Brianne's Baptism Luncheon

After the baptism, our family and friends from our congregation came over to our home for a luncheon. It was such a fun day!

Brianne's Baptism

On Saturday December 20th, Brianne was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints. She looked so sweet with her hair in french braids and in her pretty white baptism dress that her Grandma Turner made for her.

The Spirit was so strong at her baptism. It was joyful as a parent to listen to the Bishop, home teachers and other speak about Brianne. As her mother, I see the sunshine she radiates daily, but I often wondered, did others? Does she let her light shine? Well, that question was easily answered as I listened to what these people had to say about her. She is always smiling, her eyes twinkle, she gives hugs and helps others to feel welcome and loved. She is like a ray of sunshine! All of these sum up little Brianne Mary.

It was a beautiful, heart warming baptism. A day that is sealed in my memory forever.

To learn more about baptism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, feel free to explore this link. http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/

Happy 15th Anniversary Ron!

Ron and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary on December 18th. We celebrated by going out to dinner, exchanging gifts and then driving to the airport to pick up his Dad and stepmother. (Chuckle, chuckle.) He gave me a beautiful new wedding ring. Yea! Happy 15 Honey...

Painting before Christmas...

I finished painting the upstairs landing the week before Christmas. I really like how it looks, and am glad to be finished. My next project is the upstairs game room!

Christmas Traditions

One of my favorite traditions is to make fudge at Christmas time. Not just one type of fudge either.

Today I made, I don't know how many pounds of fudge. All I know is I made 8 batches, that fit snugly into three 9 x 13 pans and one 9 x 9. This year I created milk chocolate fudge with Andes Mints Crushed on top, milk chocolate fudge with Heath Toffee bar crushed on top, semi-sweet rocky road, and semi-sweet pecan. The rocky road is one of my favorites, as the marshmallow melts into the chocolate and the chocolate covers the salty peanuts, I then add marshmallows to the top for color.

I enjoy cutting up the fudge and putting it on cute Christmas plates tied with a ribbon. It is most fun to deliver the plates to neighbors and friends! Giving makes you feel so happy and makes you forget about yourself. I love that feeling.

Basketball and More Basketball

Victoria had a tournament last weekend. She did not get to play much on Friday night...a whopping 3 minutes. To say the least, she was quite upset when she got home. She couldn't figure out what she had done wrong, and why the coaches wouldn't put her in. She is the 2nd tallest and she is excellent at rebounds. (and I am not just bragging here...she picks off almost all of the rebounds!)

On Saturday morning she actually got put into the game and she must have had an adrenaline rush form the night before, because she scored 10 points in the game (only 23 points total were scored)! She was on fire! Way to go Tori!

Last night she had another game, this time up in Conroe. She again, got a lot of playing time. It took an hour to drive up there. I kept thinking, why do I drive to these away games? This take so long...then, I remembered why. It's the smile that I see on Tori's face when she she's sees me walk into the gym or when she hears me cheering for her in the stands...or when she looks at me and smiles the smile of,"Mom shut-it, you are embarrassing me!" HAHA! I love it! I love yelling for her when she makes a basket...I love seeing her run down the court smiling, almost as if she is floating, knowing she is doing good! Keep it up Tori...you are awesome!

Snowed Again!

Last night it snowed again for about an hour. It came down pretty good and then later melted. It was just enough for the girls to make some snow balls and small snow men. They were really hoping for a snow day today...they had visions of snow flurries in the heads as they went to bed...hoping, just hoping for a blizzard. No luck come morning...just windy and cold (20's).

Snowing In Houston? Yes it is!

This has been such an odd year for Houston. A Hurricane, hot-hot weather, cold weather and now snow. In the 12 years we have lived in Houston this is the third time it has lightly snowed. This is a rare occurrence, something that is hoped and wished for every winter, but rarely seen.
I have to admit, being a Utahan, I miss the snow and the cold. So when it starts snowing in South East Texas, I get a little excited too! It snowed for about an hour, nothing stuck the ground. The kids are of course hoping it snows again tonight and thier hoping for a good blizzard...hee-hee, keep wishing kids! PS It was warm and muggy yesterday and we even ran the a/c!

What's up with the Turner's?

To begin, I need to mention this last weekend Ron was the emcee for our church Christmas party and he also took part in the EQ skit. It was called "dry synchronized swimming" and it was pretty funny! The guys found the skit on YouTube and then recreated it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f86qKQJg3Z8&feature=related

Lucky Ron has jury duty this week. I hope he doesn't get chosen to be on a jury because all of the morning driving falls upon me. I played taxi driver this morning getting Tori to Basketball practice at 6am, then the twins to school at 7:30, then Brianne to school at 8:20. By the time I pulled into the garage at 8:45, I felt like crawling back into bed. But, that's won't happen because I am meeting my visiting teachees for lunch. That will be fun to hang out with the ladies and give me some sort of adult time. It is nice to actually speak to an adult during the day...instead of gibberish with the toddler.

