Snowed In

We finally had our first real snow fall of the year...which is pretty late seeing that we usually start getting snow in early December. It is only about 8 inches at the most, but of course the school district feels the need to close down school for 3 days (probably will be closed down tomorrow too). I mean, I lived my first 11 years of life in Ann Arbor/Dearborn, Michigan and THAT place received a lot of snow....we are talking FEET and not inches and I don't remember school being cancelled as much as it is here...crazy. The boys have been loving it though: spending hours upon hours outside. Even Owen always wants to spend all day outside (now, as a result, he has a head cold.) Here are some pics of them having fun:

Nathan

Justin and Owen:Nathan sledding:

Justin:

Jon and Owen:

My Reading Fanatic

This was in the Waynesville Daily Guide Newspaper yesterday. You can also read it on the following link:

http://www.waynesvilledailyguide.com/news/education/x1060501744/Words-spell-achievement-for-Wood-students

Words spell achievement for Wood students
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By Chad Abernathy
Waynesville Daily Guide
Thu Jan 08, 2009, 11:29 AM CST
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The students at Wood Elementary are counting up their words and finding they can achieve much through reading books.
A recent tally in December revealed that those involved with the Reading Counts program have read over 12 million words.
During a special awards ceremony, Command Sgt. Maj. Karl Groninger presented fifteen students with reading medals for reading over one million words through the program.
Matthew Burris was given a Coin of Excellence for reading 7 million words, the most read for the year.
Ryan Harne also received a Coin for being the youngest to achieve the goal of one million words.
Students are eligible to participate in the program at the start of first grade.
The Reading Counts program keeps track of the amount of words read by quizzes kept on a computer. The quizzes keep track of how many words are in each book. Once a student reads the particular book for the quiz, the amount of words read can be recorded.
“The kids get real excited,” School Librarian Marilyn Odle said, describing the students’ reaction to the program.
Students can start in first grade, but the program can last as long as it is desired, Odle explained. For Wood Elementary, the program can even last into the sixth grade.
One of the things Odle found most interesting is when other teachers have learned about it, they take the idea back to their schools and use it to help students want to read.
Odle also explained that at Wood Elementary, a student’s first goal is to get their name posted on the “Hall of Readers.”
A student can accomplish this by reading 1,000 words. The ultimate goal is one million words, but students are finding they can go further than that.
It is a focus to make the desire to read internal, Odle said. She also pointed out that the program helps establish self discipline.
“It’s a team effort down here,” Odle said, referring to the collaboration between the teachers.
In reference to the students she said, “We just want to keep them reading.”

Command Sgt. Maj. Karl Groninger presented students medals for reading.
Wood students received reading medals during a special awards ceremony. Clockwise from top left, Brandon White, Katherine Kellogg, Catie Pollman, Ryan Harne, Justin Abresch and Anna Thomson.

UPDATED!!

I am officially updated!! I added 8 posts to December and 1 to this month! Happy reading (for those who care) haha!

Happy New Year!!

Happy 2009 everybody! I hope it will be a happy and healthy one! We decided to head out to Saint Louis yesterday and spend the night to celebrate New Years! It was another freezing few days again....only in the 20's...but we had a fun 2 days:

Here we are at Botanical Gardens enjoying all of the beautiful flowers and mazes!

Here we are at First Night...a New Years Eve celebration right in downtown St. Louis. They had live bands and lots of activities plus fireworks.....unfortunately, like I said, we were all frozen so we didn't stay too late!Then we went to The Mills which is basically like Mall of America...I mean ...it has everything. Along with shopping we....

watched the boys ice skate in the same arena where the Saint Louis Blues practice and

played glo-in-the-dark mini golf!!

Fever = No Surgery

Nathan's surgery was suppose to be yesterday but he started running a fever on Sunday and had one yesterday morning so now we have to reschedule the whole thing. A little irritating because now he is going to miss a lot of school. In other news....Jon bought this awesome new computer!! It is a Dell with a 19 inch monitor! So hopefully, no more computer crashes for a while. I still need to put all of my photos on this computer so I can update this blog with December posts but that will take a couple of days.

