Christmas 2011

Oooh, it did it to me again. I don't know what I did differently from my last post where I could type before my picture appeared, but I must not have done it this time. Ugh! For the past several years, Dean and I have gotten together with some of my high school friends on Christmas Eve. This year we all had babies within 2 weeks of each other. Kate (in the green vest) is the wife of my friend, Kevin. Their daughter, Annie, was born on June 23. My friend, Kelly (who has been my friend since I was 4), had Hannah on June 24. Her other daughter, Brittlyn (in the green shirt), was born 5 months before Ryan. Then I had Patrick on July 6. This was the first time all three babies got together. You can see by the way they are holding hands that they like each other!



After opening the first round of gifts on Christmas morning, my mom prepared a scrumptious brunch. Here's Mama Katie holding Patrick.

Daddy couldn't resist either. . .

We spent a good portion of Christmas at Uncle Doug and Aunt Julie's house. Ryan sat still long enough to pose with Mama Pat and Papa Joe.

We drove back to our house on the 26th to see if Santa stopped by while we were gone. We had our doubts, but St. Nick surprised us and left several things for Ryan and even a few for Patrick.

Patrick, happy as always. Doesn't seem bothered by the scratch mommy gave him while trying to wipe his nose.

Santa even brought Daddy a jersey of former Packer great, the late Reggie White.

As promised, here are the pictures from our visit to Santa. Ryan wasn't quite ready to sit with Santa on his own. Patrick, on the other hand, was none the wiser.

And this is the first photo since coming home from the hospital with Patrick of all 4 of us. Bass Pro Shop allows dogs, we should've brought Gizmo to make our family photo complete. Hopefully we can get one of all 5 of us before next Christmas!

Hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas. The Stoeber Family certainly did. Wishing you love and laughter in 2012!

We haven't been up to much, other than spreading and sharing germs amongst ourselves! After Dean's had 2 colds, Ryan a flu and a cold, me a migraine & a little cold, & Patrick a cold/cough I think we're all safe. The only one immune in the family was Gizmo. Maybe we need to eat what she does - yeah right!


So when it came to make a trip to visit Santa, better late than never, right? Again we went to Bass Pro Shop at Gurnee Mills Mall. It was well worth the wait. The Santa there is truly magical and awe inspiring. I will try to scan and post those pictures soon. In the meantime here's Patrick waiting to see the Big Man.
Ryan waiting by the reindeer.

After we made our visit, we passed by the carousel. Ryan's never ridden, but we know how much he loved the merry-go-round at John Dixon Park in Dixon, so we figured we'd give it a go. HE LOVED IT!!!

We had a Groupon to use by the end of the year at the local bounce house place, so we invited our friends, the Bleims to join us. Here are 6 year old twins, Ryan and Ben, going down a slide.

Their big sisters, Beth and Katie went down another slide.

The two Ryans with the Crazy Coupe.

And here is the entire troop!

Thanksgiving Break

Turkey time has come and gone, as we have polished off the rest of the leftovers, I have finally gotten around to updating our blog! Ryan was off the entire week of Thanksgiving and he (along w/ Dean, Patrick, Gizmo, and I) got to spend some time with Dean's parents as they visited us for the week.

This first picture was taken the night before Dale and Cheryl went home. In it, only Patrick and Precious (Dale & Cheryl's dog) were 100% healthy.

What may have been cause for the illness was a day to Milwaukee Zoo. It was a sunny, but brisk 40 degree day. Many animals were removed for the winter months, but we still saw several in both indoor and outdoor exhibits. This monkey (yep, he's real!) reminded me of the one in the Lion King.

These peacocks walked about freely throughout the zoo. This one is just 2 feet away from Ryan and I as we walked. Their feathers were beautifully colored.

These camels appeared to be huge, even laying down!

I tried to capture a shot of these lion cubs playing, they were born a couple of weeks after Patrick.

We saw many more animals and I took several more pictures, but these came out the clearest.

Dean and I attended Ryan's parent/teacher conference on day. Nana and Papa Dale were on babysitting duty. I wonder how many times this book ("Curious George and the Pizza Party") was read this week by one of us?

Nana doing Patrick's favorite thing - holding him.

Lately it's been a challenge to take Ryan to a restaurant. The crowds/noise/potential for the birthday song to be sung are all stressful to him. Fortunately we can visit one of our favorite places without worry. Johnny's Chophouse is low-key, plays Sinatra music which Ryan loves, they have Popcorn Chicken on the menu, and there's no worry of any birthday songs getting sung here. We had a fabulous meal (Patrick is still eating in this picture) and dessert is about to be served. Of the 3 choices, Ryan loved Nana's Lava Cake. Thanks for sharing!

