Christmas in Idaho

****Just to warn you, there are lots of pictures!******

With that said... I will tell you how our Christmas events went down.

Tyler worked December 23rd until 5:00PM, came home to load the car, and then we left Portland at 6:00PM to drive to Idaho. The roads were relatively nice to drive on, hardly any snow, and little ice.

We arrived to Fruitland at midnight and stayed up for another 3 hours or so catching up with all the other family members who were there (which was really everyone). It was one crazy night and poor Quincy was a little confused as to what was day and when was night.

Amidst the chaos of having 9 adults and 2 kids under the age of 2 in one house... we had a few problems with Quincy. If we know one thing about Quincy it's that he's not about to miss out on ANYTHING when there's a party going on. Thus, Christmas eve it was difficult to get him to go to sleep early. He's been doing relatively well in the potty training process. He is almost always accident free during the day, but we are still keeping him in diapers at night.

On Christmas eve Quincy was having a bit of a difficult time. I took him to the bathroom to try and go before bedtime and we had a showdown. He was very sleep deprived and decided to make a bad decision in biting his mom. Boy oh boy did it hurt! It took everything in me not to lash out at him in pain. After it happened he got a spanking and then we went downstairs to have a time out--where I showed him what he had done to me and explained how much it hurt. He immediately realized his mistake and was nice enough to apologize and give me a hug. However, the damage was done... and to make sure it didn't happen again he was restricted for the remainder of Christmas eve night.

This picture doesn't really capture the full aspect of how it looked. I took this right after he did it. It later puffed up and later bruised pretty shade of purple and green. Luckily he's only 2, so Santa decided to let it slide this year.... because Santa had already 'made' Quincy's presents......

Before Quincy went to bed we had the usual Howard Family tradition in sharing one special thing that happened to us within in the year. Our family's good news was that we are expecting another little bundle of joy and that Tyler was blessed to find a wonderful new job.

Christmas Day went much better than the night before.

We all slept in until 8:30AM or 9:00AM and then headed upstairs to see it Santa came.

Quincy was pretty excited to see that Santa had left some things in his stocking.... and even a few presents. ....

Quincy and Jakoby in their new Christmas jammies.

With so many people in one household the amount of gifts was unbelievable..... this year the Christmas tree was in the dining room.

Not even all the gifts fit under the tree.......

It seemed that everywhere you looked there were presents....

Perhaps that's why it was difficult to get Quincy to focus on each task at hand.

Santa's stockings...... and a few other small gifts.

I was glad to see that Quincy was equally excited about the new Snoopy toothbrushes and Gummi Bears that Santa brought him.

Undoubtedly the stickers beat out the toothbrushes and candy though..... this kid can't get ENOUGH of stickers!

Quincy kept saying..... "There's more?" As we reassured him to dig further in his stocking to see what else Santa left him.

By far the best gift this year from "Santa" was this Mega Blocks red firetruck. Quincy LOVED it..... and if I remember right Santa happened to find this beauty for a smoking price of $2.00 at the Salvation Army. (With a little bleach and elbow grease it shined up like new.) Boy that Santa is a great shopper.... he sure knows when he sees a good deal. In fact, I doubt his elves could have made this for 2 bucks!

Even Jakoby seemed to enjoy the Santa firetruck.

Gotta love those early Christmas morning pictures huh?

Quincy seemed to have the most fun taking off the bows.... he even fond some creative things to do with them.....

These were just OUR family's piles of Christmas gifts! Man, I guess we must have been pretty good this year!

Jakoby and Grandma Teesy.

It was funny to watch Jakoby as he was nearly buried alive in all the wrapping paper mess.

Quincy also approved of Jakoby's new toys.... they both LOVED this ball popping toy!

Because there was so much going on..... we had a hard time getting Quincy to focus long enough to open his pile of presents. He was more interested in the name tag stickers.

