#5 turns 5!

I swear it happened in the blink of an eye.

One day I had a newborn baby who was all smooth skin, chubby baby legs and spent a lot of time on my hip!

The next I have a 5 year old with more "ouchies" than you can count, a buzzed hair cut and going into kindergarten.

His birthday party was a simple affair. With cake, friends and mass amounts of Legos. To say that Mason was spoiled would be the understatement of the year.

Five years. Five amazing years.

So, as per birthday tradition, here are five reasons why I love my five year old!

1. Those big beautiful eyes!!

2. He is so easy going! He rolls with the punches and is sweet as can be.

3. He is so snuggly! He is never too old to snuggle with his Mom, give me hugs and kisses.

4. He loves to help. Whether I want him to or not. Which to be honest, I usually don't!

5. His crazy dance moves! He is not shy and absolutely loves to get out and boogie!

Happy Birthday to my sweet pea!

A Baby Story

(We took Harmony out for a clothes shopping trip. This was her favorite outfit!)



(such a sweet girl)

(enjoying dinner with Aunt Darla)

(enjoying her birthday dessert at Olive Garden)

Once upon a time (Aug. 9th, 1999 around 10pm) a beautiful little girl was born. Her parents were so happy and fell immediatley in love.

Then they blinked and 11 years passed. And that precious girl is now a beautiful pre-teen.

With a love for music, animals, Pokemon, reading, writing and art.

And her parents are still totally in love!

Happy 11th birthday sweet girl!

9 years old!

Now that our time is down to a week, I have found a little bit of time to update my blog. Amazing isn't it?!

This week my "baby boy" turned 9! I can't believe it. Ethan is such a sweetheart and he just melts my heart.

So here are 9 reasons why my 9 year old is the BEST!

1. He has no problem admitting that he is a Mama's boy!

2. He is an amazing big brother.

3. Even though at this age, he finds church "sooo boring", he goes because "I love you Mom and I will do what you ask me to do"

4. He is very, very smart.

5. He is a fabulous artist.

6. He has a tender heart.

7. When he gets in trouble for something, he cries more about what he did then about getting in trouble.

8. He is very responsible.

9. He writes me the sweetest notes!

Ethan decided that he didn't want to have a party, but just to go to Tarza ( a local waterpark) with his best friend. So we arranged for a babysitter for Mason, and spent the day having fun in the water. We came home extremely sunburnt, but we had fun. It was a great way to spend one of our last weekends on Guam!

Happy Birthday Connor &Ben

(how big is that chocolate milk?!)

After the huge party that we threw for Ivan, the idea of getting another party done in just two weeks left me tired! So we decided to hold off until the 27th. Although the plans for his luau are in full swing, we still had to do something for his birthday right?!

Harmony had a big GS activity yesterday and we ended up being gone until almost 1pm. So unfortunatley his day wasn't very exciting!

It is a tradition to let the birthday person pick a restaurant to go eat at. Harmony is all about Ruby Tuesday or Planet Hollywood etc. What did Connor want? Taco Bell. Ivan chose McDonalds on his birthday. Is that the difference between boys and girls? (:

Connor had already picked out 2 lego sets before his birthday, Ben got a new ipod for his birthday, so Connor was gifted his old one. He also got a fun new beach towel, pj pants with a skateboarder on them, a Bakugan book and some cool markers. But the big gift was the skateboard!! Doesn't he look so cute riding around?

He ended with his favorite, a "C" dinner of mini corn dogs, chips, chocolate milk, cinnamon rolls eaten at the coffee table while watching Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Happy Birthday Connor!

pirate party fever

I can not believe that this sweet boy will be turning 5 on Thursday. We are having a party for him on Saturday. Because he has been known to get a *tad* overwhelmed (understatement of the year) at parties & other activities, we have never had a friend party for him. But as we watch him grow and change every year, we feel this is a good time to try it out. We have invited an insane amount of kids, got a bounce house for all those kids to burn off energy, treasure hunt, pirate cake, decorations...Whew. So that is what we will be working on this week. So if you don't hear from me, I will be buried under jolly rogers, balloons, streamers and eye patches! HAPPY BIRTHDAY IVAN!

catch up

******Blogger won't let me upload pictures. So I will try again later!*********

Mason decided that he and I didn't need any sleep the past two nights. That we should just stay up and rock and cuddle and watch whatever is on tv at 2 am! And of course, he is sleeping the morning away while I am up with the other kids. Ahh the life of a newborn!

