Staycation time.

Summer is flying by as this is the last day of July - how did that happen?? We have been trying to figure out a way to go on vacation with the kids this summer, but everything is so expensive, even when you try and make it cheap that we have decided to do the ever-popular stay-cation. Shawn took this next week off (minus Monday) so we are going to try and do some fun stuff with the kids and WORK ON THE KITCHEN REMODEL (insert angel voices singing). Yes, Shawn is planning on tearing out the other half of the kitchen and putting in new cabinets on Wed. I won't hold my breath...time will tell. We are also headed to Worlds of Fun on Tuesday with some friends - should be a blast - the kids are counting down the seconds. Mostly, I'm looking forward to spending some much needed time with Shawn - he's putting in an unreal amount of time at work and definitely deserves some time off.
So, raise your glasses....here's to Stay-cation 2010!!

Finally some new pics!

I am finally going to show you some pics! Nothing too fabulous, but I know I haven't blogged a bunch this summer and I haven't posted many pics so hopefully you can get your fill of the Turner fam today. They are really in no particular order...such is life around here...
We will begin with Lucas riding a nice pink bike. This will surely go in the slide show at his high school graduation.



Me and my Gabs.
My beautiful girls...best friends!!
And my cute cute boys.
Here we are at the annual Ohio Days in Waverly - the kids favorite time of year! They love the parade and carnival - and this year I believe we got to bed around 11pm that night...
Lucas's first carnival ride!!
Lucas officially has more teeth than Austin. Austin has lost 5 teeth so far and has a loose one still! Gotta love the toothless smile! Tooth #1 was lost at Best friend Joey's house, #2 daddy pushed out, #3 Lucas knocked out, #4 fell out while camping and going down a slide, and #5 was lost at basketball camp when he missed a ball and it hit him in the mouth (proud, yes.)
Ashlyn and Lucas - they seem to look alike here...don't you think?
I am so excited I can get Gabriella's hair up in pig tails - she is so stinkin' cute!!
My babies...Lucas and Gabriella with their blankies.
Happy Birthday, mom!!
Austin loves being a big brother.
Gabba Gabba!
And that's a little of what we have been up to the past couple weeks. We've spent a lot of time at the pool - the kids have improved their swimming like you wouldn't believe. Austin is lovin' the slides. We are hoping to get another camping trip in before the summer comes to an end. And Shawn is taking a week off in August - yipee!! I am hopeful we will get some kitchen remodel done that week - time will tell. As for now, I have 3 kids at the farm so me and Lucas are doing some bonding - and we are loving it. We got to snuggle bug after nap time today and it was awesome. It's so fun to get to spend time with just one kiddo here and there. And now I am going to enjoy the quiet!

Survived another camping adventure!

We have successfully made it through another camping trip. This time we were camping with the Settle side of the fam - my parents, my sister and hubs, my brother and his fam. We love to camp - I just hope the kids enjoy it this much when they are teenagers. I have a feeling they will. The weather didn't cooperate so much, it was a bit windy and rainy, but we still managed to eat lots of yummy foods, do some fishing (Austin's fave), go to the beach, go on a nature hike, make smores and just hang out by the fire. I'd call that a pretty good weekend. Since the last post, we have completed swim lessons, Austin has participated in basketball camp, is currently doing football camp, went to my cousin's wedding in Wichita and we are now looking forward to the parade and carnival in Waverly this coming weekend. The kids love Ohio Days out at the farm in Waverly - so much fun. And I am looking forward to some girl time with my college gals from the sorority this weekend! We are headed out Thursday night, having a family barbecue on Friday night and also hanging out on Saturday for a bit. I am really looking forward to it.
Now it's time for some hubby - we are addicted to watching "Lost". I must get some tv time in now.
Hope you are enjoying the summer as much as we are!

Swine and Cheese? Yes, please.

