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).  (: 

Happy Thanksgiving

From our home to yours!

Turkey Trot

We had a great time at the Turkey Trot yesterday morning!

 

 Justin PR'd in the 10K...and the boys and I ran the 2-mile much fast than we did last year!

 Jacoby ran the entire race, mostly ahead of us.  When he'd pull back to catch up with Morgan and me, he had the biggest grin on his face.  I think he's caught the race bug like his Mommy!  Morgan ran 90% of the race and had fun doing it with one of his buddies from Kinder.

 Hey, check out that girl with the short pony tail!  I whacked about 8 inches off my hair this week and have zero hair cutting remorse. (:

Otherwise, it's nothing but Legos around here!

Fall Fun

It has been a busy few weeks around here!  We've been enjoying a beautiful Colorado fall.  Here are photos of the past few weeks.

Halloween costumes were assembled and revealed.  Yes, I did get prior permission to make their costumes the same.  They had a lot of fun with these.

 We went to the Longmont Halloween parade

 Met up with some of our favorite friends to walk the parade together

 Jacoby and a BFF from school...Darth and Frodo made a good pair. 

 The parade was very popular and we had a good time.

 We raked leaves in our yard.

 We participated in the Teal Pumpkin Project to raise awareness for food allergies.  We didn't give out any candy this year (just a fun mix of small toys) and it was a big hit with our trick-or-treaters.

 We had a man down for about 1.5 days.  He recovered quickly and has been eating us out of house and home.

 The little sickie built himself a fort and then layed in it for awhile.  Poor thing.

 Even the Lego mini figures got involved with the Teal Pumpkin Project!

Morgan's class took a field trip to the farm across the street from school.  Here they're learning all about sorghum molasses.  Who knew you could get molasses from sorghum!?

 

 I helped out with the Kinder Halloween party, which was a lot of fun.  Morgan is going to school with a great group of little kids.

 The school had its annual Halloween parade.  Jacoby's teacher is the one right in front with the dogs and cats pinned to her umbrella.  We love her.

 Justin helped man the second grade party

 

 Morgan opted to stay home and give out our Halloween loot, so we had fun doing that together.

 Both boys opted for small Lego sets instead of candy, which was just fine with us!

 The boys had a great time at a school pool party.  They had to raise a certain amount of money for the annual PTO Jog-a-thon to get to the party.  Both boys started another round of swimming lessons today--Morgan finally got to advance to the next class.  He's a seal now.  (:

 We met up with Morgan's preschool class today for a park date.  Miss S. is stealing a kiss from Morgan.

It was so fun to see everyone and to hear how Kinder is going.  They're growing up so fast!

Jacoby decided it was time to wear tie shoes, so he spent an evening practicing and is pretty much a pro at it now.

26.2!

Today was marathon day!  I joined around 15,000 other runners this morning for a beautiful 26.2 mile run through Denver.  I'm so glad I did it, but I'm also so glad it's over!

Here are a few tidbits ruminating in my head as this long running journey finally comes to an end:

Miles logged from the time training started in June to race day:  502.46
Calories burned from June through race day:  59,115
Weight gained: 10 pounds (not kidding!)
Pairs of running shoes: 3

Most of my runs happened at o'dark thirty in an attempt to reduce the impact on my family.  As a result, I witnessed some of the most beautiful sunrises.  Here are a few favorites:

Favorite quotes during training:

"Mommy, you can run far" --from Jacoby
"Erin, I don't understand the point of running so far for no reason.  There are only two reasons to run: if a thug is chasing you or the police are chasing you!" --from one of my favorite people at work

Why do I run? A question I've asked myself countless times when I'm out by myself at o'dark thirty:

I run away from:  feeling overwhelmed and stuck; fear; impatience; mistakes of the day, week, month, year; sadness

I run toward:  grace; gratitude; wanting to be a better mom/wife; patience; renewal; calm and peace, strength; and a desire to instill in my boys that if they try their best, they can do hard things too

Favorite signs out on the race course today:

"It seemed like a good idea three months ago!"
"Motivational Sign" --held by a sullen teenager of course
"Not much farther to go!" --as we pass mile three

Some unexpected tunes on my phone that came to be mighty helpful for getting the miles logged and across the finish line:
Usher
Guns n Roses
Flo Rida
U2
Bon Jovi
Macklemore

I owe a huge thank you to my family for putting up with the countless hours of training and an often tired mommy.  Justin, whose patience knows no bounds, has graciously endured my emotional roller coaster over the past few weeks after the Boulder Marathon was canceled and lots of things were in flux for awhile.  And my boys, they are the reason that I run, and as I wearily climbed the front steps after my long Saturday runs, they would greet me cheerfully and want to know if I was finished with my run so that we could go to the park and library.

I am a Marathon Mom!

 

Snuggling with my little one on the bus ride to the car...Morgan was eying some rambunctious Broncos fans.  Very busy day in Denver!

 

 Jacoby taking care of my medal on the way home for me

Hooray for 26.2!