Dan and Tami

Kaiyah's views

2011-11-02T19:07:00.002-05:00

Dan and Zeke are off at a Memphis Tigers game, so the girls are hanging out at home. At dinner Kaiyah was telling me a story about Zeke teasing her. I said, "Brothers like to tease, don't they?". Kaiyah: "Yes, they do." Me: "Do sisters like to tease?" Kaiyah: "No, they like to talk and hug!" I think she has it figured out pretty well!

15 months!

2011-09-18T08:23:00.006-05:00

It's official! We have a 15 month old in the house! Here are some pictures of what this sweet and spunky little girl has been up to . . .

Apparently all dress up outfits require a straw hat to complete the look. And since there are some other pretty cute folks in this house, here are a few more . . .

Out with Dad

2011-08-20T01:18:00.003-05:00

Renee (my mother-in-law) always tells this story from when Dan and Fred (Dan's brother) were kids. Fred (my father-in-law) took them to a place to fish where you paid by the fish you caught. They spent the day there and came home with a lot of fish, basically the week's food budget. At first Renee was caught off guard and couldn't believe they had spent all that money on fish. But then Fred said, "It was worth every penny to have that memory with my sons."

Well, Thursday I had language class. The girls were taking a nap, so Dan took Zeke out while I was in class. What was supposed to be a 2 hour outing turned into a 7 hour geocaching trip. Each cache they went to find, the place was closed, or they couldn't find it. One of the spots was at this picnicking place, so Dan ordered a plate of kofte (meatballs . . . kind of). A plate of kofte typically costs $5.00 or so, but as they brought out bread and vegetables and raw meat with a grill for the guys to cook it themselves, Dan started thinking it would probably be a bit more than normal. And it was! A lot more! But when Dan got home and was telling me about their day, hunting for the caches together, singing, counting, talking . . . his eyes teared up with the memories and we both agreed, it was worth every penny!

Bosphorus Cruise

2011-08-20T01:06:00.004-05:00

Thanks to my sweet friend watching the kids, Dan and I got to go on a much needed date this past week. We've lived here almost 4 years now, and have never taken a Bosphorus Cruise, so that's what we did. We took an hour and a half boat ride up the Bosphorus. We then had 3 hours in a little town to hike up to a "castle" and eat a delicious seafood lunch, followed by an hour and a half boat ride back home. We had a great day!

Slumber Party

2011-08-05T18:08:00.004-05:00

The kids and I had a slumber party last night while daddy was away. They usually go to bed at 8 PM, but I let them stay up watching TV until about 8:45. Then I put the TV on the "home" channel, thinking I could be entertained, and they would fall asleep. Unfortunately, Zeke found it very entertaining, and wouldn't stop talking about how great the house was that they were showing! So, 9 PM and off went the television. But, the memory of falling asleep with my kiddos was something I didn't want to forget, so I'm writing it down here. I was laying there with my sweet one year old pressed up against my leg, sleeping peacefully. My precious 3 year old's hand was tucked gently into mine as she fell asleep. To top it all off, my sweet boy quietly sat up and covered me with the covers. My heart was full. But then, 12:50 AM rolls around and I'm wide awake. So, I've been watching my sweet kids sleeping, wanting to take a picture of them. Then I look over and the one year old and almost five year old were holding hands in their sleep. Okay, I couldn't resist anymore, so I got up to get the camera, but apparently our old camera isn't working right now. Alas. It's been a fun night, but I'm going to be tired in the morning :)

Our FIRST chapter book!

2011-08-02T08:24:00.003-05:00

5 days ago Zeke and I started reading a chapter book. We had tried a different one a few months ago, and Zeke didn't get into it much, so I figured he just wasn't old enough yet. However, last week we decided to give The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton (one of my favorite authors as a child) a try and he LOVED it. 5 days later, we've read the entire 214 page book! As soon as it was over Zeke said, "Can we start over now?" I think not, we'll have to find a new book to read :)

"Short" cut

2011-07-03T12:55:00.003-05:00

Kaiyah has had one hair cut in her life, it was when she was around 18 months old. She was well overdue for a trim. So, she and I set out for a mommy-daughter date to get her hair cut and have our toes painted. We went to my normal pedicure place for her "short" cut (as she kept calling it). She was rather apprehensive about the prospect. Zeke so kindly kept reminding her that it wouldn't hurt (I wonder where she even got that idea?) Anyways, Saturday mornings are not the time to go to the "Kuafor", apparently, because 3 brides were all in there getting ready for their big day. We watched the guy who was going to cut Kaiyah's hair. It took him an hour to get the lady's hair into a bun that pleased her. When he started on the next lady, we decided we might be better off going somewhere else. So, we headed to the mall where I knew of a children's hair place. And though we didn't get our pedicures, Kaiyah got to pick out some fun nail polish and we painted her toes when we got home. I love these special one-on-one times with my kids!

100 Cookies!!!

2011-07-03T12:48:00.003-05:00

So, when we first started Zeke's phonics program, we promised him that when he completed his 100th lesson, we would make 100 cookies. There was some good incentive to persevere! Well, the day finally came and 100 cookies were made. Thankfully, the occasion coincided with a 4th of July trip to the beach with friends, so we won't have to eat them all ourselves :)

Sierra is ONE!

2011-06-22T22:38:00.002-05:00

I have no idea where the past year went, nor what happened to that sweet 10 lb. 6 oz., not so little newborn that was placed in my arms! It is hard to imagine our family without this precious little girl. I love her sweet smile that she generously shares with others. I love her love for her daddy and how she grabs for him whenever he is near by. I've loved watching her learn how to do everything as quickly as possible in order to keep up with her siblings. I love that she is FINALLY saying mama, at least sometimes :)

She is so funny. Since she got new toys on her birthday, she has been very protective of those toys. Whenever the other kids play with them, she grabs for them and yells ;) Yes, she is a sinner just like the rest of us, but precious non-the-less! She loves anything made into the shape of a Popsicle, tomatoes, and really, most anything she can put in her mouth. She tries to put everything into her mouth. My other kids never did that, but Sierra definitely likes to use her sense of taste to examine the outside world. When she's tired she sings herself to sleep. When her sister sings, she claps along. She cries as loud as she can when she is left in the nursery. We're working on that.

Yes, we are blessed!

Kaiyah

2011-06-03T02:49:00.004-05:00

Umm, where did this little girl come from and what did she do with my baby? Seriously, it seems like over night Kaiyah grew into a little girl. Her favorite saying right now is, "I a three year old. I can do it all myself." Sometimes this is a good thing, sometimes not so much :)

So often these days I find my heart just filled and over flowing with gratitude from all God has blessed me with. I love my family so much. I love being the mom to Kaiyah. I love to hear her giggle with delight. I love it when she looks over at me and says, "I do love you." I love eavesdropping on all the conversations she has with her toys, or really any object she happens to decide to play with. I love to watch her friendship with Zeke and Sierra grow.

Last year at this time she would pitch fits when forced to wear dresses. This year, she wears them with delight, and exclaims, "I am SOOOO pretty!" She is smart, picking up on a lot of the stuff Zeke is learning in school. She loves to go treasure hunting with her daddy.

Yes, my baby is definitely growing up. And you know, I wouldn't change it. Sometimes I look at pictures like the one I just posted, and think, awww, I don't have much time left with my little girl (Yes, I'm the one who has already shed tears thinking about my kids going off to college. Hey, it's a big deal when you live thousands of miles away from where they will move to), but I wouldn't change it because I know the years to come have just as many fun stages and memories. I think I'll just work on treasuring the blessings God gives in each and every day!

Zeke ice skating

2011-05-11T08:25:00.003-05:00

Here is a video of Zeke ice skating. It goes from Zeke skating forward, around cones, backwards, being taken for a ride by his teacher and then to him being comforted by his friends because he was crying for his family! Zeke is in the red helmet.

Sickness and such . . .

