Her Boots Were Made For Walking

Steven and I have always said that Sadie is an old soul trapped in a 3 year old's body. When she started talking, it wasn't a word in baby talk, it was full, structured sentences. She complains about her hip hurting and that she's cranky and grouchy and to just leave her alone for a while. She only wants to wear dresses because boys where pants and boys clothes are ugly. Well this outfit is what happens when Sadie chooses her own outfits. Every time I looked a her "These Boots Were Made For Walking" started playing in my head. This is why we love Sadie-Mae so much!




-K

Our Week in Instagram Photos

There really isn't way too much going on here, other than everyday life things. On Monday Lilly and I had Daisy's. I usually bring Sadie-Mae with me and Ruby stays with Daddy. Sadie has been really enjoying spending time with the bigger girls. She is so mature for a 3 year old, it's really hard to tell that she's not one of the kindergarteners. She does everything they do and is memorizing the promise just like the others. Lilly is thoroughly enjoying herself. She would have it everyday instead of every other week. I'd be exhausted if it was like that- ha!

 Tuesdays are Story Time days. You know how much we love Story Time around here! Ruby has had such an attitude lately. Even worse than normal. She's been driving me nuts! She has one molar coming in hgvband is trying to do away with naps completely. This day was no exception- I ended up strapping her into the stroller and make sure the straps weren't loose. If they are even just a little loose she can maneuver herself out in seconds.

We got Lilly a new bike this week. She was getting pretty big for the one she had. Girl has grown ridiculously since we went back to the states last November. Every time I turn around she is outgrowing something else. She usually rides her bike to school so it got a lot of usage. I picked her up from school on my bike with Ruby in the trailer. Ruby was ecstatic and we had a nice bike ride home.

Sadie has been pretty interested in taking pictures lately. The only problem is when we let her, she takes a billion random photos of a billion random things. Like the other day, she was taking pictures with my iPod and I caught taking photos of the couch cushions. No exact reason as to why, they were just there. Occasionally I'll try to get her to take a picture of the two of us to distract her for a bit, but the child just makes silly faces and I'll get maybe one or two of her actually smiling. She's such a stinker.

 We started Christmas shopping on Friday. Luckily Sadie's a genius and lacks in the common sense department. You've just got to love the girl. Last year I managed to actually shop for Christmas with her in the cart and she had no idea. At all. This time Steven and I tag teamed to shopping by him actually doing most of it and then I'd go in and give him an opinion/find some stuff to add to the cart. He paid for everything and then asked to leave the cart at the store and he's be back in an hour to pick it up without me or the kids. Best part, Sadie looked in the cart of already paid for gifts and sighed because it was all the stuff she wanted. Poor kid had no clue, but we love her anyway! I swear she's a genius, just without the common sense. She reminds us of Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory. She's hilarious.

That day, Lilly had a half day of school. Steven picked her up and we headed out to lunch at the club. Steven has been working crazy days and then one day off, but he's still working nights so half the day he's sleeping and awake all night. It's been especially hard on Lilly because he usually has a week day off and she's at school. We tried to make the day as fun as we could for her. And don't you just love how Sadie and Ruby are making the same face?

I'm happy that we got most of the kids Christmas shopping done. We need to get each of them a movie for their stockings and a few books for each of them. We have a few ideas for movies and the books will probably be the best of whatever the BX has. And hopefully, God willing, next Christmas we'll be in the states!

And these are just a few more photos from the week. All of them except for the last one are from Monday while we read bedtime stories. The last one is of Sadie when we went to pick up Lilly from school. She's getting to big!

-K

I Heart Faces- Tickled Pink

Lilly and the playground merry-go-round, you can't get more tickled than that!





Check out more tickled pink photos or join the fun at I Heart Faces.

-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

Fire Prevention Week

One of our favorite weeks of the year is Fire Prevention Week. Every year Steven reminds the girls that his dad, their Papop, was a fire chief and they get just as if it were the first time he told them. Story Time this past week had the base fire chief and a lot of the fire department there. That included Sparky the fire dog and a fire truck to explore.




First, the fire chief read a couple of stories and then we went to the truck. Every time Sparky comes out there's a mixed reaction. There are some kids that shriek with fear and others you just can't stop attacking hugging him. Sadie was pretty happy to see him, but not really touchy happy. She kept her space but was friendly, which is perfectly Sadie-Mae.


