fun times with the Turners

This is Jackson Turner! 8 months old, totally laid back and such a cutie pie!
Sally loved him. They would jibber jabber and laugh back and forth with each other... totally cute. Sally was constantly pulling his pacifier out of his mouth and trying to stick it in her own.
And at one point in time, Jackson was laying on his back and we caught Sally sticking her her finger in his eye. And Jackson just closed his eyes- hoping she would leave him alone. =)
This is Donna and Pat Turner- they were in Quito when Ruthie and I first lived there. Pat was the Middle School Principle at the Alliance Academy and Donna helped us with finding household items and really just finding our way there. They are now living in St. Louey too.
too cute for words
Jackson's one little ear and lip up- so cute. And Sally is borrowing one of his lil hats.
just talking and hanging out
Jackson and is BIG BLUE eyes.
Our dear, messy, sweet Sally Jane!

and cutie patootie, one ear cocked Jackson Patrick Turner!


ha, not sure what she was sad about... but you can see a TEENY bit of drama queen coming out in this pix. =) She must get that from her daddy. =)
having a blast together

Here's Sally's "stiff arm" captured wonderfully as she stiff arms Neuman the pooch. She actually really loved Neuman, so not sure what she doing here.. but that stiff arm does come out when she is not wanting us to clean her ears or what not...
you can she loves the pup!

we had a super great time together and i was blessed to spend my bday with raiz.
we are glad that we have lived within driving distance for the past 4 years.

tomorrow, Donna and David (bethel) Robbins fly in from Denver!
woot woot!
They will be here thru Thursday and I am STOKED!

k- not much else to report on at this point in time.... we are hanging in there and doing well.
please keep praying on job/future stuff... thanks!

some action shots

yup- she's a mover now.
it's pretty cool.

on the pregnancy news front... i am not sleeping well at night (usually awake for an hour or so in the middle-random, not sure why) and i am now feeling this lil one wiggle/kick/or punch. =) I am 16 weeks on Friday and will find out gender in 2-3 weeks!

donnie and her lil david are flying in this weekend for a visit! i am super pumped!

also, we are beginning to think/prepare about packing up and moving to WI/Chicago in the end of March. as gow doesn't have any work lined up and we have been praying and waiting and praying some more- we are planning to move in with family until God provides employment.

this is sad to leave Nashy, a bit confusing to not have employment lined up and also exciting to be near family for the first time since highschool.... a tumble of emotions and thoughts.

happy hump day ya'll.

blowing kisses

so this is my fave video.
we shot this when grandma and grandpa g were here.

today was filled with PT for gow, taking our CRV to the dealer to check out a light on the dashboard, beth moore bible study for me, job hunting and craigslist posting and selling and for sally jane... her first trip down our hallway from dad in the living room- to me in the bedroom!
we are so proud.
=)

face scratch and pool

hello all-
we made it back from st louey last night around 1 AM. ugh.
there was a massive wreck that gave us about an hour detour on gravel roads. they had shut down the freeway on BOTH ways... and we saw about 15-20 emergency vehicles... scary stuff and Praise the Lord for safety for our vehicle.

We had a super sweet time with the Turners.
And thank the Lord for the close proximity - making weekend trips doable!
Will post some pix soon of their lil Jackson and our time together.
sally has a battle wound here on her cheek from the TV stand.
as she is now an official crawler- she is taking some crazy face dives.. .
our indoor pool is open again! woot!
however, it is not as warm as i wish.
and our hot tub is too hot for sj...so i suck it up-- and gow doesn't mind it.
=)
she loves being in there and watching any other kiddos that maybe splashing around.

today i am unpacking, laundry, selling some stuff for Linda on Craigslist and hopefully gonna see Jess and Cali.
Gow is doing some job hunting/connection stuff and putting a list together of things we need to get done.

sally jane is missing Jackson and Neuman (the turner's puggle) but is UBER thankful to be outta the car seat today!

love to ya'll

whoops- pix from last week at home...

hey ya'll- thanks so much for all of the emails, fb notes and phone calls for my bday!
ya'll are sweet!
so i am 32 and a day today- wow. seems like that someone else is 32 and a day.. not me. =)

i had a good day hanging out with ruthie poops, lil jackson and sally jane.
it is fun to catch up and to share stuff about being mommies of 8 and 10 month old lil ones.
and super fun to see them play together - and just be entertained by each other.
they make the same funny laughing/sucking in noises and if one starts, the other is happy and starts up too.

sally is also mesmerized by Neuman, the puggle. he is very patient and calm and lets sally grab a handful of hair or even touch his face. he often licks her and is definately near when she is in her chair for a meal.

gow is on his way back from his whirlwind trip to lake geneva to film the audition dvd of he and by big brother Neal for the Amazing Race. sounds like they put alot of work and effort into it and now we wait to see if they will be the chosen ones! it would be soooo incredibly cool if they were on next fall's show!
and ya'll know gow's luck on tv shows!!!!!
come on down! your the next contest on the....

we are now looking forward to the weekend with the turner fam.
i think we will have some peach pie tonight for my bday and are planning to watch fireproof after the wee ones go down for the night.

love to ya'll and thanks again for all of the bday lovin!

crawling and vaccuuming videos

we now officially have a crawler on hands folks.
and today gow found that she had pulled herself up to a standing position on her toy box.
yup- we are mighty proud!

today is another random 72 degrees and sunny... unbelievably wonderful!
sally L-O-V-E-S the warm wind, both on a walk and driving to walmart today, she started clapping her hands and giggling in joy as the wind plays with her fuzzy hair and face. my fave thing about this is that she then turns to see if i am enjoying it like she is.



