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

November Can't Come Fast Enough!

We finally have dates on getting back to the states. We should be there November 6th through December 6th! We are all SO excited. We can't wait to see our families again it just has been too long. The girls have been planning all the gifts that they want to bring everyone. Steven and I are planning to mail out a big box to my parents and his about a week before we leave so that we don't have to carry so much on the plane. I felt so bad for poor Steven when we moved here. I had all of the kiddos with me and he had to pretty much drag 5 large suitcases and 2 car seats around until we checked them for our flight. This time we are hoping to only check 1 suitcase and each of us, including Lilly and Sadie, carry a backpack with a set of clothes and things for the plane. Hopefully we get everything figured out soon.
Now that I have a gate pass and we have one for the car, we have been trying to get off base and explore a little of the area. Last weekend we had a power outage on base so we thought we would go to the Sunday market in Incirlik Village. It was mostly produce and some household things. We got some more bananas because Ruby is a banana monster! She seriously at 4 bananas by herself one day. As we were walking around a little Turkish boy started following Steven around. It made us really uncomfortable especially since the girls were with us. We are very protective of them so we figured we would leave since it was that big of a market and we wanted to get the girls away from them. As we were walking more boys joined in. Once we go to the car we put the girls in as fast as we could and Steven got the strollers in. Steven went to go get in the car and they wouldn't let him shut the door. They wanted money and kept saying they helped us, but they really didn't. Steven was getting really upset and the one boy say 1 lira (Lira is Turkish money, $1 is about 1.41TL). Steven asked if I had one so I pulled one out of my wallet and it got fumbled out of the car and into the street. He went for the money and walked away. We shut and locked the door and we aren't going back to that market again.
Steven wanted to explore so he followed a Ford Expedition because they were American and wanted to see where it went. Bad idea. They went a lot faster than us and we ended up on a highway not knowing how were going to get home. All the signs were in Turkish so I was panicking a little bit. We were finally able to turn around and retrace our path and made it home. Sadie and Ruby slept the whole time and I think Lilly was a little nervous too because we kept asking "Can we go home now?"
We made it back to base and ended up buying two more rugs for the house. Which brings our total up to 5 rugs, $430 in one month. Our whole house is tile and Ruby is now crawling, scooting, and pulling up/cruising around furniture. The rugs definitely were a necessity. The poor thing has fallen and hit her head enough. It's been interesting baby  proofing this house. Ruby became completely mobile in less than a week, so we have not had enough time to think ahead. She really is a menace. She loves to play in the girls play area in the living room and especially loves to play with their blocks. Every time she goes back there she pulls the basket of blocks off the shelf even if the girls had just cleaned them up and put them away. Lilly is beyond frustrated with that. Ruby also likes to open the drawers in the kitchen and makes it really hard for me to clean.
Lilly is doing great at school and we are even going on a shopping trip with her teacher this weekend. We live in the city of Adana and she is going to take us into Old Adana to show us where to park and the stores there. We are really intimidated about being off base because of the language barrier. We have been trying to get learn a few words and I have downloaded some applications about the Turkish language. We hope to find some great things for our house and gifts to bring home. I can't even tell you how excited we are to bring things home for everyone. Everything is so colorful here compared to England.
This month seems to be flying by. We have so many things we are doing plus trying to everything squared away to go home. The only downside to the next couple of months flying by is that when we get home Ruby and Sadie will being having birthdays. I don't think I am ready for them to be 3 and 1. I am already having a hard time with Lilly being 4 and in school. Steven loves to point out that when we move Ruby will be the same age Sadie was when we left England. He can't wait for them to get bigger and I am dreading it. But we will be happy to celebrate their birthdays a little early with family. Next month is going to be great!
♥K