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!

Double Trouble, Triple Fun

Some random fun from the past month...

 Potato Bowl Parade! 

 Mom, will you bury us?? 

 A sweet, relaxed moment:) 

 We were without a dining room table for a couple of weeks and used a card table that was a little small for all of us. It kept leading to conflict between these two so I came up with a solution...

 ...If you are going to fight, you each sit at your own card table:)

 Their 1st bath all together...chaotic and fun! There were many other pics that turned out better...but this one is the most appropriate to post online:)  

A fun thing about the card table is that it can be picked up and moved easily to build a fort!

Carter is 4 Years and 2 Months!

Carter has been so ansy for school so I bought this huge pre-school workbook from Target and he LOVES it. His attention span is incredible...some days he will sit and do "school work" for 2+ hours! Also this month he started going to Awana at church. It is a Wednesday night, Bible memory program that he seems to enjoy. More pics to come of him in his Awana vest!

 Where's Carter? He is always coming up with fun and silly ideas:)

Like why not put one of Crosby's toys in his nose...why not?

Here he is, proud as ever, working on school... 

 He is way more into coloring that learning his letters. He told me the other day that he thinks God has made him an artist...could be! He has also grown very fond of his eraser...he DOES NOT LIKE MAKING MISTAKES. Ugh-hard to see the parts of me that I don't like, show up in him:(

 Here is his very colorful Woody picture. 

 Also this month was his first trip to the dentist. He did great and just listened to whatever they asked him to do. The dentist asked him if he knew how many teeth he has. Carter's response: "No, but God does." FACT! Booya Mr. Dentist!  

Another elaborate and colorful lego creation! 

Don't you just love watching kids sleep?! Most afternoons he'll go in our room for some quiet time. I let him bring a couple of books in and tell him when he can come out. A lot of days I will peek in and find him sound asleep. He plays hard and rests hard!

Cooper is 2 Years + 8 Months!

Cooper John, Coop Johnny Johns, or simply Johnny as your dad likes to call you-

you LOVE your little brother Cros. You get so sad if I get him up from a nap without you, you ask to help him with his bottle, and although you are a bit rough, you love to give him hugs! You love praying at dinner time and usually copy what Carter prays for although you consistently thank God for animals and videos! 

 Bottle Time!

 Dad occasionally has to get creative for you to eat your dinner. Usually a simple "cheers" works where we all take a bite at the same time. This was the "Double Fork Special".

 So sweet!

 We tried potty training last weekend. Coops was excited about the underwear and being like his big brother...but everything else was a disaster. We gave him lots of fluids and then had him sit on the toilet but it turned into a wrestling match and then he would have accidents right after getting off the potty. We are going to wait a bit:)

Always provoking his brother!

Labor Day Weekend

After much deliberation on whether or not we could handle packing up the family for a weekend away, we decided to go for it! On the way home we both agreed we were thankful for the time away, even though traveling with kids is a bit crazy. We spent most of the time in Grand Rapids but on Sunday morning we headed over to Duluth to meet up with the Stillwater and St. Paul Sparks. Bev found a really cool park for us to meet at where the boys could play and we could have a little picnic lunch.

 This might be our Christmas card photo...we'll see! It does look like Cros is pulling Carter's hair though... 

 Awwww

 I can't believe we tried to take a group photo and I'm even more surprised that it sort of turned out! 

Here are pics back in Grand Rapids at the Rutgers pool:

 They were loving holding hands and jumping in! 

 Again, dad!! 

As you can see it was an action-packed weekend and we were wiped out afterwards, especially since Crosby hardly slept at all during the night. But it was great to see family again!

Crosby is 11 Months!

Not too many changes from last month for sweet Cros. He is still sort of a nighttime stinker. We started giving him some formula this month because he seemed hungry all the time and that has helped a little bit. Besides the night drama he really is content most of the day. He consistently naps for an hour+ in the morning and again in the afternoon. He is eating more foods. Unfortunately he is eating a lot of things are aren't foods too! This has made playing outside a risky adventure. We have found rocks, sticks, leaves and all sort of things stuffed into those big cheeks. Here he is, laughing away...as hard as the baby stage is at times, the sweet moments like this make me so grateful!

