Christmas Day In Photos

Christmas morning I snuck downstairs when I heard the big girls stirring. I took a couple of pictures, started the coffee, and pre-heated the oven for cinnamon rolls. Steven stayed in bed until they were all awake and changed, and then brought them downstairs.

Checking out everything that Santa brought. Ruby found want she wanted pretty quickly and headed straight for it.

Santa's left over cookies! She barely noticed the presents and toys. 

Checking out everything in their stockings.

Ruby loved all of her presents, especially the Toy Story ones.

Sadie has been obsessed with snow globes. She often refers to them as her "cryatals", as in crystal ball.

Lilly LOVES horses! So she was pretty excited to get some toy ones and a horse necklace.

This was the girls after everything was opened.

Since they were all smiling, I had to jump in the picture too! Notice what Sadie is holding. She seriously tries to take it everywhere.

Lilly LOVED her boots. They have the Disney Princesses on them, and they even light up! She told me since they were clean and never worn outside, she figured it would be okay to wear them in the house. Clever Girl!

And this one was taken with my new IPod Touch! Thank you hubby! Ruby loved being able to see herself.

Oh and for all of you wondering about real Christmas trees in Turkey, here they are...

And yes, that does say $100 for one of these bad boys.

Hope you all enjoyed your day as much as we did!
-K

Christmas Eve Pictures

Just a photo recap of out Christmas Eve.

The girls waiting patiently to start our cookies. 

Lilly is entertaining them with the Santa puppet she made at Story Time.

 

 

Ruby could be patient no more, She was getting bored just watching and buckled into her high chair.

Finally time to frost/decorate the cookies. Ruby only wanted the chocolate frosting!

Lilly was very into decorating her cookies. Sadie just wanted to eat the frosting.

Steven got really creative with the cookies.

And this is Sloth from Goonies!

After the cookies were done we got ready for church. And then thanks to a tripod and self timer, we took a few photos.

After the kiddos went to bed, we had to wrap all of the presents and put together a few toys.

Poor Steven worked on this castle for over 2 hours. He won't lie either, he was a little heart broken when Ruby started demolishing it the next day!

We had a great Christmas this year!

-K

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

 Steven, Krissy, Lilly, Sadie, and Ruby

2010

Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve.

We started a new tradition this year. We ate dinner, put some comfy pajamas on, pack some cookies, and we get in the car to see all the Christmas lights. All we have here are the lights that people choose to put up, and not many people actually put out decorations at all. The girls desperately wanted some decorations in our yard but we just don't have any. I am going on the hunt after Christmas for some clearance decorations. They really wanted some lights of their own and completely loved see the few houses we did see. Maybe more people will have outdoor decorations next year. Either way we had a lot of fun. 
On Christmas Eve, Steven had to "show face" at work today and go to the gym. I stayed home because I was waiting for someone to come and fix a cabinet. We're not sure which one but one of the girls broke the door to our lazy susan. All 3 of them are obsessed with it so I usually keep some of their snacks and cereal in it. Anyways, the house is still under warranty because it was completely renovated just before we moved in, so we are waiting for contractors to come and fix it.
Steven brought us some lunch when he returned. After we ate, he took a shower and me and the girls started our gingerbread cookies. Now to be completely honest I hate baking, but it is one of our Christmas traditions. All I had to do was roll it out, cut out the shapes, and pop them in the oven. And boy am I glad that I bought 2 containers of dough. The first set all cooked together and made one giant monster cookie. After they were all done we decorated with lots of frosting. One thing to know for anyone who may spend Christmas with us in the future, DO NOT EAT ANYTHING THAT SADIE HAS MADE! The poor child has the best intentions but just doesn't understand a thing about microscopic germs. She'll freak out if she can see a mess around or on her, but she's fine with putting frosting tips in her mouth and then giving it to you to use. You just have got to love Sadie-Mae. She has a strong head and the biggest personality. We got pretty creative with our cookies. We made our initials, spelled out TODD FAMILY, and even made Sloth's face from the Goonies. After all the gingerbread cookies were done, we made even more Pillsbury cookies. I am pretty sure all we've eaten the past week was cookies. Hey it's Christmas, I figure it just comes with the holiday.
We went to church tonight as well. The chapel here serves many different religions and denominations. We are not really allowed to go off base for religious purposes unless they are through the chapel or the ITT (information, tickets, and travel) office. The only options for Catholic mass was 5pm or the midnight mass, so we unanimously voted for 5. The girls were pretty good for the service which is always nice.
When we got home we ate a light dinner and continued with our tradition of eating the cookies we made and watched ELF. That movie never gets old for me and the girls, it does for poor Steven though. Oh the sacrifices he makes for us.
The girls are in bed and I am off to finish wrapping their presents. I'll post lots of pictures tomorrow though!
Merry Christmas!
♥K

Teacher Present

This year I wanted to make one of those mixes in a jar. I have seen several that make cake, cookies, or hot chocolate. You layer the different ingredients in a jar that has lid. I decided on hot chocolate mixes because I just don't bake. I hate baking. Plain and simple, I have no good reason why I just don't enjoy it. So I found a very easy recipe for Peppermint Hot Chocolate.

