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!

only fair

Ooops! I neglected to do this for Harmony. I did it for the boys, so it is only fair. Or so she tells me! :)

Harmony is running out of time to sell Girl Scout Cookies. ( All totals have to be in on Sunday). Money is not due until cookies are in, so if you would like to order some, please do! If you are not interested in the cookies but would just like to donate $$ to go towards her troop, that is great too. Just let me know how much and we can do it in your name.

If you are local, let me know and we will bring the form to church, or by your house. Thanks for your support!

Where do I even begin?

(the end result, isn't that a nice face)

(about to get all cleaned up)

(car ride to the hospital, look at his gash!)



(Harmony's GS troop before Hairspray started)

(whee!)

( standing very still!)

(Maries cute little Wolf den)

Whew. I just realized it had been awhile since I uploaded my pictures. I guess it is because I have had a busy week. So here is the rundown...(btw sorry the pics are in the wrong order)

On only one try, Harmony learned how to ride her bike! We are very excited for her!
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Last Thursday, Ben helped me do cub scouts. The boys had to participate in an outdoor flag ceremony. It was cute to watch these boys stand still and really show respect to the flag. They stood still for the whole thing. This is my den with a couple of extra siblings in there!

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Friday night Harmony and I headed out to see Hairspray. From what I understand, the actors were from the surrounding high schools. We went with Harmony's GS troop. I was wondering what kind of performance it would be, seeing that we were on Guam. It was fabulous! They did a great job! Harmony loved watching it. We asked the girls how they liked it and they said, " Link Larkin was soooo cute." (In the movie, he is the character played by Zac Efron). Harmony has been talking about it ever since though! We are going to buy the whole soundtrack now!

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And that leads us today. It is non-stop action at the Turner home let me tell you! We had our 2nd annual Fall Festival with Ben's command today. As Ben and I were chit-chatting with people, the kids were busy climbing on rocks. A little bit later, Ben brings me a bleeding Ivan. He had blood on his hands but at first didn't see where the actual cut was. Then he lifted his chin. A huge( in Mom's eyes)jagged gash on his chin. It was still bleeding. I wasn't sure whether to take him up to the ER or not. Luckily we have women in the spouse club who have medical training and they encouraged me to take him up. So we dropped the older kids off at home with a babysitter, and headed out to the ER. Ivan did pretty well! They cleaned him off and at first decided to put a stitch in. After it was all clean, they said that it would not be easy to give him the numbing shot, so it was up to us whether or not we wanted it. We decided to just go with the butterfly bandages. What are they called again? Anyway, he ended up with a nice big bandage on his chin and a box of legos from Dad for being so brave.

What can I say? There is never a dull moment around here!

Halloween x 4

Unlike some of my friends, I don't really get into Halloween. I just don't. I don't really see the point of the holiday. And costumes...well I only like "cute" ones. And it seems they are all the gorey ones. Plus they are not cheap and they wear them for like an hour. Ok I know bah humbug...or whatever you say at Halloween.

This year, the Girl Scout Halloween party was a little early this year. However I still put off getting costumes. So I finally went in and everything was 30% off! Nice. Now of course things were picked over but I still managed to find some cute costumes. They were $7 each. Not bad!

We are really going to get our money's worth this year because we have 3 Halloween parties and the actual Halloween night. So 4 uses! I am pretty happy with that. Of course Ben and I go as the same thing every year, a Mom and a Dad.

Last night we went to the GS party. The kids had fun running around like crazy. Harmony was very bummed that she didn't win an award for costumes but what are you going to do right? I thought they looked cute and that's all that matters. :) So now we are 1 party down 3 more to go...btw this doesn't include anything having to do with school/class parties!

girl scouts +cub scouts= one busy family

( I know this is not the best picture, but I was driving! This huge caribou was in the middle of the highway when we were driving to GS)
Once again...it has been another loooong weekend for the Turner fam. I could've sworn we were trying to take a step back and not have so much on our plates. Hmmm, looks like we might have failed on that front. And I have Cub Scouts again in 2 days! Yikes.

Anyway...here is the rundown...Friday we went swimming. Until Mom and Connor were freezing to death. ( Yes on Guam). We ignored please for McD's and went straight home. We put the kids to bed and Ben and I watched The Office. :) I love, love,LOVE that show!

