O Family

2011-07-24T15:12:00.002-04:00

She loves Justin Beiber. We even have his entire cd on our iPod. lucky us :)

videos: old and new

2011-04-03T11:03:00.003-04:00

this is from Quinn's birthday. Uncle Rich had Ariel call.

FAITH!

Circus I

Circus II- ELEPHANTS!

Circus III

new toy

2011-02-23T20:14:00.003-05:00

Dan just got a new guitar- an electric guitar.
When we got together, he got rid of all of his guitars except for his one acoustic.
So for over 5 years now we have had a really nice amp. without a guitar to plug into it.

This new guitar is pretty if I do say so myself.
Plus, it sure is making him happy.
I love seeing him so happy.

Because my girl LOVES Justin...

2011-02-09T18:04:00.002-05:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Red Tuna

2011-01-22T08:59:00.002-05:00

I have been a horrible blogger, horrible.
Actually living life seems to get in the way of documenting it.
Anyway, the other day Quinn was just so adorable that I HAD to write about it.

She woke up extra early (and on her own) on a work/school day. She sat at the edge of her bed and excitedly bounced while screeching to me. She told me that she wanted to wear her "RED TUNA with her black skinny jeans and her tall black boots cause she wanted to be 'fashiony' ".

Ok, so it was still early so I had to take a few seconds to process it all in. a red TUNA... what?? ohhhh, she meant TUNIC. ahhhhh, gotcha.

When did my little girl get so old that she knew "fashiony" things??
How does she even know tunics??

Needless to say, she did get to wear her red tunic with her black skinny jeans with her tall black boots AND she got princess hair to complete the look.

The Missing Piece

2011-01-07T23:48:00.013-05:00

Our Gilbert left us the day after Thanksgiving.
He is missed around here so much.
He was sometimes aggressive and sometimes a jerk, but he was OUR cat.
His strong-willed yet loving personality fit in with our little family so much.

Christmas

2011-01-07T23:26:00.007-05:00

This is my Christmas- in photos.
It started with Quinn rushing to bed super early because we told her that Santa skips houses where the children are still awake. She even started crying when Dan was taking FOREVER to read her his book. It was so cute!
This is Christmas morning. She came down the stairs and saw all of her loot. She did notice that Santa had the same wrapping paper that we had... hmm. next year I need to change that.
Pico Bird might just be her favorite present. He has pretty much gone everywhere with her everyday since.
Opening MORE presents at Great Grandma/Grandpa Temple's!
Notice how even GG loves Pico Bird!
ready and waiting to chow down on some yummy food!
Pico and Quinn were on a mission to find something uber important :)
Then we went to Dad and Annette's and Grandma Carol was there too. Quinn LOVED her new Tinkerbell toy.
Look at this happy girl in these new jammies!

my Q

2011-01-07T23:22:00.002-05:00

Ugh.

Today was a rough day for us here.

Quinn is sick and feels like crud. I wish that I could fix her, make her not hurt, take it all away.

For now, we will just stick to her two different medicines and wait for February when we get to check out her kidneys again.

Fieldmarshal and Mastermind

2010-11-12T22:25:00.007-05:00

Dan and I took a personality test based on Carl Jung and Isabel Briggs Myers personality typology. Our results are below. All I have to say is poor Quinny. OCD central here.

MICHELE: Your Type is
ENTJ
Extraverted Intuitive Thinking Judging
Strength of the preferences %
33 12 1 56

Portrait of the ENTJ - Keirsey's Fieldmarshal
Of the four aspects of strategic analysis and definition it is the marshaling or situational organizing role that reaches the highest development in the Fieldmarshal. As this kind of role is practiced some contingency organizing is necessary, so that the second suit of the Fieldmarshal's intellect is devising contingency plans. Structural and functional engineering, though practiced in some degree in the course of organizational operations, tend to be not nearly as well developed and are soon outstripped by the rapidly growing skills in organizing. But it must be said that any kind of strategic exercise tends to bring added strength to engineering as well as organizing skills.

Hardly more than two percent of the total population, Fieldmarshals are bound to lead others, and from an early age they can be observed taking command of groups. In some cases, they simply find themselves in charge of groups, and are mystified as to how this happened. But the reason is that they have a strong natural urge to give structure and direction wherever they are - to harness people in the field and to direct them to achieve distant goals. They resemble Supervisors in their tendency to establish plans for a task, enterprise, or organization, but Fieldmarshals search more for policy and goals than for regulations and procedures.

They cannot not build organizations, and cannot not push to implement their goals. When in charge of an organization, whether in the military, business, education, or government, Fieldmarshals more than any other type desire (and generally have the ability) to visualize where the organization is going, and they seem able to communicate that vision to others. Their organizational and coordinating skills tends to be highly developed, which means that they are likely to be good at systematizing, ordering priorities, generalizing, summarizing, marshaling evidence, and at demonstrating their ideas. Their ability to organize, however, may be more highly developed than their ability to analyze, and the Fieldmarshal leader may need to turn to an Inventor or Architect to provide this kind of input.

Fieldmarshals will usually rise to positions of responsibility and enjoy being executives. They are tireless in their devotion to their jobs and can easily block out other areas of life for the sake of their work. Superb administrators in any field - medicine, law, business, education, government, the military - Fieldmarshals organize their units into smooth-functioning systems, planning in advance, keeping both short-term and long-range objectives well in mind. For the Fieldmarshal, there must always be a goal-directed reason for doing anything, and people's feelings usually are not sufficient reason. They prefer decisions to be based on impersonal data, want to work from well thought-out plans, like to use engineered operations - and they expect others to follow suit. They are ever intent on reducing bureaucratic red tape, task redundancy, and aimless confusion in the workplace, and they are willing to dismiss employees who cannot get with the program and increase their efficiency. Although Fieldmarshals are tolerant of established procedures, they can and will abandon any procedure when it can be shown to be ineffective in accomplishing its goal. Fieldmarshals root out and reject ineffectiveness and inefficiency, and are impatient with repetition of error.

DAN: INTJ
Introverted Intuitive Thinking Judging

Strength of the preferences %
I: 33
N: 75
T: 62
J: 44

All Rationals are good at planning operations, but Masterminds are head and shoulders above all the rest in contingency planning. Complex operations involve many steps or stages, one following another in a necessary progression, and Masterminds are naturally able to grasp how each one leads to the next, and to prepare alternatives for difficulties that are likely to arise any step of the way. Trying to anticipate every contingency, Masterminds never set off on their current project without a Plan A firmly in mind, but they are always prepared to switch to Plan B or C or D if need be.

