Fresh Conversations with a 4 year old!

Without participating in Black Friday shopping this year, I have been a little lost in my Christmas shopping endeavors. I have a hard time buying stuff that I know was even cheaper two weeks ago at 4 in the the morning!

Yesterday, however, I ventured out WITH Quinton and bought a few goodies to go under the tree for said shopping companion. It wasn't easy hiding the stuff in the shopping cart and I had to pretend, at one point, that the toy underneath the cart must have been left there by the last person and that I would put it back.

So later at home, while Quinton was watching TV, I wrapped his goodies. Quinton came along just as I finished wrapping one of the presents and saw the three other wrapped gifts nearby. He asked if he could open them and I said, "No, those are for Christmas. You can open them on Christmas day." Quinton's response, "Mom, it's Christmas! Now, can I open them?"

Now here is where the pattern comes in and our conversation this morning:
Q: Mom, I have to go potty. Are you coming?
Me: No, you can go by yourself.
Q: Mooooom, come with ME!

So I walk with him to the bathroom.
On the way to the bathroom, he sees the presents under the tree and is reminded, AGAIN, about wanting to open them.

Q: Mom, can I open my presents?
Me: No, it's not Christmas yet. When it's Christmas day you can open them.
Q: (from the bathroom) Mom, it's Christmas! Now can I open them?
Me: Quinton, we have to wait until Santa comes on Christmas day.
Q: Mooooom, can you get with it? (seriously, he said this)
Me: You have to wait until Christmas day!
Q: You're not my friend.

So there it is. I am sure we will have this conversation at least 10 times a day for the next 10 days!

Happy Birthday, Sara with no 'H'!!!!

Happy 5th Birthday, Sara!

My niece is one of the funniest little girls I have ever met!

She, like her older sister, Taylor, are just like their mom and my sister, Jessi! Sara definitely has her mom's sassy and fun-loving attitude. She knows exactly how to get what she wants with a slight tilt to her head and batting her sweet little lashes.

See what I mean?

We love you Sara!

Quinton said we should get on an airplane and come to your birthday party!

I wish we could!!!

Bon Voyage!

I'm still planning on blogging about all of the Thanksgiving cruise but I thought I'd give you a couple of teasers before the mega-post.

Besides, you know it's going to be a good cruise when your family looks this good getting on the boat!

And it's going to be a blast with all 23 of these family members on board!!!
Pretty awesome, too, that the good-looking couple on the left started it all 60 years ago! This cruise was a celebration of their 60th Wedding Anniversary and what a celebration it was!!!

National Geographic Kind of Stuff!

I'm finally working on the mega blog post about our recent vacation but I didn't want this video to get lost in the shuffle.

While in Panama, our tour guide took us into the "jungle" where we spied some howler monkeys, some giant mosquitos and these really cool ants!

The ants cut the leaves and take them back to their home but what's amazing is how many of them there are and how cool they look all carrying leaves! Plus, they carve out a distinct train, about 2-3 inches wide the whole way! It was such a cool phenomenon to watch!

Happy Birthday, GREAT Grandpa John!

We wanted to say a big Happy Birthday to my Grandpa and Quinton's GREAT Grandpa John!

This is my dad's dad and he's such a wonderful Grandpa!

This picture if of him camping and that purple stuff on his hands is huckleberry juice!

Grandpa John, we love you lots and hope you have a great birthday!

Love, Stacy, Matt and Quinton Jeppsen!

Cool Photographer!

Where we went trick-or-treating on Saturday had a cool photography studio who set up their studio to take fun pictures of all the trick-or-treaters.

They send out the digital images for free and I am so happy how cute this turned out!

"Why does Halloween have to be EVERYDAY?"

"Why does Halloween have to be EVERYDAY?"

That was Quinton's question/whine Saturday night when we were trying to get him to go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.

You know.

When you're SUPPOSED to trick-or-treat?

By the time Saturday night rolled around, Quinton had had enough of Halloween!

I can't really blame him.

The festivities had begun the week before and throughout the week he'd already collected enough candy to feed a small country.

It first started back about the 23rd when I finished Quinton's costume and MADE him try it on to see if it fit. He really loved it once it was on, but happy to take it off because it was "too itchy".

Here he is modeling it:

The 24th was our church's Halloween party and it was a blast!

Too bad the only people to "get" Quinton's costume had to be between the ages of 31 to about 38 and have watched a lot of Saturday morning cartoons.

Quinton was Lion-O from the Thundercats.

An awesome 80s cartoon that I used to love as a kid so of course, I bought the DVDs for Quinton (okay for me) and he loves them, too!

So this was his request, to be Lion-O, Lord of the Thundercats, for Halloween!

Then, on Halloween morning, we went to the annual trick-or-treating extravaganza in the nearby village of Glencoe.

Once we arrived (plus a parking ticket), we had a GREAT time!
Here's Quinton in full trick-or-treat mode!
And who loves Halloween more than Quinton? Matt!
Just kidding!
Matt was a great sport and wore his Napoleon Dynamite wig, just to get in the spirit.

Q and his buddies had a great time running around.

As I mentioned before, by the time Halloween evening rolled around, when kids are supposed to do their trick-or-treating, Quinton said he didn't want to be Lion-O anymore and he didn't want to go outside.

I finally convinced him to go trick-or-treating to our neighbors by giving him a new costume. None of the costumes we already had in his closet would work...not the prince costume or his ninja outfit...he wanted to be a mummy!

So I grabbed an old sheet and Matt got to ripping while I started wrapping.

Doesn't Q look sooo excited?

The finished product:

A somewhat content little mummy ready to get more candy!

So my little mummy lasted 5 houses where he trick-or-treated into the house of all houses. One of our neighbors was giving out YARD STICK long GUM!

After that, what more is there for a trick-or-treater?

So we were done.

All in all, it was a great Halloween week, even if it did feel like Halloween everyday!