Christmas 2013

Christmas this year was so special.  I decided on Halloween that I wanted to read the Book of Mormon again before Christmas.  What an incredible experience that was for me.  It is always so amazing how peaceful and calm consistent daily scripture study can be.  I also studied and tried to apply the teachings of the book Following the Light of Christ. It was such a sweet sacred experience and something I will forever be working toward.  

On Christmas Eve Ryan made a delicious dinner.  We had tin foil dinners.  He used stew meat and marinated it in amazing flavor.  

It was so nice to not have to worry about dinner.  

I'm such a lucky girl.  

After dinner the elves dropped of our Christmas jammies and new board game.  (one of my very favorite traditions) 

Once everyone was in their jammeis we played our new game Quelf.  
It was really fun and super random.  

After games we did the Christmas story.  

Then we left cookies for Santa and went off to bed.  

Santa left a fun message to the kids out of M&M's

Christmas morning we had a hard time getting Miss {B} out of bed.  After we were down stairs we realized she wasn't just tired, she was not feeling well.  

Little Miss LOVED it.  well all except her new rocking horse.  We thought she would love it, but it freaked her out.  haha.  She now loves it but it took a few days for her to even want to sit on it.

She loved opening presents.  :) 

Miss {B} and Ky were sick for the rest of the day.

Christmas ended up being a very quiet day.  

We had a super yummy ham dinner that only J man and I ate.  
Although it was sad that the kids were sick, J and I loved getting to "play" with our new toys, legos for him and craft projects for me.  

Thankfully the next day everyone was feeling much better and put their new toys to good use.  

Mrs. Potato head was by far the favorite gift that little Miss recieved. 

I love my family so much and am very grateful for Atonement and the love of our Heavenly Father that he offers me on a daily basis.  What a blessing and comfort it is to know that I am His and He is in fact always here for me.   

twin birthdays

I've been trying to improve my run time.  The best I've been able to do a 5K (3.1 miles) is 38 minutes so I set a goal to try and do it in 36 minutes in honor of my 36th birthday.   Well, I did it.  

This was my time on my birthday.  Oh happy day!!!  I can't tell you how exciting that was.  I love running.  It is one of my favorite me times.  All alone with just my thoughts, and boy to I think things out.  haha.  It was a fantastic personal record to meet.  

 

We played this fun game at our friends cabin and I told my family I wanted one.  Well they came through and gave me it for my birthday.  I love this game because everyone can play it.  It is so much fun for adults, teenagers and little kids.  

The next day was Ry's birthday and we had a small little cake and icecream party to celebrate our hard working, fun loving, serving giving husband/dad.  Sure do love him more than life itself.

Thanksgiving 2013

This year we hosted Thanksgiving dinner for Ry's family.  

I stressed and worried over it for months.  

Turns out, it was not that big a deal at all.  

Everyone pitched in and the food was amazing. 

Ky had his first wrestling match while family was in town and it was so fun to have them come watch.
Uncle Dave gave some awesome new moves to the boys.  I really enjoyed watching them.  What a goofy bunch!

Ry cooked the turkey in his friend Nathans fire pit again this year and it was sooooo tender and juicy.  

I made my to.die.for. rolls and they were a big hit.  

Mandy did these delicious garlic mashed potatos and Grandma did the pies.  

I made some cute little place cards for everyone.  The kids were turkeys, adult girls were Indian girls and the men were Indian boys.  

I think my favorite part was the fact that the weather was gorgeous and we got to eat outside.  

The kids all had so much fun together.  

We don't do sleep overs with friends so it was a real treat to get to have the cousins sleep over. 

Although there is quite the age difference 13-brand new, they all had a blast together and included everyone.

The day after Thanksgiving I wasn't feeling so good, but everybody else went to see the movie Frozen.  They LOVED it.  I was so fun to hear all the girls giggle and the little boys were sooo tuff and kept right up with the big cousins.  It was a fantastic Thanksgiving. We are truly blessed! 

Listen

I have so many posts I am behind on but I want to take a minute and right down the tender feeling of my heart.  I write this so I always remember the way I FEEL rather than a tut-your-own horn kind of thing.  Since those who read this are the ones near and dear to my heart I feel good posting this here. 

I have started doing day care in my home and let me just say I LOVE it.  I treat it more as a preschool (which I have always wanted to do), and its just so fun to teach and care for these sweet little children.  My baby has benefited the most from it though.  It is so fun to watch her learn to interact and share.  She loves to mimic anything the older kids do.  Its adorable. 

One of the moms of my daycare kids was running way behind and just frazzled.  Her hubby is out of town for the week and she works as well as goes to school.  I could tell things were taking a toll on her so I said I was going to have dinner ready for her and her family when she picks up her son.  She was appreciative and accepted. 

