12 years!

On Sunday the 26th, we had our 12 year wedding anniversary. Wow...where does the time go? It really is crazy to me!

We actually went out to celebrate on Saturday night.

(Gunnar took this picture before we left :)

We went to Hamilton's for dinner, then went and saw This Means War...

which we both loved!

So it was a fun night out and the boys got to play with their babysitter Olivia and sleep downstairs again. Lars set up yet a different tent for them and they both slept in it together.

Oh and earlier in the day he brought me these... :)

And an itunes gift card and some gift cards to the Crepery...yum!

Happy 12 years Hunnie! Thanks for all you do for the boys and me...I was going to try to list 12 of my favorite memories over the past 12 years, but there are just too many!

Love you :)

Tents!

The weekend before last, Lars went out of town on a fishing trip for a few days. He left on Thursday afternoon and came back late Saturday night.

This has nothing to do with this post really, but Thursday right before he left I had gone to pick the boys up from school. As soon as I saw Gunnar, I could tell he didn't feel good and he told me he didn't when he got in the car. I kept looking at him in the rear view mirror feeling bad because he looked like he felt miserable. So then we went to pick up Ashton and he still wants us to come into the school or at least to the door he comes out of when we pick him up. So I carried Gunnar in and got Ashton and we got back in the car and pulled out of the parking lot when Gunnar said "I feel like I'm going to throw up." So I hurried and tried to pull over, but it was already too late. He threw up all over himself and his carseat about 3 times by the time we pulled into the driveway. Ugghhh....I really hate cleaning up throw up and I felt so bad for him. It was EVERYWHERE! So I hurried and got him out and stripped him down in the driveway, then took him in and got him in the tub and took all of his clothes into the laundry room. Then I went back outside and rolled all the windows in my car down to let it air out, then went inside and forgot about it. Well Lars came home a few minutes later and got the carseat out of the car and somewhat cleaned it out before he left on his trip.

Luckily after about half an hour Gunnar was totally fine...he never threw up again. So who knows what that was about, but I was glad it didn't turn into a stomach flu for all of us all weekend while Lars was gone.

Anyway we went along with the rest of our day which brings me back to the reason for this post. Earlier in the day I had set up this little tent of Ashton's for Gunnar to play in. Well when Ashton got home he wanted to play in it and make it into a little home for himself with a bed, chair and all sorts of other things. So then we set up another old tent of Ashton's for Gunnar to make a little home in and they played and played and played in those tents the whole weekend!

Ashton slept in his the first night and then they both slept in them the 2 or 3 nights after that. They thought it was the most fun thing ever!

 And they got along so well all weekend.

Oh back to Thursday...after the boys had gone to bed, I finally got around to shutting the garage and everything for the night at about 10:00. So I looked out the garage door and realized Lars hadn't pulled my car in for me before he left, so I went out to do that and noticed that all of my windows were still down too! And my keys were still in my car, so of course when I went to start it, it was dead. Grrrr....

Luckily we have the best neighbors, so I called Kent and he came right over and jumped it for me and drove it around for a few minutes to make sure it was okay. And it was, the next morning it started right up, I'm sure it was just a dead battery since I'd left the keys in it in the accessory position or whatever it's called.

Anyway those little tents have been so fun for the boys in this long boring winter!

Cutie Gunnar...

I thought that the green shirt phase for Gunnar would never end and now it seems like so long ago that all he wanted to wear was his green kickball shirt or that other green shirt of Ashton's that was way too big for him! I guess it's been at least 2 or 3 months now since he's even thought about them. And I can't really say that I miss them, but I do miss that little stage.

One thing he wouldn't wear for really about the past year is footed pj's or sleepers. And I LOVE sleepers...I think they are so cute and that they just make kids seem more like babies still :) So the other day when Gunnar pulled his super cute monster sleeper out of his drawer and wanted to wear it, I was so happy! That's been about a week or so ago and it's still all he wants to wear when we're at home :)

Last Friday morning we didn't really have anything going on so he and I (and his cute monster sleeper) cuddled on the couch ALL morning. Really for at least a good 2 hours. Of course I had a thousand things I could have been catching up on, but these days are going so fast and if given the choice I would always rather lay on the couch with him than clean or do dishes or laundry. It was so nice. I love that he is my little cuddler....and he is just SO cute :) I mean really how could I choose chores over this??

