Goodbye 2009...

I won't be sad to see you go!

2009 was not the best year for us. I'm sure it could have been much much worse, but relatively speaking, it was far from great. There can't be anything but better things in store for 2010!

There were some definite good parts to 2009. Quinn learned to walk and talk. He has learned to love Elmo, possibly more than his mommy. He has developed a personality all his own, and it is quite a big one. He has gone through some stages that were amazing, tough, and confusing, often all at once. He was a baby when the year started and is now a full-fledged toddler. It will be amazing to see where he will be at the end of 2010 and I can't wait to see! Well, maybe I can. Its unbelievable how fast they grow.

I will hopefully be making some changes in the New Year as well. Due to the negative aspects of 2009, my attitude has thoroughly tanked. I need to do some things for me that will alleviate that negativity. This blog will be changing some, hopefully for the better. I will be posting a list of goals (notice I didn't say resolutions) tomorrow, small things that I will be working on to make 2010 a good year for myself, Ross, Quinn, and all my friends and family. So thank you dear readers (which is probably just Mom), may your 2010 be full of God's grace and love.

Quinn on the first day of 2009

Quinn on the last day of 2009

22 Months...and Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope your Christmas was wonderful and you were surrounded by those you love. We had a great day just being together. And Quinn turned 22 months today, so here is his monthly picture. I am only going to take 2 more of these...that is a sobering thought. Gee, can you tell he likes Elmo?


We started opening presents a little after 10 and were still going strong around 12:30. Mostly because of Quinn. He had so much to look at and touch and play with. He found the Elmo Live Encore pretty early (it was supposed to be saved to the end, but he sniffed it out). His reaction was priceless. If I can figure out how to upload a video onto here, I'll have to do so.

He also got an Elmo phone that says his name and a bunch of other stuff. Here he is, talking to Elmo.

Dad really liked the picture of Quinn in the St. Louis Cardinals hat. I'm glad he liked it, because without the giant Christmas cookie, that picture wouldn't have happened!

A good picture of Quinn and Gigi.

Even though Quinn was kind of sick and spent the entire day in his jammies, we had a wonderful Christmas. I hope you did to, and the spirit of the season stays with you all year long. Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christmas Eve (plus one more)

Christmas Eve is here already, I can hardly believe it. Why do all these days come up so quickly? Here are some pictures from the last few days in our world.

Below is a picture of Quinn opening his presents from Aunt Joy on Saturday. He started off laying on his stomach and when that was not working out for him, he sat up and got to work. He loved both his presents!


We left for Tennessee on Monday night. It is definitely nice to be away for a while. And to have my pick of bathrooms. We haven't done too much until today. Oh, I did take my sister to see The Princess and the Frog, which was a good movie, but the real excitement came about 1/2 way through when the emergency alarm went off and we had to evacuate the theater. We got to stand in front of the theater for about 15 minutes while the fire trucks came and they investigated. I heard a popcorn machine got too hot and set off the heat detector. Once they gave the all clear, we were able to go back in and finish the movie. Good stuff.

Today we had a nice Christmas Eve lunch at Nico's in downtown Chattanooga. Below is a picture of Quinn and Aunt Mere having a lovely time.

Mommy and Quinn had a good time together too!

After that we went into to Chattz, the Chattanooga Coffee Company. Mom and I made some new friends in the guys that work there, they were very chatty indeed.

Later that afternoon we got ready for Christmas Eve service. We got there early and Quinn was having a good time. As soon as the service started, he nicely sat on my lap and then continued to nicely sit on my lap. It continued and I began to worry. Quinn is not a badly behaved child, but he also is not one to just sit still. He was definitely acting a little lethargic, so I felt his head and he was definitely a little warm. We went home, after stopping off for some infant Tylenol, and got Quinn ready for bed. He didn't have a good nap or eat much during the day, so I am attributing it to that. Lets hope it doesn't continue tomorrow. He has too many presents from Nana and Papa to open!

Here is a picture of Quinn sitting with his cookies for Santa. I was glad to get any smile from him, since he had fallen asleep a few minutes earlier.

After Quinn went to bed, I made some cuban bread pizza for everyone, and Dad got to work making his famous hot chocolate. He makes it every Christmas Eve and it is divine. It has ruined all other hot chocolate for me. I'm sitting here sipping it now as I type and It's A Wonderful Life plays on the tv.

