Chef Quinn!!!

Yummy

Hmmm needs something else...

Quinn watched Ratatouille, and he loves that movie.  He loves food, he loves to cook, and he loves furry animals.  He is always asking to watch the movie.  HC decided that Quinn needed his own chef hat.  Once he had the chef hat, he HAD to help cook dinner.  And yes the stove is on, his dad was right there behind him.
BTW, HC made me the most super yummy curry chicken I have ever had!  mmmm I could eat that all the time, but now my house smells like curry!

PARTY!!!!

When I was a little girl, I always thought my parents stayed up late at night and had the most fun.  They would party and have snacks, and I always felt like I missed out on everything.
Quinn is obsessed with what we do after he goes to bed, always asking
"what are you doing?"
"are you going to have snacks?"
"are you staying up late?"
ETC ETC ETC
He does this EVERY night.  I always make it sound so boring, because by his bedtime, I just really want some adult time before bed.
I told HC that Quinn comes down every morning to examine what daddy had for a snack.  Quinn tried to drink the pop if there was any, or check for chip crumbs in bowls, etc.  He is very suspicious of all evening activities.

Well, HC had a brilliant idea to torment his little man.  He decided that when we went to bed last night, we should make it look like we had a super fun party after he went to bed.  We gathered all junk food in the house, and put out a bunch of party cups to make it look like we just ate junk food and had people over.

Look at all that food!

AND ICE CREAM??!!

Quinn cleaning up

Quinn got up and came down with me as usual, and when we got to the living room, I sat down and acted like nothing was up.  Then Quinn's little eyes got huge, and he threw his hands up in the air exclaiming
"What is going on here?! Did you guys have a party last night?"
I tried to keep a straight face, and HC came in and we just stammered that oops we didn't want him to see all this mess.  Then the funniest part was that he quickly gathered it all up and put in away in the kitchen!  I was laughing so hard, what a fun time!

PlayDoh with daddy

We have been enjoying some time with HC on vacation.  He has been catching up on some fun stuff with Quinn.  One thing Quinn loves is making a pile of PlayDoh and making cars out of it.  Or playing cars on it.  When he and HC were making stuff with PlayDoh, daddy let his creative side show.  See for yourself:

What could HC be making???

Shocking huh?

Well, at least they had fun!

Cleaning lady

I have a cute pic of Quinn on my cell phone, using the dustbuster when he was a baby.  The other day, I found Charlie doing the same thing.

Work it

Fun

She just grabbed it like she knew what to do.

Bits and Bites

Some stuff that has been going on this past week.

Cleaning up

He really is vacuuming!

Sure Quinn...

Quinn still pretends that he has sookies.  He is now using Mr. Potato Head pieces as substitutes.  Looks really funny when he uses a mouth, with missing teeth.

Bathtime Charlie

Nom Nom Nom

Hey cutie

Week-end Visitors

We had some great company for the week-end.  I was tied up with Charlie (she wasn't feeling well) and didn't take any pics. BUT my company did take some and posted them on her blog.  So check here for pics:

http://mel-eigenheer.blogspot.com/

Then after Mel, Chris, and Nate left yesterday, we had a visit from Nanna Rose and Poppa Gerry.  They were in town for a business meeting for Poppa.  Again, I was bad and didn't take any pics.  The kids really enjoyed the visit and Quinn tried to go home with them!

Oh No!

 This is the horrible thing that Charlie did now:

Good morning Mama!

This is the sight that daddy had at 2:30 in the morning!  We heard some commotion coming from her room, and when daddy went to investigate, this is what he found.  She is way too young to be climbing up!  I was fully ready to let her develop nice and slowly so I can enjoy it, as she is my last baby.  BUT man, does she have other plans! 
So now we have to lower her crib all the way down, ~sigh~

Charlie had a check-up with our family doctor yesterday.  Since she has lost weight at her last appointment, the doctor wanted to see her in a month.  Well, my plan of feeding her lots of fruits and veggies has worked very well, she gained almost a pound!  She even grew longer too, now she is29" which is as tall as a 1 year old.  We have the specialist appointment at the end of the month, so we will see if they do anything else for her reflux.  Since getting a new medicine, she seems to be doing much better.

Big Bad Nate

Quinn has a best friend, his cousin Nate.  Nate lives 2.5 hrs away, and they don't get to hang out as much as they would like.  Sometimes Quinn likes to pretend that Nate is up playing toys with him.  I will hear Quinn talking to Nate as though he is in the room, such as:

"Nate, you get to use the blue car, and I get the red car"

"Nate, don't climb up on the table"

"Mom, don't forget to give Nate a snack"
ETC

Well, lately this has developed into Nate being such a bad influence on Quinn, that i have to rethink their friendship.  For example, Quinn wanted to watch a video, but when I went to play it, I discovered it had a scratch.  When I mentioned to Quinn that he must have been playing with the movie (he is not allowed to touch the movies), he said that Nate did it.
When we were in the basement, and Quinn made a big mess, he didn't want to clean up his toys.  I asked him to clean up, and he said Nate messed up the toys.
On an occasion that I heard a cry from Charlie, and went to investigate, she was lying on her back, and not happy.  Quinn was standing nearby saying "shhh, shhh" holding her favorite stuffed puppy.  I asked what happened, and he said Nate took the puppy from Charlie, and she fell over. 
That is only a few examples of how Nate is being a bad example.  Judge for yourself...