well, we decided to pack things up and go on a quick road trip!
that's right, with gow being done with work and our time being limited in TN we decided that we need to visit our pals in St. Louis one more time while we are within driving distance.
so, we are head to St. Louis tonight to hang out with the Turners.

we plan to arrive at Turners tonight and then tomorrow AM gow will get up early and drive to Lake Geneva, Wi for the day, get up Friday morning and drive BACK to St. Louis.

why, you may ask?
cuz my crazy brother and crazy hubby are going to make a video interview and send it in to "The Amazing Race"! The will be TEAM KNEEL! ha!
So we will keep you posted on that adventure!

okay- catch ya'll probably on Monday.
happy weekend to ya'll.

sally rockin

this video was from a week or so ago.. but cracked us up.
enjoy!

to sum up our lives right now.... we know nothing.

ha. it is soo simple to write out, and SOO complex in the day to day.
from our lease ending, to gow's employment, to will we always be living contract to contract, to what we will be doing tomorrow or this weekend.
i feel a bit overwhelmed by it all.
sigh.
He is our rock and we are confident that He holds our tomorrow in His hands.
sigh.

the highlight of my day today was coffee with my friend jess.
our hubbies stayed at home with the girls and we had two glorious hours of chatting, sharing, white chocolate mocha-ing and true encouraging! ahhhh yes!

life with SJ has been interesting the past two days.
our "super sally" is experimenting with her ability to express to us in a very LOUD, shrieking way when she isn't happy with decisions we have made for her.
it could be a combo of her dropping her last nursing this week, her teeth, her grandparents having left, having been super cuddled during her sickness.... or her just learning that she can protest something. i don't know.
yet another thing that we don't know.
=)
we are learning when to accomodate her shrieking and when to tell her that that is not okay.

k. this is turning into a journal page. ha.
good night from the "household of unknowns"!

last pix with grandma and grandpa g

just having a good time together!
a close up of SJ's bling bling
grandma and grandpa took us out to the Cheesecake Factory! Yum! Sally was still sick at this point and just enjoyed ice water, time at the table with us and three diaper changes during the meal. nice.
sally was happy to have grandma in the back seat with her for company!
ha- this was a fam pix... i love how the DISH is in the pix as well.
sweetness with grandpa
sally loved the time with grandma and grandpa. we have been truly blessed as even though they live in Guatemala, they have already seen sally 3 or 4 times in her short 10 months of life!

on the news front....

i was wrong in yesterdays blog. sorry. gow has today and wed. at the studio.

gow just got a haircut and is SMOKING hot!

sally jane seems to be back to her normal self, except she is a bit whinier and clingier. fun. =)

aight- have a good one!

last week with grandma and grandpa gowan

playing with grandma's scarf as she gets ready to go to the confr.

today i will give ya'll a brief update on los gowanitos...

sally jane:

1 - had a WHOLE day yesterday without the big D! wahoo!
she slept thru the night the past 2 nights and even had a normal poop this morning!
i think/pray that she is on the upswing and for the most part, she is her happy self again. PTL.

2 - her ears are doing wonderfully. she hates to have them cleaned... but they are healing well and looking good. she never lost any sleep over them and i think maybe only one side is even tender.

3 - she was measured at the doc's and is 29 inches long - has grown 8 inches in her 9 1/2 months - i think she will be a ball-er. =) she weighs 20 pounds and is now in the 65% for her age.

4 - she is crawling now, but she doesn' know that she can do it. =) if we try to get her to crawl to us, she falls on her tummy, wiggles her arms and legs and gets frustrated. but if there is a toy or we aren't looking at her, she will crawl about 4 feet. funny girl.

5 - she is into "dancing" - swaying with music, clapping, blowing kisses and waving.


chilling with grandpa after a day at the confr.

one day we went to see grandma and grandpa in action!
and grandma sang sally jane a sweet lullaby for her afternoon nap.


hanging out on the porch together.

this is RIGHT after we pierced Sally Jane's ears... i am contemplating if i did the right thing....

and i am TRYING to smile... =)
grandma g brought sally jane some earmuffs - like the ones that Aunt Katy had when she was little.
and one of our fave pix- her lil pursed lips.

back to the updates..

gow:

1 - is done at Big Idea. he worked 10 hour days on Friday and Saturday and unless they call him back for extra work... he is done.

2 - he is now going to physical therapy two times a week

3 - is planning on working on his website, maybe do some re-writing to his JTM script, do some more researching and trying to take advantage of his spare time while keeping on the job hunt.

4 - loves ice cream

5 - and loves playing with sally jane

me:

1 - our little baby is can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his (universal he) thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him — a process he'll keep up until birth. from head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches, about the size of a lemon, and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces.

2 - i feel myself again as far as energy level and i no longer feel sick/nor have to eat all the time.

3 - i am HUGE. =) i am already wearing maternity jeans and my belly looks like i am 25 weeks instead of the 14 weeks that i really am.

4 - i am REALLY REALLY ready for God to show us what's next. not knowing truly sucks. we have 6 weeks left on our lease for our apartment. if God doesn't open a door, we will pack up and move in with my fam in WI or IL.

5 - i think i might paint my finger nails blue today.

toodles!

sally slept thru the night! woot woot

wahoo! sally jane slept thru the night! first time in about a week!
she didn't have much for breakfast, but we are super thankful about the night!

these pix are from a few weeks ago- but thought i should post some cuties for Valentines day.

Happy day of love to ya'll! Thanks for caring, praying and taking time to care about us and read our blog.

Also, happy birthday party to Kristi! Wish we and Auntie Jane could be there with ya'll to celebrate!

And to our Cali fam- greet Nancy for us today and we wish we could be there with ya'll too!

much love!