Gracie May - 2 1/2 years old

 Our little girl is growing up so fast!! She's already 2 1/2 and getting smarter by the minute. She is learning so much everyday and blowing us away with all that she knows and understands! We are truly lucky to have this special girl in our home.

This sweet girl is so loving. Even if I've just been such a grouch to her about something, she will come up to me and give me a big hug or a kiss and tell me she loves me. I don't deserve half the sweet gestures she gives me. Grace is also very good at saying "Thank you" and has even said to me a few times "Thank you so much, Mommy". She also tells us things we must tell her quite often, like "Good job, Daddy", "Good singing, mommy", and "You need to eat your tortilla and broccoli, Mommy".

 Grace is about 28 lbs and I haven't checked her height in awhile. She takes a nap from about 1-2 or 2:30. She goes to bed at night around 7:30 or 8 and sleeps until 6:30... but I don't let her come out of her room until at least 7am. She is still in diapers but not for long! We're hoping to get her potty trained in a couple weeks... wish us luck! Grace sleeps in a twin bed which is very high off the ground. She can't get into it without a footstool. She such a big girl!

Grace absolutely loves her brother. They have an incredible bond already and he adores her right back. She is so sweet to him and helps wipe his mouth if she sees that he spit up. She gives him hugs and kisses and tickles him. Grace also has an uncanny ability to know when Logan has pooped. I swear I'll be sitting right next to him, or I will be holding him, and Grace will inform us that Logan is poopy. And she's always right! It's like they have a secret language.

Smothering Logan with love.

 She is such a silly girl! Two of her favorite things to do are do silly dances or speak in a "sing-song" style. She doesn't need music to do silly dances either... But when she does hear some booty-shaking music, she is ALL over it! I especially love that Grace thinks she has to put her hands on the floor and bum in the air in order to sufficiently "shake" her bum. Like she needs the stability of the floor to do it right. :) The sing-song voice comes out when she's asking for something that she wants... Such as "I want a string cheese" or "I want juice", etc, but all while singing each word. I'm pretty sure she sings it because she's just sure it will make it more appealing to me to give in.

Grace isn't all peaches & cream though. She pushes buttons most of the day and is already learning to talk back. She knows how much I HATE HATE HATE spitting, so she will spit, drool or lick my arm if she's trying to rebel against something. She has also started scratchings when she's mad, but she only scratches Ryan... usually in the face or on the neck. It hurts my heart that she does that to him. I don't understand it and why it's only to him. I know it's a phase, but I hope it passes quickly. Grace also likes to go completely limp when we're getting her changed or dressed or trying to get her to move/walk and she doesn't want to. Seriously, she goes totally limp and smiles and enjoys our frustration while her head lolls around. haha Crazy girl. Somehow kids know EXACTLY what will frustrate us right back.

 Grace's hair has only been "trimmed" one single time in her life (by me... a quick snip in the back during a bath a few months ago). I know it's ridiculous. I'm one of THOSE moms whose child's hair is nasty long... It's just that I love how curly it is right now, especially in the humidity here in Ohio! Plus I've been letting it stay longer so she can wear little pigtails. Ok and I've been a little lazy. But I know it's time to trim it and help it grow in more evenly, so that is coming next week probably.

Grace's favorite toys are her Cars toy cars and her Toy Story toys. Those are also her favorite movies, along with Finding Nemo and Tangled. She also still LOVES to color and draw. She is getting so great at drawing pictures herself, especially faces. She's really good and making circles in one movement, and then she'll simply add a couple lines for the mouth and eyes and nose. It's so impressive to watch her do it! I'm glad she's so interested in art. Her ability to do tedious things that require patience is also very impressive. Organizing things by shape or color is one of her very favorite activities. Busy Bags are GOLDEN in our house.

She says such funny things lately. I need to start writing them down so I can post about them and remember them forever! Some I do remember or others have told me:

Grace: "You have lots of teeth"
Me: "How many do I have?"
Grace: "16"
Me: "Oh really? Then how many do you have?"
Grace: "18, 19, 20"

Grace puts her backpack on and starts heading for the door...
"Bye! I'm going to school."
Then she stops, turns around and says, "Oh! I need money."

My mom was getting ready for church a couple weeks ago when this happened...
Grace: "Nana, you smell."
Nana: "What do I smell like?"
Grace: "Like poop."