It felt so great to be doing service.  I quickly gathered the kids and we made cookies for the dinner and I let them smash the crackers for the dinner.  (poppyseed chicken).  I set out some chicken to defrost for her family and mine and we went on with the day.  When I was ready to get back to the chicken I realized I had defrosted way too much.   I had an extra disposable pan and decided I was going to triple the recipe.  One for my friend, one for my family now and one later.  I was excited with that decision.  I LOVE having freezer meals on hand for those crazy busy days, so this worked out perfect.  As I was assembling it all together I said in my mind here is ours, Turley's and this one needs to go to Carol Barber.  Wait...What????  It was the weirdest/neatest thing to happen.  I had already decided to freeze the meal and of this I am sure the thought to take it to Barbers was not my own. 

Ya see, Carol Barber is somewhat new and I barely know her, but I sure do admire her.  We really don't have much of a relationship other than we both serve in the Primary together and I see her on Sundays, but I really don't know her.  I sent her a text and said I was bringing her dinner tonight.  I can't even tell you how nervous I was.  She was soooooooo sweet and so thankful and best of all told me I could.  I was half expecting her tell me no.  What a blessing it was and sweet experience that she allowed me to follow thru with a prompting.  But the best part of the story was later, when J got home he asked who all the food was for?  I told him and he asked why, are they sick?  I said no, Turley's are super busy, and I don't know why on the Barbers, I just was told to do it so I did.  He shrugged and was content with that answer.  Later that night right before going to bed J asked....,so did we ever find out why the Barbers needed dinner?  :) I said no, we don't always know why, but its still important to go and do when we are told.  I explained that it was no accident that I took out way too much chicken, or that I just happened to have an extra pan to make it in.  It was a tender mercy from above.  It was such a sweet tender teaching moment and totally melted my heart! 

My appologies

sorry about the post overload for those of you who still read this little blog O' mine.  I am trying to finish up this year so I can send it in for printing on a huge New Years day sale. 

piggie tails

pigtails are my favorite...the end~

Random thoughts

                

I'm ready to head to bed but the dryer is still going.  I've been on this kick of getting all our clothes hung and put away as soon as they are done ever since my amazing mom came to help last summer and showed me how do-able it is.  So I thought I'd sit down and jot down some of the feeling I am having right now. Hold on to your seats, this is probably going to be pretty random. 

I just love the age of each one of my kiddos.  I think it is so.much.fun to have every little stage in our home. We have a hilarious teenager (in two weeks), a super helpful and caring tween.  They both are amazing little musicians.  I love to hear them jam on their guitars.  They both have a different style and I love both styles.  Then we've got our adorable 1st grader.  I have loved all of the funny little things Becca writes.  She wrote a letter to santa and said "I am happy with anything, anything you give me will be great"  :) what a little sweet heart.  Also she cracks me up when she sings her Christmas carols at the top of her lungs.  She often mixes up the words and it's just too cute.  When we were making gingerbread houses she kept calling the roof a roos.  :)  Everything and I mean everything is just so magical for her.  The baby has been so fun to watch too.  She sees the tree all lit up, points at it and says Oooooohhh.  I was worried about the presents under the tree.  She doesn't rip them open, she thinks they are her own personal chairs and just goes and sits on them with the biggest grin.  Today we found her sitting on a tiny little present.  It cracked me up.  Good thing she doesn't weigh anything.  She is walking now and today she was walking holding a gift almost as big as her it is was just so adorable. 

I absolutely do not want Christmas to be over.  It is coming so quickly and I am sad.  My body on the other hand is so ready for all of the to.die.for treats and goodies to stop.  hahaha.  I've always known that I have no will power, but yowza!  It is really bad.  I am gaining some weight back already and its freaking me out.  I decided today I need to stop beating myself up about what I've eaten and just enjoy this time of year.  I know how to get the weight off and I WILL get back on track.

I have had so much fun doing photography again.  It's good to be back in the saddle so to speak.  My friends have been very supportive.  The extra cash has been nice and I can't believe I get paid to be with such awesome people.  This morning as I was editing the Carpenters pictures Bree was sitting on my lap.  She saw a picture of Joseph and Alecia and she squeeled and started blowing kisses at the screen.  haha.  It was the sweetest thing ever.  I love that she loves them as much as the rest of us do.

I really wish I was a reader but in reality I hate it. I feel like I am wasting time and I can't ever seem to keep my mind from wandering and thinking/worring about other things.  I often read the same paragraph or page over and over  because I can't focus.  I go to a super fun book club every other month and have read a total of zero books.  hahaha.  Obviously I go for the food and visiting.  The books always sound so good at the review though so my goal for the new year is to learn to love to read.  With that being said.  I made a goal in October to read the Book of Mormon before Christmas.  That is the one book I am able to dig into and finish.  It amazes me that no matter how many times you read it, you come away with a completely different experience.  I learn something new every single time.  I am almost done, and can't wait to start it again. 

I am so in love with Ryan.  The other night he was on a campout with Ky and I fell asleep staring at his picture.  haha.  It made me laugh the next morning to wake up with his picture still in my hand.  :)  Our whole entire marriage I have had a reoccurring dream where he gets called on another mission.  We are married and everything.  The thought of him leaving for two years just rips my heart out.  I don't know how I ever survived him being gone.  So grateful he served and so glad to know next time he serves I will get to go with him. 

Tomorrow is a big fun busy day and I can't wait!!!!  Guess I'll go check on those clothes and hopefully call it a night.