Saturday morning, Harmony and I were up at the crack of dawn to go to the Girl Scout yard sale. We accidentally woke the boys up and so they came with us. Last year Connor found a huge box of Legos for $5. Not so much luck for the boys this time. However, Harmony found a ginormous bag of Polly Pockets and Littlest Pet Shop for $5. She was in heaven. We came home and made a nice huge breakfast and cleaned. Then we watched conference. Ben took Harm and Connor to the airport in the evening, and Ethan and I cuddled and watched Prisoner of Azkaban.

Sunday more conference. And of course Ben enjoyed watching the Ducks win.

Monday Harmony had an all day Girl Scout day. Connor had a Cub Scout puppet show up at a Japanese school. So we dropped Harm and her friend off at GS and then went to the puppet show. It was really cute. All of the pictures looked like anime. They did a great job and the boys loved it. After that we came home and I cleaned out the fridge. Very exciting stuff. Ben took Ethan to the beach later and they both went out snorkeling. Ethan loved it and wants to go today.

And there you have it. Our muy exciting weekend!

Cheetah-licious

Awhile back, we recieved a post card from the Guam Girl scouts letting us know about a sleepover, and a movie "premier". The premier was the Cheetah Girls One World. Apparently Disney and the Girl Scout association partnered together, to bring an event to all the girl scouts in the world.

The event was only open to the first 50 who called. Well I was the number one caller! Each girl was also allowed to bring a friend if they wanted. So Harmony invited her friend Sydney to go with her.

I was a little hesitant to let her go because 1)it was a Sat-Sunday ( meaning she would be way tired for church 2) I knew because of her lack of sleep, would she be ready for a back to school schedule?

Of course I wouldn't let her miss out though! They got to watch the movie, some local Indian brought them bangles, bindis( not sure of sp)made them traditional food, they also got tattoos, posters, and magnets from Disney.

They had a great time but didn't go to bed until after midnight. She was exaughsted on Sunday and threw a fit during primary. She is currently up in her room because, "I can't do anything right and no one cares about my feelings." Can you say tired?

I am glad she had fun though. I think she really learned a lot!

Happy Liberation Day...or

"What I wouldn't do for my daughter day". Harmony's Girl Scout troop participated in the Liberation Day parade that was held yesterday. ( Instead of celebrating the 4th, Guam celebrates Liberation Day when the US liberated them from the Japanese occupation). We knew that it was going to be hot. We knew we would have to wake up early. We knew we would have to sit on the sidewalk. (Mom can't haul chairs and a stroller...)All the kids were fine with it and wanted to go anyway. Except for Ivan who still wants to go and see fireworks.

Now if you are not local, this might not mean anything but...Harmony's troop was supposed to meet at a Mobil station ( across from the Govenors mansion) at 8:30. Then after the parade, we would pick them up from the Taco Bell in Agana shopping mall. When we drove down, the line up near the gas station was loooong. So Mom had the bright idea to park at Taco Bell, and walk down.

I didn't not think about how far that walk actually is. Someone told me over 2 miles. So we are walking as fast as we can to get down to the Mobil station. The kids are complaining the whole way, and I am trying to keep a smile on my face. I finally asked someone what time it was, and it was already 9. Harmony starts bawling. "We missed it and it's all your fault!" So I told her she had a choice, we could keep going and see if we could find them or we could turn around and go home. So she chose to go on. Well we get to Mobil (almost 9:15) and there is no one there. She is bawling again but I noticed all the floats lining up down the main highway. We saw someone I knew, so I left the kids, and headed down Marine Corp highway, to see if I could find it. I made it all the way down to Harley Davidson, before I finally turned around.I was hot, sweaty, sunburned (despite using sunscreen) and a little dehydrated.

We decided to sit near the governors mansion, and hope that she could hop on the float if we saw it. Since this was the beginning of the parade, I figured we had a pretty good chance. Well after an hour of watching the parade, the boys were ready to go home. They were hot and sweaty and wanted snow cones. Finally we look back into the mansion, and we see Girl Scout balloons. I had gone all the way down to HD only for them to be across the street! I ran her down and she hopped on. She smiled the whole way, and blew me lots of kisses.

