Updates

We got a lawn mower! When you only have 20 square feet of grass (if that) you can get by pretty well with a push mower. For the past few years we have used a weed whacker, unfortunately last year it broke so we borrowed from neighbors to get by. We did this because push mowers are more expensive than we liked, but this year a neighbor moved and not thinking they would need a push mower where they were going they sold it to us! YEAH! The back yard very much needed a trim. J was enthralled. I told him he had 4 years to get strong enough and then it would be his chore to mow the lawn. He smiled.

This is what J looked like on Tuesday, after his nap. That's not food on his face, it's goobers. He looked 100 % better than he did when he woke up that morning, his eyes were glued shut and he wouldn't allow me to clean them for him, so he walked into walls and pieces of furniture, it was both Hilarious and Sad. I wish I had thought to take some video.
This is J about 24 hours after starting Antibiotics.
That is right, I took him into the doctor and sure enough he didn't just have a bad cold, he had a double eye infection with a side of ear infection. Because of the ear infection he was prescribed oral antibiotics, this means that I don't have to fight with him to get him to let me put antibiotic eye drops in, YEAH, unfortunately Wal-Mart (which up until yesterday was our normal pharmacy) changed their supplier of generic drugs, so instead of fruit punch flavored medication they gave a 2 year old Citrus Banana flavored antibiotics. I tasted it, it tastes like Grapefruit so it didn't surprise me when J didn't like it at all.

And here is my Granola, does it look a little too brown? It is. First try, not quite burnt, actually a little tangy. I don't feel too badly about it because I didn't buy anything special, I just used the items I had on hand. Next time I will put in more Cinnamon, some Almonds and I will bake it for a shorter amount of time.

The final update, I really don't like the weather. It is making me sad. Too much rain, not enough sunshine. I have a lot of housework to do today, it needs to get done today because I am going to Woman's Conference tomorrow and Friday. I really don't think it is going to get done. There is always Saturday, right? Saturday, is a special day, it's the day we do the things we should have done on Wednesday!

Sad Little Sick Boy

He has a fever, and gunk coming out of his eyes and nose. I thought it would be good for him to sit in the tub for a while. His fever went up. But at least we got some of the goobers washed off.

Poor Baby! On the bright side (for Ken), J really doesn't want much to do with me, he has preferred to cuddle with Ken most of the day, which makes Daddy very happy. It makes me wonder if he can smell his little brother on me, and that makes him think that I can not devote my full attention to him.

I had a very interesting experience during the 45 minutes or so that he had to make do with just Mommy. We were laying on the couch, with J just to my side and I noticed that Butterball had moved the side of my belly that J was closest to. After awhile I needed to move and J ended up on top of me, which seemed to be quite comfortable for both of us, I noticed again that Butterball had moved too, positioning himself right under his brother. I like to think that he wanted to be near J, to try to give him some comfort too. But maybe he was saying "My Mommy" in some secret baby language that I have long forgotten but J still understands, because as soon as Ken got home, suddenly I was not good enough, Daddy had to be the one to hold and cuddle him.

It's not all bad, I have had a free hour or two to make dinner, and I have even started to make a cake, which I will eat on my own since it is a chocolate cake and I know Ken won't want any and J is pretty much opposed to any food that is not Milk.

Wish us luck.

Belly Button!

Little J was about 3 weeks old when the remnants of his umbilical cord finally fell off. I remember it quite clearly, I was holding him and felt something hard moving around inside his pajamas, it felt like a rock. Having no idea how a rock could have gotten into his clothes I quickly investigated, only to find that it was not a rock, excited I went straight to his new belly button to see what it looked like, and I was AMAZED! It was a perfect swirl. I am pretty sure he is the only one ever to be endowed with such an unusual an amazingly cute belly button.

Today, J decided that he didn't want to wear clothes. After a couple of hours of running around in just a diaper I convinced him that it would be fun to wear pants! He is still very much opposed to shirts, and over the past few hours I have noticed some things. First, 2 year olds have amazingly toned abs (though the picture doesn't show that because he was puffing out his belly) and Second, J still has the cutest belly button I have ever seen.

I know, I am weird, but it is just so cute I figured I would share it with you today. Happy Friday!

