Sunday, December 25, 2005

Mariel's First Christmas!








Mariel had a BLAST playing with her new toys! She is currently taking apart Lego Blocks and discussing with Daddy how she make an even bigger mess of the front room...
Thank you everyone for all the toys, clothes, bears, and other gifts for Mariel! She is having a great Christmas...

LOVE TO ALL OF YOU and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Friday, December 23, 2005

Eric " Post Surgery"...

(Eric's going to hate me for this... but I wanted you to see the progress...)
Dec 20th... the big day. Here's Eric... post surgery on Dec 22. He looks even better than this today (23rd). His face is getting less swollen and his tongue is actually looking like a tongue again. He can talk for the most part, and is partaking of some sherbert as I sit here! Wish him luck!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!


Take a look at the bottom of that tree!!! Then take a long look at the cute baby that is the recipient of a majority of those presents!! HOLY COW!!! I don't think we'll get through them before Mariel's morning nap!

Thank you so much to all of you that sent gifts for us...

Here it is at last! Grandpa Wes has been working SO hard on getting this finished for Mariel. It's a beautiful high chair made of Walnut? (hope that's right Dad...). Anyway, he spent a lot of time on it, and we're going to enjoy using it as Mariel gets older. Thanks so much Grandpa!

Christmas has come!

Embarrassment...I'm so ashamed that it has been a month already since I last posted anything to the site. We have been so busy with so many things that it seems the time is just flying by!
Here it is, Mariel's first Christmas and WE ARE SO EXCITED! I could hardly contain myself tonight... I was almost going to let Mariel open just one present... but Eric said no way. I guess I have to be the adult now :(. So Mariel sits patiently waiting to rip into one of those shiny things under the tree. At least 20 times a day I have to whisk her away from the tree. She's a quick one these days! She's now learned to pull herself into a standing position in her crib, in her playpen, well.. just about anywhere where she can get a good grip. She hasn't started full on crawling yet, still doing the "commando" style crawl.
Anyway, we have had a really busy two weeks. Gramma Pursell passed away on December 8th, and so we were down in Grants Pass attending her funeral. It went well, and Gramma Sell would have been SO happy to see that all of Eric's family came together. Some hadn't seen eachother in up to 40 years!!!
After our tricky return over the snow blown mountain pass, we went to work for a day. Tuesday, the 20th, Eric had facial surgery. He spent one night in ICU, and then another night in a private suite in Hotel St.Charles Hospital.
You'll see his picture after this post. He's doing great now, but still has a sore throat. This is to be expected considering the amount of diggin around the surgeons did to him. He is sans tonsils, sans soft pallette, sans ability to swallow very well. He's eating lots of soup and finally moved onto mashed potatoes tonight! Yippee!
Anyway, he's getting a little better each day... so lets just hope that the breathing ability is better after all the healing is done!

Anyway, here it is, the night before the night before Xmas, and I'm catching up the last few weeks. Mariel's been her amazing cute little self, but has developed a touch of a cold. She's getting her two top front teeth in and so a combonation of not feeling well combined with teething is making for a little fussy baby at times. Overall though, she is as cute as ever. She's waving to EVERYTHING she sees and is recognizing... and sometimes I swear to it... she's saying Mamma and Dadda (to the appropriate person!).

Enjoy the couple pics and I hope you all have a TERRIFIC Christmas!!!

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Just an update!


Just wanted to pop in and give an update! Mariel is now learning to crawl, yeah! She's starting to scoot forward a little on her arms and legs, but still can't seem to get that little Buddha belly off the ground. :)
She's learning to click her tongue, holds her own bottle now, and is putting toys in and out of things. She's eating Cheerios, and after last week we're going to avoid apricots for awhile. They gave a nasty bought of diaper rash, one that we hope will NOT be repeated.

She's doing great and Eric was playing on the floor with her, so I snapped a quick shot!

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Swim Class


Here's Mariel in a moment of utter bliss. She LOVES the water!!! She especially notices the cute lifeguards that keep walking by to check on her... he he he.

Swimmers, Paddlers and Floaters...


Mariel is swimming! I wasn't sure how many of you knew or not, but we are enrolled in a swim class full of playing and splashing and singing songs! There are all girls in the class, and one little one even has the same swimsuit as Mariel.
She loves the water and loves to watch water come out of the squirting fish. She's gone underwater twice and done great both times.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

No other flower could smell as sweet!

Mariel dressed up as the cutest flower! We started out Halloween getting dressed up in orange and black for the day, and then Mariel got into costume! We visited Janet, Paul and Nikoa (family friends) and then visited George Franklet Sr. (Uncle George's Dad) at the hospital. It made him as well as Judy (his wife) and Aunt Amanda and Uncle George smile! The nurses huddled around to laugh and giggle with Mariel and she even brought some smiles to other patients that were able to sneak a peek at her! Later, we visited Heather and Grace for a minute just to say "hi".
Mariel scored a TON of candy (to be consumed by Daddy and Mommy at a later date) and had a great time. We had only ONE trick-or-treater... so we ended up with lots of leftover chocolate... ah shucks :).

Anyway, hope everyone had a fun filled Halloween!!! Posted by Picasa

Monday, October 31, 2005

Sunday, October 23, 2005


Moorey wishes everyone... a Happy Halloween!!! Posted by Picasa

What are those things falling down on me?

 Posted by Picasa

Watching the leaves falling from the Crabapple tree! Posted by Picasa

Playing with the leaves... (don't worry we washed her up good after doing this, and no... she didn't eat any leaves). Eric was standing next to her, out of view, making sure that those leaves didn't end up in her mouth! Posted by Picasa

October 23, 2005 and Mariel is turning 7 months old tomorrow! We were having a fun fall day, and raking leaves, mowing grass and enjoying some unusually warm weather outside! Mariel still has the runny nose, but the fresh air did us all some good. Mariel's taking some medicine now, none the less, she's had a smile on her face everyday!!! Posted by Picasa

Monday, October 17, 2005


" I like what you've done with your hair ! " Posted by Picasa

"So... how's the day going?" Posted by Picasa

Mariel and her "first friend" Grace at Grace's house. Mariel stays at Grace's house in the mornings, during the week while Eric and I are at work. Posted by Picasa

Mariel and Aunt Megan at feeding time! Posted by Picasa

Mariel got to visit Grandma and Grandpa Dickerson the weekend before our trip to Illinois. This is Mariel with her Grandma D. (Judy) Posted by Picasa

"Oma" and Mariel Posted by Picasa

Minneapolis Airport... and Mariel gets her first experience being the pilot! Posted by Picasa

We were on our way home from Illinois and had to stop in Minneapolis on the way... I couldn't resist a picture of this! Posted by Picasa

Four generations again...(Wes, Allison and Doris..aka "Oma") Posted by Picasa

Four generations of Osterbur's (Wes..aka "Grandpa"... Allison...aka "Mommy"... Raymond ..aka "Opa" and of course Mariel..aka.."the baby") Posted by Picasa

Mom, Mariel and Uncle Colin Posted by Picasa

Mariel and Uncle Colin... and she's thinking how come his tan is so much better than mine? Posted by Picasa