Masterminds are rare, comprising no more than one to two percent of the population, and they are rarely encountered outside their office, factory, school, or laboratory. Although they are highly capable leaders, Masterminds are not at all eager to take command, preferring to stay in the background until others demonstrate their inability to lead. Once they take charge, however, they are thoroughgoing pragmatists. Masterminds are certain that efficiency is indispensable in a well-run organization, and if they encounter inefficiency -- any waste of human and material resources -- they are quick to realign operations and reassign personnel. Masterminds do not feel bound by established rules and procedures, and traditional authority does not impress them, nor do slogans or catchwords. Only ideas that make sense to them are adopted; those that don't, aren't, no matter who thought of them. Remember, their aim is always maximum efficiency.

In their careers, Masterminds usually rise to positions of responsibility, for they work long and hard and are dedicated in their pursuit of goals, sparing neither their own time and effort nor that of their colleagues and employees. Problem-solving is highly stimulating to Masterminds, who love responding to tangled systems that require careful sorting out. Ordinarily, they verbalize the positive and avoid comments of a negative nature; they are more interested in moving an organization forward than dwelling on mistakes of the past.

Masterminds tend to be much more definite and self-confident than other Rationals, having usually developed a very strong will. Decisions come easily to them; in fact, they can hardly rest until they have things settled and decided. But before they decide anything, they must do the research. Masterminds are highly theoretical, but they insist on looking at all available data before they embrace an idea, and they are suspicious of any statement that is based on shoddy research, or that is not checked against reality.

TMLL

2010-11-12T21:49:00.003-05:00

This is where I spend my days now. Well, not in the lobby of the library. My office is actually down the hallway right between the research librarian desk and the stacks of different codes on the wall. This is the Thurgood Marshall Law Library for the University of Maryland.
This is the entrance to the law school. Pretty huh? Actually all of the buildings down here are.
I will post more about the job (and hello, more pictures!!!) later.
For now, this tiny post will have to do.

My Star

2010-11-12T21:04:00.006-05:00

This whole job thing sure does get in the way of me posting about my sweet little dear.
Quinn is adjusting WONDERFULLY to her new routine and loves her school. She comes home everyday with fun little stories, wonderful jokes, cute new songs and an even stronger self-esteem.

Quinn was nervous the first few weeks. She was worried that she wouldn't make new friends or that she would miss me too much. Well, she has made lots of new friends and while she does miss me, she is growing up and it is a part of life. Don't get me wrong, there has been some drama with Quinn having to learn to share toys, time, attention... but all in all, I'd say it is an exciting new chapter in our lives.
Quinn's school is great. They give us a daily report card on everything from Quinn's listening skills that day, her attitude, and even the length of her nap! They give her homework almost every night too. At first it was simple coloring assignments where she had to follow the directions. Now she is doing writing assignments! They have bible stories and lessons twice a week and they pray before lunch as a group. Quinn is really enjoying all of the play time and circle time. Her teacher even wrote on one of Quinn's report cards the other day about how she was her best student and always paid close attention during learning time. Ms. Noelle also said how Quinn is so eager to please and eats up anything that she teaches her.
My girl loves learning and she was even the Star Student this last month!!!!If you can't read it-
Quinn's favorite color is brown.
When she grows up she wants to be a chef.
Her favorite activity is recess on the playground.
And lastly, her favorite food is carrots?!?!

I am so thankful for this girl. I honestly can't imagine my life with any other kid. I must have done something right for the Big Man Upstairs to give me such a happy little angel to call my own.

another thing

2010-11-12T21:00:00.002-05:00

Oh yeah, another thing that I love about my job is the HUGE BREAD BAKERY that bakes its bread on my walk to the parking garage in the evening.
I get to spend 15 minutes inhaling yummy bread baking almost every day.

Poe

2010-10-31T22:12:00.005-04:00

ANNABEL LEE

Author: Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love -
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulcher
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me
Yes! that was the reason
(as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we
Of many far wiser than we
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,
In the sepulcher there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

This is my favorite Poe piece- BY FAR.

I actually adore Edgar Allan Poe, always have.

Want to know something AMAZING? HE is buried right outside my window at work.

I know that some people might find this gross. But I think that it is wonderful, amazing and well, completely awesome. I love the history of burial grounds and old churches. I love having such an incredible artist's life remembered and celebrated only a glance out my window.

This is just one thing that I love about my new job

in 5 minutes- 2 best convos

2010-10-31T12:27:00.002-04:00

Quinn: Mom these two stegosauruses just got married and now they are MATING with the herd.
Me: WHAT?!?!?!?!?
Quinn: They got married Mom.... and now they are MEETING the herd.
Me: oh, ok... that's nice.

I was seriously about to get worried...

and then like 3 minutes later:

Quinn: Daddy, you can be Ironman for Halloween.
Me: Why honey?
Quinn: because Daddy is so strong!
Me: Yeah!
Quinn: and Mommy, you can be Lady Gaga!
Me: why Q?!?!
Quinn: because you're a girl. and cause you're COOL!

Quinn is awesome

gold

2010-10-27T21:18:00.002-04:00

Quinn had her 4 year check up yesterday. She got 5 shots. 5! Then on top of it, her Hopkins nurse came to the appointment to to get blood samples.

Quinn was a complete mess.

Last night when she was going to bed I reminded her that she can pray to Heavenly Father to ask him to help her feel better.

She then ask me how that worked and I told her that He can make miracles happen.
Next she asked me what a miracle was. I explained that it is sort of like magic and how He can make booboos go away.
She then told me that she would ask him in her prayer.
It went something like this:
"Dear Heavenly Poder, thank you for this day.
Can you tell me how you do magic?
Say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen."

Dan and I tried not to chuckle because we know that her prayers are very important and serious- yet I couldn't help but smile at the sweetness of it all.

Then Quinn told me in the most serious and excited voice that He spoke to her.
I asked her what He said.
She replied "Gold, he makes his magic with gold!"

and we left it at that.

Christmas Gifts

2010-09-10T09:27:00.003-04:00

I am almost done Christmas shopping for Quinn (birthday too!). My most recent purchase I just had to share because it was such a steal!

Where to find it:
Does your Walmart have a clearance toy aisle? Well mine does and I go down it frequently to spot deals like this.

What is it:
It is a wooden Noah's Ark toy set made by Garanimal's. Quinn loves flat toys (like the wooden dress up dolls) so I figure that this will totally be a keeper with all of the animals!

How much was it:
$2.50
Yup, that is it!!! I couldn't believe it when I took the box over to the self-scanner price checker. (I actually scanned it twice to make sure, hehe)

Here is a link to it from Amazon

There were only around 3 left at my Walmart. I wanted to buy them all and give them out but I didn't for some reason. (Oh, right... because I had a crying girl in my cart that NEEDED the play kitty that was hidden directly under her in the cart. Sneakiness is SO hard!)

I just might go back and see if I can snatch them up.

Smithsonian

2010-08-26T16:21:00.007-04:00

Two weekends ago we went to the Smithsonian.

Quinn was in LOVE with the Dinosaur exhibit.

More specifically, this guy- "Big Al" as he is known around here.

Quinn rode on her Daddy's shoulders the whole time.

