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Monday, September 29, 2008

God is Good

I'm sorry I haven't posted for awhile. As some of you know, on Monday, Sept. 15, we found out that the baby I'd been carrying for almost 11 weeks had died. We heard a strong heartbeat at 7 weeks, so it was a tremendous shock, especially since I thought we were in the clear, being so close to the end of first trimester. I debated posting about this, but I just have to share with everyone who reads this blog how faithful God has been to us through this trial. I have been very humbled by how gentle, loving, and gracious He has been, showing His face in very real ways and sparing me from even more pain in a few other ways. He has been there through my amazing friends and family, who have sent messages and have called at just the right times. He has spoken to me through Bible verses and songs and most definitely given me a peace that surpasses understanding. I know a lot of women go through losses such as mine, but even so, it is a very lonely thing because no one can say or do anything that makes it better; they can just ease the pain. God has been so good to put me in a place where the only option is to turn to Him, because in my humanness, I tend to go into "fix-it" mode and first try to do things on my own. I can't do anything in this situation except learn to trust Him and His timing and seek out what He would have me/us do next. I am so sad about our loss, but I am so grateful for how much I've learned about God through this all. It is because of that that I had to post about this before I could continue to post some cute recent pictures of Quinn. (And I will be posting those soon, so stay tuned!) A favorite verse of mine that has been so helpful these last few weeks is "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus". Phil. 4: 6-7 I hope this verse will be encouraging to you as well.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Notre Dame Game

Yesterday was an exciting day for us. We took Quinn to the tailgating before the Notre Dame vs. Michigan game, and while he did go to a tailgate last year, this year meant much more to him. Papa Bruce gave him a book for Christmas called Let's Go Irish and even though it is more certainly brainwashing at its finest, Quinn loves that book! It tells the story of the ND Leprechaun going around the campus before a football game, seeing things like the Gold Dome and Touchdown Jesus, and cheering "Let's Go Irish" after each place. Of course, at the end of the book, ND also wins a football game. As a result of the book, Quinn was so excited to go to Notre Dame and see those places, which he says and recognizes on sight.
Well, if you happened to see the game yesterday, you know it was POURING rain almost all day. We drove up to South Bend late Friday night and woke up to tropical storm rain. It was actually the remnants of Tropical Storm Lowell. I couldn't believe we intended to still go, but we drove all the way there, so I decided as a mother of a boy, I might as well get used to being out in inclement weather because I'm sure it will happen a million times over for sports games, etc. It was actually really warm, so even though it was raining very hard, we weren't cold. Andy dropped his sister Amy, Quinn, and me as close as we could get to the stadium, and we wrapped Quinn up in a raincoat, blanket, poncho, etc. Still, I knew I was just winning the mom-of-the-year award from everyone we walked by because it was raining so hard, and no one else in sight was pushing a stroller!! Then, the luck of the Irish came. As soon as we reached Andy's dad's tailgate, it stopped raining, and it didn't start again the entire time we were there. Sooo, we had so much fun showing Quinn the real Touchdown Jesus and Gold Dome. He recognized them and said what they were as soon as we saw them. He also knows most of the words to the ND fight song, so we caught a cute moment on video of he and Andy singing the song in front of the Gold Dome. Andy then stayed for the game, and Quinn and I got to go take naps and then spend a fun afternoon with Grandma Mary and Gigi. If you happened to catch the game, you know Andy got POURED on, but he didn't care because the Irish won. I really don't care much about football or Notre Dame, but since it makes my little boy (and my big boy) so happy, I go along with it. It was a really fun day.


Quinn and Papa Bruce

Papa Bruce, us, and Aunt Amy



Standing in front of "Nuh-nown Je-us", as Quinn calls it

Q was so excited to see the Gold Dome, I could not get him to turn around to look at me for a picture.

That afternoon, he had fun inventing diffent ball games to play with Grandma Mary and Gigi.
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Monday, September 1, 2008

Caution: Lots of pictures ahead

I have truly been blog-slacking lately. Not only have I not posted, but I haven't read anyone else's for quite awhile now. My excuses range from enjoying the beautiful weather to chasing my very active child around to competing with my Ebaying husband for computer time. Really, though, another reason is I haven't been taking as many pictures lately because we're just on the move all the time. I've tried to remedy that in the last couple weeks, though, so I'll just post them all in one long entry, and hopefully it won't be too terribly long until I post again. I'm going to get caught up all everyone's blogs in the meantime as well! ( :

With these pictures, I really wanted to be able to share Quinn's personality. It's hard to really capture it without motion or sound because those are huge components of who he is. (I now wake up every morning to Q yelling from his crib, "MAMA!!! Where ARE you?!" and the fun begins from then on! ( : ) Still, these pictures do show you a bit of our day-to-day life.

The cheesy face lives on! The next two are ones my dad caught, and I love them!

The next picture is of the latest fashion trend sweeping the nation. I hear it's the coolest thing among kids his age. I was informed, after Quinn rubbed the blueberry applesauce in his hair, that this is an applesauce hat. Duh! ( :
If you ever wake up with the bedhead Quinn had in the next picture, you might have to try an applesauce hat to tame it down.

The other day I was sorting laundry on our bed. I left the room for a minute and found this lovely bedside ornament. He was sitting there, singing a song about W's, his new favorite letter, and was very proud of himself.


Quinn's Uncle Justin showed him how to play tee ball at their house last week. We were so impressed when, on his own, Quinn improvised and made a tee ball set out of his ball popper and a bat and ball. When he plays, he insists on wearing either his fireman hat or his construction hat. I guess they look like real baseball helmets to him. ( :
Andy always says I should post pictures with me in them too, but since I take most of the pictures, there aren't too many of those! Here's a picture my dad took when we ate a picnic lunch at a nearby park.

As I've mentioned in previous entries, Quinn loves to read books. I cannot get enough of seeing him do it! The time spans when he sits and reads on his own are getting longer and longer. The other day, I was on the phone right inside the door to our backyard when Quinn came in the house, got a book, went back outside, and settled into the chair his Grandma Mary got him. I thought it was soooo cute and had to take a picture.
And today, he read the paper and had his morning milk.

Is there anything cuter than a boy and his dog?!

Quinn had sooo much fun riding in the "zoom car" with Daddy and Austin a few weeks ago.
Every year my family takes a picture in our backyard. It's so fun to see our family expand from year to year! My five-year-old niece Carys is sitting on her Aunt Carolyn's lap, and Fiona, who is six weeks younger than Quinn, is sitting on my sister Emily's lap.
We finally coordinated with the cousins to go to our favorite spray park. We had two fun hours there this week, which was followed by an even more fun (for Mommy!!) three hour nap! Yea!

P.S.: On July 20th, Andy and I celebrated our 6th anniversary. I've read several blog postings on friends' blogs about their anniversaries, and I feel badly I didn't mention ours! This picture was taken at a wedding we went to a few weeks later, but we did have a wonderful evening out to dinner our night. We cherish the time we spend together so much more now that our dates are not as frequent, but we wouldn't change a single thing about our life! I married my best friend on July 20, 2002, and I can truly say that I love him more every day. He works so hard so I can fulfill our dream of me being a stay-at-home mom, a commitment we made back we were still dating, and I am so thankful for him!