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 :)

Carving Pumpkins...

We finally carved a few pumpkins last Sunday night right before Halloween. I didn't get too many pictures, I guess I got busy and my hands got all covered in pumpkin guts, but here they are in the process. Loving it!

Grandpa from Texas came to visit!

Well it's been almost a month ago now...but Grandpa Gene came to visit from Texas for a long weekend and we had so much fun having him here!

The weather was beautiful...well until the day he showed up. That Thursday, October 6 after being so nice for weeks, it turned really cold and rainy. But we still got out and had some fun. Kelli picked him up from the airport that day and brought him to our house and he got to come with me to pick the boys up from school, then we just hung out that afternoon and I made yummy chicken pot pie for dinner.

Friday Ashton had school so Kelli and  I and Gunnar and Grandpa all went up to First Dam to feed the ducks. It was freezing so we only stayed about half an hour, but Gunnar always loves it and rain or no rain, it was fun to get out
(and as one of my friends said...any excuse to wear my cute pink coat :).

Kelli even made a new friend :)

We also loved this little guy...look at his fluff of feathers on his head!
love it!

That night we took Grandpa out to eat at the Coppermill, then came home and had movie night with the movie he brought for the boys...Despicable Me. One of our new favorites.

Saturday Ashton had an early morning soccer game at 9:00.

It was still cold and a little rainy, but so fun to have Grandpa there to watch. These next two pictures are two of my favorite pictures from the whole weekend...love them!

After the game I took the soccer pictures, then we went out to get Ashton a new bike for getting those last 2 stickers on his chart. That was an adventure in itself!

Anyway then on Sunday, our last full day with Grandpa here, we decided to go fishing up at Newton Dam.

It ended up being a beautiful day and we had so much fun.
 We caught lots of little perch and the boys had a blast just running around exploring.

On our way back into town we decided to stop off at Village Inn for dinner.

Monday we got up and all walked Ashton to school...he was so excited to ride his new bike there :)

Then it was time to say goodbye.

 At least for Ashton. Kelli didn't have to leave to take Grandpa back to the airport till about noon, so Gunnar got a few more hours in to play with him.
Oh and have their morning coffee and hot chocolate :) 

It was a great weekend and we were sad it went by so fast. Good memories. Good times. We love you Grandpa!

Happy Halloween 2011

(I started this post yesterday and obviously ran out of time...)

After a so far very crazy day, I have time for one quick post before we head out to Trick-or-Treat! We have waited so long for this night to finally come!

I love to go out a few days or a week before Halloween (when the boys' costumes are still nice and clean:), and do a Halloween photoshoot. Then I can make fun cards and send them with cute pictures of the boys in them to grandparents and aunts and uncles.

Here are this year's pictures. We had fun for about an hour after school one day last week taking these. Well I had fun anyway :) The boys did it for a trip to the dollar store and well for getting to wear their costumes one time before today...

Anyhoo....

here they are :)
(oh and I have to mention that Gunnar chose this all on his own while looking through tons of costumes online...this was what he chose:) Love it!

Ashton of course chose his own too :)

I love you boys and I love how much YOU love Halloween!