Stephen Alfred Praska

Lindsay Praska 114w

Happy Birthday in Heaven Steve!

We celebrated you today with Pizza and cupcakes. We miss you and love you! 🩷

Steve

Grand marais

Lindsay Praska 132w

How Stephen Archer got his name..

Dylon and I had been trying to get pregnant since our wedding in 2014. Steve knew how badly we wanted a baby. He would ask me fairly often when I was going to get pregnant. Anyone trying to conceive knows how agonizing it is when you want something so badly and it just isn’t happening. Two weeks after Steve passed I got that positive pregnancy test. Not only did I find out just a few weeks before Mother’s Day, I had two family members tell me I was pregnant at his funeral, I was due January 17, 2017 (9 months to the day that Steve passed), and I just KNEW when I saw those two pink lines that it was a boy. I couldn’t wait to tell Dylon and all of our family and friends! We told our family on Mother’s Day weekend, and on the way to see them we both agreed that if it was a boy we wanted to name him Stephen, but we wanted to make sure it was ok with his parents first. As I was scrolling through names looking for a middle name I came across Archer, it was perfect. One of Steve’s favorite tv shows was called “Archer”. we watched it fairly often with him, and I loved that it was the same middle initial as his. I mentioned it to Lisa and she agreed that Steve would have just loved it! Prior to finding out I was pregnant, I had no names picked out, there were none that I really even liked. There are a lot of boys in our family so choosing a name is already pretty difficult for us. We chose not to find out the gender, mostly so we could be surprised and partially because I just knew it was a boy, I had that gut feeling. Stephen Archer Praska was born January 9th, 2017. As soon as I saw that he was a boy, we all cried. He was perfect. It took a few days or weeks before any of us really called him by name, it still just stung. But as he grew it became a little easier and we started calling him Stevie. He’s older now (7) and he has decided to go by Stephen at school and at home. He likes a lot of the same things Steve did…hunting, bowling, golf, pool, movies…even aliens! He sometimes talks about Steve as if he’s known him forever, he likes to spike his hair “like Uncle Steve did” and sometimes he will make a comment that sounds like it came straight from Steve’s mouth. 😂 I feel incredibly honored to have been able to name my son after him and I just know that Stevie was sent to us for a reason. 🩷

Lindsay Praska 132w

We miss you so much Steve!

I will never forget your love for movies and movie quotes, comedy shows, playing pool at your house, coming to the movies to see you, going to your apartment to play guitar hero, the steaks you prepared to perfection, your love for the color pink, you always having to be right, the glitter in your perfectly spiked hair, your generosity, kindness, jokes, love for trivia and history. I even miss the way you had to “start me up” with all the razzing. You gave me so much shit for not measuring the water for my rice and then the “I told you so,” when it was terrible. Your eye rolls are engrained in my brain. 😂You were so proud of your avalanche, you loved that white tux, and I could always count on you to help me when I needed you. I’ll always remember that snowmobile trip when you tipped us over not once, not twice, but three times. 😂 You were our best man and best friend, I feel incredibly privileged to have had you by our side when Dylon and I got married. Our first born son is named after you and I have no doubt you helped bring him to us. I miss you more than words could ever express. I’ll cherish the memories and I’ll love you forever Steve! 🩷 Some Steve quotes: “Wanna start me up? Open the choke and pull the cord.” “I just like to get ya razzed up.” “What movie is that?” “Lindsay Lou!” “I’m back bitchessssss!” “It’s not in my top ten.”