Oh boy! This is going to be a LONG post.

We are finally in Nebraska and in our own home again! It's so great to be home again, but with all the craziness I am so behind in blogging! I have about a month's worth of P366 photos to post as well as everything that goes along with a move half way across the world, so please bear with me while I try to catch up.
One night before we left we went to getting something to eat at the bowling alley on base. Steven loves those arcade games that you try and grab a stuffed animal. Every time he sees one he has to try it. This time he won a monkey for Sadie. She loves it, but it was one of those really cheaply made stuffed animals and the butt seam immediately so Daddy came to the rescue and sewed it back up for her.

The weekend before we left we took some time to go to the movies. We went and saw the new Muppet movie. It was so cute and we all loved it. Before the movie they actually had a few of the Muppets there so the kids could take a picture with them. Ruby ran right up, Sadie patiently waited for her turn after Ruby, and Lilly decided she was going to be shy and not take a picture. We managed to convince her to take the photo because she would have balled and thrown a fit when she realized she missed out on something great, it's just what Lilly does and does often. Ruby wanted to keep Kermit and take him with her, but she reluctantly gave him back.

Lilly's last day of school was bitter sweet. As excited she was to get on the plane and leave, she was equally sad. We did our best to cheer her up and thwart off a panic attack. And yes, she does have panic attacks so we have to be really careful with her. Once she's started, it's really hard to get her out of it. Steven asked her if she'd like Papou to bring her something special when he picked us up at the airport, and she said, 'A Dr. Pepper?'. Bless her little heart because she definitely pulled some of Steven's heart strings with that one :)

This year we had the greatest Valentine's Day we've ever had. I really don't know if Steven will be able to ever top it ;) We got on a plane and we headed back to the states! It was awesome. We were able to find some cute little bumble bees that we attached to the girls backpacks. We filled them with chap stick, lip gloss, and some spending money. The were thrilled. We are completely blessed with kids who are the greatest little travelers. They've endured days of traveling with out a stop, long flights, short flights, international flights, and long car rides. They are the best. We arrived at the Passenger Terminal early so we had time to eat some breakfast and hang out in the family room a bit. Ruby was sweet enough to take a picture with me :)

We were thrilled to get to my parent's house in time to celebrate our sweet niece's 2nd birthday! She has the biggest personality and is just so much fun to be around.

We also got to meet and spend time with our new nephew, Logan! He is such a sweet baby.

We were blessed to be able to take a night and go out on a date. We have made a sort of tradition of going out for dinner at Carraba's when we're in town. The food is so good there!

There's a really great McDonald's in Allentown. I know it's a McDonald's, how great could it be. It's really all about the play place. It's music themed and the girls love playing there, so we stole our niece Phia and headed there. After lunch, playing at the play place, we ordered Shamrock Shakes and headed out again!

I forgot to take photos on the 19th and 20th, disappointed about it but hey we've been really busy. So I found a couple of other photos to 'stand in' for those days. The first one is of Phia at Best Buy. We were looking for a protective case for Steven's cell phone.

This one is of our new TV obsession, American Pickers. We love shows from the History channel so this is awesome.

And sadly we had to leave. Before we got on the road, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts. The adults got coffee and the kiddos got Munchkins. Ruby improvised a new way to get the powder off the powered donuts without actually eating the donut. Girl loves her some sugar!


Now that catches up on all the days before we got to Nebraska. All of those photos and days will be in another post. But so far, we love it here :)

-K

Goodbye House,

Hello billeting! I'm almost caught up now! Yay!

This was our first night in billeting. The girls were so excited. And again they think of staying in a hotel in San Antonio with Memaw and Papop! They compare everything to that trip, still :) And sorry for the crappy photo, by the time it I remembered to take a photo, it was late and the only camera I had handy was the one on my tablet.


