a taste of amos' january

Amos is such a fun little boy.  He's lively, lovable and runs on routine.  Every morning the first words out of his mouth are "I need a banana."  The question, "why?" is asked about a zillions times a day, but I keep answering because I never want him to stop asking me questions.

He's a huge pretender.  His new favorite thing to pretend is Bob the Builder.  He does a lot of work around the house for me.  The best part of this pretend playing is that now we can use imaginary objects.  Don't have a hard hat, no problem, you've got a pretend one on your head.  However, he always gets the BIG one and we get the little one, no matter what it is.

He's such a good brother, too!  Sure we have some fights and hitting and stealing toys, but there are also those wonderful times when he gives Silas a toy without asking or holds Silas' hand while walking down steps or I go searching for them and find them reading a book together on Amos' bed!  Those are the ones I'll remember.

These days he loves getting dressed himself, cutting up paper and building with legos.  We've been working on putting his dirty clothes in the hamper and making sure his shoes get picked up.  We got home one evening and he ran straight to his room, took off his coat, hung it up, and put his boots away!  I don't even do that.  We are going to encourage this!

He loves playing jokes and having jokes played on him.  We sure enjoy him!

silas john - 15 months

Where did my baby go?  That big boy haircut really did it  It could be that he never crawls, understands what I say, and does a pretty good job of telling me what he wants, too.  Amos doesn't think he's much of a baby either.  He doesn't think he should get a free pass on picking up the toys, rough housing or sharing toys.  We've entered a new phase of brothers.  The playing fields are a little more even.  And it sure is fun!

weekend with family

Last weekend, we had such a fun time with family.  Jason's dad and brother had a long weekend, so everyone made the trip down to see us.  The kids had a blast playing together.   Emma does a great job taking care of Silas.  When we go out to eat, she sits by him and makes sure he eats and drinks enough. Amos likes to sit by Teigan and do everything he does.

Papa brought down Amos' tricycle from Great Grandma Musgrave.  He LOVES it.  In fact, Saturday morning, he woke up bright and early, a promptly got on it.  I think he surprised Granny, by turning to light on at 5:30 am.

wildcat glades in the winter

we utilized the beautiful weather last weekend and took a trip to Wildcat Glades Park.  Every time we go, we wonder why we don't go more often.  I think we think it's going to be a big hassle, but really, it doesn't take too much work to load up and drive 10 minutes!  It's one of those places that is hard to believe is in Joplin!

Thanks to our new double stroller, trails are a piece of cake.

Although, it didn't take long for Amos to decide he would rather walk.  He walked almost the whole way, and slept well that night.

 Silas was wide-eyed the whole time, just taking everything in.

These sure are my favorite guys!

"Mom, look, I have a mustache!" What silly boys I have!

an experiment

After 19 days off, and a lot of mornings like this:

Daddy finally went back to work on Thursday. It was a little rough on all of us, so we decided to do an experiment.

With all this snow and cold weather, I though it was very fitting to make our theme this month WINTER.  God made me, and God made winter.  Our experiment went like this.

We started by going outside and making a little snowman.

We brought him inside to see what would happen if he got really hot.

Amos manned the blow-dryer and we waited!

Poor little snowman.  He melted all away and left a puddle of water on the floor.
Amos made sure and told Daddy what happened to our snowman we he got home from work.

amos jack's december

Oh man, that was a fast month! Amos is becoming such a little boy.  I can't find too much baby left.  I'm sure when he's older, I'll look back and think how little he looks, but right now he seems so big.  He brings us so much joy!

silas john - month 14