Our new home

Hopefully you weren't expecting pictures of our newly moved into house. I won't take pictures until we have stuff on the walls and in our last house that took about a year. The house is starting to improve. When we initally moved in so many things went wrong. It was a tough week (this was last week). This week however things are better and we are settling in nicely! I really like living in Des Moines and having so much available and relatively close by. Like the 10 Targets I think we have. Or, which mall should we go to this time? I'm sure this will wear off at some point and we'll be saying things like, "I don't want to go all the way out there just to buy this." But for now, it's nice!

We have been very busy though with other things. The day before we moved was the annual lake get together with Dan's family. Tyler did not appreciate the water at first but he did seem to enjoy the boat ride.

We had the help of many friends/family who watched Tyler for us so we could attend to different house things. One day cousin Kari watched him and took these pictures. Not too sure what he's doing in the first picture...

Sporting a new look which will be all the rage soon

For some reason Lisle has taken to sleeping on top of the fridge. He didn't do this in our last house.

Tyler finally got the idea of blowing bubbles underwater. He really loves doing it now. It's so much fun seeing him learn new things!

Trip to Indiana

Last week we were in Indiana visiting my family. We had a fun time. We went to quite a few parks, to the zoo, and went to visit friends and family. It was a busy week and we took a lot of pictures!

Every rest area in Illinois has a playground. Luckily the one we stopped at for lunch had a nice, new, playground that was perfect for Tyler. Tyler and daddy enjoyed racing each other down the slide.

The first playground we went to was in a neighborhood by my mom's house. They had this nice area that was supposed to be for Tyler's age (seen below). He tried it but decided he like the other side better (see next picture)

He thought he'd try this slide instead. The biggest slide at the playground! He only went down it once. I think that was enough for him. (He is in front of Dan climbing up the steps)

Playground #2 wasn't as exciting for Tyler. So he decided to swing with Grandma.

Then he got to meet his cousins for the first time. So did I! These are my step-sisters boys. Alex is on the left in the red and Matthew is in the middle. Aren't they adorable? The boys had a lot of fun playing together. It was nice to finally meet them and my step-sisters husband. Of course it was nice to see her again too. =)

Then we went to the zoo in Lafayette. This is the petting zoo part. I thought Tyler would really like it but he didn't seem too interested in petting any animals, just looking.

The day before we left we went to visit my friend from high school, Lissa, and her family. Here is Tyler and her daughter Emma playing. Don't they look really interested in each other?

Well, the car ride home was insanely long. We had to take a detour because of flooding and Tyler became a sobbing/screaming mess. We decided we needed a break from the car and then we realized we were coming up to Dyersville, IA which is the town where the movie Field of Dreams was filmed. We thought it would be fun to stop there and maybe Tyler would tire himself out and fall asleep (it didn't work).

Here they are with the field behind them. It wasn't quite the same effect without the tall corn. You can bring bats and balls and play on the field which is what a family was doing when we got there.

Making a run for first base. You can see the bleachers and the house from the movie in the background.

Running home! Look at that beautiful blue sky we had.

Holiday Weekend

A couple things have happened since our last post. The first is that we celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary. We spent the day at an amusement park in Des Moines riding roller coasters and eating junk. The weather was absolutely perfect and we had a fun day! Then we ate at Texas Roadhouse for dinner. We stayed at a really nice hotel in Des Moines overnight. Then came home the next day. We're very lucky to have Dan's parents so close by and are willing to watch Tyler for us!

Then last weekend we went to Dan's parents house. Dan's brother and his family were in town also so everyone was together for the weekend. It was nice to see everyone again. We pretty much just relaxed and hung out. Oh, there was that storm that came through and the tornado siren went off and we all had to go to the basement. Grandma had to wake Tyler up and carry him down. He didn't seem to affected by it though. Luckily Dan and I just gotten home from his sister's house (where we had a Wii-athon). I don't think I would've enjoyed being in a car and hearing the sirens.



This is how Tyler wanted to eat his cracker

Tyler hanging out with Ariana



Uncle Dan reading to the kids

A family picture

You can see how shaggy Tyler's hair was getting in the above pictures. I went to get it cut and instead of just having it trimmed we decided to use the clippers and have it cut shorter. I like it better but he looks all grown up to me now.

A video of Tyler and daddy doing one of Tyler's favorite activities

Cranky Tyler

Last Sunday at church someone from the nursery had to come find us because Tyler had thrown up. We only got in about 10 mins of worship before needing to leave. He then had a high fever all Sunday and all Sunday night. Then Monday morning the fever was gone but we were left with an extremely cranky child. I'm wondering now if he has teeth coming in. I haven't felt anything poking through but I hope this crying/screaming at the drop of a hat thing doesn't last long. If it is teeth I pray all the rest are coming in at the same time so we don't have to go through this again. The dramatics involved in such simple tasks such as eating or picking up toys remind me of teenage girl drama. Not that I would know anything about that. I was a calm and collected teenager (anyone believe that?).

