April Celebrations!

April has been fast and furious in the Gjerde household!  Ashton celebrated his 8th birthday with friends from school and church at Libertytown Park!  I think everyone had a great time.  We had a nice visit from Yolanda, and Ashton was totally enamored with her!  She was such a good sport.  Sleeping in his room with him, talking walks with him to see his favorite beagle puppies, and jumping on the trampoline.  We also had visits from Eirik and cousins Hannah and Collin from North Carolina.  Plus Grandpa Bob and Grandma Ginger.  We had a fun Easter and Passover celebrations with all ofriends and family!

Ashton and the beagle puppies

Celebrating April Birthdays

Ashton's birthday party crew

Easter Fun with Friends and Family

Hiking with Yolanda at Cascade Falls, Patapsco State Park

If we were all that confident!

Ashton has been doing great!  I am so happy that he seems so much happier and less combative!  He loves creating little you tube videos and has been soaring with confidence.  For the past few months he has wanted to change his name to from Ashton Taylor Gjerde to Ashton Amazing Gjerde.  I told him when he was older he could change his name!  The other day going through his school papers I noticed he wrote his name Ashton Amazing Gjerde!  Love that confidence!

My little spiderman

Watch me swing mom!

Monkey up in tree!

Ashton is totally half monkey/half spiderman.  He absolutely adores hanging on the money bars, doing tricks, climbing trees, climbing walls, basically anything he can scale he will try.  Sometimes I have to laugh at some of the things that come out of my mouth.  "Ashton no jumping out of your bedroom window".   "Ashton please stop jumping off your dresser "  "Ashton please stop leaping off the furniture."  He loves going to the playground and spends hours hanging, swinging, climbing etc.  He is super strong!

My little fit boy!

I love this kid!  He's so creative, smart, and active just to name a few!  Not content to spend hours on a gaming system or in front of a tv, he is always coming up with creative ways to fill his time.  This weeks creations were printing out lamborghini pictures to color, building a sledding ramp out of ply wood so he and his friends could "sled" down on various scooter down the hill, working on hs 6-pack abs (lol) with a 30 day exercise program, and took off his mattresses on his bunk bed so he could jump off his bed without getting hurt.

He also recently rearranged his entire room and put up his tent in his room.  He has been sleeping in his tent and has turned the rest of his space into a "playroom".

This boy!

This boy loves to make forts out of anything!!!  One day it might be all the rolls of toilet paper from Costco, the next day it's some other unique creation using whatever he can find!

This boy loves to climb.  He will climb anything.  Poles in buildings, trees, furniture, ladders, cars etc.  If it can be scaled, Ashton will try to scale it!

This boy loves his you tube.  He loves to watch you tube videos, andmake you tube videos.  Hours and hours of watching people do silly things.

This boy loves his dog.  Although sometimes he tortures Austin, his heart is truly for his dog.  It won't surprise me one day if he has his own dog to take camping and hiking.

The boy loves his friends.  He ALWAYS wants to have a friend over!!!!!

He started on a new medicine regime and Olav and I are early optimistic that he seems to be less volitaile and a little happier.

Next weekend is his last weekend of basketball with Upward and it's been really fun to watch him improve! He is really good a defense!

Like flipping a switch

Ashton has been experiencing a lot of anger, anxiety and sadness lately.  We finally were able to visit the psychiatry clinic at Kennedy Krieger.  They have been very thorough.  We are going to try a few things in hopes that he begins to feel a little better and not so volatile.

Ashton got to try out his new snow board that he got for Christmas  He was a total natural. I was super impressed!

He has really begun to shine in basketball!  It's nice to see him come out of his shell.  Last weekend he took a couple shots and I think a couple went in!

Yesterday he tried a pogo stick for the first time.  Again total natural!

And baby makes 9!

Ashton's 9th sibling was born on Friday Dec. 21st at 11:09 a.m.  Noelle Charlotte.  6lbs 7 oz 18 3/4 inches long. She's in the NICU right now to have a little help breathing, as she inhaled some fluid on the way out and it got in her lungs, but she seems to be doing well.

So now Ashton has:

Lily Gjerde
Stian Gjerde Jones
Fredrik Gjerde Jones
Aiden Lane
Ethan Lane
Annabelle Sines
Arianna Best
Paisley LaRuffo
Noelle LaRuffo


That's a lot of siblings!