April 23, 2011: Soccer Man compliments of Aunty Ciara & Jon's 30th Bday Surprise

Ben is so lucky to have many 'honorary' aunties in his life and Aunty Ciara is one of those awesome aunties! 2 1/2 years ago, after Ben was born, Ciara made the effort to come out to see Benjamin and brought us this adorable little soccer outfit. Ever since then I've been dying to put Ben in it and for the weather to be nice enough for shorts!

This past Saturday, the stars aligned so to speak, and out came the soccer outfit!

We took a little video so Ben could say a personal 'thank you' to Aunty Ciara but I couldn't resist taking some photos too.

Here's our little soccer man!







I wasn't able to keep Ben stationary for too long so we moved on to doing races from one fence to the other and I'm pretty sure he could have played that game for hours - racing me back and forth!



In the photos above Ben was saying 'one, two, three blastoff' - one of his favorite things to yell at dance class as well when he's supposed to be listening to the teacher ;) I love these photos of him running also because it looks like his running form is already better than mine ;)





This kid has so much energy, it's really hard to slow him down and I'm always amazed at how he can go from morning till night with very little resting! If only I had that much energy! The photos below I HAD to include because they just show how the energy is oozing out of him!



Ben would race towards me and get super close to the camera with a huge smile on my face so I tried to capture a few of those faces. Thank goodness for the wide angle lens!



Always wanting to change it up, Ben would stop playing soccer momentarily to 'play the drums' or entertain himself with something else in the backyard!



We had such a great afternoon together and, thanks so much to Ciara for the great outfit! I think we have a budding soccer player on our hands with much better foot-eye co-ordination than his mom!

That whole afternoon I was a bit distracted as I knew I had Jon's surprise 30th bday dinner at Memphis Blues in the evening. It's tough to plan a surprise for Jon and he was suspicious but was pleasantly surprised nonetheless when he arrived at the restaraunt and 14 of his close friends (a lot of whom he hadn't seen in awhile) were there to greet him!

He had one of his football buddies in town from Victoria which was a great surprise, a few other guys he played football with at SFU, some of our friends from our SFU bible study crew and a few Abbotsford friends from his old church/high school. We were missing a few and there were definitely more friends I would have liked to invited but it was a great night of visiting!

Here are some pics:



Even though Jon was not 100% surprised that there was something planned for him, he was totally surprised when I presented him with his 30th Bday Book filled with messages from over 30 of his closest friends. He's often a man of few words but such a loyal friend and reading the messages in that book as they came in to me, I was reminded of the amazing man I married. I"m so thankful to have him as a husband and a best friend. Thanks to everyone who submitted to the book and came to the dinner. I couldn't have done it without you guys!

Happy 30th Jon. I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing nearly a decade with you and can't wait to celebrate together in Europe next summer!

April 22, 2011: Good Friday @ the Park

Now that I"m back at home full-time, I really look forward to the weekends because they mean family time and long-weekends are even better! We're so lucky as teachers to have so much time off together and to be able to not bring too much work home with us on a regular basis. I really appreciate that about our jobs and can't express how thankful I am that this is the career path we've both chosen. Looking back, I am so thankful that God led us both, not only to each other, but to this career path as it's helped us make an awesome family life with some great family traditions on Spring Breaks and Summer Breaks.

This particular Easter weekend, we decided to take a walk up to the park right near our house and, being that it was gorgeous weather, I also took the opportunity to dress Ben in some pretty fancy spring gear and bring the camera along. He was pretty overdressed for the park but I had a great time snapping some pics and he had a great time snapping his suspenders ;)

Here are some of the many faces of Ben captured that afternoon and you can see in the middle that, one of the only reasons I can get so many pics of Ben, is because Jacob is amazingly co-operative and sleeps through it all!





On our way to the park, Ben always likes to stop to see the fishies in the corner houses' pond and then he likes to run away when I call him to keep walking ;) The joys of 2 1/2 year olds! Either way, I took the chance while he was stopped for a split second to snap some full length pics to capture the entire Easter outfit.



Jacob woke up at the park but only had smiles for us! He is such a happy little guy and I can't wait to hear what his giggles sound like!