1 c. powdered milk

1 c. unsweetened cocoa

1 c. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 c. mini chocolate chips

1/2 c. crushed peppermints

-Layer all the ingredients in a jar, and add a tag with instructions on how make the hot chocolate.

-Mix all contents of the jar in a bowl. Add 1 c. of hot water to 1/3 c.of hot chocolate mix.

I also added a monogrammed ornament attached with the instruction. I think they came out really cute, but I need to tweak the recipe a little bit to better suit my taste. I had two of the candy cane jars to use but one of them broke on the was home to Turkey. I hope Lilly's teachers enjoyed it :)

♥K

Our Christmas Tree - 2010 Edition!

This is how our tree started out this year. We bought it in Texas and put it in one of our suitcases to bring back. Silly me forgot to pack the new LED lights in the suitcases and didn't get them until this past Friday. The night we got back the girls went to sleep and were up and ready to play at 2:30am. So...instead of feeling sorry about myself and my extreme lack of sleep, I put the tree up at 3:00 in the morning. It stayed like this until this past Sunday when we were finally able to decorate it. Ruby did so good with leaving it alone like this, that I thought we wouldn't have to worry about her and the tree.

The first year we actually spent Christmas together we had to buy all of our Christmas decorations at once. We bought a pre-lit tree and some really cheap bulb ornaments that are amazing. They are shatter proof and have dealt with the abuse of moving twice, three monsters children, and a cat that thinks the tree is one giant cat toy. Anyways, that year we decided to start a tradition of buying a new ornament every year for each of us. One of these  years, when we have the opportunity, I want to buy 2 more cheap Christmas trees. One for the playroom with all the handmade ornaments the kids have made, one for the living room with all of our tradition ornaments, and a very formal one for the dining room.

Lilly picked out a brown horse ornament from a store in Texas.

 

Sadie picked out Rapunzrl from the Disney Store. We saw Tangled with Memaw, Papop, and Shelby and she just fell completely in love with it.

 

Ruby loves Minnie Mouse, so when we were at the Disney Store she picked a Minnie ornament out.

 

Steven picked out his ornament at the same store Lilly got hers. He found a bought with the Texas state flag on it so he had to get it. He also found one more as a "family" ornament. It's a horse shoe that 

says "Life is Good". We think that pretty much sums up our lives.

 

I found mine at a store in San Antonio. When we got to Texas it started getting colder in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts and soon started to snow. Knowing we didn't see snow at my parents house and we wouldn't see any in Texas or in Turkey, I got a little sad. I have always loved snow. My ornament is a beautiful snowflake.

 

The big girls helped putting the rest of the ornaments on.

We got some fake poinsettias from Walmart for a $1. The just clip onto the tree branches. I REALLY, REALLY wish I had bought some more. I LOVE how they looked on the tree. And no more than a minute after the tree was done, Ruby started to take as many ornaments off as fast as she could before one of us notices.

The blue and purple on the tree are the poinsettias. They had them in a few different colors and I love them all.

 

Oh and by the way Ruby is constantly pulling ornaments off. She will even drag the tree towards the kitchen. AND, she is the only one of the 3 girls that has managed to pull the ENTIRE tree down last night. Maybe next year we won't have to worry about kids tearing apart the tree?

♥K

It's been a while...

