Feeding Himself

Silas decided to forgo Mommy feeding him with a utensil of any sort a few months ago. Finger foods took the place of all things pureed during meal time. The pediatrician gave the go ahead for dairy products at Silas' nine month check up. Since spoons were no longer acceptable at the dinner table (according to Silas), this meant no yogurt for the baby boy. A couple of weeks ago, I was able to get a bite or two into his mouth with a spoon. He grabbed the spoon out of my hand and put it into his mouth. I told him that he needed a little more on his spoon and then helped him dip it into the bowl of yogurt. He was just so pleased with himself! He would jab the spoon down into the bowl and stick it back into his mouth. It was so cute and very messy.

"Now, how exactly is this done?"Look at all of those teeth!So proud!What a big boy! He is growing up so fast.

5th Anniversary

On June 18th, Dan and I celebrated our fifth anniversary. We have had such a wonderful five years together. We are truly blessed to have each other. We normally don't buy each other anniversary gifts but opt to go out somewhere nice for dinner and just spend time together. Since this was our first "milestone" anniversary, we decided that we wanted to buy each other something. Just for fun, I looked up the different anniversary meanings/gift guides or whatever you want to call it. Apparently, year five is traditionally wood. Uhhhhh, ok. I was determined to stick to it as closely as I could and tried to be creative. I ended up getting Dan a pocket knife with a wooden handle. Dan was thinking more along the lines of furniture and ended up with this entire set below! It wasn't wood but Dan said that he, "followed the spirit of the law but not the letter of it." :)
In addition to buying me an entire new set of patio furniture, he also got up early and made a trip to both Panera (for their awesome breakfast sandwiches) and Krispy Kreme. Silas was still snoozing away so we were able to enjoy breakfast just the two of us!

For dinner, we drove up to Scottsburg, Indiana to Jeeves and Company. We could have gone somewhere closer but the 30 minute drive made it more of an "event".

The guestbook at Jeeves'.

Bruschetta appetizer. It was really good but completely cold (as in straight-from-the-refrigerator cold)! Bread and everything! Dan had their catch of the day and I had a blackened chicken dish with cheese ravioli, sauteed peppers and alfredo sauce. They served a cranberry and walnut bread with the meal that was fresh from the oven. The house salad was a green salad with blue cheese and fresh blackberries (from the owner's yard) with a blackberry vinaigrette. Oh my!

Home again with the baby boy.

A very happy five years it has been!

Happy Birthday to Dan (and America)!

We had an awesome time celebrating America's 234th birthday and Dan's 26th. Last year was pretty low key since I was less than two weeks away from Silas' due date. We just had it in our heads that Silas would be born on the 4th and daddy and son would share a birthday. Not the case! This year we HAD to do something to make up for last year. We planned a menu, weeded the jungle in our front yard (rediscovering our landscaping in the process), cleaned like crazy AND put our family room back together (before and after pictures to follow in a later blog post). Dan was in charge of shopping for the explosives until we heard that my brother, Kevin, had just spent a nice chunk of his paycheck on fireworks. One of the first rockets that he lit took a very wrong turn and exploded into one of our truck's back windows! It is completely shattered but hasn't fallen apart yet. Our brother-in-law, Kris, had a very close call with a wick-less rocket that he half buried in the ground and then lit. It basically blew up with him standing right there. He walked away with nothing more than a singed shirt. THANK GOD! We gave Kevin a big round of applause for the great fireworks display and ended the night with chocolate birthday cake and Modern Warfare.

I admit we're a little dorky but I did really love how Dan and Silas matched at church.

Up and away!

Most of the group including Angus the "jawa" dog.

Lana, Grace and Katelyn.

The morning after...