We're Moving

We are moving next Saturday!

 

We are happy to formally announce that we signed a purchase agreement on a house back in November and we are set to close on the house in less than 2 days.

 

This is currently what my house looks like as we prepare to move. It's a mess, but I think we are almost ready for the big day. Since we close on Wednesday, we'll have a few days to prepare the house for the move and get some of our things over ahead of time.

 

If you have nothing to do on Saturday morning and you have a strong desire to move boxes, please feel free to come over and help :). Also, please pray that it does not snow for the move, because that would not be fun.

 

 

I can't wait to share pictures of the new (to us) house once we are settled.
We are SO excited.

Valentine's Day

My artistic Brady was hard at work this week making Valentine's cards for Mommy and Daddy.

All 3 boys also worked hard a couple weeks ago and made Valentine's for their friends, which we mailed this week. They are hoping to hear something or receive something in return.

I also wanted to be sure to mention that, back on January 18th, and wonderful thing happened.
Logan made the decision to ask Jesus to come into heart. He made this decision all by himself and prayed the prayer alone. He was quick to inform me of his decision in the morning, and we spent some time talking about what happened. What a joy it is to see my children walk with Jesus!

I'm Back

I hope you all enjoyed the wonderful and busy holiday season. I know we certainly did!
It was great to have Peter at home for 5 days at Christmas time and for another 4 during New Year's.

We celebrated Christmas 4 times and got to see all of our family. Then, we celebrated New Year's at home with just our family, some Papa Murphy's pizza and a crazy-awesome 2 hour dance party in the dark living room. Complete with flash lights, glow snowballs, and finger lights, of course :).

And, since it's been a few weeks, obviously I have some new pictures to share.

The boys and I spend our days off from school keeping busy. We cleaned the house and brought a whole van load over to Goodwill, we visited the MN Zoo, and also Edinborough indoor park.

Brady playing basketball at Edinborough Park

Homeschool Organization I finally found Marshall a bin to match Brady and Logan's!

Behavior Incentive

I started the Naughty and Nice bin idea almost 2 years ago. This has definitely been the longest that I have stuck to a behavior incentive program yet. I purchased the blue baskets (sold as a pack of 2) at the Dollar Tree and I also purchased the pack of plastic coins there. Since the coins only come in 2 colors, I just used a Sharpie to write B, L, and M on each of them.
This is how it works.
At the start of each week, each boy has 5 coins in the "Nice" basket. When someone chooses to disobey or act disrespectfully, I will give them a warning that they may lose a coin. If the behavior doesn't change, then one of their coins will move to the "Naughty" basket.
At the end of the week, which is usually Friday or Saturday night, we check to see who still has at least 1 coin in the "Nice" basket.
If you do, then you get to choose a reward from the list pictured. There are also more choices on the back side of this index card. We refer to this as our "cash in".
This system has worked very well for our family, because the boys are able to see very easily how they are doing each day.
We have even, at times, found ways to earn our coins back, by being extra nice or helpful.

This is my teacher spot at the kitchen island. Candle burning, hot coffee waiting, and math teacher guides and answer keys ready for correcting.

Logan was working on his new build a car set from Christmas.

All Done!

Marshall was playing with Cra Z Sand!

And Brady, was working on building his new bridge and train track set. It's coming along very nicely.
 

You may notice that my boys seem to be in their pajamas a lot in our pictures. Well, because of this awful and extremely cold weather we've been having, we did have 3 pajama days this week :).

1pm Friday, January 9. The boys are snuggled up by the fire, eating popcorn, and watching the Lego movie

The Story of Us

 Here is the Story of Us in picture form.

 

 

Brady and Logan made a Christmas countdown paper chain.

The chain was this long the day we made it. Today it's looking much shorter.

Sometimes our work space gets a bit crowded, and sometimes our stuffed animals come to the table too :).

With some new snow on the ground, the boys tried out their snow crayons. Or course our snow is long gone now.

They wrote their names. Logan's is upside down, since he was standing the other way.

Then all of the boys came down with the flu. This was the "sick spot" on the couch.

