2 & 1/2!

On Tuesday Gunnar turned 2 1/2...

I thought maybe we'd have him all potty trained...hahahaha! Well that hasn't happened yet.

I knew I would jinx myself!!

He did really good for a couple weeks, but now he's almost completely lost interest.

We'll keep trying...

His nose is all healed up and we got our pictures taken on Tuesday. He and Ashton cooperated for awhile, so I'm crossing my fingers we got some good ones.

Gunnar is such a silly fun kid.

This was his funny face he made for a few days...

Last night at dinner as I put his cup of milk in front of him, he said "But Mommy, chot-late milk is better for my bones!"

He has a little addiction going on. At least it's carnation instant breakfast...

Lots of times when he's talking about Ashton, he'll say "Does my brother do that?" Or whatever he's asking about at the moment...it's "my brother".

One day we were outside and he was riding his little scooter (that he LOVES), and he asked me if he could ride it down the front steps. So I told him no that he could get hurt or hurt his scooter and he looked at me and asked me "Will it bleed??"He gets so frustrated over things these days...he just yells at the top of his lungs if something is making him mad. But then he immediately says in a sweet little voice "sorry Mommy, sorry Mommy." While patting me softly on the back or arm.

He loves it if I'm down on the floor cleaning up toys, or wiping off the floor...he'll come up to me and either pet my back saying "Look I have a new pet!", or climb on me saying "This is a nice ride."

Oh back to potty training for a minute, after the first 3 or 4 days, he decided he really didn't want to poop on the potty, but we could tell when he needed to go, and also tell that he was holding it in...so if we'd ask him if he needed to go, he started saying "Nope, it just glooped back in." hahaha! Lars asked me where he got that, and I told him not from me, he must have made it up!

Like I said before, he gets a new injury every day. If it's hurting him, he says..."It's owie-in Mommy". I love how he says things.

I think it was on Monday that I was cleaning and didn't hear the boys for awhile, so I went to check on them and found them in the little corner behind Ashton's bed and Ashton was reading a book to Gunnar :)

Love these sweet moments...(in between all the fighting)!

I still love to tell Gunnar he has to stay little forever and he always tells me..."No I'm growing up big Mommy."

(here's his little pouty model pose...haha!)

2 1/2 already... Slow down time.

Late Night...

Ashton had his first "late night" tonight.He has been working towards earning it for the past couple of weeks and finally filled up his token jar a couple days ago, so tonight was the night.
He invited some of his little neighbor buddies over for treats and a movie.

We had ice cream cones outside first...

Goofballs!...then brought them in and filled them all up with more sugar and thought they would sit still for a movie. They did for about 5 minutes then they ended up rough-housing in the basement the whole time.

Boys will be boys, right?

It got a little chaotic, but everyone had fun.

Good thing "late" is 9:00!

I wonder...

If this will go away in time for family pictures next week...Poor Gunnar was swinging on his belly in a big boy swing on our swingset and did a face plant into the wood chips. I was pretty worried that his nose was broken...I even tried to take him into Insta-care Friday night, but it was closed, so I decided to wait it out and see how he was doing the next day.

It has gradually started to look better and I think now that it wasn't broken.
I think he gets a new injury every day...Ouch!

Flashback Friday...

I saw this fun idea on some random blog I came across and I've been meaning to do it for a few weeks now, but haven't gotten around to it. So on Fridays from now on (if I get around to it), I'm going to do a post & pictures about something from a long time ago.

These pictures were from about 13 years ago. I think I was only 21! In those days my friends and I went to lots of concerts. This was one of my favorites. I have always loved Gary Allan...and was so excited to go see him at the Westerner. We had so much fun and were so excited when we got the opportunity to meet him!Haha!!Since then I've been to one other concert of his in Ogden and then last night my friends Brianne, Starlee and Randi and I went and saw him at the E-Center. He was awesome!
I can't believe how different he looks in these pictures than he did when we met him all those years ago...But then again I guess I do too!

He is still as good as ever and such a cutie...His opening acts were Randy Houser...And Jared Neeman... ...whose song "Lover, Lover" is the one I go around singing "Gunnar, Gunnar" to and is what inspired Gunnar to sing his version in the little video on my blog.

Thanks for a fun night out girls...Always a good time!

Counting my blessings...

