New Year Wish

I'm not sure if you are allowed New Year wishes, but just in case, I'm recording mine as a Rose Bowl victory for the Illini tomorrow! It worked on my birthday, so it's worth a shot again. I got several Rose Bowl items for Christmas, so I hope we win (or are at least respectable) so they don't have to be relegated to the back of the closet for a long period of time. The signs aren't looking great for the Illini. The oddsmakers have them as a two touchdown underdog, the Big Ten hasn't fared great in the bowl games so far, and the basketball fiasco on Sunday doesn't give me a lot of confidence either. It's been a great season and one more win would make it perfect. Go Illini!

UPDATE: Apparently there is no such thing as New Year wishes, at least not for me. This is exactly what I feared the most. Glad we got there, but wish the outcome was different. I know we could have played better, but USC was great. Still looking forward to next year!

Christmas Morning

It was the calm before the storm! The kids woke up to see that Santa made it to our house again this year! They didn't get up until 8:00, probably because they were pretty excited the night before and had trouble falling asleep. They had a busy day on Christmas Eve. They got one present from Mom and Dad, which were Build-A-Bears (Rudolph and Clarice). We went to the mall to have them "stuffed" and of course we had to buy clothes for them too! We checked out a couple of things at the mall and ran into the McKeown's there. From there, we had to get video tape to make sure we were prepared for the next morning activities. We went out to eat at Lone Star after the shopping (which also counted as part of Mommy's Christmas present!). We went to feed Pandy before heading home to bake cookies for Santa. By the time we registered the Build-A-Bears on the computer, got the cookies ready, the reindeer food out, got our baths, exchanged the kids' gifts, and read Twas the Night Before Christmas, it was quite late. The anticipation of the visitor overnight was too much to quickly fall asleep. You can check out some of the pictures of the BIG day here.

Turner Tradition

In honoring a Turner tradition that we have been doing for the last 4-5 years during the Christmas season, we took a trip to East Peoria to see the Festival of Lights. We picked Brandon up from school and headed up to Peoria on Friday. We started off at the FOLEPI's Village where the kids got to play some games and ride some rides and Santa was there with one of his reindeer!

From there we headed to Avanti's Restaurant for dinner until it was nice and dark to go see the Festival of Lights Winter Wonderland. Brandon and I had the Gondola sandwiches, which are our favorites! (Special thanks goes to Tim Britton for introducing the restaurant to us!)

After dinner, we drove back to FOLEPI's Village and watched while they attempted to inflate a hot air balloon in the parking lot and then headed off to drive through the lights. The pictures don't do it justice. It is a great time and there were a lot of new displays this year. Looking forward to doing it again next year!

Frosty the Fireman

We had fun in the snow all weekend. We played in it Saturday afternoon and we had a fresh layer of snow to start again on Sunday. To cap off our snow day activities, we built Frosty the Fireman in the front yard. After taking the picture we went to Aunt Marilyn's to feed Pandy and brought back two fallen limbs that we added for Frosty's arms. Of course in between we had to go out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings to satisfy Angie's craving from the night before.

Silent Night, Holy Night

"Silent night, holy night,

All is calm, all is bright"

No, I didn't forget to remove the lens cap, this was our view for six hours last night! The night was silent and calm (except the sound of a generator running off in the distance), but it wasn't very holy or bright with no electricity when the temperature is in the 20's outside and 6-8 inches of snow! According to Ameren, we were one of about 200 households that were without electricity from about 8:30 pm - 2:20 am this morning due to power lines being down from the winter storm. I could have tested out the generator that my Dad had bought me a year ago, but I really didn't want to go outside to fire it up and I figured we wouldn't be without electricity for that long. It was 65 degrees in the house when the power finally came back on. I guess it could have been worse.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

You can get a sneak peak at our 2007 Christmas card before it arrives in the mail. We just picked them up yesterday and hopefully we will get them in the mail by Christmas. If not, consider this your card this year! We woke up this morning to a white blanket of snow on the ground. They are forecasting 6-8 inches today and it is still snowing into the evening. Since we got the new cards, I decided to dig out the old ones to see how the kids have changed:

2006

2005

(Special Collector's Two Card Edition!)

Created by our friend, Nancy Knauer, who is a great photographer. Check out the creations at her website. (Brandon and Brittany are on there too in the Galleries!)

2004

Check Back Soon For Image!

2003

2002

2001

B.K. (Before Kids) Pictures

Kirby is really thankful that we have kids now so he doesn't have to go out to see Santa!

Smelling Like a Rose

I watched Saturday night's football games with a lot of interest knowing that Illinois had an outside shot at falling into the Rose Bowl. Thanks Missouri (and West Virginia too)!!!!! I know we will be huge underdogs, but how sweet the smell to make it to the Rose Bowl after several years of difficult seasons. GO ILLINI!!!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Can you believe that we are officially under one month to go until Christmas? Where has the year gone? The kids were excited to get out the Christmas decorations and put up the Christmas trees on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We have one in our basement and one upstairs (I guess in case Santa gets lost - or maybe confused and leaves us twice as many gifts?!?). There are still plenty of boxes of Christmas decorations to put up. I'm sure we will get them up eventually just in time to put them away again until next year.

Southern Illinois Thanksgiving

This year the Turner Tribe headed down to Southern Illinois for Thanksgiving. The first stop was Angie's Mema Mary's House on Thanksgiving Day where we got to visit with her Dad, her Mema and Willard, her Aunt Nancy and Uncle Doug, along with her first cousins Charisse and Neil. The kids got to ride Papa Curt's horse, Sonny (which they loved) and Brandon learned how to play Checkers. When we were leaving, Willard challenged Brandon to a game of checkers on the next visit. Brandon assured him that he would beat him, so Willard told him that they would play for five bucks. Brandon agreed and told him, "If I win, you give me your five dollars and if you win, you get to keep your five dollars!" That's my boy!!!

