Proctor Bike Race - Peoria Illinois

This is a local bike race (Criterium) that I am volunteering for. I have neither bionic skin and bones, or deep enough pockets to fix broken bikes, so I will not be racing. I will however get a cool shirt and a free meal :) Criteriums are TONS of fun to watch and to ride in - as long as you stay out of the crashes.


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La-La girls reunite! - inside joke:)

This blog entry is a month past due - opps! Barb Smith, Beki VanMeter and myself all became great friends when we all lived in Decatur. October 2006 Barb and Beki came to visit me in Michigan and we decided to make our girly get-together an annual event. Unfortunately 2007 zoomed by and we didn't make it happen...so we decided that we'd better boogie before I have another baby that requires Mommy for every meal. :) So Beki and I found a good airfare and flew out Thursday morning and home Sunday afternoon. Our 4 days were packed with so much fun, laughs and creative inspiration - we are already looking forward to meeting in Decatur in 09. Barb was a fabulous hostess and treated us to great restaurants, shopping, a day at the beach, an amazing art show and even chauffeured us to special meeting on Sunday!

Our day at the beach was so amazing. It was quite windy - but the sun was shining and we didn't have any strollers, sippy cups or sticky kids! Wowzer!

And it ended in one of several awesome restaurant meals we had that weekend. Such a treat for 3 stay at home moms to not ask for a kids menu and crayons at every stop.

I realized that we haven't said or posted much about the belly/baby #4 - this pregnancy has gone crazy fast. We are so distracted that until this point of waddling everywhere I would half forget I was pregnant. Barb has a fancy schmancy camera and likes to dabble in photography - so she suggested some belly shots at the beach - never a better background.

Fun shadow!

The photographer - up on the lifeguard stand all for a great picture!

Thanks again Barb for such an amazing break. That treat was enough to help me sail through the birth of another baby and hopefully the first few tired weeks. For those of you wondering - we hired a babysitter for Thursday and Friday when Don was at work - but other than that he was flying solo. Even got everyone up, dressed, hair done and to meeting on time on Sunday! IMPRESSIVE!

The gold stars just piled up behind his name for that 4 day vacation.

Gramps and Grammy weekend

As you can see from our recent blogs - both sets of Grandparents couldn't wait until Baby #4 arrives to see the other grand kids...so we have had productive weekends with so much great help around!

Dad hauled 70 bags of mulch for me so that I could finish up the front landscaping! Unfortunately the last 2 weekends have been crazy rainy - making it impossible for Don to put in our lawn. :( The kids and I are anxiously awaiting grass.

Everyone in their Sunday best. Of course, when we think to take a picture Tater (aka Hudson) was asleep.

Cyling inspiration from Uncle Keith

We thought that it was neat that Marina's new bike that she picked out was of the same origin as Uncle Keith's. As you can see in the picture - the mountain bike he left me is a Specialized Hardrock. Marina's is a Specialized Hotrock. Coincidence? .... I think not.

Braund Graduation

Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, Marina, Hudson and I traveled to Lafayette, IN for Lauren Braund's grad party. Unfortunately I forgot my camera - but thanks to our great friends the Herods....the memories are not lost. Check out the fun we had.....through their eyes.

CLICK HERE TO BEGIN :)

I stole the cutest picture out of the pile to share on our page too :)


Chloe, Marina, Aubrey

Our foreign visitor

We have been visted by a creature from a foreign land. We have some unhealthy ash trees and we thought that it was just from the stress of the construction project (that is what nearly killed us, so why would the trees be any different). Over memorial day weekend we spotted several of these emarald colored buggers - the dreaded Emerald Ash Borer. Another gift from our Chinese Friends.

Fishing with Grandpa Stickel

What a treat to have Grandpa take the kids fishing on Memorial Day. We have an AWESOME next door neighbor with a neat fishing pond. Marina has been begging to go, so Grandpa made it happen. We got out the famous Barbie and Scoobie fishing poles and harassed the bluegills in the pond. The bite was ON. Everyone got their share of catching fish! We made memories that day :)