May!

Okay, now we're up to May. In May we went on a week long vacation to St. Petersburg, FL. It was just the three of us on a family vacation. We had a condo that was right across the street from the beach. It was in a great location. Our plan for the week was to go the beach a lot and then take a trip to Busch Gardens in Tampa.

Tyler and Dan on the plane. The last time Tyler flew he was 18 months old, so this was more exciting to him. The excitement didn't last too long though, which is why God made portable DVD players.

Tyler wasn't too excited about the water. He was way more interested in the sand. He played in the sand for hours.

Dan with some bird friends.

Tyler and I after a visit to the St. Petersburg aquarium, located in the oddly shaped building behind us (way out on the pier).

After much consideration, we decided to go to Busch Gardens instead of Disney (we flew in to Orlando which was a couple hours away from St. Petersburg). I am very glad we did that. We were close and able to do it all in a day. Plus, they had just opened up a Sesame Street section that was perfect for Tyler. He absolutely loved the rides and had no fear about them. He's just like his mommy and daddy! It will be fun when he is older and we can take him on the big rides. Although, at that point he probably won't want to hang out with mom and dad anymore!

The very first thing he did was ride the roller coaster. Even though it was a short ride, I was surprised at the speed and steep banking turns. He went on it with Dan first and then came running off of it saying, "Again! Again!" Luckily, it was not crowded so we were able to do it multiple times.

Riding the carousel with daddy.

He seemed excited about this ride until it started it moving. Then you could tell he thought it was pretty lame. I mean, after riding a roller coaster this thing was for babies! =)

This was the first ride he went on where he was by himself. I expected tears but he didn't seem to care at all. In fact, he had quite a serious expression on his face while driving. I think he didn't want to be a distracted driver (and I suspect he wished it went faster). Doesn't he look like such a big boy "driving" that car?

Dan and another friend of his.

Tyler riding his motorcycle.

That's it for Florida pictures. Later in the month we took Tyler to his first minor league baseball game in Des Moines. I'm glad I got this cute picture because he was not a fun kid for most of the game and we ended up leaving early, vowing to never leave the house with him again.

Remember us?

You may not remember us. We're Dan and Megan. I know we've been MIA for quite awhile, but we did not forget about our little blog here. I finally transferred pictures from the camera to the computer and we have so many that I will have to do many posts to get us caught up to July. I might do it month by month.

First up is April! April is one of the best months. It is the month I was born in, and this year it was the month that we found out we're expecting baby #2 in December! On July 30th we will have an ultrasound and find out the sex of the baby! Tyler seems excited about being a big brother but I'm 99% sure he does not grasp the concept. He sure will come December!

So, heading back to April of this year, many things happened. First up is Easter!

Here is Tyler hunting for eggs.

In his cute little Easter outfit! I don't know why the sweater was so long. I'm hoping it means we can get another year out of it though!

Dan and I went to a Casting Crowns concert with some friends. Casting Crowns is probably my favorite Christian group. The concert was awesome! It was a fun night out.

Here we are looking cute.

The opening band was 10th Avenue North which is another band I like.

Casting Crowns

We finally visited the Science Center with Grandma and Grandpa. It was okay. Tyler seemed to enjoy most of it.

Tyler racing some tennis balls.

Petting a snake. Tyler refused to do it at first but once he saw all the other kids doing it, he had to do it too.

Look what we did! Not only can we count, but we can build an arch too!

Coming soon....a post for May that includes pictures from our trip to Florida!

Catching up

Last month we toured a fire station with MOMS Club. Tyler was more into it this time than he was a year ago. Last year it wasn't until the end when he decided to finally climb up in the firetruck. This year I had to pull him off of every truck we saw. Here he is on one of the trucks.

We also took Tyler bowling for the first time. Daddy helped push the ball down each time. Tyler had fun and I look forward to taking him again. (If you look above Tyler's head you can see his green bowling ball almost at the pins)

This is blurry but it shows his first spare!

Today we had a MOMS Club activity at the grocery store. We learned about reading labels on food and then we made three kid friendly, healthy snacks. The first two involved vegetables, so I ate those. The last one involved a banana though so Tyler was willing to eat that! I should say that he did try the celery but didn't like it. He refused to touch the cucumber.

Here he is proudly showing off his banana caterpillar. (the banana was cut into pieces and then stuck back together with peanut butter. then we added pretzel sticks for legs and stuck two raisins on for eyes. You can also see the big glob of peanut butter we had leftover that we both licked up. we love our peanut butter!)

ABC's

Wanted to share

I've been seeing this post passed around the internet for a couple days now. I finally got around to reading it and I love it. What she says about happiness is so true. Please read it if you get a chance!

Snow, snow, go away!

I understand that by living in Iowa I should not be surprised by snow in the winter. But this is getting ridiculous. Every time it snows it is large amounts and then followed by blowing. Things are constantly getting cancelled and Tyler and I are really getting a chance to "bond". Sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad.

Being stuck inside has given me a renewed interest in his home preschooling (which got done for two weeks in September and then never again). We were back at it last week and we did a lesson on Noah. This involved filling a sink with water and testing objects from around the house to see if they would sink or float. The idea was to show how God told Noah how to build the ark just right so that it would float in the water. Well, Tyler absolutely loved this and it has now become something fun he can do on his own!