Jon is not the biggest fan of all the photos I take (and perhaps especially of me dressing his little boy up in a pink shirt and white suspenders to go to the park) but I"ll give him credit for enduring most of it with a smile on his face. A cheeky smile, but a smile none the less!



Beyond his patience with my endless photoshoots, Jon is an amazing dad! I don't think I imagined anything less when I married him but it's still so special to watch him interact with Benjamin and play with him, whether that means running around with him at the park, letting him ride on his back around the house, baking pretend muffins with him in his play kitchen or just plain old wrestling. I know I lucked out when I married him and feel like I've won the lottery again watching him as a father. Here are a few of Ben & Jon!



Ben got  this awesome 'Strider' bike for his 2nd Birthday from the McCarthy clan and he's just finally choosing to sit on the seat rather than just 'walk' the bike everywhere he goes. It makes him far faster and this time he rode it all the way to the park and would call it his 'motor bike.' I especially liked that he took such care to hang his hat on the handlebars before heading off the play at the park!



We had a great time at the park enjoying the incredibly hot April weather and visiting with some good friends from church and then headed back home for a rest (& Jacob's 2 hourly milk feed!). On the way back, Ben got sidetracked by filling his pockets with rocks and it was just too cute not to capture. Even though I'd love to add a girl to our family down the line, I love to laugh at all the very 'boy' things Ben does. Filling his pockets with rocks falls under that category in my mind!



Ben has become a little bit obsessed with pockets and I'm just waiting for that day when I no longer get to tell him what he's wearing. Until that time, I'll continue to torture him with photos ;)



I love this photo below. It just shows how intent Ben can be on a task when he's really interested. For a boy that goes 100 miles a minute most of the time he also has quite a little analytical side. It's fun watching that! Sometimes some of the best photos I have of Ben are when he's not looking and I think I"m going to have to do that more often now as he has started to say 'don't take my picture mommy.' It doesn't stop me yet but, if he grows up to be like his Uncle Josh then eventually he'll start covering up his face with a very specific middle finger and I'll no longer be posting those photos on here :)



We got home and it was time to get a few pictures of me with my little Easter man before heading inside!



Thanks Jon for putting up with my photos (and taking great pics of me and Ben), thanks Ben for letting me dress you, and thank you Jacob for being the most easy-going baby I've met so far! I am surrounded by an awesome family.

April 21, 2011: Brothers

As of April 1st, I've been experiencing the joy (and sometimes frustration) of being a stay-at-home mom of two but overall they are so great! Jacob sleeps like a champ and I'm trying to keep Ben entertained with a few classes each week. So far things are good and I even get a few opportunities each week to snap some pics of both my guys.

This particular day I brought the boys upstairs so that I could get some of the natural light coming in their windows and below are some of my favorite shots.



Being two and a half at the end of this month, Benjamin is not always super co-operative with the camera so I have a feeling I"ll be doing a lot more of these types of collages because they illustrate how much Ben moves in the short span of a few seconds AND they allow me to capture his personality that much more. I love looking at these photos because I catch little glimpses of the days ahead where Jacob and Ben will play together.

Already Jacob is interacting more with Ben and actually smiling at the sound of his voice. Jacob is so patient with Ben, even as Ben climbs over him, tries to stick stuff in his mouth, jams his soother in or just forgets that babies don't like to bear the weight of 2 1/2 year old bodies as they lean over to smooch their little brothers ;)

Here are some shots of my littlest man by himself!



The spitting image of his dad, it has already been a blast watching Jacob grow over the past few months. Born at 10 lb 4oz, I kind of felt like I gave birth to a one month old and his development since then seems to fit that observation! His neck is so strong and he stands up when we hold him upright. I have a feeling that this smiley little man is going to be quite the mover in a few months time so I'll enjoy the restful days now. He's so easy going and we really feel blessed with the personalities of both of our little guys. I would love to add a little girl to the mix in the future but for now I am thoroughly enjoying a life surrounded by boys, both big and little ;)

April 19, 2011; Playing at the Park

Now that I'm home I can go to all of these sample sales I hear about and get the boys some pretty unique clothes for pretty great prices. This time around I got some adorable matching hats for Ben and Jacob and a cute new coat for Ben so I was inspired to take some photos at the park while Ben played and Jacob relaxed in his car seat.

