My baby is ONE!

My sweet Silas is one year old! His birthday was about a month ago, but I am late as usual. :-) He has grown so much and has turned into a sweet, funny little guy!!

Here he is in the hospital....


and just a week or two old with his brother... they have both grown up so much!


... and now he is one! We celebrated a couple of times this year- we didn't have a big blow-out party, but there was cake involved! I think that is all he cared about anyway! HA!





Cake number two... i guess he didn't feel the need to use his hands this time.




all gone! yay!


Happy birthday sweet boy! I love you so much! I can't wait to see what kind of man God has created you to be!

dentist

Micah took his first trip to the dentist recently. He did GREAT! I was so proud of him. He let the dentist clean all of his teeth and even let her floss! I couldn't believe it. I was a little nervous about how he would do, but he was amazing. He was proud of himself too, I could tell!



He even wore sunglasses to shield his eyes from the bright light! HA!

new pics

I am getting in trouble for not posting pictures often enough, so I had a few minutes--I thought I would take advantage of both boys sleeping! That doesn't seem to happen lately as often as I would like...

We have been busy as always! The last couple of months we have done a lot of traveling to see friends, family and do some vacationing! We always seem to be on the run, but we have had a lot of fun. Here are a few pics of our times!

This is one of my favorite pics of the boys- I love that they are holding hands! They are becoming good, good friends. I love to see their relationship develop. Silas gets SO excited when Micah comes in the room. One of the best parts of our day is when Micah wakes up from a nap- Silas usually wakes up first, so when we hear Micah getting up, Silas gets so animated. He kicks his feet and waves his hands and squeals with excitement. So joyful!


What good is summer without ice cream?? This is what happens when we have a chocolate ice cream cone....

Silas is a thirsty boy...don't worry, it's water. :-)

We went to Colorado and rode a train in the mountains-- it was so much fun! Both of the boys LOVED it. It was so nice that day- so beautiful!



Silas got a big car for his birthday- he loves to get in and out. He was pretty excited about it!

birthday parties- part 2

So, when I posted last, with birthday parties part 1, i intended on posting pics of MY birthday party-- way back in march. Well, I have never pretended that I am very good at posting regularly, and here it is, May and we are onto boys birthday parties! I guess I got skipped-- but I did have a great party! Paul threw a surprise party for me and it was AWESOME.

Anyway... Micah is 3!! My sweet baby boy is growing up! We had a good week or 2 of birthday festivities. On his birthday, we went to the zoo and then Cold Stone for ice cream. He picked chocolate ice cream with gummy bears in it... gross! but he loved it. Here are some pics of our day--

Silas looked pretty sneaky while we were opening presents... i am sure he was trying to figure out how to get all the new toys from brother...




We tried to have a birthday party for Micah last week, but both boys got sick- Micah with pink eye and Silas with an ear infection. They both had fevers and were CRABBY. We decided probably not the best time for a party, and Micah didn't want to infect all his friends. So we postponed it for about a week- this past Tuesday we had a great party- the weather was perfect! We played animal croquet-- Silas was pretty good at it:

Micah was thoughtful... probably thinking about cake...
We painted with cars- the tracks they made were awesome!
And of course, we ate cake! I made a back hoe cake, per Micah's request. I love to make cakes for him- it is a lot of fun for me to see what I can do. I thought it turned out pretty well. The dump truck cake was EASY too... I just threw cake, pudding and oreo crumbles in the back of the truck- it was the yummiest dirt I have ever eaten. :-)
Micah had fun scooping the dirt!
He got some great gifts- thanks friends! He loved this motorcycle. He rides it all over, and gives Silas rides too! They actually do really well- I'll try to post a pic of both of them riding sometime. Micah holds onto Silas and drives him around the house. He insists on wearing his helmet, too. He is very safety conscious! Grandpa Jay, he must get that from you!


Happy Birthday, sweet boy! I love you!!

birthday parties- part 1

March is always busy, and so much fun for Paul and I, since we both have birthdays! This year we had a lot of fun- Paul's birthday was a little more low-key. Will and Abi came over and we ate Thai food (SO good!!) and we just hung out. It was a good time with good friends! Paul got a music player and he serenaded us all night. He is very talented!! He'll probably go on the road soon. Watch for a concert schedule.