Last Sunday my oldest turned 10 and the next day, my youngest turned a month old. I realize that it is totally cliche but, "WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?" I swear, as soon as you have kids time just speeds up.

Harmony had probably one of the most laid back birthdays that we have had around here for a long time. We are trying to get on a rotation of every other year we have a friend party. So she is on the family one this year. Thank heaven because with Ben gone, I don't think I could have handled anything else!

The Saturday before Ben left, he took her out to lunch, the bookstore and to do a little shopping. On Sunday I made her her favorite breakfast (scrambeled eggs with him and poppy seed muffins). I let her open her gifts before church. Then we came home and I made her favorite dinner (fettucini alfredo with brocoli and chicken and strawberry cake with vanilla frosting and strawberry ice cream). Then we all laid around and watched National Treasure 2.

Like I said, nice and laid back. I don't know where we will be next year but I am sure she has some plans for a more exciting party!

What will the double digits bring? We will soon find out...

It's Great to be Eight...

( the birthday boy!)
if he makes it that long!! Yesterday morning, a wild and crazy Ethan woke up and said, "Tomorrow is my birthday!!" And from that moment on, had every child and dog riled up to no end. I finally pushed him out of the door and to the bus stop before I strangled his little neck. He came home from school, still as wild and crazy as in the morning.

He came to me and said, "you know I think I should open my gifts early. Like right now." I told him no, because he had already recieved one of his gifts last Saturday, and he could wait one more day. His mood went from wild and crazy to pouting and obnoxious in about 10 seconds. Crying, pouting, throwing himself on the couch etc. Ethan does not usually act this way but boy was he on one!

He let me know that I could set my alarm, and get up early and make him a surprise breakfast and put candles in it. Aren't I lucky? He let me know his plans about 10 times in one day!

This morning, he woke up his brothers before 6 am because, " I am 8 today!!" When I got out of the shower (at 6:20) he was appalled that I had not made his "surprise" breakfast. I had bought some Pillsbury Cinnabon cinnamon rolls and they take almost half an hour to bake! I also found lunchables for .35 the day before. So there was nothing but free time. The kids ran around the house, riled up Astro, and drove me crazy until I finally sent them all to their rooms. It was too much!

They were finally allowed to eat their cinnamon rolls and than all 3 were kicked out the door. Phew! So tonight after baseball, we are going to have tacos, spanish rice, chips and salsa and birthday cake and presents.

His big party, we are trying to get on an every other year schedule for friend parties, is on Saturday. We are having it at the bowling alley.

My camera batteries are dead and so I have no pictures of him with his cinnamon roll that had the 8 candle in it. Bummer...

But this party is far from over!

Amazing

(cutest wolf scout EVER)

(CUTEST 7 year old EVER)
(candle-less cupcakes)

(bestest brothers)
(Harm and the birthday boy)
(Mom with her favorite grandkids!)
Like most people, our lives are so busy. Insanely busy sometimes. But it is amazing to me what all can happen in just a matter of days!!! So grab a snack and something cold to drink as I update you on our lives. It may be long, but if you don't read it all, you are going to miss out! :)

Starting from the youngest to the oldest...

