Busy, busy

We've have had a lot to do around here lately. Being the go-getter that I am, I am already trying to get the baby's room ready for her arrival in May (just a few short months away). In order to due this, we had to do a major remodel of Ryan's old room to make it into Lauren's new room. Trav of course thought we could leave the room the way it was (covered in cars, trucks, and lots of blue), but I finally convinced him that that was not an option considering Lauren is a girl and not a boy. With Trav finally on board, and some new bedding picked out, it was time to decide on paint colors for the room. Me, being the horrible interior designer that I am deferred to Trav's ideas for paint color and sure enough, he pulled through . . . a light lavender with a chocolate brown stripe - who knew I married such a good decorator! Here are the results of Trav's hard work and dedication . . . I realize the room looks pretty boring and blah right now but if you'll notice the bags on the bed - those are full of room decorations that need to find a home. I'm leaving that task for this weekend when my mom will be up to help out. Even with the lack of decorations, Lauren loves the room. Every time she walks into the room she points and shouts, "oh, ah" - her appreciation and excitement makes all the hard work worth while. With the room almost done, we plan on moving Lauren in this weekend. That way she'll be plenty of time to adjust to the new room well before her baby sister arrives (we hope).

A quick side story about Ryan. The saying on Lauren's wall says, "Dream until, your dreams come true." When Ryan saw that, he said he wanted one in his room too because he had dreams and wanted them to come true. I told him he didn't need anything on his wall to dream - he could do it without the saying and his dreams would still come true. He seemed satisfied with my answer, but is still thinking about whether or not he should get something on his wall - I'm sure he'll let me know his answer in the near future.

Other than the room rearranging we did this weekend, we also had a "family focused" weekend planned. On the agenda . . . check out the new YMCA that opened in the area, visit a local church, and spend some good quality time together. So we started out Saturday with a trip to the new YMCA. Trav and I spent some time working out while the kids got to have fun playing in the huge kids area. They had a blast while we got a good workout in. After the "Y", we headed back home and just spent the day hanging out together. On Sunday morning we all got up and decided to check out a local church. It was a very "modern" church with a huge congregation, lots of technology, and lots of singing (something the kids both loved). During the children's message that day, the pastor talked about how all baptized people have an invisible tattoo of a cross on their forehead. This apparently confused and amazed Ryan because when he came back to sit by us, he leaned over to me and whispered, "Mom, did you know I have a tattoo on my forehead?" And then, rubbing his forehead, he says, "Mom, can you see it or is it really invisible?" He was just amazed at the whole idea and his questions didn't stop when church ended. I'm pretty sure he talked about that "invisible tattoo" another twenty times before the day was over - guess that means he learned something in church! After church, Trav had to head to work for a while so the kids and I went home, had lunch, and then took a nice long nap. When Trav got home, we all bundled up and headed back out to the "Y" to do some swimming. The kids were both very excited about this activity and we made sure to make the most of our time in the pool. In the two hours we were there, Ryan went from being scared to get his face wet to full on dunking himself under the water on his own - still not sure exactly what Trav said to get him to do it, but I was very happy to see him doing such a good job and having so much fun. Lauren also enjoyed the water - maybe a little too much. She wasn't really a big fan of going under or getting splashed, but she has no fear when it comes to walking right in and not stopping even when the water starts to go over her head - apparently we need to teach her a little more about boundaries. After swimming, we grabbed a quick bite to eat, showered up, and got to bed - swimming wore out everyone so it was an even earlier night than usual.

Overall it was a very productive and very fun weekend! Glad the hard work part is done, hoping for more fun family weekends in the future!

Here is a quick picture of the kids catching some cartoons early Saturday morning - the cheese ball and the crabby boy who just woke up.

