Christmas Pictures

The kids did so good this year. I couldn't believe it took us about 5 minutes before we got two really good pictures of them. Last year it took us forever and didn't get a single good picture. Here you go!

Christmas is in the air!

Here are a few pictures of our house decorated and ready for Christmas this year. We even did some outside this year! I know, unbelieveable, isn't it? :)

Sharewell Christmas Party 2008

It was a very nice party. We went to the Royal Country Club and had a very nice dinner. They also set up a room where they had a mini casino-like atmosphere. We got to play craps, blackjack and other fun games. It was a lot of fun! Here are some photos.

Dora & I

Our Blackjack Table

Before the Party

Daddy & Ian

Mommy & Ian

Justin

Lately Justin has been playing music and he made up a new song which I absolutely love. When we get a new cord, I'll have him play it and maybe I can get him to let me post it on the blog for everyone to hear. In the meantime, here is a picture I caught of him playing.

Christmas with the Murphy's

We went to Jacob's 3rd birthday party and celebrated our Christmas with them since we won't be seeing them for Christmas. We had a good time. And, as you can see, the kids enjoyed their Christmas gifts! Thank you Uncle Scottie and Auntie!

Ian's Christmas Party

Ian had a party at day care. It was so cute to see him perform or actually sit there looking dazed. Here is a video of him performing and a couple of pictures of him and his friends. What a cutie!

Video

Ian ready to perform

Ian & Matthew

Ian, the cutest boy in school!

Ian & his best friend again.

Ian and his favorite teacher, Mrs. Lourie

Star Wars and Val

One day when we went to the mall there were many Star Wars people battling throughout the mall. Val caught Boba Fett and got to take a picture with him. Ian was not to crazy about him though. Too "scary" he says.

Snow in Texas??

We had one day of snow and it sure was beautiful. It makes the prospect of moving to Colorado more enticing; however, I'm not sure I'm up for the cold weather. (I guess that doesn't sound like a girl raised in Wisconsin, does it?) Justin really loves the snow and he seems to like the cold too(I guess that is a true boy from Minnesota!) Now our children are a different story...if we move, we'll just have to wait and see how they handle it although I can say they really enjoyed playing in the snow. Here are a few pictures of the snow...

Basketball

Here is a picture of Ashlynne with some of her basketball teammates. Doesn't she look cute? So far we have won 2 games and lost 4 with plenty more games to play (and hopefully win)! By the way, the two girls on the left are twins.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day was nice but I really missed my husband and girls. Justin was still in Colorado (since our trip to Las Vegas) and the girls' mom wanted them with her for Thanksgiving. So, needless to say, we were lonely with only half our bunch. Despite missing the rest of the family, we had fun with other family members. Here are a few pictures of Val, Gersito & Ian....the kids that I did get to have with me for Thanksgiving.

Ian and Rusty

Today we took Ian to Build-a-Bear for the first time ever. He had a great time. He loved putting in the heart and giving him a bath afterwards. Ian calls his new puppy "Rusty". All day today Ian has wanted to do everything with Rusty. He has played doctor with him. He kept telling Rusty "It's okay, it's okay" as he would check his heart beat.

When I put Ian to bed tonight we heard him in the monitor telling Rusty, "Go ny, ny (sp?) Rusty" "It's okay". Then we heard him attempt to read Rusty his Itsy Bitsy Spider book (the best he could). It was so cute to see and hear him pretend. He even shared his juice with Rusty.

It's crazy how time flys and to hear how big he sounds now. He is (as Justin says) "my little man" growing up so fast and talking so much...and so clear just like his daddy did at a young age. :)

Here are a few pictures of Ian playing doctor with Rusty:

Ian checking Rusty's heart beat

...and checking his blood pressure
Breaking the news (diagnosis) to his friend
His treatment: a kiss

Hooray for Ashlynne!

We are very excited to say that Ashlynne made the school basketball team!!! We don't know what number she will be yet, nor do we know when games will start but we PROMISE we will post days and times on our blog whenever the season begins. I do know that practice has begun and boy do they start early. Try getting everyone to where they need to be in the morning, ugh! By the time I get Ashlynne to practice and then come home to get the other kids off to the bus stop and Ian to day care I'm ready for a bed again. :) Oh well, thats the way it goes sometimes and we are very excited that she gets to play. We can't wait to see her in her uniform and actually have games! I hope everyone can make at least one game to show her your support....if not, I can guarantee you there will be pictures on the blog.

Las Vegas -- 2nd Anniversary Trip

Here are just a few pictures of Las Vegas. We had a great time. We stayed at the MGM but after doing some site seeing we realized that the next time we go to Vegas we want to stay at the Paris hotel. It was beautiful! To celebrate our 2nd anniversary we had a very romantic date. We went to Paris and went up the Eiffel Tower and then ate at the Eiffel Tower restaurant. We had great food, great conversation and got to see the beautiful water show through the window overlooking Vegas.

Afterwards we went to see the Penn & Teller show. It was a great show and as most of you know, Penn called me up on stage and did a magic trick on me. It was really cool. We got to keep the props for the trick and we had them sign them. We also took pictures with them afterwards. Justin loves them so he was really excited that I got to go up. I really wish he would have had the chance though. Either way, it was our story and our fun memory of our 2nd anniversary trip.

