People We Love

A few months ago, our ward got our first set of Sister missionaries! We have had one set of Elders, but now we have both. We have absolutely loved having them! I have been able to feed the Sisters probably twice as often as I did the guys because I don't need Ryan home to have the ladies over. Plus they have a car. :) 

The first set of Sisters was Sister Austen and Sister Lehman. We just adored them! The whole ward did. Sister Austen, especially, was so out-going and friendly. My kids were always so excited to have them come over for dinner, or have them stop by. I had the Sisters over on Christmas Day for lunch, and it was one of the best parts of my whole Christmas. 

After 2 transfers staying together in our ward, Sister Austen found out she was being transferred to a new area and Sis. Lehman was staying here. They came over to say goodbye and visit for a few minutes. 

Grace, Sis. Lehman, Sis. Austen, Logan

 We were sad to see her go, but happy that Sis. Lehman was sticking around! Her new companion, Sister Fox, is great too. We are loving having both sets. Ryan gets after me that I "would never say that about the Elders" or "don't have them over as much as the girls", etc. But the girls are just so much more personable, plus I can really become their friends... you can't do that with the guys. ;)

Sister Lehman and Sister Fox reading our Book of Mormon board book to the kids. They stopped by one day to change from work clothes back into sunday clothes and ended up staying for an extra hour entertaining my kids. They kept asking me "Is there ANYTHING at all we can do to serve you?" There really wasn't anything I needed... but after they played and entertained my kids for that period of time, I was telling them they did EXACTLY what I needed that day. I'm so grateful for them.

See? We have the Elders over sometimes too. 

I had them pull out the Book of Mormon floor puzzle we have.

 A recent photo of the cousins!

 A couple weeks ago, Ryan's younger brother came for a quick visit. Kyle is graduating from Pharmacy school at the U of U and has been interviewing for residencies. He came out here to the program at OSU so he was able to stay with us a couple of nights before he headed off to his next interview in Pittsburgh. We are REALLY hoping he matches here and his family moves here! Even if he gets into a few of his other options, they're all anywhere from 3 to 11 hours driving distance from us. That's totally do-able!

Ryan was working night shifts the whole time Kyle was here. I felt so bad that almost all of the waking hours that Kyle was in town, Ryan was either sleeping or at work. :( Ryan was bummed that he was missing out on spending time with him, so he would only sleep a few hours in the day (instead of the typical 6 before his next shift). They were able to spend a couple of hours here and there to chat with him at least. 

It was really great to have him visit! It was nice to hear more updates on what was happening with them, his schooling, and the rest of the Turner clan in Utah. We sure hope Kyle and Katelyn end up close by. :)

 Back in January, my brother Thomas got engaged!! He is marrying Whitney Canfield, a girl he met on... get this... Tinder! haha. Yep, the phone app for hook-ups. ;) But it worked out for them and we are so happy to have Whitney join the family. Grace even calls her Aunt Whitney sometimes. When I told Grace what was happening with them, what "getting engaged" is, she drew this cute picture of them and I texted it to them. 

We can't WAIT to have them come visit us in a few weeks!!

 The Goates kiddos came to play one morning. Owen and Grace were so funny in their "car" together. Grace was driving and Owen was chatting away on his phone. It's like a glimpse into their teenage years! Oh, I hope they're still buddies throughout their lives. 

We have been so blessed lately by our loved ones. Much more than I could write in this post. When we struggle, our family and friends are there for us. Angels on this earth, being the Lord's hands. We are grateful for a wonderful Bishopric, loving friends and siblings, and supportive, helpful parents. I'm also grateful for my friends who are far away, especially my med-school sisters who still make an effort to stay connected and keep in touch with me. We have been so blessed in each place we have lived, and each ward we have been a part of. I am sad to think that we have a little over a year left here in this home and ward... and I hope that our next place is just as wonderful. I could never survive this med-school/residency road without the support system we have and the Church that provides us with a family anywhere we go.  Heavenly Father truly knows who and what we need, and answers prayers.

