2 Months Old

2011 Iowa State Fair

Haselhuhn Family at the great Iowa State Fair

The 4-H rabbit show was going on when we arrived a the fair. I showed rabbits at the State Fair when I was in 4-H, so we stopped in to see all the different breeds. Tyler liked the friendly ones who came over to twitch their noses at him and let him pet them.

One of Tyler's favorite stops is the Little Hands On The Farm area where they pick plastic vegies & fruit, get grain, collect wool, and drive tractors. Then they "sell" their items at market to get "money" to buy a treat on the way out.

Here is Tyler standing by the sign saying "You must be taller than 2 chickens to ride the tractor". He has his gas can ready to "fuel up" his tractor.

To show you how much he has grown in a year...
here is the same photo stop from the 2010 State Fair.Here he is showing off his his basket of farm goods And over cookies, popsicles, and other treats...he chooses to spend his "money" from the farm sale on a chocolate milk - YUM!

This was Hannah's first Iowa State Fair experience - and she slept thru most of it!3 generations at the fair - my mom Janelle, myself, and Tyler in the Ag building

Playing in the garden outside the Ag Building

Lunch Break!!

Seeing friends at the 4-H BuildingMore fair treats

Ending the day with a run thru the giant sprinkler before it rained on us all the way back to the car. I asked Tyler to look at the camera, but each 2-second glance he gave me wasn't long enough for my camera to catch him. The water was more exciting to look at.

August Birthday Parties

Kelsey Stephens (my brother David's daughter) turned 2 in July but we celebrated her birthday in August. Here is Kelsey eating her birthday dinner with 2 of her cousins, Tyler & Oliver.

Blowing out the candles on her Mickey Mouse cake

Opening presentsAdam's brother has two kids who were both born in August.
We celebrated Sarah turning 7 and Jacob turning 1.

Tyler had fun helping Jacob play with his new toys.

And trying out Sarah's new pogo stick

Tyler Tales

We have been trying to take Tyler up for the children's sermon during church over the last month - much to the amusement of the congregation! We have tried to explain sitting still and listening, but our toddler doesn't quite comprehend those words yet. The first time there were only 3 kids and Tyler found so many interesting things to look at up front that he kept interrupting the Pastor to point out things. Once he actually waved his hand in Pastor Dahle's face and said "Wait, wait, I want to talk! Look at the cross!" Then he said "Wait, I have to tell you something, look over there!" I was afraid the Pastor was going to get so distracted he would loose track of what he was trying to say the children's sermon would never end! The next time Tyler sat next to a girl whose shoes lit up when she walked and Tyler quickly noticed that they would also light up if he pounded on the floor next to the pulpit! Last Sunday I walked him to the front and tried sitting on the front pew while he sat up front with one of his friends, but he decided to run around the communion railing instead and I banged my knee into the railing really hard when I was trying to stop him. I tried making him sit next to me or on my lap, but he was completely unc0operative until he saw that the Pastor was passing out lifesavers candy. When he went up to get his piece he said loudly, "Mommy needs one too!" (and everyone laughed). Yup, that's my kid - always looking out for me - or thinking it will help sweeten me up!

Last night at my mom's house Tyler was playing with a Toy Story race track. When the cars race down the track it says, "You've got a play date with destiny!" Tyler knows my friend Bethany from church and has spent a few days at her home day care and we were also there this week to visit for an evening. So, Adam and I thought it was cute when he thought the toy was saying, "You've got a play date with Bethany" and he repeated those words every time the cars raced!

What A Week!

Monday
I met Shaun & Abbie Kowalke when we were all camp counselors at Wesley Woods back in '97 and'98. Now they live in South Carolina. On Monday we got to see them while they were back in Iowa to visit their families. It had been 3 years since our last visit - we had a LOT to catch up on!
Me & Abbie

Abbie & Hannah

Hannah & MayaWe met for lunch - Taco Johns with 5 kids and 4 adults provided lots of entertainment and noise for the other patrons, I am sure! Then we took the kids to the park. The dads played with the kids while Abbie and I chatted.
Here are 3 attempts at a photo of the moms with our kids. Maya and Tyler were fighting over who got to hold Hannah!
The Kowalkes
Maya, Shaun, Sami, Abbie & Calvin
And after our nice long 4-hour play date.....
Tyler took his first nap in a week!!

