Thanksgiving 2011

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We spent Thanksgiving lunch with my family and Thanksgiving dinner with Carlton's family. We did a lot of visiting and a lot of eating! It was a great day! Of course with two kids this year, I didn't have much time to snap pictures. I managed to get one family photo before we left for dinner.

And here are our two little turkeys! These are two things we are extremely thankful for this year!

North Pole Breakfast 2011

Our family has had its very own elf, Elvin, for two years now. He has arrived after Thanksgiving each year and has stayed with us until Christmas Eve. This year Elvin made a grand entrance! He hosted our first ever North Pole Breakfast! He brought snow covered donuts and hot chocolate with floating snowballs all the way from the North Pole! He also left each of the boys a new pair of Christmas pajamas. Big brother also got an elf ornament for his tree, bubbles, Santa socks, and an elf cup. Each boy also received a special note from Elvin.

Baby brother was only able to stay awake for about 5 minutes of the breakfast! John Turner does not wake up until after 8:00 on weekends and Judson had already been up for over an hour and was ready for his morning nap! He stayed up long enough to read his letter from Elvin and to see his new pajamas.

John Turner didn't really know what to think when he walked into the kitchen and saw all of this! He had the cutest look on his face. Even though this is our 2nd year with Elvin, it is the first year John Turner has really understood why he has come to visit us.

This is what he did for quite a while. He didn't touch anything! He just stared at the elf!

Then he began giving me these cute little smiles of excitement!

He then ventured over to his side of the table to see all of the gifts Elvin had brought for him.

Daddy then shared the story about Elvin. We learned that he is magical and if we touch him he will lose that magic. John Turner also learned that Elvin will report to Santa each night to tell him of his behavior of the day. Let's hope this helps some of this three year old craziness!

The snow covered donuts and hot chocolate were big hits!

Look at that face!!!! Such excitement!

I love this big boy!!

We look forward to continuing this tradition each year when Elvin arrives.

(I can't take credit for this awesome idea! One day when I was wasting all of my time away on Pinterest, I came across this idea! I knew that John Turner would love it! So we created it at our house!)

John Turner at 3

I have been wanting to write a post about John Turner at 3 years old. There is so much that I want to remember about him at this age. He is just precious...well, most of the time! HA HA!! We have actually had some challenging moments with this boy since he turned 3. I know some of it has to do with having a new baby in the house. He is a smart, curious, creative, strong-willed and energetic boy!

Here are a few things I want to write down about him so I don't forget.

He weighed 29 pounds and was 37 1/2 inches tall at his 3 year check-up. He is still a skinny little thing, but he has started gaining weight. He was even on the chart for weight this time...just barely!

He can spell his name (well half of it) he can spell Turner perfectly. We are working on John. He can write a T and a J kind of... we are working on that too.

He can say the entire Pledge of Allegiance. It is the cutest thing you have ever heard!

He can name and locate at least 5 states on the US map. He has quite an interest in geography

He knows all of his ABC's and the sounds each makes

He can count to 20 and can name some of his numbers- I am thinking he is going to be my language arts child--not a math child

He loves everything to do with his daddy right now--he loves spending the night at the hunting camp, feeding the deer or turkey or just riding around the hunting land on the buggy! In a few years he is going to be gone with Carlton every weekend!

He has quite an imagination. He loves to pretend we are fire breathing dragons and chase each other around, loves to pretend he is a fireman putting out fires, loves to prepare pretend meals for our family

He also loves to pretend his stuffed animals are babies. I mean they get diapered, fed, changed, burped and rocked to sleep!

He loves to sing and dance!

He is a pro on his tricycle and we are thinking he will be moving on up to a real bike before long!

He still enjoys reading books and working on puzzles

He loves going to school and to Sunday School. He gets very excited on Sunday mornings to go see Mrs. Karen, his SS teacher

He is totally potty trained now! HALLELUJAH!! We finally poop on the potty!! YIPPEE!!

He loves eating Mexican food! He wants to go out to eat cheesy rice every day! He also asks me to stop at Taco Bell at least once a week and order him a cheese roll-up

The boy LOVES some ice cream!

He is starting to be able to go without naps--I am not ready for this one!

