Merry Christmas!

We are so thankful for all that we have been blessed with this year. We love this time of year when hearts are turned towards each other and towards Christ. We are so thankful for: the Savior, family, scriptures, the gospel, temples, freedom, friends, good music and good food.

Tim moved onto a new project at work in April that focused on cancer. That project died last week so he is back on his old project in diabetes. He attended several conferences for work this year and was able to visit Boston and Florida. He still enjoys his calling in the Elder’s Quorum presidency at church. To celebrate their 13th anniversary Tim and Carolyn went to Hawaii. It was a wonderful trip and we were happy to spend the time together.

Carolyn is busy with the girls and all their activities. She updated her website and business is booming. www.carolynturnerphotography.com. She has recently been called as the ward choir director. It is a fun but challenging calling. She is also participating in a local women’s choir called Triple Trio. It is a fun group of women that performs at church and community functions.

Rachel is in 5th grade and is looking forward to attending middle school next year. She got glasses and was so excited to pick out the frames herself. She suffered a broken finger in September due to an accident involving a chunky heeled Sunday shoe, an angry sister and some stomping. She had to have it taped to the finger next to it for a month but it seems to have healed without any lasting problems. She enjoys participating in an after school choir called, Kid-Zing. She will play the harp in church during the Christmas program.

Sarah is in 3rd grade and has started taking violin lessons. She was baptized after her 8th birthday. She enjoys attending activity days at church with Rachel and Emily. Sarah loves to go the Denver Science Museum to see the dinosaurs.

Emily was also baptized by her father in August and we are so proud of both of the girls for making such an important decision. Emily is playing the flute and also takes piano lessons along with her older sisters. Emily loves 3rd grade and has made many friends this year.

Laura is two and so the world revolves around her. She started nursery at church and loves to sing, play and eat “nacks.” Laura still sucks her two fingers on her left hand but has added piggy painting. What is piggy painting you might ask; she holds her piggy tail with her right hand, while still sucking her fingers on her other hand, and proceeds to “paint” whatever she can reach with her “piggy paint brush.”



We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,
The Turners

November 2008

We finally had some snow last night and the girls were so excited. They made a snowman which they named, “Snowy.” Snowy must be tired because she keeps falling over, after three tries to keep her upright they just left her there to rest.

Rachel had a harp recital and played Silent Night. Mom sang along with her and Rachel did a great job accompanying her. The girls all love their instruments and it sounds like an orchestra warming up when they are all practicing at once.

Laura is acting like a 2 year old. Her most often used phrases include: “I do it, mine mine mine and A-ha!” She can be a naughty girl but she always keeps us laughing. One night we had the missionaries over. We all sat on the couches as they shared a scripture with us. Laura pulled her stool, that she uses to get into everything, behind the couch. Suddenly she popped up from behind the couch with her arms above her head and yelled, “TA-DAH!” Everyone, including the missionaries, thought it was pretty funny.



Tim and I went to the BYU vs. CSU football game. It was an exciting game and BYU won! It was uncomfortable and a little scary when several of the angry CSU fans around us became more and more drunk as the game progressed. It made me so thankful that I had the opportunity to go to BYU and enjoy the uplifting atmosphere there.




I ran the Turkey Trot, 10k race. I did much better than I did in April but I still can’t seem to run it in under an hour. 1 hr and 8 minutes was my time. I uploaded my new website and was thrilled with the way it looks. www.carolynturnerphotography.com.

Tim has been busy putting up closet shelves in the basement. It is so nice to open and closet and see where things are now. Tim winterized the lawn but we didn’t take daylight saving into account. He had to use the shop lights to help him do some evening mowing.



Thanksgiving dinner was great and we stopped by to see Tim’s family for pie later than day. The girls have been home from school all week and have enjoyed sleeping in and playing all day. We hope you all have a Merry Christmas.

Is October over already?

Hawaii was fabulous! It was such a wonderful vacation. We were so thankful that my Mom came to watch over our girls while we were gone. We went to Maui for 3 days and Oahu for 2 days. We loved visiting the Polynesian Cultural Center and the Hawaii temple. We also went snorkeling and took a helicopter tour. It was so beautiful on our drive to Hana. Tim even tried surfing. It was a wonderful trip and now want to go back again someday.

Tim went to a conference in Boston this month. He said he went to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Museum and said it was quite interesting. He walked down to the Chinatown district and had some Malaysian food. He ate a "Buddhist yam" which was pretty good. He also had his fill of muscles at a seafood place.

