The days are just flying by

It seems time is just flying away these days. Summer is slowly coming to an end and we are getting pretty excited about school starting. Ashlyn and Austin both picked out their backpack of choice - Austin went with "Bumblebee" from Transformers and Ash decided on a turquoise one with lots of flowers on it - super cute. We have had such a fun summer, but I think I'll be ready to get back in the drop off line at school - you know how I like schedules! Although, I am a bit stumped as to how I'm going to have four kids ready to go in the morning by 8 - good thing my kids get up at the crack of dawn. Austin and Ashlyn both finished up 4 weeks of swim lessons last week. They loved the lessons and actually learned a lot too. Austin completed the first two classes and got all his checks marked off - he can even tread water for 15 seconds! Yipee!! He is definitely the water bug in the fam so far. He loves to swim underwater and jump in doing cannonballs. Ashlyn also totally improved, although she still is not fond of putting her head under. The strange part is that she went off the diving board twice! You never know...
Gabriella was a trooper to go to lessons every morning and watch the kids - she actually had a great time on the side with her buddies Will and Sam. As long as she got her fruit snacks she was a happy girl. Several times we would stay after lessons and swim and have a picnic - good times.
Lucas is getting huge and not much of a baby any more. We finally have the asthma under control and he has stopped puking - yeah! He loves to sit up and play on his own. He prefers not to be laying down. He can roll over, but doesn't care too. He would much rather just sit still and play with his bucket that he puts toys in and out of. He can definitely get to where he wants to go, although it's really not a pretty process. He basically lays on his back and does 360's until he gets to where he wants to go - very funny. I can't believe he's 7 months old already -he's eating everything in sight, growing up way too fast. Speaking of growing up fast, Austin will be 5 next month and Ash will be 4!! What?!?!
We got to see our good friends, the Marks, recently which is always a treat. They have 3 boys and a girl - all similar in ages to ours, and her youngest and Lucas are only 2 weeks apart. I got a pic that I will post soon - they are so cute! Of course when we get together we have 8 kids without anyone else coming - holy smokes...
I don't feel like I have much to post today - I've really just been enjoying the kids these days and enjoying my hubby - we've had some fun weekends lately of just doing fun stuff with the kids. I can't say I've done a whole lot else, unless you count, cooking, cleaning, laundry, changing diapers, doctor appointments, etc...ha!
Hope you are havin' the time of your life!
ST

Lots to catch up on here. You will get a load of pics this post! I finally got the computer to work so I could get to my pics. I'll start from back in June. Here's one of my sweet Gabs. Just doing a little reading.And here's my munchkins just being silly.I am lovin' little Lucas right now. I love his age. 6 months is so much fun. He is just cute as a button. And happy as a clam.
This is from our family trip to St. Louis. We went to Grants Farm which is owned by the Bush family (the beer not the ex-president). Anyway, the kids are all feeding the goats bottles. Notice in the pic below the goat that is eating Ashlyn's bow right out of her hair!! Hilarious.
Shawn and I took a break to have a beer - yum.
And here are the owners of Hotel Huster. Yes, they actually let all 6 of us Turners stay at their house for the weekend. Can you believe that? We probably need to pay for some therapy for them after that...ha! Actually we all had so much fun. The kids were all awesome. We had 7 kids 4 and under, under one roof. And can you believe we had them all asleep around 8 both nights? They were sooo exhausted it really didn't take much work on our part, but I still think we should win some kind of award. The Husters were awesome hosts and the kids have already been asking to go back about a million times.
I love you boys!
Here's Gabriella at the arch - the kids loved going up in the arch...I, however, was a bit queezy about the whole thing.
Our attempt at getting a pic of the kids (yes, shawn is holding lucas up)
2nd Annual Settle Campout - 4th of July under the stars....
This was the second year in a row we camped out with the fam (my parents, sister and hubs, brother and kids). Below is a pic of my girls and their cousin Cayley hanging out on the rocks.
I just think this is a cute cute pic of my cute cute hubs - love you hon!
And my happy little fisherman...Austin would have fished all day if we didn't get tired of untangling his line all the time.
That should catch you up on pics a bit. We have been out of town the last 3 weekends so we are looking forward to being home this weekend. It's been really crazy around here. Shawn did take a week off awhile back and put in our new countertop and sink!! I LOVE my sink. It is huge and amazing and black. Very cool. I smile every time I use it. The two days with no sink were not cool though. I will get some pics of it and show you the progress soon. We have also had swim lessons the last two weeks and signed up for 2 more weeks today. Austin is natural water bug and even went off the diving board today! Very cool - pics to come of that too.
I am off to bed - summer is making me oh so tired.
Hope you are having the time of your life!
ST

Need to slow down...

