Carter is 4 Years + 9 Months!

Mr. Carter's Monthly Update...

 He has shown an interest lately in learning how to tie shoes so Tim has been giving him lessons. I don't think he even has a pair of shoes with laces though! 

 Carty loves his magnetic doodle board. His brothers enjoy watching him draw and will give him ideas. Here is a picture of Cooper, requested by Cooper:) 

 More "3 goggles"...go Hawks!

 Another trip to the dentist. He gets SO EXCITED to go! You would think I was taking him to Disney World:) 

 He has a workbook with homework for Awana. A couple of weeks ago the assignment was to draw three pictures of things you will see in heaven. He picked bees, Jesus and no tears. How random and sweet is that?! He did comment that he will like bees in heaven because they won't sting him.

 Here is a picture of Spiderman with his treehouse. The little loop on the right is the treehouse door...of course! I love the detail he puts into things!

A couple Carterisms and updates from the past month:
-Instead of saying "keep them on" Carter says, "stay them on".
-He is very concerned with owies and keeps asking if he is "blooding".
-Instead of saying "blown away" he says "winded away". Love it!
-In the middle of dinner one night he got all excited and said, "Let's all pretend we are fairies!!"
-He walked into the bathroom the other morning when I was getting ready and said, "Mom, I think we should have 4 kids on our family."
-He loves to dribble his new basketball (from the Worums) and has also gotten into playing catch. We play a game and see how many times we can throw it back and forth without dropping it. I think our record is 102.
-He loves writing words. He doesn't know how to spell much yet so he'll just ask how to spell things and write them. 
-I overheard Cooper and him playing the other day and Carter yelled, "Cooper you are offending our Father up above! Go to timeout." Don't know where that came from. 
-He refers to a leesh for a dog as "an Alisha". "Mom, my stuffed dog needs an Alisha." I haven't corrected him because I think it is so sweet. I know I should probably break the news to him before he goes to school.
-"Dad is funny. He toots a lot."
-"Daddy, what if your name was sloppy joe face?"
-He has a massive fake cackle that he breaks out in his goofiest moments!
-Carter: "Mom, why did God make me so that I like girls soooo much?"
Me: "What do you mean honey?"
Carter: "I prefer to be called Lovey."
Me: "I mean I just like them so much. I like to be around them. I like to dream about them.  They are just great. I like girls!!"

Eternal Winter

Can spring please come soon??

 This winter has dragged on...and on....and on. Just when we get a little sun and some good puddles for jumping...

 ...then we get MORE snow! The last storm we had the boys decided they wanted to make superhero snowmen. That is Snow-batman in the front yard and Snow-spiderman in the back yard.  

Our good friends, the Dahls, came up from Fargo for the day in late April. After playing inside most of the day we were feeling cooped up and decided to take a walk (wearing crowns and on a treasure hunt of course). This time of year it is tricky because it is still cold out but there are very tempting puddles. We made it about 4 houses down the block and Carter and Cooper were totally soaked up to their waists. And that water is ice cold! After a quick trip home and a change of clothes we ventured out again. I'm thinking we'll really appreciate spring and summer this year!

Children's Museum

Tim needed to get a bunch of reading and homework done for his seminary class on Friday so Mimi decided to take the rest of us to the Children's Museum in St. Paul. It was packed with kids from field trips but besides the crowds, it was really fun! So many things for the kids to see and do. They would have stayed all day if we didn't need to get home for naps!

 Cros doing some ice fishing

 Carter "picked" me a bouquet of flowers

 Cooper enjoyed rock climbing

 We found the one quiet spot in the whole museum to rest and have a snack

 Carter and Cooper really got into making music videos. Wow do they like a stage! And being on camera!  

 Time for dress up!! 

 Ever since they got their faces painted here, Cooper has been trying to do it himself with markers...ahhhhhh

How fun! A sign just for them:) Cros was tuckered out at this point or I would have gotten him out of the stroller too. All in all, a very fun morning out with Mimi!

Weekend in Stillwater

Tim took a seminary class this past week in Minneapolis so we came down a little early to get time with the Sparks! There was a glimpse of spring/summer while we were there which was great!! 

 A little picnic snack

 Great Grandma Bev (Gigi) came over for dinner a couple of nights. 

The boys finally got to wear their Easter ties! We were sick that weekend and I've been waiting for the perfect time to break them out. Church with Mimi and Gramps seemed like a good time:) Nothing like showing off grandkids in ties!! 

