A Visit from Uncle Mike and Aunt Sherah

Mike and Sherah had been planning on coming to Grand Forks over Veteran's Day weekend for quite a while. However, on the way out of town they blew a tire and ended up canceling. After skyping with them Friday night I think they boys guilt-tripped them with their sadness and they made a last minute decision to come up Saturday morning! We enjoyed a wonderful 24 hours with them and had the bonus of play time with their dog, Whipper!

 Mike reading to the boys.

 Go Hawks! Our day included a little college football of course! 

 Cros chilling with his Aunt.

 In the afternoon we made a trip to the mall so the boys could run around in the play area. Mike couldn't pass up an opportunity to take the big boys into the Hurricane Simulator!

 It started with Carter and Cooper racing down a hallway. But then Mike challenged Tim to a race as well. We are lucky we didn't get kicked out:) The boys burned off a lot of energy though!

 More story time

 Cros and Whipper-he really loved the dog...

 ...but I think Cros thought Whipper was a horse:)

Love this pic-Cros is trying to get in on story time by lounging over the dog:)

Thanks so much for coming up Mike and Sherah!!

Harvest Snowman

It snowed in Grand Forks a couple of days after Halloween...not surprising, but a little too early if you are asking me! Nobody did ask me though, so we decided to make the most of it. The boys found sticks for arms and rocks for eyes and buttons. Tim thought of the pumpkin head and the boys LOVED it! The snowman lasted about 10 minutes and then Carter and Cooper decided "he" was a bad guy and they destroyed him! Boys!

Baby Steps and Soooo Big!

It has been a big week at the Spark house. Crosby took his first step last Monday and now a week later he can walk across a room! I love how he sticks out his tongue to concentrate and his pouty face when he falls:)

Also, we've enjoyed playing the "How Big Is Crosby?" game lately. You can hear how involved his brothers are...so sweet? 

Crosby is 1 Year + 1 Month!

There have been a lot of changes for Crosby in the past month. He is sleeping through the night. He dropped his morning nap. He has been weaned from the bottle and formula (except for one bottle before bed with mostly milk which we plan to drop soon). He is getting 4 molars. And he has fallen in love with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches:) He can eat a whole sandwich by himself. I am fearing our grocery bills in 2 years from now! He still hasn't taken a step on his own and still puts anything and everything into his mouth...including the little centipede bugs we get in our basement. Gross! Carter befriends them and gives them names but Cros just eats them! Boys;)

 Cros still isn't walking on his own but he will push anything that slides or has wheels. He gets super frustrated when he hits a wall or couch though:)

 He loves this chair and will often be found sitting or climbing on it.

 Ready for trouble!

Hanging with the big boys.

Halloween 2012

We took part in a couple different festivities this year. Grand Forks puts on a little event for kids the night before Halloween. Games, candy, chaos. Carter has talked about being a pirate all fall and right before we left, he insisted he wanted to be Batman. Alright!

 So hear are Batman and Robin...the amazing, crime-fighting duo!

 Craft time

 It is harder to do crafts with your mask on, but better for protecting your identity! 

 Take that, bad guys!

On Halloween day, our good friend Kimmy brought us to the nursing home where she works. Carter decided he wanted to be a rocket and Coops wanted to wear the outfit dad brought back from East Asia. You can't really tell but Crosby is in a matching outfit.

 I thought we were just going to say hello to some of the people in the nursing home but it turned out to be a crazy candy give-away. They boys loved it! I'm hoping we can go back when they could interact more with the people...some day:)

I didn't even end up getting and pictures from that night when we went around the neighborhood. I actually stayed home with Crosby because it was so cold. Tim said a highlight was that Cooper never said Trick-or-Treat. Instead he asked everybody how their day was and if they had any pets! How cute is that??!!

A Simple Birthday

Tim turned 36 last week. He didn't want a party, just time with the fam. The boys were quite confused why we didn't have lots of friends over:) They LOVE parties! Happy birthday Tim! We love you!!

Carter is 4 + 2 Months!

