Back in The Day

I have been sorting old pictures with my Dad. I love seeing things that were important to my Grandparents captured on film.  It is also quite entertaining.

I came across this lovely photo yesterday. 

This is a photo of some of my cousins sitting on the porch of my Grandparent's home. I am second from the right. It is fun to see the changes in clothing and hair styles through the years. 

Newest Nephew

My brother, Austin, and his wife, Alysha, welcomed their fifth child into their family back in August. (Okay, so, I admit, I'm really behind.) Welcome to the Four-n-More club! I LOVE it when people have as many kids as I do. Little Seth Austin is a great addition to the family.

Seth is adorable! My kids were so excited to meet their newest cousin. We love babies around here especially Aaron who is a baby hog. He was at work that day so we had baby Seth all to ourselves. I loved watching each of my kids (Este couldn't go with us) interact with him. It was precious!

I love, love, love how newborn babies smell. I love looking at little bitty fingers and toes. I love the way they cuddle when you hold them but, I also love sleeping through the night. I appreciate being able to hold babies that other people have to feed. Thank you for sharing your baby with all of us.

Christmas Gift

Aaron's brother Mike and his wife Melanie recently adopted a beautiful baby boy. As they were in an elevator of their hotel, a lady commented on what a great Christmas present. They agreed. What the lady didn't know is that Jace is so much more than that.

Jace is an answer to countless prayers, family fasts, and the righteous desire of young couple. Mike and Melanie have wanted a baby for a really long time. Now they have Jace. Jace is not only a really great Christmas present, he is a gift from God in order to make a family complete.

Turnerfest

Last week, while Aaron, Esteban, and Ethan were up at scout camp, I took AJ and the girls to spend a few days at my parent's house. My sister who lives in Austin was there as well. We had a barbeque, went to lunch & shopping several times, and laughed ALOT! The week has been dubbed Turnerfest.

We spent one afternoon at the pool. The boys loved beating each other with pool noodles. (That is such a "boy thing" to do.)
Savanah was scared the first time she was on the waterslide. When she went to go back down the stairs, her cousin helped her overcome her fears (he pushed her down the slide). After her initial scream, she loved it!

I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get her off the slide and diving board. I love watching kids overcome their fears and learn that they can do hard things. We can't have Turnerfest without some farm work. My dad was right in the middle of baling second crop hay. (That is just part of the summertime experience in my family.) Wyatt spent some time steer wrestling. He was so proud of himself! All the kids "helped" my brother, Eric, move the rabbit cages. I'm sure they were all a great help.Another "must have"at any family party is ambulance involvement. For those of you who don't know my dad is the ambulance supervisor and emergency manager for Morgan County, my brothers are both EMT's, my mom is a former EMT, and my sister-in-law helps get back-up crews for the ambulance. Is ther any wonder why my career is in the medical field? I think it is literally in my blood. This time, the neighbor was hurt. Wyatt tried to start a new fashion trend. It must have worked, the girls joined in.

The grand finale for Turnerfest involved a great big family reunion with all my cousins. It was cold that day (like 68 degrees for the high) but, that didn't stop the kids from playing in the water even if it did turn their lips a dark shade of blue.

We played several games, took a family history quiz, and guessed the flavors of jelly beans. My dad would eat any flavor they gave to him. He actually liked the booger flavored ones. That's my Dad!Here is a picture of all my cousins who were at the reunion.
It was nice to get together with most of my cousins, some of which I haven't seen in years. It's great seeing how their families have grown.

These are most of the 48 great-grandchildren with my Grandma. It was wonderful spending time with my family.

So Much Fun

We went on our 2nd annual campout with Aaron's family a few days ago. We headed to the mountains near his parent's home. There, we rented a cabin. Although, most of us sleep in tents. Whoever is pregnant or has the youngest baby gets to sleep in the cabin (I'm fine to sleep in the tent.)

I don't know if I've mentioned before, there are only three topics of conversation with in Aaron's family: sports, religion and politics. They don't just talk sports, they play sports, lots of them.

They played football, baseball,ultimate frisbee, (I didn't know Esteban had even seen the movie The Karate Kid.)freeze tag,arm wrestling,
musical chairs, (Since we didn't have any way to play music, we took turns being the designated singer, which made the game even more fun.)Hours and hours were spent playing croquet, of which I didn't take a single picture.

The kids played duck-duck-goose with Melanie,Grandpa,the dog,and all of Vanessa's imaginary friends.

This year they started what most people up here refer to as a Polar Bear club. For those of you who live in areas of the world where you play in warm water, you may not understand this sport (Aaron's family can make a competition out of any activity). I live up here and don't understand it either so don't feel bad. This activity involves dunking your body into the frigid water of the creek for fun. (See, I told you, it just doesn't make sense). Let me just point out that the water in this creek is melted snow. It is barely warm enough to be in liquid form and cold enough to slur speech as we all witnessed when John came up out the water. Not to mention that you can get diseases from swallowing water straight from streams. (I won't go into details.) Anyway, this is another thing they did for fun.

As, you might incur, I was content taking pictures. Mike and AJ tied with 5 dunks each. Esteban and John each did it twice. Savanah stuck her face in six times.

We went on a short hike one day. The kids really enjoyed being together with their cousins.

Esteban was a good big brother and helped Vanessa along the trail. The girl's were beauty queens as always.Speaking of beauty, look at this pose Vanessa has goin' on.The final night consisted of an impromptu talent show. Jared performed his signature dance moves. If you spend any amount of time with Jared you will probably see these moves at least once. I also loved his rendition of "Born to be Wild".Hannah sang a beautiful primary song.Mike showed us some doggy tricks.Kayl did a magic trick which I missed getting on film (bummer).

AJ told a joke.

Vanessa sang several songs and told several jokes (none of which made any sense). Is is any surprise that she enjoys the spotlight?

Grandpa ended the evening with some family history stories.On the last day, Aaron and I went for an early morning walk. We ended up on top of a ridge just as the sun came up over the mountain. The view was breathtaking needless to say.
I took the same pictures on our hike that I took last year and every year that I go on this hike. I love nature and the beauty the Lord has created around us.

It's nice to get away from our busy lives in order to be reminded about what is really important in life and we had so much fun doing just that.