Q meets Aunt Holly

Since the Mahan clan is so large and spread out right now, there were still a few siblings who had not met her by the time we moved home. So, Aunt Holly and Uncle Eric decided to make a trip to visit our parents. Holly and I joked about us making the five hour drive over to see them, but since we had just moved back, she understood that it probably wasn't possible. Little did she know that Mom and I were conspiring behind her back to surprise her and come meet them anyway!
Holly and I had several conversations, and I even talked to her when we were only an hour away, and she (nor Eric) never suspected a thing! It was so fun to be able to walk in the door and yell, SURPRISE! Dad and Kelli were surprised too! We loved it! These pictures are from that weekend!

Here Aunt Holly and Aunt Kelli play with Q in the morning. They were making her laugh and laugh!

Q and Grandma

She got to meet her Great-Grandma Gray, and Great-Uncle Dan and Great-Aunt Carol too. However, I don't have pictures of that for some reason! Fail on my part!

Aunt Holly and Q! I think they like each other!

We took a Four Generation picture! Look at how cute we all are!

Uncle Eric and Q! They were pretty cute together!

Altogether it was a successful and fun trip! We are so glad to be back and close to family again! Love it! Love it! Love it!

Our New House

Well, it is hardly new...it is just new to us, for now! We are living back in my home town, but at the other end. It is interesting to live here as an adult with my own family. I love that we are close enough to see people on a regular basis, but I will post about visits later.

Our house is old, but cute. We do have a guest bedroom, so come see us! I am happy to have a basement back, but I do miss my master bed and bath in Texas! Older house means smaller rooms. We also only have 1 and 1/2 baths, but we will make that work.

Here are some pictures!

The Kitchen...tiny!

Living room/Dining room

Living room

The view down the hallway.

Keep in mind that these pictures were taken while we were still unpacking...it really isn't this messy! Can't wait for you all to come see it AND us!

The Long Road

Well, if anyone thought that driving from Texas to Colorado was easy never did it with a UHaul, an auto transport behind it, another car, two dogs, three adults, and a four month old. Let's just say that we had the adventure of a lifetime!

Day 1: After having many helping hands load up our UHaul and emptying our house, we took off around four hoping to make it through most of OK before stopping for the night. Right outside of OK City, we hit major traffic, and Miss Q wouldn't stop screaming! I was in the UHaul, so poor Aunt Kelli (who saved our lives!!!) was trying to calm her down...it wasn't working! So, on the north side of OKC, Nick radioed me with our super handy walkie-talkie that we needed to stop because Q wouldn't calm down and Joey had just thrown-up all over the front seat! Needless to say, we pulled off at the next stop and stayed at the ever classy Motel 6. Poor, Kelli! She was so nervous! We had to carry Elway up the stairs, and poor Nick made trip after trip up and down three flights of stairs to get suitcases and the dog crate. So, I had a very grump hubby, an upset baby, a nervous sister, and two confused and frightened dogs on my hands. Not a great start!

Day 2: While very long, was much more successful! We stopped a lot to fill up the giant UHaul, and we were able to stop in Burlington at the Hitchcock residence to let baby girl stretch and play (thanks, Grandma Barbie!) , but we made to Arvada to stay with Kristie and Ron just in time to hear that Bin Laden had been killed! A few minutes later we got to celebrate this with our Marine! Needless to say, my brother was very emotional and joyful!

So, here we are! Back in the big CO, and we love it! 

Saying Good-Bye to Texas

While we lived in Texas, we were blessed to meet some really wonderful people. Some friends Nick already had when I moved there, and some we made as a couple. These people gave us two seperate going away parties: one with friends from UFP and one with friends from church. The following are just a few pictures from those events.

Here is Baby Q with Chad--one of Nick's long time friends from UFP. This is actually the first time he met Q. You're a natural, Chad! :-)

Here she is with Kirby! He is another of Nick's closest friends from Universal. We passed her around to several friends as we celebrated Nick's time at the Saginaw location and people wished him well in Colorado.

This is the cake that we had at the party with friends from church. The Lee's were sweet enough to host, and we had a great time with everyone who came.

Here is Q with our Bay! She is the youngest daughter of our good friends, Angela and Michael, and she is a great surrogate big sister to Q. We had to make sure and capture this picture of them together.

Colette and I chatted while Q and A checked one another out! They are both the sweetest babies! Although, A is HUGE next to our little girl. I sometimes forget that Miss Q is still on the small side.

Thanks to everyone for being so supportive of our little family!

Easter in Iowa

I really am trying to catch-up on the blog. And on just about everything else too! We are still working on unpacking our house here in Colorado, but that will be another post for another day.

Over the Easter holiday weekend, Nick's dad flew us to his home in Iowa to spend a few days. This was the first time Grandpa and Nana Rochelle met Q, and I do believe that they are smitten. Some of the pictures here are from those that I took, and some are from Ed.

 Here is Q with her Grandpa. I think he enjoyed his time playing with his new granddaughter. She won him over in a big way, and why not?! She's such a cutie! Grandpa had a great time taking Q around the city building and showing her off. She is such a great baby!

Nana, Nick's step-mom, also really took to Miss Q! She really seems to enjoy this being a grandmother stuff, and we are happy to oblige! We were delayed returning to Texas by a day because of tornados in DFW, so we were able to go visit Nana Rochelle at her school. She loved showing her off to her colleagues!

Here Q is sitting with her Aunt Jess. She is Rochelle's daughter, so Nick's step-sister. Jess eased into the aunt role, and I think she is going to be a fun aunt for our little girl.

Grandpa took us to see th butterflies at the university in Ames. We spent a little time there, and let the butterflies land on us and on our cameras. Q loves butterflies. She has them in her room, and she talks to them while on her changing table.

Daddy carried her around and tried to interest her in the real butterflies.


When we returned to the Texas, we fantically packed the rest of our house and headed to Colorado! What an adventure that was! I will post about that trip soon!

Good-bye, Texas

I have kind of been dragging my feet to write this post, but I'm sure why. It wasn't a huge secret that I didn't LOVE Texas, so it suprised especially me when leaving was so hard...and it was hard. I guess it makes sense. My family really started in Texas. We made some good friends. Honestly, I think that the ordeal, trauma, and joy surrounding Quincy's birth allowed Texas to sneak its' way into my heart. Yes, I know, I know...all you people who tried to tell me that Texas is great...I still wouldn't say great, but I can say that I will hold a special place in my heart for Texas--and especially Baylor.

To those friends we made and left in Texas--thank you! Thank you for taking a crazy Colorado girl into your lives and letting me be me. Thank you for being great examples of who and what friends should be. Thank you for supporting my hubby and I through what felt like a lot of crazy, strange and surreal experiences. Thank you for loving my daughter as if she were your own. Thank you for sharing your kids with us. Thank you for being exactly who I/we needed to make life in a strange and new place bareable. I do love you all, and I will miss you!