Baby update. I went to get my glucose test done. I scored a 189. Unfortunatley, normal is under 100. So I have to go and take the 3 hour long test. Yippee. But we got a bit of a shock at the info that the doctor gave us. Ethan's delivery was pushed off until 37 weeks. However, Connor and Ivan were both born at 35 weeks. Because there is absolutely no NICU here, any child born within 34-36 weeks is medevaced (is that how you would spell that? hmmm?)out to Okinawa. Ben doesn't believe this will happen, because while they have come early, their health has always been good. But we all know that "if ye are prepared ye shall not fear". So we are trying to come up with any possible scenario and try to make plans accordingly. I forgot to mention that, even if the baby only needs a couple of days, we could be in Japan for up to 8 weeks because the baby can't go until it has a passport. Which is why we would have to fly someone out to take care of the other kids. It would be crazy!! So we are trying to prepare, but are hoping it doesn't come to that.

On to Ivan. Ivan had his yearly appt. with the developmental pediatrician. While they are easy to find in the states, out here they only come once a year. After talking for awhile about struggles & triumphs and letting the doctor observe Ivan, she said she is not convinced that he is autistic!!! We are ecstatic at this news. Does he have delays? yes. Does he have a lot of things he has to work on? yes. Was this still good news? Heck yeah! She felt that 1)he understands a lot more than he lets on 2) that his need for order is more just how he is personality wise, than because he is autistic. (Maybe a little OCD?)3) That he is very bright. He does crave order and so she (and his teacher) believe that if he is put on a regular routine, given lots of warnings about what is coming next, that he will really excel. So I am working on labeling all his drawers and toy buckets with pictures, coming up with a working schedule/routine with him (including pictures)so that he can have that order that he craves. Such happy, happy news!

Connor is 7 today!! I can't believe it! We went to TGIFridays the night that my Mom was here. Ivan was so tired that he fell asleep in the booth! :)He also got cupcakes on Monday. We were very laid back with his birthday. So laid back that I forgot to make sure I had candles for his cupcakes. He ended up with 7 MATCHES! I felt bad but you know what? He didn't seem to care!

The boys had their Blue and Gold banquet for Scouts while my Mom was here. It was fun to see them get awards. We enjoyed good food and good conversation.

Let's see, what else? Lots of drama from Harmony (of course).She went to a GS Valentines Day party where her leaders had made them all poodle skirts. They turned out so cute. Tomorrow we are going to go out to World Thinking Day and I am excited to see Harmony's dance. They each choose a country and do different things (dances, food, housing, etc)

To be honest, this is just a small sampling of all that is going on. But some of the more major.

We enjoyed my Mom's visit so much. I wish she could have stayed longer. I know she and my Dad really missed each other though. So I sacrificed and gave her up! :)

So there you go, all updated!

promise

So obviously I have neglected my blog for awhile. I have a good reason though! My mom was here, and "what the heck would you do in a situation like that?" Ignore your Mom ( who you haven't seen for about 20 months) or hang out and talk and laugh until your throat hurts? I thought so!

I will update later, after I get some things done. But I do want to say this:

HAPPY 31ST BIRTHDAY HONEY! I LOVE YOU A TON. I HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Fun Facts about my Four year old

I feel like I have been out of commission for awhile. Lucky me, I have been at the hospital every day from Tues-Friday. I go again on Monday & Thursday. Oh the joys. But because of that, I really haven't been updating. It is a good thing Ivan can't read or he might wonder why I haven't blogged about his birthday yet. Sorry little man!

**Ivan is my 4th child, who just turned four, on the 4th, and has 4 letters in his name. Hmmm...

**Ivan's favorite food is cheese-hamburgers No, not cheeseburgers, cheese-hamburgers He likes them with cheese and a ketchup smiley face. Nothing else.

**Ivan knows exactly how to get to the channel he likes-Noggin. On our tv, it has a little picture next to the channel number. So he knows he has to click the button until he sees the Noggin picture.

**Ivan loves the color green. Everything has to be green Green shoes (thank heavens for crocs in a rainbow of colors), green cups, green plates, green toy bins, green everything.

**Connor wants to teach Ivan how to write. Ben and I would rather have him teach him how to use the potty.

**Ivan always has to do "jump jumps" out of the van. He can't just climb down. He has to jump.

**Ivan has no fear. A lot of this has to do with autism and the fact that he doesn't understand consequences. This has made it so that he runs off to the park by himself, is not scared to be in the ocean by himself, he doesn't get scared of animals or people he doesn't know. Obviously this has it's good points and it's bad!

