Santa

Saturday we went up to the car dealership to see Santa! At first Quinn seemed more interested in the cars, but he finally got around to Santa. When asked what he wanted Santa to bring Quinn said "presents"! He finally told him a Christmas tree, but we don't know where that came from since we have a tree - which he has pulled over 3 times already.

It's getting close and Quinn doesn't seem to comprehend just how close but I guarantee he will be excited Christmas morn!

Uncle Mike got here yesterday and hopefully we will get to see more of him than just Thursday and Saturday. We are not really looking forward to the drive to the "frozen tundra", but are ready to see all the family. Found out Mark has to go back to New Orleans Jan. 4th and will be there all month. It really is a long time to be away from home.

I'm hoping to get some really good pictures Christmas and am really hoping to get a new camera soon. Mine just doesn't have much battery life and it's big and bulky. I'd really like something that takes good pictures, a lot of them, and has great battery life!

Anyway, here's another picture of Quinn (he's singing in church).

Christmas

Boy, is Christmas going to be extra fun this year! Quinn has really gotten into Santa this year and has even been to see him once already. I have pictures, but they are the film kind and not developed yet. I think we will take him once more on Saturday. The dealer where we bought our van is having Santa and free pictures tomorrow, and since it's just down teh street, we can take him inbetween Steve getting his shopping done.

The first time Quinn saw Santa was at Parks' Santa Fly-in. We went to Downtown airport, had cookies and hot cocoa and watched Santa fly in on a helicopter. Then we had to wait in a "very" long line to see Santa and get our picture taken with him. We got a stuffed reindeer and a candycane for the effort!

Last weekend was "Journey to Bethlehem" at church. This lasts four days and we (the church) have a ton of visitors before it's all done. The weather is always nasty the weekend of Journey, and this year was no exception. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights were cold (no precip) and then Sunday started off really nice. The temp. had warmed up and it was pleasant for those waiting in line (some had waited close to an hour and a half in line) until........the predicted weather hit! We got slammed with very high winds, sheeting rain and a cold front moving through with sleet behind it. The sudden change in weather put a damper on the night, but we still had 20 groups go through in spite of the rain!

All in all it was a succesful weekend, as 18,500+ people went through and saw the real reason we celebrate Christmas! Steve and I both worked all 4 nights and were very tired when it was all over. He workes the parking detail and gets to church early and I worked hospitality (cookies and hot cocoa at the end) and got home late every night since I had to be there until everyone was through and left. We serve homemade cookies to all that come though and usually shoot for 30,000 dozen cookies (that's 360,000 cookies). This year we broke attendance records for 3 nights (and total attendance) and had to put out pleas for more cookies on 2 seperate occasions. It's a lot of fun and very rewarding to work, but I've never been so tired in my life as I was when that was over!

It's hard to believe that there are only 6 days till Christmas and 12 until the new year starts! When you are young and hear people say that "the time goes faster the older you get", you never believe them but I have found that it really does fly by. It seems like just yesterday Quinn was a baby and now he's getting close to 5!

Quinn and Lola have gotten so close that she waits every day for the bus to get home. She has to go outside about a half an hour before he gets here, and when it's time for the bus she is parked by the front window just waiting. As soon as I go out the door she is parked just inside waiting for him to come through so she can attack him! They run around the house tackling each other and then settle down for a snack.

She has sttled in pretty well here - she likes to sleep on my bed and any time the blanket comes out she is right there ready to lay on it! She doesn't like to have doors closed, so if you are in the bathroom she will butt the door with her head trying to get the door open. She is also very prissy and doesn't like the rain , snow or cold. She would rather die than have to go out and get wet and cold doing such mundane things as going potty! Guess she's getting a coat for Christmas.

Potty Time.....

We have been trying to get Quinn potty trained for a couple of weeks now (really trying) and last night we had a "BIG" success. He actually pooped in the potty for the first time and felt much better for doing it! Daddy lavished lots of praise on him, but unfortunately I wasn't here to witness the big step. He has been wearing underwear to school for 2 or 3 weeks now with only one small accident at school and only a couple at home. I am so ready to be done with diapers!

I'm thinking about moving the changing table down to the basement so that maybe he will realize this is for good, and there's no going back. Of course he still has to wear one to bed, but that's easy.

We will know in a couple of weeks when the grand baby will be due, and maybe even the sex. It's hard not to get excited now, especially since we won't be getting up at all hours of the night!

Quinn is sooooo ready for snow and Christmas to get here. Every day he looks out the window and says, "No snow yet mommy!" Christmas is going to really be a blast this year. We also have a great hill picked out to go sledding on. Doug and Tammy actually invited us to go there last year, but Quinn was sick that day and we couldn't go :(.

On the home front, we are still working on our bathroom. This has been a year long project, and I'm really ready for it to just be done. And then we have to do the master bath the same way - gut down to studs and subfloor and start putting it back together. At least when we get to that one, we will have figured everything out already.

