Thursday, December 30, 2010

A Mommy Meet Up

This morning Nivette and her two darling children Ellerie and Bennett came over for a quick play-date. Nivette and I "met" when we were pregnant with Bennett and Avery and have been "pals" ever since, but we had yet to meet in person, so today was the big day.

The Kiddos Playing
 Her Parents just recently moved back to the Richmond Area so the hope is that when they come to visit we can all get together again...Ellerie and Olivia are about the same age as well, so it worked out perfectly.








I spent about 4 hours cleaning up the Toy Area yesterday so I was a tad bit anal about cleaning up after the kids, and that is totally not my style, but I just couldn't bare to see my hard work go right down the drain in a matter of a few minutes.

Take a look at the next three pictures...you will notice, one of the little tiny humans (who will remain nameless) appears to be a bit of a bully...




Notice Bennett's facial expression though...he is thinking..."Girl, you just wait, I know better than to fight you for the phone, you've got about 10lbs on me now...but you just wait". And Avery is cleaning saying "Ha-Ha".


A big Thank-You to Nivette and the kids for making time for us, with her sister getting married tomorrow I am amazed she had a free second, let alone a few hours to spend with us. We look forward to your next visit in February.

 This was the best we could do...pathetic eh? 

What a photogenic little bugger...

GardenFest of Lights..

                                    
In lieu of Christmas Gifts for the kids, we (Harris, Koehler and Turner Families) decided we would do something special with the whole gang, so this year we went to dinner and to the GardenFest of Lights at Lewis Ginter. Well...dinner was a bit of a bust, no real need to go into detail, but lets just say we ate at a diner, they put Ranch on Justin's Chicken Sandwich and Justin doesn't eat white condiments.


And I should also note that dinner took forever...so we were a bit on the late side getting to Lewis Ginter...so it was cold, and quickly approaching breaking time  bed time for the tiny tots...we were there about 25 minutes.


The stroller brigade...

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

A Day-Cacation...

Brad and I were both off today so we thought we would grab the bull by the horns and go to town on cleaning out the 3rd Floor Home Office and making the transition to the new Home Office on the first floor, what a project.  On several occasions Brad said "Do you think we are making any progress?", "Are you overwhelmed?". We managed to fill 3 HUGE trash bags with stuff and moved everything down to the first floor that is coming down...at least for now.  The new 4th Bedroom on the 3rd Floor still needs a lot of TLC. I can't believe how dirty the room looks now that its empty.  The walls are scratched up from all the wall art and the carpet is all dusty from the computer equipment, its kinda gross.  Our cleaning lady is going to love us next Wednesday...and did I mention that the shredder had to be emptied out about 4 times...?

We managed to knock most of it out by 12:30 and took a break for lunch and an afternoon movie. We dined at Don Pepe, our favorite local Mexican Restaurant and guess what...they messed up my order. I swear, it happens to me ALL the time...but the good news is...I love any and all Mexican so I didn't care, I still gobbled it right up. And then we set out to the movie theater and settled in to enjoy Marky Mark do his thing on the big screen in The Fighter...be still my beating heart, Marky Mark is one good looking man, a hunk in fact. He gets me all hot and bothered. HA.

I managed to cross off a few more small cleaning/organizing to-dos tonight while Brad and I watched TV, the list just keeps growing though, but I now realize that I won't get it all done and that's okay, I can leave some of it for MLK Day when I have the house to myself, but for now my goal is to get the girls play area cleaned up and get the new home office organized and drawers cleaned out.  My ultimate goal is to re-arrange the girls play area, but that would require some organizing supplies and I haven't the foggiest idea how I am going to do it, so that will be for another day.

Tomorrow night we are heading to the GardenFest of Lights at Lewis Ginter with The Koehler and Harris Families...everyone is looking forward to it.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

I sure am going to miss the Christmas Carols that have filled our house the last several weeks. Olivia is belting a new one out almost daily. I am just amazed at the number of songs she has learned and also, I should add, at how creative her lyrics are.



This morning I had the girls to myself, Brad slept in and then went to an Emergency Optometrist Appointment, and I was enjoying some quality floor time with them when Olivia announced she needed to go Potty...this is one of my favorite listening opportunities. She really belts it out while she sits on the potty, and these days Avery joins her in the bathroom. Today, however I noticed that I wasn't so much hearing carols as I was hearing the TP holder going round and round, the girls surfaced and this is what I found...

