Quinn & Gavin

Today I took Gavin to the doctor for his 9 months appointment, Gavin weight was 23 pounds and height 29 and 1/2 inches, the doctor said he is a big boy, but not the biggest I ever seen, he is in the 90 precentile for babies his age! Trust me he is a big boy! We loves eating regular food just like the rest of us, no baby food for this big guy! As you can see Quinn has gotten big as well, I can;t believe he is going to be 3 already in August, he keeps telling Mike and I that he wants a blue bike for his birthday! Mostly because his friend Matt Nightengale got a blue bike for his birthday! Not much else new here, trying to stay cool, in the 110's the last week! The picture with Gavin and his tongue just cracks me up, he figured out what his tongue was and has been playing with it for the last couple of weeks.

Just Hanging Out

Here are some recent pictures of the boys!

swimming

Quinn has really enjoyed the swimming pool he swims around the pool with his little arm floates all by himself. Between Swimming and playing baseball that is all he talks about. His new favorite thing to tell Mike and I is, WAIT! He also makes sure that we put suncreen on him so he does not get sunburn, but he says its like sunburdt. Uncle Rudy and Karissa came to visit last week and took Quinn to see Shrek the Third, QUinn also has life size cardboard stand ups of Shrek and Donley in his room, coursity of Pepsi and Uncle Rudy! Gavin is 9 months old now and crawling around like there is no tomorrow, Quinn can't do anything without his brother right there. He has four teeth and perfers to feed himself, no baby food for this guy! He should have his 9 month check up soon, and we can't wait to seee how big he is. Quinn told Mike and I at dinner the other night he was going to go to Norte Dame to play baseball, then we asked him about Gavin he said he is going play Football, it was really cute!

Cousins

Here are some recent pictures when Aunt Katie and Drew came to visit! Gavin was not happy for long sitting in the grass!

The Pool is Ready!

The swimming pool is ready, it is a litlle chilly. Quinn has been dying to get in it so we let him stand on the first step. Later that day dad was brave and went swimming with Quinn.

Vegas

We went to meet Mimi and Papa Joe and Teri in Vegas this past weekend. Papa Joe was the big winner, as you can see he came in second in a black jack tournament!! We had lots of fun the last picture of Quinn and Mimi is at the Rio we decided to take Quinn to see the Mardi Gras show and as you can see it was not PG rated! He discovered what pole dancing was. We went to the seafood buffet at the Rio, we love seafood and so does Quinn he loved the fried shrimp. The boys were troopers for the 5 hour ride there. We got to see the Hoover Dam, I found it extremely interesting to see.

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter! We had the Nightengales over for dinner. It was a beautiful day and the Easter Bunny did a good job getting Quinn exactly what he wanted, a baseball glove. He has not put it down since he got it. Before his baseball glove came he was using a phot album as a glove, good imagination I must say! AS you can see Gavin is getting to be a big boy, he sits up all by himself and enjoys rolling around on the floor.

American Idol

Quinn has really enjoyed this season of American Idol as you can tell in the picture he is signing along using a microphone, which also happens to be a tree for a train set, but whatever works! Can't wait until the next show!

The First Teeth Have Arrived

Look out Quinn, Gavin has something to begin to protect himself with! Last weekend it felt like Gavin had a tooth that was ready to break through and on Saturday sure enough when we looked not only did that one poke through but a second one as well. By the looks of Quinn's picture we might have to start limiting the amount of TLC's Miami Ink he's watching. All's going good here, should be mid 90's all week and the pool is going to be done by the weekend. Chad, Terra, and the boys are all coming down for Easter next weekend. Hopefully we can get the pool filled and a solar cover on it to have it warmed up for the gang to jump in on Sunday. The remaining landscaping though might take another couple of weeks as we are getting quotes from a couple of different companies. Hope everyone has a great week and the Finley Inn is always open to those looking to make the trip out west! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AUNT HILARY!!

