Apple Picking

Today Steve and I decided to take a break from packing and go pick some apples. Barthel's Fruit Farm, which is located about 20 minutes away, has u-pick Honey Crisps, which are a favorite variety of ours. So after Kylie woke up from her morning nap, we loaded up the car to head to the apple farm. As you can see, Kylie was really excited for the experience... (see below)

Once we got out of the car and she woke up, she kept saying "apples, apples!" She really loves apples. We let her have one that Dad picked for her. She really liked it.

It was only after we got home that we realized she had eaten three apples, two at Barthel's, and one on the way home. Apples are good for brain development, right?

We plan on making picking apples a family tradition.

Love the Socks

Last week when Kylie and I were packing for the move, I opened a box I had saved that had shipping peanuts in it. Kylie was sifting through the peanuts, and found an unopened gift. I looked at the shipping label on the box, and it was a gift to me from my parents, in April 2006. How I overlooked the little gift, I have no idea. I let Kylie unwrap it, and among some other items, were these socks. I guess she thought they were hers, and almost every day since she has worn them. With everything. Apparently she's a bigger Hello Kitty fan than I realized....

Our First Home

After a lot of hunting and praying, our offer was accepted on the little house in Jackson that we had our eye on. We close on October 15th. I am feeling excited, a little aprehensive since we're never spent this much money before. Mostly, I feel like we are starting a new chapter in our lives, which I have looked forward to for a long time. Steve and I have been in apartments since the day we were married. It was time! Here are a few pictures.

Kitchen

Dining Room

Living Room



Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Bedroom #1

Bedroom #2

Basement Back Deck and Yard

Wisconsin State Fair

This weekend marked one of the highlights of my summer - going to the Wisconsin State Fair. As far as I am concerned, Wisconsin has one of the best state fairs in the nation. Bold, I know, but true. I have been looking forward to going all summer, so was I delighted to find out that family would be coming to this joyous event with us? Yes! Sarah, Danny, Jackson and Baby Parker were all in attendance, and it was a blast. The kids did exceptionally well, which means we all had fun.

A treat only to be had at the fair is their famous State Fair Cream Puffs. They are as big as a hamburger, loaded with cream. I only ate half...promise.. Kylie really enjoyed the cream puffs.

We got to see cows and horses, goats and pigs. What could be better? Did I mention I got up close and personal with Bessie? Where else can you do that?


I will miss you animals, cream puffs, deep fried food and As Seen On TV products. Until next year....

Like Father Like Daughter

This morning after Kylie got up she went over to the television and kept pointing to it saying "on, on". I tried to tell her that we weren't watching t.v. right now. She became frustrated, so I put her on my lap so that we could discuss this. I told her that I knew she wanted to watch t.v. right now (intending to follow that up with, "but we'll watch it later".) Before I could finish my sentence she interrupted me with "I need, I need". I had to laugh. I guess it's in her DNA to have the "need" for tv...

15 Month Stats

Head Circumference: 46 cm (50th percentile)
Length for Age: 32" tall (90th percentile)
Weight for Age: 22.6 pounds (45th percentile)
Weight for Length: 25th percentile

A little info on the 15 month old:

Activities: Kylie loves to run, collect rocks and sticks and overall being outside. She enjoys watching Sesame Street, but Mom limits her tv time more than she would like. She also enjoys helping Mom unload the dishwasher, wrestling with Dad, and making us smile and laugh with all of her funny anticts.

Eating: Kylie loves fruit. She eats a banana every morning, along with yogurt and toast. She also likes hot dogs, cheese, cereal and desserts (wonder if she gets that from Mom?).

Sleep Schedule: Still taking an hour nap at 9am and 2pm. Goes to bed at 7:30 and wakes up at 6.30. This makes her parents very happy.

We love you Kylie!

Family Vacation in North Carolina

Last week was spent in North Carolina, hanging out with family, and doing some pretty fun activities. We...

Got to play with the cousins. This was a real treat, since Kylie doesn't get to play with other kids that much, and to play with her cousins was EVEN BETTER!! They played hide and go seek, threw the ball around, ran around the yard a ton...they just had a blast. We miss you already Lilly and Trevor! (We miss Neal and Dani too, of course)

Boogied down to some live music (see Kylie doing her signature move of booty out and shake it dance). There is an outdoor shopping center a few minutes away from Grandma Rosie and Grampy's house that has live music in the center of their lawn on Friday and Saturday nights. We went twice, Kylie liked it so much. We enjoyed relaxing on our camp chairs while she wore herself out...

Played at the local playground. I love that Kylie fearlessly slides down the slides like a big girl. This playground was really cool because it had these shade covers high over the equipment so that hot Carolina sun didn't burn our skin and make us too hot. What a blessing!

Had fun running through the cylinder tunnels at the playground. Isn't it fun to peek out?

Went to a drive thru zoo called the Lazy 5 Ranch. It's about 45 minutes north of town. You pay a fee to drive through, and can purchase a bucket of feed for $3.50 to feed the animals, which we did. The zoo has all kinds of animals (you can see deer behind us) that you can see and feed. I fed most of them right out of my hand. We fed a zebra, camels, a giraffe, cow, pig, emu, etc. I was impressed with how sweet the animals were, especially the deer. They were so gentle. More pictures below.

Dad and Mom, Julie Anna, Neal, Dani, Lilly and Trevor - we love you guys! Thank you for having us as guests, and showing us such a good time.