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!

A monkey, a cat, and some snow

Wow! It's been a long time since I updated. My pictures start back at Halloween! Before we get to those, let's talk about things Tyler is doing. Tyler is really soaking up words now. I am constantly reminded to watch what I say...and it's not like we use bad language over here, but it sounds much different when an adult says, "what the heck?" than when a 3 year old says it. I also love how he asks what a words means, we explain it, and then he just gets it. Yesterday I was thinking back to last December when we started his speech therapy. He spoke NO words then. None. Zip. Nada. Now he strings words together and is really picking up on getting the sounds, within the words, correct. He is continuing to meet or exceed his speech goals. Very exciting! It's so fun to be able to understand what he is thinking. One funny thing that I remember from last week was we were in the car and I think I switched lanes to pass someone and Tyler said, "Beep beep! Coming through!" Made me look to see how fast I was going. =)

His main interests right now are cars, pointing out letters, cars, colors, animals, cars, counting, and cars.

Let's move on to Halloween! I was very blessed to not have to pay for a costume and instead was able to borrow this adorable monkey costume from someone in MOMS Club. I wasn't sure how Tyler would feel about putting on a costume but he really loved it!

We decided to go trick or treating at the mall. What a horrible idea. I think he came away with 7 things in his bag and we had to stand in this long line that snaked around the mall. Luckily, he thought it was fun but next year I think we should do something different.

For his friend's birthday party he was supposed to dress up like a cat. The invitation very nicely included tips on how to do this with things you already own. I dressed him all in grey and white, gave him a nose and whiskers with eyeliner, and completed the look with a sock as a tail. He thought he was pretty awesome! I'm pretty sure he'd dress up like a cat everyday if he could.

(I always seem to snap the picture during the "ch" and not the "ee" part of cheese)

We spent Thanksgiving with Dan's family. I had my camera with me, but did not take any pictures of course. I did take pictures when we all went to Chuck E Cheese though. This was the first time where Tyler actually got into the rides and games. That makes it much more fun for me.


Enjoying a roller coaster ride with cousin Brandon

We have been getting snow dumped on us last night and today. We headed outside to play for a bit...Tyler has been very excited about it. I decided to put him to work right away!

Pictures!

We had some family pictures taken last week by some friends of ours. They do a preview of pictures on their blog before they upload the rest to their website. They just got our preview out tonight! So excited about this! Of course, I hate the way I look in pictures but I think Tyler is always adorable! =)

Go here to see the preview http://smidts.blogspot.com/2009/10/thorpe-family.html

Family trip

A couple weeks ago we went on a family vacation to Wisconsin. We stayed in a condo that was just south of Wisconsin Dells (although, we only went to the Dells once while we were there). Since we've been back we've been battling some sickness but I think things are starting to improve...at least for me they are! I finally have enough energy to update the blog. Bet you didn't realize blogging required energy!

First, Tyler's speech is really improving. He puts a lot of words together now. He is missing "filler" words like a, the, I, he, she, etc (or, they get lost in his jabber. maybe they are there!). But I can understand longer strings of words now which is nice. Last week at his therapy we got a progress report (since the therapy is through the public schools, we will get these often due to parent teacher conferences). I was really pleased to see how much he has improved since he started in August. He is moving along at a good pace. His teacher is really great at getting him to cooperate. Sometimes he doesn't want to say the words or will bury his head into me. She is very patient with him. (I should also clarify that his progress is with getting the endings onto words...that is really what she is measuring)

Tyler also LOVES letters. He knows all of his capital letters and he loves to read them off of things. It's interesting to be in the car, going down the street, and hear him say P-A-W-N. He is also really good at writing the letter T (for Tyler of course!).

Second, back in September I headed to Michigan for my annual get together with my two friends from college, Carrie and Kelly. This year we got together at Carrie's house and we participated in a grape stomping contest. The pictures from that are on Carrie's blog http://carriemilesblog.com/2009/10/11/grape-stomp/ It was very interesting! It wasn't what I expected and it was exhausting for my arms.

Okay! Now for pictures from the Wisconsin trip. The first thing we did was go on a train ride on the MidContinent Railway. Tyler really enjoyed his first "real" train ride.

Some views from the train.



Another day we went to Devil's Lake State Park. The fall color was so beautiful while we were there. We decided to climb up one of the big hills on our way around the lake. The trail was quite a climb. I really felt like the stone steps would never end. I was really impressed with how well Tyler did climbing up the stairs.

We finally made it to the top! The water was such a pretty blue-green color.




This is from the other side of the lake on our way back. We opted for the flat trail that time. We were all pretty cranky/tired/hungry at this point. But we stopped to take this picture so you can see the hill that we climbed to the top of, behind Dan and Tyler. And no, Tyler is not sleeping, he is being cranky and refusing to look at the camera.

The one thing we did do in the Dells is we went to the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory Interactive Science Center. I wasn't sure how it was going to be for Tyler since ages 5 and under were free. Usually if it's free for Tyler, that means there's nothing for him to do. Really, Dan and I had the most fun there. Tyler was okay with it.

He did like floating these balls in the air though.


And then we decided to cut off his head and place it on this table (I gotta say, the picture does not do this justice. It actually looked much better in person)


On our way home from our trip we stopped to visit Dan's Grandpa Joe. The last time we saw him Tyler was just a baby. It was nice to be able to see him again. The funny part was Tyler took to calling him Joe (minus the grandpa).