Everett John Quast

The newest member of the Quast family entered the world yesterday. And no, it was not our baby, it was Uncle Troy and Nicole's baby boy, Everett John Quast. The little guy weighed in at 7lbs 7 oz and was 21 inches long (think long and skinny). He is a handsome little devil. Ryan and Lauren (and their mommy too) were very excited to meet the new little cousin so we headed up right after Trav got done with work yesterday. We practiced the baby's name all the way up to the hospital, but when it came time to remember what it was, Ryan was at a loss - Everett is a tough name so for now we just call him "baby". Congrats to Troy and Nicole. We hope Everett continues with his mild manner and easy going attitude. Can't wait to see him again!Ryan is an old pro at this baby holding thing - he'll have it down pat by the time his new baby sister arrives in May.

Lauren just just kept looking and smiling at him (and she also tried to poke him a few times)Being the Uncle is much more relaxing than being the Dad!

Seeing the new baby and being in the hospital again brought back lots of memories and it made me realize just how soon we'll be doing this ourselves - only 2 1/2 months to go and I'll be writing to say the newest Quast member arrived today and it will be our baby - yay!

Outside and inside

This weekend we had a chance to have some fun outside and inside. First up, Saturday. Trav was gone all day working on Uncle Troy's house so that left the kids and I to find some fun on our own. We started out with a trip to the Y where I planned on getting in a workout while the kids played. Unfortunately Lauren had a different plan - momma should stay with her and watch her play. So there I sat for about an hour and watched Lauren play while Ryan was too busy running around to even notice I was there. Every once in a while I would think about sneaking out and it never failed that that would be the time Lauren would poke her head around the corner and smile and wave at me just to make sure I was there - guess I was sticking around for a while longer. After an hour she finally got so into playing that I felt ready to take my chance and leave. I headed out with my pager in hand and hit the treadmills. I was able to get in about two miles and by the time I headed back to pick up the kids, neither of them wanted to leave - so typical. With the kids packed up in the van, we headed home, grabbed a bite to eat, and then hit the beds - we were all due for a nap after our busy morning. After naps, we fueled up again with a snack then pulled out all of our snow gear and headed outside to climb the huge mountain of snow in our front yard. Here are some pictures of the kids. Ryan thought it was pretty cool that he could finally dunk on the basketball hoop!

After a long day, we finished up with a hot cocoa and some bagels and then headed off to bed - another fun day in the books.

On Sunday we decided to spend the day just hanging out as a family. The morning started with everyone sleeping in. In fact, Trav and I were the last two people in the house to wake up. Apparently Ryan woke up first, then he went and let Lauren out of her room. After that they both stood at the edge of our bed until we woke up - it sounds sweet, but is actually sort of scary. Imagine waking up to two little faces staring at you just inches from your face - it kind of makes your heart stop for a second. Once I got over the shock, we all got up and had our morning cocoas while watching some morning cartoons. After breakfast Trav and the kids headed downstairs to play while I cleaned upstairs and ran some errands. With all the busy work behind us, we spent the rest of the day with the kids - the highlight was our swimming adventure. This was the second time we took the kids swimming at the new pool and just like last time, they loved it! Ryan continues to get more confident in the water - he even tried out some new swimming skills by going back and forth between Trav and I. Lauren also got a little more adventurous this time around. She insisted on walking out in the water all by herself and would only ask for help right before she would start to go under - she is such a stubborn little thing! After swimming we headed home, had some supper, got cleaned up and then it was off to bed for everyone. It was a perfect way to spend a great Valentine's Day. Here are a couple of pictures of Lauren from the day. The first is her "working" on her computer while trying to watch cartoons and the second is her in the t-shirt she picked out all by herself this morning (apparently she knew it was Valentine's Day when she got dressed this morning).

