The boy is 5!

Happy 5th Birthday to Jacoby today! We're so excited for our big 5-year old!

He's had a wonderful year and we're so proud of the many things he's accomplished: lots of growing, handling all of his medications, including a shot in the bottom each evening, like a champ, catching up on several developmental milestones, being a good friend at preschool and an awesome big brother, and learning all sorts of things through his play, imagination, and curiosity. I will always look back on this past year with a smile because I think its been a year full of recovery, renewal, and resilience in the life of this boy. Jacoby is smart, kind, gentle, full of energy and enthusiasm, funny, fiercely independent (no idea were this comes from), and is just a really great kid. I'm so blessed to be his mom and look forward to each and every day with him.

I made rainbow cake push-pops for Jacoby's preschool class. I have yet to find an allergy-friendly cake recipe that is both tasty and sturdy. These definitely fell into the tasty category, but were tricky and messy to assemble because they were so delicate (1 or 2 curses may have been uttered). But since perfection was not the goal and the Pre-Kers gave a unanimous thumbs-up vote, I think they were a very successful birthday treat.

The boys love the new Laurie Berkner Band cd/dvd called "Party Day", which is all about parties, celebration, balloons, color, and fun, so that's sort of our theme for birthdays this year. The balloons were a huge hit, and Justin did a great job with his number 5.

I hung out with Jacoby's class today during circle time and for snack time. The push cakes were hugely popular and Morgan got invited to come celebrate with the big kids. He blended right in and even joined in a serious...I mean very serious...game of Hungry Hippos. Morgan informed me that we need to have this game at our house. I love spending time with Jacoby's classmates and his teachers. It reminds me of how grateful we are to have our kids in such a great school.

We had a dinner of squidlers (which sort of weird me out), watermelon (per request of the birthday boy), and sparkly drink. Then Jacoby went on a treasure hunt with picture clues that led him to presents. Mommy and Daddy got him his first bucket of Legos and, thanks to payment from a research project we've been a part of at Children's Hospital, Jacoby has graduated to a booster seat for the car. It was a great day!

We've been staying close to home this weekend. We were supposed to go skiing, but I came down with another nasty cold last week and needed some recoop time.

The boys are doing great. They're enjoying playing outside in the snow, reading, and going on all sorts of imaginative adventures with each other. Jacoby is anxiously counting down the days until his birthday. I'm still trying to get my head around the fact that we're going to have a 5-year old! We're looking forward to a fun time celebrating him later this week. I've got a great birthday treat for preschool picked out and will post pictures once I've got them put together.

Justin went to a dissertation proposal defense for one of his classmates this week (after a 6-month lag time, proposals are finally being reviewed). It sounds like it was relatively painless and was good for Justin to see what's expected. The professors mentioned Justin is up soon, which was good to at least have acknowledgement that they have him in mind. He's working hard to wrap up his draft so he can send it off to his committee. As usual with little kids, it's hard to find enough time in the day to work on it as much as he'd like.

I've been working on a few projects at home as time and budget allow. The biggie is cleaning out the maternity/baby stuff. The major categories for all of the stuff are donation/give-away/consignment, family, and garage sale. The thrift store picked up a big load on Friday and I'm slowly sorting things for a garage sale I hope to have in the spring. Most of my maternity stuff was given away to a friend at work. So, it's nice to be getting rid of "stuff" and to also pay it forward since we were blessed by so much generosity when we were first starting our family.

We enjoyed a walk to the lake to see how it's covered in ice and snow.

This boy loves all things snow-related

Morgan loves to pedal his tricycle at dangerous speeds

Here's our newest picture collage...I'm about out of wall space. (:

I think it turned out pretty well

Hope you all have a great week!

Happy Valentine's Day

Just a quick post to say hello and Happy Valentine's Day to all of you. The boys had fun parties at preschool and were so excited to tell me about the Valentine's they received from their friends. You can read more about it here thisjourneyofours.wordpress.com -- a new place I'm using to write specifically about food allergies and other issues we live with every day. I was so proud of them today and how they handled their food allergies during the parties...definitely sent up more than a few prayers for them today. (:

Here they are going through all of their loot. Morgan's teacher's sent out a note encouraging parents to give non-food/candy items, which was much-appreciated. He got play-doh, socks, a necklace, and some other trinkets. Jacoby definitely received more candy, so we went through all of it together, tossed what they couldn't eat, and exchanged it for safe candy Mommy has stashed away. Then they enjoyed a silly supper with Curious George.

Justin and I enjoyed breakfast together and a relatively normal day until he called to tell me what he discovered when he got back to the car this evening (a big dent and the entire front bumper torn off):

Yep, this is what a hit and run looks like--when your fellow man or woman doesn't have the decency to do the right thing after damaging your property. That's about all I'll say because it's just not worth the time or energy to say anything else (especially when it's not nice). I feel really blessed that no one was hurt (presumably, although Karma may not be kind to this person in the future). The damage is minor compared to what an accident on I-25 or 70 would be, and we've been incredibly fortunate in all of the years Justin's been commuting to Denver that he hasn't had other car-related incidents. So, just a little update on some excitement in our week. We're good though and our trusty Honda will be as good as new soon (hopefully).

Germy Week

Well, we've had a very germy week with both boys down with croup and colds. It's been nothing but crankiness, noses running out-of-control, lots of hacking, and several sleepless nights. It will all pass soon, I'm sure.

I'm very happy to say that in spite of the germs, Morgan is 100% potty trained as of this week! He told me a few nights ago that big boys don't wear pull-ups to bed, so we're in our undies all the time now. We're super proud of him and he's also proud to be a member of the big boy club now. (:

We took the boys skiing last Sunday, taking advantage of less traffic because of the Super Bowl, and had a mostly good time. The logistics of lugging gear and kids in ski boots is just crazy, so we're continuing to brainstorm on how to best do this so that we're not all completely worn out before we even get on a chair lift. Jacoby is skiing beside Justin with the help of a ski pole. We're slowly seeing signs of a snow plow. Morgan skis between my skis and does pretty well for how young he is (as long as he's not cold, hungry, or getting sick as was the case this last time).

Justin is busy trying to get the draft of his proposal done. His students are keeping him busy--he spends a lot of time with them outside of class whenever they manage to find him on campus. One of his students has a family similar to ours and is applying to doctoral programs (Justin has written recommendations for him) and would like to get us all together. It will be nice to meet them but I'm not sure they'll want to hear an "uncensored" version of what graduate school is like with a family. (:

I had a challenging week at work. Morale is probably the lowest I've seen in the 7 years I've been there. Four (5 for some) years of no salary increases is definitely taking a toll, and our sense of being a team and working together is on hiatus. Small, inconsequential issues get blown up way out of proportion very quickly. But my mantra right now is just to keep my big girl pants on and try to stick to the higher road. I'm grateful to be able to leave the unpleasantness every afternoon and come home to a family who loves me.

I've been busy this weekend working on Valentine's projects for the boys. Jacoby wasn't able to help me as much as we had planned since he's sick, but he did sign his name for me so I could scan and attach it to all his cards (Morgan is giving play doh to his classmates). I also made cinnamon popcorn for their parties.

Here are a few pics from the week:

Playing with Insta Snow -- very fun stuff!

Jacoby's Valentine cards for preschool -- the only thing I can take credit for is finding them online. (:

Jacoby's autograph

All snuggled up

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