CONGRATULATIONS!!

My sister Talia is now engaged to Brad! We are glad we can now show Q this picture:

and be able to say Uncle Brad instead of "Oh that's just one of your aunt's boyfriends..."
We're also glad they're getting married or those plates and cups we made for my mom for Christmas with everyone's silhouettes on them would also be an awkward subject...

CAUGHT UP!

And boy does it feel good?! I hope I never have to write 20+ blogs in 2 days to catch up again. EVER.
With that said, we've decided to rename our blog because really...it's all about Quintin these days. But, we don't blame you...I mean look at him:

Q Club

How can something so sweet like this:


do something like this? (that's the inside of the shirt)



Well he does...and several people are members of the Q club--look for wet, white spots on clothing (not all pictured-I'll add them as I find the pictures)

Laundry

what happens when daddy does laundry when mommy does homework...





Notice his "mom...do you see what dad is doing to me right now?" face & also note that this is 2 different laundry days.

3 MONTHS

HOW THE HECK DID THIS HAPPEN? Wednesday, January 19th, 2011 My itty bitty tiny baby who used to sleep all the time is not so itty bitty any more (see thighs below).

At three months, Quintin...
-Weighs 15 lbs (89%)
-is 24 inches long (67%)
-is 86% proportionate
-sleeping through the night almost consistently.
-will smile if being smiled at
-is starting to show interest in his toys
-will grip his toys if we put them in his hand
-has figured out how to make the musical toy from his activity mat play music
-can hold his head up pretty much unassisted for a significant amount of time.
-is wearing half 0-3 month clothes and half 3-6 months.
-has met all of both our extended family
-loves to look at lights
-loves to watch mommy and daddy play Just Dance 2 and kiss when daddy gets home
-is a total mommas boy but loves his daddy too
-LOVES bath time and has figured out how to splash
-LOVES licking dad's smoothies off his pacifier (ya we know we're bad parents)
-Has started reaching for things every once in awhile (like when helping mommy cook)
-melts my heart every single day

MLK Day

For MLK day, we went to...IHOP. Yep, you guessed it. I don't really know why we go there for every federal holiday, but we do. I ordered Chocolate Chip pancakes. Steven ordered buttermilk. Doesn't matter if you're black or white.

Big Chief

You may remember the big chief story from here or here.
Unfortunately Q went through a growth spurt during Christmas break and I didn't take his onesie with us. SO when we got back, he was too big for his little squire shirt...but we took a couple pictures for the memories haha.

To Eternity & Beyond

January 5th, 2011- Our 3 year anniversary!
We went from:


To this (you have no idea how hard it was to find a picture of just us with no Q):



In 3 years we have been through many things:
-We moved across 10 states & have lived in 3 different places.
-We increased our family to 3 :)
-We have been on lots of vacations: Prescott, California, Las Vegas (2x), Utah (way too many times), and then our road trip to move here.
-We have been to the emergency room 8 times (at least), 3 on holiday weekends
-We have taken probably close to 5000 pictures (with a very good portion since last October)
-We have been team primary teachers, YW 2nd Counselor (me), Scout leader (Steven), nursery worker (Steven), RS Committee Member/VT supervisor (me), Primary chorister (me), and now we are back to team primary teachers.
And many, many more things. We have had good days, bad days, TERRIBLE days, and wonderful days. Being married is not for wimps.
This year, we both decided that 3 years was just a drop in the bucket compared to eternity together. We still celebrated by going on a date (without the baby!) and Steven bought me a dozen pink roses and I bought him a tobogan hat with ear flaps.
I can honestly say Steven is my best friend. He is a wonderful dad and a fantastic husband. We have our moments, but overall, I think I'll keep him ;)
Here's to forever!

Dorn Bowling

Jan 3rd, 2011- We were able to have a fun family night going bowling with Steven's family. Quintin got passed around from uncle to grandparent for the whole game. I love going bowling with Steven's family. For the record, I didn't win but I did beat Steven. After Nate kicked our trash, we went home and ALL the boys gave Q a bath. He splashed everything and got everyone wet--hilarious.

Quintin's Blessing Day

In our church, we give babies a blessing when they are little rather than baptize them (children are baptized at 8 years old). This can only be done by someone who worthily holds the Priesthood. Learn more about this here. For Quintin, this means that Steven was able to give him the blessing. Steven gave a wonderful blessing and the spirit was very strong. Big shout outs go to the Eagers who traveled across the valley to be with us, my grandparents who came down from Utah, the Drotars who missed the blessing because their car broke down on the way but they still came to the luncheon, and all our other family members who were able to be there!
After church we were able to have some friends and family over to enjoy soup and rolls and dessert. It was a great day! We are so thankful that we have such good support systems in our families. Here are some of the pictures we have. We still need to get some of Steven's family with Q from someone else's camera, but here are some with my family (including a 4 generation shot with my grandparents) and a three generation picture with Q, Steven, and Dad Dorn.







PS THANK YOU to grandma & grandpa Ferrell who bought Q's tux and for Grandma for making his red bow tie :)

Happy New Year

We rang in the new year with our dear friends the Drotars and then Steven came home and lit fireworks with my brothers, sister, and dad. My mom, Q and I watched from inside (it was actually cold outside).

Here are some things we are looking forward to in 2011:
-Quintin's first birthday & all the fun stuff he will do between now and then
-My graduation (6 more weeks of classes left)
-Another wonderful summer with wonderful weather in ND
-Maybe a wedding or two
-Steven doing his flight instructing classes and completing most of his degrees
-Teaching the 10-11 year olds in primary
-The Dorns coming to visit in August
AND---Since I spent all but 5 weeks of 2010 pregnant or recovering from childbirth, I am looking forward to all of 2011 with just our little family of 3!

