Bowling with Quinn

A few years ago we started heading to the bowling alley during our holidays with the Coffmans. It's a chance for us to get away from the distractions at home and just spend time together. Why bowling? Well, mainly because it's indoors and fun even if you're terrible. It also helps that Papa Dave is a fantastic bowler, so it's fun for him to show us all the ropes. 

This year was the first year Quinn was able to join us which was a little exhausting, but a lot of fun and quite entertaining. Here she is with Aunt Dani and Daddy before things got rolling (pun intended). :) 

We had popcorn, lemonade and even cake pops to keep her entertained when it wasn't her turn. And that distraction was needed because if we would have let her she would have run up and down the lanes and all over the bowling alley. (In fact, she actually did run halfway down the lane once. Luckily Jay was there to catch her -- that girl is quick!)

When it was time for her to bowl, she had either Mommy or Daddy there to help her. It might have been slow, but her ball only got stuck once! (We learned to give the ball a hefty push along with her and she learned not to kick the ball. :)

Here are a few photos, but even though you need to view it sideways, I think the video at the end sums it up the best!

Quinn's New Home

I'm sure many of you have been losing sleep the past month & a half wondering "where is Quinn living?" and "what exactly does her new house look like?" Well, for those of you out of the Des Moines area, I've finally taken some photos of our humble abode to share with you all. 

Here is her room. The paint color, beads & circus valance all came with the room. I failed to photograph the large flower-power mural on the west side of the room. Needless to say, it's a little girl's heaven and I can't wait to repaint it. 

On to guest room #1. We're waiting to paint this until we find out if God will grant Quinn a little brother or sister, so for the time being "play ball!"

This is guest room #2. All of Quinn's grandparents are happy to have  queen bed to sleep in when they visit. I'm waiting til later to determine the decor for this room (because at this point everything I'm in love with is yellow and green, and well, that could be very boring to have a whole house in those colors.)

Here's Quinn's bathroom. I love the beadboard on the walls and plan to paint it a charcoal gray someday. In the meantime, I'm loving all that white AND the fact that we have two full baths now!

Here's our bedroom. It's huge. The little alcove to the right has a nook with a big chair and TV (for when Quinn wakes up in the morning while we're getting ready for work.) Not pictured is our office, bathroom and my closet. 

Here's our entry way/top of the stairs. This is where Quinn says, "Mommy will you carry me because my hands are full?"...even if she's only holding one tiny thing. I'll take any chance to squeeze that little girl though, so I gladly appease.

This is a view of our formal living room. It's right to the left of our entryway. 

The living room leads right into the dining room which is oddly reminiscent of our Monroe Court dining room. Kind of fun! (Don't let this sad picture of Millie fool you -- she loves the new place!)

Here's our kitchen view from the hallway off the entry. Tons of room to cook with Quinn!

Our family room is set off the kitchen. We love the tall ceilings and coziness of the space. Quinn loves that there's tons of cabinets to store all her toys. Down the hall from our kitchen is the mudroom & laundry room. 

Downstairs we have our rec room which has the treadmill (not pictured to the left), Quinn's toys and of course, the skee ball machine. We plan to finish the rest of the basement with a fifth bedroom, bathroom and wine cellar down the line. Luckily there will still be plenty of storage too!

So there you go. You can now rest at ease knowing a little more about where Miss Quinn Marie spends her time these days. Plenty of room to grow and plenty of memories to create!