Cooper is 2 Years + 7 Months!

For whatever reason, I have way more pics of Carter this month than Cooper. Maybe he is just so busy that I can't get him to slow down enough to snap a pic:)

 Here is his favorite mode of transportation lately. A little Fred Flintstone scooter. It takes him forever to get around in this and yet he insists on taking it all.the.way.to.the.park. Oh to be 2!

A couple other things from the past month:

-Cooper is always asking us if we remember things. "Mom, do you remember Mimi and Gramps?" "Dad, do you remember church?"...It is his stall tactic at bedtime and funny go-to joke during the day.

-Cooper is tough as nails. He hardly slows down when he gets hurt and yet he LOVES getting kisses on his owies. I know this won't last much longer so I am kisses every single one of them!

-He loves being tucked in at night and nap. He asks in the sweetest little voice.

-Cooper is quite the instigator. He really knows how to get Carter all wrapped around the axle. Often times while they are eating he will "create" imaginary cookies and then "eat" them before Carter can get any. This usual leaves Cooper laughing and Carter crying. Oh man.

-He loves telling jokes at dinner time. Carter and Coops will go back and forth telling "jokes" like, "What if a car went in water?" Hahahahahaha (they both think they are hillarious). "What if the grass was hair?" Hahahahah. And on. And on. And on. Watch out Seinfeld.

Carter is 4 Years + 1 Month

A couple pics from the past month...

 "Hey mom, look how many hats I can put on my head!"

 "Mom, this is a dromedary." I had to look it up. A dromedary is a one-hump camel. Not sure where he learned that one!

 Carter loves to color. He is adding lots of details to his pictures and is learning to write letters. He can now write his name and Cooper as well.

 Carter still LOVES colorful things. Nana and Papa got him this outfit in Hawaii and he can't get enough of it. I try not to let him leave the house in it:)  

 We are giving him a little more freedom on his bike. He loves to go up and down the block "all by himself".

He's already a baller!

Couple things from the past month:

-While some friends were babysitting, they noticed Carter picking his nose and asked him to get a kleenex. Not wanting to stop playing he told them it was okay and that he didn't need one. Then he proceeded to put it back up in his nose!

-Carter is only napping one or two days a week now so we are getting more time together in the afternoons. One day I thought we could sing some worship songs together. I tried a couple and he seemed quite uninterested. Then he said, "Mom, do you know any songs about pirates instead?"

-We were playing outside the other day and I overheard Carter say, "Hey Coops, wanna watch me pee on a tree?" Before I could get to him, his pants were down and he went for it!

-Carter still sleeps with this little bear with wings that he named Angel Bear. 

-He is starting to ask lots of questions about growth and growing up. A frequent question is, "When I'm 7 am I going to pop out of the house?"

-He still gets a bit confused about yesterday, today and tomorrow. He can't get it in his head that when he wakes up from nap it is still "today". He often refers to the today after his nap as today, today...like the 2nd today. It's quite fun watching him try to figure things out.

-Out of the blue the other day: "Dad, I want to have a hairy back like Papa and Uncle Dave!"

-We were out for a walk the other day and saw a little girl...probably 18 months or so. Carter looked at me and said, "Awwww, I want one of those!" He also prayed in Sunday School for a little sister.

-"Patting your head and rubbing your belly is really hard. Only Superman can do that!"

-I overheard him singing this song recently: "My God is so huge and big and awesome. He is so much bigger than me! BUT...I AM BIGGER THAN MY BROTHERS!"

-We have had lots of roommates in the past couple of months. It is great having a guest room in the basement and being able to provide a place for people to stay! One morning I woke up to Carter and Cooper at the top of the stairs yelling/singing, "Who is in our basement? Who is in our basement?" They do love having the company:) We currently have a vacancy sign up at the Spark Hotel though, so we would love some visitors!!