Now that Nate's real visit is getting close, Quinn has been saying that Nate will come and share Quinn's toys, and they will play, and will not fight at all.  Ha! We will wait and see how long that lasts!

Quintessential Quinn

This post is just a bit about my Quinn.  He is and has always been a ham.  As long as he has been speaking, he has been singing and performing.  The other day, I found an old copy of the Wizard of Oz.  I was pretty sure that it wouldn't hold his attention, but I wanted to see how long he lasted.  It was about 30 seconds... He just decided to play with come cars in the next room, and I sat down to watch for a bit since I haven't seen it since I was a child.  I mostly remember those scary little flying monkeys...
As soon as "somewhere over the rainbow" came on, he ran in, grabbed HIS psychromone, (or microphone as the rest of would call it), and started belting out the song.  He loved the song, and kept asking me to play it over and over again.  Here are a few pics, sorry they are bad, all I had was my cell phone.

Getting into it

Come on everybody!

I asked him why he dragged that wooden rack in, he said it was for putting his psychromone on whe he was done singing...

When he was done singing, he played on the treadmill, and had Kita run for a bit, that is what he is saying in this pic, that Kita was hungry from all the running, so we should go make her some cookies.  Right Quinn... : )

Skating!

Since HC gets to work right by the super fantastic new skating oval in Halifax, he has been wanting to take Quinn skating there.  He finally got a chance on his days off.  They liked it so much, they went twice!  I decided to stay home with Charlie since I don't skate, and it is a long drive to just stand there in the cold... HC is going to get some skates for me, and will teach me how.  Imagine, a Canadian not knowing how to skate, tsk, tsk.  Anyways, here are some pics from HC.

He wasn't too sure at first

Second trip

After a big fall on the first visit, Quinn realized that it doesn't hurt much if you fall, and he had a lot more fun.  The second time they went, he didn't fall at all, and was asking if he could play hockey now.   Ummmm I hope he changes his mind before next year....

New Years Resolutions?

I have never made a New Years Resolution.  EVER.  Really.  I just don't say something for the sake of saying something, so they are just something I have never done.  I have had resolutions on March 8th, June 23rd, and October 27th,for example,  but not on January 1st.  When I decide to make a change, I just do it, and don't wait for a specific day.  This year, I started doing some reflecting, and looking deep inside around mid to late December.  I did not like what I saw.  I had to figure out why I had become like that, and more importantly what I was going to do to change.  Basically, I had to make some changes, and man, change is hard!  I figured that I could just try and use all my power to change, and see what happens OR use the best support system in the universe.  Sounds easy, but handing over control is not easy for this chick.  So the hardest part of change for me is relying on God.  Funniest part of this process is that as soon as I relinquish the control, it is like having an army of help.  No, I don't have all the answers, and still struggle with my issues, but it has become so much easier to work things out.
 So, since I started this journey on/around Jan 1st this year, I am going to say that for the first time, I have "done" some New Years Resolutions!

Miscellaneous

Here are some random pics, they didn't fit anywhere else.

Don't bite your nails daddy

That's better

Quinn playing with a $ store stocking stuffer, he plays with these for hours.  why buy expensive toys?

Quinn trying to put Charlie to bed, she laughed at him

Hamming it up for the camera

This girl is always moving!  Seriously, if she is awake, she's on the move

I spent new year's eve alone, HC worked from 5:30 yesterday morning, until 2 this morning, and my neighbors decided to wake up my kids from 11-12 with a fireworks display.  Nice.

Happy New Years!!!

Road Trip!

Since HC worked through most of Christmas, he was very sad, and wanted to get away.  So, on the spur of the moment, I booked a quick trip to Maine (like he had to twist my arm!).  The surprise part was that I actually just rolled with it, and did no research, and just went with it!  I scored a great deal (of course), and away we went.  We even got 2 connecting rooms, for 3 nights for less than half we would pay here.  I will say that 2 rooms is soooo nice. 

Charlie hitting the road

HC looks so impressed, smile daddy!

That's better

we had a chance to spend many, many hours together as a family.  We swam, chilled, shopped and ate.  Good times! 

Christmas

It's been  while since I posted, so here's an update.

HC had the yucky schedule this year of working the 22nd, 23rd, from 5:30 AM, and getting home at 8ish at night, and working from 5:30 pm on Christmas eve until 7 AM on Christmas morning.  The going in again that night at 5.  This schedule stinks!  He was lucky to get off a few hours early on Christmas morning, so he was awake for a few hours to be with us for presents.

Here are some of the festivities

All dressed up for church

Quinn's gingerbread Mater

Birthday cake, HC's family tradition

Poor HC, I woke him up after 3 hours sleep! Ouch

I LOVE that Quinn still wears 1 pc jammies, so cute!

Fun

Santa baby

It took a week for Quinn to stop waking up asking if he could have another calendar, and has been singing happy birthday to Jesus...
It was a very quiet Christmas, but were together a still had a good time.