The Sibley Three

Christmas time in KC

2010-01-01T08:38:00.000-08:00

We really enjoyed the holiday season this year in Kansas City. It was a nice balance of pretty Christmas lights and holiday traditions there but it wasn't so painfully cold! We were able to bundle but not fear frostbite like in Minnesota. Below are pictures of some of the pre-Christmas holidays we enjoyed while Ted was on an easier rotation.

Lucas spent a lot of quality time this past summer playing in the fountains at Crown Center. The fountains are still going through the winter season but they add an ice skating rink and beautiful Christmas trees in the courtyard. Inside the Crown Center is an area for children to play and meet Santa. Lucas also helped with ringing the bells for the Salvation Army and cheered on a brass band.

We had a great Christmas Day complete with Grandma and Papa Holl, uncle Evan, and auntie Breann. We opened lots of presents and enjoyed Christmas waffles! There was also a white Christmas this year in KC. Prepare yourself for this "blizzard" that causes people in Kansas City to lose their minds.

Lucas called Grandma on Christmas morning and also enjoyed watching some animals on YouTube.

Here are a few of the favorite new toys that were received for Christmas round one in Kansas City

Thanksgiving 2009

2010-01-01T08:25:00.000-08:00

We enjoyed Thanksgiving this year down in Kansas City and the long weekend was split up seeing Erin's Dad, his wife Barb, and the siblings Ryan, Dylan, Breann, and Evan on that side.

Erin worked hard to set up the day so that good homecooked food was enjoyed by all in our little space in Kansas City.

We had a lot to be thankful for in 2009 and hope 2010 is just as wonderful!

All Lucas all the time

2009-10-27T08:47:00.001-07:00

Okay so this one is all about the little guy and what he's been up to! Which is a lot. He walks, he talks more and more every day... he runs into stuff and gets into things! He is one of those "all boy" boys. It's all about trucks, puppies, rocks, sticks, balls, and wrestling and getting dirty. There's always a little love for mom in there every day too. Here are a few shots of general craziness from the past few months.

Can you handle this ladies? Yeah. Didn't think so.

There is also a strange need to wrestle with Aunt Breann's panda.

And who could forget the "great bleed" of 2009?? We still don't really know HOW he ripped out a good chunk of his top lip... but it bled for days and eventually required more medical attention than we ever thought it would. We spent a few days in the bathtub and a fair amount of clothing was thrown away.

Will sit still for Mom's phone...

But not for long...

I don't really know how this happened. I turned around for a second, and then looked back and he found a way to get stuck upside down in his hamper. He was rather upset about it too.

These are our friends Lion and Rhino. I am being poked in the bum right now by rhino as I write this.

Monthly pictures are an increasing challenge can you tell??

I think this is the winning shot after about 12 attempts :-)

Here he is running from the scene of the crime. While I was uploading (just now) he found the wipes container and discovered the joys of pulling out each wipe individually. I bet that was a good time.

I will leave you with a video of Lucas doing what Lucas loves best- "driving" cars. This one happened to be a big jeep that he didn't expect to move!

October fun in KC and another trip to MN

2009-10-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

We were able to enjoy some family time during a few days off here in Kansas City. We traveled to Faulkners family pumpkin patch and made attempts to get pictures of a very busy little boy.

We weren't able to get cute posted pictures with the pumpkins like last year.. so we compromised by slapping the pumpkins with sticks and that kept us within the frame of the camera!

Not long after this, Lucas and I left Ted to work the ICU for the month and we made the drive up to Minnesota to see friends and family. It was a full two weeks of visits and dealing the the Minnesota fall.

We visited one of our favorite Medical school families the Nelsen's who have a boy one year older than Lucas and also twin little guys that are younger than Lucas. It was a busy day at the McDonalds play place!

We also got to meet up with our buddy couple from FANA the Wagners. Lucas really enjoyed playing with Matthew (although I doubt either one of them remember that they lived at FANA together).

He also really enjoyed "driving" all of the cars at Chuck E Cheeses with Grandma and Grandpa in Maple Grove.

Even the busiest of little men need to rest up with all of this visiting!

Lucas had a great day with his Aunts and Uncles, Grandma, Grandpa, and cousins at the apple orchard. It was a busy day!

Getting 3 toddlers to sit on a couch at the same time was challenging but we got it done.

Being in Minnesota also gave me some time to get together with some other Colombian mama's like myself. We ladies don't get out much anymore!

We enjoyed our time, but it was still nice to return home this past weekend to see Daddy again after a few weeks away!

September in KC and Texas

2009-10-27T07:55:00.000-07:00

September brought more family time here in Kansas City, and also a little trip to San Antonio to visit the Vogtlins and Sharrows. (Erin's siblings)

The picture below is from Evan's birthday celebration on September 13th when our Mom was in town and our sister Breann came along.

Someone turned 17 months old! He is now so busy that I have to bribe him with normally forbidden toys such as my cell phone to get a picture :-)

Thanks to a portable DVD player and having his own seat, our plane rides to San Antonio were FANTASTIC! He did a super job and we arrived relatively okay.

This was taken during a little family hiking trip out in the country somewhere in Texas...

Real men hold their mama's hand on a plane.

I would have had more pictures from this trip.. but I spent the majority of the trip laying in bed with a nasty stomach flu that took quite awhile to shake which gave us some lovely complications once I got home to Kansas City. All is well now and I've been able to gain back most of the weight that was lost from all of that.

That is it for the month of September so we're finally starting to get caught up!

Oh yeah.. and the Royals

2009-10-27T07:49:00.000-07:00

Ted's parents came down for a long weekend in August which was great times! We didn't get as many pictures of this as they did, but I thought these were blog worthy.

Summer Fun in KC

2009-10-27T07:33:00.000-07:00

So we did have a good time enjoying the summer in Kansas City. Here are a few photos from when my mom came down for a visit.

We are at a water park near our apartment with my Mom and my brother Evan.

The pictures below were taken at the Plaza in Kansas City where we went to dinner one night when she was in town.

Although not in Kansas City, we traveled to Iowa for the Iowa State Fair for some good family time when Ted finally had a day off!

Lucas really enjoys animals right now so he had a great time exploring in the animal buildings at the fair.

We were also able to meet up with some of our extended family from Erin's side and their kiddos.

Back in Kansas City, we have been THRILLED to be a part of Deerbrook Covenant Church in Lee's Summit. We have met some dear friends there, including a family that has a lot in common with us- adoption! Below are pictures of Lucas and his friend Evan and his mom Rachel at the farmstead in Overland Park Kansas. We really enjoy playing with the goats!

Lucas and Evan have enjoyed lots of play dates at the park, hanging out together, and of course share the love of goats.

Sibley Cabin and Minnesota trip #2

2009-10-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

So we were in Minnesota for awhile so here is part two of that trip.

I was fortunate enough to get together with some of my best girlfriends and professors from Northwestern College Music Dept. Good times!

This was also a time for last girls night before Kristi moved away in our lab group.

Lucas spent some quality time with his Great Grandma Haines.

Why is my little boy getting so big? I don't like it one bit.

Towards the end of July we headed up to the Sibley cabin in northern Minnesota. It was during this time that we celebrated Lucas' "Gotcha Day". This is an important anniversary in the world of adoption when we remember the day our children were placed in our arms. Uncle Bobby (also adopted) was very sweet to get Lucas a cake!

We enjoyed more family time at the cabin with the extended family with lots of eating and playing!