 Mike and Sherah came over on Sunday to hang out. The boys love wrestling with Uncle Mike! Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of Sherah and their baby on the way!! The kids are so excited for another cousin to play with! 

Here is some footage from the wrestlemania. My favorite part is when Crosby realized the camera is on and says, "Cheeeeeeeese"! Thanks for having us Mimi and Gramps. I know we are a handful and make your heads spin!

Cooper is 3 Years + 3 Months!

It is hard to believe that we were so worried about Cooper's speech a couple of months ago. Wow has he found his voice!! He talks all the time and loves making up stories. It is so fun to listen to him talk with Carter. Just this morning as we were driving around and the two of them were talking about growing up and how they will meet wives and have children of their own. I'm so glad I got to overhear that one! Oh, they keep me amused and on my toes!

 Cooper loves books. He will get a pile of them out and flip through them one by one. Thankfully he also loves when we read to him!

When the Hawkeyes were playing in the NIT, Tim taught the boys how to do "3 goggles" in preparation for a big game.

I asked Cooper to get his pjs on the other night and he came out laughing with his pants on his head and shirt on his legs! He is a funny one!

A couple other memorable quotes and moments from the past month:

-At an Awana dinner a couple of weeks ago Carter and Cooper were talking with two girls, ages 9 and 6. Carter told the girls that he likes the Power Rangers and Cooper leaned over and whispered to Carter: "Carter, don't talk about Power Rangers with girls. They might get scared." What??? 

-We had to call a plumber a couple of weeks ago to work on our tub faucet. He got to the house right around nap time and I was getting Cooper ready for bed. He gave hugs to Carter and Kimmy (our roommate) and then walked in the bathroom, hopped up on the plumbers lap and gave him a hug! It totally caught the plumber off guard but he smiled. Cooper didn't think a thing of it. Just said, "Good night. See you later." So sweet:) 

-He will at times act really fussy and when I ask him why he just says, "I don't know. I'm just fussy today."

-Tim and I were getting ready to go out on a date to celebrate our anniversary. Cooper wasn't really happy about and stuck out his lower lip and said, "I hope you have a cold date." I guess he has heard us refer to our dates as "hot dates" a couple of times!

Meeting Levi

 We FINALLY got to meet Levi, Britta and Steven's baby, the other weekend! We had multiple trips planned over the first month of his life but we kept getting sick so when the time came we were so ready to see him!!

 Isn't he adorable??!!

 Crosby was the most intrigued...maybe because he was finally bigger than somebody!

 Cooper and Carter both wanted to hold and touch him...maybe in a year or two:) 

 Love! 

Cheese! Cros found one of Levi's toys. We will be living with the Skalmans this summer in Colorado so the boys will all have lots of time to bond!

Visitors!!

 We LOVE when people come to town to visit us! A couple of weeks ago Nana, Shannon and Sawyer made the trek to the Great North:) We went to the gymnastics center, the playland at the mall, and out for Cherry Berry. The boys always enjoy time with Sawyer and I loved lots of girl talk at night. Thanks for coming! Next time it will be with two cousins as Shannon is due any day now!

A Couple Videos...Lame Title, I Know

Here we have a little gymnastics with Kimmy. Notice that Carter has underwear on his head and socks on his hands. Just another day. My favorite is Cooper trying so hard to do a backwards somersault!

And here we have a random lunchtime. These boys just feed off of each other with their intensity and craziness. Sometimes it hits that point when it is out of control. By sometimes, I mean daily. It is a challenge. On this day, however, I just decided to film it before I regained control:)

Easter 2013

Tammy came over to dye Easter eggs with the boys earlier in the week. They loved it and I was so thankful because I most definitely couldn't have done that alone with Crosby on the loose!

I think it was Thursday or Friday of Easter weekend that our family started getting sick. Cooper and Crosby got it first with lots of throwing up and diarrhea. I have never done so much laundry and scrubbing floors in the my life. Ugh. Tim took lots of pics of the chaos but I will spare you. Here is Cooper just laying on the floor while Carter goes potty. Soooo sick.

We had planned to have a bunch of friends over for Easter dinner but we had to cancel:( The boys rallied at certain points during the day so the did enjoy opening gifts from the grandparents and doing an Easter egg hunt. They got lots of summer Superhero gear and Crosby got his new favorite animal book! I have read this book at least 100 times already!

The big boys got their first pair of boxers! They also got some swim gear. Will we ever be able to use it? That is the question:)

Not sure if Cooper is helping Crosby or stealing from him...

Crosby was able to find a couple...and the boys did great sharing at the end.

Their favorite part...mmmm...candy!!