One of Gunnar's other favorite things to do lately is play Memory, and he is so GOOD at it! He beat me fair and square and was so excited...haha :)

(love his crazy hair!)

I always feel so blessed that I've been able to stay home with my boys and enjoy all these fun stages :)

Love DaY...2012

Like all holidays, we LOVE Valentines Day at our house! Any excuse for me to try to be crafty...and a day all about telling and showing eachother we love eachother is great. Of course we do those things everyday, but it's still fun :)

This was Gunnar's first year to do a Valentine exchange at school, so I tried to think of what he and Ashton are into right now and they love SONIC Hedgehog so I decided to design their Valentines this year and print them off and attach some candy and of course pictures I took of them (pictures always have to be involved!) They turned out pretty cute and they had fun putting them together with me. Well Gunnar had a lot of fun...

 ...and I got Ashton to at least write his classmates names on his.

He is just way too busy for stuff like this now as a big 7 year old!

(have to interrupt this post for a second...because my sweet little Gunnar in his cute little fuzzy sleeper, yes he all of a sudden loves wearing sleepers again! ...is downstairs with me playing Ashton's DS and he just asked if he could come sit on my lap while I type...of course I let him and I asked him if he will always want to sit on my lap, even when he's big. He said yes then kind of laughed and asked "Even when I'm big like Dad?" Cutie...I will miss these days so much of him wanting to sit with me and snuggle all the time :( Yes Gunnar you can sit on my lap anytime you want!)

Anyway here are the boys' Valentines and the pictures I took of them to attach and also to send with cards to grandparents...

So we got all of that done the week before Valentines Day...

Then on V day the boys woke up with a little trail of paper hearts coming out of their rooms that lead them to a bigger paper heart with the first clue written on it for their heart treasure hunt. I've done this for them the past couple of years and they think it's SO fun, so we will continue on each year with this little tradition.

After going from one heart clue to the next...I think there ended up being 12 this year, they finally got to their Valentine treats. Sonic t-shirts a little box of candy...for Ashton chocolate covered cookie doughballs and for Gunnar m&m's.

 Gunnar was funny later that night, he said..."Hey Mom, how did the Valentime Guys know that I like m&m's??" So I said "Uh Gunnar...I'm the "Valentime Guy"...haha! Made me laugh and think  hmmm...what reason would he have to think there aren't valentime guys??

So after our little treasure hunt we had crepes with bananas, whip cream and hershey's syrup for breakfast...YUM!

Then it was off to school for Ashton. Gunnar had school later and while he was there I helped out with Ashton's party at school. Valentines Day is so fun for his age...I totally remember loving it! After school they both came home and dumped out their stash of cards and treats.

Later that night Lars made us all a yummy dinner...it was a fun day.

Love these boys so much :)

Sulphur Creek Ice Fishing tournament...2012

Last Saturday February 4, Lars and I went to the ice fishing tournament at the reservoir called Sulphur Creek that is about a mile from Grandma & Grandpa Harry's house. We have actually been a couple times years ago before Ashton was born when it used to be a HUGE tournament with thousands of dollars being given away in prizes. These days it's a much smaller tournament with just three prizes given out to the people who catch the 3 biggest fish. They also do a raffle for a few other prizes, but it is nothing compared to what it used to be.

We drove up to Evanston Friday afternoon. Ashton and Gunnar had been so excited all week and couldn't wait for Friday to come around. Ashton was even more excited when Lars went in and checked him out of school an hour early. That was his first time being checked out and he thought it was so cool...haha :)

We got to town and went and got our licenses and some food for our lunches the next day, then headed out to the Grandpa & Grandma's house. The wind was howling as usual, but we were hoping it would die down by the next morning. Anyway it's always fun to go home...Grandma made us lasagna and Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner and her awesome caramel browies that I was hoping she had. Ashton and Gunnar immediately find things to play with until bedtime.

