Christmas 2009...

Yes I am really sitting here blogging on New Year's Eve. For one thing we rarely do anything for New Years...especially now with little kids and I really just can't stay awake that late. But we are also recovering from being up ALL last night with the stomach flu, so we've been home all day and the kids are in bed and Lars is watching a basketball game. Gunnar actually got sick on Monday night and was throwing up most of that night, but then was fine the next morning, so we went ahead with our plans to go to Lava Hot Springs and stay Tuesday night (I'll do that post later)...somehow the rest of us didn't get sick till after we got home yesterday afternoon, but then it hit me, then Ashton really hard. Poor Ashton probably threw up 12-15 times!! Thank God Lars didn't have it yet and he really steps up when it comes to taking care of and cleaning up after sick kids. But then he got it at about 5:30 this morning. No fun!

Anyway this post was supposed to be about Christmas....

We had a great one this year. I love all the anticipation leading up to it, especially Christmas Eve. Since we didn't have any family coming till Christmas Day Lars decided to take Ashton out ice-fishing that morning for a few hours, so Gunnar and I hung out and ran a few errands then went over to Aurora's house to decorate Christmas cookies. Then we came home so that he could have a nap before it was time to get up and get ready for church at 5:00. I love that we always go to church on Christmas Eve, so that we can really focus on the real meaning of Christmas and the birth of Jesus, before we move on to all of the rest of it. We always used to go to Midnight Mass and I'm sure we will again some day when our kids are older, but for now we go to the children's mass. After that we went over to Nate and Brianne's house for dinner, then came home and baked our ginger snaps for Santa... ...and the boys got to open their new pajamas and these Christmas blankets I made for them. We watched a little bit of the movie they got and read their new Christmas book, then it was off to bed.

Christmas morning was so fun! Ashton's age is the best, and I actually think Gunnar kind of understood a little bit too this year.

He kept saying..."Santa come house?" And he's been talking about "baby Jesus" for weeks now.

We got our cinnamon rolls in the oven, then let the boys come downstairs and see what Santa had left for them. I loved it when Ashton said..."I got just what I wanted!!" They played with the stuff Santa left our for them for a little while, then we let them get into their stockings...(one of Gunnar's favorite gifts...he had them polished off within half an hour)Then it was time for breakfast... ...and we waited to do the rest till Grandma and Grandpa Harry arrived a little while later. Ashton kept asking "When are they EVER going to get here? " He wanted to open the rest of the presents so bad he could hardly stand it!

So when they got here, they grabbed a quick cinnamon roll and then it was time to tear into the rest of the presents...I love this picture of Gunnar and his cute new baby...

It was so fun to have them come down for the day and we were all so thankful that the weather cooperated this year after the nightmare it was last year for them to come down and back. (We wish you could have made it too Nana & Papa, but we'll see you soon :)

After we finally got through all the presents we went upstairs to get our dinner started. We did a ham this year with the rest of the stuff we usually do. And I actually made my first ever home-made apple pie! It even turned out pretty good.

While it was cooking Gunnar napped, Ashton and Lars put together some of Ashton's new lego set and my Mom, Harry and I watched (as we try to every year) Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas. To me Christmas wouldn't be the same without it :)
Then we ate our yummy dinner and took a few more pictures and it was time for Grandma and Grandpa to head home.

Ashton played his new Leapster for the better part of the day (and even let Gunnar help him :) It was such a fun day!

A baby changes everything...

No this is not some sort of an announcement!

Just a song by Faith Hill that I love. Turn on your speakers...it's the first song on my playlist. You have to listen to the whole thing.

LoVe iT!!

First family ice-fishing trip...

