conrad jay - week 36

Conrad is trying his legs out on the ice!! haha!

Our sweet baby is getting a little more daring, but the only movement that's happening is while he's on his back and he doesn't accomplish very much that way.  I thought about what it would be like IF he were moving, and have decided he can take as long as he would like.  He doesn't need any help from me!

He's eating a lot more table food!  Bring on the mess.  He may be my most proficient table food eater.  He does such a good job "chewing' despite the fact that he doesn't have any teeth.  

Due to an overlook of the Joplin calendar, Jason found out that he was getting Monday (MLK Jr Day) off and with Friday being cancelled, we had Jason home with us 4 of the last 7 days.  An unexpected break has a different feel than one anticipated.

How crazy to think that the beginning of the week was warm enough even for this guy to be outside!  And did he love it?  Yes!  He kept squirming off the blanket to get some good clean dirt in his hands.  Only toward the end did he start to try to eat it!

Jason came home Thursday already knowing that he didn't have school on Friday.  He took the three older boys to a Joplin wresting match and left me home with a sleeping Conrad!  Ivan told me not to be too sad, and I thought that I would be able to find something to do with me time.  haha!

The early start to the weekend brought lots of playing with legos!  These boys could barely tear themselves away!

Saturday brought a little bit of actual ice, but Jason didn't let that stop him from getting out for a brisk run!  We love that the Ruby Jack is so close to our house.

Sunday was spent very casually!  And we kept saying, "You have tomorrow off too!"  

The boys are always asking for a cup of their own coffee when they see Jason making ours.  On Monday, he gave in and poured them each their own.  He then added a bunch of sugar and milk.  They loved it.

We'd been trying to fit a drive into our four day weekend.  Monday was the day.  Jason packed the boys' lunch.  We stopped at Sonic for a treat and hit the road.  Jason had the drive all mapped out.  We ended at the Joplin library.

Now begins another week.  It'll be good, even without the four day weekend!

conrad jay - week 35

Conrad started clapping his hands this week.  He loves when I sing to him and tries to join along.  

We started our co-op this week!  It was actually our first day back to real life after the holiday break.  It was a busy morning, so this is the only picture I managed to snap, but things went really, really well.  I was surprised and pleased with how smooth things went.  At this point, we are only meeting once a month for a formal meeting and then doing one field trip together!  Everyone has pretty young kids and we're all trying to figure out this homeschooling thing.  It should be fun to do it together.

We broke out a new Christmas present this week! After reading a book about microscopes, Amos and Silas were super excited to try out our new microscope!  Jason and I were blown away too!

This little one is still not crawling, but he's definitely starting to show interest.  This is his new move.  Normally he ends up on stomach and then on his back.  He is my back lover.  Don't put me on my stomach!

His stableness graduated him to big boy bath tub!  Ivan proved to be the most excited about the whole thing.

We were glad our first week back to normal was a short one.  Our "school" time consisted of reading on the couch together!

And then on Saturday, we headed to Grammy and Gramps once again to see Uncle Joe and Shaylynn.  The table was full and the laughter was contagious!

We played all the games and ate all the food!

The two are A-DORABLE!

Double time!

Watch ya mouth!  Everybody had to try it out!

And then there was a birthday celebration too!  Somebody turned 30!

I spent most of my actual birthday back in my bedroom making my way through my pile of books!  It was glorious!

Monday brought 50 degree weather and a hike on the Ruby Jack!!  We've got to take what we can in January!  Spring is still a ways off.

conrad jay - week 34

I missed Conrad's 33rd week picture, but we were traveling all around and there was no squeezing it in.  So we skip on to week 34!

Travelling with a baby is never easy, but Conrad definitely made it better.  He's really easy going and slept pretty well everywhere we went.  He's been eating a lot more food these past two weeks.  He still shows no interested in crawling, but has stretched out to all fours a few times.  My mom thinks he's waving and saying Mom! We'll see if that's really true.  We had a fun Christmas with him, but I'm sure next year will be even better!

Tuesday morning, Ivan woke up with the croup cough!  I recognized it right away and spent the day trying to loosen him up.  He "slept" in our room that night.  Or I guess I should say, I "slept" in our room that night.  None of us got much sleep.  Mid-way through the night, he started to sound a little less wheezy and I actually slept a little.  Needless to say, we took him to the doctor the first thing the next day.  His lungs sounded fine and she gave us a steroid for his throat.  That night he slept much better!  She said some kids are just more prone to develop croup from a cold and Ivan must be one of them.

Silas couldn't wait to get home and jam with Dad on his electric guitar!

The boys went for a hike to practice using their new explorer binoculars!   

On Thursday, we loaded up the van once again and headed to Kansas.  My parents watched all four of the boys while we spent a night away in Tulsa, OK!  Jason planned our outings and they were perfect.  The Philbrook was beautiful and fun to saunter through.  We had a huge breakfast the next morning!

And then spent several hours with a big pot of coffee and lots of books at Topeca Coffee shop!

We had our last Christmas celebration on Saturday with my Dad's side of the family!  The boys were spoiled once again! 

That night we started some new traditions with fancy drinks and creating a new year's resolution together with the boys.

Amos wants to ride Powder Keg at Silver Dollar City and ride his mountain bike on the single track trails with Dad.

Silas wanted to learn to ride his bike without training wheels and learn to read books!  He already accomplished the first one.

The sweet drink took affect in about 5 seconds and this one was bouncy off the wall.

Last year we spent New Year's Day with the Edens and this year we carried on the tradition!  Except we went to their house!  What fun we had!  However, the only picture taken was Silas accomplishing his New Year's goal and riding a bike with no training wheels!  Way to go Silas!

I spent Monday restocking our house after being gone for about 2 weeks!  It felt pretty good to do something very productive and tangible!  

The boys went to George Washington Carver for an afternoon hike!  Amos found a snail and then lost it in the car.  Oh goody!

christmas part 3

On Christmas evening, we packed up the car once again and headed to Nana and Papa's house!!  The boys couldn't believe there luck, that there was still more to celebrate!

 Silas spent a lot of time rocking on his new electric guitar!  He's all rock and roll!

The boys were so excited for Emma and Teigan to come over and join in the fun!  Emma is always so good with Ivan and Conrad.

Teigan is showing us how to play our new game - pie in the face!

What a Christmas! It's a blessing to get to go and see family and celebrate with them.