Grandma, What Big Antlers you have

Last week, after going to the doctor, Baby got to visit Grandma Great.

He has always loved her, but there us just something extra special about a Great Grandmother with a pair of Antlers! Baby J was in Awe.

Merry Christmas

We learned that the baby really doesn't care about presents, just the bows on the presents. You can see 3 of his presents off to the right in the picture, a Teddy Bear, a Hippo and a Camel, he played with them after the bow was taken away.

Each year I try to surprise Ken with at least one gift and this year I did it well. Ken was happy and very surprised when he unwrapped the matching Giants hats that I made out of extra fleece from the matching Giants Blankets I made earlier this year. You can't see, but Ken's hat does not have a puff ball on top like the babies.

Don't you think the Giants should hire him as a model? They would sell more tickets if this face was on their billboards! I am sure of it.

Last night the baby played the part of Baby Jesus in the Turner Family Nativity.

Here is a Cast Picture, the youngest 7 of the 9 Turner Grandchildren.

Starting from the left- little A (3 years old), as the Princess Shepherd; Q, aka Obi Wan Quinnobi (5 years old) as Joseph; C (4 years old) as the Angel; E (7 years old) as Mary, Baby J (9 months old) as the baby Jesus; S (5 years old) as the Wise Man and finally little P (21 Months) originally cast as a sheep, she became a shepherd when she refused to put on her sheep hat.

Baby got another hat from Grandma T, cow fleece, and he, C. Gowans and E. Cousineau had a photo op before leaving Grandma's house tonight. Noooooo, that baby is not tired at all. His cousins love him so much.

The Sweet Swap-2008

We live in a very friendly neighborhood, and as such we have been given lots of treats this season. I don't want to eat them all, for two reasons- 1. If I ate them all I would gain 15 pounds and 2. Some of them are not my favorites. But I also don't want to waste them and so this year I am going to try something new- a Sweet Swap!

We have invited a small group of friends over after dinner on the 26th. The plan is for us all to bring treats that we have received and want to share, i.e. we can keep the treats that they want to keep all for themselves because they are so amazingly yummy, but bring the items they think others might enjoy more than we do. Once together, we mingle, enjoy other peoples treats, have some Hot Cocoa, maybe play some games, but mostly enjoy the company of good friends.

Now I have already royally messed up with the preparations for the inaugural sweet swap, I invited a couple through the Husband and the message didn't get to the wife, and Ken invited some friends and I am not sure the whole premise of the party was communicated to everyone. And as 2 of the 3 couples invited to the 2008 Wheeler Sweet Swap are regular readers I figured I would explain more on the blog. So to those people- Does this make more sense, we are not having leftover Christmas Dinner, just leftover Christmas Treats + Hot Chocolate with Whip Cream? I am super excited for the Hot Chocolate- which by the way is actually a gift from a neighbor- they gave us a huge bag of Lehi Roller Mills Hot Chocolate!

Those of you who might be interested in participating in the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Sweet Swap can make yourselves known now. Any ideas for me about how to make the Sweet Swap better, or explain it to people better? Just as an FYI, the 2012 Sweet Swap is on hold- as the Mayan Calender states that the end of the world will come before Christmas that year, but I guess we could just have the Sweet Swap early that year, just because it is the end of the world doesn't mean we have to waste our treats!

9 Month Olds are AMAZING

Hello, I am J, But you know me as Baby. Today I am 9 Months Old. As you may already know, I am much to smart for my own good, but that just makes life fun for my Parents. Right now I am using the Jedi Mind Trick on you..........These are not the droids you's looking for...........

This is a picture of what happened when I used the Jedi Mind Trick on my family, Specifically my Mom and my Grandpa T, they were eating chocolate cake.....Got to love the Chocolate Foo Man Chu. I spend most of my day in the front room while my mom tries her best to clean up toys and keep me away from Christmas decorations. When she goes in the kitchen to get me food, I follow her and try my best to climb over the gate- so far I have not succeeded, but I have faith in my abilities, I will soon have free reign of my home once again.

This is something fun I have discovered, Solid Food. Sure I have been eating Cereal and Baby food for a while, but recently my Mom has started giving me fruit, mostly bananas and grapes, inside this teething feeder. My Doctor gave me the OK to eat all different kinds of fruit, and so today I am going to try Strawberries! They are frozen strawberries and they will feel nice on my two top front teeth that are currently working their way through my gums.