Happy Birthday

Another year older.....yuck. Anyways, Jon was telling me that I need to do a slide show with all the pics I have of me when I was younger, and I guess that would be only fair since I have made one for everyone else. The problem is that I own maybe 3 pics of me under the age of 14 so....Mom and Dad....if you wouldn't mind sparing a few pictures of me, I would really appreciate it! As many as you are willing to spare :). Here is a pic of me and my new Coach purse Jon bought me for my day!

Frustrating

I haven't been blogging this month because our computer is down again (3rd time this year). I am on my laptop right now but I like to blog and add pictures that is why I have been waiting. Hopefully in a few days, I can post about 5 blogs that are due on here. I will edit the dates to reflect when the events happened. In the meantime....I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! The boys are very happy and I am happy that I finally got the Photo shop program I have wanted forever (but alas...no computer=no pictures)!!

Christmas Eve Traditions

I thought I would share with you some of our family's Christmas Eve traditions...

First, we always make Christmas cookies. This year was better because even Owen enjoyed making some!

Then we always track Santa's progress on the computer with NORAD. I love this site because the kids actually call the 800 number with any questions they may have and they always have an answer!

Then, we HAVE to watch The Polar Express! It puts to rest any doubts they may have if Santa really exists ;)

This one is a new one. Jon has this super old edition of T'was the Night Before Christmas so he read it to them just as they were about to go to bed (Justin slept in Nathan's room tonight). The boys (minus Owen because he was fast asleep) really liked it. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Vacation in Branson

We just came home from a great Christmas vacation. We left on the 19th, right when the boys get out of school. We went to Branson and stayed at a beautiful resort for 5 days! It was the Horizons by Marriott. To view the resort and all its great amenities, click on this link: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/sgfhb-horizons-by-marriott-vacation-club-at-branson/



While we were there we went to Silver Dollar City. It was so FREEZING the days we were there. It was 13 degrees during the day and like 3 degrees at night. We also went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede~~we LOVED it! The boys had such a blast! Then we went down to the Branson Landing, went through the Trail of Lights and of course, the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum. We loved this place so much that we already booked it for the 4th of July weekend! Below is a short slide show. There aren't too many pics outside....brr!

First Ice Storm of the Season

Winter is not even here yet it is so cold out. The high has been in the twenties and down to single digits at night. Jon came home today and it took him forever to drive the hour drive because people were driving 45 on the highway. We had our first ice storm today...just a few inches. For my Florida family/friends....snow is nice soft and ice pellets come down hard and coat everything in ice. Of course they cancelled school today (rolling eyes). Here is a pic of Nathan trying to convince his teacher that it iced more that 2 inches (a class prediction project).

Here are the boys sledding down our driveway:

Trees for Troops

One of the nice things about being a military family is that businesses will once in a while do something nice to support us. This is a nice example: Trees for Troops. They give out free, live Christmas trees! Well, the boys wanted a real tree this year so after I dropped them off at school, I went down and stood in line with Owen to get one. Jon is in Germany for 10 days so he gets to miss out on the excitement. Owen and I picked our tree and a nice Marine carried to the van. I tied it to the top and set it up. As you can see, it is a nice one and our living room smells so great!

Also, they had a nice Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on post. There were tents set up and inside every tent, they had free food and toys for the kids. Here are the boys on the train: Eating yummy food (it was FREEZING)!
Too bad Jon had to miss all of the fun!

Owen's Favorite Birthday Toy

This by far is Owen's favorite birthday toy:

Happy 2nd Birthday Owen!!

It is such a cliche to say time goes by too fast but it really does. It is scary. Today Owen is 2 and he is such a sweet toddler. He is shy at first but then warms up to you. His favorite things are trucks, in particular, garbage trucks and cement trucks. He loves Sesame Street and his family. He is such a sweet little boy and I am so happy he is in our lives.
He actually was able to blow out his candles!

Paper Magnet

Justin must be lucky because he was in 2 different local newspapers the past few weeks!

The first one is from the city's paper, "The Daily Guide". The school holds a "Super Science Night" once a month. It is an after school learning program.

The second picture is from the posts newspaper, "The Fort Leonard Wood Guidon". It shows Justin getting ready to take a picture for the Photography Club.