Sunday

This morning we all got up and around and made an appearance at a new church just up the road from our house.  We rushed around to make in time so that we could take each of the kids to their new Sunday School classrooms.  We walked in the church (not completely out of breath) and met a few nice church members who immediately told us that church this week was not until 10:45. We were an hour early. Why? Well, because it's the 5th Sunday, so they combine their two services when that happens and change the time.

So, we took the kids to their classes... then visited with the nice church members for the next hour.  It was fun.

During church, Addison won the hearts of the congregation immediately. Surprised? We weren't either.  Trevor pulled her up to the children's sermon, and it didn't hurt that she looked super cute in her red velvet skirt with black polka dots. (Ladybug skirt)  The pastor talked about the advent season, and then the animals in the 'farmhouse' where baby Jesus was born.  He passed the animals around and Addison got to place them back in the display. She then stood up tall and looked back to Nick, who was sitting on the end seat in the back of the church and yells "HI DADDY!!!! HI DADDY!!!" and waves to him frantically.  The congregation soon followed with giggles.

She also enjoyed bellowing out jibberish phrases while we sang hymns.  However, she DID surprise us when she belted out "THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO" when we finished up the last line of Jesus Loves Me after a baptism.  Nick and I looked at each other, "Did you teach her this song?" "No, did you?" "No!"

We really enjoyed visiting with the congregation afterwards. They were all very welcoming and interested in our family.  We are glad to have made it back to church and hope to return again next week!

There were 10 in the bed...

and the little one said, "ROLL OVER, ROLL OVER" (don't tell me you've never heard that song/book before)

...okay, so maybe there were only 6... but it was full! This is what happened to our bed early Thanksgiving morning.  They were coming out of the woodwork!

Turner Mountain East Coast B&B

Looking for a place to stay while on the East coast?

Don't mind a little craziness in the house during your stay?

Come on over to Turner Mountain East Coast Bed & Breakfast.
Taking reservations now!

Nick and I got a new bed this weekend.  It was delivered today... so our nice "old" bed was moved down to the guest room (which has been an empty room with only a rug and chest of drawers....until now!  It is now complete with a bed...a queen bed!

Now we have a place for our guests to sleep!
Come one come all.... uh, but please call first!

More pictures of the house coming soon!

We drug out the Christmas decorations yesterday and the kids each decorated a tree.... the only picture I have is one of Trevor and the entryway tree he helped me decorate. McKenzie did the big tree and wrapped garland on our upstairs railing. I'll post more pictures of all that soon.

Checking In

This morning, Nick got up, put on his newly pressed uniform, arranged his medals and ribbons JUST SO... shined his shoes....

And Checked into HMX-1

And yesterday, Trevor and I tried out our "new to us" double oven:

That's right, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies AND chocolate cupcakes baking AT THE SAME TIME!

Heaven.

Raking Leaves

Nick sent McKenzie and Trevor out to our backyard to embark on a new chore they will have to do now that we are in Virginia... the land of seasons. RAKE LEAVES!

This was as far as they got on day one...

 

Day 2.... starting up again... this time, we had a little more motivation, and more progress.  Instead of bagging them all up (Can you imagine???) Nick and the kids just dumped them over the back fence. No worries, the other side of the fence isn't someone's yard... it's just a deep slope that divides us from a condominium down the way.

TA-DA!  The leaves are constantly falling, so it will be a while (if ever) before we have a completely leafless yard. But it sure is pretty!

Moving Day

I know I am posting way out of order, but stay with me here.

Tuesday morning, a semi pulled up to our house with ALL 12 CRATES containing our household items. Man do we have a LOT of stuff!

The crew was lead by James Brown, that's right, James Brown.  They were hilarious, and did a GREAT job! Bless them all for hauling all my stuff to the basement, all through the house, and even upstairs.  To worker man #3: I hope your one fall down the flight of slippery steps didn't effect your next day at work! Thanks for not breaking my items when you fell! (ouch)

We fed them lunch, and by about 3PM, they were done, cleaned up the mountain of paper (which the kids, I'm sure, wished they would have left for them to continue to play on) and we were left all alone, with our hundreds of boxes to unpack..... *sniff sniff*

Jump ahead to today... Mom and I (but mostly my Mom) have the kitchen unpacked about 90%.  The dining room is set up, sitting room set up.... kids beds are up and sleepable, but the clothes are still in piles or suitcases all over the house. I'm telling you, getting dressed in the morning is quite a scavenger hunt.  My washer and dryer are constantly running.... and even though Nick organized the garage yesterday, I am filling it back up with empty boxes and more wrapping paper.