After so much fun in Minnesota we headed back home to Missouri at the end of the month to see Daddy!

Wrapping up the past few months...

2009-10-27T06:52:00.000-07:00

Okay so although we have sent out pictures and uploaded to Facebook.. we have failed to keep the blog up to date in the past few months. This will be a nice big post in an attempt to summarize everything from July to now (the end of October). I'll probably break this up a bit:

July 2009- 4th of July and return to Minnesota for FANA weekend.

So we traveled back to Erin's hometown for 4th of July for the sake of good ol' hometown fun. It was "brisk" that day!

These are from the parade in Perry, IA

He needs to stop judging my hat.

Erin's sister Jenny, her husband Jeff, and their kiddos Abby and Caleb came for a visit all the way from Texas. Erin's cousin Amy also drove over from Ohio to get all of the little cousins together.

The Vogtlin visit also prompted an entire family stay at a cabin in central Iowa. Good times!

Following this visit, Erin and Lucas traveled to Minnesota for the annual FANA fundraiser weekend. If you faithful followers recall, we received our referral for Lucas at one of these events last year- so obviously this was a big deal to us!

The picture below was taken about 5 minutes after our friends Kary and Peter learned they had twin boys waiting for them down in Colombia (they are still there working through the process by the way...)

Ted wasn't able to get away from the hospital for the weekend so Nancy was my date :-)

There was a family picnic also.. where Lucas sported his Colombia soccer jersey. Too bad it was so cold!

On that Sunday we went to the FANA Mass that gave us such precious memories from the previous year! Lucas even got to pay a visit to the founder of his orphanage, Mercedes de Martinez who changed his life forever.

That completed the first leg of the Minnesota trip. More pictures in next post!

The New Apartment

2009-07-01T12:21:00.001-07:00

Hello! Greetings from nap time. We just wanted to post a few pictures of the new place. It's nothing from Better Homes and Gardens... since people with a baby live here :-)

This is the entry way

The Kitchen & Breakfast nook

This is our dining area

Lucas new room.. about 4 times the size of his old one

This is the guest bathroom that is also attached to Lucas' room

This is our room...

This is a portion of the living room

This is Lucas inspecting our master bathroom

This is our deck and the backyard.

There is also a separate laundry room and our big closet but I'll spare you all of that :-) Use your imagination.

This is Lucas modeling some of his toys and one of his book boxes in our living room :-)

We will leave you with some pictures of Lucas at the Crowne Center fountains. This is a little boy with some big water jets.

The Big Move to Kansas City, Missouri

2009-06-25T17:48:00.000-07:00

We're getting close to the end of our first week here in Kansas City. We spent last week wrapping things up in Minnesota. Our last night in Minnesota we enjoyed a BBQ with Ted's immediate family and loaded the truck. The truck is a was a lot bigger than it looks here, the largest truck possible at Budget.

Below are my trusty truck load crew: Ted's Dad Dave, brother in law Bobby, and brother Brad... and also dinner with the whole fam. Lucas had a good time playing with Jaden and Emmy before we left.

We left early Saturday morning from Minnesota and stopped at noon in Des Moines, IA to visit with my Grandma and Grandpa Black and get Lucas out of the car and into the pool!

We arrived safely in Kansas City on Saturday night and enjoyed a good dinner with Uncle Evan.

Evan and his girlfriend Megan were gracious enough to help us unload ALL of our stuff... and it was a lot of stuff. We went to the Plaza in Kansas City with Dave and Nancy on Sunday night before they departed for their Denver vacation on Monday.

Ted spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and today training at the hospital and testing out of some state licensing techniques. I spent the last three days being a Mom :-)

Lucas loves his new room and his pool. There will be many more photos of all of those things once we get more settled.

Ted was able to finish a test in the early afternoon and we were able to go Oasis Water Park that is just 2 miles from our house. We're big fans :-) It's a small park and is not that expensive. Lucas will be free until he is 3 years old so we will be buying a season pass for me next year and we plan to spend a lot of time there. Here are some photos from our day :-)

Lucas gets pretty tired when he's swimming... so he was very happy to snuggle up with Mommy for some time on the lazy river. His thumb took up permanent residence in his mouth for the rest of the afternoon at that point.

Even though he was very sleepy at the end of the day.. he was still smiley

We will leave you with a video of Lucas who is waiting "patiently" for Mommy to finish her breakfast and come play!!

Where Did my Little Baby Go??

2009-06-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

So we haven't written much about Lucas' development here lately with all of this traveling! So this is a Lucas only post about all the stuff that he's up to!

Words: Ball, Hi, Buh-Bye, Dada, and Mama... usually spoken roughly in that order of priority.

Movement: Stands up all of the time... and yes! We've seen all of the first steps! He's still pretty shaky and very much prefers to hold on to a finger. We don't really blame him since he falls down so much. So.. to compromise.. he does a lot of standing up and lowering himself back down to speed crawl to things if a finger or furniture are not present.

Foods: He's open season on all foods now that are within reason for a person with only 8 little teeth. We're just finishing the last of our Similac stash and he'll be on regular people milk in another few weeks. He REALLY likes fruit so we always have to eat our fruit last. He's also off the bottle fully and enjoys sippy cups with a silicone nipple on them.

Toys: all things spherical make him pretty happy. He is also pretty excited about cars and things he can "drive". I have learned that anything involving water is a sure bet to tire him out and keep him happy.

On the emotional side, Lucas definitely claims us as Mommy and Daddy. We've had a few interactions when he let us know that he really doesn't like us holding other babies! Although he is still friendly and likes to flirt quite a bit, he really prefers to be held by Mom or Dad... if one of us aren't present Grandpa's and Grandma's will do.

Before we close... we present you with a little video of Lucas' "driving" abilities in Grandma & Grandpa's driveway in his "sweet ride" he found at a garage sale.

Enjoy! It's short so feel free to re-play for added cuteness.

Last Few Days in MN

2009-06-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

Following our last post we have been doing much of the same! We have enjoyed another full month of our family (and some friends) and not much else! We are thankful to have this opportunity... given the change of circumstances our family will experience as of next Tuesday when Dad (Ted) starts his residency position at Truman Medical Center in Kansas City, MO. We don't know much of the schedule.. but that it will be hard. Sometimes a little hard... and sometimes horribly hard? We just don't know yet. Anyway, on to happier thoughts!

We left on May 24th for Tucson, Arizona to visit Auntie Laurel. We have tons of pictures.. but we will show some of the highlights :-)

Lucas enjoyed lots of time hiking with Auntie Laurel and splashing. We also spent some time near lots of big cactuses.

Lucas spent a lot of time in his "backpack" that we bought at a garage sale a week before we left. It's a little hard on the shoulders, but he seems very happy in it and can even nap if he needs to.

Lucas also enjoyed a few days at one of the many Tucson city pools.

Along with our theme of staying cool in Tucson, Lucas enjoyed the wet kiddies area at the Tucson Zoo.

We also enjoyed a Tuscon Toros Baseball game..

Other than a few more hikes in the desert... we really just enjoyed some time with Auntie Laurel and we can't wait to be able to spend time with her again!

The Sibley family unemployed

2009-05-10T14:38:00.000-07:00

Well this is a happy happy post :-) We were blessed to be able to arrange our financial situation to enjoy a full month of family time before Daddy starts residency (no rent or utilities for the the month and my vacation time being paid out from Uline helped). We have been all over Minneapolis/St Paul in the past week enjoying free events and our little boy. There are a lot of pictures, but we have a sampling below to some of the places we have been!

