Gunnar is Child of the Week!

 This last week it was Gunnar's turn at his preschool to be "Child of the Week." So we (I mean I) made him a fun poster (with lots of my favorite pictures of him doing his favorite things:) to bring to hang up in his class all week, then on Thursday we baked some chocolate chip cookies to bring and share...

 ...and I came in for the last 20 minutes to help him show his poster,

 ...and his little Lego spinners he chose to bring.

He also got to wear his beloved green kickball shirt! Here he is showing it off...

oh how he loves it!

I love stuff like this...I love that he gets to feel special, I love making a huge poster full of his cuteness,

I love making cookies with him as he sneaks chocolate chips, I love going into his class and seeing how he acts there (pretty shy by the way)...

I LOVE being this little boy's Mom.

I feel so grateful every day.

Some things I want to remember about these times with Gunnar as a 3 1/2 year old...

Most days for the longest time (until recently) very early in the morning he would call out for me and I'd come crawl into his bed with him and snuggle and sleep till it was really time to get up. Then we would get up and go lay on the couch and "watch a kid show". I will so miss these mornings...I often think I should get up and immediately be productive (I know our mornings would go better), but I know I will never look back and regret spending the morning snuggling with my cute little boy rather than making beds or unloading the dishwasher...

After we get Ashton off to school, we've been coming back and going for a walk/run...I get Gunnar all snuggled into the stroller with ALL of his favorite blankets, a snack and a drink and he's happy to go along and let me get my exercise in. Sometimes I really have to make myself go, but it ALWAYS makes my day go better.

Then after we get back, he's recently been talking me into playing the wii with him for awhile. Eventually I get around to doing my chores, but not before we do a few races on the Cars game he loves :)

He made me laugh the other night...he and Ashton started arguing about who was going to bath in Mommy & Daddy's big tub and Gunnar yells "No I am, because I'm Mom's CUTEST!"

Gunnar you are such a silly, funny, snuggly, happy (but oh so moody sometimes!), adorable little boy...and like I say all the time, I am so going to miss these days with you.

You did not sleep good last night...not really sure why, but you kept crying out. Eventually at about 2:00, I went in and slept with you the rest of the night till about 7:45. You were still tired all morning and just wanted me to hold you all through church. Then you fell asleep in the car right before Daddy got home with you. But wouldn't stay asleep when he got you out. So I decided it was a good day for a nap for me and you. You fought it and fought it but after we were laying in your bed for about 20 minutes we both fell asleep for 2 hours. It felt so nice...we never nap anymore!

I love you Gunnar :)

More pictures...

Hopefully it won't take so long today...here are some more recent pictures I've taken. I took my friend Erica's pictures last year for her, and we did some more this year a couple weeks ago. I really could take pictures of her girls for hours...and I did! We spent over 2 hours and took 350-something pictures! Erica helped me narrow it down to 120-something to edit :) So here are my favorites from their shoot...well some of them, it is hard to choose! Little models in the making!
(I think they get it from their cute Mom:)...

Busy taking pictures!

The past couple months I have taken about 5 or 6 of my friends' family pictures. It has been fun and I learn something new every time! I am all caught up right now, but it has kept me BUSY!

Here are some of my faves from all of them :)

More to come...this is just taking forever to upload them!

The Pumpkin Walk!

I am still trying to catch up...

One of the most fun fall things we have in Logan is the annual Pumpkin Walk. We try to make it every year & this year I got to go with Gunnar's preschool class. Just like Ashton's class did when he went to Melody Lane, Gunnar got to decorate a pumpkin for his class' scene in it. The theme this year was "Favorite Things". There were so many cute displays! Ashton got to go with his class on a field trip the day before Gunnar and I went. 

Some of our favorites scenes were the Despicable Me one...

I thought they did an amazing job depicting the characters from that movie!

The boys loved the Angry Birds...

I loved the Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends one...Gunnar watches that show a lot and I just think it's so cute :)

He would not pose for a picture by himself, so I handed off my camera to his teacher and she took one of both of us...

Here he is with the cute pumpkin he painted finally letting me take his picture...

Anyway it was a fun way to spend the afternoon with my cute boy!

He fell asleep in the car 2 minutes before we got home and ended up sleeping for 2 hours!

First Basketball game and first snow!

Last Saturday Ashton had his very first basketball practice and game. At 8:00 am!! A bit early if you ask me, but he has been SO excited to start. I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but when he got the flyer about it at school, he came home begging me to sign him up.

 Anyway he loved every minute of it. Quite a different sport than soccer and there is a lot to be learned, but I love to see his enthusiasm about it!

 That day also happened to be our first snow!

Also something that brings great excitement to our house.

The boys played in it for hours that day...there wasn't too much and it was mostly gone by the next day, but it was fun while it lasted and there is sure to be lots more in the coming months.

(Ashton and Gunnar with their buddies Will and Tyler)

I love this picture!

Fun day :)

Ashton's CUTE school picture!

I just have to say I'm so proud of Ashton for his super cute school picture :)

I love it!

Last year, I was the bad Mom who forgot it was picture day and didn't do his hair or dress him cute...oops! So we did retakes and they still weren't the best. I take SO many pictures of him and Gunnar anyway, that I didn't really care, but the picture still goes into the class picture!

Anyway good job Ashton...you look so handsome and so GROWN UP! :)

Gunnar's went to his first little friend birthday party...

Gunnar got invited to a birthday party of one of the little boys in his preschool class...Carter. He was so excited! He kept calling him "my Carter." Is it "my Carter's birthday party yet Mom?"

So it was finally the day to go last Friday and we headed to Walmart to pick out a gift. Of course Gunnar wanted something for himself too, but finally decided on just something for Carter and we got it and went home and wrapped it up. But not before he begged me to let him get it out of the box and play with it first :)
It is hard to be 3 and have to give and not get!

Here he is on our way out the door. So excited!

We got in the car and I got him buckled in his seat and pulled out of the driveway and he yells "Party, here we come!!" Funny boy!

It was a fun little pirate party and of course I was the only Mom who ended up staying...he would not stay without me. Oh well...I will so miss these days of him needing me so much :)

Halloween night...

We lucked out this year and had beautiful weather on Monday night for Trick-or-Treating, I kept thinking it was going to get really cold and it never did.
(not until the next day!)
Ashton and Gunnar were so excited to get out and start knocking on doors! They wouldn't even hardly stand still for a picture...

(Gunnar would not stand up, until I went in and stood with him...)

First we went over to our neighbors' (the Smiths) for our annual chili dinner...(we figured out we've been doing it for about 6 years now!). Emily is always so nice to make a huge pot of chili & other yummy stuff and have a bunch of us over.

Such a fun tradition!

Then it was time to go get some candy.

We lasted longer this year than last and probably made it to about 20 or so houses.

Our funny neighbor Brett...I mean Marge Simpson! haha! 

Then Gunnar had a little meltdown and it was time to head home...

I was glad Ashton stuck with us this year the whole time instead of trying to take off with friends. As usual they were both excited to get home and set up their chairs to hand out candy :)

Gunnar checking out his stash...of course excited about the CHOCOLATE!

It was a fun night, and they're already talking about what they want to be next year!

Oh I was a leopard this year.
Since I was in charge of Ashton's Halloween party at school, I figured I better come up with something :)