They were actually excited that they didn't have to go fishing with us and just got to stay home with Grandma and Aunt Kelli and wear their pajamas and play all day.

We got up early Sat. morning and were at the reservoir by 6:30.

There wasn't any wind when we left the house, so we got our hopes up that it might be a nice day, or at least wouldn't pick up till later, but we were dead WRONG! As soon as we got there it was already extremely windy and we had to walk straight into the wind out on to the ice to pick our spot. That was a cold walk.

So we didn't end up going out very far. Lars told me to pick a spot, so I did and we started setting up our tent. Which is no easy task in the wind! Oh and it was dark. I just kept thinking (all day really) Thank goodness we have our tent! And our heater! So we got all set up and started fishing at 7:00. It wasn't long before we started having bites and then catching fish, and more fish, and more fish...really pretty non-stop until about 12:30! We caught 40 fish between us all day!

 We've never had much luck at Sulphur Creek at all.

The one year we went, and it was a two day thing back then, I remember we sat there for two days straight (with no tent in horrible wind and blowing snow!) and had one, yes ONE bite the entire time! So my spot I picked ended up being a good one.

Pretty early on I could tell I hooked into a big one and was getting so excited until I saw him coming out of the hole and realized it was a SUCKER!

They are so gross...I had to make myself touch it for a picture.

Talk about disappointing since they don't count :( So we measured it anyway and it was 21 inches long. We ended up saving it, just because there's no use throwing trash fish back really. Anyway in all of the other fish we caught all day, not a single one was big enough to be taken back at the end of the day and measured. They had to be 16 inches or bigger.

About an hour before the tournament was over, so at 1:30, I hooked into another big one. As soon as Lars saw my pole he could tell it was a big one, so he came over and kneeled down by my hole and got ready to help me and I got it almost up to the hole and it snapped my line!!!! We really think it would have been a winner. The sucker didn't fight at all and this one fought hard and broke me off. Oh well.  We couldn't believe we'd actually caught 40 fish. More than we've really caught anywhere we've been ice-fishing.

And if only my 21 inch sucker had been a trout, we'd have been $900 richer!

The winning fish of the tournament was 20 inches.
Lars said he was going to talk to the guy in charge and suggest that next year they award a prize to the best trash fish :)

After the tournament we went home and hung out for a bit, then my Mom and I went to church, then they boys and Aunt Kelli & Grandpa Harry met us for dinner in town.

After not much sleep Friday night, everyone slept better Saturday, then we got up Sunday and had breakfast, then packed up and got ready to come home. We wanted to get back in time for Gunnar to go to Amalia's party.

It was a fun little weekend getaway that I think we'll be doing again next year!

Stuff I want to remember :)

Time to do another journaling post of stuff I never want to forget. I think of things every day, but just haven't taken the time.

I will start with Gunnar... 

First of all it's so funny how everyone thinks this little boy is so shy! Well he is when he gets around other people. Even my closest friends...when they talk to him he will turn his face away or hide behind me. Wow what a different kid he is at home!!! I need to get a good video of him dancing around, or just being his funny, crazy self! He is so smart and imaginative and so so funny!
(his little angry bird face he makes ALL the time)...

