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! :-)

i knew I was bad at this blogging thing...

ok, so it has only been like, a month and a half since my last post! I knew when I started this new blog, that it would be a challenge to update regularly! I REALLY DO have good intentions... my life just gets in the way, I guess!

Here is a brief update of what has happened since my last post....

• we hit something in the road and blew out 2 tires and a rim on our van
• went to Kansas City to look at houses
• my mom came for a week to help pack, play with kids, etc
• dedicated Silas at church
• church Christmas program where Micah sang and did GREAT!
• my mom and dad came back for Christmas
• went to Wichita for my cousin's wedding and saw great friends while we were there! We also saw my Grandpa and he got to meet Silas for the first time!
• went to OKC for another Christmas
• Went to Kansas City to close on our house!
• Had a sending service at church
  
• went to Kansas City to work on our house
• went to OKC for a church plant meeting
  
• Paul went to KC AGAIN to work on our house (he is on his way home tonight).

Somewhere in there, I have been packing, playing with kids, spending time with family, and my kids seem like they have been sick constantly. CRAZY! but life is good and we are excited about our next journey. We move next weekend- the 31st. I am very excited to see our house! Paul worked SO hard this weekend getting it ready for us to move in. I can't wait to see what he has done!

As we move, get settled and start our new adventure in KC, I really DO want to keep everyone updated! I am praying life slows down... even though it doesn't ever seem to. We have been ordered to take 2 weeks and not do anything once we move though.. just get settled. I am going to hold us to it. We need it!!

Fun with Mirrors

Silas is sitting up now (he's so big! I can hardly believe it) and he LOVES his reflection. I took some pics recently of him, enjoying himself. Enjoy!

Thankfulness

Thanksgiving was a crazy busy weekend-- but it seems like all of our weekends are crazy busy in our lives. We always think- life will slow down, and it never does. We always find something to fill our days! We had 2 dinners on Thanksgiving- one with Paul's dad's side, and one with his mom's side. LOTS of food, as I am sure all of you can relate! We had a late lunch and an early dinner, so we just rolled home after it was all over.

Paul and I love to cook for Thanksgiving- we don't like to make traditional TG foods- we like to come up with unique things to bring. Each year we try to find something new and different to make. This year we made Brussels sprouts (and I just learned this year that it is "Brussels" not "brussel"), sweet potato au gratin, and crossaint and chocolate bread pudding. It was all incredible, if I may compliment ourselves. :-) VERY rich, but really good.

Silas had a festive outfit for the day:

Friday night, we had some excitment that we weren't anticipating and never hope for-- Jay's house (Paul's dad) caught on fire. They aren't exactly sure what caused it (as far as I know), and fortunately, caught it early, but there was a lot of smoke and other damage. Even though there was damage, I know they are thankful that they caught it when they did, and it was controlled quickly. They are working to clean it all up, but I am sure it is a mess.

This weekend made me think again about our past year and a half that we have been in Fairview. It has been a whirlwind of a time- with SO many life changing events that have taken place in such a short time, and I am so thankful that we were here for all of it. I am thankful for our family- I was a little intimidated about moving to a place with SO much family- but it has been more than I anticipated, and I will miss having my family close. Our church family has also been incredible, and I will really miss having that support system surrounding us.

We are excited for our new adventure in KC, but I will miss this place more than I ever thought I would! Today I had a play date and lunch with 2 friends- and I will miss both of them so much! Thanks for loving me!!

Noses

Both of our boys are sick. Micah is on an antibiotic, so he is starting to feel better, but he is still congested, and apparently, his nose is pretty sore from blowing it all the time.

He was eating breakfast this morning and asked me "Mommy, put gasoline on my nose!"

"Put what on your nose?"

"Gasoline."

"You want vaseline on your nose?"

"No, gasoline."

I love that kid. :-)

quiet house

Both boys are sleeping (hooray!!) and Paul is out running, so I have a quiet house this evening. Hopefully, the boys sleep well tonight. Silas still isn't even close to sleeping through the night, and as I remember with Micah, this is the point where it REALLY starts to wear on me. I have never been very good at letting my babies cry it out at all, and so it makes for long nights and a long process of learning to sleep through the night. I am jealous of my friends who have babies who sleep well-- but at the same time, I don't know if I am willing to go through the crying part. Last night we let him cry awhile... 10 minutes before we went in to him! it's a start... but I still don't think I can let him cry for very long. Sleep training is NOT my greatest strength. But it will come, right?? Micah sleeps well now.... it just took a long time. Hopefully it won't take Silas as long, but I have a feeling we are headed down the same road. oh well.... someday when I am old I will sleep all night.

Today we had a family picture taken at church for the directory-- this was photo shoot #3 in less than a week. We took pics last week at JCP of our family and the boys, a pastoral staff pic last week also, and then today. I am pretty sure Micah is pictured out, and I am tired of trying to find matching clothes for all of us! I can't imagine families with lots of kids, how they ever get everyone to look good at once, let alone look in the same direction at the same time. We only have 2 kids, and pictures are hard work! Today, both boys were sleeping right before we had to go, and we tried to wake them up. Both of them woke up, then fell back asleep! Our kids, who don't like to sleep at night, won't wake up in the middle of the afternoon! ARG! Micah cried and whined all the way up to the picture, then did great. Silas is always all smiles.

Here's a pic of our family from last week:


We are headed back to KC this weekend to look at more houses. We went a few weekends ago, and found one we like, but we aren't sure we can afford it. I am praying that we find one this weekend that we like just as well, but cheaper. What a process, looking at/buying a house! It has been a lot of fun so far, but pretty overwhelming. We are learning a lot. I am excited to find a house and settle!! We have about 16 we want to look at this weekend-- a lot to sort through. It should be fun!