This is a great Christmas Eve if I do say so myself!

Christmas Traditions, Part 2

Last year we went to Christmas Lane for the first time. Quinn enjoyed it, but we knew this year he would be able to experience it much more. And boy did he! It was not very crowded, which was nice, so he was able to run around and look at all the displays and ride the train, which was his absolute favorite. I was very proud how easily he went and got in line by himself and let them help him on. He even tried to secure the little rope by himself too. He had a great time on the train, and was the last kid off. We wanted to let him go again, but they had to close. I couldn't get any good train pictures, but the rest are pretty good.

Here he is enjoying one of the displays...he wanted me to pick him up and put him over the fence so he could go explore.

Here he is in the sleigh.

I have a similar picture from last year like this, so I had to do it again.

This Santa didn't work out too well either.

Our family in front of the huge Christmas tree they have at Christmas Lane. I know Quinn isn't looking at the camera, but as long as he's not moving, I consider it a good picture these days!

Christmas Traditions, Part 1

One thing I like about Christmastime is the yearly traditions. I've always been a big fan of them, big, small or otherwise.

I go to a Women's Bible Study and every year we have a wonderful Christmas get together. This year it was a yummy dinner, made by our host and ad hoc leader, Cindy. It was a great night of good food and great people. Here is a shot of the table...it was even better than it looks!

I posted last year about wanting to start a toy donation tradition with Quinn. Last year I bought a duplicate of one of his favorite toys and donated it to a local organization that gives out toys to kids in state custody. This year I couldn't find the exact toy I wanted, so I got something similar. Quinn was definitely more interested in playing with it this year, but don't worry, it has been safely donated, along with a few other things my friend Stacey gave me at our Girls' Christmas party. I'm hoping next year he will be able to pick something out himself. Below is the picture of Quinn and said toy. He does look happy with it...this must be before I took it away from him!

Christmas so far

As in most places, Christmas preparations are in full swing around here. Although we aren't as busy as some around Christmas, we still have some things to do.

Last Tuesday was the annual Christmas party my friends and I have been having for 7 years now. The attendees and places have changed, but it is still a great time for everyone. This year we cooked dinner and exchanged presents at Joy's house and then went to the Dessert Room at Bern's. It was very yummy.



Here is Quinn in his Santa hat, after bathtime.

We went to the Big Brothers Big Sisters Christmas party today and had a great time. Quinn got to go in the bouncy castle and he really liked that. He also liked the music and food, and of course, the people. Oh, and he got to climb in a fire truck, which was a dream come true for a 21 month old truck obsessed little boy!

It's beginning to look a lot like...pottytime.

I bought a potty tonight. Gah, that makes my kid seem so old! I guess he is almost 2. He has shown interest in going on the potty and has gone a couple of times on the big potty, so I figured it was time to get him one of his own to practice on. Let's hope that he takes to it easily and with no problems (ok, I don't really think that will happen, but I can hope, right?).



Here are a few shots of our tree, before and after ornaments. Its pictures like this that really make me wish I had a DSLR camera. Sigh...one day!!

Quinn has actually been really good with not bothering the tree...lets hope that lasts. I think the tree needs some sort of garland (not tinsel) and I need to get the star on the top, but the branch needs to be clipped. Other than that, it is looking pretty good.

Thanks Quinn

There is the current state of my glasses. I went to Bible study last night and when I came home and was getting ready for bed, I couldn't find them. After searching for a while, I finally found them on Ross's side of the bed, with the arm still attached, but turned completely horizontal. I tried to turn it and it snapped right off. No fun. I guess I should look into getting them fixed, huh? Oh, and no more cute pictures like the one below, he's no longer allowed to look at my glasses (that wasn't the first time he'd messed with them).

Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was really great. Here are some pictures from our day!

This was the first turkey I had ever made. It came out really well and I was so proud! Everyone said it tasted great. Go me!

Ross even got busy in the kitchen, frosting the cake I made.

Here he is carving the turkey, he was quite busy.

Quinn was happy about all the yummy food he got to enjoy.

Quinn and Haily sittin' in a chair...

Our family!