We took Lilly back to the doctor yesterday because her ear was still hurting. We wanted to make sure that she would be able to fly soon. The first doctor we saw never told us that this type of infection lasts for a couple of weeks. Sadie also picked up a stuffed animal for Lilly since we forgot to pack something in our suitcases for Lilly snuggle with at night. All 3 of them need at least one thing to snuggle with at night or they get upset. How I overlooked this I'll never know, but she sure does love her new river otter :)



And now I'm caught up! Phew. I'll post an update of our PCSing adventure soon, there is just so much going on :)

-K

The Last Few Days in Our House Here

I am in desperate need of catching up on my P366 so I'm breaking it up into 2 posts. The first one is of our last days in our house here in Turkey and the second one is after we moved into billeting(hotel).

Lilly sold more Girl Scout cookies! Since we had already shipped our car, we have been walking everywhere. And if you know Sadie, you know she's an old lady stuck in a 4 year old's body. She kept complaining her hip hurt, then her other hip hurt, and then they both hurt at the same time. For some reason, of her's, she was able to run in the grass so she and Lilly played tag all the way home!




The sunsets here are absolutely gorgeous. I will really miss seeing all the different and amazing colors the sky turns when the sun sets. I'm hoping that Nebraska will have some equally gorgeous sun sets :)



Sunday night, Monday morning, Lilly woke up every couple of hours screaming that her ear hurt. Poor thing was in so much pain that she couldn't sleep. We made a doctor's appointment and she has an outer ear infection, meaning her ear canal is infected and not the usual ear infection. She's on antibiotic ear drops and tylenol/motrin for the pain. This is a sure sign that Lilly is sick, she never wants to take a nap or go to sleep for that fact.


I had to add this photo too. Ruby is one of the most clumsy and accident-prone person I have ever met. She has a bad habit of falling and bumping her head or mouth and has grown so accustomed to checking for concussion symptoms that she decided to check herself after she received her most recent bruise. She's too much!


We're almost done! Steven is marking off completed tasks on his out processing checklist!


Another beautiful sunset while walking home for the last time.


-K

The Great Pack Out of 2012

The movers have come and gone. It took 2 days but they did a great job and now we our lovely FMO- loaner- furniture. The mattresses are killer but we'll get by.

The first day they were here they packed everything into boxes, took apart furniture, and wrapped the furniture in cardboard and paper. I definitely think they did a better job than the moving company in England. All the boxes were labeled and they even put hardware to furniture into zipoc bags for me. The hardware in random boxes was really disappointing last time. When we finally got our things here in Turkey we were unbelievably excited to sleep in our own comfy beds, but we couldn't find all the pieces. We had to search every box and we'd find a piece in the girls' room, a piece in our room, a piece in the kitchen, and a piece in the living room things. To say we were mad is a complete under statement. 

They even made sure that if they came across something military related that they came to us and asked if we needed it. The first thing they asked when they arrived was if we had all our passports and orders somewhere safe so that they didn't get packed up.

Ruby loved watching them, especially when they were putting everything in to the crates. She just sat on our swing or in her wagon and watched. 

The first night we were able to sleep on our own mattresses on floor. Bed time was a nightmare. The girls were all exhausted but they were sleeping on a mattress on the floor of the living room together. Sadie does not like to be touched so she hates sleeping with people.  After an hour and a half they were finally all asleep and I could exhale. Poor Steven was awake for 27 hours straight before he was finally able to close his eyes. He's such a trooper. 

Lilly was a little disappointed that she was able to stay at home and watch them pack. She was luckily able to see the truck with all the crates just before it left.

The girls did have a couple moments of anxiety but they quickly faded. Once they realized that their things were gone until they get to Nebraska and not a moment sooner, they were fine. Sadie got a little nervous when they movers first showed up because Daddy wasn't home and they were packing all of our things. She was fine once Daddy got back home. 

