Florida Trip 2009

Well it's time I posted about our Thanksgiving trip to Florida this year. We spent 10 wonderful days down in Orlando! Over the holiday we stayed with our good friends the Burns' and then we moved down to WDW property the Sunday after Thanksgiving and stayed there until the next Saturday.

The boys did really well on both flights. And even with their schedules getting all out of whack (which is just inevitable when you are having a good time), they did awesome! We did learn to not pack as much and just do some laundry. LOL! With 2 kids, a monster stroller (which ruled!), 2 suitcases, 1 golf bag, and 4 carry-ons; we had a TON of stuff! We are definitely downsizing the amount of crap we bring with us on the next trip. Oh! And the Travel Space Bags are a serious life saver!!! I got one package of those and then 1 package of the Bed Bath and Beyond brand ones to use for the trip. It was well worth it! In fact I'd probably recommend just getting the BBB brand ones (you only get 3 bags though in a box), their largest bag was huge and I got all of the boys clothes and swim diapers in it. Yes, I do rule with packing thank you! :)

Noah's favorite park had to be Magic Kingdom. He was running around like a fool and we could barely keep up with him! Brandon was so good about falling asleep in his car seat that we let Noah dictate when we left the parks. If he was still doing well after a bite to eat for lunch we stayed for a while and then he would pass out on the way back to the resort. It worked out well and we were able to really let him enjoy as much as possible!

We're looking forward to our trip in March! :D Brandon will be almost 10 months old then, so I'm really excited to see his reactions this time. Nothing really fazed him this trip. Not even the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party fireworks woke this kid up. Hallelujah for that!

Here's a link to the album of our pictures! I'm still going through all of them, so make sure and check back later for more!

Florida Trip 2009

SOOOO Big!

Noah and Brandon had their well child exams today. Both are very healthy (minus Noah's sniffles) and the doctor was pleased with their progress. :)

Here are their stats!

Noah - 2 years

Height: 35" 75%

Weight: 29 1/2 lbs 50%

Head: 19 1/2" 75%

Brandon - 6 months

Height: 28" 90%

Weight: 15lbs 11oz 10-25% range

Head: 17 1/4" 50%

Happy 2nd Birthday Noah!

Happy birthday Bubster! You are such a big boy now!

Daddy, Brandon, Tank, Gin-gin, Jazzy, and I love you very much!

Happy Halloween!

From Handy Manny, Shawn, Faith, Monkey, and Mickey!

Cute as 2 buttons...

Noah 22 1/2 months; Brandon 4 1/2 months.

4 Months!!

Brandon is now 4 months old! I seriously can not even believe it. He's such a little ham now. Constantly cooing, blowing bubbles, and giggling. We had him in for his 4 month well baby visit this morning. So here are his stats!

Height: 25 inches (50%)
Weight: 13lbs 3 oz (25%)
Head: 16 3/4 inches (60%)

He's very healthy and happy so that's awesome! Plus he's eating like a horse. He's been getting us up again in the middle of the night lately. If it keeps up I think we are going to start him on cereal as when he wakes up he's hungry. So the milk might not be cutting it anymore. But we'll see. I'd really like to wait until 6 months to start him on solids.

More pictures will be coming!!!

I'm going back. Back! Back....

Back to school! LOL! Well I am, but not for what you all might think. In fact I'm heading back to my alma mater, good ole Minnetonka High School. Go Skippers! :)

Why may you ask? Well I'll tell you! My chiropractor's friend is the new yearbook advisor at Tonka. She wanted to find a photographer to come in and talk to the kids to help them out with their pictures for the yearbook. Well she thought of me (god love her). When she told me, I looked at her and said "I was the editor in chief my senior year at Minnetonka, plus I was the photo editor." LOL! Fast forward 2 weeks and I get an email from her friend.

So now I am pleased to say that next Friday I will be going back to High School for 2 days. Friday I'll be "teaching" and then sending the kids off to take pictures. Then on Monday I'll come back and we'll see what they shot. I'll give them some tips, and such.

I'm super excited and nervous all rolled into 1. So I'm going to put a presentation together for them as well as some form of a handout.

Wish me luck!

2 months

We had Brandon's 2 month well baby visit this morning. He did pretty good with his shots. It didn't take a long time to soothe him.

Here are his stats and for fun, what his big brother's were at 2 months as well.

Brandon:
Weight: 10lbs 12oz - 99%
Length: 23 inches - 50%
Head: 16 inches - 50%

Noah:
Weight: 12lbs 4oz - 75%
Length: 24.5 inches - 95%
Head: 16 inches - 75%

So he's pretty close to what his brother was at 2 months. He was also a week earlier than Noah too. I would like to know how they do the percentages though. LOL!