Speaking of the toddler. Last night she said something funny. Well, as her Mom I thought it was funny. She walked into the twins bedroom and announced to Courtney,"Your room is messy. You need to clean it!!" Courtney looked at her and just cracked up.

Victoria has a two day basketball tourney hosted by her school this weekend. I look forward to that. It has been fun going to her games.

I set a new record this past week...we took our family photo last Sunday, I had it uploaded to Snapfish.com by Monday morning and ordered. The prints arrived Wednesday and I had most of them mailed by Friday. It always feels nice when the planets all align...it doesn't happen to often in my chaotic world, but when it does, I do admit I sit back and smile.

PS I just found out Ron did not get picked. Yea! I was glad to hear it. He told me the case was a capital murder charge. They asked the group a question and most people said no to the question. Then Ron spoke up and said yes and why. Then others in the group began to rethink their answer and sided with Ron. I guess the lawyers did want someone like Ron on the jury...someone who can be persuasive to others.

Inflatable fun!

It was asked, what was on my front lawn...just some inflatables. Here's a closer look.

Christmas, Christmas, time is here...

We set up Christmas decor right after we were done eating our Thanksgiving dinner. The girls were so excited! It took me three days to set it all up. Thanks goes to Ron for climbing the ladder (gulp!) to put the lights along the roof line. Here's a look...

Painting Again...

This time it was the foyer and giant stairway that received the face lift. It took me several hours of tedious work to get through this job. The most difficult part was painting the stairway. From floor to ceiling the highest point is 20 feet (+ ish). Before I began the project my Mother was standing in my foyer looking up. She asked old I was. I asked her,"Why? because you are already writing my obituary?" :-) It was a two day project and I am glad I won't ever need to do it again.

Thanksgiving

Our dinner this year was delicious. I got the 21.07 lb turkey in the oven by 7am. The girls woke to the scents of Thanksgiving dinner cooking. It was a fun morning cooking and cooking and cooking. By 2pm Grandma & Grandpa Carpenter had arrived and we were ready to eat. This year Ron made some great pies and stuffing...drum roll please... There were actually 3 surprise pies this year. The best one of them all was the creamy pumpkin pie. It was fluffy and tasted similar to a whipped cheesecake, all while sitting in a deep graham cracker crust. Need I say more? It was heavenly. The other pie was a pumpkin apple pie and the third was a mixture of the regular pumpkin, creamy pumpkin and apple pumpkin. This one was really good too. As for stuffing, this year's surprise stuffing was a pumpkin mushroom stuffing. It was good also!
Thanks Ron for making the holidays fun! We all enjoyed your hard work this year in making the surprise foods. :O)

After dinner, Ron, Caitlin, Courtney and Victoria had a weekend of playing Ages of the Empire. It turned out to be a very long tournament. They also enjoyed hours of Wii. I spent 4 long days, painting my foyer and staircase walls (This was not an easy task. I will post pics next.) and I spent many hours decorating for Christmas. The two tress are up, banister and mantle are decorated, the village is out and the outside of the house is decked out. (Gary would be proud!) More pics of all of this to come.


Ron's traditional pile (?) of food.

Ron making his stuffing.

My turkey - 21.07 lbs.

Ron making pies.

Volleyball or Basketball? You decide.

This weekend, Victoria had a basketball tourney. Her team placed 3rd and brought home bronze metals! She made 8 points and was really taking up the boards on rebounds! It was so much fun to watch her! She has really figured out this game! I enjoyed watching the game because it's constant action, unlike volleyball.

Here is a video clip...is she playing volleyball or basketbal? You decide!

Look at me, I'm Tiffany!

1st Basketball Game

Tori had her first game last night. They won 34-8. Her team improved significantly since last week! She has another game tonight and tomorrow. The season has kicked in and now I feel like a taxi cab driver again! It's worth it though...I enjoying watch Tori grow. Having never played basketball before, she is catching on and doing quite well. Way to go Tori! (Tori is #31, wearing the white bow in her pony tail.)

Ears Pierced!

Since Brianne turned 8 this past week, we took her to the mall to get her ears pierced. This has been a most awaited moment for Brianne! She longed for this day to come for MANY years! Here are a few pics and video of the big event!

Our Astronomers

Caitlin & Courtney have been tracking the phases of the Moon this week. Here are some pics of them enjoying the night sky. They actually took these photos of the moon themselves through their telescope.

Let the Basketball Season Begin!

Victoria had her first scrimmage last night. It was a little comical watching the girls play. They were all fumbling down the court and hardly making any baskets. There were a few times I caught the coaches smirking and shaking their heads as in,"what have we gotten ourselves into, these girls all stink at b-ball." Even the refs a few times were telling the girls,"ah...you can't do that in this game." LOL! And then there were a few gals that were really good! Some were so good they schooled others by snatching the ball, tripping and shoving...ya know...dirty play. Tori found herself on the floor once from such play.

Overall, she seemed to have a good time and is learning so much in this new sport! Way to go Tori! Woo-who!!