After they had passed, the boys and I headed back down to the car. This time we took it nice and slow. Stopping for cotton candy and snow cones. We hit the drive thru and ended up waiting over an hour for Harm to get there. The boys didn't seem to mind and just sat in the a/c watching Justice League.

It was a loooong morning. I hope someday Harmony looks back and remembers all that I did to get her on that dang float. She probably won't though. She will probably remember it as the day that her Mom made her walk when it was really hot and she almost missed the parade!

On a different note...A long time ago Connor decided that he would like to join the Navy when he grows up. So his favorites were watching the different branches of the military walk by. He told me, "Now I really want to be in the Navy, so I can throw candy in a parade!" so much ambition....

whew...

There were a lot of times this week when I had planned to sit down and update. But the week just got away from me. It has been such a busy week and this one looks like it is shaping up to be one also. But here is just some of the stuff that has been going on...

Friday night I had a Close to my Heart party. It went wonderful! I was so happy. I have alot of bookings and people who want to join a hostess club that I will be doing. I need 9 people and I had 5 sign up! So fun, so exciting. It was just...fun. One lady had never scrapbooked before and so we made a page, and she said, " I am so proud of my first page! Thank you!!" Feels good...

On Saturday, we got up and grocery shopped, cleaned house and all that fun stuff. Harmony made brownies and I started cooking to take things up to Harmony's briding ceremony.

The ceremony started at 3. We headed up there with the boys who were not at all eager to be there. Other little boys were running around and I made them sit on the couch. Because after all, they were there to support their sister. They were so not happy! I tried to get a picture of the pouting but all I got were hands covering faces.

Harmony is no longer a Brownie scout. Once the girls go from one level to the next, they have to cross a bridge into the next one. Harmony actually helped sand the bridge she is standing on! She was cute and it was fun to see her with the other juniors. They all got awards and new badges. ( Christy, remember the lady with the blue hair? Yesterday she died it a nice bubble gum pink!)

The asian girl is Harmony's best friend Victoria. They are in the same class at school and also in her troop. I have to make sure to get her number so the girls can hang out this summer. They have a blast together.

Well by the end of the day...one little boy had had enough. Ivan's favorite thing to do ( and Mommy's biggest pet peeve)is to lift the cushions up and hang out in there. Ben and I had been upstairs when we realized something was wrong. Ivan was making no noise. And that was how we found him!

Sunday was full of a lot of Indiana Jones. Ben bought me all the dvd's. However Connor loves them! He asked me the other day, " Mom, can you change my name to Indiana Jones?" So every now and then if I call him Connor, he rolls his eyes and says, "my name is Indiana Jones!" This morning, I went in to wake him up, and I whispered his name. With eyes barely open he says, " no Mom, I am Indiana Jones." The Indiana Jones fever has struck the boys. Connor wants to be Indiana Jones for Halloween. Although he has let me know that, " you can't be him if you don't have a hat!" So we are going to look around for awhile and see if we can find something.

Lots going on this week. I have about a hundred emails to respond too. So I am going to try to get things done. This is kind of random, I realize, it has just been a crazy week!

fashion show videos

OK so these video's will never win any awards...they are shaky, you see the ground a lot, it's going the wrong direction etc. etc. But it's my girl and I think I should get credit for getting what I got! :)

edited I couldn't get one of the videos to load on youtube. I will try again later, but for now you get this one...

Trashy fashion show

( the whole troop)
( waiting ever so patiently in the hot, hot sun)


This Saturday I spent a very hot afternoon with Harmony. Her Girl Scout troop went to a celebration for Earth Day. The girls had been working on outfits that were made completely from recycled material. We walked around for awhile, and she stopped at many booths getting stamps on a passport, that was traded in later for a t-shirt. This kind of thing is right up Harm's alley as she loves science and animals.

The fashion show was really cute. Unfortunatley I didn't get very many pictures of it, and my video is very shaky.Why? Because I had to hold a squirming 3 year old while I did it. But I am going to post them anyway!

Harm said she was a little afraid of falling off the stage, because she wasn't wearing her glasses. She did fabulous though.