The other night he came with us to Ashton's parent/teacher conference, and just sat on my lap. I didn't really think he was listening to anything Ashton's teacher was saying. Well anyway some of the things she told us about how Ashton is doing were that he's doing great in everything academic. He is off the charts in reading & math and well everything else.
It all comes so easily to him. Then she said if there was anything she thought he needed to work on it would be that sometimes he teases other kids. This was not a huge surprise to me, well because #1 he's a kid, and because he's Ashton and if he gets bored he tends to do things like that. Then the one other thing she said was that he and numerous other boys in the class mess around in the bathroom with the toilets or something. She said she didn't really know what they were doing, but they'd come back from the bathroom telling on eachother for things like that.
 So we promised Mrs. Rawlins that we'd not be doing these things anymore. When I say we I mean he :)

Anyway back to Gunnar...the next day after the conference, I asked Ashton after school how his day was and he said fine, then I asked him if he teased anyone and he said nope. So Gunnar is sitting there and he says to Ashton "No more playing with the toilets???" He cracks me up! Just out of the blue he will say something random that we'd think he knew nothing about or that he wasn't paying attention.

Love it!

He is just such a cute fun kid!

And I find myself counting my blessings so often that he is so easy to take places. It never really crosses my mind to try to find someone to watch him when I have to go to an appointment or anywhere really. I take him to volunteer with me when i need to and he knows he just has to sit with me and quietly listen to the kids reading, and he does. Sometimes that "shyness" really comes in handy!

I also love that he just is really sincerely so eager to please all the time. He can't stand the thought of getting in trouble and usually if he doesn't want to do something I ask him to do, all I have to do is act sad or tell him it's making me sad and he will do it. Our sensitive little guy...I love that he can't stand to make me sad :) He is so so sweet and thoughtful.

I took him to see Beauty and the Beast the other day in the middle of the day with a friend and her little boy. I told him he could choose a treat after he got all ready and told him to choose one for his little friend too. So of course he chose 2 things for himself at first, but then as we're about to walk out he says "But then Owen will only have 1 and I'll have 2, I better get him 1 more."
Beauty and the Beast was fun, I honestly hadn't seen it for years & Gunnar had never seen it and really liked it.

Then a few more things from last week...

He had climbed up on his stool to sit at the counter for breakfast and the other stools were all pulled out because I was sweeping, so the first thing he says is "Wait Mom, will you please pull one over so Ashton can have a place to sit?" Then that same day we had to cash a check at the bank and of course going to the bank means suckers! So I asked Gunnar if he wanted one and he said yes, "And oh Mom, don't forget to get one for Ashton!" So we saved Ashton's in the car for him and forgot to give it to him that day. Well anyway every time Gunnar gets in the car, he likes to search the front seat for anything he can find like gum or a treat...so he sees the sucker from the day before and instead of taking it, says "Oh I'll save that for Ashton." He is just always thinking of others.
 He really seems so unselfish to me and for a 3 year old it seems like that would be hard!

We went and picked out a gift for his cute little friend Amalia whose birthday party was on Sunday. I told him that we needed to go look for something girly, so he walked around with me pointing out things that were pink, or dolls etc...saying "That's girl-ish Mom." Finally we decided on this huge stuffed lady bug.
 The whole time he never once asked me if he could get something for himself and he was SO excited to give it to her! He had a few days before the party however, so little miss ladybug hung out with him...I love these pictures! Love that he had to have her sitting right next to him...haha :) 

 We hid her in my closet when Amalia came over to play one day and I heard Gunnar telling her..."we got your present Amalia, it's something red with big black spots on it!" The look on his face when she was opening it was priceless...seriously so excited for her to finally see it. So cute!

Anyway I am just so thankful for such a sweet, thoughful, sensitive little boy...he amazes me all the time and I learn a lot from him!
He of course has his moments (he is 3 after all!), but they seem to be more few and far between these days.
It shocked me the other morning when I got him a cup of milk and for whatever reason he didn't like the cup I gave him and said he wanted a different one. So I told him to let me know when he was ready to drink his milk in the cup I gave him...then all of a sudden he back handed his milk across the counter at me and it went everywhere!!!
I think it shocked him too because he immediately started crying and ran to his room, then started saying he was sorry. Yeah he's still 3.
What else...?
Oh for about a week and a half straight, he played and played and played (for literally hours at a time) with this set of blocks!

He built and un-built countless things. I love to see him concentrate like that...he was in his own little world!
Taking a little potty break...cute little tush :)

Oh and one day he spent about an hour on this "card house"...