Steven and I've been celebrating this move with some good wine in cheap plastic cups :)

We have a couple more nights in our house and then we move into billeting- aka hotel. The house is just about all clean and it'll be finished when FMO comes back to pick up the furniture. I'm thanking God that this hasn't been too stressful for us. It seems like we're just taking everything in stride and taking it little by little. I do have to say this is so much easier without being pregnant, or just given birth and have a newborn. But we just hope we stay at Offutt AFB for a good while and enjoy it. We especially hope Steven likes his job. The last 2 years here have been really tough for him because he hated his job, but we have less than 2 weeks left here! We're so excited! Now back to cleaning and packing....

-K

Who is this big girl and where did Lilly go?

Lilly lost her very first tooth this past Monday! She was so excited for it to finally fall out and would ask if Steven or I would give it a tug to help it out. Monday night she asked me again to check and tug on it so I tried again. I knew it was ready to pop out so when I tugged on it came right out, but just after it came out Lilly started whining about how it hurt. Steven and I started laughing because we knew it was already out. A few seconds later her eyes bugged out and she stuttered, "You got it out? My tooth came out!!!" All we could do was laugh. We were all so excited for her.

That night we went to the Christmas tree lighting on base where all the elementary school kids sang some Christmas songs. It was really nice. And I just have to mention this part. If you know me you know I love Boondock Saints and so does Steven. One of our favorite parts is when the detective asks Agent Smecker what the "symbology" of the evidence is. Then Agent Smecker says "I think you mean symbolism. What is the symbolism?" We always crack up at that. Well someone said a few words at the tree lighting ceremony talked about the symbology of the what the Christmas tree meant for everyone on base. Steven and I couldn't help but crack up.

Back to Lilly. After the ceremony we were walking to the car and Lilly was talking about what she was going to get with the money from the tooth fairy and she finally decided on a horse. We asked her how much she thought she was going to get and she said 1 coin. Unfortunately we had to tell her that was not enough. The tooth fairy ended up giving her $2 and she was thrilled! After a walk around the BX and explaining how all the things there cost a lot more.

She was such a good sport about and maturely decided to save it. We tried to find her a nice, decorative box to save her money in, but we had no luck. Hopefully we find something good soon because I think she is going to loose the other bottom, middle tooth sooner rather than later. Her big tooth broke through the gums yesterday and she is just as thrilled about it as she was when the baby tooth fell out.
And she has been growing like crazy. It is really nuts. She has never grown this much this fast. In August while we were at my parents' house we did some school shopping for Lilly. We always try to buy the girls clothes that are a little big so there is some room to grow. We bought size 5 clothes for her and a size 10 in shoes. Everything we bought was big for her. In the past month she has gone into a size 6x and almost an 11 in shoes. We bought some corduroy pants for her in a size 6 and when we got home and tried them on the fit perfectly, like a glove. We returned them the next day for the 6x ones. This was the first time we bought clothes for one of the girls and thought it would be big but we were completely wrong. She just keeps getting bigger and bigger. She's starting to read and help out more. It is crazy to us how big she's getting, I just wish it didn't happen so fast. She impresses us more and more everyday. At her Thanksgiving Feast at school, she tried everything. She sat at her table and ate while the parents sat at bigger tables. The whole time she was giving us the 'thumbs up' after she tried her food. She isn't picky when it comes to eating, so she more than willingly tries new foods and usually loves them. She also did a 5 Little Turkeys song and did great. She also made a Thanksgiving decoration that we can hang every year.

And on top of that Ruby and Sadie are turning 2 and 4 in a week. Pretty soon they won't look like babies or toddlers anymore. More on those two another day. It's time to pick Lilly up from school :) Oh and Daddy, aka The Sucker because he's a sucker when it comes to the girls, picked up a hot pink Hello Kitty Christmas tree for them even though he told them last year there was absolutely no way we are buying a pink Christmas tree ;) Ha! He cracks me up! And pay no attention to our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Since we'll have Christmas in the good 'ole USA next year we'll have the big beautiful Christmas tree we've always wanted :)

K

Golf Lessons: Week 2

Lilly has been LOVING her golf lessons. She gets so excited to go every week and talks about all the time. This week she learned, as she called it, "a new type of golf". AKA putting. From what I hear she has great form and can really play well.