I'll be so glad when we are done, and settled, and can function fully.  If it weren't for my mom being here, I'm pretty sure I'd still be trying to unpack my first kitchen box, and probably crying. 

Thanks mom for flying out here with us and spending an entire week+ trapped in my box filled house! Love you!

Nick & Trevor cuddling on the couch after our first night in the house

Nick's Veteran's Day Speech

I'm really behind on posting... but wanted to post this link of the video of Nick's Veteran's Day speech he did at the Griswold High School. It was his last of 7 speeches in 2 days. The gym was packed with people from all over the community. 

Veteran's Day Speech

The video was edited by our fabulous sister-in-law Julie and also posted on her blog HERE. Enjoy!

Happy 12th Birthday McKenzie!

McKenzie turned 12 today.  After school, she opened her presents, did her homework, and then after unpacking a few more boxes and setting up a room or two, we all cleaned up, climbed over mountains of packing boxes and paper, and headed to Kobe Japanese Steakhouse for a birthday dinner celebration.

McKenzie invited her new BFF Maliah from next door to come with us.

We had fun drinks with cherries and umbrellas:

And yummy onion soup, which Addison surprisingly loved:

Then it was fire time...

Which Addison DIDN'T like so much:

After a delicious meal, the staff came out with a bongo drum of sorts and we all sang happy birthday to a very red faced, embarressed McKenzie... but she got Key Lime Cheesecake out of it!

Then we headed home to our piles of household items and cardboard boxes.... and enjoyed a little cuddle time with Grandma.

Happy Birthday to my little McKenzie...now stop growing!!!!

We Made It!

Well, on our 2nd attempt to fly out, we finally made it to Virginia to join the rest of the Turner bunch!  It was a GORGEOUS 70 degrees when we got off the plane.  We made a quick stop for lunch, and then headed on to our new house in Stafford!  While I gave Mom the grand tour, the kids headed out back to play in our big back yard full of....

LEAVES!!!!!

Today is moving day.... stay tuned for mass chaos!

Leaving On A Jetplane... oh wait... nevermind.

4:45am Awake and getting kids up and dressed to head to the airport
5:45am Drive to Des Moines airport
6:30am Arrive in airport and check in.
7:30am Board plane and leave the gate
7:40am Return to gate... Engine no worky...deplane...wait....
8:45am Still waiting.... and waiting...
10:45am.... waiting (yawn) and chasing Addison
12:30pm Flight cancelled, part wouldn't be in until 3:30pm, got tickets for same flight next day.

We ate at the restaurant with our meal vouchers while we waited for our ride home. (Thank you Melissa!!!) Here is Addison about 2 minutes into our drive back to Colo. It's been a LONG day.... and we can't wait to start over again in the morning. (sarcasm) Hopefully tomorrow will end with a better outcome and an arrival in Virginia!

I'm Slacking...

Forgive me for my lack of posts this past week.  Things have been extremely busy! This week Nick spoke at 7 Veteran's Day programs.

Griswold Middle & High School
Elliott and Lewis Elementary Schools
Red Oak Middle & High School + community.
And finally, the Montgomery County Veteran's Day program in Griswold. Click HERE for a great outline and photos from that evening on my sister-in-law's blog! She did a great job of taking pictures! You'll feel like you were there!  (Had I had just one more arm/hand... I could have taken some pics as well!) Oh well! Thanks Julie for burning all the pics on a disc for me!!!

I hope to post video from that soon as well.

Thursday, he was on the local radio with his dad talking about growing up a small town kid, his experiences in the Marine Corps, and Veteran's Day. I also will have audio of that posted once we get to Virginia.

I am so proud of all that he has done and was very impressed with his speaking abilities.  Even though the kids (mostly Addison) made it impossible for me to listen to half of his speeches, I was glad to have gotten to hear the ones I did.  Once again, he always manages to amaze me with more of his abilities!!!! Who'da thunk!?

He even got asked to sign several autographs (tee hee)

However, after all that, he doesn't have much of a voice. Poor guy!

