Staff Retreat

Our staff team spent two nights as a supporter's cabin this week. We have a new staff couple and an new male intern. It was fun to get to know them and get some time together!

It was a bit chilly but the boys wanted to be in the water all. the. time. 

 Our staff team is so great with the boys!! The boys eat up the attention:)

 The big boys had lots of fun too. Diving contests....

...cards and games. Good times! For some reason I didn't get any pictures of the girls. We had fun too!

I love this pic. Looks like he is walking on water! 

 We are so excited for all that the Lord will do in the upcoming school year!!

Crosby's June and July 2015 Update

 More selfies with mom! 

 Cheering on his brothers at t-ball!

 Cros keeps up with his big brothers pretty well but there are times he just crashes hard. Like the time (in the left picture) when Mimi was reading to the boys and Cros fell asleep mid-story!

Cros adores dogs. He loved some time with Whipper this summer!

 Tough guy on the basketball court! 

 Horsing around in Colorado

 As we drove to and from Colorado, Cros would draw something on the etch-a-sketch or magna-doodle and then ask me to take a picture of it.

 He just cracks me up! And he cracks himself up too:) 

 I came in to tuck him in for nap one day:)

Shopping in Target with his safety goggles on!

Cros saying the ABCs. So close!

Playing "spaceshippy". His favorite game. Basically he just turns the couch or bed into a spaceship. Amazing!

Crosbyisms from the past 2 months:

-Cros: "What does E-T-V-E spell?

Me: "Etve?"

Cros: "No, you are wrong."

Not sure what to say back to that!

-Cros: "Haha you can't spell shower!"

Me: "S-H-O-W-E-R"

Cros: "Well haha you can't spell cake!"

Me: "C-A-K-E"

Cros: "Haha you are not God!"

He got me there.

-After Tim said something funny at the dinner table Cros replied with "Haha hashtag MY DAD!"

-At his last check up he weighed 43 3/4 pounds (96%) and was 42 1/2 inches tall (95%). Big boy!

Carter's June and July 2015 Update

 "Mom, I wish I could have piano lessons every day! How long until my next lesson?!"

 Ribbons at the track meet for softball toss and 50 meter dash.

 He checked out books from the library on Minecraft to help him as he plays the video game! 

 Sweet boy!!

 Me: "Hey buddy, just so you know, it's sort of a fashion rule to not wear socks with flip flops."

Carter: "Oh Moooooom, it's okay. It's not like I'm breaking the law!"

Mr. Cool!

Monkey bar master!

Carter: "Mom, look I'm doing push ups while eating a push up! You should take a video and put it on facebook!"

(He has no idea what that really means)

Carterisms from the past 2 months:

-When we were hiking in Colorado he kept saying "shhhh, a cactus!" No idea why but it was cute.

-Me: "Carter please don't whip your blanket."

Carter: "Well if I can't whip, can I nae nae?" 

(Pop reference. If you don't know the song, here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjW8wmF5VWc 

Pretty quick on his toes!

-I was singing Come Thou Fount as Carter and I played Legos...

Carter: "Mom are you getting the words right?"

Me: "I think so. Why?"

Carter: "I don't want to learn them wrong. How are you so sure?"

Me: "Well the song is an old hymn so I've sung it many times."

Carter: "Was it around when the dinosaurs were on earth?"

-Carter was trying to tell us how important it is to eat your ABCs. We were super confused and asked a lot of questions trying to understand what he meant. We finally figured out that it was something from school where they were teaching him about vitamins and how important it is to eat healthy food every day. At the end Carter sighed and said: "Wow, it is so hard trying to explain things to adults that they never knew!"

-Carter: "Mom, what is that thing popping out of your back?"

Me: "That's a mole, hon."
Carter: "Do you like it?"Me: "Hmmm, not especially but I'm okay with it."Carter: "Hey mom, I bet Wonder Woman has a lot of moles."

-At his 7 year check up he weighed 56 pounds (72%) and was 4' 0.5" (58.5%).

Cooper's June and July 2015 Update

 5 year olds! Cooper and Sawyer are best buddies!  

 When I ask Cooper to smile for a picture, 9/10 times he will give me a ninja pose:)  

 I forgot to post this months ago but Cooper's teacher had him fill this out and read it to his class during his birthday month. (Kai is the name of one of the Ninjago ninjas)

He is cruising on 2 wheels and will often take Carter's bike because it goes faster than his.

 Fearless. He can dive and do flips into the water. Carter is so frustrated that Cooper is better than him at this!

 Back to school shopping and getting ready for Kindergarten!! 

Striking a pose. 

Junior Hooper

Jump pile!

He mastered the monkey bars this summer!

Cooperisms from the past 2 months:

-"At my wedding I want to have Cherry Berry and chicken wings. And I'll put some wings on my head and the guys with think it's cool and the girls with say "ewwww"! It will be AWESOME!"

-"I just figured out why Jesus decided not to be so huge like Golilath. Because when babies die, like Nehemiah, and they go to heaven, Jesus doesn't scare them because he is not so huge."

-Cooper still puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. Blankets, pillows, legos...

-"Mom, you can't kiss me today because it's not Wednesday, Friday or a pool day."

-When Cooper doesn't get his way he says, "Ohhhh COME ON!!"

Carter's 7th Birthday Party

Carter is 7 years old! He asked to have a party at the neighborhood pool. He invited a couple of friends and some of our staff team joined us as well as the Wurglers. The kids swam and then we did cupcakes and presents. He loved every minute of it!!!!

 Emma and Jaman Wurgler, Cooper, Carter, Isaac Dafoe, Crosby, and Tyson Vanyo. (Mason Muizelaar was late and missed the picture and Evie Wurgler broke her arm and couldn't swim)

 It was a little crazy trying to watch all the kids. We were so grateful when Kimmie and the Singers showed up to help!

 Party hats, sugar and presents:) 

 The adults had fun too:) 

July!

 It is hard to believe that July has come and gone. It just FLEW right by! With about a week on the road around the 4th and then our time in Colorado, not much was left of it but we still squeezed in some more fun:)

 The most frequent thing I hear at parks these days is, "Mom, come look at us being ninjas!" 

 Backyard fun! The boys love playing with squirt guns and sprinklers. They get cold soooo fast though! 

 More t-ball pictures. I just couldn't get over how cute the boys looked in their uniforms and how sweet it was that they got to play on the same team! 

 In the afternoon, I usually give the boys about 10-15 minutes each on the ipad. They love watching each other play games! 

 While grocery shopping the other day I sent the boys down the ice cream aisle and told them if they could agree on something, then we would buy it. It bought me about 10 minutes to get all my produce! 

 We got some targets that were left over from Vacation Bible School and the boys have LOVED shooting their Nerf guns at them! 

The boys spend a lot of the summer with their shirts off!