Good Morning

Ever wonder what it feels like to sit in the cafe portion of Barnes & Noble, order a tall double chocolate chip beverage, lazily pick at your $4.75 piece of pumpkin cheesecake and your tasty apple purse while gabbing with your best friend about nothing?? I wanted to find out......

Ahhhhh, bliss!

My friend (thank you Jean!!) volunteered to watch my children and Mike happened to be off work that morning! He's been in the ER this month, so every day is a different shift. We enjoyed two hours of sitting and sipping, reading and relaxing. A fun, different date. We've got an awesome date planned for November......WICKED! Only a week and a half until the coach bus escorts us to the theatre in The Cities. I love time away from real life. :)

Trick or Treat!

2 Doggies and a Dog Bone!

We had our church "Trunk or Treat" this past Saturday. Everybody and their van drove to the church parking lot and passed out Halloween treats to the kiddies. It was at 2pm, right during nap time, so I feared that Max would spent the entire time moaning and clinging to Mike's shoulder, but once he figured out that candy was dropped into his jack-o-lantern every time he got close to an adult, he got into the spirit of things. :)


I'll take some better pics of Quinn, Max & Mae in their costumes as it gets closer to Halloween. I was only able to snap a few at the Trunk or Treat.

Happy Halloween!!!

p.s. We had amazing weather for the Trunk or Treat yesterday. Breezy, but 60 degrees! I am thrilled that the ward had the party early this year, because today, just one day later, it's 32 and snowing!! Brrrrrr!

Sunday, October 5th

GENERAL CONFERENCE SUNDAY! I love this weekend when the general authorities of the church are broadcast to the world and we stay home and soak in all that goodness on our computer via the internet. Here in Minnesota the sessions were at 11am and 3pm, so Mike had time to catch a little nap before conference began on Sunday.

I had been battling a nasty cold all week, so when the kids got our attention around 7am, Mike was good enough to go on solo duty. When I got up a while later, Quinn and Mae were running around doin' their thang, and Max was curled up by Daddy. Wide awake, just laying there. He never does that. Sits still I mean. What child does?? It was priceless. I kept going into the living room to see if he was still lying there. So cute.



This year we really tried to get the kids to pay some attention to the computer screen while our prophet was speaking to us, so we pulled out crayons, markers and best of all....scissors. With Mike and I directing them quietly, they were creative at the table for almost all the morning session. Pretty good for two 18-month olds and a 3.5-er. You can see the well-loved picture of President Monson taped to the wall by the computer (that pic stays on our frige and we try to notice it a lot)? Quinn got so excited every time Pres. Monson got up to speak in conference, "Look Ma! It's him! The same as our picture!".

Here are some outdoor shots of our walks in-between and after the sessions of conference. Quinn loves to go fast on his Big Wheel. There's a spot on the bike path where he starts building some speed and then hits a tight curve and he's on 2 of those three wheels! He always stops after he's just done his death-defying trick and we look at each other and start laughing. You know that no-way-that's-too-cool-I-can't-believe-you-just-did-that kindof laugh? That's what you hear comin' out of the boy and his Ma.

Check out the great fall colors on our street! I like to dress the twins in the same color. I figure, hey they're twins, let's do something about it!

Creepy, crawly things.....

Quinn and I made some "creepy mice" for our windows during naptime on October 1st. I was planning on cutting out some black cats or bats or a witch or some other familiar Halloween character, but Martha Stewart keeps me cutting edge with her website and Halloween templates.
It's all about mice this year. :)

I found this cute jack-o-lantern at Tuesday Morning for $5. YES! One of the eyes had fallen off, but please! I knew that would be nothing for handy-man Mike.

We were out raking leaves with our neighbors last Sat (10-11) when I snapped these pictures. We had amazing weather in Rochester last weekend. High 70s. I was thinkin' how great it would be if it could be that warm on Halloween. Wishful thinking, wishful thinking. Last Halloween Quinn was a carrot (cutest costume ever-- my sister, Jess, made it). Quinn stood there shivering, not even gathering candy at our church party, until Mike whispered to me, "I think we should get his coat out.". I was thinkin' Quinn could make it another 1/2 hour, 45 minutes (it really was the CUTEST costume), but yeah, it was just too cold. We'll see what this year brings.

After all that talk, I went into our archives and found this pic of Quinn, Halloween 2007. See what I'm talkin' about, cute costume!!! I'm going to be hard-pressed to beat the carrot this year. The twins were peas. Peas & Carrots. Thank you, thank you.

Return to the blog

After a long time away, I think that I should contribute something to the blog and finally feel like I have a minute to dot it. I've been working for a month in Pediatric Gastroenterology. Most of my days were spent giving advice on constipation and stomach pain but I also saw some diseases that I wouldn't see anywhere else. I'm switching over to the emergency department and looking forward to a change of pace. I have some suturing practice to do before the first shift in a few days. Here are a few pictures of Quinn and I camping out with some friends in the ward a few weeks ago.
The park was in the middle of a beautiful green (and wet) forest.


The clouds were thick as we got there and there were a few deer in the field behind Quinn (they were camera-shy).
Part of the park was a zoo with native Minnesotan animals. The river otters were the most entertaining and the most interested in us. They swam back and forth in their tank and down the waterfall to a pool with rocks and logs. I'd have to say the bobcat was interested but mostly in Quinn. It would hide behind the rocks in its enclosure and then run and pounce onto the fence before running back to prepare for another attack. And, if anyone out there is really curious about nature, we have a good story about porcupines.

A very few pictures

Max and Mae, after church last Sunday (Sept 14, 2008). These are the cute clothes they wore at Ty and Connie's wedding on August 1st. I love dressing the kids up. Thanks again, Aunt Connie!!!

Quinn is not getting up at 3am anymore! He can earn a candy bar for the rest of his days if he'll stay in his bed!!

I'm trying to choose more photos to include in this post, but Quinn won't allow it. Something about me promising to fill water balloons with him while Max & Mae sleep and I'm working on the computer instead??!! NO! So, to the kitchen faucet we go. If you ever wondered why I don't post more often.....one day life will be slower and then I'll have nothing to post about!

Sand. Water. Sun.

One of Mike's co-workers invited a bunch of friends to her parent's home in The Cities this past Saturday. They live on a beautiful little lake with a great beach house. We played all afternoon. Ahhhh, what a day.

Mae, soakin' up some sun.

Sand! Max was the most adventurous of the three and would wade out until his swimsuit got wet.

This is what I look like on a beach. Fully dressed. I feel so like a "Mom" in this picture! I knew I wouldn't be going on the sailboat or swimming out to the floating tramp because of the twins, so why get in a swimsuit and feel insecure all day?? Sad, but true. I'll have to work on becoming more daring.

Daddy took each of our kids out into the water.......none of them loved it. Mae was keeping it together, only whimpering. Quinn was full-on tears. The Q did make it to the floating tramp and bounced a few times with Daddy. He got more and more courageous as the afternoon went on.

Christina's Dad had a sailboat that Mike took out a few times. As soon as he saw the sailboat, his eyes lit up.

When I cheered for Quinn after he and Daddy went out on the sailboat he said, "I just cried. I just cried on the sailboat." Don't they look like they're heading out on a great adventure?? It was a beautiful day.

We stopped for a "window-shopping-only" trip at IKEA on our way back to Rochester that evening. We had worked on the budget just a few days before, so we could only look, no touching. That was OK. There's plenty to see at IKEA!
Quinn and Mike at the end of one great Saturday. I love this picture. Father and Son.