Let them be little...

The other night Lars had put Ashton to bed and told me that he wanted to sleep with his bath towel. I snuck in to check on him a little while later and got this picture...

I love his 4 year old-ness! Too cute !

Gotta love the Giggles!

Don't forget to pause the music on the right so you can hear the video...

Valentine's Stuff

I'm trying to turn over a new leaf and not be such a Valentine's scrooge anymore. I've always thought that it was way too commercialized and just another reason for people to go out and spend money (don't get me wrong...I believe in love and showing the people you love that you love them, but have always thought, why do we need a certain day of the year to do it? We should be doing it everyday!) And I'd rather get flowers on some other random day of the year out of the blue (hint, hint hunnie) than on the day that everyone gives and gets them. But now that Ashton is old enough to understand (and Gunnar soon will be ) I want to make it fun for them and show them how much I really love them and use it as a day to teach them all about love. So I have a few fun (simple) things in store for Saturday and I've been being a little crafty the past few days making these. This is my everyday display that my friend Mandy got me for Christmas...It's so fun to change each month or season and I just put it on my entertainment center in my living room...Also the cards that I made for the Grandparents...with this cute picture inside. (hope they already came or I guess you won't be surprised when you open them!)

awww... brotherly love

I even decorated a little for the first time ever for Valentine's Day.

"The Moose Ride"

This past Saturday we didn't have anything going on during the day, so I thought it would be fun to take the boys up to Hardware Ranch to see the Elk and go on the sleigh ride that they do up there. (Thanks for the post on your blog Angie H. reminding me it's up there...we hadn't been for years!)

When I suggested it, Ashton was actually excited to go! Usually anything that requires him putting on "real clothes" is an automatic "no, I don't want to". But as soon as we told him about where we were going he went and grabbed some of Lars' binoculars and got dressed on his own nicely! They have a lunch room there, but you have to bring your own food, so we packed a quick lunch and off we went. It was a busy day there, but luckily we only had to wait a few minutes to get on the next sleigh ride. The horses pulling it were HUGE...our guide told us that together they weighed 4300 lbs!!

They take you out to see all of the elk (about 430 of them) up close stopping every once in awhile so the guide (or whatever you'd call him) can tell you lots of details (that I don't remember) about elk. One thing I do remember he said is that it takes the bulls as much energy to grow their antlers as it does for the females to give birth. (somehow I don't think it's quite as painful though). And they grow as much as an inch a day (the antlers).

Here's the biggest bull they have there right now...

Daddy and boys enjoying the ride (Gunnar where are you??) Oops!I love that Ashton was looking through his binoculars at the elk that were a few feet away! Kids are so cute!

It was fun to get out...it was a pretty nice day, I think Gunnar even enjoyed it.

(really...can't you tell by the look on his face??)

After our ride, we went up to the lodge and ate our lunch. As we were eating we could see all of the elk out of a big picture window and one of the guys that worked there happened to be near our table when Ashton said "Hey Mommy are all those people going on the moose ride too?" I love it! Moose, elk, whatever...The guy was amused too. I'm sure he's heard it before.

Gunnar liked this big furry buffalo...

After wandering around the lodge and taking a few more pictures it was time to head home. Anytime there's a thing like this I have to have Lars measure up to it...he always wins! He has the LONGEST arms! Of course they were longer than this bird (whatever it was) I guess I should pay more attention to details hu? I'll have to dig out the gorilla one from the zoo too..funny! Kind of a fun winter activity to get ourselves out of the house!

When will Gunnar walk???

Okay, so Lars and I were talking tonight about how it won't be long before Gunnar is walking and I thought it would be fun to do a little contest on my blog where everyone can guess what day he will take his first steps (unassisted) then I'll send the winner or winners (that guess closest) a fun prize!

So leave your guess (month/day) in the comment box...

Good luck!

Oh and just so you know he will be 11 months old on February 28th, and he is now cruising along the furniture.

(Ashton walked a few days before he turned 11 months...not that it really matters).

And I'm not really encouraging him too much...I push him back down when he pulls up.

Just kidding!!!

Daddy week at preschool...

When I picked up Ashton from preschool last Thursday, he was so excited to tell me that it was going to be "Daddy Week" at school this week. His teacher sent him home with a big piece of paper that he was supposed to decorate with his Daddy with pictures of things they like to do together etc...Also a note to Moms telling them not to help. All I did was print out some pictures for them and they did the rest. It was cute to watch them putting it together and talking about all of the fun things they like to do together...here are just a few:

• wrestle
• go fishing
• play super mario on the nintendo
• mow & trim the lawn
• dip graham crackers in milk
• read books

and the list could go on and on! As I've said before Ashton LOVES his Daddy! Today I was getting him ready to go to school and usually on Thursdays they are supposed to bring something for sharing (or "show and tell" as we used to call it), so today I told him that he didn't need to bring anything because he was bringing Daddy to his class. He kind of smirked and said, yeah I can put my big Dad in my backback and take him to school, then put him in my cubby :) I could see him totally picturing it in his mind...he thought it was so funny!

They had so much fun...to Ashton it was one of the most exciting ideas ever to bring his own "big Dad" to school! I think he loved showing him off and telling the class all about their poster and what they like to do together.

I also just have to mention how proud I am of him the past couple of weeks...he has been so good! Of course we still have our fights when it's time to get dressed, but otherwise he has been so agreeable! It's almost like since he turned 4, he's kind of turned the corner as far as his behavior goes...he's a lot more mature about some things. It makes our days so much happier! Of course as soon as I post this I'm sure something will happen!

I love this...

Gunnar follows me all around the house and is constantly pulling up on my legs wanting to be picked up.

I love that when I look down this is what I see...