Making Memories...One Day at a Time!!

Justin and I have made it a priority in our lives that we want Emma & Evan to look back when they are grown and think...we had a fun childhood. I can honestly say that for my childhood. We spent hours upon hours outside in our playhouse playing restaurant, in Lauren's basement playing barbies or school, & in Anna Kayla's closet playing mancalla. I wouldn't trade a minute of those memories and we are trying to start early with Emma & Evan. So, what did we do this weekend...Friday afternoon I decided that since it was supposed to be raining all day Saturday & Sunday that we were going to get outside and enjoy the sunshine!! We met Jillian, Jonathan, Bennett, Meg, Aaron, & Warren at TW Boons for supper, then headed to the park at Connie Maxwell. I think it is safe to say that all of our babies have LOTS of energy that they needed to get out! Boy did they play??? The adults even had a little fun ourselves!!

 

Here is a picture Meg took of all of us sliding.  Justin apparently needs to go to the park more often because he took a tumble right after this coming off the slide!  It was all in good fun though!  After we all played for a while...we decided to head to Marble Slab for some ice cream.  We got Cookies & Cream and it was delicious.  I just knew Emma & Evan would crash on the way home but they didn't. They sure did sleep all night though.  So, that was a trip well worth it!!  Then, of course Saturday morning Justin had to go turkey hunting one last time.  He didn't kill anything but at least he can say he went.  He even missed my blueberry buscuits I made for  breakfast.  We don't have those often...so I was sweet and saved him three!  We decided against the Zoo because of all the rain that was supposed to be heading our way and headed out to Emerald Farms.  Justin was home in time so he came with us.  I debated on whether or not to leave Emma at home because she is NOT a fan of animals...but since Justin wanted to go too...Emma came along.  Just as I suspected...she was NOT a fan.  One of us had to practically hold her the whole time.  Evan on the other hand LOVED it.  He is such an animal lover.  This makes me even more excited for the Zoo trip!  We also didn't have our picnic because of the rain and good thing too because as soon as we got off the train ride...it started raining. Thankfully at this point we were ready to leave.  Here are some pictures from our fun time.  Beware...it's a lot of pictures!!

The Llama!  She didn't like us...so she moved right after the picture.

My sweet boy taking it all in!

The peacock all fanned out.  This is one unique bird!!

An up close shot!

Colby & Lauren feeding the goats!

Lauren & Colby!

Justin & Emma staying away from the animals!

Evan & Daddy feeding the goat!

Momma & Evan feeding the goat!!

Lauren getting brave!



Evan & Daddy feeding the fish!

Emma decided to join the fun!

The train ride!

Here we go!!

Through the tunnel!!!

 

Our first haircuts!!!

This post comes about 8 months too late for Evan.  Lucky little man has had 5 haircuts by now.  Poor little Miss Priss is just now getting a trim.  I can't for the life of me figure out why Evan has a head full of good thick hair and Emma hair a head barely covered by fine hair.  This is way backwards to me!!  However...we are thankful she FINALLY has hair...so we are taking what we get!  Here are a few before and after pictures of our first haircuts.  They both did really well with their first haircuts.  I was VERY impressed.  Evan had done well with his four other haircuts as well.  I think they look too cute!!

Before picture of Emma.  She looks thrilled doesn't she??

Another view of the long stringy hair!

The after picture.  She wouldn't turn to the side...so this is the best I have!!

Evan's before picture!

Another before picture!

And after-- from the pictures it doesn't look like Donna cut that much of his hair off...but trust me she did!  Happy Wednesday!!

Hopefully we are on the mend...

