Paige's 3rd Birthday

What a great way to have your birthday start - with a delivery! G & G Stickel sent flowers to Marina on her birthday in August and Paige was really bummed that there weren't any for her. So Grandma Stickel came through again and the delivery guy was really fun. He asked for the special birthday girl and made her very excited for her own flowers, balloon and bear!

I think that is a VERY happy face.
Craft time - we made treasure boxes. Nothing better than wielding a paint brush covered in glue.
Kids table - Malia is sitting next to Marina, Lindsey is across from Paige and Kenrick & Anthony Vail are on the left.
Brunch was yummy - Don made waffles, we had breakfast casserole, pastries and fruit kabobs. Morning turned out to be a fun time to have a birthday party. We usually have them late afternoon/evening.
The cupcakes were monster - even the adult had a hard time polishing one off.


Paige thoroughly enjoyed her birthday. She loved it when we sang to her and she let out an appreciative squeal for every present. But she did not get distracted - she made quick work of our mountain of gifts. Her focus never wavered.
Ahhh -- another family picture with smiling adults and distracted children.

Lindsey's 2nd Birthday

We drove to Iowa on Friday on dry roads with the sun shining - by Sunday it looked like this. That just happens to be Don treking out to the truck to "fetch" something for his wife. I went 1/2 way out and turned around for fear of blowing over! The wind out there is quite impressive.

We're a bit worried that it's going to become a tradition. Last year at her 1st birthday we were snowed in until Monday. This year we were able to leave later Sunday afternoon. Nate's flight was cancelled though - so he missed an extra day of class.
Lindsey enjoyed her birthday decked out in ELMO.
We come for the favors - especially when they are puzzles. The Stickel girls came away happy!
Lindsey had a nice size cake all to herself and she took a couple of dainty bites....with a fork. :)
Brian, Michelle, Lindsey & Baby #2
(due Sept 17th - they shared that exciting news with us Fri night!!!)

Happy Valentine's Day

Thank you Grandma Stickel for the Tower of Hearts (full of yummy treats)! The girls loved finding a package outside the front door. Thank you Grandma Washburn for the bag of goodies - socks, books, treats, stickers and on and on and on....
I think the kids are quite lucky to have such festive grandmas!

Is that Michelle Kwan or Bambi????

The Peoria Area Park District offers a mini 4 week ice skating class for beginners - ages 3-5. Marina has been asking to ice skate so we signed her up. She has had so little exposure to ice skating that we were very surprised that she was so interested. The first night was a bit bumpy and I'm not so sure that there was any forward progress made on the ice by our little 4 year old. But nevertheless we celebrated, had treats, talked all week about how exciting it was to start learning to ice skate.......AND BAM! - she went out onto the ice for her 2nd lesson and actually skated! I almost fell over - she seemed much more confident, turned around a waved at us, got back up when she crashed and kept on skating. So we thought after the 1st week that it was $ down the tubes and now we are ready to purchase our own skates and buy a tutu! :)

A good way to utilize your bike helmet in the winter! :)

Hudson's 1st Hair Cut

Well -- it wasn't exactly long...more bushy than anything. Just a few places that needed trimmed so Dad turned into the local barber and I couldn't believe how old it made him look to have a such a nice clean hair cut. Our little man.

Back to the Homeland

This past week, Paige and I got to travel to my folks place in Ohio. I was there to recruit engineers for Caterpillar, and Paige was there to get as many treats from Grandma and Grandpa as physically possible. The recruiting was gruelling, but successful, and the treat quest turned out better than any (almost) three year old could imagine. Paige loved riding in the rental car with Dad, and getting to order whatever she wanted from the McDonald's menu. I did reject the request for Root Beer and Sprite - we had to settle on Root Beer. She tried to convince me that we should save some of the cookies for Marina and Mom - but they didn't make it home. One of the neatest parts of the trips involved Mom teaching me the traditional Stickel recipe for Poppy seed Dicke Strudel‏. Thanks Mom - it turned out really good. Mom also taught Paige how to make snow ice cream. Mmmmmmm good. I have not had it for years!! The week was a real workout for my taste buds.

Our Recruiting Booth was a Suite in Ohio Stadium!!! A view to dream of in November.



Making Snow Ice Cream - Paige thought it was a little chilly - but not too cold for Ice Cream.




Making the Family Treat - Delicious!!

Dad getting into the Action.

What an Awesome treat - it turned out great!!

Dorthy, Are we still in Illinois

This morning I cut just east of my normal commute down highway 29 to cruise along the River Beach Road - what a beautiful drive. It really did not feel like central Illinois. The sun was glistening off of the frozen river - with a plume of steam rising from the channel that is cut in the ice by the barges. As an added bonus, I spotted 4 eagles. Unfortunately with my camera phone, they just look like black blobs in the trees.

Thank you Aunt Lisa

Yesterday's trip to the mailbox was especially fun because there was a package from Aunt Lisa! The girls love their new summer outfits and insisted on changing into them at once. Paige even tried to convince us that they would make great jammies too.

Hudson's overalls are too cute - now he would fit in with the Lerwicks in Wyoming. As soon as I put them on him Paige said..."oh look - Farmer Jed!"
Thanks Lisa for the fun fun gifts - you are WAY too sweet and spoil us rotten. We can't wait to see you in May.

Gillis Family Visit

Amazing that these goofballs were productive at all. They managed to plan, buy materials and install our master closet system! YIPPIE! So nice to put our clothes away.

I think Don must have rubbed off on Jason - we didn't get many serious shots.
We went to Jill's for Sunday Brunch - soooo tasty.
The Gillis 5

Our 4 girls - they had so much fun together. Marina & Paige really miss Madison & Anna. It was so special to have a 3 day weekend with their family.

Meeting Paxton Vail

Just a few pictures from Paxton's introduction to the Stickel circus. We had to visit when he was just 4 days old because Marina was quite distraught that she wasn't allowed to see him in the hospital. It's so fun to enjoy another newborn.