Catching Up

As you all may have noticed we have been less than timely with our postings of late. Now that all of our earthly possessions have been moved into the new location, even though they are still in disarray, we miraculously have less stress and more time for fun stuff. We were able to spend 5 days with Leann's family in Michigan and are in the process of spending another 5 days with Don's family in Ohio. It is great to get away from it all, relax with our family, and enjoy the kids. Here are a few photos of our escapades :)
Grandpa and Grandma Washburn took us to see Elmo Live! BIG fun for all of us.






The Washburn Family all got together at the Jade Garden for dinner. It was great to see all these folks again.

Getting Moved In

All of our "stuff" is now at the new location and the rental is completely cleaned out. The disarray still seems normal - but at least it is our disarray now.


We drove the piano around back to bring it in through the basement doors. Rob got to try out the four wheel drive on his Ram - worked pretty good for a Dodge.

The two pregnant ladies getting into the action. They had more cargo than the rest of us.


Eldon and Brenda brought Venison Chili for supper when they brought the kids back. Brenda watched the kids ALL day so we could focus on the move. What a great help that was.

Finally In

Thanks to a great batch of WONDERFUL friends, we are finally moved into the new house!!! Unfortunately that means that we do not have Internet for a couple days, so I am using work's connection to throw this message up. Rob and Andrea posted a blog entry with a photo from the move. Once we get situated a little better, I will post some more pics. Tonight we are going to clean out the rental house so that chapter will be closed.

As you can see from the picture - the weather was perfect for a moving day!! Rob has been named the "packer" of the year. When he is organizing the "stuff" in the truck, you don't end up moving much air.




http://prairiepandemonium.blogspot.com/2007/12/moving-day-2.html

House progress!!!

I've updated our house blog so if you click on the link to the "Stickel Shack" you'll be able to catch up a little on what has been accomplished in the past few days. We showed up at 7pm last night and there were 4 guys still working....we almost fell over! Don's been putting in long hours trying to install closet systems and prepping the wood floor. Jerry (Don's cousin's husband) is coming back today and putting the finish coat on our floor!!!! We're getting so close I can almost taste it. There is hope that we'll move in next Saturday.

The girls love their pink room...I might have to spend a couple nights in the "bubbalicious" space!

Showing a little love for our favorite trash talking player from that school up north.

Hudson's 1st Birthday

Per tradition we attempt a family picture at the birthday party that is anything but pretty.
Can't believe our little prince is ONE! What a crazy fast year!
He really enjoyed his cake...more than the girls ever did. :) What a boy!

Of course we loved shopping in the boy section of Toys R Us! And you can't be a little boy without a big Caterpillar.

Some more random Thanksgiving weekend photos

Paige looking her finest.

Everybody needs a silly hat
Cousin Lindsey enjoying a granola bar
Marina taking pictures of Gramps
Touring the new place (will we ever get to live there?)

Thankful for Family and Friends

We had a wonderful time consuming mass quantities of poultry and potatoes this year. Rob and Andrea Vail hosted our Thanksgiving Dinner at their house this year and included Leann's Mom, Dad and Brother, as well as Don's Mom, Dad, and Sister. The table was gorgeous and the food was delicious. For more copy on the occasion check out the (Prairie Pandemonium Report).

Grape ice and ginger ale was AWESOME.

The chocolate fountain was amazing
Marina thought so too!!

With all of the free help in town, we got a little work done on our house. Check it out at our house blog.

Something to be VERY thankful for!

Baby Stickel #4 is on the way. Here is our first picture of our little 9 week old! We're so thrilled to share this news -- our family arrived last night and were only "kinda" surprised :) I guess when everyone knows how much I love even numbers...they knew it was just a matter of time. We're due June 29th.

Happy Halloween

Well...no shocker in our house...we had 2 little girls that wanted to be pink princesses. So they were Sleeping Beauty. Most of the time Paige still called herself a princess, but once in a while she would say that she was "leaping booty" -- we love 2 year old mispronunciations.

Don took the kids to the Vails (friend in our area) and they went trick or treating with Kenrick the fireman and Anthony the rabbit. Hudson was sick so I had to stay home. I will try to get a picture of him in his costume & post it later.

3 best friends...8 kids later!

Amanda Gillis (Myers), Kristen Brown (Lewis) and I grew up together. It's hard to believe that in the last 8 years we've all gotten married and seriously multiplied! :) Amanda is on the left with her husband, Jason and 3 kids -- Madison (4), Anna (2) and Carter (8mos.). Kristen is in the middle with her husband, Brent and 2 kids -- Clayton (18 mos) and Sophie (2 mos.) and of course my clan on the right - -Marina (4), Paige (2 1/2), and Hudson (11 mos)

We were all at Mom and Dad's on Sunday for meeting so I thought it would be neat to take of picture of us now (from 3 friends to a mob of 14).

This will blow your mind!

Are you left or right brained?

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22556281-661,00.html

Hudson getting his groove on

Hudson learned that if he got a little groove goin' on, it got him allot of attention from the rest of us.

Why manufacturing in China is less expensive:

Check out this guys welding helmet!!!

Thrilled to Sleep

Sunday lunchtime we went to Texas Road House with Grandpa and Grandma Washburn and the Vail family. Hudson was so thrilled with it that he fell asleep in his chair. Funny how he cannot sleep at night, but can easily catch a few zzz's at the loudest restaurant in town.

Mountain Biking in Illinois

The mountain biking in Illinois is fantastic. Rob and I enjoy going to Jubilee State Park near Brimfield, as well as Farmdale in Washington. The other day at Farmdale, I clicked this picture of the local whitetail! The parks are full of them, it is really fun. The only problem is when I pay more attention to the deer than the tight single track we ride on - there is some skin on a couple of trees to prove it.

A Mom's Overture

This lady sings everything that a mom says in one day in 2 minutes and 55 seconds. It's really cool.

Wind Mills

The other day we were on our way to wednesday night meeting and saw these wind mills looking so pretty against the prairie skyline. The sheer size of them cannot be captured in a photo - but they are something to behold.

* Lurk Check *

As you can see we are getting many visitors from around the country - it is our goal to get a visit from all 50 states :) - so if you are traveling through one of our white states, please look us up. We have also had visits from Canada, Great Britain, and Australia. If you are traveling abroad, give our site a peek so that we can record visits from exotic places :)

Who are you????
We get so many visits, but you are all so "quiet". We want to know who you are.
Please leave us a comment on this posting so we can get an idea of who is lurking out there spying on our lives :)

Our New Neighbors

We were out to the new house tonight and I retrieved my trail camera and found a couple shots of the locals on there. Nothing with antlers yet - but we are just getting started :) The cutest ones we got right after we set the camera up, of course they were the 2 legged kind. The girls were very excited to see proof of the deer living in our forest.