A real sh**ty day

So today started out as usual, kids woke up, dropped Ryan off at school, picked him up, fed them lunch, just normal everyday activities. Things this afternoon however, were different than usual . . . Ryan had a play date and Lauren had her first day of "After The Nap" playtime - fun things for both of them. One would think the kids would come home after these activities and be happy - unfortunately that wasn't the case. Lauren came home first and was in a great mood. But when it came time for me to go get Ryan, everything started to fall apart. Upon entering the door at his friend's house, I could hear Ryan saying, "tell her to leave, I don't want to go home, I'm staying here forever, etc (the etc can be filled in with various other horrible sayings out of his mouth). So there I stand at the doorway while Charlene (friend's mom) tries to talk to Ryan telling him that he gets to come back another day, and that he should hurry up because his mom is waiting. Nothing she says convinces him to get up and come to the door so she turns to me and says, "I'll let you deal with this." So I slip off my boots, walk into the room where Ryan is, and in the nicest voice I have, I try to tell Ryan that he needs to get up and come home with me. When that doesn't work I tell him (in a vary nice tone again) that if he doesn't get up right now and come with me, he won't be able to come back and play again for a very long time. By this time Ryan has managed to squeeze himself underneath a coffee table, is almost crying and is continuously saying he doesn't want to leave - needless to say, I'm was getting a little impatient. All I wanted to do was reach under the table and yank him out, but considering that I was in some one's house that I don't know all that well, I figured that wasn't the best idea. So there I stood at a loss not knowing what to do next all the while Charlene is trying to keep her three kids out of the room so I can deal with Ryan in private. My last ditch effort is to get down on my hands and knees so I can look Ryan in the eye and let him know that I mean business. I said things like, "come on Ryan, you are not making a good choice right now, or, if you don't come out right now, you will not get your Parent Stripe (which means the world to him in karate class). As I was saying those nice things, I was thinking, "you better get your ass out here right now or else" but of course I kept that to myself. Anyway, in the end, he wasn't budging, and I wasn't going to waste anymore time so I looked at Charlene and said, "this isn't going to be pretty" and grabbed him out by his arm from underneath the coffee table. He of course is in a full on fit by now and refuses to stand up or put his coat on so I just grab that stuff too and head out the door. Charlene is doing her best to help by saying how great Ryan was the whole time he was there, but at that point, I didn't really care. Once I finally got him loaded into the car kicking and screaming, it took him a couple of minutes to calm down and when he did, he said he was really sorry and just wanted to hug. My response, "tough luck, you are going straight to timeout when we get home and I don't want to hear another word from you the rest of the way." Too harsh? - maybe, but by this time, I needed to get home, get the kids unloaded, get Robbie ready to go home, and get dinner ready (which ended up being Dominos pizza because I didn't have the time or energy to cook anything). With Ryan's breakdown behind us, we all headed downstairs to relax a little and wouldn't you know it, Lauren takes a spill down the steps. I didn't actually see her fall because I was in front of her, but I heard it and when I went to get her, there she laid at the bottom of the steps with both her feet and arms up in the air and a shocked look on her face. She wasn't crying, but was a little freaked out by the whole thing. Luckily she only fell down the last three steps (at most) so I wasn't too concerned for her well being, but did get a kick out of her shocked reaction - she is still our tough little cookie. And the finale for day . . . my car got hit while I was parked in the Cub Foods parking lot - super! As I was walking out of the store towards my car I noticed what appeared to be a black spot on the bumper of the van. Upon closer inspection I saw that the black spot was actually a decent sized dent/crack in the bumper. So I look at the car trying to find a note or something, but wouldn't you know it, there is nothing there. So much for the $10 I just saved by using coupons - pretty sure that won't cover the cost of a new bumper. Anyway, that was the perfect ending to a real perfect day - hoping tomorrow is better. Also hoping whoever hit my van will get rear-ended, slide off the road, or anything else that make them pay for being such an a-hole!

Goodbye crappy day!

