a {turner} christmas story

Just as I suspected, Christmas with a child is magical. Well, technically, I had two children this Christmas as the excited, little child comes out in my husband. It really is endearing- how excited he gets. Every day during December he either asks if he can have a present early or if he can give me one of mine early. Cute huh?

Our Christmas was just as it should be- filled with lots of family and way too much delicious food :) Also thrown into the mix last week was my little sister's wedding (Ahh!!), more on that to come. Despite the initial fearful meeting (oh, I just realized I never shared the "classic Santa picture"- imagine screams, tears, and squirms), Beck actually came around to the whole Santa concept and said the cutest "Ho, Ho" every time he saw anything that resembled a Santa Claus!

It didn't take long for him to catch onto unwrapping presents- he's no dummy!

Mmm, lucky boy got Lucky Charms in his stocking. It took him all of 2 seconds to start picking out all of the marshmellows.

Wrapping paper as a hat? Sure. This boy did that all on his own.

We should have known that the best present of all would be the $5 pack of mini nerf balls. He didnt' want anything to do with any of his other presents once he saw these, and he still only wants to play with his "fooball" and "bak a bak a ball".

We took the opportunity to take some shots of the grandkids in their Christmas best. Chance was not a fan of getting his picture taken, but I was lucky to steal this darling shot of his with his twin sis.

Twin sis was quite the opposite- talk about a ham :)

Now this was downright amazing. Definitely not perfect by any means, but I was happy just to catch something decent, considering we were dealing with 7 kiddos under the age of 5! I love each and everyone of these darling cousins!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sad it is all over.

Summer anyone???

puppy love

Oh, If you only knew how much this boy idolizes Cooper. After all, "Pu per" was his first word following "mama" and "dada." I hope one day the puppy can reciprocate the feelings, for now he simply tolerates moments like these.

Little B has been obsessed with the puppy's food for awhile now. We're talking b-line to the dishes as soon as he recognizes he's within crawling distance, and then squealing and picking up the pace when he realizes we're onto him. I usually keep it up on the counter when little man is awake, but the past few days he seemed to not be so interested in it, so I've been leaving it down. 1st mistake.

I went to the bathroom and left him alone playing with his toys in the family room for two seconds. 2nd mistake. From the bathroom I hear him throwing little somethings in the kitchen and walk out to see this:

Sweet boy trying to feed his puppy. My first reaction was to tell him "No! Ca Ca, we don't play with the puppy's food!" But then I recognized the adorable moment and whipped out the camera.

I should have stopped there, because then buddy boy decided he needed to try the puppy's food.

He may or may not have just shoved a piece of dog food in his mouth! I pretty much dropped the camera to barely fish it out of his mouth in time. Nasty!

I absolutely love seeing B adore his puppy. He gets so excited whenever Coop comes into the room. One of my favorite things lately is that B has started to pat for Coop to come to him- he pats the side of his crib, his chubby thigh, or my back. It's darling!

merry and bright

It's official- our home is christmasfied! I actually talked Trav into letting me get out all the ornaments, glitter, and stars 3 whole days before Dec. 1st...AND he even made me a wonderful Christmas playlist while I was decorating away. What a man, huh?!

This year, in order to accomodate a certain one-year-old who doesn't quite get the concept of leaving the "balls" on the tree, we set our tree up on our end table. Just out of reach of buddy boy's chubby hands.

I can already tell that this season is going to be 10x better with little B around. He loves the lights, loves all the ornaments (of course, because they look like a ball), loves the snow, and he's actually going to understand a little of what's going on this year!

perspective

One of my favorite things about being a mom: being able to experience the little things through the eyes of my child. Everyday is full of wonder and exploration.

Little buddy is learning so much right now and I love how every tiny step (literally) and word is worthy of a guess-what-beck-did phone call to daddy. We are proud parents, that's for sure.

down on the farm

As part of his birthday present, Beck's girlfriend (thanks Ellie!) gave him tickets to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. We really should have gone sooner...he absolutely LOVED every single minute! It was so fun to see him get excited over all the animals and to say the animal sounds that he knew. As you can see, he was completely fearless when it came to touching them.

I kind of want to freeze this boy right now. He is at such a fun age ....we just can't get enough of him!

a happy halloween

That might just be the cutest puppy I've ever seen. Despite the rainy weather, we had a great halloween. I was actually kind of relieved Beck wasn't really old enough to get the whole trick-or-treating thing, because that meant we got to stay warm and dry :)

In lieu of pumpkin carving, we decorated sugar cookies, cupcakes and caramel apples. Which was just fine with me, because I've never been a fan of the pumpkin guts anyway. The only downside: I'm still recovering from the sugar coma.

because

Because, husband knows its been one of those days.

And I love him for it.

family pics

Definitly not perfect, but not too shabby for a tripod and timer eh? I'm just glad it's not terribly obvious that I've been running back and forth from the camera to my position.

halloween preview

pickin pumpkins

Remember these adorable pictures?

It's crazy to me to think that he was ever that small.

Anyway, the cute girl who took them has her photography business up and running again!

She's doing a giveaway right now over on her photo blog:

Blackbird Photography

And even though I'd like to keep this to myself, go check her out. She's awesome!

i get it now

So this is why everyone said I should be grateful that Beck wasn't moving yet.

He's still not walking, but the last week he all of a sudden decided he wanted to move. And he's everywhere!

