Just stuff...

Seems like it's been awhile since I've done a post just to catch up on everything and journal...
It is Saturday afternoon, the boys are outside playing in the beautiful fall weather and Lars is watching the USU homecoming game on tv. So I will take this peaceful moment to try to get this done.

I guess I'll start with Ashton.

He is still doing great in school and loving it...he even comes home and wants to play school with Gunnar. Our family room downstairs has been built into a fort this past week (which if I'm honest drives me a bit crazy!), but it's hours of entertainment for them and I try to remind myself that someday I will wish there were 2 cute little boys pretending and having so much fun in the fort in my basement, when in reality they are all grown up :( Anyway they come down and I can hear Ashton actually teaching Gunnar things...and I found this paper that he'd even written down the schedule of the day...so cute!

He is such a good reader now and I love that he could spell most of these words correctly! Oh and I love that he is always learning new words. He cracked me up the other day when I was trying to get him to go get dressed or something and I told him to hurry up...He looked back at me as he was walking down the hall and said "Why, because I'm ambling?" haha!

He still gets up in the morning and happily eats his breakfast and agreeably gets dressed and ready for school. Ironically this morning when we told him we were going to take him and Gunnar to the parade in town...he had a complete meltdown because he didn't want to go!

Lars and I laughed thinking about how easy it is to get him off to school, but then when we try to take him to do something else "fun", he wants nothing to do with it! Gunnar on the other hand couldn't wait to go...all we had to do was mention CANDY and he got dressed and ready...even in cute clothes (which most days now is a HUGE battle!) He is still insisting on wearing his green kickball shirt Every. Single. Day.
I have to pry it off of him to wash it! Grrr...but once again I try to remind myself that some day I will look back at pictures of him in it and miss these days...

Back to Ashton...he is also doing fall soccer and doing pretty well. The field is bigger this year and a few of the games he's had to play the whole game, so he gets really tired, but overall he is doing well.

He still isn't one of the very aggressive ones, but he gets in there and tries hard, so that is all that matters as far as I'm concerned.

 I really hate to see sports get so serious at his age already! And I have seen some of that this season. These kids are only 6 and 7! Shouldn't it just be fun???

Yesterday at his school was the big Walkathon (the pta's one big fundraiser for the year). I got recruited to help out with all of it and it was a lot of fun! Ashton thought it was great...he was so excited to see how many laps he could do in their allotted 15 minutes. He estimated that he could do 6 and ended up doing 8, running almost the entire time!
(giving Oreo the Panda 5!)

Each lap was approximately 1/6th of a mile, so he did awesome!

I've also been going into his classroom once a week to help out with reading groups and that's been fun too. I love to get to know all of the little kids in the class and I know Ashton likes to see me come in too. So funny to see all of his little neighbor friends when I walk by their classrooms or see them in the hall...they get so excited and yell "Hi Ashton's Mom, or Hi Jessica", then I hear them telling their friends..."I know her!!"

One more picture I can't leave out...

I had put this pink shirt (that was a hand me down from a friend) into his drawer the other day...and was just waiting to see what he said about it. I really expected him to find it and freak out and throw it back at me, but to my surprise he thought it was so funny and immediately put it on to go to soccer practice!

 I love you Ashton!

Moving onto Gunnar...

Oh Gunnar...Mr. almost 3 1/2. How in the world did I forget this stage??

So so cute...but SO SO stubborn! I forgot how at this age they want to be so independent and do everything themselves and in their own sweet time...

Mostly with Gunnar it is a clothing issue right now as I mentioned before. He loves that he can dress and undress himself and I really try to not fight that battle, but once again if I'm honest...yes I like for my boys to wear the cute clothes I buy for them and yes it drives me crazy when they only want to wear that one oversized, neck stretched out, most of the time dirty shirt! But most days guess what? I give in and let him wear it. Only to school and church do I make him choose something else.
And oh the tantrums!!! It's a wonder we ever get out of the house some days.

Besides that, and well some just really rough mornings (he is SO not a morning guy)...he is still our sweet, funny little Gunnar.

Happy to go to preschool, loving it and can't stop talking about it and singing the cute songs they learn. He also loves that when I pick him up, if I park close enough to the curb, he can reach his door handle ALL BY HIMSELF!

He got these cute monster jammies from his Godmother Angie the other day...and I got these cute pictures of him wearing them before bed :)

Love them!

Then last night after I read to him, he was begging for more books, so I told him I would leave his light on for a few more minutes and he could keep reading to himself, then I'd come back in and tuck him in. Well it had been awhile and I went back in to find this...

So cute!
 He doesn't get too many naps these days with our busy schedule, so he is worn out at night!

Oh and this one that I had kind of forgotten about, but then as I was putting out fall/Halloween decorations I needed a picture to put in this frame and found it...