2011-04-30T07:18:00.005-05:00

The kids are sick . . . AGAIN. Z and S have both been running pretty high temperatures. This morning S woke up with a temperature of 105.4 . We didn't panic . . . much. We went through this with K not long ago, so Dan ran a cool bath, I grabbed the medicine and we had it down in no time. A few hours later Z was complaining that his chest hurt. So, we're currently in another round of sickness for this winter. Sad thing is, we're missing some great spring weather! We aren't the only ones who have struggled this winter. One family we know started taking Modifilan Pure Brown Seaweed extract believing that a lot of the sickness comes from all the mold in our homes here and that this would help. Anyone heard of it or know anything about it? The following picture was right after the cool bath, trying to get S's temperature down. She's still posing for the camera. What a mess!

So, after being stuck at home for 3 days, when Dan once again started talking about shaving his head, I said, "Okay!" Pretty handsome if I do say so myself!

Dan went and had his knees looked at finally. Apparently 25% of the knee is missing the cartlidge that is supposed to be covering it. Ouch. No wonder he hurts when he walks too much.

Growing up . . .

2011-04-09T22:45:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, Zeke asked if he could go to the bakery and buy some bread for his breakfast all by himself. As Zeke gets older we have seen some different parenting instincts between us. Whereas Tami is more likely to think, sure, go for it, Dan is a little more reserved. So, Dan walked Zeke to the bakery, taught Zeke what to say, and Zeke bought us bread.

Yesterday, Zeke again asked if he could go get us some bread for breakfast. This time Tami went with him. She stood across the street and let him go the rest of the way by himself. When he got to the bakery, he didn't weigh enough to open the automatic door! The baker came and helped him with the door and greeted him excitedly. A few minutes later, a proud little boy exited the bakery with two different types of bread, exactly what we had all asked for!

Later in the morning, we decided to let the kids play out in our enclosed garden on

their own. They are both pretty careful around cars, so again, Tami was going to let them walk themselves through the parking garage to the garden. But, Dan decided he would walk them out there and teach Zeke to use his cell phone to call us when they were ready to come in. About 10 minutes after they got out there we hear Zeke yelling at the cell phone. He couldn't get it to work. So, Dan called him and Zeke informed us there were stinging bees out there. About 5 minutes later, Zeke again couldn't get the phone to work and started yelling. Dan called him back and he said that Kaiyah needed help to get on the swing. Haha! So, the phone thing didn't pan out so well, but it was nice to get them outside a little even when we didn't have the time to take them!

Sierra has earrings!

2011-04-07T13:17:00.002-05:00

Today, after I picked Zeke up from school we went to the park to play. When Dan got home, he decided to walk down and meet us. On the way home the kids were asking for ice cream. So, we decided to stop and get Sierra's ears pierced so we would have a reason to celebrate. She wasn't a fan of the experience, but as soon as it was over, she was good! What a cutie!

Life

2011-03-29T23:41:00.003-05:00

Two of my sister-in-laws do a weekly thing on their blogs where they tell what's going on in their family that week. While I love to read theirs, I'm not disciplined enough to come up with stuff to write about every week. But periodically, I can do it :) So, here's what's going on with us . . .

Dan: Dan is getting geared up for Senior Portrait season. He has committed to taking Sn. portraits again this year for an International school in the area. Zeke's preschool also asked if he would take portraits of their students, but a time hasn't been set for that yet.

Tami: Yesterday my friend invited me over spur-of-the-moment. So I grabbed Kaiyah and we went over. Well, when we got there, my friend's 3-year-old son started opening the front door, yelling and crying wanting us to leave. I watched for awhile and then asked my friend, "Do you want him to have to learn, or do you want us to leave?" She said, "I guess you should go." So we left. Culture is a funny thing.

Zeke: Two or three days ago Zeke got home from school. A few minutes later I heard him messing around in the kitchen. I went in and he was drying the dishes. He said, "I just wanted to help you by drying these dishes mommy!" So sweet. I've been reading a book called "Raising Real Men." One thing it talked about was looking at a chore and deciding who the youngest child is that could do the task. I've been trying to do that more and include both Zeke and Kaiyah in on more of the tasks around the house. Now I know drying dishes can be added to that list :) Zeke is also doing an amazing job reading. We're really proud of him.

Kaiyah: Kaiyah is the pretender in this family. I love it. Everyday I catch her with her toys in the middle of some discussion. Recently I caught her with my pick that I use for my hair. Each of the prongs (is that the right word?) was a different character. One prong was telling the other they were going to get a spanking with the naughty spoon! Ha!

Sierra: Sierra is teething again. She seems to suffer more when the big canine teeth come in, running fever, up in the night, lots of dirty diapers. BUT, she gives lots of sweet cuddles too, whereas she's normally too active for such things! She now has added nah-nah (night-night) to her vocabulary and uses it when she is tired and wants to go to bed! Still no mama though!

Have a great day!

Grandma Hunt

2011-03-04T14:06:00.008-06:00

2437 S. 128th east avenue . . . It's a funny thing, I couldn't tell you a single address of where I lived growing up, or in college. I can't remember the address of the apartment I lived in post college, shoot, I can't really even tell you my current address. But I think my Grandma's address is permanently etched in my mind. She hasn't lived there is a LOT of years, but it was the address we used for our permanent address when I was growing up overseas, so I guess that's what it is, a permanent address! My Grandma passed away yesterday, but the funny thing is, the Grandma I remember is the Grandma in this house. Dan never met this Grandma, I wished he had. So, I thought in her memory, I would share some of the memories I have of her.

When I was in 5th grade or so, my sister and I went to live with my Grandma for a few months while my parents studied language in another country. A lot of my memories come from this time period. Who can remember Grandma without thinking of jello and nutty buddies for dessert :) We always had Taco Tico tacos for lunch on Sunday because they had a 3 for $1.00 sale. And there was always cosmopolitan ice cream in the freezer.

I remember my Grandma was willing to play game after game with my sister and I. I don't know how many rounds of skipbo we played in a week! Dominoes were also a favorite of hers. She had a pool table in her garage, and she could definitely hold her own.

I remember hours of Mr. Ed, Green Acres and [gasp] soap operas! I can still hear her saying, "You're going to catch your death of cold!" and "Lawzie". I think my sister at one point started a book of all her funny sayings.

I remember her out working in her yard, mowing the lawn tirelessly even when her knees ached with arthritis. She grew tomatoes and had a pretty grape vine.

She was very giving, always looking in on her neighbors as they looked in on her. Giving people rides when they needed it. She always greeted people with a sing-songy "Good Morning!"

Before my Grandfather died, they had planned to come visit us in Africa. My grandfather passed away, but my grandmother chose to go ahead and come all that way on her own. I don't remember the circumstances, but on this visit she and another lady had to bring a fishing boat part way to get to us. I have this vision in my head of my sweet and fairly large grandma being carried over the last few waves by this little African man. Haha. I'm sure I could go on and on but I'll stop here. I'm grateful for the wonderful influence Norma Hunt was on my life and so many others around her. I am so happy that she has been released from the captivity of a body and mind that is fallen and is now complete and whole, living joyfully with our Savior.

I love you Grandma.

Asure Pudding

2010-12-30T10:03:00.003-06:00

There is a traditional soup/pudding thing that is traditionally served here 40 days after the Sacrifice Feast. Most everyone makes it and serves it to their guests and neighbors. We've received a portion several times since living here. Today a friend brought a portion to us. It's very interesting. I'm not really a big fan, but Zeke raves about it.

I read online that the legend goes that once Noah's arc settled on Mount Ararat, everyone on the arc wanted to celebrate. However, most of the food was gone, so they just took everything they had left and made this sweet soup! Everyone makes it a little differently, but a sampling of what is generally found, or could be found in it goes as follows: wheat, chickpeas, white beans, rice, apricots, raisins, figs, oranges, sugar, rose water, and pomegranates. Anyone care to give it a try?

Christmas Day in pictures

2010-12-29T04:54:00.002-06:00

Christmas Eve

2010-12-29T04:53:00.001-06:00

Our church here always has three Christmas eve services. So far we've only been able to attend the first service which is a "family service." The past two years they have asked the kids to dress up as shepherds, angels or wise men to help tell the Christmas story. This year Zeke was a shepherd and Kaiyah was an angel.

