Carter's December 2013 and January 2014 Update

 Looking back over pictures from the past two months I have so many of Carter's art and lego creations. He loves to create and spends hours at our craft table each day! 

 His Spider-Man plane

A rocket blasting off into the stars

 Some of the characters from Jake and the Neverland Pirates (the boys FAVORITE show from the past couple of months).

 A picture he drew as a present for Jesus on His birthday. Although he became quite frustrated when he realized that he couldn't surprise Jesus because He knows everything!

 I love how he will wrestle with Crosby and know to be a little bit gentle with him. I love that he has a cute cowlick:) 

 Some of his lego creations...Dora and Swiper, a clown and The Incredible Hulk! 

 More coloring...He is such a "between the lines" kind of a guy. I don't know who he got that from:) 

We had a winter retreat with the college students a couple of weeks ago. It came time to pack up and clean and Carter couldn't wait to help vacuum with all the college students. Why haven't I enlisted his help at home yet??!!

Carterisms from the past two months:

-Carter: "Mom, please don't break my lego monster while I'm at school."

Me: "Okay honey."

Carter: "Well, actually I haven't built it yet."

-Our boys are involved in Awana at our church (Wednesday night Bible time). We have a church dinner beforehand and Carter was in line with the Awana director. He told Carter that kids can go first to which Carter replied:

"I'm not a kid. I'm 5. I'm a man."

-Me: "Great job eating Carter!"

Carter: "Thanks, I'm a growing man."

-Carter: "I have to go potty."

Me: "How bad?"

Carter: "Not bad. I never have to go bad. Well, unless I have diarrhea!"

-He will often complain that the milk he is drinking is "soggy"! (Me means it is getting warm).

-Carter woke up one morning and in his groggy state he said to me...

"I've got it! I have a name for our baby. James. It doesn't start with a "C" and it's a real name!!"

(The boys really wanted to name the baby Scooby or Spider-boy or Bruce Wayne or some other superhero or cartoon name. We kept telling them that wasn't what we had in mind and that we were also trying to veer away from "C" names. We ended up choosing James as the middle name for our baby and Carter was so proud!)

Cooper's December 2013 and January 2014 Update

Cooper John!

 You LOVE taking your shirt off and spend most days in shorts. Our house is not warm in the winter but you don't seem to mind. Crosby has been copying you a lot lately, so when you took off your shirt and put on the Hulk mask, along came Spider-Crosby!

 You are still doing daily (sometimes we forget though) nebulizer treatments for your asthma. We'll find out at your 4 year doctor appointment if that needs to continue. You've become quite the good sport about it! 

 Bedtime has been quite the struggle lately so I decided I would try to skip your nap and just have you read books instead. You were soooo excited! I went to check up on you and 10 minutes later you had fallen asleep without touching one book. We are back to napping almost every day. You just need that rest!! 

 You still LOVE dressing up! Ahhhhhr Pirate Cooper! 

 Here you are showing us your lego creation. You spend a great deal of time each day playing with legos. It's so fun to watch how creative you have become.

And in the past 2 months you have started to really enjoy coloring. Just a short time ago it was all scribbles!

 I love your focused face...you really enjoy working on puzzles. 

 Silly time with Mom! You ask to wear this Justice League shirt every single day:) Often you will try to wear 2 shirts to maximize the number of super heros. Also, we have some TMNT and Power Ranger socks and you'll wear two different socks to be more fully represented. I love your sweets quirks!

 These are your favorite toys. Little super hero figurines. You play with them by yourself and make up all kinds of stories. 

Cooperisms from the past month:

-You ask for eggs almost every single morning

-You call Crosby, "Crawby"

-You make up random sayings like "Brigades are on the dater." Then you'll repeat it and get your brothers to say it too:)

-You compare everything with God. For instance...

Carter: "I gulped down my juice fast."

Cooper: "Not faster than God."

Or...

Crosby: "Lightning McQueen is fast."

Cooper: "Not faster than God."

Or somebody once told him that they had an owie to which he replied...

Cooper: "Well it's not as big an owie as God got."

-My favorite Cooperism though is a little routine you started doing recently. You make a ring noise for a phone and then grab my phone. You hold it up to your ear and say...

"Hello? Oh it's Toots Magooter. Hi Toots Magooter!"

Then you bend over and toot. And laugh histerically asking us all if we heard it.

Wow!

You keep us entertained Coopy! We love you!!