Sometimes, on really cold days, Brady and Logan do Language Arts by the fireplace.

 

On Saturday, we decided to celebrate Christmas with our family early.

The boys were excited and surprised.

 

Random Thoughts

My life is SO fun!
My days are spent hanging out with my favorite people. We learn, we cook, we watch movies, we sled, we play board games at the library, we take baths in the middle of the afternoon--it's just awesome!

I haven't blogged in awhile, even though I really do like to share, so that's why I'm here tonight.

Choosing to homeschool was the best decision we have made for our family in a long time. My boys are so happy at home, they are doing fantastic with their school work, and they are closer to each other now than they have ever been. I have found a few places to turn for the homeschool support that I need, and Brady and Logan have found time to spend with their friends, like they need. Honestly, though, they have all 3 become so close with each other, that they really aren't lacking many friends.

After returning home from Florida last month, we celebrated Halloween with our typical Halloween walk and trick or treating in our own neighborhood. Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Laura, and Uncle Jason all came down this year to join us.

Here are my skeleton, my robot, and my dinosaur all bundled up for the cold night.

We spent the next several weeks house hunting, furniture hunting, and checking out the kids play area at IKEA for the first time.

I have been working a lot. Actually, I have only had about 4 weekends completely off since September. The reason was because we are a little short of staff at work right now, and we are still learning our new ipad system for documentation. I really prefer just using a pen and some paper, but after lots of practice, I think the ipad should be good.

While most of the metro was getting dumped on with snow a couple weeks ago, we were not. Down at our house, we only saw about 2 inches. That didn't stop the boys, though. They have been out sledding on our hill and making snow brick houses almost everyday. As of yesterday, however, the snow in our yard was completely melted! But then, this morning, some new snow appeared again. It's never boring around here, that's for sure.

The boys are also keeping busy these days preparing for the Christmas program at our church. All 3 boys will be a part of the Christmas choir, and Brady even gets a special solo part, as he plays the part of a shepherd. The program is called  A Rockin' Royal Christmas and it will take place on Sunday, December 14 at 10am and again at 6:30pm. I have to work that day, so I am so grateful for the double performance!

We've put our creative side to the test a few times to make Halloween masks and Thanksgiving turkeys.

The boys have been climbing trees and baking cookies...

They have helped decorate for Christmas already as well as rode the light rail downtown to see the Christmas show.

But my favorite part of the day is watching them learn in the comfort of our own home--especially when they wear interesting hats :). Have I also mentioned that Marshall has actually started to read!?! His desire to sit at the table for busywork is lacking, but his desire to read is strong, which is so awesome!

Sometimes Logan chooses to write his spelling words on the marker board, near the Christmas tree.

Today, Brady wore his Santa hat while doing his Reading assignment.

Logan wore his stocking cap :)

And Marshall wore his "helmet", his "boots", and his "gloves" as armor. He also carried his "sword".

Brady and Logan will both be playing basketball this winter, starting next week. Brady plays on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings, and Logan plays on Saturdays too. It's been wonderful having a break from sports, but I think we're all ready to jump back in now.

Maybe I'll have a chance to come back to the blog before the holidays, but if not--Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

We Went Back to Florida

Yes, for the third year in a row, we took the whole family back to Florida, our most favorite state.

Although being in the car for so long is not ideal, I really do enjoy the drive down and back. This year, we headed out through WI, IL, KY, and into Nashville, TN, where we stayed out first night. We continued on into GA and FL from there.
On the way home, we changed things up a bit and came home through Tallahassee, FL, into AL, MS, AR, and MO, where we stopped for the night. Then we headed into IA and back home again.
It was fun to hit 12 states in one trip!

As usual, we enjoyed lots of sunshine, swimming pools, the ocean, and mini golf.

Here are some of my favorite pictures.

Surprisingly, we have some different plans for next year. We haven't made any permanent plans just yet, but likely we'll be going someplace new!
I LOVE family vacations!!
I am so glad that the boys are old enough to travel well, and I can't imagine taking a trip without them.