Remembering a wonderful lady!

 Fourth of July 2010

 Quinn's baptism affirmation party on 6/06/2010

Laurie, Lu and Quinn

 Easter 2010

 Maddens - Summer of 2010

 Fourth of July at the Cabin - 2011

 Summer of 2011

Celebrating Stan's 60th birthday - September 2011

May of 2011

Our most recent photo with Grandma Lu, At Lu and Jerry's 65th Wedding Anniversary, Summer of 2012.

 

I am blessed to have married into a fabulous family!  Not only is my family such an example of great love, but so is Steve's!  As the picture above shows, his Grandma and Grandpa had celebrated 65 years of marriage last July.  We were able to spend the evening celebrating this most amazing accomplishment!  I have rarely ever seen a couple as much in love as these two were. I hope and pray that Steve and I can use his' Grandparent's marriage as an example to live by.

 

I consider myself so blessed and fortunate that I was able to meet Steve's maternal Grandma, Lu.  What a classy woman she was, and I'm so glad I was able to be apart of her life for the last 5 years or so...  Jesus called her home on March 11th, 2013 (7 days shy of her 87th birthday.)  I'm really going to miss her. She had such a great sense of humor and was fun to be around. She always told me what beautiful children I had, and that made me feel so proud.  It was always very obvious how much her and Jerry loved their family. Madden's Resort was always a summer tradition I looked forward to.

 

I'll really miss you, Grandma Lu.

 

Ice cream cone dessert

Ice cream cone dessert = YUM.

Three year old photo shoot

 

I look through these pictures, and then I really realize how much Quinn is growing up. I feel that in the last two weeks, so much has changed with Quinn. Lots of testing of boundaries, pushing buttons, acting naughty and the like. I'm only mentioning this because since the day after his birthday, Quinn has dropped the 'attitude.'  I know parenting is contant ups and downs, ebbs and flows...  I remember that when we are in the 'lows'. I remind myself that there is an end in sight!  The same goes for the 'highs' that we are currently in. This too, shall pass!  But what a delight this little boy has been. His vocabulary has just flourished and he's starting to really 'get' humor. It's so cool. We had a couple of moments in the last week where we just laughed and laughed together, with something of an inside joke.   Man I love being Quinn and Jack's mom. What a fun ride.

 

Happy third birthday Q!  We had a lot of fun celebrating with you! Your mom and dad really love your personality, and the cool little boy you are! You're perfect, just the way you are.

 



Quinn's Birthday -- breakfast edition

 I love Jack's face peeking around the corner ;).

I got this 'kid cookbook' for Christmas, to continue to bake and cook with my boys as they get older.  Basically it's a cookbook with really fun pictures and fun recipe names, plus it's def written for a newbie chef. Quinn LOVES looking through it, and deciding what he would like to eat. Since I'm not running a restaurant over here, it's not everyday that he can just run his finger down the index and wherever it stops, mom makes it. ;) However, for his birthday I did let him choose whatever he wanted.  He could have chosen pancakes, smoothies, an egg bake, french toast.. you name it!  ...Quinn decided on cinnamon muffins. I just recently realized why. The page was completely yellow. His favorite color!  I love that.   (Note his candle color preference!) 

SNOW Day!

 Meet Frosty.

 I am acting a lot more exuberant than usual, as Quinn is being grumpy and I'm trying to 'lighten'

 the mood. Quinn is less than thrilled with his mother's excitement!  

 Quinn also didn't want to get in on the picture action, and I knew just what to do!  Be the biggest goofball that I could muster, to get a laugh from my hubby and to try and pull

Quinn out of 'grump' station. (Quinn, I'm just getting starting... just wait until you are 16!)

 I always thought Tucker looked beautiful against snow!

 Having fun with the hubs. I knew that if I was holding the camera,

he couldn't throw the snowball at me!

Today was a good day!  I'm so glad I got to spend it with my family.

Brotherly Love!

The funnies and hot cocoa

 At three years old, this little guy is already a fan of the funnies! When Steve brings the Sunday paper in, Quinn gleefully jumps up on the bench and gets ready to look for snoopy/peanuts.

I'm sure it doesn't make any sense to him, but he still loves them!

 ...And a little hot cocoa just sweetens the morning!