Halloween

Here is a Halloween picture. Unfortunately a picture wasn't taken with Ian in his cute little pirate costume, but we did get a picture of the big kids. Since Justin and I were in Las Vegas we didn't get all the pictures we would have normally gotten. The kids had a great time though. Elyse and Valerie went to a Halloween party and spent the night at a friend's house, Ashlynne went to her Mom's house, Gersito went to a friend's house and Ian went with Ms. Rhea, our wonderful babysitter.


In order from left to right:
Ashlynne - Freddy
Valerie - sailor girl
Gersito - Jason
Elyse - school girl

Way too busy

I'm so sorry I haven't had time to post anything. Things have been so busy since the hurricane, it feels like I just can't keep up. I promise once Justin and I come back from our anniversary vacation, I will make sure to post all the pictures that I've been meaning to post.

With the kids getting involved with school, me going to school and all the homework, kids being sick, me assisting on school research and Amanda having her baby, life has been extremely hectic.

Soon, I promise to make it up to you and you will have LOTS of posts and pictures to look at. It will probably be the first or second week of November before I get all that posted. Soon....I promise. :)

After Ike

Things are beginning to get back to normal around here after Hurricane Ike. We've got photos to share and stories to tell but just haven't had the time to post them. Hopefully, we will have some time to do that in the near future.

VIKERS?????

According to the kids......"what do you get when the packers and vikings play each other in the Turner home?"........."VIKERS!!"

So, I was watching the game and down came the girls all dressed up in purple in green, check it out.......



By the way, great game!!!

PACKERS vs. VIKINGS

For those of you who really know us, tomorrow is a huge day for us. Tomorrow the Packers play the Vikings. We are so excited about the big game!! Justin isn't home but it is probably for the best because last time we saw the Packers and Vikings play each other I "accidentally" busted Justin's lip in excitement! Of course the packers royally kicked their butts that game and I was entitled to be excited but I didn't mean to actually make my husband bleed.

Anyway, so because of my love and support towards my husband I am putting Ian in his Vikings jersey; however, if you see me, you will see me in my Packer jersey (even if it is outdated with #4 on it)!

Well, here is what you can expect to see and hear tomorrow at the Turner home! The first 2 are pictures and the last one is a video! Have a great day and enjoy the game!!!

So far behind

I realized I was so far behind on posting so I've posted quite a bit to catch everyone up on what's been going on lately......and to think this is only a little bit of what has been going on in our lives lately. Never a dull moment in the Turner home. :)

Below are 5 new blogs for you to read. Have fun!

Ashlynne's Birthday Party

Thanks to all who came to Ashlynne's 12th Birthday party. She had a great time and is enjoying all her new gifts. Surprise, surprise, I've actually been teaching her how to ride her skateboard (at least what I can remember from so long ago) but she'll have to learn the tricks when Dad comes home because I could never do anything "cool" on a skateboard.

Here are a few pictures from her party. A lot of them came out really dark so I only posted those that we could see a little better. By the way, Ian absolutely enjoyed rolling skating. I couldn't believe how well he did. He skated from 12-4 and still cried when we had to take the skates off him. (Someone might be getting skates for Christmas this year).

(Sorry - Lots of red eye in these pictures - I didn't have time to fix them)

Back in School

We are now all officially in school. The 3 girls are all in junior high (7th grade) and they love it. All 3 of them are in basketball and in addition to that Elyse is in Art, Valerie is in Drama and Ashlynne is in Computer/Home class (where they teach you how to cook, sew, etc).

Gersito is in 5th grade. So far he is "okay" with it. He says he likes his teachers. I have signed up for PTA for both schools so I can try to keep tabs on all of our kids since they are getting older.

Justin and I have started classes as well. So far Justin has been able to keep up with all of his classes while working and I'm taking classes, working on research for 2 professors and studying for the GRE. I thought I had until end of next year to take the GRE & apply for the doctorate programs but I just found out I should have all that done by the end of this year. So, I'm just behind a year....no biggie. :)

Well, here is a picture of our kids' first day of school. Aren't they cute?

Parks & SPIDERS!!

Okay, so I took the kids to the park for a picnic and then we decided to take the nature trail for a hike. As you can see in the pictures below, we were ready with our hiking sticks and all.....but as soon as we started down the trail, we saw LOTS of huge spiders (about the size of my fist including their legs) and they were so ugly and hairy and had huge webs from one tree to the next. There were so many of them we all got totally freaked out (including myself, well, okay, mostly me) so we ended up leaving. I got so freaked out that I didn't even want to stay a second longer to take a picture of those nasty things.

Here are a few pictures that got taken before we saw those nasty, huge, hairy spiders!! (I just realized, I only got pictures of Ashlynne & Ian this time -- oops!)

Date Night

It's always nice to be able to get out and spend some time alone without hearing "Dad, Daddy, Dada, Justin" OR "Mom, Mommy, Mama, Melissa"....(yes, we do get called all of those names). So, Justin and I got to go out to eat and then go watch a comedy show. Justin was so sweet (no wonder I married him), he also didn't spill his drink on me for the first time ever while going to a comedy show. It's actually gotten quite comical. Every single time we go to a comedy show Justin ends up spilling something on me. So, since the night was such a success, I thought I would share a couple of pictures taken right before our date. :)