Monday was spent at Lake Calhoun in Uptown Minneapolis. Yes... we SPF'd like crazy but 2 of us still burned like the whities we are. The little guy turned a darker shade of tan.

We also spent a morning at the Minneapolis sculpture gardens. Neither Ted or I are really "art" people. So if anybody understands the sculptures below please feel free to explain.

We spent the following day at Minneahaha Falls in Minneapolis. It was quite a hike and we were very muddy towards the end, but Lucas seemed to enjoy the sights.

Lucas also enjoyed his first time on the swing!

We went to go visit Great Grandma & Grandpa Sibley at their apartment

We spent an afternoon at Weaver Lake Park

We'll have another blog addition next week of all of our activities from the next week!

Medical School Class of 2009. Finally!!

2009-05-10T13:41:00.000-07:00

Once again, it has been a very eventful few weeks in the Sibley family. We should aspire to be MORE boring. It would be easier. Anyway :-)

Saturday May 2nd marked the first day in the life of Dr. Ted Sibley and his family. Erin left her job at Uline on Friday May 1st. There are a lot of details regarding that decision, but none of which are particularly blogworthy. We enjoyed a great day with family and the kick off to my time staying at home with our children and Ted's career. Woot!

Here are the photos :-)

We enjoyed a morning celebration brunch with Grandma and Papa Holl and uncle Evan who made the trip up to Minnesota.

We were also able to get to graduation early enough for pictures before the ceremony. Doesn't Ted look fancy in his Dr. hat?

These are most of our friends from Medical School that we have palled around with for the past few years. Many of them will be heading to other areas of the country when we depart for Missouri in June.

Below is Ted with our friend Amy K

This is Cassie M who got married the week before and became Cassie J :-)

Ted with Great Grandma & Grandpa Sibley

Ted with one of his best friends from school Dave

After the ceremony, we headed over to the Don Pablos patio in Roseville (because we're classy). We enjoyed a night of salsa with family and friends :-)

Below is Lucas with Great Grandma Haines

This is Ted's good friend Josh from high school (and best man at our wedding) and his girlfriend Casey.

Ted's sister Nikki, her husband Bobby, and Lucas' cousin Emmy.

We had a great day and are very thankful for all of the people that were able to spend the day with us. Hopefully this will be the last graduation in our immediate family for another 17 years or so, because we've had a few already!

Happy Birthday Lucas!!

2009-04-22T18:45:00.000-07:00

Our little boy is one year old already. It's hard to believe that time has gone so fast since he was placed in our arms in Bogota on July 28th of 2008.

Before we take time to celebrate this day, it is important to remember Lucas' birthmother on this day. Even in her circumstance, we know that she loved the little boy she gave birth to very much, enough to let him go to give him a life that she could not. Although we all know that Lucas is loved by all who know him, she does not know where he is now and what a wonderful little boy that he is. I hope that she knows the love of Christ and that the little boy that she allows us to raise is loved beyond measure by all that know him.

With that said (insert my sniffing here), here are the photos from Lucas' big 1st Birthday bash at Chuck E Cheeses in Maple Grove. We had a fantastic time!

Before we sat down for pizza time with Chucke the big mouse, we enjoyed a little play time. Trust us, Lucas was having way more fun that it looks ;-) This was all a big overwhelming for such a small person!

Lucas Great Grandma & Grandpa Sibley, Great Grandma Haines, Aunt Roseann, and Aunt Patti, Grandma Holl, Grandma & Grandpa Sibley, and his aunts and uncles were all there!

Lucas also got a special greeting from Chucke where we all sang Happy Birthday so he could blow out his candle. Lucas wasn't so sure about the giant mouse guy....

We spent a little time opening presents too. This was the only year we could really get away with giving him diapers, so we went for it.

And for our grand finale.... CAKE. Lots of cake. He actually got cake rage when we only gave him half of a piece and he wanted MORE cake. There was double fisting.

So after all that cake... we were moving a little slow. We were pretty tired. It had been a BIG day... so this little guy relaxed on the way home in his new big boy car seat. Life is a lot more exciting when you can face forward and see things!

Easter Weekend

2009-04-15T18:53:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed spending Easter morning back at my home church Perry Bible in Perry, IA. That afternoon we went over to my Dad's house to enjoy Easter there too.

On Monday, I traveled down to Missouri alone to see what if the apartments we had been researching were worth living in. We did very well! We were lucky enough to find a fabulous place that would have normally been out of our price range but they were happening to run a special. We'll be in Independence, MO.

Feel free to Google "Cornerstone Apartments" in Independence, MO for pictures much better than mine!

We're very excited about this place... it's 1000 square feet, two bedroom and two bath, and all sorts of other things. The pool is rather fabulous also.

Like I said, my dorky photo doesn't really do it justice so look online if you'd like :-)

I was also able to see a few sights in Kansas City. Not a bad place! I'm just a horrible photographer so don't judge the city on my photography skills please!

These are a few photos of Crown Plaza in downtown. I look forward to watching Lucas play in those fountains next year.

Here is a photo of one of the many views of the KC skyline

This is the inside of Union Station which is an old train depot that has been converted into a cultural center.

We will conclude with the climax of our post. Evan's bottom-dweller apartment door and our dishwasher. Who wants to buy our dishwasher??!!!

The Sibley's do some protesting, baseball watching, and circus-ing

2009-04-15T18:16:00.001-07:00

So the title says it all. We've been busy! I'll have quite a few updates, but we decided to sub-divide so as not to overwhelm you with awesomeness.

First, a few weeks ago we participated in the 40 Days for Life Anti-Abortion Campaign. Our church, Bethlehem Baptist, in downtown Minneapolis signed up to cover a full 24 hour slot on April 3rd from 12am to 12am. This was to take place outside of Regions hospital in St Paul where over 800 abortions have occurred. We decided it was time to put a face (and a rather adorable face!!!) to the "unplanned" children of the world. I think that Lucas' little self is a great way to illustrate the amazing lives that can/could be had by the unplanned children of the world.

We were there for the late shift and it was a bit chilly, but Lucas held up well!

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Later that weekend, we were off to the circus with my friend Amber. He really didn't know what to do with those huge elephants!

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Within the same week, Lucas and his Daddy also went to the Twins opener with the rest of the Sibley family. Mommy, on the other hand, enjoyed a fabulous quiet night at home :-)

This is the face that Lucas makes when the Twins strike out.

Lucas got to spend some quality time with Aunt Nikki, Uncle Bobby, Grandpa, and his cousin Emmy

He also enjoyed sampling a "Big Boy" cup. It sort of worked out??

This would be the first of many Twin's openers to come!

Match Day Results

2009-03-22T14:41:00.000-07:00

It has been a BIG week of big changes in the house of the Sibley three that is for sure.

First, our lease runs out here at the duplex at the end of April due to the anticipation of Match Day. This had us running around trying to make baseline plans if we matched here in Minnesota for medical school. My company also started major layoffs two weeks ago, that took with it my dreams of ever working part time there in the future.

So, last Thursday I took a day off from work, and Ted and I along with every other 4th year medical student in the entire United states congregated at exactly the same time to open our envelope and learn our fate for the next 3 years.

