A Trip to Tanner's Orchard

We took a trip to Speer, IL today, a very small town about 60 miles northwest of Bloomington, to vist Tanner's Orchard. It's an apple orchard with lots of fun things for little kids. We started the day checking out the giant pumpkins. They weren't for sale but Tyler had a blast touching them.

Next we had lunch--BBQ pork and ribeye sandwiches. Very yummy!

After feeding ourselves, we then fed the goats and llamas. Tyler got to pet and feed a goat for the first time!

Here he is getting the food from Daddy

And here he is feeding the goat

Then we took a covered wagon out to the apple orchard. We picked half a peck of Golden Delicious, Red Delicious and Jonathon apples.

Mommy helping Tyler pick his first apple

Examining an apple he and Daddy picked together

We then took the wagon out to this HUGE pumpkin patch.

Tyler helped find the perfect pumpkin--to be carved soon for Halloween.

When we got back to the main grounds, we went into the market where we sampled apple cider, apple butter, applesauce, apple salsa, apple EVERYTHING! So good!

GO BEARS!

This picture was actually taken last week for the season opener but it was a bad game so we decided to wait and post it until the Bears got their first win. Luckily, it came today at home vs. the defending Champions--the Pittsburg Steelers!! Don't ask me how they did it though....I only got to see about 3 total minutes of the game because I was chasing around a toddling Tyler. Mike tried watching the game some too but Tyler was obsessed with the TV--I think he wanted in on the action because he kept getting right up to it and banging on the TV. He also found out that the cable box has buttons and thought it was pretty cool to press them just to see if he could make Daddy mad. Either way, it was a Bears win! Go Bears!

Happy Eleven-Month Birthday Tyler!

Happy eleven-month birthday to you
Happy eleven-month birthday to you
Happy eleven-month birthday dear Tyler
Happy eleven-month birthday to you!

Many more birthdays to you
Many more birthdays to you
Many more birthdays dear Tyler
Many more birthdays to you!

Whoa! Tyler is going to be one next month! It’s so crazy! This month flew by and I am sure that the last days of Tyler’s “babyhood” will too! He seems like such a big boy to us….from getting his first pair of shoes to getting the budding of his first tooth this month! That’s right—he’s finally sprouting teeth! He has one small white spot on the bottom right side of his mouth. He is now eating all real foods at breakfast and lunch at day care and is down to just 3 bottles a day (one morning, one afternoon and one evening). He is officially a "furniture walker" but he has yet to figure out how to walk on his own. He has started to be able to stand by himself for just a few seconds. We’re quite sure that once he has mastered that, it won’t take long for him to figure out how to put it into motion. We are also waiting very enthusiastically for his first word. Hopefully we will have some BIG updates by October 17, 2009!!!

Enjoying the last days of summer in the back yard

So intrigued by a leaf

A close-up of his tooth--but not close enough...it's just breaking through and it doesn't even show yet. So really just a close-up of his sweet (slobbery) smile.

Home Improvements

I took three days off work to do some major painting around the house. I got about 90% done with what I wanted to accomplish. Here are some before and after pictures....Unfortunately the lighting isn't great for some of these because I took them while dark out. The house just doesn't remain in order during Tyler's waking hours! :)

The kitchen went from a terra cotta-ish orange with sage green cabinets to a color called "Almond Butter" (very light peach-ish cream). It goes very well with the sage cabinets and the dark wood floor. I didn't get around to painting the door white.

Before....
(this picture was actually taken before we replaced our refrigerator and dishwasher)

After....



The living room transformed from having the yellow and tan strips on top, cream chair rail and tan on bottom to a color called "Apple Slice" (very light green). I also painted the chair rail white. Again, I need to paint the door white and we hope to replace all the baseboards in that room.

Before....

After....



We remodeled the bathroom a couple months back when I painted the walls to a silvery-lavender and then had the floor, vanity, medicine cabinet and storage cabinet replaced. Although I didn't do any new work on it this past week, I did hire an electrician to replace our vanity fixture so here is a picture of it.

John and Mike replaced our shed doors over the course of 3 weekends in August. We have been chipping away at painting them since (and we still aren't finished). Although it's dark, here is the color we chose. We plan to re-paint all the trim on the exterior of the house this same color. (I'll re-post pictures when it's light out after we've finished painting).

Still lots of work to do but it feels almost like we are living in a new house given all these changes. It's so much brighter and cleaner.

A Weekend of Friends and Family!

Tyler got a visit from Morgan and Jayson Saturday on their way to a family get-together in Bloomington. I was really pleased with how social he was around new people (although this is actually the 2nd time he's met them, but the last time he was only 6 weeks old). He played with them and let them hold him for pictures. Here they are....
Tyler and Morgan

Jayson and Urlacher (aka Tyler)


We went to Uncle Terry and Aunt Michelle's this afternoon for a Labor Day cook-out. Tyler got to see the whole gang--Grandma and Grandpa Ellsworth, Uncle Terry and Aunt Michelle, Great Grandma Burnett and her friend Ethel. Just as always, none of us left hungry. Tyler got to try two new foods too--"shrimp on the barbie" and coleslaw! Here are a couple pictures......
Grandma E. and Tyler

Uncle Terry and Tyler enjoying a moment

SWINGS!!

We took an early morning walk to the park this morning and Tyler enjoyed being in the baby swing as always!