some of our latest doings..

so i am still somewhat ignorant of how to post pictures--i have a bunch i want to share, but for some reason can only post 5 at a time...i'll end up with multiple posts here, but that's ok i guess.

this is quinn's first official trip to the dentist--of course she's been to the office a million times (thinks she owns the place!) but she's never actually had her teeth checked. she did really well, and barb did a great job of helping her feel comfortable in the chair. thanks barb!
this is a great picture of quinn and her cousin sophie, who came to visit for 2 weeks. we took the kids to the red balloon bookstore in st. paul--this is a fantastic children's bookstore, and the storytime is just the best. well worth the drive. after storytime we walked down the street to cafe latte (the other reason it's well worth the drive) and had yummy lunch. amy snapped this picture of sophie and quinn zipping down the sidewalk with their balloons.
during amy's visit, we also went to pinehaven farm. this place isn't too far from our house, and it has a petting zoo, hay maze, pumpkin patch, and--get this--"minnesota's FIRST pumpkin shooter". amazing, the cultural offerings we have up here in chisago county...:) actually the pumpkin shooter was pretty awesome--according to the guy loading the cannon, the pumpkin comes out at 200 mph, and goes a half mile! modern engineering is a miracle.
here's another shot of the cousins (sophie, quinn, and marcus) on a train ride at pinehaven. quinn and marcus did have a good time, despite the fact that they aren't smiling...
here's a shot of the elusive georgia. she did accompany us to the previously mentioned outings, but she was mostly sleeping, so we figured we'd let her alone and not bug her with posing for pictures. she's just about asleep in this picture too, but since she's only 7 weeks old, that's kind of her main activity. it's kind of hard to catch her awake, and even if you do, she usually has a goofy expression like this one.

i'll post again with more pictures.

this is totally uninteresting, even to me.

i've been lax in posting, not only because we've been busy around here with the new baby and tons of out of town visitors for several weeks, but because geoff and i are super lazy about uploading our pictures from the camera, and i've been stuck in the mindset that i have to have pictures in order to post. wow that was a long sentence, but it's the truth. so more and more time has gone by, and then i feel irritated with myself when i see my friends' blogs--i really enjoy reading them, so i'm assuming they'd like to read mine too. so i hearby resolve to do better, imaginary cyber-friends.

we're starting to fall into more of a routine, which is nice--little Q is finally sleeping through the night again (she would wake up in the middle of the night asking to color, or to ride in the car? i think she was dreaming...), although the baby still needs to eat twice during the night.

i'm finally able to exercise, hallelujah! i haven't managed to figure out how i'm going to do it with the two girls, but at least i have the doctor's go-ahead. so far i've just been doing annoying aerobics videos in my basement and then going running on the days when geoff's home. or at least i WAS running--my feet grew with this baby! they swelled with my first one, but then they went back down. not this time!

so i went to get new shoes this weekend--we were in the big bad city (how i miss you, tall buildings!) and i stopped at running room--can i just say that store is seriously over-rated? at least the grand ave. one is. i found out that i was already wearing my running shoes too tight, and now they're even worse with the extra half size i've gained. after trying on these lovely size tens, i CANNOT go back to my size 9s.OUCH! unfortunately, they didn't have the shoes i wanted in size 10. had to go home and order them...long story short (too late, i know), they are on the way, but the warm weather won't be here for long, and i wanna get out there!! i'm THINKING of trying to run through the winter this year....again, i need to figure out what to do with the girls, but the thought of treadmill running all winter-blahhh...i didn't get to run at all last summer--i miscarried in july--and then this summer i "ran" (ha ha, is it really running when you are shaped like a giant football??) so i've been dying to get out there. this is the deadly dull saga of the running shoes. the end.
p.s. i really am going to post about things worth reading...i promise. just trying to avoid politics for now.

my daughter has AWESOME hair!

she's here!

Georgia Carrie Archibald
9/17/08
9 lbs, 4 oz
20.75 inches

Just wanted to take a minute and let everyone know of the new addition to our family--Georgia was born last Wednesday and it's been a busy week with little sleep, but we're really enjoying her. Quinn has been fantastic-she loves to "help" and has a little stool next to the bassinet so she can look in on her sister.

