Shockey...

I have to do a post about Shockey.

Who is Shockey? Shockey is Gunnar's favorite Webkinz stuffed animal, favorite possession... that is pretty much attached to him all day every day. He sleeps with him, sits next to him while we eat, goes in the bathroom with him, he rides in the car with us everywhere we go and even goes to school with Gunnar in his backpack every day he goes. Shockey is a white (well he's more of a gray color now) seal.

One night, months ago Lars took Gunnar to Shopko for some reason and Gunnar picked up Shockey and Lars told him he could walk around the store with him, but before they checked out he'd have to put him back. Well somehow (as Gunnar tells it) Daddy accidentally let him buy Shockey :).

 Gunnar absolutely LOVES Shockey!

 He has become just like Ashton's Lovey has always been to him.

He'll say to me a lot of times..."Isn't Shockey so cute Mom?" And Shockey has his own cute little unmistakeable voice too.

Gunnar thinks it's so funny to poke him out of his sleeve :)

 I often find Shockey watching over Gunnar while he sleeps :)... 

Going for a walk, of course Shockey came along :) 

And Shockey wanted to try out the vampire teeth after Halloween...

No clue where Gunnar came up with his name, but we sure love Shockey!

First Snowman of the year!

The second time it snowed this year we only got a few inches again, but that morning right after we took Ashton to school, Gunnar's little friend Owen came knocking on our door all dressed in his snow clothes ready to play in it. His dad came with him and helped them build a snowman.

They had so much fun!

Getting all ready and looking oh so cute :)

 Big snowballs all ready to stack...

 It is hard work!

 He's done!

 Always have to have some hot chocolate after you build a snowman!

 He turned out pretty cute :)

Fun at the park...

A few weeks ago we met up with Brianne and the boys at a park we hadn't been to for a long time. Lars and Nate were gone hunting.

It was a beautiful day and all the boys had so much fun.

 The little ones (Gunnar and Kevin) did a little too much spinning in this thing...

...and walked over to us at about the same time saying they didn't feel good, then they both

laid down and fell asleep!

Cuties :)

Carving Pumpkins...

This seems like a long time ago now, but I need to post a few pictures of this fun night. Ashton and Gunnar LOVE carving pumpkins! Gunnar especially loved digging the guts out this year :)

 The guts have never bothered Ashton either...

 Lars' creation... 

 Ashton loved carving this tiny white one... 

I did the green and white one with painters tape and I drew swirlies on with a sharpie on the other...I don't love the guts :)

 Oh and I used Lars' drill to drill all the holes in this big one and used my sharpie again for stripes :) The drilled one looked pretty cool lit up in the dark...

 Such a fun time that we look forward to every year!

Just a quick post...

I'm getting so behind...life is so busy these days.

I need to get to bed...well after I either fold the 3 loads of laundry that are on my bed, or possibly just move them onto the floor until tomorrow.

But before I go to bed I will post about just a couple of things and try to catch up this weekend.

Gunnar is pretty proud of himself for learning how to do this last weekend...

I love it when they practice and practice at something, then it finally clicks!

He had so much fun blowing bubbles last Sunday :)

And I have to say how proud I am of Ashton. He will be doing his first Reconciliation in less than a month, and in preparation  he has been going to class every Monday night since the beginning of September and is expected to learn numerous prayers. So I got him a binder and typed up all of these prayers for him to put in it and he immediately got to work memorizing. I think just having the binder makes it more fun for him :)...

Anyway I went up to his room and handed him one prayer, went back downstairs to print a couple more and by the time I got back (about 3 minutes later)...he recited it to me perfectly!

It is amazing to me how quickly and easily he picks things up. When I saw the list, to be honest, it was a little daunting and I thought...wow, can he really memorize all of these in time?? But now I am confident that he can and he will.

Good job Ashton!

Book 2 finished!

Well, he did it...Ashton finished  the second Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets! Lars read some of it with him/to him, but for the most part Ashton quietly read it to himself and we are so proud of him.

Good job buddie!

Right after he finished it up on Sunday we watched the movie. He and Gunnar loved every minute of it.

As soon as Aunt Kelli makes it down again, he can start the third one and he is so excited. I love that he is loving reading!

