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