We got up early on Saturday morning, packed a lunch and all of our stuff and headed out to meet our friends Nate and Brianne and their four boys to go on an ice-fishing adventure. We drove up to Daniels reservoir (somewhere by Malad Idaho), and were out on the ice by 10:30. We set up our ice-fishing tents......Lars drilled our holes and we started fishing. Within 10 minutes Nate had caught the first fish......then about 10 minutes later in our tent Lars and I caught these two at the same time (with Ashton's help). Gunnar didn't really know what to think! After we put them back in the water he kept asking "Fishy go??", then saying "Fishy bye-bye Mommy."
We kind of fished off and on and wandered back and forth between the two tents. The boys had so much fun playing in the snow, eating donuts, fishing and just goofing off... Having the tents makes it all worth it...it was actually a pretty cold day, but you would never know it inside our warm tents with our heaters going. In fact Gunnar just started crying at one point...We didn't really know why, but after we took off his jacket and hat, he was happy as could be...I think he was hot! Here he is right before he dropped this ice scoop down my hole... Oops! Seems like something always finds it's way down the hole. Next door in Nate and Brianne's tent their little Alex (who is 2) also dropped their scoop down a hole! But they had a fishing line down that hole and when Nate went to check on it, he thought he'd caught something...and guess what it was??? So funny! The scoop! At least they got it back!
This jig box entertained Gunnar for a good hour and a half......he played and played with it, taking jigs out and putting them back in, asking me what color they were & kissing them and putting them "to bed"!
When we had the tent all closed up and dark, you could see right down into the holes really well and could actually see fish swimming by and see them bite at your jig! Ashton loved that. You know how he just jabbers non-stop...well at one point he's asking us if fish can talk and why we can't hear them talk and on and on and on. Then he says..."hey maybe they speak spanish." Funny kid! Then I hear him saying...here fishy, fishy...come bite my hook and I'll reel you up! And he actually did hook this one......and mostly reeled it in himself (with a little help from Lars). He was so excited! And it was a nice fish! He kept wanting to catch one that we could keep and take home, but they had to be 20 inches or longer and the biggest one was his at 18 inches. Maybe next time Ashton. We had lots of bites and ended up catching about 8 or 9 between us I think. It was such a fun, fun day! We love having our great friends back in Cache Valley with us and the boys all love playing together. Hopefully this will be just the first of many Larsen/Hanson fishing trips. They even took their sweet 3 month old baby Kevin...And he did fine all bundled up! (geez...watch out for my giant black mitten Brianne! hahahaha!) I just have to also say how lucky our boys are to have such a great Dad that will take them (and me) out to do fun stuff like this and who also plays with them from the time he gets home from work till it's time to put them to bed. You're the best hun! Thanks for a great day!

Ashton's dream come true...

What is one of Ashton's very favorite things in the whole world??? And how excited was he when he actually got to wear them to school??? He was soooo excited to be able to wear his pajamas for their Polar Express Christmas party on Friday! He still is so obsessed with wearing his pajamas and wears them all day until it's time to go somewhere. He chose these ones that his cousin Hunter had handed down to him last weekend...(thank goodness he had them because the rest of his are starting to look like capri's on him!)

I wish I would have been able to be there to see him at school on Friday. He told me they got to have hot chocolate and cookies and got to have a pretend train ride and even got to meet Santa! And sit on his lap. He got his own "genuine ticket to ride" and little bell off of Santa's sleigh.We didn't take the boys to see Santa anwhere this year...there was a weird looking one at Walmart one day, but I decided against ruining it for them with that. Oh and I guess while we were eating lunch at Burger King one day Santa came in and talked to the kids and handed out candy canes, but I still wish I could have seen Ashton sit on his lap and tell him what he wants.

Oh well...I got to hear all about it when I picked him up. It was a perfect last day of school till after Christmas!

Trip to Price...

Last weekend we made the trip to Price to visit Lars' family. His Mom was going in to have a knee replacement on Monday so we wanted to go be there for a couple days before and to see her after she got out of surgery. We went on Saturday and came home on Tuesday. The boys had lots of fun playing with their cousins and decorating Nana & Papa's tree. We also did our Christmas get-together/dinner while we were there, so the kids got to open presents from eachother.I think Ali likes her i-tunes gift card we got her... And how CUTE are these little capes??? Aunt Shelley had been asking me for ideas of what to get for the boys, so I asked her if she might want to make them superhero capes. She is awesome at sewing and was excited to do them. I think they turned out SO cute!!! They also love this tent that attaches to Ashton's bed ...And these cute lanterns to use in it...Thanks guys!

Oh and they took their little lanterns with us the other morning (at 7:00 am...when it was still dark!) to help me take all of our neighbor gifts around. I wish I would have gotten a picture of that...it was so fun!

Anyway the rest of the time in Price we just hung out...the older kids all went sledding one day while Gunnar and I took a nap.

Then while I was looking at different blogs I found this cute idea...so I decided to make one since I had a little free time while we were there...

Then Monday Nana had her surgery and luckily it went really well. We went to see her in the hospital that afternoon and also on our way out of town on Tuesday. By then they were already getting her up to walk around with a walker.

We're so glad it went well Nana...and we'll keep praying for it to get feeling better and better.