Yes, we did start school. . .

One might think we didn't start school yet here, or that I am now homeschooling since I have neglected to post the ever famous back to school pics.   But, alas, here they are!  My big kids!!  Austin is now in 1st grade and Ashlyn is in Kindergarten.  It's true - they are gone all day and I dream of the days when we would wake up whenever and do whatever we wanted all day.  My how things have changed!!

And here is my sweet Gabriella - She is now in 4 year old preschool.  She has become such an animal lover too.  She absolutely loves dogs and wishes so bad she could have one.  Mommy has to bring the hammer down on that one.  No dogs here.  Luckily she has Miss Jennie's dog, Sunday, whom she gets to play with all the time.  She also has taught Lucas to behave like a puppy which is pretty much the same thing.  I have even been known to find bowls of water on the ground that Lucas has been drinking out of since he is the family "dog".  Nice.

Here we are having some quiet time.....ahhhhh....

And that's all I got for now.  I will post on the end of summer as soon as I find a free second.  For now though, I can check getting school pics off the list!

A little bit of summer 2011...

It is now the last week of July - man, summer flies!!  We are definitely not ready to hit the books again yet, but I am sure we will be by mid-August.  Here's a bit of what we have been up to this summer. . .

A little backyard bbq - that's a lot of kids for one table!!

And of course, Ohio Days in Waverly KS. The kids look forward to this all year long!!

We love to make homemade soft pretzels...Austin chose to be creative and make his name - not bad!

Annual July 4 camping trip.  This would be breakfast - orange soda.  The kids were having a little slice of heaven.  That's Gabriella and Lucas doing "cheers" before taking a drink.  No wonder they love camping!! 

Daddy the barber giving a little haircut to Lucas.

Lazy summer morning...

And sometimes you are just so dang tired you can't even get up on the couch before falling asleep.  Hilarious!!  It's hard work for a two year old to keep up with the craziness and late nights of summer.  Gotta catch a little snooze when you can!

So, that's a little bit of what's going on here.  The kids are all getting to go to the farm this week (by 2's).  Austin and Ashlyn left today and Lucas and Gabriella get to go on Wed.  They are super excited!  We are still looking forward to a trip to World's of Fun and a float trip on the river with the kids this summer.  I really don't want to think about school and getting up early yet, but I have a feeling it will be here before we know it!  Hopefully I can update y'all in less than a month this time. . . With daycare, tutoring and extra textbook work it's been a busy household here - especially when you throw in lots of time at the pool!!

June is half-over. . .WHAT?!!

 Here's a quick and random update of why I haven't blogged in so long. . .

First ice cream cone of the summer time season!!

 We have been to a rodeo - which the children LOVED.  In fact, Lucas is still talking about it and it was at the end of May.  He thought it was so cool.  Recently Lucas got out of bed an hour after everyone had been asleep.  He came downstairs and very sweetly (after Shawn asking why in the world he was out of bed) says, "Daddy, is there a rodeo tonight?"  Shawn replies, "No, Lucas there is no rodeo tonight, maybe on another night."  "Oh." says Lucas as he turns and heads back to bed.  I guess he just wanted to be sure he wasn't missing out on some rodeo fun.  Hilarious.

And my garage sale!!  I made a small fortune for lots of work. . .A garage sale takes some time, but it sure is worth it.  I got rid of tons of stuff with a bit of a profit - yay!  We now have a beautiful, clean basement. 

 And just like that. . . June is half-gone.  Unbelievable.  Apparently if you have 4 children life goes 4 times as fast!  Summer has started off with a bang.  We have done all kinds of fun stuff - first off our annual Camp Chaos trip - we have about 30 people this year and had a blast as always.  The kids run non-stop the whole weekend.  Shawn made a good point on the drive home this year.  After thinking it over he realized why kids love camping so much.  They can eat whatever they want, whenever the want.  They go to bed whenever, wake up whenever, don't have to shower, don't have to clean up, don't have to brush their teeth, run around like crazy people.  Life can't get much better than that.  And at camp chaos they have a million other kids to play with - can't go wrong there. So that was the first week of June. Here's a pic of a quick break for lunch while at the beach. . . I don't seem to get my camera out much at camp chaos. . . having too much fun i guess!

Here's some of my besties. . . Hot Mama's if you ask me. . . This is from our "last day of school" bash.  We started and ended the year at the same place - our favorite restaurant. . .the Towney Bar.

