Tiny and Tuff

Ok...so this photo is from after Christmas

but

watching Sam this morning reminded me how quickly our little ones grow up!

Sam is all boy...he loves guns, star wars figures, trucks and balls!

If you could be a fly on the wall in our house you would hear him saying:

"touchdown", "soccer ball", "hut-hut", "bad guy", "good guy", "i wanna shoot", "cock"(to cock the nerf gun),

"woda" (yoda),"naked buns",  "i wanna dude", "i hungry" or "i wanna snack"(most frequent phrases)!!

He is so sweet and so precious but such a little mess. Everything is funny too him and it is so hard for me not to laugh out loud at him...not to mention not laughing when he gets in trouble.  God has certainly given him a joyful heart.  I love watching how much he loves life and I hope that some of his joyful heart will slow rub off on me and help me see the joy in things first:)

President's Day

   

In honor of President's Day, we did a little reading and a little crafting!  I have to be honest, History was never my favorite subject but I maybe it will be Tanner or Sams!

To start we read this book:
  
and I told the story about this
.

We briefly talked about each President, when they were born, where they lived and something significant they did or are doing(Obama).  Then I used this opportunity to talk about HONESTY, since we had just discussed "Honest Abe" and George Washington telling the truth about the cherry tree.

We have this book, so we read the page being "truthful". We talked about what it means to be honest, what a lie is and what God says about lying.  Then we when read Proverbs 4:24 from the Bible..."Don't use your mouth to tell lies. Don't ever say things that are not true."  I also think it is really important when talking about character traits with your kiddos to remind them that we(me included) are not perfect because we are sinful BUT that God loves us so very much that he always forgives us!


Then for the fun part...





We built a log cabin like the one Abe Lincoln lived in.  We talked about things we would do without electricity...this was really funny because it took awhile to think of somethings that would be fun without electricity.  Sam made an abstract log cabin on construction paper...he licked a little glue too!!!

Loving this moment...

Is this not precious? My sweet boys love each other so much they are willing to squeeze into a twin bed to sleep together. I am so glad I captured this sweet moment because my attitude at the time was not so sweet...

The boys started sharing a room a few months ago. It has been lots of fun for everyone AT FIRST! When we first put them together it was so sweet...they would talk and laugh but everyone stayed put...of course Sam was still in his crib. Sam transitioned out of his crib before Christmas(i think) and that is when the trouble started!!!! Both boys started getting out of there beds...WHAT...I found myself saying things like "I am off mommy duty and I am spending time with daddy". After a long road of trial and error and pure irritation...we started to use the SUPERNANNY method...and my word it worked! WE CAN DO THIS...Walk them back to the room, no words or eye contact (hard for me not to give kisses and Chris likes to tell them not to get out again) and put them back in bed. Tanner spent the first few days grumping..."my mommy is ignoring me..humpf" and Sam thought it was a game he said "weeee" when we put him in bed (so hard not to laugh) ! Our lives are now back to normal...well our version of NORMAL!

My mom bought them booklights so now the bedtime routine looks like this:

baths

games with mom and dad or a walk on the greenline...kiddos choice

potty and brush teeth and choose books for book baskets

mom and dad read books, Bible story and say prayers...anything needed must be gotten by this time...water, blankies, stuffed friends, etc.

booklights on and books can only be choosen from the basket...Tanner LOVES books and he was getting out of bed to look for certain books

Seeing Pink and Red...Tanner

Tanner begs me to set up his "school work" at home...luckily I had already hit up Target and The Dollar Tree for supplies because all of this SNOW has us feeling very trapped and I am SOOO very excited that I have something for the boys to do. I keep his "school work" on the bottom shelf of the "school"/"art" closet and he just gets things out as he wants to. 
The top left picture is Tanner working on his school VALENTINE'S...he planned them himself and let me know what supplies he would need:
something "valentiney"(i went with doilies), squeeze glue and a glue stick, my scissors(i said no), Knock Knock jokes (found them here and printed  http://www.box.net/shared/r91vk44sdm ), race car stickers and space sticker
I love what he came up with...cutting, gluing and building is his kind of art!

Seeing Pink and Red...V-Day Work

I just finished reading this book How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way, by Tim Seldin
and this book Montessori Play and Learn: A Parent's Guide to Purposeful Play for Ages Two to Six, by Lesley Britton both were recommended by this blog http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/2010/04/all-things-montessori.html , which I LOVE! I am just learning about this style of teaching but their are some really great ideas for daily tasks as well as play.  I think we will slowly incorporate more!
Sam has become just as interested in "work" activities as Tanner so I am trying to put 6-7 items out on the shelf for him each month as well as Tanner. This month included:

1. Spooning beads into an ice tray
2. Coloring with pink, red, purple crayons
3. blocks
4. Red magnetos
5. Playdoh
6 & 7. Clothspins
8. Counters into container
9. matching Red and Pink

Please Mr. Postman

Please Mister Postman, look and see
If there's a letter in your bag for me...
In light of Tanner's Valentine's Party being canceled at school tomorrow,
we decided to take matters into our our hands and just mail our friends some letters!


Selling Stamps

Mailing our letters

Tanner writing his letters.

Sam writing his letters.

My little helpers...

Both of the boys love helping around the house but they are always getting into my stuff!
I decided to make them each their own cleaning baskets...it was a HUGE HIT!
I put:
a broom/dust pan,
sponges,
dust mit,
dish scrubber,
papertowels
and
a spray bottle
in the cleaning kits.

Who knew
...cleaning the house could entertain the boys for an hour
...I'm thinking they can clean while I drink my coffee and do my devotion every morning!!!