{pics taken by my new phone. I'm pretty sure I'm the last person to join the whole "smartphone" club. I've never felt so technologically challenged as I have while trying to use this gadget}

3 years

{our anniversary breakfast in bed}

As I said before, the weekend of the hell fire, we were away celebrating our anniversary. 3 wonderful years we've been married. I sure love this man. I fell for him within just a couple weeks of us dating and that love has just gotten deeper and deeper.

Thanks to our kind parents, we got to spend a night up in Salt Lake just the two of us. It's always so nice to be able to just focus on us and hold hands as we walk around.

Here's to many more years of loving you baby.

This was our view from our porch last night. Crazy. Unsettling. Scary.

We were actually gone all weekend celebrating our anniversary and then Sunday dinner with our family. We had heard talk of the fire all afternoon, but thought it was plenty far enough away. Right as we were getting ready to head back home, we got word that hundreds of homes were being evacuated in Herriman.

I still didn't think we were in immediate danger, but Travis was really concerned. Thankfully, my in-laws offered to put the babe down to sleep at their house while we went home and surveyed the situation.

We could see the flames and the mountain on fire from quite a distance, but it wasnt' until we were driving up the hill towards our house that I started to panic. The whole top of the mountain was filled with bright, orange flames. And it was so close.

We spent the next hour or so talking with neighbors trying to get caught up and also checking in on our friends to make sure everyone was ok. Evacuations were taking place a couple streets over and we decided we had better get our things packed up. We quickly grabbed the essentials- clothes, stuff for the babe, important papers, etc. and threw them in our trunk.

Travis' mom and brother then called and said things were escalating quickly and they were coming to help us pack up more of our stuff and we were getting out of there asap.

I was so grateful to learn that my husband could be the calm, collected one in an emergency, as I was freaking out at this point. Also, I was so glad that we left the wee one at sleeping safely at grandma and grandpas.

Getting out of Herriman was insane. There really is only one way out, and it took us an hour to go not even ten miles. It was very unsettling to drive away with the inferno just blocks away from our house, not knowing if we were going to have a house to come back to.

Talk about a long night. Luckily, we saw the worst of it. Thanks to thousands of prayers, the wind changed directions and the efforts of the brave firefighters were paying off by morning. Although areas were still evacuated and the fire not completely contained, our imminent danger was gone and we were able to come home around noon. It is nothing short of miraculous that only 3 homes were destroyed. Looking at our now black mountain, you would never believe it.

Our hearts go out to those families who lost their homes. We were all blessed that it wasn't worse. It's amazing how something like this helps you see that your things are just that: things.

Thank you to all of our friends and family who sent concerned calls, texts, and messages. It meant the world to us.

holding onto summer

{is it bad that I laugh everytime I see the bottom left picture?}

{so happy that my child has taken a liking to two of my favorite things of summer!}

Please don't leave summer.

I love fall and all, but everything beautiful about fall (the leaves, the colors, the smells, the clothes) is tainted by the knowledge of 6+ months of dreary winter coming next.

things I want to remember

At one year,

Little (I don't know why I always say "little", he really is anything but) B is 24 lbs (66%) and 31.5 in. long (86%).

He still doesn't crawl, and I honestly don't think he will before he walks. The Dr. calls him content, I say he's lazy.

He stands for a few seconds on his own, walks along furniture, and is needing less and less support from our hands when he walks around the house.

He has gotten more picky when it comes to eating. Cheese and eggs are still among his favorites.

He has transitioned to whole milk without even blinking an eye.

He is very attached to his blankie. Actually it's not even his. Its an old, thin, ratty, fleece one being loned to him by his cousins.

He is very advanced in his speech and social skills (according to the Dr.). He says ball, ba ba, pa pa, cooper (pu per), cu ca, quack quack (when asked what a duckie says), mama, dada.

He gives the best wide, open mouth kisses. And he is so pleased with himself after each and every one.

We taught him to throw a couple months ago, and he now throws everything: his binks, his food, his toys, etc.

He answers with the cutest "uh huh" when you ask him if he wants something. He also will say the same thing when he sees something he wants.

He loves to push buttons. On remotes, on his toys, on our phones, anything he can get his hands on.

He can even play a game on his daddy's ipod. His pudgy little finger touches the screen at just the right place to make an animal appear out of a barn, followed by the noise it makes. He will do this forever!

He loves animals of all kinds and loves to read his many animal books. Puppies are his favorite and the only ones in his books to get kisses.

He is at such a fun age right now, soaking up his world like a sponge. I feel like everyday he is learning something new or understanding something better.

He still gets excited (and says "uh huh") when you ask him if he wants to go "na nights". I wonder how long that is going to last? :)

He's goofy, silly, and charming. He definitely knows how to work his crowd.

He's got a little temper and is quite the stubborn one. Luckily, the times when he shows either are few and far between.

He loves when his daddy comes home. As soon as he hears the garage, his legs start to kick, arms start to flail and a huge smile takes over his face. It's darling!


Wow, that ended up being a lot longer than I thought. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised...I could go on and on about that adorable boy of ours!

starting young

We were so excited to take the little man to his first BYU game! I love how everything is more fun when you are experiencing it for the first time through your child. Besides almost melting during the first half, Beck actually did really well at the game. He never tired of saying "ball" everytime he saw a football. So cute!

Can't wait to continue to share our love for BYU football with this darling boy.

(Oh and don't worry, Travis is already teaching him to say "poo poo Utes")