He loves to have his Gran, GiGi, SuSu or Johnnie Nell to come over and play or take him places

He will build with blocks for hours!

We watch Calliou a lot!! The boy is obssessed with Calliou!!

Here is an interview I did with John Turner. I plan to do it each year.

An interview with John Turner at 3 years old:

What is your favorite color? blue

What is your favorite toy? blocks

What is your favorite fruit? apples

What is your favorite show? Calliou

What is your favorite movie? Cars

What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? pizza lunchable

What is your favorite game? chase the dragon

Waht is your favorite snack? pudding

What is your favorite animal? monkey

What is your favorite song? ABC's

What is your favorite book? Goodnight, Gorilla

Who is your best friend? Caleb, Sophia and Harper Anne

What is your favorite cereal? Fruit Loops

What is your favorite thing to do outside? jump on my trampoline

What is your favorite drink? grape juice

What is your favorite holiday? Halloween

What do you like to sleep with? Glo Glo

What do you like to eat for breakfast? pancakes

What do you like to eat for dinner? spaghetti

What do you want to be when you grow up? cowboy

A Thanksgiving Feast

John Turner's classroom had their Thanksgiving party today at school. His teachers had the fabulous idea to have a traditional Thanksgiving feast for their party. We had the best meal!

Here is my turkey ready to head to school for his Thanksgiving feast!

Gran was also in attendance at the feast. Can you tell how excited he was about that?

Here is Mommy trying to attempt to get a picture with my silly turkey!

Brother had a fabulous time at the feast as well. He didn't even get his morning nap today, and he was still as sweet as pie for the entire party! I just love this angel baby!

Some of the cute Thanksgiving artwork JT has made this year.

Here my son is saying "Happy Turkey Day". He only said it about a million times today!

Finally a sweet picture with Mommy!

Posing outside for me after the big feast--but not wanting to because he was ready to go home with Gran for the weekend!

I am so thankful that JT has such loving and caring teachers this year. They love him like their own! I am also thankful that he loves them and is happy to be at school each day. I am also thankful that he has a sweet group of friends in his classroom. I am also thankful that I am a stay at home mom and get to attend these special events with my boy!

Dr. Watt and his Precious Patient

Halloween

We had a fabulously fun Halloween this year! John Turner was very excited about dressing up, going trick or treating and eating lots of candy! Both of our families came over on Halloween night so that all of the cousins could trick or treat together in our neighborhood. A fun time was had by all!

Here is my cowboy with his cousin Strawberry Shortcake

Daddy and his boys on the buggy ready to trick or treat! As you can see, John Turner was already eating candy at this point! Brother, the horsey, only made it around to a couple of houses and then he went to our house and spent some alone time with his grandparents; something that he never gets!

John Turner had the best time going door to door this year! He wouldn't even get back on the buggy each time! He would take off running to the next house as soon as they put candy in his bucket!

He would run to meet us after each house and say, "Look at all of these treats!"

Here is a collage of our little horsey on his first Halloween! He didn't even complain one bit about being dressed up like a horsey! Sweet angel!

This year our SS class decided to do a little Halloween party for our children. We had a hayride, roasted hot dogs and just enjoyed great fellowship with one another. Some of us decided to join in on the fun and dress up with our children.

Here is our family Halloween 2011: A cowboy, 2 Indians and their horsey!

Scary Jack O' Lantern

We have several Halloween themed books at our house. John Turner has been reading these books since October 1st! He LOVES everything that has to do with fall and Halloween! One of his favorite books is one about different types of jack o'lantern faces. His absolutely favorite jack o'lantern in the book is the scary jack o'lantern. When we decided it was time to carve the pumpkin we had picked at the pumpkin patch, there was not even a question as to what kind of face it would have! John Turner brought out this book and showed his daddy exactly what kind of jack o'lantern he wanted!

They really had a great time carving the pumpkin this year. John Turner was able to participate a lot more and he was very proud of what he was able to do!

Here is the finished product. Along with John Turner and Carlton showing their scary jack o'lantern faces!

I had to at least have one picture with this precious pumpkin carver!

And finally, here are the two cutest pumpkins in the whole world!!