And the results???? We are off to Kansas City, Missouri where Dr. Sibley will be on staff at Truman Medical Center in downtown KC. We had wanted to be here at Regions Hospital in St Paul but it just wasn't in the cards for us. We were excited to receive our 2nd choice (lots of people in ER ranked at their 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc spots).

Now before all of our MN friends and family give us the sad face, here are the reasons why this is a GOOD THING.

1) Lucas will have his mommy full time. VERY IMPORTANT.
2) The cost of living is very different than MN. We have found many lovely apartments in much better parts of town than we live in now.
3) We didn't lose ALL family with this move (as we would have in any of our other options). We'll be hanging out with Uncle Evan a lot.
4) Nice climate! I'm looking forward to being able to hang out at a pool for more than 3 weeks of the calendar year.
5) This gives Ted his first fresh start away from the home town he grew up in, went to undergrad in, and went to medical school in.
5 1/4) Per Ted: "The Royals still stink. The Twins will still beat them. We can be there to watch."

So as you can see, although we are sad to wave goodbye to Minnesota, this is a good fit for our family.

So when is all of this going to happen anyway?

4/14- Erin heads to KC for 2 days to drive around with Uncle Evan and figure out what's going on and find us someplace to live
4/19- Lucas' Bday party in MN
4/25- boxes are moved out of duplex
4/27- big furniture is out of duplex
5/2- Graduation Day

** During this time period we're homeless and living out of suitcases****

5/24-6/1- We are being graciously flown to Tucson, AZ to visit Auntie Laurie

6/6- Erin's last day at Uline (tentatively)

6/8- give or take a few days we leave for KC in the big truck.

6/23- Ted's First Day

Ted will be done forever with day care services as of 5/1 when Daddy is done with school (yay!).

So MN friends and family, fear not, for you will be seeing lots of Erin and Lucas as we tour the midwest for the next 3 years. I plan to be up for all FANA events!!! Very important!

So I leave you with overwhelming amounts of cuteness...

AS LUCAS IS 11 MONTHS OLD TODAY!!!

Lucas and Daddy were ready for a walk around Como!

We also enjoyed a visit from Grandma over the weekend. Here is some pictures of our time from Don Pablos last night.

"Chip lady??? Chip lady come back!"

"But Mommy... I have half of one tooth on the top now... so I can have chips and salse too??? Pretty please???"

Mommy and Grandma

We part with one more picture from Match Day when Mommy and Daddy were at Solera.

Wrapping it all up

2009-03-02T14:57:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody,

This may be my last post before I head back home to the family. This trip has really pushed myself in ways that I did not expect. From only speaking Spanish for 3 weeks, leaving my wife and son, traveling by bus and ¨collectivos¨ 2 hours away from Cusco, and being able to experience tons of history and culture I was only minimally aware of before I left. Its been a great trip, but I think I´m ready to come home and be with my family once again.

Last week I spent the entire time in the hospital. Each day I would rotate in different areas of the hospital: Infectious disease, GI, Cardiology, and 2 days with Tropical Medicine. I was able to return in the afternoon to go to the Emergency Department and see what rolled in the door. It was more of a learning experience than actually doing medical things for me. There are plenty of students, residents, and staff to go around that run things at the hospital. But, it was definately eye-opening to see what they have to work with. The luxuries that we just order for our patients in the States aren´t quite the same here. If someone needs a CT scan they can maybe get it in... oh 2 or 3 days once their family has the money for it. And once they do - what do we do with it. There were many patients we saw who had intracerebral hemorrhaging but no Neurosurgery here in Cusco and they didn´t have the money for a procedure anyways. The thing that struck me the most is that besides tropical medicine, most of the patients we saw here have the same diseases we see in the States - they are just further along the process. Outlook for a lot of the patients is decent - but a fair amount won´t make it much longer because of the delayed diagnosis and lack of primary care in their lives.

I did get to see how a trauma is run at Hospital Regional. It was pretty interesting. 3 men were ¨carried¨ into the ¨trauma bay¨ by a relative. They all layed on a bed while the nurses cleaned up the blood on their faces and arms. There wasn´t a doctor in there for a good 10-15 minutes. They wanted me to observe, but it was hard considering nobody was assessing the ABCs of trauma. They were rolling these guys all over the table to clean them off without proper evaluation of their C-spine! Finally some of the residents showed up, ordered some labs and x-rays and placed the patients in observation. Totally different than what we are taught! They were alive the next day when I showed up, so maybe they know something we don´t about trauma management.

This past weekend I was able to go to Machu Picchu. It was a great day - pricey - but still a must see. I left at 6AM for a 2 hour bus ride, then a 2 hour train ride, and then a 30 minute bus ride up the mountain. Once we got there we had to hike another 20 minutes to the city. It was all well worth it. We divided into 2 groups, spanish and english, and had a 2 hour tour. Our tour gide was great and gave us a lot of history and insight into the city. After the tour we were allowed to roam about the city and do whatever we wanted (to an extent). I was able to climb all over the place and get some great pictures. Finally, after exerting myself for a couple of hours in sparce oxygen, I climed one of the mountains next to the city and sat for about an hour with another couple from Atlanta and enjoyed the view - right next to the Alpacas. While we were up there the sun came out and a rainbow formed from the river in the valley up into the mountains. It was a great view!

Yesterday Haydee, my host, and I went up into the mountains (again) to see some of the ruins closer to Cusco. I was able to see some of the sacrificial temples and the Incan fortress up close. They even light them up at night for added effect. We even got some great pictures of Christo Blanco who overlooks the city, very similar to the one in Brasil. We ended the day playing volleyball, soccer, and dodgeball with her friends and their kids. They tore me apart in soccer, but I got my revenge in dodgeball. Those Peruvians don´t know how to throw a good ball overhand!

Today I tried to go back to Quiquijana and learn about the vertical birthing that they do in the country, but the road was torn to pieces about an hour outside the city. There were 11 of us packed into a sedan for 2 hours and we were stuck in a small town in the middle of nowhere. I finally made it back to Cusco - via collectivo, walking, a taxi, and a bus.

That´s all for now. It takes forever to load pictures here in Cusco so I´ll be sure to add them when I get back.

Getting Ready for Dad to come home!!

2009-03-01T19:00:00.001-08:00

Well... this is another post that's intended for Ted down in Peru. We're still just hangin in there! We miss Daddy a lot, but we're enjoying each other's company that is for sure :-)

The pictures below are just of play time today and then Lucas' bath.

These are just a few pictures of playing "drums" on the play mat with empty Similac cans and Mom's wooden spoon...

Then we thought Mom was pretty funny during morning Cheerio time...

A little self portrait while in the Bjorn...

So our little boy is quite the Water Man. He has learned just how to make splashes... all of the time. Don't give him a bath unless you feel like participating!!!

Just Hangin' Out

2009-02-27T17:04:00.000-08:00

Well there is nothing crazy about this post. This one is just for Daddy... who is on the other side of the world and missing some little things right now... like this little boy having his evening batch of Cheerios!!

Enjoy!!!

Lucas is 10 months old!

2009-02-22T16:35:00.000-08:00

Lucas is 10 months old..... AND TEETHING. Teething in a way that makes our little boy not himself! So our 10 month pictures are not our normal smiling boy that we are all used to :-)

He just wasn't in the groove all day and getting a smile at all was pretty tough!!

Case and point...

I was able to get away last night for my girlfriend Kristi's birthday part since Mom was able to do a little babysitting :-) It was a nice little break since I haven't really left the house at night in a few months!

