new LOVE

My girl LOVES dinosaurs. We got her this new "Spooky" hat from the dollar store and she feels so cool when she wears it.

and this treasure is "Big Al". (The allosaurus) I made him for Quinn without any plan in mind and well... you can tell. We actually had to change his eyes after one day. He had pearl eyes but now has orange plastic eyes. Quinn thinks that he is amazing and well, I won't tell her any differently!



and these...

I just thought that she looked darling. :)

strawberries

Recently Quinn has been a handful. She threw her first real temper tantrum ever the other day... and we were out getting produce. It was seriously horrific. (involved screams, foot stomping, me throwing basket towards employee yelling at me for running out the door with said basket, and lots and lots of yelling- she might have even growled at one point)

I was so lost as for what to do in the situation. Normally, I can just talk to her. If that doesn't work, I can give her the threat of having to be in time out. Most of the time the threat alone is enough but there have been times when she has actually had to sit there for a moment or two.

Well at the store:
*I tried to talk to her
*To come up with a solution to her problem
*To get away from the situation that was stressing her out
*To talk to her again, to tell her that "this behavior is NOT acceptable!" in a firm voice
*To even threaten time out
*To take away her toys in the car and explain that this type of behavior doesn't get fun rewards

then I actually threatened to spank her.
yup

Quinn doesn't get spanked. I don't really have a problem with other parents doing it, I just know that it isn't what is right for Quinn, Dan and myself. I would never want to spank/hit/smack my baby while I was mad and well, at this point I was pretty livid.

Anyway, we made it home and I put her in her room to let her (and myself) calm down.
(we talked and everything has been pretty much fine since)
****************************************************************

A few days later I heard Quinn playing in her room and talking to her toys.
She said, "my Mommy spanks me all of the time" or something like that.
So I went in and talked to her and explain that she hasn't been spanked and I explained exactly what that is. I told her how spankings hurt and time out doesn't.

Then she looked at me with tears in her eyes and her little bottom lip quivering and said, "but Mommy- time out hurts me. It hurts my heart"

oh boy, she is so sweet and this parenting thing can be kind of tough sometimes

The Duo

I love Daddy/Daughter time.

so does Quinn! Check out the soap bubbles on her face!

He is such a good Daddy and Huzz.

♥ my girl ♥

isn't she wonderful?

the 4th

Happy 4th of July!
We went with some friends to the Dundalk Heritage Festival. It was such a hot day but we still had a lot of fun.

Quinn got her face painted with "Hello Kitty".

We had lots of yummy carnival food like pizza (me and Q), nachos (Dan), and fresh fruit smoothies (all)!!

Quinn went on a bunch of rides, some even with her friend Megan.


Yes, you are seeing correctly. We watched PIG RACING!

There was a super cute monkey

and his owner would play music while he went in the crowd and took money or food from the watcher's hands. He was SUPER CUTE!

Lastly, here is a picture of me and the Huzz.

Fenwick Island- my pictures

While at the beach house, we had so much fun. We all made so many fun memories while there. Even though Dan could only be there a few days, he still was able to build sand castles on the beach with Quinn one day and on another day go for a 50 mile ride.
Here are some of my favorite pictures that I took from the vacation!

Uncle Richie went on a bunch of rides with Quinny. He is SUCH a good sport!

Annie caught crabs with anything- sometimes just with her bare hands!

Quinn was this happy pretty much the whole week.

Amy was sunburned and trying to stay in the tiny amount of shade that our broken umbrella provided! :)

Gavin loved the water! He was such a joy to be around.

Quinn made so many memories playing with her cousins.



They were so adorable together.

and they practically lived in dress ups the entire week.

Fenwick Island- Photos by Amy Schofield

My amazing Grandparents have family get togethers every two years at Fenwick Island. They rent two beach houses (one for kid families and one for families without kids/grown kids) It is such a wonderful time. We go to the beach and swim, collect shells, go for bike rides, and spend endless hours enjoying each others company.

This year was my favorite to date.

Quinn was old enough to start to enjoy the beach. This helped me relax some.


Isn't she beautiful??


She was so brave and loved jumping waves by the end of the week.

She was scared the first few days and then when she went with Great Grandma Temple, she fell in love.






Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa Temple.

Thanks Amy for taking all of these amazing pictures!!