I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in over a month. Things have been crazy yet again! First of all we had an amazing time with our families! It was so hard to come back here to Turkey after all of the fun we had. We had a crazy 30 hours of traveling and so serious jet lag. I wasn't able to sleep at all until the last flight which was only about an hour long flight. Steve was able to sleep in cat like increments so we were exhausted to say the least. We were so tired that when we got to Istanbul we had to collect our bags and check in, because we had to change airlines, that when we got our bags we forgot our carseat and booster seat. I remembered about 20 minutes before our flight started boarding. Steven thought about running over there to get it, but he was wearing brand new boots that probably would have really started hurting, we were in the doemstic terminal and it was in the international terminal, he would have to have gone to the check-in desks and asked to get it instead of just going to baggage claim, and he would have had to go through at least one security check point. I didn't want to risk him not making it back on time or us missing our flight. It wasn't really that big of a deal to just leave it there, we just bought Lilly a new booster seat and gave Ruby her carseat. We just feel dumb to have left it, but that's what exhaustion will do to you.
It took us a little over a week to get past the jet lag. The girls had it the worst and it made it bad for me. They would fall asleep and I would fall asleep with them. Poor Steven had to go back to work the next morning so he never had a chance to get any extra sleep in. I would have liked to just force myself to stay awake for a day and slept that night, but i was harder to keep the girls awake so they could sleep during the night too. But I'm happy to say that we are now just about back on a schedule!
I was waiting to go Christmas shopping for the girls so that I could go by myself and not have to worry about them seeing. Steven and I had talked about what we wanted to get them so we had a general idea what to look for. We decided to get books, movies, and coloring things. The girls had gotten so many new toys while we were in the states that we really did not want them to have any more. We also asked Sadie and Lilly to show us some of things at the BX that they wanted us o tell Santa about. One day last week I was at the BX with Sadie and Ruby and noticed that a lot of the kids books, not that they had a lot to begin with, were gone. I grabbed a gift bag and ever so discretely started putting some in the bag so that Sadie could not see. It worked pretty well so I was able to get a few more things for her and Lilly without her knowing. We are now done Christmas shopping and now I just need to wrap everything. I am sure that I'll be wrapping everything on Christmas Eve while Steven puts together the big toys, ha! Lately I have been falling asleep so early that I haven't been able to do anything, as soon as the girls are asleep I'm asleep too.
Steven is working today and then has a good few days off for Christmas. We are getting really excited for Christmas. The tree is up and decorated, the house is decorated, the stockings are up, and we've made more cookies than ever and have even more to make. The girls even got to see Santa this past Sunday. We got each of them their own photo with him instead of one photo with all of them in it. The past few days we've been eating cookies, drinking hot chocolate, and watching every Christmas movie we have. It has been nice to just rest and spend some time together. The only thing missing is our families in the states. It's going to be so nice when we live in the states to have family come for holidays.
Oh and the girls keep asking, "When are we going to Memaw/Yiayia's house? We've been here a really long time." They're ready to go back now, but Lilly is very happy to have her things and her house back, but she just wants to take the house back with her next time. We're all ready to back again!
♥K

We're Almost There!

Our house is buzzing with excitement! Our bags are packed the house is 95% cleaned. The only part that is left is things we need for the day. We just need to find something to help the day go by faster. So far we have checked in early, finished cleaning he bathrooms, have every room upstairs done, and the girls cleaned up their toys in the living room. I need to do one more load of dishes and laundry and and I am done! It's been way too long since I've been in the states, one month shy of 5 years. It's crazy that it has been that long and going back seems so surreal.

Steven keeps talking about taking the girls to Walmart. They haven't been to the States ever and they only know a military life. We're sure that they will be looking for uniforms and wondering why we don't need to show our ID's to purchase things. I am looking forward to seeing family and meeting my niece. The girls can't wait to see Sophie and everyone. Sadie has even said she won't be shy, she'll hug everyone, and be good. They are also looking forward to seeing all the pets everyone has.  We truly can't wait! We'll be there soon!

Why did we spend $430 on rugs in two weeks time?

 

 

That's why! 

I'll try to get a video of Ruby cruising around furniture. She really is into everything! We've had to take handles of of drawers in the kitchen because she's take all of the Ziploc bags out of the box and scatter them all over the house. When she is in our bedroom we have to shut the door because if you look away for a second she'll be down the hall in the big girls' bedroom, their bathroom, or the playroom.  It's nuts how far she has come so fast. She definitely keeps us on our toes. If she could speak in sentences she would probably tell you how excited she is to tear up everyone's houses when we come visit next month!

-K

Welcome to Turkey!

Since I recently - and finally - got my gate pass, we have been exploring some off base. We drove around a little and I took some photos. We've driven around the base and some off. There are some outdoor markets, like the ones in England except much cheaper, we've been to two so far and got lots of fruit so very little. At the Thursday market we were able to try some pomegranates that were so good. Now Sadie will talk your ear off when she is someplace new, asking question after question. This day was no different. She tried to pomegranate and stopped talking until her whole piece was gone. We got a kilo(about 2.2 lbs.) of them for 2 Lira ($1.42). They are so good. I know we'll miss the produce when we leave here. Here are some of the photos I took starting with one our house.

We really like our house. The only thing missing is a barn star above the front door.

This is the Alley right outside the gate. There are a bunch of stores and restaurants.

Some Turkish houses.

This is in front of the Turkish Commissary.

There are so many different types of flowers here and they are all beautiful.

-K