Valentine's Day...2011

We had a fun day full of LOVE on Valentine's Day.

I have to say that I really never used to like this holiday, but every holiday now is fun with kids. I just love to make it fun for Ashton and Gunnar.
I stayed up late the night before and got a little heart treasure hunt ready for the boys to wake up to. (It took me forever because I tripped coming into the house from the garage earlier and hit my toe hard on the cement stair and really thought I broke it...so I could hardly walk.) Anyway it started with a heart in their rooms to tell them I love them, then with another on the counter to get them started on their hunt that eventually led them to their Valentines. They loved it! Gunnar would get so excited when he'd find a heart after I read the clue. Especially the ones taped to the ceiling!
Finally after 13 hearts...they found their stuff! Then it was time for breakfast. Of course heart shaped french toast with strawberries...yum!

Heart shaped quesadillas for lunch, then Ashton got dressed all cute and went to school to have his v-day party. I remember loving exchanging valentines all through elementarty school...so I was excited for him.

I decided that we'd have a family candle-light dinner instead of trying to go out or get a babysitter. So I finally made my favorite meal from Olive Garden...Five Cheese Ziti al Forno. I've had the recipe for awhile but never made it because honestly every time I looked at it, it just had too many ingredients! But for this special occasion, I thought it would be perfect. And IT WAS! It was so good! The boys loved it and it was so fun to do it candle-light style.

(anytime Ashton gets to use a lighter (supervised)...is great to him!)I love how just little things out of the ordinary are such a treat for them. Ashton said "Let's do this for EVERY holiday Mom!"

So worth it :)

Feelin' the...

I had been waiting for a nice enough day to go do a little "LOVE" shoot with the boys, so that I could have some pictures to put in the Valentine's cards I made for the grandparents. Finally last Friday it was a beautiful day, so after we picked up Ashton from school, we went out and amazingly in about 10 minutes I got some really fun, happy shots of them...They were so agreeable! Must have been the love in the air a few days before Valentine's Day.

(Or the extra half an hour of Wii time I promised Ashton if he cooperated...yeah that's probably more likely, and the ones of them laughing could be attributed to my dancing ;)

Anyway it was fun...and I will treasure these pictures of the two of them laughing and smiling together :)

Fun, Funny Gunnar...

So many times recently Gunnar does stuff that I want to write down or blog about. He has just been so fun lately!

As you may remember from the time that he was really little he was our crier...he cried a lot! I remember telling someone that had asked me how he was doing when he was about 6 weeks old that I could tell he was really sensitive. Amazing how you can see their little personalities so early. He is still our sensitive guy...in the way that things get to him more and he cries easier & more often than Ashton ever did. When he doesn't want to do something or isn't getting what he wants, he'll say "If you don't let me I'll be sad (almost in tears), or "if you don't do that I'll be sad". He's also sensitive in the way that he is always so concerned about everyone else and is just a sweet boy. When he has a drink or something to eat he always asks everyone else if they want some, and lots of times he will give things up so Ashton can have them. The other morning I was laying on the couch with him and I asked Lars to get me a blanket off the other chair and before he had a chance, Gunnar jumped up and said..."I'll get it for you Mommy" and he went and grabbed it for me. All througout the day I find myself noticing how sweet he is being. He is my cuddler and I love it! I take advantage of it a lot now because I'm well aware that it could end at any time. On days that he doesn't take a nap I like to rock him to sleep at night because he's so tired. A couple mornings ago he woke up about 6:30, but I could tell he was still tired & Lars was gone to the gym, so I brought him into bed with me and he cuddled in and fell back asleep...that doesn't happen very often, so it was so sweet! Then when Ashton woke up he came and hopped in too. I cherish these last months of mornings where we don't have to get up and be anywhere most days...till next school year when Ashton will have to be up and out of the house by 9:00.

Anyway for Gunnar being such a crier he is also such a laugher! He laughs at everything. I call him a giggle bucket because he'll get laughing so uncontrollably that he starts saying "I can't stop laughing." And it doesn't take much to get him going. A few times lately when I'm being silly with him, he'll say "You are SO funny Mommy!" He laughs and laughs and laughs!

And makes the funniest faces!

Here are just a few I've managed to capture...

Just like Ashton always has, Gunnar loves to be read to. But a funny thing he does when I read to him (that makes it hard to get through a book) is he wants to talk to each character in the book and wants them to talk back to him (in different voices)! He loves to talk to his stuffed animals or any little character. Today when he opened up the Valentine's Day card from my Mom...that happened to be a fuzzy red bear...he immediately gave it a kiss, then started talking to it, expecting it to talk back. He'll even pretend that his shoes or hands are talking to eachother! It cracks me up. One day as we were waiting for Ashton after school...Gunnar was sitting in the back seat and he has one whole hand in his mouth, then takes it out and says (in a tattle-tale tone) "Mommy...these fingers aren't letting these ones (pointing to the ones on his other hand) watch the fireworks go off in my mouth." Where in the world he gets some of the crazy stuff he comes up with I don't know!

One day I took just him to story time at our library. I used to take both of them all the time, but Ashton didn't want to go this time. Gunnar loves it. He's funny though...he sticks right next to me or on my lap the whole time where as Ashton used to wander all around and act as if I wasn't even there. Gunnar still gets shy around other people he doesn't know.

One more funny picture...

Gunnar had just gone potty and put his own undies and jammie pants back on, then came back out to play. I looked over to see this...

...and thought it was so funny!

I love that his shirt is half tucked into his underwear and Grover's little head is poking out of his pants! hee hee!

Each day with you Gunnar is like opening a new present & realizing it was exactly what I was wishing for...I love this time in my life with you and Ashton :)

My date night with Ashton...

I guess it's been a couple weeks ago now that Ashton and I had our date night. We had been planning it for a little while and got an opportunity to go that Friday night. He originally wanted to go to Olive Garden, but while we were driving there he must have gotten a craving for Rumbi, because all of a sudden he said "Wait, let's go to Rumbi instead!" To me either one is about 1000 times better than McDonald's and I love them both, so I said sure and turned the car around. He loves the tiki burger and I love the fish tacos there. We had a nice dinner just the two of us. Then he said he just wanted to go home and play the wii with just me, but once again changed his mind as we were driving and decided he wanted to go play games at the fun park.

It was packed, but it was okay...I gave him $5.00 worth of tokens and he played lots of games for about half an hour and walked away with 300 tickets! He carefully chose his prizes ( a little moon and star magnetic sculpture and a chinese type fan) Funny kid!

Then it was time to go home and play the wii. He was excited for it to be just him and me playing Super Mario Bros. We had our tent all set up, so we played it from in there, then slept in it all night. Fun! I loved having him all to myself...we really need to do it more often.

Blog slacker...

Wow I think that's about as long as I've ever gone between posts...I will get some motivation and catch up tomorrow~!