Quinn, Tiffany, and Hailey...Quinn is quite the ladies' man!

Hailey and Quinn are tired out after a fulfilling day!

21 Months!

You read that right, Quinn is 21 months old today! That means he is 1 year 9 months old. It also means in a scant 3 months he will be 2. Gah. So scary and cool at the same time. It wasn't the easiest getting a picture with him today, but letting him hold his book made him happy. He is really into books lately, which I think is wonderful. He will bring me book after book to read to him and he'll even look through them himself and talk and laugh. It is so cute!

Yesterday we had a playdate with our friends Tasha and Beckett. The picture below is from that picnic. Quinn and Beckett had fun playing at the park, coloring, and eating. It is always great to see Quinn interact with other kids.

Look, I can be crafty!

So I'm not the craftiest person around, so I felt the need to show off my recent crafting attempts. I made this wreath to hang on our door for Christmas. It is pretty basic, but still cute. I'm a red/green/silver/white Christmas person, and I don't branch out, so this fits me perfectly.

I got this plain cotton bag as a welcome bag at a wedding I went to in November 2007. I dug it out a few weeks ago and decided to use it as Quinn's library book bag. I got some fabric markers and stenciled this Q. I'm going to let him color on it himself, but I thought the Q came out pretty good.

And since Quinn is so cute, here is a picture of him and his new friend, Breleigh. He is definitely not feeling her reach!

A Quick Update

Well, not too much going on here. Just getting ready for Christmas (yikes, already?) as much as I can. Ross has been working pretty steadily, which is good of course. Quinn and I continue to go to storytime, have some playdates, and just learn as much as possible everyday. Quinn is still kind of slow on the talking, but he does know 21 body parts and a lot of animal noises. You should see his elephant, it is adorable!

A couple weeks ago Ross and I decided to go to Epcot for the last day of Food and Wine. It was a nice afternoon, a little windy, but not too hot. Below is Ross being scandalous, but at least its nothing as bad as what he has done in the past!


And since everyone likes a cute picture of Quinn, here is one from today. He climbed into the laundry basket and was just his adorable self.

Yoda says...

Happy Halloween!

More pictures to come, but I wanted to get this up the day of! If you'll recall, he was Chewbacca last year, so we just continued the Star Wars theme. Maybe next year he'll be Darth Vader.

My Disney Weekend

Here is a blog post about me! My life can't be all Quinn, right?

So Saturday was my friend Joy's birthday and she wanted to go to Disney, since she got in for free on her birthday. I wanted to go since I live Disney and since she is moving to Cambodia next year, I figured I'd better hang out with her while I can. Ross and I had been planning on getting Season Passes, so this was the best time to do so. After some finagling, Joy and the other 2 girls that came with got free Park Hopper passes and we decided to go to all 4 parks. It was a slow start, but once we got going, there was no stopping us. We started at Animal Kingdom, which I love and Joy had never been to before. We hit the highlights, the safari, Expedition Everest, and the Dinosaur ride. Our friend Elisa joined us at Animal Kingdom, and then we were off to Hollywood Studios. We rode Rockin' Roller Coaster and had lunch. Then our little group split up for a while and Joy, Elisa, and I stood in along line for the Toy Story Mania ride...so much fun!

Joy with Mr. Potato Head, right before he dropped his ear on the floor.

Me having way too much fun in line!

Joy and Elisa and the earless Mr. Potato Head.

After Hollywood Studios we headed to my favorite park, Epcot.

We got on Test Track and Soarin' (front row of course) and enjoyed some of the yummy foods that Food and Wine has to offer. Since we waited in line at Soarin', we were not able to do anything else at Epcot, so we were off to the Magic Kingdom. We got there during the first evening parade, so we went to find some dinner and I was introduced to the magic of the corndog nuggets at Casey's on Main St. So good!

We watched the fireworks, went on the Haunted Mansion, Philharmagic, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Then we took a crazy scary bus ride back to our car, and found some wonderful souvenirs in the parking lot.

Ok, not really, but that would be fun!

The next day I was back at Epcot for a full day at the Food and Wine Festival. Elisa and her husband Kevin met us and we spent the day eating, drinking and having fun. And I got to go on Soarin' again (in the front row!). It was a great weekend, that left me tired, but with a lot of great memories.