***Breaking News-This just in***

On this, the 10th day of February, we in the Cessna house experienced a monumental occurrence. This day will be forever be celebrated as the day that Griffin pooped in the potty! It will be soon forgotten that before "finishing up" in the potty, Griffin took off his own pull-up and pooped on his bedroom floor. And only when mommy caught him, did he go on the potty. Once on the potty he cried and despite his wails, he was surprised and happy when he "pooped some out."

Mommy, Aiden and Maverick were equally as happy and did the celebratory dance and looked at it in there. All things that are very important when one has their first poop on the potty. Nanny was called to share the good news and Daddy has been told via instant messenger. Needless to say, all are happy and proud. Griffin declared "Pooping on the potty isn't hard at all."

PS- Chances are we will not forget that he pooped on the floor before he went to the potty...especially since I just posted it to cyberspace and fully intend to write it in my journal later today.

PPS- We are equally grateful that Maverick did not step in it when he went in the bedroom to lay down for rest time...by my estimations he was within inches of hitting a very unpleasant land mine.

School Today!

This could also be title "I love bookadventure.org"

My boys are all boy and are not avid readers. They are good readers but they would just rather be running around, or playing legos or cars, or anything that involves a possible trip to the ER and is loud enough to give me a serious headache.

Enter www.bookadventure.org

It is a lot like I imagine AR at public school is (but I don't know this since my kids have never done it and I am too old to have used it myself). They read a book and then take a quiz. Since they have never really taken any tests, they think the quizzes are great! AND THEY ARE ASKING TO READ!! I don't pretend that it will make this easy forever...but it is a way to encourage them without me nagging. It will also give them some direction when picking out books at the library instead of yanking books off of shelves willy nilly. Plus they can win prizes!

This is them reading, voluntarily, today. It makes me so happy!

Aiden curls up like his mama to read! This is actually one of my favorite winter reading spots...right next to the wood stove.

"Play ball, Amelia Bedelia" is a great book. Gonna find some more Amelia Bedelia at the library!

Maverick likes to sit on the floor. I think it is easier for him to point and keep track of where he is. It makes my back hurt to look at this picture too long. :)

Griffin is drawing a monster on the dry erase board. I read aloud to him later....it distracts the big boys when I read to him and then I am more easily available if they need help on a word.

Of course, now that school is finished for the day and they are crashing cars and yelling...that is more like what I am accustomed to! :) But I'm hoping Aiden and Maverick will take to reading another book in the afternoons when Griffin is napping...they need to find something quiet to do during that time.

Circuit Training aka PE

Today the boys got out the workout stuff Aunt Heather got them for their birthday and we set up a circuit.

Medicine Ball-cardio-stretchy band thing- cardio - 2 lb weights - cardio

We turned on some Toby Mac really loud and they did each station 1 time for 1 minute. They loved it!!

Here are some photos

The medicine ball was too much for Griffin...he just did "crunches"

Aiden doing some work with the weights.

Aiden on cardio- Maverick on weights

Maverick working with the Medicine ball.

Maverick doing some cardio dancing and Aiden on the stretchy band thing.

We may have to add this to our morning before we start school...until the weather gets nice. I'm gonna have to figure out what else one can do with this particular equipment. :) And maybe I should join in. :) And maybe next time we'll get dressed first...

Feb 7

Wow! I can't believe I haven't posted in 3 weeks. Things are chugging right along here. We have had some horrible storms and were without power for a while...but we got ours back way faster than many. We spent a lot of time taking photos of birds and of the ice and snow.

Now we are back in the swing of things.

Today has not been a good one. We had a very very busy weekend full of sledding and the Super Bowl...no naps were had by anyone and there were too many late nights. This morning Griffin was up at 5:30. Then no one took a nap again today. I have been ready to pull out my hair. Then I realized that we had bagels with dye in them today...bad bad bad. Although I'm still ready to pull my hair out I at least know what the biggest factors are and can make sure it doesn't happen again tomorrow.

Gonna do better posting.