1/3 because she was too short to see
1/3 because she gets tired was too easily

and 1/3 because it was SO packed in there and I was a nervous wreck!

This guy is another favorite around here: the Pteranodon.

She loved exploring the other exhibits too (but they couldn't hold a candle to the dinos!)

Then we went to a fun little deli chain and shared a yummy panini!
Talk about fun family day trip!
(oh and notice her shirt?!?! Mom got it for her and she loves it)

Storyville

2010-08-26T16:05:00.005-04:00

Our local library has Storyville. It is amazing and fun and best of all... FREE!

While at Storyville Quinn gets to play:

Architect

Cook / Mommy

Actor

Star in Puppet Show

Griller

and even go shopping.

In Storyville, there is also a library, post office, house, train, and woods.
She has so much fun there. We have been a couple times and she loves it. Only problem, we left there the last time and each got the sniffles :(

new LOVE

2010-07-23T20:21:00.003-04:00

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

2010-07-19T10:34:00.005-04:00

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

2010-07-17T11:15:00.003-04:00

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 ♥

2010-07-17T11:12:00.002-04:00

isn't she wonderful?

the 4th

2010-07-17T10:56:00.006-04:00

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

2010-07-15T09:46:00.009-04:00

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

2010-07-15T09:29:00.008-04:00

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!!

Pirate Party: Dan's celebration #1

2010-06-30T11:15:00.007-04:00

The week before Dan's real birthday his parents, Aunt Jean and Michaela threw a pirate themes party for him.

notice how "the face" hasn't changed too much
The picture to the left is actually an obnoxious gift that Dan gave his Mom. He had a picture professionally taken and framed for his Mom with "the face". For some reason she doesn't display it too frequently :)

a pirate, a pirate, a pirate says ARHHHHHHHG

as you can see, we got a little in to the theme :)

ok, maybe it was just me that was really pumped...

and check out all of the yummy pirate food!

Dan's celebration #2

2010-06-30T10:53:00.006-04:00

For Dan's birthday, Dad and Annette took the three of us to the Crab Deck. It is right over the Bay Bridge in Kent Narrows. They have amazing food and a great atmosphere. Plus, they are located half way between the Dover and Baltimore!

Quinn ate lots of crab dip, clams, crabs chicken nuggets and even saved room for a crab lollipop!

After dinner we fed the ducks!

Then we took a nice walk to end the visit.

Thanks again Dad and Annette!

Tiny Dancer

2010-06-30T10:17:00.006-04:00

Our little girl was in Princess Ballet. She loved it. Quinn and I went every Monday for a few months to her special class that she earned for getting pottty trained. These pictures are from the finale. Dan even took off work to experience it all. Quinn was shining so brightly while her Daddy watched.

She was so proud. I wish I could bottle up that feeling for her.

the wings

2010-06-08T09:45:00.005-04:00

The other day we went for a walk. I let Quinn take her wings. I just didn't care enough to make her sad by telling her that she had to leave them in the car. I am so glad that I let her take them. Not only did it make her SO happy, I also got some darling pictures.

Check out her crazy feet in this picture! She was a dancing queen!

notice the baby bunny by the tall grass (top right)

She is such a little sweetheart!

I love my girl.

Quinn sure loves time with her Daddy (click images to enlarge)

I just couldn't help getting a billion pictures on this walk. She looked so cute and the weather was so nice. (no sweating!)

Cousin Visits!

2010-06-08T09:32:00.003-04:00

Last week Valerie, Christy, and Gavin came to visit us. We pretty much just sat around and talked. It was a little too hot to go to the park.

I am actually glad that we just chatted away our visit.

It gave me time to get to know this adorable little man a bit more :)

Oh yeah, and it was Val's birthday the day before so Quinn and I got her this:

Around here

2010-06-08T09:28:00.002-04:00

My favorite time around here is in the mornings. While we have breakfast, Quinn and I chat about everything under the sun. It is our perfect time together. There aren't any distractions from just enjoying each other.

I love my little (big) girl!

Homework

2010-06-08T09:26:00.001-04:00

Check out Quinn's concentration while doing her homework!

Zach's Birthday

2010-06-03T09:18:00.006-04:00

On Mother's Day we went to Zach's 2nd birthday party!
We all had a great time. It was held at a local park.

The park also is an animal rescue. This was a falcon that was hit by a car or something. It was really neat for the kids to get to see him up close.

Zach the birthday boy was totally smitten with Quinn this day for some reason.

Isn't he cute?

Aimee (Zach's mommy) got Quinn an awesome new backyardigans hat too!

I love my cute family!

Cousins

2010-06-03T09:04:00.002-04:00

This is a photo that my in-laws took last week. I actually poached this picture from my little niece's facebook page. Isn't it cute? This is Quinn and all of her cousins (so far).
From top to bottom: Breanna, Michaela, Jordan, Zoey, and Quinn
Doesn't Quinn look grown up? Doesn't she look like Dan? Aren't they all so cute?

So guess what??

2010-06-02T18:27:00.005-04:00

I graduated!

Dad, Annette, Rich, Dan and Quinn all came to support me.
Dad looks a little bit stressed out in the above picture, what do you think?
He was not feeling too well.

Quinn thought that it was party time!

There we go- this is a good one!

Check out my new tag holder thing! Dan put it on for me right before graduation. He actually got it for me at Christmas and it hung on our wall with the word "motivation" inside of it for five months. (sort of like when I hung the package of big girl undies that Quinn picked out on our wall for motivation for her)

Finally!

Dora (school)

2010-06-02T17:59:00.005-04:00

A while ago Quinn and I went to a Mommy and Me all about Dora the Explorer

The teacher had binoculars to make and kites too but Swiper the Fox swiped the kites.

So Quinn made her binoculars to use while searching for Swiper and the missing kites.

She LOVED her binoculars! Aren't they cute>?!

The teacher used "The Map" to take the kids to Swiper.

First over the rainbow rings

then over turtle rocks

then lastly to sticky sand...

then they used their binoculars to find Swiper the Fox and the kites that he "swiped"

Then she made her kite.

and ran and ran and ran

Saw this and fell in love...

2010-05-28T18:29:00.002-04:00

I like my house to be decent (and always smelling nice)
If company stops by, I don't want to be embarrassed.
However, I have realized that I would rather live an awesome life and not miss those little moments than have a perfect home.

LP

2010-05-13T17:03:00.004-04:00

A few weeks ago Quinn and I went to visit my friend Laura and her daughter. Laura just got home from her second tour in Afghanistan. We had so much fun together. I loved catching up with her and Quinn and Ava are just too cute together!
Next week Dan and I will be going down to Florida for her wedding! I just can't wait. I didn't get any pictures of us, I sure will next weekend though. Here are some pictures with the girls and Ava's hamster thing named "Sara Lee" (yes, like the cake lady) :)

Quinn was so cute with little Sara Lee. She kept on feeding it lettuce and giving it kisses. hmmm, maybe we sould have gotten one of those instead of Gilbert...