Kaiyah wasn't really feeling her angel role. She lasted for a few minutes and then came and sat back down and took her robe off :)

Zeke did great as a shepherd and was such a big boy holding his candle during the closing candlelight song.

Sierra just enjoyed chewing on Kaiyah's angel ribbon and smiling at everyone around her . . . and trying to help the sound guy that we were sitting close to!

Merry Christmas! (A tad late)

2010-12-29T02:43:00.003-06:00

Well, we had a wonderful Christmas, and it dawned on me today that I have failed to share December's kitchen door craft with you guys. This month we did reindeer. You can tell whose is whose, I think. Yes, mine's nose is blue for the Tigers. And no, Sierra didn't color her own, but it was a collaboration between Tami, Zeke and myself. I hope you enjoy.

And while you're here, enjoy a nice glass of eggnog. Yes, with raw eggs and everything. It's wonderful.

Tallest Building in the World...

2010-12-19T13:44:00.004-06:00

I got to go to Dubai last week. In case you've wondered where the world's tallest building is, it's there, and this is it: It's the Burj Khalifa. Those buildings next to it are about 30 stories. It is 160 stories, and 2,717 feet tall. It's pretty tall. Read more about it here, if you're interested. Here is a picture I took of it:

Story

2010-12-05T12:56:00.001-06:00

This is a neat/convicting story for anyone that's interested:

http://www.mikeysfunnies.com/archive/richFamily/index.html

Funnix

2010-12-03T10:51:00.003-06:00

I've been trying to figure out what all I'm going to use for kindergarten homeschooling next year with Zeke. I found this phonics program called Funnix, and although I haven't found anyone who has actually used it before, I'm planning to give it a try. It's a CD based program and somewhat costly. However, this morning when I was looking over their information once again, they had an announcement posted that in January, they will be giving their program away for free. I assume they are trying to get more exposure, still being a relatively new program. So, if there are any other homeschooling moms out there looking for a phonics program, check out funnix.com.

Christmas is in the air!

2010-11-29T07:44:00.002-06:00

Pumpkin

2010-11-23T05:03:00.007-06:00

The other day our neighbor asked if we would be interested in a whole pumpkin. Their family had grown some and were giving them away. We said sure, we would love one. This is the pumpkin they brought us:

They don't have the orange skinned pumpkins here, but rather these white/green skinned ones. However, the insides are still orange and they seem to taste pretty much the same to me.

After skinning it, cooking it, and mashing it here is one of the MANY "tasties" we'll be enjoying from this pumpkin!

Yep, that's right, a pumpkin pie. For those of you that know Dan and I, you know we don't care for pumpkin pie. Originally I looked up this recipe to make one for my neighbor as a thank you for the pumpkin. After reading some of the reviews, several people mentioned that they don't normally like pumpkin pie, but really liked this one. So, we made a little "tester" for ourselves, and it was really good! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-19T00:42:00.003-06:00

If you missed the kids' Thanksgiving Day post in their blog, check it out with the link on the side of this page. Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Tell us what you're thankful for. Here's a family craft:

And on a side note, I took this for something else, but it's a macro shot of some the grass in the bottom right side of the picture above. I thought it was kind of neat looking.

CheeseQs and Caterpillars???

2010-11-07T09:31:00.006-06:00

This is the CheeseQ, a wonderful little cheeseburger/BBQ crossover that was introduced to me in Wynne, AR, at a little restaurant called Wait's, which is, sadly, no longer in service. My wonderful parents brought me some Corky's smoked pulled pork, which we had for dinner last night, so today, we had hamburgers, and I made a CheeseQ. What is it exactly? You start with the bottom of your hamburger bun. Put down the all beef patty; cover it with cheese (American if you can get it; ours is similar to that.) Next comes the fun part. Top it with a generous helping of smoked pulled pork shoulder, coleslaw, barbecue sauce, and mustard. Then put the top bun back on. Very very good.

And on another note. Tami had lettuce on her cheeseburger. Then she had a cheeseburger wrapped in lettuce instead of on a bun. Then we looked over on the kitchen counter and saw this little guy on the lettuce.

She almost threw up.

Autumn Crafts...

2010-10-28T10:55:00.004-05:00

Here's our latest fall project. Can you tell which one of our kids is getting old enough to glue his own pieces?

Disney on Ice

2010-10-08T12:22:00.003-05:00

Last night we got to take the older kids to see Disney on Ice! It was great! As Zeke said on the way home, "We had a lot of fun on our family date today!" Both the kids loved it, clapping along at some of the parts. Zeke started ice skating lessons last Monday. I asked him if he was going to learn to do spins like the characters were doing. He said maybe when he's an adult. We both agreed that maybe he should just learn how to stand on the ice for now!

During intermission . . .

Kaiyah's favorite part was Donald Duck. The "bad guys" took Donald and Minnie Mouse. Kaiyah kept asking, "Where Donald go?"

Geocaching again!!!

2010-09-30T13:01:00.003-05:00

Well, it seems that the last few posts have dealt with geocaching, but geocaching takes us to some really neat places. Today's journey was to an old castle, not well-known to tourists, on the outskirts of Istanbul, where the Black Sea meets the Bosphorus straight. It was a really nice day for it, though slightly chilly. It took us about an hour to get out there and about an hour and a half to get back, as we hit rush hour on the way home. Definitely worth the drive, though. It was a great site. Here are some pictures. More are here.

Shooting a Videoer...

2010-08-22T22:07:00.003-05:00

The other day, I was meeting friend and we found ourselves on a really crowded street at a conference with the local national basketball team. I was taking pictures, and got a few, but I really like this one. He saw me taking his picture, so he decided to take my video. (-:

And while we're on the topic of taking pictures, I took these out our living room window over the last couple of days. We've had some cool clouds hanging around.

Geocaching Adventures...

2010-08-20T07:04:00.005-05:00

We had quite an adventure on this one, from locking ourselves out of the house on the way out, to driving the wrong way up a steep hill where we couldn't turn around, to breaking a side mirror off backing down the steep hill, but it was a fun trip and a great cache! We took the whole family and a friend with us on this one. We took a couple of toys for Zeke and Kaiyah and put in a doggy and a coin. We also exchanged some trackable stuff. Fun times. TFTC! Enjoy the pictures:

Zeke and Kaiyah at the Cache Site

The Whole Family

Catie with the Cache

In and Out

The View from a Cafe near the SiteWhere We ParkedWhat We had to Back Down
Why We Didn't Want to Back Down the HillDuct Tape to the Rescue!All Fixed Up

TFTC...

2010-07-28T12:40:00.003-05:00

...means Thanks For The Cache...

Zeke and Dan have a new hobby. It's geocaching. If you don't know about it and you have a GPS that does coordinates, go to www.geocaching.com and check it out. People hide little things around the world and you go and find them using global coordinates. There are even quite a few where we live. The boys (and Kaiyah, though she wasn't as excited about it as Zeke) went today and found two of them. Both were just a little camera film case with a list inside to sign. It was fun and to Zeke, it's as if he's treasure hunting. Here are a couple of pictures from today's outing...

Zeke holding the list.

A few other things that were inside the container, along with my dirty hand.

Date Night

2010-07-23T11:08:00.004-05:00

While Renee was here, she offered to keep the kids and let Dan and I go out for the evening. We had a great time! We went and walked (briefly, it was really hot) along the boardwalk by the sea. Yes, we're pretty cool with our shadow art.We walked through a little park beside the sea in an area we had never been to before. They had all these leaning trees. We're not sure why they were leaning, but it made for a good photo op.Then we headed to a mall we hadn't been to before and ate dinner.
We got a 3 minute massage in one of the massage chairs sitting around the mall.
Then we ended the evening watching "Knight and Day". We both enjoyed it. During the night Dan mentioned that when they were young, his parents would go on a date ever month on the day of their anniversary. We realized that it was the 15th of the month which is our anniversary. It's sometimes hard to get away on a date when you have 3 little kids and live a million miles away from free babysitters in the form of Grandparents. We just may have to adopt this tradition to make sure too much time doesn't pass before we have another one of these nights!