A Kick-versation to start the day off right.

I woke up at 4:30 this morning because my little boy wanted to talk. We enjoyed a very pleasant Kick-versation, that is what I decided it is called when your baby kicks and you respond with a poke or a rub and then they respond with another kick or a bump. So Butterball and I enjoyed each other's company for 15 minutes or so and then he was done. I on the other hand was wide awake. I tried to get him to play some more but that didn't work so I lay there awake in bed, thinking. I don't know about you, but thinking is a dangerous thing to do when you should be sleeping.

What was I thinking about? Jiffy Mix, or more specifically if I could make my own jiffy mix because I always seem to be running out of it. Then my mind switched to Granola. Granola is expensive and I have very simple tastes when it comes to granola, I don't like anything too fancy, no fruit needed, not too many nuts but plenty of cinnamon. So I wondered, could I make my own perfect Granola? Then I started thinking I was hungry and I remembered the Captain Crunch I bought last week. By this time it was 5 AM, that is a respectable time to eat Captain Crunch, so I got out of bed, found a pen and paper in the dark and wrote myself a note to Google recipes for Jiffy Mix and Granola, then I went downstairs and had an early morning snack.

Later this morning, after returning to bed and waking up at a better hour, I saw my note and was able to find several recipes for both the Granola and a Jiffy Mix like substance. But I am now left with a few questions for all of you. First, do any of you make a simple granola that you really like? And Second, has anyone ever made a Jiffy Mix type mix before?

Outnumbered!

Well I have been outnumbered for a couple of years now, but now the score is Boys 3, Girls 1 (and that girl would be me). Yep, we went in today for our ultrasound, we are 21 weeks and 6 days pregnant with our second son. He kind of looks like Alfred Hitchcock doesn't he?

I am very happy that I can now call my baby a Him instead of an It, that is always very disconcerting to me, calling my baby "It". Now I can say things like, "He loves it when I eat chocolate" or "I wish He would wiggle more" or less. He was a very good baby, he didn't move much at all during the ultrasound, in fact the only time he moved was when the Ultrasound tech was trying to get pictures of his head, he really didn't enjoy his head being squished.

So now, what should we name him. Alfred? William? Nanners? I will probably just keep calling him butterball for the time being.

The Goodbye Song

A few months ago on of the girls in the 11 year old class in primary told me about a song they sang in her old ward, it was a Goodbye song. They sang this song when people moved or turned 12 and left Primary. I asked her if she would write down the words for me and maybe I would be able to to teach it to our primary. It is to the same tune as the "Hello Song", you know "Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, We welcome you today....". Well last week she brought me very small piece of paper with the words to the Goodbye song written on it, and this week I taught "My" version of the song. I changed it a little and I really like the way it turned out. Here is how it goes.

Adios, Au revoir, See ya later, Alligator,

We're sad to see you go.

Adios, Au revoir, See ya later, Alligator,

Oh how we'll miss you so!

You've shared with us our Primary days

and been our friend in a very special way.

Adios, Au revoir, See ya later, Alligator,

Oh, How we'll miss you so!

The kids and the teachers all really liked it, and the teachers especially loved when I messed up and sang "We're GLAD to see you go". I am going to have to practice so I don't make that slip up again.

House!

Little J has a new addiction, watching vocabulary videos. His favorite is "House", he asks for it by name. The fact that it has the same name as a TV Show that isn't really appropriate for a 2 year old has not escaped a few visitors to our home recently. Rest assured, J is not watching a show about a prescription drug addicted doctor who solves medical mysteries just in time to save lives. No this show is all about homes and houses, doors, windows, furniture and my favorite, Cleaning. My not so favorite part of this addiction, I don't really get to watch the news much anymore, instead I find myself watching one of the Baby's first-word stories with my boy. My favorite part is that they are working wonders, he is using more and more words each day, and they aren't even the words on the videos. My favorite new word this week is "Flower"!