Summer Fun!

Yes yes, I know it's been over a month. Things have been a wee bit busy! I am back at work and that has us really busy during the week now. My maternity leave FLEW by! We did have some fun though the last few weeks! Our good friends from Florida came up to visit the last weekend of my leave. We had a BLAST! I've loaded up the pictures in the July album. We'll see them again for Thanksgiving and I can not wait! :)

Brandon is 2 months old today! I really can't believe how fast it has gone by so far. He's a good baby. He only gets us up 1x a night, but last night he slept the whole night. Maybe it's a sign of good things to come? Like Momma getting a FULL nights sleep? :D Oh I'll be super happy about that! LOL! We go to the doctor for his 2 month visit next wednesday. I'll make sure to post his stats. I feel like he's getting huge already... Just like his big brother.

Noah is thriving and loves his baby brother. He's super helpful. His new thing is to throw stuff away for us in the garbage. So that's nice with dirty diapers. LOL! Shawn and I laugh every day in some shape or form at something that Noah does. He is a little comedian. And in my opinion has the cutest belly laugh. We are now also entering the parrot stage. He's started repeating words that you say. But if you ask him to say a word, he'll just stare at you or say "No!". Oh and everything is a car. Doesn't matter if it's a truck, tractor, motorcycle, etc... To Noah it's a car.

As for Shawn & I, we are doing well. Just a wee bit pooped out. But that is to be expected when you are working full time and taking care of 2 little ones. :) Especially a high energy toddler. LOL!

I promise to update more often. Really I do. :)

TTFN!

Who Says

You can't travel with a 3 week old? LOL! Brandon made his first road trip up to the northern wilderness of MN this past weekend for the 4th of July. Despite waking us up every 2-3 hours to eat during the night, he did really well. In fact both boys did well. :) We had a lot of fun hanging out with the fam this weekend. Noah even had his first ride on a wave runner with Shawn. Grandma Kathy was a wee bit nervous about that, but I think we got her to calm down... :D

It was a great weekend, and thanks to Brain & Val for letting us stay with them. We always have a great time! And thanks to Uncle Ron & Aunt Lisa for letting us all hang out with them on the 4th!

Oh and we finally got a family picture of the 4 of us! Noah sat still long enough for it! LOL!

3 Years

Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary! At the time I am writing this we were dancing and having a blast with our guests at our reception! Unlike the last 2 years we are not doing an anniversary trip. Instead we welcomed Brandon Evan to our lives. Which is a good excuse as any in my books for not taking a trip! Plus Shawn reminded me just a bit ago that I technically should still be pregnant. Well thank goodness I'm not! :) This year will be low key in regards to celebrating. Just a nice dinner at home with our boys. Plus the beautiful roses Shawn bought me.

I love you baby!

1 Week

Well we've made it through the first week! Brandon is back up to his birth weight. He passed his first doctor's appointment with flying colors... I'm doing good as well. A wee bit tired, but nothing that's unmanageable. Shawn's home 1 more week with us, and we are hoping to have a couple of nice days where we can do some fun stuff with both boys.

Noah continues to do really well with Brandon. So we are hopeful it will continue. Time will tell! :)

Brandon had his first photo shoot on Thursday. Here are some of the shots that I got of him.










I'm hoping to get some shots of Noah with him besides just snapshots, but keeping an 18 month old still can be a bit hard. Especially my 18 month old. LOL! I'll at least get 18 month pictures of him by himself. Those I can do even if I have to chase him. :D

That's it for now!

And Baby Makes 4!

Brandon Evan Turner has arrived!!!

He was born on Friday, June 12th at 3:39pm. Approximately 50 minutes after we got into the hospital. Yes, I seem to have a knack for getting to the hospital just in time. LOL!

Here are his stats:

6 lbs 15.5 oz
21 inches long

His nickname is rocket boy as he rocketed on out of Momma. LOL!

Pictures are in the June album slideshow at the right! We are all doing well. Noah is doing very well with his new brother. He loves to look at him and give him loves. So far so good!

Now it's nap time for momma!

37 Weeks and Other Randomness...

I hit 37 weeks with LT2 on Saturday. I'm 1 cm dilated & 50% effaced. And in my mind he can make his appearance any ole time he wants!!! :) We head back to the doctor on Thursday afternoon so maybe there will be more progress...

