The most important thing I want to pass on to Quinn is a strong faith in God and the importance of a relationship with Christ. Jeremy and I center our marriage around our faith and I pray that Quinn will grow up understanding how amazing it is to let God have control of your life and surrender.
Last weekend we had the chance to dedicate our sweet baby to the Lord! Our church (Riverbend) is such an awesome place and we are so excited to see Quinn grow up there. It meant a lot to dedicate her there and have our church family pray over her and promise to be there as she grows in her relationship with God.
Even better, Quinn's real family got to join in the dedication too! Everyone was there to support her and pray for her as we promised, as her parents, to raise her in a Godly home.
Jeremy and I are pretty close to our pastor, Dr. Haney, and it was so special to have him pray over Quinn and anoint her with oil. He said he is very proud of us and he loves us. What a beautiful way to start our sweet Quinn's spiritual journey.
Here are a ton of photos from the special day. Enjoy!
Nannie Mae and Papa D
Great Grandmother Mimi and Pawpaw
Ahwo, Ahpo and Tylia
What is Pawpaw talking about?
Auntie Em, Aunt Abby and Uncle J
Dr. Haney praying over us and anointing Q with oil.
Q loved the sound of the congregation clapping! :)
My Mom in her Heaven with all her kids and grand baby.
Hottest Daddy ever!
Jeremy's Mom, Granny
Mama's hilarious!
Mimi actually smiled! Usually when we tell her to smile....
BAD NEWS:
Don't judge me but I gained 65 lbs. when I was preggo with Quinn.
About 10 of that was her and then there was some water in there, but geeze, that's a lot of weight. I am lucky I am tall or I would have looked even more "whale-ish" than I did!
Anyway, I am happy to say I am losing it pretty quickly. I wish I could say I am eating super-healthy and working out every day, but that's a big fat negative. Breastfeeding makes me ravenously hungry (like more than when I was preggo), and I get excited if I work out three times a week.
GOOD NEWS:
I only have 15 lbs. to go!
I can probably attribute a lot of this to the 500-700 extra calories I burn each day breastfeeding, but here's what else I have been trying to do to get back into the old jeans.
Workouts at lunch. I am lucky that my office brings in a boot camp on Wednesdays and Fridays so I can just run upstairs, get my butt kicked and then eat at my desk all sweaty. I also meet up with my good friend, Laurel, at 24 Hr. Fitness and she kicks my butt too. She's like a personal trainer because she always comes with a plan. I'm spoiled!
Dessert only on the weekend. I know that sounds silly, but I freakin' love dessert and while I was preggo I ate it every day. I'm not gonna lie, I might have a piece or two of chocolate every day, but I don't sit down with a bowl of ice cream or eat a cupcake until the weekend.
Lots of water. Like I sort of drown myself. But, that's really good while I'm breastfeeding too I guess. I make myself drink a 36oz. water bottle on the way to Q's school and work before I can have my coffee. Then, of course, I drink a lot of water throughout the day.
Taking care of a baby. I am convinced it's the best workout ever. Especially a spoiled baby who likes to be held all the time. Oh, and I live in a two-story house so there are stairs involved with the whole carry the baby thing. AND, I feel like a pack mule every day leaving for work with my five bags (purse, diaper bag, lunch bag, workout bag and pump bag) so I get a workout going to and from the car with all that...plus Q in the car seat.
So there ya go. I think I mostly just wanted to document this for myself so that maybe I can look back on it when I am 15 lbs. skinnier and wearing my old clothes. For now, I will continue to dig through my closet looking for "in between" outfits and try to keep on losing. Nine months on and nine months off.
Quinn officially turned five months old on Easter Sunday! How fun! I have already written a lot recently about her and her milestones, but I wanted to have an official five month blog post to compare to the others so here we go!
Dear Sweet Five Month Old Quinn,
You are growing so fast. It's kind of bittersweet because it's going so fast, but it's so good that you can do things now and be a little more independent. Here are some fun things that have happened this month.