Hidden, in plain sight

Over the past couple of months I have purchased Ken some presents (candy and his favorite cereal, he is pretty easy to buy for) and then I hid them in places that I was sure he would never look. Well, both times he found the items, both times completely innocently. The first time I hid some valentines candy in a drawer of my dresser, it just happened to be same day that he thought he would be really sweet and put the folded laundry away, thus he opened the dresser drawer to put away clothes, and found his favorite candy. The second time I hid the GIGANTIC bag of cereal in the cupboard above the stove, we hardly ever, almost NEVER, open it, all it holds are the Cake Pedestal and Cover and the burner liners for the stove. PLUS, if any one uses those things it is me.....well I didn't think about the fact that I had used the cake cover for our Birthday Cakes and that it was in the dishwasher. Well Ken, doing his do diligence, was putting away the clean dishes and so he opened that rarely used cupboard that I thought would be the perfect hiding place and what did he find? That is right Cereal! Two for Two, the Man is that good at happening across hidden presents. Which, in the end, is OK because he doesn't care if he is surprised or not, he usually figures things out when he sees the receipts.

Now, lets take a look at my ability to find presents. I don't go looking, I like to be surprised. On our Anniversary Ken presented me with a Willow Tree Statue. I was very surprised. I vaguely remember seeing a charge on our credit card from a hallmark store that I don't remember going to, but I know Ken watches our accounts and if he hadn't known what it was for he would have asked me. I really didn't think much of it. Ken told me he was very very surprised that I hadn't seen present, after all it had been on top of his dresser for a while, in plain sight. I guess I don't look at the top of his dresser, even though it is right at eye level there is not anything there that I use, other than the clock.

So Ken has learned a big lesson, there is no reason to even try to hide things from me, because I am oblivious. And I learned that next time I buy Ken an extra special treat I should make sure that I put away the laundry and the clean dishes myself until it is time to give him his gift!

5 Years!

April 9th, 2005 was a cloudy day, but still, it was a perfect day. It was the day I got married. I married my best friend. I loved him. I still love him, I love him even more. I never imagined that that life could get any better. But it has. These past 5 years were not perfect years, but my love for this man has grown more than I could ever imagine it would or even could.

I have heard many times that we should not expect to "Find" our soul mate, but I think that God made Ken for me, he sent him to me and at the right time he let Ken in on the secret, that he (Ken) really should love me. Why do I think this? Well, Ken was my friend, and I liked him, you know, I "liked him" liked him, but he really didn't feel that way about me. He was a great friend and so I overlooked that little flaw and we had a lot of fun being friends. Then one day Ken met a girl and I knew that she must be the one, I was heart broken, I don't think I really understood how much I liked him until then. It was at that time that I gave up hope and I prayed and asked for a Miracle, I prayed that God would make me not like Ken Wheeler, then I cried myself to sleep. The next morning I woke up and I didn't hurt anymore, but strangely I still liked Ken. I figured God did what he could do, he took away the pain in my heart and that was good enough for me. To my surprise, that girl I was sure was his "One" was not. A few months later Ken completely changed his mind about not liking me, and he asked me out. That was in the Fall of 2004, we were engaged on December 30th of that year and then Married in April. So do you see what I see? God knew! He wouldn't give me what I asked for, he didn't take away my love for Ken, he knew that I would need it later.

And Oh Boy, do I love this man. That was a great day and Today was a pretty great day too.

These are my Anniversary Roses! Best part about them, they were on Clearance for $2.50! Can you say Budget Friendly! And yes, it is a full dozen.
So here is the story of this years anniversary. I think it is a pretty good story. A few years ago we picked up an Anniversary Inn Gift Certificate at Costco. We had previously enjoyed pretending that we were in the South Pacific and Pirates from Treasure Island at the Anniversary Inn and the Gift Certificate was a great deal, it was 50% off their most expensive rooms. Then we put the Gift Certificate in a drawer and there it stayed, we always said that we would use it someday, but we never made plans. Until last weekend. I realized that Ken was taking the day off for our Anniversary and I started hatching a plan. I wanted to go somewhere, I thought about Bear Lake or Wolf Creek, but Ken thought it might be easier to stay closer to home. Our plan worked perfectly, Ken thought it would be great to use our Anniversary Inn Gift Certificate and so I got to work planning our get away. I decided on a room that I thought looked Amazingly Luxurious, rather than really fun (because how can you beat a Pirate Ship?). Prices had gone up since we got our gift certificate so we were going to pay $25 for our room, but $25 for a $250 room is pretty darn good, so we booked it. It was easy.