All throughout my days I find myself thanking God for little blessings all around me.

Being woken up at 5:45 by Gunnar screaming my name isn't one that I'm usually thankful for, but yesterday morning I decided to just be grateful. I picked him up out of his crib and rocked him in the rocking chair for a long time. He is always so happy to just be close to me...he always has been.

As I sat there rocking him, I was so tired but I held him tight as I started to think about all of the Moms or Dads out there who have lost a child and who would give anything for one more sweet moment like this.

Every day with these boys is a gift.

I knew I wouldn't be able to just put him back in his crib and get him to go back to sleep, so I asked him if he wanted to go sleep on the couch with me...so I took him out with all of his blankies and we snuggled on the couch. He actually went back to sleep and slept till about 7:30 when Ashton woke up. I know that some day I will miss these moments so much...

for now I'm so thankful for them.

Labor Day weekend...

We spent Labor Day weekend in Price this year. Besides an extra long ride there due to all the traffic, it was a fun weekend!
The boys love to go there and see Nana & Papa, Aunt Shelley and Uncle Mat and their cousins Ali and Hunter.

Ashton and Hunter have so much fun together and Ali loves to entertain Gunnar.

We went up to Huntington Lake on Saturday and did something I've never done with chicken before.

Caught crawdads! Oh my gosh, the boys thought this was the greatest thing ever.

In case you've never had the pleasure, you just tie a raw chicken leg onto some string and dangle it down in the water until a crawdad grabs on, then you pull him up...

It was pretty fun actually. Then we barbecued hotdogs and hamburgers.

It was a beautiful day there.

The rest of the time we mostly just relaxed at the house.

Thanks Nana & Papa!!

Shoes tied tight...

About a week before school started Ashton learned how to tie his own shoes. One day as we were headed outside, I noticed him in the laundry room putting on his tennis shoes and trying to figure it out. So I went in and showed him and tried to help him. He immediately got really frustrated, so I walked away and let him keep trying. A few minutes later I went back in and showed him one more time and he got it!He was so excited! The look on his face reminded me exactly of how he looked the first time he rode down the sidewalk on his bike with no training wheels.

Success!

Since then he's wanted to wear "tie" shoes almost every day and he loves to tie his own shoes.

Good job buddy!

Goodbye diapers???

I hesitate to even do this post so as not to jinx our progress so far, but Gunnar is doing so good at potty training!! We started on Wednesday, just kind of out of the blue. I decided to just put underwear on him and see what happened. Up to this point he has had zero interest and really would protest if I asked him if he wanted to use the potty or wear his big boy undies. So that day he wore them, and the rest of the about 8 pairs that he owns. He peed or pooped in every last one of them. He would just stand there and say I peed! Or I'm peeing Mommy! So I threw them all in the wash and put a Pull-up on him for his nap. Then we started over with undies after he woke up. He actually did much better in the afternoon and only had a couple accidents.

Yesterday he did awesome!

Even did his first poop (which was SO exciting for all of us!)

Each time he goes pee he gets 2 Reeses Pieces... ...and for poops he gets a chocolate kiss (or a BIG chocolate chip as he calls it). This morning he even woke up completely dry! I was shocked. And today he's done really well again all day. I put another Pull-up on him for our walk and he came back dry in it too. He's so cute running back and forth to the potty all excited in his tiny little undies. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed and not turning back now. Ashton was just over 2 when he was completely trained day and night, so maybe we can get Gunnar done by 2 1/2? Cross your fingers with me!

Oh and we have plenty of toilet paper to use in this process...

(This is what kept Gunnar busy the other day while I was getting ready)

Last little bits of summer....

One last trip to Bear Lake...

We went a few Saturdays ago with the Hansons. We went later in the afternoon again and it was lots of fun! It actually really is relaxing...because we can sit back while all the boys entertain themselves for hours.

The big boys included :)

Then that Sunday we took one last family trip to the "logan pool" as my kids call it. Ashton has been working on filling up his token jar and he finally did, so he got to choose a family activity for us to do, so he of course chose the pool.
hmmm...what would I have chosen? Definitely not the pool, but it was a fun day anyway. And I loved seeing Ashton's excited face when his jar was full up to the line :) They both love it there!So that was kind of our "last hurrah" weekend before school started and I'm just getting around to blogging it.