Happy Thanksgiving...and other pictures from November!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Their first turkey day was pretty fun...we spent some time in the morning with my family and had our meal with Dean's family. They both ate everything we did and loved it! Here are some shots. This first one is her standing up with Spencer in the Jumperoo...not the sturdiest of places to try to stand, but she does it all the time!She was just crawling around on the floor the other night and was pulling up on the laundry basket and it looks like she is giving me the stink eye! Here she is standing up and proud of herself! She is quite the cutie when she wants to be!
He still isn't crawling yet...but he does a good job sitting there looking cute for me when I want to take a picture! :)We gave them some of our beets from the garden and they loved them!! Amazingly enough, I was able to get the stains out of both of their white shirts! Obviously I didn't really think that dinner choice through all the way!! It all worked out in the end! :)I made up some sweet potatoes for the kids to eat and Dean wanted to try them too so I gave him a bowl and he was swarmed with all three little ones in a matter of minutes! The other little boy is the little guy I babysit. They both did a great job of looking and smiling! A great shot!! :)She did a good job of smiling here too! Actually I think she does a good enough job of the smiling, but I am not always fast enough to get the shot at the right time!Here is my beautiful niece Megan and her oldest daughter, Amya with Aubrey on Thanksgiving day. Getting ready for their first taste of turkey and all the fixins! After dinner...they had a little bit of everything! Both were just as happy as can be!!

My sister Carla's Birthday Party

We surprised my sister Carla with a little party for her birthday on Thursday. Mom and Dad came up from Klamath Falls and we all got together for a wonderful dinner and cheesecake! It was nice to spend time with family. Here are some pictures from the day. This is my niece Amya with Aubrey.
Right when I took the picture he started to get fussy...then went into a total meltdown. I thought it was still cute with his party hat on.

After the fussing he was happy again...he did take his sister's pacifier and that may have been why he was happy again!

My sister Carla with Aubrey....two beautiful ladies! Spencer giving his Nana kisses. He kept leaning down toward her and kissed her over and over...it was sweet.
Aubrey and Nana talking about all kinds of important subjects!

Night with my nieces

We had a good day today with lots of playing and not that many meltdowns and some good time with my nieces Amya and Italy. Here are some pictures from today. Here is my beautiful little girl with wild hair and just a funny look on her face. She is a beautiful girl but she is going through an unfortunate picture stage lately. Still makes me laugh though! (She is wearing her shirt from Uncle Eric representing Texas!)
Here she is with her cute blue eyes open wide and a half smile. The hair is still wild, but that is more my fault than hers I guess! It is getting longer, but still too short to really do much with...I guess I will have to start playing with it and see what I can come up with.
Here is Spencer in his Texas shirt playing on the floor. He had a pretty good day today and is getting less and less fussy as each day goes by, so that is good. His sleep is getting better too, which I am so thankful for! My cutie giving me his famous look with eyebrows raised and head down just a little bit...too cute!Here is his smile. I tried to get him to sit up straight to get a good shot of his shirt, but he was too interested in playing with his buckle.Playing on the floor together. He just let go of a big handful of her hair and is still smiling from the grab. I ended up separating them by moving her to the other side of the circle.Miss Aubrey in the exersaucer kind of smiling at her Dad. She still goes in the toys, but prefers to be out and free.The girls playing with Spencer and Aubrey. Even though they live in Salem too, we really don't see them as often as I would like to with everything they are doing and school. When they asked if I could watch them, I said of course! They really are great girls and make me laugh!

Here is Amya with Aubrey. Amya is 7 and in the 2nd grade. She is just a great girl...unfortunately I didn't really get a good shot of her head on...maybe next time! The whole gang we had at the house tonight. It was fun to watch them all play!

Spencer with Amya. He loved just watching all the girls playing and moving everywhere.

This is Italy. She is 5 and in kindergarten. She is quite the character and makes me laugh! Just a joy to be around!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the Crossons! We didn't get dressed up this year because I just didn't know how Spencer would be feeling...so next year we will have cute costumes to show! Here are some pictures from the last couple nights of just us playing around.

