Christmas Craziness

This last month has been....crazy busy.  As I am sure everyone's has. So here are the major events of the past month....

November:

My good friend gave birth unexpectedly at 28 weeks. She had to have an emergency c-section and had a placental abruption. We were so sad and scared for our friends as their baby struggled to live for the first 24 hours. We prayed and fasted for that little guy to pull through. They didn't think he'd make it, but a sweet miracle later he started breathing on his own and I am happy to say that here a month later he is now at 3 lbs and doing well. Still in the NICU but growing and developing well. We pray every day for that family as I can only imagine how hard it is to have to have a baby in the hospital for such a long time and always wonder how he's doing. Even Sophie keeps them in her prayers. The other night she said "please bless the turpins baby to grow big and strong and be healthy" I was so touched that she remembered him. Tomorrow I'm going to the hospital to visit him & I can't wait to see him. I got to see him when he was just a day old, and he was tiny tiny...2 lbs.

Since then...

A friend was diagnosed with breast cancer, a sister found a lump in her breast (turns out not to be cancer) another friends boy ended up in the hospital with seizures & they are clueless as to what's causing them & another acquaintance passed away from cancer leaving her kids & husband.

With all of this it has hit me over & over again with what is really important in life. That family & life & loving those around you is just the most important thing you could do in this life. Life is a gift & you never know what the next day will bring. I have been trying to make an extra effort every day to show my kids my love for them, cause you just never know.

On a lighter note....

Thanksgiving! Was fabulous! We actually had 2. One with a family on tuesday. He's a pilot & would miss thanksgiving. I run with their daughters and they invited us on over. It was great fun. They have a farm and the boys spent the day chasing the chickens around the yard. Then on Thursday we ate with our good friends the Hillis'. We love them so much, they are just like family to us. We spent the day together, ate so much dang good food, got in line at target for black Friday with their daughter, had a great time running through the store getting whatever the heck. It was a good day. I made a few different things, one of them being my rolls. I have had to relearn how to make those since moving here & I am happy to say I've finally figured it out! They were perfect. One of the Grandmas even snuck one away in her purse. So funny.

Since then we've decorated for Christmas, finished up our shopping, watched several Christmas movies, read Christmas stories every night as well as singing Christmas songs. It has been great. Last weekend our community put on a Christmas celebration. There was a fun parade, tons of candy, Santa Claus and then a fair with all the usual shops, attractions, big bounce houses and to end it all a great firework show. It was awesome. Our kids had a great time. At one point during the parade, a group of little kids in the parade came through, recognized Harrison and all started shouting his name and tossing candy to him. They were so cute and excited to see him. They were from his school class. I love that he gets along so well with the other kids.

Speaking of which...Harrison came home from school the other day and said "Mom I'm in love again! And we are going to be sweethearts for the rest of our lives..." I love that kid.

He is doing so well in school, it makes my heart so happy. James on the other hand has seemed to just give up. It is driving me insane. He fights me on his homework nearly everyday. ugh. If it's not one...it's the other. Oh well. Ben does better with him than I do, so he has been mostly taking charge of helping James with his school work and projects.

Since school is always a sore subject with James I have been trying to spend time with him doing other things. On Saturday I came home from my run and then he and I went for a good little run together. It was really fun to just run and talk together. I am going to try and get him out there 2-3 times a week. It's good for him and for me. I've also started doing special little things for the kids each day. Like I made their beds and left a little note with a treat. They were really excited about that. And in response they made a me a really sweet card telling me how much they loved me. I hung it up on the fridge. Cute kids.

I've been taking them out on Dates every thursday night and we just rotate through the kids. It was Sophie's turn a couple weeks ago and we went to the dollar store and picked out gifts for Ben James and Harrison. We then went to Target and got a little treat and picked out her new Christmas dress. It was so much fun. She loved it, she kept talking about us going on our date. James and I went together tihs last Saturday (RS stuff Thursday) We picked out gifts from the dollar store from James to everyone and then went shopping for Ben. Then it was off to Burger King for James' favorite...A double stacker. THat boy loves those things.

Sophie is still my sweet girl that I am hopelessly in love with. She is being so funny lately. Her wit and sense of humor has started to come out and she is one funny kid. For instance... Ben comes up to her and picks her and says "hey who do you love?" Sophie's reply "I don't like mean people that pick me up". We laughed so hard at that one. She has come up with lots of good one liners.

I finally made her a new Christmas stocking, she was using my old one. It turned out super cute. I put a little Ballerina on it. She loves it. She loves Ballet and dance. In fact in her prayer the other night she said "Please bless that I can grow up big so I can go to Ballet class" Love that sweet girl.

As far as my life goes...besides laundry, dishes, cleaning, homework, bed making, bathroom cleaning, & cooking.. ;) ;) I have recently signed up for the Phoenix Marathon. I'm running it with 6 other family members and am so dang excited. I'm doing a more advanced training program. I'm not going to lie it is hard, but I think I am getting a little better. I am most impressed with my dad. He is already up to running 10 miles and getting closer to holding a 10 min mile. How amazing is that for a 64 yr old? Cannot wait for him to run that race. He'll be great.

I've also had my RS Christmas dinner to plan and carry out. That was this last week. It went really well, we had close to 50 sisters come, which is almost everyone, so that was great. I was so grateful for all the people that helped out. It was beautiful.  Then this week we had a VT conference as well, which I made fudge for and it was A-mazing! White Chocolate Peppermint. mmmmm. It seems we've been crazy busy with all that, training meetings, kids school functions, different Church activities and everything. It is nice to be able to sit here tonight and relax for a bit. It seems this last week I had to set timers for just about everything we did because life was so packed we only had so much time for each and every thing. I am enjoying this happy calm night at the moment.

With that being said, I am done typing. I am wanting food, and wanting to snuggle up with my sweets and watch something.

Have a Happy Christmas!!