Happy 65th Anniversary to Grandma & Grandpa Dinslage!!

Just want to wish my Grandma Leora and Grandpa Ray a Happy 65th Anniversary!! WOW, can you imagine being married to someone for that long? CONGRATS!! What an inspiration you both are to the entire family. Wish I could have been there to give you both hugs and congrats, but I hope you got the card that we sent. Look at this beautiful couple 65 years ago today on thier wedding day....aren't they gorgeous? We love you and hope you had a wonderful day!!!

From The Quint Family

Happy 4th Birthday to Ryleigh Grace!

Ryleigh turned 4 yesterday and we had a little get together with Grandpa and Grandma Quint, Grandma and Grandpa Zabka, Auntie Shea and cousin Thatcher! It was a fun time, Ryleigh said it was a great birthday. She got lots of fun, nice gifts and requested Pizza for her meal with family. She also requested biscuits and gravy for her birthday breakfast which we made for her. Then we had some cake and ice cream!! I will post pictures hopefully in the near future??!! She also got lots of phone calls from family and friends yesterday. Any time my phone rang, I just handed it to her and by midday she had her conversation perfected. It wasn't the warmest day, so the girls didn't go swimming yesterday, but we went swimming today as it was nice and hot. Every day the girls get braver and braver in the water. Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. Thank you to everyone who made Ryleigh's big day extra special...we love you all!

Our Big Girl Landree...

So we have a new big girl in the house! Landree went potty on her potty chair a few evenings ago. You see, we have her little potty out next to the big one in the girls' bathroom because we didn't really have a place to store it. She's been sitting on it a lot in the past month or so, but has never done anything on it. Heck, I didn't even know if she knew what it was, but she proved me wrong. Lately, we've been noticing that she doesn't like so much for her diaper to be dirty and has occasionally been pointing to it when she wants it changed or going and laying down when we ask her if she has poopy in the diaper. Sometimes, you can catch her in the "act", so I think potty training might be easier than anticipated. Anyways, the girls and I had just eaten supper, hung out in the pool for a little bit and decided it was time for a bath and bed. I got the girls' swimsuits off outside and Ryleigh said she had to go potty, so we all three ran upstairs to be in the bathroom with the tub. Well, Ryleigh ran and sat on the toilet and Landree ran and sat on her potty. All of a sudden, Landree has that look like is something going to happen, she kind of pushes a little bit and then she looks at me. This is where I hear her peeing. Ryleigh and I were making this huge deal of it, dancing and clapping and "yay, Landree"!!! She stands up, looks into her potty, points and starts dancing and clapping. We stood there "celebrating" for a few minutes. Then I decided to call Jason to let him know what she did. He was 5 minutes from home, so we kept the pee in there and then he made a big deal of it with her also. It was so cute! Granted she hasn't done it again since then, but it's a start! She also got another tooth yesterday, the left top "eye" tooth!!

Ryleigh is ready to be 4 tomorrow. She is so excited! I am excited because now at the dinner table I get to say, "4 more bites". I always use her age to get her to take a few more bites of food if she says she's full. Tonight, I said "4 more bites", she then informed me, "NO, mama, 3 bites, I don't turn 4 until tomorrow!" HAHA! But she proved us both wrong and ate her entire plate of meatloaf and a double serving of mashed potatoes!! Then she got a monster cookie for eating her entire plate of food. Which brings me to the bake sale we had at work today. I made two pans of brownies last night and then this evening I made Ryleigh's birthday cake, so I have been quite the baker around here! I even give myself credit because the only night I didn't make supper was last evening because I had a hair appt. I can't believe I had the energy to cook. Usually when I get home from work, I try to think of the easiest meal (that was Jason last evening...he heated up some soup and made grilled cheese sandwiches)!! It's been fun, but right now, I am just enjoying doing nothing but typing! And, all of my brownies sold!! Good presentation??!! :)

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. I am sure ours will be filled with cake, ice cream, pizza, pools, relaxing, and family.