The Turner household has not been a healthy one this past week.  Wednesday night Evan started running a low grade fever.  He was still pretty warm when I headed to work Thursday morning but I figured I would wait it out a day and if he still had the fever Friday...I would take him to the doctor then.  We did this same thing with Emma last week and they deteremined the fever must have been from teething.  I was trying to save us $25 and a trip to the doctor.  However, I made myself an appointment Thursday for my sinus issues once again.  It is literaelly becoming a normal thing for me to have a sinus infection.  Pat finally agreed to do a xray & ct-scan of my head to be sure nothing seemed unnormal about my sinues and to be sure there wasn't something else causing my headaches.  When I left my appointment Thursday, I stopped by the house to check on Evan and momma thought I might should take him in for an appointment.  When we got there his temperature was 103.7 but his medicine had worn off.  That is still too high for this momma.  I was a little panicky!!  His ears were clear and he tested negative for the flu...so they determined it was probably something viral and sent us home.  So, the next few hours we made sure Evan kept medicine in him and that fever stayed down.  I kept them home from the nursery Friday morning.  As I mentioned in my last post Justin was supposed to head to Georgia for a bow tournament.  However the nasty weather changed Justin's plans.  About 10:30, I get a called from a strange number at work.  Justin had locked himself outside and the babies inside.  Normally it takes me about 15 minutes to get home but I was home in 11 minutes and that included waiting on the train.  I couldn't beleive the train was there of all times.  He wonders why I don't leave my babies with him too often!! :)  I went Friday afternoon for my xray & ct-scan.  It didn't take long and I was home in no time.  We decided to head to Chili's for supper and just as we were heading inside I got a call from Pat.  Both my xray and ct-scan showed nothing abnormal.  There were a couple things like a hardened sinus cavity and a deviated septum...if that is how you even spell that...but nothing we can do about either of those.  It was a relief that the headaches aren't coming from anything major.  Now we just have to get them under control.  Saturday morning we headed out to the March of Dimes walk to walk with Learning Express.

 It was freezing cold!  The walk was supposed to start at 9:00 but after the warm up and awards it was almost 9:45 when we started.  Emma & Evan did rather well to sit there for 45 minutes before the walk even started.  We only managed to walk a short distance and turned around.  It was the greatest location to have the walk to begin with.  While we were at the walk Justin finally took himself to the doctor for a sinus infection and went into work for a while.  Since Justin wasn't feeling good...I wasn't feeling good...and Evan still wasn't feeling too good...we decided to skip out on the wedding.  Julie understood and from what I hear everything went really well.  We spent Saturday afternoon playing outside for a while.  Justin tried teaching Evan how to hit a golf ball.  He really just want to do it by himself...but I was able to catch one picture...

Then, Easton came over to visit for a while.  His grandparents live next door so he visits us often.  I know him and Evan will be great friends one day.  Justin had told a guy from work that we would meet him and his wife for supper Saturday night...so we headed inside for our afternoon snack and to start getting ready to head out for supper.  I was trying to keep Emma & Evan clean because I didn't really have time to give them a bath.  This is what Emma looked like after snack time.  

My poor child doesn't do well when she tries to feed herself yogurt.  As you can see...she even wiped it all in her hair!  So, we headed to Outback for supper.  That was our first time taking E&E there but it went really well.  We even got to see some people all dressed for the prom.  I sure miss going to the prom!!  Then, today...we headed to church this morning and came home for Evan to take a nap.  Emma was having no part of nap time.  Like normal we ate lunch at momma's and played outside there for a while.  The rest of our afternoon has been pretty lazy.  Sometimes you just need a lazy day.  So, all of our weekend plans changed...but it was still a pretty good one considering all the sickness.  Our plans for next weekend might have changed as well.  Brian was supposed to have a fireman training next weekend so we moved our Zoo trip to a weekend in May but Lauren & I were going to take the kids to Emerald Farms next Saturday.  They have a petting zoo type thing and even a train ride on Saturday.  So, we planned to do that and have our picnic...but Brian's class got cancelled for next weekend.  So, I am waiting on Lauren to decide if we are going to go ahead and do the zoo next weekend or leave that for a weekend in May and do the Emerald Farms deal.  I told her it didn't matter to me.  So..that will be a surprise for you in next week's post.  Until then...hope you guys have a great week and that the Turner's are finally on the mend!! :)

Oh the world we live in...