 It just makes me smile, one of my favorite pictures of him ever. I just want to squeeze that little face :)

Moving onto Lars...

It has been a little over 6 weeks since his second surgery and he's doing pretty well. He had his six week appt. down in Salt Lake on Tuesday and they said it's looking really good and they started him with a physical therapist down there. For obvious reasons we just feel more comfortable having him do it there rather than here.

So he finally goes back to work full time on Monday. I think he's glad...but I think we both kind of liked having him home and I know the boys did. Even when he was laid up they got to spend more time with him and as I told him a couple days ago there really are blessings in everything. As he was able to walk a little more, he got to take the boat out a few times, and on Wednesday I even got to go with him!

Thanks to Kelli for coming and watching the boys :)

It was a lot of fun...I never get to take a day off from my duties during the week!

The fishing wasn't super hot, but I did end up catching 3 nice fish and it was just fun to be out on the peaceful water in the boat with no one needing anything from me!

We have been having such beautiful weather!
 I keep telling the boys they need to get out and enjoy it as much as they can because our winters are SO long.

And finally a few more pictures I have to post...

Just to prove that life is so busy sometimes...

we got about an hour and a half away from home a couple weeks ago and I looked down at my feet to see that I had two different shoes on!

All I could do was laugh!

Also Ashton's door looked like this for awhile...

It's hard to be the little brother sometimes :(,
 but it did make us laugh...

Look at the smiling "Gunnar" holding up those socks!! hahahahaha!

Ashton is so funny! (and Gunnar really does sneak into his room and steal his socks!)

Like I've said before some days they play so good together and others it is non-stop fighting! So I will enjoy the good times and know that sometimes brothers just fight and that's how it is. I am still really so glad they have eachother.

The other night they sat in this chair for the longest time each reading a "Harold and the Purple Crayon" book...

I love these two so much!

Gunnar's new Monster Room!

I have had all of these ideas floating around in my head for awhile, and finally got around to doing them in Gunnar's room.

Yes I have a thing for Monsters...

I don't know what it is, I just think they are so cute!

Remember Ashton's backpack?

Then I found Gunnar's this year, and told my step-Mom about it since they'd been wanting to get him his backpack for school, so she ordered it from Children's Place and sent it to us.

 As I searched around on the internet for ideas, I found nothing. I looked for bedding FOREVER! And found nothing. I had pretty much given up on finding anything I liked. Even pondered making some!

 Until I found this at Walmart a couple weeks ago...

 I LOVE it!

Once I found it, I started working on my other ideas. I got a bunch of fleece fabric at Walmart for $7! And made these guys so far...(well the green one, the gray one and the orange one) I had made that pillow for Gunnar for Christmas and the round blue one is from Hobby Lobby...

I still need to make a couple more.

Those blocks above used to be these...

And this saying...

used to be this...

I bought the "M" at Hobby Lobby and covered it with this cute scrapbook paper. 

I just re-used these frames and put some favorite pictures of Gunnar in them...

(one with his brother of course :) 

 And my wonderful neighbor has a vinyl cutting machine, so I had her cut out the "...is for Monster" saying as well as these funky frames and we designed this cute monster :)

I painted the letters for his name to match the new colors in the room...

I couldn't believe it when I found this kleenex box!

And forever I've been looking for some bookshelves for the boys' rooms with no luck. Then as I was looking at the little wood frames at JoAnn (that I just painted black)...I looked over and saw this...

...unfinished of course, but it was exactly what I'd been looking for and I got it for 50% off! Even better. I took it home, sanded it and painted it and I love how it looks in his room and am so happy to finally have a place to put books! Now I need to go back and get one for Ashton's room.

Anyway it has been fun, and I love how it turned out!

I think Gunnar likes it too :) He named this guy toad and sleeps with him every night...

Gunnar's first team sport...KICKBALL!

For the past month Gunnar has been playing kickball. They have it here in Providence for the 3 & 4 year olds...It's pretty cute to watch. Or should I say play...because I pretty much played every game with Gunnar.

He wanted me right by his side the whole time except for at his last game tonight.

 He played the whole game by himself!

(so I finally got some pictures)

 I was so proud of him. He was so cute kicking the ball and running around the bases.

I'm glad he ended up really liking it and having fun with it.

His team & coaches cheering for the other team at the end...

 In other Gunnar news...he is also really loving preschool. His 2nd and 3rd day both went great this week. He goes right in and is excited to start each day and comes running to me when I go pick him up and loves telling me all about the stuff they got to do.

I am SO glad!

And yet other exciting Gunnar news...he has woken up dry every day for about 3 weeks now! About that long ago, I finally got around to making him a sticker chart and he has loved putting a sticker on it each morning when he's woken up dry. After the first 5 times he earned his own "big boy" scooter and he loves it and rides it every day!

It has been so nice to give up the pull-ups!

