Christmas Morning

My expectations for a Michigan winter have been all but destroyed. I thought this was snow country, but Christmas has come and gone with only the slightest flirtation of it being 'White'. Deep down I like snow, but perhaps because the last two years we had enough snow to be snowed in for a couple of days I haven't minded the mild winter. So while we didn't have the typical weather, Christmas was great. Ira loved his presents, and Sharon and I have had time to relax and get a lot of things done that we otherwise feel to exhausted to accomplish, this is especially good given the approaching move. 

Christmas day was great. I loved watching Ira get excited about each present and want to play with it before moving onto the next gift. We enjoyed attending a musical church service, preparing a Christmas feast, and virtual visiting with family.  It all made for a Merry Christmas.

We love you all and hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Ira enjoyed himself like every little child should.

Ira loves this little PEZ truck.
One of his favorite presents for sure.

This his happy face when posing for the camera.

We got some letter for the fridge,
 Ira really likes them.

Ira got a ton of underpants so we can start again
 on the potty training.

Let the holiday traditions begin

Christmas Eve has arrived! I'm actually a little disappointed in myself, I really didn't have Christmas on my mind much until yesterday. For those who don't know, we finally heard the 4th and last rotation for the program I'm in will be in Danbury, Connecticut. We will move the first week of February.  With such a short timeline the last few weeks and days have been full of distractions and the sudden urge to make sure things wrap up smoothly with this rotation. It wasn't until yesterday I realized how unprepared I was for the Christmas. I shamefully admit I was one of those people running frantically through stores picking up 'last minute' gifts yesterday. One would hope I had made more progress since my teenage years when my brothers and I would go Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve; one day is all the progress I can report.

Luckily, we are staying in Michigan for both Christmas and New Years. We will be starting our own family traditions as this will be our first Christmas with a child, away from family. We kicked things off today with a Christmas Eve Aebelskiver brunch. You may remember me mentioning my family making them for Christmas in an earlier post. We received the strange and ever so helpful Aebelskiver pan as a gift this year and couldn't wait to put it to use. You can find the recipe I use here. What are some of your favorite holiday food traditions?

He really liked them, despite his the disgust on his face.  It's really just his camera smile.

We wrapped presents and braved putting them under the tree today. Ira has been good about not playing with them. He can feel the excitement in the air, and loves all the sugary things to eat. He's been pretty cute and funny the last couple of days. What would a family post be without some highlights of him.

He loves helping out in the kitchen. He insists, "No, I do it"

You can't let those beaters go un-licked!

He likes all the shiny and glittery ornaments everywhere. We decided to do some Christmas Art with some old glitter glue we had lying around.

The Ira in boots picture of the day. He's still obsessed with them. Since he can put them on himself you never know when he will come around the corner and be wearing them.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Bowling, Boots and Babies

The beginning of December has been great.  We arrived back from Utah with all of our shopping done, so now we can just party.

 After about three months, the GE bowling league has ended.  This is our team, "The Brave Little Toasters."  I think John (blue shirt guy), named us.  It's a descent name considering everyone else's were like "Here for Beer" or "The Brew Crew."  Ira was our mascot, and made more friends than we did.  I wasn't going to end up playing at all, but our team had a member who paid the $80 and didn't show up once.  Good deal for me! 

 We threw our first graham cracker house making party, at least, the first where we invited other people over to participate.  I'm not use to being a grown up enough to know how people will respond to this kind of activity, but I think everyone had a good time.  I guess everyone wants an excuse to eat extra candy and play with frosting.   

Ira's been kind of a hand full lately.  I blame it on a cold that's been making him a little more grumpy than usual, but I think it's on it's way out.  His vocabulary is expanding daily, and he's using short sentences more often.   

We got him these boots, a couple sizes too big so we could use them this, and next year.  But despite their hugeness, he didn't want to take them off even to nap, at least for the first 2 weeks.  

Now he's moved on to bigger and better things:  my boots. 

He likes it especially when he trips and falls in them.  

The pregnancy is going well.  We had a little scare a week ago, and I was showing a symptom or two of miscarriage.  So, we were told to go to the hospital.  This was my first time going to a hospital for any reason besides visiting a friend or delivering a baby, so it was an interesting experience.  We learned that 1. everything is fine!  We're super healthy.  False alarm.  2. Hospital visits take FOREVER!  3. I'd prefer not to deliver at this hospital in Detroit for a variety of reason, and 4. what the baby looks like.  We got an ultrasound, and although we didn't find out the gender, I think the little fetal personality seems masculine.  But  if we end up having a girl, don't tell her I said that.  Anyway, now we're mostly afraid to find out how much the bill will be for.  But it's a huge relief knowing the baby's healthy.  Thanks for all your prayers in our behalf.

A week from today is Christmas!  We can't wait.  Let us know if anyone wants to have a skype Christmas date.  Love you!

Quinn Thanksgiving 2011

We spent Thanksgiving in Utah with my family, next time we go out to visit we will not  only have a new baby in tow, but will have to start paying for a plane ticket for Ira.

