chore chart solution

I posted last week about looking for the best chore system for the boys. After look into many ideas, and considering what would work best for our family, I decided on a simple check-off system. Although so many were very tempting to try to implement, I felt that with them being 3 and 4.5, we would start with simple. Here's what I came up with....

I haven't had then laminated yet, so they aren't hanging. Therefore I have no photos so you can at least see the digital version. Just a simple 8.5x11 designed in photoshop. The boys are really into Super Heros right now, and even call themselves Super Helpers when they are helping out. So it took no time to come up with a theme for the header. I chose to include images since the boys can't read yet. I'll explain what all the pictures mean and knowing them, I'll think they'll get the hang of it real quick. We'll laminate, hang on the fridge, and have the boys check off as they complete tasks. Tasks included are being kind to each other (one that we are working on daily), cleaning their room, cleaning their toys from the living room, Mom's Choice (I get to choose a job for them), Being Kind to Brooks, Brushing Teeth at night, and then the Super Help Bonus. This is my fave. This is where I will give them a check for doing something to help out with out being asked. Just out of their desire to help out. They do this a lot..usually more than if we tell them to do something. I'm excited to get these up next week and let the boys start using them. We've been talking about their new chore charts and they seem excited. We'll see if the enthusiasm remains...

I've also created some blank and generic charts if any of you have any super helpers of your own. They don't include a name at the top. One includes the images and the other is completely blank for you to fill in your own tasks.

 To download the files, just right click. They should save at full size. If not, let me know and I can send them to you. I'm sure there's a fancy way to offer downloadable files, but I haven't had time to research it. (If anyone knows, feel free to let me know!)

We are preparing for a super helper's big birthday this weekend so we're putting the chore charts off until next week. But I can't wait to get them started!!

Brody's 4th Birthday!!

This post is somewhat overdue..but we didn't get to have his birthday party until this past weekend so..it worked out.

Brody Boy turned 4 on January 19th. He has been waiting to be 4 for a long time. For months he's been saying "When I turn four, I'll be able to do _______." (insert anything that "big" boys can do.) Now that he's old enough to understand birthdays, he was really excited to turn four years old.

Four years old..I can hardly believe it. I mean, he's a year and a half away from starting kindergarten. As fast as time flies around here, that will be in NO TIME at all. I can still remember many moments from the day he was born. It doesn't seem that long ago. Yet our lives look 180 degrees different than they did four years ago.

Brody boy, you are so special. You are so smart..smarter than we'd like you to be sometimes. You still have an infectious laugh and a funny personality. You love making us laugh and sometimes know how to use that to try to avoid punishment. You are an amazing big brother. Although you fight a lot with Carson, you would do anything to protect him from others and make sure he's taken care of. Baby Brooks thinks you are one of his parents most of the time. You love to cuddle, kiss, bring him a blanket, tickle, and even help clean him at times. Your "baby talk" to him is quite hilarious...and Baby Brooks thinks so too. You are still quite stubborn at times. When you get your mind set on something, it takes a lot to get you back on track sometimes, yet other times you are quick to do as you're told. We all have areas we need to work on :) You are beginning to understand more about God and his Son, Jesus. You can memorize scripture better than most adults. Now we are just trying to teach you how to apply that to your life. I think this might be our biggest struggle as parents...not only teaching you the word, but teaching you how to apply it and understand it in your heart. So thank you for being patient with us. We love you Brody Boy!

Brody's birthday party was this past Saturday. Brody has many friends now so this year we decided he was old enough for us to have a big boy friend party. He's been saying since July that he wanted a Mario Kart party. I honestly didn't think he'd stick to that, but he proved me wrong. He talked about this party constantly, and as each month passed, he got even more excited and specific about it. I asked him if he wanted a Super Mario Brothers party in general, or if he really wanted a Mario Kart racing party. He was very particular and requested it to be Mario Kart Racing. So..I scoured Pinterest and of course my favorite party ideas blog and put together a simple, but cute party for him.

Does the backdrop make you dizzy?

This AMAZING cake was made by Leigh-Leigh aka Leigh Ann. He (and mommy) LOVED it! Thanks Leigh-Leigh for all your hard work! 

The track was made out of crushed Oreos. Mario and Luigi were from Target. The star, rocket, and turtle are from a Mario Kart Kinects Race Track. The finish line sign was from the race track as well, and attached to straws.

More shots of the cake just because I loved it so much!

The plasticware caddies were cardboard boxes covered in black wrapping paper. I found the stars online and just printed them off.

This was the least successful project. In theory these were very cute..however, I don't think they turned out very great. But, the kids loved them so I guess that's all that matters.

For the table centerpiece, I printed off these question mark squares and attached them to a square box I had. 

Coming out of the box were balloons with images of the different
prizes you can get in Mario Kart when you run over a " ? box ".

A few of the boys really getting into it.

Brody and his good buddy, Scott. I wish I could have captured the moment that Brody saw Scott come in. It was priceless. Thank you Scott for loving our boy so much!

The birthday boy and his cake

Looks like its getting pretty intense!

Leigh-Leigh and Uncle Brent gave Brody a Mario costume for Christmas. So to finish it off, they added the Luigi for his birthday. Unfortunately, he didn't stay in it long enough for me to snag a photo, but Carson had no problem modeling it for us. Such a cutie. I can't wait to get a shot of both of them in the costumes. Carson actually makes a better Mario..have you seen the belly on that kid?

Thank you everyone who came to celebrate. Brody said it was the best party ever! Brode-Man...we are so glad you loved it. Love you bubba!!