Toddler Tuesday

It worked out that both Auntie and I had the day off today so we took advantage and planned a much needed day out with the kids at the mall for Toddler Tuesday (isn't that what every 24 year old wants to do with her day off?). We met Ash around 10 this morning and the fun started right away with a ride on the carousel. Unfortunately, that is where the fun ended for Lauren. Even though she had been on most of the rides the last time we went to the mall, it seemed that she just wasn't into it today. There were tears and screams on two rides before I figured it was just easier to keep her with me while Auntie and Ryan enjoyed the rides. As luck would have it though, there were almost tears for Ryan too. The mall must have changed their policy on the "required chaperon" rides for free recently because on one ride, Ash was told she would have to pay if she wanted to go with Ryan. Well, we obviously weren't going to pay for her just to go on one ride, so Ash asked Ryan if he wanted to go by himself, and he said "yes". Turns out the ride was a little scarier than he anticipated and when he came out, he had a terrified look on his face and proceeded to scold both Auntie and I for letting him ride - apparently we should have known better. Other than the one bad ride, Ryan had a blast running from ride to ride for almost two hours before I finally had to put an end to the fun so I could eat before I passed out - why do moms always have to ruin the fun? After lunch, it was pushing 3:00pm so we packed up and headed home. About two minutes into the drive, both kids were sound asleep - always a sure sign they had fun and burned a lot of energy. The down side to them falling asleep on the ride home - no naps when they get home. That means cranky kids for the rest of the night - I guess it is a small price to pay for a full day of fun! Here are some pictures (warning . . . they look eerily similar to the pictures I posted from our last visit to Toddler Tuesday). Ash had to do "ride chaperon" duties today - no crazy whipping or shaking needed for this pregnant lady. Thanks for riding Auntie, it looks like you had a blast!

Aside from the outing today, we haven't been up to much. Lauren luckily got another staph infection and turned into a little devil. I am giving the infection and the bad feelings that go with it some of the credit for the bad attitude, the rest she just gets credit for - let the terrible twos begin! Ryan officially ended karate and things haven't been bad. Apparently we're keeping him busy enough with other stuff that he hasn't really had time to remember that he no longer goes to class twice a week. The baby continues to grow and I'm progressing just as I should. I am now officially 28 weeks along and have started my last trimester! Only 12 more weeks to go and we'll have a new little Quast to take care of. I'm almost pound for pound the exact same weight I was with both of the other kids and I am measuring about a week behind (also the same as with the other two pregnancies) - maybe that means we'll have another 8.5-8.6 pounder on our hands - I could definitely deal with that. We still haven't agreed on a name yet, but with 3 months to go, I'm sure we'll get it figured out.

Here are a couple of quick pictures I found on my camera. Ash was over the other day and dressed Lauren in her "preppy" sweater vest so I obviously had to get my camera out - enjoy!

Lazy weekend

Not much exciting happening at the Quast household. The kids and I took in a boy's high school basketball game on Friday night. The three of us were sitting around with nothing to do so I did some checking and found out there was a game so we went. This was a first experience for Lauren and a first for Ryan - he has watched a girl's game, but never a boys. Both kids did pretty good. They sat and watched intently for about the first 10 minutes, then they were off making friends and chatting away. Ryan was really into wanting to know, "why do the boys keep pushing each other down?", or "why did that guy hit that other guy's arm?" - lots of questions followed by lots of simple answers - at least it showed that he was somewhat interested. After the game, the rest of the weekend was pretty much spent just hanging out at home. The kids got out some old Halloween costumes and played ninjas, we made the kitchen and the food downstairs into "Ryan's Restaurant" and the kids served Trav and I. We even went as far as making real menus to go with the whole restaurant thing - Ryan loved it, Lauren could care less just as long as she got to give someone food. Other than that, it has been pretty low key. Lauren has been doing a lot of sleeping which is good considering she still isn't 100% herself yet. I'm still not sure what she had going on, but whatever it was,it has definetly taken a toll on her and now after lots of sleep, she is finally starting to recover. Ryan continues to hone his Wii skills. Last night he tried table tennis for the first time and beat me about 5 or 6 times (although in my defense I was sitting on the couch and not in my best "table tennis" mode). That's all for now. I'll leave with some pictures of the kids sharing the ninja costume.

