Another photoshoot...

I took this guy's pictures when he was only a couple weeks old and now he's 2!

We did these yesterday and I hurried and got them edited for his mom...2 year olds are busy! So we chased him around and thought we didn't get very many good shots, but when I started looking through them, I realized we got way more than we thought we did.

So cute!

 My favorite!

Driving his car through the leaves... 

Mother's Day, 2014

Always one of my favorite days of the year...I can never say enough how much I love being a Mom as well as how grateful I am that I was raised by such a wonderful Mom, and am also so grateful for Lars' Mom and my stepmom. Sunday started with breakfast in bed and Lars also wrote up an agenda for the day :)

 A few days before Mother's Day, Gunnar was just sitting at the counter smiling to himself, so I said "What?" And he said..."I just can't wait to give you your mother's day stuff." Then he said it again so excitedly that night when I was tucking him into bed. He is so cute and I just love that he has already learned the joy in giving and I just love the sweet little thoughtful person he is.

The things he was so excited to give me :)

 I just found the one Ashton did for me when he was in kindergarten :)

 Fun to compare those :)

And these!

Gunnar's...

Ashton's...
Love that they are pretty much the same!

He was so excited to plant these...

 Such treasures to me...I love anything they put thought into and make for me. And I just know that Gunnar really thought about these things as he was making them for me.

Ashton also made this for me at scouts...painted with his fingerprints :)

So after we had breakfast, we all got ready for church and took some pictures then went.

 After church, Lars had planned for us to meet my Mom and Harry in Layton for lunch, so we met them at Red Lobster and had the best lunch...

 Then they decided to head home rather than go shopping and to a movie with us. Don't blame them!

I did get to shop for about an hour by myself while Lars walked around the mall with the boys. Then we ended up driving into Ogden and going to the Muppet Movie....luckily it was at the cheap theater. It was not our favorite.

Oh well...then we went and got Baskin Robbins and headed home. It was a fun day. I always appreciate that Lars puts thought into planning stuff.



Soccer...

Like I said before... Gunnar loved soccer this season! He had such a fun little team and couldn't wait for his games and never wanted to be sitting out. And when he was out, he was on his feet cheering for his teammates. So fun to watch!

I finally took my nice camera to one of the last few games and got some fun pictures...

 Awesome coaches...parents of two of Gunnar's best buddies. They got the boys trophies...

 Kind of sad it's over already!

A new phase...

It's been awhile ago, but I remember at one point writing a post about how I felt like I was at such a crossroads in my life. Not knowing if we were ever going to have another baby, but also enjoying having the boys be a little more independent, and being able to do a lot more stuff with them. Just kind of in limbo...Well lately I just feel like I or we really are just in a definite new phase of our lives.

I guess partly it's knowing that Gunnar will go to school all day next year, and he's just not so little anymore, but lots of other things too. It's become pretty obvious that we won't ever have any more kids. That is out of our control and I'm okay with it. I trust God completely on that and know that it just must not be meant to be. I am always so so grateful for Ashton and Gunnar, and I think it makes me even more grateful. And I also think it makes me really try to live in the moment and enjoy my time with them. Especially knowing that time is flying by so quickly and they are growing up so fast. I treasure when they sit and talk to me and when they still need me. Ashton especially these days wants to spend every waking moment with his friends, so the times I treasure with him are late at night when I lay in bed with him, or in the morning when he's up (so early!) we can talk for a little bit. I still have Gunnar to myself a little bit more, but he has a lot of friends now too and is always asking to play with them. Lars and I were just talking today about how he all of a sudden has so many friends. And not really any in our neighborhood, all from school and sports. He makes friends so easily and everyone loves him.