For whatever reason Carter fell in love with pirates this past month. He planned a pirate party for Crosby and has checked out many pirate books at the library. Because of this, he often chants, "booty, booty" because he thinks it is such a funny word. We're hoping that one doesn't leave the house!

Carty is always making noise with his mouth. It sounds sort of like a beat-boxing/spitting sound and he does it all.day.long!! 

I was talking with Carter the other day after he did something to Cooper. He kept wiggling around and I asked him a couple times if he needed to use the bathroom. He kept saying no and finally he looked and me and said, "Mom, I just have a dance inside of me that needs to come out"! I was laughing so hard our little discipline conversation officially ended!

There were around 100 students at our fall retreat and Carter loved interacting with the "big kids". He would leave our table to go wait in line with all the guys and one day even went table to table and prayed for the students before their meal:)

Carter has been going to Awana this fall and seems to really enjoy it. He often cries when I come get him because he doesn't want it to end.

Carter is often singing songs that he makes up. I overheard him the other day singing, "Change my heart God. I want to be like Spider-man! Pleeeeeeeeease change me!"

The other day he came up to me and said, "Mom, God loved us 1st so we could love Him 2nd." Pretty good theology, Carts!

And a conversations we had today:

Me: Who loves you, Carty?

Carter: Everyone!

Me: Wow, that's great! Why do they love you?

Carter: I'm sweet, I have sweet cheeks and I'm a child!

You love being rough and tough with dad but also giving lots of hugs and loving

 Goofing around 

Your puzzled look

Cooper is 2 + 9 Months!

Cooper, sweet Cooper! Your speech has improved so much from last month and it is a joy to hear you work on it. You have started asking everybody how their day is going:) It is so sweet!

You have also started being more defiant. The other day I was changing your diaper and I asked you to stop moving around. You looked at me and yelled, "NO, YOU stop moving around!" Wow. I didn't really know what to say.

While we were trick-or-treating this week you went up to every house and tried to strike up a conversation with people. Forget the candy...you wanted to know if people had pets and how they were doing!

You have shown a preference for me this past month when it comes to who tucks you in at night, brushes your teeth or changes  your diaper. Also, it has been harder to leave you at the nursery at church. You love being at home and with our family. You also still LOVE to provoke your older brother. Wow, do you know how to get him all riled up. You keep our hands totally full but our heart are overflowing. We love you Coopy!!

A Week with Nana and Papa

Like I said in a previous post, Tim had a week of campus director's training so I brought the kids to the Cities! We had a great time and went on many adventures including the corn maze, rides at the Mall of America, parks, McDonald's playland on a rainy day, and the play area in the Eden Prairie mall. If they expect this sort of entertainment every day they are going to be very disappointed!!

 Live music on the porch!

 Cute Cros chilling on a nice fall day:)

 Finally, a picture with Uncle Dave! Not sure how we missed that the other times we were together.

 Getting some loving from Michelle...

 ...and the wild and crazy Worums!

 Crosby's birthday dinner

 Bonding with Uncle Bud

 Great smiles for Nana...he knows that cake is coming!

 And some tears after eating all the frosting...a man after my own heart;)

 Opening gifts...mostly clothes this year!

Nana and Papa have a tradition of writing a poem for the grand-kids when they turn one. Here is Crosby's! 

Sever's Corn Maze

Tim flew out of Minneapolis last week for his campus director's training. I desperately wanted help with the kids while he was gone and both sets of grandparents volunteered! We decided to head down a day early and took the opportunity to visit Sever's Corn Maze.

 The boys love getting time with their cousin, Sawyer!

 Trampoline time

 Fun in the corn pit 

 It was such a beautiful day...one of the last nice days of fall! 

 Cros was such a trooper. He had to skip his morning nap and just chilled in the stroller for hours without fussing. 

 Cooper and Sawyer dancing to the band...these two are so close in age and seem to really bond when they are togegther! 

 The hay maze

 Fun with Nana in the petting zoo 

 And at last...the corn maze! Of course we waited so long to go in the maze and all the kids were starving and Bud was ticked because the Vikings game had already started so we lasted about 5 minutes in there!

 Pretty sure you aren't supposed to pick the corn but the boys took home a souvenir! Good times!