Baby Baller

Many people have mentioned that Quinn's going to be a basketball player when they predict her future hobbies. Well why not? She's tall and it was her very own father who sank the winning basket against the FIJIs in 2002 for the Fraternity Intramural Championships. (Rah-Rah Bon-Ton to that!) Plus we've got high school b-ball star and DG sister Jessica Berger to show her how to be athletic, but still girly. (Very important, you know.)

Well tonight she's showing that those predictions might very well be correct, as she just loves her new ball from Santa. (Strawberry-scented I might add!) Perhaps we have a future Lady Jayhawk on our hands!

Here she is warming up her ball-handling skills...

And catching a pass...

Here she's ready to throw the ball back to a teammate...

And now grabbing the loose ball!

I must note that tonight's practice uniform is courtesy of Great-Grandma Connie (onesie with attached tutu) and Grandma Nan & Grandpa Thumper (BABY LEGS!).

Quinn's First Christmas!

Okay so I lied. I did not frequently update the blog over Christmas. My sincere apologies! However in my defense we were quite busy and I did get pics up on Facebook, so that's gotta count for something.

Now that that's out of the way, Quinn had a lovely first Christmas! Christmas Eve was very long and busy, but Christmas day was a wonderful time in Alexandria. Quinn received her gifts from Santa Christmas morning and then opened her gifts from us and Grandma & Grandpa. We also were able to see some our Alexandria "family." We visited both the Sieves and the Herzogs and had a wonderful time catching up with their families.

Christmas night we had Nancy's famous prime rib (generally a Christmas Eve tradition, but it worked perfectly on Christmas day too) and Quinn even got to try out some sweet potatoes!

Here's our girl getting ready for the Christmas festivities:

She was so excited to play with all the fun stuff Santa left! Books, toys and Jayhawk gear, hooray!

This is one of my favorites from the weekend. She loved chewing on the ribbon on her Christmas Day outfit!

Mom, Dad & Quinnie! Our family of three made it a very special Christmas!

She loved eating the wrapping paper off her presents! Luckily Dad was there to help!

Spending time with Grandpa Gary and Grandma Nan is what made the weekend so special! She is so lucky to have such wonderful grandparents in both Minnesota and Kansas!
And speaking of Kansas, Quinn's Christmas isn't over yet! We get to see Papa, GG, Uncle E and AUNT DANI this weekend! Hooray for family time! (Quinn hasn't seen her auntie since she was two weeks old, so she is very excited! She also gets to meet Allen and the infamous Chevy!)

We hope your Christmas was just as merry as Quinn's! Lots of love to you all!

Minnesota Christmas

We're up in Alexandria for the holiday, and I know there are a lot of Kansans missing our little Q, so I'm going to do my best to update the blog for ya'll.

Quinn is loving spending time with her Grandma Nan and Grandpa Gary. Here's Miss Quinn Marie cuddling with Grandpa.

Luckily it's nice and warm inside, because it sure is cold up here! No reports of any more crawling yet, but we'll be sure to keep you posted!

She Crawled!

There are a few things in life that take your breath away. Watching this is one of them:

At six months and 1 week, little Quinn crawled for the first time. I'm so glad Morgan caught it on video! I am a very proud mama. (Now to start thinking about baby-proofing that wine rack!)

New Friends and New Moves

Last night was a night of impromptu fun. We had some brews to finish from our party last weekend, so we invited some people over for kid-friendly fun. We were fortunate to have three new parent couples join us and two of them brought their adorable little ones!

Here's Jay with Quinn's new friend Jackson Gregg. He's just over three weeks old and is just precious. He's got stylin' hair and looks that let us know he's going to be a heartbreaker. (Just as long as it's not Quinn's!)

Little seven-week old Alivia Grefe also joined the party! This adorable little girl is already full of personality and we know she & Quinn will be the best of friends (and DG legacies!). Here she is hanging under the activity gym. Can't tell if she looks like her mom or dad, but either way, she's super cute!

