Thanksgiving Travels

Taylor had her first flight last week as we spent Thanksgiving in Salt Lake City, Utah with the Turner side. She did great - was upgraded to first class on both flights and slept the whole time. May all future flights be as sweet!

When we landed we drove straight to the University of Utah's medical center to visit Grandma Turner who has been courageously fighting an agressive infection that caused organs to shut down and limit circulation to her fingers and toes. She is miraculously improving at home after a roller coaster of tests, meds, prognosis, etc and although it is unclear what will happen to her fingers and toes, she is doing amazingly well.
At the hospital Taylor got to meet Grandma & Grandpa Turner for the first time. And she also got to meet and be held by all 7 aunts!! She was so happy to be passed around and fussed over. Taylor is the 28th grandchild on the Turner side. Her oldest cousin, Jeremy Whittaker, is 35 years older! The youngest cousin, Levi Nye, is 2 1/2 years old. There are also 27 great grandchildren that are all older than her!!!

Aunt Tonia Adams

Cousin Kelley & her husband Jeremy Kirk

Cousins Lexi, Ryker & Rogan

Aunt Jodie and Cousin Sydney
Aunt Shellie & cousin Brianna

A quick family picture!Uncle Gary & Aunt Jodie

Cousin Brody (his middle name is Taylor!)

Great-grand daughters (after the hot tub)!
Aunt Teri & Uncle Paul - thanks for taking such good care of us! We had a wonderful thanksgiving meal with their great family. And stayed at their house, drove their new car, ate their food, etc. Thanks for the great time!

Trent & Jennifer, Remington, Alison & Olivia

Weston, Bailey, Brooke, Aiden & Jeremy
Melissa, Brecken & Sean

A Little Jabber

Taylor is now 8 weeks and she continues to gain her weight and is now 10 lbs 11 oz. When else do you applaud putting on the weight except when you are this tiny! She gain 19 ounces in 2 weeks when we went back in for her follow up appointment on her acid reflux. She is doing great! Here are a few clips of her little jabber/cooing. Its only the beginning of her expressing herself, I'm sure, but its so cute to hear at her small age.

Twinners!

Do you see a resemblance?! Nice hair Taylor & Mason!

A Fun Surprise

Last month I received such a fun surprise! A box from my older sister, Alyson, was delivered book rate and it was very heavy. I thought she was her organized self and already sent our Christmas presents. I opened it up and saw a "virtual baby shower" invitation on the top and read it and started to cry. I was so touched to see that all my aunts, sisters, cousins and mom had sent Alyson books so I could start a library for Taylor. Since we all live across the country (NY, London, Chicago, DE, Utah, Michigan, AZ, VA, NC, CA, Boise, did I get them all?!) this was such a clever way she brought all the wonderful women in my family together. And John was in the know as she asked him to make sure he documented the event with pictures to post. Thank you so much!!!


First she gave instructions to decorate with the items she sent. We held the "shower in a box" in the nursery - which was originally a study so the book shelves are already in place for our library collection! Then she instructed us to eat - we loved the dark chocolate covered Jo Jo's (oreos) from Trader Joes - thank you!!!

Then the fun began as we opened all the books. I was so touched - there were so many books, everyone was so generous! And the only duplicate was the all time favorite, The Hungry Catapillar, but one was the full sized book, and one was the small board book for a baby so it was perfect! I have started reading the books, just because they are all such great stories! I wrote in each book who it was from so I can talk about that special person each time we read one of the stories.

Perfect! - I call Taylor "love bug" or "bug" for short all the time!

Taylor fell asleep but here she is with Masie!

A little Asian culture at an early age!

Aunt Eileen loves cows!

Can I say THANK YOU enough?!!?!

Guys Weekend

Grandpa Turner and I headed east Halloween weekend for a great guys weekend visiting the boys (we left Heather & Taylor at home!). Dad flew in from SLC and I came from Houston and drove to Appalachian State University (Boone, NC) to visit Johnathan where he is a music major. We attended his jazz band practice and then on to the football game. My Dad is a musician and music teacher so it was great for him to see Johnathan's music school.

Johnathan's very small dorm (he has the bottom bunk)

Grandpa Turner and Johnathan

Johnathan marches with the alto sax in the band


ASU marching band has over 300 members performing for the sold out crowd on Halloween night. They even performed "Thriller" with dance moves and all!



Saturday morning Grandpa, Johnathan and I drove back to the Raleigh area to visit Jordan for the Cary Band Day. This was the 50th year of the competition.

Jordan in his robot gear - their HS band competition show was called "Transformation" based on a theme of moving from a robot to human. They did a great job - awesome formations and very creative choreography
Jordan plays the snare drum in the drum line

Jordan's APEX HS band - has about 100 members

Drumline in action

Sunday we went to church and hung out before Johnathan headed back to Boone. Jordan took us to explore Duke University and Duke Gardens.

THE TURNER MEN!

Johnathan, Jordan, John, Jack

Duke University Bell Tower

Jordan & Grandpa Turner at the chapel

Jordan about to eat a crane

Seven Weeks Stretch

Taylor is 7 weeks today. This was meant to be a six week post, but that didn't happen. But these pictures were taken last week. She is doing great - gained almost 2 pounds in 3 weeks - up to 9 lbs 8oz which is great since we were playing catch up from the weight she lost initially. She had an upper GI to rule out if she had silent acid reflux (she doesn't spit up much) or just colic at any time of the day. She was a trooper and drank the bottle of barium (after not being able to nurse for 4 hours!) and the radiologist captured the barium go down her throat, fill her tummy and start out to the intestines and then we watched it go all the way back up her throat! Yes, she has severe acid reflux! She is taking 2 medications that are helping and her painful crying sessions are lessening!

Eban is Okay

If you were worried that Eban might not be getting enough love, he is doing alright. In fact, a package came last month with a "sock puppy" for Taylor made with love by Aunt Marilyn. But the companion puppy also came for dear Eban. We were fortunate enough to get the last 2 (and only 2) sock puppies in the inventory before Marilyn shut down her sock dog venture to join the rest of the world in corporate America (she scored a fun marketing job at Dell). Thanks Aunt Marilyn!!!BFF

Taylor and her new puppy
This is how Eban shows his affection for his new puppy!

Headgear

All babies need a little fashion for their heads....Today at church we got the comment, "How about some baby with that bow!" Isn't she adorable!?!

Grandma Turner knitted this hat - ready for snow!

Laurie Kronenberg sent us this hat - its perfect for our walks in the crisp air!

Happy Halloween!

Ready for Trick or Treating!
Definitely a TREAT!!!

After a quick appearance at the church "Trunk or Treat", we joined our neighbors (Susie, Santa & Doris) in the cul-de-sac handing out candy to trick-or-treaters together and visiting!