2009 - The Year in Review

2009 was a good year at the Quast household. In order to highlight some of the events of the year, I figured I would go through each member of the family and lay out accomplishments, and just some fun moments. We'll start with the leader of the pack, Travis

Travis has worked hard all year honing his skills when it comes to household projects and duties. For the first time since we have lived in this house (which has been 4 years now), I can honestly say Travis has done more yard work than I have. To help with his new workload, we installed an in-ground sprinkler system this past spring. I find it kind of ironic that when the burden of watering the lawn was mine, I was just being a baby when I complained about having to lug around the giant hoses, but when the duty becomes his, we install a sprinkler system - funny how that works. In the end though, we get a nice, soft yard for the kids to play in so I guess we all come out ahead. Travis has also taken on a few minor household projects this past year and has accomplished most of them in a timely manner. He still has his moments though, and when he starts dropping the f-bomb, I know it's time to step in and help, or run for my dear life - still haven't figured out a way to decipher which he wants at any given time though so it is still shaky territory. Regardless of how long something takes him, or how grumpy he gets while accomplishing a task, we are still thankful for his efforts - without him we would probably live in a ramshackle house with brown, hard grass.

Moving onto me. I continue to be a stay-at-home mom and would like to think I have somewhat mastered the skill of multi-tasking. Seriously, I can do laundry, dust, and play a board game at the same time - how many people can say that? Aside from my motherly duties, I am also the Quast Family accountant, taxi driver, interior designer (although my skills in this area are lacking), maid, and whatever else you could possibly think of. It may not be a glamorous lifestyle, but it is one that suits me well, and one I have become more and more accustomed to with every passing day. My major accomplishment for the year . . . I find myself pregnant once again (although this was a joint effort so I probably should give Trav some credit as well). Pregnancy this time around has been a bit more challenging than the previous two, but nothing a little rest and relaxation can't take care of. I am very excited for the arrival of our new baby girl in May - should be fun to see all the kids in action.

Now, moving onto the real interesting members of the family, the kids. First up, Ryan. Ryan continues to be our social butterfly. Put him in a group of people, and he'll have told them our entire life story in the first fifteen minutes of meeting them - the kid loves to talk! He also loves school. Although he is only about halfway through his second year of preschool, he is already excited about kindergarten and the excitement of riding the bus all by himself (too bad his mommy isn't' as excited about the idea and might just ruin his fun by insisting on driving him to school). When Ryan found out he was going to be a big brother again, he was apparently so excited that he told pretty much everyone he ran into - at least it made our job of spreading the news that much easier. One of Ryan's biggest (and newest) accomplishments for the year has been moving into his new bedroom downstairs. This just happened over Christmas, but so far, so good (well, at least when Trav is down there sleeping with him, we'll just take it one step at a time). Ryan has grown up so much this past year - he has literally become a mature little boy right in front of our eyes and we enjoy watching every minute of it.

And finally, the babe of the family (although her days are numbered), Lauren. Lauren is a riot and a terror all bundled in one. She is the funniest, happiest little girl one minute, and the sneakiest, naughtiest little girl the next. Too bad funny and naughty sort of go hand and hand at this stage because she has definitely mastered the skill. Want proof, here is a little story Trav told from the other night. So Trav was upstairs giving a Lauren a bath when she starts to get a little crazy with the splashing and pretty soon she is pouring water over the edge of the tub. Trav tells her to stop or else she is going to timeout. Her response, stare him straight in the eyes (never breaking eye contact), blindly fill up her cup of water again, and casually pour it over the edge as he sits and watches everything. The best part is that the more he tells her to stop, the more she keeps staring and pouring - never losing eye contact and just waiting for Trav to make is move. Trav said he finally just had to laugh at her because he couldn't believe her total disregard for everything he just said. So maybe she isn't the best listener sometimes but at least she makes things fun to watch. Aside form her less than perfect behavior, Lauren is truly a blast to have around. The girl can find humor and fun in just about anything and keeps herself entertained for hours taking care of her babies, or just making the most out of whatever she finds laying around. I wish I could live in her easy, carefree world for just a day and see the fun in everything she does. And, I have saved the best for last. Lauren's biggest accomplishment for 2009 . . . she speaks! I must admit, I was getting a little worried there for a while that she might never say a word, but as with most things, Lauren just wanted to do things on her own time. Over the past month or so she has really started to take an interest in everything we are saying and tries to repeat most of the words we say. And even though some words come out sounding a little different, I am just happy to know that 1) she is capable of speaking, and 2) her days of pointing and screaming might just be coming to an end. Check out the little lady in action.

