Crosby's 2 Year Photo Shoot

Our dear friend Kendra took some pictures of Crosby and our family the last time she came to visit. Isn't she talented?? Isn't Crosby adorable?? Thanks Kendra! The family pictures will be on our Christmas card so I'll make you wait to see those:)

Another Round of Favorite Books

As I've mentioned before, our boys love books and love going to the library. We usually go once a week and get around 15-20 books and wear them out. They can't get enough! A while ago I share some of our favorites and here are some more as of late. Many of these came as suggestions from friends after I posted about books late time!

The Pencil by Allan Ahlberg. Clever. We like clever!

A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen. We have enjoyed everything we've checked out by Van Dusen. Great stories and love the pictures. 

 Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett. So creative. We've checked it out a couple of times.

The Pout-Pout Fish by Diesen and Pete the Cat by Litwin. Catchy rhymes that the kids get into! 

Pirate Pete's Talk Like a Pirate by Kennedy. I overheard Tim reading it to the kids the first time and laughed out loud. Love it!

 I Stink by McMullan. Full of dirty diapers and other things that make boys laugh. Hard. And then talk about long after we are done.

The Mercy Watson series by DiCamillo. One of our first chapter books. The boys have asked me to get a new one almost each time we go to the library. You can read it in one sitting so it's one of "those" chapter books.

My Father's Dragon by Gannett. This was our first real chapter book. There are not many pictures and it tooks a couple of days to read but when we finished the boys couldn't wait to read the sequel. I was tempted to read it after they went to bed:) I held off though.

There you go. Any more suggestions for the Spark boys??

Leaves!

We love fall! If only it wasn't such a short season.

 In our old neighborhood there are so many leaves. Challenging for raking but fun for jumping. The boys were actually somewhat helpful this year with all the yard work. 

 This is Crosby's rake. Watch out.

In so many of our fall pictures the boys are in all out winter gear. Ugh, North Dakota.

 Sweet Cros!

Halloween 2013

The boys have been talking about Halloween for about 8 months now. Finally! And the weather was beautiful too.

 I wish I would have gotten pics of all the boys individually but only Crosby would pose for me:) 

 Before heading out...Carter is our 5 year old Spider Man, Cooper is our 3 year old Ninja Turtle (Rafael to be exact), and Cros is our 2 year old horse. This costume has made it through all 3 kids!

We just walked around the block for an hour or so. Cros did a pretty good job of keeping up with his brothers and wooing all the people we met.  

Our loot. Right away the boys combined all their candy and wanted to share it. I've been giving away as much as I can but we still have an insane amount. Sort of a bad idea for this sweet tooth mama!! After visiting neighbors we got in the van and went around to our staff team friends. They wanted to see the boys in their costumes and the boys liked showing off (and getting MORE candy:)). Fun night!

Cooper's October 2013 Update

 Cooper usually puts his hand up when I get the camera out or else this is what I get:)

 He is definitely the middle child. He bonds with both brothers. He built a lego mosaic with Carter the other day and loves helping Cros at the park. 

 Captain A-Batman-ica

 This past month Cooper has fallen in love with puzzles. He is getting quite good at them too. His focus and determination are quite intense!

Dressing up with his buddy Isaac. He almost chose to be Wolverine for Halloween but the Ninja Turtles have just become his favorite so he had to be Raphael.

Cooperisms from the past month:
-"Hey Carter, let's play David and Goliath. I'm small so I'll be David. And I'll win."
-Cooper: "Hey mom, did you toot?"
Me: "No hon, we just passed 1000 pigs."
-Me: "Cooper, where are you?"
Cooper: "Sitting in time out."
Me: "Really? What for?"
Cooper: "I don't remember. You sent me here a LONG time ago!"
-Cooper is really into wearing two shirts each day as well as two pairs of socks on each foot. This way he can represent even more super heroes. 
-He also dislocated his elbow this month. It happened on a Saturday night while we were in the Cities and we didn't bring him in until Monday morning. By then a bunch of swelling had happened so it was really hard for them to pop it back in place. Poor guy was in a ton of pain. They had him wear a sling but as often happens, once they popped it back in it didn't take long for the pain to go away!

Carter's October 2013 Update

 More art from the artist. This one was for a friend a school.

Carter loves to decorate. He came up with the idea of rainbows and rockets for Crosby's birthday party and he was also the most enthusiastic about decorating for fall/Halloween. Our house was looking quite crazy for a while there! I just have to roll with it:)

 Dressing up at a friend's house.

 Me: "Carter, smile!"

Carter: "I am!"

