Crosby is ONE

Our cute baby turned ONE a few weeks ago. What can I say about this unexpected joy that we have in our life?



Okay, first let me tell you about the day! We took the boys to a kangaroo farm and got to see a ton of awesome animals and have a lot of interactions with them. It was a really cool experience.



The big boys got most of the action that day since Crosby was in the carrier, but he did LOVE looking at the animals and got to touch a kangaroo and a mule.



After lunch and nap we took the kids to Build-A-Bear, which is a tradition for us on each first birthday. The kids all still have their animals from when they turned one. Crosby chose the "Thin Mint Bear" which was pretty ridiculous, but it was the only one he got excited about.





Then we had dinner and cake and called it a day! It was SO much fun celebrating as a family of 5.





Crosby is the funniest little guy. He's energetic and stubborn and determined. He scoots along with one hand a leg all day long, opening cabinets, pulling out toys and snacks and racing to get to splash in the dog water. He LOVES to be around his brothers and isn't intimidated by them in any way. He holds his own. He's pulling himself up more and more, but I do think he'll be our latest walker and predict he'll start around 16 months. He's our strongest communicator for this age. He says, "dada, mama, ni-ni (night night), ball, uh-oh, and whoa" he signs for "more" and "all done" but mostly just grunts and stares and points until we cave and give him more or clean him up :) Sadly, he is NOT a smuggler, but he does give the world's best kisses. He loves animals, including his stuffed animals. He showers them with more affection than any human. He's about 21 pounds now and is the tiniest of our children for his age. His heart has remained unchanged since birth which is great for us! We get to just keep waiting to do anything more about it, and for now, I'll take that!

I never pictured my life with three boys, and Crosby was nowhere in our plans, but I'm SO freaking happy that life doesn't usually go according to my plans. Crosby is a gift to our family and we all love him SO SO SO much!



Happiest of birthdays to you, my sweet boy.

Fall Happenings

It's technically still fall until Dec 20th, yes? Go with it. I know we're all trees and hot cocoa in blog land right now, but what can I say? I'm behind.

Here is what our fall looked like.











Max and Ben each picked a little pumpkin at a small trip to the local pumpkin patch, but I asked them to pick a pumpkin for Finnley and our adopted daughter, too. Max picked the tiniest one for Finn and that green one for P. It sort of blew me away that he chose one that looked so different from the others for our Chinese family member. Unique and special. It was his favorite pumpkin over all the others. Max and P will have a special bond, I think.




They hold hands a lot. It makes me happy.

I took the boys on a very cold nature walk. They really loved choosing items and loading them into a bag. We never even did anything with them, just collected things. That was enough.









And a trip to a big pumpkin patch about an hour away.











And near freezing kite flying.. this really is Colorado in the fall. 70s one day, 20s the next.









And then leaf piles on a beautiful day.





 It really was an awesome fall for us. Despite weeks and weeks of sickness for my family. Many days cooped up, frustration, rising tempers, no naps, etc... This is why I blog. So I can look back and remember amidst some really stressful times that life is, indeed, good. And not in a "look at everything we have!!" sort of way, either. It's pumpkin patches and green pumpkins chosen for family members we haven't met. It's leaf piles and kites and seeing the big smiles on the faces of my most precious boys.

Sigh. I needed this tonight.

Maxton's Rockin' Fourth Birthday Party

My Max turns 4 on Tuesday and guitars and music are amongst his favorite things in the whole universe. His ONE request for his birthday party was "lots of big purple guitars" So, naturally, we decided to have a rock star party decked in purple and with lots of big guitars. Here's a peek:
































This one cracks me up. My mom got him the keyboard and it came with headphones (yes!) and he is SO serious when he has them on. Playing music is clearly serious business.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our sweetest little guy.

P.S. It looks like nobody was at our party. It was actually quite a full house (almost 30 in our small townhome! We pretended it was a crowded backstage) but I don't know most of his classmates and their families well enough to post a bunch of pictures of them. So, that's that. Why I felt I had to explain that, I'm not sure. I guess because it looks like we just partied with just the 4 of us - haha! 

"Mini Carnival"

One hot day in June, we decided to make Max's every dream come true and take him to... the Mini Carnival.

You know those pack up and go touring carnivals that come around every so often? Ghetto, bad food, expensive rides? Yah, that's the one.

Max was in heaven.























He asks to go back to the Mini Carnival every. single. day.