Memorial Weekend

We had a great Memorial Weekend in Red Wing! We spent Saturday enjoying the warm weather and hanging out outdoors with my family. Eric and Nick enjoyed some cigars and beer while Robert splashed in the pool and my mom and I relaxed on the patio. Robert wasn't too sure of the pool until Uncle Nick joined him for some splashing and playing with the toys. For dinner that night we roasted brats on the fire pit and after Robert went to bed we also had some yummy s'mores!

Sunday morning was a little more relaxing and spent mostly indoors because of the icky humidity that had moved in. Mom, Robert, and I all spent a good portion of the morning napping while the bigger boys played on their computers. That evening Eric, Robert, and I went to visit my good high school friends. Sherry and her hubby Mark were in town for the long weekend and so we went for dinner at her mom's house and our friend Abby and her daughter Lucy joined us as well. We had a great meal (thanks to Mark for grilling the shish-kabobs) and were even able to somewhat get Lucy and Robert to eat a little, they especially enjoyed dessert time! It was great to see everyone and for Robert and Lucy to hang out. I really treasure the time we get to spend together and just wish we were all closer and could do it more often.

This morning we headed home to get a little work done around the house before another crazy work week starts. Robert enjoyed being home so much that he took a 4 hour nap! It kind of ruined our plans of going grocery shopping but it was nice to spend some time relaxing without any agendas before going back to work tomorrow.

Here are some pictures from the weekend and a video of Robert at swim lessons last week. We hope everyone had a safe and wonderful holiday weekend and were able to take a little time to thank our troops for all they do to keep us safe!

Lucy loved the puppy (or Racoon head) at Milbrights!

Celebrating Lyric's Birthday!

We spent today celbrating our niece Lyric's birthday. It was a couple of weeks later than her actual 11th Birthday but we had fun anyway! Larry & Mary made a delicious meal that included Lyric's favorite...Ribs and of course with cake & ice cream for dessert how could you go wrong. Robert had a great time playing with all of the Hemplers and was especially fond of Uncle Adam's new ottoman. It was the perfect height for his new found love of climbing as you can see in the pics below.

Robert also enjoyed playing with the Birthday girl and below is a quick clip of giggles and lots of love between cousins.

In other news I am finally entering the last portion of my pregnancy. A few weeks ago I got below 100 days and now I'm almost in the 60s and enter my 30th week tomorrow, the counter at the top of the blog is both good and bad depending on my mood. This pregnancy is definitely different than it was with Robert. A couple of weeks ago I started experiencing muscle pain in the lower uterus and at my 28 week check-up I was told that I need to go on moderate rest. So my plan was to work at St. Kate's as planned and then go home and let Eric pamper me. :) Well Eric has been wonderful but Robert doesn't like not having mommy be as active so I've decided to take it a little easier at work and depend on all my wonderful students and co-workers a little more than usual. The pain has gotten better with more rest but this weekend I started having some contractions on a pretty regular basis. Luckily after an hour or so they went away and haven't returned but I'm sure my doctor will have something to say about this tomorrow at my appointment. I'm hoping this is a sign that unlike her brother she will come before or on her due date but I'd still like to get to at least 37 weeks before we meet our little girl. So here's to taking it an easy or at least easier than I have been!

Mother's Day Weekend!

After a busy week we took the majority of the weekend to rest and relax in Red Wing with my mom and brother. It was a great time and it was nice to be with my mom after coming off such an emotional few weeks for her and all of us. Slowly but surely things are starting to come together for all of us and during times like this I am so thankful to have such great support in my family!

During our time in Red Wing we watched 3 Twins games, took 4 naps between the 3 of us (me=2, Eric=1, and Robert=1...he needed more but is so excited to be at Grandma's that he forgets how to nap!), played at the park, and had lots of yummy food. Definitely a great Mother's Day weekend for both myself and my mom. Below are some pictures of our time at one of the parks in Red Wing.

Robert walking to the playground pointing at the cool things!