Then even put on a play for all of Ava's stuffed animals together!

"School"

2010-05-13T16:50:00.005-04:00

Quinn and I have been going to a bunch of Mommy and Me classes at a local elementary school. Quinn just has the time of her life!
Check out the windsock that she made:

If you click on this one, you should be able to see her name that she wrote all by herself!

She is so ready to be in school. She loves listening to her "teacher".

She made this cool guy visor too!

new love

2010-05-11T11:11:00.002-04:00

This is Dan's new bike. He built her - all by himself from a billion little parts that he picked out individually. She is a single speed and he is in love. He even has pictures of her on his phone.
I love that he loves her.

Vera Vera Vera

2010-05-11T10:58:00.006-04:00

I got this Vera Bradley catalog in the mail a while back. Inside was the CUTEST paper doll set ever. They were dressed adorably and had super fashionable accessories!

Quinn loved them.
Here is to free toys, yippy!

Corrine is 2!

2010-05-11T10:43:00.005-04:00

This weekend we went to two of our dear friends' kids birthday parties.

First was Miss Corrine.

Isn't she adorable?!? I so wish that we lived closer to them.

The party started at 1:00 pm and we didn't end up leaving until around 9:00pm. Good thing they only live about an hour away or we would have been out REAL late!

Dan had a great time catching up with old high school budddies too.

Princess Ballet

2010-05-11T10:36:00.002-04:00

Quinn is now in Princess Ballet. She LOVES it. She earned it for learning to go in the potty. At first she wanted to do Rock and Roll school but the one that we signed up for was cancelled so, we found this. I am sure glad that we did. The last day is June 7th and it is a mini recital. Dan is even taking off work to watch. Expect lots of pictures!!!!!

Quote from my Professor (of my CapStone class) about my final billion page essay

2010-05-09T10:36:00.005-04:00

"Great Job, Michele. You wrote the best I've seen. Have you considered graduate school? You'd be great....."

How awesome is that? Boy, it made my day. Getting to finish my degree has been SUCH a wonderful experience. I LOVE my school (University of Baltimore). It is a serious school, mostly for working professionals to complete their dreams. The school slogan is even "Knowledge that Works" - that one goes two ways.

Anyway, to have someone that I respect so much say that to me, and give me a 98 on my final essay, WAHHHHOOOOO!
Go me, go. I am actually crying right now. That professor saying that he believes in me means so much, so much. I questioned a lot over the years and right now I feel great.

Drained

2010-04-30T15:54:00.003-04:00

I am in the end of my final semester. I have final projects, tests, and speeches out the bum.
I took Quinn to a Mommy and Me this morning and then to the park for hours.
We just got home after being out for over 6 hours of play time.

I started reading my text and doing some homework while Quinn colored in the other room.
She asked me to come and play with her in the other room. I told her that I needed to try and get some work done today.
I overheard her saying "I never get to do anything..." under her breath.

Seriously??
Man, being a Mom really is one of the most unappreciated jobs.

Can you tell I am stressed a bit?
phew.

The Artist

2010-04-26T18:08:00.002-04:00

Quinn colored these Princesses the other day. (Ok, all but one of them)
She was VERY proud of the lovely Princesses and even made one to look like her cousin Violet.

total big girl

2010-04-26T17:58:00.002-04:00

When did she become so grown up?

Where is my baby??

Thank you Grandpa Temple!

2010-04-26T17:53:00.002-04:00

Dear Grandpa Temple

Thank you for the horse card.
Also, I love the magnifying paper!
I have had a lot of fun playing with it.

Love,
Quinn

Love it.

2010-04-26T17:50:00.002-04:00

I love how Mickey and Minnie are on grapes. I get so tired of the cartoons being on junk food.
Thank you Disney Garden.

E.L.M.O.

2010-04-23T10:10:00.005-04:00

A while back Quinn and I went to a Mommy and Me that was all about ELMO!

She got to paint a Elmo and was very excited about that!

While Elmo dried, we played lots of fun games.

She was very in to it. She really wanted those stuffed animals to FLY!

MeadowRidge

2010-04-23T10:05:00.002-04:00

We have recently been going for walks a couple nights a week at our favorite park. The walk is 2 miles; just enough for Quinn to get super tired at the end without her whining during (too much!). It also has a really cute playground, fun rocks for Quinn to climb and decent public restrooms. This last one is super important because I don't do port-a-potties. :)

.the sweetest girl.

2010-04-15T11:04:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Quinn and I had a few errands to run. While we were in the car she told me that maybe I should pick up something for myself. I asked her why and she told me that I should get myself something special because I am so special to her.

ugh. Love my girl.

Our Easter Celebration

2010-04-05T22:16:00.013-04:00

On Easter morning Quinn woke up squeeling. She woke up with a "hew-ge" Bambi on her bed. That really excited her- that the Easter Bunny "sneaked" into her room in the middle of the night.

She spotted the trail leading to her basket!!

Then after a nice morning as a family at the house, we headed over to Dan's cousin Stephanie's house.

She sure did have a blast hunting for eggs. It was really fun for me to watch Quinn get so excited.
In the first picture below, Quinn was sort of powerwalking. She was concentrating on not running but needed to get to an egg QUICK!

In this one, she is showing Daddy all of her goodies!

Quinn's cousins were a little bit quicker getting the eggs. She had a mini meltdown.

Zoey and Quinn were playing "Queen of the Castle!"

Almost the whole bunch of cousins...

Quinn and all of her cousins had a GREAT time playing on Stephanie's playground/swings.

I mean really, is there anything better for a kid? Yummy food, fun family, egg hunts and playgrounds?!?!
Thanks for hosting and orchestrating it all Stephanie!!

Sugary Easter Crafts

2010-04-05T22:03:00.002-04:00

We started with all of this.

Then Quinn got to help me crush the graham crackers with a spoon and a lot of passion.

or maybe a karate chop??

The final result!

We sure did have fun!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T00:07:00.006-04:00

The other day we dyes Easter Eggs as a family for the first time.
It was GREAT!

Look at that focus-

Serious concentration here...

Even Daddy got in on the fun! hehe

She had a great time. We used Hinkle's dye (Thanks Annette!)

She was SO proud of her eggs!

Yesterday

2010-04-04T00:00:00.004-04:00

Until we meet again,

We love you and will miss you.

Grandma and Grandpa VS Visit

2010-04-03T23:45:00.007-04:00

A few weeks ago Dan, Quinn and I went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Von Stetten. Dad and Annette and Rich were there too. We had the best dinner around. We had a GREAT VISIT!

Here is the family photo for the day.

Quinn and Grandma VS are such good buddies!

Quinn sure is lucky to have some many wonderful Grandparents

Uncle Rich LOVES Quinn's headband. I think the flowers are a good look for him!

