So blessed...

That's how I am feeling today! I have always gotten what I have wanted in life. I guess you could call me "lucky", or "blessed", or if you are cynical, maybe you might call me "spoiled". I prefer the first two!

1. My first goal after leaving my parents was to complete a degree- Check!

2. I wanted to find a fabulous husband that would treat me with respect and love me forever- check, check! :)

3. I wanted kids, but not only that, I wanted to be a stay at home mom... mission accomplished!

4. I have always wanted to successful at my own business- semi check- UNTIL TODAY!!!!!

Today I had a meeting with the owner of The Funky Monkey in Keller, TX! It is the coolest, hippest boutique I have ever graced with my presence! :) SO... a few weeks ago Amanda and I were in there and the owner saw me wearing a piece of my jewelry. She asked about it. I told her I had made it. She asked to set up a meeting with me, and now MY jewelry is going to be sold in her boutique!!!! AMAZING!!!! So, now my number 4 goal is going to be checked off! YEAH! So... here is what will be sold in The Funky Monkey ... my new fine silver customized jewelery, and my photo pendants. All of these items will still be available in my etsy shop as well at THE FUNKY MONKEY!!!! Check out the website, it is so cute! By the way, thank you to all of my friends and family that have been so encouraging. You have all helped me build my confidence, and for that, I am so thankful! I love you!

a letter to Luke...

Dearest Luke,

I would like to document that on January 17, 2009 you told your Dad and I that it was "yucky" to talk to girls on the phone. This conversation occurred after you refused to talk to both Nana Sara and Nana Janis on the phone.

I would like you to remember this conversation for later reference, especially when cute girls are calling our house at all hours of the night. I would also like you to remember this conversation when your phone privileges are in the balance... if that ever where to happen!

I love you sweet Luke, I think you are precious.

Love,
Mom

Christmas

Our Christmas was so much fun! We are so fortunate to be able to spend Christmas with both sets of our parents. For the last few years we have all gone to my parents house in Colorado. We all get along great... I am so thankful for this! :)
We spent our time sledding and playing. The kids had a great time... of course getting showered with tons of attention! We attended the Christmas eve service at my parents church and Claire and Luke loved hearing my Dad do the children's sermon. Fun was had by all!
I hope your Christmas was just as great as ours!
Here are a few sledding picture for now. I have a ton of pictures to sort through, so brace yourself for an onslaught of pictures in the days to come! :)

All bundled up for some sledding fun!

I love my family!
Papa Gerry (my Dad) with Claire and Luke

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Cutie

Last night we went out to dinner, made cookies, played a game, and had a dance party! It was SO much fun! Here is a cute video of Luke showing off his moves! He gets them all from Jeff! Especially the bootie shaking! :) Make sure you turn up the volume, he sure is shaking his bootie to David Archuleta's "Crush"! I think that makes it even cuter! :)

And the winner is...

Congratulations Kelli!!!! Email me at turner.ea@gmail.com . Let me know which pendant you would like, or if you would prefer a different quote! Happy Twilighting! :) Oh, and if you are at all curious, my favorite quote is the whole last page of Breaking Dawn!

Contest!!!!

OK ladies!!! It's time for a contest! My first to be exact! You all know that i HEART Twilight, the movie, the books, the everything about it actually. No shame people! So, let's have a Twilight contest!!!



Here is the deal... I am tired of having no comments to read on my blog, so what better way to remedy the situation than to give away some Twilight bling? :) To enter, you must leave a comment with your name and your favorite quote from one of the books, or the movie (gasp, if you haven't read the books!)



Your prize? Well, see below! I have made some fabulous Twilight bling! If you aren't lucky enough to win on Saturday at noon, then you can see these cuties on my etsy site! I will randomly draw a name and post it here, then I will send the luck winner one pendant and chain of there choice! If you would rather have another quote, then by all means... it will be yours! :)



I can't wait to hear all of your favorite quotes... and most of all... I can't wait to see all of you Twilight junkies come out of hiding! No shame ladies! :)
Update: There is a potential for spoilers here, so just be aware of that when you open the comments!

I am second

Have you heard of this website? Iamsecond.com. Jeff introduced it to me yesterday. It is AMAZING. You must go look at it. If you only have a few minutes, especially watch the Brian Welch video. It is powerful.
We have been discussing our own personal testimonies in small group, at church. This is so inspiring to me. These people are so honest.
Anyway, just wanted to share what had been shared with me. :)

Happy Birthday Claire!!!

I can hardly believe that Claire is 4 today! It seems like she was so little just a few months ago. Now, she is so self sufficient. She can dress herself and buckle herself into her car seat. She can color a coloring page without going out of the lines. She knows the words to whole songs. One more... she is so sweet. She is a sweet loving little girl. She loves her friends and her family so much. And for that, I am so proud of her! I am so thankful everyday that God blessed Jeff and I with Claire! Happy 4th Birthday Claire!

Last night Claire got to take her two BFF's Kaylen and Gracie Claire to Chili's and Build a Bear for her Birthday. Then, they got to come back to our house for Claire's very first sleep over. To say the least, they had F-U-N!!!! :)

Here are a few pictures. I am a little sad that they didn't turn out better, but it's hard to capture that much fun in action! :)

Claire named her bunny "Ella".

Every bunny needs a bath, right?!

Claire, Gracie Claire, and Kaylen

Let's eat cake!!!