Funny Things the Boys Say

Cooper John turns 4 today! I'll post more on that later but realized I'm about a month behind on the blog. After miscarrying I've just been more tired than usual and it has sort of been an emotional whirlwind. I am thinking about writing at some point on how the Lord has been meeting us in the midst of our grief in unbelievable ways. But for now, here are some funny things the boys have been saying in the midst of it all:)

Nana overheard this conversation while we were still in the hospital...
Cooper: "Mommy and Daddy will come home today with our new baby!"
Carter: "No Cooper. Nehemiah is in heaven. And Nana will get to see him REALLY soon because she is SUPER old."

We've been reading some books with the kids trying to help them process Nehemiah's death. Some of them have been on heaven and trying to help them understand where Nehemiah is and that we will be there too someday. While reading one of the books it talked about wearing white in heaven. Cooper had a funny response...
Cooper: "White? Really? Everybody will be in white? I don't like white. I like green and yellow. I need to talk to God about this. I really hope I can wear green and yellow in heaven!"

Also, I'm guessing this response has something to do with all of our conversations about heaven...
Me: "Come on Coops, let's get ready for swim lessons. It's going to be the best time EVER!"
Cooper: (Arms crossed and confused/mad face) "No it won't. Heaven will be the best time ever. Swim lessons are just fun."

Humor in the midst of grief:)

New Couches!

Tim got these hand-me-down couches from his grandma a year or two before we got married. We've been married almost 10 years and while they have served us well, they got VERY worn out!

 Exhibit A: stuffing coming out all over the place!  

 We had been thinking about new couches for years and finally this winter we pulled the trigger. The timing was largely in part to an anonymous gift that some friends gave us! The Lord is so generous to us! Here is our vacant living room and us saying bye to the couch as the city of Grand Forks took it away. (It was so worn out that the thrift stores didn't want it!) 

 Voila! How fun!!

Before...

 ...And after! The boys are cute on either couch:)

Christmas in Eden Prairie

Our next stop was to see Nana and Papa in Eden Prairie. Shannon, Bud, Devin, Sawyer and Uncle Dave also joined us there!

 Sock and sandals. The note says: "Please know these are not meant to be worn together!"  

 Who is more excited? Nana or Carter??!! 

 Gifts from Uncle Dave! He has won the favorite gift award two years in a row now! Last year was a box of Legos that the boys have logged countless hours with. This year it was a Jake and the Neverland Pirate ship for Cooper and Superhero legos for Carter. Crosby still thinks the wrapping paper is better than the gifts:) 

 Sledding with Sawyer! Brrr it was cold but great to get outside for a bit.  

 The day after Christmas my mom took Shannon and me out for lunch and then to get pedicures! Shan and I showed up with gray leggings, black boots and blue leg warmers:) Such a fun girls afternoon out!!

Stillwater Christmas

We spent a couple of days in Stillwater with Mimi and Gramps...

 We saw some of the extended Spark family which we haven't been able to see for years. How fun to see cousins, aunts, uncles and for the boys to be with their second cousins. Nine boys, no girls at this party!

 A little video to calm the chaos. They get this glazed-over TV watching look!

 We got to see Mike, Sherah, Ezra and Whipper a couple of times! Ezra is getting SO big!  

 Presents! All the boys got some new Superhero pjs but Cooper was the only one who immediately had to put them on. Here they are doing a seek and find book together. Hours of entertainment! 

 Love that almost 5 month old smile! 

Christmas in Grand Forks

Christmas felt a little crazy this year. Maybe I say that every year. But this year we celebrated on a Saturday and then had to pack to leave on Sunday morning for two weeks. So maybe it was a little more crazy than usual:) We still had a good time with the family.

We try to keep it simple...read the Christmas story, open gifts, waffles for breakfast, pick out a gift to give from the World Vision catalog, bake a cake for Jesus, and then lots of time to play!

 A quick Christmas tree pic

 Pre-present opening wrestle mania

 Reading the Christmas story

 I love how curious they get about each other's gifts!

 Ninja Turtles!!

 Cros playing with his new bath toys. The boy loves his bath time!

More Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I love listening to them play!

We wrapped up our little celebration by taking the boys to see Frozen. We actually went during nap-time and got a sitter for Crosby. He still won't sit in front of a video for more than 5 minutes. Maybe next year! They boys LOVED it!! I thought it was a good movie but really just enjoyed watching them enjoy it.

More Christmas celebration posts to come...