The After-Christmas lazies

Here's the rest of the holiday wrap-up.....first off, Christmas Eve. Joe went to do his last-minute shopping, so Quinn and I went up to Bluffton with Dad, Mom, Grandma Davis, Kara and her girls to Aunt Becky's new house. We squeezed 30-some people in for soup and sandwiches and lots of desserts. It was a lot of fun, especially getting to see my cousins that I don't get to see very often.
Here we are, playing a very entertaining game that Amy brought with her:
And Quinn with his Grandma and Great-Grandmas:
Christmas morning, all three of us slept in late, then Quinn found his toys under the tree, so we let him play with those for a while before packing things up and going out to dad and mom's house for gifts and vegetable soup, our traditional Christmas lunch. That was a lot of fun, and Quinn pretty much just ran circles around the house all day.



Waiting to open gifts

Christmas night, about 30 minutes after I got home from mom and dad's, I got the "sickness". I don't know what it was, but it was very reminiscent of the year of the oyster dressing (I know, I know, it wasn't the dressing!)
I was only sick for a quick 24 hours, but I was completely down and out for that 24 hours....I slept most of it away. When I woke up, Joe had put most of the Christmas gifts away, washed all of Quinn's new clothes, and cleaned up a lot of the after-Christmas mess! (Thanks Joe!)
His family arrived on Saturday- they were going to come Friday, but the weather was too "icky" up north, so they waited until Saturday morning- and we had our Christmas dinner (taco pizza from Sparky's-- due to me being sick the day before I never did make it to the grocery for the dinner we were going to have, so pizza it was.) Jer and Trish had to get back on the road Saturday night so Jer could make it back to his basketball practice...the rest of us hung out at home and played Guitar Hero and bowling on the Wii until bedtime.
Yesterday, Joe worked around the house doing some fix-it stuff, and Q and I played all day in the newly renamed "toy room" (what used to be a family room, but is now all-consumed by toddler toys!) The highlight of last night was Quinn's new haircut- I cut his hair with the clippers this time, so it's pretty short. We got tired of the baby-mullett...his hair doesn't grow much on the sides, but it gets really long and thick in the back, so it's borderline Joe Dirt....but not anymore. Now it's more G.I. Joe.
I have to go back to work tomorrow, which will be an adjustment after a week of sleeping in! I hope I make it in time.
As far as New Year's Eve, we were invited to go to a party and we've planned on it, but Quinn's got a tooth about to cut through, and he is NOT fun to be around when that happens--not only is he super cranky (as he should be, I would be too!) but he tends to get a pretty high fever with each new tooth, so we may end up just staying home with him and perpetuating the laziness. Who knows. :) It will probably be a last minute decision, based on him and, of course, the unpredictable Ohio weather.

Christmas Party, Take 1.

Sunday was the kickoff of the holiday season, the Davis/Lehman/Gordon party...we missed Kyle and the Coveys this year (and the Texans, of course!) The white elephant exchange was fun, especially once people got into the stealing of gifts; my favorite part was when Rylee stole a game from her own mother! She really got into the "spirit" of the game! Thanks to everyone for driving down to our house for the afternoon-- we had a lot of fun.
Joe and I have one more day of work tomorrow, then we're both home for the rest of the week, and we can't wait for the much-needed break.
Here's Jessica and I and her OSU gift from the exchange:Quinn, looking less than happy with the bow on his head
Joe, first to open a gift in the exchange (it's a waffle maker; we plan on using it quite a bit over break. YUM!)
The "cookers".

Highlights of the past week:

1. Quinn got a new winter hat and actually keeps it on his head, which is a new development for him. I guess his ears finally got cold enough to not throw the hat on the ground.
2. I made my first ever batch of buckeyes. Yummy!

3. Joe graduated. OK, technically he already graduated back in the summer when he was in Switzerland, but he wanted to walk in the formal ceremony at U of M....he was the only one out of his global program to participate in the festivities, but even so, he was still glad he went.
4. Snow day today for Joe, and it's my day off, so the 3 of us got to hang out at home together all day. We all slept in and enjoyed our lazy day!

5. Not really a highlight, but we got the results back from Quinn's allergy tests (he had a reaction to something last week and had to spend a couple hours of monitoring in the ER, then blood tests later in the week. Ugh.) Turns out he's allergic to eggs, which limits a lot of what he can eat. I'm quickly becoming educated on food allergies and how to deal with and cook for it.

Other than that, I'm trying to get ready for Christmas...I (finally) started Christmas cards today, and we did some shopping over the weekend, but there's still more to do. Hopefully Friday is the day to get that finished...I'm looking forward to our family get together on Sunday- and am still in search of a white elephant exchange gift!

Check out my craftiness.

Holiday grocery store find!