No news on the house search. We're going again tomorrow. I estimate we've looked at 20-30 houses. When we bought our current house I think we looked at 5. It's amazing how precise your "want" list can be when you've already experienced living in a house.

Last Thursday afternoon Tyler's friend Emma came over. When Tyler was six months old (and Emma around 3 months) this is what they looked like:

And now (I tried putting Tyler's arm around her but she didn't like it):

Tyler likes to show off his piano skills to the ladies (although in this picture he seems to be eating his fingers instead)

Tyler with his sad face (probably because we said, "No, you may not put Lisle in the toilet" or something else mean like that). Note the droopy cheeks.

Yay for warm weather!

We are having typical midwestern weather. Each day you have to check the forcast because you never know what it will be like. I'm enjoying the 70 degree weather days though. Tyler is at a good going to the park age right now. It's a great way to tire him out for his afternoon nap too.

Most of you know that we sold our house already. It was fast! We are now searching for a house in Des Moines and not having too much luck. Every weekend we go down and look at about 4-5 houses. I'm sure something will pop up soon though.

Tyler is really enjoying puzzles right now. He loves to sit in your lap and have you hand a piece to him and finds where it goes. He also loves his shape sorter. He will, again, sit in your lap and you hand him a shape and he will put it in the correct spot. He also keeps you on your toes. The other day I went to get him from his room, where he was playing, and found that he had emptied 3 of 4 (the ones he could reach) dresser drawers. Everything was in a pile on the floor. I had to hide my smile.

As soon as he spots the swings at the park he points and jabbers excitedly. Funny enough though, he never really looks like he enjoys the swings...no smiles...but he always wants to get in it. He likes when I swing next to him.



For some perspective, here he is at 7 months swinging

And now at almost 20 months

Here he is holding is most precious possessions. His blanket, stuffed alligator (from Uncle Brad) and his snack cup (snacks are very important to him)

He loves to sit and play the piano

Here is a video of him playing. I will warn you, it's not very exciting

Happy Easter!

Or as our church says, "He has risen!" and then we all let out a, "woo!!" It's quite a tradition. Our Easter weekend consisted of, well let's see, working on the house, working on the house and working on the house. Oh, and we did go to church this morning and out to lunch. Our church has awesome drama's and today's was not an exception. I'm so glad Tyler is not old enough to understand that he was supposed to get a basket of candy and maybe do an egg hunt. Thank goodness he doesn't know how his parents dropped the ball this year. He still had a fun day though, I think!

Tyler and Lisle enjoying some fresh air and wishing they could go outside

Tyler looking adorable in his Easter outfit!

A lot of pictures!

Tyler turned 18 months a week ago. I can't believe how quickly this year is going, he's already halfway to two! He discovered one day how to climb up on the kitchen table chairs so that is his new thing now. If you're on the couch he wants to be on there with you. He still loves to read (and eat) his books. He is getting better at puzzles and likes to imitate Dan's animal noises when they read.

A couple weeks ago we went to Fort Myers, Florida. We met up with Grandma and Uncle Brad and enjoyed the warm weather and the beach. Tyler did really well. The sun was too bright for him so he didn't enjoy the beach too much unless we were in the shade.

This past weekend we were in Minnesota celebrating the triplets turning 3 and Owen turning 5. Five! Amazing! There are some pictures from their parties which were in an indoor play area that Tyler had a lot of fun in.

We (and by we, I mainly mean Dan) are in the process of getting our house ready to sell and are looking at houses in Des Moines, closer to where Dan works. I'm not looking forward to leaving friends but I am excited about all the things that Des Moines has to offer to do. We have to sell our house first and in case you haven't heard it's a buyers market so it's in God's hands.

On to the pictures!

Playing in the sand. He liked to dump it onto the blanket.

The view from our hotel room (it was screened in which was nice)

Tyler looking cool

Tyler with Uncle Brad

Tyler in the water

His new thing...sitting in the chair

Tyler loved this "roller coaster" at the birthday party

There was quite a bit of static, which made Tyler's hair look funny, so of course I took a picture.

Ariana

Brandon

Evan

Owen

Tyler with daddy

Tyler getting a ride on Owen's scooter

Tyler with mommy

Super Bowl

Our bible study always gets together for the Super Bowl. This year was a little different with two toddlers running around. One of our friends had his camera and took quite a few pics. I never even thought of bringing our camera! Good thing he was thinking. We, of course, had a ton of great food and it was fun hanging out with our friends!


Here is Tyler with his friend Emma and her parents.


Here you can see how red Tyler's cheeks get when he's tired.



What a goofy look! He's a good ball thrower.

Taking a walk in dad's shoes.

Tyler and Emma hanging out. I think she's in the process of standing up while Tyler is trying to pull his sock off.