GAvin's First Tooth

We discovered today that Gavin's two bottom teeth are peeking through. They did not really seem to bother him at all, which we are very thankful for. He is getting big, he has really started trying to move arounf the house, right now he just rolls everywhere. The swimming pool is supposed to be down next week, we are excited about that, it seems as though it was built pretty fast, we can;t wait to get in it!!! We took Quinn to a Cubs Spring training game last weekend all he talked about for 5 day was beeball. We took Gavin to this college student that I work with so she could watch him and he did great!! Nice to have someone we can trust to watch the boys if we need it!! This weekend we are taking it easy.

Back Home Again

We all had a great time being back in Indiana. Although we could have done without the cold weather it was nice to get a chance to see some of our friends and family. It was in the low 80's the day we returned and it has hit 99 and 100 Friday and Saturday. We thought we were well ahead of the need to get the pool done when we bought it in Feb. little did we know that we'd be 20 degrees above normal right now in March. Usually March is a mid 70's to mid 80's month for us. But the pool is progress great, so far. As you can see by the photos, when we returned they had run all the electrical, plumbing, and rebar to the hole they had dug the day before we left and now the concrete was poured this week! they are going to pour the decking this week and the pebble tec surface and the 6x6 tile will be added to the pool surface after that. WE CAN'T WAIT! Yesterday we went to the St. Patricks Day Parade and Faire in Phoenix. Quinn had a great time!! We couldn't keep him in his seat or on the curb to watch the parade. he wanted to be out there in the parade. he was running out in the street marching and dancing while the parade route slowed and there were gaps between floats. the older couples around us and on the other side of the street got quite a kick out of him as well as some of the people riding on the floats as they passed by him dancing on the side of the street. The 100 degree heat took its toll on him and his brother though as they crashed out in the car before we even left the parking lot on our way home. Quinn got a haircut last night as you can see by the photos. One minor mistake though by his mother and now he has the shortest haircut he's ever had. Thinking she'd save the 8 bucks a month it costs us to get his haircut she said she was going to take him upstairs and give him a haircut (CAN'T BE THAT HARD RIGHT??? WRONG!!) She obviously hadn't been paying too close attention when I've cut his hair in the past or the women who normally does it because when i walked up stairs to see what Quinn was screaming about, his mom had taken the clippers to his head without a guard on the clipper! ouch! Good thing his hair grows fast like his dad's. We're just going to have to make sure that head stays well lubricated with sunscreen!! Well we're off to the Cubs game today and Gavin is going to a babysitters house for the first time. Should be another eventful day.

We're on our way

We'll we're packed and ready to make our way back to the Midwest. Our friends and co-workers out here think we're nuts to leave this balmy 75 degree weather to go to snow, sleet, and freezing temps you all have been dealing with. Quinn can't wait to get on the airplane. we drive by the airport everyday making our way into the valley and he loves looking for planes in the sky. We'll see you all soon. Enjoy the new pics.

Rolling Over

Gavin rolled over for the first time this weekend, he did it once and now it is like he has been doing it for weeks. He is getting really big, we laid him down next to Quinn tonight on the floor and he is already up to Quinns shoulders, which means Quinn is short or Gavin is just going to be huge! He is definelty not much of a baby anymore he has his own little personality and Quinn seems to be interacting with him in a much more positive way then he was before!! Well we have lived in our house now since July and we have decided to put in a pool with the summer coming up, we can;t stand another summer with out a pool for relief! In our eyes it would be like living in the Midwest without heat! Not much else going on, we are making Valentines Day cards for Quinns friends at school! Hope everyone has a lovely Valentines Day!

Getting Closer to the Good Stuff!

Gavin has begun to make his move away from the all liquid diet..not that he wasn't growing well enough on that! but he got his first taste spoon of cereal and you can see by the first photo he wasn't a big fan! After a few bites it seemed as though the cereal put him to sleep! but one bite of carrots and he was wide awake ready to go! Quinn wanted to get in on the fun so he got his picture taken digging into his 2nd ear of corn and yes Pa Joe there is ketchup on his plate that he insisted dragging his corn through a time or two. (YUCK!)