Uncle Nick and Robert playing on the bumble bee

Nick & I teeter tottering...I don't recommend doing this when 7 months pregnant!

Playing the drums!

I'm a big boy! Going down the slide by himself!

RIP Grandpa

After a long few years and an especially rough few days my grandfather passed away on Monday. He has suffered with numerous health problems over the last few years and as hard as it is to say goodbye it is reassuring to know that he is no longer suffering.

He was a long time professor and choir director at Gustavus Adolphus College and the college had their school flag put at half staff for the week along with a special tribute on their website. They also arranged for choir alums to sing two songs at the funeral and we were all shocked to see 50 alums show up for the tribute and many more sending their love and thoughts to the family. The funeral was very special and done in a such an amazing way to honor all the wonderful things he accomplished in his life.

Nick, Mom, and myself at the flag

4 of the 5 grandchildren at the flag

Today was also my cousin Parker's 17th Birthday, we celebrated with candles in his fruit for breakfast and then a DQ ice cream cake as a mid-morning snack...YUMMY!

Parker hanging out with Robert!

When we got home this afternoon we pulled out Robert's tunnel that attaches to his tent. He had fun playing with something new and before bed tonight we took this picture of him inside the tunnel. He loves crawling into anything & everything and keeps us on our toes. His giggles, hugs, smiles, and kisses are so wonderful and definitely reminds Eric & I that no matter what goes on around us he is the light at the end of our tunnel and we are so blessed to have such a wonderful little boy.

As for Eric and I we are both keeping extra busy with work and juggling all of life's demands. Eric is taking a class every week through Keller Williams and spends a lot of his evenings and Robert's naps busy working on his real estate projects. I'm in the middle of some bigger pool rentals and trying to get everything wrapped up for this school year and getting everything ready for the summer. I have also officially entered the 3rd trimester and am definitely noticing the change. It is hard to not be able to pick up and do as much with Robert as I would like and to keep the house as clean as I'd prefer. It is a good thing that our little girl is so demanding and is good at giving me a good kick (or 10) to remind me when I'm doing too much.

Robert's Busy Week

Robert had a busy week and as you can tell from above he was tired that he had to climb into our lazy susan for a rest! On Monday Uncle Nick came over since Aunt Mandie was out of town to get a free dinner and to watch the first ever Twin's game in their new outdoor stadium. Unfortunately none of us had tickets to actually be at the game but it was still exciting to watch it on tv and see a great win against Boston!

My boys watching the Twins Play!

Robert sweeping the deck while dad and Uncle Nick have a cigar

On Tuesday we were back at lessons, this time Eric was in the water with Robert. Robert still is trying to get the hang of blowing bubbles...at least this is what I'm hoping he's doing and not drinking the water! He is also getting the hang of jumping in and loving being in the water! I'm very happy about this but judging by his current body build I'm not getting my hopes up that he'll be a swimmer...football player seems more like it right now.

Wednesday was a rainy day so nothing too exciting. Robert was a good boy and took two great naps for daddy which allowed Eric to get more work done!

Eric has been taking a class on Thursdays and we've been juggling babysitters for this day. This week G'ma Hempler stayed with Robert and although he didn't show her how he can take great naps he did have fun playing with grandma, especially digging in her coat pockets! Below you'll see a picture of him showing both G'ma & G'pa Hempler how he colors with his magic markers (the type from crayola that only work on the special paper...BEST INVENTION EVER!).

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were spent catching up on things around the house. Eric's realtor stuff is picking up so he spent a lot of time making phone calls, working on the computer, and today he spent the morning showing our friends Abby & Steve new homes. Robert spent the weekend destroying the house with his toys, crawling into any and every space possible in our home, and running errands with us. I had to work late Friday night teaching a class and then yesterday was running errands with the boys and today I took on way too much work but am going to blame it on nesting. I am happy to say though that the floors are scrubbed, the kitchen clean, the dishes all done, the bathrooms spotless, and 6 loads of laundry completed, and the blog updated. Eric is going to make dinner (he doesn't know this yet) so I can spend the rest of the evening doing absolutely nothing!

