Our week is off to a busy start. The boys go to preschool 2 days this week and then they're home on Friday while their teachers move in to new classrooms. Jacoby will be in the Pre-K class and Morgan in Preschool I next week. They will have the same teachers (something I love about this school), and I think Morgan will be thrilled with his new classroom. Jacoby has already transitioned up to Pre-K this summer when they combined the classes.

The owner of our house stops by for a visit on Thursday, so we've been busy getting the place ready. It will be nice to meet her after living in her house for 4 years now! And despite the work, it's really nice to have a clean, organized home.

Justin starts teaching his Tu/Thurs class tomorrow. He's taught this Greek I class for a couple of years now, and I think he's looking forward to introducing the language to a new group of graduate students.

The freshman move into CU this week and Boulder Valley School district starts, which means traffic is a bit horrendous getting into Boulder and Target is definitely off limits for at least the next 4 weeks. I can't believe Jacoby will be off to kindergarten in 1 year!

Work is busy for me and I'm already knee-deep in the planning for our meeting in Hawaii this fall. Lucky for me, one of my favorite admins gets to come along as a helper since this meeting is going to require about 3 of me with all of the logistical craziness. I'm thrilled to have her coming to along.

Notable quotes:
We were riding bikes at the lake over the weekend and a a shirtless (male) runner went past us. Morgan said, "Oh, he forgot to get dressed!"

Mommy to Jacoby: "Time to get your superhero legs on and pedal hard up this big hill!" Jacoby back to Mommy: "I DO NOT have superhero legs! I have little legs and I CANNOT pedal up the hill!"

Have a great week everyone!

Our new favorite activity is washing the cars. The boys are great helpers, and I love it when they tell me they're making the car nice and warm while they dry all the water off!

Morgan busy washing with his sponge

Jacoby likes to be in charge of the hose. As you can see, he's very thorough!

It's a great way to spend the evening and get a chore done!

The latest from our garden. The basil smells wonderful!

Our little rock star

And We're Back!

Whew! It was a whirl-wind week after we got back from our trip on Monday!

Jacoby had a dentist appointment Tuesday morning and finally made it through a full check-up, cleaning, xrays, and flouride. His teeth are healthy, but his lack of growth for nearly a year (before he was diagnosed) hasn't left much room for permanent teeth (which by the way, this was my first time looking at xrays of a child's mouth, and I at first was trying to figure out how in the world Jacoby's mouth looked similar to that of a shark with two rows of teeth...that was until I figured out that the permanent teeth show up in the pictures along with the baby teeth. (: ). So, the dentist is already talking about braces. Sigh. But not to worry, we still have a few more years and lots of growing to do before any serious decisions will need to be made.

The boys were thrilled to be back in preschool on Wednesday, and they both jumped right back in without a moment of hesitation. They were missed by their teachers and friends, so the welcome back we received was heart warming. We're SO blessed to be part of this little preschool community.

The wonderful summer pace I was enjoying at work before vacation disappeared when I arrived back at work on Wednesday. And as I suspected, I had to hit the ground running to get caught up on a few different projects.

Our garden grew by leaps and bounds while we were gone. I picked 3 zucchinis that measure between 12 and 24 inches. We've had some for dinner and the boys will be eating some in their whole wheat chocolate chip zucchini muffins at school this week. (: Yum! I also discovered that lettuce can grow up to 3 feet tall if it's not harvested when it should be. Oh well, we'll try again next year with that one. We're expecting more zucchini and some carrots. I made strawberry sherbet this weekend, completely dairy free, and it turned out great. However, my vegetarian bean burgers were not a hit and that recipe ended up in the recycling bin. (:

We have a busy week ahead. Jacoby finishes up the last of the field trips and has what may be his last OT session. Justin has one more week before he begins teaching his Tu - Thurs class in the evenings.

We hope everyone has a great week!

Montana Road Trip

We had a wonderful time in Montana, visiting with our family and friends. The boys were great travelers; they ate well, slept good, played hard, and enjoyed every moment of the trip. Here are the highlights:

Our trip began in Great Falls and we spent time with Grandma Pam, Grandpa Bill, and even enjoyed a quick visit with Aunt Linda.