Toilet Paper

2010-07-16T01:56:00.002-05:00

We needed toilet paper the other day and Dan came home with this:

I'm so proud :)

Introducing Sierra

2010-07-10T06:08:00.003-05:00

We have a bad case of the 3rd child over here. Sierra turned 3 weeks old on Friday and we've yet to post a blog about her! So, allow me to introduce Sierra Nicole! She is a precious baby and we have loved every minute over these past few weeks. When she cries, you know there is a problem. She's an amazing sleeper. Since birth she has frequently slept 5 hours at a time at night. Last night she went 7 hours. There is something to be said for having a big baby! She is very laid back. Loves to be held and cuddled, but is fine just laying in her bed looking around. Zeke and Kaiyah love her. They've both been sick this week and have been very sad that they haven't been allowed to kiss and love on her as much. We're so thankful to God for blessing our family with our sweet baby girl.

Current Happenings . . .

2010-06-11T23:24:00.002-05:00

Tami is now the most pregnant she has ever been, and not all that appreciative of the experience. At our last doctor's appointment (on Thursday) the doctor indicated that he is planning to deliver the baby this coming week. No day was mentioned, but Tami's mom gets here Thursday morning, so we're thinking if Sierra doesn't choose to come before then, Friday morning might be a good day to have a baby. On a side note, if she is born on Friday, she'll share a birthday with her cousin Averi!

Dan is enjoying the world cup. He has a friend coming over to watch the USA vs. England game tonight. He has been having a friendly banter about the game with a British guy who's villa we are renting in September for our FIRST REAL family vacation! We've taken several 1-2 night trips before, and of course trips to visit family which we love, but we've never just gotten away for an entire week! We're pretty excited. This place is a 4 bedroom villa with a BBQ grill (which is a real treat for us). There is a big swimming pool, plus 3 different beaches all close by. Also, we'll only be 30 minutes from Ephesus which Tami and the kids have still never been to! Very exciting!

The kids are doing great. Last night they were watching TV together and Tami looked over to see Zeke laying there stroking Kaiyah's hair. Too sweet. Hopefully a little video clip will follow sometime soon. Also the other day Dan took the kids to the park and for ice cream. Kaiyah ended up dropping her ice cream on the ground and started to cry. Zeke said, "Don't cry Kaiyah, you can share mine." We love this sibling relationship and pray that the addition of Sierra will just continue to strengthen this.

Shower

2010-06-07T14:24:00.002-05:00

Last week some sweet friends threw a surprise baby shower for Sierra. With it being a surprise, I didn't have my camera, but some of the others at the shower took a couple of pictures. Even though we don't need a lot with still having all of Kaiyah's things to use, it was really nice just to have a little celebration of this sweet baby's up-and-coming birth! Plus, they made a diaper cake. I've never had a diaper cake and I think they are pretty cool!

Thank goodness for technology . . .

2010-06-04T06:14:00.002-05:00

At the end of your pregnancy here you do these test to monitor if you're having contractions and how the baby is handling them (or at least that is what we think they monitor!). Anyways, you have to be strapped to a machine for 20 minutes, so we've been allowing the kids to watch their cartoons on our ipods. This is a picture from Tuesday's appointment. Today we only had one ipod with us so they shared. It was cute and Dan took a picture, but, alas, his camera is out with him today! Tuesday I was apparently having regular, light contractions. Today there was nothing. So, I guess we wait a little longer . . .

Misadventures

2010-05-04T05:53:00.002-05:00

We don't tend to be a family full of excitement and misadventure, but we seem to have gotten our fair share in the past 24 hours. Tami was getting ready to head out the door to meet some friends when there was a shriek from Kaiyah in the back room. In the midst of the crying we heard Zeke say, "I'm so sorry Kaiyah." 2 seconds later we hear Zeke began to cry hysterically. Dan ran to the back room and quickly started yelling for Tami. Zeke had sprayed an air freshener first into Kaiyah's eyes and then into his own. We quickly rinsed their eyes out with water, and all seems to be okay.

Tami went on to her friend's home. This particular friend lives on the 12th floor of an apartment building. 5 ladies jumped in the elevator to head to lunch. 3 of the ladies are as pregnant as Tami. Some how, the elevator broke on the way down. They aren't sure how far they actually fell, as it all happened quickly, but they landed somewhere between the 2nd and 1st floor. After being stuck there for a few minutes, someone came to the rescue and helped them crawl out of the elevator. Everyone was fine, just some stiff necks and sore backs and a little shaky from the experience.

THEN, Kaiyah was jumping on the trampoline and fell off and hit her head on the radiator. There was a huge bump that immediately appeared on the back of her head. We kept her up from her nap for an hour and she appears to be okay. Hopefully the next 24 hours will be a little more peaceful.

Children's Day Parade

2010-05-04T05:40:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago they celebrated Children's Day here. All the school kids get a day off school, many of the shops hand out little treats to the kids, and there are parades all over the city. Early that morning, our neighbors came by and asked if we wanted to go with them to a parade. 20 minutes later we were on our way. We got there about 30 minutes after the parade was supposed to start. There were many different groups of school children standing on the stadium field waiting to perform. An hour later, they finally started marching around the outside of the field. Our neighbor turned to us and said, "It's all the same, are you ready to leave!" Zeke wasn't so ready to leave, since there was finally something to watch, but lunch and playing at a park quickly made up for it!

Play Place

2010-05-04T05:34:00.002-05:00

This is blog catch up time. Several weeks ago, some friends invited us to go to this play place they had found out about. It's across the bridge, so not very close to where we live, but the kids had a great time. We'll have to make the trek out there from time to time.

Warm Weather Fun

2010-04-17T09:26:00.005-05:00

Spring is finally here . . . we think. The weather has tricked us several times already, but yesterday we were able to get out and enjoy the sunshine at a park with some beautiful flowers! We thought we were going to have the park to ourselves, but about the time we all climbed out of the car, bus after bus of school children showed up to have a picnic! We still had a good time, Zeke and Kaiyah just got a little more help on the playground then they would have preferred!

Easter...

2010-04-07T05:59:00.003-05:00

Well, it's a little later than promised, but it's here. If you missed the kids getting ready video on their blog, be sure to check it out.

We had a fun Easter Day. We went to church for a Sunrise Service at 7:30, followed by breakfast, following, followed by a 9:30 worship service, followed by an Easter Egg hunt for the kids, followed by lunch, followed by an Easter egg hunt at home.

It was a busy day, but lots of fun.

Here are a couple of pictures. To see more, including one of a cat attacking Kaiyah, click here.

Date Night

2010-03-28T10:34:00.002-05:00

Well, currently Dan and Kaiyah have very bad colds, and Zeke is starting to sound like he has one coming on. I'm doing my best not to catch it. However, yesterday we had already arranged to have some girls come and babysit the kids so that we could go on a date. Because dates are so few and far between, my husband was a trooper and didn't back out on me. We went to Chili's to eat and then had written down the name of a nearby movie theater that had a movie we were interested in seeing. The movie theater was in an "apartment complex." That should have told us something. The man at the restaurant said it was just around the corner, so we started walking there. A ways down the road we stopped and asked another man, and he said "Oh yes, just 200 meters down the road." So on we walked. Eventually we asked another man who said "Oh, just 300 meters down the road." Ha! When we discovered the apartment complex we immediately guessed the movie tickets would be more than we cared to pay for them! The fact that there was a grocery store, starbucks, spa etc. confirmed this all for us. So, we decided to just catch a random bus instead and see where we ended up. It actually took us to a familiar area of town where we went into a nice coffee house and ordered "Hot chocolate with a stick" thinking it would be hot chocolate with a cookie or something sticking out of it. Instead, they brought us a glass of luke-warm milk (they forgot about us for awhile, so I think that explains the luke-warm part) with a chunk of chocolate on the end of a plastic stick. We had to stir our stick around until the chocolate melted creating hot chocolate! It was fun just for the experience, but probably not good enough to order again! Anyways, we had a fun time, and are thankful to once again find a couple of girls that our kids love to hang out with!

