Jacoby is 8!

 We've had a great time celebrating Jacoby the past few days.  I can't believe we have an 8 year old!

 The fun started with a party yesterday.  Jacoby requested (for the third year in a row) a Lego party, with this year's theme being Ninjago.  Justin put together a really fun laser maze for the boys.

 The boys started by decorated ninja origami stars.

 And then they practiced throwing them through rings.

 The boys had to work their way through the maze to get their ninja swords and then find their way back out.

 We played Sensei Says.

 The boys had to battle the evil Lord Garmadon from Ninjago.  The ninjas won and Lord Garmadon was destroyed, into tiny bits of balloon and paper all over the basement. (:

 The ninjas had a snack to refuel: cake push-pops, pretzels, fruit snacks, and juice boxes.

 Push-pops for the fourth year in a row!  I have definitely got my money's worth out of these!

 Then there was free play, so they were all over the maze.

 Oh Morgan, and those britches...or lack there of.

 They paused for 3.2 seconds for a group picture.  One of our ninjas came dressed as a Hobbit, in case you were wondering.

 Present time!

 And Lego building, of course.

 Jacoby requested a pinata, but I wasn't sure we could swing that inside.  So, we did a punch board instead.  The ninjas collected their party favors with each punch: glider planes, tic tacs, and wikisticks.

 And then, the four ninjas somehow declared war on the two adults in the house.  And for at least 40 minutes, it was a full-on battle!  The maze didn't make it, as you can see.

 Shortly after this encounter with the smallest ninja, I went to my secret stash of extra swords to arm myself with a weapon!  It was a great time.  Boys never cease to amaze me with their imaginations, constant movement, and love of play.

This morning we sang to the Birthday Boy and he got to open a present.

Jacoby brought scratch art bookmarks to his classmates at school today.

 And here we are...8 eight years old!

 More presents...and apparently pretty pleased with this Lego Chima set.

Birthday Interview with Jacoby

1.  What do you want to be when you grow up? - A chef, so I can make a million cake push-pops.

2.  What is the best time of day? - Lunch time with my friends.

3.  What is the worst time of day? - Bedtime.

4.  What are you good at? - Basketball.

5.  What's something you like to do with your family? - Play in the snow.

6.  Who makes you laugh? - L., my best friend.

7.  Who do you like to spend time with? - L., my best friend.

8.  What are you afraid of? - My allergies sometimes.

9.  What is your favorite food? - Cheese sticks and hot dogs.

10.  What is your favorite movie? - The third Hobbit.

 

Catch Up Post

I'm happy to write that we made it to the other side of life after the dissertation.  Mostly and barely.  Does it sound like the dissertation is all-consuming and around which all our lives are based these days?  Yes, yes it is.

Anyways, on to a catch up post:

We enjoyed a few ski days in January.

 The boys are starting to get comfortable on their skis and are building up endurance.

 Morgan celebrated the 100th Day of School.  He brought 100 gems to trade with his classmates.

 The boys are boisterous, active, and healthy...all of which we are thankful for.

I celebrated a birthday...

 Which of course kicked off our birthday season...ninjas will be invading next week.

 The boys made a sweet get well sign for Aunt McKenzie, who had surgery earlier this month to repair a torn ACL.

 I took an impromtu trip to Montana to hang out with her post-surgery.

 The boys enjoyed Valentine's parties this week.  It's probably the first year Justin and I haven't attended one...the boys are doing really well managing their food allergies in school.

 And speaking of food allergies, there was much celebration when Cheerios appeared again in our house.  The ingredients have been reformulated quite a bit, so there's not nearly as much wheat.  And it appears all types of Cheerios will be gluten free by the fall.  The boys can't get enough of them!

 

We've been enjoying really warm weather (until today, and now we're under a winter storm watch) and spending lots of time outside.  The boys spent an afternoon shooting their nerf arrows in the field.

Crunch Time

Justin turns in a draft of his dissertation on Friday.  To say the adults in this house, one in particular, are maxed out would be a slight understatement at the moment.  He's quite literally working around the clock.  After Friday, it will be up to the powers that be to determine the next step.  We're hopeful the outcome will be to defend this sooner than later, but again, it's not up to us.  If you're the praying kind and would like to send a few off on our behalf, we'd appreciate it.

