Merry Christmanewyears! (Part 2)

We have our big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve and every year, Santa shows up with goodies for the kids! 

We enjoy lots of yummy food and time with our family!

Turner with Blake and Madeline

Mommy and Kinley's stockings

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Christmas morning in the Turner household starts with all the kids (usually lined up from youngest to oldest) on the stairs. Kinda hard to see Turner because of the garland, but you get the idea!  Kinley was very excited to come down to see what "HO!" had brought. Unfortunately Turners little giraffe toy was the first thing she saw, so we had to coax her away to see her stocking and Hello Kitty car! 

We were surprised at how excited she was for all of the presents she got (WAY TOO MANY of course).  Usually kids just fixate on one or two things, but she enjoyed all of them, so that made it fun.

 But the most special gift was the first one Kinley and I got to open!  Many years ago when I was in a sewing class in college, I made a coat and hat for my niece Claire.  Little did I know, she kept the coat and gave it to Kinley this year.  She wrote the sweetest note and made me cry.  It was too big for Kinley this year, so luckily she will get to wear it for a few years to come! Unfortunately, we didnt get a good picture, and that makes me sad.  Next winter, we will have to get a cute picture of her and Claire with the coat.  **Thanks Claire!  It still makes me cry every time I think about it.  I promise to take good care of it so you can give it to your little girl one day!

Turner was a trooper during Christmas!  I dont think he was ever put down for more than the 1 minute it took to change his diaper.  He just took it all in and slept a lot!!

Kinley spent a lot of time serving tea, drinking tea in her ball pit and playing with her bubble "leaf blower."

She loves her owl hat and mitts that daddy gave her

We are grateful for the time we were able to spend with both of our families over Christmas!  Thanks for all of the love, kisses and snuggles!

Turner- 2 months

 TWO MONTH TURNER

While in Memphis Turner turned 2 months old!  This was a GREAT turning point because he started being the most mellow baby ever!  When we were in Tulsa I thought for sure he was colicky.  Then all of the sudden things changed.  I even joked with Sherry that they must have a carbon monoxide leak.  Otherwise, there was no explanation for his calm, no crying behavior! 

 He just started to really smile and is paying lots of attention to what is going on around!

Merry Christmanewyears! (Part 1)

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR (as it is almost Valentines Day!!)

I am finally getting a few minutes to update what has been going on in the the last month of so.  We are currently living in a hotel in Arlington, VA while Lee does training and we prepare to leave for Paraguay on the 28th! We have had a great time being in the US and seeing our families.  But two kids sure does make for a different kind of "vacation"!! 

This post will be of pictures from our time in Memphis with Lee's family.  They were so gracious to babysit EVERY day so that Lee and I could get out and do things like spend WAY too much money at Sam's and buy a car!  All things that we wont see for months when it finally arrives in Paraguay. 

Kinley loves the carousel

Daddy taking her on the big girl slide!

Sitting in Pops lap with her hat and "mitts" on.  She went through a phase where she wanted them on all the time

Playing with Uncle Jacob

"Carnell. Lee Carnell."

Siblings!

Excited about the laughing monkey Mimi and Pops gave her

Jane and Ola came to visit several times.  Kinley loves Jane because she gives her York Peppermint patties!!  I took tons of pics of her eating them with her, but they somehow got deleted :(

Sugar from Jane

Kinley loved being in Memphis.  Mimi had lots of toys for her to play with and she loved the slide she had for her!  Thanks for everything!

Fall fun

*Disclaimer: This post is mainly for Lee to see what kids have been up to!

Kinley has never experienced Fall, and I dont know the next time she will be able to enjoy it.  So I have been trying to let her play outside in the leaves as much as possible.  She loved running in the backyard and kicking the ball.  And she brought me lots of leaves that she collected.  There was something up in the tree that she was fascinated with, but I could never figure out what it was!

Maybe she will be a soccer player

Picnic in the front yard!

Playing in the neighbors back yard!  And yes, it is 5:30pm and she is still wearing her jammies from the night before!  It's been one of those days.

Kinley has also been trying to help out a lot with Turner.  Here is is trying to give him his pacifier.  She gets a little rough, but no harm done... yet!

And her latest trick is to blow bubbles!  She is very excited about it.

Turner- 1 month

On Turner's one month birthday, he boarded a plane in South Africa and flew to Tulsa, OK!  Already a world traveler! Luckily for me, he did great on the plane.  Unfortunately my mom was not so lucky!  She had to sit with Kinley and that was a pretty disastrous situation.  Surprisingly we all survived!

Turner is a great baby and a good sleeper, so I cannot complain.  He loves to be held, which can be very tiring, but it is also sweet and gives me an excuse to cuddle with him often!  I know it wont last long, so I will take it while I can.

Baie Dankie South Africa

For those of you that dont speak Afrikaans, that means "Thank You South Africa!"  We definitely have mixed emotions as we leave our wonderful South African home.  We were able to see many amazing things while there, and most importantly we welcomed both of our children into the world there.  We will always have fond memories of our time there. 

We were all supposed to be leaving SA on Dec 5 and heading to Memphis.  But last minute we decided that the kids and I would leave early (Nov 15) with my mom and head to Tulsa.  Lee will stay and finish up in SA and then we will all meet up in Memphis on Dec 6!  So things were more than crazy as we tried to get everything done last minute.  It was very hard to say goodbye to our friends and we had one last goodbye with Rugby! :(

Here are a few pictures of our last days there.  We love you South Africa!  We hope to be back one day.

Just like her daddy

Halloween fun!  Our little cheerleader and football.

And our final goodbye to Rugby.  So sad, but she is really happy with her new family.

Kisses