By far, Tyler's favorite gift was a new XBOX.... well, new to him. Derek, his brother was kind enough to give Tyler his old XBOX since he bought a new one this year. Tyler has already been putting it to use at home.... and maybe, MAYBE one of these days I'll make his wildest dreams come true by playing it WITH him. :)

THANKS DEREK..... TYLER LOVES IT!

Grandma Teesy and Grandpa Kent didn't disappoint in spoiling all of their children, but especially the GRAND children. Quincy made a haul. Surprisingly, he LOVES these books that they got him. By far, his favorite book is the 'Mr. Grumpy' book. I personally can't get enough of hearing him say "Mr. Tickle".... because it sounds like Mr. Ti -tull.

Kent and Teesy, you'll have to tell me where you found those books because I think we need some more. :)

Jakoby lucked out from his grandparents, who got him this push and go toy. Boy, I think Heather and Trevor have the Howard's to thank for Jakoby's most recent progress in taking several steps at a time..... It won't be long before Quincy and Jakoby are running circles around each other and playing basketball out on the court.

We had a wonderful Christmas!! I hope all of your family's did too!

Holiday Christmas Cookie Exchange...

Every year one of my good friends from High School, Courtney Wack, hosts a holiday cookie exchange party. I look forward to receiving an invitation each year, unfortunately as we've been living in Idaho for the last 3 years. I have only been able to attend one year since graduating High School.

So, as you can imagine I was thrilled this year that I would be able to attend and catch up with girls I haven't seen for years! (I wasn't so thrilled about being 7 1/2 months pregnant when I would be reunited with old friends, but it was wonderful none the less.)

(Back: Rachel, Amanda, Kelly, Katie Front: Cortney, Kati, and Courtney Wack)

We had a fabulous time laughing, eating, reminiscing about the old times, and catching up on each other's futures. I love these girls and look forward to being able to see them a little more often now that we live in the PNW area.

Thanks Courtney for a great time!

The Joys of Being Quincy's Mom

We are very far behind on our blogging in the Howard home, no thanks to me....

I have been neglecting our poor little "family journal" for quite some time now. So, let me catch you all up to speed on what we've been doing.

One of my favorite parts about being Quincy's mom is when he shows interest in doing things I enjoy doing, like cooking. He loves to "help" in the kitchen.... though he's not always quite as helpful as he thinks he's being.

I'll still give him credit for trying though....

A couple of weeks ago I came up with an idea to use the extra fabric leftover from a previous project I had for "art work" on Quincy's bedroom wall. Quincy decided to make use of my fabric scraps in a creative way also..... he and his bears became..............NINJAS!

Being Quincy's Mom always keeps me on my toes. He constantly wants me to play with him. We usually end up playing with the same toys ALL day long. Quincy seems perfectly content to play with the same toys over and over again, but I don't have the same particular feelings about doing this.

Thus I have tried to come up with creative ways to play with the same toys. We decided one day instead of just building houses and garages with his mega blocks to sort out the colors....

After we built all the garages (for his cars) out of separated colors we discovered that there was a little discrimination on the green blocks.....

When he got tired of parking his cars in the colored garages, we decided that the zoo animals needed to come out......

There's one thing that will never change about being Quincy's Mom and that's knowing that he takes great pride in all of his accomplishments, whether big or small.

The one downside to sorting the blocks by color is that he insisted we do this each day after we did it the first time. I was afraid that I might have created an OCD 2 year toddler!

Luckily he moved on to bigger and better things....... like watching cartoons on Youtube via Dad's i-phone.

While Tyler and I packed our things for the Christmas holiday this is how our little boy spent the remaining hours before bedtime....

Does anyone else think it's crazy that our 2 year old is able to watch cartoons from when we were kids on a phone? We didn't even know what cell phones were when we were children.... oh wait, that's because they didn't HAVE them.

It's crazy how kids are so in tune with technology these days, rest assured Santa didn't bring this little boy a cell phone for Christmas. :)

I know we've been LONG over-due for a blog post....and especially with the kind of news we have to share...

