Let the FUN begin!!

Yes, these are the makings of a beautiful swing set!! Shawn's parents bought our kids the coolest swing set on the block! I have never seen the kids so excited. They couldn't wait for the boys to get it together - little did they know it would take 11 hours to build...
Here's my cute hubby, hard at work!
"Look, Shawn, this is getting pretty complicated, we better read some directions." says Papa Settle
"No, seriously, Shawn, I just don't get this...let me read the directions one more time."
"Hmmmm, still not quite sure about this, Shawn, maybe we should take a break and have a beer."

For pete's sake dad! It's just a swing set!! No wonder it took 11 hours to put together!!

We still have some work to do, like get sand for the sandbox (which is right behind where the kids are sitting at the built in picnic table) and we need some wood chips, but we're close! LOVE the swing set! I see hours of fun in our future!! (and probably some bruises, too)

Besides building a cool swing set, Shawn and I also got to go on a date this weekend! Shawn had a big formal affair down at Bartle Hall downtown - Shawn had to wear a tux!!! YIPEE!! There were over 800 people there - it was the opening of their new grand ballroom which was an E&K project. (it was $250/plate!! wow!!) I have been wanting to get dressed up like that for years, haven't dressed up like that since prom I think, but I wasn't real excited to go prom dress shopping only 8 weeks after giving birth. Oh well, it was a night out and we had a blast. Here's photo - don't we look like a happy high school couple headed off to the senior prom?!?!And now I must head outside for dinner - we are having a picnic! Hope you all have a good week, and if you want to stop by, don't ring the doorbell, just head to the backyard - you know where we'll be!!

Hope you are having the time of your life!

ST

Finally some pics!

Just eating some ice cream with papa after work.

Here's ms. smiley pants! Gariella loves to smile now - Austin and Ashlyn are the best at getting her to laugh and smile - they must be telling her stories about her crazy parents...

Here are Gabriella's Godparents - my sister Kimberly and her fiance, Nick. Don't they look proud?!?!

Notice the hat on Gabriella's head - it is a special bonnet that her Godparents gave her. It is a bonnet for her baptism, then you pull the ribbon out and it becomes a hanky that she can hold with her on her wedding day. Isnt' that amazing?? I love it! Even if her dad won't let her marry until she's 40.
And here's bath time - Gabriella absolutely loves bath time. She just smiles and enjoys every second of it! Grandma Settle often times shows up to watch her get her bath because she's so happy and cute!
Here's some serious coloring time. No time for smiles - lots of work to do here.

And of course - my son learning the "real" way to get his business done. Whatever works...

Grandma and big girl Ashlyn!

The calm before the storm...

I know, I know...I have been neglecting all of my blogger fans out there. You are all wondering if my three kids have overtaken me, but alas I'm back! And I have one less child to diaper every day!! Yes, Austin now has almost 3 weeks under his belt at potty training and we have finally conquered the fear of pooping on the potty. Let me back up a bit - ever since we started the potty training Austin has done amazing. He was totally ready and pees like a champ. We have hardly had any accidents (peeing) and he even lets me know when he has to go now. You would think pooping would be no biggie, but let me tell you, the books are right. Kids have some crazy fear of pooping in the toilet. Why? Well, the research says they are "losing part of themselves". Whatever. I find it to be just plain gross and annoying. Luckily Austin has caught on fairly quickly and we have even pooped in the potty 3 times in a row!! And all three times he has TOLD me he needs to go!! (Now would be a good time to visualize Austin telling me he has to poop and then me dropping EVERYTHING instantly and grabbing him as I sprint like I am in the Olympics up to the potty while frantically throwing he clothes off on the way). Anyway, potty training is quite the experience, but hasn't been too bad. But, I've only got one down, I still have 2 more to go so things could get worse by the end. I will say it has been so fun to see how proud Austin is of himself. He thinks he is such a big boy now. It only took a week of "peeing like papa" before he would say to me "mom, I don't need you to sing me the song every time I pee." This comment hurt a bit and I had to hold back my tears as I have kind of taken a liking to the peeing in the potty song (if you would like copies of the lyrics I'll have to ask my friend, Kim, as she and her girls are the original song writers and I believe they have a patent on it.) Anyway, the potty training has gone well - for those of you wanting to start it up I would suggest LOTS of praise, never getting mad (which is the MOST difficult part as you clean poop up quite often) and just laughing a bit as you get through it all. Oh, and maybe a few bottles of wine...
Let's see, what else is going on? Well, we had Gabriella baptized over this past weekend which went very well. The proud Godparents are my sister Kimberly and her fiance Nick. We had such a great weekend with them despite the random snow storm that came on Friday night (to be followed up with 70 degree weather on Sunday). Gabriella had her 6 week checkup and she is growing like crazy! Jumped up to the 90th percentiles in everything - chunky little monkey. She is resembling a little old man now as she is balding on top but not on the sides. She sleeps awesome at night and finally my other two are too!! Austin has quit the stripping ever since we started potty training. Ashlyn is finally starting to really talk which is exciting and absolutely adorable.
I also had my 6 week check up and the doc said everything looks great! Of course he also said to me on the way out, "Stephanie, you and Shawn DO know where babies come from right??" Had to laugh at that one. Having three under three has definitely shown it's challenges, but I have to say I have the cutest three kids in the world! I am missing going out to run errands like I use to. I can't just go to Target or Costco - I have too many kids and they fill up the cart before I buy anything. A few days ago I decided I would try and go to Target - how bad could it be? I pulled in the parking lot, turned around and looked at my kids, took a deep breath and then drove home...I choked. Oh well, someday I'll get back out there! For now I'll just have to do the errands at night or on the weekends. Shawn and I have kind of an unspoken rule that if you go anywhere you have to at least take one kid with you - seems to work for now.
Bath time is about to begin so I better go get my rain gear on -