**Ivan can fall asleep at the drop of a hat. If you can get him to sit still for 2-3 minutes, chances are he will be asleep.

**Ivan loves baths He stays in for hours. It is a good thing we don't pay for water here in housing. :)

**Ivan has a scar on each eye, his chin, and his cheek.

**Ivan loves his Mom. He is constanly kissing me all over. He tells me he doesn't love snuggling as he grabs his blanket to come lay with me or be rocked.

**He is my favorite little four year old.

Ivan is such a fun child. A trial at times but he fills our home with laughter He says funny things and keeps us on our toes. His progress report from his speech therapist said he is right on target for a four year old! We are so proud of his accomplishments. We love our little Jedi!

"normal children"

I am a cry baby. I am. I cry at sappy commercials and romance movies. I cry when my kids do sweet things or I hear a song that reminds me of someone. I admit it. I can cry pretty darn easily. But these pregnancy hormones just make it a 1000 times worse!!

I am having a hard time dealing with the fact that Ivan will be 4 next Wednesday. Sigh, where has the time gone? I can't believe that he has been in our lives for such a little amount of time, because it seems like, it's been more than that.

Ivan is not "normal". Ivan never will be. But I love my little Jedi more than anything. And today, I had a Mommy moment that left me bawling and got me strange looks from the guards. So what is this moment you might be wondering? Well...

By the time my "normal children" were 4, they had been invited to plenty of birthday parties, had playdates and were invited over to other childrens houses. Not Ivan. Ivan doesn't have any friends. He doesn't. He has people that he recognizes, from school and church, but he doesn't have a friend. He doesn't want to play with other kids (except his siblings) he doesn't even necessarily know that other kids are there. He spends a lot of time off in his own Ivan centered universe. Which is fine. But at the same time, makes me very sad.

Today, as I was dropping him off at school, one of the Mom's stopped me and said, " I have an invitation for Ivan to go to my sons' birthday party." It wasn't an invitation to "all the Turner kids", it was for Ivan. Someone had looked past his traits & quirks and said, "we want him at this party". It honestly meant so much to me. I always just take it for granted that our other kids are invited to do things. But for someone to invite Ivan, just made my morning. I don't know if we will be able to go, but just knowing that he was invited. Sigh...I need some tissue.

girl in a whirl

Oh my heck! I just finished writing 4 new dates on my calender. The whole month of October is almost completely filled. Yikes. No wonder I feel tired just looking at that darn calender!:)

So we had a way busy weekend. It actually started before that. So lets just begin, shall we? I have 2.5 hours until my next appt. so there is no time to dawdle!

Harmony joined a 4th & 5th grade choir who would be singing at the ribbon cutting ceremony of their new school. This consisted of practices two times a week. As the ceremony, got closer, Harmony asked me if I was going to go and watch her. I told her of course, when had I missed anything of hers. She let me know that when she was in 2nd grade I missed 1 out of 4 of her Honor Roll ceremonies. I do not remember that ( as I am sure I would have Mommy guilt) but I assured her I would be there. I hurried to the gym and found a perfect "picture taking" seat. Ben was able to come and so we sat and waited. Well, instead of having the choir stand in front of the audience, they just had them stand up in their seats and sing the Guam hymn after the National Anthem. And many kids from the stands, joined in. Not what I was expecting, but at least she can't say I wasn't there!! Ben just thought it was cool because the astraunot who came, has been on the Colbert Report!

Friday we were supposed to get our family pictures taken. Unfortunatley, beach pictures and the rainy season don't always go hand in hand. We will be trying again soon. Instead we stayed up late and ate Chinese food.