With 2009 behind us, we look forward to all that will come in the year ahead, especially the arrival of the new baby girl in May (and we hoping for early May, not late May baby).

Hoping everyone had a wonderful 2009!

Christmas 2009

Christmas started out this year a little questionable thanks to the mountains of snow we had. Luckily we had planned on staying home on Christmas Eve so the snow wasn't an issue that day. Instead, it provided hours of fun for the kids while I did some last minute wrapping, hiding- what I like to call my "Santa duties." The kids and Trav spent lots of time shoveling out the driveway and were even lucky enough to get a sled/lawn mower ride thanks to our neighbor Scott. After the outside activities finally wrapped up, everyone came inside to enjoy what is becoming our traditional Christmas Eve meal - PIZZA! I figure there is no need for me to spend hours slaving away in the kitchen making a meal when I know that the days to follow will be filled with food, food, and more food - so I just take the easy route and no one seems to mind. After our meal, we all sat down to watch the Santa Clause on tv (little did we know that during that same time, the real Santa made a visit to our house). When the movie finished, we all headed downstairs. Upon opening the basement door, the kids were met with their stockings. They both seemed pleased with the discovery and enjoyed what was in them, but that was pretty much it. It took a little coaxing from Trav and I to get them to notice that maybe, just maybe, there were some presents under the tree as well. Once Ryan caught on, he zeroed in on the presents and the fun began. Here are a couple of pictures of the kids opening and enjoying their presents. With all the presents opened, we were getting ready to head back upstairs when Ryan noticed that the door to the spare bedroom had a bow on it and a tag with his name - check out his reaction . . .

Needless to say he loved the new bedroom that Santa gave him and has spent every night since Christmas sleeping in it (granted Trav has been sleeping in their with him - it's a work in progress). And here is one more picture of Ryan in his new Spiderman pajamas and after we put up some of the stickers that Santa left - he was sooo happy! After our little Christmas at home, it was time to start the real fun - 4 Christmases in 3 days! So we packed up (after Trav shoveled the driveway for the fourth or fifth time in as many days) and carefully proceeded to Grandpa and Grandma Quast's house for Christmas #1 with the whole family. After that, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Loken's house for Christmas #2 that night. We gave ourselves a much deserved break from traveling that night by staying put, but early the next day we were back on the road for Christmas #3 at Great Grandma and Grandpa Quast's house. We spent that night in Gaylord, and then attended our fourth (and final) Christmas celebration with the entire Uecker side of the family on the 27th - talk about exhausting. Even Ryan was done with Christmas - at one point he said, "Four Christmases is a lot for a little boy Mom" - I couldn't agree more buddy. Here are a couple of pictures from the celebrations. As you can see, the kids won't be needing any new toys for a long, long time. Our gaudy little Princess. I had to make her take the shoes off because I was pretty sure she twist an ankle given the fact that her chubby feet didn't actually fit into the petite little shoes.
Ryan trying out his new game with Dad and Uncle Mike.
Overall it was a great Christmas for the Quast family. I am already looking forward to next year when we get to do it all over again only this time we'll have 3 kids to haul all over the place - should be interesting!

Christmas break begins

It was officially Ryan's last day of school - that can only mean one thing . . . Christmas Break!!! To celebrate, Ryan's class had a mini-music program at school. We (Trav, Lauren, and I) were all very excited to see him in action, unfortunately, thing didn't go quite as expected. So there we were all packed into Ryan's classroom waiting to see our little guy in action. Pretty soon the kids start coming out ringing their bells and singing their songs. Finally we see Ryan, and as soon as I do, I know it's not good. He had that look of shock, which was soon followed by the look of fear, and eventually all out tears - not exactly the happy kid we were expecting to see. After making it about 10 steps into the classroom, Ryan sprinted out of line and ran straight to me - so much for the concert. We (Trav and I) both tried talking to him, two of his teachers tried as well - nothing worked, he just didn't want to be out there singing. Oh well. So there we stood watching the rest of class and enjoying their musical abilities all the while Ryan insists on being held and just keeps saying he is too shy to sing. Now I would believe that if shy was even a small part of his personality, but it's not. The kid thrives on being the center of attention so I'm not real sure what got into him but with a little more encouraging, he finally joined the rest of his class just in time to sit in the circle and get his present - funny how he wasn't too shy for that! Here are the only three pictures I took. The first one is him just before he sprinted out of line and into my arms, the second is just of his class so you can see that it was actually fun, and the third is when Ryan finally sat down just in time to collect his present.