I went my mission reunion and the Saturday sessions of conference. What a wonderful opportunity. I had never attended conference in the Conference Center before. It was fun to see Mom and Lindsey there too. I have finally gotten caught up from taking High School Senior pictures and attended an entrepreneur workshop done by the church. It was very helpful and I am learning how to do the business part of a business. I conducted our first ward choir number on Sunday. I was pretty nervous but it went well.

Laura has had some health problems this month but seems to be doing better now. Sarah has started violin and seems to be enjoying it so far. Emily is doing quite well with the flute and Rachel hopes to be ready to play Silent Night on the harp in church this December. They all continue to progress in piano.

The girls had fun at trunk or treat. They all dressed up as Harry Potter characters. Laura was a black cat, Tim was a vampire and I was a witch. We didn’t intentionally mean to look so “gothic.” When we were trying to teach Laura to say trick or treat, I asked her what you say before people give you candy, she said, “I want CANDY!” Uh. We fixed that and now she loves to say, Trick or Treat. The girls had lots of fun trick or treating and Tim and I wish there wasn't so much candy in the house.

Trunk ot Treat

The girls had fun at Trunk or Treat. They all dressed up like Harry Potter characters, quite a change from past years of butterflies and princesses.

School Pictures

I took the girl's pictures in my studio this year. Here they are.

Trip to the mountains

September has flown by! The girls have a new piano teacher and seem to be progressing well. Emily has started flute and is doing really well. Sarah hopes to start violin soon. Rachel continues with harp and still practices harp with one hand. Her splint came off earlier this month but she still has to keep her broken finger taped to the finger next to it until the end of the month.

Rachel has also started a school choir that meets after school once a week, she loves it! Rachel didn’t pass her eye exam at her well child check and was referred to an eye doctor. She is so excited to need glasses. She picked out her frames herself and can’t wait until they arrive.

Sarah and Emily started activity days and feel so grown up. Last week they made meatloaf and it was very yummy. I put the recipe on the recipe blog that Krissy started.

I have been taking a lot of high school senior pictures. I also started singing in a women’s choir called Triple Trio. It is made of up women from several different wards that meet once a week to sing, we perform at nursing homes and ward and city activities. It is so fun to sing in a choir again and make some new friends. I was called as the new ward choir director last week and I am excited and nervous about this new opportunity.

We went to the mountains to see the Aspen leaves changing. The leaves had just started to change and it rained a lot. It was still fun and we stopped along the way to take pictures. On the way home we saw a double rainbow and you could see the whole double arch across the sky, it was beautiful.



Our treasure at the end of the rainbow.

The month of August had been a busy but wonderful month for the Turner family. Sarah and Emily turned 8 and on August 2nd were baptized by their father and confirmed by Grandpa Crandall. It was a wonderful day and we were thankful Grandma and Grandpa were able to be here with us for such an exciting event.

Rachel, Sarah and Emily all participated in horse camp for a week. They learned a lot and it was fun to see the progress they made. Rachel rode Jack, Emily rode Joey and Sarah rode Legend. They talk about “their” horses and how much they miss them and how they can’t wait until next summer. Rachel turned 10 and had 2 friends over to have a Harry Potter birthday party. My mom made pioneer dresses for the girls and their dolls, they love them and wear them often.

The reunion was so much fun and it was wonderful to see all of my family. At one point we returned from the cabin and I unbuckled Laura and she got out of the van and before I could stop her she fell into a big puddle of mud. She was bawling and of course, being the comforting mother I am, grabbed the camera. What a pitiful picture.

The girls missed the first 3 days of school but seem to have adjusted well to their classes now and love their teachers. The church had a Family Carnival on Saturday and Tim juggled for one of the entertainment acts. He is actually pretty good, the girls love to see him juggle their tutus from ballet and I like to see him juggle soccer balls. He used to juggle eggs in the kitchen but after several messey accidents he has moved on to less breakable things.

Last Sunday the girls were upstairs playing after church and all the sudden I heard Rachel screaming and crying in a way that I knew something was wrong. Apparently one of her sister’s had accidentally stomped on her finger with her chunky heeled Sunday shoes. It turned out that her middle finger was broken and will be wearing a splint for 3 weeks. Life is never boring in the Turner home.

Baptism

Hey, check me out, a mid-month blog update. It was a special event and deserves a special update. Sarah and Emily turned 8 years old and chose to be baptized. They were both very excited about being baptized. Tim baptized Sarah and then Emily and my Dad confirmed them both. It was a wonderful day. I barely finished Emily's dress in time, those darn zippers. I included a few pictures I took of the girls in their white dresses. We are so thankful for the gospel and for the girl's desire to choose the right.