He still loves his Mom most though and loves to talk to me and tell me everything. Most days I'm up and out of bed before him these days...ironically after being our early riser for so long, he is the one that gets to sleep in and does. Yesterday though, I actually slept in a little and he was excited to see I was still in bed and came right in and jumped in with me to snuggle when he woke up. Yep I definitely treasure those moments. Then after we got up and I got him breakfast he begged me to not make my bed, so we could get back in and watch a show. I had a million things I needed to do, but just knowing that it won't be long before he won't want to do that, or he'll be off to school all day, I gladly laid back in bed and we turned on WallyKazam and snuggled in. I loved every minute of it :)
Funny...I started writing this post a couple days ago and just logged back on to finish it. The day that I started it, I walked Gunnar into school like I always still do and as I was walking out this cute little girl in his class named Ollie walked up to me and gave me her phone # to give to Gunnar. Like I said everyone loves him! Every time I go in to volunteer, she is asking if Gunnar can come over and play. I think I'll try to get them together this week.
Anyway back to this new phase...
I guess I just feel like now that the boys are getting bigger, I am doing things I never in a million years thought I would do. I am still running and training for my races this summer...I am up to 9 miles now! I've said it before, but I was never, ever going to be a runner. Ragnar is coming up quick...it's in about 6 weeks and I'm getting excited. I'm doing it with some fun girls!
The other thing that is actually more crazy to me than the running is that I am somehow going to be PTA president next year...it really almost makes me want to laugh every time I think about it. Especially when I think back to myself in high school, or just in general. It is so not me to do that!
But I also have to laugh that Kelli for the past couple years has teased me and said..."I just know you're going to be PTA president one day." When she would say it, I really was like...NO. Never. And I really still think I never would have done if not for the reason that I offered to do it. I have a friend who happens to be president this year, who has become one of my very best friends over the past couple years. She and I are so much alike and I often think God put us in each others lives when he did for a reason. Well I think that about most things, but anyway...
So this friend of mine who is just a great person is going through a really hard time and recently had to get a full time job and is going to be going through a divorce and I just couldn't let her agree to be president again and no one else was volunteering...so here I am.
I feel good about it though...it intimidates me, but I think I'm doing the right thing. Both boys will be in school all day and they love having me so involved. I can do this right?
Anyway...I guess this is my journaling post. I haven't done one for a long time. So I'm trying to think of what else is going on. Summer is coming up really fast too...I'm looking forward to it, but also trying to get it well planned out to avoid boredom and fighting! So the boys are doing some fun camps, swimming lessons, and we have some fun weekend trips planned. We're also trying to plan a family vacation, but still trying to decide when & where.
I know the boys are excited for the break too.
So crazy that Ashton will be in 4th grade next year! And this kindergarten year has gone by so so fast for Gunnar. It's been so fun...I love their teachers and just pray they get teachers that are good for them next year too.
One thing that is bothering me is that we have to decide whether we want to put Gunnar in the dual-immersion French program this next year. So if we did it, he would be taught half his day in French and the other in English. Then every year after that he would do the same...I hate that we have to decide! All along I've been leaning towards not doing it. But of course all of his little friends are doing it and now I have the principal trying to talk me into it. So I am praying that I will know what to do...whatever is best for him.
What else...Oh Ashton just finally finished the last Harry Potter book! He took the AR test for it at school the same day he finished it and got 32 points! Anyway it was just fun to see him really start to love reading and get through those huge books!

Wow...he looks so different from the year and a half ago since he started them!
And Gunnar is still loving reading too and is so good at it. He seems to be good at everything he tries. He is playing t~ball now as well as finishing up soccer (he had his last game yesterday) and he amazes me with how fast and far he can throw a baseball!
Some cute pictures from his first game...

I need to go through his soccer pictures and post some of those. It was so fun to watch him play...he loved it.
Almost as much as he loves his neon clothing and long socks these days...

Funny kid :) Actually it's not very funny most mornings when 1 of the 3 shirts he likes to wear isn't clean...we are back to those days of meltdowns about clothes...grrr!
Oh well...that is why he usually walks out the door looking like that because I just don't have the energy to fight about it and really who cares?
I am looking forward to summer and those long socks just being too hot to wear!
Anyway I guess that's all for tonight...I am so tired and I really need to get up and run in the morning. We'll see :)
I really am loving this new phase of our lives even though I would be lying if I said I didn't miss the other phases too...

Walk~A~Thon!

Last Thursday the boys' school had it's big fundraiser for the year and I helped plan it and pull it off with a couple of other moms. It went so well and all of the kids had so much fun!

Ashton and Gunnar were so excited about it and blew me away with how many laps they ran! I was at the school pretty much all day that day, so it was fun to be able to be there and see them run it.

They had to get pledges a couple weeks before and each earned about $140!

They sure have wonderful grandparents and of course Aunt Kelli donated too.

They both ran 16 laps and each lap was 1/8th of a mile! So they ran 2 miles in 20 minutes!

Being a runner myself now...I just was really impressed with these two.

Those first few miles are still hard for me some days! 

I made some posters the night before and loved it when Gunnar saw them the next morning and said "Wow Mom...did you make these?? You are so good! You even drew these shoes...how did you do that??" haha...he makes me feel so good about myself some days for silly little things. I love it!

Gunnar also had soccer practice that afternoon and wow was he tired that night...He slept in till 9:15 the next morning and said his legs were sore! 

Recent photoshoots...

Just a couple shoots I've done lately.

A lady from my church and her family...

And a friend's new little nephew...