Daddy is especially proud of the picture on the left out of the two below!



She's the "Magic Man". Cause now you see the ball and now you don't! Hahaha!



She was so proud when she sunk this putt! She's actually jumping up and down because she's so happy!



She can't wait until this Saturday's lesson!

-K

Kids Say the Darnedest Things & iPod Dump

Whenever someone asks Lilly how old she is she first tells them that she is 5 and that she is in kindergarten. Miss Thang thinks she is seriously hot stuff being in kindergarten. Well, I guess Sadie got tired of just saying that she is 3 and she felt a little left out. So the other day at the commissary, they were asked again how old they are. Here's how it went:
L- I'm five. (puts a hand on her hip) And I'm in kindergarten.
S- Yeah. And I'm 3. And I'm in Story Time.
Got to the love the them! What spunk they have :)


I was on the phone talking to Cindy and Ruby started talking to her Minnie Mouse stuffed animal. She was telling Minnie that she was "cute cute". Then she looked at me and said "Roo Roo cute." I
Me - Ruby's cute?
R- Uh-huh. Momma cute cute.
Me- Mommy's cute too?
R- Uh-huh.
Me- What about Ninny? (That's how she says Cindy.)
R- Ninny cute cute.
Me- Aw! Ninny's cute cute too.
R- More.
Me- More cute?
R- Uh-huh.
Me- Ninny's more cute?
R- Uh-huh.

Sadie has really been into science fiction lately. Yes, I know she's almost 4 but the heart wants what the heart wants, ha! She was watching a show with me and it had a giant bug creature looking for it's babies and it attacked people if it thought it was a threat. Sadie watched it and when it was over, she turns and looks at me and says, "Dat was da scarweiest thing I eber saw in my life!" I tried so hard not to laugh, but I told her again that if it was too scary I would turn it off. She said no because she knew it was fake, it just scared her heart out of her, aka startled her.



Lilly and Sadie were talking to each other in the car and Sadie started telling Lilly to stop saying that because it freaks her out in the head. She often says that when she wants Lilly to stop talking. She then told her to stop saying those "freaking words because they freak me out." We asked her what she was talking about and she meant that they were words that freak her out. NOT trying to use the f-word, thank the Lord, that would have been a whole other story about where she heard and why she can't use the that word.

Since the day we got our cat, Milo, and our dog, Sophie, the girls have been asking for one more cat and one more dog. They want another boy cat and to name him Figueroa because Minnie Mouse has a cat named Figueroa. Sadie told us yesterday that she needed another cat and dog again, and what to name the cat. She took it one step further and told us the dog had to be named Pluto because Mickey Mouse has a dog named Pluto. And that Mickey and Minnie Mouse come together, so the animals came together like that too. Sometimes I think that girl is too smart for her own good.

Lilly may be in kindergarten, but her maturity level is way above that. She'll come home and tell us that someone called her ugly and that wasn't very nice. She's just letting us know what happened and that she knew it wasn't true, because she's beautiful. She just seemed annoyed that kids actually act like that and she has to hear instead of doing something productive. Poor kid has too many years ahead of her to have to listen to foolish things like that. We're just grateful she has such strong head on her shoulders.



Sadie keeps asking when we are going to live in a hotel again, aka moving. But she not only wants to live in a hotel, she wants to live in a hotel near Memaw and Papop. "You know where Memaw and Papop have to drive two cars?" I think she's missing Memaw and Papop!

I was clearing out my ipod pictures and realized I've never shared any of the photos on it. The camera on it is one of my favorite features. These photos are all within the past year. And the ones of Ruby and Steven are some of my all time favorite. These little girls really love their Daddy♥ And yes, those are Starbucks cups in Lilly and Sadie's hands. The best part about this base is that there is a real Starbucks. Not a coffee shop that 'proudly brews Starbucks coffee', but a real Starbucks. It's at the club complex which also happens to house the base barber as well. When Steven stopped shaving his head for a while, we would got and get treats while he got his hair cut :) Those two girls are Starbucks snobs. The are so proud walking around with those cups of warm hot chocolate!