Speaking of her sense of smell... Our carpets had been cleaned before we moved in last week so it smelled a little musty when we got here. This was what happened the first moment we walked in...
Me: "Here's our new house!"
Grace: "It smells like stink"

Grace: "I hold you?" (Which in her language means "Please hold me". We're working on it!)


We absolutely love our Gracie girl. She keeps us laughing, learning, stretching, experiencing new things, and looking at things in a simpler way. She made me a mommy and makes me so grateful I get to spend all my time with her (except when nap time comes and I praise the heavens).....   :)

"I go find Ohio"

The day after graduation, we finished loading the truck with the last few things, cleaned it, and headed out. Ryan left with the truck and trailer (for our car) around 9am. Ryan's parents left with Grace shortly after, and my parents and Logan and I left around 10:15am. It was really rough driving out of Las Vegas and realizing the finality of our move. :(

Within a half hour I got a call from Ryan's mom saying that our Budget truck was having issues. Ryan said all the lights on the dash came on and he had to pull it over for a few minutes. His parents were now following behind him going only 55 mph (which was the max it would let him push it). By the time my car was getting to the gorge, he had to stop it again right on the side of the freeway at the Washington exit (after St. George). Within 25 minutes or so, we had caught up to Ryan and the truck and stayed with him on the side of the freeway until the mechanic came. After about an hour of waiting with him, the mechanic discovered it was simply overheating and needed a whole bunch of coolant. That's all?! Well thank goodness, because it meant we could get back on the road without having to unpack and repack a new truck, or stay any longer in St. George.

That evening we finally all made it in to Salt Lake, no worse for the wear. :) Ryan even stopped at Ikea on the way to pick up a few pieces of furniture we had our eye on! I mean we just HAD to fill the extra space in the truck, hehe.

Tuesday was a super busy day, trying to get errands done, things ready for Ryan's 2.5 days in the truck with our bro-in-law, and making some visits.  On wednesday, Ryan left with Dan (my sister's husband) at 6am, aiming to stop for the night in North Platte. They did make it, luckily, without any more major incidents. The kids and I met my brother's wife (Jacey) at the airport a little after 7am and we started our trip east as well. The kids actually did really well on both flights! Grace thought flying was pretty exciting and kept saying that we were "going to find Ohio". Logan had one blowout in the Salt Lake airport and almost another on a flight, but we got it worked out. I planned for the worst, so we were alright! Jacey was a HUUUGE help, and I seriously would have been so frazzled without her. Thank you, Jacey!

We got into Columbus around 5 pm (Ohio time... 3 hours ahead of Nevada time). It was so surreal being there finally. It definitely didn't set in that night for me though. It just felt like I was on vacation visiting my brother Ben and his family, since we were staying at their house until Ryan got there with our stuff. Grace and her cousin Owen (only a few months younger than her) have had such a blast playing together! It's been so fun letting them get to know each other and watching them interact. They're really good playmates, I'd say, and get along well (even with the minor moments of not sharing toys well). Ava and Logan are just a few weeks apart and I just know they'll be fast friends as well. Logan will be the "rough and tumble" boy and Ava will be the sweet, calming influence. I'm so incredibly grateful that our kids have cousins right here in the neighborhood.

 Ryan was expecting to pull up to my brother's house (where we were staying) on friday evening. Grace was so excited to see Daddy and the big truck so she kept watch at the window.

 Once the kids were all in bed, the adults finally had a chance to hang out and eat some Graeter's ice cream. A local favorite and so good! Jacey (in the front) is my brother Jason's wife (Jason not pictured). Amanda (in the red shirt) is my brother Ben's wife (he is on the furthest right). Dan, in the middle, is my older sister Lindsey's husband. haha, Confused yet?! We had so much help by our family, and especially my siblings, during this cross-country move. I love them all so much and we are so grateful for their support and willingness to lend us a hand. :)

 Around here, if someone graduates, their family will have a professionally made banner set up on their front lawn or on the garage. While I waited for Ryan to get to Ohio, my sisters-in-law helped me make a little poster to put up at our new place for Ryan to see when he pulled in for the first time.

 Saturday morning we moved all of our stuff into our new house, thanks to all the great helpers who came!! My brother Ben got it worked out with about 8 or so guys from our ward to help us out. It was done in an hour! Thanks go to Amanda and Jacey for watching my kids for many hours that day. :) After all is said and done, and all the budgeting we tried to do with this move, we will definitely be using ABF or some kind of moving company next time. Ugh. Some of our stuff was ruined in some way or broken during the drive (the crib, our kitchen table, a cheap walmart bookshelf, etc). You live and learn, right?

