Sikorski Saga

Tim is getting ready to go on an overseas business trip. Kyla's girl friend Jenny Rebolledo recommended a visit to Build-A-Bear to make friends with Daddy's voice recorded to help make the time apart a little easier. Here's our finished friends. Katja with Eh! and Luella with Pinkie Squish. Luella with her new found friend Pinkie Squish and Tim looking on to help her fluff. Katja getting Eh! filled with fluff, but watching the fluff in the spinner is more interesting to our little engineer. Katja stepping on the pedal that shoots fluff into the polar bear. Luella's turn stepping on the pedal to get her unicorn stuffed. Luella giving Pinkie Squish a fluff bath. Also at Jenny's recommendation, Kyla made a bear with Tim's voice. After Build-A-Bear we went to see "The Princess and The Frog" at a movie theater. This was Katja's first theater movie! She liked the candy and drinks, but sitting through the movie without her afternoon nap became too m...

As Kyla updated the blog today, she realized she has taken NO PICTURES in 2010. So, she just fixed that, 8 days later. Katja has turned into "monkey see, monkey do" with her big sister. Experience taught Kyla and Tim that Katja is not ready to be potty trained, but we won't discourage her sitting and trying! Too cute, reading her magazine! Luella looking sweet in her new-to-her dress from her cousins. Our basement is almost back to normal! The workers came the 5 th , and again the 8 th to patch the drywall, paint it, replace the moulding and cabinets. The new cabinets are solid oak. The last ones just had oak doors. Wonder how much the landlord's insurance cares? The only thing needed to get the basement completely back to normal is carpeting! Can you tell a major difference between the walls? Kyla can in person. Thankfully they left the can of paint so she can repaint it later. She also got permission to take down the wallpaper in the stairwell to paint that to ma...

Here was the 2 feet of snow, 2 weeks later. We did have to shovel/chip away at the driveway. There was a layer of ice, a layer of snow and another layer of ice. Considering it was 11 times warmer in Virginia than Minnesota, we were okay shoveling in sweatshirts and no gloves. When we left Minnesota it was 3 degrees. Virginia was 33 degrees! Luella trying out her new two-wheeler! She can't wait for spring to go riding and really learn to pedal. Katja wasn't so happy with the cold. Luella loves her new bike! Luella and Katja having a tea party in their matching shirts. We finally opened their multi-piece presents and let them play! Our New Year's Eve party! We just wanted a quiet night at home with the family, and that's what we got! Uncle Phil came back from Minnesota and Mark Yeary (Uncle Marcos to our girls) came up from Ft. Bragg, NC. HAPPY NEW YEAR! May God bless you richly in 2010!

Santa left a note that he and his reindeer were tired of carrying Luella's and Katja's Christmas presents so he left them at our house in Virginia. Luella and Katja finding and playing with their Santa gifts when we got home on the 30th!

We left Minnesota on December 29 th . We stopped for the night in South Bend, IN across the street from Notre Dame. For dinner, we ate at Perkins. Luella had the rainbow sprinkle pancakes. As her new pajamas state, "Sprinkles make me smile!" In the hotel, the girls were jumping and running in front of the mirror. Guess that's one way to burn energy from sitting all day in the car!

Kyla's college buddy, Katherine (Kit) Kensrud , her hubby Ryan and daughter Annika met us in Lakeview for coffee and chatting at Caribou Coffee on December 28 th ! Ryan loves babies and Katja loves gadgets, it was a match made in heaven! Maren came along for the hot chocolate and watching the girls so we could catch up. Luella and Annika playing with the bears. Ryan, Kit and Annika's family photo! It was great seeing Kit and Annika again since March, even better seeing Ryan since the last time was when Tim and Kyla got married. The girls! Goobers checking out Grammy and Granddaddy's tree. Katja posing with Kyla's sunglasses, about 2 minutes before she took them off and broke them. You'd think Kyla would learn one of these days!

Here's the whole Dan/Karen Rasmussen family! Can you see the family resemblance ? Dad and Mom, known to the rest of the world as Dan and Karen Rasmussen. Kirsten (Kyla's older sister), Peter, Isaac (11), Maren (10) and Anna (9). Laura was not really missing. Her adoption was legally dissolved January 13 th . Her needs were just too much for this family. Kevin Rasmussen, Kyla's younger brother. Luella by herself. Kyla forgot to get individual photos of the girls in November. Katja by herself, really sitting on Kyla's legs, which is why she's so close-up. Karen turned 58 years young on December 27 th ! We celebrated by getting family photos since we were all there. We had lunch at Applebee's . Kirsten took Kevin to the airport to go back to Hawaii. Then we went home and watched Hallmark movies. Kyla's only photo of the day was Katja in a Christmas present from Jen Jones in England. Kyla and Jen worked together at the Broadmoor .