Such a big girl now!

Today, Turner is 16 months old! She has changed immensely since Christmas, with an enormous vocabulary and funny actions that send us into fits of laughter on a daily basis. This stage is the most fun yet, and since things are changing so quickly we wanted to take a blog post to write down some of these events, lest we forget! This post is mainly for our records (and I fear it may be very self-indulgent) but if you want to check out what Turner is doing - read on!

We think that Turner can say around 85 words right now. It is getting to the point that people in public make comments about how verbal she is for her age. Mainly after she waves and says a big "Hey!" to them in the aisles of Wal-Mart - or after she entertains the Sunday School workers with her antics and knowledge each Sunday morning. We are quite proud of how much she communicates with us and other people (it certainly makes life easier when she can say things like "eat eat" when she's hungry) and we do love how she loves books. However it does concern us that at around age 3 we may never get her to stop talking!

Here are some of the words that she can say with regularity and understanding: Moon, Star, Toot toot (anytime we eat spinach - remember the popeye song?!), Mama, Dada, Tootsie, Pop, Goat, Moo, duck, Quack, horse, Neigh, Oink, Pig, Woof woof, doggie, kitty kitty, melow (meow), Mouth, teeth, Nose, eyes, ears, toes, bless you (says it appropriately after you sneeze!), thank you, please, melmo (Elmo), hot, cold, no no, swing, box (mailbox), amen (folds her hands appropriately as if she's praying!), Socks, shoes, Purple, Blue, Bath, Nasty, Plane (and can spot one or hear one anytime it's within 20 miles of AU), Hey, bye bye, Snowman (Noman), Cici (Mrs. Rhonda’s dog), Coat, Juice, Milk, Chicken sticks, Nerner (turner), hair, hat, music, banana, lotion, doctor, medicine, oops, light, Duke (Mark taught her that during basketball season), tiger, shark, rabbit, monkey, squirrel (skirl), bird, turtle, fish, Aubie, necklace, makeup (mikeup), book, mine, paci, car, truck, hello ("Lo?" and holds the phone up to her ear!), clock, britches (yes, that one is my fault), necked (my fault also that it's not pronounced 'naked') fruit, eat-eat, berries (LOVES strawberries), shower, more, zipper (and can identify one), snap, uh-oh, and she gives "uh-oh spaghettios" a really good try!!

Some things she has done lately that have made us laugh:
-Apparently Mark had wiped her nose a few times using his shirt. Later in the evening, Turner came over and wiped her own nose using Mark's shirt (as if that is the proper thing to do! Tonight, she actually attempted to blow her nose!
-Anytime she hears music she starts stomping her feet, turning around, and dancing.
-She has been caught singing with music at home and at church.
-She stands on her caterpillar toy as if it's a balance beam with both feet in line on the caterpillar's back and her hands barely on the handlebars.
-She's going to be a sports lover - she'll see basketball on the tv and shout "YEA!" and clap her hands wildly! If a shaker/pompom is near she'll grab that and go crazy!

Things she can do and things we want to remember:
-How much she loves to be outside!
-The way she crouches down and grins like she's being sneaky!
-How it feels for her hold our hand for help doing something she can't quite do alone yet (such as going up and down stairs - we are close to mastery but not there just yet).
-How it sounds and how she looks when she runs throughout the house.
-That she can already blow kisses and give kisses when asked to.

I know there are things we are leaving off...but we've been saying for a while I needed to get these written down somewhere, so this was the first effort. We'll probably do this every month or so just for our sake - she's changing so incredibly fast!!

"No No!"

Over the last few months we've come to realize that privacy in the bathroom is just not going to be a reality for a while. Needless to say, when you are cooped up in the bathroom with a curious toddler, it's natural for her to want to touch and explore. Thus, we've been working hard at teaching Turner that pulling the toilet paper off the roll is a "No No". This past Wednesday night, as we were putting Turner to bed, I stepped into our bathroom to get her toothbrush (she asks at least three times a day for me to brush her teeth). This is what I found.




We have no idea when she did this. And although we tried to discipline her for disobeying and doing something she "knows" is wrong, it ended with Mark and me laughing hysterically. Let me give you a play by play of the conversation.

Me: "Turner, you know that touching the toilet paper is a no no."
Turner: "No! No No!" (Always one, followed by two no-nos when she says it.)
Me: "Yes, baby, it's a no no. We've told you that. You are not supposed to touch the toilet paper."
Turner: "No! No No!"
Mark: "Turner, no means no."
Turner: "Nose!" (While grabbing Mark's nose.)
Me: "Yes, that's his nose."
Mark: "Turner you are not supposed to touch the toilet paper."
Turner: "Paper?" (A new word she's never said before until that moment. This sent Mark into the closet laughing hysterically, asking me how we were supposed to discipline that?)

Mark and I laid in bed later that night and laughed our heads off at what she must have been thinking while she was pulling the paper: "Boy, this is just as fun as I thought it would be!" or "I'm back here and they don't know it!"

Oh the joy of life with a toddler!!

Why you need lots of "play clothes"

Sunday afternoon + lots of rain puddles in the yard = major fun for Turner and lots of laughs for her parents!