After church this morning, we (Mom) treated us to a little lunch. Lucas still wasn't feeling well, but he was doing good enough for a few snuggles with Mom and Grandma :-)

¿Habla Quechua?

2009-02-21T08:57:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! I was finally able to upload some pics to the computer, but these darn computers are so slow that it would take forever to upload even a couple. I also tried snapfish, but I can´t download the software to distibute the pics. I´m also currently trying to upload pictures to facebook, which isn´t going so well.
Maybe I´ll just wait until I get home.

So, here is the update. This past week I´ve been working in 2 different clinics. The first one was a clinic here in Cusco, where I spent three days in general medicine, pediatrics, and OB/GYN. The clinic was basically run the same as back home, but in much more crouded conditions. In every room people were crammed wall to wall. The only place to move was at the examination table. But, things were run pretty efficiently. People came in for all sorts of problems, but most were the typical stuff we see back home. I got to spend some time in the procedure room, washing out and suturing up wounds. A lot of people in the city work in laborous jobs which can be dangerous. I even got to tie off a vein on a teenage girl who got her arm in the way of a saw. (Shé´s fine now.)

On Thursday and Friday I spent the day in another town called Quiquijana. To get there I had to take a couple of ¨compativos¨ (kinda like station wagons) and a bus. It was about 1.5-2 hour drive, but well worth it. The scenery out here is great. You drive through the mountains and are high enough where you can see clouds forming below the top of the highest peak. When I got there my first day not much was going on in the clinic. But there were some people loading up into an old 1960´s ambulance. I didn´t know where they were going, but I figured that I like medicine that deals with ambulance rides - so I jumped in the back. Once we were driving down the road I asked the other students with me where we were going. They said it was to some place about 2 hours away. They didn´t say that it was 2 hours on the top of the mountain. So, we spent the next two hours in the back of this old ambulance holding on to the seat, walls, windows, and each other as we climbed this mountain on a road that is probably used once a year and this was it. It was a blast! We even had a couple of times where a river crossed over the road and we had to plow through it.

We finally reached our destination point and got out of the ambulance to a group of waiting patients. They are people who live in the mountains, and only speak ¨Quechua.¨ Which is the ancient language of the Incans. Amazing, they are so isolated that they don´t even speak spanish. Needless to say I wasn´t able to communicate with them, but another student spoke a little. We set up our clinic in one of the community buildings (no electricity available) where one of the students interviewed the patients, one wrote down everything, and I examined the patients either on the floor or on one of the benches. Once we were done we would put our heads togther and figure out the problem. Most of the time it was pretty typical- pharyngitis, bronchitis, parasitic infection. We did get to see a woman with a pupilary problem (anisocoria), a lady with vertigo and headaches (possible schwanoma), and a woman with a mass on her arm and loss of sensation in her fingers (ulnar distribution). For them we had to recommend to go to Cusco because we didn´t have the proper tools or imaging available in Quiquijana. We saw about 30 patients, and they were all so greatful for us to come. They prepared lunch for us and made sure we had enought. It was a great experience! On the way down the ride wasn´t any smoother, but still a great time. We even stopped to pick up a pregnant woman to bring her to the clinic in Quiquijana. I guess that´s how the ladies do it out there.

The next day wasn´t nearly as exciting. We mainly saw people in the clinc. Although, we did get to do something unusual. A family brought in their 1 month old child who had recently died and requested an autopsy. I´ll spare the details of what happened with the child, but we did do the autopsy. We had a table outside in the back courtyard and placed it underneath a covering. I never dreamed that I would be helpìng to do an autopsy in the back of a clinic on a makeshift table during a rain shower. It was sad for us and the family, but still an unusual experience. I took the bus back to Cusco where they played ¨Mortal Combat¨ on a TV fixed to the front of the bus. I had to peek over the children crawling all over and the ladies selling bread and popcorn to see it.

Today I went to the hospital for a couple hours of case presentations, but the doctor never showed up for us students and residents. I got to talk with some more students, which will be nice because I have no idea where to go in the hospital on Monday. Tonight I have been invited to go out for pizza and dominoes in the Plaza de Armas, and tomorrow I´ll be going to a festival at a nearby town. We´ll see what happens this next week when I´m at the hospital full time.

While Dad's Gone

2009-02-16T18:26:00.001-08:00

Well I came on here tonight to give you all an update in the life of Ted in Peru but I see that he already did yesterday. Woohoo! Saves me time.

So um... that leaves our post with a little update in the life of Erin and baby Lucas. Um... is pretty same ol' same ol'... except without the help of Dad.

Our goals continue to be to get me to work and Lucas to auntie Mallory's on time and in one piece. So far so good. Grandma and Grandpa Sibley (Dave & Nancy) came over on Saturday to play with Lucas while I returned to work at Uline for the day. Saturday night we went out for Valentine's day to Taco Bell: the most romantic place ever. It was to me anyway!! Free dinner and the ability to use my right hand to hold my fork instead of feeding Lucas with one hand and myself with the other at the same time.

Sunday I decided to drive out to Maple Grove to visit our old church (where Grandma and Grandpa are currently attending). We got to see some old familiar faces. It's hard to think that the babies we used to take care in the nursery are now in elementary school and our junior high kids are in college!! I AM OLD.

Lucas hung out and Grandma and Grandpas for a bit of the afternoon and I ran some errands. We hung out here last night. This morning we met another FANA family, the Como's at Rosedale for some play date time.

This was at Caribou at the mall where all of the kiddies were kind enough to pose. Ana is almost 2 (she's almost exactly a year older than Lucas so she's a good barometer of development). Joshua is.... Spiderman... and Solomon is a very mature and helpful big brother himself.

Everybody also wanted to be extra helpful with feeding Lucas' his Cheerios so he didn't get bored... this made me giggle :-)

All of that playing tired us out.

Since we've been sending Daddy pictures every night in an e-mail, I will leave you with a few of our random acts of craziness while we're home alone.

Lucas provokes the snake....

the snake fights back....

Wow that snake isn't letting go!!

It is clear that snaked picked the WRONG baby to mess with. Lucas secures his place as King of the Jungle Nursery. All of the monkeys, frogs, and random giant crab cheered in amazement!!!

Perhaps its clear I've been alone too long already!!!

Never fear, Grandma Holl will be arriving later this week :-)

¿Habla español?

2009-02-15T12:43:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. I had planned to add some pictures this time, but apparently the USB cord that I brought and the camera I borrowed are not compatible. I´ll try another cord later and see if I can get some pictures up here.

I´m getting settled in Cusco, but my days at the hospital keep changing. Yesterday I went in the AM and worked in the ED for a couple of hours. I was told that I would be meeting with my contact person at 11AM and actually met up with his secretary at that time. We mapped out a schedule for me for the next couple of weeks, then my contact person, Dr. Montoya came in. He crossed out the schedule we had made and then made me one for the next 4 weeks. I told him that I would only be here for 3 weeks, and we crossed out that schedule again. He then wanted me to go to the remote clinc this next week and spend time there, but I told him that I already had spanish classes set up for every day in the evening this next week. After about 30 mintues of explaining and redrawing a schedule I think we finallyu have it figured out. I´ll be going to one of the local clinics for the next 3 days, and then out to the remote clinic on thursday and friday. I spoke with the spanish teacher and we´ll do 2 hours on Monday and Tuesday, and 1 hour on Wednesday. For the final week and a half I´ll be at the hosptial rotating in various specialties in the AM with the ED mixed in the afternoon and evenings.

