Christmas 2012

We had a wonderful Christmas and were blessed to spend it with the Barber family this year.  We've enjoyed good company, good food, laughter, and made lots of great memories.

We made treats, decorated cookies, and shared some with our neighbors.

Uncle Jared helped with the festivities.

Some of our delicious treats

We've enjoyed spending unhurried time together.  Here are Tigger and Pooh reading with Daddy.

Two brothers, two pairs of feet, and two laptops. (:

Playing a computer game with Daddy.  I love Morgan's perch. 

We enjoyed a game night.

Grandpa Michael and Morgan being silly.

Morgan spending time with Grandmanette's iPad.

Jacoby built a castle

Complete with knights and a canon, of course.

We've tried to get some time outside, but it's been really chilly!

Making more treats...these were delicious! I finally found a white chocolate the boys can have...sweet!

More time with the iPad

Our sweet, sweet boys so excited for Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Our family...how blessed are we.

Helping Uncle Jared with meatballs

We had an appetizer feast on Christmas Eve after a lovely church service

And then the elf work commenced and we were busy with presents after the small people went to sleep.

Heaps and heaps of presents!

The generosity of our families never ceases to amaze us

Jacoby insisted we leave something for Santa this year, so we put out cookies and a glass of water. (:

The Polar Express Train nearly got left behind while we were moving this summer.  It was the second to last thing to get taken out of the old house because Mommy forgot she had bought it right after Christmas last year!

It's a really cool train

Morgan learning how to drive the train

Enjoying his new scooter from Grandma Pam and Grandpa Bill

Jacoby trying out his scooter

The boys have ridden their scooters non-stop around the house

Uncle Jared and Grandmanette and Grandpa Michael treated Justin and the boys to a Wii.  It's been great fun!

It snowed on Christmas Eve.  Here's the view from our front door.

Batman was added to the train for protection.

Setting up the Wii

More scooter riding...

Bowling...

Skiing or something like it...

Jacoby getting in on the action

Uncle Jared ski jumping

The only way we get Morgan to play is if he holds Daddy's hand or rides on my back.  I'm getting really good at hula hooping with a 3.5 year old!

Making a snow angel

Morgan contemplating his next move

The boys and I read two chapter books this month, one more focused on Santa and the other more focused on the coming of Baby Jesus.  We also memorized the Christmas story from Luke.  Both boys were able to recite it by Christmas, but Jacoby was the only one who let us get him on camera. 
We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Elf Work

We are busy bees around here getting ready for the holidays. But our hearts have been really sad because of the shooting in CT on Friday.  We're holding our young ones close and saying prayers for the families.  As a parent, I can't imagine that kind of pain and sorrow.

Here were some of the happenings from last week:

 Morgan and I attended Jacoby's first holiday program at school.  He was very excited to be standing on the top riser and knew all of the words and hand motions.  They were so cute!

The morning kinders are on stage with Jacoby's class in these pics.  The full-day kinders got to stay on stage and perform a few additional songs with the music teacher.  I didn't get pics of those because Morgan was threatening a full-on meltdown at the time...

We finished up our gifts for the teachers

Morgan's class visited Miss L.'s horses at an equine center.  His class is studying the letter H right now.

We made snow globes

One of our advent activities last week was to try a special treat, so we made donuts.  The boys were curious about them after reading a Curious George book.  They were quite tasty.

And kid-approved!

Jacoby and Justin went skiing on Saturday.  Here's the pretty tree in the Winter Park Village.  I'm told Jacoby did very well for his first time out this season.  He wasn't quite ready to ski on his own (which he was doing at the end of last season), but he loved being out in the snow.

He walked the whole way from the car to the lift in his ski boots (no small feat, let me tell you) and carried Justin's polls.  We've definitely come a long way from a few seasons ago when we had to lug kids and gear all at once!