You'll notice in the last few pictures we have a new addition to our courtyard - a fountain! I have always thought a fountain would be just perfect for this area, but didn't want to pay lots for this unnecessary purchase. Well, Tuesday night we went to Home Depot and took Turner over to look at the water and fish in their fountain...and this beauty was sitting there waiting on us - with a yellow clearance sticker on it! Still an unnecessary purchase, but we absolutely love how much it added to our courtyard area, not to mention the unbelieveable fun Turner has had playing in it! I think she may think it's her toy!

Time Changes Everything

January 2002
Rewind with me to January of 2002. I was working as a first year teacher, Mark was doing what he does with CWE, and I was head over heels for him. He didn't even think of me in "that way" (so he says)! We hung out often with mutual friends, and I just so happened to know he would be in town for the last part of Christmas break. So I cut my visit home a little shorter than normal (to get back to Auburn before the snow) on the hopes that Mark and I would hang out before school started again. I can't even remember how this all transpired, but after the snow Mark and I (remember - just friends Mark and Sarah) rode around Auburn and took pictures together. Here's the result! (*The reason I am so late in posting this is because this is an actual hard copy picture that had to be scanned - pre-digital photography in my world!)


March 2009
Fast forward to March of 2009. I couldn't resist the opportunity to recreate this scene again when it randomly snowed in Auburn last weekend. It's amazing what 7 years and 2 months can do to change your life!

A new challenge

For the past three weeks, I have spent two hours every Tuesday and Thursday night in a sewing class at my church. Several of our senior adult ladies are experts in this field; likewise there were several of us who were completely clueless as to how to sew. Our senior adult ladies saw this as a ministry opportunity to use their gifts in keeping with admonition of Titus 2:3-5 that the "older women should teach and encourage the younger women". I could write an entire post about the Godly cross-generational fellowship we've had and the lasting relationships that have been formed as a result. Truly, it has been one of the most unique and meaningful ministries I've witnessed at our church.

I want to publicly thank my sweet husband for his role in this endeavor. On Tuesday nights he has faithfully been available to keep Turner, get her bathed and in bed before I even returned home. On Thursday nights, he's graciously allowed me to bring her to his office during a very important weekly training meeting - then he's brought her home and taken care of bath and bedtime yet again before I returned home. (Note: I am always out of the house on Wednesday nights for choir practice and Turner and Mark have some quality Daddy-Daughter time. So we knew in advance this meant I was going to be away from home now three nights per week for the duration of this class.) As soon as the dates were published for this class he emailed me and told me I was going to attend - that it didn't matter what that did to our schedules - he knew this was something I wanted to do so he would make it happen. Such a sweet man. Such a blessing to have a husband that I know does as good of a job, if not a better job, than I do taking care of our daughter.

I am using my Granny's sewing machine which I know is older than I am. I watched her almost every day of my childhood as she created "something out of nothing" in front of my young eyes. Even though I thought I'd have "dinosaur" machine of the class, it was humorous to me how many of the ladies commented on the quality and efficiency of my machine as compared to the newer (as they termed them "plastic") models. I chuckled at the thought of my Granny laughing in heaven that her sewing machine was getting all the accolades in the company of the more expensive newer models! Each time I open the case the smell of her house floods my nose, so this has been a bit of a nostalgic experience for me as well as an educational one. I know that she would be so proud of what I have learned.

Here are the fruits of my labor over the last three weeks. Certainly not perfection, but I think a pretty good start! I already have more fabric ready and waiting for an opportunity to try these two patterns again!

The first two pictures are of the same outfit - I took on a little more challenging project of making a reversible top for this shorts set. My good friend Dawn was so kind to embroider and applique this for me and I think it's just precious!


This picture is of the orange, blue, and white gingham pillowcase dress I finished tonight - a project I did largely on my own without the assistance of my new sewing "buddies". These dresses cost about $30 in boutiques in downtown Auburn so I was pretty happy with my creation that cost approximately $10!


I will be sure to post more pictures of any new projects that I complete!

White as Snow

We have had a couple of strange weather days in Auburn this weekend! We woke to the sounds of the tornado siren yesterday morning and began watching the weather closely to make sure we weren't in a direct path of a tornado. Two tornados basically skirted Auburn on the north and south sides, doing serious damage in some areas, but thankfully we didn't have any issues as a result. The temperature outside yesterday was around 70 degrees. This morning, we woke to the beautiful view of a yard full of clean, white snow and plenty of fresh snow falling from the sky! The temperature most of the day today hovered around 35! Drastic change in 24 hours!

After church today we changed clothes quickly and joined some church friends for some "sledding" (better explained as hurling yourselves down a hill at breakneck speed on a boogie board or piece of cardboard) on a large hill in back of our church. Then we stopped downtown at Samford Hall to snap a few pictures of Turner that will be explained in a later post. We have thoroughly enjoyed our fun day in the snow! Enjoy the pictures below!

Let me also include this comment from our pastor. This morning church attendance was lower than normal due to the snow, and you could tell there was a certain excitement about having the afternoon and evening to enjoy this rare scene. Chris reminded us of this scripture from Isaiah 1:18, "...though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow..." What a beautiful picture of our redemption!

Five minutes

Take 5 minutes to watch this. (Click on the word this...not sure why it didn't underline.) It won't disappoint. I promise.