Because our branch is so small, a lot of the families overlap when it comes to home/visit teaching. So the guys decided that the best way to get it all done...was to hang out as families on the beach once a month. So we tried to do that this Saturday. Only three of us were able to come but hopefully we will have more next time! Thank you Langs for letting us play on your jet ski,and thanks Lallatins for letting us borrow life jackets! We had a blast and the kids haven't stopped talking about it!

Unfortunatley we couldn't stay at the beach for too long. I had to take the boys to a Cub Scout bowling day,and Harmony had a birthday party. So I dropped Harm off and the boys and I went to the bowling alley. We haven't been "real" bowling in a while, so I had to remind them that the bowling balls were a little heavier than the Wii controller! Ethan won a round of bowling! However both boys cried when they didn't win a laptop in the raffle! Actually they didn't win anything. So Mom get them ice cream.

We got home around 6:30 and Ben and Ivan were no where to be found. Ben took him to get McD's and Legos!

The kids were sooo tired and they headed to bed early. Ivan and I fell asleep about 5 minutes later on the couch!

Harmony was tired and cranky on Saturday morning and was so glad it was conference weekend. Sorry babe. We are still trying to get used to the fact that we don't have conference until next weekend!

Today was grocery shopping, home visits, cub scouts and...the list continues!

overwhelmed

I am so completely overwhelmed. Thank you everyone, for all the sweet blog posts, cards (both e-cards and in the mail), comments,phone calls, messages on my face book account and more. I feel so loved. I have to admit that I am a little sentimental and teary eyed right now (darn you Susan for making me cry!).

It has been harder than I thought, to live so far away from some of my friends and my family. But you have all made me feel just a little closer to home. So thanks for thinking of me on my big day. I loved them all and really appreciated it. Who knew I was so loved!!!

So how did I spend my birthday...

The kids went to school, Ben went to work and I...enjoyed the quiet! I think that is the best way to spend a day right? I read a book (I have been reading the Robyn Carr series, Susan) and just did...nothing. It was nice. We spent Labor Day as a family and I will post those pics later.

Ben got me a new bread maker, and built me an entertainment center. He is also working on a scrapbook armoire for me, but because we were gone all day on labor day, he wasn't able to finish it yet. I am also going out tomorrow to look at a dining set. How spoiled am I?

I am off to organize the pantry but I just wanted to say thanks to everyone! You are the best. I am a lucky, lucky person!

10 more days...

until I wave goodbye to my 20's. I can't believe it. I really can't. Somedays I feel really young. I am cool. I have an ipod, I know what Twighlight is, and who Jordin Sparks is. I have sung the songs to Camp Rock and know when High School Musical 3 comes out. When Ben and I were getting ready to board our flight back to Guam, we were talking to a woman and she asked us how many kids we had. When I told her 4 she was like "no way, you are too young to have that many kids." Of course Ben made a comment that I was almost 30 when the woman said, " I thought you were in your early 20's!" Nice huh? Or the guard who came to our door and asked if he could "talk to your parent". See still young. But then there are those times , that I start to feel my age like...

**falling asleep before 8:30
**complaining about the noise level in the house
**finding my favorite movies. ..in the classics, same goes with music
**when I tried to explain to my 15 year old neighbor who Keanu Reeves is,and she had no idea what Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure was.
** when one of the guys that Ben works with is only 22
**that when the kids find out I watched some of the shows they like, when I was little, and they exclaim, "wow it must be really old."
** When they tell me that people are really old, like 25
** or when Ethan tells me that I am almost old enough to be a Grandma
**telling the kids that the Jonas' brothers pants are too tight and them telling me that, that is "what is cool Mom"

I know, I know, 30 isn't that OLD, but I swear it was just yesterday that I was graduating from high school. Time really flew by. I almost have a child in the "double digits".

Ben says I just need to embrace my 30's...yeah we will see!

the luau that wasn't...

Ever since the birthday issue of American Girl magazine arrived in our mailbox, Harmony has wanted a luau on the beach. And living on an island, doesn't make sense? The perfect place right? Well maybe not during the rainy season...

