Preface: I goofed and uploaded all the pictures on this post with a right justification (instead of centered) so the captions got all goofy. Most of them are UNDER the pictures instead of on top. boooo, but I'm not doing it again! :)

I got to say the coolest sentence to Logan this morning: "honey....go put on your PJs for school!" It was pajama day at preschool and Logan was SOOOO excited to go!! He dressed himself without fuss (major accomplishment), got his socks and shoes, grabbed his coat and loaded up his backpack with Checkers (his stuffed cat) and his "basement shoes" (slippers). The teacher said he was perfect today (phew!) and he said he had a great time!!

Oh...side note, I was talking to Logan about Checkers today and he said he would like to get his cat a collar for his birthday (the cat's birthday....which we decided was the same as Logan's). In the movie The Lady and the Tramp, a collar on a dog means that they are owned and loved. Logan said he wants everyone to know who owns Checkers. I'm concocting something about a collar with a tag made out of a shrinky dink (<-- see Karen, I'm determined to find a way to use those things!) haha. Second side note, Logan is sitting on the couch right now while his brothers are still napping watching YouTube videos of transformers (don't get me started on this daily request...more like daily demand!) He looked up and asked "mommy...what are you doing?" I said "writing about you and your pajama day on my blog". He said "oh....ok" like "well then....if it's about me, then I'm cool with it!"

Here is Logan getting ready to go to school in his favorite "rocket ship" PJs!

Naked Baby Eating: While Logan was getting ready, Brady, the world's slowest eater, was still finishing his oatmeal bar. I refuse to dress this kid until after breakfast. He won't wear a bib and he's so messy!! He WAS wearing pants...just no shirt :)
It's hard to see, but he's got his food all over himself...on his arm, his face, his tummy. He did smell nice and cinnamon-y all day!






Per usual, after I used my camera, Logan took a couple shots himself. Here is another self portrait (at least he's doing this after I got his coat on and he's fully ready to go)



Here is a shot of brother Aiden...playing with a giant shovel and a pumpkin pail (people wonder why I can never give them specific ideas on birthday and Christmas gifts for this child!)



I think this is, by far, the coolest shot Logan has ever done! This is the inside of the pumpkin which conceals 4 small lollipops that were no doubt swiped from the pantry unbeknownst to mommy!!


Look Nana: the Handy Manny truck arrived yesterday! ALL the boys love it! In fact, poor Brady has to sneak away and play with it. He WAS actually using the screw driver inside the truck, but as soon as he saw me, he stopped and looked up.



Here are Logan and Aiden playing with the truck while I was making lunch. Aiden is wearing a different shirt now because he had an encounter with the water fountain after gym class (he got more of it on him than in him)

I dragged the boys to the gym WAY early this morning (we were there by 8) against their will so I promised they could do something fun when we got home...paint the snow. Auntie Denna read about this in a parenting magazine and then I saw a similar article in my Wondertime Mag (best, most fun, creative and thoughtful parenting magazine out there in my opinion!!!) After a couple snafus including 3 water bottles that wouldn't squirt, I finally tracked down a couple good ones, loaded 'em up with colored water, bundled the older boys and sent them on their way. I thought this would be a great way to get a quick break...spend some time with Bray...maybe unload the dishwasher. At first, my plan didn't work at all. Logan and Aiden kept knocking on the glass door needing stuff every couple minutes. Brady just stood by the door crying and crying....trying to get out. Logan had to go potty! <-- which meant that I had to take off his coat, hat, boots, gloves, pull down his bibs and help him get it all back on after he was done. Finally though, everyone was happy.... The big boys ready to go paint the snow! Brady was SOOOO not happy that he couldn't go too. Poor little guy! Next year sweetie! I promise!

He found one of the broken bottles and attempted to reach the door handle....

Look at his little clenched fist. Like he's saying "curses! you tall door handle!"

Look how deep our snow is! The boys could hardly walk in it at first (which was the main reason they kept knocking). Finally they trudged out. That's the best thing about full body snow suits....they are totally water proof so I don't worry that they are getting soaking wet.

A little of the color. Aiden chose blue and Logan chose green...shocking, right?!

Aiden painting

Logan painting...

At this point, Logan had opened the door for Brady to peek out. He was shivering and freezing cold, but just kept watching his big brothers.

I asked Logan to come over and paint some snow for Bray to see.

And after that, I decided to go to the emergency plan - Baby Einstein! Brady watches little to no TV right now, but this was the only way to keep him from crying at the door. After some video viewing, he had a snack in the kitchen with me. The older boys stayed outside for almost 45 minutes and then I called them in for soup and cheese toast....and naps (well...not Logan, but the little guys slept for a nice, long time)!!! Oh, and one quick note on Brady and his chair. I can now say to him "Bray...go to the bear chair!" and he toddles over to his little red chair and climbs in. It's hysterical and adorable!

It's getting to the point where I can't remember what I've actually written about and what I've just thought about writing. If this is repeat info, just skip ahead!


We have a daily rewards system (based more on getting fun stuff at the end of the day and less on punishments...which don't seem to work that well for my kiddos). Each boy has a card on the fridge with 5 stars on it (attached with small pieces of velcro). If they do something against the house rules....which are also posted on the fridge, they lose a star. I have a little "star parking area" on the fridge too. You have to have 4 of 5 stars by the end of the day to get a reward. If you have 5, you get two rewards. Typical rewards are: a small piece of candy, color bath, 10 extra minutes of TV, pick a game that we play before bed etc. You can earn stars back by doing extra great things or by helping mommy above and beyond your daily chores. I try to call out really nice behavior by giving stars back at random times and I make sure to give them ample opportunities to earn enough stars for a reward.....until today.


