Fall Festivites

We have been very busy to say the least. Going here and there. Fighting ear infections. Cutting teeth. Trying to crawl. And the list goes on and on.

Here are a few pictures to recap our last month and catch you up!

Florida vs. Auburn game

October 15, 2011

The Alpha Chi Girls

Leigh, Christina, Amy, Brittany, and Me

Toomers Corner... it looks really sad

We rented a house with some friends, Elizabeth and Grant, my dad and brother joined us too. So we went up early for some shopping on College Street and a good look at Toomers. 

At the game! War Eagle!

With Halloween coming up, I thought I would take John Turner to the Pumpkin Patch at a church by our house. One day after school, we rode the few blocks to the church. There were several other kids having fun playing in the pumpkins. John Turner's fun lasted about 1.2 seconds. I got a few good pictures with the orange pumpkins... 

But then we moved down to the white pumpkins... I guess they were scary! Maybe it's because they were giant pumpkins! Hopefully next year we will get some better shots!

Then Gunter and I headed back to the Plains for the Ole Miss vs. Auburn game. We got to meet up with some good friends! 

Tanner, Me and Rachel
October 29th, 2011

Hannah and Me
War Eagle!

Finally, Halloween was here! John Turner was the cutest little Auburn tiger! Our friends, the Hewitts, came over to "trick-or-treat" with us. Eli was Elmo!

Eli and John Turner

We trick-or-treated to the neighbors on each side and the neighbor across the street. It was a blast! Then we headed over the NanNan's house (Gunter's grandmother) for her annual Taco night. 

Happy Halloween 2011!

The beginning of November marks peanut harvesting season here in Lower Alabama. That means one thing- The Peanut Festival. We took John Turner out to the fairgrounds the first weekend of the fair. The weather was sunny and warm. We strolled John Turner around and ate a corn dog! Yum! Yum! 

In front of the giant peanut!

Looking at all of the rides!

Finally, John Turner turned 7 months on November 13th. He is a little roly-poly! And trying very, very hard to crawl. Just in time for Christmas! I have a feeling he is going to be going after the tree...

Next post... John Turner's first Auburn game! 

Glad to be back! 

Half a Year

6 months... half of a year... 180 days...

All I know is that it goes by fast! Can't believe 6 months ago I was in the hospital with an 8 pound baby wondering if he would get off of his oxygen, and now I am sitting at home with a growing little boy who is eating fruits and vegetables! God is good! It has flown by. Everyone says that every stage of childhood development gets better and better and I have to agree. John Turner is getting so fun, but he is such a busy body!

 Yesterday I was standing at the kitchen sink washing bottles when I looked into the den (which is connected to the kitchen) and I couldn't see John Turner. I immediately got nervous. Where could he have gone? I just looked in the den 30 seconds ago and he was fine. It's not like he can walk... Low and behold I found him hiding...

under the chair! Just barely sticking out! 

Guess he wanted to take is giraffe rattle with him!

John Turner rolled and rolled and turned until he found his way underneath the living room chair! What am I going to do with him!

Today was a busy and crazy day. Lindsay Nicholls came and took John Turner's 6 month pictures. Since I have been on Fall Break this week, John Turner has been sleeping late, until 8:30, and has been in such a good mood. Well of course today he decided to wake up at 6:30! So by the time Lindsay got to our house at 8:45, he had not had a nap and only eaten his rice cereal. I was trying to feed him a bottle when Lindsay walked in. Well, that did it! He was too distracted to eat anymore. He had to find out who Lindsay was. 

I think Lindsay got some really great shots of him around our house and in his nursery. Gunter came home from work for a few family shots, but our time was wearing thin by that point, because remember John Turner had not eaten or taken a nap. Lovely I know! Hopefully he is smiling in a few. 

We were so busy the rest of the day, I forgot to take his monthly photo. Oh - No! So I had to settle for a sleepy picture. 

Hopefully, in the next few days,  I can get some good pictures of him sitting up and maybe even his teeth!

War Eagle! It's a big weekend for the Auburn Tigers! 

Catch Up

Here is what we've been doing the past 3 weeks....

John Turner will be 6 months on Thursday! He is growing like a weed. He has 2 teeth coming in on the bottom! So that has not been fun. He has been fussy when they are cutting through the gums. Now he is looking more like a little man!

John Turner loves playing on the floor! He can stay down there for hours! And here is his new love....

Blah Blah! 

John Turner loves to wrestle with  Blah Blah on the floor. Blah Blah was a gift from Mrs. Smith, Sydney's mom. Blah Blah has been in John Turner's crib... but he just now discovered him and loves him! 

John Turner also loves his Little Tikes swing. He swings most days, when it's not rainy or too windy! We also have been watching quite a bit of football outside, so this is a great seat for John Turner. He can see the TV perfectly to cheer on his Auburn Tigers! 

We've been hanging out with our friends the Barfields. Blayne and Justin just had Lilly a few weeks ago. They came over to watch the Auburn South Carolina game with us last weekend. John Turner loved Lilly. You can see they are "sharing" the toy. John Turner rolled over on her a few times and tried to "kiss"her. Already after the ladies ....

And finally, John Turner has decided to be into everything! He will roll out of his bouncey seat if you're not watching him. The other day he rolled into the kitchen while I wasn't looking and then got mad that he hit is head on the hardwood floors.

Thursday, Lindsay Nicholls is coming to take his 6 month pictures! I can't wait, because she does great work! 

War Eagle!

Surprise!

Gunter turned the BIG 3-0 on Labor Day, September 5. We celebrated with our families at the beach. We ate, opened presents, ate some more, watched it rain, laughed at the babies, ate some more, watched it rain more, watched Auburn win the first game of the season, enjoyed family time!