Starting a New School
You started at your new and permanent school this month and we are absolutely in love with it! (Primrose at Four Points) You love your teachers and they love you and the whole school is awesome! Your morning teacher is a crazy, energetic Cuban woman named Miss Belkis. Each morning when we come in she says "Hola Quinn! Hola preciosa!" and you smile so big. She sings, talks really loudly and has more energy at 8am than anyone I've ever seen. You also love your afternoon teachers, especially Miss Helen. She is just out of college and she LOVES you too. You tend to laugh at her a lot. It's going to be so fun to see you grow up in a school with awesome curriculum, Christian principles and great teachers and directors.
FOOD!
First, you have started sort of holding your bottle. You get so excited about it that you just can't wait to grab it and put it in your mouth. We have to help more toward the end when you get sleepy though, but that's okay. Second, I think you are going to be an eater. We tried rice cereal and you loved it. You ate like you had been eating your whole life. You open wide for the spoon and you aren't too messy. I guess we will see what happens when we start other foods. I hope you aren't picky! We have started a little baby-led weaning where we give you big pieces of food to gnaw on and you like that. I mean, let's be honest...you will gnaw on anything right now.
MMM!
Chompers
On that note, your bottom two teeth have offcially made their presence known. The first week of teething was a little rough and you had a couple of rough nights, but other than that you are great. We use Orajel sometimes, and we are just getting used to the massive amount of drool that is all over everything.
Be careful Mama, I'll bite you! (This is when they first popped up.)
Popping out more and more!
Mmmm Feet
You found your feet and you can't get enough of them. You are so cute and now I know what the yoga instructor means when she says to do the "happy baby" on the floor. You love grabbing your feet, putting them in your mouth and rocking back and forth. You also like to explore with your feet. Last night, I put you on a blanket in the grass and your feet were curiously touching and feeling the grass. I love little baby toes!! I love them so much that I got some SUPER cute little sandals for you to wear this summer. Yup, still shopping too much for you.
One of my favorite pics...I have this on pinned up on my cube at work!
The sandals I got for you! So freakin' cute!
Curious Girl
You are getting more and more curious. You grab for everything and you will play with pretty much anything. Your new favorite thing is a bag of chips. You love the crinkly noise it makes and it gives Mama and Daddy a good 15 minutes to eat! I will probably have to start wearing studs more since you stare at my earrings when I wear big ones. I can just see the wheels turning in your sweet little mind thinking "if I could just grab those, they would taste so good!" It seems like we set you down somewhere and you are just looking for something to grab. I even caught you trying to dig in my purse! Oh dear, it's already started. I wonder what it will be like when you are older wanting to know what's in my purse? Money to shop? :)
Oooo what's in there?
You kept grabbing for your spoon so I let you play with it and you kept gagging yourself.
Little Wiggly Worm
You have gotten so wiggly! I have a feeling you will only get wigglier as you grow but right now it's pretty funny. After bathtime, you get so excited because you know your bottle comes next. You squirm and squirm on your changing table and it's hard for me to give you your baby massage and get your diapers and pjs on! I have started calling you Squirmy the Wormy.
Other Random Things
-You still sleep really well, usually from about 8:15pm - 7am. You have gotten so well at putting yourself to sleep, and you love sleeping on your side holding your elephant blankie.
-You got a new car! Well, it's used, but you still love it. It's sort of a walker, so pretty soon you will be all over the place in that thing. Your feet barely touch the floor now, but you will be driving soon.
Watch out Austin...she's hittin' the roads!
-You are almost sitting up...sort of. You are really strong and you can sit for a couple of seconds, but you aren't quite there yet. I will be SO glad when you are because you are getting really heavy and I feel like you will be able to entertain yourself a little better when you can sit up. You still like to be carried around a lot. Oops, I guess I started that bad habit.
Sitting up for a couple of seconds.
You're trying really hard to sit up.
-You are wearing mostly 6 month clothes now. You have a few outfits that are 3-6 months that fit well too.
-We have started using the humidifier every night. I think you might have allergies a little (welcome to Austin) and I have to use the Nose Frida pretty much every day. Best. Invention. Ever.
Finally, the best news of the month...