Sierra (26 weeks)

2010-03-22T06:53:00.005-05:00

I went for my glucose test today. I will find out the results of that tomorrow. But, we actually got to see sweet Sierra's little face. Zeke, was of course all questions, wondering what every button on the machine did and how it all worked. Kaiyah spent her time trying to distract Daddy from that other baby by rubbing her nose against his and trying to play games with him. Sierra, slept blissfully through the whole experience. When we first started looking at her she had both hands AND feet up in front of her face. By the end, she was holding on to her umbilical cord for dear life! Haha. We are at 26 weeks, but she is currently measuring around 28 weeks, so maybe we will be blessed by another early arrival. She weighed in at 1126 grams (around 2.5 pounds)! We hope you enjoy seeing this sweet little face as much as we did!

Sierra Nicole

2010-02-27T08:29:00.004-06:00

Yes, that is what we've decided to name baby #3. Since naming her, we have heard of two others named Sierra Nicole, but no other name has really grabbed our attention, so I guess there will be at least three of them in this world!

We had a doctor visit today. This was the first one we took the kids to. I'm not sure how impressed they were with the ultrasound of their baby sister, but they definitely appreciated the chocolate the doctor gave them following the visit! We have a couple of pictures to share with you. They aren't all that great, but at least they are of body parts appropriate to ooh and aah about. She appears to have the same nose as Zeke and Kaiyah do! We are excited! Just 16 more weeks or so . . . .(Profile)
(hand)

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-15T02:22:00.004-06:00

We have a Valentine's tradition two years running of eating fondue, both cheese and chocolate. This year it was very very good. Before fondue, though, we started the morning with some pink Valentine's Day biscuits. They were quite good, and though we were a little afraid they would taste like food coloring, they really didn't. Here are some pictures from our day.

Baby #3

2010-02-09T08:37:00.003-06:00

Baby #3 has gotten little time in the blogging world. There are several reasons for this. One, when you have a 3 year old and a 1 year old, you just don't have as much time to dream and plan for child number 3. Second, when you live in 130 sq. ft. apartment, you don't have the space to dream and plan for child number 3. Third, when she has a sister exactly 2 years older, there is no NEED to plan for child number 3. And fourthly, we are finding we were extremely spoiled with all the ultrasound pictures we got with Kaiyah. With this baby, we've been given two ultrasound pictures. One of a limb of some sort. Another, a picture of her tooshy. Neither picture inspire a blog post for all the world to see. However, being almost 21 weeks, this little one has started to make her presence known. She is moving around a lot, and she frequently has hiccups. I think the more I feel her, the more I have started to dream about what she is going to be like and look like. It's always exciting to bring a new little one into the world and discover their special gifts and personalities.

Although we don't need to buy hardly anything for this little one, I did indulge in one purchase based on the recommendation of a friend. We are often on the go, and with a crowded house, nap times are likely to occur in various locations. We have a portacrib, but let's be real. Portacribs are only seriously portable for the middle class American that has the luxury of driving wherever they go. For those of us who take trams and buses and mini buses to get where we go, dragging a portacrib with you is out of the question. So, we purchased something called a peapod baby sleep tent. We just received it this week, so the kids and I decided to open it up and check it out. It's nice and compact folded up, but man, I was not prepared for how big it was when we opened it up! Nor was Kaiyah prepared for the knock in the face she got when it sprung open. Oops. Anyways, has anyone out there used on of these before? I am looking forward to seeing how useful it really ends up being!

(Folded up in it's case. Includes an inflatable mattress as well as a pump)
(Opened up and ready for use. Two willing kids to test it out!)(The excited siblings wearing their cute BIG brother/BIG sister jammies!)

Happy Birthday Dan!

2010-01-22T12:16:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow is Dan's birthday! Months before I ever met Dan, his family had been telling me all about him. I, naturally, thought there would never be anything to it since he lived in Brazil and I lived in Oklahoma. The very first time I ever saw Dan I remember thinking to myself, "Well, if anything were to ever happen, it would have to be God." A little over 4 years into marriage, I still feel that way. I feel so lucky and blessed to have such an amazing husband to share life with day-in and day-out. God truly does give us far more then we could ever ask or imagine. It's been 4 and a half years since Dan asked me to marry him. In those 4 and a half years, we planned a wedding, got married, Dan finished school, we changed jobs, moved overseas, studied two languages, and have 2 kids with the 3rd on the way. If you look at any list of high stress factors, I think we've probably got the majority of them covered. They say that who you really are comes out in stressful situations. If that is true, then I am here to vouch that either my husband doesn't get stressed at all (which I think is probably partially true) or he is just an amazing person who is equally great during all seasons of life (which I know is true). I've learned a lot from being married to Dan. He is the type of guy who doesn't try to lead by asserting his role as husband, but just by living how he knows he is supposed to live. There are many situations where his example has pricked my conscience pretty deep. There are two things that really stand out to me that I have seen continually in Dan's life, and have learned from. The first is a humble spirit. I don't think I've met anyone more humble then my husband. What Dan does with his life is never about getting the acclamation or praise for it, but always out of a genuine love for others and desire to serve them. Dan is also so generous and giving. As middle class Americans, it's hard to ever truly give sacrificially. But I have learned a lot from Dan in this area. I am so thankful for my sweet husband! Happy Birthday Dan!

Peanuts . . .

2010-01-22T07:03:00.002-06:00

So, for most of my adult life I have had frequent headaches. My mom has always had a lot of headaches as well, and claims that they are sinus headaches, so I just assumed that mine were the same. Recently, however, I was talking to a friend who knows a lot about migraines and she mentioned that many migraines are caused by certain foods. There is a big, long list of foods that sometimes cause headaches, and different people react differently, so she started naming off some of the foods. Well, peanuts/peanut butter was high on her list. For those of you who know me very well, you know I love peanut butter. My friend suggested I write a cookbook entitled 101 ways to use peanut butter. I like the idea! Anyways, I eat peanut butter in some form almost every day. So, about a month ago I started an experiment. I stopped eating peanut butter. The first 2 weeks I still had headaches on occasion, but during the last two weeks I didn't have a single headache! That is a miracle for me. On Wednesdays I help cook food for folks that don't have a lot. We have a lot of Africans that come, so this past Wednesday I made an African dish that is made out of peanut butter. Umm, ummm good! 24 hours later I had my first headache in 2 weeks. Crazy. Well, I just thought it was all very interesting, and if any of you out there suffer from headaches, you should scan the internet and see if some of the foods you eat on a regular basis are known to cause them!

Along the same topic . . . living overseas has inspired me to try making many things at home that I would not otherwise try. My kids are following in my shoes, and love peanut butter. This week for the first time I made peanut butter. It's so easy. It's so much healthier then the sugary stuff we have to buy here. AND, for around $2.00 I made the same amount that I would pay $6.00 or more for in the store! I think I would have to add a cup of sugar to it for Dan to eat it, but Zeke seems to like it just fine!

Scenes from our life

2009-12-30T01:21:00.002-06:00

It is very easy to take life and all the sights and sounds around you for granted. We've lived here just over 2 years now, and things feel so normal that we don't always stop to take in what we're seeing. I was looking through some of Dan's photography and thought I would post a few pictures of the things we see on a regular basis.This is the view from our balcony. Dan took this picture a few mornings ago. It is pretty crazy how many people and homes this picture represents.

This guy is roasting and selling chestnuts. This is VERY common this time of year. Dan and I personally think there is a reason the song only talks about roasting chestnuts and not eating them, but some family members have tried them during their visits and said they liked them.

We cross this bridge many times a week, and it is almost always filled with men fishing for sardines.

Anyways, these are just a few sights we experience on a regular basis. Maybe I'll try to post stuff like this more regularly.

White Christmas Eve Eve Eve...

2009-12-25T03:24:00.005-06:00

No, it's not snowing here, but Tuesday we drove up to the top of a mountain about 2 1/2 hours away from us to play in the snow. The snow came the day before we got there and it was starting to melt the day we were leaving. (We stayed one night.) We had a lot of fun. The hotel we stayed in had a swimming pool, too, so the kids got to swim some and really had a lot of fun. Here are a few of pictures. You can see the rest here.