Now it's time to focus on the big day . . . Christmas! As Ryan says, "only 4 more sleeps" until the big day - yay!

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!

Kid less weekend

Auntie called me up on Thursday night and asked if they (Ash and Mike) could take the kids for the weekend. Are you kidding me right now, if so, this is not funny - of course you can take the kids! So we discussed pick-up/drop off time and headed off to bed (it had to be close to 9pm by then). On Friday morning I dropped Ryan off at school, got Lauren settled in playing with some toys, and then proceeded to pack up all the gear the kids would need for their weekend getaway at Auntie and Mike's house. When Ryan came home from school, he was ready to take off, unfortunately, I wasn't ready to drop him off yet. Finally after lunch, a quick nap, and a few more items to pack, the kids were ready to go - off we went to meet Auntie. With the kids safely at Auntie's, I headed back south, picked up some Chipotle for Trav and I, and then made my way home. We enjoyed our meal in peace and quiet and then headed out to a friend's place for the evening. We got a late start on Saturday due to our rather late night (it was almost midnight when I went to bed) so that made our plan of getting the downstairs closet ready for Ryan become more of a late afternoon/evening project rather then an early morning project - oh well, at least it got done and looks good. So that was our excitement for the weekend. The kids on the other hand, had lots of fun! Ice skating, ice fishing, playing in the snow, watching movies, making almond bark pretzels - it makes me tired just thinking about all the stuff they did - good thing Auntie and Mike are so young and energetic! Mike took Ryan out for his annual skating lesson (Mike is the only one in the family who actually knows how to ice skate), and then took him on his first ever ice fishing outing (Mike is also the only real "outdoors man" in the family so he has lots of responsibility in this area too). Meanwhile Ash and Lauren did some pretend ice skating, danced to some Christmas music, and just hung out. As Ash likes to say, "Mike did all the fun stuff while I did all the hard work" - yup Ash, that is pretty much how it works so get used to it! Here are some pictures Ash sent me from the weekend.After their fun weekend, it was finally time for the kids to come home. We arranged to meet for lunch on Sunday afternoon to do the pick-up and as usual the kids (basically just Ryan) had lots of stories to share with us. Apparently Mike taught him the five different kinds of fish in the lake and he was ready to share everything he learned. There are walleye, sunnies, perch, crappies, and pike - when Ryan tells it though it is much cuter because he says "wolleye" instead of "walleye", and then also goes into a full description of the fish afterwards - the kid certainly has a good memory. Thanks again to Ash and Mike for the great weekend with the kids and the restful weekend for us - we appreciate it and will certainly repay the favor when the time comes (assuming you still want to have kids after this!).

It's a girl!

We had our ultrasound tonight and the results are in . . . we're having another girl!! I was pretty shocked. I've thought from the very beginning that this was a boy so it was a real surprise to find out I was wrong. The kids did a great job at the ultrasound. Ryan was really into it for the first 15-20 minutes then he was on and off between watching the monitor and reading his book. He made sure to look when it was interesting (heartbeat, legs, and arms), and of course when they told us the sex (although he was still not sure it was a girl). Lauren was a little less interested but did point to the screen a couple of times and say "baby" which was really cute. The ultrasound was different than the last two. First of all, they had a bigger, separate screen to watch (which was much easier than cranking my head to see the little itty, bitty screen), and secondly because they showed us some 3D pictures - talk about cool! I knew 3D existed, but I always thought you had to have a high risk pregnancy in order to have one so this was another great surprise. Oh, and they also gave me a CD with the ultrasound pictures along with some that they printed out - another very exciting thing considering that means I can share them with everyone. So here you go . . . who do you think she looks like?And a side note . . . congrats to Mom and Dad on 35 years of wedded bliss - my gift to you, another granddaughter!