Trains are fun

Here is a fun video from today. Eli has some GREAT books, and both boys love story time. They both are very interested in the pictures and listening to the stories. What smart little guys! Then for fun we listen to the train song and watch the flashing lights. Hooray for trains!
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Playtime rules!

1. All toys must go into the mouth first.
2. Sharing is fun as long as you don't mind if the blocks are a little slobbery.
3. Plastic bottles are much more fun to play with then the usual toys.
4. Playtime is so much fun when you are in your pajamas.

I will try to add more pictures to this slide show tomorrow, so stay tuned for more adventures of James and Eli!

Look what I found

WARNING: This video is probably extremely boring to most, but exciting for grandparents.

James has discovered the drawer pulls make a clinking noise when he plays with them. He is so excited!
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A Southern Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we packed up our Civic and drove down to Atlanta. Thankfully we came to our senses and didn't drive the entire 10 hours in one night, but rather stopped half way in NC. This allowed us to sleep, shower and recharge. Three cheers for the Hampton Inn! Why didn't we think of this earlier?

This trip was the first time that James got to meet his Great-Grandmother! He was the perfect gentleman for our entire time at Ma's home, which made John and I very proud parents. James loved Ma and tried to reach for her and wanted to walk over and visit with her. We had a great time visiting with Ma!

Next stop was Blairsville for some fun in the mountains. James tried applesauce and played with lots of new toys courtesy of his cousin Abigail. Abigail was so sweet to share her toys! Nana loved introducing applesauce to James, and Papa even gave him a small bite of banana. James was very spoiled and loved trying fruit!

Some family friends came to visit while we were in Blairsville. The three girls had a great time playing with James, he is quite the little flirt. He loved to be the center of attention!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with turkey, cornbread dressing, green beans, Waldorf salad, cranberry chutney and some yummy pecan pie! Mmmmm! John and I both had two plates full of food, it was so good. We also got to celebrate Nana's birthday on Saturday. James and Abigail each gave Nana a kiss, which were her favorite presents!

Abigail and James both dressed up for college football game day. Unfortunately the home team didn't pull out a victory. I guess the "good luck" outfits didn't work this time.

James woke us up good and early this morning, so we were able to get home before the holiday traffic, and now we are sitting and enjoying some football and a fire. We have so much to be thankful for!

Giving thanks

It is so amazing to look back on the last 6 months and see how much our little guy has grown and changed. It is so humbling to be a parent. Every day I thank God for James, what a blessing he has been to our family!

Here he is at 2 weeks old. It wasn't that long ago that all he did was sleep and eat.

Now at 6 months he is such an active little guy, we can't wait to see what he will be doing next!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
Psalm 95:1-2

James took his first steps...

...that is what the ladies in the nursery at church said when I came to pick James up after Sunday school. What! James doesn't even crawl yet, how could he be walking already? He does love to walk around if you hold his hands, and he is getting pretty good at toddling around the house. He is also very insistent that he wants to stand sometimes, and I guess he was politely insisting all morning in the nursery that he would rather stand then sit and play with his toys. So the sweet nursery ladies were letting him stand, and at one point they felt he was well balanced so they let go. Then he took three steps and then fell over. Three steps all by himself!

So far John and I have not witnessed an unsupported step and when I do hopefully I will have the camera in hand. I can't believe he is starting to walk...guess it is time to really baby proof the house!

Could they be any cuter?

James and Eli are so cute! Here are all the boys playing together! James and Eli LOVE watching Charlie run around. They get the biggest smiles and start laughing when he wanders over to our little play corner. Check out Eli sitting up all by himself!

Tummy time is fun when you have a friend!

Playing with the blocks and having a ball!

Big smiles for the camera!

James and I can't wait to see Eli again tomorrow! For more pictures of our adventures check out this picture link.

Fog magic

Recently in DC it has been foggy in the mornings. Ah, fog reminds me of my time on California's central coast in a little town of San Luis Obispo. This is where I spent four lovely years attending Cal Poly University. Because I have been nostalgically remembering my college days I thought it best to post some pictures so you could see me in all my nerdiness. Yes, there is a picture of me in this collage with my senior project and my favorite professor. What can I say, once a nerd always a nerd.

