The Jason and Shelly Turpin Family: Our Week

Lizzy’s awards from Swim Team. She got a trophy and a special award. Each coach picked one kid to celebrate. Coach Stacey picked Lizzy because every day she would give her a hug and a smile. So Lizzy!

The girls try to play with friends every day. Several of their friends have pools and Joy sees them leaving with their swimming suits. She’ll run and grab hers. I usually can’t come along because of nursing shortages or therapy commitments, but this week it all worked out. Joy got to go swimming! She was so excited! And we took Alex – it was his first time ever to go swimming! It was so bright that we have a lot of squinty eyes! :)

It has been so very, very hot that Bella can’t go out. So we figured out a different way for her to swing! The girls had a Daddy/Daughter activity. They had a very good time! There were games, Article of Faith Bingo, and banana splits!

Wednesday the youth went to the temple. Becca was at home sick. She has a middle ear infection - and she isn’t even the one going swimming! Sammi and I got to go to the temple. She looks beautiful with all of those flowers! Sammi liked the flowers floating on the water. Love going to the temple with my girl!

I have several causes that are near and dear to my heart, adoption being one of them. I was putting something away in Jessi’s room when I saw this paper. It says, “Adopt a kid. They all need homes. They need you! Adopt!” These figurines are in an orphanage. That Jessi girl of mine has a big heart.

A week of labs and doctors…Joy had her thyroid checked. Bella had her liver checked. Joy had her neck checked. Of course, I try to always reward torture with junk food! That soda was as big as Joy! :) Becca also went to the doctor. She has a middle ear infection. She had to have a meningitis vaccine in order to continue at the college, and we mentioned again her joint pain that wakes her up at night at least once a week. So we’ll head back to LabCorp next week for Bec. We are going to start looking for anti-immune stuff now. Fun, fun.

Loving on their brother…

Our preparations are in full swing for the Turpin Family Reunion. We have some serious “May I?” practicing going on around here! Joy is fine with not playing so long as she got some of the snacks!

We are now in the five months of the year that we don’t go outside unless we are going swimming. It is so hot! So I have been looking for good things about Houston. Anything, no matter how small. Crepe myrtle trees – how I love these! So much color, even during the heat! The sun shining during rain storms. (hard to see, but those white up and down lines are rain). These are two of the wonderful things about Houston. I’m going to have to keep looking. :)

Nursing shortages means more family and Bella time. Lots of sisterly love!

The Crepe Myrtle trees have been raining pink blossoms all over the trampoline – very pretty! Keeping it real – a cleaning picture!

Studio Movie Grill in Copperfield has a Special Needs program once a month. They show current movies and kids with special needs and their siblings can come for free. We got to see Brave. We, of course, felt that we had to buy drinks, popcorn, and candy to support the theater for doing such a wonderful thing. So our affordable outing got quite expensive in the end. :) I enjoyed the movie. It was too scary for Joy a couple of times. We drove around to see our old house, had lunch, drove some more, had some Sonic and finally made it home. It always amazes me how absolutely HUGE Houston is! We can drive for miles and miles and miles and still be in Houston.

All things Alex…This is one loved and happy little boy!

This week he had therapy, went to the doctor, and got his shots. (He was less than thrilled about the shots!) He is now 14 pounds 9 ounces and 24 inches long! He turned seven months this week.