Happy Memorial Day!

We had a pretty good day considering Steven worked the night before. When he got home he built the girl's a swing set! We bought them the swing set on Saturday for about $90. It is great because they had outgrown the one they had, but still loved it. This one we can pack up and take with us to our next base and they can use for many many more years. They were so excited to play on it. 

I found these dresses at the BX a couple of weeks ago and thought they would be great for Memorial Day and the 4th of July. And they are great play dresses. It has been so hot here that the girls only want to wear shorts or dresses. Poor kiddos do not do well in the heat. They love the sunny weather and being able to go outside and play, but the heat is to much for them. Their faces get pretty red in a short amount of time, not burnt just red. Lilly actually had heat stroke today. She was only outside for a shirt amount of time and then she said her tummy hurt and she wanted to go inside. She wasn't even on the couch for a minute before she ran to the bathroom to throw and then she sucked down a Gatorade and some water. She felt all better in about an hour. Steve and I felt so bad. We all hate to be sick! You can tell in the photo that Lilly was starting to feel icky. We went inside less than 10 minutes later. And yes, they both were wearing sunscreen. We got some really cool, waterproof, SPF 70, spray-on sunscreen. It's so quick and easy to use. You just spray it onto their skin, you don't even need to rub it in. They don't seem to mind it either. They are sunscreen-ed up and ready to go in about 5 minutes. Thank the Lord because they can be squeamish and get bored pretty quickly these days. Apparently Mommy isn't that entertaining after all, ha!
It was so hot today, that Sadie even enjoyed playing in the sprinkler. She usually walks backwards towards it until she feels water and then she runs away squealing. She even got Daddy to play with her when Lilly went inside. It was pretty funny. She grabbed the caterpillar's ears and said, "I gonna squirt you in the face Daddy!" And then she aimed straight for Daddy's head. Then she aimed for the dog! She had a lot of fun but wasn't out there for too much longer after Lilly and I went inside. Living in England before this has made this climate change ridiculous. They fairly opposite in the weather department, and England was all they had ever known. Watch, it will take the whole tour here for them to get use to the weather and then we'll get orders to Alaska, ha! We need move somewhere where the weather is in the 60's to low 80's and sunny year round! 
We had homemade coleslaw, homemade potato salad, hot dogs, and bratwursts for dinner. I even made my first batch of homemade baby food. I made sweet potatoes for Ruby and she LOVED them. So much so that we went out and bought a food processor after dinner so we can make all kinds of fruits, vegetables, and later on meats for her.
We did have a lot of fun today. Any day that we are all together is a good day. We always have a good time.
Hope y'all had a great Memorial Day too!
-K

The Girls' Bedrooms (warning: LOTS of pics!!!)

So we finally have Ruby's room done, but it can always use changes here and there ;)  The only thing not in there is the glider, that's still in the living room until we find a replacement chair. Oh and I finally got the big girls' room clean long enough to take photos. They usually start playing again immediately after they clean it. The "L" on Lilly's wall use to look like Sadie's "S", but she decided to play with it and rip it. The only thing she had to say was, "I'll just tell people this is my bed since they can see the "S" for Sadie on her wall." Cheeky little monkey she is, ha! Enjoy!

Ruby has the biggest closet in the house!

I made all the paintings in both rooms so I am pretty proud of that :) And Sadie is posing trying to show her bed!

-K

Bike Videos

 Here are the videos of the girls riding their bikes! The password is bike. It was really windy just to let you know; there is a lot of background noise. ENJOY!


Untitled from kristen todd on Vimeo.


Untitled from kristen todd on Vimeo.

 
Untitled from kristen todd on Vimeo.

Big Girl Bikes

We quickly learned that the girls were a little big for their tricycles. Lilly looked like a monster on hers, HA! And Sadie's wheels were made of plastic so they would spin when she pedaled but go no where. She was getting so frustrated and angry. So on Sunday, we took the girls to the BX to pick out their big girl bikes! They were so excited and anxious to try them out on the street. They had so much fun that they wore their helmets at the dinner table to eat. They are doing so well. Sadie got a little nervous and frustrated and at one point wanted Daddy to hold her hand while she rode. Lilly fell once and decided she only wanted to ride by herself, no one around, because she "really doesn't like falling". But she quickly got over it. I will post videos tomorrow, right now I am trying to upload them to a video hosting website and it could take a little while. Miss Ruby sat in her stroller and strolled along with them. She loved it :)

The Kitchen and Dining Room

 
Here are some more photos of the dining room. but with curtains, ha! And here are some of the kitchen too. Ignore the dishes in the sink, the girls played with the dishwasher buttons and I can't get it to work now. Oh, did I mention that the labels on the dishwasher are in Turkish, yup that's why I can't get it to work. MUST learn Turkish! And the last photo is our bulletin board/calendar wall. The cat food is also there, on top of a cat kitchen mat the girls picked out :)

Video Crazy

The password on all of these is Turkey. Enjoy!


