Pavers and Planes

The patio is moving along. Dan is doing a fantastic job. He only has one part left to do and then I will be able to take pictures of the finished product! It will be nice to be able to use it this weekend when my dad and stepmom come to visit. Let's hope everything turns out okay! (it will probably rain the entire time they're here, or something)

I forgot to take a picture of the first layer which was stone. But here is a picture of the top layer of sand. You can see that Dan is starting to lay the pavers. These large pavers are the ones we got from friends. The new, smaller, pavers we bought are up in the top right of the picture. Stacked next to the air conditioner.

Today we went on a tour of a small airport nearby. It was with my MOMS Club. Tyler's friend Kara went with us since we were watching her today. The craziest part was the weather. Mid July in Iowa and it was cold and windy.

Here is Kara standing in front of this plane (Tyler was clinging to my leg). I forget what the plane is but I do remember it is fast and the guide said it can fly from here to Minneapolis in 20 mins. A trip that would easily take us 4 hours by car.

Kara and Tyler standing in front of a crop duster. I told them to stand together and this is what I got. I just realized it looks like Tyler is covering his eyes. He is not. He is shielding his eyes from the sun. The sun which was being blocked by the very overcast sky.

I'm so proud of this picture! Two toddlers, looking at the camera at the same time, and no weird facial expressions! This one is pretty obvious. They are in the cockpit. All the kids thought this was pretty cool.

Dan and I heading out on our date to see Harry Potter. Aren't we cute?

Some Tyler stories

I've had a couple interesting coversations with Tyler lately.

A couple days ago I saw him paging through my bible.
I asked him, "what are you doing?"
He said, "read."
"Are you reading about God?"
"No, Jesus!"
He was in the New Testament.

Yesterday he found a teddy bear of mine and he walked over to me while giving it a big hug.
"Are you hugging the bear?"
Pointing to the bear, he said, "sad."
"Why is he sad?"
"Ow"
"Did he hurt something?"
Holding up his leg, he said, "feet."
"He hurt his foot? How did he hurt it?"
Then he vaguely pointed somewhere. The rest of the day he walked around with the bear reminding me frequently that the bear was sad. At one point I asked if the bear had a name which kind of confused him but then I started to hear him say poopy so I'm hoping that's not what he named the bear.

Speaking of poopy, he has pooped on the potty twice now! He asked both times. I'm not expecting any miracles out of this but it's still exciting!

By request...

Tyler's tribute to the King of Pop

I love the market!

I love living in Des Moines. There is so much to do and so much to see. It's big, but not too big. One of my favorite things about Des Moines is the Farmers Market. There are so many booths and it is so busy, but it is relatively easy to get to and from and we're really not too far away. My last trip I decided to snap a few pictures from the parking garage. I wanted you to see how busy it gets. Unfortunately, I didn't do it until the end so there weren't many people. Oh well! It's so crowded that I don't go with Tyler. I just don't want to push him around in the stroller. There are always plenty of strollers (and tons of dogs!) but I don't want to bother with it. So it usually turns into time out with a friend. The parking garage is pretty much in the middle so I got a good view. There are also some side streets that you can't see. This trip I picked up some zucchini and yellow summer squash to make this pasta primavera.

Here are some pictures of me and Tyler hanging out on the couch. Dan remarked at how pale Tyler is. Finally, someone paler than me! It's also a true testament to how well Target's sunscreen works. =)

The patio work has begun! Here is a before picture. You can see the pavers stacked up on the right. Those are the ones we got free from our friends. We are buying more from Lowe's to go with them.

And now there is a big hole!

Here is Tyler helping out. This is why you have kids right? To put to work around the house?

Tyler and daddy working together.

Happy 8th of July!

Okay, so I missed the 4th by a few days. Hope everyone had a good holiday. We headed to Cedar Rapids to visit with Dan's family. We were planning on a trip to the lake on the 4th but it was a crummy day so we went on the 5th instead. Oh well. We've had a good mix of being busy and not being busy. This weekend we have no plans but the next two we do (okay, I'm not sure if seeing the new Harry Potter movie counts as "having plans"). Dan is gearing up for an outdoor project. He is planning on putting down pavers in the backyard to create a patio. Some of the pavers are free from friends which is such a blessing. It will be nice to have a place to put our outdoor table and chairs. We also have big plans for landscaping in the front since there currently is none. Too bad plants cost money! Not sure when that plan will happen. Let's move on to the pictures, shall we?

Tyler and I went to a parade with his friend Kara and her parents. Here is Tyler clutching his snack cup in one hand and the candy he has snagged in the other.

Tyler and Kara being forced to stand next to each other for a picture.

Tyler enjoying his new pool in our backyard

Des Moines has a lot of wading pools that are free to visit. One of our friends rented one out and had a pool party. I thought it was really nice but I heard it can get really crowded during its normal operating hours.

Tyler and daddy pouring some water. This is the "deep" end. It was 1 foot and 4 inches deep.

I made this mailbox for Tyler using an empty diaper box. I got the idea from a blog. I think between Tyler and the cats, it may get destroyed soon.


I have a lot of envelopes sitting around so I made some out to different relatives and drew on a stamp. I also had junk mail but Tyler seemed concerned that he was playing with unopened mail and kept trying to give it to me.

Like I mentioned, it rained and was cloudy on the 4th so we took Tyler to an indoor play area. It was nice because we were the only ones there at first. That's a very ideal situation for Tyler. Daddy spent most of his time crawling around with Tyler through the tunnels. Tyler had a lot of fun and wore himself out!

On the 5th we headed out to Dan's brother's wife's parent's house on the lake. Got it? It was a fun day of swimming, boating, and eating. Here is Tyler waiting to leave on the boat, looking a little apprehensive.

Maybe he was apprehensive because he knew we were boating out to this rock so mommy could jump off of it. This is a picture of Dan's sister, Holly, jumping off. The rock didn't seem high until we were on top. Then after I jumped I couldn't believe how long it took to reach the water. I'm happy I jumped off of it so I'll never have to do it again. I'm not sure how clear the picture is. The place where we jumped off is above Holly's head and to the left.