Tyler Videos

Tonight McKenzie and Tyler got into an argument at the dinner table...

When Daddy and McKenzie got back from the batting cage tonight, they  brought everyone a treat!

Tyler has amazed us each day with all the new words he is saying...

He is at the stage where he will repeat almost anything you ask him to say!

Can't believe my little baby is talking so much already!

Good Morning!

I bet you know what the kids will be doing today!!!!

What do you get when you cross....

McKenzie is learning about dominant and recessive genes in science. Their most recent project was to cross their own traits with a famous person to see what their baby would look like.

The teacher had a few celebrities for them to choose from.  McKenzie chose Taylor Lautner, the werewolf from the Twilight movies:

So, if you match Taylor & Mckenzie:

You get...

I guess I have passed on my weak genes to McKenzie, 

because I don't see much of McKenzie in this little guy!

I think it was fun for the kids to do this little project.

McKenzie said there were a couple ugly babies, too!

Together Again...

The weekend of my birthday extravaganza, my friend, Gina and her daughter Helen flew in.  They currently live in California, but she lived up the road from me in Hawaii and we were walking buddies during our husband's last deployment.  I was so glad that she and her youngest flew out to the East Coast for a few days!  If you remember, Helen was Trevor's #1 Gal Pal in Hawaii.

When I told Trevor she was coming, he was so excited! They came over to our house one afternoon to hang out.  That morning Trevor knew just what he wanted to wear. 

He watched for them out the front window and ran out to give her a big hug when they pulled up.  The first thing he said to her was "Wow, you have grown so tall!" He was so quick, that I didn't get a chance to grab the camera for that one... darn!

 They ate some lunch down in the toy room and had a great time together!!!

 CHEEEEEEEEESE!

Feeling Lucky?

Trevor found this in the clover patch we have in our front yard! He was THRILLED!

Oh Addison...

Addison goes to a morning out program at our church 2 times a week.  She usually loves it! There are only a few days that she may not want me to leave her there, but it always ends up being a positive experience for her.  She is soon over her tears and playing with her friends and learning colors and shapes!!!

Today was her teacher's last day.  Her family is military and they are being relocated to North Carolina!  Addison wanted to bring something special to school for her, so I made a little cookie bouquet for her to give to her teacher.

I had to convince her to let ME hold it on the way to school, and then she very carefully walked into her classroom carrying her special treat!  Her teacher loved it! Addison was so proud!

I attached a card that read: "Thank you for helping me BLOOM"

The last half hour of the day, they had a surprise party for the teacher, and all the parents came back and had a little going away party for Miss Jeanine.  As we left, she hugged all her little students and gave them a little card with a picture of them with her.

Here's where it gets interesting.... it came to be Addison's turn to leave, and Miss Jeanine comes up to me with this funny grin on her face... "oh boy".... I said.

She hands me the picture while saying with a sigh, "This is how I will remember Addison.  We love her personality... we call this her look of LOVE".

I had no words.

They (all the helpers) just smiled and laughed and said how much fun Addison is, and how they love all the faces she makes... exhibit A, above.  I guess I'm glad she is able to provide them with a spicy little personality for their entertainment?!?

On that note... to prove that she is not just a grumpy girl, I took a quick video of Addison dancing along with DANCING WITH THE STARS the other day.  She said to me, "Mommy, can you get me that dress...PLEEEEEASE   She was referring to the string of sequins they called a dress on one of the professional dancers.  She had to make due with a cute little sequined skirt from her dress up stash!

And again....

And last but not certainly least... I got the movie BURLESQUE  a while back and we must have watched it at least 3 or 4 times in 2 days because Addison loved all the music and dancing.... 

 

EMERGENCY!

This morning Trevor and Addison (and I guess Tyler) helped me put together a new laundry sorter I bought yesterday.  The old one was on it's last leg and the electrical tape I had used to hold it together these past couple weeks was just not doing the job anymore...

So when the construction of the NEW laundry sorter was done, I let the kids take care of the DE-construction of the old one.

When they had most of the pieces apart and in a pile on the floor, they insisted they NEEDED to keep the bottom part intact to use for their "doctor" gurney.

So, now, as I am typing this post, the kids are taking turns riding across the floor in the gurney. And when I mean riding,  I mean taking turns hurling each other across the floor as hard as they can push it!

But its fun, right?!

Tyler before his first 'ambulance ride'.

 

Addison, the paramedic & Tyler the patient.

You can sort of see Tyler covering his eyes with his hands... 

he's a wise little boy... it IS probably better not to look.