Sadly the first two years I took all my pictures using a film camera, and those pictures are all still in California, so these are pictures from my last two years. Here are some highlights:

* Working for an entire year on the senior project because the dang HPLC machine kept breaking.
* Going to professors office hours to chat and getting dirty looks from students who had legitimate questions on the material.
* Spending lots of time in lab with one of my best friends, Alexis. We spilled many an experiment together and somehow always pulled through the classes with flying colors.
*Muir hall mama's Bible study, first in the dorms, and latter when Kimmy and I led a small study together. Kimmy and I would meet once a week to have a prayer walk, and it was one of the highlights of my week.
*Fooling around with the fun roommates! Line dancing all hours of the night and probably waking up the entire apartment complex with our loud music.
*Living just 15 minutes away from the beach! We would even study on the beach, and nerdy little me would actually get things accomplished. Ha!
*Tuesday night dinners with the Barnes'. Gotta love the Hawaiian pizza if you are going to hang our with John and Sara!
*Trips to Santa Barbara with the Parkers for our favorite Italian food. Stacy and Steve were always making sure I was well fed.
*Watching "The Today Show" with Stacy and a cup of coffee every morning. And then during my morning break rushing home to catch "The Wedding Story" on TLC.
*Snow cones for Chemistry. Each open house we would sell snow cones to raise money for the American Chemical Society (ACS). I probably ate more then I sold.

So many good times!

6 Month Visit and this and that

Today was James' 6 month doctors visit. He was very good for the entire visit even though it took almost an hour for the doctor to finally see us...ugh! To pass the time we sat him on the table and he played with the white paper and loved to hear it crinkle. James is doing very well and the doctor remarked at how strong he is, and asked whether John or I was the athlete in the family. Ha! I think the best athlete in our family is Zion. Maybe James takes after his Uncle Morgan or his Uncle Jim. I think they are probably the best athletes in the family.

And now the moment you have all been waiting for....here are the stats:

Height: 28 inches (75%)
Weight: 19 pounds, 4 ounces (75%)

In other news:
* James now has 3 teeth! Two on the bottom and one poking through on top.
*He has tried rice cereal, oatmeal, and now we are introducing squash. Yum!
*He can drink out of an adult drinking cup when assisted. So far he has just had a sip of Mommy or Daddy's water.
*He is really reaching for people that he knows not just Mommy and Daddy! He recognized and reached for Emily (Eli's mom) and also for two of the ladies in the nursery (Enid and Deborah) that are his favorites.

That's all the Turner news for now! Have a great day!

Bath time!

We realized we have never taken pictures of James during bath time! Here he is playing with his letters and duckies and having a blast. Now that he can sit unassisted bath time is just an extension of playtime. And for those with eagle eyes, yes that is a backwords "L" we used for the "J" in James. Somehow the J has gone missing....

Check out our video link for new videos of bath time and playing with Eli!

Best Buds

Eli and James had a great first day together! My favorite pictures are the two of them in the crib watching the mobile. These two guys are so cute together!

ADDENDUM 11/8/2007: I just added a bunch more pictures from today. Seriously, these two guys are so cute I just can't stop taking pictures! Quick story from today: Both boys took long naps today around lunch time. Eli won with a 2.5 hour nap, while James slept for just 2 hours. During the time that they were both sleeping two very loud things happened. First a ridiculously loud fire truck roared down the street that made both Charlie and I jump. Neither boy made a peep. Then a chainsaw next door snarled, and both boys were jolted awake. I guess both Eli and James are city boys!

Stretchy McStretchers

Yesterday James, John, Grandma and I went out to eat at an all you can eat BBQ buffet (Dixie Bones to those in the know). James is just starting to be good at restaurants if you time it right. He needs to have a full tummy, a nap and then usually he can make it through a meal. He is such an active little guy, it can be quite the event as we pass him around the table so everyone can get a chance to eat.

He is really fascinated by liquids, and yesterday he had his first introduction to southern sweet tea....when he spilled an entire large class all over John's pants. He reached, grabbed and spilled. Oh boy, daddy was covered! I think James rather enjoyed all the excitement. John didn't really enjoy the wet pants. And for the rest of the meal we made sure there wasn't anything within James' grasp. It came close a couple of times but nothing else was spilled. On the up side, the food was delicious and we all left feeling a little over stuffed.

Whooo Whooo

We are having a GREAT time with Grandma this week! Today James laughed for almost 30 minutes and the best part is we caught it on tape! He would start to get a little fussy, but if I made a "whoo whoo" noise he would start laughing again! Check out the "Turner Videos" link to see Grandma singing to James. So cute!