Girls, Girls, Girls

Well, it seems that this is the time for everyone in the family to be having girls! Can't anybody have a boy????

Congrats to Trever and Krista, and I hope you have better luck next time they do an ultrasound. We found out yesterday that Christina is having a girl also! Mom is very excited, as she has been waiting for a girl in the family to spoil with all those cute clothes. They have picked out the name "Meadow" and I can say that I like it. Now, if we just got to see them more often (and they only live about 15 minutes from us).

The wedding has been planned and is set for May 2nd. I have a few months to drop some pounds, and just ordered some new workout videos to help me. Steve is even ready to get in on the action, so next time you see us we will be thinner.

Quinn has been ill lately and combined with a couple of snow days he was home for 5 days straight. I am so glad he is back in school - and I think he is too! Here is a picture of his artwork - he decided to do this prior to going to school one day and I decided to let him go like that!

Here is Quinn and Grandpa messing around one afternoon.

Passions

Last year I started focusing on improving one of my "someday" goals - I started making my own bread. Not from a machine, or a mix but real, old-fashioned homemade bread! You know, the good stuff.

Let's just say that it wasn't without failures, but I believe I have mastered the basic art of bread making. I have attempted to make sourdough, but it really didn't turn out like I thought so I will try that again in the future. I have not attempted french bread, as it's a very wet bread and I don't have that kind of "uninterrupted" time right now!

I have made basic white breads, oatmeal, pumpernickel and Hawaiian. The oatmeal and Hawaiian are by far my favorites right now, but I'm still experimenting. I have also delved into pizza dough with success and am looking to try my hand at english muffins soon.

Here are a few pictures of some my successes.

Here is a bread made from a potato starter:

Here are some cinnamon rolls made from the same starter.

Here is a pizza that Quinn and I shared one evening.

And here is another loaf of bread. I think this is the Oatmeal Bread.

Christmas has come and gone, and was filled with all the excitement a 4 yo can exude! We had a long day, since Quinn was up at 6:45am and then didn't go to bed until after 10pm sometime. Santa came and left lots of presents, all of which are now being enjoyed. The biggest hit of the day was by far the 2 small flashlights he got. The boy loves flashlights and daddy decided he needed his own to play with. Now we have to close up the windows tight every day, and we also try to sneak outside after dark to play with them!

A big meal was had, presents were opened and we all got to spend time with each other - which is what I look forward to the most. Christina is wearing maternity clothes now and looks so cute! Another couple of weeks and we should know what the baby is. I just realized that is 3 pregnant ones in the family right now!

Speaking of family, we made our annual trek up north for the Christmas party. This year was interesting in several ways. First, Aunt Mildred passed away so mom, dad and Mike went to the funeral at 11 that morning. Then came Kyla's baby shower where the power went out for about 45 minutes (naturally it happened while she was opening gifts) and it poured rain so we had to jump "BIG" puddles when we came out of the church. Third, after we got to Sue's for the party the power went out again and stayed out the rest of the night! Talk about a party to remember - although I don't think the pregnant girls were having much fun. There wasn't any heat, but thank goodness it hadn't been too cold that day and there were plenty of candles around so we could see. We couldn't eat dinner though, so it was just snacking and drinking!

After we left Sue's and headed for home we really hit the bad weather. It had been nasty all day, but by the time we got to Champaign the next front hit and we bucked 50+ mph winds all the way home. That was a stressful ride and we were very glad to make it home in one piece. Thankfully, Quinn slept for almost the entire ride home and went right back to sleep after we got here. Lola had a good day and didn't get into anything, or tear anything up, and she was ready to climb into bed with us after going out into the cold/wind. Here is a picture of her enjoying the down comforter.

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 .