Fall...Please Stay Longer!

There have been so many cold and rainy days this fall which makes us appreciate the beautiful days even more!

    Tim's little helpers

 Next year you'll be jumping in the leaves too, Cros!

 Ready...

 Jump!

 Best buddies

 Mr. Chill 

Cooper tried for about 30 seconds and then handed the reins over to Carty

Carter actually pulled these 2 half way around the block!

One of the many things I love about Grand Forks...we rake to the curb and the city comes and sucks the leaves up!

The boys love watching when the truck comes by:)

Decorating

In September, Mimi and Gramps came up for a visit over Mimi's birthday. The boys really got into decorating for her party and since then, they have asked to decorate a lot. This is what our house looks like right now...

 Fall window clings (not sooo bad), leaf cut-outs all over the living room, pictures of pumpkins & bats & cats on the window, stuffed animals on the curtain rod ("because that is part of our decoration, mom"), things made out of legos on the window sill...

The thing is, they want to keep it all up, all the time. So our house is now totally tacky. But it's fun.

A better shot of the artwork and animals...I realize all these indoor shots are really dark:( 

Ha-there is Tim's head!

Lego art-that has since been destroyed. And I sneaked the animals down. But the rest will be with us until we decorate for Christmas!

Random Videos

Although I still get way behind, I am better at updating the blog with pictures than I am with videos. I just found these the other day and laughed out loud so thought I would post them.

This first one is at Carter's 4th birthday party. Tammy and Kimmy had just given him a pair of Spiderman gloves that "shoot" webs. He loves these!

And here is a video of one of our almost daily dance parties. Yes, that is the Chipmunks singing LMFAO...don't judge. It's for the kids!

Crosby is ONE!!

Out little monkey is 1! Crazy! In the past week he got another tooth and is getting into everything...see pics below!

 Cros loves to open up every drawer that he can...he often removes the content from those drawers.

 Still love those cheeks!! Here he is by the shoe rack that he empties daily.

 And he has discovered how to climb up on furniture...

 ...climb into baskets...

 ...and uses furniture to get to the highest point. So yeah, he isn't walking yet but we can't turn our backs on him for a minute!

 Something about climbing into things...Cros just loves it! 

Cros just loves this drawer. He hangs out here all the time. Random. Sweet. Slightly dangerous. 

Happy 1st birthday Cros! We love you so much. It won't be long until you can walk and talk and hold your own against your big brothers! 

Crosby's First Year

Here is the first 12 months of Crosby's life condensed into 11 minutes! 

Crosby's First Year vimeo from Casey Spark on Vimeo.

Family Photo Shoot

I've put some of these on facebook and in our prayer letter but just realized I never posted them on the blog. Here are some of the pics from our family photo shoot this summer in Fort Collins. We didn't receive digital copies so these are just the low quality copies taken off facebook.

Crosby's 1st Birthday Party

I asked Carter and Cooper how they thought we should celebrate Crosby's 1st birthday. They suggested a sign, decorations, cupcakes, balloons and a couple friends to celebrate with. And that it should be pirate themed. AND that there should be real pirates at the party. Oh boy! Here was our attempt...Cros seemed to enjoy himself!

Birthday Big Boy!

You can't really tell but we found some pirate stickers at Target that they boys loved decorating with.

 I was merely their grunt worker..."Mom, put balloons on the fan!"..."Mom, hang the pirate sign here!" 

Meet our pirates, Captain Freckle-face and Pirate Sweet Cheeks. They really let me call them that all day:)

Mini-pirate

 The big kids got into it too:) 

 Time for cake! 

 "Why does Cros get all the attention? I'm cute too!"

 Pretty sure he really liked it!!

 Present time...what do you get a 1 year old? I've had to do this 3 times already and it's a harder birthday to buy for. We got him sippy cups and some clothes. Sort of lame but at 1 it is all about the tissue paper and bag right??

 Our party guest, Kimmy and Tammy 

Post party balloon popping/wrestle-mania. It is never quiet in our house!

Happy birthday sweet Cros!! We love you!