We enjoyed very mild weather in Great Falls, so the boys spent plenty of time outside. Justin spent a couple of days in Bozeman visiting friends from high school.

We had fun roasting hot dogs and marshmallows in the fire pit

Here's a very happy little boy enjoying his vacation

Jacoby had a great time harvesting rasberries with Grandma Pam and Grandpa Bill

Enjoying s'mores

We visited the Great Falls farmer's market and Morgan had a great time riding Copper Penny. Jacoby wouldn't go near the ponies.

Reading books with Grandpa Bill

Enjoying the big slide at Black Eagle park

Jacoby and Daddy tried going down headfirst and backwards

We spent a day playing in the water and picnicking at Holter Lake. The boys enjoyed Grandpa Bill's pontoon boat.

Morgan rowing with Grandpa Bill

Taking a little rest

Morgan completely out with the remainder of his snack still in his mouth

Nearly every evening the boys could be found outside in Grandpa Bill's garage doing whatever it is that boys do in a garage. They loved looking at Grandpa's treasures.

Silly boy with his 3D glasses on

Grandma Pam and Morgan at Giant Springs State Park

Grandma Pam and Aunt Linda out in the backyard

Happy boys up on a big rock

Ryan's Dam

The second half of our trip was spent in Billings. Des and Jax came in to town to spend time with Jacoby and Morgan. All 4 boys had a great time together. There's never a shortage of energy and activity whenever they're together.

We also got to spend time with Aunt Megan and Uncle Mark. The boys went swimming at Lake Elmo and then spent time in their favorite playhouse at Aunt Megan's. Justin and I enjoyed a great steak dinner with Megan and Mark that evening.

We also went to a Mustangs baseball game with Megan and Mark. I ran in to a friend from childhood and got to spend some time catching up with her during the game, which was wonderful.

Morgan is technically our social kid, but when there's a lot of activity going on he tends to hang back and do things on his own (which works in his favor when Trouble happens and he's no where near the scene of the crime). Anyway, he managed to get all of the boys playing "recycling truck" which involved dumping all of Grandmanette's toy bins and having a grand time.

Grandpa Michael took the boys to the toy store so they could each pick out a toy. Morgan ended up with a John Deer tractor and Jacoby picked a Lightning McQueen race track. They had a great time and also had fun playing in these motorized cars.

Grandpa Michael also treated us to bumper boats and go-karts at Geyser Park. It was lots of fun!

It was typical to have small visitors with requests for videos whenever my laptop was out. We're watching garbage trucks on YouTube in this picture.

Oh, the joys of unloading and unpacking after a long trip. But we arrived home healthy, happy, and in one piece after a great Montana adventure. The boys were great travelers during the long hours in the car. They were glad to be home and seemed to miss friends at preschool.

We want to thank all of our families for being such wonderful hosts while we visited and for accommodating our very special diet! We loved seeing all of you and had a great time!

Top 10 Tuesday

Here are a few things going on in the Barber family:

1. Jacoby is starting to read! It's so cool. He's really into sounding words out, figuring out what letter different words start with, and is able to pick out simple words to read.

2. Morgan is potty training in his own way and at his own pace. He's a pro at going potty and is figuring out how all of this works. He is younger than Jacoby was, so we're keeping this in mind and just trying to track with him. He's even sitting on the potty at school.

3. We are in the midst of "monsoon season" here in Colorado, which means we have crazy thunderstorms, torrential rain, huge wind gusts, and some hail just about every afternoon (i.e., just about everything was blown off the deck on Sunday and our beloved dump truck ended up clear out in the lawn!). Since when is there a monsoon season in the US?!

4. Morgan's current interests: making messes and not cleaning them up, being a fireman, playing with trucks, reading books, being naughty at mealtimes, playing with Jacoby, and being a helper.

5. Jacoby's current interests: doing mazes in a special wipe-off book, playing with Lightning McQueen, anything having to do with ancient sea creatures, dinos, prehistoric mammals, etc., and playing ambulance with Morgan (he's the rescue worker, Morgan is the patient).