Because we won't get together at Christmas, we did our gift exchange this week. Here's Nana opening her Chico's giftcards.

Dean's not the only happy Packer fan in the family.

The foil pan I bought to cook our turkey in cracked on Thursday as it was cooking, leaking Turkey water into our oven, creating a ton of smoke and delaying dinner time by 2 hours. Santa found it appropriate to leave me a roasting pan, so this won't happen again. My friend, and former co-worker, Joanne, joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. She was a real trooper to wait out until dinner time through the smoke-filled house! In the end, everything was delicious.

Here's Dean opening his pyramid clock.

Now we can physically show Ryan where Las Vegas is in relation to Illinois thanks to this magnetic USA puzzle he got.

Papa Dale watches on as Daddy helps Patrick open up his coin series.

Patrick hopes all of you had a good Thanksgiving. He's thankful that he didn't get sick, and hopes Nana and Papa Dale are feeling better!

Patrick's First Cereal Meal

It's been a long time waiting, but now that he's 4 months old, Patrick has been given the green light on cereal! We attempted it the first time this weekend, here's a photo story of how it went.




Wahhhhh, I'm hungry! Why did these people put me in this seat? I eat either sitting on the black couch or in the rocking chair. Wahhhhhhh, feed me! Feed me NOW!!!




Oooh, what was that they gave me? It was kind of tasty. I would like some more please.

This is some goooood stuff. It sure beats that milky stuff I've been eating that last 4 months. I'll definitely open wide for this!

Ugggh. I am stuffed. A meal fit for a king. That was delicious, I hope I get it again sometime soon.

Halloween 2011

Ahoy Mateys! Happy Halloween from all of us aboard the SS Stoeber. This weekend we went on a treasure hunt for some booty - or as you landlubbers call it, Trick-or Treating. Captain Stoeber (aka Dean) manned the ship with the littlest mate (aka Patrick) while Mama pirate (disguised as a lady bug - you know since females aren't allowed on Pirate ships) ventured out with Pirate Ryan and his first mate, Gizmo. As expected, a great haul was brought back.

Ryan is 3!

This crazy blog software, if it wasn't free, I'd complain even more ;) This picture (above) is supposed to be further down, but because I have no idea if or how to move it, I'll talk my way around it. Since June of this year, Ryan's received occupational therapy (through Early Intervention - details about that program below). This was his therapist Mary. She'd come for an hour every Monday. Ryan loved doing activities with her. They often involved climbing, jumping, using materials with different textures, music, and noise. We'll miss Mary!


Where oh where has the time gone? Ryan is now 3! Silly as always, with a sticker on his nose, here are the two brothers together. Get your Patrick fill now, as the rest of this post is dedicated to the birthday boy!

For the past year, Ryan has been a part of Early Intervention, a program to help kids under age 3 in different areas. Robin (on the left), was Ryan's speech therapist and she visited our house every Friday for an hour. Tiffany was Ryan's developmental therapist (they did more fine motor and some gross motor skills) and she came for an hour twice a month. They were wonderful with Ryan and really appreciated what a sweet, outgoing child he is. We'll miss them!

Meemee and Papa Bernie came out the weekend of Ryan's birthday. Together we went to Stade's Farm Stand/Pumpkin Patch. It was a beautiful day so the place was packed! Unfortunately Ryan was getting the start of a cold, that combined with the overwhelmingness (that's a word, right?) of all the people, some parts of the day were tough. We'll try again next year when he's a bit older and feeling better.

Ryan measured in at 38.5 inches!

I was surprised that he liked feeding the goats! They'd come right up to you and take the food out of your hand. I didn't want him getting knocked down (that'd make the day even more challenging), so I held Ryan.

The spin car ride - fun, right? Poor Meemee, she was the only one small enough to fit in the car (hee, hee) so she was the poor soul who had to ride with a very unhappy Ryan. Fortunately they let him get off after only a few spins around the track.

Ahhh, better times. Blowing the candles out on the Apple Cake. Yum, yum.

At summer camp, Ryan really enjoyed the scooters, so Meemee and Papa Bernie got him one for his birthday, complete with a Spiderman helmut. He's still a bit short and doesn't understand the concept of pushing himself along, but he did enjoy his ride while Meemee did all the work!

Thanks Aunt Julie and Uncle Doug for the Count & Draw toy. Ryan loves all the Leap Frog toys.

Opening more presents!

Now that Ryan is three and Early Intervention is finished, he qualified for the Early Childhood Education program through our school district. He goes to school, on a bus, Monday-Thursday 8:20-11am and on Friday 8:20-10:25. Here's the big boy just before his first day. So far he loves Miss Jessica's class. We'll keep you posted about whether or not he loves the bus. . .