Pumpkin Fun

Hi, its Briana.  I know we haven't blogged since I was in 3rd grade and now I'm in 6th grade.  I am going to be the new writer for Team Turner.  The reason we have not had time to write is because Alex was diagnosed with autism.  He does ot and aba therapy.  Now that I've found out about the blog it is my goal to keep it going.
A few things about Alex and me:
I'm in 6th grade and Alex is in kindergarten.  He's 6 and I'm 11.  I play the oboe in the school band and I take private lessons, but those will be ending soon.  Alex plays baseball and does soccer clinics.  I play travel soccer and travel basketball.  I'm not playing soccer right now, but  I will in the spring.  Also my dad is my travel basketball coach.  Now to tell you about what the Turners did today.

Halloween is right around the corner so after my oboe lessons my mom and I drove to the grocery store and got pumpkins to carve!  It was the first time I had carved a pumpkin.  It was really fun and in the end our pumpkins turned out great.   Here are some pictures of the pumpkin carving experience.

Me taking out the pumpkin guts and seeds

Alex reaching in his pumpkin

Some of the pumpkin guts

Our pumpkin seeds

Briana the witch

Getting ready to carve

Final result

In the end we roasted our seeds and ate them!

1st Day of 3rd Grade

It's hard to believe, but Briana started 3rd grade today. Here is a little video showing her the 1st day of school from Kindergarten to today.

Reds Game

While we weren't able to take a big family vacation this year, we did do a weekend trip down to Cincinatti (I love you, IKEA!). We took the kids to the Cincinatti Reds baseball game. It was a blast! Check out our pics below!

Summer 2010

The Turners had a lot of fun this summer. It started with Brian's Sport Management Club doing their annual fund raiser at the Clippers Stadium. Briana got to meet a famous Buckeye, Marcus Freeman. She was more excited that Marcus was one of Daddy's students. The famous Buckeye part was just a bonus. Right after this picture was taken, Alex had a bad spill off a picnic table bench and let everyone in the stadium know it through his wails. Marcus won't forget the Turner family anytime soon!

Alex and Brian went to touch a truck at the Hilliard Park. As you know, Alex LOVES trucks! He was excited to see the real, life size versions. Briana and Alex got their first baseball gloves and for a while, catch was a regular activity in the evening. Once our evenings regular hit 95 degrees, catch kind of slowed down. I am sure this fall it will resume. We took Briana and Alex to the fountains at Easton to play. Alex enjoyed it very much until he saw the minature train display. He quickly lost interest in the water and watched the trains for some time. Briana got to attend three different camps this summer-Hilliard rec camps where she swam and played games, Apple camp where she made a movie, and Ohio State Soccer Camp where she honed her soccer skills.

Early in the summer, Briana and I got to travel to Wisconsin for my cousin Elly's wedding. Brian and Alex stayed home in Ohio. We didn't quite think Alex was ready to sit through a wedding ceremony. Briana and I had a lot of fun reconnecting with family. We also got to go tubing on the lake with my brother Scott and his wife Deanna. It was a blast! Deanna's daughter Jamie and her friend were also tubing with us so we had a lot of fun on the boat. It was a fun afternoon. Dinner on the restaurant patio with grandma and grandpa after was another highlight of the day. The wedding was beautiful and the trip was a blast.

Cheerleading

Our precious little girl has decided once again to cheer for Upward. Upward is a great Christian based athletic organization. Briana cheered for two years along with Alyssa, a friend from school and the cheer coach's daughter. She loves it, although next year she has said she may play basketball instead of cheering for it.

Christmas 2009

I think the pictures say alot about how great our Christmas was this year. We felt very lucky to be able to spend part of Christmas with our new nephew, Mase and Ricky, Cari, and David. We had a snow and everyone got to go sledding! It was wonderful.

Meeting Santa

Last Saturday, we got to take some pictures with Santa. They really came out good. Here's Briana and Alex.

Briana hugging Santa

This is my absolute favorite; Alex looking up at Santa

And finally, our family with Santa

Help us win a contest

A couple of months ago, I submitted this picture of Alex for a contest sponsored by Nationwide Insurance:

 

The picture was selected as a finalist and the public gets to choose the winning picture. Please help us win by voting (you can vote once a day until the contest ends on Dec. 9th). You do have to register the 1st time you vote, but after that, you just have to enter your email address. Go to www.onyoursideline.com, then click on "vote now" in the upper right. Enter your email address (and your personal info the 1st time you vote). You then might have to click on "Switch to Finalist Gallery". Alex's picture should be the 4th one from the left on the top row. Also, if you could, please forward the information to anyone you think would help. We would really appreciate it (and would love to be at the Rose Bowl in January.

Halloween in Hilliard 2009

We had trick or treating on Thursday, Oct. 29th (the cities around Columbus agree to have a standard day, especially when Halloween falls on the weekend). It's a huge event in our neighborhood. This year, Briana went as an Ohio State cheerleader, Alex was an Ohio State football player, and I (as usual) was Coach Tressel. The neighbors loved our family theme (Gretchen stayed back to pass out candy, but she was wearing an Ohio State sweatshirt). This was Alex's 1st year to walk to houses to get candy; he loved it!

Miley

On Wednesday, I took Briana to the Miley Cyrus concert at Nationwide Arena. I had never been around so many screaming young girls. The show was outstanding and we had a great time together.

 

Briana got to take a "virtual" picture with Miley.

I'm just now getting my hearing back.