Quinn loved seeing Grandma's flashy "Bling Ring"

2010-03-30T16:36:00.004-04:00

Have you ever seen a cuter kid?

Me either.

You know... them all

2010-03-30T16:29:00.002-04:00

Quinn still loves everything Christmas. She still plays with all of her reindeer.
She has Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. Oh, and she also has "Clairy" (Clarice) but she isn't quite to scale. Yes, and she has 2 Rudolphs too. One in this set and one that sings clips from the movie and lights up his nose when you press his ear. Too bad his battery is dead...

I adore my girl and her love of all things Christmas.

Family Visit

2010-03-29T21:12:00.008-04:00

When Mom came up we all went to visit the Temple clan.

Quinn sure love Gavin. He is so cute!

We took so many fun family pictures!

Mom (DeeDee) Came Up!

2010-03-29T20:59:00.002-04:00

Where's Gilbert?

2010-03-25T12:09:00.001-04:00

Yes, Quinn and Gilbert have a love/hate relationship. Either they are best friends or mortal enemies. It is ironic that Quinn calls Gilbert her brother as I seem to remember the same type of relationship with Rich when we were little.

Some of Our Snow Days

2010-03-25T11:42:00.003-04:00

This winter we got a ridiculous amount of snow. Over 40 inches in about a week from two storms. Since we live at the end of a dead end street, we were not high on the priority list for the city to plow. Dan and some of our neighbors actually shoveled the whole road! It was very impressive. I took many pictures of the snow drifts and banks yet they do not really convey the towering height appropriately. I think that it is because the lack of scale.
Anyway...
This is our back yard. The picture does not do it justice. It was so pretty with all of the trees covered in snow.
That lump that you see in the above picture on the left is actually our old boxwood that didn't make it. It was around 50 years old and over 6 feet tall. (well, at least taller than me at 5ft 7in.) The poor bush has lost all of its shape from the snow weighing the branches down. SO SAD. It did sort of cut the yard in half and we did want to move it somewhere but still...
I fell in love with so many different pictures. This girl loves the snow and just looks so happy and relaxed when out in it. I would wager a pretty penny that I will be the only one in the family that doesn't love riding the slopes :) I am ok with that. I wish that I was good, or well at least ok at snowboarding. But, it is just not in the stars for me.

Valentine's Day Creations!

2010-03-25T11:34:00.002-04:00

Start with thisand these

Use some ModPodge and a paint brush

and then you have:

It's too bad that I didn't get a picture of them once the MP dried. You don't see any of the "glue". We threw a red candle in it and there you have a perfect V-day gift!
(Although Uncle Rich was scared to use his!)

The Biggest Girl

2010-03-15T12:26:00.005-04:00

Quinn has done it. She is officially potty trained. She no longer needs pull ups. She doesn't even wet the bed at night. It took some time and a lot of hard work- but she did it!
Quinn had (and still does) quite a few incentives. If she went #1 she would get 1 coin. If she went #2 she would get 4 coins. She got 1 coin for staying dry over the night too. Her coins quickly started adding up. A week or two ago we "changed in" her coins and she had over $16.00!
That's a lot of #1 and #2!!So she was able to go to the store and pick something out with her hard earned cash. She knew what she wanted, we all knew. She wanted a BOLT!
Luckily for her (and us) the Disney store still had one AND they had a Mittens too!
Quinn was able to get both of them for her reward and even got a few coins back for her next savings gift.
We are SO PROUD.

.the future.

2010-03-10T21:17:00.005-05:00

I just applied to two different positions. (and I literally mean just) I am graduating in a few months and I really want to get a job right away. I know how difficult it is to find work currently and I figured that if I found something that I wanted, I might as well apply for it. It is funny, graduating with a business admin. degree is like a wild card in uno- really it can be whatever you want it to be. A while back my Dad asked me what I was planning on using my degree for. I had no idea. I think that I spouted off something about HR or something like that. However, I really didn't know until last Saturday morning.

I was sitting half asleep in a class and a "career counselor" came in to talk to us. I was getting annoyed with this women trying to explain how easy it really was to figure out what you were supposed to do with your life. She mentioned a whole slew of self examining career tests that we should all take. Yeah, I have taken them all and according to my personality and "likes" I should be a marine biologist or in retail. Um... no thank you. I don't care for science too much and well, retail isn't my life long dream. (although I DID have a lot of fun when I worked at the Home Depot but I digress) I have taken some tests that have told me that I need to be an entrepreneur and others that told me that I need the consistency of government jobs. Honestly, I think that I would do best in a structured job like within the government or in other large organizations.

Anyway, that is when it hit me. When I was sitting listening to this woman talk I got an envious feeling. She was viewed as an "expert" by everyone in the class (well except for sour ole me). She was super organized. She had color coded flags on her sheets that matched the colors that she used in each section of her powerpoint presentation. She was super structured and everything was arranged perfectly and I was getting excited. To some that don't know me so well, you might not understand but I am a complete control freak that needs and dare I say thrives on organization. I make endless lists. (sometimes even lists to remind myself to make lists) I function best when I have everything all lined up perfectly and all is clear. Dan makes fun of me for this but I actually now think that it is great.

I decided at that moment, while getting envious of this woman's incredible organizational system, that I needed to put this umm, nuance of mine to work... literally. I want to be an adviser. I want to help others become organized or if not that, do all of the work and tell them what they have to do. I want to work for a University's admissions office or Financial Aid office. I just applied for one of each of them. I would love to be an academic adviser but you need a masters for that. I sort of wish that the two jobs would be smooched into one as each of them has superior points. One is for my current school University of Baltimore in the admissions office. The job would be fun and I would be so proud to work for my school but the pay is well, not the best at all. Then the other job is for the financial aid office at Johns Hopkins University. The pay is better but it isn't my school. I most likely will not get either job since the market is so tough and I have been out of work for so long (Quinn is 3.5). However, I am starting to feel like myself again and it feels good.

Rock

2010-03-05T23:14:00.003-05:00

The other day Quinn and I had the funniest conversation.
It went something like this:

I was in the shower and Quinn walked in the bathroom wearing a brown fedora hat, 2 pink scarves, her pink sparkle shoes AND her puppy purse with her Strawberry Shortcake doll in it. She was dancin and prancin around the room.

Quinn: Momma- check out my fancy dance!
Me: um... what? (peaks head out) oh yes honey, you are a great dancer. and since you have been going in the potty so well and are in big girl undies, it is almost time for you to get to go to dance school.
Quinn- (stops dancing) no Mom, member? I said I want to go to Rock and Roll school.
Me: Oh yeah, that's right... (resumes shampooing hair) and what do you want to learn at Rock and Roll school?
Quinn: Well, I wanna learn tar {guitar} and sing in miccaphone, or lots of other in-sa-mints, and wear fancy clothes and do fancy dancing. (all with major pitch fluctuation) I just know I will be a Rock Star.
Me: You just know? How do you know babe.
Quinn: I jus feel it inside. Like when I need to go poop.
Me: AHAHAHA (shampoo burning eyes and laughing at daughter after she shared her dreams with me... nice Mom)
Me: Oh Q~ you will be the best rock star ever.
Quinn: thanks Momma, now I needa go practice.
Me: um, ok bye!

