Crawling means babyproofing

Quinn learned how to crawl last weekend while we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa. It is so adorable to watch him crawl around the floor. He is really enjoying his new freedom. He is no longer at the mercy of us to bring the right toy to him. But, that also means that he is getting into everything. We did some babyproofing when we moved into this apartment, but there is definitely more to do! Babies are pretty smart:)

He is still eating great. He loves most food (especially anything on my plate!)

New things

Quinn clapped for the first time today! It was so cute. He did about 10 claps and was so proud of himself. He still isn't crawling, but he still gets around by sitting up, reaching forward, and going on his belly. Then he sits up again. It is amazing how far he can get using this technique. He still pushes himself backwards when he is on his belly, so he sometimes get stuck against a wall or even under our bed (as you can see from one of the pictures.) He also loves to "help" with the laundry. He is a lot of fun.

He was sick last week, but is doing great now. He weighs 20 pounds and is 25 inches. He is looking more and more like his daddy every day.

Pumpkin Time!

We went to the pumpkin patch last weekend. It was a lot of fun. Quinn loved to pat the pumpkins and the boys had a great time in the maze. The weather was great. It was chilly, but dry...perfect weather for a pumpkin patch adventure. This weekend we are planning on carving the pumpkins and making some delicious pumpkin seeds. I have a delicious recipe for sweet and spicy seeds that I crave all year long:) I will probably make some plain, salted seeds too (William's favorite.)

School starts!

The boys started their new schools this year. They both had a great first day. I think Will's teacher will be great. She is fun, energetic, but also seems tough. Definitely a good fit for William. He is smart, but tries to do the mininum.

The second day of school had some drama. Zan missed his bus and thought he could just walk home. Great idea, except he didn't exactly know the way. He walked for a while and couldn't remember which was to turn so he headed back to the school. Unfortunately, since he had been gone for a while the office was closed and he couldn't find a phone to call me. Luckily we have a friend who works at his school and she was leaving and gave him a ride home. By the time he showed up at home I was stressed to the max and wondering if I should call someone or just try driving around. He doesn't have any new friends at the new place and the friends he does know are across town. I had no idea where to start! Thank goodness he made it home safely. God was definitely watching over him.

William, for some crazy reason, decided that he also wanted to walk home. When I asked him why he said, "I like walking on nice days." We had a chat about needing permission before he tries walking home again so hopefully he won't try again. It is actually a pretty long walk from his school to our house. He walked a long way...but it was in the wrong direction. He was about a mile from our house when I got a call from him. Luckily God had placed a nice lady jogger in his path. She let him use her phone and waited the few minutes with him until I came to pick him up. Things could have been really bad if someone with bad intentions came upon him.

Hopefully this will be the end of the drama for the year!

Wow...it has been a while!

So sorry I have been away so long. The summer has been busy! We took a trip to Montana in July and visited Joe's parents after the older kids went to camp with them. Here are a few pictures of our adventures:)

All moved in!

(This was written back in July...but somehow never got posted.)

I know I have been bad about updating this recently. We are all moved in to our new place (although there are still a few boxes laying around.) Quinn and William are enjoying being roommates and Zan is loving having his own space. Zan is in his second week of Orchestra Camp. He is having a blast. Thursday we leave for Montana to visit my best friend, Michelle and her family. I can't wait! On the way to and from Montana we are going to visit my sis-in-law and her family. That will be a ton of fun too. We haven't seen her since we went to visit when Quinn was only about a month old.

Please enjoy these two pics. As you can see, Quinn loves to listen to Zan play his violin.

Who said 11 year olds were logical?

Today I was taking Zan to the library and mentioned that it was getting warm. He agreed and said he was glad because he was cold. Being a mother, I suggested that he wear a coat if he was cold. His reply? "Only my arms are cold"

ummm...and where exactly do you think you wear a coat? Your feet???

Sickness...

This weekend all the boys decided to get sick. Will got sick originally on Thursday. Basically the stomach flu. Zan caught the bug Sunday morning. Quinn has something totally different. Saturday night he got a horrible cough and the on-call doctor said he has Croup. Poor little guy was up most of the night (and so was mommy.) Luckily Joe was home most of Sunday, so I was able to get some naps in between Quinn nursing. Joe had to leave for a training around 3, so hopefully Quinn has a better night tonight. Will is almost better now, but Zan is still in the beginnings of the illness. Will's lasted 4+ days, so I don't expect Zan to get totally better until Wednesday or Thursday. The doctor said Quinn should be better in about 5 days. Today Quinn also seemed like something else was wrong, so I might go into the doctor tomorrow to see if he has an ear infection or something. Better safe than sorry.

