Tiffany's Parties

Lucky Tiffany got to celebrate her birthday twice this year! She partied Friday night and Saturday night!

Wow! We are turning her into Grandma Avery's grand daughter quick aren't we with all of these parties? She did ask on Sunday and Monday,"Is it my birthday again?" She had such a good time this year! It's great to be 3!

Aunt Pam, Tiffany bought a "Little People" Fire truck with the mula you sent. Thank you!
Grandma & Grandpa Avery, Tiffany bought the "Little People" Airplane with your gift cards. Thank you too!

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY TIFFANY!

Just woke up! She is holding up three fingers...she used her thumb to help count.


Morning of her 3rd birthday, standing in front of her bedroom door that Caitlin & Courtney had decorated for her.

Today our sweet little Tipper is 3 years old! Where has time gone? It seems like we just brought her home from the hospital. When I was thinking about special memories that I wanted to say about her, there were just so many. I wish I could just freeze time as is right now. She is a little tiny girl, who speaks very clear sentences and has a large vocabulary. Sometimes, I think its one of the older girls talking to me from the other room. I would love to put a camera on her and just let it follow her through a day. She is just so precious and says the funniest things! She has a very active imagination too!

Each night before she goes to bed, she has to put all of her "Little People", including all of the barn animals to bed. She tucks each one of them into a bed or someplace on the Little People castle wall or barn. Next, she makes sure her two baby dolls are tucked into their cradle with three blankets tucked snugly under their chins, with their arms tucked under the covers. It is very sweet.

Tiffany is completely potty trained and I am so proud of her! She is a good listener, loves to clean up anything, (She likes rooms to be very clean and tidy), she enjoys categorizing things --from toy cars to candy...each colored candy going in it's own pile and lined up perfectly. Ya,ya can you say OCD? She likes to help me bake, and she loves playing outside with her sisters. She rides on her toys and also loves it when the twins take her for "waggie" wagon rides around the street. One Tiffany's favorite places to go is "Cost-cos" (Costco)Pronounced just like that!

Her prayers have become quite clear and she doesn't need any help praying anymore. Last week, she began helping me to remember whose turn it was to pray and when Brianne was done praying she said,"Good job Brianne!"

We feel blessed to have Tiffany in our lives. She is a peace maker, she is loving, sweet, has a good sense of humor, and smiles a lot!

We love you Tiffany! xoxo

Mother of the Year or What?

I have to say this is one of my worst "Mother of the Year" posts...

Last month, while brushing Tiffany's teeth, she kept turning and looking in the mirror to watch me brush her teeth. One night, I was brushing right along and the toothbrush some how slipped out of her mouth, up her cheek, and poked her in the eye. Yes, you read that correctly. Mint toothpaste in her eye. She cried and cried and I felt absolutely terrible. I swore to myself that I would be extra careful and never do that again. So the next night, I turned her body so that she couldn't look in the mirror and I could aim better and make sure I was brushing each tooth properly and not slip again.

So, sure enough last week, I did it again....yes, again, you read that correctly. I felt like such a lousy mother. I just felt awful. I even cried while she was wailing!

The next evening when it was time to brush her teeth, she did something very strange...I guess Tiffany realized that mommies are not perfect, especially her Mommy. Take a look at this picture...does this picture say..."I trust you mom or what?" (She does this every night now.)

Okay, you can stop laughing now....like none of you have ever done anything like this to your children!? :O)

Basketball vs Washington

Last night Victoria's basketball team won their game...I believe it was 28-8. She had some great rebounds and scored 4 points! She also had quite the cheering section. Bob & Marsha Decker, Grandpa Carpenter and us. It was fun yelling for her and watching her smile when we'd cheer for her. Nice game last night Tori, you did so well!

I cracked up when I watched this video clip of Tori's game! She was all over this gal! Can you tell she is the oldest of five girls? HAHA!