 Carterisms from this past month:
-To his brothers: "Hey guys, let's take our shirts off and jump off the couches as high as we can!"
-"Hey Cooper, come here. I'm going to take my shirt off so you can see where I got my shot today and how brave I am. And you can see my muscles too."
-"Let's play a game Cooper. Whoever gets hurt first looses and whoever doesn't get hurt wins."
-Carter: "Mom, Cooper loves swords. They are his favorite thing."
Me: "What is your favorite thing? Nunchucks?"
Carter: "No. Coloring and art."
-"Mom don't touch my butt. That is very inappropriate."

Crosby's October 2013 Update

 Mr. Expressive! 

 Wearing Daddy's old Boy scout uniform

 I love taking pics of the kids while they nap! So much easier when it's in the van.

 He might not be able to bike yet but Cros loves this little Flintstone scooter. 

 Nothing major but after his 2 year check up the doctor said we should give him a couple of nebulizer treatments. He thought it was cool to be just like Cooper. Also at his 2 year check up they told us he is 78% for weight and 85% for height.

Crosby fell in love with tools this past month. He carries them with him a lot and on this particular day he loaded up with all his gear before we went on a walk:) He'll often bring the saw and hammer to me and ask what he can fix!

Crosby-isms and favorite things:

Me: "What does a horse say?"

Cros: "Neigh"

Me: "What does a rooster say?"

Cros: "Cock-a-doodle-doo"

Me: "What does mom say?"

Cros: "Oink oink"

ouch

-Crosby's two favorite books from this past month are Goodnight Moon and Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

-He loves playing this game where he pretends that a toy dinosaur or stuffed animal bites him. Then he asks us to put the toy in time out. Over and over again:)

-He has heard his brothers saying "nah nah nah boo boo, you can't get me". So now Cros tries to play along but it always comes out "la la la booby, you can't get me!". Oh boy!

-His yes and no are very hard to distinguish between. No is "Nuh" and Yes is "Nah". We are trying to work on him saying Yes but is comes out as "ssssss"!

Cooper's September 2013 Update

 Cooper John, I just think of you and smile. It seems like you have grown up so much in the past month or two! You are independent and creative and spend much of the day role playing with your superheros. You saw a couple of Star Wars book at the library and that has become your latest passion. You talk about Yoda and Darth Vader all day long! You also love playing with the little lego people. You take them all apart and put them back together over and over.

You started Awana this year and seem to love it! You are in the same class with Carter so as we do the homework together I have to make sure Carter let's you answer some of the questions. Here are the two of you looking through your Awana workbooks together on the kitchen floor. It is so fun to watch you learn and memorize verses from the Bible!

 You have such a fun silly side and are the king of crazy faces!

One of my favorite things to watch lately is how you and Crosby are bonding. I needed to take a shower the other day and you said you would help by reading to Crosby. Somehow you kept him entertained the whole time! Although he gets into your superheros and legos you love helping him and reading to him. When I put Crosby to bed he usually requests that you sing to him. I love listening to you sing to him! Your favorite songs to sing are Jesus Loves Me or Jesus Paid It All. So sweet!

You have made quite a few friends this year and especially enjoy playing with Mason Muizelaar, and Isaac Dafoe. It doesn't seem to both you one bit to have Carter in school. You either get to be the oldest boy at home or we get to have fun playdates with your buddies!

Cooperisms from the past month:

I'm so bummed because I only can think of one but know there were so many more....

-Me: "Coops, what do you want to be for Halloween?"

Cooper: "A dubby dubs."

Me: "A what?"

Cooper: "A dubby dubs is a double super hero. Half good. Half bad. I want to be part Yoda and part Darth Vader. A dubby dubs."

...of course!

Crosby's September 2013 Update

Crosby baby, you make us laugh all day long! You are such a little jokester. I asked you what you wanted to breakfast the other day and you told me you wanted parade treats. I laughed and said, "no seriously!". You laughed and said, "Ok, chips! Hahaha!"

You know most of your animals and animals sounds but lately you've been answering incorrectly and then laughing because you know it is sooo funny!

You are also becoming quite independent and when we try to help you, you say, "No! Myself!"

 And here you are on the kitchen floor with oven mits on insisted to Carter that it is nap time:)

 You still LOVE bath time!

 And you love playing with your big brothers! Here you are tearing down a fort with Cooper. 

 You are the King of Swing. Serioulsy...you love swings! 

 Can't get enough of those cheeks and smile!

 Cool guys!

You saw me putting on eye liner the other day and when I turned around you looked at me and smiled and said "Me try it!"

New words and funny pronunciations:

You call and airplane and Hairplane

You call and elephant an Haphant

You call a ladybug and Lagabug

You call a butterfly a Bufly

You cal a shovel a Shobel

You love to reply with "I d' know". You kind of shrug your shoulder and tilt your head to the side when you say it!

You call Carter Cartsy and Cooper is always Coopy