Some of (Lola's) Favorite Things!

Good-bye August, hello September. Don't like that AT. ALL. Last year it was so exciting because I was about to have a baby and take a year off of work, this year it means returning to work! As much as I feel somewhat ready for that - and knowing my kids are probably ready for that structure as well - I still feel sad about this year going so fast.

Lola has 4 teeth now! She essentially runs everywhere she goes - the only way I slow her down is by putting shoes on her - which she is getting good at as well.


Here are a few pictures of the last few weeks.

Lola's most favorite thing - eating. She takes after me.

Yep, playin' some hopscotch...a FAV pastime around here!

Practicing his pedaling skills....they're coming along.....slowly (he does really well when he can just pedal downhill from the garage out the driveway!)

Dirty face - what else is new when we are outside near the flower garden?!

Mini-Golfing, a last hurrah excursion as a family before Daddy went back to work!

Showing off his mad golf skillz...

How cute is this? All 3 looking into the hole!

Mom and Teague on the bumper boats!

Lola checking out all of the rocks while Daddy and Teague were on the go karts!

Hey guys!

One of Lola's favs - playing and pushing Teague's cars up and down the hallway...I think she likes them more than Teague ever has!

Lola's other fav - carrying her baby doll around! It's super sweet!

Just trying on Lola's sunglasses!


Hangin' out in her sunglasses!

My two babies just watchin' some Nick Jr. together!

Summer Fun!

We are having a good summer! We stay busy - but mostly stay home. We have lots of fun playing outside (Teague's favorite thing to do is play hopscotch....he is so proud that he can hop around on one foot - not that he couldn't do it earlier this summer, he has just perfected it. So cute!). So we play a lot of hopscotch and we swim a lot. It's been awesome.

I got a new camera last week so I am enjoying playing with it. It takes really nice pictures - so now I have my nice compact camera and a larger one.

The countdown is on. Ryan is back to work a week from Monday and I will start one month from Friday I will be back. I have been mentally prepping myself for awhile now. The kids will go to daycare two days a week once school starts so hopefully it won't be such a "shock" for them. There are honestly days when Teague takes his afternoon nap still in his pj's. So the idea of getting both kids ready every morning and out the door could prove really daunting. Ok, really Teague will be hard. Lola is still easy to hold down and throw into her carseat!

Lola is sleeping well still (with the exception of sleeping at my parent's this past weekend - OMG.) She got her 3rd tooth in now and has two on the bottom and one on the top! She is so fun and (speed) walks everywhere. I am trying to get her used to wearing shoes (not fun) as she has not wore shoes at all in her baby life. She loves her bottle finally and is just all around a total joy!

Teague is just as hilarious as ever. He now wants us to sit on the couch so he can "put on a show for you". Then he stomps around like a dinosaur and sings "When you're Big" (from the Land Before Time). He plays with an imaginary friend (no name at this point) and totally entertains us with his little sayings. Soooooo fun.

This past weekend we went to Morris for the good old county fair. We had some good food and good fun. Teague still loved seeing the animals - so I am glad that still holds some excitement for him over the rides. I am seeing that will not be possible in the years to come!

This weekend we have our "town days" which we have been planning to attend for some time with the kids and pictures with our favorite photographer, Amy, on Friday for the kids' 1st and 3rd year pictures. So excited!!

Have a good week!

Lola the Lizard - typical for her to walk around with her tongue hanging out!

Cutie pie trying to climb down the pool ladder!

....and trying to climb up!

Pretty normal response from Teague when I try to take his picture.

....but he can still look sweet once in a while.

....and then kinda naughty looking too (notice Lola taking it allllllll in?!)

Hello there little Ms. Blue Eyes!

This is a rarity (Teague smiling and me in the picture)!

Almost perfect picture.

Me with both of the kids! (well sort of - Lola just got in there accidentally)!

Teague on a ride at the fair.

Lola showing off her walking skills at the fair!

Teague checking out the motorcycle ride.

She's Walking!

Lola's an official walker now! While she actually started taking steps 2 1/2 weeks ago (10 months old!) she's now preferring to walk over crawling. It's so cute and so cute when Teague gets so excited and says "LOLA'S WALKING! LOOK AT HER MAMA!" Here's a little video clip.

We had Teague in for his 3 year well child check and he continues to grow like a weed! Off the charts for height and "hugging the line" for weight (which is good - we like tall and lean!) and he's still incredibly adorable! He's now getting to the stage where he embarrasses us in public (not on purpose of course), but just with the things he is observing. The other night we went to Space Alien's (kids eat free on Tuesdays you know!) and the mascot Alien was walking around. If you have ever seen him you know he is a little scary looking - kind of looks like the character from the Scream movies. Anyway Teague would stand there and stomp his feet and point and shout "Oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh I AM SCARED OF THAT"! So next we went to Target and as we are walking down the main aisle past pharmacy, two Somolian women in their headresses are walking towards us and when they are literally less than 4 feet away from us (and in TOTAL ear shot) Teague freezes in his tracks and stomps his feet in place, points and SHOUTS "Oooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh I AM SCARED OF THAT!" We moved on away as fast as we could. Perfect educational opportunity if he were like 5, but we sort of doubted he would understand a talk about ethnicity at this age!

Teague being silly before bed with two paci's in his mouth!

Lola practicing her cruising skills!

The summer is winding down and of course I am SUPER sad about it. I love my time at home and have made the decision to return to work on Sept. 20th. It was a hard decision as I love staying home with my kids but I knew I would want to be in my job when my kids start preschool as we will all be in the same building together, which means our kids can ride with us to work and I can walk them to class and pick them up everyday (as long as they want that of course)!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's

Well I think we might be on the up and up with sleep now. I RELUCTANTLY reverted back to trying Lola "cry it out" without help. And it seems to have worked. I know why it is referred to as a last ditch resort. I didn't have to hear her cry (I knew I would cave in) - Ryan listened to it. I slept in the basement with a sound machine right next to my face! It basically took her two nights of crying hard for about a half an hour. Not bad. Once in a while we still hear a small 1 second "shreak" in the middle of the night, but that's it. So now I am back in my own bed!

We visited the Stearns County Fair on Thursday. We had a nice time but overstayed our welcome I think as we all started to meltdown at the end! Teague (and Lola) went on nearly all the kid's rides, we saw every animal barn twice, ate our way through the other buildings then went grocery shopping and FINALLY home. I don't know who was more ready for the kids' bedtime - myself or the kids?!

The insurance adjuster was out to our house last Saturday. So like we thought we will be getting a new roof on the storage garage and our entire house, new siding, etc. There was damage to miscellaeous other belongings but I doubt we will replace those items.

Well tomorrow is already August. I cannot believe it. The summer is just flying by and now that we are all getting more sleep around here I hope we can "get out" and enjoy it more!

Dusha Grandkids

It is not often - actually never it seems - that the Dusha's take pictures. Actually we take pictures when either Grums, Ken and or Tan Man are visiting! Seriously, why don't we take more pictures during get togethers?! So whatever the reason - probably because I forget my camera EVERY time we get together and I should just make it a priority - all the Grandkids were together for the weekend. So like previously mentioned I forgot my camera, but did have the camera phone! =) Esther has this fab new camera from Ken and Grums so I should make her be in charge of more pictures and, Ken - will you please teach her how to email pics next time you visit also?! So the only grandkid missing is the babe in the oven of Dana! We are SO excited to update this picture to include Tan Man's little sister! YAY!