Ruby Talking! from kristen todd on Vimeo.


Lilly Riding Her Bike from kristen todd on Vimeo.


Sadie Riding Her Bike from kristen todd on Vimeo.

Lilly at the Spring Fling getting lady bug tattoos. Sadie watching Lilly while she gets her hair done. Checking out each others hair. Sadie got up on stage and sang Don't Stop Believing by Journey!!! Daddy and the girls

. Ruby all ready for bed! She wanted to hold her blanky and her bottle  :)

-K

Good News!

Today Ruby rolled over for the first time! I set her down and she immediately did it. Did she do it again or did I get a video of it, no. But next time I will have the camera ready. We also found out toady that my car finally cleared customs!! it only took 3 weeks (insert sarcastic smile here). Now we need to get plates and pay all the fees so hopefully in the next couple of weeks we'll have it back!
I also managed to get an appointment for allergies on Friday. I am severely allergic to something in this country and I intend to do something about it. My sinuses and allergies have been bothering me for weeks now. They are so bad that I can't wear contacts most of the time and they have triggered migraines. And this country is SO sunny and bright that if I don't wear contacts, I can't wear sunglasses, and then I can't leave the house because I can't keep my eyes open to see. The girls are even sticklers for making sure they have their sunglasses before we leave the house.  So hopefully Friday I'll leave the hospital with allergy AND migraine medicine so I don't die, ha!
I'll post some photos tomorrow, I still need to upload some from my camera. Oh and Ruby is 5 months old. Seriously, where does the time go? It's crazy!
-K

Our Mother's Day

We had a really nice Mother's Day this year. They just keep getting better :) We woke up and went to a brunch that the Club on base was hosting. The girls LOVE going to their brunches; they always call them parties. They gave roses to each of the big girls to give to me and they were so proud of that. We enjoyed a yummy breakfast, a breakfast that the girls willingly eat and eat a lot of it, I might add. Then we headed to the BX and commissary to get some things for dinner.
One of the great things about our patio set is that the table has a fire pit in the center of it. We can roast marshmallows, enjoy a warm fire, or we can grill with it. So Steven grilled up some chicken for me and it was wonderful. He even grilled a couple of hot dogs for the girls just in case they didn't like it or it was too spicy. He does a really good job of concocting marinades for meats and vegetables. While he grilled the girls played around in the back yard and made sure Chance didn't touch any of their things. 
They even cleaned the living room and then straightened up the back yard because they still had pool things sitting out there. Once dinner was ready they were SO SO SO dirty. It was crazy to see how messy they can get out there. we all love eating outside so we are loving Turkey for their beautiful weather. But not loving Turkey for their allergens, more on that later.
After dinner we went for a walk. Life here is a lot slower than England. People here actually drive slow and keep an eye out for children playing outside. Because of this the girls have reluctantly gotten some more freedom. We have been letting them walk more on their own, whether we are out on a walk or we are trying to run errands on the other side of base. They have been looking at all the vegetation here and looking for animals. Lilly loves the animals and Sadie is loving all the beautiful flowers they have here. We happened to come across a big playground we hadn't known of before. Another great thing here is there are playgrounds everywhere and located all over the housing neighborhoods. All of them, including Steven, begged to go play and I had no problem with it.

We got to play on some swings and a merry go round. We all had a lot of fun, but next time we need to bring some bug spray. No one got bit but they were all over the place. We all had a lot of fun. Even Ruby got to go down a slide, with Momma of course. Sadie had no intentions of leaving, but it was getting late and we wanted to get home, shower, and have some dessert! But before we left I was able to get a picture with all the girls. They had a blast!