After the bathrooms are done, I would like to replace the remaining carpet in the house with laminent. Then it's a matter of fresh paint everywhere on and to the outside!

Quinn had his first day in his new class yesterday. I had a call from his old teacher to tell me he was doing great and hadn't even relied on the para that went with him. He told us had fun, after he got off the bus bouncing around and singing. He will now split his time between two different teachers and classes.

Wednesday his class was on the channel 5 news. They do the salute at the end of the news and show kids from a different school each day. While he didn't make the cut for tv, we can see him on the footage they took that is posted to the website. If you want to go see him, click here http://www.ksdk.com/news/salutes/default.aspx then you will have to click on "Meadows Parkway - Ms. Amanda Allen's class".

We have found that nothing takes away the heartache of losing someone you cared deeply about more than finding out you are going to be grandparents! Chris and Christina let us know they are expecting, and we should have a grandbaby by May.

It's also time to start making cookies for church. Our church (Harvester Christian) does a weekend christmas play in early December and we hand out homemade cookies and hot cocoa at the end. This is usually a good thing, since that weekend always seems to have the worst weather possible! If you want to see what it's all about you can go here http://harvestercc.org/352268.ihtml .

OK, so I'm not so good at posting real often! It's hard to keep this up with life happening all around me.

We have had a rough month here - 2 deaths in just over one weeks time, and we are just waiting for the third to come along. First was our neighbors daughter - she was killed in an auto accident when she was thrown from the truck she was riding in with her husband. Our neighbors have taken their loss very hard, but are assured that their daughter is in heaven now. They love their son-in-law and don't blame him at all, which I find truly amazing!

The second death was a former co-worker of both Steve and I. Mel was a wonderful man and he fought a brave battle, but in the end he just couldn't beat it. As sad as it was, it was like a mini reunion at the visitation. We got to see all sorts of folks that we haven't seen for years. My old boss was even there, broken neck and all!

This year for Halloween we decided to take Quinn "trick or treating" for real. Last year we took him to a couple of friends houses, let him get some candy, and then took him home. This year we took him down to Old Town St. Charles where they block for several city blocks and the businesses hand out candy to all the kids. It was real fun - kinda like a Halloween parade, and even the adults get into dressing up! Then we brought him back to the neighborhood and let him go for a couple of blocks, collected lots of candy, and even got a few scares. To top off the night we went to see "Sister" Miranda at Pizza Hut. We ate pizza and even got to see James.

We also had a meeting with Quinn's "team" at school last week, and decided that he needs to go to a bigger, regular class two days a week from now on. That means he will get a new teacher and classmates, but should also further prepare him for kindergarten next year. Quinn loves his teacher, but we are sure he will adjust well to the new class also.

Here are a few photos to keep you up to date!

Steve and Quinn at the petting zoo

Look at me - a budding artist!

Look out! Here comes Spiderman

So here it is, another year and another school picture. Doesn't he look adorable! He really likes school this year and we just found out that he is on track to start kindergarten next year. His speech therapist says he's really smart and she is having to give him "way" more difficult stuff. This is really good news, since he was having so much trouble before starting school.

We also added a new family member. This one is the 4 legged variety and her name is Lola. She is a Boxer/Beagle/Pit Bull mix and a really good girl! We got her from the Humane Society and she's about one and a half years old. Isn't she cute too?!

Tonight is the ZZ Top concert and tomorrow Steve leaves for Talladega. Quinn and I will be sick of each other by the time he gets back!

Mom and Dad came over during Labor Day weekend and we went to the McCain-Palin rally. It was hot (really hot), but a lot of fun. We saw our preacher and his wife and she tooks some pictures, but I haven't gotten them yet. When I do get them I will post some of them - she actually got a picture of the 3 of us together!

Life has been crazy around here, but Quinn is in school now and things are starting to settle down. He loves his new classmates and all his teachers, although Ms. Amanda is his favorite! Rosie is his best buddy right now, and they get to see each other all week. Then they get to see each other in Sunday school. I will post a picture of the two of them together some time soon.

We are just dragging along here - we have a bathroom to finish up and the other one to get started on and would like to be done with both before Christmas (but given how long the first one is taking, I'm not holding my breath).

Steve is gearing up for his annual trip to Talladega, and I'm dreading it since Quinn will be on break from school during that time. I'm trying to gear up to lose weight, but haven't been successful - yet!

We have been reading a great series of books by Joel C. Rosenberg. The first one is called "The Last Jihad" and it's really, really good. One of those books that you just can't put down!

Tonight we went over to Tammy's house so Quinn could pay with his friends Abby, Nathan and Andrew. We had pizza and then went to the playground. A great way to wear out the kids so they will go to bed early and sleep all night.

Here is a current picture of Quinn. He was at Nathan & Abby's birthday party and played his first game of miniature golf.