The Quinn's

Here are some pictures of my family from Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We were not able to treck out to the mid-west for any of the holidays...

so it was "I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams" for me this year!!

Thanksgiving 2006

My sisters, Megan & Shannon

Marci [my sister-in-law], Megan & Shannon

CHRISTMAS 2006

The "Baby"-- but the tallest of us all--my brother, Ryan

Megan and mom

Dad

[sorry, dad, this was the best picture I had of you from Christmas]

My brother [the oldest] and his wife, Marci

Shannon & her husband, Rich.

They are expecting a little girl in April 2007---

I will finally become an aunt!!!

CHRISTMAS DAY

We had a wonderful Christmas Day!! Drew was the first one up and Daddy played with him in his room with the Tinker Toys so I could get a little extra shut-eye before the day began. Then Jack woke up ready to eat, so while I fed Jack we watched the Christmas program again...Drew wanted to see the "puppet show." Then the fun began. John read the Christmas story which Drew knows pretty much by memory now [since I have only been reading him "Christmas story books" this whole month] and we sang "Happy Birthday to Jesus" which Drew ended by singing, "and many more!" We kind of got a kick out of that! Since all of my family and much of John's extended family live out of town, we had a lot of gifts this year. They just kept coming! It took us about 2 hours to open all the gifts, of course because Drew was so excited about each new toy and wanted to play with each one! And I couldn't rationalize making him push away each toy just to throw another one at him just to get it out of the way. I wanted him to enjoy each one...and so we all did together! Jack was so, so adorable and smiled and cooed the whole time...like he knew it was a very special day. He made it through for about half of the time and was at his limit. After a lot of playing with all the toys, the boys took their naps and later on we headed to John's parents for dinner and gifts with them. [Oops...no pictures. Forgot! They say that happens with 2 kids!!!] It was a wonderful day with the family and celebrating Christ's birth.

Me & the Boys

Daddy & Jack

Drew in his Christmas PJ's

Jack's 1st Christmas

...Christmas Day

Drew as "Chef Souffle" A friend from college, Kristi Colas, visited our church recently to share her plan to go to France as a missionary. She had a chef puppet that helped answer the questions & share some French facts. It was so adorable and the kids just loved it! Since Drew has met the Chef, everytime he sees anything that resembles a chef, he calls it "Chef Souffle!!" I was thrilled to find this little hat and apron so he can help mommy in the kitchen so we can cook like Chef Souffle! He says he wants to go to France to visit him someday.

The infamous "put together" toy!

Drew helping daddy making the Chex Mix.

John is collecting the Justice League superheros.

The artist in him loves the stylized look that DC Comics has made them. The frame he is holding is a sheet of the comic superhero stamps that I framed for him.

Jack and his new Elmer elephant.

Some great visual stimulation going on here!!

Christmas Eve

Here are the boys after we got home from church this morning. Thought I better grab the camera while Jack was awake and alert and while they were still in their church outfits and in their right minds! It's not often a moment like this arises!

HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!!

Puppet Show

Drew really got into "puppets" while we were making them for the program. He now will say, "Mommy, this toy is for the puppet show." Well, Drew just received an adorable little Pottery Barn snowman puppet from his buddy, Canon and I set up a little stage so he could put on a show for Jack and I. Aunt Stephanie always sends GREAT gifts!!

Maybe we have a future ventriloquist on our hands???

Like father, like son!?!?

Church Christmas Program

It has been a busy month! After the Thanksgiving festivities and celebrations were over, [john's birthday was on Thanksgiving day this year...oops, no pictures! too busy hostessing the party!] our crunch time began. The Christmas program has become our "church baby" these last couple of years here. And this last month usually brings with it late nights and many refigurations to scripts, staging and sequencing of the program. It's not like we do a huge production since our group is quite small. But we have enjoyed trying different avenues from Readers Theater to Puppets. And we, rather John, has to pretty much write the whole thing to fit our group. So this year was the puppets! John and I made 2 gift puppets and a tree puppet made out of foam, with workable mouths. Of course, John figured all that out since that is his avenue of expertise! This year was a bit on the light side of telling the Christmas story. So the puppets added some cute elements. The puppets were caught up with themselves in some way or another [big bob was the biggest, gabby glitter was the glitziest, the tree was the grandest] but they soon learned that true signifigance is not in outward appearance but that which is of the heart; especially since Christ was born in such a lowly place and came to earth to die for each of us. We also added a shadow stage which was used as a visual aide while the Scripture passages were being read. You can see some of the cut outs in the picture. It's the white king on the throne and Mary on a donkey. I had never seen one before and it was really neat. So this is the only picture I have right now of our great group of kids [the children's class and the teens]. We also had our children's teacher, Michelle, help out as well as Doug & Crystal doing the music part. They all did a fabulous job! We also sang a beautiful song that Doug & a friend of his wrote in college called, "O Behold Him." The first part of it goes like this:

O Behold Him in the stable; O behold the King of Kings. Angels from the realms of glory 'Round the tiny Baby sing. Shepherds come to see the story, wise men by a star are led. O behold Salvation's story Lying in the manger bed. O behold Him, meek and lowly, Dying on Mount Calvary. Died to make the sinner holy: Christ the Savior sent for me! Crowds around behold His anguish; Soldiers see His misery. O behold Redemption's story From the manger to the tree.

This Christmas I have been reminded not just to remember the nativity story of Christ, but also the whole picture of why he came to earth. The beginning, the stable, to the end, the cross. May I learn to "Behold Him" each and every day as I do during this holiday.

I love to shower my kids with neat little gifts and special things. And I am reminded more and more that the most important thing I can give them is Christ and what He did for us; whether that is through my teaching, my training, the daily activities or my words & spirit, I need to exemplify Christ ultimately! And this is such a wonderful opportunity to do that.

"Good Tidings We Bring"

THE OFFICIAL FAMILY PHOTO

I know I am totally jumping the gun here since some of you will get this as our Christmas card, but I just couldn't wait! It's been awhile since we have had a family photo! It was nice to be able to take it outside since it has been so mild out.

Merry Christmas to all my fellow bloggers out there!!!

THE NEINER BROTHERS

Drew LOVES his baby brother; as you can tell, Jack's not so sure about the whole thing!

There's a lot of love in this family!

[i love the "heeeeelp, mommy!" look on Jack's face]

"So tender and mild"

[at least in this photo]

"Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care"

"Making spirits bright"

Random Happenings

I thought I better get a new post on that was a bit more "Christmassy."

These are some random pictures from the past couple of weeks:

JACK at 1 month

JACK at 6 weeks

This was my Birthday card [from back in sept.]

but I couldn't resist putting this picture in.

This is about as "wintery" as it's been so far!

It is much colder now, but still no snow! :(

Drew's 1st Official Haircut

I have been the "barber" since Drew's first cut...at 9 months. But I decided to splurge a bit and finally take him out for a professional cut. Plus, he has this crazy cowlick that kills me everytime I take scissors to it. He did a fabulous job sitting still. I told him he was going to get to wear a cape like a king and I had a little bag of M&M's for his reward afterwards! He kept asking the lady questions like, "Where's your home?" "Do you have toys?" "Where's that beautiful music coming from?"

BEFORE

Getting Brushed Off

"King Drew"

ALL DONE...may I have my M&M's now, Mommy?