Speaking of the remote clinic, I traveled there today with Dr. Montoya´s secretay. We visited the town and the clinic, and I got set up with a hotel to stay in overnight. I´ll be there for 2 days, but at this point I´m feeling pretty confortable with my spanish that it should be ok. I was able to talk with Carmen, the secretary, all the way out there and back in spanish with only a couple of pauses where we both were lost in the translation. I´m also able to talk with random people on the street in spanish and it´s going pretty well. There is a center courtyard where I can go and strike up various conversations with people. Most people are pretty nice and patient with me and the words are coming a litte easier.

I also went to the hospital last night to work a couple hours in the ED. Everything was going as it usually does until one of the patients in the hospital family member came to us in tears and shouted to the doctor. We ran up 4 flights of stars into the pediatric department and into one of the rooms. I´ll spare you the details but we ended up inubating, placing a central line, 2 NG tubes, and 2 liters of blood before she was ¨stable.¨ All of this with very primative medical supplies. At one point the doctor was cutting through a syringe with scissors for the intubation and placed the central line blindly (we usually use ultasound in the US). We were squeezing bags of blood and fluid with blood pressure cups and the nurse was trying to suction with a pump by hand. It was pretty crazy.

I wrapped up my student ticket for the churches/museums yesterday. For those of you who are into the history of the church this place is a must visit. There is plenty of history of the catholic church and the incan peoples that I probably won´t be able to visit all of the sites during my stay here. There are 14 different chruches and I think 8 different museums to see, each with a different story, and each with different original pieces of art that are important to the incan way of life. I had a private tour of one of the churches yesterday by a peruvian woman who talked about how the incans incorporated catholisim into the artwork/chapels. She also talked about how each place of religious importance to the incans was replaced by one of the churches. The biggest surprise came when she explained that the Incan people believed that the mountains were sacred, so the spanish placed a cross on the highest mountain to cover the Incan place of worship. She even explained that most people in Cusco still practice the Incan religion, although they would never tell their chruch.

Well, I´m off to the pharmacy to buy a mask for tomorrow. Es muy importante no tengo tuberculosis en Cusco.

Peruvian days

2009-02-13T11:56:00.000-08:00

Hello all!

This is Ted writing to you from Cusco, Peru. To those of you who didn´t know, I am spending 3 weeks at a Hospital in Cusco on an international rotation. I arrived here yesterday morning after about a 24 hour travel that brought me from MPLS to Miami to Lima and then Cusco the next day. I did get to meet some interesting people on my trip. Chad Greenway and Ben Lieber were on the flight to Miami going to the Bahamas with their families. I met a Peruvian woman in Miami that was trying to take 3 large bags on the flight that each weighed just under 50 lbs (yes, I did carry them for her). And in Lima I met a Canadian who is not allowed into the US because of something he did in Africa 20 years ago. He didn´t say and I didn´t ask.

I´m staying with a pharmacist named Haydee in her 3 bedroom house. I get a room, bathroom, and 3 meals a day for 20 dollars. She knows very little english, but is very patient with broken spanish.

Since I arrived I have been spending time getting adjusted with the altitude and the rich history in Cusco. This city was the center of the Incan empire, and also the focal point of the Spanish conquests. That means that there are plenty of Incan ruins and temples along with Spanish Cathedrals to visit. I purchased a student pass for 5 bucks and get an audio tour of these great monuments. For the persons who visted the Montserrate, its kinda like that, only bigger and more of them. Its neat to see the incorporation of the Spanish catholism with the incan way of life. Plus the details put into these buildings are breathtaking.

I´ve also arranged for some spanish classes next week and I´ll be visiting Macchu Picchu over my last weekend.

Oh yes, the rotation. I went to the hospital today to meet my contact person. But he wasnt there. I went to the information desk and they told me he had the day off and would return tomorrow. I then asked if I could get access to the floors with the medical teams and patients, but I didn´t have proper ID or papers - both of which this man has. So, we´ve already experienced our first ¨manyana¨ event of the trip - probably not the last.

Next week I should be able to upload some pictures. I´m at an internet cafe and don´t have enough time for that here. there are no pictures allowed in the churches and temples, but I´ve got some good ones of the city and hospital.

Ted made it to Peru in one piece!

2009-02-12T19:27:00.000-08:00

Okay so this isn't a normal post... ya know.. the kind with tons of pictures of our son doing cool stuff.

I decided to just post up here Ted's initial e-mail to me to let me know that he made it to Peru okay. Don't worry, it's not to mushy and mostly informative. He hasn't sent any pictures yet, so I'll just throw on a few of Lucas just cuz.

TED'S EMAIL:

Hey honey,

I found an internet cafe across the street from the place that I am staying
- right now the internet at the house is broken and hopefully will be up
tonight. I enjoyed reading your email- I miss you guys very much.

Cusco is kinda like walking in the bad part of Bogota. The city feels the
same, with honking cars, random walkers, street venders, mountains all
around us. Its nice to be back in this part of the world - but difficult
without my two favorite people.

I landed in Lima around 12AM and got through customs about an hour later.
The plane from Miami to Lima was the biggest plane I have ever been on! It
was like riding in a huge limo, only with screaming children running down
the isles. I was able to talk with an older Peruvian woman and a young
Peruvian guy through some broken english-spanish. It worked, but a lot of
charades.

Overnight was a little rough. I slept for about 2 hours at the check in
because I couldn´t actually re-check my bags until 4 AM, and they were
cleaning the floors in the area I was trying to sleep in. I finally put my
feet up on my equipaje and tilted my hat down to get some broken sleep.

The flight here went fine - I slept the entire way. I totally missed the
breakfast, but when I got to the casa Haydee had breakfast waiting for me.
She is great and is very helpful and patient with me. We talked about all
sorts of stuff this morning. Her family, my family (she loves the pictures
of Lucas), what Cusco is like, how I should get around, planning a trip to
Macchu Picchu over my last weekend. I was quite surprised that we were able
to communicate so well seeing that she knows almost no english. But we did
fine.

I´m spending the day getting accostomed to the city, and figuring out where
to go. Dr. Divertie called this AM to see if I made it ok. I may be able to
talk with you at some point as Haydee has a calling card, but I didnt quite
get the details of that.

I love you and I´ll check as often as I can."

So that's what we know about Ted so far folks!!! Sounds like he's doing well. Lucas and I are hanging in there. The goals while Ted is gone are pretty simple: get up,let out dog, get ready, get baby, feed baby, get in car, get to Mallorys, deposit baby, drive to work, do work, drive to Mallory's to get baby, drive home,let out dog, feed baby, play with baby, bath baby, bottle baby, put baby in crib, go back in 10 minutes later to lay him back down, turn off all lights in the house and ignore him, go back to lay him down again (3rd time usually works), write Ted email, deal with house and life, bed.

That's what we will do pretty much every day that Ted is gone! So far its working out, but I'm pretty pooped. Not gonna lie. Lucas is into everything and doesn't like to be apart from mama by more than 2 feet.

Hope you are all doing well and I will close with some videos of about the house events.

Playing Around the House

2009-01-22T18:48:00.000-08:00

Why the update? We just thought we'd keep ya'll up to date with the awesomeness that is us, that's why.

Oh yes, LUCAS IS 9 MONTHS OLD TODAY!!