Another karate graduation

Ryan had his third graduation tonight for karate - this time he went from a yellow belt to a camouflage belt. I don't know what it is about the camo belt, but that was the one he really wanted so I'm glad he was able to squeeze it in just a day before karate ends for him. We had planned on attending the graduation as a family like we have in the past, but Lauren had kind of a rough day (running a temp and very tired) so I opted to leave her home to sleep with Trav while I went to take in the big event. Because everyone couldn't make it, I did a lot more videotaping. Unfortunately, I was not prepared for how fast everything went so I didn't get the best videos, but at least this will give you an idea of what happened. The first two clips are Ryan performing what they call a "one step" - I have no idea why it is called that, but it is.


The third clip is Ryan doing his self defense.

And the final clip is when Ryan gets awarded his belt - the highlight of the night.

Ryan was so happy when graduation was done he ran right over to me and held up his new belt. After a few more minutes of excitement, we headed back onto the mats to get a picture with his instructor, Mr. Singewald - look how happy he is!
When we got home from karate, Ryan showed off his moves and his belt, we played a bit, then it was bedtime (which is why I can now sit here and type without being interrupted every two seconds). Hoping Lauren feels better tomorrow and Ryan doesn't take it too hard when karate officially is done on Thursday.

But guess what . . .

I'm not sure if it is just me noticing the small things or not, but it seems like over the past few days Ryan's storytelling has really ramped up. And whenever he tells me a story I hear the phrase, "but guess what" at least a million times! It goes something like this . . . "Mom, today at school, but guess what?" (me) "What?" (Ryan) "we got to use real tools but guess what?" (me) "what?" (Ryan) "I used the hammer and a real saw but guess what?" (me) "what?" I think you get the idea. I'm not sure where he picked up that phrase, but it is driving me crazy! His already long stories have been lengthened even more and it makes it much harder to follow what he is actually saying. I'm hoping this is just a phase and passes sooner rather than later, but guess what, if it doesn't, we'll manage!

Other than that, we haven't been doing a whole lot. Just the usual school, library visits - nothing too out of the ordinary. We did have to drop Auntie off at the airport on Wednesday and what should have been an easy drop turned into a full on meltdown by Ryan. Apparently he wasn't too keen on the idea of Auntie leaving on a jet plane without him so to show his anger with her, he cried, told me that Auntie ruined his dreams, and threatened to throw her "new blue car" (his words) into the garbage. The height of his meltdown came when he started sobbing and told me he was so mad that he smashed a pair of sunglasses. I told him it wasn't a big deal but he was insistent that we needed to fix them and not tell Dad. To show me the damage he did, he put the glasses on and told me to look at him. When I did look, I had to turn my head away so he wouldn't see me laughing at him. As it turns out, he just popped one of the lens out and when he had them on his face, it was just too funny to see. There he was with these huge glasses on, pointing and crying saying this side is yellow, and this side isn't it - if you would have saw it, you would have laughed too. Luckily we were able to salvage the glasses when we got home and everything turned out alright. Needless to say, Ryan took a nice long nap that day. The rest of the week wrapped and we were onto the weekend!

This Saturday we had Grandma Connie up for a visit. She came up to watch Ryan in one of his final karate classes and to bring up Lauren's window valance. First up was the karate class. Ryan did great as usual. He loves the class and I just hope that when it comes to an end next week he won't take it too hard. After the class we went home and put up the final piece of Lauren's room - the window valance which Grandma Connie sewed. I absolutely love it and feel like it brings the whole room together - thanks again Grandma! After that, the four of us played and hung out until lunchtime. That's when we decided to make the day a little more interesting and packed up our things and headed out to catch up with some Aunts and Uncles. First up, a visit to Troy and Nicole's house to check out all the renovations they have been making in anticipation of their baby's arrival in just a few short weeks! The house looks great (at least the parts that are done), and the guys continue to make progress. Seeing all of that reminds me of how happy I am that all of our major remodeling is done - I'm not sure I could go through it again! After our visit there, the kids and I headed over to Aaron and Ann's place to catch up with them. Turns out they only live about 5 miles apart so it was an easy trip. Ryan was pleased to find out that Aaron and Ann got a Wii for Christmas so that is where he focused all of his time. Lauren was in a crazy mood so for the majority of time we were there, she ran around with her pants down at her ankles. I have no idea why she did this, but she had a great time doing it and did finally allow me to pull up her pants when it was time to go. Getting out too see everyone was a great way to spend a rather crumby (weather wise) day. Both kids were out cold on the drive home as they really didn't get a nap in. When we got home, we ordered some pizza, relaxed for a while, then went to bed. Everyone was tired after the long day so an early night was welcomed. No big plans for today (Sunday) other than watching the Vikings win their big game. Hopefully I'll actually stay up long enough to find out tonight, if not, I'll read about it tomorrow!