Dorn family curse:

Boys. There are only boys in the Dorn family. All the girls have married in. We could have been even numbers if Quintin had been a girl and if our upcoming nephew had been an upcoming niece. However, the Dorn curse is boys so now we are down 7-3. But, it does make for some cute pictures like this:

Red tie day.

PS We're still holding out for a daughter sometime in the not-near future!

Christmas cards

If you didn't get one, that's because yours was probably in the pile that I found when we got back to ND from Christmas break that Steven forgot to mail out. If you live here in ND and didn't get our Christmas treat, well that's probably because Steven forgot to take it out to you after I left ("it was too cold") but don't worry, I ate them and they were delicious. But, without further ado, here is our Christmas card. I designed it using the pictures that our photographer took at Quintin's 6 week session and my mad skills ;)

Christmas

Christmas was tons of fun! We were all spoiled, but mostly Quintin. Quintin makes for a good alarm clock on Christmas morning so we were up EARLY. My family did something different than normal this year, but I loved it and everyone is planning on doing it again next year...homemade Christmas. Someday I will blog about all the crafting we did before Quintin was born which included our Christmas presents. We also got lots of movies and games and TONS of stuff for Quintin. My dad is making me and my sisters jewelry boxes (not finished yet) and making Q one of those shape box things out of really pretty wood (also not done yet but I can't wait to see it when it is!)
The hard part about having families that live 23 houses away (yes I counted them last time we were there) is that we often get split in a thousand directions on holidays. However, we are pretty used to it and our parents are friends so they understand if we're late or have to leave early. After we opened gifts with my family, we got dressed and headed to Steven's parents house to open presents. We got all the brothers Nerf guns. We made them all open them at the same time and once they realized what they were it was a contest to see who could open it and shoot everyone else first (Greg won). Nate tried to do it fast but was holding Quintin and gave up half way through because Q was off limits. Becky and I found darts all around the house for like 3 days after Christmas. We also got lots of much needed things and Quintin got some fun presents too (baby Vans, Little People Nativity, and TONS more). After opening presents, Steven's dad's extended family started showing up. We always get to eat lunch with everyone and the cousin's draw names for each other. Again, Quintin was spoiled rotten by Steven's aunts and we got the new MJ cd so I can't complain.
After lunch and visiting, everyone left and we went back to my parent's house to take a nap. When we woke up, we played games for awhile and then bounced back over to Steven's house to play games and give Quintin a bath. All in all, a great day full of family and we couldn't have asked for anything better!
Oh and my mom took our family picture in our matching pjs, but I don't have it yet. Believe me, it's cute ;)

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve, we had a ton of fun! Our Christmas Eve is always full of lots of traditions. We spent most of the day finishing up gifts for our homemade Christmas, wrapping presents, and tidying the house. Then, the nighttime activities begin! First, we started out with my family to have an early, delicious dinner. Then, my mom passed out our Christmas pajamas. Then, Steven and I got everything together and took Q to his first Cluff family Christmas party. Every Christmas Eve we get together with Steven's mom's extended family. Every year, I meet someone new! This year, we had the youngest baby so guess what that means? We got to be Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. Quintin does not like to be swaddled and it was nap time so he wasn't a real cooperative Baby Jesus. After we read the Christmas story (and all the cousins act it out) we always have a family talent night. Luckily, Greg married Caitlin and she has real talent so she sang to represent our family. This year we added something cool where each Cluff kid and/or their spouse talked about a spiritual experience they have had in the past year. I had to go feed the grumpy baby so I didn't get to hear everyone's too well but the ones I did hear were awesome! After visiting with family, we loaded up with Steven's brothers (that's usually tradition too, they always end up going back with us) and headed for home. Once home, I was an elf for my mom and we all went to sleep. Steven was really mad because my brothers decided they were going to sleep on our floor. When we were little, we would always sleep in the same room on Christmas Eve (so I could make sure none of the kids snuck out). Well we haven't done this since I moved out of the house. BUT my little brothers cried and said we were ruining their favorite part of Christmas Eve so my parents let them sleep on our floor...haha surprise! I thought it was funny, but Steven not so much because he couldn't walk around in his G's. Oh well...memories are memories!

Christmas Tree

My parents have a 12 foot artificial tree. For most families, decorating this would be enough but not ours. On Dec. 17th, we headed to pick out a real tree for the front room. It was a lot of fun! My parents have usually made sure that we have 2 trees so that the kids coming home from college get to help put up some decorations. The years that my parents have a real tree in the front room we all get to put our ornaments on that we've made over the years. (The 12 footer is the pretty catalog-looking tree.) I especially enjoyed it this year because I didn't get to put up any decorations in our house. All in all, a good tradition!
PS The first picture is of Steven & my brothers making a chain of all the ornament hooks (Kind of like barrel of monkeys). Steven is always the instigator...

Go Coyotes Go!

In case you didn't already know, Steven and I went to the same high school. And our high school has a really good football team. Even after we graduated we would go back for the games (never homecoming though, ironic no?). This years season was no different. Q and I were lucky enough to be there for the state play off game on Dec. 13th in Cardinal stadium. Q went through 2 outfits, several diapers and an entire travel container of wipes. He also got very spoiled by his uncles. I was happy to get to see my sister perform on colorguard. Sadly, my dear coyotes lost but it was an OK game and just good to be with family. The best part was when my bro-in-law kept telling all his old friends from high school that it was his baby. You wouldn't believe how many people asked him...at the end of the night he got tired of saying this is my nephew and just started saying, "You wanna see my baby?" Jeez Nate, what kind of reputation did you have in high school if everyone assumed Q was yours? ;)