May 2025

Elliot decided to attend St. John’s for college.
Rose had an orchestra concert.
Lucia got braces.
I picked up Mari from school. Here we are having dinner at Holly’s with a couple of her friends.
Playing in the pool. It’s probably not too warm yet. I can see the ladder isn’t even in.
Family pic on Mother’s Day. Everyone is home from college.
Susan on Mother’s Day.
Lucia did a great job in her dance recital.
Lucia singing in 6th grade honor chorus.
Susan went to Chicago with Jen for a training
Elliot’s last day of high school!
Elliot’s graduation.
Elliot graduated!
Elliot with Mar-Mar and Be-Bob.
Susan
Elliot’s graduation board.
Rose’s friends at track day.
Last day of school for the girls.
6th grade class.
Lucia and Stella in the obstacle course.
Lucia and friends.

Lucia and Rose First Communion

Lucia and Rose celebrated the sacrament of First Communion this morning at St. Francis. Lucia is in 3rd grade and Rose is in 1st grade, but the church allowed them to attend Faith Formation together this year.

This is the cake they made with Mari.
First Communicants

Graduation Party

I started working on my MBA back in the spring of 2017. I took some time off because of our trip and finished up a couple of weeks ago. There was a slight delay in officially celebrating my graduation because I was waiting on a final grade. We had the Reagens and Mimi and Papa over to celebrate and Susan and the girls put together a mini graduation ceremony for me. I probably spent about 3-5 hours each week working on my MBA work and it will be nice to have that time back.

I put this one in just for Ian.

The Pacifier Fairy

A few weeks ago Rose moved on from diapers, and today the Pacifier Fairy paid our house a visit, to exchange all of Rose’s pacifiers for a stuffed animal that she can snuggle with when she needs to. I think we were all ready and Rose was excited. Both of these milestones were nice to reach, but also a little sad (yet still exciting) knowing that we won’t experience these stages again.

The Pox is Upon Us!

Lucia and Rose have Chicken Pox! They were exposed a couple of weeks ago, and we noticed the first pox on Monday night. Tuesday was OK, but things have gone downhill since then. Lucia has a ton, and quite a few on her face. Rose has about half as many as Lucia, but also some in some uncomfortable places. They are doing better now and we hope to see some improvement over the weekend. 

Winthrop Washington

After a crazy week where I ended up traveling to Cincinnati and having to drive back because my flight was canceled, Susan and the kids packed up at the Case Haubs’ this morning and we moved to our new house. That is actually not the biggest news of the day. 

The biggest news is that we got a puppy! We drove a couple of hours to Barnum, IA to pick up Winthrop “Winnie” Washington Liesland. He is a 50/50 Golden Doodle, whose parents are both reddish and just under 50 pounds. So far, so good.

On the way home.

In the yard.

Niagara Falls, Canada Edition

At the border

Familie

Enjoying a much-needed snack at Tim Horton’s, our favorite Canadian donut shop.

Today we made our first visit to Niagara Falls. We parked by American Falls and then walked across the bridge to Canada. It was actually my first time ever leaving the country! We enjoyed the evening.