McKenzie spent 3 nights at Nick's brother's house and helped her Aunt Julie with the horse chores and got to go trailriding (THE HIGHLIGHT OF HER STAY!) Check out Julie's blog HERE for that post! (Julie has stepped in and been the ultimate super blogger this past week!!)


We drove up to Colo for one more night and then Friday morning Nick, McKenzie & Trevor hopped in the truck with a loaded down trailer (thanks Dad) and headed East. They made it to Columbus, Ohio and checked into a hotel for the night.

Today, they are finishing up the 17+ hour trip and should arrive in Stafford, Virginia this evening.  My mother, Addison, Tyler and I are flying out in the morning.... because 2 hours in a plane with a baby and an "Addison" sounds so much easier than 17+ hours in the cab of a truck.

The moving truck will arrive Tuesday morning... be prepared for pics from that fun adventure! We'll be up to our eyeballs (and beyond) in boxes and paper!!!! Let the fun begin!

Visiting Oli

I took the kids in town this afternoon to see an old friend of mine and her little guy!  Kelly and I were best friends all through school!  It was so fun to catch up with her and see her little guy, who is turning 1 next week.  The last time I saw him he was just a few weeks old!

Me, Oliver & Kelly

Addison, Oliver, McKenzie, Tyler & Trevor

Helping Out

Grandma had some little helpers today to clean up the back deck.  It was a beautiful 62 degrees. (Still chilly though)

They helped for a while, but then came across some other things that was more fun.

And then they ended up on the swings:

Farmer Nick

Yesterday while the kids and I traveled back to central Iowa, Nick found himself with nothing to do. No kids to chase after, or feed, or a wife to talk to... (I'm sure he was just beside himself..no kids... no wife... poor thing. I wish I knew what that felt like)

He soon found himself back in the field helping his cousin, Mark, with some harvesting.

 

Farmer Nick

At the Carwash

The kids and I drove back up to Colo to my parents for a couple days.  We drove my in-laws van.  They live on a gravel road, so we stopped by a drive through carwash to wash it up a bit.  Addison hasn't experienced that before, so I thought it would be fun!

I was wrong...

Each time the water went past her window, her eyes would just burst open, she would scootch clear over in her carseat, hide behind her sippy cup, and freeze until it went past.

Poor thing.  Trevor enjoyed it though!

Turner Mountain Day 2

Not too much went on today. It was a nice lazy day.  Nick loaded up some barn boards he wants to save and came across an Asian Beetle Convention:

If only Trevor had his bug box...
(I think it would have gotten a bit crowded in there, though)

Meanwhile, Addison was inside, helping Grandpa Larry finish his lunch. No, she did not just wake up from her nap, and no the camera is not playing tricks on you.... she had a cute little piggytail on her head, and decided to pull it out.  Her hair is SO not cooperative. (Pardon the lighting with Nick's cell phone camera)

Tyler had some good discussions with Grandpa as well:

OH! Speaking of Tyler... he rolled over from his belly to his back today! I had him on the floor, went up to get ready for bed, and when I came down, Nick announced he was on his belly, and when he looked back over at him, he was on his back.  So, no one actually saw him roll over, but come on. It happened.

To Turner Mountain...

We headed down to Nick's parents today (the Original Turner Mountain). It was a BEAUTIFUL DAY!!!! The thermometer hit 71 degrees today!!! It was the perfect day for Nick and 3 of his brothers and his nephew, and Max, the self proclaimed hunting dog, to head out for some pheasant hunting.

Nick, Jim, Philip & Tim

Meanwhile, Nick's mother prepared a fabulous lunch for us all! She insisted it was just a simple preparation, but it was close to a Thanksgiving feast if you ask me! YUM!!!

After lunch, and dessert(s), the boys helped clean up the kitchen by doing the dishes and putting the table away... and here is proof!!!

(we were so proud!)

Then they had to get some target shooting in... no cats were targeted this outing.

McKenzie got to shoot her pistol Nick got for her; a Beretta 22:

She was even gracious enough to let me shoot a couple rounds:

That's right, don't mess with us!!!

Once the shooting was done, the kids got to roam the farm and kept themselves entertained outside:
McKenzie gave the kids rides on the mower... Addison was thrilled with this experience!

It was so nice out this evening, that it turned into a little "Fall Cleaning" frenzy:

Luckily, Nick had lots of helpers:

Nick... has....created... FIRE!

The beautiful Iowa sunset

Addison's thoughts: "Just a little GREEN paint, and we'll be good to go!"