GR8

The grand finale for our January birthdays was a GR8 one with Luke's birthday today! He kicked off the day with 8 candles in his cinnamon roll (which just might be the maximum number of candles according to fire code for a pastry). He celebrated with his class at school, and then we treated him to a birthday dinner at his favorite restaurant Salsa Brava! At the great age of 8, he loves sports of all kinds especially basketball and baseball, enjoys reading & writing stories, and is the model big brother. Luke, we are so proud of who you are today. Your character is developing into such a respectful young man, and we love watching how enthusiastic and positive you are. Your name is derived from ancient Greek meaning "light" and that couldn't fit you more perfectly. Thank you for shining your bright little spirit on all those around you!

ONE!

Our little Grant celebrated his FIRST BIRTHDAY! What a blessing this past year has been for our family! Transitioning to a family of 5 has been more fun than we could have ever imagined! Grant's personality is so happy, and he's always quick to smile and show off his 6 teeth. Because he's been a good sleeper since the early days, we feel like we've gotten to really enjoy all the moments & milestones of his first year ... because we weren't sleep deprived! Grant is curious, funny, observant, determined & super social. He loves to be in the center of the action (which usually means whatever Luke & Reid are doing) and watch it all unfold. He absolutely hates socks & shoes and prefers to remove them immediately after being buckled into his carseat. As a Colorado baby, he loves the Great Outdoors, especially when it involves riding in the backpack for hiking or snowshoe treks. He has not used a pacifier but prefers his thumb (now only at bedtime). He is tall for his age (75% percentile height) and a lean mean crawling machine (25% percentile weight). 

This sweet boy is quite the cause for celebration, so we greeted Birthday #1 with an owl cupcake party!

Whoooo's turning one?

Tablescape

Family Photo for Grant's 1st Birthday

Mom & Dad with their littlest owl

 Cupcakes & the invitation

 More cupcakes & his birth announcement

 Scott & Grant with our friends sweet Sarah & Drew

Papa & Grant

Our January Birthday Crew

Oh, boy! Are they singing to me?

One candle on the cupcake!

Click on this photo above to see him

demolish his cupcake!

Let Him Eat Cake!

What's the best thing about a 1st birthday party? Watching the birthday boy eat cake!

And the 2nd best thing? Watching him eat cake in super speed fast motion! Enjoy the video below. 

Zip to It

1 birthday. 2 birthdays. 3 birthdays. All in a row within just a few days of each other. This weekend is one big celebration after another to celebrate the special days of Jami, Grant & Luke! We are switching up the boys' birthday celebrations just a bit to a fun new "system." On odd number birthdays, they will have a party; on even number birthdays, they can choose an "adventure" or "experience" to try. With Luke turning 8, he decided he wanted to go to an indoor ziplining facility in Denver called Mid-Air Adventures. For this early celebration, we invited his buddy Gavin to join us for the evening of ziplining and a sleepover in honor of Luke's 8 great years! What an absolute blast the boys had!

Reid takes the plunge off the platform!

Gavin runs the zipline back to the starting point.

Luke gets geared up and ready to go.

(This shows how several ziplines are operating at once.)

Tall Luke

They also had a rock climbing wall.

Fearless Reid at the top ready to rappel down.

Spiderman

Gavin & Luke fly tandem

Wheeeeee!

"I can't wait until I'm big enough to try this.

It looks like so much fun!"

Mama & the boys

In the video below, Luke and Gavin zip across on the
far back zipline. Then Reid demonstrates his best
Spiderman moves (if you've ever seen the movie,
Reid does a very good impression of how the
superhero swings in between buildings.)

Redecorating

Today called for a little sprucing up of our home decor! We framed some new family photos (thanks to the fabulous work of Jamie Smith Photography once again) and added a few other elements to this accent wall in our dining room. This wall is immediately visible when you walk in the front door, so it's a fun way to showcase our latest and greatest family photos.

Within 2 hours of this wall being finished, another element of home "decor" was added to our dining room. A while back, Scott mentioned how awesome it would be to put a basketball goal on this closet door and scoot our dining room table back so the boys could play hoops on the long wood floor of our dining room. Well, the dream became a reality when Luke received a basketball hoop as a gift from the Goffs. Check it out!

Now when people come over for dinner, we can treat them to an after-dinner game of hoops!

grAntics

The littlest Leahy has been up to all kinds of new tricks on the eve of his first birthday. His personality shines through more and more each day, and we love his funny little "grAntics." Enjoy the video!

Good Morning

One of our favorite morning routines.

Just like some old guys in the coffee shop, 

sitting around chatting...

Racing into Twenty Twelve

There is no better way to kick start the new year than a 5K run with friends. Wearing sparkle tights & crazy socks. Sporting shiny tiaras and colorful necklaces. Laughing our way into 2012. We ventured out and about on New Year's Day to stride it out in the Rescue Run, which benefits El Paso Search & Rescue. (For those of you who don't live in mountainous regions, this group helps to save hikers and climbers who get stranded or injured while enjoying our Great Outdoors.)

 Ready for the race to begin!

Thanks to my friend Melissa for capturing

this photo of my "running spirit."

Cheers to 2012!