40 weeks 4 days

The end is near.....I hope!  I can't be pregnant forever, right?  I was thinking a Christmas baby, but now it's looking more like a New Year's or later baby.  Looking forward to meeting this little one soon.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning started with a sick child.  

Asher did perk up a bit once we started opening presents.  

The big hit this year were costumes the boys got from their Aunt and Uncle.  

We had a quiet Christmas and Asher slept quite a bit of the day.  Urban played with all of Asher's toys and thoroughly enjoyed himself.  Despite sickness, we enjoyed being together as a family and celebrating Jesus' birthday.  

Christmas Party

We enjoyed celebrating Christmas Eve with our friends.  The kids put on a little play of the nativity story.  They were all really cute!  Urban didn't want to dress up.  He played the part of baby Jesus.  And Asher was Joseph, and didn't want to get out of his costume all night.

We're Ready!

Well, as ready as you can ever be for another child entering your family.  But as far as his room goes, it is now complete and I love it!   My mother in law made the quilt, bedskirt, and sent the material for bumper pads.  She did such a great job and I am so thankful for her and the time she spent making all of this.  We are so blessed!  I am just shy of 39 weeks now and looking forward to meeting this new little guy soon!

Snow Day

We declared it a snow day today and everyone stayed home.  We got a lot of snow and thought it best to stay off the roads.  The boys went outside to play this morning.  Asher had a lot of fun.  Urban had a few minutes of fun, which was captured in this picture, and then he was ready to be done.

It is nice to see usually a dusty, dry city covered in a white blanket of snow!

Bunk Beds

The boys got bunk beds.  Asher could not be more excited!  Urban was a bit more hesitant about his new bed.  The boys (Reed included) enjoyed playing on the top quite a bit of the afternoon.

The boys made a little fort on the bottom bunk so there was blankets covering all the openings.  They watched "The Grinch Stole Christmas" in their fort before bedtime this evening.  

Special Morning with Dad

This morning I had a special breakfast with the moms of Asher's school.  It was a fun morning for me, but I think the boys had a much better time with their daddy.  He won 'awesome dad' points with them today as they got to go to an indoor play place and eat at Burger King while they waited to pick me up.

Gingerbread Houses

We enjoyed making gingerbread houses with our friends this year.  This was a special treat since we weren't together at this time last year due to post earthquake chaos.  It was fun to see the kids so excited and I think the adults had fun too! :)  Though we did miss our dear friends, Dan & Lynn, who were integral in the design of the gingerbread houses in past years.  :)

The kiddos are ready to start!

Asher's final product!

Urban's gingerbread house:  (He basically sat and ate candy, while I made the house.  Needless to say, he had a great time!)

 The ladies enjoyed decorating their own as well!

It was a fun evening!

Christmas Picture Attempt

  Hopefully in a few weeks there will be another little boy joining us in a picture, preferably before Christmas, but we will see!

Christmas Cookies

Asher helped me make Christmas cookies this weekend.  We enjoyed a few and froze a lot so they are ready for Christmas in a few weeks.

Thanksgiving

I haven't posted in a long time!  We have been busy and I guess I haven't taken very many pictures.  We had a nice Thanksgiving and it was a packed house this year.  We found a large turkey and the food was yummy.  Again, I didn't take any pictures during the day, which I was bummed about later, but Reed did get just a few on his phone.  So this is all I got!

Lots of kids this year!  Much to be thankful for!

Fall Party

We enjoyed a Fall Party today with the kids.  They had fun with face painting, decorating cookies, and watching Charlie Brown.

So we had a butterfly, two cats, Dorothy, and a tiger at our party today.  They were adorable!

Decorating cookies or in Urban's case, just eating....  :)

We all had a fun time!

Anything strange about this picture?

Do you notice anything strange or not quite right in this picture?

It might be more obvious to us, since we live in this culture, but if you noticed the radiator blocking the door, you are right.  Reed took this picture at one of his favorite cafes the other day.  This is the FIRE EXIT.  No worries, if there is a fire, everyone just needs to jump over the radiator.  And I can only hope and assume that the door swings out!  

Reed has an uncanny knack for noticing things that would be building code violations in the States.  It could be being a former architect or the fact that 1 year ago he exited our fire escape door from our apartment during an earthquake only to have it padlocked shut at the base of the stairs.  So he notices these things right away.  One of the first things we noticed on our new apartment was that there was a padlock at the base of the fire escape as well.  

Anyways, we got a good chuckle out of this one, but I really hope that door never has to be used!  

More Birthday Fun

We had a birthday party this weekend with some of our local friends for Asher.  

Asher got a basketball hoop for his birthday.  One might wonder who this gift was really for....Asher or his daddy?  :)  Needless to say much fun has been had already by all the boys in our house.   Asher is quite serious about his playing too.  He has to change his clothes so that he is wearing his "basketball shorts and jersey".  

Reed being quite dramatic for the photo:  

 We had a fun weekend, but I am tired and all caked out.

Happy Birthday, Asher!

Asher is 4 years old!!  He had a fun day celebrating and loves everything Cars and Lightning McQueen, so we are having a Cars theme party.  He will have a party with friends next weekend.

School Birthday Party

Asher will turn four on Monday.  We had a party for him on Friday at school, since I will be gone on Monday.  We brought cupcakes and juice boxes for the kids.  It was quite the party with decorations they had put up for Asher, he got a crown (which he wouldn't wear), they sang "happy birthday" in Turkish, and then played really loud music over the speaker system.  :)

Urban had been waiting all day for a cupcake.  He was ready for this party to start.  

We finally let Urban start early before the students came to the lunchroom.  

This was the best smile we could get from Asher.  

Enjoying the treats:  Asher is on the end and Urban is closest on the right.  He is on his second cupcake at this point!

After eating, we went to Asher's room where each student gave Asher a picture they drew for his birthday and then gave him a kiss!  :)  It was quite comical, as Asher kept trying to dodge the kisses at first.  Finally, I think he just tolerated it.  

He had a fun day!

Izmir

Upon returning to Turkey, we enjoyed a week in Izmir at a resort.  It was a nice transition back.  We enjoyed some time together as a family and great weather.

We went to the pool everyday!

We took a boat ride on the Aegean Sea.

Urban was ready for his nap!

Our boat anchored in several bays and we had opportunity to jump in and swim.  

Asher didn't enjoy this so much.  The water was a bit chilly.  

Blank Park Zoo

The boys enjoyed going to the zoo for the first time with Grandpa and Grandma this spring.

Urban and Grandma Jean

Urban could have fed the goats all day!

We took a train ride around the park.

One of the highlights was watching this big tortoise up close.