Our Lovely Life: 1.5 Years Old and Nine Years

Well, in the name of fairness I get to give a shout out for Morgan's half birthday since he turned 1.5 years old this week. He's a sweet, happy little soul and can definitely be (and is) our firecracker. Morgan is talking a whole bunch, walking down the stairs by himself, and learning to kick the soccer ball like his brother. He loves greek yogurt, reading, Sesame Street, trucks, and playing with Jacoby in any capacity. When all is not right between the siblings, Morgan has taken to tackling Jacoby. And since the brother's are not far off each other in weight, he's found this technique to be quite effective in getting his brother's attention. He's the keeper of our routines and knows how we do things, when, what order, and what things belong to whom in the family. He gets very sad when he's in trouble or if Jacoby isn't being nice. We love both boys to pieces and are really amazed at how big they're getting! I might even go so far as to say that things might be getting slightly easier around here as they get more and more independent...but it definitely depends on the day. (:

I should also mention that Justin and I marked our 9th anniversary this last week...what a whirlwind life it has been together so far! Graduate school, a couple of interstate moves, more school for Justin, career diversion, more school for Justin, Jacoby, parenting, working, more school for Justin, Morgan, parenting, working, more school for Justin. I guess I would insert in between all of these things joy, some heartache, lots of excitement and adventure, more joy, and lots of anticipation for the future. We're probably very different people now compared to the two youngins' that stood in front of our family and friends at Rock Creek 9 years ago but the one thing that remains the constant is that we somehow still belong together through better and worse.

We've had a very busy weekend. Jacoby finished up his soccer class on Saturday, so now we have to decide if we should do another session and whether or not to stick Morgan in his own class too. Morgan finally got to go out on the field and kick the ball with one of the coaches and play with hula hoops. He was so happy! We stopped by one of many ski sales going on this weekend to check out the deals. The term "sale" was completely lost on the boys, especially when Jacoby found out he couldn't go skiing right now, so we didn't stay long. The boys and I headed to Tiny Town (near Morrison, CO) for an outing with some friends. This is a great little place for kids and everyone had a fun time. The Tiny Town Railroad was a big hit and we had to ride it twice to make sure there wasn't a big difference between the steam engine and the diesel engine. (: Today we've been home catching up on chores, playing with some "new" puzzles, and those under 3'1" have been especially busy trying to be nice to one another.

Justin is reading and studying for his exam during every spare moment. We don't see much of him these days. We'll probably find out when the date of his exam is sometime this week. He's keeping up a blog on his readings here http://justins3comps.wordpress.com/. You can also see what his bibliography is like. We'll be glad when this month is over since this will be the biggest and toughest of the three exams he has to take.

I had Friday off so I ran errands and caught up on some projects around the house. I sorted the boys' clothes to make way for fall...I'll be sad to see their scuffed and bruised shins and knees get covered up in pants, but we're definitely ready for a new season. I'm also working on a few travel activities for the boys for when we make our trip to MT at the end of the month. My small group starts up in a week so I'm looking forward to meeting with the ladies again. A couple of us went out for dinner a few weeks ago, and I'll just have to say that what happened at the restaurant stays at the restaurant. (: We had a great time and I haven't laughed that hard in a really, really, long time.

Have a great week everyone!

Riding on the Tiny Town Railroad...the boys are not sure what they think about the conductor as he took our picture since he had just told them that we'd be going past "Dinosaur Ridge" and that the dinos were really hungry.