Twin time!

On Thursday I watch my friend's baby, Jaxon, who is just 2 weeks older than Quinn. They have a great time hanging out together and when I take them to Walmart the greeter always thinks they are twins. Here are some pics of our time together yesterday.

Memorial Day

We spent Memorial Day with Joe's family. We had a great BBQ including roasting hot dogs and s'mores. We even enjoyed some swimming. Quinn's new swimsuit is SO cute!

Poor Quinn

We went to the doctor today for Quinn's cough and wheezing. He has the beginnings of asthma...poor little guy. The good news is that we have some new medication to help him out. The doctor thinks he will be back to normal in about 2-3 days.

Food!

MMMMmmmmm... Quinn has started to eat "big kid" food. We went to the doctor this week and he is over 15 pounds and 25 inches. Definitely a growing boy! He loves his new food. He hasn't found anything that he doesn't like. His favorite right now is squash. Yum! LOL

I have been starting to make my babyfood. It is SO expensive. I can make about 10 times as much for the same price, plus I know it is fresh and doesn't have anything extra in it. Definitely a good thing!

Baptism and Dedication

We celebrated Will's baptism and Quinn dedication today at church. Will was baptized by Miss Dana, our children's minister who is leaving for an adventure in Alaska for a few months. He looks so angelic in this picture. I am so proud of both of my boys for choosing to commit their lives to God.

Quinn's Godmother, Sheila, was able to make Quinn dedication. She wrote him the most beautiful letter. It brought tears to my eyes when I read it and I know it will mean a lot to him when he is older. Joe and I made a great choice in her as a Godmother.

Baptisms and baby dedications

Zan got baptized on Wednesday, April 29th. Quinn is getting dedicated on May 10th (Mother's Day) and Will is also getting baptized that day too. I will be sure to post pictures of those events soon, but here are Zan's photos

Zoo Trip

Saturday we went on Quinn's first zoo trip. We had a great time. The weather was a little weird, but it meant there weren't very many people at the zoo and the animals were awake and active. It was probably the best day I have ever had at the zoo for seeing the animals. The giraffe was actually licking the observation window. Hilarious! The polar bear was playing with his toy and the chimps were climbing all around. Amazingly fun.

Quinn had a great time. I am not sure if he was looking at the different animals, but he had a great time looking at everything around him. He stay awake for almost the whole trip and only took a small nap during the last set of exhibits. We are hoping to go back soon with my friend Michelle and her two little girls. Such fun!

Growing...

Quinn weighed in at 13 pounds 10 ounces today. That is 11 ounces from last week! I weaned out his midnight feeding a few weeks ago, but I knew he was going through a growth spurt when he was eating 3 times a night again and ALL day long during the day. I think the growing spurt is over now because last night he only woke up one time. He slept 5 hours and then another 6 hours after eating at 3 am. I feel great with getting so much sleep!

Take your kid to work day

You may be aware that Thursday is take your child to work day. Well, Zan was trying to convince me that he wanted to stay home with me since I "work" at home now as a stay-at-home mom. How funny! I told him no, but he is going to head to work with Joe for a few hours. Should be a good experience for him.

Picnic

Saturday my dad came over to help Zan build some model trains that Zan got for Christmas.

Yesterday was so nice we decided to have a nice picnic at the park. We had a great time playing in the sun (and it wore little Quinn out as you can see from the pictures!)

Today William decided it was sprinkler weather and frolicked in the front yard.

Out of the mouths of babes...

On our way to church on Sunday we passed a truck from the 1950s. William commented that lots of old cars were out because the weather was so nice. I agreed wholeheartedly and then Will said the funniest thing. He said, "That truck is really old. I think it was made in 1998." Yes, did you know 1998 was OLD? That must make me ancient...and my parents? Wow...they must have been alive during the dinosaur age!

Easter

Quinn enjoyed his first Easter. We visited Joe's parents and had a fun Easter egg hunt (although Quinn took his nap during the hunt and his big brothers found all the eggs.) Next year we are going to have a special section just for him. We dyed lots of eggs (3 dozen to be exact.)