The kids liked being pulled on the sled we borrowed the second day there.Tami and I had more fun riding it. The kids liked that, too.Zeke managed to swim the whole length of the pool by himself. Such a big boy!Tami doesn't care for the swim cap pics (the caps were required), but I wanted to show off Kaiyah's new trick she learned and loved.Here's Tami minus the swim cap. She's so pretty!Here's the second day snowman, all finished.
The first day, it was really cold and the snow was really powdery, but the second day was a little warmer and the snow a little wetter, and the snow stuck together a lot better. You can tell by our snowmen.
This is the view from our hotel window at sunset. It was a beautiful place.

Thanks for looking. Don't forget to look at the rest of the pictures.

Photography website

2009-12-07T12:23:00.001-06:00

Dan's new photography website is now up and running. Check it out at: www.danleycphotography.com

What we've been up to . . .

2009-10-07T10:44:00.004-05:00

It has been awhile since we've posted on this blog, so we thought we would just put up a few pictures to let you see some of the things that we have been up to lately. Most recently, Tami's brother and his family came through for a little vacation. We didn't get a lot of time with them, but really enjoyed the time we did have together. Becky's parents came as well, and it was great to see them once again after about 12 years.
Kaiyah is into EVERYTHING. Everything includes the kitchen drawers, book shelves, pans of oil sitting on the stove (thankfully it was cold). . . Currently she has hidden her one and only sippy cup, which is the one and only sippy cup because she has also lost the previous however many we've bought her. We have calculated that we could have bought a fine set of China for the amount of money we've spent on drink devices for this child. Sippy cups cost around $10 here. The one that is lost we had to pay $15 for because we happen to be in a ritzy area on town.

Zeke loves to do "school." School includes tracing, cutting, coloring, drawing . . . he loves it all, although he thinks it's far better if mom is sitting there doing it as well. Zeke seems to be understanding more and more of the language here, although he isn't willing to admit it. Recently we ran in our local bakery to buy some water. The man asked Tami if she wanted 2 loaves of bread (our normal purchase). Tami said no, she just wanted the bottle of water. The man said "That is 50 cents." Zeke said, "What did that man say?" Tami said "He said it is 50 cents." Zeke said, "That man said we want bread!" Another day we ran out and Tami realized she's left her wallet inside. When we came back in, the man who guards our building asked Zeke, "What happened?" Zeke responded in English, "Mommy left her wallet."
Tami has been busy with all things a mom stays busy with. Language learning has been slow lately, but hopefully that will start back after our little vacation (4 days away!).

Dan has been busy building his photography portfolio, producing amazing picture such as this:

and this . . .
as well as continuing hard with language and the rest of life.

We are so excited to get to see many of you in a few short days!!!!

Final Sweet Potato Update

2009-09-06T09:10:00.005-05:00

So, the sweet potato plant kept producing yellow leaves, and we had read that when the leaves started turning yellow you should dig the plant up. However, it had only been about 3 1/2 months, and we had also read that they need a 4-5 month growing season. But, tired of the extra bugs that seem to have invaded our house, we dug up the plants yesterday. Our upstairs neighbors hung out their window, asking what we were doing, wondering why we were destroying a beautiful plant! Ha. Well unfortunately, the produce wasn't much to brag to them about. Hee hee. Yes, this was the ENTIRE crop!!!! We're not thinking another month or two would have done much to help our sweet potato cause! But, as any good sweet potato grower would do, we took what we had and made some delicious sweet potato chips!

Sorry friends that live around here. I don't think we'll be signing up to bring the Thanksgiving sweet potato pie this year :)

Fun with Fred...

2009-08-31T02:52:00.004-05:00

My brother, Fred, came to visit last week and we had lots of fun. He came with two friends of his, and we went to Cappadocia for 5 days or so. Sadly, after the trip, I realized that of 1000 pictures or so, I only had a couple with Fred. I had a bunch of just Fred, though, so maybe that'll make up for it. We'll have to take lots when we're there in November. Anyway, Fred, I had lots of fun. I love you very much and miss you already. Below are a couple of pictures. If you want to see a lot more, click here.

Dolphin Show and Water Park!!!

2009-08-12T13:23:00.005-05:00

We got the opportunity to go to a water park yesterday that had a dolphin/sea lion show at it. The kids loved the park and Zeke liked the dolphin. He didn't care for the sea lion, though. Kaiyah didn't care for either of them. Here are a few pictures. If you want to see the rest of the Dolphin Show pictures, click here.

Watching the show.

Kaiyah wasn't a fan.

Zeke watches curiously.

The sea lion was quite big.

The dolphin did cool tricks. For more of his tricks, click here.

Evening Fun...

2009-08-06T01:04:00.007-05:00

This past week a friend told us about a sand beach about a 15 or 20 minute drive from our house that we had never heard of. Last night we decided to take a little drive and see if we could find it. It may become one of our favorite evening activities.The sand itself was full of little shells, so maybe not the best for building sand castles. But it sure was fun to walk around, play on the play ground, climb on the rocks and enjoy the beautiful sunset!

(This may be the first picture we have of Zeke and Kaiyah where they are both smiling at the same time!)

Oh, and did we mention the up-close-and-personal view we had of airplanes landing!

A Weekend Away...

2009-07-28T14:04:00.003-05:00

We had the chance to get away for a couple of days over the weekend to a small beach town on the edge of our city. Here are a couple of pictures. Click here to see them all.

Business Proposition...

2009-07-05T14:08:00.005-05:00

Since coming here we've been intrigued by a certain common business practice, often performed by children, but as you can see, not necessarily. People sit on the sides of the streets with a set of bathroom scales. Their customers will then give them money in order to weigh themselves. We have yet to see the number on the scale being kept a private affair. Typically everyone gathers around to see how much the person weighs!

We would be curious for someone to try this in the States and let us know how it goes!

4th of July Fun!

2009-07-03T23:37:00.006-05:00

Yesterday we went with some friends just outside of town to enjoy an afternoon of swimming, running, eating, visiting . . . all the fun stuff you are supposed to do to celebrate the 4th of July! We had a great time.

Dan participated in a two mile run.

Zeke LOVED getting to swim. We were afraid he wouldn't this year since it has been awhile since we've gone. But, after he had been in a few minutes, he quickly warmed up to it. He shivered most of the day, and we kept asking him if he wanted to get out to warm up. He always replied, "I'm not cold! I want to keep swimming!"

Kaiyah, on the other hand, was not a fan of the experience. Both times we took her in, she dealt with her dislike by curling up to mommy and going to sleep!

Sun bathing by the side of the pool, however, was right up her alley!

Yummy oreos brought over from the States.

And last, but not least, what is a 4th of July celebration without a slice of watermelon?!

One month pictures . . .

2009-06-18T02:41:00.003-05:00

of our sweet potato plant!!!

Summer Fun

2009-06-17T13:22:00.005-05:00

We won't be going on a big vacation this summer since we are planning to take vacation time to go to the States in the fall, but we thought it would be fun to just do some small things around town. Today we went down to ride some rides at a place about 10 minutes from our house. Zeke had a blast!

Camping...

2009-05-29T00:02:00.004-05:00

We got to go on a camping trip last weekend at a little town outside of our city. It was both kids' first time to sleep in a tent. They really enjoyed it. The first night, Kaiyah, crawled all over the tent, we think, because she's used to sleeping in a bed with sides and she couldn't find the sides of the tent. The second night, she was really tired and slept all night long. We hardly saw Zeke all weekend. Every time we turned around, he would say, "I'm going to find my friends," and he was off. He attached himself to a group of 5 or 6 little girls, ranging in age from 6 to 11 years old. It was really cute. Here are a couple of pictures. Dan also acted as the camp photographer and you can see those pictures if you click here.

Sweet Potato Garden

2009-05-18T03:49:00.004-05:00

Since moving here, my taste buds have been deprived of the wonderful taste of a sweet potato. However, last October my brother and sister-in-law gave me some sweet potatos from their garden and I've been waiting excitedly for warm weather to get here so I could try my hand at growing some. A green thumb I don't have, so we will see how this attempt turns out. I'll keep you posted! Here is a picture of stage 1!!! Any advice is welcomed!

