Not just a laugh...a guffaw...

Lucas laughs at everything. He is totally a social laugher. If everyone else is laughing, so is he. And the best part? He always covers his mouth when he laughs. Hysterical.
The kids aren't in school today so we are just chillin' in our pj's. I love no school days. I love having no agenda and no where we have to be. I am going to miss these days next year when Austin has school every single day - ugh. How will we ever get there? For now, I'm going to just love being home in my purple polka dot pants and KSU hoodie.
GO CATS!!

Go Cats!!

How 'bout them Cats??! Sweet 16, baby! What a fun weekend of basketball. Granted, my bracket isn't looking so hot anymore, but oh well - neither is my dad's. Next year I'm just going to wait for my dad to fill out his bracket and then do the opposite. Should work out well in my favor! (just kidding, dad)
So, we got about 10 inches of snow this weekend. Lovely. Should be melted and flooding here by Tuesday since we are looking at 65 degrees on Tuesday. The weather is all over the place - makes it exciting to pick out clothes every day. Kids got to make a snowman and 10 minutes later we were drinking hot chocolate.
Going to be a busy week here this week. School starts back tomorrow, meetings 3 out of 4 nights, shouldn't be long and it'll be the weekend again!

Now I am going to settle in on the couch for a bit.

Spring Break 2010!!

Ahhh...spring break. Spring break is awesome. We have had such a fun week. We started the week off with a trip downtown in which I drove all 4 kids down town by myself and even parked in a parking garage! Yes, I have a bit of a fear of downtown driving and definitely prefer to stay away from parking garages. Too many cars packed into one place and I am pretty much guaranteed to not ever find my car again. We spent the morning at Kaleidoscope, which is somewhere we use to go as kids too - it's basically one big room set up to do a million different crafts and it's all free. It's so much fun. And if you know my kids at all, they are obsessed with doing crafts. We do on average about 13 crafts per day per kid. So, as you can imagine, they had a blast. I can't wait to go back again. Then we went over to Crown Center and went to a free "fairy tale" exhibit that was lots of fun and finished off the morning with lunch at Fritz's (where the train brings you your food). Such a great day!! And we even found the car when we left. Oh, did I mention we went with 54 of our closest friends? So much fun. That was our Monday. Tuesday we packed up and headed to the farm! Austin, Ashlyn and Gabriella got to stay there until tonight with their other cousins, Bo and Christy. They love hanging out with their cousins and spending time on the farm. From what I gathered they mostly enjoyed the creek and splashing in the mud - good times!! Some of my fondest childhood memories are all from hanging out on the farm so we are so blessed that our kids get to do that. Thanks grandma and grandpa turner for taking on all the grand kids this week! So, with 3 of my kiddos gone, it was just me and Lucas. And it was awesome. We slept in, we went shopping, we snuggled, we played. It was really nice to get to spend time with just my lucas. And now the week is almost over - time flies. Summer is going to be here so quick. As for me I am going to enjoy a quiet night here - Shawn is out for Guys Night Out so I am going to snuggle up and continue watching some basketball.
Until next time - - - Go Cats!

{ And then she was THREE }

So, here I am really, really prego with Gabriella. Hard to remember back then. I believe this is right before we left for the hospital for the c-section. And here's what Austin and Ashlyn looked like before they became a big brother and big sister! How cute are they?? I can't believe how little they were when I brought Gabs home. Austin was still in diapers!!

And here's when Gabriella arrived.

Happy Birthday, Gabriella! My little Gabba Gabba is officially 3. She has been acting like she's 12 for the last few years, but she's really just 3. She is so stinkin' cute. I love her for so many reasons. She is truly independent, she's funny, she knows way more than any 3 year old should (thanks to Austin and Ashlyn) and she loves her siblings more than anything. I love that her most prized possesion is her polka dot blankie and she loves her some "Dora and Diego". I love her goofy, cheesy smile and I really love how she calls me "momma".
Here's a pic of a little b-day lunch we had...
And of course we had to have a pizza party with the fam at Gabriella's favorite restaurant, Pizza Street. So fun!