Fast Flying July

Holy cow!! We're halfway through July already, I can't believe it. So far, it has proven to be a hot month! We have spent many days in the pool (on the weekends and after work), which has helped us to stay cool. One day last week we had a heat index of 105 degrees!! Today it is nice and hot. I took the girls to Grandma Pam and Grandpa Kev's around lunchtime to spend the day and night with them. Mom and I and the girls had lunch together and then I hit the road back to Mankato. Jason and I are going to go shopping for Ryleigh's 4th birthday, which is next Saturday. I can't believe she entered our lives 4 years ago already, my how the time does fly. She really is an amazing little part of our lives and we cannot imagine life without her. I will never forget seeing her for the first time and being in amazement that she was a part of me. So, we will see what we can find for her. Thank you Jeremy and Andie for the adorable dress (Andie, it is so CUTE)! She hasn't opened it yet, but I couldn't wait for her birthday. Thank you also to Nana Peggy for sending her stuff and the cake topper. I wasn't for sure if I would do a Tinkerbell cake or a caterpillar cake, but I think I know now! Later this evening Jason and I will be heading to our every other month neighborhood party. I was on-call the last party so tonight I am planning on having myself some wine since it has been quite a week. Work has been crazy but I'll skip all that as I know everyone has their fair share of fun work stuff! :) The worst part of last week happened on Thursday. Remy had an accident with the neighbors pet rabbit (the ones we rabbit-sit for). You see, the rabbit got loose and hopped along their house up to the front. We were working in the garage and Remy was sitting outside of the garage under the boat. Jason had just made sure she was ok when we heard the most awful scream in the world. Yep, Remy saw the rabbit and pounced. Luckily (mostly because of the rabbit screaming), the neighbors or the girls weren't outside to hear it. So, we got Remy inside, carried the rabbit over to it's cage and ran to the neighbors door to tell them what happened. When the owner took out Blackie to see if she was ok, her back legs were just hanging there. It was late, but they found a vet to take a peek at her. Remy crushed both her hind legs (which as you all know are very important to a rabbit) and they had to put her to sleep. We felt awful because Brian (5 years old) was freaking out and crying and then I started crying when Brian (5) and Alexa (7) said goodbye to Blackie with tears streaming down their faces. It was definitely an accident but Jason and I felt horrible nonetheless. We brought them a card, offered to pay for the vet bill and for a new rabbit, but they wouldn't let us. We are really close to these neighbors as well and are hanging out with them almost every other night during the summer. They also watch Remy for us a lot when we go out of town, so we just feel awful. They have a new baby rabbit now named Peanut. And so far, even though we feel so responsible, we still seem to be on the same terms, thank goodness!! So, now Remy is on a rope at all times when outside without us being right next to her. Poor thing too, natural instincts.

Anyways, hopefully the rest of the summer finds us with no new rabbit adventures or mishaps with neighbors pets. Lets see...other than this past week, July has been good since we got home from vacation. Last Saturday we had an impromptu BBQ with the neighbors on both sides of us (yes, one of them being Blackie's family). We were talking to the one side in our yard when the other side came over and everyone asked what everyone was doing. So, I headed to the store to get chips, brats and burgers, the one neighbors brought homemade wine and the others made a quick dessert. It was so fun and the kids all had fun! We all have kids that can play together, so that was extra nice. We have Alexa (7), Brian (5), Ryleigh (4), Henry (3), Landree (18 months) and Owen (9 months)! The house across the street is for sale too and we are hoping a young family buys it as well!! There have been many lookers with smaller children!

I have one funny story then I will let you go. Jason is still working on our computer, so as soon as he gets it fixed, I will get pictures posted as well as pictures to all of you that I promised I would get sent. We read books to the girls every night before bed, Landree has just been starting to listen and enjoy it as much as Ryleigh. The girls get a free book every month from United Way and recently Ryleigh got a book called, "Set in stone". It is about different places in the US where stones are an important part of the history (ie: Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Grand Canyon, etc.) Well, Ryleigh has been repeating sentence after sentence lately when we read. So here is the line where Jason and I cracked up. Jason: "Plymouth Rock is in Massachusetts." Ryleigh: "Plymouth Rock is in "Two shits"!" I was laughing so hard I was crying. Then, of course, Ryleigh is cracking up, but she's not really sure why. It was actually a very good ending to a very crappy week. And by the way, she can now say Massachusetts perfect! :) Landree is starting to repeat things that we are saying, but she has to be in the right mood otherwise, she just gives us one of her grins like, "I know how, but not today"! Some new words: deer, ball, pool, and dirty. Oh, she also got two new teeth the end of June, beginning of July. Now all she needs are her top "I" teeth and all of her two year molars.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! And until next time.............................ADIOS! Forgot to mention the tornadoes and hail storm that went through Mankato while we were on our vacations. Our house turned out ok, but the neighbors and the house across the street all lost trees. There was lots of damage to siding and roofs, our siding just has a couple pieces missing from the hail, or pool cover has lots of holes in it, we just had our roof replaced in Oct and our screenhouse was barely on our deck when we did get home. Our sump pump was kicking out lots of water and flooded the play area we just finished for the girls, but luckily when the neighbors checked our basement, there was no water. Now, the radio just announced that we are under a tornado watch again, the first since we've been back from vacation! The neighbors had not seen our basement finished yet until the storms, so now they want to do movie night at our place in the winter.....so we have decided we are going to do a movie night on the opposite month of our neighborhood gatherings at our place, we just have to scoop a path in the snow from each of their houses (the ones on both sides again) to ours! Doesn't that sound fun!!

Happy Birthday Aunt Shea!!

We are back from all our trips. June was busy and so far we have nothing planned the rest of the summer....should be nice and relaxing! I am sure we will find some fun stuff to do, though! I have LOTS of pictures to post from all the fun things June brought, and I will work on that soon, but for now... I just wanted to wish Shea a very Happy Birthday today! We love you so much and are thankful you are a part of our lives. Can't wait to see Thatcher again soon. Love you and hope your day was just as special as you are!!