Annabel Koopmans was bonding with her grandparents, so she couldn't make the soiree. But luckily we got her adorable birth announcement to hang on the fridge!

And what about Miss Quinn Marie?

Well, she's decided that sitting isn't enough for her, so now she's working on crawling! Here's a clip of her progress.

I'm not sure if we're ready for her to be scootin' all around the house, but either way, it's exciting watching her try!

Reading is Fun!

We read Quinn lots of books. Some board books, some story books and at least half a dozen books a day. So far Quinn seems to really enjoy the stories we tell her and the fun pictures on the pages. But there's one book that stands above the rest that elicits smiles and squeals at every reading. It's an intricate story-line about the commonalities of rainforest animals and the human race. Intense stuff, I'm tellin' ya.

Rock Chalk Baby

Today was the first KU game Quinn has been able to watch. (The others that have been televised so far have been past her bedtime!) So she was so excited to get decked out in her KU dress to cheer on her favorite team!

Check out these adorable Jayhawk bloomers!

Here she is waiting patiently for the game to start.

Rock Chalk everyone!

Ride 'em Cowgirl

We're very lucky that Millie does well with Quinn. One, because it makes things a whole lot easier in the casa and two, well, I'll let these pictures speak for themselves:

Yes, that's Quinn Marie sitting on Mildred. And surprisingly it doesn't seem that Millie minds. Ah, they're the best of friends!

And the results are in...

Quinn's photoshoot was a success!

I'm slightly obsessed with these pics. It's so tough to narrow down, but here are just a few of my faves.

Check out facebook to see a few more!

Quinn is 6 months old!

Yesterday our sweet little girl turned six months and it's amazing how much has changed in half a year!

This month Quinn has really been developing. Her fine motor skills are rockin' and she's so good at sitting and really wants to crawl. She gets kind of serious in a large crowd, just trying to take things in, but she loves to ham it up at home. Her favorite game is peekaboo and of course, she still loves that Millie!

We've said it before and we'll say it again, we're so blessed to have this beautiful little girl in our lives. We love her so much!

And without further ado, here's this month's bunny picture:

Food Glorious Food!

It was a monumental day in the Syverson house: Miss Quinn Marie Syverson ate her first "solid" food. Tomorrow is her sixth month birthday, so we tried out rice cereal today so Papa Dave and GG could join in the fun. The verdict? She likes it!

Here she is hanging in her highchair and using the tray for the first time.

The first bite from Daddy. Notice the death-grip on that spoon?

A messy face is a sure sign of success!

Already feeding herself!

Here Comes Santa Claus

Last night was our annual Christmas party, so we were all decked out in the Christmas spirit. Quinn has met Santa Claus down in Topeka (and we're anxiously awaiting those photos!), but the Santa from last night was even better because it was Daddy! We're lucky that Q isn't scared of the big bearded guy (someone must have tipped her off to the whole present thing), so we had lots of fun showing her off with Santa.

And while Quinn might look a lot like her daddy, she does have a few traits of mom's. For better or for worse, one of those traits is not wanting to miss out on the action. And with the visit from Papa & GG, all the party preparations and then everyone at the house, Quinn only had a ONE hour nap all day yesterday. Want proof that our little girl was sleepy? Check out these rosy cheeks:

(Oh and yes, that is our little munchkin sitting all by herself! woo hoo!)

Making Progress

I know I've said it before, but Quinn is getting reeeally close to mastering this sitting business. She did alright in our photoshoot with Amy Allen today, but she did even better tonight. Sitting pretty for about a minute or so now!

btw, the photo session was great today! Can't wait to see how it turns out!

Picture Day!

Today is a big day for Quinn: her sixth month photoshoot with the one and only Amy Allen (the best darn photographer in town in case you're not in-the-know). We've got some adorable outfits and backdrops planned for our little cutie-patootie, so hopefully she'll be in great spirits this afternoon.