I just wanted to document that Quincy is officially POTTY TRAINED!!!!!

I seriously had my doubts about this day actually arriving.... and to tell you the truth there were moments when I was undoubtedly ready to throw in the towel. BUT I stuck it out and after one hard core week of 24/7 lock down in Potty Boot Camp, our home, we have finally achieved some success!

Quincy has now been accident free for about 4 days. This is totally monumental. Whoever thought we'd be diaper free if we only put in one weeks worth of time?

Not to say it was all fun and games... the first few days were horrible for me and I kept asking myself, "Is he really learning anything?" We had 5 accidents in the first day... and seeing as how we only had three pairs of underwear you can imagine the amount of times I was doing laundry just to keep this kid in some dry clean underwear! On day 2 I demanded that Tyler take us to the store and we buy at least 7 pairs!

Quincy got to pick out the kind of underwear he wanted... which as no surprise to us, he chose some race car ones. He LOVES them! This was motivation for him to keep his underwear dry because he didn't want to pee on his race cars.

Now that we're into the second week, he is at a point in time where he tells us when he needs to pee and poop. Though we still have some timing issues with the whole pooping thing. He's not always in time to get from that point of where he knows it's coming to it actually getting it out in the toilet. But seriously, there are no complaints from me. He has been dry every day and I have even braved him sleeping in underwear for his nap! He woke up one afternoon and I was sure his bed would be wet, but it wasn't. He then said to me, "Mom I need to pee." I thought this was his way of admitting that he had already gone, but he then informed me, " No Mom, I need to go pee in the toilet!" So we got him down from his bed and he actually peed in the toilet.

Our next BIG adventure is peeing in public restrooms. He sort of has this phobia of peeing in 'strange' public toilets. He is overly concerned about the toilets not having lids. He thinks they are not toilets unless they have a lid on the back. He is also a little terrified of the loud flushing noise they make. So we just keep practicing, walking into lots of public restrooms and explaining that they aren't 'scary'. I think he'll eventually be okay. After all, we're only on week 2 of being potty trained.

I love Quincy's ability to learn and adapt to new situations. We are so proud of him.

We're also excited about being 'diaper free' .......at least until February... when we'll be buying three times the amount of diapers that we were buying last month.

Oh well, it's still exciting!!

Oh and lastly, as a side note... I have pictures from my camera that need to be blogged about, but we haven't had access to internet from our home( all my blogging stuff has to be done from an actual computer-- not Tyler's iphone, so we've had to use the apt. internet in the office)... and with all that Potty Boot Camp, it left little time for blogging. So rest assurred, we will be posting things as soon as we can.... now that we're able to venture out of the house!

Due to lack of Sleep.....

..............this is often how we find Quincy in the back seat during car rides. He is constantly passing out in the car, since he was such a party animal during Thanksgiving break. At least he's taking naps and sleeping through the night.... no complaints there. Although he is occasionally REALLY crabby. Luckily with Christmas coming up, and his concept of Santa Claus, we have something to hold him accountable to behaving.

Family Pictures....

For the past six months or so my Mom informed us that we would be taking a family photo during Thanksgiving break... since everyone would be together.

I have sort of been dreading this photo shoot since I'm almost 7 months pregnant now. I feel enormous and wasn't exactly keen on the idea of capturing myself at this stage in life for the next few years in a family photo.

However, I must say that the picture shoot with everyone was seemingly painless. We'll probably see how they turned out this week. I, did, however make my mom snap one of our little family before we changed out clothes.

And I will say, I think we all look pretty good.... I was even pleasantly surprised at how I looked, not nearly as dreadful as I felt in my mind.

I'm sure the family photos we had done by a friend of ours did an even better job than this little snapshot. Maybe we will do a family picture in a Christmas card this year after all.