   We have also spent a lot of time at the pool - we have got some real fish here a the Turner house.  Shawn loves taking the kids to the pool - and it awesome that they are becoming such good swimmers - helps me breathe a little easier while we are there.  Lucas, however, is crazy.  I must remind you he is 2 and a half - not 6.  He is swimming underwater - literally.  He loves to keep his eyes open underwater while he dives for dive sticks.  The kid is crazy!  He can dribble a basketball like nobody's business, he can throw a ball up and hit it with a bat, and now he swims under water?  Genius.  I am thinking he just might be the ticket to Shawn and I's retirement someday.  He is so much fun.  The kids are definitely enjoying their time at home together - Lucas loves having Austin around for sure - they are best buds.  We did Bible School for a week which Lucas got to participate in too since I helped out all week in the craft room.  Lucas thought he was so cool since he got to wear a back pack and go to school with the big kids.  Every morning we would pack his back pack with a diaper, a water bottle and a snack.  At the end of the week I emptied his back pack out and realized he had been packing a huge stapler all week too...never know when you will need a stapler at preschool.  Oh - our garden is doing great!!  Lots of fresh herbs, our first tomato has sprouted!  Lots of squash going crazy!  So excited for some fresh produce.  I have also enjoyed a couple salads from our lettuce, but it seems to be done now.  The next big activity is our family camping trip over July 4th.  Can't wait for some family fun!!  For now, I am looking forward to another fun with the kids and who knows what else. . .

Round 2 goes to. . . .

Ashlyn!!  Yes, Ashlyn was the proud owner of 3 beautiful stitches in her head. She actually had the stitches removed tonight, she has had them for a week.  Such a brave little girl!  Although, I must say, I was quite surprised that she was the next kiddo to "earn" stitches.  I honestly thought Gabriella would get them a few more times before someone else did.  Besides stitches, we have been super busy around here.  The days are flying by as we all anxiously await summer time.  The kids can hardly wait to get their feet wet at the pool and head to the campsite.  It's hard to believe we will be sitting around the campfire in just a few short weeks!  Yay! Bring on the s'mores!  Austin is finishing up soccer, has his first baseball game tomorrow and will soon be an official first grader!  He has done awesome at school this year - and absolutely loves reading.  It's so cool to see him excited to head up to bed so he can read on his own.  It makes me smile.  Ashlyn will soon be an official kindergartener.  I can't believe she will be gone all day next school year.  It will be so strange to have her and Austin both gone all day long.  And Gabriella has grown up so much - and her hair has grown too!!  And well, then there's Lucas.  What can I say?  He's ready for preschool, but his age doesn't get him in yet so he's stuck with me.  I like it that way though.  I'm not ready to send him off!  He's too dang cute and I love when it's just me and him when everyone else is at school.  I truly cherish those times.  Shawn is working his tail off as always.  And me?  Well, I learned how to do some landscaping!  There's been some things I want done in the yard and Shawn hasn't had the time to do it so I took charge.  I had never exactly planted flowers and I started with that.  And they look good!  I also planted hostas (I had no idea what they were, but got some advice from my landscape extraordinaire friend) and they are actually growing!  Then I mulched the area, and even went and got some free rock and edged it all out.  I'm pretty sure Shawn was shocked at the outcome - as was I.  Who knew?  And I even enjoyed it.  Our garden is in full swing - all my herbs are doing great.  We've got tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, jalepenos, squash, zucchini and we even planted a blueberry bush that Shawn got me for Mother's Day (although it just looks like a stick Lucas shoved in the ground).  So excited to get some produce going!!  Bring on the homemade salsa.  Oh and I have lettuce that is coming in like crazy - yay!!  And that's about all we can fit in right now.  Only one more full week of school and then bring on the pool and sleepin' in!!

{Happy times}

I just have some cute pics to share.  I love my little big family!  

Shawn's still got it!!  He can carry 3 out of 4 of our kids to bed. . .

My sweet baby Lucas, he loves his blankie and still chews on one tassel at a time before he falls asleep. 

And my big kids - Austin and Ashlyn - best buds.

There's those crazy Turner kids!  I'm not sure what I was doing to make them laugh, but apparently it was funny.  Or, we ate too much chocolate on Easter morning! 

I love this picture.  We have been having fake snow ball fights in our living room and it makes the kids (especially Lucas) laugh hysterically - to the point that I am pretty sure at lease 50% of them pee their pants.  So, here they are throwing snow balls at the camera.

Gotta love painting Easter eggs!