We hope everyone has a great week!!!

Robert & his buddies

This past week Robert has been having a lot of fun playing with some of his friends. It started over Easter weekend when he played with Lucy (good friends from Red Wing). They did pretty good playing together but Robert did steal her pacifier a few times! Today he got to hang out with one of younger friends. We spent the afternoon at my other friend Abby's house while Eric helped get the paperwork going to sell their current home and find a new home for them. Robert enjoyed the chance to play with Cooper and especially all of his toys but didn't care much for Cooper taking his pacifier from him. It was a good lesson learned and I'm sure Lucy would be happy that he had his taken from him just like he stole hers!

Robert & Lucy (above) / Robert & Cooper (below)

Robert's other good friend this week is my mom's dog. Vegas is staying with us while she is recovering from her knee surgery. Although he is a high maintenance dog and it does take some getting used to all the wimpering and whining for Eric and I, Robert is having a blast with him. They've been doing everything together...and I do mean EVERYTHING! It started right away with Robert sharing his meals and snacks with Vegas. Vegas has barely touched his dog food since arriving but I'm pretty sure he's still being well fed. Robert took it upon himself to return the sharing of food favor and has helped himself to Vegas's dog food. Eric found him snacking on it and sent him to me. My lil' boy came running over to me so proud of what he'd accomplished and his mouth & chin covered in dog food chunks. Yummy! Eric was grossed out but I couldn't help laughing, I mean really at that point what was the point of getting mad...oh but we did move the dog's food up and is now only down on the floor when Robert is sleeping. Besides the food Robert has shared his toys with Vegas and Vegas in returned shared his kennel. It is cute but I think Eric and I will be okay to see Vegas return home to Red Wing sometime next week!

Robert & Vegas playing with a balloon


Robert's new favorite hangout...Vegas's Kennel

Amongst all of our visits and dog watching this week also brought on a new session of swim lessons for Robert. He is loving the pool and a lot more active then last year. The video above shows his new found love of putting his mouth & nose in the pool...I'm hoping in attempt to blow bubbles and not to drink the water! I'm excited to see how he improves over the next 2 months and imagine that he'll be enjoying his blow-up pool on our deck more this year than last.

Easter & Surgery

This was a busy weekend and start of the week for us and unfortunately we don't see it slowing down until next week. We had a great Easter weekend that started on Friday with seeing my Aunt Sally and Uncle Joe, then continued to Saturday with some outdoor projects at my mom's and a trip to visit Red Wing friends Abby, Mike, and Lucy. Sunday we went to church and then up to Farmington for Easter dinner with Eric's side, his Uncle Tom, and my mom. It was great to see so many people over the weekend and we wish we saw all of them more often.

The week started early as I had to have my mom at the hospital by 6:30am for her partial knee replacement. The surgery went well but I definitely learned that the waiting room is not a comfortable place for a pregnant person to wait for almost 4 hours. The rest of the day was spent running errands for my mom, getting lunch for Eric & Robert, doing laundry for my mom, and a couple of visits to the hospital (one with and one without Robert). Eric had left Red Wing that afternoon to attend a realtor workshop last night and all day today so that added more of a challenge to my day in trying to finish up projects for my mom while chasing Robert around on too little of sleep. Luckily both Robert and I had a good night sleep and were able to get out of Red Wing, after a quick stop at the hospital, and make it home for a nap! Following the nap we went grocery shopping and now are killing some time before making dinner and then off to a new session of swim lessons for Robert. Busy-Busy-Busy and I am ready for my Easter break...too bad work calls tomorrow!

My new hat!

Swinging with Uncle Nick on my new swing at G'mas

So many gifts for early in the morning

My new singing/dancing frog...that Dad hates!

G'ma R. walking Robert on a self-made bungee leash in Farmington

Temper Tantrum!! I want to feed myself the cupcake Mom!!!

Visiting G'ma at the hospital