Did you know that Jell-O makes a Pumpkin Spice pudding for the holidays!? I love any and everything pumpkin, so I grabbed 3 boxes right away...I think I'll need more because I made 2 of them last night and I'm already on my second bowl of it today. I'm enjoying it right now with a Vanilla cappuccino....YUM. Perfect snowy-day snack.

early morning blogger

Why am I blogging at 5:25 am? Because it's better than internet shopping and there's nothing on TV. Quinn apparently likes to wake up at 3 am every single night for no real reason....usually he goes back to bed pretty fast, but not tonight...so i've been up for 2+ hours and now that he's finallly sleepy.....I'm not. And I figure at this point, why go to sleep, i'll just stay up and get some things done when the sun comes up!
In all honesty I think I did fall asleep on the couch somewhere around 8 last night anyway, so it's not like I'm lacking sleep that much.
So I've spent the past hour or so perusing the internet. I've looked up the "official" white elephant gift exchange rules, checked my email, wasted time on facebook, looked up new recipes on the food network website (i found a yummy pumpkin version of paula deen's gooey butter cake that i think i'll be trying soon!); i learned how to make turducken....and pumpkin soup...
I did do a little "shopping" online, but stopped myself before hitting "purchase" on anything. Window shopping, I guess you could call it. I checked out the cool lantern candle warmer that Aunt Nancy had; I looked into the holiday specials at Sephora; I've read everyone's blogs and I still am not tired and I have an hour of battery power left on the laptop, so, I figured why not blog?
Aren't you glad I did?

ONE

Happy first birthday to Quinn!
I can't believe he's a year old already- this past year really has gone by fast. It's been so awesome to watch him grow and learn new things; he's especially learned a lot this past couple of months. He's running through the house, pushing whatever he can find as a walker- his prime choice is a laundry basket.
Quinn's also learned to climb. He's able to climb up onto the couch and our bed, up the stairs (but we keep the door closed to the stairway because he's too quick!) and on anything else he can find to climb on...he's a little monkey.
He's not walking on his own-- yet-- but I feel that's just around the corner too. He's saying quite a few words these days and responds to our questions with "yes" and "no" head nods. And he's learned to point: he'll point in the direction he's going to go, or to the person he wants to go to.
There's still just two teeth in Q's mouth, but that's not stopping him from eating lots of new foods. It's fun to let him try things off our plate and see his reaction to different tastes.

Today I'm off work so our plan is to just hang around the house and enjoy his birthday together, and when Joe gets home from work the three of us will have dinner together. Sunday is the great cake-smashing party day. I'll be sure to take lots of photos!

un.be.lieve.a.ble.

I had to take a picture with my phone for proof: they were practically giving gas away at MotoMart Saturday afternoon!
And also, I realized I forgot to post our Halloween costume with all of the Quinn pics, so here we are: Red Hat Society member and the Burger King!

Happy Halloween!

We took Quinn out for his first trick-or-treat night Thursday night; we only went to four houses, which was plenty for a kid who doesn't even eat candy. He did well- I don't think he quite knew what was going on and why he was in the monkey costume. He didn't act like himself until we took the ears off of his head, then he was back to his usual self.
I tried to get some pictures of him with his cousins, but that's not the easiest group to get to hold still for a picture....here's the best of the three of them:

Kinley's first Halloween:

Quinn, Rylee, and the pumpkins they carved last weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's house:

Hugs for Great-Grandma

And just for fun, another 'bitter juice face' picture. Apparantly, he still hates the taste of apple juice.

We're Baaaack!

The 3 of us spent the past week on a cruise ship in the Bahamas- it was such a nice break from school and work here in Ohio....for five days, we did nothing but eat, sit in the sun, walk around the ship, take naps, eat some more, and relaxxxxxx. I read a book, watched some shows in the ship's theater, including a very talented juggler on a very rocky night at sea. It was kind of cool to be cut off from reality, with no cell phones, not much TV to speak of (the only news on the ship was from Colorado, so we didn't bother much with that).
Quinn did great on vacation- he didn't seem bothered by the motion of the boat, even on the couple nights that we were really rocking! We didn't swim in the pools at all- it was a little cloudy and chilly for that- but the day we stopped at Half Moon Cay, the weather was warm and sunny, and the 3 of us got in the ocean. The purpose of the trip was to go to my friend Chantel's wedding- they were supposed to get married on the beach in Nassau, but it was too windy and the waves were coming up too high on the beach, so they moved the ceremony to the patio of the resort-- which I think turned out even prettier.
After the wedding, we wandered around Nassau, enjoyed the straw markets, bought some fun things (watches for Joe and I, a purse for me, a t-shirt for Quinn) and then headed back to the ship for dinner...after dinner, they had a wedding reception in the piano bar on the ship. Quinn fell asleep in his stroller and slept throuh the whole evening. All in all, the week was great; it was our first time going on a cruise, and we'd definitely go again.

Quinn and I at dinnerWelcome to the Bahamas!

the newlyweds

Joe and Quinn in the ocean

our ship, the Carnival Fascination

us on the small boat, waiting to ride over to Half Moon Cay

Chantel and John's wedding

just hanging out on the ship

we all loved the frozen yogurt!

Quinn and I after breakfast on the back deck

Q loved watching the water go by

the 3 of us

after our beach day at Half Moon Cay; we got caught in a rain storm on the boat ride back to the ship.

say "cheese!"

Chantel and John cutting the cake

11 months old

In no particular order...

Photos from the past week:

Rylee making s'mores in our backyard while Kara was at the hospital having Kinley.
Joe and Quinn at Dave's wedding this past weekend
Joe and Grandma F. at lunch on Sunday in Flint The boys at lunch; they're both sitting on the table.
Q and Rylee watching the homecoming parade. Joe drove his car in it, but my camera battery had died by that point, so no photo.
Me, enjoying the Vera Bradley outlet sale. I'm sitting in my "discard" pile....that's all the stuff I didn't buy....
And here's me dragging all the things I DID buy! Vera's living the good life, thanks to shoppers like me.