Silas wasn't too sure about the hat....It took me a while to post this, but Happy Birthday babe! I love you!

kids

For those of you who only want to see these sweet boys....


Micah is very careful to always use a coaster! He doesn't, however, like to use the table- apparently, it's too far away.


Silas trying out a yellow pepper-- he loved it!
We see this face a lot-- he is very expressive and has a lot to say!
Silas is getting big! Crawling, pulling up on whatever he can- he loves this table and plays with it all day! He can stand at it when all 4 legs are on too.
lots of smiles!
Micah still loves to read and has a great corner to lounge!


Crawling! He loves balls and will crawl across the room for them. They are his biggest motivation for moving!
Micah discovered styrofoam... fun times for a 2 year old! What a mess!
Micah LOVES to draw. He works hard to make creatures with arms, legs and hair. He is explaining his drawings to me- I think these were spiders and a long road. Usually he draws, then decides what it is, as opposed to the other way around.
I love this face!

We live in KC!

Wow- it has been a long couple of weeks! We officially have moved in, and we are so excited to be here- most of the time! We are DEFINITELY still adjusting and will be for some time, but it is nice to be on the road to being settled.

We are loving our house- it feels like so much space! It is almost twice the size of any place we have ever lived, and it is amazing how it just doesn't take long to fill up the space you have! But we aren't bursting at the seams, either, like we were in other places we have lived. Some things we love about our house--

--The bedrooms are upstairs! So nice to put kiddos to bed and not feel like we have to tiptoe around the whole time they are sleeping so not to wake them up!
--We have a big kitchen! Lots of room to work and have more than a couple people in there at a time.
--We have a separate dining room. I love having meals as a family! It makes us feel so connected to each other. And now that we are actually cooking and eating at home again, it is a good time to be together. Silas is eating so much now! Lots of baby food, but he is also beginning to enjoy some table food! He loves Cheerios and gets so excited when we get them out! I don't know what moms did before there were Cheerios.
--Our family room. We got new furniture for that space- a recliner (for Paul-- but I am pretty sure Micah has claimed it and thinks it is just for him) and a sectional couch. It's awesome. All of the toys are in that room- I think we spend 95% of our time there!
--Our "grown-up" living room. We had friends here to visit us this weekend, and Adam was very excited to "retire to the sitting room" after kiddos were in bed. It is a great space (with no toys!) to be grown-ups. We turned on the fireplace and talked- it was great.
--All of our windows. We have 39 windows in our house. I get a little overwhelmed when I think about blinds, curtains, etc for all of them (right now we have sheets over some of them in the bedrooms, just so we can change clothes without turning off the neighbors!) but I LOVE the light and openness they give to our house. Even when it is cold outside, our windows let in so much light and warmth it makes our space so inviting!
--Micah loves the stairs. (They make me a little nervous.) he has so much fun going upstairs to play, coming downstairs to play. He sits on them to read sometimes-- lots of fun. He also loves to race cars on our hardwood floors.

I need to take pics and post them- I haven't gotten to that point yet. Maybe this week I will!

Paul starts "work" this week. I am not exactly sure what that will entail. He wants to get a job at a local coffee shop or restaurant, so I am sure he will start looking for that, and he is preaching in Topeka next Sunday, so he needs to write a sermon. We will miss having him around all the time! He has been SUCH a great help with the kids, with the house, and we love having him at home all the time to play with! But at the same time, it will be really good to get back into a routine. I think we all need it.

An update on Silas-- he started crawling yesterday!!! Hooray! He is not quite to the "taking off across the room" yet, but he will go a few feet. He is working so hard on it. It is really sweet. I think Paul took some pics, so I will try to find them and post them soon. He is getting so big! I am very thankful to Jesus that Silas waited until we had been here 2 weeks before he started crawling. It made our move and transition much easier, not worrying about where he was.

pictures soon! (I hope-- my track record isn't very good! :-)