Merry Christmas to All!

How can it be almost Christmas already? Whew! What a fast month. I have a few Christmas-related pictures I wanted to post, so I'll just lump them all together here.

This weekend, we had Christmas with Andy's side of the family. It was a wonderful time and right out of a Christmas card--beautiful snow, beautiful house, beautiful Christmas decorations, and beautiful, loving family members everywhere! Quinn can't get enough of his cousins Kamryn, Austin, and Adalyn, and he wore himself out playing with them and exploring his Papa Bruce's house. I loved taking pictures by one (he has seven!) of his amazingly gorgeous Christmas trees. This one was my favorite because it's just that classic little-kid-in-footie-jammies pose.

Here Austin helps Quinn with his new puzzle. If anyone needs a last-minute Christmas idea for a 2 year old, this one is a hit! It's a Melissa and Doug magnetic fishing puzzle, and Quinn loves it! Thanks again, Klawitters!

In this pic, Quinn is admiring his HUGE stocking. No, it wasn't actually used for his presents, but all the wonderful gifts Quinn was given probably could have filled it!

Quinn loved trying on the very big and very heavy ND football helmet his Papa Bruce has, which is signed by Brady Quinn, though that is NOT where Quinn got his name from!!

Just wanted to stick in our family Christmas picture.

Today, Quinn and I had a blast baking Christmas cookies for the first time. They were, of course, just from a package because there is NO way I could manage Quinn around lots of ingredients. He was covered in flour as it was. Thank heavens he and I are both wearing aprons made by his Grandma Mary! He did really well, "helping" me and mostly following directions. He was allowed to be up on the countertop for part of it, a forbidden but extremely alluring place for him, so I think that was most of the fun for him! I just loved doing an activity like that with him because it makes me think of all the fun we'll have in the future, doing more baking and craft-making.

Lastly, here's a bit of song from our resident caroler. I hear this song, ummm, maybe 50 times a day, in various forms. I didn't catch the best rendition of it because I used a camera that I often let Quinn play with and take pictures, so he was pretty anxious to finish the song and get a hold of it. My favorite versions of his are when he sings in a loud, opera-style voice, and when he adds his own words to the tune, ex. "Oh, quarterback, quarterback", etc. You'll have to use your imagination. :)

If I don't post again until after the holidays, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU!! I hope your celebrations are full of the joy that Jesus, our Lord and Savior, was born to save us all!

Happy Birthday, Quinn!

So, my baby boy is two! We had such an awesome day today. It was so much more fun this year than last because he is FULLY aware that it's his birthday and just loved all the excitement. Andy took today off so we could all go to the Children's Museum together. We have a family pass, so Quinn and I try to go once a week. We love that place so much, and it's been really fun to watch Quinn's development in seeing how he can do more and more every time we go. Andy hasn't been with us since July, so we loved showing him our favorite spots--the train displays, the Rube Goldberg ball machine, the construction zone, and the carousel room. Then we went out for dinner tonight and had cake and more presents at home. I can't say enough about what a fun day it was to spend together as a family, happy to celebrate the birth of our little guy and the one who brings incredible joy to us every day. :) I love this age so much, and I'm really looking forward to all the new adventures next year holds for us!

Here's the newly two year old! He wore a special button all day that said, "I'm 2 Years Old Today!" He thought it was so neat and kept holding on to it, as if it would fall off if he didn't. :)

Here he's trying to hold up two fingers to show how old he is. Unfortunately, he doesn't yet have the ability to single out just a few fingers to hold up, but Andy thought it was funny to ask him to try anyway! ;)

Seeing how excited he was to open his musical card, you can imagine how exciting it was to open the rest of his presents!

Admiring his mini-cake (again, a store-bought one!) and desperately wanting to dig in with both hands!
It was great to have Andy at the museum too because someone could take pictures for us! Here we are taking turns going down the "Yule Slide".

