Saturday, July 7, 2012

Red, Hot & Blue



Yesterday was full of family, friends, fun and HEAT as we celebrated Amos’ first birthday in red, white and blue style.  Everyone was a great sport when it came to outside festivities.  It didn’t help any that our air conditioning had trouble keeping up – putting the house at a whoppin’ 80 degrees.  We all sweated through, because the birthday boy was having a ball!  I'll let the pictures tell the story!  Couldn't have done this without my family!!!!




52 weeks of pictures

Grilling in the heat
















He was not a big fan of eating the cake!


He was a fan of demolishing it!


Surprise!

He made out like a bandit.





 
Cheesing for the camera!
A few of our guests posing for the camera!







Thanks to Sarah who took a lot of pictures for me!  Otherwise I wouldn't have had near as many!

If you couldn't tell, we had a fun day!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Happy Birthday Amos!

I woke Amos up this morning with, what else, "Happy Birthday!" He sat up with a huge smile on his face.  It's like he knew it was his birthday.  We then went and "woke" Daddy up.  More smiles ensued. We both can't believe how much we love this little guy and his big personality.  Every day he does stuff that amazes us.







Last night, on the way to our 4th of July party, we filled Amos in on the details of this time last year.  I happened to be wearing the same shirt as I wore last year, because I only have one maternity shirt that's red.  As a side note, if you had told me last year that I would be this pregnant this year, I would have laughed at you.  Look who's laughing now!  I had spent the entire day walking - on the treadmill, around the mall, at Wal-mart, then to the park for fireworks and back home.  We totaled up that it was probably around 7 miles.  I guess it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise that my water broke around 2:30 am the next morning.  19 hours later, Amos Jack Vance arrived!  I'm sure he'll never get tired of hearing that one every 4th of July! Ha ha!


This month has been so much fun!  A big reason…Dad’s home!  A whole new side of Amos comes out when he’s playing with his Daddy. 

I feel like there are so many new things.  One of the big ones is his ability to understand and communicate.  I’m pretty sure he gets about 85% of what I say.  He’s using the pointing grunt system to get what he wants right now and boy does he love to point.  He’s a great mimic-er.  He normally gets inflection and syllables correct, but not always sounds.  My mom was hear and noticed how he talks almost musically.  He will repeat the same little tune over and over again. 

He’s a full time walker, and at times runner.  He loves to climb on things and hide behind stuff.  Occasionally he’ll point to things on request, like his nose, tummy, hair and teeth, but its rare.  He’s got 6 teeth total and using them for all they’re worth in things like corn on the cob, apples, and pretzels.  He has developed a bit of a picky side, but still likes most things, so I can’t complain too much.

He’s a well-rested boy, sleeping12 hours at night napping two times a day.   He loves nap-time.  All I need to do is put him in his crib and he grabs a blanket and lays down smiling!  Sleep training definitely paid off!

His favorite things this month have been playing with Daddy, watching the train go by, exploring the house, swimming, eating popsicles, and reading books.  From time to time, I’ll find him sitting on the floor by himself with a book opened in his lap.  Gotta love that!

The first year has been a great one, but I know the best is yet to come!

The Last Week



The last week has come and gone.  It was a great, busy week!  We were able to spend two different evenings with friends, Amos’ friends too.  Then the weekend was spent with family.

Saturday involved two beautiful nieces first year birthdays.  They overlapped, but we tried to hit them both.  We started out in Carthage to celebrate Miss Josie Princess!  Amelia did such a great job with everything and Josie thoroughly enjoyed herself.  Check out some of the cute pictures below!

Could she be any cuter?

The balloons were their favorite.

She had a sceptor and everything!

She wasn't a big fan of the crown, but she sure looked cute!

Digging into the cake!  "Someone put this crown on my head again," she said.

Amos enjoyed himself too!  He was in such a great mood that day.  I kept saying, "I hope he's in this good of mood for his birthday party next week."  He just walked all around, even cheesing for the camera.




Then we hit the road for Lebanon.  When we got there, the presents and cake had been opened and cut, but we still had fun just hanging out!

The birthday girl, herself!


Teigan and Amos



Emma has just started walking, and she loved to be applauded for her efforts!  Sometimes she got so carried away clapping that she would knock herself over!


Somebody's got a BIG belly!

We were able to spend Sunday and Monday there too!  Jason went kayaking with his dad and brother on Monday while Amos and I caught up on some sleeping back at the house! 

We made it home that night just in time to unload and the next morning we reloaded for the lake.  We met up with my parents, brother and Josie at the lake.







We didn't just make them stare out all day longing to be on the water.  We took them down to the dock and did some swimming and jumping in.  They both love the water.  Amos even went out on a short boat ride to watch Uncle Joe ski!  Needless to say he was worn out on the way home.  He was asleep before we left the drive way!