Happy 37 Lars!

 Tuesday was Lars' 37th birthday. Wow...where are the years going? Crazy that he was not quite 24 when we met. His birthday was the next week and I always remember him bring me cake on his birthday. I really am a lucky girl to be married to one of the good guys :)

He had to work all day on Tuesday, but I got up and made muffins and smoothies for breakfast. Then during the day I made cupcakes and had fun decorating :)

 Ashton was home all day, but is really at an age that he could care less about helping with any of that stuff anymore. Gunnar did have school, so that was a rare thing for Ashton and I to be home alone for a couple hours. There were no friends around to play with so he and I built playing card houses for a little while. It reminded me of old days when it was always just him and me.

Anyway when it was time to go pick up Gunnar at 3:15 Ashton started saying "So who's coming to Dad's party tonight?" Well I hadn't really invited anyone just because parent/teacher was at 5:15, then I figured we'd go to dinner and just come home and have our cupcakes because it would be getting late for a school night. But he didn't like that at all! He said "That's no fair! That's not a party if no one is coming!" "What about Grandma and Grandpa Harry & Aunt Kelli?" "I'm gonna call them and invite them." So I let him use my phone on the way to get Gunnar and he invited them. Super short notice, but they decided they would come and made it in time to meet us for a yummy dinner at the CopperMill.

Then we came home and had cupcakes and Lars opened his few presents. What he told me he really wants (and what inspired the cupcake design)...is to go to the basketball tournament in Vegas in March.

So besides that we got him a couple of Amazon.com gift cards and a drill.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Ashton turns 7!!

I still haven't figured out how to slow down time and these boys just keep getting bigger & bigger :(.

January 6, 2012...Wow we have a 7 year old!

Can't believe it!

We started out Ashton's special day with a trip to McDonald's for breakfast with Nana & Papa...

Then it was off to school for Ashton and home for us to make preparations for his first party.

I have to say that after last year's crazy party at firehouse (just LOTS of kids)...I had said that we were going to keep it simple this year and probably not do a party. Well that's no fun, and Ashton just wasn't really going for that idea, so what did we do this year?

Had two.

That really was not my intention, but that's how it worked out. Mostly because with a winter birthday and if we invite everyone we want to invite, there is just not enough room in our house! So we split it into two groups...Friday night we had family and our friends the Hansons, and the Villas over for cake and ice cream.

And then on Saturday morning we had a "pancakes & pajamas" party

(Here's the invite :)...

Back to Friday for a minute. Lars took the day off, so he actually got to take donuts to Ashton's class with me. It was fun...I love knowing that Ashton feels special on his birthday :)

Now back to trying to keep it simple. I tried to talk Ashton into cupcakes. No. Then I talked up the idea of a fun ice-cream cake from Coldstone. No. What he wanted was a Lego Ninjago cake (yellow cake, white frosting) made only by me. So I couldn't let him down.

Here is the final product.

 I just couldn't get into the mood this year to do fondant or be super-creative with it, so I just put the boys' Ninjago guys on top...

 ...and decorated it with Legos and printed out the Ninjago sign so that everyone at least knew what it was supposed to be.

He loved it and that is all that matters.

Oh and Kelli and I made this guy :)

So we ate pizza, then opened presents... 

 Then sang to our birthday boy...

 Make a wish!

 Then had our cake and ice cream. 

It was a fun night.

But our celebrating had only just begun.

We got up on Saturday and started getting stuff ready for our big breakfast.

Ashton and all of his neighbor buddies :)

Lars and his Dad did all of the cooking... 

Chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and strawberries. It all turned out so good and ended up being such a fun idea for a party. The boys all came hungry and ate so well!

Then they played for a bit downstairs till it was time to open presents...

 ...then they played a little longer, then we sent them on their way...all before 10:00 am!

Happy Birthday Ashton!

We sure love you and are so grateful for you every single day :)

Fun way to start the New Year!

Well first of all with New Year's Day falling on a Sunday, we went to church. I actually love that it started on a Sunday and that was the first thing we got to do in 2012 :)

Afterwards we came home and loaded up to go ice fishing with a couple guys from our church. They go out to Mantua pretty often and the one guy Chuck has the perfect spot saved in his gps where he goes and catches tons of bluegill. We have rarely had any luck at Mantua, so it was fun to go with him and just like he promised as soon as we put our lines down we started catching them.

It was pretty non-stop the whole 2 or so hours we were there.

Lars was laughing at me because I was catching them on 2 poles and each time I would catch one, I'd run it over to him to take off the hook and hurry and run back and drop the line back down, just in time to catch one on the other rod and run it over to him :)

Ashton and Gunnar were interested for a few minutes...

 ...but they are pretty much fished out this season :)

 So they played in the tent and on the ice more than fished that day. But it was another beautiful day. We have really lucked out this year with the weather!

Here are just some of the fish we caught...

We put tons back that weren't quite big enough to be worth cooking.

Caught lots on my new pink rods :)

Fun way to spend New Year's Day...

I love this picture of Gunnar...ahh to be a kid :)

We rarely ever keep fish to eat just because it's kind of a big pain, but that day we decided to and after lots of work (ask Lars)...they turned out really good!

Goodbye 2011...