Some Little Cousin Lovin'

All last week we told Quincy about how he would get to meet his cousin Lexi. He couldn't wait to play with her by the time Monday rolled around. However, on the drive to Grammie and Grandpa Loren's house he fell asleep and so his initial reaction to Lexi was a little shy.

This was his excited face to meet baby Lexi, before the nap.

Who couldn't love this little girl? She's so cute!

After a little while Quincy and Lexi were best buds. Although Quincy's more than double Lexi's age... the two were great companions for each other. Quincy loved that Lexi would crawl around chasing him, and Lexi liked having someone her size to rough house with. Boy that little Lexi bug is one tough chick. Thank goodness because sometimes Quincy's a little rougher than he means to be.

Lexi's not always all smiles... don't get me wrong she's one happy little girl, but she's quite serious sometimes (could be because she cut a tooth overnight while they were visiting). I loved these pictures of her different faces... this girl cracks me up! Especially this last one of her tilting her head to the side like, 'Hmmm... I dunno'. Funny, funny, girl!

Not only can Lexi keep up pretty well with Quincy while he's running around, she LOVES to play with hair. Not just play, but grab and pull out hair. Here's a great photo capturing Lexi gearing up to grab some blonde locks off Quincy's head. Little did Quincy know... I must say though, he didn't retaliate once, much to my relief he was very gentle with her. This was some much needed reassurance to the doubts I had about him and a newborn baby.

These two had so much fun being silly together. It's like they were both feeding off each other's energy. When one would get excited and start squealing, the other would follow. By the end of this night the two of them were exhausted!

Quincy can't wait to see his cousin, Lexi, again!

Thanksgiving Week in a Nutshell....

The beginning of our Thanksgiving holiday started with surprise..... for Grammie, that is.

My sister and her family were originally going to fly into Portland early Wednesday morning and leave Friday afternoon. I talked to my dad on the phone Monday afternoon to find out that they changed their plans to drive up late Monday night and get into Vancouver early Tuesday morning. We all knew about it and did what we could to keep my mom from finding out.

They got to Vancouver about 7:00AM and really confused my mom when they plopped onto her bed. She heard my sister Emy say, "Is that Grammie?" My mom's first thought was that it was Quincy and I, but she was confused as to why we would be at her house that early. Finally she realized it wasn't MY voice, but EMY'S voice. She was so happy.

This is my sister's family...or the Robledo Family: Gilbert (Gil), Emy, Lexi, and Evangiline (Evie).

This year for Thanksgiving we sure had a full house! Not only were all of MY siblings and THEIR families here...but my Grandma came, in addition to my Dad's sisters' family. All in all our numbers for dinner were up to 20 people. Mom had to do some re-configuring to be able to fit everyone into the tight dining room quarters. In fact she had to expand the dining room into her living room. It all seemed to work out though.

Since all the kids will be away for the Christmas holiday she decided to use the nice Christmas china for Thanksgiving. I must say, it did look very festive!

After everyone was full from eating a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.... we did exactly what you end up doing when everyone gets together, taking group photos of everyone.

Here's Great-Nanny with the little grand BABIES. I couldn't believe how big Quincy's cousin Lexi is. She is 9 months now and wearing a size 6 1/2 shoe and some 2T clothes. Just to give you better perspective on those stats, Quincy's 27 months old and wearing a size 8 shoe and 3T clothes. Lexi's quite the little match for Quincy....

This is Quincy's other cousin from my side of the family, Evie. It's funny to think that Evie is my step-niece when she's already a senior in high school, and older than Karter--my youngest brother! Evie is the sweetest girl. Not only is she is beautiful inside and out, but she's great at playing with the little kids. We are so glad she could come up to meet the family.

It's really crazy to think that the last time I saw Emy was the first time I had ever met her, not only that, but I was newly married, living in Boise, and still going to school.... it's amazing how much has happened since then!