I love Christmas- there are so many things to touch, or at least try to touch.

For those of you that are interested, here are my current Stats (as of Thursday).

Height- 29 inches- 77th percentile

Weight- 21# 7oz.- 67th percentile

Head- 17.75 inches- 42nd percentile

My Mommy and I are starting to learn sign language, we are starting with the signs for food, milk, water and more. If you have favorite signs that you think I should know too, please tell my Mommy.

Finally, I want to let you all know that I have been accepted as an early admit to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, here is a picture of my Sorting! I got into Ravenclaw!

A Friday Update

So as I said in my previous post, I went shopping today. And everything is alright, how could it not be, I now have "Ling Ling Pot stickers" in my Freezer, they will be in my tummy tonight and I will forget all about the ruined food from this morning.
Because of the snow storm expected any minute now, I let Ken take the Outback to work, which left me with the Accord and no car seat. So I asked a Good Friend to come watch the baby. When I got home, she said "He is really walking well with that walker". Surprised I questioned "Walking?" I bought the little fisher price walker to wagon on the day after thanksgiving, it was $10 and I figured it would come in handy, I put it together and he has played with the toys on it, and has pushed it while shuffling along on his knees, but when ever he stood behind it, it would move and he would not.....Timber! I tried not to laugh.
So I asked her to take a video while I unloaded the car, and then I tried to take one. Here is the proof. Baby will be 9 months old tomorrow, yesterday he had his well child check and the doctor said he was cruising, I now agree.

Early Morning Break Down

Sometimes all you really need is a good cry.

Ken’s alarm went off this morning at 5:30 and I rolled over, put a pillow over my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. Unfortunately it was at this time that I remembered I had forgotten to put the freezer meals I made yesterday afternoon in the freezer!

I had been so happy while I made the 4 quarts of Hawaiian Chicken. It tasted so good last night when I served it for dinner. I had so lovingly labelled the freezer bags, filled them, and then let them cool a bit more on the counter before placing them in the freezer.............. and then I completely forgot about them.

So I lay there in bed, wondering how it had happened. How had I forgotten about the food. I had just wasted 3 pounds of Chicken! I basically cooked 4 full dinners and 4 lunches for Ken and I then dumped them in the trash. It was at this point that I decided to physically dump them in the trash and move on with my life. So at 5:45 I got up, picked up my ruined food and took it to the trash only to realize, as the empty tin cans fell from the top of the overflowing trashcan, that I had also neglected to take the trash out.

Not only could I not throw away my ruined food, but now I had trash on my kitchen floor. I screamed, “Stupid Trash”, went back to my room and knelt down. Well actually, I threw my body down, my keens hitting the floor and my elbow, sliding along the 350 thread count sheets. “Stupid Sheets!” I got a Sheet Burn on my right elbow, A Sheet Burn!

I began to cry and Ken came over to comfort me. He could sense my horrible mood, ( I guess it really didn’t take much sensing as suddenly everything in the house, including myself, was now being loudly labeled“Stupid”). Prayers were said and hugs were given and I got back in bed to do my morning gospel study, after which I put the pillow back over my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. No luck.

So I got up, washed all my pots and pans. Ken, lovingly, collected all the garbage in the house, including my ruined food, and took it out to the dumpster. I put all my kitchen towels in the wash, sat down on the couch and turned on the news. Ken had, by this point, left for work and there was a little boy sweetly talking to himself in the babies room and I realized that my life was not so horrible.

I will buy more chicken and make more freezer meals for my family, this next batch will just cost $1.10 per serving instead of $0.55, that is still not all that bad. I have learned a lesson- set a timer or some sort of reminder to let me know when my food is cool. Today is going to be much better than it seemed it would be at 5:30. After all it is Friday and I am going shopping, (food shopping, but that is still shopping).

In the Immortal Words of the Bare Naked Ladies, “You know that it’s going to be all right. I think it’s gonna be all right. Everything will always be all right, when we go shopping!”