Injury #1
That evening Tyler was driving his train engine from the Train Festival on the arm on the chair right above where Hannah was sitting in her bouncer when the train slipped and fell on her head.

Tuesday
Monday night my brother surprised me with a whole box of free sweet corn from his father-in-law's farm, so this is how I spent my Tuesday morning. After conferring with a few family members on the process (I hadn't helped since I was in grade school) I got 26 cups of sweet corn in the deep freeze!

I shucked, boiled, blanched, cut & bagged all the corn in between potty & snack breaks, nursing & diaper changes...but really the kids were great all morning - otherwise I couldn't have done it. Adam was even gone all day. He volunteered at the 4-H Building at the State Fair, so I even managed all that completely on my own!
I finally caught Hannah smiling for the camera. Not sure if she was smiling because she got to watch me from the kitchen counter...or if she was smiling because she isn't old enough to help yet!

Tyler didn't want to help with the sweet corn - he wanted to make POP CORN and watch CARS.

I got the corn done just in time to meet Jill & Juliana for our play date. Jill made us lunch and then we took the kids to the Boone Pool.

Since Tyler has mostly given up afternoon naps (his idea, not mine), we have rearranged his room so he now has several puzzles, stuffed animals, legos, books, and a tent to enjoy during "quiet time" in his room - which is where he went after our time at the pool.

Wednesday
Tyler went to the Y with Adam for the morning while Hannah and I caught up on laundry, dishes, and baths. After lunch I drove the kids out to the camp for the last closing ceremonies of the summer. I arrived with 2 completely tuckered out kids who slept through all the talking, clapping, and even the "Little Green Frog" song!

Here is a picture of Me and Erica - she has attended camp multiple weeks each summer for years and her Mom has been a volunteer camp nurse, too. Erica got to be a junior counselor-in-training this week and this is the camp rabbit she adopted at the end of the summer.

We drove straight from camp back to Boone for our 3rd play date in 3 days - this time with the Halverson kids. Bethany ordered pizza for us and then the kids had fun playing and Bethany got some quality time with Hannah.

Tyler & Ethan chowing down

Olivia & Tyler watching cartoonsChecking out the baby

Thursday
We had library books due on Thursday so that was our destination for the morning, but Tyler wanted to walk instead of drive - so we loaded up the stroller and walked ALL 19 BLOCKS from our house to the library. We stopped once to chat with a friend who drove by and once to watch a train, and finally made it there an hour later.

Oh yes, and we stopped to check out the caboose downtown, too

This was Hannah's first trip to the Library! Tyler enjoyed showing her off. Nan, the librarian, even got to hold her!

Tyler got to play with trains, puzzles, and even read a brand new Cars book in the tree house. Meg let him be the first to check it out when she saw he was wearing a Cars T-shirt.

On the way back we stopped after 6 of the 19 blocks home and had lunch at the Whistle Stop cafe to watch more trains. Then we walked another 45 minutes home and Tyler feel asleep on the couch watching a movie. Three miles is a log walk for a toddler! He did ride on the stroller with Hannah for a few blocks, but he walked most of it, picking up rocks and sticks and asking me "what's that?" most of the trip.

Injury #2:
Thursday evening Adam and Hannah were playing on the floor when Tyler threw one of his plastic toy cars in the opposite direction, which bounced off his car race tower and landed right on Hannah's head. You can even see the 2 red circles on her forehead right above her left eye where the tires of the car smacked into her. Her cry for pain definitely sounds different than the ones for feed me, change me, and pick me up!

Friday

Hannah slept from 11pm to 8:30am and never woke to eat that whole time either!!Tyler went to the Y again with Adam most of the morning.

Injury #3:
Tyler was getting a bit tired and uncoordinated after lunch and when he climbed up on the ottoman right beside where Hannah was asleep in her bouncy seat - he lost his balance and fell right on top of her. Poor Hannah - she is learning fast that she will have to be a tough cookie to survive growing up with her crazy big brother!