Grandma's Tea Party

Grandma had a tea party for the girls this weekend! On the menu: cookies, cherry gum drops, juice and chocolate milk. It was lots of fun! Thanks Grandma Carpenter! xoxo

Basketball vs. York

Victoria had another game last Thursday. There are only two games left in the season. Hip-hip-hooray! I say this because I am the lucky parent who gets to drive her to school each morning at 6am and I am pretty sure she is happy to not have to wake up at 5am any longer too! Her team lost last Thursday, however she had a few great rebounds!! Wo-Who!

In the video she is #31, pony tail with ribbons. The ball is thrown to her and she begins to drive it in but then passes the ball out to another player.

Welcome Back, Danielle!

I have to say I USE to make great chocolate chip cookies. Whenever I made them for friends or neighbors, people would ask me for the recipe. But over the past two years....my cookies have stunk. Okay, not literally, but they were just awful. They were chunky, dry and just didn't have that gooey, melt in your mouth taste. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong...and really I didn't care. I was just checking "make cookies" off of my motherly to do list. One thing for sure, my head has been in the new baby funk for quite sometime. You mothers know what I am talking about...it's those years when you are doing everything each day in, "survival mode". You get out of bed and just put one foot in front of the other and the next thing you know your day is over and it's time for bed. Something changed this week...I snapped out of the funk!!!!

I was actually thinking clearly. MMMM this is nice. I haven't felt like this since before the kids were born! I feel freedom....yes, yes, THAT IS WHAT IT IS....Ah, Glory, Glory...FREEDOM. So, what has changed and why do I feel this freedom? Tiffany is older and more independent now. She can take care of a lot of her own needs, and the older girls are quite helpful too.

So, today as I made cookies, I decided I would actually (GASP) look at the recipe card. I haven't done that in who knows how long. (HAHA!) Well, after close examination, I realized that I have been putting way too much flour and baking soda in my cookies!! No wonder they were awful. So may I present to you a photo of my cookies!!!


TA-da! It was good I took this when I did...there are not many left. The girls even started hiding some for their lunches tomorrow!

Welcome back to me!

Courtney got Wowed!

Courtney sent me a text message on the way home from school yesterday.. It said,"I have some exciting news to tell you. Be waiting on the front porch." So, I walked outside and there she was BEAMING! She said,"Look what I got!" She held up her Wow necklace. I asked her how she got hers?! She told me that when she was in elementary school she always talked to a special needs girl named Carmen. Caitlin and Courtney had become friends with this little girl, and when they saw her in the hallway or play ground they said hi to her. Since they have been at the new intermediate school this year, they haven't see her much. So, this past Monday Courtney's teacher told the class that a girl named Carmen who has special needs would be coming into their class and she would need a "friend" to help her. She needs to help her to stay quiet, listen to the teacher, work on her studies, eat lunch and play with her at recess. Courtney volunteered to be that friend and the teacher was so happy, she submitted Courtney's name to be wowed.

Way to go Courtney! I am so proud of you! You too, are answering a Mother's prayer.
Yours and Caitlin's good deeds this week, make me think of one of my favorite Primary songs. "I'll walk with you." Here is a link to that song. http://www.lds.org/churchmusic/detailmusicPlayer/index.html?searchlanguage=1&searchcollection=2&searchseqstart=140&searchsubseqstart=%20&searchseqend=140&searchsubseqend=ZZZ

Caitlin was Wowed!

Caitlin came home from school last week and shared with me her day. She told me about getting "Wowed!" I asked her what that meant? She said that if someone sees you doing something kind for another person, they submit your name and deed to Mrs. Menville and if she feels it is something worthy of the "Wow Wall", she accepts the nomination.

I asked Caitlin, what did you do to get "Wowed"? She said that her class was walking single file down the hallway and all she did was help a special needs boy. It took some extra probing to find out what she did. She finally said, "We were walking down the hallway and I was in the middle of the line. I noticed this boy in a wheelchair, so I slowed to walk with him". She said that the rest of her class behind her was slowed down too because she and this special needs boy were walking so slow. When the boy got to his room, she opened the door for him and helped him in.