Snowy highway

Morgan and I stayed home and got a few Christmas projects and baking done.  We gave each boy $10 this year to buy a gift for each other.  They both did very well, and I was particularly impressed by Morgan's choice for Jacoby.  Now we'll see if they're able to keep them a surprise until Christmas. (:

Today we enjoyed a holiday party with Jacoby's class:

 I need to give a shout out to the mom who built 30 gingerbread houses out of graham crackers for the kids to decorate.  She also brought frosting and decorations for all of them.  Wow.  I was impressed.  Justin and I built Jacoby's house this weekend, and let me tell you, we were not thinking merry thoughts after building just one house!  And I even hot glued the sucker so it would be virtually indestructible. (:

 Making our candy cane mice

We also brought caramel corn and oreo popcorn (delicious)

These events are total madness but lots of fun.

We were a tired bunch when we got home, and I was grudgingly cleaning up the mess we packed home from the party.  And in the midst of all of it, I found this:

Best Christmas gift ever...

I'll close with a couple of videos.  I love it when my very serious, reserved oldest son breaks out his care-free, silly side.  Have a great week everyone!

Holiday Fun

Here are some of our Advent Activities from last week:

**The boys collected food from our cupboards and pantry for the food drives going on at their schools.

**They also filled two boxes of toys to pass along to other kids.  Their generosity never ceases to surprise me.

**My work holiday party was last Wednesday.  There was a great cocktail reception with delicious food and drink, and then we went to Miracle on 34th Street, The Musical.  The boys loved it.  I thought they would be ready to go home by intermission, but they really wanted to stay for the whole thing and make sure Santa got out of jail.  They looked quite handsome in their Christmas sweaters from Grandma Pam.  We didn't get home until 11 pm, but it was worth it.

**We enjoyed a picnic dinner.

**We drank Grinch punch and watched the movie.

**We bundled up and went to the Parade of Lights and had a great time.  Jacoby is getting really good at picking out safe candy, and both boys dutifully shared a lot of the loot (candy, balloons, teddy bears, etc) to kids sitting behind us who couldn't reach.

The boys loved the donkey wearing pants

**We made sparkly snowflakes. 

Morgan and Mommy working away.  Minus one Jacoby...who was on the Naughty List during this activity.

This was all going fine until Morgan rubbed his eye and got sparkly stuff in his eyeball.  Chaos ensued and I now have sparkly stuff all over my house.

They're very pretty, but should have come with a maker beware sign!

Once one kid was off the Naughty List and the other had been hosed off completely, haz-mat style, to rid his little body of all sparklies, we took on a quiet activity.  Both boys are puzzle masters, so they were quite proud to be working on one with 60 pieces.

Morgan got a teddy bear at the parade, and I don't think he let go of it all weekend.

Admiring the finished product.

 The boys made these cute houses at Lowes

A prototype for the activity I'll be doing with the kids at Jacoby's upcoming holiday party.  Thank you very much Martha Stewart!

Star Light, Star Bright

The holiday season is in full swing here at the Barber house.  For the first of our Advent activities, we invited our friends over for a Polar Express night.  We dressed in our pjs and enjoyed popcorn and hot chocolate while watching the movie together.

Sorry this is so blurry!  Here are the munchkins before the Polar Express started.

Today, we decided to take advantage of our beautiful (very un-winter like) weather and go see the Boulder holiday star on Flagstaff Mountain.  We got there a bit early, so we climbed on rocks and watched a herd of deer.  We didn't tell the boys what we were waiting for, only that it was a big surprise for them to see (Jacoby thought it was going to be a mountain lion...yikes!).  The look on their faces when they turned around and saw this huge star beautifully lit on the side of the mountain was priceless.  They eagerly hiked the short, but very steep, hill to sit under the star and touch the points.  It was a great treat.

Climbing on some rocks at sun down

  Two brothers

 

 Lovely Boulder

Beautiful Star.  We discovered we could actually see this all the way from southwest Longmont.

 My camera isn't great with night shots...but it's still pretty.

Standing at one of the points of the star with Daddy.  It's hard to see, but it was a very steep mountainside, so we had to keep ahold of the boys or else they'd tumble down the hill.

Sitting in the middle of the star.

More of the star

Here we are!

Looking down towards the city