The kids and I had been inside cleaning all morning. Ben made a Home Depot run, and as he was coming inside he said, "you do realize that it has been raining all day don't you?" I was like uh no I hadn't. I went out to pick up the cake and there were black clouds over our house.My short little drive to the commissary it started to pour again. And it didn't stop.

There was no way we could have it at the beach, and so I hurried home and called all the parents and told them we were going to have the party at our house. Luckily, I remembered almost everyone and so no one was driving around looking for us!

She had a lot of kids come and they ran around like crazy. She was absolutely spoiled rotten. We didn't have to many activities planned because the beach was supposed to be the entertainment! However, we did decorate flowers, and left Disney Channel on.

It was a lot of fun and the party actually flew by. So now we are not on birthday duty again until Febuary! Phew!

Happy 9 on the 9th

No I didn't forget. I would never forget Harmony's birthday. Although I teased her enough that she thought I did. On Friday evening, Miss Thing guessed what her gift was. Her Dad confirmed that her guess was right...and the next thing I knew it was out of the box and not one picture was snapped!!

So Harmony is now the proud owner of a pink DS...and she hasn't put it down since! Connor cried because he is the only one who doesn't have one.Poor thing!

Harmony is having a big laua birthday party at the beach. She is excited and so far she has quite a few friends coming. So I will be snapping a lot more pictures then.

I can't believe that I am old enough to have a 9 year old. Where did the time go?

for those of you who missed it

it's just like being here

Happy birthday Ethan!!

As some people may have noticed, I hadn't blogged about Ethan's birthday at all. His birthday is Cinco de Mayo, but as we were having a sleepover we had to wait until Friday to really celebrate! So here is the break down, from A-Z...

A- all boys spending the night, an excited 7 year old
B-balloons, boys,
C-cake, craziness, complaining,cereal for breakfast, candy
D-decorations, dad making pizzas,
E-ETHAN! energetic, entertaining,
F- friends, family, food
G-giggles, grins, games, goofing off
H-Harry Potter cake, hardly any sleep,
I-Ivan trying to keep up with big boys, Ivan getting no sleep, Ivan eating way too much candy
J-jumping, juice, junk food
K-kids,
L-little sleep, lots of fun, LOUD, laughing, Lego Star Wars
M- "Mrs. T", mayhem, mustaches from juice
N- nerds candy all over the floor, no sleep, naps for Mom today
O-orange juice, on the go constantly, out numbered
P-pizza,pinata, presents, parents, playing at the park
Q- quiet? What's that?!
R- rowdy, running, remembering past birthdays (Mom), rambunctious
S-sleepless, Superman pinata, silly, Star Wars, sanity gone
T-tv, tons of fun, thank you's,
U-understaffed,
V- video games
W- webkinz,
X-tons of eXcitement
Y-yawning,
Z-zoo, " and sometimes the mother felt like she was in a zoo".

Happy Birthday Ethan! You are a bright spot in our family and we love you soooo much!

birthday boy

Ethan absolutely loves ice cream. One night he ate 5 scoops with chocolate and carmel and all kinds of stuff on it...and he begged Connor for the rest of his. Ben and I have often wondered how much he could eat if we never stopped/limited him!

Back in the states, Ethan's favorite place is Dairy Queen. Seeing as we don't have one here, he has had to "settle" for Coldstone Creamery. It is about a 20 minute or longer drive from here, so I try to take him when we are down there.

So the other night, we were talking about his upcoming birthday. He turns 7 on Monday!!! I can't believe it. But anyway, we had decided to take him to a hotel/resort here called the Pacific Islands Club ( or PIC) and spend the day at the water park there. I told him it would just be a family party but that we would have a lot of fun. He had this really sad look on his face and I asked him what was wrong. He frowned and said, " I wanted to go to Coldstone for my birthday!". I laughed so hard. So we are going to hit Coldstone before we check into the hotel. Funny, funny boy!

He also told me the other day that, " when I turn 7 I am going to stop driving you crazy!" I sure hope so buddy!

A birthday wish

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday dear Deborah

Happy Birthday to you!!

Love yah! :)