Bad Blogger

with a capital B.

Sorry about that.

Here are my excuses:
-I just got my computer back on Wednesday, it's been at my mom's.
-I officially started training for a half marathon (pause...waiting for your laughter to subside) while on vacation and I've continued the training since. Feels REALLY good to be on a schedule...but the thought of 13 miles still freaks me out. I did 6 last Sunday, Bryan is the first to point out that it's still another 7 miles to go... :) Such a sweetheart.
-I started my new 'job' in a way, moved buildings, settling in, have been doing some interviewing and yeah.
Okay, I'm out of excuses.

Here's a picture from vacation, I just now loaded all of the photos onto my computer, so I PROMISE to post them all very soon.

The Fam. This was our last night there. We rented a boat and found this super cool restaurant right on the lake, Captain Ron's..? I can't quite remember now. But it was fun.

okay, I had better get Connor up and get to work.

More later. Promise.

home sweet home!

We made it home! The ladies and babies made it back to Mankato about 4:50 last night, the guys flew in (yes, they got to fly, more on that later) and landed into Mankato about 4:30. Bryan and I headed right to church to see Pastor Steve Kosberg's last sermon...not going to lie, I think I started crying on 3 separate occasions (along with the rest of the packed house). Pastor Steve was with us in the hospital and baptized Connor before we headed up to Children's and he's the coolest Pastor I've ever met...aside from the Cloeter men of course :)

Pictures from vacation coming soon!

we made it!

We have officially made it to vacation. Ahhhh........

The drive took us 9.5 hours, with 2 stops. WAY better than I think all of us thought it would be. The kids did really well, but we were all definitely ready to get out of the car. I drove to a little past Kansas City, maybe I should back up. We got up at 3:30 on Saturday morning and were on the road by 4:33...the kids did not fall right back asleep, however, they were up for an hour and then napped, so it was fine. So yeah, I drove til a little past Kansas City and then Krystal took over to our final destination, Tan-Tar-A resort on Lake of the Ozarks.

Yesterday, our first full day of vacation went great, kids took a two hour nap in the morning then we went to the pool til mid-afternoon. Naps again, then to the dinner reception for the conference (dad is speaking today at the conference...hopefully, as mom is on the way right now to pick him up at the Springfield airport from Argentina...his talk is supposed to happen at 1...).

Day two? We're just about to put the kids down for their morning naps, then it will be pool time again. This is perfect, exactly what I was looking for. Relaxation :)

Sorry no pictures, I honestly haven't even taken ONE. (mom and Krystal have, I promise to be better starting today)

Happy Monday!!

family photos

eI had to sneak in a few new family photos while Mary was down :)

I wanted to get one of Connor and I, but he was about done with pictures after only 10 or so. Tired boy.

Ashlyn's birthday party

This past Sunday we celebrated Ashlyn's birthday party out at the lake. It was a beautiful day and I think everyone enjoyed themselves!! Happy 1st Birthday to Ashlyn!

Random...but this is Connor's new thing while in the car.

The woman behind the photos.

thinks he can do the steps all by himself, one at a time even.

This is honestly my favorite picture, okay, if it was a big smile it'd be better, but I love it! So adorable. Plus, I bought her the skirt last year :)

Excuse me, I'm trying to back up. You're in my way.

(this was really Ashlyn's present, but Connor found it and claimed it his)

hmm...look familiar?

funny how they start picking up on our (bryan's) actions

yeah, ok, I gotta go, call you after work

what was that? okay, I'll be right there.

wouldn't go to bed. wanted to play in the car more.

and I think she was done.

first ride on the jet ski! He did pretty good, was all about sitting on it while it was on the lift yet but HATED the life vest. Bryan just took him anyways and after a little bit he was fine. Then, he didn't want to come off...go figure. However...it was a good experience because the only way I let him go back on it was if he put his life jacket back on, and he was totally fine with that as long as he got to go back on. So that was good.

at this point I was doing some really cool 70's dance moves. you would laugh too.

Ashlyn's new cousin on the other side, Chloe. Isn't she a doll!

The Loula clan.

fun days

This past weekend was Fun Days in North Mankato. I had volleyball Friday night and Sarah came down to scrap for the weekend so we took Connor and met Nessler's down there Thursday night. I was a little worried at first to put him on the rides without us...as if he decided he hated it, I'm sure he could wiggle his way out of the seat belts...but...he did great. (remember, the kid doesn't show emotion while on moving rides...but he wants to get right back on after you take him off). I'm glad we went, I'm sure next summer will be a blast with the kids!

Dad, this is boring.

Kate wasn't a huge fan...which worked in Connor's favor as he got some of her ride tickets :) Thanks, Kate!

Driving the cars. This was his favorite ride as he went on this one twice.

SO serious.

my baby is so grown up!

um, hello, this is so lame.

i think this was a wave. or maybe i just caught him about to put his hands on the wheel. i vote wave.

good job...pay attention to where you're going

so had it not been for the 12 year old girl in front of him...he would look much bigger.

chilling in the back seat. our last ride of the night.

We are loving summer, but it's doing a number on our sleep schedules! Connor seems to go to bed somewhere around 10 at least a few nights a week. We were loving the 7 pm bedtime schedule!