-K

Thursday Market

Thursday morning, after Steven took Lilly to school, we headed out to the Alley for the Thursday market. I don't think we will ever have the opportunity to purchase fresh produce for so little money. I really will miss this part of Turkey. The best part of going this early, we didn't get asked by every vendor, multiple times, if we wanted what they were selling. We always go with the intention to buy more vegetables than fruit, but it's really hard to resist.

They have many other things there, but we usually just go for the produce. They have clothes, shoes, household items, rugs, and even fresh olives. The man with the olives kept asking if we wanted some to take home to make fresh olive oil. I would love to try that one day, but I'd have to do some research on what to do. They offered Steven an olive one time, the man does love him some olives, and didn't realize it wasn't prepared. He took a bite and made a face and the men at the cart just started laughing. He walked away with the feeling they were saying 'dumb American". We had a good laugh about on the way home.

The girls found some wall stickers that they liked. They were Disney Princess ones, and they wanted. I would have loved to get them some for their rooms. For 1) I wasn't sure if they would be easy or not to take off the wall when we move, 2) we tried them when Lilly and Sadie were younger and they kept pulling them off to play with them, and 3) we tried again when we moved here with vinyls and Lilly still tried to pull hers off again and ripped it. Maybe one day they'll work.

We did pretty darn good money wise. The best deal of the day, the eggplant. We got 1 kilo, about 2.2 lbs, for only 1 Turkish Lira. That's only 55 cents. Now that I think about it, we probably should have gotten more to freeze. Maybe they still be that price next Thursday. We brought home some persimmons, plums, bananas, peaches, pomegranates, eggplant, potatoes, and red onions. All of that was only 18 lira, about $9.83. You can't beat that price anywhere. And it was so good! The second we got home, Ruby had to have a banana. Poor girl was in agony over not being able to eat a banana the second she saw them. We've tried everything but the potatoes- hopefully tomorrow- and it was all so good.


Here's hoping that next week is as good as the last!

-K

How did I forget about Spring Break?

I have no idea how I didn’t blog about Lilly’s Spring Break! She had a week off in April and while Steven still had to work, we made do with all the time off we had together. You see, Steven doesn't work a normal everyday schedule like most people. He never has. He works 12 hour hour shifts with Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday off. For Lilly, she only gets one day with Daddy, which is really half of a day because he works nights so he needs to sleep some on Sunday morning. She doesn’t get much time with him at all so we packed in  a lot of fun stuff for the time off he had. We did a lot of playing outside and movie watching and we also went miniature golfing. We wanted to have fun but also let her relax. She has just looked exhausted the past few weeks so we really wanted her to have some time to relax. I think we managed to balance the two.

The theater on base only plays movies on the weekend. We went and saw Rango. The girls enjoyed themselves but Ruby didn’t want to sit still. I’m not sure if I really liked it or not. I know I’ve seen better kids movies but it was nice to enjoy a movie out of the house.

Steven really wanted to take them miniature golfing again. It is really cheap- only a dollar to play- and the girls loved it last time they went. They went through the course so fast! They would take their turn and just keep going. I could really care less because I am terrible at it, but Steven actually wanted to play. He played every hole. Every time the girls got the ball in the hole, they would shout “Bingo!”. Ruby thought it was hilarious. She sat in the stroller most of the time and watched Steven play, so when he got the ball in the hole she would shout “Bingo!” for him and clap her hands. And speaking of Daddy, he got a hole in one on the first hole. Me being the sore loser I am was not impressed! After golfing we went to Arkadas Park. It’s the big park here on base. There are playgrounds, gazebos, grills. volleyball, a stage that has a rock wall too, and nest of all bathrooms, lol!  Even though they claim that they already went or don’t need to, 10 minutes after we get anywhere someone has to go to the bathroom.  All in all it was really fun day :)


- Krissy

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