Hope you are having the time of your life!!
ST
ps - my camera is down at my parents house, but as soon as I get it back I will post some pics for you all -

Just plain bored...

Call me crazy, but the rumors are true...Austin is peeing in the big potty!! For the past two weeks he has been taking his diaper off and attempting to put a new one on himself (this is without proper supervision - and usually involves poop). So, I finally gave into him and slapped on some big boy unders! And I must say, he is doing awesome! Well, as good as you can do when you insist on standing up to pee and have HORRIBLE aim. There is pee all over my bathroom, but hey, that's a lot cheaper than all the diapers I have to buy! Seriously, though, he is doing great - it's a lot of work on my part since I have to constantly remind myself to take him to the bathroom, but if I remember to take him, he pees almost every time! And (this might be too much info for you if you haven't experienced potty training) he has pooped TWICE in the potty!! YIPEE!! I'm sure my mother is laughing her head off behind my back as she hears me singing fun songs about peeing and pooping in the potty, cheering endlessly about hitting the "water target" - I'm sure this is hilarious for her! This has also been a true test of patience. You can't get mad or discipline for having an accident, which is soooo hard when you see someone peeing on your new carpet. But he's got to learn and that is going to take time. Anyway, we are definitely keeping busy here at the Turner's with a newborn and a potty trainee...luckily Shawn's parents offered to keep Ashlyn for a few days since she was not handling the potty training well. She's not getting much attention since all the songs are directed at her brother. She has been trying to stand up at the potty and pee just like her big brother which is hysterical...and you'll see in the following photos that she even attempted to get IN the potty - just for some much needed attention. So, she is out at the farm getting spoiled while Austin hangs out in his new unders - isn't he the cutest!!

The other pics were of Austin and Ashlyn having the time of their life jumping off the couch onto a pile of pillows - this went on for almost an hour - nonstop fun around here!!

Hope you are having the time of your life!
ST

Survival of the fittest

We now have a one month old, a one and a half year old and a two and half year old. Yes, we have "Three under three" (say that with really big eyes and a loud sigh and you'll know what the response is when I tell people how old my kids are). But, so far, we are surviving. Little Austin has been giving me a run for my money the last two days. He seems to thinking his hands are ONLY there for hitting/pushing/smacking/scratching purposes. And no punishment seems to phase him. The boy could entertain himself for hours inside a white walled room with nothing else. And then there is Ashlyn who has turned into a drama queen...will scream at the drop of a hat. Love that! I'll take a hitter over a tantrum thrower any day. Yikes...She better learn to get over these tantrums before she starts sports!! And then there's my sweet Gabriella. She sleeps she poops and she's really only fussy if she's hungry or if it's the hours between 6 and 8pm. Other than that she's quite a trooper to put up with her siblings. She's been sleeping awesome - goes down at 8:30ish and eats at 2am and 6am (approx) and always goes right back to sleep after feeding. gotta love that!
Oh - did I mention we finally outsmarted our 2 year old??? You know, the one that has the stripping problem at night? Well, instead of HIM taking his clothes off, we started taking them from he before he could get them off. We turned the table on him and told him PJ's were a privilege and every time he gets out of bed he would lose a part of his pj's (he had three pairs on). And you know what? It worked! He now only wears his one pair, and he stays in bed all night. Only took us about 4-5 months to outsmart him but we finally did.
Mom and dad left town for the weekend so Shawn and I are on our own for the whole weekend. I have to make 6 consecutive meals by myself...I don't remember the last time I had to do that. And how are we suppose to get anything done without the help of grandma and papa???? How could they leave us for 2 whole days???? I hope we survive!! I better cut myself off now - I'll post some pics as soon as i find the camera...haven't been able to find it since we got home from the hospital...
Hope you are having the time of your life!!
ST