In other news, Noah will be 18 months tomorrow. It's so hard to believe that he's getting so big. I swear it was just yesterday when we brought him home from the hospital. Now he's running around like a mad man (you can not keep him still for long), jabbering away (some words we can understand, some not so much), and shaking his booty for us when a song comes on that he likes. The boy LOVES to dance. :)

And lastly for this installment... the basement!!! Besides some more smaller items (in my mind they are small) to finish up, it is D-O-N-E! WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!! And we are VERY pleased with everything. It looks great! Pics are in the slideshow and in the May or June album. So check it out! Now comes the fun part... The finishing touches! :)

Sooooo CLOSE!

As I type, the tile guy is grouting the bathroom & the tile in front of the patio door. WOO - HOO!!! Pictures to come after he leaves! I am so excited! And to top the week off, the carpet is being installed tomorrow. Double WOO - HOO! This weekend will be filled with getting stuff moved in downstairs, finishing up the home theater stuff, and possibly starting Noah on sleeping in his big boy bed. Oh and Shawn is getting in a round of golf Saturday morning. Which is great! That man needs some fun time! He's been working super hard lately. Plus putting up with a very pregnant wife, which in itself deserves a medal.

Love you baby! <3

The Heat...

Only in Minnesota will it go from 49 degrees to 95 in 2 days. Top that off with pregnancy swelling and you have one happy very pregnant woman. I am so happy I am not going the whole summer pregnant. I feel so bad for those of you who have done that. Hopefully when Jaime & Charlie start to think about having babies she'll be able to avoid the Houston summer heat. Take it from me sis, you don't want to feel like this!


Otherwise, I'm still on modified bed rest. We go back to the OB tomorrow for our 34 week appt. Hopefully we'll find out more about the induction date and all.

That's it for now!

Start Em Young!

Updates

It's been a while so I thought I'd post a little update. Noah is totally walking on his own now. He won't crawl anywhere anymore except for up & down the stairs, which is what I like to see!

The basement is coming along great! We are still on schedule for finishing it this month. That is if the flooring people get their behinds here and get that done. More pictures are in the slideshow on the right.

Well I am now 33 weeks 3 days, and I have 5 weeks and 4 days to go. :) Yes, you heard that right. I will be induced at 39 weeks if LT2 has not made his presence yet. We should find out more at the next visit. But it's because of the gestational diabetes. Since the baby could be large, they will generally induce you by 39 weeks. At least that's the practice at my clinic. I'm also now on modified bed rest. I'm allowed to work from home, shower, paddle around (that's my doc's term), keep my feet above my head (also her term), but I'm not supposed to do laundry or grocery shop. SCORE! lol! Well Shawn got her to let me grocery shop, but i'm just supposed to point and he's supposed to do the rest.

That's about it from our neck of the woods.

Gestational Diabetes

So after having vampires remove oodles of blood from me last week, I found out on Monday that I have Gestational Diabetes. How bad it is, I don't know as they didn't tell me the results. Just that I failed. Nice. So on Friday I get to go to the endocrinologist where he will explain everything to me. After that appointment I have the pleasure of going to a 3 hour class in the diabetes center. Then next Friday I get to go back to the doctor for another 2 hour class. Oh what fun!

To top it off we've got a contractor coming to do the taping at our house starting tomorrow, and daycare is closed (for a well deserved mini-cation). Needless to say as it seems to be par for the course with us lately, this is not happening at a good time. So Shawn can't even come with me on Friday because he needs to watch Noah & be there for the contractor. {SIGH}

These are the days of our lives....

Oh and just so we're clear. I'm not worried, I'm annoyed. I know the baby will be fine as I'll do what needs to be done, I'm just annoyed that I have to deal with it. LOL!

Car Dancer Extraordinaire

Yes I have fully corrupted our son! Hee hee! I love to car dance and Shawn loves to laugh at me. But I don't care! Noah has recently started dancing along with Momma to the groovy music. I was able to sneak a little video of him doing it last night on my blackberry while Shawn was driving. I hope to get more soon that's longer. But he sees a camera and pretty much stops what he's doing. LOL!

Enjoy!

Strollin....

Although we are not yet walking by ourselves, we do love to walk with others. :) We'll eventually get there!





Another weekend of enjoying the lovely weather! And now it's raining. LOL! But hey, at least it's not snowing! :) Got to think positive right?

That's it from Turnerville....

Fresh Air!!

We have had some glorious weather here since last weekend. On Sunday late afternoon (post Val's baby shower) we had Noah out on his ATV riding around in the driveway. He was having a BLAST!!!

Here's a little video we got of him..



Yea for spring time!!!!!

Updates!

Well I've been slacking I know... Things have been a bit hectic around our house lately. We've had another bout of illness run through. This time it hit me as well and I ended up at the hospital for a few hours getting fluids. The baby is fine and now so am I.

