SURPRISE Trip: Part 1

On Mar. 21, Quintin & I flew on a roundabout surprise trip. My sister, Talia, was going through the temple for the first time on the 26th...in Idaho. Well she thought we weren't coming. My parents and I planned it to be a surprise from everyone so none of my siblings knew we were coming and my bros-in-law didn't know until the night before.

We got to AZ on the 21st. My mom picked us up from the airport and we went home to surprise my brothers and sister. I walked up to the door and my brother Jaden was in the front room. He saw me through the window and ran out to see us Quintin. Then my other brother Dakota realized we were there and ran out. My sister was probably last to get the memo and once we saw the 3 of them, we went and visited my dad in his home office. Then the arguing and fighting over who got to hold the baby commenced. We spent 4 beautiful days in the sunshine, shorts-weather there!! We also ate lots of good food (Chino Bandito-Another Triple D feature!) and had a ton of fun!

Oh I should also mention baby Q got completely spoiled by grandparents who gave him food like pickles, lemons and got him addicted to lemonade...(ok so he had already had pickles before--they just fueled the fire).

Happy Birthday Brad!

Well, if you didn't read one of my last posts, my sister Talia is engaged to this guy:

Since we've fully adopted him as part of the family, we decided to do a little tribute to "Uncle B" on our blog.

Physics- His major at BYU-I
Ra Ra Rasputine- A song from Just Dance 2 that reminds us of him.
Uncle-Quintin's Uncle B
Smart-Did I mention his major is physics?!
Kind- He is seriously one of the nicest guys.
Humble- He doesn't go out of his way to have attention. I don't see it as shy but more as humble. He also is extremely smart but doesn't rub it in your face-a quality many intelligent people lack!
Math- His minor at BYU-I
Returned Missionary- Brad served a two year mission for our church in
Russia- (see above) Oh and the Russian word on there is "friend"
Polite- He came to visit our family at Christmas time and he was so polite. Our family is pretty loud and often ill-mannered, but Brad is polite!
Lucky guy- well he is marrying my sister and getting me for a SIL
Taco- Fond memories of taco-ing him and Talia on the lovesac.
Rubik's Cube- Brad is one of the only people I know who can solve a Rubik's cube in under 2 minutes without taking off the stickers.
Grateful- Brad is always saying thank you for the simplest of things.
Steadfast- Brad is strong in the Gospel. I know he will be a steadfast example for my little nieces and nephews.
Cute smile- Seriously, he has such a cute, sweet smile.

All in all, we are excited for Brad to join our crazy eternal family!

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...

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)

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.

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 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? ;)