Carter's February and March Update 2015

 Leader day at school!

 Another great Lego creation!

 Reading to his brothers, reading alone, being read to....this boy loves his books! 

 Once a month is R.E.D day at Carter's school (Read Every Day). Parents get to come for the last half hour of school and read with their kids. Carter loves it when one of us can come! His reading gets better every week.

 Carter made me this sign last month. "I love you this much: 3,006, 836." That is a lot in case you are wondering!

 Superman lifting a car full of people.

 Carter is always drawing, or creating something. He made himself a ninja turtle mask!

Carter's school does spring pictures. We ordered the fall pictures so we didn't get more but this was what he brought home. Adorable! And love the Trampled By Turtles shirt!!

Carterisms from the past two months:

-After asking the boys to stop doing something they asked me why.

Me: "Well it's a pet peeve. Can you please just stop?"

Carter: "Mooooom! Seriously, how many pet peeves do you have??!"

-We talked a while back about coordinating his clothes. Then a day or two later he came out ready for school in olive green pants and a kelly green shirt. I reminded him about our conversation and he said: "Mom, you don't get it. I'm dressed like the green ninja from Ninjago. My friends are going to LOVE this outfit!"

-He has started spelling out words in conversation. So if you ask him to do something he'll reply, "Okay M-o-m. I w-i-l-l." Conversations take a while!

-He loves saying "x-o-x-o" as an affectionate greeting.

-Carter was dancing with Cooper the other night. Tim and I were chatting and sort of watching this crazy dance party. Then all of the sudden Carter looked at Cooper and said: "Coops, you know what to do!" Then Cooper ran into his arms and Carter lifted him into the air. Apparently they have been working on some routines. We had such a good laugh over that one:)

-Carter came home from school the other day and told us he got to talk with one of his classmates about Jesus! He was so excited. What a joy to see him want to share the love that he has for the Lord.

Cooper's February and March Update 2015

 Cooper is still WAY into ninjas. 

 And still LOVES wearing a hat (always backwards).

 This is his moody face:)

 One day after picking Carter up from school, Cooper fell asleep on the couch before even taking his coat off! He slept for about 45 minutes while his brothers loudly played in the same room. Amazing! 

 Puddle jumping

 "Hey Mom, look at my muscles! Can you take a picture to show Uncle Dave?" 

 This kid is hot ALL THE TIME! And loves to take his shirt off. Even in the van. Even when it is only 15 degrees out!

Cooperisms from the past month:

-Cooper: "Mom, there are three kinds of cats. Nice cats, mean cats, and humans cats."

Me: "Human cats?"

Cooper: "MOM...COME ON! You know a human cat. Kat, from TCX!"

(A Cru student that they love)

-Me: "Cooper, can I help you with that?"

Cooper: "No, I'm a big, strong man!"

-Cooper's favorite song from the past two months is "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". He hums it or sings it all the time.

-At his 5 year doctor appointment his stats were:

Height: 37.5 (60%)

Weight: 46 pounds (81%)

BMI: 88%

-When I do something shocking or that he doesn't like he says, "MAMA Spark!"

Fun Moments from February and March

 We love hanging out with our friends, the Frees. They have a 4 year old boy, Charlie and the four boys love getting out the Nerf guns and going crazy! 

 Tammy and I took the boys putt-putt golfing one Saturday while Tim was working on our basement bathroom (pictures coming on that huge project). 

Cooper and Crosby got hand-me-down black Converse All-Stars. I looked at our shoe rack the other day and we are becoming a Chucks family:)  

 The big boys have really gotten into checkers this month! They are growing up so fast...

 ...but they still are SO SLEEPY after taking a nap. This must have been one weekend when Carter was home from school. They all fell asleep and I had to wake them up so they'd sleep at night! Both came out of their room and laid down in the hallway:)

 One of our first trips to the playground this spring! We've been back indoors for the past week or two. It won't be long though!!

When we were in Mexico, Nana and Papa took the boys and their cousin Sawyer to Dairy Queen!

 Loving on cousin Ezra! We got to see him right after we got back from Mexico.

 We had a rough afternoon last week with lots of conflict. I'm just amazed by the reality that the minute I turn on the television, they snuggle up and stop fighting. 

 The boys have been saving birthday money for a couple of years. We have started talking with them about giving, saving, and spending and have given them opportunities to tithe and bring money to church. The other day they decided they wanted to pool their money and get a Lego set together. As we were walking towards the Lego aisle they all stopped and stared at the Disney princess dolls. They were quizzing each other on the princess names. I was standing behind them cracking up!

I walked in on this conversation the other day. They didn't even stop when I pulled out the camera. These boys just keep me so entertained! (And busy and frustrated and confused and....)

 Carter: "If you end up playing football for a team other than the Hawkeyes and then play against the Hawkeyes, I'll cheer for you over Iowa."

Cooper: "Thanks. That's huge."

Carter: "Yeah. Brothers over Hawkeyes. It's important."

This video is a little long but it was such a funny night. I put on some Taylor Swift and the boys started "dancing" which resembles a combination of ninja moves, wrestling, break dancing, and gymnastics. We were laughing so hard!!

Another funny conversation over breakfast-

Crosby: "Mommy, will you stay with me forever?"

Me: "Awww that's so sweet Cros!"

Carter: "Mom, you know we all want to get married and leave and get our own homes, right?"

Cooper: "Yeah mom but don't worry, we'll see you again in heaven."

Good times at the gymnastic center!

Mexico!

My parents gave us a HUGE gift for our 10 year anniversary...a week at their timeshare in Mexico WITHOUT THE KIDS!! We have limited times during the year that we can get away so we had to put this off for almost a year. Which gave us a year to look forward to this fun trip!! Both sets of grandparents split time with the grand-kids and spoiled them wonderfully!! It was an amazing blessing and incredible week!

 Airplane selfie.

Me: "You know I'm going to want to take A LOT of pictures on this trip right??"

Tim: "We are going to Mexico for free. Take AS MANY AS YOU WANT!"

Yay!!

 We took quite a few walks on the beach. We were in Puerto Vallarta and had a beautiful view of the ocean and mountains. Amazing. We enjoyed kayaking and tennis as well as lots of time reading at the pool.

 View from our room. 

 The first night we grabbed a quick dinner at a restaurant along the Marina. Right as we sat down we noticed a Vikings and Hawkeye flag hanging up behind the bar! Right at home:)

 Fancy!

 Our favorite dinner was at this restaurant called Layla's right at the foothills of the mountains. Amazing food and beautiful view. (This picture doesn't quite capture it!) 

 Another day exploring along the beach! Tim loves hunting for cool shells. I didn't know this about him. 11 years and I'm still learning:) 

Tim being Tim at lunch. Always a fun adventure with him:) 

 I love doing puzzles. We had some rainy days so I got some good puzzle time in! Tim humored me and helped a bit.

 This doesn't really capture the boat that we were on so you'll have to take my word! We decided to do the Rhythms of the Night tour...an hour boat ride to a private beach where we got to watch native dancers and then have dinner on the beach. We loved it!! 

One more selfie:) Thank you Nana and Papa, Mimi and Gramps for this incredible blessing. We came back refreshed and excited to see the boys!