This isn't going to be a post about my sweet peas or even have tons of pictures showing them off.  This post is my thoughts on the recent tragedy in the US.  As I stand back and reflect on the events that took place Monday at the Boston Marathon...I have to wonder how much longer God is going to put up with us.  We always say we can't imagine things getting any worse and then they do.  It is so sad that you can't even go to a marathon without having to worry about bombs going off.  Now whether or not it is terrorist...they haven't determined quite yet.  I just can't wrap my mind around someone having that much hatred that they would be willing to kill innocent people.   Last night as I was reading Emma & Evan their bedtime story it was on Cain & Abel. It really hit home that hatred has been something people have dealt with since the beginning of time. Cain was so jealous of Abel and despised him that his only suitable revenge was death. To me that totally relates to the events we watch unfold yesterday. There is still so much hatred and jealousy in this world that people resort to killing.  Our story tonight was the one was about Enoch and Noah.  It was talking about all the evil in the world and how God planned to destroy it.  God promises to do that again but by fire this time and I can't help but think that time is coming soon.  I just can't imagine things being so wicked back then, to where God thought He needed to flood this Earth and destroy everything.  They HAVE to be worse now.   Again...I can't help but wonder what He thinks when he looks down and sees the things He sees us doing.  I will admit I have questioned God as to why he chose the ones he did to die in this event.  I have read numerous articles about the 8- year old boy that was killed.  This little boy had his whole life ahead of him.  I know you aren't supposed to question God and MANY times in my life I have witnessed how HE doesn't make mistakes...but is still hard to understand.  Even though this happened in Boston, our little town of Ninety Six & Greenwood are making a new name for themselves.  It is BAD when Greenwood has a higer crime rate than Spartanburg.  I would have never imagined that would be the case.  Just about everyday you hear more news about another shooting.  I have to agree with the statistics though.  The MAJORITY of these kids come from broken homes with no father present.  Statistics show that 90% of children raised in a home where the Father attends church, will continue to go church as they get older.  A constant male role model is NECCESARY in every childs life.  Studies also show that sitting down and eating 1 meal a week as a family greatly reduces childrens risk of having behavorial problems.  That is one reason we MAKE it a priority to eat our meal together every night without the TV.  I know at this young age...Emma & Evan aren't really benefiting from this together time...but I am trying to make it our routine now!     The more I think about the life Emma & Evan will have to grow up facing...the more I want to shelter them.  It is my daily prayer for them that they will be able to resist the evil in this world and hold fast to the only good thing out there...GOD!! We can't keep them from everything though...but we can teach the way they should go!  Until next time be praying for our families, city, state, nation, & world.  God can still save us and one day He will!! :)

Yard work and a toddler update!

Emma & Evan had a new experience last night.  They went to their first Lander baseball game.  I wasn't there because I was on a much needed shopping trip so Justin braved that on his own and they did wonderful or so he said.  A guy Justin works with had asked us to go.  His wife works at CountyBank and they were the sponsors last night so they had tickets to get in.  I tried to tell Justin I didn't think he should do that on his own...but I'm glad he did.  Since the weather is FINALLY warming up...I went to Doris' yesterday and got my spring flowers.  My plans were to spend all day working in the yard...but of course, Justin had to go turkey hunting this morning...so, I made a quick trip to Greenwood to continue my shopping.  The main thing I was shopping for last night was capri pants...and I only found one pair I liked.  I am NOT a fan of anything stretchy and I think that is the style now.  My legs aren't made for those kind of pants.  Thankfully I found several pairs at Kohl's this morning.  Emma & Evan even let me try them on.  I usually just take things home to try them on...but since they seemed to be in okay moods...I gave it a try!  I had also planned to make a quick trip by Connie Maxwell for a stroll around the neighborhood.  Bathing suit time is drawing near and I HAVE to get rid of some of this weight!!  BUT...since Justin killed turkey #2...we headed home to take some pictures for Daddy!  On his way home Justin stopped by Riley's for some hotdogs.  I am not a fan of hotdogs...but I will eat a Riley's hotdog anyday.  I thought it would be a good time to introduce Emma & Evan to this wonderful meal.  They weren't too thrilled!  I don't know if it was because they were sleepy and wouldn't have eaten much of anything at this point or if they aren't fans of Riley's.  I am sure the latter isn't the case!:)  After lunch and naptime...we finally got around to working in the yard.  Justin cut the grass and weedeated!  As allergic to grass as I am, freshly cut grass is still one of my most favorite smells.  I even was able to plant some of my flowers.  The ones on the deck had to wait until tomorrow.  Emma & Evan were beyond tired at this point and Easton came to visit for a few minutes...so we decided to head inside.  Here are pictures of our hard work. 

Our freshly cut grass, my ferns, the new pine straw, and some of my flowers.  You can't really see the flowers in this picture...but they are there! :)

Flower boxes all ready.  The flowers aren't that full now...but give it a few weeks and they will be over flowing! 

