Saturday, January 9, 2016

Cooper's November and December Update 2015

 Coops made a card for his teacher one day after school:) 
 Classic Cooper face 
 This lucky guy won a turkey dinner for our family at his school's Turkey Bingo Fundraiser!
 Some of his most recent art work.
 I asked Cooper to lay out his clothes one night for school the next day. I came in to find this! Very thorough!!
 Reading to Carter. Usually it is the other way around but lately he has wanted to practice more. 
 Virtual play date. Facetiming with Titus in Arizona while they both color. 
 Coops has gotten quite a few Viking Pride Awards this winter!
 This kid LOVES wearing shorts. 
Goof ball! 
 "You know the song that Batman sings in the Lego Movie? 'Darkness, Black hole, Middle of the Night...' I have the best idea. When I get married and it's time to kiss the bride, I'm going to pull out my phone and play that song instead! Because kissing is sooo gross!"
 Carter and Cooper both lost the same tooth within a week of each other! He lost his 2nd tooth shortly after the 1st.
In November, Cooper got a horrible ear infection that kept him home from school one day.

Cooperisms from the past 2 months:
-He often comes out of his room at night saying he had a bad dream so we pray for him nightly about it.
-He wears his backpack with one strap across his chest because he says that it looks like a ninja.
-He gets hot very easily and often will have his shirt off around the house. When he is hot he says, "my stomach feels sweating!" and then asks for an ice pack.
-Coops has made some good friends at school. He loves his buddy Isaac and often plays with Channing at the playground after school.

-Cooper: "Mom, I crushed a girl today."
Me: "Is she ok? What happened?"
Cooper: "Nooooooo...I crush a girl!"
Me: "Oooooh! So you have a crush! You like a girl?"
Cooper: "No, I don't like her. I love her! And I want to marry her."
Me: "Wow, does she know?"
Cooper: "Yup! I told her today!"
Me: "What did she say?"
Cooper: 'Nothing. I think she might have smiled though!"
I LOVE that he still tells me all the details:) Since then his crush has changed from one girl to nobody to another girl. Sounds like trouble in our future!!

-A day before leaving for Thanksgiving:
Cooper: "Am I going to see Sawyer today?"
Me: "No hon. Not until tomorrow."
Cooper: "Okay then instead of wearing them today can you pack my maroon skinny jeans? I think she'll love them!"
He LOVES skinny jeans! I wore leggings one day and he said, "Hey mom, we are twins. We are both wearing skin pants." He often complains about his sweatpants because they aren't tight enough!!

-We took Cooper to the ER this month because he slipped on the ice when we tried to take the boys ice skating. He didn't break it but the bruise was so severe that Coops couldn't hardly move his arm for a week. We even brought him in a 2nd time to make sure it wasn't broken. Thankfully it is on the mend.

Christmas in Stillwater

 We had a great time in Stillwater! Things get a little crazy with 5 young boys but it was lots of fun.
 Ezra loves his big cousins and the feeling is soooo mutual!
 Christmas morning craziness! 
 
Steve wearing his fancy 20 year old sweatshirt...go Bluegolds!!
 The boys got some cool new art supplies and spent a long time coloring. Peace and quiet!
 Cros and Whipper. Love.
 The weather was awesome so we went on a little nature hike. 
 Gramps and Carter both love playing computer games:)
 Bonding with baby Isaac! He is soooooo sweet!!! 
Mimi wanted a picture with all the grandkids! The pics turned out pretty well but I did get a video of the process. It was pretty funny! 
 More time outside. This winter has been incredible! 
We drove around and looked at lights one evening. 
After TCX we came back to Stillwater for the Rose Bowl game. Unfortunately Iowa lost:( We did get to do a birthday celebration too. The boys made me cards and helped Mimi make some cupcakes!

Christmas in Eden Prairie

We had such a great time with the Carrolls in Eden Prairie! The cousins bonded. The adults got time to visit and catch up. Nana made an AMAZING beef tenderloin dinner. It's always fun to watch the kids open gifts and laugh together. Such great memories!!
 Playing a board game with Nana
 The cousins get along so well! What a blessing!
 We sang some Christmas carols but also got to listen to Uncle Dave and Papa jam:)
 Twinning!
 Uncle Dave, Nana and Papa planning a little treasure hunt for the kids to find some of their presents! 
 Hats from Aunt Shannie
 The next day, my parents took us to a children's engineering museum. It was all hand on and the kids loved it! Nana and Papa seemed to enjoy themselves too:)

Foster Care Journey

We are officially licensed to be foster parents! We had our first placement in December with a 3 1/2 year old girl. 

The day she came to stay with us, Cros and I got some girl bedding and set up her new room. He anxiously waiting for quite a while until she finally arrived. We were so proud of the boys in how the sacrificially loved her. Crosby gave up his room and Carter moved down to the basement even though he was a bit scared. They shared their toys and were so patient and protective of her! 
(I'm taking some liberties to post pictures because this is a private blog that only a handful of you can see.) 

Christmas in Grand Forks

 We did a little family Christmas before we got on the road to the Cities. Our foster girl was with us and jumped right into all the festivities. We did some of our usual traditions: Bible story, choose somebody to give a gift to as a family (friends are adopting and in need of financial help so we agreed to give towards their adoption), stockings, gifts, and an afternoon movie (The Peanuts Movie). 
 The kids LOVE opening their stockings...probably because of the treats:)
 Star Wars tooth brushes
 We were cracking up at how much the big boys loved their new underwear. Who knew??! 
 Hawkeye hats! Tim was bummed that I didn't get him one:(
 A quick break to wrestle.
 A got some post Halloween costumes for really cheap! Unfortunately they were WAY TO BIG but one day they will fit:) 
We got the boys used skates and helmets and my parent's got them sticks and pucks. We tried them out for the first time last weekend and it was a bit more challenging than we imagined trying to teach 3 boys at once! Cooper slipped right away and really hurt his arm. He's on the mend and we are hoping he'll give it another try soon.