Just Survivin'

I thought I better post something on here or you might just think we fell off the deep end with all these little Turners running around! We are actually doing pretty good. Of course, we still haven't made it a whole 24 hours with no grandparent help yet, but we are getting close! Shawn's parents spent last week with us helping out with the kids as I continued on the road to recovery. I am actually feeling really good now. I can pick up Ashlyn without any problems and I can lift Austin when I need to although I try to limit that as much as possible. Gabriella is still doing great - sleeping like a champ! She is still on the three hour schedule, but she is pushing 3 and a half sometimes at night. I think my body is getting pretty use to getting up to feed her, well, as much as your body can get use to getting up in 3 hour intervals all night! This morning we had a photo shoot with my friend Kim who got some pics of the kids and some family pics for us. I can't wait to see them!!! She does some amazing things with that camera. Somehow she makes my kids look WAY more innocent than they actually are!! Anyway, I should have some baby announcements out soon...keep an eye out in the mail! Tomorrow with be my first day with no outside reinforcements...although I told my mom to keep her phone in her pocket at work so she could coming running at a moments notice. I will be totally on my own tomorrow - I'm kind of looking forward to it - although the help was much needed and we couldn't survive without it, it's always nice to get things back to some sort of normalcy. I have to know in my mind that I can do this and the only way to know that is to give it a try. And if I can't, well, my mom will just have to quit her job. Oh well!
That's about it for now - oh yeah, we are finally going to be putting Gabriella into a real bedroom. I think we are going to put Ashlyn in with Austin and put Gabriella in Ashlyn's old room. At least for a few months...then we'll get the girls in a room together. We are hoping maybe having Ashlyn in Austin's room with make Austin sleep better - don't laugh, it's worth a shot, right?

Hope you are having the time of your life!
ST

A Mother's Love

What can I say? I have the best mom in the world. This post is a tribute to my amazing mother that has just gone above and beyond the call of duty lately. As you all know, mom and dad live right down the street so they are always helping us out and coming up to play with the kids or give Shawn and I a night out or let us go get groceries without the kids (yes, that does count as a date). So, they are always helping us out in one way or another, but this past week and a half my mom deserves a gold medal, or at least a piece of french silk pie! After my c-section my recovery didn't quite go as well as planned and my mom was up at the hospital watching over me every second. I know that she would have taken my headaches and had them herself if she could have (which is crazy since they were absolutely miserable). And it was a huge help to Shawn to have her there so that he could still go home and help with Austin and Ashlyn and know that he was leaving me in good hands (I know it was really hard on him to see me in "not so good shape"). When we came home from the hospital I was pretty miserable still and the kids were all screaming at the same time and I came downstairs and just started crying - my mom gave me a big hug and told me everything was going to be fine. I have to admit I really didn't believe her, but you know what? She was right. Last week she got up at 5:15am every day and came up to our house so she could be there when Austin and Ashlyn got up. She took care of them in the morning so that I could get some extra sleep. She stayed all day every day until all three kids were down for the night. She cooked, she cleaned, she entertained, she let me sleep, she even got to drive us all around in my cool minivan. (and secretly - I'm pretty sure she was having the time of her life!) As Monday moved on to Tuesday and then to Wednesday and so on, everything seemed to come together and things are finally getting back to normal, well, a new normal, or at least manageable. I never would have gotten through last week without her. Now I am trying to convince her to quit her job and just hang out with me and all my mom friends - and I think she's seriously considering it! Anyway, I thank God everyday for giving me such a wonderful mom - I hope I can be just like her!

I hope you are having the time of your life!
ST