Sesame Street Live

Mom and I took the kids to the "Sesame Street Live" show this Saturday and judging by all the smiles we saw, I would say the kids loved it! Ryan has known about this day for a while now so when Saturday morning finally came around, he could hardly wait to get going. Unfortunately for him, the show didn't start until 2:00pm so we had a little time to kill. After a late breakfast, the kids and I packed up and headed to Ryan's karate class. When class was done, we went back home to find Grandma Donna there waiting for us - a very fun surprise for the kids. Of course Ryan wanted to head right in and get dressed to leave, but unfortunately again, it wasn't quite time. So we killed some more time getting dressed, having lunch, and just talking. Finally at 12:45pm, it was time! The four of us packed into the van and were off for our day of fun. We used Grandma's new GPS system and got to our destination in just over a half hour. That left plenty of time for us to park, find the place, and get into our seats well before the show started (I would rather be super early then super late). When we got into the Target Center, there were kids everywhere! As we were walking to our seats, we saw a souvenir stand. Now I usually wouldn't buy anything for the kids, but they (and let's be honest, me too) were so excited, I decided to pop for one thing for each of them - Ryan picked out a pennant with Elmo on it, Lauren got a little thing that lights up and spins - both of them were very happy. With our souvenirs in hand, we headed into the arena. Our seats were right on the floor, seven rows back - not too shabby for the kids' first big event. Other than a slightly rude lady behind us, a grandma who couldn't stop moving in front of us, and a lady who wouldn't stop eating right next to us, the show was great. There was constant action, dance, and music - all things that are key to keeping a kid's attention. Ryan was pretty focused on the show for the entire time, Lauren had her moments of interest. When she wasn't watching the show, she kept herself entertained by taunting the little girl in front of us with her toy, or dancing next the "eater" beside us (I'm sure the lady was getting a little annoyed but I really didn't care considering she was taking up half of Lauren's seat anyway). Here are a couple of pictures from the big event. After the show we met up with Auntie and Mike for supper and then headed home. It had already been a long day, but instead of giving the kids baths and getting them to bed (which was our plan), we (Mom and I with the helping hands of the kids) decided to do some decorating. First of up was Lauren's old room, now known as the baby's room. In there we put up some new pictures and tried out the new crib bedding. After we were satisfied with that room, we headed into Lauren's new room. Lots of deliberation went into the room and when the night was done, we had only hung one picture and had ideas for everything else but, they would have to wait until tomorrow because the kids were getting crabby and we were getting tired - time to call it a night. Mom took Lauren and I took Ryan and within twenty minutes everyone was bathed and in bed - finally some time to kick back and relax with a warm cup of hot cocoa. Everyone other than Mom slept in on Sunday morning so we got a late start to the day, but once we got going, the room decorating was in full swing. We made a couple of stops at some stores in town and two hours later, Lauren's room was looking good! Check it out.The room is almost complete. The final touch will be the window valance that Grandma Connie is working on - thank god for mothers and mother-in-laws - without them, the kids would have boring rooms with white walls and no decorations. And here is a quick picture of the baby's roomwith the new pictures on the wall.Today was also a big day for me . . . just a day shy of my 31st birthday, I bought my first two things (I don't know it you call them items, or pieces) of make-up! It was just some foundation and blush, but this pregnancy is taking it's toll on my skin so I needed something to help out. Mom assisted in the purchasing of the items and was even nice enough to show me the perfect way to apply it - what a nice mother (I'm assuming most moms have this moment with their daughters when their teenagers, my mom just had to wait a little longer).

With all that was going on during the weekend, Mom still managed to squeeze in some time to pre-make me a birthday meal and some birthday cupcakes (which Ryan assisted with) - like I said, what a nice mom I have! Thanks again for the great weekend!