I hit 24 weeks this weekend and LT2 is really moving around now! Noah likes to play with my belly button just like his auntie Jaime does. He's fascinated that it's half sticking out. LOL! And he likes to climb over Mount LT2 as well. It's pretty funny, I'm a jungle gym now for him! I've actually got some energy the past few days so that's been nice. I think the illness crud-o has finally gone and I can be productive! :D

This week is going to be busy as I've got Waconia's 2nd Annual Ladies Night Out on Thursday. I'm having a booth there so I hope to drum up some more photo business for the upcoming spring & summer! I'm really looking forward to it. It should be a great evening! I'm the only photographer there (the booths were exclusive per industry on a first come first serve basis) so that's a plus. And I'm all set for it too! Then Saturday and Sunday are filled with family events for Shawn's side. It should be a fun but busy weekend!

Oh and one last thing... Noah is 15 months old today! I can hardly believe that 15 months have passed. Where did they go? It all happens so fast. He's still not walking yet, but he's taken some steps. He's just very cautious. Plus I think that since he's rapid fast boy when crawling he prefers that. I just hope he starts walking soon because I don't know how much longer I can bend down to pick him up!

TTFN!!!

SPRING FEVER!!!

All of you know the crap winter we've had in our house. Yes I know "that's life", but when you are pregnant it is just even more of a bummer. And I can not even begin to tell you all how bad I have SPRING FEVER!! I want to open the windows, take walks after dinner with my boys, go to the park, have a bonfire with the neighbors, HAVE THIS BABY AND BE ON MATERNITY LEAVE (LOL! had to sneak that in there), eat & chill out on our deck... ETC.. ETC.. Ah the sorrows of a hormonal pregnant woman.

In other news... On March 12th I will be participating at the Waconia's Ladies Night Out. It's a chance for local women to get connected with women owned business and products. It's the 2nd year it's happened in Waconia. Otherwise it has been going on in Victoria for the last 4. I will be the only photographer there as it's a first come first serve basis for vendors. Only 1 per type of business. So I'm pretty pumped! It was a big success last year, so I hope it will be this year too.

That's it for now!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day everyone! Belated of course! Our valentines weekend ended up being a bit sad because our friends who were supposed to come up for the weekend from Florida couldn't. But it was for the best because Christopher needs to get rid of the bronchitis that he obtained last week! So instead they shall hopefully be coming up this summer after the new arrival is here! :)

We instead went out to dinner on valentines day with Noah, my parents, and my grandmother. It was a lovely evening. Noah did very well at dinner. I think I spilled more food on myself or the table than he did! Gotta love the prego clutziness. LOL!

Here is my favorite picture of the weekend. My 2 guys with their shades on thinking they are the coolest guys in town!

And we are having....

A BOY!!!!

Shawn was a bit sad it wasn't a girl, but we are both very happy about our new little guy. He looks very healthy and on target for June 27th! His little nose already looks like his brothers (and mine). :) We told Noah last night he's going to have a brother and got the response we expected. A blank stare. LOL!

I uploaded the ultrasound pictures to our web album. Here's the direct link for you all. Go check out our new little guy!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/ShawnFaith/February2009#

Snow Fun!

Well lookie here! A post without something bad to report! Woo Hoo!!!! We spent last weekend visiting Shawn's grandparents up in Milaca on Saturday. They haven't seen Noah since the previous Christmas. It was a lot of fun. Noah had a good time walking around their house with Grandpa Roehl's walker. It was hilarious!



Sunday we spent at home putzing around the house and managed to get outside and play in the snow since it wasn't -31 degrees outside! Noah had a blast! This was his first time playing in the snow and he really enjoyed it!






See the January album for lots more pictures! The basement is moving along! The fireplace is now all framed in and up in its home. The height we put it at is perfect! So excited to see it finished and fired up!

Deer are not fun to hit with cars

Yes you read that right! After dropping off Noah at daycare this morning Shawn and I were making our way to the bus stop. Well not even a mile from daycare what should appear to RUN across the road? A flippin deer! Shawn was able to lock the breaks up so we didn't hit it at full speed, but we still hit it. After we pulled over said "You ok?" to each other and both responded with "Yes", we got out to first check on the deer (we are animal lovers) and then check the car.

Shawn got to the deer first and no sooner had he gotten within 15 feet of it, she got up and scampered off into the forest. I hope she is still scampering through the forest at this moment. Our car on the other hand can still scamper, but the front passenger side headlight, the whole bumper, grill, and dent in the hood needs to be fixed.

