More pictures and camera problems...

The past few shoots I have done, I have noticed that I just can't quite get my camera to focus right. Or it will seem like it is when I am taking pictures but then once I look at them on my computer...half of them are way off! :/

So I finally decided to try to see why and after some research learned that my lens might need to be calibrated, so I took my camera down to Salt Lake on Wednesday after I dropped the boys off at school and dropped if off at a camera repair place and went shopping down there while it was being fixed.

When I picked it up, they said that it was WAY off, so it wasn't just me! And it is supposed to be fixed, so I am crossing my fingers that it is for my next few shoots I have coming up.

These were some of the ones that turned out clear from my last one...so frustrating that some didn't!

Gunnar Lately...

And a post about Gunnar lately.

He is seeming so grown up lately too, so I really treasure my night time routine with him. He still wants me to come lay with him every night after he reads. We talk and laugh and say our prayers and he lets me snuggle him.

"Will you lay with me Mom?" I know I will so miss those words before I know it, so I gladly go in and lay with him.

Speaking of reading...he is an amazing reader just like Ashton always has been. He just finished and loved the first Harry Potter book and is now 3/4 of the way done with the second one. I love to see him loving reading and knowing what it's like to not be able to put a book down!

He has earned so many AR points at school that he got to "Rock the Halls"
(run down the halls of the school with the principal with all of the other kids and parents cheering him and other kids on) last week.

I really love their school :)



And the other big thing in his life right now is that he just got to make his
First Reconciliation last Monday night.

 I have been teaching his class for the last 8 weeks or so and it has been such a great experience for me, and for him I hope! I signed up to do it out of feeling guilty because there were not enough teachers, and I was really nervous and not very excited about doing it at first. But like lots of things in my life, I notice that once I am pushed out of my comfort zone some of the best things happen. I have loved it :)
I will also be teaching his First Communion class this winter starting in February and am hoping and praying it goes as well.
This morning for the first time in a long time we had nothing going on on a Saturday, so we slept in, then Lars and Ashton went to town and Gunnar begged me to come play basketball with him outside. It was chilly at first, but we played for about an hour and a half and had so much fun. Once again feeling so grateful for these days and for my boys that I love so much. When they actually want to hang out with me, everything else can wait :)

Ashton lately...

I want to do a post just about Ashton and what's been going on with him lately.

First of all, I just adore my sweet Ashton...boy do he and I butt heads some days, but I love him so much and treasure this time in my life still having him at home with me and just getting to be his mom.

I just can't believe he will soon be 11 years old. It just blows me away how quickly the time flies by.

A couple months ago, he went to put his glasses on before school and they just snapped in half.

So I took him into the eye dr. that afternoon and found out that we could order his same frames, but they would take a week or two to arrive. So they suggested he could try out contacts. He was so excited! And we decided to take a trial pair home as well as order his frames again.

We went right home and I taught him how to put them in, and he has loved them and wears them almost every day all day now.
I kind of miss him in glasses, but he is so handsome without them too...

 He is doing so great in school and I am just so proud of him. He still just loves being at home and loves his free time to do whatever he wants around the house or outside playing with friends.
I felt so bad for him last weekend when he came running into the house saying he'd gotten hit in the face with a baseball bat :( He was crying so hard he couldn't really talk and was really bleeding from his mouth.

It was awful!
He said he felt like his front teeth were falling out and we were really worried that they were loose. He had a big gash in his lip as well, so after Lars went to try to talk to the kids's parents to see what had happened (with no luck and a lot of drama!)

...we took Ashton into Instacare. Thankfully he did not need stitches and they were able to see that his teeth were secure.

And after the fact, I was so thankful that it had not hit him in the head somewhere, or the nose. It got even more swollen in the days following, but now a week later, it is healing up well thank goodness!

It was so sad and kind of a nightmare of a situation.

Anyway last week before all of that, he and I went on a date night to the mall to find pants for him and to dinner.

It was so much fun and I really need to do it more often. He was sweet and polite and grateful all night and we had the best time together.

I think I want him to stay 10 for another year :)

 



Halloween 2015!

Always one of our favorite days of the year and the boys were super excited for their crazy costumes this year!

They would not have been my choice for them, but I think that is what the fun of Halloween is, being something that you don't get to be in real life...

This year they chose these morph suits...

Ashton a mummy one and Gunnar a ninja...I think they just love having their faces covered but being able to still see out, and no one knowing who they are.

They first got to dress up for school on Friday...

Then again on Saturday night.

I found my costume last minute on Cache Valley Classifieds for $5!

I love to dress up and being a pirate this year was fun :)

At least for the hour that I was at the school, then I couldn't wait

to get it off...it was not very comfortable!

Saturday we were just home most of the day, then did our usual chili dinner tradition at the Smith's then the boys took off before I could even get a picture and had so much fun running from house to house for a long time and got way too much candy!

We get so many trick or treaters that I just sat out on the porch this year so that I wouldn't have to keep getting up to answer the door...haha.

Gunnar finally got tired and came in and went through his stash, then sat with me on the couch and fell asleep :)

Ashton wasn't too far behind him.

Another fun Halloween...

Carving Pumpkins...

We carved our pumpkins a couple nights before Halloween, it is always a fun, messy night!

I love to see what they come up with and watch them having so much

fun :)

Pumpkin Patch hay ride...

I am so far behind again, and feel like I can't stay caught up on stuff these days...

This was a long time ago now!

One night after Gunnar's reconciliation class (that I have been teaching!)

we went out to a fun pumpkin patch with the Villas and went on a little hay ride, then got to pick pumpkins. In the dark!

The few pictures we took...