We found an over night sitter for Little J. I was scheduled to work yesterday but I thought that J would have a hard time, spending all day at a babysitter only to spend an hour or less with Mom and Dad before another sitter arrived and Mom and Dad left again. So I moved work to Wednesday and I was able to spend a delightful, pretty much perfect day with my J. I even managed to clean 90% of the house, everything was working out so well, until the babysitter called. She couldn't make it on time for us to leave, and she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to come at all. She is a good friend of ours and her reason for the delay and possible cancellation was a scary one, I told her I completely understood and that I would work to make temporary arrangements for someone to watch J until she could get here and possibly find someone who could watch him all night if needed. WOW! My Perfect day was suddenly feeling a lot more stressful.

I must tell you, I live in an AMAZING neighborhood. We found someone, quite quickly, who was willing to watch J for a few hours, in fact they could watch him until the next morning if they needed too. I had two possible back up's that could pick him up that night, (thanks Mom) or possibly the next morning (once again, great neighbors) and only 30 minutes behind schedule, Ken and I were off to celebrate our Anniversary. I called our original Babysitter, and told them where J was and that we hoped that all turned out all right and they told us they would call as soon as they knew if they would be able to pick him up from the temp sitter. Miraculously by the time we got Downtown they had called us back to tell us that everything was fine and that they were on their way to pick up little J. Plans were back on track and we were ready to check in at the hotel, knowing our sweet boy was being well cared for, we were really really ready to relax.

Not much better than a really nice hotel room, with a big bed (it had steps to help you get in!) and a big tub, and yes a big screen TV (I made sure that was there for Ken- love you sweetie). I tried to take some pictures but none of them really did the room justice, but here is a picture of the chandelier- imagine the room that that belongs in (remember big 4 poster bed..... columns around the big tub..... yeah, it was nice)

Oh, and I almost forgot, remember that $25 that we were going to have to pay? Well, as we were checking in Ken asked the clerk about a special he had seen on their website, they were offering a discount if you stayed a 2nd night (50% for the second night), and if you couldn't stay they would give you $25 off your room for the first night plus Popcorn, 2 boxes of candy and 2 drinks! The clerk did some adjusting to our bill and gave us our credit card back saying "Well, your total is now 0.78 cents, so if it is alright with you, I won't put that on your card." We didn't have 78 cents to physically give her, and she laughed and said it would be OK, they would just write it off. So, once again budget saving, our room was free! YEAH! (free this year because we paid for it years ago).

We decided that 5 years from now we would take another Anniversary trip, this time for 2 days. So, anyone want to babysit 2, maybe 3 kids for a couple of days in April 2015?

Where Candy Comes From...

Yesterday all J could talk about was "Nanny", no we haven't gotten him a nanny but he does love candy and yesterday he discovered that there was a plethora of it, EVERYWHERE! (He has been looking for it today but so far he has only found one lonely piece, and Mommy took that one away from him.)

Now, I must admit that we have not told J anything about the Easter Bunny, I just don't know how to start that kind of conversation. But J has previously discovered random eggs filled with Candy, and so he was prepared for the Easter Egg Hunt at the Turner house yesterday.

Here is how it all went down. First, J waited patiently with this other little cousins for the blessed moment when the front door would open and they would be allowed to go hunt for eggs. Fortunately for the little kids they didn't have to wait too long because the Adults got tired of waiting and opened the door before all the eggs were hidden.

Little J has a tendency to run as fast and as far as he can when he is outside, so I got to hold his hand and guide him on his hunt.
He found TONS of eggs, he would have preferred to open each one as he found them but his mean mother made him put them into his basket, luckily he eventually found one that was already opened and he took a few minutes to scour the ground looking for random jelly beans.
After the hunt was over a picture of the participants was taken, as you can see these are all well trained kids, "Show your baskets, Smile for the camera" all except for J, who could care less that a picture was being taken, there was candy in those eggs after all.
So that was the big egg hunt. All in all we had a pretty good Easter, we enjoyed the last few sessions of General Conference. We had yummy food and as much candy as we could steal form the kids. Little J had tons of candy! He was in heaven.

