Easter at Grandma & Grandpa's

After Easter we spent a weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Hallquist's house - and of course we have to do another Easter egg hunt! Tyler did great against Aunt Carrie, Uncle Josh, Mom, & Dad. We enjoyed a relaxing weekend with some great meals & laughs....

Tyler after egg hunting....or is it Haloween?

Tyler watching cartoons with soon-to-be Uncle Josh.

Papa was thrilled that Tyler liked playing with his home-made elevator. They were busy moving wine corks up and down!

Elmo is one of our favorites....you can see he was all involved!

Oh, the puppy. This dog has so many stories. It is Carrie's originally - I think. When you turn it on, it walks torwards you, barks, then flips over. Tyler is absoultely terrified of it, but Papa gets it out every time we come home. Over time he's gotten a little better, and this night he even started laughing a bit.

Easter Egg Hunting!

We spent Easter in Des Moines this year. The Baysinger kids hid eggs in the yard for Tyler and neighbor girl Ashton. The big kids seemed to have fun hiding, and then helping the little ones find! Ashton had it down pat, Tyler got easily distracted. But he had a lot of fun - especially when he figured out there were candy in the eggs!

Abby Baysinger, Ashton Port, Nate Baysinger, Tyler Newman, & Jacob Baysinger

So while I was making lunch, I thought Tyler was playing so nicely in the hall - little did I know he was eating all the M&M's...there goes a good lunch!

Sorry I can't get these to flip - but they were so cute I had to include them!

Tyler and Ashton sharing candy - don't they look so innocent?!?

And of course, it's not Easter without an egg hunt in your PJ's at home!

Up Up!

Basketball, football, orange ball, yellow ball - it doesn't matter if it is a ball! A few months ago on a particularly warm April day, we took Tyler outside to play in the yard with his plastic ball. After playing around, he took his ball and headed toward the street. He was so determined, we followed.....down the block, across the street, about 5 houses down - to a basketball hoop! He stood below it, looked at as, and said "basketball?" Then shot his ball. For the next week, we couldn't take a step outside without heading straight for this house. So, next trip to Stanton, Papa Knute lowered his hoop and they played, and played, and played! Since he needed a lift, he would get his ball, stand in front of Papa, and say "Up Up?" It worked, as you can see!

Well, we decided that maybe this warranted a new purchase...so we got him his own hoop to play with indoors for now, and outdoors this summer. It was the best money we have ever spent on babysitting! :)

How to Entertain Indoors...

Just thought I'd post some of my favorite pictures and stories from the past few months...

We have found a passion for books! Thank goodness the stage of getting ALL of them out only lasted a few weeks! He has his favorites, mostly ones with farm animals and an ISU book where we find Cy on every page.

So this leads to my farm animal story. We have been working with him on animals, and he had done a pretty good job of repeating sounds when you say them, and had started to even say them on his own. He is good at cow, lion, sheep, monkey, rooster, and turkey. So we went to church one Sunday and he started getting fidgety, so I pulled out a book and opened it, and automatically he looked at the cow and went "moo" - right in the middle of a prayer! I had no idea he knew the picture-sound association. I quickly turned the page and to my surprise, "Baa!" Andrew quickly hissed for me to change the book!!!

Along with the animal sound theme...we were sitting on the deck a few days ago and he pointed to the house and went "neigh"...I was pretty confused on what he was wanting or trying to say until I saw what he was pointing at - our Swedish horse with our name on it! I give him credit knowing that was a horse!!!

He was struggling with eating anything while sick so when he wanted to eat the pudding by himself, of course we let him!

Ok - so one of his favorite words & foods is Banana. Every morning he sees them on the counter and starts begging. So one morning I just grabbed a half of one and handed it to him - and quickly learned that a toddler can shove a half a banana in his mouth and doesn't understand the concept of bites! But he was happy - he got his banana!

Andrew left his fishing pole out and within 5 minutes we had a new fisherman in the house!

Lately I've been trying to finish numerous projects in the house. One is hanging towel rods where you can actually use them in our upstairs spare bathroom. Andrew and Tyler finished this one day while I was out. Andrew said he was drilling holes and Tyler headed to his bedroom. After a minute he came back with his own little drill (Thanks Legion Santa!) and wanted to help! Andrew said he was so proud that he had the same tool dad did!

Visitors, Visitors, Visitors!

February and March brought visitors to our house for a change!

Tyler & Pappa Knute wrestling & playing with the chair.

Great Grandma Pete & Tyler just hanging.

We watched the neighbors one night and they helped build an igloo-fort out of diaper boxes. Abby & Nate often help their mom Darcy watch Tyler when we need a little help. It's cute to hear Tyler say "Abby".

He's content watching volleyball when you give him one of Grandpa's deer sticks! Grandma Julie & Dad appear to be watching him, not Belle playing volleyball!

Aunt Linda & Cousins Lori & Lexi visited Des Moines one weekend and had a hotel with a pool - so we had to go swimming! Tyler thought it was fun as long as he had a hold of Mom!

Uncle Kyle, Andrew, and Dad watching the ISU Women play in the NCAA tourney.

All Things Tyler

So, I've been accused of not posting enough. No good excuse except the computer has been acting up, I've tried to get back into working out and it is taking a major chunk out of my 'free' time, and now that Tyler can walk - nothing is safe! ;)

The first part of 2011 has been uneventful, yet still busy! In January & February we went to an ISU basketball game or two. February marked 15 months for Tyler. He weighed in at 30 1/2 inches and 19 pounds, 10 ounces. Believe it or not, that puts him in the 32% for height and 1% or lower in weight. We were told to 'bulk him up'. Go figure right after that he gets sick and doesn't eat for almost a week!

We have stayed in Des Moines for a change, letting our family come to us! We attended 4 Saturday volleyball tournaments for our niece Belle throughout February & March, with the Perkin's and Newman's all visiting. Papa Knute, Grandma Denise, and Great Grandma Peterson visited for a Sunday afternoon as well.

So - here are a few pictures of our early 2011 happenings, with more to come - and some good stories as well!

Tyler has figured out that he can get into the cereal cupboard and does so daily. He knows that there is cereal, crackers, and cookies in here and he will bring them to us often.

Our Saturday morning relaxation lately has been to get coffee and the newspaper from the gas station and hang out in our pj's. As you can see, we're starting him off early on the java! He gets very angry when you take away his coffee cup. Just like I assume his dad was, this little monkey is a climber. He likes to take all the dipaers out and stand in his caddy. I've caught him often on his table and fire truck in the living room. He has also quickly become at ease on the little slide in the basement. I will work on getting pictures, but in a matter of a month or so we went from being scared of it to climmbing up it backwards and standing on top, looking to dad to tell him no. Need an explanation? He has a fasination with the swiffer. If he gets the chance to sneak into the laundry room, off he goes in every room of the house, cleaning.

Newman Christmas

Christmas in January! We traveled to Stanton the first weekend in January to have Christmas with the Newman side. We had a relaxing weekend hanging out, visiting relatives, eating great food, and of course, presents! Here are the highlights....

The boys entertained themselves with the video games prior to gift opening.

Tyler got a great nursery rhyme book from Grandma & Grandpa.

Andrew got a great gift from the Perkins!

Boy how the boys can model their gifts!

Apparently Tyler fits in with the rest of the Newman clan - Kesslers for Christmas!

He had a lot of fun playing with Johnathan's drum set....I don't think Johnathan saw him doing this though!

Uncle Kyle got all of the kids Kool-Aid shirts - Merry Christmas!!