The New Quests of The Turetzky Family

For Halloween weekend we went to Colorado for a wedding of one of Darren's cousins. The wedding was a costume party, so it gave us an excuse to dress up! I went as Little Bo Peep and Lila was my little sheep (the cutest sheep ever, I might add!). Before the wedding we went over to one of Darren's aunt and uncle's farm. Lila LOVED seeing all the animals. I wish we would've taken more pictures there, but we only took a couple. Some of the other pictures include Darren's brother Kyle and his fiancee Whitney, who were dressed as a sailor and a nurse (inspired by the famous kiss picture). Darren's niece Emalia was Pocahontas, Darren's mom went as Cruella de Vil, and we teased Darren's grandpa that he went as James Bond since he was wearing a suit. Darren and his dad didn't make their way into very many pictures because they were the ones behind the camera, but Darren also wore a suit so we said he was a CIA agent and his dad dressed as Indiana Jones. W...

This picture was taken at an OB/GYN women's center in Provo. I found this on an acquaintances blog and wanted to briefly put in my two cents on the matter. It is very disappointing to me that medical professionals around here are not interested in letting women have their babies naturally. The facts are out there (see gentlebirth.org)--birth outside of the hospital is safer than birth at the hospital (at least for the average low-risk pregnancy). Maybe you think I'm a little biased, but it's true! I am so glad I did not have to deal with all the negativity at the hospital and I was able to have the beautiful birth experience that I desired. I just hope that anyone I know who at some point wants to try a natural birth at the hospital does not go to the doctors office pictured above! For anyone out there who is interested in natural birth (especially outside of a hospital), feel free to get in touch with me and I will gladly share my experience. You can also check out my post...

After church (and nap time!) last Sunday, we went and had a photo shoot with Lila on BYU campus. We knew the weather would be changing this week, so while it was warm we took advantage of it! Darren's parents came and helped us, which is why you'll see a pic of Darren's mom in the slideshow. Darren took all of these photos (except for the family pic, obviously). I think he did a really nice job, although of course he his critical of his work. For an amateur, I think they look great! My favorite ones are the ones that are really close up. Of course we have lots more ideas now for the next photo shoot and how to get even better pictures. I hope you enjoy them! By the way, Lila is now 10 months old.

Darren and I have a new hobby. Learning how to use his dad's Nikon D60. We had some fun trying to learn how to take a good natural light picture with it, and these are a few pics from our first attempts. The photos from the "real" photo shoot will come later this week, and let me assure you that they are much better than these! The bottom three pics I took, and you can tell that Darren is the better photographer (and I'm the better stylist!).

I can't believe I have neglected my blog for so long! Well, on second thought, maybe I can believe it. Although I got to play the role of full time stay at home mom over the summer, I found that did not equate to extra free time for blogging. And honestly, the summer just wasn't that interesting! Most days were the same: play with Lila, change Lila's diapers, feed Lila, take Lila for a walk (or 3!), bake bread, and make and plan the meals for my highly allergic husband. I do have some more pics from the summer to post here, but I first have to find them...My laptop crashed right after I got home from Arkansas, so I have to see if Darren can somehow retrieve them for me. Here's a quick update on the last month: - We arrived back in Utah just in time for the start of fall semester at BYU. Darren is taking 16 units, I'm taking 10 units, and Lila is spending several hours a week hanging out with her grandma. - We are in the process of purchasing a town home! We probably...

Lila is 8 months old today!! The time sure is flying by! Lila is not crawling yet, but she loves to roll around and scoot a little. She says "mama" and "dada", clicks her tongue, blows bubbles, and does lip trills (my future vocalist!). She loves the swimming pool and the bath tub, as well as going for rides in the stroller to the library. She is a mama's girl, which should come as no surprise since the two of us are practically inseparable! I love my beautiful baby girl! On Sunday we gave Lila her first taste of rice cereal. I know 8 months old may seem late to start her on food, but I gave it a lot of thought and felt it was best (I will perhaps elaborate in a future post). We took some video and I will post it soon! Also, I didn't post pictures at 6 or 7 months, so here pics from the last couple of months. She pretty much looks the same at 6, 7, and 8 months. 8 months 7 months 6 months

After 3 long years of putting up with my crummy Samsung phone, Darren convinced me to get the new iPhone. It has only been about a week since I picked it up, and I am already in love! The first day I had it I was already using it in the car as a GPS. And of course I was downloading apps by day two! I downloaded the scriptures (as well as the R.S. manual and hymns), Pandora, and the All Recipes app. I having been using the notepad to make my to do lists and shopping lists, so basically pen and paper are a thing of the past! Of course it also works beautifully as a phone and an iPod, and today I finally used it to record some videos of Lila!! The videos are especially for Lila's grandparents and aunties and uncles who don't get to see this little girl very often. Sorry if they are a little boring, but hopefully you'll get the picture from the videos that this baby is one cute girl :o)

As Darren and I held each other in an embrace just after midnight this morning, we wished ourselves a happy anniversary. Today marks five years of marriage for us. Five years!! I would say that it feels like just yesterday we were newlyweds living in San Diego, but it actually feels like that was ages ago. We have now lived outside of San Diego longer than we lived there, we have welcomed a daughter into our family, and Darren is approaching graduation from BYU in less than a year (...I will graduate eventually). As Darren and I held each other in the wee small hours we shared our gratitude for one another and our complete happiness in marriage. I am so thankful that Darren married me. To this day I still wonder how I was able to snag my husband! He is such a smart, logical, skilled man while I feel like when we met I was an average, illogical, unskilled woman! Not long after we first met, I remember Darren calling me while he was on his way to my house and asking me which direction I ...