That's my little 3 year old. What a fun birthday weekend!! Can't wait to see what being three will bring!
And yes, that's Gabriella wearing a dress!!

{ Woop Woop for 32!! }

Before I get into the birthday week I just had...here's some new photos I just downloaded! Enjoy!That's my Gab and my Luke Luke. Aren't they cute reading books together?
Lucas thought it was hilarious to cover his face and peek out the hole of the book every time I took a picture. He would just giggle away. Such a smart little one.
One of the many snowy days we have experienced here. Snow has been on the ground since Christams Eve. Seriously, people...I am so over this snow.

I love that Lucas is walking - it's so cute!!

Is that really a picture of ME?? I even look like I may have fit in a shower that day! Woop Woop for me!!
Love you Lucas!!
Little BFFs.
My kids are getting so big - hard to believe. 5, 4, almost 3 and 1. How did that happen??

Now time for some adult pics....first let me explain my b-day festivities...
I have been celebrating my 32nd birthday for quite a few days now...I LOVE, love, love birthdays. I don't care how old you are, how can you not enjoy your birthday? And I have the best friends and family who didn't even get annoyed with me mentioning here and there (ha) about it being my birthday. Shawn and I got to go out Friday night to a fancy dinner with his work so we even got to dress up and have a fancy meal free of charge - nice. Had a great time (and as always - thanks mom and dad for watching my wonderfully behaved children). Saturday morning I got to have a birthday breakfast with my mom and sister. The best gift of all was just to get to hang out with them - NOT in a hospital. Mom is doing so much better and we even got to go shopping for several hours on Saturday!! Man, have I missed that! Then, Saturday night I had a little b-day party with some friends - so so fun. I won't give too many details, but I did beat someone in boxing (michelle) and according to the Wii, Shawn is 58 years old. The good thing is that according to the wii I am 54 - so I guess Shawn and I really are a good match! Oh, I almost forgot - Friday morning (on my real b-day) Shawn had made and hung a banner that sad Happy Birday Stephanie! How cool is that? And no, that was not a typo - that's actually what the banner said, Shawn had a bit of a spelling issue with the sign, but it was the thought that counts. I love banners. I don't think I have had one made for me in over 20 years.

Here we are playing a little Mario Kart. And yes, that's what Jennie (far right) looks like when she is driving her mini van too.
This is wearing I was demolishing Michelle in a little boxing match.
Yes, Michelle knows - she just got knocked out...Thanks for all the b-day wished everyone!!
I think 32 is going to be a great year.
Bring it on 3-2. Show me what you got!

Time for an update

I decided I had better take time for a little update real quick. Things got pretty hectic last week so I never had a chance to post anything about our wonderful world here. Last week I got to help out a friend with her daycare - she had sick kids of her own so her daycare kiddos were sent my way. It made for a busy (and fun) week. I'm glad I'm here to help her and take the stress of it off her shoulders. Always feels nice to help out a friend. And of course, I had lots of help handed my way when I needed it last week too. Mom had to be back in the hospital for several days last week. She had surgery on Thursday - she had to get the implantation device taken out as her body was rejecting it. Shawn's parents came out on Wednesday night so I could spend the whole day at the hospital with her. So so kind of them - and it helps so much to know my kids are in good hands when I need to be away. Thanks Ed and Norma for helping me out! And thanks to my BFF, Kim, for watching my 2 littlest ones on Friday so I could spend some time at the hospital again. I have the best friends ever. And to all those that called and emailed to check on us and my mom - thank you so much, your prayers and kind thoughts are what get us through. Mom is doing great and is really looking forward to getting back to shopping sprees and playing with all her grandbabies. It's been a long road, but I really think she is doing well and things are looking up. As for me, I'm good. So glad mom is out of the hospital, glad my kids are all well, and actually a little excited that the kids don't have school the rest of the week. (I may not say that by the end of the week - we'll see). We have some fun things planned for the week - one of which is staying in our pjs and sleeping late - sure hope the kids got the memo on sleeping late (doubt it). We have 2 birthdays coming up - MINE on the 19th and Gabriella on the 28th. We are both in need of b-day parties - Gabriella has requested a Diego theme party and I think I'm going to go for a "wine" theme. Sound good? Yes. Lucas is doing great - asthma is back on track and he is being ornery as ever. He has a hilarious personality. Gabriella is definitely his keeper - she guards him with her life. She loves her Lucas. Austin has another tooth just hanging by a thread. He also started TaeKwanDo and loved it. He was so cute! Ashlyn is loving school these days and loves having play dates with her girlfriends. I can't wait to get to parent teacher conferences this week - should be an interesting day!
And now it's time for bed -