15 month check-up

This morning I took Connor to his 15 month appointment...only to get there and have them tell me the appointment was cancelled...um...what? They said it was 'cancelled by patient' on June 28th or something. Pretty sure I didn't do that, but thankfully they were able to get me into one of the Nurse Practitioners. We hadn't seen her before, but she was very nice. Connor is right on track developmentally...and just 'normal/average' for speech. No concerns at this point though. We talked about his diarrhea the past week (and I went through 4 diapers just while waiting to get called back, no lie) and she said she can't find anything physically wrong (infection, etc.) so thinks it's just a lingering stomach flu. She also mentioned that babies that spit up more often as infants tend to have longer/lingering stomach flus. Super.

But, the appointment went well overall. Two shots, Connor hated them of course but quickly recovered as soon as I could pick him up. We also got some super-fied Pepto tablets to hopefully get him back on track. Vaction is next week...we need a happy healthy boy!

Stats...drum roll please...

he's still short.
and he lost weight (which correlates directly to our recent shortage of diapers in the house...)

Weight: 22 lbs 13 oz - 26th percentile
Height: 30 in (pretty sure the limit at fun days was 31...oh well) - 19th percentile (up from 13th!)
Head in the 70th percentile somewhere. The sheet is in the car still.

So that's that. Next appointment is at 18 months.
Now I am just waiting for our new bed set to be delivered and off to work I go.

Vacation in T-6 days!!!!!!!

sick?

I took these pictures last Monday while Connor was home 'sick'...doesn't exactly look sick, does he? Well...the garbage man took away the proof last Friday...so trust me...something wasn't right. But he was in great spirits, which, is good.

Accessorizing with the diapers.

Looks tall, right? Ha. Fooled ya.

4th of July Weekend pics

playing with Grammie at the playground before swimming

Pointing to the animals at the zoo

The boys gazing at the animals. It may appear Aaron is texting...but I believe he was taking a picture of the moose

This moose.

Showdown with a rooster.

Oh boy. A tractor. Why do they have tractor's at a zoo?

Quite possibly the largest bull I have EVER seen. I mean...check out it's, um, yeah. Wow.

Uncle Aaron petting the sharks.

4th of July Recap

Well overdue. Friday, the 3rd of July, I had off of work so Connor and I met Krystal, Ashlyn and my mom at the St. Peter pool. The night before, Connor had thrown up in his crib at 2 in the morning, so it was a good thing I had off. Ended up having diarrhea that day as well. Anyways...Connor hated the pool. I'll give him the excuses that he obviously wasn't feeling well and the water was freezing (however, that didn't phase Ashlyn). After the pool we went out to my parents and spent the rest of the evening there.

Saturday, Bryan golfed and I got some things done around the house. Since we didn't have our annual lake party due to my parents lawn being a little screwed up, we just had a relaxing evening at my parents and Bryan and I took the boat out for fireworks.

Sunday, Bryan, Connor, myself and Uncle Aaron went to the Minnesota Zoo. It was BEAUTIFUL day (should have been on that lake this day, but oh well) and we all had a great time. Connor did really well and seemed to enjoy himself.

So that was the end of the weekend! Monday I ended up staying home with Connor, as you've probably already read about :)

Pictures to follow :)

20?

A 4th of July weekend update will come later, maybe tonight, but instead, I'll post about our day, today. Woke up to Connor screaming (like a shriek more like) at 6 am...go to get him and he's covered in puke and has the biggest diaper full of diarreah I've ever seen. (sorry for the visual). He was pretty freaked out. So, got him cleaned up and brought him in bed with me, slept until 8:30 when I found he had filled his pants again. You just feel so bad for the little guy, I mean, I know how I feel when I'm sick, and how my stomach hurts, I can't imagine how scary/painful it is for them.

So...for a guy that doesn't exactly enjoy diaper changes...I am pretty sure we went through 20 diapers today...and he napped for nearly 5 hours throughout the day...you can do the math on how often that means I changed him. We eventually just stopped putting his pants back on.

Good thing...he's been in great spirits all day. Just had plumbing issues.

Hopefully he's better tomorrow so I can actually go into work and he can go see his friends. (it's one thing if he's sick and cuddly...I love cuddling...but he's been full of action today when he was awake)

Like I said, pictures/update from the weekend coming soon.

ice cream truck and fun with friends

Last night we went over to Craig, Lora and Madelyn's house for supper. Had a great time, kept Connor out way past his bedtime (seems to be a regular occurrence these days) and even got to see the ice cream truck! Warning, I was a little picture happy for some reason.

Connor wanted to hula hoop too.

Here comes the ice cream truck!

Yes, we have an 'ice cream truck'. 2009 style of course :)

Securing their ice cream purchases.

Waving bye bye to the ice cream truck.

Still waving bye bye.

Connor would start running to the street...so then Madelyn would go 'save' him...turned into a pretty amusing game for the two of them.

Until we were distracted by the water line outlet thing. Whatever it's called. Bryan would be really disappointed in me for not knowing what this is called...

Back at it...

Madelyn LOVES having her picture taken. She goes 'take my picture over here'...ran over there and stuck her little butt out. I do believe we got a roll of the eyes from her father..

Connor getting a little territorial, even tho it wasn't his toy.

"Bike to that truck over there and we'll count to see how long it takes you!"

(love kids at this age, ha)

Bryan being BAD and letting Connor drive home. We just had to keep reminding Connor to keep his eyes on the road.