After Brad returned home we packed up the girls and headed over to my Parents house so the girls could have their "YaYa and GaGa's House" Christmas. What is that you ask? Well, my Mom likes them to have toys they enjoy at her house too, so she goes shopping and wraps up presents that will stay at YaYa's house, so that is what the girls found under her tree this year. They had a blast opening more presents, they love presents...what child doesn't?...at least Avery has a Birthday in about 2 months, its going to be a long wait for Olivia...

An action shot of Olivia unwrapping a present at YaYa's House
Avery getting into her stocking...
Thanks for the adorable hat Maya...too bad she is wearing it like a trucker. 



A White Christmas...

It sure was...and it is beautiful. Reminds me of home, but the one huge plus of living in Richmond is that on Saturday its going to be 60 degrees and all the snow will be gone...I remember growing up in Northfield, when it would snow, sometimes as early as the first week of November you were usually stuck with it on the ground and your roads until March, sometimes even April...not here, its usually gone after a few days, just long enough to marvel at its beauty before it makes things too annoying and messy.



The girls were able to get outside and play for a little while, but it was cold and Avery decided to take her boots off once, so her feet were especially cold.  The Arctic Cat did very well in the snow, too bad its driver could use a few more lessons behind the wheel...she will get the hang of it before we know it, I'm not worried.




Brad's Parents headed home mid-day, they braved the snow and made it safely back to Bassett.  We dined on some rather delicious Papa John's with Brian, Molly and Campbell and then enjoyed some Ax Men after the children were tucked into their respective beds. Ax Men is a FANTASTIC show for those of you that haven't had the pleasure...check it out on The History Channel.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas Ya'll

Christmas Eve...before Santa came...

Post Santa...he even left his "Turner" bag...

My morning started bright and EARLY, 4:40am to be exact with Avery crying her sweet little face off. So her and I spent some quality time together, rocking in her room, pacing on the 2nd floor and finally flopping around in our bed before Olivia started to stir around 7am.  I called my Parents and told them Olivia was waking up and to head over and I went to wake Brad up, who was sleeping in the guest room (many reasons, one of which being he was snoring his face off and secondly, I didn't want Avery to wake him up too).




Notice her facial expressions starting to change...

And the mad dash is on..

Everyone was here and the tree was lit by 7:45am, waiting for the two little ones to make there way down the stairs to ensure that the big jolly fellow had blessed this house, and sure enough, he did. Santa was very good to us.  The sausage rolls and cinnamon rolls were in the oven, the coffee was ready and the present opening commenced.  The girls went nuts. Olivia was going from present to present, and being that she can't read the tags, she was just opening anything and everything she came across, no one seemed to mind and everyone was happy to share their presents with the girls...it is of course, as we all know, all about the children now.


Olivia's reaction to Dora driving the Arctic Cat..."hey, what is old Dora doing driving my car?"


Look at the excitement...

You can almost hear it in the photos...

Notice who claimed the driver's seat...lord help us.

The Early Bird...gets the worm.


The girls were thrilled with all their presents and the only tears I saw out of Avery was when her new Crocs wouldn't fit over her footie PJ's...don't mess with the girl and her shoes.



Throwing caution to the wind...

Checking out the snow...
Brad's Parents made the trek up here instead of us going to Bassett for a few days, so we are all curled up watching Knight and Day on our new Blu-Ray player (Thanks Mom & Dad) admiring the beautiful snow from the comfort of our warm and cozy home...now if we only had a fireplace.

Avery's new Backpack

Time to rest...

Bina helping the girls open up their "groceries"

Bina opening up the "hand-print" table runner...more to come on that later.

Avery loves her PawPaw

We hope that ya'll had a great day making new memories with family and friends. The Turner Family is looking forward to what 2011 is going to bring to our family and to all of you.


Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas Eve

Avery enjoying Christmas Eve Dinner...dressed to the 9's.

Can someone tell this Child's Mother that you don't go to the table naked? And especially not on Christmas Eve when you have about 713 new Christmas Dresses in your closet

Time for Reindeer Dust
(Thanks Bethy)

Showing the Reindeer's the way...

"Daddy, should we put some over there?"

Throw some over your shoulder for good-luck

Merry Christmas from a very excited 3 year old



If you are emotional...whatever you do, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT listen to Josh Groban's "I'll Be Home for Christmas"...with all the little solider blurbs, I am now a tearful mess...bring those soldiers home for goodness sake. While listening, I just heard a solider from Richmond, Virginia wishing his family a very Merry Christmas...I sure hope he is home safe and sound with his family this year...

And being that I am an emotional mess this year, please do me a tiny little favor and say a little prayer for those we are missing this year, those that are no longer with us, many of which should be...