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 :)

Back to school!

Ashton was so excited and happy to go to his first day of first grade, but a little nervous. We'd gone the night before to back to school night and met his teacher Mrs. Rawlins. She is the new first grade teacher and so far we really like her.

Anyway he opted for taking a lunch that first day and he and I walked to school. I loved that he held my hand the whole way and really wanted me to walk him into his classroom. And I've been loving that he still wants me to take him almost to the door every day and be right outside the school to pick him up every afternoon. I will enjoy that as long as I can, knowing that it may not last much longer.

Hanging up his backpack...

 Sitting in the first row :) Lucky #11 again!

He is really loving first grade. When I pick him up, he goes on and on about all the stuff they did. He loves music class, art, P.E., going to the library and of course RECESS! As well as getting to eat lunch with his friends every day. He really loves when they get to do anything science related and is excited that he'll get to participate in the science fair this year!

I went in to volunteer last week not realizing that his teacher didn't really need volunteers yet, so she just had me tag along when the class went up to do a reading test to determine what level reading group they'd be in. Anyway Ashton and one other little boy were in there forever! In fact Mrs. Rawlins took the rest of the class back to the classroom and had me wait for Ashton and the other little boy until they were done. I kept wondering what was taking SO long, so I asked her the next day and she said that they just keep letting them read as many levels until they can't read the words anymore. So he took so long because he was reading so well! I'm so proud of him...he's in the highest reading group :)

As I was sitting there worrying that something was wrong for him to be in there so long!

Anyway I think we are all loving this new school schedule. We loved our summer, but it was time to get back to school. I miss Ashton, but to be honest I don't miss the fighting between him and Gunnar! Some days they are best buddies, playing good for hours...but man there are days when they fight like BROTHERS!

I LOVE this picture of them...especially since as I was taking some pictures of Ashton that first day, Gunnar ran out and wanted to be in them and Ashton did this all on his own :) I love Gunnar's happy face in it! Oh how he loves his brother!

And oh how I love this boy! First GRADER! Can't believe it!

Under Construction...

Yes my blog is ugly right now...I'm working on it :)

Fun Bear Lake Weekend!

 We spent the weekend before school started over at Bear Lake. We stayed at Ideal Beach in one of their new "hotel rooms". We debated cancelling since it was only about 10 days after Lars' surgery, but we decided that he could sit around over there just as well as he could over here. It was such a fun trip! And actually Lars did most of the stuff we did...thanks to his knee-walker. So much nicer than crutches! He even took it down to the beach.

We got there Saturday afternoon about 3:30 and checked in. Our room ended up being so nice! And so convenient. We could park almost right next to it. The boys LOVED it because it had BUNK BEDS!

Actually that was pretty much why we chose it :) And we love Ideal Beach. It's so fun to have the sand and water a 5 minute walk away, as well as a swimming pool, miniature golf and big park to play on.

Of course the first thing they wanted to do was swim in the swimming pool, so I figured we might as well get it over with :) Oh how I hate swimming pools. Usually Lars will just take them in, but these days everything is pretty much up to me. Funny how many things you learn to do if you have to.

Anyway it was fine and they actually didn't want to stay and play too long, so that was nice. Then we mostly just hung out in the room and went to dinner that night, then watched a movie. They slept so good in those bunkbeds (after they finally fell asleep that is...little stinkers!)

Sunday we got up and had our breakfast we'd brought along, then got ready to go to the beach.

Now that I could do all day.

Give me a good book and I really could lay there for hours. And usually the boys will play and play for hours in the sand and water too.

Well not that day.

 They played for maybe an hour and wanted to go back to the room. So Lars took them back and I stayed a couple more hours. I think they just really wanted to play on the bunk beds!

Then after awhile we decided to go try out the miniature golf.

 It was lots of fun...Ashton and Gunnar loved it.

 About halfway through my Mom and Harry came to visit and take us to dinner. I'm glad they were able to come over and hang out for awhile. Then later that night we took the boys down to play in the park in the dark. They were having so much fun on this old slide!

After another good night's sleep, we got up and got ready on Monday morning and headed home. It was a fun way to end off our summer and I think we'll make it a yearly trip!

I love this last picture...I thought it was so cute how Gunnar (usually Mommy's boy all they way) wanted to hold Lars' hand on the way back to our room from playing at the park in the dark...

 Oh and just to reminisce a little...here are a couple pictures from our trip over to Ideal Beach a couple years ago. (Ashton was only 4 1/2 and Gunnar about 15 months)

How can it be?

...that this little boy starts preschool tomorrow?

I really just can't believe it. It seems like yesterday that Ashton was nervously starting his first day, and that was 3 years ago.

Time flies by way too fast.

I am hoping and praying that the first day goes well. But I'm also being realistic and preparing myself to have to walk away from a crying, very sad Gunnar :(

I know once he gets used to it, he's going to love it, but this boy is still so attached to me. I still love it, but it makes things like this SO hard! Did I mention that I play all of his kickball games with him? (I'm getting pretty good too.)

Anyway we'll see how it goes...

Oh and I still have about 10 other posts I need to catch up on, but somehow it just doesn't happen. Maybe soon...