Ok, this is just going to be easier than texting or calling all you Apx wives about this. For those of you who are interested in making ice cream or sorbet on Saturday afternoon, here's a list of the ingredients and supplies that will be needed: (The pic is nectarine-plum sorbet I made on Sunday) Ice Cream half-and-half cream heavy cream sugar vanilla extract and any additional fruit, nuts, chocolate, etc. that you would like to add in Sorbet fruit sugar electric beaters 2-quart shallow baking dish (2-3 of these depending on how much we're making) I have all the ingredients to make a non-dairy ice cream, and that is what I plan on making. Since it is non-dairy, I'm making it especially for Darren and not planning on sharing much of it...sorry! I thought it would be fun to play some games while we wait for the ice cream and/or sorbet to freeze. Kasaundra mentioned that she has The Office board gam...

Exactly one month after my last post, I am finally back to blogging! I thought once the semester was finished that I would be blogging immediately and all the time. Well, finals came and went, and then there was a week of packing, and then a week of settling in, and I am finally taking some time to catch up. This post is mostly going to be pictures, and of course mostly of Lila. She's growing so fast! I can hardly believe that she will be 6 months this week. Time really does fly! Here is Lila in her excersaucer in the living room of our apartment. If you notice the balcony in the back, you can kind of see our view of the woods. It's very pretty here and I have been enjoying bird watching from the balcony. I have made 4 beautiful loaves of bread since arriving here. I was so impressed at how well they rose since my last 3 loaves of bread back in Utah were not so pretty! Last week I took Lila to the pool for the first time. Here is she is on the couch getting ready to go outside....

"Are you just gonna leave me here??I'm losing my balance...and I fell." Just look at that cute little mouth! Everyone is smiling, but Adria forgot to look at the camera! Lila is happily babbling while Darren looks reminiscent of an old man as he peers over his glasses. Hehe, in this one it looks like Lila sneezed an egg! Look at those pretty blue eyes!  Here's my favorite pic from the Easter outtakes! The expression on Lila's face is hilarious!!

I just can't help myself! Being the mother of a little girl, I just want to make her more and more cute little things to wear!  Now that classes and finals are over, I have a little more time for my crafts. In the last couple of weeks I did work on some of these crafts, since they helped me to relax a little from my studies. Last night I finished the little white Mary Janes so Lila could wear them to church today. I'm kind of impressed with myself for making them. I found this tutorial on a website that showed you how to draft your own pattern for shoes and that's what I did! Of course this was another craft inspired by some things I've seen on Etsy.   My little shoes didn't quite turn out as cute as the ones other people are making. Still, I had fun making them and now they can be a little heirloom for Lila. In the picture above, the little yellow shoes were my first trial pair using a pattern someone posted online for a pair of baby doll Mary Janes. When I began ...

Today was officially the last day of classes for the semester. For me, yesterday was the last dayof classes since I only had M/W/F classes.  And what a wonderful day it was!! I was so overjoyed that I skipped down the hill from the testing center to the parking lot my car was in on 8th North. I have been wanting to skip down that hill all semester. It wasn't until yesterday that I finally decided not to care what anyone who saw me would think. I love to skip, and the ridiculous grin on my face attested to that fact!! You can't help but smile when you're skipping, so get out there and skip! Check out this video about skipping here .

Darren and his team accepting their $2500 check for 3rd place. The Battle Dot team: Darren, Kevin, & Mike  Thanks to everyone who downloaded Battle Dot!! The competition that Darren participated in at BYU was a contest to see who's iPhone app could get the most downloads during a two week period. The first challenge was to write an app and get it approved by Apple so it could be added to the Apple app store. Darren had a couple of hang ups in this area. His app was rejected twice before being on approved on the 12th day of the two week period when the competition was running. Needless to say, it's pretty impressived that Battle Dot took 3rd place with only 3 days in the app store!!! The 1st and 2nd place apps were in the app store the full two weeks. I think Darren could have took 1st if his app would've been approved at the beginning of the judging period. Either way, I'm very impressed with his accomplishment! Props must also be given to his friends Michael Caldwe...

Over the last month Darren spent a whole lot of time working on an iPhone app for a contest at BYU.  Now I'm calling on all of you out there to help him and his comrades win!!! Darren came up with the idea for a game called Battle Dot and he, with a little help from our friend Kevin, wrote the code for the game while my cousin-in-law Mike designed the graphics. It's a fun game that is specifically designed for two players, although it also has a one player mode. You can get it here from the Apple store and it is currently a FREE download. Please spread the word to anyone you know who has an iPhone or an iPod touch! The contest runs through Sunday, but if you don't download it by then, still download it and try it out :o) P.S. You can also check out the website for the game here (especially if you don't have an iPhone or an iPod Touch and you would like to see what the game is.)

Well, I would like to blog about a whole bunch of stuff, but I just don't have the time right now. I have 4 papers (1 two-page, 3 one-page) to write and 10 hours of community service to do before I can really let myself blog more! For the time being, enjoy the pics and pray for me that I will survive the last few weeks of this semester!! Lila and me in Uncle Wayne's backyard at his 30th b-day party yesterday. I can't help but post bathtime pics--she's just so cute and loves her baths! All last week Lila would just fall asleep in this chair just like this. One of Lila's newest tricks is to arch her back. This pic is right after we were outside checking the mail, that's why she's wearing her shades :o) Last Sunday Lila and me playing. Look at those thighs!! (She's over 15 lbs. now!) Also from last Sunday. Lila's making a new face--lips pursed. Notice the Mary Jane booties I crocheted her--aren't they cute?? Making a cute little surpised looking fac...