turpin christmas party

We look forward to the Turpin Christmas party every year. Mark has a large family and it's not never often we all get together, so it's a special time when we do. We eat great food, open presents and play lots of fun games.

This is the three babies that we born in 2008

first christmas

We had a

fun and white Christmas in Blackfoot Idaho. Boyce loves Christmas. He loved everyone being a wake with him so early. He loved the wrapping paper and he loved all the gifts.

Our nephew Avery almost slept through all of Christmas

First Timers

We got to visit Mark's Grandma. The only living great grandparent Boyce has. We loved talking to Mark's Brother Mike who is on a mission in Alabama right now.
Boyce really did love sledding even if it doesn't look like it in this picture.

Boyce loves his aunt Candace and we will all miss her a lot.

Here comes Santa Claus

Before we left for Christmas we took Boyce to Salt Lake City to watch the Utah Symphony Christmas concert. It was for all ages and he loved it!! It was so cute to see him watch the performers so intently and clap after each song. We all had a really fun time.

Baby Jesus

Since being parents Christmas has taken on a new meaning. I don't have the words to express my feeling for my Savior and his beauitful birth, so I have quote Elder Jeffery R Holland who puts it so perfectly.

"As a father, I have thought often of Joseph—that strong, silent, almost unknown man who must have been more worthy than any other mortal man to be the guiding foster father of the living Son of God. It was Joseph selected from among all men who would teach Jesus to work. It was Joseph who taught him the books of the Law. It was Joseph who, in the seclusion of the shop, helped him begin to understand who he was and ultimately what he was to become.
I was a student at Brigham Young University just finishing my first year of graduate work when our first child, a son, was born. We were very poor, though not so poor as Joseph and Mary. My wife and I were both going to school, both working, and in addition we worked as head residents in an off-campus apartment complex to help pay our rent. We drove a little Volkswagen which had a half-dead battery because we couldn’t afford a new one (Volkswagen or battery).
Nevertheless, when I realized that our own special night was coming, I believe I would have done any honorable thing in this world, and mortgaged any future, to make sure my wife had the clean sheets, the sterile utensils, the attentive nurses, and the skilled doctors who brought forth our firstborn son. If she or that child had needed special care at the finest private medical center, ! believe I would have ransomed my very life to get it.
I compare those feelings (which I have had with each succeeding child) with what Joseph must have felt as he moved through the streets of a city not his own, with not a friend or kinsman in sight, nor anyone willing to extend a helping hand. In these very last and most painful hours of her “confinement,” Mary had ridden or walked approximately 160 kilometers from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea. Surely Joseph must have wept at her silent courage. Now, alone and unnoticed, they had to descend from human company to a stable, a grotto full of animals, there to bring forth the Son of God.
I wonder what emotions Joseph might have had as he cleared away the dung and debris. I wonder if he felt the sting of tears as he hurriedly tried to find the cleanest straw and hold the animals back. I wonder if he wondered: “Could there be a more unhealthy, a more disease-ridden, a more despicable circumstance in which a child could be born? Is this a place fit for a king? Should the mother of the Son of God be asked to enter the “valley of the shadow of death” (Ps. 23:4) in such a foul and unfamiliar place as this? Is it wrong to wish her some comfort? Is it right He should be born here?”
But I am certain Joseph did not mutter and Mary did not wail. They knew a great deal and did the best they could.
Perhaps these parents knew even then that in the beginning of his mortal life, as well as in the end, this baby son born to them would have to descend beneath every human pain and disappointment. He would do so to help those who also felt they had been born without advantage.
I’ve thought of Mary, too, this most favored mortal woman in the history of the world, who as a mere child received an angel who uttered to her those words that would change the course not only of her own life but also that of all human history: “Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women” (Luke 1:28). The nature of her spirit and the depth of her preparation were revealed in a response that shows both innocence and maturity: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38).
It is here I stumble, here that I grasp for the feelings a mother has when she knows she has conceived a living soul, feels life begin and grow within her womb, and carries a child to delivery. At such times fathers stand aside and watch, but mothers feel and never forget. Again, I’ve thought of Luke’s careful phrasing about that holy night in Bethlehem:
“The days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and [she] wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and [she] laid him in a manger” (Luke 2:6–7; emphasis added).
Those brief pronouns trumpet in our ears that, second only to the child himself, Mary is the chiefest figure, the regal queen, mother of mothers—holding center stage in this grandest of all dramatic moments. And those same pronouns also trumpet that, save for her beloved husband, she was very much alone.
I have wondered if this young woman, something of a child herself, here bearing her first baby, might have wished her mother, or an aunt, or her sister, or a friend, to be near her through the labor. Surely the birth of such a son as this should command the aid and attention of every midwife in Judea! We all might wish that someone could have held her hand, cooled her brow, and when the ordeal was over, given her rest in crisp, cool linen.
But it was not to be so. With only Joseph’s inexperienced assistance, she herself brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in the little clothes she had knowingly brought on her journey, and perhaps laid him on a pillow of hay.
Then on both sides of the veil a heavenly host broke into song. “Glory to God in the highest,” they sang, “and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). But except for heavenly witnesses, these three were alone: Joseph, Mary, and the baby to be named Jesus.
At this focal point of all human history, a point illuminated by a new star in the heavens revealed for just such a purpose, probably no other mortal watched—none but a poor young carpenter, a beautiful virgin mother, and silent stabled animals who had not the power to utter the sacredness they had seen.
Shepherds would soon arrive and, later, wise men would follow from the East. But first and forever there was just a little family, without toys or trees or tinsel. With a baby—that’s how Christmas began."

“Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans”

You might be wondering what are plans are for our lives. I have been wondering that myself. Mark just finished up here at BYU and the long term goal is to go to dental school. But for now we are moving to Vegas. We found a little place to live while Mark works for a while. I plan on taking care of our little boy and enjoy the sunshine. This is a huge step for us. I have been in Utah for just over 6 years. I do love it here but we are ready for a new adventure. So watch out Vegas here we come!

Let is Snow

This is what we wake up to and I love it!! and it's still coming down nice and steady. The only problem is if you are planning on doing laundry and your washer and dyer are outside!

my dancing baby

Boyce loves music and loves to dance. He figured out how to open our TV stand and some how he has figured out how to turn it on. Grandma Mac got him this fun new baby dance music for Christmas and when he hears it he can't help but dance. So I finally got him on camera. He went and turned the music on himself and was having a little dance party.

the perfect date

Mark and I had the perfect date on Friday night. Mark's sister Candace came and watched Boyce while we went down to Salt Lake City for a fun night. We found the cutest and yummiest Italian restaurant to eat at then we went to watch The Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert. I have been to a lot of the Christmas Concerts and this was probably my favorite. It was amazing, and so touching. The guest singer, Brian Stokes Mitchell, was so fun and his voice was just so beautiful. It was just a perfect and fun night. The only thing I would change was the interesting family in front of us who were all wearing Santa hats.

It feels more like Christmas since the concert, devotional, and all the snow we got on Saturday.

the new arrival

The last couple of days Boyce has been so crabby. I was getting so frustrated because he wasn't napping well and hardly would eat anything. Then today we was crawling around and I saw him pick up a mystery item and put it in his mouth, so I grabbed them and was trying to did it out when I felt it.... a tooth! After all this time he finally got his first tooth poking through. I don't know why but it's so exciting. Boyce is just growing up everyday. There really is something new he does each day. He is pulling himself up on things, crawling again, and repeating sounds, hand motions and little words, of coarse it's hard to believe because most of it he doesn't do for anyone but us. It's still so exciting and fu

Thanksgiving

I know it's taken me a while to post about our holiday, but it was just perfect. We went up to Spokane to be with my family, and almost everyone was there. We had a beautiful and yummy thanksgiving dinner with the cousins and my aunt and uncle. We went to an indoor water park, had a festive time in Coeur d'Alene window shopping and looking at the lights on the boardwalk, We even got the most beautiful and perfect snowman making snow. It was a blast.

I am just so grateful for family this year. I have the sweetest boys here at home and the most wonderful family all over. I love them all.