So you ask "Why the hamburger?" Well, sometimes in parenting we choose our battles. Our battle was trying to get a nice and sweet picture for a 9 month day. Turns out Lucas was really excited about STEVE's toy (the dog). Yeah. It's a doggy chew toy. We figure since Steve has been giving Lucas lots of kisses since the day we brought him home it was bound to happen sometime. He's building up lots of immunity to all sorts of good things. I wiped it off don't worry :-)

Nothing crazy has been happening around here. We've settled into a nice routine with the close of the holidays.

Ted has been running all over this lovely United States doing residency interviews. For those of you unfamiliar with our current state, we are doing residency interviews. Although we REALLY want to stay here in Minnesota at one of the two teaching hospitals for ER (Ted's specialty of choice), we still have to interview at other ER teaching hospitals so that Ted will be guaranteed a Residency position somewhere as of July 1st of this year.

In the past two months, we've been: Akron Ohio, Kansas City Kansas, Regions St Paul, HCMC Minneapolis, Pittsburgh PA, Madison WI, Grand Rapids MI, Cleveland OH, and Buffalo NY next week.

It has been jolly.

We're looking forward to finally having these wrapped up next week.

What have Lucas and I been doing during this time?? He plays, and I work and do mommy things. Ted started his Radiology rotation on Monday. He leaves for Peru on February 11th through March 5th. When he returns from Peru he will do Family Medicine somewhere for a few months and then graduation day!! Woohoo!!

So here are a few "action shots" of the little man's development. We've been doing some solid belly crawling the last few weeks, so freedom as we know it is gone for a few years.

We've been enjoying new big boy toys that we got for Christmas and exploring parts of the house that we've never hung out in before. Like Steve's pet taxi.

"Thanks for the truck Grandma!!"

This is my other swiffer sweeper....

Daddy decided to teach Lucas a super fun game that Mommy and all the Grandma's will surely LOVE!!

He also found one of his Mommies favorite items... her beloved coffee cup.

And finally, the determination and defiance of a little boy who has found a way to avoid sleep. Enjoy :-)

This is perhaps Oscar worthy don't you think?

We hope is all is well :-) Take care!

Hey! Ted & Erin left the house without a baby!!

2009-01-01T16:47:00.000-08:00

Yes, folks! New Years Eve!

Grandma and Grandpa Sibley were kind enough to have Lucas so Mom and Dad could enjoy a little time away with the adults. We went to our friends Laura and Gabe's house in downtown St Paul for a cocktail party with other couples. We couldn't get too crazy, because I had to be up for work the next morning at 5:30a... but we still managed to have a great time!

A few pictures below with various friends from the last few years :-)

Oh... and I was wearing SUPER SUPER tall heels. Teddy is not short :-)

Obviously we had a great time with our friends getting all fancy and dressed up. Hopefully we've got a tradition going for years to come!

Lucas' First Christmas

2009-01-01T16:32:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful time Christmas morning. A great time was had by all! This will be a short entry, because there aren't lots of deep thoughts to add? We opened presents!! It was way fun!!

The Sibley family went way "budget" this year (The Family Dollar store was our friend), but what you get doesn't matter in comparison to who you're with :-)

Lucas opens his first Christmas present from Mommy and Daddy

"Just to verify Mom... I do have UNLIMITED texting right? Which speed dial is Grandma??"

Lucas also got his first Elmo... Mommy really likes it too :-)

Even Steve got some new toys, bones, and treats!

We had a great time... made a big mess... and then a nap was needed!

After our nap, we drove over to Grandma and Grandpa Sibley's to a little more family time.

It was a great day and we'll always remember it!

More Winter and Pre Christmas Stuff

2008-12-25T18:24:00.000-08:00

I know it's Christmas day, but we've been pretty busy around here!

All of the Christmas Day stuff will be posted in a few days. So here are the details of the Holiday Season prior to the Christmas Day festivities!!!

Did we see Santa?? YES WE DID!! Twice actually. We saw Santa at Macy's when Aunt Laurie was here. Lucas did fabulously :-)

He had to test out that beard to make SURE it was real. Good thing Santa has a pain tolerance for beard pulling.

Ted also decided that Christmas Eve was the PERFECT day to take Lucas out for a playful "romp" (and by that we mean sit there in the snow and scowl at the camera) in the back yard. It wasn't as cold that day, we are aren't terrible parents.

We decided to honor Aunti Laurie's request and open her presents before Christmas... because "that's way more fun". :-) Lucas thoroughly enjoyed her gift bag.

After all of that activity, we packed up and went over to Aunt Nikki's house for Christmas Eve with the Great Grandparents on Ted's side.

After all of the Christmas partying, it was time for Lucas to come home for some quality quiet time with Mommy. We had a big day ahead of us!!!

Lucas is 8 months old!

2008-12-22T17:06:00.000-08:00

And I am 324 months old today... but who is counting!!!

I had a fabulous 27th Birthday that included sleeping in, good coffee, a hair cut, a dog grooming appointment, and walking around the Mall of America with my family. Good day!!

We also had some technical difficulties after we learned that Lucas now eats paper if it's in his reach....

We also had a fabulous time with Breann (my little sis) who came to visit this last week while on college break. She was a big help running around town on a week with some seriously cruddy Minnesota weather.

Christmas is upon us now and we will have many more photos before it's done!

Jaden's First Birthday

2008-12-21T14:21:00.000-08:00

I'm getting all caught up on my blog before the big Christmas post!!

We also had a fabulous time last weekend celebrating Jaden's first birthday. This is Ted's little brother Brad's little boy if you're not down with our family map :-)

One of my favorite family pictures:

Brad, Mallory, and Jaden before cake

And a little more pre-cake snacking time...

Of course Jaden's cousins Emmy and Lucas had to do a little new toy "testing". Just being good cousins :-)

and we opened presents... super fun!! :-)

We closed out the day with some super Birthday Cake just before all of the babies had lack of nap meltdowns :-) Good times were had by all!

Aunt Laurie finally meets Lucas

2008-12-21T13:59:00.000-08:00

Auntie Laurie (my step Dad Randy's middle daughter) had to wait the longest to finally meet Lucas. Laurie tends to be... oh... in Iraq... whenever big things happen in our lives!! It wasn't EXACTLY her idea, that's just how the timing works out. We got married in 2003 when she was in Iraq... she came home for a few years.. and then went back just in time for us to get a baby!! Hee Hee.

She waited SO patiently over there in Iraq and finally got to come home and meet the little boy everybody has been talking about for the last few months.

She had planned a very big road trip all over the US.. and even totaled her car during that road trip. We were so excited that she was still able to make a 16 hour drive in a rental car all the way to St Paul. She got to us at 3:45am in one piece on 12/9/08.

Here are a few highlights from our trips downtown for Christmas fun :-)

Laurie and Lucas in the "Day in the Life of an Elf" in the downtown Macy's. He was way too interested to nap that afternoon....

And Lucas got to meet Mrs. Claus herself!

We also spent some time getting pictures with Santa, but that is a different update that will wait until Christmas time!!

We also enjoyed some time at Brit's downtown for dinner that night. It wasn't too busy when we were in there, so Lucas was able to dose a bit.

"Really guys... it's no big deal that you are totally eating yummy food in front of me..."

It was nice to enjoy a little extra time with my sister for the holidays :-) We were able to travel down to Grandma Holl's the next weekend for the Holl family Christmas. We hope we can see her again very soon! Perhaps next time in her native land of warmth... Arizona... which sounds AWESOME today as it is -30 wind chill.