Today was a learning experience and someone was forced to, not only lose most of his stars....for the 3rd day in a row, but was also SHOWN that his brother got rewards and he did not. My theory on this callous parental behavior? You don't know what you've got until it's gone. Aiden is hardly phased the past week when I threaten to take his stars away. He has also been on a renewed reign of terror due to some pretty bad napping last week (see post on how he escaped from his crib....which incidentally, has a new tent on it as of last Wednesday!)


So what was the bad thing he did today? He broke the downstairs potty. He had just peed in it (yeah Aiden...starting the potty training....sort of) when he decided to flush it and then play with the lid. Brian had wandered out after helping him finish up when he turned around and all I heard was "Aiden...NO!!!" Aiden was sliding the lid off of the top. Brian didn't make it back into the bathroom in time and the lid crashed to the ground. Somehow the wood floor, Aiden and the lid were fine....but it must have hit the tank because it started leaking and dripping immediately and had a big 'ol crack in it. The whole thing had to be replaced. Emergency run to Home Depot, a call to his dad and 4 hours later, we had a new potty. Oh Aiden.......

Daddy taking out the old potty


There it is in the mud room waiting to be hauled out to the curb.

The shiny new model. It's actually quite nice...for a toilet...I like the fancier square back on it.

Here are the star "holders". I used my cricut to cut out the shapes and the stars. Logan chose a "car" (it's a bus....the closest thing I had) and Aiden chose an ice cream cone. There really should be zero stars on Aiden's, but I gave up near the end of the day and didn't make a production of removing them...since he didn't care. He sure got upset when Logan had a little pack of gummy life savers after dinner. Message received?? Maybe....hopefully! :) Notice that there is a flower with little hearts on it. That's my daily "chart". I figure fair is fair! Sometimes mommies yell when they should be calm!

Couple more things just for you Nana (and Papa!)
The boys opened their Valentine's Day package from Nana and Papa early. Nana said it was OK and I really needed a distraction for them Saturday morning! Brady's present is on the way, but he had fun helping. I took a few videos because they were SO excited. First: some pictures

Look at these angels! They were running around like KA-RAZY when I said I would let them open their Valentine's box (which they begged and begged to open the previous day when it arrived). I said "go sit in the middle of the living room and fold your hands in your lap". If only I had a magic box EVERY day!! :)

Before I get into the "main topic" of this post, I wanted to share my patriotic breakfast treat. Tuesday morning, on the day of the inauguration, I made the boys some red, white and blue waffles for breakfast. Delicious, nutritious....and best of all....pretty!!

Thursday night, we had some time to kill after dinner. Since we usually go to the gym and then rush home for dinner, we don't often have a good amount of play time before baths and bed. Logan now has a Mighty Mites class Thursday evenings so we were home and fed before 5:30 (thank you left-overs!) I pulled out "the dice game" which we haven't played in a quite a while. It was a blast!

The game consists of a big, fluffy dice that has a different color on each side plus a stack of color-coordinated cards. First you roll the dice and then pick a card that corresponds to the color on top. The cards have things like "clap your hands", "sing a song", "put on a hat", "blow bubbles", "ring the doorbell". I've seen my friend Kelly play this game at her house and she sat on the couch while a bunch of kids ran around doing all these different things. Well....our game was sort of a moving event. It started in the living room, moved down to the front door (when we played hide and seek and when we had to ring the doorbell) and then migrated to the dining room/kitchen because....what's the fun of "rolling" the dice when you can THROW or kick it?! I mean really!!

I have to say that I did my very best to help them "perform" each card. I actually blew some bubbles in the living room when we got the "blow bubbles" card...just a few....and then maybe a few more because Brady didn't seem to have his fair share ;)

Speaking of Bear, here is the little guy wandering around while his brothers did most of the game activities. We tried to include him when we could, but he had more interest in wandering off and finding other things to do....like ride his horse!
I wasn't actually taking any pictures of our game until we got this card and I cracked up at the things the boys chose to bring over. The card says "find something green"

Aiden brought over one of his geckos. I bought a pack of them at the grocery store last week because he came along to be my helper and I really needed him to stay in the cart. He loves them! We made them a little "home" (a plastic food storage container) and he carries them around with him.

Logan brought over his chair! The boys are wearing hats because we already had the "put on a hat card"

Here is the "hide and seek card". We did about 3 rounds. This is always a fun game because the boys can never stay quiet while they hide....you just follow the sound of the giggling (or wait a couple seconds because they never stay hidden for very long!)

Even Brady knew where they were hiding!! Here is a little video (look how fancy I am...I finally figured out how to do an embedded video!! so fancy!):


Here is one of the red cards....">As is protocol in our house, the boys ran into the kitchen to get some "fruit phones". The pick of the day? Bananas....not oranges. I won't link to it AGAIN, but usually the bananas are rocket ships and the oranges are the phones. I think Logan is giving directions to his banana-phone caller. "Take a left at the gas station..."

Totally unrelated, but Brian and I were watching this video last night and CRACKING up. I guess I never showed it to him before. It's from when Bray was just an army crawler (8/29/08 - almost 9 months old)

So happy together and not taking naps! Aiden said after this picture "mommy...I sorry I jump out my crib!" Sorry enough not to do it again? I don't think so!!

This is what the crib tent is supposed to look like. There are two poles that stretch and bend over the top to keep it up.

This is Aiden's crib tent. One pole is gone and the other one is inverted INTO the crib now. Too funny. I wonder if he'll EVER get a big boy bed! hahaha.