As always with my family there was a lot going on with everyone together in one place. We never had a dull moment.

Besides a wonderful feast, a major highlight was a one day blitz to Southern Utah to get a canyon hike in. It was the first time all the siblings had been out on an adventure in quite awhile. We did Slideanide just south of Hanksville, UT in the poison spring area.

 McKay Quinn Planking. I'm going to start a counter cultural reverse plank one of these days.

A canyon adventure would never be complete without some water.

  Group photos at the end of the hike:

 My brother Nate and his wife Lauren

 My sister Camille and her husband, Gregg

 My sister Tiff and her husband, Araon

 Sharon couldn't come because of the pregnancy. As the only married sibling without my spouse to pose with I forced to improvise.

It was wonderful to be with family during the Thanksgiving holiday. You can see more pictures on my Brother and Sister's Blogs.

Happy Happy Birthday

Happy December!  Christmas Eve is a week from today, and we just realized that we haven't updated the blog for about 5 weeks.  We'll give you updates in small portions, to prevent any overdosing.

Anthony usually doesn't let me throw a party for him, but since this year he turned 28 on 11/11/11, we decided to throw an 11 party.  My goal was to have 11 guests, but we ended up squeezing 14 in our tiny apartment.  We played In the Manner of the Adverb, 11 Pointing Peep Peep (yes, a game I sort of altered/invented), and What If.  The only requirement to come, was to bring a food that looks like an 11, or has 11 ingredients.  

 We had, carrot sticks, 11 layer bars, 11 layer dip, 11 juice...

 and doughnuts.  Although it seems boxes of them, 

only come in 10 or 12, so our friends got a little creative. 

We've been bowling with Anthony's coworkers, so I made a pin cake, which turned out pretty decently...

and a bowling ball cake, which turned out tasty and really ugly.  I don't understand how people get those spherical cake pans to cooperate!  Apparently not using fondant.  People's responses were pretty funny.  "Oh, nice.  You made that?!?"  I'd like to think if it wasn't totally ugly, it had my trademark "sloppy charm."  You know, like last years Christmas card, or my hair.  "That's so bad, you must have done it yourself.  Cute!"

Halloween

Happy November Everyone!

I have about a million pictures below, so I'll try and let them give you the update on our life.

 We've tried jump starting this pumpkin meal tradition a couple times, but I think this time I actually like what we put inside, enough to not have to wrack my brain next year. 

 It's a sort of chicken casserole inspired by the Quinn Tatertot Casserole, with a few changes....like no tatertots.

 Last weekend we drove a couple hours North to visit Frankenmuth, "Michigan's little Bavaria."

 Not that I've ever been to real Germany, but I got the feeling that it was a very Americanized, plasticy version of Europe, and yet so much fun in a kitschy way.  There are lots of fudge and gift shops, and german restaurants. 

Bronner's: the world's largest Christmas store, in the middle of no-where Michigan.  Who knew?  This place is actually pretty insane.  If you need an ornament for a foot surgeon, this is probably where you could find it. 

 We were to lazy to walk over to Santa, but he's pretty gigantic.

 Time's a ticken'.  Only two months left to spend all your money at Bronner's before the big day. 

 You have to read the sign, to think that this is even remotely funny.

Halloween was lots of fun!  Here we've got the ward party.  I don't know if I've ever seen so many awesome homemade costumes.

 Ira's friend, Mr. T. 

 Ira's other friend, especially when in costume.  As of this party, Ira now calls anything that resembles a robot a "zshww zshwww."  You know, the wheat grinder, the blender, basically anything with buttons.

 The Shepherds.

 The DeYoungs.

 Ira stared at these car costumes for about 15 minutes strait.

 Ira won a prize for his costume.  Yep, that was about the peak of his enthusiasm level for the night.  We kept thinking he'd get exhausted during the trunk or treating since it was past his bed time.  But every time we asked if he wanted to stop, he'd respond with "More?"  He was determined to get to every car.

 Here's the night before, when he was actually smiling.  If I didn't put the hat away, he'd probably still be wearing it around the house.  He likes the "ball" on top.  He especially liked to wear it outside to play in the "fish"....which is what he's been calling the leaves for some reason.

The actual event of trick or treating.

 We've watched a friend's baby a couple of times, which has been good practice for Ira.  He really loves babies and carries his doll around when he's not fixated on one of his toys with wheels.

     In other news, the pregnancy is still going well.  My lower back hurt several times this week, and I was a little worried it was a kidney infection or something.  But I think since it's so inconsistent, it's more likely that I'm picking up Ira wrong.
     Our friends whose cute kid we watch every once in a while, gave us free tickets to a great Halloween Symphony performance at the University of Michigan.  All the performers were costumed, and the conducting grad students put on fun skits in between, which was enough to keep Ira interested.
     Anthony and I were called as ward missionaries, which is fun.  We have two sets of missionaries here and baptisms regularly, so there's lots of work to do.
     Thinking of each of you.  Love you lots!
Sharon