Seriously she makes me so happy.

Spoiled

2010-02-16T23:32:00.002-05:00

This Valentine's Day Dan spoiled me rotten. (and I am loving it!!)
Since we are a wee bit tight with money, I often go without my "wants" (and honestly sometimes needs). I don't mind, honestly. But, this Valentine's Day Dan told me that he wanted to spoil me and give me what I always deserve.

He got me a new pair of brown boots, a new pair of sneakers, a new pair of light brown heels, and two new pairs of heels. He also got me two new Vera card wallets AND an awesome set of Vera stationary. Then he got me a perfect dress from DownEast that I have wanted - it looks so good on too! He also got me some lovely flowers. They are lilies, sunflowers, roses, and some other little pink and white wild flowers that smell so nice.

Then, to top it all off- today he came home from work with a new laptop!! I am on it right now. I am so happy. We moved all of our exercise equipment into the guest room and therefore don't have room for a computer desk in there anymore. So the big old computer was on the dining table and we were eating on our small kitchen table. Now I can just use this laptop to do all of my school work. We can have our table back and we can finally drop those extra 15 that we gained while quitting smoking. yeah!

Boy, I am so lucky to have such a great husband.

60 years.

2010-02-15T10:10:00.006-05:00

A weeks ago Dan's MomMom and PopPop celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary!
It is so impressive and inspiring. When Dan and I celebrate our 60th, he will be one month away from 90 and I will be 84. Dan's family had a wonderful celebration in honor of their day. We had great company and food!

We tried to get some pictures too! This is MomMom and PopPop and most of their GreatGrandkids.

This is most of the whole group

At the celebration, Quinn's cousin Michaela sang a lovely version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. She has a GREAT voice. I got a small clip of it.

Then Quinn had to follow and sing her own dedication. Quinn walked up to the mic. (I was SO nervous as to what she was going to say) and she said "I don't think that my voice will work" (cause she was nervous) and then she decided to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"- well, her own version of it because she was a wee bit nervous.
In the clip you get to hear her sing "In all the world, In all the stars twinkling". (and then my battery died)

my big girl

2010-02-12T21:13:00.002-05:00

Quinn just came up to me, clasped her hands together, and said, "The thing aboh Gilbert is that sometimes he jus wans ta play all of tha time with me and I am tryin to do my work books. He is jus a silly willy tha likes to bodder me when I don't wan ta play. sometimes tha happens an I don' wan ta play, ya know?".

Seriously, she is so grown up.

Quinn's Pictures

2010-02-03T21:16:00.007-05:00

Quinn got a digital camera from Santa this year.

She has taken 100s of pictures. Unfortunately, most of them are so dark and blurry that we can't tell what it is. She pushes down on the button so hard that she grunts a little and her fingers shake! With that being said- here is her first gallery!

Kitchen Wall

Daddy - being silly

Zelda

Grandpa

and PopPop

Interchangeable dressing teddy magnets

and a close up of Grumpy Bear

Momma cooking with Gilbert watching

Momma- when she had pink eye!

Gilbert

Clifford

Cheese!

Momma doing the dishes

Daddy's 'tar

Surprise Attack on Momma

Daddy's foot

Surprise attack on Daddy

Amazed

2010-02-01T13:46:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we all went to Uncle Richie's house to celebrate my Dad's 53rd birthday. We had a great time- for some reason I didn't take any pictures though :(

On the way home Quinn and I were talking about how when she is fully potty trained she will be able to go to "dance school". This has worked as an incentive many times before. We talk about all of the cute dresses and shoes that she might wear. We discuss how she will wear her hair and meet new little friends.

This time was different though. When I told Quinn yesterday about dance school she was quiet.

Then she asked me in a super shy voice if she could go to "rock and roll school".
I asked her to repeat what she said and she replied that she "wanted to learn to play a 'tar ".

I almost started to cry. I know it might not seem like a lot but I LOVE seeing what Quinn wants to do, what her interests are. I love that she was nervous to ask to do something other than what I though she wanted- but still did. She has her own interests and wants to express herself.

Dan and I are already looking into getting her a little 'tar of her own. For a while Dan can teach her. He is so talented and it will be a fun activity for them. Plus, this way we can see exactly how interested she is in learning- after all, she is only 3

Best Buddies

2010-01-28T12:09:00.005-05:00

Quinn and Gilbert rarely are this gently with each other.

She wrote him many impromptu songs while they were resting together. The lyrics to the song are:
Gilbert- Mommy loves you
Daddy thinks you're beautiful
Quinny loves Gilbert 'cause
he need a sister too.

Dress Up

2010-01-23T12:23:00.002-05:00

Isn't she lovely?

The Cut

2010-01-21T09:57:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was the last straw. I was tired of having issues about brushing her hair or how it was going to be styled each day. I love long hair and all of the options that it offers... but not for a 3 yr old. I told Quinn yesterday that if she didn't stop whining about her hair that we were going to get it cut- and I do not make false threats.

Before

During

After

I love the short cut. It is simple and sweet. Quinn looks younger to me now and her cheeks couldn't be any bigger but I love it. This morning when she woke up and rolled out of bed, her hair was still cute! (as in no huge tangle in the back or dreads underneath!!!)

Fun in the Kitchen

2010-01-15T14:17:00.006-05:00

I have been trying to find more kid friendly dinners recently. When I say "kid friendly" I mean with easy steps to make and something that Quinn will have at least one job to do that is fun. She is a great eater so that makes it easier.

Anyway, I found a recipe for edible bowls for eggs. You use egg roll wrappers and bake them in the oven. You need to spray "butter" on each side of the wrapper and spread it around - that was Quinn's fun job. Then I carefully placed them in a cupcake sheet

Before

After

Once bowls are baked immediately remove from pan to prevent sticking

While the bowls were baking I made scrambled egg beaters with scallions and cheddar jack cheese.

I think that Quinn was in HEAVEN! She ate 3 of them!

The finished product

Quinn and I just LOVED the little bowls and have been thinking of other things to put in them like veggie fried rice or even make little taco salads!

2010-01-07T12:24:00.002-05:00

"We wish you a merry Christmas
We wish you a merry Christmas
We wish you a merry Christmas
and a happy two ear!
Good tight things we bring
to you and your king
Good tight things on Christmas
and a happy two ear"

Christmas Day

2009-12-29T12:49:00.007-05:00

We started the day off by going to Dad's house.

Notice how bummed out Rich looks? He thought that Quinn didn't like his gift. Little did he know that we have HAD to play with them all almost everyday since! hehe. I adore how he tries so hard to find the perfect gift for Quinn.