Trying to Stay Warm

As I said in the last post, it's been ridiculously cold and snowy ever since the beginning of the year. I feel like we have been in constant frozen mode here in Ohio. The road we live on hasn't been clear of snow since sometime in January. It never gets plowed and never has a chance to melt. In fact, driving through our neighborhood these last few weeks, with all the bumps and potholes in the snow and ice, messed up the balance on our tires. I don't know if that's how you say it... but anyway we had to take my car in to check the alignment and get it all rebalanced. :(

See? It was a sunny day, but this was taken with weeks-worth of snow and ice accumulation that doesn't go anywhere. 

Since it's been so freezing and hard to leave the house, we have done a lot of hanging around at home. Our preschool co-op has been canceled several times or delayed a few hours because some of the moms have older kids in the elementary schools who had snow days. January and into February has been so strange and abnormal for everybody! Here are some recent things...

Lots of playing in the snow. It was still snowing while we went out for a few minutes.

  And then the wind picked up and it was like a white out!

I took about 1.5 minutes to make the kids some cars out of boxes and paper plates. It was a hit! They each had a little play house and a car.

 Finger painting and q-tip painting.

 Threading cheerios on spaghetti.

 When the temp outside gets in the single digits or below, my DP cans in the garage turn to slush!

I still can't believe we had temperatures like this! It's completely abnormal for Ohio. 

 The kids seem to be treating each other a lot nicer. They still fight A LOT, don't get me wrong. But we also have good hours when they get along and make up games and imaginary play together. :)

 The kids play most often with cars. Almost a whole day will pass without them touching any other toys except cars or trucks! Grace is particularly funny about it. She realized after Logan's birthday came that we have these Chuck toys that now have a matching "baby" size. So she plays with them like they're daddies and babies. haha Cute.

 When we're having a particularly stir-crazy day, I let the kids fill up the tub with water-resistant toys that wouldn't normally go in there. I'll let them stay in there extra long and refill the tub with warm water when it starts to cool off. 

 

 Ryan built a super cool compound for the dinosaurs!

Another day, another snow storm... This time, the wind blew the drifts onto our porch and made a 3 inch wall of snow against our door!

The kids were soaking up some much-needed vitamin D for about 20 seconds.

 We made a snow mountain in the front yard.

The drifts in the back yard were pretty neat. 

 One sunday in January the snow started falling at about 7:30 am. Within an hour it was already bad enough that the morning wards in our stake cancelled church. We finally heard around 10:45 that our afternoon church was cancelled as well. Ryan was at work, but the kids and I hung out in our PJs and enjoyed a relaxing day. I think we watched 3 movies that day... ha!

 I took the kids outside intending on shoveling while they played, but between Logan getting stuck every 20 seconds, and Grace's gloves falling off every minute or two, I was about to give up and go inside! Just then a van full of young men from our ward pulled up and jumped out with shovels! So awesome! I almost cried. We don't live near many ward members, so they really went out of their way to come over. :)

 While Grace was away at a birthday party, I pulled out some busy bags for Logan. I should have been doing this months ago, but it's almost impossible to focus on just him with Grace around trying to make his project her own. He really loved doing this color-matching jewel game. I was blown away how quickly he was able to match the right colors together! He has come a LONG way with his speech and knowing his colors just in the last couple of months.

 Our membership to COSI (children's museum) is about to expire so we are trying to go a couple more times before then. I hadn't been in awhile and they have this whole new play area with farm stuff, a big house, and a fruit truck/stand area. The kids could have stayed for hours!

 Look at Logan's lips - so cute! He was all business in that truck.

 We were the first people to walk into the play area until other kids showed up within 10 minutes. So at first everything was all clean up and nice for my kids, but then the tornado hit. Grace spent at least a 20 minutes running around with baskets, trying to sort all the fruits and veggies back into the right spot. 

 Grace's hair is getting long! And it curls totally on its own into a perfect ringlet like this ponytail. 

 Poor grocery cart. :( I think we are in agreement that spring needs to come!

The piano helps to kill time indoors. :)

I figured if I dress Grace in something bright and happy, with a cute flower in her hair, it would lift my spirits. It actually worked! 

 Seeing the fish while we grocery shop is always a highlight!

 Yesterday the kids kept coming up to me and resting their chins on my knees with this "I'm bored" look. I couldn't help but laugh and take a picture.

 Last night we had freezing rain. These icicles developed within 1.5 hours.