6. We picked peas, romaine, and onion out of our garden! The boys enjoyed eating fresh peas out of the pod, and Jacoby likes the lady bugs that have taken up residence in the garden.

7. We're getting very excited for our trip to Montana next week and look forward to seeing most of our family in Great Falls and Billings. I think the boys will be excellent travelers.

8. Jacoby grew 4.4 inches this past year and gained 6.7 pounds! He exceeded the endocrinologist's goals for his first year on growth hormone treatment.

9. I made homemade granola bars for the first time and think they came out pretty well. And in other random news in my life, I got a tetanus shot last week and have wanted to have my arm removed ever since. It's finally better today, I think. OUCH!

10. Justin joined the world of Facebook a few weeks ago and has since been back in touch with buddies from high school who he plans to meet up with in Bozeman while we're in Montana.

Quote of the week:
Mommy: "Raise your hand if you made the huge mess with the books!" Morgan, looking as innocent as can be: "Maybe Daddy made the mess..."

Jacoby picking peas out of the garden

A good little farmer

Some of our bounty

Hello!

We hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!

We enjoyed a fun and relaxing long weekend at home. Our weather has been extremely hot, so we were stuck inside for much of the time. We did manage to get to the pool for a fun morning of splashing and playing. The boys had a great time and are showing more and more interest in swimming. Jacoby and I ventured out to see Cars 2 in the theater. I don't think he moved an inch during the first hour since it was his first time at a movie in front of the big screen. I never realized how LOUD movies were until sitting there with my 4-year old wondering if he'd be able to hear after it was over. He had a good time and enjoyed the experience I think. It was hard to leave Morgan behind...sometime during the short span of his little life he has developed a "left behind" complex and does not like being left out of anything. He was sure that Jacoby and I had taken off to Montana without him and Daddy! Cars 2 was pretty good...a little heavy on the 007 aspect with a whole bunch of guns and bombs that I wasn't expecting. Thankfully, Jacoby hasn't been running around like a car trying to shoot and bomb things.

The boys have become very interested in helping us make dinner lately, so we're trying to incorporate a meal once or twice a week that is a hands-on activity for them. Earlier in the week we made pizza, and they had a great time with that except Jacoby would not let any of us eat his pizza! He had made it and so therefore it was his! So, yesterday we made hobo dinners and fortunately everyone got to make their own so there was no sharing involved. (: We also put up the tent for them and they enjoyed a camp-out in the living room last night after fireworks.

Jacoby's preschool class has been doing a unit on clothing, so they rode the bus last week to Goodwill and got a tour of the store and learned all about how they process donations and move the items out onto the floor. Jacoby reported that he rode 4 buses total that day (2 going, 2 coming back--he's got very brave teachers as far as I'm concerned). They're off to the library this week via bus again. He's going to be a pro at public transportation by the end of the summer!

Morgan is in the beginning stages of potty training. He's interested, has been successful, and seems to understand, so we've been spending time sitting on the potty and trying out some underwear. Unlike Jacoby, who jumped in and mastered the process within a few days, Morgan seems more interested in practicing little by little. So, we'll see how it goes...the prospect of having two kids potty trained and diaper-free is thrilling!

Justin is busy working on his dissertation proposal. He hopes to defend the proposal this fall and then begin work on the actual dissertation. He also begins teaching next month, and we were surprised and excited to find out that he's going to be paid more than we were initially told.

Quote of the week:
Jacoby: "Morgan, you're my best friend, right?"

Have a great week everyone!

The silly bakers

Playing with shaving cream on the windows

Jacoby being gentle with a lady bug

Our growing garden...we're going to have peas galore in a week or so! I had to shoo a baby bunny away last night...it was more for his own good than my garden's since we have a huge, obnoxious neighbor cat that stalks our yard. I promise I'm not being too much like Farmer McGregor (from Peter Rabbit). (:

Putting up the tent

Making hobo dinners

Ready for a camp-out

So excited!

Going to see fireworks in the wagon

Watching the fireworks...we had great seats!

The boys love this guy from the old Sesame Street videos and have a great time mimicking him. I promise they really can count...just not when they're being silly!