She loved it and gave him a big Thank You hug!

Quinn got lots of cool gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Von Stetten!

They are such good buddies

Dad is so funny. He must be getting old because he had to be reminded that he wanted a gift. HAH!

Even Zana and Zelda got in on the holiday!

Next we went over to the Temple's house.

Quinn got this ADORABLE princess dress from Valerie. Serious cuteness.

Quinn went around taking pictures with her new camera!

and got even more presents!

We visited with family, played games, and ate lots of yummy food!

Celebrations

2009-12-29T12:40:00.002-05:00

Quinn's MomMom and PopPop came to our house on Christmas Eve. They brought Quinn's cousins with them. Quinn was in heaven. She played, ate, and opened presents! What is better than that?!?!

Notice Gilbert watching silly Quinn?

Cookie Day

2009-12-29T11:43:00.008-05:00

Every year- as long as I can remember- we have had cookie day. Sometimes with all of my Temple side, sometimes with just Rich, Mom and myself, and sometimes with Dad and Annette.

Always with Rich.
This year wasn't any different. Rich came over to my place and helped Quinn and I! We had so much fun. We listened to my sad (and random) Christmas music collection and played "Name that Artist".
See my "Classics" were in my car last New Year's Eve when my car exploded. This year, I just went online and got any free Christmas song mp3 from Amazon or iTunes. A very sad collection.

Quinn and I started the day before Rich came and made some peanutbutter fudge and candycane brownie mini muffins. Quinn wanted to crush the candycanes herself instead of me doing it in the blender. Notice the HUGE hunks of candycane?? yeah, kind of hard to eat but Quinn had fun. She was really proud of her work.

Rich and Quinn had a lot of fun together. They unwrapped ALL of the hershey kisses for the peanut blossoms together and played some "video games" too.

We made lots of different types of cookies and it all went smoothly until we had to mix the peanutblossom dough. My poor mixer almost died. It started to slow down and smell like plastic so Rich jumped in and finished. Ok, well to be completely honest- we didn't realize that all of the flour wasn't mixed in until we already cooked like 4 sheets worth of cookies. Those ones were extra peanuty and then after Rich mixed the flour in, they were a little cakey. Oh well. Can't win them all.

Quinn even helped us roll the dough.

Rich and I thought it was so funny. She said something that was so cute, too bad I can't remember. Honestly, If I don't write it down right away- it is gone forever.
Anyway, we decided to bake her cookie ball just the way it was.

I tried to take a good picture of us

Didn't really work out too well.

We did get some funny pictures though.

Christmas

2009-12-26T12:39:00.005-05:00

Here are the cookies that we left out for Santa along with his milk and some cereal for the deer :)

Here is what Quinn came down to find!

She got lots of books, teddy bear magnets, a DVD of Max and Ruby and a digital camera!

She needed to take pictures of everything!! (Including the trashcan!)

Rockin around the Christmas tree...

2009-12-14T09:35:00.002-05:00

Here is our beauty. It has to be up high so that Gilbert won't knock it over.

Our little girl loves Christms so much. We still watch Christmas movies in the summer and sing Christmad songs year round. This Christmas Quinn fully knows what is going on and it will be so much fun. It already is. We didn't have a big tree before this year. But, when we brought this beauty home- Quinn was in awe. She was running around the house yelling about how beautiful our tree is and thanking us over and over again.

I love this time of year so much.

Aquarium

2009-12-14T09:07:00.007-05:00

A few fridays ago, (Dan's last day off) we went to the Baltimore Aquarium. We had so much fun looking at all of the sea creatures. Quinn loved the turtles and the sharks the most.

This is when Quinn saw one of the Aquarium employees diving in the tank to clean.

She thought it was a mermaid.

I loved this guy the most.

Sorry this pictures are all so bad. it is reaaaaallly tough to get a good picture in the dark and through glass!

Quinn the Eskimo...

2009-12-08T18:24:00.002-05:00

this
girl
loves
the
snow
just
like
her
Daddy

Fall Fun

2009-12-05T12:42:00.003-05:00

While Dan was on "vacation" he raked the yard. Before he started the backyard, he put a HUGE pile at the base of Quinn's big slide. She seriously was in heaven. I took a thousand pictures. Here are just a few that show her excitement. Ok, maybe a bit more than a few but they were so hard to limit.

The day after. One Long Day

2009-12-05T11:59:00.005-05:00

The day after Thanksgiving, we woke up at Dad and Annette's house. We had our second Thanksgiving dinner there and it was delicious! We had a great time hanging out. Quinn just loves Zelda and Zana or as Quinn calls her, "Squirt-muffin".

Then we met up with my Grandma Temple, Rachel, Tracy, and Annie to head over to Ronny's.

It is the Christmas store that we would go to every year and Grandma Temple would give us $5.00 to get whatever our heart desired. I would always get something "lovely" and Rich would get some wierd lights; every year. We have tried to keep us the tradition for Quinn as well. I think that she loves it just as much as Rich and I did. (Dan just thinks that we are strange! hehe)

Quinn was in awe of these Frostys.

Daddy and Quinn loved watching the trainset.

Quinn and Annie spent a lot of time trying to pick out the perfect ornament.

On the way home from Dover to Baltimore, we stopped by NorthEast and visited MomMom and PopPop along with Quinn's cousins.

They have so much fun playing silly games.

Lastly, our cousin Julia came down from Philly to spend the night and hang out the next day!

We went antiquing in Ellicott City. Fun Fun Fun!

Daddy and Quinn were getting a little tired after a while.

Then Daddy found THIS:

On her own...

2009-12-05T11:49:00.003-05:00

The other day when I came out of the shower, I heard Quinn playing "beautyshop". Then I looked in her room and I saw her naked, one her bed with all of her toys.

Then I looked closer. She "beautied" her face.

by using markers on her eyebrows and chalk on her mouth. Blue.

She thought that she was so "goooorgius".

So I did what any Mom would.

I got her dressed and then took pretty pictures together.

Later on, I washed it off and she was sad. Looks like it might be time to get her some play makeup.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-05T11:40:00.003-05:00

This Thanksgiving was so much fun.

We went to my Grandparent's house, had the best dinner, laughed A LOT, and played games. Grandpa even joined.

Quinn had fun playing with everything and everyone. seriously.

Dan, Rich, and Adam played Ball in a Cup, whatever it takes right?

Quinn was in heaven with all of the toys!

Tracy was in heaven playing with Gavin (one of the sweetest babies ever)

Then, we finished the day off having a chocolate tasting. Yummm.

This is what I am thankful for

2009-11-25T23:57:00.001-05:00

New Moon!

2009-11-21T09:20:00.002-05:00

Tonight I am going to see New Moon and Dan and Quinn are having special Quinn time. We all can't wait!!

2009-11-14T22:17:00.002-05:00

Have you ever seen anything cuter??