 

Dr. Trevor taking over at the 'hospital'.
Apparently he's left his lab coat at home.

Fun, fun!

Happy 30th Birthday to me!

So it's been a week since the big day, but I wanted to wait until I got all the pictures back from the people who were thinking for me and took tons of pictures throughout the night! (Thank you Brooke & Lesley!)

Okay, so... My day started off just like any other day...
I had no major plans... But I was told to be ready to leave my house at 12:30 and drive to Fredericksburg.

At 12:20 Nick calls me and tells me an address to go to.  AND... he was running late getting home from work so I would have to take Addison and Tyler with me and just wait outside in the parking lot until he got there to swap vehicles and take the kids back home with him.

Addison saw him pull into the parking lot shortly after we parked and as he got closer, I noticed there was someone in the passenger seat with him!

Not thinking too much of it, you can imagine my reaction when he pulled right up beside me in the next parking stall and there sat... my friend from back home, KELLY!!!!

My reaction has been described by Kelly and Nick as a puppy in a window, frantically pawing at the window and screaming OH MY GOSH!!!!!

Still in shock, Kelly and I then walked into a nearby day spa and enjoyed the following:
BODY MASSAGE
PEDICURE
MANICURE

Here we are post massage, completely relaxed, enjoying our pedicures before moving on to our manicures...

We enjoyed catching up over those wonderful 3+ hours of pampering.

When we got home, the 3 of us decided to go out to eat that night down in Fredericksburg 'for a boring dinner'.  Nick made reservations for 7pm. Running a little late (my fault, as usual, due to me being indecisive on what to wear AND crazy slow traffic) we finally made it to our restaurant about 10 after 7.

"Reservations for Turner"... Nick let ladies go first as we followed our host to the stairwell where he directed me to go down the stairs.... odd, but whatever... I guess we were going to just find our own table... little did I know...

 

 

The basement was filled with all our friends from ALL OVER!

Julie Svatek drove over from California, MD (Pax River)

The Mastermind (my wonderful husband) and his sneaky assistant (Kelly)!

Apparently we were laughing at something...or possible crying? Or... maybe that was the moment I realized our bedroom flatscreen TV was sitting on one of the tables there (which I questioned Nick earlier in the evening about its whereabouts... which was just one of many lies he told me over the last 2 months)

Nick fired up the TV and started a wonderful video full of birthday wishes from friends and family from ALL OVER THE COUNTRY from those who couldn't make it to my big birthday bash!

Everyone enjoying the video...
which had me in tears, or as Oprah calls it (the ugly cry)

 Then it was time for cake! Thank you to the Minaldi's for the beautiful and DELICIOUS cake! For those of you who mentioned and asked... no, I didn't make my own cake!

After cake, there was lots of laughing, talking, eating and drinking!  And we couldn't call it a night without a big group pictures with the girls!

Take 1:

(Sorry, Lesley, the look on your face made me laugh out loud)

Take 2:

This is better.... aren't we a bunch of good lookin' ladies!

And it wouldn't be fair if we didn't get the gentlemen...

Julie & Kelly

Lesley & Kelly

 

Sara & Brooke

Julie & Lesley

Heidi & Aubrey

The Friestmans

 After we had our fill at the restaurant, some of us walked up the block to a bar that had a live band... and a Foosball table!

Us girls teamed up and went to town on this thing!

What good sports we are... slapping the hands of the team who WE WHOOPED ON!

The faces of CHAMPIONS

This is determination, folks!

 I don't mean to brag, but Heidi and I are awesome.. so much so that 2 young college guys approached us and wanted to play for $500.  But being the proper ladies that we are, played them, LET THEM WIN, and then told them, oh, now, you really didn't think we'd pay you $500 would you? If you do, you can go over to the bar there and take it up with our Marine husbands.... and that was that!

Thank you to everyone who helped make my surprise 30th birthday party such a wonderful success! I have the best friends and the best family! I love you all!

I think Nick is exhausted from having to tell me so many lies these past several weeks! He told me how awful he felt some days for the lies he had to tell... isn't he the best?!?!!

Playing...

It was so nice out yesterday. 72 degrees or so... but no sun.  That didn't stop us from spending most of the day outside anyways!!  The neighbor kids came over too!

 Addison joined Mommy on the hammock for a while and we did silly photos for Daddy. Addi was the choreographer.

For supper I made Sherree's delicious red beans & rice.  Tyler usually won't eat it, but since he's become so independent lately, I put some in a shallow bowl and gave him a spoon...

Shooting with Dad

Nick took McKenzie out to the shooting range this morning before our big storms came through.

She got to shoot the 22