Apparently, being two has made Quinn much braver because before today, he emphatically said NO when I asked him if he'd like to ride the carousel, even though he loved watching it. Today, however, he rode with Daddy and had a blast.

And here Quinn and I stand by a train in one of our favorite spots.

Quinn's 2nd Birthday Party

Exactly two years ago, almost to this minute, my active labor with Quinn began. I had actually been laboring all day on Dec. 17th, 2006, even making it to church that morning to hear an awesomely appropriate sermon on the verse, "Unto us a son is given". That night, around 10 pm, after a long walk in unusually warm weather, the active labor began which, 18 hours of labor, 1 1/2 hrs of pushing, and a c-section later brought our darling baby boy into this world! As I look back on these past two years, I can't believe how much everything about me and my life has changed, and I can truly say these have been the happiest two years of my life. Of course, I must be cliche and say I cannot believe how fast time has gone, and I can't believe my baby is a little boy already, but every age he's been so far as been my favorite, so I don't mind. I am immeasurably thankful that God blessed us with Quinn. He is pure sunshine in our lives. :)

On Sunday, we had a super fun family gathering to celebrate Quinn's birthday. I can't thank everyone enough for taking the time to drive here (thankfully, in good weather) and shower Quinn with love. It's hard to have a Christmastime birthday, but I'm confident that Q will always have his special day, thanks to his wonderful family.

Last year we took a group picture in goofy birthday hats, so of course, we had to do it again! Q's party was lightly themed a Thomas party, so everyone had Thomas hats. Check out the smile on Quinn's face! He was so happy to have everyone around.

I loved his cute Thomas cupcake-cake from WalMart. Maybe next year I'll bake one myself! :)

Quinn was very happy to be allowed to be so close to the cake and of course, to blow out the candles.

Q looks a little stunned from all the attention, but I still like this family pic.
Earlier in the week, Papa Bruce delivered his present to Q--a train table and set! Quinn loves it so much. He played with it for almost 2 hours that first morning, with a break only to eat breakfast. It is a very fun toy, and I highly recommend it!
Q with two of his aunts--Aunt Amy above, Aunt Carolyn below

Modeling his handmade adorable hat from Grandma Mary

Snow Smiles

We finally got some snow this morning! How perfect for it to come on a Saturday, so we could all go out and play in it, and I could get help from Andy to take some pictures! Some of these will be on our Christmas card, but I'm a long ways away from doing cards yet, so I thought I'd go ahead and post these anyway. I know several are quite similar to each other, but I think Quinn's smile is contagious, so hopefully this brightens your day. As I've said about many other things, having a toddler sure makes snow a lot more fun than it used to be. :)

Thanksgiving Week Fun

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, Quinn was very honored to be the one friend invited to his best friend Will's birthday party (everyone else was family). As I've mentioned many times before, Will and Quinn are exactly one month apart, and we are the best of friends with the Kepplers. Will's party was a Mickey Mouse party, so Nan and I ordered shirts for the boys. This is the best pic I could get of the two boys. They're so cute together!

For Thanksgiving, my parents came here as is tradition. It was wonderful to have them here for almost five days. Here, Quinn cuddled with his buddy Poppa before heading off to bed one night.

We take a picture around the dinner table every year before our Thanksgiving meal. Each year, I get less and less into the decoration of the table and more just happy to be all together.

And the biggest thing that happened over Thanksgiving break (forgive me if this is TMI) is Quinn has started potty training himself. I say that because even though he's been talking about potty and we've been going through the basics with him for awhile, I adamantly didn't want to deal with it during the holidays. Well, Quinn asked to go "potty on the potty" after the Thanksgiving meal, and sure enough, he went! To date, (again, sorry if this is TMI, but you moms can especially appreciate how exciting this is), he's peed on the potty 3 times and pooped on the potty 3 other times. So, we bought a super-fun basketball toilet seat insert, and I now spend at least 20 minutes 3 or 4 times a day reading Quinn stories while he sits on the potty and we wait for something to happen. (: He's catching on so fast, so I guess we're going to potty train right now whether I like it or not! We'll see how it goes, though; I know it could be months until it's perfectly done. Still, I think it's pretty good for a boy who's not even two yet.

