2 Year Old Quinn

For the last few months Ethan has been saying, "we're in trouble mom, pretty soon Quinn is going to be 2."  Then he gives me that knowing look like he has experienced the terrible twos so many times himself.  At this point I am happy to report that 2 isn't looking so terrible at all.

At 2 Quinn is a talker.  He actually surprises most people by how clearly he speaks.  Like on Halloween night when he turned down a piece of candy a kid offered him by saying, "I can't eat that I'm allergic."  I laugh at how he tries to reason with us.  He has an old soul and I'm pretty sure he's smarter than us all.  One afternoon as I was tucking him in for his nap we couldn't find his stuffed animal Woodstock.  So I found it under the bed and handed it to Quinn.  He just looked at me and said, "nice work mom, nice work."  Although, he has rarely found himself in time-out, he has started to put himself in time-out when he thinks he has done something wrong, "I'll go to time-out now Mommy."

He is a little tease.  He loves to put on a show and get his big brothers laughing.  He also has a pretty great maniacal fake laugh that he can turn on too.

When he gets tucked in at night he loves to snuggle with his two giraffes, "raffies," his Dolly Pie, and his sheep blankie.  Every night as I'm tucking him in he says, "temple one," so I sing I love to see the temple.  Then he says, "Jesus," so I sing Jesus wants me for a sunbeam.  He also loves to give a kiss, butterfly kiss, a nosey, and a cheek to cheek before bed.  He still wakes up sometimes at night and usually starts crying and yelling, "mommy I need a nuggle."  So I get up and put him next to me in bed, I usually try to push him away a little so I can have some space, but he knows what he wants and sidles up right next to me!

 He is selective about who he likes.  He can put on a shy/pout face with his lower lip hanging down to his knees on a second's notice.  His pout pout face makes us laugh.

His favorites at age two are peanut butter sandwiches, bananas and almond milk.  Besides the Sunbeam song he loves to sing, "Let it Go," "Ba ba bass (all about that bass)", and "shake it off."  He still loves balls and sports.  His favorite team is BYU, which he pronounces "Bayou."  The other day he found a chicken nugget in the shape of a Y and said, "Look mom, a bayou nugget."  He loves to pull up his shirt and say "belly bump," and then crash into his brothers.

I made this video about 2 months ago, and forgot to post it...crazy how much they've changed already!
His clear speaking also makes for some embarrassing moments.  A few weeks ago we were at church in Durango listening to our nephew speak after returning from his mission.  During the sacrament it was very quiet and Quinn loudly announced, "mommy just tooted."  For the record, mommy had not tooted at church!

 This newly turned 2 is a delight in every way!

Quinnion the Minion is Two!!!

I can't believe my baby boy is 2!  Little Quinn loves minions, so we thought we would have a minion party!  He celebrated with a dairy/egg free cake, a pinata, and fun presents to unwrap!

The birthday boy knew it was his special day!  As soon as he saw the decorations and the presents on the table in the morning he started yelling, "I want my party, I two, it's my birthday!"  His brothers were equally excited, they both woke up earlier than usual and chose to wear yellow and blue to go with the minion theme.

First thing in the morning and ready to party!

I loved showing Quinn his minion cake when he woke up from his nap!  My friend Jessica sent him the minion hoodie and he loved it!

The Fowlers came to help us celebrate!

Thanks to Facetime Grammy and Grandpa got to be there for the party too!

 
After all the party guests had left, and the big brothers were in bed, Quinn snuggled with us drinking his milk and couldn't stop smiling.  He knew it was his special day and he loved every minute of it!

Uncle Weston, Our Houseguest

For the last couple of months Weston has had a project with his work on the Fort Collins temple.  Unfortunately for him he has had to work out here a lot longer than he planned...but we feel like we have lucked out getting to spend a lot of time with him the last 2 months.  The boys have pretty much adopted him as the 4th brother, except for Quinn.  Quinn must feel a little sibling rivalry with our new arrival or something.  He loves Uncle Weston, but he also gets very possessive about his territory when Weston is around and announces loudly to Weston that this is MY mommy, or this is MY toy.  One time he pointed at the back door and said, this is MY house Uncle Weston.  We all got a laugh out of our 1 year old trying to kick Uncle Tony out of the house.