We were on TV!

2008-11-27T07:25:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving morning to all :-)

Last night we traveled to good ol' MSP to welcome home another one of Lucas' playmates from Colombia!

Baby Gabriela Flanagan came home last night just in time for Thanksgiving. Take a look at the news clip from Fox 9 really close and you might see some familiar FANA faces!!

Take a look at it on YouTube!!

Go watch it :-)

After we got home... and while trying to figure out how to post this link... we were attacked by a bat!! This resulted in Ted skulking down the hallway with a crazy rainbow stocking hat from Maku (a gift shop in Bogota) pulled over his head and my rubber strainer for "bat wacking".

We have reenacted this photo for you. Just about wet my pants.

Lucas and mommy had to go hide in the car while Ted was on his bat hunt. We had a very cold house (due to opening windows and the door) after all of this craziness.. and an awake baby at 11p at night.

No sign of the bat again.

I'm going to head back to baking pies now and watching the parade! Happy Thanksgiving to All and pictures of the days events will go up later!

Family and Friend Events in November

2008-11-23T09:57:00.000-08:00

The Holidays are upon us here at the home of the Sibley 3!

Even though it's just getting started, that hasn't stopped us from getting out and about BEFORE things even get "hectic".

A few days after Ted's Birthday celebration last week, we drove out to Maple Grove to celebrate our niece Emmy's church dedication day.

Aunt Erin spent the first few months of Emmy's life running around like a crazy woman getting ready for Lucas... and then hanging out in Colombia with Lucas.. and then getting home and getting settled with Lucas.... so Emmy and I hardly got to know each other! Finally some quality time.

The cousins spent some time playing too!

Lucas came from Colombia. We brought him to Minnesota. Temperature change much? And with that, we introduce you to Lucas' winter wear that we affectionately refer to as "STAYPUFF" (As in the giant marshmellow man from Ghostbusters if you not up on the movie trivia).

Doesn't he look thrilled??

"Yeah mom, thanks."

We were very excited to get an invitation for a play date this last saturday at the Slominski's house! For those of you that don't remember our time in Bogota, they were there too! Our friends the Schoonvelds were also there with David who came home from Bogota in May.

Lucas has gotten to be a pro at sitting up lately so he can play with the boys a lot easier!

Playing blocks with David

David gave me some good crawling lessons until I sorta gave up. Hard work ya know?

And our Mommy's and Daddy's got to hang out and have some breakfast and chat too!

That's my mom

Oh yeah, and I was 7 months old yesterday!!

That's right folks, I'm handsome!!

Then we were off to a wedding of one of Daddy's friends. That's why I was so dressed up for the ladies!

We all know I'm a party animal, but even the craziest of party animals still get sleepy and need their mom.

I leave today with Dad to drive down to Iowa for a little pre-Thanksgiving visiting! Bring on the pumpkin pie filling, cause I'm down.

Ted's Birthday

2008-11-15T09:39:00.001-08:00

Well Daddy is officially 27 years old! We celebrated last night at Uncle Brad and Aunt Mallory's house by eating a bunch of Arby's sandwiches, munchies, a cake I made, and ice cream. We were even able to get some decorations put up, compliments of my $2.99 Walmart birthday decorating special!

The pictures below dictate the highlights of the evening: Great Grandparents, Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, Lucas, and our niece and nephew.

Ted's Brother and Sister and the niece and nephew

Apparently this one toy, was more awesome than any other toy any of them had ever seen! Sharing starts early.

Lucas got to spend some time with his Grandma and Grandpa, and Great Grandma and Grandpa Sibley

Here's Lucas' cousin Emmy!

and his cousin Jaden!

Lucas has cut two big boy teeth and sits up on his own now. Those baby days are disappearing quick! Ted is on break from now until the end of January so Lucas will be traveling quite a bit around Minnesota and Iowa to see lots of family during the holiday season. Auntie Laurie gets home from Iraq in a few weeks and will be visiting Minnesota. We're very excited to see her!

A few pictures to show off how strong the little boy is getting!

Aw Mom! I'm "working" here!

Okay all done!

I can sit up and play like a big boy!

Halloween 2008

2008-11-02T08:43:00.001-08:00

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's the cutest little Superman ever!!!

We had a lovely time at our first Halloween party on Friday night. Regions hospital even let Ted leave the ER a bit early so he could attend! It was quite a busy place with cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandmas, Grandpa's, Great Grandmas and Great Grandpa!

We enjoyed the kids, ate lots of food, and watched a little Garfield get his "Candy Candy Candy Candy CANDY!". Here are a few pictures below of Lucas with his Great Grandparents and cousins Emmy (a lovely lady bug) and Jaden (the cutest monkey ever).

Next year will be a bit more interesting when everybody has teeth and can get into more trouble!

Superman DOESNT NEED KISSES Mom!!

Daddy serves as the spotter for some very important flying

Good catch Dad

Wow that was tough work

I spent some time Grandma and Grandpa Sibley and Grandma Haines

and my cousins Emmy and Jaden were there too!

Don't forget Grandma!

We all played together for a little bit before I started to get sleepy.....

We sure had a super time and Mommy and Daddy have finally started to finish some of that candy we all got. Can't wait to start trick or treating in a few years!

Lucas is 6 months old!

2008-10-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

Our little baby boy is certainly growing up!

This has continued to be a month of firsts. Mom's first day back to work while worrying about Lucas (he's in great hands with Auntie Mallory!) and our first little bit of big boy food. Lucas dropped below the 5th percentile for weight in the last month so it was time to get going on some big boy food! Here are the pictures from his first try!

Mom needed to test it first...

Want some Daddy?

I guess it's not so bad Mom!

Or maybe it is??

We don't have to like it, but he is getting bigger and bigger every day. We haven't been nearly as religious about getting our photos and updates up as quickly as before Erin went back to work, so Lucas' 6 month picture is a tiny bit late!

Along with all of those firsts.... the first taming of that crazy Colombian hair. Mom wasn't too sure about this... and I'm still not! Nobody likes to see their baby start looking more like a little boy, whether they're 6 months old, 6 years old, or 16 years old... so we had better start getting used to it. Daddy and Grandma went along and he did a great job!

Before....

During and after....

It certainly wasn't his first bath, but he's been very into sitting up here lately so sitting back in his bath seat wasn't doing it anymore. He doesn't sit well enough to be on the slipper bottom of the tub yet, but a little improvising in the bath seat is working rather well!

We look forward to a family Halloween party on Friday and can't wait to show you more pictures!!!

The Apple Orchard and Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-23T18:38:00.000-07:00

What better way to start out your first Minnesota fall season than a little trip to the apple orchard and the pumpkin patch!!

We headed out early this month to Emma Krumbee's Apple Orchard in Belle Plaine, MN.

SO much more fun than last year when we had to hide from all of the strollers because they made me sad. A few photos....

Lucas hung out in the pumpkins....

and he hung out with his mom too.... and his Daddy!!

We had a wonderful day as a family. We enjoyed live music by from a little old man who played children's songs and enjoyed apple pie, coffee, and even a little ice cream.

We stopped by the pumpkin patch on our way home and picked up a Daddy Pumpkin, Mommy Pumpkin, and even a little Lucas Baby Pumpkin.... that the crazy squirrels in our backyard ate... but is was a valiant attempt at festivity.

We hope our visit this year was just the first of many that we enjoy as a family. Halloween here we come!