Your Pawpaw moved close to Austin! We are so excited because your Pawpaw became the City Manager in Giddings and it's only about 45 miles away. We have already visited him twice and he's come to Austin a couple of times. Pawpaw is in love with his Baby Quinn and he is so excited to be closer. You love him too! You used to cry when he held you, but the last few times you just smile and laugh at him. I think you also like the way his whiskers feel on your face when he gives you kisses. YAY!
It's Easter morning and Quinn, who rarely naps during the day because she hates taking naps, has decided to take a nice long morning nap while the family sits on the couch all dressed up waiting to go to church. I guess we will go to the next service. :)
Happy Easter! It's one of my favorite holidays and I hope Quinn loves it more and more as she gets older! I remember going over to my Margaret's (my grandmother who Q is named after) every Easter for ham, grits and a big Easter egg hunt. The goal was to find the golden egg that had some major dough inside. I think it was like $20...big bucks for a kid. :)
Quinn had a great first Easter weekend! Good Friday Jeremy and I had to work, but I sent Quinn to school with treats for her teachers. They are so sweet and they love on her all day long, so I figure it's the least I can do! Quinn wore her bunny ears headband to school for the big Easter egg hunt. (I'm pretty sure the infant class probably just went outside and then came back in for nap time.)
Yummy treats!
Her Nannie Mae, Papa D, Autie Em and even Pawpaw came for a visit this weekend. Friday evening we got to hang out outside with Pawpaw for a while blowing bubbles and having fun. It has been so pretty in the evenings lately so we decided to eat at Torchy's with the whole family where they have great outdoor seating. Quinn couldn't get enough of the little girls who were running and playing in the grass. She was just staring and smiling.
Quinn staring at the little girls playing outside.
We had such a fun Saturday! Quinn got to try rice cereal for the first time. I couldn't believe how well she did. I expected a yucky face or at least some cereal coming back out of her mouth, but she loved it. She ate so well and after the second or third bite, she was a pro. I lifted the spoon to her mouth and she opened wide. She also kept trying to grab the spoon, so we will probably try some baby-led weaning soon. I think we have an eater on our hands and I can't wait to see her eat lots of other yummy food!
OMG...so excited about the cereal!
Mmmmmm, so good!
Here Mama, I can do it!
MMMM!
Saturday afternoon the girls went with me to get my hair done and shop on South Congress. We are starting Quinn early! Everyone who saw her went on and on about what a good baby she was. She was wide awake, happy, curious and just taking it all in. She liked Kendra Scott...all the pretty, colorful, sparkly jewelry was her favorite. (Hint, hint Jeremy.) :) Since we had eaten a heavy BBQ lunch, we decided sandwiches at home would be a perfect end to our day. Quinn was excited because after not really napping all day, she got to stay up later than normal to hang out outside again.
Quinn will probably have beautiful black or brunette hair so she won't have to do this!
Auntie Em fed Q while they waited at the salon.
This place is awesome!
Growing girl!
Q loves her Nannie Mae!
Today we started the day by reading the story of Jesus' death and resurrection in Quinn's children's Bible. It's funny how they word things in those kid's books...my favorite part of the story is when Jesus comes back to life and goes to the Upper Room to see his disciples. He eats while he's there and he's trying to convince the disciples he is really alive and not just a ghost. The book says:
"Delicious!" Jesus wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and grinned. "Can a ghost do that?" He winked and then they all laughed.
Jesus apparently wiping his mouth.
Quinn loves to read her Bible stories!
Since Quinn decided to nap this morning we had some extra time when she woke up for some photo opps...YAY! We are about to head to church to celebrate Jesus' resurrection and worship (after Q wakes up). Then, we are headed to Iron Cactus to gorge ourselves on a yummy brunch buffet. I have a feeling an afternoon nap might be in order. We will have to see if Little Miss Priss has the same idea. I have a feeling she will want to stay up all day and play. Oh dear! Oh well...Happy Easter!
I live in Austin with my wonderful husband Jeremy, my beautiful baby girls, Quinn and Noelle, and my sweet (spastic) puggle,Ella. I'm a marketing and PR consultant and WAHM. We love our family, friends, church (Riverbend Church) and our life here in the ATX!
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