If you know me, then you know I love 11's. I have for as long as I can remember...I just have a weird thing with the number 11. So as we say goodbye to 2011, and hello to 2012...here are a few things that I will remember most about our 2011:

• Ashton turned 6 on the 6th of January!
• Lars turned 36 on the 24th
• We celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary on th 26th of February...
• Gunnar turned 3 on March 28th!
• I got to take a very fun memorable trip to California to visit my cousin Neil in April.
• Ashton lost his first 2 teeth that month too!
• May...oh May that was when things went downhill when Lars tore his achilles tendon.
• Surgery, crutches, a walker, lots of down time for Lars in May, June and July...it was hard to put it mildly.
• When he was still on crutches we bought our new boat...(that cheered him up a bit:)
• I turned the big 35 on July 28th!
• Then during physical therapy in August, 3 months out from his first surgery...it was devastating when Lars re-tore his tendon. It was his biggest fear and it happened. We couldn't believe we were starting all over again.
• Crazy, but with it re-torn we still went on our planned river trip and had a blast!
• Then when we got back...another surgery...this time with a specialist in Salt Lake.
• Months and months of recovery to start all over. Those were some hard months for all of us.
• A couple of room re-do's :) Our bedroom and Gunnar's fun Monster room.
• Ashton started 1st Grade!
• Gunnar started preschool and totally surprised me by going willingly, not crying at all and loving it!
• Halloween is always memorable...this year with Gunnar as a boxer and Ashton a Clone Trooper :)
• I really figured out my camera and continued to learn more about photography and took lots of friends' family pictures!
• We had a wonderful holiday season spent with family and once again counted our blessings :)
• One thing I will definitely remember is Lars having to spend so much time doing exercises for his leg...he is still doing them when he comes home for lunch and when he gets home at night. It will be weird when he doesn't have to do them in all of his free time!
• And I will remember our boys at these fun ages. All of the funny, cute things they do everyday! And well the not so funny stuff too. I say it all the time, but I love this time in my life with them and am so grateful to have them :)

Overall 2011 was a great year. Even though we didn't get to do a big family vacation, we still did lots of fun weekend getaways and even continued on with our end of the summer Bear Lake weekend even though it was only 10 days after Lars' second surgery!!
We stayed home on New Year's Eve and played games with the boys...Twister and a fun new game Ashton got for Christmas called Shut the Box. Ashton made it till 11:30! Gunnar till 10:30 :)

Now here's to 2012!

Falling asleep everywhere...

The couple weeks around Christmas I got lots of pictures of Gunnar falling asleep everywhere except for his bed!

I think with everything going on and getting to bed a little later lots of nights...he was just exhausted because usually he and Ashton only fall asleep in their beds.

Anyway...here is our very sleepy Gunnar :)

(on our way home after fishing all day the day after we stayed in Lava..)

 (Christmas Eve...I think I already posted this one, but I love it. Love him :)

 (Right before we pulled in the driveway after getting home from Price...slept here for 2 more hours :)

At the one Aggie basketball game we've been to this year...he ate his very blue snow cone, then asked me if he could lay down and fell right asleep :)

 (And on New Year's Eve...he made it till 10:30, then followed me into my room while I was taking out my contacs and immediately laid on the floor and zonked out. I couldn't believe he made it that long!)

Basketball...

Remember how excited I said Ashton was to start basketball? Well he was REALLY, REALLY excited....more so than he ever has been about starting anything. So we were really looking forward to it and thought he'd really have fun with it. I think he did a little bit at first, but then after the first couple of games he got pretty frustrated because he never got the ball. No one would ever pass to him and therefore he never got a chance to do anything that makes basketball fun, like dribbling the ball down the court or shooting, or making a basket! It was frustrating to watch too, just because it was so blatant how a couple of the kids would pass to eachother or to anyone else but him. I don't blame him for losing interest, but it was sad to see because of how excited he was to sign up.

(This picture of him after the last game pretty much shows exactly how he felt about the whole experience :(...)

So we had signed him up for the junior jazz league that started a couple weeks ago, but before it started he decided he didn't want to play...so we didn't make him. Oh well, maybe next year. Lars even helped coach his team and was going to coach again so hopefully he'll take an interest again. I think at this age it's more fun for him to just go to the rec with Lars and practice and actually get to shoot the ball and play!

Trip to Price...

The day after Christmas we drove to Price to celebrate with Nana & Papa, and Aunt Shelley, Ali & Hunter.

With our new games and a new movie, it was a pretty peaceful drive :)

We stayed for 3 nights and had a great time. The boys will play non-stop with Hunter for days, just pretending and running around doing all sorts of stuff at Nana and Papa's. So that equals relaxation for Lars and me :) I read the first 2 Hunger Games books on my new Kindle while we were there and went for a run 3 of the days. We went for a long walk at a new trail there on the other day.

The kids all opened presents from Nana & Papa and from eachother. The boys got new jammies and slippers and money from Nana & Papa, and they got cute locking money boxes & dollar store gift cards from Aunt Shelley and the kids.

We got Ali and Hunter Itunes giftcards to be used for their new I Pod Touch's. Which my boys now want! thanks a lot you guys!

Oh and thanks to Lars there a bunch of games on my Kindle now, so all they want to do is play it too! Stinkin' Angry Birds!

The big news there is that Papa is now retired as of the end of the year. So we took everyone out to dinner one night to celebrate. 

 It was a nice relaxing visit.
Goodbye Nana...

Oh and Gunnar fell asleep a few minutes before we pulled in the driveway and slept here for a couple hours :)