Sunday I taught Sunday School and it went really well. There were only about 12 kids (last week there were 22!) Crazy how much fluctuation there is from week to week.

Joe left for a training for work today and will be gone until Thursday night. I am going to miss him:( It is the first time we have spent the night apart since Quinn was born. Hopefully I can stay on top of things around here while he is gone. At least I am not working...that would wear me out double time!

Drama!

Quinn was asleep on my bed (in the middle of the bed to keep him from rolling off) and I went to take a quick shower. I came out of the bathroom and saw that Quinn wasn't on the bed anymore. At first I thought he had woken up and one of the boys had taken him to the living room...but then, to my horror, I saw Quinn laying of the floor next to my bed! I grabbed him and looked at his head and was freaking out when the boys came in with huge smiles on their faces and said, "April Fools!" They had put Quinn on the floor to make me think he rolled off the bed. Definitely a creative joke!

Big Smiles!

I finally got a picture of Quinn smiling! Plus I have included some pictures of our recent visit with Great Grandma & Grandpa Klein.

Who told Quinn that 4 'o clock was morning?

The past few days Quinn has decided that 4 am is a great time to start his day. He wakes up, eats and then is wide eyed and bushy tailed for several hours. He decides to take a nap around the time the rest of our family is ready to get up. Hopefully he will change his sleeping patterns soon!

Smiles

Quinn has started smiling! He is so cute. He likes to smile at each of us, but his favorite thing to smile at is a picture of a huge, pink hippopotumus hanging by his changing table. Everytime we set him down he looks at the wall behind him and gets a huge smile on his face. I have the camera by the changing table, so hopefully I will be able to capture a big smile soon.

Quinn also LOVES basketball. The NCAA play-offs have been on our tv lately and he will sit in his bouncy and watch for the longest time. The really funny thing is if you take him away from the game he gets fussy and as soon as we put him back in front of the game he is happy again. He is definitely Joe's boy! I don't know how we will be able to eat dinner uninterrupted once basketball season is over, lol.

2 month appointment

We took Quinn to his doctor appointment yesterday. He weighs 11 pounds 8 ounces now and is 21 3/4 inches. He is definitely a growing boy. Everything is going well for him (although he definitely didn't like getting shots!) I have been enjoying being home with him this week (although I felt like I was playing hookie.) We went to a group at a church near my house called Mom's Cafe. It was fun to meet some new people that live near me. I met a great woman who makes her own laundry detergent, wipes, etc. She is going to give me some of the laundry soap to give it a try. She said it works better than Tide and doesn't have all the additives. She said that if I like it she will give me the recipe. It only costs $1 to make 4 gallons. WAY better than even generic detergent. I think I will find lots of ways to cut costs as I get to know her better:)

Next week is spring break. I am trying to think of some ideas of what to do with the kiddos that will be fun, but inexpensive. Joe got a free week at the YMCA, so I think we will go there a few times next week. Plus, I plan to go to some cheap movies with the boys at the $3 theaters. This will be the first time ever that I will be home with the boys for Spring Break. I think it will be fun (hopefully they don't drive me crazy! LOL)

Pictures

2 Months!

Wow! It is hard to believe that Quinn is 2 months old now. He is growing quickly and is starting to lose that "newborn" look. I started back to work a few weeks ago but last Friday I was laid off. We are still getting information about unemployment so we don't know how the finances will work out, but I trust that God will provide (he always has.) The good news is I get to spend more time home with Quinn, as well as Zan & Will.
I gave up my email and Facebook for Lent so I will definitely have a lot of time on my hands during the day. I am looking forward to going back to my breastfeeding group and my MOMS group at church. With the weather getting nicer, hopefully we can take some walks and shed off some of this baby fat:)
We go into the doctor tommorow for Quinn's 2 month check-up. I can't wait to see how much he has grown.

5 weeks old!

It is hard to believe that Quinn is already 5 1/2 weeks old! Time has gone by so quickly. Next week I head back to work, but we have been blessed enough that I am only working part-time for two weeks before I have to get back into full time. It will make the transition easier for me and Quinn (and probably our sitter too!)

This weekend Quinn's Godmother finally got to visit and cuddle Quinn. Her family has been sick since he came home from the hospital.

This morning I was able to go to William's school for a "green eggs & ham" breakfast in honor of Dr. Seuss' burthday. It was a lot of fun and Will enjoyed showing off his baby brother. He is definitely proud to be a big brother!