Christmas 2008

Wild Christmas at the Turners'. It was Trace's first here in the U.S., yet he seemed like quite a professional. He was not at all overwhelmed, in fact he was REALLY into the whole opening present thing. He was thrilled to get a ramps for his matchbox cars and of course all the characters from the movie "Cars" . I now spend my days quoting the movie, " The question on everyone's mind, where is McQueen"

Tian in love with her pocket princesses and Trace racing , racing, racing

Ty making sure he got the Lego set of his dreams

Trevor ring to figure out the model project and making sure his boots are the right size.

Somehow we missed TJ's pile of supplies for his mission: sandals, new scriptures, puzzles for the plane and his toiletry bag..

my project for the year - we tried to tackle making homemade candy canes. They turned out pretty good. The salt water taffy ...not so good

After a wild morning, we headed to Omaha. Tom's parents were crazy enough to welcome us. Tom's little brother and his 3 boys were there as well. The kids actually get along amazingly well and for having 5 under 5 it was pretty calm. I am sure Tom's dad may have a different opinion...
the cousins - Stacy ( George's wife) snuck in too.

TJ checking out the back pack on wheels

Tian and Trace about to be jumped on by their cousin Gavin. It looks like they are about to drop from exhaustion. It was a long good day.

Grandma Tessa spoiled us with a beautiful dinner, dessert ( complete with a pumpkin roll and cranberry pie) and of course, the perfect gifts :o)

Chrismas Project and TJ's photo shoot

Tj - the thinker
2008 for the Turners


Every year we have a live tree for Christmas and in the spring we plant it in our yard ( yes, there is on ein WI and many here in IA.) This year I had a wild idea to have a box built to hide the gorgeous black plastic pot the tree comes in...so the boys cut the wood and I have been madly carving - inspired by http://www.sticks.com/ - now my Christmas present in 1/4 of the way done!! ( minus the polyurethane)



Hope you enjoyed the Turner's own holiday - Christmas Adam

as you know Adam came before Eve...

Never invite us to a potluck...

oh horror of horrors we went to "Build a Bear" for the first time ( thanks Aunt Nicole :o) - it was awful - the kids loved it , but the indecision was unbearable ( no pun intended). Trace and Tian changed animals at least 50 times - each, then the lady wanted them to kiss the heart - that is when Trace backed into Tom and shook his head, held up his hand and then acted as though the lady was a serial killer

Tian as you can imagine did all of the talking - Trace was too busy wondering when he was going to get the piece of gum we promised him if he didn't cry. Tian requested a penguin for herself, and Spiderman and McQueen ( from the movie "Cars") for Trace

TJ and Lexie tagged along with us and decided - hey free gifts- why not?

Trevor and Grant finishing up the pioneering merit badge

Ty - yup MIT is definitely on the horizon for this kid....

oh...everyone should have to make gingerbread houses...I think Trevor may threatening to cut someone's hand... This reminds me a little too much of architecture school, but Tom would never let me use gingerbread

We may never be invited to someone's home again. Yes, we foolishly went to a friend's home for a potluck with all of our kids... We did okay ( all right - Tian and Trace touched everything they owned with their sweaty little hands, made very singing/talking Christmas toy run endlesly and ate at least 5 pounds of candy and nuts from every candy dish in the house, but other that it was all well and good- until it was time to leave . Picture this - me in my huge winter coat and high heels ( we had just come from church), Tom carrying the crock pot, I put on Tian's coat - can't find Trace. I locate Trace - Tian has now left. I realize we left Trace's coat in the car, I unzip and push him inside my coat, Tian barrels into the back of my legs and almost take me down as I fall into Tom who manages to hold onto the crock pot - still sporting the remants of spaghetti ...Now we have lost Ty - at this point I know our (ex)friends are MORE than ready for us to just get out of their house for good...after it was all said and done - everyone ended up in the car and I think we left most everything eaten, but unbroken ( I hope)!

We are still preparing to take TJ to the Missionary Training Center in Provo and continually cycling through the stages of loss - denial, anger, sadness, acceptance then back again. Keep us in your prayers that we don't all hit the same point in the cycle at the same time :o)

Chinese Bunk Beds

No ,don't call Child Protective Services - we only make them sleep here occasionally :o) Obviously, Tian and Trace are having too much fun pretending to nap in the linen closet - it was great fun until Ty came and shut the door...Tian can scream amazingly loud...

Last week I decided that TJ should learn to cut hair - his brothers and dad were willing ( yes - they are CRAZY!) guinea pigs - their hair is all SHORT, but they look good. TJ learned a valuable lesson - when cutting hair in a group- go first - revenge is ugly. He really did do a nice job- there is hope for TJ to become the beautician of Figi :o)

Oh ,and don't ask about Trace's hair - he begged to have "braids like Tian" so I figured a blackmail picture ( for his teen years) was in order!