 Dan single-handedly (well, maybe with a tiny bit of help from the missionaries) built half of our new furniture from Ikea. So awesome! He put together Grace's beautiful white bed, finished her white dresser one of the Elders had started on, and built our new bed and dresser. Thanks, Dan! Such a huge help.

I promise I'll post more about our new place when we get more settled. There's still tons to do, plus I have to do a 2 and a half year old post for Grace and Logan's 4 month post to be totally caught up on the blog. Stay tuned!

DOCTOR Turner

Touro's graduation ceremony was held on sunday, May 20th, at the Las Vegas Hilton. My parents, Ryan's parents, his sister Tori, and our 2 kids attended to cheer on our graduate! It was so wonderful to have them in Las Vegas with us for such a special weekend.

 The most handsome man in the procession, of course...

 All the DOs were seated together on one side of the faculty and podium, and the other programs' grads were on the other side.

 Grace kept herself entertained during the long 2+ hours...

 FINALLY the "T"s came around and it was Ryan's turn to hand over his name card. Aside from his name being read, he also had his residency program and the names of the 2 awards he won a couple nights before. I'm so proud of him!!

 Handing off his hood...

He looks a little freaked out if you ask me...

 Shaking hands with the Dean.

 We had so many pictures to take, so bare with me. :)

Dr. Eisen with Ryan.

 All my girls (except Melanie Redd who we're sad we missed)!!

 The couples. We're all so proud of our graduates!! What an incredible goal to reach.

Chris Larsen, Ryan, Robert Reynders, and Josh Dekker

All our graduates (minus Nephi).

 And yet again, Grace found silly ways to stay entertained. I'm sure she was thinking "ENOUGH pictures already, mom! Let's go eat dinner."

And so we did. Since our entire apartment (except our mattresses) was sitting in our truck, we couldn't have everyone over for a sunday dinner. So instead we all went out to BJ's and had an incredibly yummy dinner to celebrate! It was so good, and we took our time. 

I still can't believe we have made it to this point. Graduation day is something we'd talked about for years and tried to imagine ... but one of those huge days you think will never come. The 4 years of medical school were wonderful and terrible, long yet short, cherished but thank goodness NEVER happening again, and were by far the best 4 years of my life. The first 2 years of classes and studying and tests were by far the worst. The last 2 years went by somewhat "quickly" (in hindsight) thanks to the roller coaster of good and bad monthly rotations, instead of a consistently bad school schedule. We became a family of 3... and then a family of 4. Ryan and I learned more about ourselves and each other in those few short years and we are now more bonded together than before this experience. I'm grateful that this was Ryan's goal and dream, and that he allowed me to be such a big part of it. I'm grateful to him, friends, family members, ward members, and my Heavenly Father who allowed me to vent, complain, and moan & groan about being a med-student's wife. We made it, and we didn't do it without TONS of help from all those people I just mentioned. Especially from Heaven.

CONGRATULATIONS, Dr. Ryan Turner.  The kids and I are SO proud of you!

Too many Goodbyes...

My goodness, saying goodbye to people you love is so exhausting! Just getting ready to write this post, and seeing these pictures, makes me so emotional. These last 2 weeks have been chalk-full of hugs, tears, and "see you later"s. Here are a few friends and family members I was able to get pictures of recently...

Grace and her bestest-bud, Anderson Redd (who is moving to Hawaii).

Her cute friend Jonas, which Grace pronounces "Go-nis".

 Two of my favorite girls! Melanie Redd (Hawaii) and Robyn Larson (Iowa).

 Whitney Bishop - my personal sunshine. I love this lady!

Brig Dekker, who was trying to give Grace a hug in this photo.

Grace and Chad Bishop. What a handsome kid and fun friend!

 Excuse the raw emotion in this one... I love this sweet friend, Amanda Hadfield, and am excited for her little guy to be born in a few months!

 My big sis, Lindsey.

 Ryan's youngest sister, Tori. Such a loving, beautiful girl! I'm so glad she is good at staying in touch and actually WANTS to have an old lady like me so involved in her life. :)

 Ryan's Grandpa, Byron Turner. We're very happy we were able to sneak in a quick visit right before heading to Ohio, and that he could meet Logan. We love you, Grandpa!

And after all those goodbyes, it was time to load up the truck...

 Our whole lives fit in that 24 foot Budget truck, with room to spare!

Thank you thank you THANK YOU to the guys who helped. It only took about 1.5 hours thanks to all the help we had.