Silas' FIRST Birthday!

Could it be true?! My sweet baby boy all grown up to a full year old?! It absolutely blows my mind to think of all that has taken place in a years time. From a helpless little 8 pound newborn to a 25 pound, WALKING, 8 toothed toddler... unbelievable. Silas has already been such an incredible blessing to us. He is my little sweetheart. We are so grateful to the Lord for choosing us to be his parents.

Silas' actual birthday was a fairly normal day. I made breakfast for us and then we let Silas open up his birthday gifts from us. We bought him a little red truck with pegs on top and a blue hammer to pop them down with (a little fist works well too), a play table and a ride-and-push lion. He wasn't as crazy about the lion at first but really loved the play table and all of the different songs that it played. The curly bows on his presents were the best. Dan worked hard to get Silas new swing up so he could try it out. We also took him for a ride in the car to see how he liked sitting FORWARD. Grammie came over for a bit that evening to see Silas open some of his gifts, sing happy birthday and to witness his first taste of ice cream. He is definitely a fan.

Good morning, birthday boy!

First time in a swing!

My sweet baby boy.

Birthday balloons!

Ice cream!!!

The next day we had the big birthday party. Even though we tried to keep things low key by having just the family and a few close friends, we still ended with about 25 people! You just can't avoid having a big group when you're a Powers. Since Silas loves dogs so much, I made little puppy invitations to send to everyone. We had lots of good food (hot dogs of course!) and great cupcakes with killer cream cheese icing. I made Silas his very own little cake to dig into. He was hesitant at first but then stuck his fingers alllll the way down in the cake. It was so much fun. He loved all of his presents too! Everyone knows how much Silas loves to play with our cell phones. For some months now, he will pick up almost any toy and hold it up to the side of his head like he's talking on the phone. Several people obviously had the same train of thought because Silas received 5 phones! He was in heaven.

Silas and Jack (not sure if this was before or after Silas punched Jack).

Flossing.

Cake!

Silas wasn't too crazy about all of that sticky stuff on his hands.

Happy FIRST birthday, Silas!!!

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...

Waterfront Wednesday

Waterfront Wednesday is an awesome monthly (free) event that is put on by 91.9 WFPK. The line-ups this year hadn't been too appealing until we started to hear them plug this show.

Sonos - An acapella group that covers songs from Radiohead, etc.

Joshua James - American rock/folk whose vocals sounded reminiscent of Ray LaMontagne.

Carney - Melt your face off AWESOMENESS.

We actually didn't see any of the first act but were able to stay for both J.J.'s and Carney's sets. Joshua James was pretty good. His band could definitely benefit from a drummer. Carney on the other hand... I don't know if it's just that I've been concert-deprived or what but they were really incredible. They played their song Amelie about half way through their set and it was a fun break from the Queen inspired vocals shrills of lead singer. They finished the set with an extended version of their song Testify and it rrrocked!

Reeve Carney (second from left) landed the role of Peter Parker in the Spiderman musical that will hit Broadway this fall. Spiderman as a musical? Yeah. That's what we thought too. It should be interesting to say the least.

We stopped by the incredibly janky Family Dollar in Jeffersonville on our way to the show because I forgot to bring sunscreen from home. I was a little uncomfortable with the greasy stuff smeared all over my face but it did the trick. There were a bunch of people standing near us that helped block the sun as well (including the frontiers woman behind me). Oh yeah! Those sunglasses of mine are legit 1980's vintage.

Fresh squeezed lemonade! It was the icing on the cake to an awesome night on the Harbor Lawn in Waterfront Park.

Blueberry Morning

My mom and I have picked blueberries at Bryant's Blueberries in New Salisbury, Indiana for about 11 or 12 years now. We always eagerly await the first e-mail from Dale and Debbie Bryant, alerting all of their followers that the blueberry season is approaching. When we went last year, I was about 3 weeks away from my due date with Silas. I was DETERMINED to get blueberries though! I think I picked about 10 pounds. This year I didn't have all of the extra weight in my tummy but I still had a baby to think of. Silas spent my picking mornings hanging out with Papaw at the church in order to escape the hot, muggy weather. I picked a total of 11 pounds this year and might go back for more. Blueberries are, after all, one of my favorite things about summer.

Lynn's Paradise Cafe - Just the 3 of Us

Last night was just a go-out-to-eat kind of night. We hadn't been to Lynn's in FOREVER so we decided to beat the Saturday night rush and go a little early. It was a good thing too because a rehearsal dinner with about 40 people came in right after we did! Silas was a bit on the somber side but warmed up after he tasted the southern style green beans.



Silas colored for the first time! It didn't last too long. He banged the crayon on the paper a few times and then tried to eat it.

Much happier now that his belly is nice and full!

"I don't really know what you guys want me to do here..."

Goodbye, keeper of the over-flow parking.