Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas morning. We sure had fun and now I'm off to take a nap with Max. Seriously....if I never put a race car track together again I will be TOTALLY fine with that. Can't they just come assembled instead of in a gagillion parts?? Oh well, still worth every minute for the the expressions Christmas morning :)

(p.s. I'm also not very fond of those twisty ties anymore ...why do they put 10 of them on a toy?...one would do just fine, thank you. )Here are a few more photos from our picture day that didn't make the Christmas card cut.

The "Other" side of the lens

Today I had the thrilling experience to be on the other side of the camera lens. We had your typical crazy morning because, of course we were taking pictures. Max has been sick. I'd already rescheduled once before in hopes he would feel better so I was bound and determined to make this work with a sick baby and the current temp at 2 degrees! (well not really 2 degrees but it felt like it). We raced out the door and were on our way to pick Ted up from work when I had a little "mother prompting" to turn around and get some spare clothes for Max and take the shirt off he was going to wear for pictures. About 5 minutes later...disaster! You know what EVERYWHERE. So I pulled off the side of the road and began clean-up using the only thing I had on hand. An entire package of baby wipes. En route I realized I left Ted's jeans at home, so I made the embarassing call to our photographer..."Uhh Tiff, sorry we're going to be a little late (I HATE WHEN PEOPLE ARE LATE TO PHOTOSHOOTS! Don't they know were dealing with a limited time frame on light! gesh!) so yeah, Tiff we're going to be a little late, we gotta stop at the Mall and pick Ted up some jeans....please say you'll still be my friend." Fortunately, she agreed that our friendship would not be over. PHEW. I'm not sure how long we were out in the cold but I'm pretty sure Max will be either crying, looking away or lying his head down in every picture. I'm such a crappy mom for dragging him out in the cold (please don't report me to CSS). Jack did great as my seasoned model making sure he NEVER said "Cheese" with that crazy face and eyes closed look. Ted was a good sport and tolerated it all. In the end it wasn't so bad, but I did make a solemn pledge to TED and the gang that we will never be last on my list again and next year we will be taking pictures in the summer or at the beach with a minimum temperature of 70 degrees. Thanks Tiff you rule!

My Gingerbread MEN

Well it's starting to feel like Christmas around here. Snow on the ground, Christmas lights up and of course GINGERBREAD houses! We decided to build Gingerbread houses the old fashion way........you know buy the $8 kit from Costco. It was still fun and the boys had a blast.

Max did a great job cleaning out the frosting tube for us.Hard at work

Max got bored so he decided to go have fun at his usual hangout...The tree.

Building houses is a lot of work. Jack is pooped! Time for bed.

It's Business Time

(Ashlin don't watch this until your 18)

When Ted and I were in the airport a few weeks ago at some insane hour of the morning we started checking in on all of your blogs. We got to Steph's
and just lost it. We were laughing so hard at 5:30am that people started to stare. I especially love the part where he trips over his pants because his shoes are still on. Thanks Steph you made our morning :)

What the ____!!

(please do not read if you are a perfect Mormon)

Sunday I'm sitting in Ward Council and the Bishop casually mentions something about our meeting time at 1:00pm AGAIN next year. I shake my head thinking maybe my ears heard that wrong. Clearly, I thought I heard that wrong, seeing how we've already had the joy of meeting at that glorious hour this year. The entire room must have been privy to this information before me since I was the only one in the room with my jaw to the floor. Then in a louder voice then normal...I managed to get out "What the heck?" What I really wanted to say was "What the hell?" But I refrained for obvious reasons. I'm sure we're already labeled as the "potty mouth" family anyway after Jack's previous outburst in sunbeams. So after much thought, Ted and I have narrowed our choices down to these:

A. Stop going to church
B. Join another church
C. Go to a different ward
D. Suck it up and stop complaining

I know, I know, some people like that time. But here at the Turk house...we hate it! So don't leave a comment on how great that time is and how much you love it, because I'm still kind of bugged and I don't want to hear it.

Rollercoasters, Friends, Pictures, Oh MY!!

Last week Ted and I had the craziest 48 hours...

THURSDAY
3:45am - get up, get ready, head to the airport.
7:05am - Land and begin the search for my B-day breakfast at IHOP
8:00am- Located IHOP proceeded to stuff my face
9:30am- Disneyland....Yahoo...BIG KID RIDES baby!
3:45pm -Balboa Island engagement shoot
6:30pm - Dinner with friends
11:00pm- BED (finally)

FRIDAY
Wedding all DAY (Ted went to Disneyland again with his brother Gabe & Fam)

SATURDAY
3:45 am- get up, get ready, head to airport
11:00am- get home, give the boys hugs and kisses, shower.
1:00pm- back to SLC for another all day wedding
Okay I realize that was a little more than 48 hours but the other number didn't sound as dramatic :)

If you couldn't tell the chick with her hand in the air is me. I would have had both but my hat started to blow off. Cruella needed a beautiful model so logically she picked that hot hunk of burning love :)

Dinner with some of my good friends from Laguna. We missed you Shannon & Shelle. (Sorry about the flame coming out of your head Andy)
I know this picture is blurry, but it was with our PnS and the flash just washed out the whole ambiance so this is what you get. They were awesome, we just missed most of the dinner conversation because the volume was SOOOO loud. Yikes, I think I'm getting old...did I just say the volume was too loud? Yep...definitely another year older :)

Happy First Day Max!