I am due to write a recap of 2014 and divulge some hopes and dreams for 2015 on the blog.  I can't really see the forest through the trees right now, so I'll save all that for another day.  Right now there's another thrilling dissertation chapter waiting in my DropBox for a quick review.

Christmas 2014

Well, hello and happy new year!  Here's a recap of our lovely Christmas holiday:

 We had our friends over for cookie decorating on Christmas Eve.

 We went to church together.  Morgan was a perfect angel during the service despite what this picture shows.  (:

 We came home and had a Christmas Eve pizza party.  Delicious!

 Christmas presents arrived while the small ones slept.

 And finally, long-awaited Christmas morning arrived.

 Lego building commenced right after a waffle breakfast.

 We enjoyed good conversation with our special visitors.

 The boys used their new sleds to haul around their Christmas loot.

 We played games and the big boys had some fun with the Wii in the evenings.

 It snowed Christmas afternoon, so the new sleds were broken in.

 Here we are...another Christmas and another year blessed.

 The snow continued so we enjoyed winter walks and a trip to the sledding hill.

 We did puzzles...I can't really say that wine helped my puzzling skills all that much.  (:

The boys did some programming with Uncle Jared on their new Raspberry Pi computer they got from Daddy.

It was a wonderful holiday and we were very thankful to share it with family!

Lots of Updates

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and now we find ourselves in the final two weeks of school before the winter break!  Can't wait--this is one of my favorite times of year!

Here are a few updates from the weeks before and after Thanksgiving:

 We got our first major snow of the season before the holiday.  The boys love snow!

 

 We went out for a snowy walk and all this boy wanted to do was throw snowballs at his mother...

Jacoby's playful side doesn't surface often, but when it does it's a blast (and it's relentless)!

 

Morgan is as happy and silly as can be!

 

The boys got their rental skis.  We have a family pass to Eldora Mountain this year and can't wait to hit the slopes closer to home!  No I-70 for us this year!

Justin went and had lunch with the boys at school.  These are Jacoby's BFFs who sit with him everyday at the peanut free table...that means their moms pack them something other than PB&J every single day so they can sit with our boy and we are so very grateful for that.

I squeezed in some time to give my latest $7 thrift store finds a quick Annie Sloan face lift.

#ilovepainting!

Our biggest excitement before the holiday was the oven breaking.  The boys had a quick moment of panic and worry that our feast might be canceled, but we ended up with a delicious meal thanks to three slow cookers.  We're always up for a challenge when it comes to food and cooking!

#bringiton

 We enjoyed a very peaceful, relaxing holiday.  We played games and read books.

 

The weather was gorgeous so we spent time outside and even had an impromptu football game.

  We thought about why we're thankful

 

 The boys are thankful for PE, school, friends, Legos, parents, food and feasts.

 Mommy & Daddy are thankful for our family, our health, and all the many blessings we have in our lives right now.

 And then we spent some time putting up Christmas around the house.  Look how far they can reach now!

 Morgan had the important job of placing the star on top of the tree.

 And they love the Polar Express of course!

 The boys set up the nativity while I made dinner one evening.  It's fun to listen to them explain who the characters are and what the story is.

 For Advent this year we're opening a "new to us" Christmas book each evening.  I've been collecting these since the summer from Half.com.

 They enjoy unwrapping a different book each night and reading together.

 And then we had our annual appointment with our team down at Children's Hospital.

The boys are doing so well...we even got to take them off of two of their medications!

 I took a picture of this, not because it's more testing, but because of how few scratch tests they had to have this time.  Only five, compared to 20+ in their very recent past.  We've come a long way, people!  We've got some blood work to do before we can see about adding anything to our diet.

I ran the ColderBoulder 5K with friends on Saturday.  Great course all around the CU campus and it was definitely cold.  I've managed to collect 2-mile, 5K, 10K, half marathon, and full marathon race bibs this year...it's safe to say that I've ran a tiny bit more than I expected to but it has been great fun (well, maybe "fun" is not how I'd describe a marathon, but you know what I mean).  (: