Snow Day!

Thanks to heavy snow, lots of wind, and cold, we've been holed up at home today. Everything's closed and our dentist and eye appointments were canceled, so we've pretty much had the whole day to ourselves! We're watching a movie with popcorn and hot chocolate this afternoon. We might try to ski tomorrow or Sunday, depending on the road conditions going up to the mountains.

The week was mostly uneventful. Jacoby's preschool teachers informed me that they think he's ready for Kindergarten and is showing signs of boredom in class. I was silently counting the months we have left until Kindergarten begins and wondering what it means for the next several months. Since preschool is covering the alphabet thoroughly, we're working on numbers, math, and some reading at home.

Morgan is 90% potty trained at home and at school. Can't wait until I can post that we pitched the diaper pail!

Oh, and I had a wonderful birthday this week! Jacoby went with Justin to pick out flowers and a card for me, and then the three of them made a scrumptious dessert. There's nothing quite like having my two little boys sing me Happy Birthday--it's the best! Justin and the boys got me a subscription to plantoeat.com, which is a very handy program for meal planning and grocery shopping. I took my birthday off from work and had the whole day to myself, which was heavenly. I did some shopping with gift certificates and spent several lovely hours in my house all by myself.

Thanks to everyone who emailed, called, texted, and sent birthday wishes!

The best part of making a birthday treat

My favorite boys

Making pizzas

Reading together

An update...

Life is blissfully uneventful for us right now. We're pretty comfortable in our work, preschool, study routine. I think my blogging has slowed down because I feel like we don't have much to report!

The boys are doing great. Both are enjoying interesting things in school right now. Jacoby starts the letter K this week and might be going on a field trip to a Kindergarten class. He has made remarkable progress in the last month or so with his writing and pencil grip. We've been using afternoon rest time for OT while the little brother is sleeping. I should also mention that Jacoby is officially registered for Kindergarten at our neighborhood school. We had a tour right after the holidays, and both Justin and I were impressed with the Kindergarten program and the policies/procedures they have in place for kiddos with allergies. Jacoby is one of the leaders in his preschool class with letter recognition, so that along with his progress with writing I think will put him in great shape for the start of elementary school. The way we do school will probably be a yearly decision for us depending on how Jacoby is doing.

Morgan's class is "studying" the book "Where the Wild Things Are" as part of the Story Book Curriculum they use, so once you enter his class it's nothing but jungle, wild things, and mischief (all quite fitting for him and his preschool mates)! When Morgan and his class begin Preschool II in the fall, they will be moving over to a brand new school building about a block from my office--very exciting! When the boys are home I feel like we don't see much of them! They're very busy right now with all sorts of pretend play in their room--pirate ships, trains, campers, etc. They talk about how they're best friends, Morgan leads the show quite often, and they don't react kindly to being interrupted by their parents!

Justin's Greek class is keeping him very busy. He's also doing a lot of reading for his dissertation proposal. Work is fairly busy for me and I'm also doing some projects at home. Our winter weather is a bit crazy: some days it's cold and snowy, and then sometimes it's super windy and 60 degrees. We hope the mountains will get some snow. We've only been up skiing with the boys once because the slopes are so bare. Our first ski run with Morgan went well. He may have been a little overwhelmed, but by the end of our time he was balancing on his skis while I pulled him with my pole (snow plowing for 2 hours and holding up a 30+ pound chunk is quite a workout!).

Besides all of that, we're healthy, happy, and doing well. And we hope all of you are too!

Reading together...Berenstain Bears and Where the Wild Things Are are our favorites right now

Our masking tape tracks have become a little more sophisticated

Their favorite fine motor activities are those involving food. (:

The Start of 2012

The New Year has gotten off to a quiet start for us. I've found myself sort of reluctant to think about what the next 12 months might hold. 2011 was such a good year for us (Justin thinks differently since he endured the torture of two comprehensive exams), but all in all last year gave us a much needed break after the unexpected plunge into the medical world in 2010. 2012 will be a good year, I'm sure. There are just a lot more questions on the horizon: will this be the year Justin begins a career and says goodbye to school (and good riddance as far as I'm concerned)? will we have to move? will there be any unexpected developments with Jacoby and his medical issues? how will life change when kindergarten begins? So yes, I'm sad to see the comfort of 2011 go and waiting with bated breath to see what 2012 will bring. And with those musings, here's a look back on highlights from last year and a look ahead to the New Year:

2011 Highlights

~Justin finished his comprehensive exams!
~We went on an anniversary trip without our kids!
~I got to travel to Hawaii (twice), San Francisco, Washington, DC, and Oregon!
~We visited our loved ones in Montana this summer!
~The boys had a great year in preschool!
~Jacoby grew many inches and gained many pounds!
~We started going to church again!
~The boys moved into bunk beds!
~We became experts in allergy-free cooking and it brought us a lot of joy!
~Morgan and Jacoby were (and still are) the best of buddies!
~We had a lot of family come and spend time with us here in Colorado!

Here are a few things we're thinking about for 2012:

Justin...
D.I.S.S.E.R.T.A.T.I.O.N

Jacoby...
Continue working on fine motor skills
Have fun skiing and swimming
Turn 5!
K.I.N.D.E.R.G.A.R.T.E.N.

Morgan...
Finish potty training
Have fun skiing and swimming
Move to new preschool building (same preschool) in the fall...right across the street from Mommy's office=lunches with Mommy (:
Have fun being 3!