Papa Dave says Quinn is more photographed that Kate Middleton. Whatever the case, I took a few pics of her this morning to gear her up for the camera. Luckily our little one is not camera shy! (Show pony, anyone?)

Here she is practicing her "Yes, I'm listening" pose:

And this is her "Look how awesome I am" pose:

And we end with her "I'm just hanging out being cute" pose:

Hopefully we'll have some awesome shots of our little Quinn Marie to share with you soon!

Dinner-time Giggles

It's been a few days since we've gotten laughs out of Quinn (poor thing has just been too miserable), but tonight at dinner we really got her giggling. Unfortunately we didn't catch all the big belly laughs on video, but it's still pretty cute. (btw, don't try and figure out what noise I'm making. I was trying to imitate Jay's noises that really had her going. I had to take over while he grabbed the camera.)

Deck the Halls

Today we decorated Quinn's first Christmas tree! And to commemorate the occasion we decked her out in her adorably cute Christmas tree outfit from GG. Well it's a good thing Quinn was dressed to the nines, because other than the outfit, today just wasn't her day.

Those four teeth coming in were giving her a ton of pain and our poor little girl just wasn't herself today. She even wasn't eating! (Shocking from our child, I know.) But even though she wasn't super cheery, she still was a good sport and helped us decorate the tree. Thank goodness for the Baby Bjorn!

Here are mommy's cord helpers as we put on the lights:

And Quinn after a nap helping Daddy hang the ornaments:

Putting on all those ornaments can sure wear a girl out! (And dad too!)

Our finished product!

Quinn with mommy in front of the pretty tree. And see that adorable outfit? Thanks GG!

The Quinn Report: Weekend Edition

Oh it's been a busy week for our little Quinn Marie. First news to report is that our little girl officially has six, count 'em SIX teeth. Four new ones all in the past week and Quinn has been a trooper through it all.

But getting all those teeth at once, has brought on a fever for our little girl. No need to worry, just a low-grade temp every now and then, but we put a cold washcloth on her head for a couple of minutes to help it go away. Here's proof that she can grin and bear it!

Today we braved the windchill to pick out our Christmas tree and then played inside with Q. Here she is showing off her bottom teeth.

And as if getting four teeth in one week weren't enough, the little one is also trying to master this sitting thing. Here she is sitting all by herself!

We're still working at sitting for more than 30 seconds or so, so stayed tuned for pictures (or videos!) of more sitting fun and Quinn in front of her first Christmas tree. In the meantime, happy Saturday from Quinn Marie!

All Quinn wants for Christmas is her two front teeth

Quinn's Christmas might be coming early! As reported earlier, she already has her top left tooth and that top right one might have broke through today (she won't let me look!). And Santa might be especially good to her because there might even be more little teeth coming through up top. Like I said, she won't let me get a good look, but from what I can see we're either getting more than two teeth or she'll be going to the orthodontist earlier than we thought!

Either way, she's still been a pretty happy baby through all the pain. It just means even more stuff goes in her mouth. The latest victim: Goodnight Moon.

Full of Tricks

Quinn Marie is full of new tricks lately. As we mentioned in the last post, she's getting really close to sitting on her own (this morning it was for over 30 seconds!) and she can cover an entire room by rolling over. She's also doing great at developing her small motor skills. She's gotten especially good at passing objects back and forth and picking them up when she drops them. It's crazy because these are little things we take for granted, but huge accomplishments for a 5 month old!

Quinn also is sporting a new tooth this week! Sunday night her top left tooth popped through and we have reason to believe she's working on its pair.

So in honor of all her new fancy moves and the fact I haven't been great at posting lately, I dolled Q up in some tutus (one from her great-aunt Kim) and stuck the cutest little stockings on her. Quite the look for our little ballerina in training!

And here's another fun thing Quinn's doing: she's awesome at holding herself up, but she likes to "let go" and pull a little mini Superman. The last few days she's added a nice little screech when she lets herself go. Tooo funny.