We have been going and going here at the Turner house. I have no pics for you tonight, although I have about a million to get up on the computer (which isn't working). We have managed to go on a big family trip to St. Louis, do tons of work on the kitchen (new HUGE sink that I LOVE), go on a long camping trip with the whole Settle fam and in 3 more days Shawn and I will be off to canoe for the weekend (NO KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!). So, that's why blogging has been on the back burner. My kids are a bit crazy, with all this madness going on they think they should be entertained all the time now and are having a bit of trouble adjusting to not "vacationing". Last week Shawn took the whole week off to work on our kitchen renovation. He managed to get a new counter top on, the back splash is gone, electric is done and my new sink is in. Shawn and his dad worked many many hours last week and it looks awesome. I love it! I smile while doing the dishes in my way cool sink. Thanks for all the hard work guys! All week I was going from place to place with all the kids trying to keep them out of the house, so the kids were dragged all over creation all week and then we loaded up Friday and headed out for camping. Had a blast camping, although it was a bit windy at night for me. Kids all slept like champs though. Austin particularly loved the fishing, Ash just enjoyed wandering around the campsite, and Gab enjoyed the "snack all day" attitude we had. So, I would say it was a success. We have now started swim lessons which the kids are loving (Austin and Ashlyn) so that's good. Lucas had to get 5 shots yesterday in order to try and catch up on all the shots we missed at his 4 month check so he was hurtin' today. Lots of crying over here. But, I'm sure tomorrow will go better!
I will get some pics up as soon as possible.
Hope you are havin' the time of your life!!
ST

Summer time has arrived!

It is HOT. That's about all there is to say about it. Just plain HOT. We have been enjoying a lot of time at the pool, since that's about the only place we want to be when it's 100 degrees out. The kids are lovin' every second of it too. We are getting all geared up for our first family trip this weekend! Kids are counting down, as are Shawn and I. Lots to do and we still have to sit down and figure out how we are going to fit all our junk into the van. Probably going to have to borrow the topper, dad...
I can't download pics right now since our computer won't even turn on...not sure what's wrong, but as soon as it's up and running I have some great pics to share.
An old college friend is on her way over to play so that's all I got for now -
Hope you are havin' the time of your life!
ST
ps - I caught Gabriella attempting to "go potty like big brother Austin". Why wouldn't she give it a go? If he can stand to pee shouldn't she be able to too?? hmmmm...yes, I had to clean the floor after the attempt.

Project Shop Til You Drop.