What else? Not much I guess...Oh wait, I just re-did his whole room, and it's almost done...pictures coming soon :)

Rascal Flatts Concert!!

Last Friday night some friends and I went to see Rascal Flatts and Sara Evans at the Usana Ampitheater in West Valley.

 It was SO fun! Both of them have always been some of my very favorites.

Here we are at my house on our way to head down to Layton to get Randi and Courtney...

Lars thinks I'm too old to still be going to concerts.

I don't. I'm not too old to love music, and I think all Moms need to have girls night out at least once a month, and to me concerts are a great place to do it!

We laugh so hard and enjoy ourselves way too much. All without alcohol!

Unlike half the people around us...

Here's our group...

Brianne, me, Starlee, Randi, Nikki & Courtney

This was also the first outdoor concert I had been to in years...I can't even remember the last one I'd been to. We just bought the cheap general admissions seats out on the lawn and brought blankets to sit on (since they don't let you bring in chairs.)

As we were driving there, a huge storm blew in...thunder, lightning, HARD rain and huge winds! We were worried it was going to get cancelled, but we just waited it out in the parking lot in the truck for about half an hour, then went in and it cleared out and ended up being a really nice night.
Sara sang that new song "Easy" with them, that Natasha Bettingfield usually sings with them :)

Good times!

Thanks girls :) 

Gunnar's First Day of PreSchool!!!

Like I said before it's so hard for me to believe that our little Gunnar is already going to preschool...how can he be almost 3 1/2 already? Boo hoo...

But I have to say that he 100 %, totally shocked me with how his first day went. I had prepared myself for a very difficult drop off on Tuesday (September 9th to be exact...).

 But let's start with the rest of the day...

We got up and got Ashton off to school, then went for a short walk (Gunnar in the stroller), then came home, I got showered and had to go volunteer in Ashton's class, hurried home to start getting Gunnar ready for lunch, then school. I told him we could make lunch at home or I'd take him to McDonald's for his first day. He quickly chose McDonald's...Obviously. I was glad I had that to dangle in front of him while I tried to get him dressed.

 Lately I wonder how in the world I forgot this frustrating stage of trying to get a 3 1/2 year old dressed (in cute clothes) and out of the house!!! Really it wasn't that long ago with Ashton! Anyway Gunnar these days ONLY wants to wear his oversized green kickball shirt and one of two pairs of black atheltic shorts. Well 3 year olds as we all know, don't stay very clean, so generally these items are dirty and need to be washed. Oh the fits when he can't wear these certain things or a few other choice things!
Oh and did I mention that up until that day he had decided he didn't need to wear underwear anymore? For about 2 weeks he hadn't been wearing them. Wouldn't. So on Monday I decided I'd go get him some boxer shorts and see if he'd like them better. Thank goodness he loves them! Oh and just a cute little thing he said when he first put them on..."The top part looks like a cupcake Mommy." (more like a cupcake holder...but cute:)

Anyway...

I had planned on this being the hardest part of our day, but I gave him 3 choices of shirts and a couple choices of shorts and he actually did pretty well & got dressed pretty quickly with my McDonald's encouragement :) So off we went to lunch after we took a few pictures of course...

Love his new backpack:)

Then it was almost 1:00 so it was time. I could tell he was getting nervous. So was I for him and for me if I had to leave him there crying. But we got there and I walked him in and at first he was saying he didn't want to go, but I showed him around, showed him where to hang up his backpack...

 ...and took his kleenex box to his cubby, (his animal is the giraffe:)...

 ...introduced him to his teachers and tried to get him to sit down at one of the little tables and play with the blocks or playdough.

Well he wasn't having it as I expected.
Then Laurie...the owner came over and started talking to him about the fish and telling him that he could help name them and he actually took her hand and followed her over to the tank, so I figured I better make my exit.

I so wanted to give him a big hug and a kiss, but I knew he would just want me to keep staying and I really wanted him to not cry...so I left. Got in my car and cried, thinking that as soon as he realized I was gone that he would be crying. The whole time. And just not believing I just dropped my baby off at his first day of preschool :(

So I worried about him the whole 2 hours, then went and picked him up. I walked out to their little playground that they get to play on before it's time to come home and when he saw me, he ran to me with the biggest smile on his face and jumped in my arms! I asked him how it was and he said "Good" and started to tell me how he got to paint a rainbow and "I didn't even cry at all Mommy!" Like I said I was so shocked! This little boy who is SO attached to me...he did it and was so proud of himself for not crying!

So other than locking the keys in the car while I was picking him up, it turned out to be a great first day! (thanks for saving us Lindee...oh and taking this picture of us before we left :)

This pretty much says it all :) 

Oh and when we all finally got home and he got to see Ashton he ran up to him and said "Ask me how my first day of preschool was Ashton!" And then was so excited to tell him all about it :)