Snow Storm!

We received over two feet of snow at our house this week thanks to a huge snow storm that blew in. Jacoby spent an hour outside today sledding and falling into the snow with his dad. As you'll see, Jacoby is not the only one who enjoys a good snow storm. Here are a few pictures and videos of our adventures:

Purple Dragon Sighting!

We found a small, very energetic, purple dragon in our yard the other day. He seemed to like running around in circles and made noises like a choo choo train. This particular dragon really likes picnics, doing things all by himself, and marshmallows. He tends to start breathing fire when he has to brush his teeth or gets a timeout. A few photos to document our findings:

Seriously, Way Too Busy

I don't think things could get any busier for our little family! The mantra playing in my head all weekend was "Seriously, this madness has to end!" Justin is swamped with teaching, school, a research project, and minding our two little ones MWF. I am working like crazy in preparation for our fall board meeting coming up next week and trying to maintain some semblance of order at home. I've been putting in time for work in the evenings and over the weekends. I think things are in good shape for the meeting, but this is always a really stressful time for me. Poor Morgan developed an ear infection while combating the flu and they put the little guy on antibiotics that are wreaking havoc with his system. I won't go into the details about the state of his little bottom, but it's terrible and he's not a happy camper. We've got a couple more days to go and then this medicine is getting tossed out.

However, in the midst of the chaos, we're having a great time with our boys. Jacoby is all about reading books right now. His trucks have been parked in their bin for over a week! He is also enjoying preschool so much, especially when the music teacher visits. She plays the guitar and sings with the kids and he thinks that's just about the greatest thing ever. We had a parent-teacher conference with his teachers today. It was so great to hear about what his strengths are in the class and how much they enjoy him. He's doing great, and we feel so blessed to have him in this school. I came in to pick him up this afternoon, and as I was gathering our things Jacoby tells me that he put his scissors in the fish tank. I looked over, and sure enough, there are a pair of scissors in the fish tank and the teachers had been unable to find the culprit! Needless to say, we talked on the way home about what scissors are used for and what they are not!

Morgan has figured out that he can roll to get from point A to point B. He also can wave now and plays peek-a-boo with us. He's really trying to figure out how to coordinate his arms and legs to get crawling. That's going to make life interesting when he gets mobile! He's still Jacoby's number one fan, and I'm always amazed at the things they do to make each other smile and laugh.

I'm really thankful for these little guys. They remind me to slow down and not take things so seriously. Enjoying a picnic in the living room the other night for dinner with Jacoby and watching my littlest one wave to Grandma Pam and Grandpa Bill on the web cam for the first time were great reminders that they are what's important and everything else is secondary.

We are very excited about an upcoming visit from Granmanette and Grandpa Michael. Jacoby knows that they come on Thursday (also garbage truck day) and talks about it everyday. Morgan will just be glad for additional arms to hold and lug him around.

Checking out the books

Breaking into the Halloween candy...don't worry, none was consumed!

Thankful Are We

Well, we're 3 for 4 in terms of the lucky winners of the flu this past week. Morgan and I followed after Jacoby. The boys were such troopers, and we're so thankful that what we experienced seemed to be a rather mild form of this new, weird flu virus. Mine feels more like a bad cold with a lot of aches and chills. I expect that we'll all be back to normal this coming week.

Since we were quarantined to the house this past week, we kept ourselves busy and our spirits up by doing a lot of art, reading books, collecting leaves in the yard, and sorting through some things. Normally I wouldn't recommend accidentally dumping all of the puzzles so they end up in a huge heap, but this turned out to be quite an educational activity: sorting, recognition, counting, etc. We also cleaned out our toy box and got reacquainted with some toys we hadn't seen in awhile (or that Mommy had forgotten she'd put away).

Along with caring for the boys during the week, Justin remains very busy at school and with his teaching in the evenings. He's also very busy helping a professor with research for an entry in a new book that's being published on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers over the past week!

Bear Hugs

The Flu Crew

Silly Boys

More Than Ok...

I was thinking of naming this post "Stupid Germs" or "Stupid Flu", but then I was thinking that the "stupid" flu has already gotten way too much press and attention, so I'm going to try to avoid that here. Yes, Jacoby has H1N1 flu as was confirmed yesterday at the pediatrician's. Yes, we're all (except for Morgan) on antivirals now. And yes, we've been sanitizing, cleaning, and laundering like mad to banish the germs and bugs, while keeping the makers of Lysol, Wet Ones, hand sanitizer, and Clorox wipes in business single handedly. But you know, we're doing just fine. Jacoby and Morgan are both very healthy boys, and Jacoby is showing a great deal of resilience through his illness. He's actually quite himself as long as the Motrin is warding off the high fever he's been having. Of greater concern to Justin and I right now is the possibility that he may be developing a food allergy. We're scheduling an appointment with the allergist on Monday to have him checked out. Needless to say, we're spending this snowy, cold weekend inside reading lots of books, watching videos, and snuggling on the couch (and avoiding nuts). We're definitely more than ok!

On to a few highlights from our week! Morgan earned the title of "biggest feet" in his class this week! And he's not even close to being the oldest child in the bunch! They take feet prints to put in each child's journal, and the teachers thought it was pretty humorous that our ginormous 7-month old won out in the feet contest. He's getting used to eating table food. We're also kind of wondering if he's going to skip crawling and go straight to walking--his favorite activity this week has been standing.

The other night I heard a soft knocking on the other side of Jacoby's door. It was about 9 pm and he went to bed (supposedly) at 7 pm. I opened the door to check it out and there he was standing in his red rubber boots looking at me. Busted! Apparently he had put them on (on the right feet no less!) and couldn't get them off. So cute!

Another highlight of our week was talking to Aunt Kenzie via web cam! It's so fun to be in touch with her this way...and we even got to meet Ben.

Here are a few pictures from our week (more on the picture web site)...

Waiting for supper

No flu is going to take this smile away!

Checking out the first snow of the season...in his red rubber boots