Ignore the pollen!!  That is a project already on Justin's to-do list for for May...pressure washing the house, along with staining the deck!  He doesn't know I have started his May list already...but hey I gave him the month of April :)

We had such a good day outside.  The weather was BEAUTIFUL and Emma & Evan played all day.  By the time we came in for bathtime & supper it was 6:30.  It is now 7:45 and they are both out!!  Hopefully they sleep all night!! So, I promised a toddler update...what are Emma & Evan up too these days you might ask??  Well, other than cutting MORE teeth...not much else is happening.  Emma now has 11 teeth and Evan is up to 10.  By his NASTY diapers the past two days...I would be willing to bet #3 and maybe #4 molars are coming in.  They are both talking a whole lot more now.  Evan is still out talking Emma but she is catching up quickly.  This week, Evan said his first sentence.  When Justin got home and picked Evan up he asked Evan "What's up big boy?" Evan repeated it word for word twice.  I wouldn't have believed him if my mom hadn't heard it too.  He was watching his DVD on TV the other day and when the fish came on the TV, he said fish. He did the same thing with the deer.  He said crab too but that was only after the DVD said crab.  He is definitely learning to repeat things he hears!  Emma will repeat things too.  My mom told her she stunk the other day and she went around saying "stinky, stinky" all afternoon.  Emma knows almost every part of her body and will point to them when you ask her too.  They love the song the Itsy Bitsy Spider and will do the motions and they love Ring Around The Rosey!  That is a fun one to try with them!  They are also learning to pitch temper tantrums.  How fun are those?!?!?!?  They seem to come around more often when they are tired...but wow!  I have instructed anyone and everyone who keeps E&E to NOT give into temper tanrums.  When they start these fits of rage...we just walk out of the room.  They always get over it as soon as they realize their audience is gone.  I am amazed that of all the things we have to teach kids...temper tantrums come so natural!  We know this is part of life and that we just have to help them get through this stage!  They are still the sweetest kids ever!!  We have a busy next few weeks.  This coming Friday, Justin is heading to Georgia for a bow shoot & Saturday, we are heading to Charoltte for Justin's cousin's wedding.  The following weekend we are supposed to go to the Columbia Zoo with Lauren, Brian, & Colby.  We have been wanting to take Emma & Evan before it gets to hot...so when Lauren called...we jumped right on that idea.  I think we are going to take a lunch and have our first picnic!  Still making those plans though.  Anyways...until next time...I will keep keeping track of all the fun new things we are learning in life so you won't miss a thing!  Come on back now..ya hear!!!

What a wacky Wednesday???

Have you ever had one of those days that when it comes to a close you think "well that didn't go at all like I had planned?" Well today has been one of those days for me.  We got up and took Emma & Evan to school like normal.  Poor Evan cried when I left him.  It breaks my heart to have to leave one of my babies crying.  I know he was fine just minutes later thanks to a text from Jillian...but that is still my baby and he was wanting his momma.  These past few weeks he has defintiely been a momma's boy.  No complaints about that from me though!  Since momma broke her arm...Justin has been meeting her on Wednesday's at school to put them in the car.  Then, momma runs errands and drives them over to D&F and waits for me to get off. They both feel asleep while waiting on me to get off.  That is NEVER a good thing because they only sleep for a few minutes and the rest of the afternoon doesn't go well.  Today was no exception.  Emma was already back awake and not taking another nap by the time we got home.  I laid Evan down as soon as we got home and he slept for maybe another 30 minutes.  During this time...Emma and I ate lunch.  I have really been trying to give Emma & Evan different things to eat in hopes that they won't be picky!  This week they have eaten Taco's, Talapia, Deli Turkey, peanut butter & jelly...and our new experiment today was Spagetthi O's.  They LOVED them.  After Evan woke up and I finally got him to eat something. I decided we needed to get out of the house for a while.  We went to Connie Maxwell for a little stroll.  I love to take them there because 1) it is always quiet 2) it is just a fun place to go for a stroll.  Emma & Evan really seemed to enjoy the stroll.  Then we went by Cookout for a milkshake.  I have heard people talking about these milkshakes and thought it was time to try one.  I got the Oreo one and it was GREAT!!!  I was even a good wife and took one to Justin at work.  Once we got home and Justin got home...we played outside for a little while.  Justin and I decided it was a good idea to eat supper early and to take Emma & Evan to the woods and check his trail camera's.  So, we loaded up their push cars and headed for the woods.  We all got out and loaded E&E in their cars and started walking down the lane toward the first food plot.  Justin proceeded to stop and pull out the turkey call and start calling.  Thanks to my good ears...I thought I heard one gobbling back.  I should have never said anything.  Between E&E blowing the horns on their cars and squealing...it was awful hard to hear the turkey.  Justin did the call againa and it was defintiely a turkey and he was coming toward us.  Justin went into panic mode.  We took off back to the truck so he could change clothes and grab his gun.  He thought I was going to sit in that HOT truck without it running because that might run off the turkey with two babies who were quite content in their little cars.  I honestly was trying to keep them quiet and once I knew the turkey was coming closer to us...I did load them back up in the truck.  All this happened within maybe 15 minutes and I heard the gun shots...so I knew the turkey was dead.  Justin reappeared with turkey.  Then, we had to have picture time with Emma & Evan.  Here is one of the pictures we took. 

