It's April: We have a newly minted teenager in the house!

Easter was quiet this year.  Lily was away traveling in Costa Rica, and Ashton's buddy Nathan was there too.  So it was just Julia and Ashton, but they still had a great time searching for eggs and eating candy!  Then we went to have a late brunch with Pop Pop and his lady friend at their retirement community.  Ashton and Julia were super well-behaved!  I was so impressed!

The day before Easter I took Ashton up to Mr. Rick's house again to play Airsoft!  As always he enjoyed himself.  However, I do think he has a special affinity for Mr. Rick's Airsoft Gunroom and his husky puppy!

Also, I have been so impressed with Ashton, two Christmas' ago he received a pug "Lego" set.  It was really challenging and at first, I thought he wouldn't finish it.  However, lately, he had been gung ho to finish it.  Staying up late each night, completing each layer no matter how tedious.  He finally finished this week!  Needless to say, we are very proud of him for sticking with it!

Hours of perseverance!  Go, Ashton!

Ashton also received his 3rd Quarter report card!  It appears as if he made the honor roll!  Way to go Ashton!

Lastly, we celebrated Asthon becoming a teenager last week!  We had a quiet home birthday on his actual birthday with just some ice cream and a few gifts.  He received his first $100 bill from mommy and daddy, and two gift cards.  On Friday after school, he had two friends from school (Stephen and Micheal)  over, to hang out, and enjoy food and cake!  It was so fun seeing him with his buddies.  They are all cut from the same exact mold.  They are little copycats of each other making jokes about skibbity toilets and being rizz.

$100 bucks!

That smile says it all!

Happy 13th birthday Ashton!

Kinda quiet for Ashton lately

 Things have been relatively quiet on the Ashton front lately.  Not a whole lot to report!  Ashton overall seems to be doing well in school. Math seems to be giving him some trouble lately, but he is finally receiving some much-needed extra support, so hopefully that will give him the boost he needs.  He loves being with his friends, and takes every opportunity to hang with them!  Ms. Nanna took him snowboarding about two weekends ago (his 2nd time).  I was nervous because even though he had taken the snowboard camp lessons a few years ago they never took him up on the lift.  However, he went with some buddies, and sounds like he did fantastic!  Hope to purchase him a season pass next year so he can get more time out on the slopes!  Very proud of him!

Another half sibling!

 On January 9, 2024,  Mr. Rick and his wife Tiana welcomed another baby boy!  Cillilan Lane on Jan 9th, 2024.  I believe this little addition means Ashton has 5 siblings through Ms. Taylor, 4 siblings through Mr. Rick, and 3 siblings through our family, equally a grand total of 12 siblings!  So he is one of 13!!!!!  He doesn't seem to care at the moment, but maybe one day he will!

Just an aside, last night I was overseeing Ashton doing some make-up work for Art class and he had to fill out a self-reflection form.  One of the questions was on a scale from 1-10  how creative are you and why?  I don't think he wanted me to see it, but he rated himself an 8, and said because my mom always says how creative I am!  Loved it!!!!!  

2023 Coming to a close

Hard to believe two more days and then it will be 2024.  Ashton has grown up so much this year, both physically and emotionally.  In the last 3 months, he has really stepped up his game.  He has become more mature, more responsible, and more enjoyable to be around.  

He continues to amaze me with his engineering brain even though sometimes it drives me nuts.  He has a fascination with how things work and is always taking things apart and exploring how things work.  Even if it includes breaking things such as playstations and bikes, and drilling a gazillion holes into our walls so he can hang his hammock from the ceiling!  He loves creating and building things such as basketball hoops, and wooden Christmas trees out of pallets, and turning his closet into a gaming space. He continues to build amazing creations with legos, watching videos.  He loves using Daddy's drill and got his own drill from Mr. Rick for Christmas. He is excellent at figuring out how to solve problems such as putting on bike racks or putting together a bicycle.