June

This month Rachel, Sarah and Emily had their ballet performance. They all did well and we enjoyed watching their dances. The girls love to dress up in their costumes and dance to classical music, even Laura joins in the dance. The girls have been taking swimming lessons for a couple weeks. They all did well and they will all be moving up a level in their next session.

Tim celebrated his birthday and the girls loved helping Daddy blow out the candles. Tim has been working a landscaping wall in the front yard. He has also been busy with sprinkler zones for this area and for the garden. The garden is doing well and the girls were thrilled to eat a radish that they helped plant. They said is tasted spicy.

We went to the Denver Zoo and by 9:00 in the morning it was already 85 degrees and it continued to get hotter. But it was a fun trip despite the heat. Laura would not stay in the stroller and she wouldn’t let us hold her; she finally compromised by holding onto the empty stroller as I pushed it all around the zoo. She is definitely coming into those terrible twos.

I have been very busy taking pictures and hope to have enough saved to buy a new camera lens soon. I enjoy taking pictures and learn something new every time I do. One friend of mine was happy to swap haircuts for my girls for pictures of her kids.

Rachel has finished reading all the Harry Potter books and she writes Hermione’s name all over everything. She has now started on Nancy Drew books and the Chronicles of Narnia series. She still takes harp lessons and is learning new songs all the time.

The girls have been going to the school once a week to check out books as part of a summer reading program. They get prizes for reading 20 minutes a day and Emily even won a stuffed animal in a drawing.

Laura scared us with a bad fall that ended with a trip to the ER. I have never seen a hematoma before and the bump was so big it looked like an Easter egg was growing out of her forehead. The ER bill was worth the comfort of knowing that she was going to be okay.

typo

Okay, I see it. The storm "passed" not "pasted."

Tornado warning!

On May 22nd we had a tornado warning. The girls were at school and they each had to go to their designated tornado areas. For Emily it was a girl’s bathroom and she thought it was so funny that even the boys in her class went in the girl’s bathroom. Rachel was the most scared and was crying for a while. Laura was upstairs taking a nap and it started to rain very hard. I was watching the storm when I saw the biggest hail I had even seen start bouncing off the ground and then the warning sirens went off I grabbed Laura and went to the basement. It was scary for a while but the storm soon pasted.

A big tornado did touch down in a town called Windsor which is about 30 minutes north of Longmont and did a lot of damage there. One person was killed and many homes were destroyed. Tim went with the church to help in the clean up effort and he was surprised by the extent of the damage. We were thankful to be safe and pray for those families that lost their homes.

I included a couple of pictures to show you the hail I collected from the backyard. I put a quarter in one picture to show the comparison is size.

April

We went to Colorado Spring for spring break. We stayed in a small cabin and we had so much fun. We went to Cave of the Winds, Seven Falls and Garden of the Gods. We played games in the cabin at night. The girls said their favorite game was Upwords and Rachel and Mom spent hours on a 1000 piece puzzle.
General Conference was wonderful. There were so many talks that seemed to be written just for us and we hope to follow the counsel given. It is always so uplifting and we are so thankful for a prophet
Rachel had her Royal Academy of Dance test in ballet. She was very nervous but she did great and graduated to level three. Sarah and Emily have had several fun field trips at school. They went to the aquarium in Denver and talked about sting rays for days. Laura is talking up a storm. She really wants to do everything herself even though she can’t. She gets so upset sometimes that she throws herself on the floor and squeezes her eyes shut. She loves to play in the backyard with her sisters and usually comes in with dirt in her hair, shoes and diaper. Tim and I ran in a 5K race around a lake in Longmont. Well, maybe I should say we jogged a 5K. It was fun but the cold wind made the beginning of the race really difficult. We also took a swing dance lesson. It was fun and we plan to take some more classes.

March Summary

March has been a month of sickness for the Turners. Carolyn spent almost 3 weeks suffering from an intestinal virus that seems to be plaguing only a select few in town. Then we went through a week of stomach flu. Just when we think we are done someone else started throwing up. Now we seem to be coughing our way through the end of March. It makes us very thankful for good health after being sick for so long. We were also very thankful for people in the ward and friends who helped us make it through this difficult time.

Tim went to a conference for 5 days in Florida. Tim’s work sends him to conferences about twice a year. He learns a lot and usually has time for a least a few hours of sightseeing. He said it was very green and he even saw a couple alligators at a park.

Carolyn went to a photography seminar in Denver. It was fun and she learned a lot and of course wants to buy everything they showed at the seminar.

Sarah and Emily are learning about Australia in school. They even got to taste some Vegemite but they didn’t like it. Rachel is so excited to have her first new bike. Laura got her first haircut this month too.