The third wheel on our date night.  So romantic!

Another benefit of Westy working here is that Erica and Scarlett got to come stay one week.  It was so much fun!  My boys LOVE their little, little Scarlett (as they sing to her).  One day when Erica was here we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Our easy hike with the kiddos was a bit harder because part of the trail was iced over, but still beautiful views and a fun time.

The hiking crew for the day.

 We got to have some fall fun at Fritzler Farm one morning.

Quinn did not like the out of control bouncing on the bouncy pillow, but Scarlett LOVED it!  She had  a big grin the whole time.

They got to be here on my birthday.  We met up with some friends for lunch at Cafe Rio, and a little time at Swettsville Zoo.

Caden took this picture and managed to get all of our heads in!

 It was so fun all week watching these two little cuties!

 

 I'm personally hoping this project keeps stretching on so the girls can come visit again!  We loved having them here!

Halloween 2014

Halloween this year was so much fun!  I love planning the parties and festivities.  I love making the boys costumes.  This year Ethan wanted to be a gumball machine.  It took a lot of searching to finally find a container big enough for his head (thanks to Sams Club for the Halloween pretzel filled pumpkin).  I decided to be Mary had a little lamb with my little Quinn...I figured it was my last chance to dress him up how I wanted.  Caden wanted to be a bat, so I made him a cute little costume.  Apparently, the eyes on the bat looked exactly like Toothless from the movie How to Train Your Dragon, the first time Caden wore it people kept calling him Toothless...so he decided he didn't like his costume and chose to bring out the pinata again for another year.  Clark threw his costume together in 2 mins...a deranged turkey hunter!

On Halloween Day Caden had a preschool party and I was in charge of Ethan's class party at school.  At Ethan's party at school we made two discoveries:

1.  It is very difficult to eat party food with a bubble gum machine on your head.

2.  Gum isn't allowed at school!  Ethan insisted on having me sew a secret pocket onto his costume so that he could pass out gumballs to all of his friends.  He started to pass them around his class and then was quickly reminded that gum isn't allowed!  Oops!  Poor little gumball machine!

That night our ward had a trunk-or-treat, then we met up with our friends the Fowlers for trick-or-treating.  We finished the night with cheap "boo-ritos" from Chipotle!

Just a pinata enjoying a burrito.

Uncle Weston was here in a cow suit for Halloween night.

Our Frozen friends ended up with sleeping boys at Chipotle.

With Grandma Karen at cousin Henry's school carnival the weekend before Halloween in Durango.

Uncle Weston just had to try it on.

This is probably my favorite Halloween picture this year.  Scarlett was here the night before Halloween so we found a carnival to go to.  She didn't want to pose.  The confused look on Quinn's face is priceless.

Can't forget the pumpkin fun too!  Loved picking the best of the patch and painting them festive for our front porch.

Ethan did Spiderman, Caden did a superhero, and Quinn a yellow minion.

Love this exhausting and fun holiday!

Neglected Blog, Healthier Me

My poor blog has been neglected the last few months.  I blame it on the fact that the extra computer time I have has been spent on this blog site here:  Challenge Blog
I am currently moderating a health/fitness challenge.  It is 12 weeks, and we are 8 weeks into it.  It has been really good for me.  So far I've lost 18 lbs. and feel like I am getting back into control of my health.  Yesterday I played tag with the boys in the church gym and I felt like I could keep up with them, yay!  It's been fun too with several of my family members and friends participating.

Here are my week1 and week 8 pictures!  Hoping to see more results by week 12 too!

Each week the boys and I make a new video to announce the weekly prize winner.  I thought I would post a few of them here, because they really do showcase their little personalities at the moment.