We were in the hospital for 2 days and Quinn stayed with Baba and Grandma Danny--she had a really good time, and they all got to come to the hospital and visit. Quinn was pretty hyped up but she had been prepped fairly well, so she was bouncy but relatively well behaved in the hospital...the curtains on the rollerball track were nearly more exciting than the new baby sister. :)

Just like Quinn, Georgie had a case of jaundice, but fortunately for us, she is a much better eater than her big sister was. There has been no worry of keeping this baby awake long enough to eat--she is a hungry girl! She does let us sleep for a few hours at a time, so it's not too bad--Geoff's working half days this week and next, and that's made a huge difference. The hospital sent us home with a bili light and we had to keep this thing on her for 20 hours a day-I was just starting to get a bad case of cabin fever when they finally told us we could take it off. We should just be grateful that we were able to bring her home instead of being under the light at the hospital, but I was seriously going bonkers being at home for an entire week. It's probably a good thing, it forced me to take it easy for a little while.

We are now gearing up for another marathon of visitors--Geoff's parents are coming into town for Georgia's baby blessing this weekend, and his mom will stay until Oct. 4 (yay!) Our good friend Annie lives in Pittsburgh, but she has an art history conference in St. Paul, so she'll stay with us for a few days as well. After they leave, my sister Amy and her 2 kids are coming to visit for 2 weeks! We are excited, and we are also glad the basement project is done so we have a place to put all these people. :)

We'll post again soon with pictures from the baby blessing and all the family fun.

A visit from the fam

We are recovering from a wonderful 10 day visit by Kent, Christine, and Ian. They live in Virginia now, and we have been going through withdrawal since they moved. For those who don't know, we shared a duplex with them for 4 years, and Ian and Quinn are just 6 weeks apart. They are best buddies, and it was really fun to see them back together, especially now that they are speaking in sentences...there was no warm-up time at all, they just hit the ground running and never looked back. Some highlights of the trip include a trip to the state fair, a train ride, and a local "wildlife education center". We also spent a lot of time just hanging out at home and at the park. Geoff and Kent got to have some much needed brother time when they drove down to Nauvoo for our good friend Robert's wedding. (Congrats to Robert and Jamie!)

We're also continuing preparations for baby Georgia--Quinn and Ian got to take a tour of the hospital and to see where she will be born...at first they weren't too excited about it, until Christine and I told them "We're not bringing any babies home today, we're just looking." :)

Quinn now has a baby doll (named baby Georgia--creative, eh?) that she's been putting into the crib at night and carrying around the house. It's been good practice being gentle, except for when she decided her dolly wanted to learn how to fly. Oh well...

why leaving a 2 year old unsupervised for 10 minutes is a really REALLY bad idea

this is why we aren't going to be nominated for minnesota parents of the year anytime soon...:) at least she managed to stay on the dropcloth, but it did take three days to get all the yellow paint out of her hair. two year olds are so much fun!

Our athletic endeavors...

Here we see 2 pictures of Quinn at her "jumping kwass". She is an enthusiastic gymnast, and demonstrates her abilities at home by jumping on the couch and attempting to help the cat learn tumbling tricks. Really, it's been a lot of fun taking her to this little class---her confidence and her willingness to try new things has increased quite a bit since she's started. Plus, check out the little dress! So cute. She loves wearing this dress and is always sad when it has to go in the "wondwee".

The other picture is of the three of us when we "ran" the Lindstrom Loppet a couple weeks ago. This is a local 5K, and I put the word "run" in quotation marks, because if you saw us, you'd understand how generous it is to call what we did "running". I've tried really hard to keep up with running during this pregnancy, and I'm pretty pleased that I'm still able to do it (although not with this heat this past week!) but our times show that we were burning up the road with a 14 minute mile! Not that I was very fast before being pregnant, but at least I could do a ten minute mile. Whatever--I'm still proud of us. Geoff stayed with me and earned the distinction of being the very LAST person in his age category as a result. What a guy! Even going 14 minutes a mile, I still managed to beat 10 people in my age category...I'm thinking they might have been clinically dead people being pushed on stretchers? Maybe people who only have half a leg.