused right!
Anyway...

Here is what Santa left this year...

Ashton was obviously SO excited for his new Nintendo DS and Gunnar for his "Mini Crane Machine"!

Gunnar also got a Leapster Explorer...

In the past we've been able to hold them off for a little while before opening ALL the gifts, so that we could kind of do it gradually until Grandma and Grandpa came, but this year it was hard.

Ashton just wanted to dig right in. We did save some, but he tore through most of them before everyone got here.

Gunnar still trying to wake up...

 Ashton loving his Ninja costume from Mom & Dad... 

 Gunnar excited about his bubble bath!

 Gunnar and Aunt Kelli...she and Grandma and Grandpa got to our house a little after 10:00...

 Grandpa Harry...

Grandma...with one of her Murdoch's gift cards and her giant Hershey's bar Grandpa Harry got her! I think we should have gotten one for Gunnar too...our two chocolate lovers!

 I got Lars a baseball mit to play catch with the boys...he hadn't had one till now :)

 Loving his mini crane machine...it's pretty fun!

  Everyone knows I love gift cards!

And me trying to act surprised about my new Kindle Fire...I had seen an email from Amazon saying "Your KINDLE FIRE has shipped" in the subject line a week before Christmas...oops :)

I didn't even know what a Kindle Fire was, but it's sure been a fun gift. I don't know who loves it more though...me, Ashton or Gunnar!

 Sonic jammies...I made the shirts :)

 A lot of this going on that day...I love how they play right next to eachother laying on their bellies :)

Christmas is so fun!

Christmas Eve...

Oh how I love Christmas Eve...the anticipation with little kids is just so fun! Their cute little excited faces, asking me all day if they can open just one present and "When is it ever going to be tonight?" And all the talk about Santa coming and how is he going to get in? And "We better get to bed early so he doesn't see us!" And on and on...I love everything about that day. I love going to the Christmas Eve children's mass, so that we can really focus on the true meaning of Christmas. Slowly the boys are starting to understand :)

During the day they played outside in the snow, then played a lot inside with Ashton's little friend Tyler.

 Then after lunch I made our Christmas cookies and they all had fun for a long time decorating them for Santa.

Then it was time to get ready for church.

This year after mass we came home and after a few pictures in their cute clothes by the tree...
(my new fave:)

...we let them open their Christmas jammies, slippers and books and an ornament. They still love jammies!

Then Lars and I made dinner while they watched the Polar Express...one of our favorites.

We had such a late dinner, after we were done it was time to put our cookies and milk out for Santa, read our new Christmas books & head to bed.

The one night of the year that they are excited to go to bed!

Gunnar couldn't even stay awake through the books. I love this cute little boy so much!

 And I love to remember how it felt to go to bed on Christmas Eve, so excited you can hardly sleep, and I love to imagine them feeling that way and just the magic of it all.

Most of all I love this time in my life with these two great little boys...I couldn't ask for anything more.

Next up...

Christmas Day!