Toddler theology

Sunday morning Q woke before our alarms went off, so Matt brought her to our bed and gave her some books to read while we tried to wake up for the day. We were both exiting dreamland when we heard her say (as clear as a bell) "My Jesus is HOTCK!" Matt looked over at me and asked, "Did she just say 'My Jesus is hot?'" I peeked over her shoulder and she was "reading" this page in her baby Bible.

Our favorite part? "My Jesus." It's our prayer that those words and the meaning behind them never leave her sweet little heart and we can teach her daily what it means to live as Jesus'.

My lil' helper!

Quinn is very interested in doing everything Momma's doing! She is saying, "mop, mop, mop, mop.....abu...."

Pardon my lack of focus in these two shots. They were taken pre-contacts yesterday morning! My squinting didn't do the trick. Anyone know a good eye doctor? ;)

Check out THESE fairy godmothers!

This weekend I got to participate in an amazing event! The Giving Gown Foundation's Boutique Day. This foundation provides formal dresses, shoes, makeup, jewelery, handbags, and other accessories to high school girls in need so that they may attend their school's spring formal--prom, military ball, etc. My church hosted the event for the foundation this year, and our gigantic teen center was transformed into a pink, sparkly boutique! It was incredible! Also incredible were racks upon racks of dresses available for girls to choose from. I love that the girls weren't just given a dress, but they were allowed to sort through the racks and find the dress of their dreams!
Each girl was matched with an adult "fairy godmother" whose job it was to pamper them, help them choose their dress and accessories, and just generally love on them. There were seamstresses to alter the dresses, and each girl went home with their dream dress and all of the accessories to make them look like a princess. After they chose their dress, the girls were treated to an elegant lunch complete with pink cupcakes and pink lemonade!
After lunch the girls got to attend a brief session sponsered by Dove on self-esteem.
I got to help set up for boutique day, work as a fairy godmother and help my "princess" decide upon a gorgeous black dress and pink shoes and jewelery, and then sort through all of the racks of dresses to put them back in order. My friend Lindsey came and helped, too, and we had a fun time checking out all the dresses--some were rather interesting! Like the leopard one with feather trim and detatched sleeves....Yikes!
If you live in the Houston area, you should totally check out this great organization that seeks to serve young girls and minister to them in a way that is most important to a 17 year-old! They have a fall fundraising dinner where lots of the girls share their very touching stories, they also collect gently used formal dresses, shoes and jewelery all year long. Follow the above link to be added to their email list.
And major props to my awesome friend Ashley and her man, who were major factors in making the event rock!

The Tiger....

She's had this little wooden pull-tiger for quite a while, but she figured out this week how to stand him up on his wheels and get him to roll! She's totally into dragging him around the house now!

Neighborhood Easter Party

We took Q to the neighborhood Easter party this morning. We were a little late and missed the egg hunt, but she didn't know the difference. She had a blast going up and down the stairs and slide on the playground.

She was very interested in the "bubby"--especially his nose and eyes. She said she wanted to sit on his lap, but when I sat her down she panicked.

So Mommy just held her in the picture!

For the rest of the party she wanted to know exactly where that "bubby" was, and kept going over to wave at him.

No eggs in that basket, but she was plum happy just carrying her goody bag!

Our bouquet!

Quinn and I ran to the library today to drop off our books and have a little picnic at the park. Along the way we kept stopping to pick wildflowers in the fields. By the time we got home the entire bottom of the jogger was filled with blooms! My allergies are now protesting, but I can ignore them when I look at our beautiful bouquet! Nik, remember our flower-picking adventures? Today reminded me!

This vase is very special to me. When I was in Montana at an antique store with my Grandmommy years ago, she held up one of these vases with the metal mesh lid and asked if I knew what it was called. I didn't, and she told me it's a "frog!" What a strange name for a vase, huh! Well, years later I saw an identical "frog" at an antique store in the Hill Country and couldn't resist taking it home with me. Today, as I fill my frog with wildflowers (my Grandmommy's favorite), I can't help but smile, thinking of her.

Buddies....

Wherever one goes, the other is sure to follow! Especially if there's food involved~

Teeth!

Daddy's last count came up with 11 pearly whites! She even has some molars pushing through!

Remember these?

One year ago......


And for this year? See below!

The bluebonnets....

March means bluebonnet time in Texas, and OF COURSE we have to get the traditional photos with baby surrounded by them! Aunt Lynda has become my bluebonnet portrait partner, and this year it totally took both of us to wrangle this girl. We kept saying, "remember last year when we just sat her there and she stayed?" Not this year! She ran, she picked, she ate, she stomped, she rolled, she dug and she DID NOT want to sit or stand anywhere we chose. At first I was disappointed that I didn't get the portraits I had in mind....but the more I look at these, the more I smile.....yup, THIS is our Quinn! With mud on her lacy white sweater, crazy fine hair blowing everywhere, eating bluebonnet stems (which are apparently not poisonous because she's still living). This first one is my favorite.

And THESE? These are her "eyes." She knows she can make us all crack up if she looks at us like this, and she totally uses it to her advantage to get out of trouble any chance she gets! It's her "trick" right now--we are constantly saying, "Quinn, show your eyes," and she'll roll them and then look to the side under her brows. What can we say, she's a MESS!
See all of them HERE.

Sugar and Spice Baby Shower

This post's for my fam, who know I've been working on my "prego model" scheme for a while now...I promised them pics, and here they are!
A friend and I got to do the decorations for a Sugar and Spice shower. Here's what we came up with!
My sweet hubby helped me procure "prego." We first raided the trash dumpster at a construction site (our new favorite means of acquiring free scrap lumber). Then he cut out the shape for me and I went to work making her look all nice and pregnant!

We put out different "sugar" and "spice" candies.

And used spice jars with colored sprinkles to hang from the chandelier and also decorate the cake table.

And our flowers went into a sugar bag on the guestbook table!
Now we just can't wait to see Baby B3!

Picking Party

Quinn met her great-uncle Chuck this weekend. Once she figured out he is a great reader of stories, she became his good buddy. She likes saying "Chuck" over and over! She met great-aunt Lois, too! They are visiting from Missouri for a few days. Quinn loves hearing Uncle Chuck imitate the sound his pet chickens make!

Today we went with Grandbob and Grandsue to the Houston Folklore Soceity picking party and heard all sorts of great acoustic folk music! We even heard the debut of Grandsue's song! Quinn slept through it, so she might need an encore, Grandsue!

Be still, Daddy's heart!

On a quick run to Northern Tool for some insulation supplies yesterday, Q found this little toy workbench and had fun trying it out. Of course her favorite part was the little toy telephone. The rest of the toolbench wasn't too exciting to her! :)

Ummmm....welcome Spring?

Today is the first day of Spring.
This past week (winter), it was sunny and 70's.
Today (spring), the low is predicted to be 32 at our house. Whattttt? Did someone miss the "spring" memo?

I had already done our closet "spring cleaning" and put away the heavy clothes. We had to dig a bit out today! Ditto for my plants. In Houston, March 17th is the last freeze date and after that you are supposedly safe to plant in the ground. Well my little babies had to be put to bed under tarps, freezecloth, towels, and buckets tonight to protect my flowering veggies and newly planted seedlings.

It also rained all day. Perfect weather for Quinn to try out her new raincoat, and of course sport her boots!

Interestingly, Matt is doing some updating on our attic insulation and ductwork and we can't turn our heater on this cold snap. He, too, thought the "heater days" were past us! We put baby Q to bed with socks and an extra onesie under her jammies and she has started sleeping with 3 "blanks" these days, so she should be nice and toasty!