In these pics, Quinn excitedly looks at what he's done. ;)

Other indoor activities include . . .

Bowling. This is one of Quinn's favorite things to do. He loves setting up the pins (we have two different sets of pins, so he can set up a ton at a time), and then he bowls over and over. It's so cute!

He's really gotten into coloring now. What I love is how he'll scribble and then tell me what it is. Of course, it all looks the same to me, but it's really cute to see how his brain works.

My personal favorite new activity is Play-Doh. I LOVED Play-Doh as a kid, so I love playing it now. Making "noodles" and then cutting them into little pieces is what we do a lot. :)

And when all else gets boring, tearing apart your room and reading is always fun too, right? Quinn loves reading in his room by himself, and it cracks me up how he always wants to remove the cushion on his chair first. I had to take a picture of how he knocked over the ottoman and fan and removed the cushion and almost a whole shelf of books before settling in. :)

How We're Keeping Busy

It's funny how in September, the first time the temperature dips below 70, it feels freezing cold outside. Now, if it's about 35 and sunny, we're going outside!! And the thing is, the temperature doesn't seem to affect Quinn at all--it's ME who has to really bundle up and endure being outside!

Since we don't have anything too exciting to take pictures of, I thought I'd just post some everyday-life pics to show you what we've been up to.

Here's Quinn pedalling his trike. When I first got this at a garage sale in October, I thought it would be quite awhile till he could pedal, but literally all of a sudden, he could do it. He looks like such a big boy riding a bike. Usually he wears the helmet that came with it at the sale, which makes me look like quite the protective mom but really is his favorite part of riding a bike because 1. big kids wear helmets when they ride and 2. football players wear helmets too. :)

This is the early (over a month early!) birthday present I gave to myself, oops, I mean Quinn! Isn't it funny how toys are just as much for the moms as they are for the kids because they give moms the gift of TIME?! Not that I need Quinn to go away and leave me alone; I just need some uninterrupted play time to get dinner started, return a phone call, or just not time where I'm chasing him off of something he's climbed! :)

So, this is the Little Tikes Sizzle n' Serve kitchen. I spent a lot of time researching and reading reviews on kitchens. I knew he'd love one because he mimics EVERYTHING we do, and he loves the kitchen his cousins have. Just when I'd settled on a Step 2 kitchen, we visited Andy's cousins, and in watching him play with their kitchen, I realized what other features to look for. Basically, I love this kitchen for its gender-neutral, decor-matching colors; its grill; its pot hooks; its coffeepot; and its pass-through. That's what made it better for me than the Step 2 kitchen. That's just a little review for any of you that might be considering buying a kitchen for your little one. It is easily, hands-down the best toy I've bought thus far.

And It's November . . .

So, we've entered the season I've been anxious about. The it's-rained-for-five-straight-days, can't-go-outside, oh-my-goodness-how-do-I-keep-you-occupied (and not climbing things!!) season. It's been a week of this already, and actually, we've survived quite well, but I have very little to blog about! We've explored coloring and Play-doh with success. I also gave Quinn an early birthday present (I'll post more about that later), so that's helped. Moms of toddlers, please feel free to pass on suggestions of fun winter activities. I'm up for the challenge and we are still having fun; I just want to keep it going! :)

Last weekend we visited Quinn's second cousins. He had such a blast being thoroughly entertained by everyone.

What do you do on rainy November days? You go splash in puddles!! This is made possible by the wonderfully adorable raincoat-rainboat set Grandma Mary gave us. Thank you so much!!
One thing I've realized with having a toddler is not only does he need appropriate outdoor play gear, but I do too! I'm digging through the closet this weekend, hoping to find items to keep me warm and able to play outside as well. :)