We put the kids in the laundry basket and Dean pushed them around the living room. They loved it...Dean did too! :)

We got these jammies for Spencer's surgery so we wouldn't have to go over his head with anything and we both just think they are the cutest things ever! He looks like a little man in them...very cute!

He smiles too!

She is going through a non smile stage...kind of awkward but cute at the same time!

I got them new jackets with Bambi on hers and Nemo on his, but of course they wouldn't look at me! Dean did and I cut his head out of the shot...sorry honey!The extent of our Halloween dress up! Thank you Auntie Cathy for sending us the bibs!
Aubrey eating kiwi...not too sure what to think about it.Spencer was too interested in playing with his kiwi on his tray to look at me for the picture.

Update from Spencer's surgeon

Spencer is really doing a great job healing from his surgery. We saw his surgeon today and she said he looks wonderful and is looking exactly how they wanted him to. (I could have told her that he looked wonderful, but I guess she needed to see for herself.) She did say that we will have to come back in a few months to recheck everything, but we should see his forehead continue to round out over time. The swelling is almost gone and he is looking just like Spencer before the surgery with the exception of the incision. The only real issue we have now is his sleeping and his clinging to me. He is getting better about the clinging, but the sleeping is still a work in progress. He is waking up every couple hours, but it is getting easier to get him back to sleep. The first couple nights home were pretty rough, he would only sleep a few hours at a time and only if I was holding him...needless to say we didn't get a whole lot of sleep at first. Here is Spencer standing up with Dean's help...he still isn't crawling, but does like to stand if we let him! We have had the cushions off the couch to put behind Spencer when he is sitting on the floor so I put them around Aubrey on the couch and she sat in the hole and loved it...and to think we spent money on toys and all she needed was some pillows around her on the couch!

She is crawling around like crazy and is starting to pull herself up on her knees, but doesn't have the confidence to pull up to her feet yet.

Here is the little man...you can already hardly see the incision on his head with his hair over it. We were happy and surprised that they didn't shave it all off!

And our beautiful little girl...crawling to her Mama. Actually she was crawling to the camera I was holding, but I can pretend that it was me that was the draw!

Here she is getting ready for bedtime one night and peaked out of her crib rails like she was in jail...too cute and always makes me laugh!

And last but not least, Aubrey's bed-head. Her hair is getting so long on top and in front that when she wakes up it is usually sticking straight up.

Home again!!

We are finally home and doing pretty good. I finally got my pictures uploaded on the computer so here are some more of Spencer's progression. This one was taken on the first day on the regular floor. He was pretty swollen and still sedated, but it was so nice to hold him for the first time!This was taken on Sunday morning. Saturday night he opened his eyes a tiny little bit, just little slits. It was pretty cute, he had to move his head back to see out of them. When he woke up Sunday morning, they opened quite a bit more to this. The swelling is really coming down at this point, I can start to see Spencer in his face again.This was Sunday evening. He thought he was all better...moving around, pulling on every cord and tube he could find and talking to me like crazy! It was fun, except he kept getting bored! I sat him up in his bed and he played with his little bear that he came back from surgery with. This was later on Sunday evening and still in good spirits. He looks so good! And we finally get that smile that we all love so much! He has gone through so much and has kept his up happy attitude. I was really impressed with him and am amazed at how much he can go through...he is my hero! Now we are home and I have never been happier! He is still healing, but now we can do it from our own beds! Aubrey was glad to see him and I was thrilled beyond belief to see Aubrey! I missed her so much being gone for 4 days...but she was in great hands and got to have great time with her Nana and Grandpa Krueger, her Auntie Carla, Uncle Eric and her Grandma Cheryl and Auntie Julie. I don't think she was hurting for attention that is for sure. Now we are going to fall back into our routine as best we can. Thank you all for the prayers and support...we love you all for everything you did for us!!