Christmas in Grand Forks

 We travel every year over Christmas to see family and then go to TCX (Cru's regional Christmas Conference). So our tradition has been to set aside a day before we leave to celebrate as a family. 

 We started out this year with stockings...a new tradition for our family but one we both grew up with. The boys loved it! And it was fun to exchange some gifts with Tim. 

Then we ate a big brunch. Cros gave us a mega battle over his eggs:) I can smile about it now.

 We read the Christmas story and picked out a gift from the Compassion catalog. 

 We spent the rest of the morning lazily opening gifts and playing together.

Last year we made a birthday cake for Jesus but we decided to mix it up this year and make dipped pretzels. The boys loved putting on the sprinkles. And eating them:)

 We also had lots of time for snuggling and wrestling of course!   

We finished up our celebration by surprising the boys and taking them to a movie, Big Hero 6. It was the first time we brought Crosby to the theater. After all of the previews he thought it was time to go home:) Tim needed to take him out of the theater for a while but he did pretty good. Afterwards when we asked him what he favorite part of the movie was he said, "I liked walking in the hallway with daddy best!"

Our Children's Christmas Program at Grace

Our church puts on a Christmas Program each year and our kids were finally old enough and healthy enough to be a part of it! (Last year they all had the flu) 

 The pre-schoolers started the program with a couple of songs and then joined us in the audience. Crosby was sick all weekend with the flu so he missed rehearsal and just sat with us...

...on Tim's shoulders:)

The Kindergarten through 6th graders sang more songs and read Scripture.

Carter memorized a verse with two other girls. If you watch the video, he was quite enamored with one of them:)

 Cooper and Isaac Dafoe after the program. Isaac is one of Coops good buddies! A group of women in the church made goodie bags for all of the kids in the program and there was a cookie party afterwards! A fun night to sing and remember what Christmas is all about...Jesus humbly coming to earth to reconcile sinners to the Father!

Late Fall/Early Winter

As I was looking through pictures, here were some highlights from the past 2 months:

 We play lots of board games with the boys. It is a combination of fun and totally stressful!

 One last "twins" pic before the snow!

 The boys are constantly drawing and doing art projects. I am cannot stand clutter. So I needed a system for all the paper that was piling up. Here are their two spots to display artwork...the dining room gallery and bedroom gallery! 

 Kimmie found these light-sabers at a garage sale! Hours of entertainment.

 A visit from Great Uncle Hal Pal and Great Kate!!  

 The boys LOVE Cru conferences and getting to hang out with college students. Here is their countdown to TCX!

 We are struggling a bit with the new cold weather that keeps us inside more. I found a kids workout video the other day and these two worked out for 30 minutes straight! 

 Santa day at Scheels! Reindeer hats, letters to santa, and free bowling!

 We started a new tradition this fall called "Bacon Saturday". The boys look forward to it all week!

 Cheering on the Hawkeyes with daddy! 

Hanging out with Kimmie!

Funny conversations:

-While looking at a slideshow of pictures on my computer I overheard this conversation...

Carter: "Hey, it's me!"

Cooper: "No, that's me."

Crosby: "It's me!"

Carter: "Mom??"

Me: clueless..."Ummmm"

Cooper: "Let's just call it us."

Carter: "Great! Hey, another one of us!"

-Carter: "Mom, is daddy a college student?"

Me: "No hon. He works with college students telling them about Jesus and helping them grow in their faith."
Carter: "Ooooh so he's like a campus worker?"
Me: Yes, I guess you could call him that."
Cooper: "So he's like a cop?"
Me: ??

Carter's October and November 2014 Update

I somehow just deleted Carter's whole post and lost a lot of his quotes:( Sad day. I'll try to recapture what I typed up...

 He wanted to wear a mohawk to school one day!

 Carter loves when he get to be the leader of the day at school!

 A Viking Pride award for reading (or being read to) over 80 book in November! His reading is coming along well. I love watching him sound out words and seeing it all come together. His brothers still don't have patience to sit through the books that he reads as it is a little too slow for them but I love it! 

 Craft night with Mom. Stickers on the page and then stickers on our faces! 

 My little artist! He asked to borrow my Harry Potter book so he could try drawing him. Impressive! Also, Mimi put all of his Star Wars collection into a book! 

He is starting to write. I love watching the progress:) Above he wrote: I can hlp pepal lrn abawt God. (I can help people learn about God).

Carterisms from the past month:

-After bumping into Carter one day I said, "I'm so sorry babe". Carter replied, "Mom, I am not your babe. Tim is your babe!"

-You are working on sight words at school. Your teacher gives you 10 words at a time and when you get them down, she gives you the next set. You are doing great and very competitive. When you notice somebody in your class is ahead of you, you get a bit feisty!

-We had Carter's first conference this fall. He was worried about it for some reason so we didn't know what to expect. Mrs. Palmascino had great things to say about him. He is working hard and learning a lot. He helps his classmates out when they get stuck. The only constructive thing she said was that sometimes he needs to settle down and listen better:)

-Kindergarten has wiped you out! You are so tired each day and it is a bit of a struggle to get you up in the morning. We have really had to pull back and make sure you are in bed before 8 each night.

-You still LOVE to draw and create. I am watching you right now at the table and you are working on a couple of different pictures. Your favorite hobby!

Crosby's October and November 2014 Update

 You love to snuggle. And to be babied:)

 I think I post this every month but you STILL love to swing:)

 You found some dogs at your brother's soccer game. And this is where we sat the entire hour. You LOVE dogs!!!

 Birthday money!!

 Your new hat from the Worums. Adorable!

 "Hey Mom, I'm a baby!"

 Daredevil at the gymnastic center. You jump off the high board into the foam pit. Fearless!

 Helping get our gifts ready for Samaritan's Purse. You always want to help me!

 Aw the babies. I have lots of pics with you and Caroline (Allie and Ryan's baby). You are so gentle with her.

"Mom, what is this white stuff?"

Crosbyisms from the past 2 months:

-Cros: "Morning Mom. Am I the first boy up?" (you are already very competitive)

Me: "Yes hon."

Cros: "I win! Also, can I say 'chicken butt'?"

-At your 3 year visit you were 3'3" tall (87.88%) and weighed 38 pounds (94.47%).

-You do NOT like when people call you "pal" and you let them know.

-You have started getting very particular about your bedtime routine. You like your blankie on you first with the tag by your hand. Then your Charlie Brown goes under your arm. Next, your 2 red blankets go on top. And last, I need to stand by the door and blow you a kiss good-night! You almost always bed me to stay with you too:)

-You are a picky dresser. There are only a couple of shirts that you like to wear and you really want to pick which one each day.

-You frequently answer my requests with "of course". It sounds so grown up!