The other day we managed to get out to the library to see Clifford. If you remember from last year, we stood in a long line to see Clifford and Tyler got scared and did not want to touch him. Since then he has been scared of other characters and didn't even want daddy to touch Curious George at the zoo.

This time he was much different! I so wish I would've taken a picture of his face when Clifford came in the room. He sat up on his knees and pointed while his mouth hung open in excitement. Then we stood in line, again, but this time it ended much differently! It was so exciting to see him react this way.

Lisle has been doing funny things lately. Here he decided to climb into a bag of tissue paper to hang out. Can you find the cat in the bag?

And here is another picture of Lisle showing his cuddly side. I love how his arm is around Libby and then his head is buried into her. I also love Libby's look, like she's just putting up with this because she likes him.

Sledding

A couple weekends ago we took Tyler sledding for the first time. We headed to the capitol building because I had heard there was a fun hill. When we got there the snow was so compacted that it acted more like ice and the drop appeared to be straight down. There were also a series of bumps along the way (retaining walls maybe?). I was a little nervous and Tyler seemed like he was going to refuse to go down. We sent Dan down first and he sped his way down and about flew out of the sled over every bump. Luckily it was a very hilly place so we chose a more tame hill. Tyler still wasn't very into it...not like I thought he would be.

Here is Dan pulling Tyler back up the hill. As you can see, we had a nice view of the Des Moines skyline.

Tyler sitting in the sled

Tyler looking cute

Tyler decided he would rather slide down on his bottom.

I wanted to get an action shot of Dan sliding down. His idea of that was to aim the sled right for me and I had to jump out of the way.

I didn't appreciate that, but then he ended up like this, so I didn't mind as much.

A view of the Capitol Building from where we were.

Here is a random picture of Lisle. I thought this was so cute how he was cuddling up to Dan's arm and even wrapped his paw around it. Lisle is our mean cat so this was too much cuteness for me.

Christmas

Christmas time was busy like usual. We embarked on our Tour of the Midwest the day after Christmas. We got delayed a day because of snow. Snow sure makes things difficult!

Our first Christmas actually took place in our own living room. That was a first for us. Tyler got the idea pretty quickly.

Presents were followed by pancakes and Tyler got his in the shape of a T!

Our next stop was Minnesota. It's always fun watching all the kids tear into their presents. Tyler has so much fun with his cousins!

Here is me and Brandon

Evan showing off his Wiggles costume that he was very excited about.

Our next stop was my mom's house in Indiana.

Tyler proudly displaying a fork that is also a truck!

I think this picture is funny/weird. I don't remember what he's doing but I know he's jumping and I think maybe he's excited? You can see his new apron which he wears when he helps me bake.

Supporting his favorite (pro) team!

After that we were off to my dad's house.

Cars! Tyler's favorite toy!

I did end up making the cinnamon rolls. I thought they were good but a little too sweet. Next time I will cut back on the sugar/cinnamon mixture. If you ever plan on making these, e-mail me because I have some suggestions.

Awhile back I got together with some friends and their kids. Two of my friends I don't get to see very often (one doesn't even live in Iowa) so it was fun to get everyone together. We attempted to line up our kids and get a picture. I think it turned out pretty well.

We've gotten quite a bit of snow already. I finally took some pictures of the back yard.

Here you can see it on top of the table.

What prompted me to take pictures though was when the top of Tyler's soccer goal almost disappeared. His goal looks like this:

And you can barely see the top of it in this picture. I put in an arrow to help you out.

Today is really warm and would be a great day to go out and play in the snow but I'm afraid I might lose Tyler!

Cute story from Sunday night. We were at church and the pastor asked, "do you love Jesus?" Tyler's lone answer rang out from the back, "yes!"

One last thing (if you've made it this far through the post, you may have too much time on your hands), a video of Tyler's new toy. It is so funny watching him run in place. I wish I would've kept taping because at the end he went over and collapsed on the couch.

Really? More snow?

I'm already tired of the snow. Actually, it's just snow that affects traveling. The rest of the winter it can snow all it wants and Tyler and I will just stay inside and watch movies. We are supposed to get another blizzard. It's going to dump everything on us for three days...or something like that. Great for those staying in town and wanting a white Christmas. Not so great for the other 99% of people who will be traveling. I'm trying to not think about it too much. Today, I am focusing on making these bad boys. And if they turn out, I will need willpower to not eat all of them.

Let's go back to our last blizzard which was like two weeks ago. Pioneer shut down so Dan got a snow day. We have been having some phone issues so here he is trying to fix the problem. How convenient that the shelves were right there for him to lay on. It may look like he just fits, but let me assure you, he had to squeeze himself in.

It was also the perfect time to make some cookies. Tyler really got into cutting them out and frosting them. Oh, he was pretty good at eating them too (we all were!).

Every year for Christmas the mall has a train for the kids to ride in. As soon as Tyler saw this he wanted to ride it. He is really breaking out of his shell lately because he just climbed in with boys he didn't know and even rang the bell. It's exciting for me to see him interested in doing things and having fun.

Last night we went to a light display that you drive through. We figured Tyler would enjoy it and he really did. It is so fun to do these things with him...it really makes them more fun. Tyler kept asking, "more lights?" =) I know the pictures are hard to see, but I thought I would post them anyway. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of Tyler!