Me...
Hold a garage sale this summer
Finish Morgan's first year scrapbook
Run in a race...my sister inspired me, so I'm hoping to try the Bolder Boulder this spring
Start a new blog...my plan is to start blogging specifically about our medical journey, how it effects our lives, some of the stuff we deal with, what it's like raising kiddos with medical issues, etc. Somehow all of the medical stuff doesn't fit into this blog, which is more focused on us and our kids. I am either not specific enough when I write here or I write to much and then I can feel eyes glaze over and yawns being suppressed. My favorite mom-in-law has been encouraging me for awhile to write our story, so this will be the beginning of that and we'll just see where it takes us.

We hope 2012 is off to a wonderful start for all of you!

Christmas 2011

I feel like I'm just emerging from a lovely holiday cocoon--lots of good food, two weeks of vacation at home with my family, little contact with the outside world, happy boys who love the holidays, lots of family visitors, and much needed time on the couch wrapped in a blanket with my Kindle.

Here's a recap of our Christmas holiday:

We got nearly a foot of snow the night Aunt Kenzie arrived (which made her flight and our drive home a little interesting). Grandma Pam and Grandpa Bill also had quite a time driving down from Montana. But we enjoyed having a white Christmas and went for a walk one evening around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights.

We enjoyed several relaxing days together. Justin took Grandpa Bill and Aunt Kenzie skiing one day. The boys love spending time with their family (and foot massages from Grandma Pam)!

They also love getting into mischief with Aunt Kenzie, and decided to initiate a sock war by dumping their drawer of socks on her. I'm not sure who won but there were tons of giggles heard from both sides.

The ladies before Christmas Eve service

Grandma Pam & Grandpa Bill

The boys

We met up with friends for Christmas Eve service and then had them over for appetizers and cookie decorating. The kids had a blast together. This is them striking a silly pose--Morgan thinks M. is just about the coolest thing ever.

We enjoyed watching the boys open presents on Christmas morning. They were very enthralled with their new treasures. We also enjoyed good food, a holiday movie, and some naps that day.

Aunt Kenzie with her nephews

The boys received snuggly blankets from Aunt Megan and Uncle Mark. They like to get wrapped up when they watch videos.

Catching Up

Goodness! I have no idea where the past two weeks went!

Our Thanksgiving was lovely and we enjoyed a house full of family from out of town. The boys enjoyed lots of play-time with their cousins, and there was never...I mean never...a dull moment with the 4 of them running and jumping all over the place. They enjoyed playing games, an evening with their flashlights, a movie night (any guesses on the movie? Starts with "How" and ends with "Dragon"...again), and time outside in our beautiful weather. I think the top two quotes were "But I had it first..." and "Can I have a turn with that?". There was noticeably less refereeing with these 4 and they do very well together, but they definitely kept the adults busy and entertained. (: And believe it or not, we got the Barber clan in for a family photo session in celebration of Grandmanette's 60th birthday. The pictures turned out great and our 4 little boys did awesome during the shoot. Again, I'll be just fine to go another 10 years without a photo session.

The Monday after Thanksgiving we trucked down to Children's Hospital for Jacoby's second endoscopy. He was a lot more aware of what was going to happen to him this time, so he was worried and spent the night before snuggled next to me. But he was a trooper and went through the whole thing without complaint. The physicians and staff are all wonderful down there and leave little for us to worry about. Jacoby went under anesthesia calmly and came out of it fine besides being upset about the IV in his arm (which is his typical response even though we warn him that he'll wake up with an IV). Once we were in recovery he was only concerned about getting home to play with his cousins and also asked the nurse if he could bring a jello home for his brother Morgan. I'm not sure if I've ever felt more proud of him then at that moment.

The great news is that the doctors performing the endoscopy said his esophagus looks normal. A year ago, it looked inflamed and had several ridges of damage from the eosinophils (a type of white blood cell that is not supposed to be in the esophagus). We found out this past Sunday that the pathology report indicates the esophagus is healing and the eosinophils are basically gone. Our GI doctor has already reduced one of Jacoby's prescriptions since it has basically done the job we needed it to do (help heal the tissue) and the diet we have him on is obviously working. So, we are so grateful and so blessed by the care Jacoby has received over the past year. We're in a much different spot today than we were a year ago.

And keeping on with the medical updates, Jacoby had his check-in with the endocrinologist today. He's grown another inch (putting him at the 88th percentile--he was down at the 25th when we started this part of our journey) and gained 2 pounds. At the rate he's growing, they're predicting him to be between 72 and 76 inches (6 ft to 6 ft 3 in)...right up there with his dad.

Justin is finished up with his classes. It sounds like his students did well and he's already preparing for the start of Greek II at Iliff in January. It's nice to have him home in the evenings.

Work isn't really slowing down for me like it usually does in December. I have our annual holiday party hanging over my head and will be really glad to have that over. Party planning is just not really my cup of tea. A board meeting? Yes, but parties? Not so much.

Morgan is doing great and is as cute as can be. He recently informed his preschool teachers that he's too big for the class now. I'm not exactly sure where he thinks he'll be going. Both boys are loving the holiday season and are excited about opening their Advent envelopes each day to see what our project or activity is going to be. You can see what we've been up to over here: http://givethankseveryday.wordpress.com/.

Other then that, we're trying to stay warm in the midst of freezing cold weather. We have our last swimming lesson this weekend. Since they've gone so well, I'll probably enroll the boys in the next level after the holidays. And of course we're making our lists and checking them twice as we look forward to celebrating Christmas with the Haggerty clan here in Colorado this year. (:

Take care all!