Stop Number 2 (on Day 2) of the Thanksgiving Tour was at Angie's Mema Larrie's house. We got to visit with her Mema, her mom, Aunts, Uncles, and lots of cousins. We were able to get all the youngsters together for a picture. Brandon and Brittany got their pictures taken with their first cousin once removed (Rachael), and second cousins (Lane, Katelynn, Alianah, and baby Kaden). Brittany was being her normal shy self and Brandon thought there were too many girls there!

To finish out the Thanksgiving Trifecta, the Tour ended at my parent's house on Friday evening for a Thanksgiving Dinner. We visited with my parents and sister Kim and Brother-In-Law David, while Brandon and Brittany had a ball playing with first cousins Ashley and Aaron. After two filled days, we came back up to Springfield on Saturday afternoon to finally get some rest and recover from the long weekend. Only 4 more weeks until we do it all over again!!!

Illinois Finishes 9-3!

I would like to point out that before the season I said the Illini would go 9-3 when I went down the schedule. They won a couple games against teams I thought they would get beat and lost a couple I thought they would win, but I still guessed the record correctly. This was a great year to have season tickets! Although sitting in the horseshoe is not the best seats in the stadium, you still had great views of action on the South End. The picture above shows Mendenhall scoring one of his many rushing touchdowns this year! Looking forward to watching the Illini play on New Year's Day!!!!!!

Brandon's Tribe

Let's hope that the NCAA doesn't find out that Brandon's school had a Native American Day at school this week or else his college eligibility could be in jeopardy. Angie went and helped in his class for the morning. They made Native American vests, jewelry, sand art, pottery, dream catchers, and tambourines. I think next week they are going to complain about university symbols and open a casino. Brandon enjoyed it and he will always be our "little Chief".

Brandon "Deron Williams" Turner

Brandon has been playing in a basketball league at his elementary school. He has been a little timid in the earlier games, but each time he is getting more into the games. Recently he had his best game by getting a couple of rebounds, causing two jump balls, and made several assists (which is virtually unheard of in these games). The regular season wrapped up on the 17th, but he is suppose to play at an Alumni game at the high school on December 1st.

The Pizza Machine

We celebrated my birthday and the Illini victory over Ohio State at The Pizza Machine on Saturday night. The picture is someone's 40 inch pizza being delivered to their table with the pizza crane. If two people people finish it within 60 minutes, they will pay you $500. They had a sign showing they now have a 60 inch pizza too! It was a very different place. The restaurant has two levels and there is a magician/juggler performing on the weekends. He was really amazing. There is also various machinery pieces, including an old auger that the kids could crank to move a ball up it to drop 30 feet below and a slide down to the lower level that the kids enjoyed. My parents and niece (Ashley) went with us and the kids. The pizza was good and the atmosphere was unique! Of course, everything was better after the big birthday victory!

My Birthday Wish

Is it too much to ask for a victory on my birthday tomorrow? I hope not. It will be a huge test for the Illini to see how they measure up and how much more they need to grow to play with the elite teams. Go Illini!!!!

UPDATE:

WOW!!!! If I would have known my birthday wish was going to come true, maybe I should have wished for financial gain! Maybe next year! That game was incredible. They played about as well as they could. That 4th Quarter drive was as good as it gets. It was gutsy to go for it deep in their own territory on 4th and inches, then Juice carrying the ball on 3rd and 7 & 3rd and 10 on that final drive! Let's hope they don't have a letdown next week against Northwestern. Way to go Illini!!

Ballerina Brittany

This week was parent observation at Brittany's ballet class. She got to demonstrate her ballet moves and tap dancing techniques. She really enjoys ballet and does a great job listening to her instructors. She says she wants to do ballet all day, every day. To see more photos from the ballet class, click here: View Album

Miss Diva Thang

Tonight before bed, Brittany disappeared to her bedroom and came out in this ensamble. She is a walking fashion statement. She must get her fashion sense from her daddy. The show ended abruptly as she asked for the paparazzis to leave her alone so she could get some beauty sleep. Good Night!

Mr. October - Student of the Month

Brandon was selected as Student of the Month for the month of October. His certificate he got said that he was recognized for displaying Responsibility, the Character Education principle of the month. Way to go Brandon!

Farmingdale Basketball League

Brandon started his basketball league at his grade school this Saturday. He is on the Illinois team and will play 6 games (Thursday nights and Saturday mornings) during the month of November. They played Minnesota this morning (same as the Illini did in football that night). He was a little timid in his first game and started getting into it more late in the game. They play 4 - 5 minute quarters and each player plays at least two quarters. There is a lot of action, but very little scoring. In the afternoon, we practiced out in the driveway to get ready for the next game!

Important Game

This is an important game for Illinois to win. They need to get to win #7 to be a lock for a bowl game and can't slip up against a struggling Minnesota team. They aren't going to win in Columbus next weekend and they don't need the extra pressure against Northwestern in the final home game of the year since the Wildcats will be looking to become bowl eligible too.

Happy Halloween

Trick or Treat! This year Brandon was Jimmy Neutron and Brittany was a cheerleader for Halloween. They had looked forward to the night for weeks (maybe months). They were ready to go as soon as I got home from work. Angie waited a little bit before they headed out to make sure more people would be home. The kids ran (yes, ran) from door to door for the first half. Thankfully, they slowed down towards the end. Last year it was cold and the princess was ready to come back early. This year they made through the whole subdivision and made it to some of the new subdivision too. They both made it back with full baskets of candy, which should last us until Christmas. You can see a few other pictures from Halloween night here: View Album