Ruby, on the other hand, was screaming 'pup-pup' and pointing. She loved him. She hugged him and took dome pictures with him. She was enthralled.
We checked out the fire truck, which was Sadie's favorite. They explored all the different seats that fire fighters sit in on the way to a fire. They pretended to drive the truck and saw all the hoses and tools. I'm pretty sure they would have stayed there all day, but fire fighters can't play all day. They needed to be ready in case there is a real fire.




Sparky said goodbye and Ruby chased after him. She was screaming 'kiss kiss'. She wanted a proper goodbye. She gave him a kiss and a bug hug. And the faces she making, we call it her 'ducky lips'. She makes the lips and then gives you kisses. She really is too funny.




After we said goodbye, we went inside to find some books to bring home. We check out a ridiculous amount of books every week. Most of the books the girls' own are missing at least a page. Sadie and Lilly are trying to keep their books from being destroyed by Ruby, but they've had a some of them since Lilly was a baby. Babies and paper books don't go so well together. So in order to read everyday we check out about 30 books a week, return them, and then check out some more. It works for us right now, and I'm sure I'll have some pretty strong arms from lugging around the bag(s) of books ;)

-K

Show Us Your Life- International Day!

Today I'm linking up with Show Us Your Life- International Day over at Kelly's Korner. We live in Adana, Turkey thanks to the US Air Force and before that we lived in England. We have basically lived our entire married life overseas and have been grateful for the opurtunity. It has really helped us put into perspective how blessed we are and to not take for granted time with our loved ones.

Our house on base, plus 2 other homes on either side.

We live on base here and have enjoyed some of the things here. We don't have many things here as you do in the states, but we do have the opportunity to get some amazing things here. The weather is beautiful, the produce is amazing, and the people are so friendly. It's amazing to me how Americans can have so much and still want more when there are people here living with next to nothing and they are so happy and friendly. Life here is much slower, people take their time in everything they do; which can be a good thing or a bad thing!

The pillar on the left is part of a mosque.

The balconies are apartments. Most look the same.

Gas off base, at this time, was $7.52/gallon. On base it's about $4.75/gallon.

The rugs are beautiful and plentiful here.

More apartments.

Can you spot another mosque?

Most of the country is Muslim so there are mosques everywhere. One of the big adjustments was hearing the call to prayer 5 times a day. The girls were always asking who was singing and why!
It really is amazing here, but we can't wait to be back in the states :) All of our kids were born in England so they consider themselves English, so we want them to experience where were from. But this blog serves as our memory book for many years to come, so we can say "Do you remember living in Turkey?" and remind ourselves of our time here.
If you want to see more homes around the world check out Kelly's blog for more!

-Krissy

Happy Birthday Steven!

This past Saturday, my sweet hubby turned 27. We celebrated with some movies, a rib dinner, and some cupcakes.

This year he picked out his own present about a month ago. The BX happened to have a new Sony tablet and since he had just lost his ipod too, it was an easy decision. The girls still wanted to pick out some things for him as well. His parents, Memaw and Papop as we like to call them :), sent him some money for his birthday. So to keep the surprise effect he tasked us with picking out some goodies for him. If you know the girls, you know they like to pick out toys for Daddy so that he can play with them. One year it was play dough, for some reason I can't remember last years, and this year it was a sword. Not just any sword, a Star Wars light sabre! They were thrilled to show him what they picked out and after it was opened a rather large sword fight erupted.

The thing I picked out was a trolley for his golf bag. That way when he golfs he doesn't need to rent one or a cart unless he wants to. And it's one thing that I knew he wanted eventually. And it was the only one at the BX. And the man is hard to shop for. So golf trolley it was. Lucky he really liked it. Did I mention he's hard to shop?

I made the mistake of saying that the light sabre reminded of Howard Walowitz from Big Bang Theory. He has a pair of light sabres displayed in an x above his bed. Now he has his sitting on the headboard to our bed. I kid you not, it's been there since Saturday.

We made ribs and cupcakes and had a wonderful dinner. The girls sang "Happy Birthday" twice and after the second time, Lilly and Sadie squealed in unison, "Blow out your candles Daddy!" Steven started laughing and blew out the candles. I was lucky enough to catch that on camera! After we took a minute to take a picture of us and the girls wanted in too. So Daddy took a picture with each of them, including his other girl Sophie!
And after dinner we got a treat, a college football game that wasn't on in the middle of the night here. Unfortunately it was the Texas/Oklahoma game. We were rooting for Texas but seemed completely apparent that they weren't going to win early on, so we called it a night. Other than the football, I think he had a pretty good birthday this year!