No umbrella...just a raincoat.

I think I can put my umbrella away, but I'm gonna go ahead and keep my raincoat on for a few more days...
We started our week out at the asthma doc Monday morning. Gabriella had been puking in her bed the last couple nights from not being able to stop coughing (don't worry - no stomach flu). I should sooo get mom of the year (or callie should... ha!). We just lay towels down under Gab when her asthma gets bad because we know she's going to puke and poor little Ashlyn just sleeps thru the whole ordeal. We have the lights on changing the beds, cleaning up puke and she just lays there sleeping with a bit of a scowl on her face (with good reason). Lucas's asthma was pretty bad over the weekend so after I took the kids to school Monday morning I just went straight to the asthma building. They are both being treated for asthma right now which means lots of breathing treatments and steroids - which make Gabriella a very fussy and hungry little girl. I will say Gab has stopped puking in her bed at night - woo hoo!! I'm sure no one is as happy as Ashlyn about that one. And Lucas is still trying to get over the coughing and wheezing. He's been on steroids since the peanut mess, but is still having to take them since he's wheezing so much. ugh. Luckily he doesn't puke every time he coughs - I couldn't handle two kids like that. As far as the peanuts go, we haven't had another outbreak (although not from lack of trying). Yesterday Ashlyn gave Lucas a fruit snack which I had told the kids he can't have because the package says it was packaged in a plant that has peanuts. Well, needless to say she gave him one which caused me to go into a frantic state and do A LOT of deep breathing so I would not throw Ashlyn out the window. I cleaned his mouth out best I could and then just watched him like a hawk to see what would happen. Luckily nothing happened so that was good. Right now we don't know how strong the allergy is or what exactly can make him go into shock so we are kind of playing the waiting game for now. He gets a blood test in a couple weeks to see about the peanut allergy and we'll go from there. I will say having the epi pen here yesterday when I didn't know if he was going to have a reaction made me feel a bit better. I knew giving that to him would allow me time to get him to the hospital if need be. Ok, so no more talk of that mess. Now we can talk about me. I went and had my shoulder checked today and ended up getting a cortizone shot in hopes that it will allow me to do some physical therapy and get it healed up on it's own. If my arm physically won't do the exercises then we know that it is not just a partial tear and I will have to have surgery. For now though, we are hoping for a partial tear and that I can get it back in working order without spending more money on it! Thanks to Dr. Punswick for listening to me and helping me find alternative ways to fix it rather than just sending me straight to MRI's and surgery. Hard to find good docs these days who really want to help you and not just do a quick fix. Dr. Punswick happens to be the husband of one of my girlfriends and he rocks (as does she). So if you need a good family doc I highly recommend him! We'll see how my arm does tonight - to me, that's the real test. I haven't slept in weeks because the pain constantly wakes me up so I am hoping this shot will get me some rest - here's to healing!!
Good news - Lucas is walking everywhere now! No more crawling unless absolutely necessary to get somewhere extra fast (or to get away from a sibling).
Today Gab hasn't coughed all day, Lucas is taking a nice long nap, Austin has a friend over to play and Ashlyn went over to a friends house to play. Sounds like a good day to me! Maybe I'll throw that raincoat away afterall.......