Decking the Halls

We pulled out the Christmas decorations on December 1st this year. The kids were so excited to get them out and up. Noah helped Scott put the lights up on the outside of the house while I started to put up the tree. (Harley wanted nothing to do with either of those). Once the tree was ready we left the kids to putting on all the ornaments. They love it and I really don't care about the picture perfect tree (besides the fact that I could never get it that way). I also love all the homemade items from the kids masterpieces to the hand-me downs of my Grandma Turner and Scott's Grandma Hatti.  By the end of the day it was mostly set up and now it feels like Christmas around here (I just need to find the other box of decorations). Please forgive the pictures, I have a long way t o go on my picture taking skills :)

November Update

A quick update of this month.

Things seemed to fly by once again. We were lucky enough to spend time with Andrew and Stephanie for a little bit. While they were on their trip to Ireland we were lucky enough to get to spend many dinners and lots of time with Mikael, Eva, Leighton and Dean. The time just flew by.

Mikael was sweet enough to let me help in giving her a baby shower (we can't wait to meet the little guy).

Before we knew it it was time to head up to Utah for Thanksgiving. We had a ton of fun with the family and Harley loved all the shopping she got done.  We are ready for Christmas.

While we were up there I was able to meet with a new doctor I have been working with to go over some more blood work and other tests. I have officially be diagnosed with Hashimoto's (an autoimmune disease). So now we are on our journey to figure out how to move forward and hopefully send this beast into remission. Basically it is giving me hypothyroidism by attacking my body. Diet will be the key factor and I am ready to learn all I can so I have the energy to keep up with my family. I am so happy to finally have answers and excited to move forward on a new journey in life, even if I have to give up some of my favorite foods (good-bye gluten).  I am excited to see what the next month will bring and what memories will be made. I just hope to be better at capturing it in pictures.

October Update

Well maybe a once a month update is all I am going to get to do but here goes last month...

Once again we kept busy with the kids activities. Harley's UTI finally cleared up after three different antibiotics. The Dr decided to go ahead and have an ultrasound of Harley's kidney's and bladder. The good news is everything looks good. I had a moment of panic thinking of how I would manage her if she had to get kidney surgery like her dad. Thankfully we don't even have to go there.

 

I was able to go on a field trip with Harley, probably the most unnecessary and pointless field trip ever, but it is always nice to get to spend one-on-one time with the kids. We went to Chaco canyon and spent more time in the vehicle then we did there, the roads were awful. Unfortunately I didn't have any knowledge on the sites so we pretty much ran around and looked for 30 mins before the kids had to hop on the bus to head back to school. I luckily was able to take Harley home with me and the were able to get back MUCH faster.

We also went to a choir concert for the kids st their school. and before we knew it Halloween was here. The kids couldn't wait to carve their giant pumpkins.  Harley's was eating a little one.

And Noah's had four faces.

 

We then had our Ward's Halloween party, where I took no photo's because I forgot my phone and camera at home. (Harley was Batman this night).  Then on Halloween we went to 5th Ward's party to see all the cousins and I actually remembered to take a couple pictures. Noah was a Zombie riding an ostrich and the second night Harley was a Spanish Dancer with two of her good friends, Kaylee and Kecia.

September update

I'm a bit behind, story of my life. Here is what has gone on this month....Hanging out with Family over Labor Day at Purgatory and enjoying all they have to offer. The kids had a blast and played hard. I was able to catch up with friends, Jason and Katie, and have fun with most of my family.

 Scott was off on a hunt the first 9 days of September, but it payed off. He shot and elk that will soon hang in the living room and our freezer is restocked with meat. Yum!

 

Harley officially became a teenager. With Dad gone we had a small party with dinner, cake and Shaley. Best part was getting her Kindle I believe. She also was able to party with the family in CO, because we have 6 birthdays in about a weeks time.

 

The rest of our time has been consumed with school, dance, football games (Harley loves to watch her friends play), sewing lessons, sickness, more sickness and I can't remember what else, oh yeah jury duty :p

 

A pretty good month minus the sickness

Back to School

It is that time of year again and I am a little late on getting this up. The kids started back to school over a week ago. It was a rude awakening with a hard adjustment from staying up all night and sleeping all day (one of the joys of having older kids).

 

Noah is in sixth grade this year and Harley is in seventh. They both are loving it so far and can hardly stand waiting to get their laptops. Noah enjoys having many teachers and getting to move a lot more often. He is making new friends and getting to know his second cousin Kody Farley a lot better (they hang out and eat lunch together). Let's hope the good year keeps going. He is currently going to ABQ once a month, but if he continues to do well he will start staggering that off to every couple of months. This year he also will be participating in Hip Hop class and two Hip Hop competition pieces. We are also looking in to gymnastics (or gnastics as he puts it). He is also in Scouts.  Harley is loving the fact of being back with all her friends and can only describe school as a love hate relationship (love the social, hate the work). She seems to be much happier and at peace this year. She will be participating in ballet, jazz, lyrical, private lessons and performance group. She also has mutual one night a week. We are busy and happy around here.

 

Great Weekend

This weekend was so much fun. On Saturday Harley and I went to Albuquerque for her first Temple Trip. I must admit I wasn't looking forward to making the drive once again, but I knew it would be worth it to get to be with Harley her first time in the temple. She was a little nervous. Grant was able to do the baptism's for her. That made it less nerve racking and a more special. I am so happy that I made the drive I hate to go and do baptisms with her. We arrived back home around 6:30 and headed to dinner with the whole family. After we decided to go see Avengers with Gramps and Susan (they were down visiting for the weekend). Despite it being late, we had a blast.

Sunday we got up and got Gramps and Susan off. We went to church at our new Ward. What a great day. The kids were a little nervous (more Harley then Noah, she has so many good friends in 5th Ward and they are hard to leave). It was so nice to go and enjoy church. It hasn't felt that good in a long time. Afterwards the kids were happy to see that they new quite a few people in the ward and started to make new friends. It was a great day and a great step in moving forward.

Then last night we went out and watched the eclipse through Scott's welding helmet and in the awesome box Harley made. A good end to the weekend. As I sat and enjoyed so many parts of this weekend I realized I have never been so in love with my entire family. I couldn't be happier or more in love with them.

It's Offical

What you ask......I am getting old. How do I know? Well lots of reasons, but mostly I can't deny anymore that I am starting to get lots of white hair. The solution....Hair dye. I guess I am going to have to start coloring my hair again. Sigh. I just can't keep up with pulling out all the white hairs. I find several new ones daily.