Sundays...

Sunday's mean football at our house. Jeff likes to watch every possible game (sigh.). I can usually fill my time making something crafty! :)

I hope your having a relaxing Sunday too!

My pretty girl

Showing off their support for Daddy's game!

Even Bailey is enjoying the day!

Future fashionista...

Yesterday Claire was singing quietly in the backseat. I thought I could hear what she was saying but I thought surely not! I thought I heard hear saying "Jimmy Choo". So, I asked her to sing louder. She did. Sure enough, she was singing one of the songs from my ipod that I must play to often (oops). "Sick of this dress and these Jimmy Choo's..."
She wanted to know what Jimmy Choo's were. I explained that they were shoes. She then asked if she could have some! I laughed, HARD! I told her that when I got some, she could have some! :) Look out Jeff! We have a fashionista on our hands. I knew I kept Harper's Bazaar on every in-table for a reason! :)

Halloween

Claire and Luke had a great time dressing up this year! Claire was a fairy and Luke was a cowboy. Jeff took them up and down our cul de sac and that was just about the right amount of trick or treating for them! Bailey the beagle even wore a costume! She was a princess... and yes, I payed money for her costume! :) For some reason Jeff refused to take her with them trick or treating. So, I dressed her up anyway and stood in the yard with her! The kids loved it!


Me and my sweet girl! A fairy and a cowboy!

Nana Janis with Claire and Luke

The munchkins with their pumpkins... :)

Princess Bailey!

Did I mention?

Two posts on one day! I know, I know! Amazing!!! I think I forgot to mention that my Dad is in Seminary now! He is going to Concordia to be a Lutheran Pastor. A month ago he was inducted in as a Vicar. Pretty cool huh!? Way to go Dad! Or is it Pastor Gerry now? :)

My Dad is on the top row, second from the left.

New pictures

On Saturday our small group went shopping and bought a bunch of food for our food bank at church. Then we headed back to church and let all of the kids stock the shelves. They had a great time!
What's more fun than a rolling cart?

Big helpers!

Luke can't wait to be a big kid!

Future super model :)

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers for me! I get my EEG results on Thursday! Pray for good news!

Funny like his Daddy...

Those of you that know Jeff know that he is pretty funny. He is always making jokes, or trying to. In the last few days, Luke has said some things that are too good not to share. I also want to document them for future use! :)

1. After dinner one night Luke came in and told me he had food in his mouth. I was some what confused. But, after more questioning I realized that he had something stuck in his tooth. He ended up yelling "Get it Mommy! I want you to get it so I can eat it!" GROSS. If your wondering if he ate it, he did. EWWW.

2. On Sunday Jeff was giving the kids a bath. When he was done I went upstairs to help put pj's on and get them ready for bed. I had Luke. As I was combing his hair I was telling him how HANDSOME he looked. He objected by saying...

"No Mommy, I NOT handsome!!! I FANCY!" While he said this he shook his little bottom and had his hands on his hips. Oh, my goodness... I almost died laughing!!!!

On another note, my parents have been in town for a few days. It has been such a fun visit! We went to the Japanese gardens today, so look out for some fun pictures of that soon. Also, this last weekend we took the kids to a business outing of sorts for Jeff's work. They had a family day at a local ranch... we even got our own REAL cowboy hats! SO FUN!

My cowboys

Claire petting the armadillo

One more thing... check out my Mom's new etsy site. I have also added a couple of new things to mine. I will be adding things frequently as we approach the holidays! I added this bag tonight...

Corduroy sunset

Cutie of the day...

Catching up with pictures...

Here are some pictures to catch you up on what we have been doing. I am having a hard time organizing these photos, so they are in somewhat of a random order.

Luke riding his big boy bike! Luke on his first day of school
Picking out backpacks for school. What a task!
Walking in to school with Papa Dale.
First day of school
Claire and Uncle Michael
Papa and Luke
Because I have had so much help with the kids lately, I have had a lot of time to create some new things for my etsy shop! Here are a few of them. I am starting to feel more like my self. My migraines seem to be spacing out. Hopefully I am moving in the right direction!

One of the many...

faces of Claire.

Absent

I have been absent lately. From lots of things really... I haven't been blogging for lots of reasons, but mostly because I haven't felt like it. The last few month have been rough for me. I have literally not gone a day without the fear of getting a migraine. There have been a few good days here and there, but most days have been tough. My typical migraine medicine of choice has stopped working. So, all this to say, I have been pretty miserable. BUT! I finally got answers today!!! I wanted to blog about it, because so many of you have been concerned about me (thank you for that!)
Last week I had an MRI and today I went in for my results... I have abnormal thickening of my Sphenoid sinus. The sphenoid sinus is buried deep in the brain. Apparently, my SS is very infected, and swollen, creating pressure in my brain. (Frightening???Yes, I think so!) So, the doctor thinks that the pressure is building making my migraines worse and worse. Sooo, I am now on some medication to remedy the problem. Hopefully, it will work. I am also going to see a Neurologist in the coming weeks to make sure that the swelling is subsiding.
So, there you go. That is why I have been absent from class, blogs, phone calls, etc. I apologize. Hopefully I will return full force soon!
Love you all.
emily.

Powerful

Please go watch this! Our church did cardboard testimonies a few weekends ago, and they are POWERFUL! GOD works in wonderful ways.
Here is the link.