Ben is really big into imaginative play right now so he was flying around the playground pretending to be a birdie and luckily I was able to convince him that the birdie needed to smile for a picture in between flights :) It feels sneeky but, once I saw the shots that I was getting, I was willing to trick him a bit!



I love this stage that Ben is at and, even though it is maddening at times when he won't stay still for more than a second, we get the blessing of seeing his little personality blossom before our eyes. His imagination amazes me and I love watching him play. Just the simplest things can entertain him for hours on end but, one thing stays the same, he loves having his mommy watch him and interact. I don't think I"ll ever get tired of that!







I am constantly amazed at how much older Ben feels to us now that Jacob has come into our family. He is such a little boy with his running, jumping, collecting rocks in his pockets and wanting to move constantly!

When he does stop for a picture I'm always drawn in by his eyes. Those crisp blue eyes and incredibly long eye lashes get me every time!



While Ben played, Jacob is so amazingly patient! He just rests in his car seat and either sleeps or watches what's going on. I don't know if he'll always be this easy going but I'm pretty thankful for it right now! Here are some of my favorites of Jacob in his matching Knuckleheads hat!






We live in a great neighborhood and as Spring approaches have already enjoyed a lot of walks to the park. I'm looking forward to more adventures or 'ventures' as Ben calls them and being able to watch him develop his independence and confidence in everything he does.

April 17, 2011: Baking with Great Nana

There are so many blessings that come along with our new living situation and having my boys grow up with their Great Nana upstairs to play with is just one of them.

Ben hangs out upstairs a lot and on this particular evening, I went up to get him and found him baking with great Nana. A number of the times that I asked Ben to smile and look at the camera he actually turned around on the stool he was standing on and had his back to me. Not exactly co-operative but, I must admit that he does have to pose for a lot of pictures so I"m sure he gets tired of it!

The whole scene was too priceless not to capture on camera and video and here are some of my favorite pictures:



Thanks Nana for always being willing to play with my little guys and be such a positive influence in their lives. One day Ben will realize what I already know - that he is an incredibly lucky little boy.

Baking with Great Nana

We are so blessed to live in the same house as my parents and Nana.

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April 24, 2011: Turner Easter Celebration & Bday Extravaganza!

As life gets busier, we've now decided to combine as many birthdays as possible into one family get-together because it's just hard to find days that work for everyone! April/May are especially busy months in both families and, on my side of the family, we celebrate Jaydon's, Eathan's, Jon's and my birthday at our Easter celebration.

We kept it low key this year with hamburgers and hot dogs and had a great time together despite the unpleasant weather.

Mom really wanted to do an Easter Egg hunt outside but no such luck even though it was gorgeous the day before. I ended up hiding them inside and used the opportunity to snap a quick pick of the 'hunter gatherers' before they headed off on their candy adventure.



Here are a few of Ben and some of our family :) I love the one of Ben and Jaydon! He looks up to him so much and it shows all over his face :) Just before I took the picture, I heard Jaydon say 'criss cross applesauce' and Ben followed suit! It's so nice that his older cousins play so well with him and awesome that he has cousins his age as well.



Jon had a great time opening his presents at the party and got an awesome card from Laura that played the 'Monday Night Football' theme (which Ben is pretending to read in the photo above) and some 80's themed candies. Thanks everyone for the great gifts. We were very blessed and will enjoy them all!



Jacob wasn't too sure what to make of the festivities as it could get pretty loud in our house with all of those boys (especially when you consider the extra candy consumed!) but, as usual, he mostly just hung out, ate and smiled. Gotta love his easy-going nature!



This was Derek and Laura's 3rd time seeing Jacob so I had to get some photos of Aunty Laura :)



At the end of the night we were pretty tired but we were, once again, thankful for the short, 2 minute commute, down the stairs to our place! So convenient :)

Happy Easter to the Turners', Steeves', Powells' & Miyazaki's!