On Easter Sunday Rachel gave a wonderful talk in primary about the Savior. We had our belated Eater egg hunt, that had been postponed due to sickness, the following Thursday. The girls loved smashing confetti filled eggs on their own heads and especially on each other’s heads. During the egg smashing a piece of eggshell must have fallen down Laura’s shirt because we found it later in her diaper. It left a big spot where the egg had dyed her bottom blue.

Jammed!

Laura has this funny way of eating. If you give her a french fry she will dip the fry in the ketchup and lick the ketchup off the fry. She does this over and over until either the ketchup is gone or the fry is too soggy. She never actually eats the fry. She does the same thing with veggies and ranch dressing.

But the strangest by far is sandwiches. She will take the sandwich and smash it up against her face to eat the peanut butter and jam off the sandwich. What a silly girl.

Tagged!

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves
C. At the end of the post, the player tags 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know they are tagged.

10 years ago I was:
I was in Provo Utah and had been married to Tim for over 3 years. Rachel was about 6 months old. We lived in a student ward and Tim was finishing up his PhD at BYU. We lived in a small 2 bedroom apartment with the washer and dryer in the kitchen, hello?! I didn't care, I was so happy to have a washer you didn't have to put quarters into. We were happy and although I had my gall bladder out a few months ago we were doing well. Joyce lived close by and we saw her often. It was a happy time for us.

5 things on my to do list today:
1. Rollerblade to school. It is the only way I can keep up with the girls when they ride their scooters.
2. Clean the kitchen.
3. Go to the grocery store, again.
4. Take the girls to piano lessons.
5. Watch the Monk season finale.

Things I would do if I became a billionaire:
Take care of first things first- tithing, taxes, donations, savings, etc. Then I would pay off the house. There are always more photography "toys" I want. I would probably buy new cars too. I would love a van that you could open the doors with the remote. I would hire someone to finish all the little details in the basement. I would love to go on several trips; Hawaii, Guatemala, Australia, and many trips inside the US. I would set up accounts for the girls for school, mission, marriage, etc. I would hire a chef and a maid to help on the days I don't want to cook and clean.

3 of my bad habits:
1. Interupting people when they are talking.
2. Making piles. I am really good at rearranging, I am not very good at throwing things away. Although I am getting better at this.
3. Popping my knuckles, back, neck, hips, any joint will do.

5 places I've lived:
1. Palo Alto, California
2. Rexburg, Idaho
3. Los Angeles, California
4. Madrid, Spain
5. West Lafayette, Indiana

5 Jobs I've Had:
1. Web page designer
2. Runner/gopher for a law office
3. Waitress at many different Mexican Restaurants
4. Family Service Specialist at Head Start
5. Mom/Homemaker

Something most people don't know about me:
I hate folding laundry, especially finding the matches to all the socks. We now a "sock box" for all those socks who can't find their mates. Somehow some of them tend to show up in a week or to. Why is that?

I'm tagging:
Diana
Chalice
Luwanna

New Years and more!

We had a fun New Year’s Eve. We stayed up until 10:00 and watched the ball drop in New York. The girls all loved the horns, hats and streamers. I could only stand the horns until about 10:30.

Laura is 18 months old and went to nursery for the first time today. She cried at first but once she calmed down she did fine. Yeah! Laura has so much hair now that we have been putting two piggy tails in her hair to keep it out of her eyes. She loved to suck on two fingers with one hand and play with her piggy tail with her other hand. One day Rachel put 5 piggy tails in her hair and Laura loved having such a variety of piggies to choose from.


I am enjoying teaching the 11 years old girls in my class. They are good girls, sometimes it is hard to keep them on topic, but they really are good girls.

This month we went to the Denver Museum of Science and Art. The girls always love the dinosaurs, mummies and the kid's zone area. Tim and I went to an elder's quorum get together and were happy to make it through the night without a call from the babysitter. :) We played ping pong, the dance dance video game and even got to bowl on a Wii. It was a fun night. We went to watch BYU Living Legends at the high school in town. It was so fun and even Laura liked it.

Sarah and Emily went to a ward baptism fireside, they are very excited about being baptized in August. Rachel was more than happy to tell all about every detail of hers. We went sledding a few weeks ago it was fun but very cold. It has been a cold and windy winter for Colorado, but most of the snow is melted now.

Sarah came from school with one less tooth on Thursday, Emily had me pull a lost a tooth the following day and then Rachel showed us a tooth she had pulled out later that same night. She said it was loose, I hope it was and that she didn't just want to join the tooth pulling party.