 

After picture time we finally went and got the camera and headed home.  We then had to drop off Justin's truck for it to be worked on tomorrow and ended up back home at 8:00.  E&E were extremely ready for bed.  We changed them and laid them down.  It is now almost 10:00 and we haven't heard a peep out of them.  Nothing about this day went like I had planned.  I had planned to spend this afternoon going through E&E's clothes and getting out the spring/summer stuff and I didn't do any of it.  It was defintiely a day I will remmebr for quite a while though!  Well, it's time for Duck Dynasty...so I better get going.  We are hoping to work in the yard this weekend...so that I am sure will be an adventure with two toddlers!! Happy Wednesday!!

Our first annual Easter Egg Hunt

For those of you that know Katie, know she loves to plan a party.  Each year, all of Matt's friends get together to have an Easter Egg Hunt with all their kids.  Katie has talked about this for years and even wanted to start this tradition last year.  Emma & Evan, along with many of the other people who would have been invited, were only 5 months old at the time so I convinced her to wait a year.  That brings us to this year and Katie finally getting to have her Easter Egg Hunt.  I made some cute little invitations one day at work.  Yes, I still have time for fun things like that while working.  We decided on the Saturday after Easter in hopes that most people's family gatherings would be over and they would be able to come.  All but one of the kids invited showed up.  The one that didn't come was camping with his grandparents that weekend.  We forgave him this time! :)  We decided to have it at my parents new house...or my grandparents house.  We still aren't sure what to call the new house.  It will always be MaMa & PaPa's.  Thankfully that is my parents names too now! :)  We would have never imagined that would have turned out to be moving weekend for them.  Anyways...it worked out great.  The weather was perfect.  It was around 60 degrees by the time everyone got there and was close to 70 when people left.  That is my kind of weather!!  Here are a couple pictures of the food tables and decorations.  

Here are a few pictures of the tables and our decorations.  I thought it turned out pretty good!!

Donuts and sausage balls...

More of the table decorations...

Yogurt bar with fruit, granola, & sprinkles...

Drink table

Cute, Cute, Cute!!!

 



Once people started arriving...we just stood around and talked waiting for all the others.  Then, we ate and it was time to start hunting the eggs.  Our plan was to have the eggs hid before everyone got there but that didn't happen.  Thankfully my wonderful mom hid the eggs while we all ate.  The it was time for the egg hunt.  Here are a couple pictures of that. 

My sweet girl playing with Brantley's shovel.

Brantley Crisp

Bennett and Brantley digging...while Warren watched!

Colby telling Emma hey while Evan watched.  He's already keeping track of the boys Emma talks too.  What a great big brother he is going to be!!

And they are off....

Colby enjoying the eggs his momma just sat him down in. 

Brantley, April, Jacob, Carter, & Angela

Kayla, Lillianna, Meg, Warren, Bennett, & Carter

Emma, Evan, Aunt Katie, KG, Patton, & me

KG, Patton, & Emma

Lillianna is a little explorer just like Evan! 

Aunt Katie & Evan looking at all of Evan's eggs!

 

And of course we tried for a group picture.  It is funny to see all the different faces and how impossible is it to get toddlers to take good pictures. 



We are already looking forward to our 2nd annual Easter Egg Hunt and some different things we can do.  We are also excited that our group will have grown quite a bit by next year.  We are so blessed to have such a close group of friends that all have kids the same age as Emme & Evan.  We plan to have lots of fun with these little guys over the 18 years and past...if they let us!! :)