My Photo Book Nov 18 2010

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Sacred Parenting

Last week, Chris and I attended a parenting conference at church by Dr. Gary Thomas called, Sacred Parenting.  Such awesome material! We are also part of a Sunday school class that is studying the book Gospel Powered Parenting. We are both acutely aware of how much the Lord has to teach us in this area of raising our boys in the nurture and admonition of the Lord! I am just going to (for my own sake) post here the highlights of what we have been learning lately so that we can easily look back and reflect on what He has been teaching us when we need those reminders.  But if you choose to read on, hopefully you will be encouraged as well!

Sacred Parenting Conference highlights:
*Key verse was 2 Corinthians 7:1: "Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." His point with this verse as it relates to parenting is that parenting gives us a chance to work on ourselves- to focus on our relationship with the Lord, ensuring that we are walking with Him closely and living life out of reverence for Christ, and thus passing that "baton" of reverencing the Lord down to our kids. The challenges we face as parents should push us closer to Him, as we trust Him with our children. 

*The last session focused on the cost of parenting.  This was the most influential for me personally.  He talked about how there is huge sacrifice in loving our kids and living out our faith before them.  He challenged us with the thought that so many Christians are willing to act like Christians as long as it doesn't cost us anything.  Contrast this attitude with the attitude of King David: "I will not sacrifice to the Lord that which costs me nothing" 2 Sam. 24:24.  Even greater though, he talked about and showed tons of verses that talk about Jesus giving himself for us- the ultimate sacrifice! If Christ can go to the cross for me, certainly I can make small sacrifices in comparison for my kids. How this plays out in each family is different, but I have been challenged by it even in the day-to-day stuff...engaging them in conversation in the car when I would rather "tune out" and/or get on the phone with a friend....getting down and playing with them even when the dishwasher needs to be unloaded....simple stuff that up to big decisions that each family faces. 

More to come on highlights thus far in the Sunday school class...that will be another post.

Has it really been 2 months...

Since our precious Davis arrived?! He actually was 2 months on the 19th, but I am just getting around to posting now.  I know, you aren't surprised. :)  We are loving him and enjoying him SO much. We are so grateful for this sweet gift that God has given to us! What an awesome Creator we serve and know and love.

Hill Ridge Farm!

We decided to go to Hill Ridge Farms for the day to celebrate Labor Day and daddy not having to go to work! We had heard about this place and all there was to do there, but this was our first visit!

A little brotherly love on the way there! I love watching them play together!

First stop, hayride!

Next, we played on the playground!

Davis hung out in the car seat. Look at those cheeks...

Bounce House!

Huge hill slide! We all loved this! 

Here comes Colin...

Daddy & Robson

Cool playhouse filled with corn kernels! Fun!

Cute little tipi you could go in

Better than a trampoline! A house  full of hay to jump in!

Then we went down the fish and duck pier and you could buy feed to throw in the water. There were several types of ducks, catfish, and turtles. I loved the ducks like the black one in the photo above- it has a little poof thingy that looks like a hair bun...I had never seen one of these before!

We ended the day with a train ride! 

They also had a little area with goats and a llama, and another area with bunny rabbits. You could watch these animals from the fence but couldn't pet them. Colin looked at the llama and said, "look at that big goat!". Pretty funny. We had such a fun day together as a family and are grateful for the opportunity to enjoy the day at the farm!

New Addition!

Well, finally I am getting around to posting photos of our new addition: Davis Campbell Turner! He arrived July 19th 7:42 AM and weighed 8 lb, 9 oz (actually the smallest of the Turner boys at birth) and he was 21 1/2 inches long. We are all gradually adjusting to life with a newborn...as he is trying to adjust to the world as well. He is precious though and we are enjoying him so much! As some of you know we have chosen Bible verses to pray over the boys' lives and here is the one we chose for Davis:

"I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your heart(s) through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:16-19

Amen. How desperately we desire that each of our boys come to know the love of Jesus!

Ok, so here are some photos of his first days here!

The night before we went into the hospital- as you can imagine, I was VERY ready for him to arrive!

In the holding area waiting for the OR to be ready to take us in- I actually started having contractions while waiting in there- good timing!

They are ready! Yay!

Awww...not happy about being out of mommy...

Sweetness. I love the little hats the volunteers make for the babies to have, even though that's the only time they wear them since I have summer babies. This one would have been better if it was Duke blue stripes instead, but still cute! :)
GiGi's (my mom) first time holding him
My grandmother & granddaddy. Actually, Davis is blessed to have all 4 of his great-grandparents still with us! Lots of love to go around.


Colin really loves his little "brudder"! Chris and I say that God definitely knew what He was doing when He made Colin the biggest brother....he's so sweet to him. Robson doesn't really seem to care either way about Davis, but hopefully that will change soon!
Nonnie (Chris' mom) with her grandbaby #5...all boys!
Aunt Amy & big cousin AndrewI had to put at least one of little Robson even though we couldn't get one of him and the baby.

If only he would sleep this peacefully at night! Still have our days & nights mixed up...hopefully that will change soon!

What we have been up to

Here are some random photos from the past month or so in our lives! I am just going to go ahead and come to grips with the fact that I am probably not going to really blog as often as I want to! I would love to blog each week or so about what is going on with us and what we have been up to, but realistically that is not happening now, and I doubt it will after this next baby arrives! We have been doing well though, and are enjoying Spring and looking forward to Summer! Here is a little of what we have been up to!

Our nephew, Andrew, turned 5 at the beginning of April and had his birthday party at the bowling alley! It was so fun for the boys! He and Colin are good buds and love when they can get together. As you can see, Andrew is wearing an awesome shirt and good taste in teams runs in our family...Chris' side anyway!

Robson didn't bowl of course, but had lots of fun with this ball rack just rolling the balls back and forth!

We made our first ever kool-aid popsicles to welcome this warm weather. They were good but 2 of the stick parts broke after just one use! So now we can only make 2 at a time...


Robson has found a new favorite activity...playing in the pantry. He loves to take all my Splenda packets out and make a huge mess. Not a favorite activity of mine, but at least it's easy clean up!
My sweet boy eating cheerios...a totally random picture but love the face!

That is about it for now...I am almost 28 weeks along now, so that means 11 more weeks until Baby Boy arrives! Our c-section is currently scheduled for Monday, July 19th! We are looking forward to it, but in the mean time there is much to be done to get ready!

Charlotte and first baby belly photo

Last weekend Chris and I had a little weekend getaway to Charlotte just to have some "us" time! We had such a good time and the boys did also with my mom and grandparents. It's nice (and extremely important, I believe) to have those times when you can just get away and be a couple and just to be able to enjoy each others' company without "mommy" this and "daddy" that! We were happy to see the boys on Sunday, however. :)

This was the view out of our hotel window...very nice. There was a very cute boardwalk area out there- it was just a little too chilly for us to enjoy it though!

Neither of us had ever been to an IKEA, so we took the opportunity while there to check it out!
It was nice- we spent some time there on Saturday but didn't buy anything. We thought about the things we saw and went back on Sunday for a few purchases- nothing big- no furniture, but just some things for around the house. We ate the famous Swedish meatballs, with mash potatoes and lingonberries, which were delicious. They had a special that weekend only- the whole meal for $1! Score. Saturday night we ate at a place suggested by Erica Kim (thanks, Erica!) called Mimosa in downtown (or uptown, not sure the difference!). It was SOOOO good. We will definitely go back there if we are ever in the area again!

I also thought I would add to this post the first real "belly photo" for this pregnancy, so here it is:
20 weeks.....19 to go!