Christmas Drill from Mr. Rick

Christmas Tree made from pallets

Homemade basketball hoop with rim from an old bicycle

Just hanging around after drilling a gazillion holes in the ceiling to find the joist

We spent Christmas Eve with one of Ashton's best buddies from Lisbon and our family friends.  They went to church with us and enjoyed a raclette dinner together.  And Christmas morning we spent with Pop-Pop and in the evening we enjoyed our traditional Chinese food dinner with the Pop-Pop, Lily's boyfriend Raymond, the Rinkes family, Jennie, Steve, and Jax Lane.

Christmas morning!

Christmas Eve with the Conte family

Someday maybe he will smile for a family picture!

He also has developed some more friendships.  Being invited over to other people's houses and having friends over to our home.  He continues to love to ride his bike and for Christmas, he got a Jetson electric scooter bike.  He has expressed an interest in mountain biking and has even built some mountain bike trails in the woods in our backyard, but still hasn't taken me up on my offer to go actual mountain biking yet.

We had a Chanukah party with our family in December and Ashton pretty much kept to himself until Cousin Eric pulled out the Nerf guns. Then Ashton was all in!!!!

Praying that the awesomeness that Ashton has exhibited towards the end of 2023 continues into the New Year!

November flew by!

 Hard to believe Halloween and Thanksgiving have passed and we have fast-forwarded into the Christmas season.  For the last 6-7 weeks Ashton has been pretty awesome!  I hope this is our new normal for sure!  I even got a happy Thanksgiving Day family hike!

A rare treat for Mama...family hike on Thanksgiving Day!

Ashton has been tinkering a lot!!!  He has built a basketball hoop, and bike ramps, taken apart bikes, put together bikes, made things from pallets etc.  Very creative even if sometimes he needs to daddy's help to complete a few of the final tasks.

He still went trick or treating this year, but did not dress up!  He still came home with a boatload of candy!

Ashton, Liam and Micheal Trick-or-Treating

Changes

 I've been meaning to write this for a while, but I kept forgetting!  Ashton is growing and changing so rapidly now.  It's like he's gone from little boy to little man-child!  His voice is changing and getting deeper and for a boy who has never ever liked to wear underwear, has been wearing underwear for one or two months now!  He's 100% middle school boy!  

A fun afternoon at Gaver

Searching for the perfect pumpkin

Snarky boy on a the hay ride with Yolanda

Typical pre-teen boy...all we need are earbuds!

He's got a new BFF Liam who he enjoys hanging out with on the weekends!

I also received a new picture of his birthmom Ms. Taylor with the three girls and her little boy.

Eli, Taylor, Annabelle, Paisley and Noel

Catching up

Since school started it's been a whirlwind here at the Gjerde residence.  We have had some good days among the whirlwind days.   

First picture day hair!  Ashton really wanted his hair to have a certain style for picture day, so he asked me if I could do his hair for picture day!  I would say it was a success!

Next, our friends who gave us Waffles got a new pug puppy named Biscuit.  Ashton was in love!

Took Ashton apple picking for the first time ever with Lily and Ms. Susan's family.  It ended up pouring down rain, but we had a really good time!  I think Ashton even though he was reluctant to go really enjoyed himself.

After Labor Day Ms. Susan's pool does a puppies in the pool event for charity!  Ashton along with Ms. Susan's neighbor Lucy were so excited about swimming with Waffles and Pickles in the pool!  Waffles and Pickles not so much, but they endured it!

Lastly, we bought season passes to Gaver Tree farm. So far Ashton and I have been 3 times.  He really likes doing the corn maze (which he is amazing at by the way), shooting basketball hoops and throwing footballs, and building the little wooden house they have there.  I know he really wants to go with a friend, so hopefully we can go one more time with a friend.

Ashton also had been hanging out with a new friend Liam whom he met at Adventure Park USA camp.  They have been hanging out together almost every weekend!