Look, now we're both married and we have got 2 1/2 little ones on our hands. Man, I'm REALLY starting to look preggo right now! Uggg.... I can't wait to get this little guy out! He kicks like crazy. Tyler and I might make small to average size children, but boy are they healthy and strong. Pipa kicks and moves constantly, sometimes so much that I feel like my insides are bruised. It will be so nice to hold him in my arms and see him. Quincy can't wait either. He had SO much fun visiting with his cousin, Lexi. He can't wait to do fun things with a new little brother.

It was such a wonderful Thanksgiving this year, thanks Mom and Dad for everything! And thanks Emy and Gil for being able to share in all of it. It was great to see you guys. Hopefully we'll be able to see you more often.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Yes, yes, I realize some of you reading this are thinking: "What about Thanksgiving?"

BUT...

Since we won't be spending Christmas here in Oregon, and seeing as how I actually HAVE Christmas decorations this year, I thought I'd start a little early. Even Tyler, who gave me a hard time at first, has admitted that it all looks nice and cozy. And it does!

Last year we spent Christmas with my family, in fact I remember the drive there quite vividly... seeing as how we spent it in a **blizzard**! Luckily we made it safe and sound. We were able to spend a wonderful break with my family, despite everything being covered in snow. Practically everything shuts down here when it snows and since there were a few feet on the ground it made it difficult to get out.

Anyway, my parents gift to us last year was getting us started with some Christmas decorations. Anyone who knows my mom, knows that she loves Christmas decorations! After Christmas when everything went on sale we stocked up. We found some killer deals including boxes of 100 white Christmas tree lights for .10 cents a piece! I have decided to do all my seasonal decoration shopping this way.... when it's all 75% off. :)

Every year we rotate holidays with our families. This way we get to spend one of the major two holidays with each family. It has worked out great that Tyler's siblings, the ones who are married, are also on the same rotation for holidays as we are. It's so nice to see all of them at LEAST once a year.

This Christmas we'll be driving to Idaho. I keep hoping and praying we won't have to deal with bad weather again. To be honest, I'm kinda nervous in general about making the drive to Idaho. Last year, Tyler had a really flexible schedule and could pretty much determine his own work hours. This was nice since we had to pick and choose which day would be best to travel in.... we didn't have any pressure for him to get back. Since he's working for Key Bank now, he does have all holidays off, but it would be terrible if we weren't able to get back and he had to use his days off. I will also be 7 1/2 months pregnant in a car for 6-9 hours and you all know that pregnancies + long drives do not = the best of circumstances for traveling.

Oh and did I mention how much fun it is trying to 'entertain' a 2 year old when they have to be strapped into a car seat? It's all very lovely! I think we'll pick a couple of movies to take, last time that worked pretty well.

So.......bottom line.... praying for good weather.
I already know we'll have a blast when we actually get there.

And here's a little Christmas preview of what our home looks like:

Our Christmas tree.

I tried to take a few pictures with the lights off so you could see it all lit up at night, but unfortunately my camera doesn't have any settings to get a great picture. This is as good as it gets.

Quincy and I spent an afternoon cutting out snowflakes.... mostly it was me doing the cutting, but he instructed me on what shapes to cut out and helped with the gluing and taping on the windows.

One of my favorite things about our new apartment is our fireplace. I love that we have a mantel and place where our stockings can hang.

More snowflakes.

Again, one more attempt at trying to get a shot with the lights out.

Quincy and I.
Yes, I know I've been neglecting to put up any 'pregnancy' pictures of me. I feel huge and quite frankly I'm not in the mood to see myself like this. It's oh-so-depressing when none of your cute clothes fit you. Luckily, Tyler has been able to take me shopping a few times to get some much needed apparel. So here's one of me and my boy(s). Enjoy! :) Oh and tomorrow I go in for another Dr. appt.... so I'll let you know if there's anything exciting. Probably just shots and that yucky glucose test. Blah!

And just one more pic. of Tyler and I.
He seems to get so much satisfaction out of taking pictures of me that I thought I'd include one of him.

Merry Early Christmas Everyone!