Introducing...

Megan Marie Turner
Born November 14, 2009
9 lb. 6 oz., 22 in.

We love you Little Miss Megan!

Zoo Trip

Why are all creatures so much cuter as babies? We went to the zoo to see the new baby elephant, isn't he cute?

Halloween at This Is The Place

This Is The Place Heritage Park's Little Haunts didn't disappoint this year. There was trick-or-treating, a pony ride, train ride, & story telling. Don't the boys look cute in their costumes?

Later that night, our neighbors watched the boys so we could go to the Haunted Village - scary!

Our Halloween week was busy as usual with the ward trunk-or-treat and a school carnival. I don't remember Halloween being so busy when I was little. We dressed up on the DAY of Halloween and went trick-or-treating that night.

Joshy was the cutest little monkey. Every time he wore his costume, he'd walk around talking like Curious George. He wore his costume for three days, even slept in it!

Our Pumpkins

This was our first year EVER that we've had an outside to light up our carved pumpkins. We're old pros at it now. I gut the pumpkins while Andrew picks out all the seeds. Dad carves the cool designs and Joshy throws the tantrums (thus the splotchy face which he possesses
most of his wakeful hours).

Batman, ghost & dinosaur

Autumn Sunday

On Sundays, we eat dinner right after church (what is it about church that makes you ravenous?), after, we have a little quiet time, and then we take the boys for a walk to get their energy out (the alternative is a very messy house). We were lucky to enjoy the peak Fall colors one Sunday...

The boys and Randy raked a big pile of leaves to be buried in...


Then we took a walk up the trail close to us...

Gardner Village

Every Fall, we make a trip down to Gardner Village - they decorate the village so cute with witches and pumpkins everywhere. The kids do a Witch Scavenger Hunt and then we get a treat. For the last three years, we've gone with some good friends of ours - it's a little tradition we have - it was especially fun to see them this year since they've moved a few cities away.

Josh, Kassy, Andrew, Timothy

Black Island Farm

My mom came to town for my cousin's wedding - she brought my beautiful niece Rylie with her (she was the flower girl). We took the kids to Black Island Farm in Syracuse - we had some good old-fashioned fun - there was a hay ride to a real-honest-to-goodness pumpkin patch (where we each got to pick our own pumpkin!), a corn maze, train rides corn shootin', a few gigantic slides, a magic show, pig race, and good food. It was a blast!

Andrew, Josh, Grandma, & Rylie on the hay ride

pumpkins as far as the eye could see

the perfect pumpkin

some see-saw fun

I'm sure whosever behind this is wouldn't appreciate me posting it on my blog, but I wanted to show all three kids scaling this huge wall of hay. I couldn't believe how tough Joshy was! He must've climbed that thing twenty times.

adventurous Andrew going head first

Joshy preferred going backwards

Rylie descending sideways

No Time For Flash Cards

I found this preschool website (http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/) that I absolutely adore. It has fun craft & book ideas along with ways to teach young children.

Here are the brothers working on a craft together. I didn't take a picture of the final product and I've since thrown it away - duh! Andrew and Josh both love to make crafts, something I'm looking forward to doing more of - now that the weather is cooler.

Friends

This was taken after we'd just walked home from school (well, I walked while the boys were pushed in the jogger). It was a fun day full of apple picking and playing barefoot in the green grass.

Andrew, Xidis, Isaiah & Joshy being goofs.

All Growed Up

Andrew started Kindergarten this week!

Here is the handsomest, most adorable Kindergartener I've ever seen.

On the first day of school, Josh asked for Andrew the entire three hours. He was so excited when it was finally time to pick brother up.

At parent night, I asked Andrew's teacher where she got her Monarch caterpillars - I was thinking she'd tell me the website to purchase them from - no, she said she searches in fields of Milk Weed to find them! She is the perfect fit for my obsessed-with-all-creeping-things boy.

His teacher also plays the piano and sings to them everyday. She is pretty much Mary Poppins. When Andrew gets home from school, I ask him what things he did and he usually responds, "I don't know" or "I can't remember." But throughout the day, he'll give me little tidbits of information. He is excited to go back to school tomorrow - so I'm taking that as a sign that he's loving it. I get to volunteer in his class every other week, and I'm so excited I can't even stand it!

Moose Canyon

We were able to drive up to Silver Lake near the Brighton ski resort a few times this Fall. The drive is beautiful, especially when the leaves change. There is a boardwalk that circles the lake, a great place for little munchkins to expend some energy on a Sunday afternoon - and the views are breathtaking. On one of our trips, we were able to see not one, but THREE moose! Andrew now calls Big Cottonwood "Moose Canyon."

Boy Moose

Girl Moose

Conked Out

It doesn't happen often, but I'm grateful when it does.

We're all about the fun

July was a bummer month for us, so we've been trying to make up for it by squeezing as much fun in before Andrew starts kindergarten (kindergarten!). Andrew said he wanted to try bowling.

Bowling? Ok!

I bribed Andrew with a game of bowling if he would do his very best at his Kindergarten assessment. We grabbed lunch at Taco Bell and headed to the bowling alley - we were the only people there...

This last picture cracks me up. Andrew was sitting there because I put him in time out for being a brat. As he was moping, I pulled out the camera and said, "smile!" He humored me with the above smile and then reverted back to brat mode immediately after.

Fast Forward. Pause. Rewind.

A friend of mine wrote an essay that captured motherhood perfectly when she talked about wanting to "capture all the joy" that comes from raising children, but just. can't. wait. until bedtime. She wrote, "How could I want to fast-forward, pause, and rewind all in the same breath?"

Motherhood is crazy and I'll be the first to admit that I don't do it perfectly. Randy came home today, looked around at our messy house, and before he could say anything, I interrupted with, "I raised children today." I went to Enrichment tonight (I didn't want to go, but Randy made me) and I was telling a friend that my house was a complete disaster - she didn't believe me because she was just there a few hours before. When we came home, I gave her the grand tour of my house - I showed her each room to prove to her that our home is not always in the immaculate condition that I'd like it to be. I try, and many days are a success....but some days....I fail.

Joshy is my little monster child of late. He is impossible at nap and bed time. I sat outside his bedroom today and carted him back to his bed every time he got out of it. He laughed and thought it was the funnest game ever. After 30 minutes of this, I wanted to beat him. I prayed for alternatives to NOT BEAT HIM. An impression came. I took Josh into my arms and cradled him like a little baby. With his little body curled into a ball in my arms, I lay down in his tiny bed. He fell asleep almost instantly. I let him sleep for another ten minutes or so before I dared to leave. 40 minutes of "get it done" time wasted. Or...40 minutes of time to enjoy motherhood. I am so lucky.


I had to document my sleeping, naughty child...