Leaves, Leaves and More Leaves!

We have a lot of leaves at our house. A lot of leaves. We have huge trees in our backyard and when the leaves fall our whole yard is a pile of leaves - every inch of it. Usually they insist on being the last trees in Minnesota to turn colors and they finally decide to fall the day before it snows. And that just leaves a big old mess for spring. This year they did wait until every other tree was pretty much empty before falling, but it didn't snow yet! So we got to finish cleaning them all up. And it was fun. I say that, but I didn't do anything except play with Tyler in them. Although Carl got a new leaf blower this year so he might have had just as much fun.  :-)

Tyler liked throwing them in the air and helping put them in bags, but he wasn't a huge fan of being in them. He doesn't like it when it's too deep to walk through them. Understandable I guess.

Tyler loved helping Daddy! One handful at a time...

He aslo liked hanging out in the trash can.  :-)

 

Pictureless October

I almost always have my camera in my purse. But somehow this month I have forgotten it over and over again. It's been a pretty fun month though. I LOVE fall! I love the beautiful colors and the sound of leaves crunching when you walk, and I'm almost always ready for sweater weather by the time October comes around.

And we've gotten to do quite a few fun things this year. We went to Sever's Corn Maze for the first time a few weeks ago. That place is awesome! We did not give ourselves nearly enough time to enjoy it all. Lesson learned. We will not have plans for later the same day next year. They have a huge (I mean HUGE) corn pool to play in. Tyler sort of love/hated it. It's so deep that it was really hard for him to walk in so he would get a little frustrated. But he loved jumping in the corn and running around the hay bales that surrounded it. There were also a lot of animals, which Tyler of course loved. And the bird room. I am completely freaked out by birds, so I waited outside. But Carl and Tyler loved being surrounded by creepy birds flying everywhere. There is so much to do there that we didn't have nearly enough time to do everything we wanted, but it was a lot of fun!

The next weekend my brother, Jacob, and his wife, Laura came to visit. While they were here we went to Como Zoo. We go to the MN Zoo fairly often, but we never go to Como. They have totally different animals, so it was a fun change. And at the end we all rode on the carousel. Tyler had a blast all day that ended blissfully with Chipotle (his favorite!) on the way home. That was a couple weeks ago and he still keeps talking about Laura. Sorry Jacob. He might talk about you, but since he says your name differently every time, I really don't know.  :-)

We also got to go to Tyler's friend's first birthday party. And we've had some fun weekends in the leaves at home! I actually took pictures in the leaves, so I'll put those up later. :-)

Tyler is growing like a crazy dude. Seriously. He's getting so grown up! I realize that I have a new favorite everytime I write on here. But this is adorable. He loves reading his Bible and lately he goes in and gets it off the shelf or he just askes for it. He calls it his Bye-bee. So cute. So we've been reading lots of "bye-bee" stories everyday. The amazing part is that he actually sits through them now. They're kind of long so he used to lose interest and look at other books while we read to him. Now he asks for it and usually sits through the whole story. I love it!

And here are a few random pictures, just because.

 A little blurry, but proof that my son is a complete goofball.

 

So excited to paint!!!

Why waste your time painting one paper at a time when you have two hands?

Whoever came up with a playdough tool set is a genius. Genius, I tell you.

Reading in his pile of puppies.

The Big 18

My baby is a year and a half old now! He was 18 months on Wednesday and I cannot believe it. It's craziness.

So in honor of his half birthday, here's a little Tyler update.

Top 10 words that come to mind when I think of Tyler:
     - Energetic                                    
     - Fearless                             
     - Hilarious                                
     - Sweet
     - Talkative
     - Loving
     - Cheeseball
     - Adventurous
     - Active
     - Happy

Currently he's in his room (where he's been for an hour) making silly noises, squealing, laughing, singing and talking non-stop instead of napping. I decided to take him out for a special lunch since we had a very crazy morning and he was soooo good and oh-so-deserving of a fun treat. So we went to Wendy's and had a Frosty for dessert. Note to self: Never give Tyler ice cream before nap time. I'm not sure sleep is anywhere in his near future. Oops.

Tyler talks all the time. He rarely stops, actually. Fortunately Carl and I are almost fluent (but not quite) in Tylernese. Surprisingly few others are. :-) Here are a few of the things that make us laugh:
  
If he sees a picture of my sister or hears her name he starts barking. (His way of talking about her  dog)

He introduces "Mommy" and "Daddy" to every single person we see anywhere. Ever.

At Target the other day the cashier was talking to him. He's usually very friendly when we're checking out, but this time he was ignoring her. Finally, when she just kept talking to him he looked right at her, shook his finger and slowly said, "No, no, no."

He points one finger in the air after anything he thinks is fun, funny or delicious and says "One more!"

He also says "One more" to ask permission to do something again. Usually when he thinks he's being funny. Ok, he's right, he usually is being funny.

He fearlessly climbs things that he's much too little to be climbing and then looks down and says, "Mommy, careful." But if we ask if he's being careful he always says no. At least he's looking out for someone's safety - I guess that's a start.

Carl rarely does this, but occassionaly he's taken his phone out during dinner and Tyler shakes his finger and tells him "No, no, no." I'll admit, I'm pretty proud of teaching him that one. :-)

One of his most commonly used phrases is, "Good to go!"

If he sees or hears a baby, he has a pretty realistic (and loud) fake baby cry. Yes, I'm the person with the crying child in my shopping cart all the time, but it's almost never real! He's always copying some one else.

He heard me say "Carl!" once and ever since he thinks it hilarious to call him Carl instead of Daddy.

The only time Tyler gets to watch TV is for the few minutes it takes me to cut his nails every week and a half or so. So when I tell him or ask him if he wants to cut his fingernails, he takes off running to the stairs yelling, "Vee vee!" Who knew getting nails cut could be so exciting? :-)

Tyler has been singing The B-I-B-L-E song lately. It just doesn't get sweeter than hearing his little voice singing, "E i e i e, Buh buh!" as throws his little arms up in the air. :-)

I was not really a fan of this game - all I could think about was Tyler's little head hitting the floor. But they were having such a blast that I took a picture before I stopped all their fun. And in Carl's defense, they were barely moving and I was standing right by Tyler the whole time.

Fun at the library!

At Applebee's a few weeks ago - This is his "I can't believe they just gave me sugar!" happy face.

We just love this boy. :-)

More of the Dells

These are just a few more pictures of Tyler enjoying his time in the Dells. He could totally handle living at The Wilderness hotel. :-)

"Cheese!"

First time bowling!

The Hagen boys

Taking after Uncle Jeff and Uncle Jacob on the drums!

Tyler said "One more" every time he saw one of these carts. He loved riding on them!