Here's our future baseball team.  Yes, Austin is wearing rain boots as our pitcher.  And Lucas can hit a ball with no tee.  He can even throw a ball up on his own and hit it.  It's pretty amazing.  Lucas is such a little athlete.  And stinkin' cute in a batting helmet!

Today starts the beginning of May.  That means the excitement is rising for summer - both for the kids and for the adults!  I am definitely ready to head to the pool, sleep in, have fun, CAMP, and just spend time with friends and family.  And now I'm ready to relax before an early start tomorrow morning.  Have I mentioned I have starting getting up at 5am to workout each morning?  It's rough rolling out of bed that early, but it is such a great start to the day.  I love that I am the first one up in the morning.  For some reason it just feels like I win if I am the first one up!  Now if I could just shed some pounds while I'm at it. . .

And then it was April . . .

I love the sunshine!!  We have had some beautiful days here and it is so fun to be outside with the kids!  They are so excited about our garden that is getting planted - we now have 3 big boxes, plus lots of pots of herbs.  I can't wait to start getting some produce and making some salsa.  This school year has flown by, but it has been such a great year.  Austin has done awesome in Kindergarten - he is reading like crazy and loves that he can just lay down by himself and read a book - currently we are huge fans of Harry Potter.  Ashlyn has also had a fun year - she will be heading to Kindergarten next year!  Hard to believe I'll have two kids in school all day.  Where did the days go when I was changing 20 diapers a day??  Everybody is getting so big.  Gabriella has learned so much this year and her handwriting is getting so good.  She loves to color and draw and still loves to snuggle up with lots of books and her favorite blankie.  And then there's crazy Lucas.  Lucas is mad that he is not in school with the big kids yet.  He likes to wear his back pack whenever we drop the kids off at school.  He sits at the table with Austin every time Austin has homework to do and does it with him.  Austin and Lucas are quite a pair.  At some point I am going to have to break down and potty train Lucas.  He pitches a fit when I don't let him wear underwear and has pooped on the potty several times.  As soon as I find the energy I will potty train Turner #4. . . .hmmmm. . . diapers are so much easier though!!  I plan on just paying the other kids a few bucks and letting them train him - is that bad?   
We are pretty sure Lucas is going to be the athlete of the family.  He is so into sports and loves to dribble a basketball all over the place (yes, he's only 2 and dribbling as good as Austin).  Hopefully that means scholarships. . .we've been trying to find a cheap basketball goal, the boys are dying to have one here so hopefully we can find one by the summer. (and I think Shawn and I want one just as bad).  We have a nice long break for Easter next week, no school Wed - Mon.  I like to call it Spring Break #2.  It will be nice to sleep in (ha) and have Shawn home - I think he is even taking Friday off!! 
We are off to play in the sunshine before it starts to storm here - see ya later!

March, what??

How can it possibly be March already?  It seems like just a couple days ago it was Christmas, and now it's going to be St. Patricks Day.  We have been plugging along here at the Turner house.  Everyone is getting excited for spring break, although we have no plans.  I am looking forward to not rushing out of the house in the morning and doing some fun stuff with my kiddos (and some extras that will be here too).  Austin finished up his basketball season.  He was really into it, so it was sad to have the season end.  He loved playing and can be found dribbling a basketball all over the house now at any given moment.  Shawn has recently introduced card games to the kids.  Austin loves playing solitaire now.  Tonight we were playing Kings in the corner, and he loves to play a little "war".  Good times.  We played a lot of cards over the weekend. Even Lucas sits up at the table and plays cards - he loves to point out the "jacks".  I just love my family.  Shawn and I played cards for an hour Saturday morning. . . probably should have been working on that kitchen remodel we are suppose to be doing, but cards is way more fun. Gabriella turned 4!!  She was so excited to have her own b-day party with just her girlfriends.  We had a great time.  Shawn and I surprised the kids with a trip to ChuckECheese the night of Gabriella's b-day.  When we go to the parking lot Austin screams, "This is the best day of my life!"  So you can imagine how the night went over.  What fun!!  Shawn is plugging away at work - pray for lots of construction in Kansas City!!  As for me, I have taken on some day care.  I am blessed with awesome kids, but it is definitely some extra work.  I have also started tutoring some kids in math and am hoping the word gets out that I am awesome so I can get some more work.  Unfortunately, I am really struggling with some sinus issues.  We thought we had things on the right track, but I am headed back to the doc tomorrow to see what's gone wrong.  I am hoping things can get figured out with the least amount of meds as possible.  We'll see. . .
That's all I know for now, I plan on laying on this nice couch for a bit.
Have a great week!