He is kind of a little perfectionist about stuff like this. Can't imagine why...but it makes me feel kind of bad, because my own perfectionism drives ME crazy sometimes! I notice when he colors sometimes, he won't just scribble, he wants to carefully try to stay in the lines, and if he doesn't he gets mad and wants to throw it away and start all over! I want to say...Gunnar...Just scribble!
He also had lots of fun with this marble set for a couple days...

He is just my little buddy and I so treasure these days of him being home with me.

He is really a pretty good little eater...there aren't too many things I put in front of him that he won't eat. And he is such a manners boy! I love it!
Please and thank you for everything.
He still loves preschool and comes home singing the cutest songs and telling me cute stories about his time there. Yesterday when I picked him up he excitedly told me that he has new friends! So I asked him who and he couldn't wait to tell me that there were two new kids in his class...twins! "And Mom they had the same shirt and the same pants on! But not the same boots, one had brown and the other had blue." It was so cute to  hear him describe them and I could tell he was so excited to have these two new little girls in his class.
So that is our little Gunnar in a nutshell at almost 4! Wow...how can he be almost 4? He talks about his upcoming birthday all the time. Oh and speaking of nuts...that's what he calls me or whomever he is mad at. "You're a nut!" ah...I'll take it, it could be worse!
Moving onto Ashton...
(love this picture of him:)

Like I said he is doing awesome in school and I am so glad! It really is nice that everything comes so easy to him, but then there is the other side of that, where he becomes bored at times and a bored Ashton is not a good thing! The kid that needs to be busy constantly...or "What should we do Mom?" "What are we going to do today Mom?" Or my favorite, when we're saying prayers one night, I was praying for people who don't have enough food to eat or a home to live in and Ashton in all seriousness as if it's the worst possible thing ever says "Or for people who have NOTHING to do!!" Really I think that's a fate worse than death for him.
He got this cool magic set from Grandpa and Grandma in Texas and loves it. He honestly spent about 3 hours playing with it the afternoon he opened it!

 He also got a bunch of books from them for Christmas and his birthday (the Magical Treehouse series) and he LOVES them. I am so thankful he has really started to love reading. He would stay up reading at night long past bedtime if we let him, and we actually will let him stay up and read for awhile when he wants to. He has a hard time winding down at night, so if reading helps...I am all for it!
I took these next pictures the other day just to show how much of a little clutter bug he is! Honestly he collects and saves EVERYTHING! He is the definition of one man's trash is another man's treasure! This is his nightstand...

 ...and the next one is his dresser and I go through it all at least once a month and de-clutter. It's kind of funny though, believe it or not I kind of remember being the same way...:) He really is like me in a lot of ways and I think that's why we butt heads sometimes!

Something funny he said the other day when we were working on his vocabulary words...we came to gullible, so I asked him what it meant and he said "Like if I told Gunnar I would give him a thousand candy canes if he went outside and stood in the snow barefoot, oh and naked, he would be gullible if he did it." hahaha! Oh Ashton...love it!
Then as I was sitting here typing on the computer one day, he came to ask me something and was in complete awe that I could type without looking at the keyboard. He said "How do you do that Mom??" And he had the same reaction when he saw me tying my pajama pants without looking a couple days later. I am just enjoying these days when he thinks I'm so amazing for things like that :)
We watched a great movie a couple weeks ago called "Mars Needs Moms". I had heard of it and thought it looked weird, but Lars recorded it and we all watched it one night. I totally loved it and so did the boys. Why did I love it so much? It just has such a cute story and I think was especially good for Ashton to see to make him realize how much Moms love their little boys (and girls) and that kids should appreciate them and tell them they love them more :) About halfway through the movie I asked him if he wished I'd be taken to Mars and he got sad and said no and came over and gave me a big hug and a kiss and told me he loved me. Good movie!
I am so glad these two have eachother :) They love to "swim" in the tub with their goggles lately...

Love, love, love you boys!