spring break 2014

We love spring break!  I mean, what's not to love?  Dad was home for 10 days and we filled it full of fun.  I'll let the pictures do most of the talking, there's a lot!

We started the break by heading to Lebanon to see Nana & Papa.  We spent the first day playing and then that night, Jason led worship with Jeffrey for a worship night at their church.  Even with a late night, these boys still woke up bright an early!  Love those sleepy morning eyes.

We surprised Great Grandma "Granny" by moving her out of her house and in with Brad and Sharon.  The kids had fun watching the men move everything in. 

 And because the weather was so beautiful, we were able to spend quite a bit of time outside.  Emma loved taking car of Silas.  She was always ready with his milk or a toy.

We headed home late Saturday night in order to get back for church Sunday.  Luckily the boys fell asleep after about an hour.  My kids are crazy and don't like to sleep in cars.

We then spent the next two days painting!  My husband is a saint.  I had the crazy idea that we should repaint everything all at once so that we didn't have to be in constant paint mode.  I don't know which would have been worse, because after the second night of staying up until midnight, I was ready to kill the person that came up with this plan (me!).  It looks so wonderful though!  I'm glad it's done.  You should come over and check out our "new" house.

In the middle of the chaos!

We rewarded all our painting and craziness by a fun day on Wednesday.  We got up early and started with donuts.  Amos can put away some donuts.  We headed to Rangeline Antiques afterwards a spent some time looking around.  Because that's a no-touching place, we headed to the museum at Wildcat Glades where Amos could explore everything to his heart's content.  We finished up with lunch at Chick-fi-la and nice long naps for everyone.

The end of the week was Jason's reward for all the painting: a three day kayaking trip.  Three days at home without Daddy isn't much of a vacation for us, so we loaded up and headed to Grammy and Gramps.  It worked out perfect that Josie and Priscilla were there too.  We had a blast.

These two played so well together.  I think they both liked all the new toys to try out.

This is a bit reminiscent of two other little kids in high chairs.

 This guy was quite the daredevil when it came to the slide.

We got home Saturday evening and took it pretty easy of Sunday!  Now it's time to get back into a routine.

a taste of amos' february

Due to Amos being a bit under the weather, and Mom not taking enough pictures, the video is a bit shorter this month.  I love that I finally got "Be Thou My Vision" on video.  We chose it as his bedtime song before he was born, so he's heard it almost every day of his life.  Can't wait until he understands what he sings.

party with your friends

We've had lots of friends over these last two weeks and have had a blast!  Now Amos wakes up asking me, "Who we gonna have over today, Mom?"

Anybody want to come over and play???

remember when it used to be warm?

We do!  In fact, we went on a picnic and only wore jackets!

We love that this place is so close.  And can't wait to utilize it even more.

silas john - 16 months

1.  Amos was never much of a wrestler, but this guy sure is.  All that needs to happen is someone to be on the floor and it is wrestling time.

2.  He's been working on all 4 molars for a while and the top two have finally broken through!  Teething is so hard.

3.  That's right.  The boys are back together.  It is going much better than the last time we tried it.  The first few days were really rough and we still have some bad days, but this was a good time to do and I think they are both at a good age for it.

4.  The splits have become his favorite move.  I think the Olympics brought on this skill, because now he likes to move to the middle of the floor and slowing go down into the splits.  A huge smile on his face the whole time.

5.  He loves to get outside and go places - anywhere.  His new trick is to bring me his shoes and then his jacket.  He knows he needs those before he can leave the house.

6.  He'll sit a read by himself, or bring them to us, but he loves to be reading.  If Amos is reading, then he can not be left out.

7.  Once I really stopped to listen, I realized Silas is saying so many words.  But he also likes to repeat what we say too.  Amos was never much of a mimic.  In fact, if we said it, he probably wouldn't.  But Silas is the opposite.  He likes to repeat what we say.

8.  There are certain books that I pretend to cry while reading and Silas just looks at me, waiting for the tears to come.  He can barely contain his laughter.

9.  That's right, he's learning the art of throwing a fit.  I realize we are still in the mini-fit stage, but there are times that he just bursts into tears because he didn't get what he wanted.

10.  However, most of the time he is just as happy and content as can be.  I don't know if it is just a second child thing, but he just loves to sit and play by himself.

I remember loving this age with Amos and the same is true for Silas!  15-16 months are one of my favorite ages!  Their little personalities are bursting out and they are still happy all the time.  18 months was a rough phase for Amos, so I'm just soaking all this love in!

pinterest fail...

Sensory play....

After about 5 seconds, Amos asked me for a napkin for his hands.  After wiping them off, he asked me to get rid of the "snow."

They then spent the next 30 minutes playing just like this.

That teaches me never to underestimate the simplicity of little boys and cars.  And clean-up is 100 times easier.

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!