Sounds like you've all had to endure a bit of a cold streak. You all better get that out of your system by the end of the month! We don't want any lingering effects of that nastiness!! We'd hate to rethink our plans to come home next x-mas! It was 80 here today, so yes, we are getting spoiled!

Just some new pics

No new news to report really. Everyones doing fine. it has rained here the last two days so it hasn't gotten much higher than 60 degrees but it is supposed to be beautiful this weekend and in the 70's. you guys make sure all that snows gone and its alot warmer by the time we get there!! Quinn's new favorite cartoon is Jakers, the Adventures of Piggly Winks. It's on the Sprout channel and it's hilarious! Well enjoy the new pics !

Another Good Day!!

IT was another good day for Quinn at school! After his Dad talked to the administrator about his concerns with Quinn being bored in the classroom he was in they agreed to try him out today for at least the morning session in the "Preppers" classroom. It was an immediate success!! Quinn didn't cry when we dropped him off (like usual) but instead joined right in with what the class was doing. And at lunch time rather than send him back to the younger class as they had anticipated, they instead moved all his belongs to the new classroom. YEAH!! When i went to pick him up Quinn was leading the class down the hallway back to the classroom from the activities center. He wanted NO PART of coming home! The instructor said he did so well in his first day that there was no reason to send him back to his old class. While I'm excited for Quinn I feel a little sorry for the kids that Quinn skipped over who should have gone into that class before him. But it's great to see him excited about going to daycare again. It's funny, in his old class when they didn't keep him stimulated and learning he would head straight for the classroom door, turn the knob, and down the hall he would take off!! He even had a couple of accomplices who would wait for Quinn to open the door and then the other two would take of with him. The faculty was calling them the "getaway gang". As for Gavin, he's still growing like mad. he's sitting in highchairs at daycare, squirming like crazy like he wants to start crawling, and chewing like there's no tomorrow. He's even started to get the hang of the bouncie seat.

He can't get enough of his big bro, that's for sure!!

Just Chillin'

As most of you are experiencing cold weather we here in AZ are experiencing our own little cold snap as well. Sunday night it got down to 19 degrees and it has been in the low 30's every morning we've left the house for work. Mike and Quinn decided they weren't up to braving the temps this morning so the 2 of them worked and played from home. Unfortunately, Gavin and I weren't as lucky as we had to make the trek north to work in the city. Gavin's cough has seemed to reappear although were hoping it doesn't escalate to the point it did a couple of weeks ago. Please keep Quinn in your prayers as he continues to "fight the good fight" to beat potty training, I'm sure it's as stressful on him as it is on all us. We've got our flights to come home in March so keep your calendars open. See you soon!

P.S. we took your advise Robin and downloaded the Randy Newman, (You got a friend in me) Toy story song. but as you can see from the pictures it is much easier to deal with on the IPOD rather than burning it to a CD that we all have to deal with!!

Potty Training

Quinn is learning to potty train he lasted all day today at day care no accidents, we get home and he had two accidents in 30 minutes, Mike and I almost had a nervous breakdown. The first accident Quinn had he was sitting on the counter top, lovely!!! The second sitting in his chair at dinner. Two wonderful places! I wish there was an easy way to get through this! Gavin was at day care today when we went to pick the boys up he was sitting in the highchair by himself not even propped up. I almost did not recognize him, sitting up like a big boy.

Happy New Year

We have been very busy lately, it seems like we have a hard time keeping up lately with Quinn tryig to get potty trained and Gavin growing like a weed. I took Gavin to the Doctor for his 4 month check up he now weighs 16.2 pounds and is 26 inches long! I think he is huge, compared to the way Quinn was! We had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! Quinn's favorite Christmas toys seems to be his new found friends Woody and Buzz! He has been sleeping with them at night! He has also found a new interest in listening to the radio, Mike made a CD with songs on it and put the song Accidental in Love, not sure if that is the title, but we get in the car and the first thing Quinn wants is to listen to Shrek over and over and over again you can imagine a 45 minute drive to work in the morning listen to the same song over and over again! Gavin is really starting to reach for things and interact, the doctor said to actually start giving him a sippy cup! Well see how that works out.