-k

What a Difference a Year Makes!

My sweet husband turned 27 on Saturday! I just wanted to post a couple of pictures from last year and this year. What a difference a year makes!



I've got many more photos from his birthday to come! Happy Birthday Bubba!

-K

Sick Days

For most people, sick days are quiet and calm so you can rest and get better. Not for us. Our kids never act sick. It's hard to explain because people think you are exaggerating. I kid you not, it's exhausting to watch. They run around and play, despite me explaining that their little bodies need to rest, and they never complain. The only time they act unlike themselves is when the Tylenol and Motrin wear off and a fever returns, other than that you never that they're sick. It makes it hard to know when they need to see the doctor.
Oh and when one of them gets sick, it's a matter of minutes and hours until the other two get sick.

Lilly found a good place to color for the day.

So a week and a half ago Ruby came down with something. We don't know what it was but it was a stomachache and I'm sure you don't want to know what else that entailed. Sadie and Lilly had a little bit but Ruby had it for a week. Poor thing was so uncomfortable.

Sadie looking at a book and then the decorated Ruby's notebook with stickers.

Steven and I debated whether or not Lilly should go to school one day because she had a stomachache the night before.She said she felt fine, so we told her if she started to feel bad again to go to the school nurse. She was at school all of 45 minutes before I got the call to come pick her up. She only had a low grade fever of 99.7 but I was told that that was too much for her to stay at school. When I got to the school, I waited in the office for her, and I heard her loud talking and skipping down the hallway. I could only laugh, it just seemed ridiculous to me that I was there to pick up my "sick" child and her she was skipping down the hallway.

Ruby took a pillow and camped out under the princess table and made sure to stay well hydrated!

When we got home, Ruby was feeling better so we attempted to relax and turn on a movie. I was hoping the movie would get them to at least sit still for awhile. I was wrong. The pictures show how their day went. And I'm positive that if I hadn't told you they were sick, you would have thought it was weekend and they were feeling great. My kids are one of a kind. There isn't another kid out there like these 3, and I kinda like it that way :)


-K

The Library

We've been taking the girls to the library since Lilly was 6 months old. They love Story Time and they love being able to pick out and take home books of their choosing. We read a lot around here, at least a lot of kid books. I love reading but their isn't much time for me to read around here. Plus, if you met my kids you'd understand, they are LOUD. Ridiculously loud. All. The. Time. Even when they're sick. But that's a-whole-other story for another day.
Every week we get a bagful or two of books and we read some every night. Lilly has a sheet for school for all the books we've read. It keeps tally of all the books we've read with her. At the end of the month if you've read a certain amount she gets a small treat from her teachers. Lilly's very competitive so she is really into making sure we mark down all the books.

The first thing they do when we get to the library is start pulling books from the shelves, take out a cushion, and find a good spot to sit down. They'll look at the ones they took out and decide which ones they want to take home. While they do that, I look for books that I think they'll like, especially seasonal ones. The children's book at our library are shelved by topic instead of alphabetically. It 's a good system for holiday/seasonal books but a pain in the butt if you're looking for a book by author. I at least try to get a good mix of books, but the girls have their favorites, so sometimes it's a lot of the same kind. One day at Story Time, I told Sadie she could pick out some books to bring home. She came back with a stack of Fancy Nancy books, and only Fancy Nancy books.

Some books that we are enjoying these days are:
Fancy Nancy
Amelia Bedelia
Eloise
Clifford the Big Red Dog

We could spend hours at our small library. I hope where ever we live next, they have a nice, big library. I'm sure the girls would love it not matter how big. We're really happy they like to read.

My failed attempt to get a nice photo of all 3 of them.

And speaking of reading, Lilly has been doing great at school. She is learning sight words and has really picked up sounding out words. She's thrilled, we're thrilled, and Sadie and Ruby are thrilled that soon Lilly will be able to read to them. We also like to give them books as gifts and rewards. They have so many toys as it is and we'd rather not buy them anymore, and we're grateful they love books just as much toys. And I'm pretty sure Santa is going to bring more books than toys :)

-k