Statistics

Oh, sorry, were you all excited for a blog about a fascinating statistics class? Nope, I totally forgot to tell you about J's Doctor Visit a couple of weeks ago. And I don't know about you, but one of my favorite parts of the visit is when they hand me a growth chart that shows his growth.

My Boy has always been taller than average, but pretty much spot on average when it came to his weight- so he was like his dad, tall and skinny. Here are some examples.

12 Months- 23.1 pounds 54th %tile, 32 inches 96th %tile

15 Months- 24.89 pounds 56th %tile, 32.5 inches 87th %tile

18 Months- 26.57 pounds 60th %tile, 33.96inches 90th %tile

This time he took after me a little more.

24 Months- 30.6 pounds 80th %tile, 34.75 inches 61st %tile.

So did he really go from tall and skinny to average and chubby? Not really, I asked the doctor about that and he said that when a child goes from being measured while laying down to measured while standing against a wall they sometimes come up short. Eventually J will learn how to stand up tall and we will get a good measurement. I also think that my boy is on the verge of a growth spurt, where as most other doctor visits he has just had a growth spurt (I remember this because he always seems to be wearing New, Longer clothes and this time he still fit in the clothes he has been wearing for 6 months.)

The Doctor looked J over thoroughly and proclaimed that he was PREFECT! That is right, my child is perfect.

After the appointment J proclaimed that since he was perfect he should be allowed to drive. I disagreed, but I didn't tell him that until after I took this picture, the smile was just too much to pass up.

Some other things about J. I was worried about his language skills, the doctor said that he felt J was doing fine and that over the next few months I will probably see a dramatic increase in words that he knows and uses on a regular basis. And sure enough, it seems like in just the past couple of weeks he has started using more words (he was using 30 on a pretty regular basis, now it is probably 40 or 50) and is mimicking even more words than ever before, it is so much fun just to sit down and read books and have him say the words with me.

He has also discovered a love for the Park, unfortunately he can see a park from the car whenever we turn into our neighborhood and he thinks that if he sees a park he should be allowed to play at the park.

Time outs are now up to 2 minutes long, since he is 2, and he hasn't drawn on the walls since his birthday when he had 2 time outs in a row and then spent a good amount of time washing his artwork off the walls. Smart boy, he must be remembering that there was a consequence...that or he has forgotten about the crayons.

I love my boy, he is not a baby anymore, he is 100% snake, snail and puppy dog tail, with just the right amount of dirt and cuteness mixed in.

All for 1 Birthday Party, and 1 Birthday Party for All

In my family we have 3 birthdays in 4 days, if you add in the fact that Little J stole his birthday from his Cousin sweet P, then you would know that at Grandma's house one Sunday last month we had a big party- for all 4 of us. I thought it was pretty nice that the Sunday fell on the one day out of the 4 that it wasn't any ones birthday. Next Year that Sunday- the traditional day for Turner Birthday Parties- will fall on t he 2 kids birthday, that will be nice too.

So here are the Cakes, Ken and Little J got to share a Baseball Cake, it was strawberry and very yummy if I do say so myself. My Sister Carrie made me a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake that was worth dieing for, and I almost did die from the heartburn I had later that night, but as I said, it would have been worth it. (The heartburn was brought to me by my sweet little Butterball, that baby has been giving me the gift of heartburn after sweet treats for a few weeks now....I have yet to learn my lesson, but back to the birthdays). Sweet little P, who so graciously shares her birthday with J got a very special Tinker-bell cake.

J had TONS of fun opening his presents. He has been happy to play with all of them, including the clothes, and I was especially happy to have some of those toys on our trip this last week, apparently nothing can calm the savage toddler (savage toddler = toddler that has been confined to his car seat for a few hours of driving through Wyoming) like a magaedoodle and a talking puppy.
Here we are just before we (lit) blew out the candles, I think J was actually checking out the candles that were being lit on P's cake.
See little J's new toy? Isn't that interesting what it says? His Toy wants him to choose the University of Utah over BYU. Hmmmm, Ken might need to have a talk with that toy.