Today is Max's FIRST birthday which we celebrated last night with our family.
This was the FIRST moment today Max got to play with his birthday toys all by himself without his BIG brother hogging everything.
Max's FIRST steps on his FIRST birthday!

His FIRST fall of many as he starts learning to walk.
And finally Max's FIRST disaster. Guess it's time to move all my breakable stuff back up high again. Whoops.
I can't believe it's already been a year since this little guy was born. He is such a TURCSANSKI and we love him!

I've been Tagged!

Thanks a lot Kristin! Don't you know I'm really not that interesting anymore. So here are "7 interesting facts" that I had to turn back the clock a bit for....

1. Yes folks that beauty was mine Sophomore year of college. See the deal was my dad said he would match what I made that summer I was home from school. So I saved every dime and at the end of the summer my dad showed up with a NEW proposition: I get this sweet Cadi (some client gave him to pay for a job) and I get to keep the money I made. Hmmm, I was a little embarrassed but then I remembered I drove an El Camino in High School! So I took the leather seats and power windows to snowy Utah. Much to my surprise it ended up being a hit with the guys. Anytime we did ANYTHING we had to take my Cadi. My friends would call it the "Pimp Daddy Cadi."
2. I love playing the guitar and writing silly songs. Since I was single for SOOOO long I felt it was only fitting I write a song about Christmas and being single. It was the number 1 hit on the family charts!! So EVERY freaking family Christmas party they made me sing it. Like it wasn't bad enough I was single for yet another year they still wanted to hear it.
When Ted and I got married I couldn't write bitter girl songs anymore so I wrote him a love song and sang it at our wedding luncheon. It was still silly... just not bitter.
3. Somewhere in my crazy head I thought I was born to be an ice skater. So at 24 years old I bought myself some white skates and took lessons. Seriously, are you laughing??? Well, just be glad I didn't put my competition video on here. You would pee your pants! Skate skirt and all.

4. I've finished (keyword finished) 5 marathons

5. I'm a "to-do" list junkie. I love lists, I love crossing things off, even if I already did the item and forgot to write it on my list, I'll put it on there just to get the satisfaction of crossing it off.

6. I raced on the Ski Team in college. I wasn't that great, I just loved the free season passes and fun trips we took when competing.

7. The last interesting fact about me is....I have a REALLY hard time saying NO to people. I think it is the people pleaser/oldest child in me. I look at it as a good thing most of the time.

So the truth is I really don't like doing these. I love reading them...don't get me wrong. I just don't like doing them. Sorry Kristin...you know I couldn't say no, I've got issues. So all of you...if you want to get tagged...YOU'RE IT!!! but you know you can say no. I just can't.

Dinner.........a waste of time.

Unless Corndogs are on the menu Jack usually takes a little convincing to eat what I've prepared. I don't claim to be the best cook by any means but when I busted out the Potato Bar last night I thought it would be a hit! It wasn't. So it began....Take 5 bites Jack and then you can be done....Way to go! How about another? You are such a good eater. Wow, you're going to be so strong. Usually, I can sidetrack him enough to tack on another few bites without him knowing. Apparently, he is beating me at my own game and wasn't having any of the bonus bites I tried to sneak in. Midway through this process, he looked up at me and said...."Mom, this is just a waste of time."

Gracias & The Bike Gang

I'm still in Cali and just to tick my best friend off who is "Anti-blogging" (gasp!) I thought I would post directly from her house in hopes that one day she will break down and give into the blogging ways. So I need to do a shout out to my girls back in Utah that saved my booty last week. You know who you are. Thank you, thank you for stuffing my marketing envelopes, watching my kids, doing carpool when it wasn't your turn, squeezing me in for a training and letting me vent when I was exhausted and delirious from sleep deprivation. You rule and I love you! Thanks also to my hot hubby who came home early from work and stayed up WAY past his bedtime to help me get ready for my show. Thanks to my mom and mother in law who also watched my boys, helped with the Halloween program at school and otherwise did my job as a mother. I love you both.


Here is the hard core biker boys. They are so hilarious to watch. So far so good with the ramp and the ER. This was Jack's b-day present and while standing in the check out line paying for the jump I could also see "future" Jen paying the hospital for the injuries sure to come . That is when I ran to the back of the store and threw ... wrist, elbow and knee pads into my shopping cart.

Holding it!

I have a hard time understanding Jack and his potty antics. He waits until the VERY very last second possible to dash to the bathroom where he then does this frantic dance to get his pants down in time. I'm not sure if he is just afraid he'll miss out on our exciting life or if it really doesn't register until it is the millisecond before disaster!

Me: "Jack where ya headed?"

Jack: "Nowhere."

Me: "Oh really, how 'bout we hit the bathroom dude?"

Jack: "Nah."

Me: "it really looks like you gotta go."

Jack: "Nah, I don't gotta go Mom."

This picture was taken after he finally broke down and went to the bathroom. He looks a little less tense, don't cha think?