The Great Jammie Caper of 2008

Ken left for work at 6:30. Before he left he told me that he had checked on the baby at about 6:15 and he was asleep and breathing! I always ask if he is breathing. So anyway, at about 6:32 I heard some coughing and then at about 6:40 I heard the "Clack, Clack, Clack" sound of the crib side when it is being shaken by a standing baby. As he still had 50 minutes to sleep I left the lights off and snuck into his room, hoping I would be able to get him wrapped up and back to sleep. It was too dark in his room and so I had to turn on the front room light.

When I returned to the babies room, this is what I found.
These are the babies Pajamas.........And here is the Baby, not only is he shaking the crib but he is also singing a happy little song.

I laughed, and he smiled, so very proud of himself. He has never taken his clothes off before. So now I am going to add a new question for Ken in the morning.

"Is the baby sleeping?"

"He is Quiet"

"Is he breathing?"

"Yes, I heard him breathing."

"Does he still have his clothes on?........."
Today the answer would be "No".

Let it Snow!

Can you see the street? It has been snowing all night and there is no street to be found. My Pumpkins, now have little white hats. I opened the door to get a picture and within seconds I had a little friend at the door, pounding to get out.
"Oh, I wish I could open the door!"

"Please can we go out there?"

"Oh well, I guess I will just stand here and enjoy the view."

First Brush with Santa

Our Church held is Christmas party on Saturday Morning. Everyone was invited to wear their Pajamas. I wore my pink fluffy robe, which was nice because it was very very cold and snowy on Saturday Morning.
And the Baby met Santa. As you can see at first, he wasn't quite sure about the guy in the red suit. But then, he decided that he might be willing to give a half a smile. Pretty Cute, I think.

Keeping Secrets

Ken and I have had a secret that in the past few months I have started to share with people. It came to the point that people were going to know anyway, and I didn’t know why it even needed to be a secret. I will start at the beginning and let you tell me what you think, Should I be ashamed or my secret or revel in my future opportunities because of the secret.

A little while after we purchased our house, we also purchased a “Vacation Club Membership”. (Another name for Vacation Club is Time Share). Why did we do this? Well, the opportunity presented itself, and we discussed it, when it came down to it we realized that purchasing this membership would force us to take a vacation at least every 3 years, and we would even have lodging options in such places as Hawaii or Europe, not to mention the fact that there are 4 resorts right here in Utah.

You should know that we didn’t need to finance this, we paid for it, and it is ours. We have also prayed about it and feel like it will be a good thing for our family. So why did we keep it secret, and why do we wonder if people judge us after they know we have a time-share? Telling some members of my family this weekend made me feel like I was confessing some great sin! Why? Really, Why?

Anyway, I am excited. Next year is going to be fun. Right now the plan is to take a 3 or 4-day trip to St. George with some friends in the Spring- before it is too hot. And then in June I hope to take another 3 or 4-day trip to Bear Lake to support any of my family members who run the Bear Lake ½ Marathon, I am even considering running the 10k, more on that to come later.

So now that you know my big secret, do you still love me? Do I need to go looking for new friends? Or are you all going to be lining up at my door asking if you can vacation with me?

ESCAPE!

He is not crying, in fact I think there was a squeal of delight when the door closed after he had made it safely out of the house. I use the word "Safely" loosely, because after this squeal of delight he rolled over and was inches from the two front steps........... Still there was great joy, on his part, for the accomplishment of what I am sure was a long planed escape.
It all started when I decided that I hated the fact that our glass door slammed shut. About two weeks ago I adjusted it so that it didn't slam, but now it takes about 5 minutes to shut. Baby has been interested in the slow closing door for about a week now, moving towards it whenever someone leaves the house.

Today, I was preparing for our morning walk, I had just set up the stroller outside and when I came in to get the baby I noticed that there was an email from Ken, so I quickly checked it. I was sure that the baby would not be able to get to the door. On of our biggest fears is that the baby will get hit by the door as it closes. Well, Baby is much faster than I thought. I heard the door shut, I didn't hear a whine of annoyance, or a scream of pain, in fact I didn't hear much at all. I ran to the door and discovered that he had successfully escaped!

Legally Cute!

This is a picture of the babies new suit!

It is even cuter when he wears it.
We bought it for the baby to wear to the Big Wheeler Wedding in January, but I couldn't wait that long to see him in it. I figure by January he will be walking or at least standing on his own which will only make him look like a little man that much more. Adorable!