Brody's Walk

There's a good chance that everyone that reads this blog knows about our Brody's Walk project. But just in case, I wanted to do a quick rundown on here and post the links. 

After our MDA appointment, we began praying about..well, a lot of things. Praying more fervently for Brody, praying for our family, praying for wisdom, etc. Lots of praying. After a few days, we had many ideas about different ways to spread the word about CMT in general, share Brody's story, and raise money for his medical expenses. Thus, Brody's Walk was born.

We started a blog, brodyswalk.blogspot.com, to have a place to share things specific to Brody and his journey with CMT, and at times, just CMT in general.  There are pages that share about Brody's story, what CMT actually is, ways to help, and more. We hope this will create an avenue for us to reach other families, specifically those with children who are fighting this disorder. We would love for this to bring us in contact with families who need Jesus and that we would be able to share His love with them, encourage them and hopefully lead them towards Christ.

We also want to use it to share fundraising opportunities and events we may have going on. We are in the process of starting ways to raise money to put into an account for Brody's medical expenses. Hopefully the blog will let others know what we have going on and how they can help Brody boy. We also wanted those who are donating or purchasing items to have a place to get information about the cause they are donating to. You can read more specifically about how we hope to use the blog here on the welcome post of the Brody's Walk blog. So we hope you'll follow, bookmark, subscribe, put it in google reader, or whatever way you keep up with your blog reading!

To begin our fundraising efforts, we started an Etsy shop. Although we are no longer running our photography business, I still adore photoshop and designing fun things. So we will be selling home decor prints and possibly stationery products. So far, I've been able to put together a few pieces of scripture art and am working on getting more designed and up for sale. We've already had a great response and are excited about the possibilities. Check out the shop

Lastly, we set up a facebook page for Brody. We aren't actually on facebook personally, but we know that it is the best way to reach the masses. News travels fast when just one person posts something. So we thought what better way to get our friends and family to help spread the word about Brody's Walk than through facebook! So if you're a facebook user, "like" Brody's Walk Facebook page!

Although the circumstances in which we created this project are not exciting, it is exciting to see how God is going to use this circumstance to bring glory to Himself. We've said from the beginning that we knew God was going to use this in a mighty way and I pray that this is part of that. We hope you'll join us in this journey! The links are scattered throughout this post, but I've listed them over on the side of the blog for quick reference as well.

b & c: the little years

I always have high hopes for this blog. I always say that I'm going to be better about blogging regularly in order to document our life. But then our life takes over (which is fine because real life is better than blogging anyway) and I never blog and I look up and its been weeks since I've posted anything. And although ultimately this blog serves no purpose other than for me to have a record of special things that happen in our life, that alone is enough to make me want to kick it up a notch. I don't care if another person ever reads a single post, I want to make sure I use this as a place to store all the precious times we share as a family.

Our boys are growing FAST and we already don't take enough pictures or write down all the hilarious things they say. So I'm trying to commit to being better at this. Not for anyone else, but for myself. I'm never going to be famous mom blogger for my witty posts or killer DIY crafts and projects. You can't even find our blog on google because we don't want weirdos reading it. I plan to post about crafts, refurb projects, decorating our home, and toddler activities, and I hope that our family and friends do enjoy reading those and even get ideas from them. But ultimately its for me because let's face it, in 2 weeks or less I will have 3 boys. My memory..well, let's just say I do good some days to remember if the kids ate breakfast. (ok, maybe that's a little exaggeration..don't call CPS!) So I know that without some place to document these precious times in our life, they will fly by and I'll be so busy I won't take the time to slow down and reflect on them. So..all of that being said, let's talk about Brody and Carson!!

These 2 are stinking hilarious these days. I plan to make a memory box to write down all the funny things they say because it is non-stop around here. I find myself laughing at them multiple times a day and they have no idea what they've done or said that is so funny. Here's just one short story (see, I only took the time to write down 1..sad)

B (to Matt): I want a puppy and name it Jack.
C: I want elephant.
B: No, That's too big for our house.
C: I want elephant.
B: It will use its trunk and spray water all over us.
C: Oh, well I want a big puppy.

Only Brody could reason with Carson like that. We could have tried to explain to him all day why we can't have an elephant but Brody knew just what to say to nip that in the bud real quick.

The boys had their first trip to the dentist this week. (Yes, Brody had his first dental exam at 3..don't judge me.) On the way back to the room, Brody started telling the hygienist how to brush his teeth. "You need to brush the fronts and the backs and make sure you get all the dirty spots." I'm sure she appreciated his input. Apparently he knew what he was talking about because both boys got a great report. They had healthy, clean teeth. (I'm not gonna lie, I was a little surprised)

We started videoing them again and have taken more pictures that I need to dump on the computer and edit. Plus, we'll have lots of new posts when Baby Brooks comes! So until then, enjoy some more  bath time fun! And if you're wondering why there are no solo shots of Brody, ask him. He wouldn't cooperate for those.

Catching Up: Brody's Birthday Party

Yes, Brody's birthday was in January. I'm only 4 months late in posting this. But whatever. Don't judge me. I'm trying to catch up so that I can HOPEFULLY stay on top of it. I feel like our life has drastically slowed down so I really hope to be able to document all the sweet times we have as a family.

We did a wild west theme and I had lots of fun creating the decor! My Silhouette sure came in handy!

 Bandanas and Badges were the party favors. 

 Some yummy cowboy snacks

 The grub

 Cuties 

 Can't have a wild west party without smores

 The banner I slaved over..and am not totally thrilled with.

 Uncle Brent being a cowboy.

That is Matt, not Brent, for those who are confused. He borrowed Brent's duds for pictures.