So instead of making the rest of the way into the office we figured we'd have better luck if we just turned around and came home to work. Which turned out to be the best idea ever because a snow storm has decided to come through that we didn't know would be this "bad".

But to give me a good laugh my co-worker sent this response to my email telling them I was at home and the reason why...

I am glad you are OK.
Next time use gun to hunt deer. Car is a bad choice.
How is the venison?

Both Shawn and I laughed so hard when he sent that. Thank you Arun!

Anyone have a bubble large enough to accomodate all 3 of us, our pets, house, vehicles, oh and the baby I'm carrying????

JEEZ...

Calgon take me away!

Brushing off the dust…

Cough cough cough…

It’s time to dust off the ole blog. We’ve been super busy since Noah’s birthday. So here’s the low down on our Holiday Adventures…

Viva la Mexico!

Although Noah came down with pink eye in both eyes, an ear infection, and a cold the day BEFORE we were leaving to go to Cancun, we still made it down there. We did have a lovely time with Mom, Dad, Jaime, & Charlie and spent each day at the pool or on the beach. Noah was over the bad stuff in a few days, but still had a fever off and on until Thursday. He was surprisingly in a very good mood considering he was sick so that was good. And we couldn’t complain being that we were in 80 degree weather and MN was below zero! :D

Here are our pics from the the trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/ShawnFaith/Cancun2008#

There are over 300! Enjoy!

Snowmobiles are my friend…..

Or I should say Shawn’s friend… Shawn decided to head up north to go snowmobiling for a few days the day after we got back from Mexico. Which was good since he was on vacation the rest of the month and we had a lot of snow! Well Monday night he calls just as I was done feeding Noah. I cheerfully answer the phone and ask if he’s having fun… The response I get…. “Um, I crashed my sled into a culvert and I think I broke my arm”

WHAT?!?!?! Ok, I realize he’s ok, but it did freak me out. Jennifer calls me later to tell me the status on him from the ER. I get to hear that the nurse thought she was my husband’s girlfriend… (I’m so surprised you didn’t smack her Jenn. LOL!) But he was fine and had to have surgery scheduled for the next day up in Duluth. So the call tree began to get things in place so that I could get up there and bring him home after the surgery the next day.

And here is a picture taken of Shawn post ER trying to eat soup that Jenn’s mom made for him.

From December 2008

Thank you to the Barnes’, Fokken’s, and Strom’s for taking such good care of my hubby whilst he was up there. I REALLY appreciate your generosity and wonderful care!

Tuesday after a long day of driving, waiting, and driving some more we made it home (Thanks Dad for driving up there with me). Barb was waiting for us as she took care of Noah so that I didn’t have to drag him along on the trip. Especially after him getting shots that morning. So after profusely thanking her again for the short notice babysitting, she was off to traverse the roads home and I was off to put the broken arm boy to bed.

I do have to say that even though men can be big babies when they are sick, Shawn has been really good. Besides trying to lift too much with his hand (GRRRR…) he hasn’t been in pain since that first night. So YAY for that!

The Holidays...

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were nice. We spent Christmas Eve at home with the 3 of us. Christmas Day we opened up gifts as a family and then made our way to my Aunt Pat’s for the Arbogast Christmas. We had a lovely time there and then headed back to Mom & Dad’s for our rib roast feast! Yum! Jaime & Charlie made it up to MN this year for Christmas so that was great! Although we had just spent a week with them in Mexico it was nice to see them again for the day. We never get enough time with them, but then again they do live in TX. Mom & Jaime performed their latin dance moves that they learned at the resort. They even got Noah to join in on the fun!

(Video to be added soon… Hee hee hee)

We spent the next few days trying to relax as much as possible. The Turner Christmas was postponed to 1/2/09 since Steve came down with the stomach flu the day after Christmas. Sunday Mom & Dad brought Noah’s ATV over since Dad had gotten it put together. Now that was funny! It didn’t take long for the little man to figure out how to get it going! Pics and video are coming!

After another week of working and celebrating a friends passage to their 30’s! Welcome to the club Michael! J We got to celebrate Christmas with the Turner’s. I made what I deem to be an AWESOME dinner (sorry, had to pat my own back for that one)! Beef Tenderloin, twice baked potato casserole, veggies, rolls, etc… Well I’m only taking credit for the beef & potatoes with their appropriate sauces…. J As those were the “new” items for me to make (well not the potatoes). ANYWAYS… We had a lovely afternoon/evening with them.

The rest of the weekend including helping Val register for baby stuff. That was a fun day! And then chilling at home getting ready for heading back to the office on Monday.

And now I think I’m spent! It will not be this long before the next update! I promise!