Halloween

2009-11-11T19:02:00.004-05:00

On Halloween Eve, we made our spooky jack-o-lanterns.

Mine was a hungry vampire (since I love everything vampire) and Quinn's was a spider.

Dan made one too but he only carved his favorite band's name in it. He thought it was cool to see "Slayer" glowing...

Here is the spooky, nice witch. She had such a fun time trick or treating. We went to Ellicott City and trick or treated at all of the shops. It is what we have done every year and I just love it there; even if it is SUPER packed. We went with our friend Melanie and her children, Quinn's friends.

After trick or treating (in E. City it is from 4-6pm) we came back to our house and had a spooky party. We watched the Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin and a Halloween Max and Ruby dvd that we got from the library. We had some yummy spooky snacks too. We had peanut butter/cracker/pretzel/raisin spiders, Mummy hotdogs, bone breadsticks and Mummy face pizzas!

Here she is!! We went to Sears and got this for free!

2009-11-11T18:52:00.003-05:00

Happy Birthday Oris!!!

Love,
Quinn

Football and Family

2009-10-29T10:39:00.003-04:00

Rich came to our house to visit with us, give Quinn her birthday presents and WATCH RAVEN FOOTBALL! Ok, well he was stuck watching the Ravens. hehe

Quinn wanted to show Uncle Rich what her Halloween costume was.
She is a nice mean witch. We had to search a lot to find such a witch costume.

Notice the Steeler's hat?? Yeah, it is Rich's and Dan was having a hizzy fit but I thought it was cute on her.

This is her present from Rich. You guessed it. A video game for kids aged 3 - 5.

They have to run and jump and move the "bopper" joystick. She loves it even though she doesn't quite get fully. The bopper is a little tricky right now. It is so funny to watch her play and get all excited. She has a game with Mickey Mouse Club House, Little Einsteins, Tiger and Pooh, and Handy Manny. Then she also has a Disney Princess game. Uncle Rich Rocks! She calls it her "exercisin". hah.

Temple Family Visit- Mom was in Town!!

2009-10-29T10:19:00.004-04:00

We had a family get together with the Temples!

Mom was up visiting for Quinn's birthday.

Amy was in from Utah to take pictures of Val's son Gavin.

I loved seeing Sally and it not being a holiday.

Quinn just had a blast. She finally loves Grandpa Temple.

She adores Annie (and is still talking about her!)

Don't you love the tutu from Aunt Amy??

And what about these yummy babies? Man, oh man. They are both so cute.

Brinn was in town!

2009-10-29T10:04:00.002-04:00

My cousin Brinn was visiting the east coast this month. So naturally Quinn and I had to visit.

Brinn and "Milla" as Quinn called her.

My Grandparents were also at the gathering.

I love being able to see them all!

Piper and Quinn were little buddies.

too bad I couldn't get even one of them being serious!

Quinn's Party

2009-10-29T09:30:00.006-04:00

Quinn had a wonderful party a few weekends ago.

We had her friends and family here to help her celebrate.

We had a pinata, cake, train building, food, and sugar cookie decorating.

I didn't have a chance to take pictures while the kids were decorating... I was a little busy:)

Here are some pictures of Quinn opening her presents!

Quinn's cousins spent the night. They are so good with her and she just adores them.

While they were still on their sugar-high, they made a band.

We had the violin, accordion, keyboard, and banjo.

(I do have a video clip... but I will spare you!)

Meet Gilbert

2009-10-14T20:11:00.003-04:00

This is Gilbert. He is 8 weeks old and a complete delight. Honestly, the first night we got him home he was a little wild. Quinn was scared of him (ok, a lot) and Dan and I were nervous. But after only a few days, Gilbert has assimilated into the family perfectly. The other night Quinn was playing "Hide and Hug" with him. She pretty much ran around chasing him and trying to give him big hugs. He likes to play like all little kitties do. He also LOVES to cuddle.

Quinn's 3rd Birthday (part two)

2009-10-12T11:22:00.011-04:00

Once Dan got home, Quinn was able to open her presents.

Then all went out to look for a Halloween outfit for Quinn. We went to three different stores and didn't find the "right one".

Later on, we all went out to Quinn's special birthday dinner.

We went to Friendly's!

Quinn was so excited that she actually danced while waiting for her food!

She loved her ice cream sundae.

Hooray for great Birthdays!

Quinn's 3rd Birthday! (while Dan was working)

2009-10-12T10:38:00.011-04:00

Dan had to work the morning of Quinn's birthday. So, Quinn and I decided to go to the petting farm. She got to feed and pet goats, lambs, cows, and more. She got to kiss and ride a horse too!

click on all images to enlarge

Quinn also got to go down the world's fastest rainbow slide over and over again.

Lastly, she played on the train and pirate ship. I must admit that she is a great pirate.

O Family

videos: old and new

new toy

Because my girl LOVES Justin...

Red Tuna

The Missing Piece

Christmas

my Q

Fieldmarshal and Mastermind

TMLL

My Star

another thing

Poe

in 5 minutes- 2 best convos

Quinn: Daddy, you can be Ironman for Halloween.Me: Why honey?Quinn: because Daddy is so strong!Me: Yeah! Quinn: and Mommy, you can be Lady Gaga!Me: why Q?!?!Quinn: because you're a girl. and cause you're COOL!****Quinn is awesome****

gold

Christmas Gifts

Smithsonian

Storyville

new LOVE

strawberries

The Duo

♥ my girl ♥

the 4th

Fenwick Island- my pictures

Fenwick Island- Photos by Amy Schofield

Pirate Party: Dan's celebration #1

Dan's celebration #2

Tiny Dancer

the wings

Cousin Visits!

Around here

Homework

Zach's Birthday

Cousins

So guess what??

Dora (school)

Saw this and fell in love...

LP

"School"

new love

Vera Vera Vera

Corrine is 2!

Princess Ballet

Quote from my Professor (of my CapStone class) about my final billion page essay

Drained

The Artist

total big girl

Thank you Grandpa Temple!

Love it.

E.L.M.O.

MeadowRidge

.the sweetest girl.

Our Easter Celebration

Sugary Easter Crafts

Happy Easter!

Yesterday

Grandma and Grandpa VS Visit

You know... them all

Family Visit

Mom (DeeDee) Came Up!

Where's Gilbert?

Some of Our Snow Days

Valentine's Day Creations!

The Biggest Girl

.the future.

Rock

Spoiled

60 years.

my big girl

Quinn's Pictures

Amazed

Best Buddies

Dress Up

The Cut

Fun in the Kitchen

Christmas Day

Celebrations

Cookie Day

Christmas

Quinn: Daddy, you can be Ironman for Halloween.
Me: Why honey?
Quinn: because Daddy is so strong!
Me: Yeah!
Quinn: and Mommy, you can be Lady Gaga!
Me: why Q?!?!
Quinn: because you're a girl. and cause you're COOL!

Quinn is awesome