It finally came out!

Ashton lost his first top front tooth about 7 months ago and the other one has been wiggly for a LONG time. But he rarely messed with it and wouldn't even let me check to see how wiggly it was. Then on Friday when I picked him up from school he said that it had been really wiggly all day and he showed me and let me wiggle it a little bit. I could tell when I touched it that it was definitely ready to come out, but I could also tell that he was nervous to do it and that it was hurting. But it was almost time to go pick up Gunnar, so I told him to go into the bathroom and just try to get it out. It was so loose, it came right out!

So much less dramatic than the last one that took lots of wiggling and was pretty hard to get out!

He was so excited to lose another one, and he looks so cute. It was funny though when we were in the car going to get Gunnar, he was realizing that it was hard to say his S's and he was getting pretty frustrated. I told him that he just needed to get used to having another tooth out and that he'd be able to say them again soon.

I love the note he left for the tooth fairy...haha.

Little hoarder, can't let anything go!

And perfect timing for the Christmas season :)

 

Halloween...2012

On Halloween Ashton was so excited to become Harry Potter for the day. He got up and had breakfast and did his chores, then got into his costume...we hadn't had time to spray his hair dark when I did their pictures the other day, so we made sure we had time on Halloween. He looked so cute...

Gunnar had school that day too, but they asked that the kids not dress up. So I took him to storytime at the library where they did get to dress up. Everyone kept saying...Oh it's Harry Potter! So I explained lots of times that no, he's Ron Weasley...his big brother is Harry Potter. Then I got the "Oh yeah, he makes a perfect Ron with his red hair!" Gunnar didn't seem to care...haha :)

While he was at school, I went in to help with Ashton's Halloween party. The head room Mom asked me to take pictures and I gladly said yes...I love that I get asked to do that for things now, and with the busy week it was much easier than having to plan a craft or a treat! And it was a lot of fun to get to see all of the kids in their costumes and snap a picture of each one to print out and send home with them.

Here's Ashton's...

I also did a class picture...

Then it was time to go get Gunnar from school, then run back and get Ashton. Then we only had about an hour and a half before it was time to head over to BJ and Emily's for our annual chili dinner.

A few pictures before we headed over...

 Then off to trick or treat...finally!

They both had so much fun going from house to house and seeing what treats they got. Our cute little neighbor girl Addy ended up joining them :)

Gunnar loved his vampire teeth about as much as any of the candy he got...haha!

They were out for a little over an hour this year before they wanted to head in and check out what they got and hand out candy.

 They loved watching the Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin show this year...they laughed and laughed.

After that we decided to head up to trick or treat at Mrs. Coburn's house (Ashton's kindergarten teacher). She is so sweet and was so happy they came. I have my fingers crossed that she'll teach one more year and Gunnar will get to have her...she loves him!

That was our last stop, then we headed home and had showers, then were off to bed.

Another fun Halloween!

Box Tops...

 After this week, I'd rather not see any boxtops for awhile :)

A friend of mine is the PTA president this year and at the end of last year I told her to let me know if she needed help with anything this year, so she ended up asking me to be in charge of Box Tops (the little coupon looking things that you can clip off of all sorts of things that you buy at the grocery store, and send in to get cash for your school). So I said yes that I'd be happy to do that. It seemed like a good easy job for me...haha! So a couple weeks ago I had a contest for all of the classes. The class that collected the most box tops during the two week contest would get to have an ice cream party. I had already counted a big batch of boxtops that I'd picked up at the school a few weeks before that, and then after the contest ended I picked up another BIG box of all the boxtops that the classes had collected.

Anyway.......let's just say I spent a LOT of hours, sorting, clipping and counting box tops! Lars helped me a couple different nights for a couple hours, then I spent a lot more hours on my own and in the end counted

10,024 box tops! And then I understood why the secretary at the school had looked at me like she felt sorry for me when I told her I was there to pick up the box tops! haha :) It was a big job, but I was so proud of all of the kids for collecting that many so far!

That turns into $1024 for our school!

I was so glad to have my little helper for a little while that long day...

That was just our first batch...I'll do another contest in the spring and be counting a bunch more to send in! I don't really mind...it was time consuming, but I love to help out.