Fun Weekend

We had such a fun weekend! All three of us girls and our families went home to Illinois to surprise my dad for his 60th birthday. My mom was in on it and brought him to the restaurant for lunch, where we were then all waiting. As you can see in the pics below, he was very surprised. I just have to say, isn't my dad so handsome?! You would never, ever be able to guess his age because he's one of those men, like Robert Redford, who seem ageless. And my beautiful mom is the same way! Happy birthday, Dad! We love you.

Sign of things to come

So, I've always hoped the driving age will be raised to at least 17 with LOTS of restrictions by the time my kids can drive . . . here's why. Quinn's Papa Bruce delivered this adorable Step 2 car, a hand-me-down from Andy's cousins, this weekend. Q LOVES his "beep-beep", as he calls it, and we were cracking up at his crazy driving.

Seriously, can't you just see him as a teenager, yelling, "What's up?!" and honking his horn at the ladies?! Yikes! We're totally going to be in for it! :)

Happy Easter!

We hope you had a wonderful Easter! We praise God for His grace and blessings in sending His son Jesus to die and take away our sins. Thankfully, He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Here are a few pics from today. Thank you, Grandma Mary, for Quinn's adorable outfit! I couldn't get over how handsome my little guy looked. The large bump on his forehead happened when he tripped and fell, of course right before we took pictures. :)

Checking out his first Easter basket. He loves playing with plastic eggs!

It was so fun to have Papa Bruce here for Easter!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Since Quinn is a very Irish name, we can't let this day go unnoticed. Here are some pics of our little leprechaun in his very large hat, and one with his best friend Will.

Fun Weekend

We had a fun weekend with my parents, sisters, and family. We always celebrate March birthdays around this time of the year. I didn't get too many pictures, but I have a few to share.

This one is actually from the other day when it was cool but warm enough to go for a short walk. I love how chilled out Quinn gets in the stroller. His new thing this spring is he likes to hold Oliver's leash while we walk. Surprisingly, Oliver doesn't seem to notice or care.

This collage is of pics of the cousins playing in the new ball pit I bought Quinn. I rarely buy toys in the stores because I find an incredible amount of joy and satisfaction in hunting down great deals at garage sales, but I actually got a good deal on a few fun toys at Toys R Us last week. So far, the ball pit has been a big hit with all the kids who have tested it out!

If you know Andy at all, you know how HUGE March Madness is our home. With great delight, Andy introduced Quinn to the yearly thrill of filling in his tournament bracket sign on Selection Sunday.

And this is a cute pic of Andy and Quinn, with Quinn wearing his adorable helmet hat. (Andy's black eye is from another basketball injury, the second black eye in the last few months.)

Quinn loves Oliver

I thought I'd post this quick video to show how Quinn's talking has progressed. The first talking video I posted was almost the same thing: Quinn looking outside and saying doggy. Now, he calls Oliver by name (Ahh-ver), and I just think it's so cute! He has over 45 words, at last count, and it's so much fun to hear him talking about things he sees or asking for things he wants.

More pics

We had so much fun going to the Children's Museum with my sister Emily and niece Fiona. We've been trying to go for months, but things kept coming up. We made it there this past week and left right when the ice storm hit! Quinn LOVED it, and I can't wait to go again. Here my little farmer boy "planted" flowers in a wooden box. I was really impressed how well he got them in the little holes!

What baby doesn't love a super fun ball?
Quinn has discovered how fun it is to sit in his Quinn chair and look at books. It makes his English-teacher mommy very happy to see how much he loves reading! And I just loved the silhouette of my two little guys checking out the view from the upstairs window.

Enjoying the ONE nice day

It seems like a distant memory already, but a week ago it was nice enough to be outside for a couple of hours. . . Two days later, we had an ice storm. That, of course, is weather in Indiana in the spring. The beautiful Sunday definitely whet our appetites for the spring weather I'm confident will return soon. As a relatively new mommy, I was also introduced to all the possibilities of playing outside, now that my little guy can walk! It was soooo fun to let Quinn just walk around the driveway. I had to dig out his only pair of hard-soled shoes and put them on him for the first time, since I hadn't even gone shoe shopping since he started walking. He thought they were a little weird at first but quickly adjusted and was on the move again. I loved the sound of his shoes clomping on the cement. It made me happy to hear because I already miss the slap-slap sound of his hands on the floor when he was crawling. : )

He loves his car!

Checking out his new shoes

Walking outside!

Besides walking, another new fun activity is brushing his teeth. I know, I know, I should have started doing this with his first tooth (whatever! (; ), but he still only has 7 teeth, so I'm not too far behind. A couple of weeks ago I finally bought him a toothbrush, and it's a new addiction. I literally have to keep it out of sight or he will want it and will insist on carrying it around for a loooooong time.

On the Move!!

Look who's walking . . . and who's sooooo stinkin' proud of himself!! He's been walking for a week now and every day gets more and more steady. How fun!

Fun pics

I'm getting pretty tired of winter and am starting to dream about days of walking outside, playing at the park, swimming in the pool, etc . . .I know spring is right around the corner, and I can't wait!

Here are just some random pics to share. This next one cracks me up every time I see it. Can you tell the kid loves lasagna?

We love playing with Quinn's cousin Fiona. It's so cute to see them interact more and more each time they're together.

We Are . . .

If you are familiar with Notre Dame, you might know the chant where some yell, "We are . . ." and the answer chant is, "ND!". Well, I taught that to Quinn as a little gift to my Irish-loving husband. I caught a quick snippet of it for your viewing pleasure. Quinn gets very into yelling these days . . .

Florida Family and Friends

It's so neat to go to Sarasota and feel like it's a second home. Grandpa Lou and RuthAnn live there, and so does Johnny, Andy's brother. This time was really fun because Q interacts so much more with everyone. Before we left on our trip, we taught Quinn to say Johnny, which he says very clearly as "Nonny". He immediately understood who that was once we saw Johnny, and for the rest of the time, said his name over and over whenever he was around (and now says it every time he sees his pic here at home)! We're pretty sure he thinks Grandpa Lou's name is "Hi" because they would say that to each other over and over, and now that we're home, every time Q sees Grandpa Lou's picture, he says hi. We had a lot of fun seeing "Uncle" Dustin too, but didn't get any pics with him.

It was so fun to see Papa Bruce for a few days too! Here is the group of Albert guys all together.

And Quinn had his first kiss already! No joke, he kissed Haven, Johnny's girlfriend's niece, at least 3 times when we said goodbye. He doesn't even kiss me! ) : A sign of times ahead, I'm sure . . .

Quinn with Uncle "Nonny"

Happy Valentine' s Day!!

I am so blessed to have two adorable Valentines!

Daddy and Quinn

Andy has soooo much fun with Quinn, and I was really happy to catch some cute moments.

Mommy and Quinn

Really, is there any better job in the world than being a mom? Good gravy, I have fun with my Quinn. It is overwhelming how much I love him. I actually miss him when I put him to bed at night. Is that crazy? I'm sure much more challenging times are ahead, but right now, I'm having the time of my life.

I love, love, love going for walks. By far, the worst thing about winter for me is the loss of our daily walk. Can you tell by the scenery why I was just in heaven going for walks around where we stayed? One day, Quinn and I walked for over 2 1/2 hours (split into 2 walks, with lots of Cheerios).