A Near Fall...

2009-05-16T15:11:00.004-05:00

What do you get when you're thirty years old and use your shin to stop you from falling off the jungle gym at the local playground?

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A big bruise!

Happy Birthday, Tami!!!!!!!!!

2009-05-12T00:36:00.003-05:00

Thirty-one years ago today, God blessed me in a way that I wouldn't even find out until over 25 years later. On that day, Ron and Anita Hunt gave birth to a baby girl in Tulsa, OK. They named her Tamara and called her Tami for short. Twenty-three years later, after living all over the world, God brought Ron and Anita to Memphis, TN, where Tami and I eventually came together. I thank God every day for His wisdom and His timing. Tami, I thank God every day for having given you to me. I am thankful for each year of your life and I hope for many, many more. I love you bunches. Happy Birthday!Tami at about Kaiyah's age.

Tami now. (Just as pretty, if not more so.)

Tami's birthday breakfast.

Cappadocia!!!

2009-05-02T08:52:00.002-05:00

We got to go to Cappadocia last week and had lots of fun and saw lots of neat things. Here are a couple of pictures. You can see a whole lot more here and here.

Easter Fun!

2009-04-13T00:28:00.004-05:00

Well, we have had a full and fun week celebrating Easter! It started with about 20 of our friends coming over on Palm Sunday for a yummy ham dinner. During the week leading up to Easter we got to read stories with Zeke to help him understand the reason we celebrate Easter. On Saturday we had a day filled with making Easter cookies, hunting for Easter eggs and even having a couple of kids from our apartment complex over to dye Easter eggs with us! Sunday morning we were up early and went to a special Sunrise service. Zeke was SOOO excited to wear his Easter suit and new shoes. However, the first thing he said when he put his shoes on was, "These hard to walk in Mommy. These aren't very comfy Mommy." Ha! Welcome to the world of Easter shoes! It was so cold outside, and of course, we forgot jackets. People kept offering Zeke their coats, and he kept saying "I don't want that." He was too proud of his suit to cover it up! I'm afraid we may have created a yearly "New Suit" tradition! After the service, we headed to a beautiful park, which would have been more enjoyable with some warmer weather, but was fun none-the-less. After that we went for a special treat at Dunkin Donuts! Yummy. And then spent the afternoon eating a delicious meal and enjoying fun company at some friends' home! It was a good celebration!

For more pictures, click here.

Pick a color, any color...

2009-03-30T09:08:00.003-05:00

So, we got home the other day and the front wall of our lobby was painted 5 different colors. They asked us which color we wanted for the building (apparently they're repainting). We just thought that was a truly democratic way to go about it. Which color would you pick?

Lee and Tori are gone... :-(

2009-03-17T15:58:00.002-05:00

Well, we had lots of fun with Lee and Tori while they were here. We feel blessed that they would come and spend time with us. During their stay, I found out that Tori is a lot more like me than I ever knew, even as we grew up together. Tori, I love you lots and already can't wait to see you again. Lee, I can't think of anyone else that I would rather see with Tori than you. It's been fun hanging out this past week, as we haven't had much chance to do that up to now. Here is a link to the rest of the photos from our week together. If you missed the first set, check the post below. Enjoy.

Tori and Lee are here!!!!!

2009-03-10T04:38:00.004-05:00

And we're having lots of fun! Tori and Lee got in Sunday afternoon, and we've been having fun since, seeing the sights, playing with the kids, playing Wii, and so much more. Lee and Dan even shared a sheep intestine sandwich. Here are a few pictures. For more, click here.

A Week of Sickness . . .

2009-03-04T06:45:00.006-06:00

It all began last Thursday when Dan reached down to pick up Kaiyah, realizing only as he rose up that he could no longer stand or turn in any direction without being having a great pain in his lower back. So, off he went to the hospital, a two minute walk from our house, where he was diagnosed in a language that we didn't understand and thus can't tell you exactly what he had. But we do know that his vertebrae where sitting on top of each other in his x-ray, without the nice little cushion of gelly fluid stuff that is supposed to be there. He was given some medicine to try for a few days, and when that seem to make minimal improvement to his situation, he was put on a regiment of daily physical therapy for 15 to 20 days.

Meanwhile, Sunday rolls around and Kaiyah starts running a fever. We just assumed it was due to teething. Four of her upper teeth look like they are making their way down, some further along than others. And thus, we got pictures like this:

and this . . .

Finally, it seems like she just might be on the mend. Tuesday night she went to sleep and it seemed like there just might be some sleep in store for the rest of us as well . . . until Zeke woke up at 4:30 in the morning running a fever of 103 degrees, producing pictures like this . . .

Hopefully he will be on the mend quickly and ready for the 3 weeks of company we have coming, starting with Uncle Lee and Aunt Tori arriving this Sunday!

Bye Bye Zach and Elizabeth...

2009-02-20T18:41:00.003-06:00

I remember sitting around last Saturday night thinking, 'We've got a whole week and it's just the first day. This is going to be so much fun!' Now, it's 2:40 a.m. and Zach and Elizabeth are getting ready to head to the airport to fly back to Memphis and I was right. We had a lot of fun this week and we'll miss them a lot when they go back. As her big brother, I feel very happy to see the way she has matured into adulthood, and to see how well Zach treats her and makes her happy. It makes me proud to see the way they love each other in a type of love that comes from God. Anyway, I'm proud to call Elizabeth my sister and Zach my brother-in-law. Here are a couple of pictures from our time together. You can see a lot more on Elizabeth's blog or her photography blog. You can also click here to see a photo album.

Zach and ElizabethSome of Elizabeth's photography skills.
Brother and sister.

Daddy's New Blanket...

2009-02-15T13:15:00.004-06:00

You all know the blanket saga, so awhile back, we were looking for a blanket like ours online, but we didn't know what it was called, so our search was unsuccessful, until one day, when Kaiyah was wearing a new knit sweater of hers, and Dan said, "Hey, this feels like my blanket, so maybe we should look for a knit blanket." So we did, and we found lots of options, and they all looked like the blanket that Dan, Zeke and Kaiyah always argue over, so we finally found one that was king size on Overstock.com for only $30 and free shipping, so we got and now it's here, but neither Dan, Zeke, nor Kaiyah are using it. Apparently the love of blankets runs in Dan's family. (That's Dan's sister, Elizabeth, in the picture.)

Happy Valentine's Day! Part Two...

2009-02-14T14:55:00.004-06:00

Zach and Elizabeth got here, and we're having lots of fun! They got here mid-afternoon and played hard until they went to bed a little bit ago. Zeke played Play-Doh and colored. Kaiyah crawls all over, going all the things brought from the states. The grown-ups also had a fun time playing on the Wii. For dinner, we had cheese fondue and chocolate fondue for dessert (an idea we stole from a friend of ours). Dan's sister being a photographer and all, we'll have lots more pictures before the end of next week. When we get them organized, we'll post a link to an album.Zeke having fun with Play-Doh.The cheese fondue with meat, potatoes, bread, and brocolli.
The chocolate fondue with pound cake, bananas, apples, and marshmallows.Zeke liked the chocolate fondue.So did Dan.

Happy Valentine's Day! Part One...

2009-02-14T02:14:00.002-06:00

We started celebrating Valentine's Day already with a heart-shaped pancake breakfast. You can see from the picture that Kaiyah really enjoyed it. What you don't see in the picture is Zeke to the left saying, "I want my pancake back!" He liked them, too. It was a really good breakfast, but we haven't really even begun to celebrate yet. This afternoon, Dan's sister, Elizabeth and her husband, Zach, are coming in for a visit, so we'll have a lot more pictures to post from the rest of our Valentine's Day. In the meantime, may yours be filled with love for your families and your faith.

On a side note, if you've never read about St. Valentine, I encourage you to check out this article.

Thievery and Kidnapping...

