The New Quests of The Turetzky Family

 Family pictures  Ragamuffin Lila on Christmas morning  Christmas afternoon--after church, hair done :o)  The best Christmas present of all--grandma and granddaughter reunited.  Visiting with my Grandma at Aunt Liz's house.  Christmas together with the Turetzky's in Utah.  The day after Christmas; seeing the reindeer, kangaroo, and turkeys down the road in Springville.  Feeding the llama, emu, donkeys, etc. at the same farm as above.  The next day at the Beane museum at BYU. One of Lila's old favorites. Happy New Year from the Turetzky's!!

30 weeks and in serious need of a haircut! I'll be brief since we're trying to get on the road this morning. I'll also have to add the 30 weeks pic later. Anyway, I'm feeling great as far as the pregnancy goes, but we were so bummed about Thanksgiving by ourselves (notice the lack of a Thanksgiving post...) that we decided we just couldn't do Christmas by ourselves too. Also the seasonal allergies around here are really getting to us (cedar trees are pollinating, and we don't live in a city called Cedar Park for nothing!). So we need a break and some much needed grandma time. We will start driving today and get to Utah on Friday night. And I'm trying to surprise my grandma on Saturday, so anyone in my family who's reading this: don't tell Grandma that we're going to Utah!! We'll stay in Utah until the New Year and then head home. Friends in Utah: e-mail, text, or call me if you would like to get together, because we would love to!...

The older I get the faster time flies. This past year of life with Lila flew by almost too quickly. I love my little girl so much! Some days I get bogged down by the daily grind, but I'd like to think that most of the time I'm enjoying the sweet moments with my little girl that will one day be memories The birthday girl was sick with a cold today (and me too...we're on our 3rd colds since Oct...boo). It was a good thing it was Lila's birthday, because we had new toys to play with while we stayed home sick! Thanks to the grandparents for a new game, a princess tea set, and princess sticker books. Even with being sick, me and Lila had a nice play day together watching Beauty and the Beast while we played with her Belle and Ariel dolls, had a tea party, painted with new watercolors, played dollhouse, read fairy tales, napped, and eventually ate some yummy birthday cake. Oh yeah, we also did some dress up with Lila in her new Cinderella dress and me as her fairy godmother...

Lately Lila has had a couple of play dates with little girls who have lots of dress-ups. I also noticed how much Lila liked dressing up for Halloween and continues to ask to put on the cat suit. So I decided it was high time the girl had a princess dress!!  I decided to sharpen my sewing skills with this project because my sweet sister Clarissa gave me a ton of scrap fabric from a formal dress she made years ago. It seemed like the most appropriate use for the fabric, since I can't think when I will be needing a formal dress myself!  I used Make It & Love It's Cinderella dress tutorial as my guide. Of course there were several changes on my part. First of all, I was using materials I already had, so even though I think the tutorial's idea of a stretchy fabric on top is really practical for a growing girl, I adapted since I had satin to work with. And since I was working on this while Lila was napping, the bodice ended up being sorta snug. My answer to fix this prob...

Darren's "Make it Pop!" app made the front page of the app store today under "New & Noteworthy"!!! Thanks to everyone who has downloaded the app! We're hoping that being on the front page catapults the app into stardom...time will tell!!

After months of hard work and many, many late nights, I'm pleased to announce that Darren's first children's app is now in the app store!!! YAY!!!  Make it Pop! If you have an iPhone or an iPad could you pretty please download it and tell your friends about it? You can be assured that your $2 donation will go straight to the Turetzky student loan repayment fund :D Seriously though , it's a really great app that I am proud to endorse not just because my husband was the mastermind behind it, but because it really is a great learning tool.  For the three people that read my blog, you all know that we let Lila have an iPod Touch at 7 months old. We really believe that it has been the best "toy" we've ever given her; it's such a great learning tool! We definitely give due credit to Apple and their touch screen for helping our daughter be one smart cookie. Here's some screen shots: This cute little game where you pop the bubble g...

Halloween came and went and I can hardly believe it! It's probably because we've only yet had a couple of days here in the middle of Texas that have felt like fall. Spending the previous 5 falls in Utah really got me used to cool fall days. But, I'm glad not to be in Utah now that they had snow this morning!! Lila's grandma was kind enough to bring this old costume with her when she came to visit. Darren's grandma made the kitty suit for him when he was around her age. Isn't that sweet?  We subbed the original ears with a pair of leopard print ones I already had since they fit better. Lila LOVED dressing up and trick-or-treating. It was her first year doing it and I'm sure she'll be anticipating it in years to come. Oh yeah, and you might notice the bright "squishy green spider" in Lila's hand. This was by far her favorite thing she got while trick-or-treating. She is constantly misplacing it throughout the day and asking me, ...

Darren had a milestone birthday this last Thursday. He's no longer in his 20's, but I'm still happy to say that I am! We had a low key celebration at Carrabba's, just the three of us, and then had birthday cake that Lila and I made that morning. Lila was the most excited about the whole thing. If you ask her she can tell you exactly when her birthday is ("I'm going to be three-years-old on November 21st!"). Maybe if we hurry we can make enough friends so Lila can have a real party this year. I'm not holding my breath, but there's always next year for the party thing (and I'm really in no rush to begin being a party planner!).  Licking the beaters (her favorite!) The recipe for this cake can be found on my recipe site. It's the PB/chocolate cupcakes and frosting recipes. Our feeble attempt at decorating (which we still haven't taken down) Putting in 30 candles :o) Also, I didn't post this last Sunday when ...

Darren's mom made a quick visit before she starts a new full-time job next week. We were so happy to have her here for a few days, and none of us could have been as happy as Lila was! Ever since she was born she has spent a great deal of time with her Grandma as I attended BYU. The two of them have a beautiful relationship that I hope can continue despite the distance.  Darren bought some super discounted tickets from work to Six Flags Fiesta Texas, so we gave Lila her second chance at an amusement park this year. She was much more willing to go on rides this time around, although still timid at times.  We went exploring downtown on Monday evening. The pictures below were taken on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol building. It was a great place to go because they had a parking structure across the road that was free for two hours and the capitol building itself is free to go tour on your own until as late as 10pm. After the capitol building we ...