I began to cry. She asked me why are you crying? I told her how proud of her I was and how proud her Father in Heaven was too. The next day she came home with a card and necklace from the teacher. I took a picture of it...

If you click on the picture you can enlarge the pic and read the card. The teacher wrote something very interesting...it says,"By helping others, you are a good example to the people around you." If yall only knew, each night and day when I pray for my girls, I ask the Lord just that, "Please help my girls to be good examples to those around them." It made me cry again. A mother's prayer was answered...not only mine, but I imagine each day when that special needs boy goes off to school, his mother is asking for the Lord to watch over her son. Thanks Caitlin for helping remind two mothers that Heavenly Father does hear and answer our prayers.

Thanks for being such a wonderful daughter. I feel blessed to have you in our family. xoxo, Mom

P.S. Thanks for cleaning the game room last night without being asked!! You are AWESOME!

Ron's New Calling at Church

A week ago Sunday, Ron received a phone call from the Stake asking to meet with him and I on Sunday morning. I always dislike how the stake calls a week before an appointment and you have all the time in the world to wonder, "what are they going to ask us to do?" When we went into the meeting, they asked us, "Do you know what your new calling may be?" We both said, "No. But we are curious." :-) Yesterday, Ron was asked to be the 2nd Counselor in our ward Bishopric. It was a very special day for our family, a day that won't be forgotten.

New Years Eve Bash @ the Turners

Each new Years Eve our family fondues. Gotta love, steak, cheese, vegetables, bread and chocolate fruit fondue!! In Texas the firework stands are open and we go crazy shootin off fireworks Texas style...the bigger the better. Many of our neighbors were lighting off the huge triple jumbo shot mortars. It was quite the show this year! Our family also enjoyed playing Pictionary and just stuffing ourselves silly with great food!

Saying Goodbye to Grandma & Grandpa Turner

Playing Around with Our New Toys

Playing with there new cell phones.

Show off!

Victoria's Gift to Ron

Victoria has been working on this pencil drawing for 4 months. She finished just in time for Christmas to give to Ron. She is quite talented for a 7th grader! She kept coming home each day and telling me about this pencil drawing she was working on. In my mind I was thinking it was something very simple. When she unrolled the drawing, I about fell over. I said,"Honey, I had no idea you could draw so well!!" We are so proud of her.

Christmas Morning

I have to say when the Santa trap went off on Christmas morning Brianne was the first one down the stairs and Grandpa Turner was a pretty close second! Brianne grabbed my hand, (with a death grip) and hauled me outside to see if we could see Santa. She and her sisters came to a conclusion...Santa must deliver the gifts in the middle of the night and then send the Elves back around 6:30am to set off the trap!

Everyone got a little something this year and even Grandpa Turner got coal...uh oh. But as he said, in Santa's eyes, he must be getting better because the lump of coal was much smaller this year!

Christmas Eve Events

Each Christmas Eve our family enjoys a Mexican food dinner, goodies, setting a trap to catch Santa, reading the Bible and of course reading Twas the Night before Christmas.

If you look really hard, Brianne made a Santa face on her plate.

Swedish Bread

My family has a Christmas tradition...my mother tells me it came from her side of the family, the Sander side. It is called Swedish Bread. My mother use to make it every Christmas and as we have all married and left the house I believe myself and my brothers all make it during the holidays. It is a sweet cardamon bread and it is delicious warm and slathered in butter!

Christmas Cookie baking

Grandpa Turner likes to bake. There I said it. Yes, this gruff man who has been a cop and a rancher has softened in his older years and now is a baker. He likes to study out pictures in magazines and then try to recreate them. I have to say...he is pretty good at it too! While they visited this Christmas, we did a lot of baking. I believe it was the most I have done in years. Here are some of the fun things we baked...

Tiffany having enjoyed our baking.

The Teather Ball Project

While Ron's Dad was visiting, they did a small project together. Here are some photos...

I guess the project was harder than expected?!