Today our precious C.J. turned 5! We had big plans to celebrate this milestone year, but God had other things in mind! Instead of our yearly family indoor swimming celebration, we were snowed in with 30 inches of snow. So, the older siblings promised C.J. they’d build him a snowfort. He was a good sport and seemed to be fine with that change of plans! That morning, instead of our dinner celebration with Aunt Kari, Uncle Stephan and Bernadette we had a special family breakfast of waffles, bacon and eggs.Then, last night we got another foot of snow so today Daddy was home again. So, we had more time outside in the snow with a special cookie baking session in the afternoon. Up above you can see the kids outside enjoying the mounds of snow. And below you can see that the mound of snow is taller than C.J.After a fun time out playing in the snow while Daddy did more snow shoveling, they came in to decorate the sugar cookies that C.J. and Lela had made earlier. And, boy did they have fun eating, I mean, decorating the cookies!Here they are hard at work…Karis even participated! At first we thought she didn’t like chocolate, but it grew on her. After the first few tries she started to eat the chocolate chips.Drumroll please! Presenting the masterpieces: Up first we have one of C.J.’s special creations.Next, we have our only cookie with words made by Lela along with one of Nate and Justin’s masterpieces. See and download the full gallery on posterousHAPPY BIRTHDAY C.J.! We love you and are so enjoying watching you grow up. One thing that you have been really into the past few weeks is chess. Every spare moment you are asking if you can play chess on the computer, play chess with Brianna, play chess with anyone who’s available? Daddy was amazed at how much you really understood. Another thing that you really enjoy is doing workbook pages at the table, doing crafts with Lela, playing Star Wars action figures with Justin, playing superheroes with your brothers. Mommy really enjoyed snuggling with you the other night on the couch…Daddy said we were snoring!Daddy was looking forward to your Super Hero birthday party this weekend, but due to the snow he decided that he’d rather postpone that until next year and he’s planning to do something special with just the two of you sometime soon. We’ll also plan to have an indoor swimming party closer to Lela’s birthday and make it a joint thing this year. Right now you are playing chess with Daddy and then we’re going to watch a movie at your request. Hope you’ve had a special day! We love you!

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