Holy Smokes!!! What a great weekend here. Shawn was in the second annual Holy Spirit Smoke Off this weekend and they were SMOKIN'!! (By the way, their team name is "Swine and Cheese") It all began on Friday afternoon as the guys started their setup - which is quite the complicated process, but throw in a few beers and I'm pretty sure they had some good times. This year the guys placed FIRST in the ribs competition, second in brisket, and SECOND OVERALL!! There were 22 teams this year and we only missed first by 3 points...grrrr...motivation for next year. The kids had a blast. They had full roam of the parking lot and playground with all their friends and as Austin put it last night on our walk home, "Mom, can we do this every weekend??" Unfortunately I would have to say no to that one, as we are still recovering from all the craziness. It's a lot of work, but totally fun (once a year). And the meat...oh man, the meat is amazing. I will never ever be a vegetarian. And those that are, have definitely not had some of those award winning ribs. yum yum yum. Here's the team with their new banner to hang....such studs.
And here's the team with all the kids...I guess the wives are somewhere doing all the work........

Can't wait til next year guys!! Great times had by all, and obviously, lots of good eats.

Happy Father's Day!!!

Early to Bed.

It is go go go here. Summer is so much fun, but man, I am exhausted! And so are the kids. They are ready for bed almost immediately after dinner these days. Last week was Bible School which the kids loved and came home singing almost every day. This week is swim lessons. Again, the kids are loving it - and they are all improving a ton. I know not all kids love the pool, some people just don't care to be in the water, which is totally fine - to each his own. But, as a mother of 4 young kiddos you must learn to survive in the water. My goal is that they can all hold their breath under water for at least a couple seconds. Austin is all over the place so he is no problem. Ashlyn is finally putting her head under water a bit and of course Gab has no problem going under. So, 3 out of 4 isn't too bad. We've had a great time at lessons, picnic lunches with friends at the pool - and then more swimming. We are all ready for some relaxing by the time we get out of the sun. Lucas had a pretty rough week last week - with no help from me...he was so so fussy and wheezy. I thought it was just his allergies and asthma, but as 6 days passed by I finally couldn't handle the fussiness and took him to the asthma doc. Turns out he had a bad ear infection - huh?? It was his first one (or first one we knew of) and he was sleeping fine at night so I never thought it would be the ear, but of course it was. Now we are finishing up the antibiotics and doing much better. He is back to all smiles again finally!! Had a fun birthday party for mom tonight too. So glad we live close for celebrations like that. I can't imagine missing that stuff. Or any of it - I love love love that we chose to live here, we are so blessed by our wonderful family. And now I am feeling blessed to have a couch to sprawl out on so I must sign off now.
Enjoy the sunshine!!

Where did May go??

Wow, you hit a deer and the month just flies by! I didn't blog for a whole month! Yikes! I have had more than one person ask me if I had stopped blogging and if everything was ok since I hadn't posted in so long. May was just a crazy month. The kids had their end of the year parties and we started summer off with a bang! We went to a rodeo, courtesy of my moms work, which was awesome. The kids had a blast and didn't go to bed til 11. Then we went to a hot air balloon lift off which was really cool and again late to bed. We had a bunch of friends over for dinner and smores since Shawn built a fire pit in the backyard - again late to bed...do you see a pattern?? We went to a T-Bones game with some friends (need I say late to bed?). We went on a huge camping adventure - I like to call it Camp Chaos - with 30 of our closest friends. SO fun. We love to camp and the kids think it's about the coolest thing in the world. Spent a whole day at the beach while camping which is always the kids favorite. And it's now gotten to where Shawn and I can enjoy some time together while the kids play and we don't have to chase anyone (of course, this is only because we left Lucas with my parents and Shawn's parents). We have really been enjoying the lazy mornings of staying in pjs and sleeping in. Yes, I said sleeping in. The kids have decided sleep isn't so bad this summer and have gotten a bit lazy which I have thoroughly enjoyed. We started Bible School today - Austin and Ashlyn both get to go and they loved it. Then next week starts 2 weeks of swim lessons -yay! So, there is a reason I haven't blogged - I'm exhausted by the end of the night and don't even have the energy to type! I absolutely love summer - the weather has been great, my garden is starting to grow, my herbs are going crazy - yipee! I also starting doing the CSA program at Hen House which is where you pick up fresh food from local farmers once a week. It's awesome. You never know what you are getting, but you get some great food and it makes you try new things which I enjoy. The kids love it. They think it is so cool to get our "farmer food". Of course, they thought we were going to get food from Papa Turner, I had to explain it was from all different farmers - too cute. On a similar note - Shawn recently built us a compost in our yard and I love it. It's amazing how much stuff can go in there that you would normally throw away. The kids take a bowl of stuff out from the kitchen everyday. And shawn puts in grass about once a week. Very cool.