We hope you all enjoyed your day too :)

- Krissy

Captain Hook

Lilly Lou, where to start....let's start with her imagination. It has been off the charts lately. She can be so creative and funny that it is incredible just to sit and watch. Lately her favorite character to play is Captain Hook from Peter Pan. It all started with a stick she found in the backyard that we think our gardener left behind. She picked it up, waved it around a little, and then procalaimed in a deep male-like voice, "I am Captain Hook." Then she went to the swingset and started stearing her ship. That's what she is doing in theis picture. One day she was Batman and asked what Steven's name was. He said daddy so she kept asking what it was because she wasn't Lilly his daughter who must call him daddy(not Steven Yates which is her preferred method), but she was Batman and had no idea who he was. She is a little inpatient, but patiently waiting to visit Disney again. She loves to sing and dance and has told us she wants to be onstage and do a show. She doesn't like to miss anything! She has an incredible amount of energy lately that doesn't seem to be going any where.

She has been too outgoing lately but has been very friendly and I think she is craving the friends she left in England. She does talk about them still and some times plays with imaginary versions. She is getting bigger and bigger each and day. She thinks she should be an adult by now. She recent;y told be that when she gets big like me she is going to get her own house and it is going to be empty. Then she is going to get in her red car and go to a furniture store and get her own furniture, beds, and pack n play. She is 4 and already has her future planned out. She even says we are going to move to Hawaii next and then Japan. We'll see. She needs to just slow down already! She is crazy, but we love her.
-K

Sa-Mae

Sadie-Mae is the crazy girl ever. She is like an old lady trapped in a toddler's body, She folds her arms, tilts her head down, and looks up with her eyes, just like YiaYia, ha! She corrects people, mostly daddy, and is fiercely independent. She told Steven this morning at 5:30am, "Daddy your freaking dog is whining again. Your freaking dog is allllllllwaaaayss whining." Then she lays down to go back to sleep. Last night Steven was fixing something to get everyone ready for bed and he messed something up. He said "son of a nutcracker". Lilly's favorite Christmas movie is "Elf" and she can recite most lines from it already, but her favorite that she often uses is son of a nutcracker so we have adopted saying it. Sadie doesn't even look up and says, "No daddy, it's son of a b---h." we really have no idea where she picks these things up. But both older girls remember pretty much everything, it's ridiculous. 

She likes to think she is 3 going on 4 because Lilly reminded everyone for months that she was 3 going on 4. We have noticed that Sadie has been picking up a lot of Lilly's bad habits. When Sadie is by herself, or even just without Lilly, she is so sweet and well behaved. Same goes for Lilly. She recently got her first tricycle and scooter here at Incirlik. This is why she is wearing all the protective gear in the above picture. She truly doesn't want to get hurt. She often reminds other children to wear helmets because it all just freaks her out at the thought of getting hurt. She also loves to clean. She likes to ask for napkins during a meal because she is dirty but really wants to clean the table or her chair. Crazy girl. She is getting bigger and smarter every day and she is loving living here now. She is also super excited to go visit Memo, Papop,and Shelby, and YiaYia and Papou. She tells us everyday! Oh and one more thing, she calls herself Sa-Mae. If you call her crazy she says 'No I Sa-Mae." She's just too cute!

-Krissy

Ruby Lainey

Ruby is now almost 5 months old! She is a very happy baby despite all of her skin issues and ailments. She no longer has cradle cap, but now she has some eczema on her head. The poor thing has been scratching her head so much! We had the hardest time finding a little hat that would fit her head at the BX. All of the hats that they had were meant for newborns, and let's just face the fact that all the girls inherited Steven's huge head! I finally found one that came with a sleeper, onesie, bib, and blanket. Steven also made her wear mittens so that she could scratch any more. Ruby was actually scratching herself bloody. She was not to happy with daddy for those. She holds on to her blanky at night by putting her fingers through the holes. Once she was able to hold her blanky she happily went to sleep. She still has the rash on her arms and you can see what it looks like in the picture to the right. She doesn't scratch at it so I don't think it really bothers her way too much. She is a trooper though :) She talks up a storm and loves the attention. If you look at her and talk to her, she will just smile and smile. She is starting to move up in sizes; she is wearing size 2 diapers now and moving up to 3-6 month clothes. She is starting to use her legs more. She loves to kick and she'll stand when we hold her steady. We are all just so in love with her.
We were at the Turkish Bazaar on base last week, it's in a building like the BX but it has a habdful of Turkish vendors. Their products, so we've been told, are overpriced compared to the prices of base. We have bought a few things there, including the girls' floor pillows. They are all so nice in there and just gush over the girls. One of the girls gave Ruby an evil eye bracelet. The Turkish Evil Eye is meant to protect people and places from evil, like God is watching you and protecting you. She loves the bracelet (it's in the photo above). She'll put her hand up when she sees it. She just too cute!
I will write a post about each of the big girls too! So look out!
- Kristen