Last weekend my sister and I surprised my mom with a weekend shopping excursion. We told her Thursday night that she needed to come home from work Friday and have an overnight bag packed and ready and wear some running shoes to comfort her feet while we did some serious shopping. We had a blast although it went way too fast and we didn't even make a dent in the shopping arena. We quickly learned that it could take months to do all the shopping and go all the places we wanted to go and we didn't even go more than 15 miles from home!! We started out on the plaza friday night, did shopping til the shops closed then went to Cheesecake for some dessert and drinks. We stayed at a hotel on the plaza that night (thanks to priceline) and then got up early and shopped all day Saturday at various places. My favorite purchase of the weekend was my new beach bag. SO cool and only $18.99. It has tons of pockets for easy access and is perfect for the beach. Love love love it. I will post a pic this weekend. My mom and sister bought one too - we couldn't resist! I should have bought a few more to have on hand for gifts, but oh well. I also got Shawn the best fathers day present ever - can't post about that yet though....overall it was an awesome weekend, I just wish it could have lasted for about a week or so - maybe next year!! It will definitely have to become a tradition. Austin even asked me a few days ago when I would need to go shopping all weekend so that he could stay home with dad again. He told me that dad lets him do things that I won't let him do and that makes dad special. Hmmm...gotta love him.
On to other events - no doctor visits this week again!! YIPEE! Things are looking good here at the Turner house. We are loving our lazy mornings this summer and have finally ventured to the pool 3 times this week. The kids are loving it. We are going on our first ever family vacation next weekend - we are headed to St. Louis to stay with our friends, the Husters. They also have 3 kids - so that makes 4 adults and 7 kids all 4 and under....should be a blast. I can't believe they really want us to stay at their house. I hope we are all friends by the time we leave. Seriously though, we can't wait to go. The kids are so excited to go on vacation (although I'm not sure they even know what that means). Then the next weekend we are off camping again with the whole Settle fam, then the next weekend Shawn and I are off on our OWN for a canoe trip!!! YIPEE!! And then July will be about over and we'll just head out to backpack shop and get the kids back in school. Ok, we'll still have a few weeks, but it seems like summer is just flying by. Tonight Shawn has headed out for the Holy Spirit Smoke Off (first annual). It's a smoke off up at our church where you get on teams and smoke a bunch of meat and win stuff or something. Really I have no clue what it is, a bunch of men planned it. I know that I'm suppose to be up there sometime tomorrow to eat with all the kids. I know that Shawn has been there since 7 tonight and they are suppose to cook all night (doesn't the meat just sit in the smoker? isn't that why they call it a smoker?). Anyway, Shawn is super excited to spend the weekend sitting around cooking meat, drinking beer and hangin' with the guys...I should say he just got a pretty good Fathers day weekend, huh? Can't wait for mothers day....
Hope you are having the time of your life!
ST

Camp Chaos...

I am happy to report that Camp Chaos was a HUGE success! We all had a blast and came home exhausted, so much so that it took a few days and several Dr. Peppers to get back to normal. We headed out to Lake Perry Friday night and came home Sunday morning. The was Gabriella's frist attempt at camping and she LOVED it. All the kids came home filthy and tired. I call that success. Here's some pics from the adventure. (there were 25 of us all together that went)

First things first, we must have a fire. Come on boyscouts!!And how can you not love this one...Will and Gab, sharing a chair by the fire...ahhhhh...can't wait to show that one at high school graduation!
I love these cute little tushys at the beach...Ashlyn and her BFF, Addison. So cute. They absolutely loved the beach (even though we parents thought it was pretty disgusting).
And here's our stylish little Emma in the middle, Ash on the left and Addie on the right. So fun.
My happy little Ashlyn!
Here's the ladies man...Kiernan...with all his girlfriends.
Time for a boat ride! Austin and Emma loved their little love boat.
And here's all of our little campers! They had so much fun and none of them wanted to go home on Sunday!
Gabriella wins the "pop a squat" award. This girl LOVED camping. She thought it was about the coolest thing ever to just drop your pants and pee. So much so that I have found her heading outside to pee AFTER WE GOT HOME. Yes, she still goes outside in the grass to pee. Hey, at least her pants are dry.
Self portrait...

One of Austin's favorite parts of camping...SMORES!
AHHHHH....the kids are all asleep....or at least most of them....time for some beers and relaxation by the fire. And yes, that's a head lamp on Shawn's head. Always prepared.

Hope you are having the time of your life!
ST

Quick update...

Here's a super quick update...
Gabriella's ear is looking great. She had her visit to the ENT last week and checked out great. We have to go back in 3 weeks for a hearing test, but they said it was healing great and looked fine. We even finished up the ear drops today. She has been a trooper through it all, and was probably wondering why we are all so worried about her. She never did say it hurt and by the third or fourth day of ear drops she was actually reminding me to give them to her (huh?!?!?)
As for Lucas - we were sent to an asthma doctor last week and were told he has asthma. I have to do a breathing treatment with him every morning and do breathing counts while he is sleeping and chart it all. He seems to be doing way better with his new medicine in the breathing machine. Time will tell I suppose. We go back in a couple weeks to check the progress on the asthma. Hopefully it will be good news. At least it is treatable. We got some awesome lotion for Lucas's eczema and it has worked wonders! Vanicream is the key. Anyway - all is good here and it has been much quieter. We haven't been to a doctor in 3 whole days!!!! YIPEE!!!
Hope you are having the time of your life!
ST