Here's Shawn and Austin chillin' at the T-Bones game, we had lawn tickets so the kids could run around (T-Bones are a baseball team here)And here's Ash and her girlfriend, Lucy at the balloon lift-off.

This was the last day of school after the pre-school parties. I had new sunglasses and cinnamon rolls out for the kids when they got home. Go Summer!! The kids were sooo excited.
And that's what we've been up to so far this summer. It's been crazy, but crazy is good around here. We are looking forward to at least 2 more camping trips we have planned for the summer, 2 weddings, a weekend in Manhattan, The Holy Spirit Smoke-off, Jazz Festival, lots of trips to the pool and parks and many, many popsicles!

Holy Cow.... I mean deer...

Ahhhh...finally Friday. What a week we have had here. Where should I start?? Here's a good story from last weekend. We headed out on a little road trip to my brothers so we could be at my niece's First Communion on Sunday. So, Saturday morning we headed west (I think that's the direction to Wichita, I'm not so good with direction). We were about 10 minutes from Hilsboro when, low and behold, we got hit by a deer. Broad daylight, about 1pm, a deer hit the van, knocking out Lucas's window, Austin's window, dented in the side of the van and cracking the front windshield, along with messing up the antenna and scratching up the front passenger window. And, of course, the side mirror Shawn had JUST replaced was completely knocked out again (although this time it was by a deer, not a bird).
So, that's what the van looked like when we got out. The kids were covered in glass, but were all ok, just a bit scared (ok, that may be an understatement). It is a true miracle that the kids weren't hurt more by the flying glass. Austin had little cuts all over his face, that at the time looked a lot worse than they were. Once we got him cleaned up it wasn't too bad. Ashlyn had a cut right under her eye and Lucas probably had the biggest cut on his head. Everyone was fine, minus the deer. I would have to say that was the scariest thing I've been through with my kids and I thank God every day that it wasn't worse than it was. The van is obviously in the shop for awhile, but my in-laws came to our rescue and gave us their van to use for awhile. The kids have said some funny stuff now about the deer flying into our van - some of which are: it was a "reindeer". And Gabriella will tell you (picture this in her cute cute voice) "And you know what? My daddy wasn't even scared. He saved us." sigh. And she's right. So, that kind of put a damper on our weekend, I think I was the one who was shook up the worst, but it's ok now. I am now a proud member of NRA and will be learning how to hunt deer this upcoming season. ha!

And now for a beautiful pic of my Goddaughter after her First Communion. Ashlyn loves hanging out with Cayley - so cute.
And that was our weekend! I also have been getting ready for our garage sale for the past couple weeks. I had our sale yesterday, today and will have it for a little bit tomorrow. So far I think I'm coming up ahead! So far, $682.80!!!!!!!!!!! WOO HOO!!! Unfortunately I think it's going to the van rather than the fun things I had planned. Although, I did treat myself to a chocolate shake last night for my hard work. Shawn's been so busy at work that I had to pull this garage sale stuff off on my own. And I did it!!! And I am SOOO happy it's over! Yay for me! And yay for my in-laws for watching my kids while I haggled with all the buyers yesterday!
Now it's time for a relaxing weekend of celebrating none other than.....ME! Happy Mother's Day to all those moms out there (especially mine).