We celebrated on Saturday night with our two families, who were both at the beach for Labor Day. We were reminiscing about how last Labor Day we revealed that we were expecting! Wow! Time flies! Gunter begged me to play a joke on our families that we were expecting again! But I didn't think that would be a funny joke. No new to share this Labor Day!

The fam celebrating

Kyle and his friend Melissa with John Turner

John Turner and I with Christen and Adeline and Maralee

With Gunter's Cake! Yummy ice cream cake!

But the real party came the next weekend. For weeks I had been planning a surprise party for Gunter. I couldn't have pulled it off without the help of our parents and our sweet friends Janna and Vido. Vido and my dad took Gunter to play golf on Saturday afternoon. They had to miss the last half of the Auburn- Mississippi State game.... but that was ok. As soon as they left, Mom and  I started cleaning and getting the food ready. 

We pulled it off! Gunter was so surprised when he got home at 7pm and saw his closest friends and family waiting for him. Wish that I would have gotten more pictures, but you know how it is.... 

Some of the boys

Vido, Gunter, Justin, and Raleigh

Some of the girls

Janna, Christen, Erica, Blayne and Melissa

John Turner partied all night... 

seriously would not go to bed until everyone left! 

Mom and Dad came and brought.... 

Lucy! 

Since John Turner doesn't have Heath to pet anymore :( 

he loved playing with Lucy. She's so sweet!

Gunter said that he better start planning for my 30th birthday!  He's got a few years to think about what he wants to do :) 

We Remember

Today is a sad day for our country. It was 10 years ago today that the Twin Towers were struck by terrorists. Thousands of lives were lost and families were torn apart. But as we discussed in church this morning, our country was brought together by prayer during this terrible time. We know that God has a plan in everything that occurs.

I can remember 9-11-01 so well. I was sitting in Coach Bagley's Economics class. It was my senior year at Homewood High. It seemed to be a normal day until our principal, Dyer Carlisle, came over the intercom to inform the school that a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. What were we to do the rest of day? I am sure that the teachers couldn't continue on with scheduled lessons. All that you could do was to watch the coverage on TV. When I got home from school, I remember huddling up around the TV with Mom, Kyle, and Kelsey. Then that night we went to a special prayer service.

You see it was just several months earlier that the Star Spangled Girls, the dance line I was on in high school, were marching in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. My family stayed at the World Trade Center hotel.

Hannah and I in NYC. 

Notice the Twin Towers in the back. 

We toured the Statue of Liberty and got our picture taken with the New York skyline in the back. Little did we know that skyline would be changed forever in a couple of months. That was my first trip to New York, my first and only picture of the Twin Towers.

Several years later, when I was in college, I went back to New York for Spring Break with my friends Anna, Maggie, and Mary-Peyton. We visited Ground Zero. I could hardly stand it. It made me so upset that I couldn't even tour the area. There was one thing that stood tall in the middle of the rubble reminded me that God in is control.

Two years later, my family went back to New York to watch Kelsey dance in the Macy's Parade. Ground Zero was a pile of rubble still, but we did tour the church across the street. I am anxious to go back and see the Memorials that honor those who lost their lives. In 365 more days that 9-11 museum will hopefully be opened.

This morning I got to watch a little bit of dedication service at Ground Zero. So much has happened to our country in ten years, but I pray that we will never forget September 11, 2001. I love this commercial that was shown during the service today.

I pray that you are enjoying your day of remembrance. I am glued to the TV watching all of the specials and documentaries. May we always remember and never forget. God Bless America!

4 Months and Growing!

John Turner turned 4 months old on August 13th, the day Kelsey left for China. As you can imagine, I don't really have a great deal of time for blog posts with my new life.... teaching.... daycare.... tummy time... feeding time.... bed time. Before I know it, it is 11:00 pm and I haven't sat down! But I must admit and I am loving life, especially life with John Turner!

At his 4 month appointment John Turner weighed 14.3 pounds and was 25 inches long.

In the bouncey seat at Cha Cha's house! 

Chilin' in his PJs! 

John Turner got to meet my best friend, Hannah, for the first time! It was love at first sight! Now that Hannah and Will are closer to us, we will hopefully be seeing a lot more of them !

Hannah and John Turner

Dr. Barron gave us the ok to begin eating rice cereal. At first, John Turner wasn't too interested in it, but now he loves it and gets really excited when you feed it to him !

Rice cereal everywhere! 

His first experience! 

John Turner began rolling over a few weeks before his four month birthday, but on his birthday, he rolled and then rolled again. Now he is rolling from back to front and back to front. He loves tummy time! He especially loves an Elmo toy and Mom and Dad's neighbor, Amy, gave him! It makes noise and is very colorful! 

Playing with Elmo! 

We are still missing "Beefy" and wishing everyday that he was here with us! But having John Turner around helps to keep my mind off of him! 

American Goodbye, Mandarin Hello!

It's official! Kelsey has left for East Asia. God has called her to go work with Campus Crusade in East Asia for the next 11 months. She will be taking Mandarin classes, learning the language, and most importantly building and forming relationships with the people she comes in contact with to lead them to Christ. On Saturday, August 13th she flew to Chicago for her training. Then on Friday, August 19th she made her way to East Asia. It was a rather long trip. But we just got word about 11:30am yesterday that she has made it! She doesn't have Internet yet, but is working on it!

Last weekend we had a sweet farewell in Birmingham. Mom cooked a HUGE dinner and we ate one last time as a family. It won't happen again for 11 more months :(

Kelsey could only take 2 - 50 pound bags!

This is one of them! 

Last family picture! 

Gunter had to stay at home and keep John Turner, 

he was being a sleepy head and wasn't awake yet!

I'll continue to post updates on Kelsey as I them! Please keep her in your prayers!