Best Bed Head Ever!!!

And it stayed like this for a few hours!!!

Three Stooges

Gray copies everything his brothers do.  I try to remind the big boys of this all the time because they have already taught Gray how to do all sorts of things, like wrestle.

The other day they were trying to get Gray to show his belly ...

Here is what they were doing today ...

Little Helper

Gray LOVES to help empty the dishwasher.  As soon as he notices me doing it, he runs over to take each item out and either hand it to me or put it where it belongs in the kitchen.  It's a little scary how well he knows where some things go!!!

It's only a matter of time before something is broken!!!

2nd Snow Day

The boys had off from school again today.  But this time we got some real snow.  We got about 3" at our house but Nashville got closer to 8".  The rain took longer to change over to snow by us.

I took this picture a few hours before the snow stopped - we got about 1/2" more.

Everything was covered in pretty white snow :)

I bundled everyone up, including Grayson, and took them to the hill where we sled in our neighborhood.

Initially Gray was really curious about the snow.  But I put him down and after a step or two he fell over and put his face in the snow.  And he was done.  (It didn't help that the snow was blowing hard at us too.)

He mildly recovered as he watched the big boys sledding.

But then ... DONE!

Carter & Rylan:

Carter:

Rylan:

I took Gray down a few times on the sled.  I couldn't tell his reaction, but he didn't cry.  I got Rylan to film us (excuse the gloves!):

I'm pretty sure Rylan was trying to get stuck in the bushes ...

Other neighbors were sledding around the hill but you could barely see them because the snow was coming down so hard.

The boys went outside a few more times today but I only took Gray out the one time.  He's still recovering from the virus that required us to do breathing treatments over the weekend - staying out in the cold for too long didn't seem like the best idea!  Brian was able to take a break from working to take the big boys sledding one more time before it got dark.  They were worn out tonight!!!

It's not supposed to get above freezing tomorrow so I don't think the snow is going anywhere for at least another day!

Rewards

Rylan is one of those kids who responds much better to a reward system than having things taken away when he misbehaves or does something we don't like.

Rylan is still going to speech twice a week at Crockett Elementary.  He currently goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2:30 pm.  He goes to school each day from 9 am until 2 pm.  Rylan seems to work really hard at school and it's been tough for him to have a positive attitude about going to speech afterwards.  (Plus he's always overtired since he gets up usually around 5 am.)

Rylan's response to having to go to speech had been getting progressively worse before Christmas.  When I would pick him up, Rylan started crying and yelling that he doesn't want to go to speech.  It was very dramatic.  Half the time he'd fall asleep during all his tears and then I would have to literally drag him into the school (while also holding Grayson).  It was pretty awful.

So I decided to go back to what we've used before for sleeping until his clock turned green - a reward chart with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese's when he gets enough stickers.

After 5 good attitudes before speech, Rylan gets to go to Chuck E. Cheese's.  So far every speech day has been great since we started the chart!!!  Today Rylan earned his 5th sticker so we headed off to Chuck E. Cheese's after picking Carter up from school.  Sometimes Rylan can be the sweetest kid ... instead of going by himself he wanted to take Carter and split his tokens :)

Grayson loved Chuck E. Cheese's as well.  Oh my!

Carter's Report Card

Carter got his second quarter report card on Friday.  He's doing great!!!

Carter gets pulled once a week for advanced math.  I'm not sure what they are working on now but he also got pulled in kindergarten and learned the basics of multiplication then.

He switches back and forth on if his favorite subject is math or reading.  I'd guess reading right now since he's been staying up late the last few nights reading in his bed :)

1st Snow Day

The boys had off from school yesterday because of some winter weather.  We started the morning with a little freezing rain that progressed to a short period of heavy falling snow.  There was very little accumulation but that didn't stop Carter and Rylan from attempting to play in it!

Afterwards they cuddled up with Grayson while still wearing their new thermals.  They wore just these the rest of the day - I couldn't get them out of them :)

Carter started school an hour late today and we are predicted to get some real snow tomorrow.  School for both big boys is already cancelled.  It's not supposed to change over from rain to snow until mid-morning.  I'm sure we will be eagerly staring out the window all morning!!!

Blogging Slump

I have been really bad about blogging for the last 6 months or so.  It's not just because we have three kids now (one that seems to need constant attention and two that are involved in tons of activities).  Or that I over-commit and say yes to every volunteer opportunity to help at the kids' schools and with their teams.

It's because I've been making and selling a lot of crafts on Buy Sell Trade sites.  I'm not getting rich from making them, but I enjoy it and do make some extra money.  I usually have to wait until the boys are all in bed before I have time to work on anything (which is when I usually blog).

The best selling thing I make are these milk bottle floral holders.

I also do something similar with mason jars.

I make a lot of chalkboards and signs.

I love these chalk painted mason jars.

I made TONS of picture frames before Christmas.  They have been really popular.

I've done lots of custom orders as well.  At the beginning of December I even did a small show at an apartment complex.

I'm hoping to find a better balance this year and keep up with the blog better.  I've cut back a little on making so much and am also charging a little more for the things I make.  It's been fun though and nice to have something that doesn't involve the kiddos :)

Letterboxing - 1st Plant

The boys and I still enjoy finding letterboxes.  They are a great way for us to explore new parks and also something to do when we are a little bored with our normal routine.

I decided it was time we finally started contributing to the letterboxing community and plant some of our own.

First I needed to carve a stamp.  I'm not terribly creative so I decided we'd do a series that includes all the ACC teams.  First up, NC State, of course.

This was my first attempt at carving a stamp and it turned out pretty good!  Also included in a letterbox is a logbook for others to stamp with their personal stamp when they find the letterbox.

I also made us a new personal stamp.  I had been using a store bought stamp until now and we named ourselves "Pair of Monkeys", since when we started letterboxing, we just had Carter and Rylan.  Now we are "3 Little Birds".  I think our stamp turned out pretty good too!

Grayson is starting to feel better but still is no where near 100% and it was only in the 30s today.  So during this afternoon nap, Brian stayed home with him and watched football while I took Carter and Rylan to Smith Park to plant the letterbox.

The boys helped me record clues along the trail and helped me find a good spot to hide the letterbox.  We finally found a good spot near the end of the Red Trail (about 0.7 miles from the parking lot).

We filled the middle of this multi-trunked tree with rocks and set the letterbox on top of the rocks.  We also placed a rock on top of it to camouflage it. 

The boys are excited to see if anyone finds it!

I typed up the clue tonight and posted it on Atlas Quest.  Here's the link to our first letterbox!

http://www.atlasquest.com/boxes/clue/?boxId=264477

I've already done a few more carves and we hope to plant more soon!

Vandy Game

We took the boys to a Vanderbilt basketball game tonight.  We went back and forth on whether or not we should take Grayson since he's still sick but decided he'd enjoy being there more than just staying home.

I got tickets off Stubhub for about $40.  They were in the third level but you really can see fine up there.  We were in the 7th row too.  Plus, we had friends randomly sitting just a few rows behind us!  We got to catch up a little with Dana and Jason and our boys enjoyed hanging out with Silas for part of the game.

Grayson did okay.  He sat and watched the game or ate some snacks for a good portion of the first half.

Brian says I have a distorted memory, but I think he is our hardest with staying still.  I spent most of the second half walking him around.  I never did this with the other two.  He really enjoyed the stairs :)

 Dana found the boys these pompoms and they loved them!

Vandy played well and beat Alabama 71-63.