2009-01-28T13:39:00.004-06:00

Not really. We did have a bit of excitement in our evening, though. First, though, we never blogged about this, so for those of you who remember the double stroller story, Dan tried to nurse that stroller back to health because he liked the idea of it, but we never could get it to be very user friendly, so we broke down and bought a new one. It went about a trip and a half before one of it's back wheels came off the rim. But alas, a little drilling and a few screws and bolts later, it's just like new, except the ride is a little bumpier. Anyway, that's not the point of this story. And none of that has anything to do with our exciting evening. Here goes...

We were coming home from our friends' house where we had dinner, when upon arrival, Dan noticed that the aforementioned double stroller was missing. (We, like all our neighbors who have strollers, keep it outside our front door.) We were quite sure that no one would steal the thing, but we weren't really sure about any other explanations. Maybe the guy that picks up trash took it down to the trash, not realizing that it wasn't intended to be trash. That didn't seem likely, though, since it sits there day after day, so maybe someone actually stole a baby stroller. Our neighbors' was still there, but Dan decided to go downstairs to talk to the door man to make further inquiries of him.

Upon arrival to the lobby, Dan got a phone call from a frantic Tami, who said, "Is Zeke with you?!" Dan told her he wasn't, and Tami said that he wasn't in the house. Dan thinks that surely he couldn't have gone that far in a matter minutes from the fifth floor of a guarded apartment complex. Nonetheless, Dan told Tami he'd be there right away and got back in the elevator and went upstairs. As he went up, he was thinking up some elaborate plan where one of our neighbors stole our stroller as part of some elaborate plot to kidnap our son. Dan watches too many movies.

When he got out of the elevator, he was met by Tami, who was searching the hallway and the stairwell for our beloved son. Dan asked if the front door was open, as he was fairly certain that he had closed it behind him. Tami said that it was closed, but wondered if he could have sneaked out behind Dan. (Our door takes quite of bit of force to close it all the way, something which Zeke couldn't have done on his own.)

Dan was fairly sure that Zeke was still somewhere in the house, so he went in and began to look around. Tami followed and went back to his bedroom, where at last, she found him in his bed, blanket clutched tightly to his cheek, thumb in his mouth. Apparently when Tami was putting Kaiyah to bed, Zeke sneaked in behind her and put himself to bed, never saying good night or anything; just getting in bed and sucking his thumb.

We were both quite relieved at Zeke presence, and even a little impressed that he would put himself to bed, but there was still the matter of the missing stroller. Dan went back downstairs and continued his previously interrupted chat with the door man. The door man said that he would check with the cleaning guy. When he said that, Dan remembered that he had heard the man cleaning the hall earlier in the day. Dan said to the door man, "Ah, o bebek arabasını yangın merdivenlere koymuş, galiba." That means, "Ah, perhaps he put the stroller in the emergency stairs." So Dan went back upstairs for a second, checked the emergency stairs, and sure enough there was the stroller, safe and sound, with its back wheels still bolted on.

Dan went back downstairs and assured the door man that everything was okay and there was nothing to worry about, then headed back upstairs to enjoy an otherwise peaceful evening.

Birthday Presents...

2009-01-24T03:45:00.009-06:00

I had a wonderful birthday yesterday and got some nice presents from the people I love.

The love of my life (Tami) gave me this really nice heavy winter coat, complete with a removable hood. Unfortunately, we seem to have hit a warm streak with temperatures in the 50's this week, but I imagine it will get colder before spring. I hope so, anyway; I really like this coat. (-:
Zeke and Kaiyah gave me a new teapot. Tea concentrate goes on top and water goes on bottom; that way, you can make your tea as strong or as weak as you like it. It's also shiny, so it takes fun pictures.
My parents gave me Mario Kart for the Nintendo Wii. It's lots of fun and has a cool feature that allows you to play against people all over the world through the internet. I played with my brother and his 5 year old son yesterday, and they both beat me badly. Incidentally, if anyone has the game and would like to send us your license number, we would love to play with you.
Tami's parents gave a game called Blokus. It's highly addictive, and I think it's proven to make you smarter, so if you've never played it, you should give it a shot.

Anyway, I feel extremely blessed to have such a wonderful family. I wish for thirty more years (really 60 or so, but 30 for the sake of the metaphor) as wonderful as my first thirty.

A Memphis Evening...

2009-01-17T14:22:00.003-06:00

Well, we're probably going out of town next weekend, so we decided to celebrate Dan's birthday a little early tonight. His mom brought in some Corky's pork ribs, so we decided to have a Memphis birthday party. We turned on the blues music, cooked the ribs, along with some fried pickles, baked beans, french fries, barbecue coleslaw, and some old fashioned dinner rolls. We topped it off with some caramel hot fudge cake and had a really wonderful evening. And then the Memphis Tigers completed the perfect evening with a win over UAB. Go Tigers Go!

If you want to see the rest of our pictures, click here.

An Evening to Ourselves...

2008-12-31T14:07:00.003-06:00

Dan's mom is in town and graciously offered to keep Zeke and Kaiyah for us to go and spend a night away in a nearby hotel. Dan's sister and brother-in-law also gave us a new lens for Christmas and we had a lot of fun playing with it. We had a very good time and here are a few pictures. To see more, click here.

Rainforest Cafe...

2008-12-29T09:59:00.010-06:00

Renee is here for a visit and today we decided to venture over to a mall we've never been to and eat at the RainForest Cafe! We had a great time! The mall was really nice, and they had beautiful "New Year's" decorations up (we would call them Christmas decorations!). The RainForest Cafe was so fun! The first time the lightening flashed, thunder roared and the animals went off Zeke was trembling. But, he soon warmed up to all the fun. Here are some pictures of our day!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-26T01:27:00.004-06:00

We meant to post our Christmas card a few days ago, but forgot. Here it is. Merry Christmas!

Christmas fun!!!

2008-12-26T00:40:00.006-06:00

We had a wonderful Christmas yesterday and wanted to share a little of it with you. We got up and ate cinnamon rolls, read the Christmas story, opened gifts, and played with the gifts. Then, about noon, some friends came over and we ate beef brisket and all the fixings, followed by red-and-green velvet cake, pumpkin roll, and peanut butter chocolate squares. We also managed to get a little card playing in. It was a fun day. While we got to talk briefly with our families in the states and miss them greatly, we are extremely grateful for our children and for our friends on this side of the world. Here are a few pictures from our day.
Zeke exploring his stocking.
Kaiyah liked what was in hers, too.
Zeke opening a present. It's a parking garage!
Kaiyah opening presents, with a little help. She loved playing with the paper. (-:
Reading a new book from Uncle Fred and Aunt Jennifer.
Zeke looking for "the mouse that's about the house."
Playing cards.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

2008-12-10T08:26:00.005-06:00

Christmas is upon us and we're very excited! We have a thing at our friends' house the next couple of days, so we made some Christmas cookies to take. We even selfishly did all the decorating ourselves while Zeke and Kaiyah were napping. We had a lot of fun and were happy with the results.

O Christmas Tree...

2008-11-19T13:52:00.002-06:00

Well, we've decorated for Christmas. Tami likes to get into the holiday spirit as early as possible, so two nights ago, we put on some Christmas music, dug out our tree, and had a holly jolly time decorating. It was fun this year because Zeke has gotten old enough to help hang the ornaments on the tree. He didn't, however, understand that they didn't all have to go on the same branch. Here are a few pictures from our evening.

Zeke putting on an ornament.

Another angle.

Zeke picking up an ornament after his branch wouldn't hold anymore.

A closeup of Zeke's branch.

The finished product.

Fall!!!

2008-11-02T07:35:00.005-06:00

I, Tami, LOVE this time of year. Christmas is definitely my favorite holiday. I love the fall because it means Christmas is almost here! I love the weather, I love the clothes, I love the food (minus pumpkin pie that is), I love the feel of family that this season has! The other day Dan made some Chai Latte like they serve at Starbucks and I made some pumpkin muffins. Umm, umm good. That really started getting me in the mood of the season! Anyway, I hope you all are enjoying your fall season as much as I am. Here are a few pictures from our fall! You won't see any fall leaves from these pics though. Alas . . .

Grandma and Gran'dad!!!

2008-10-28T11:46:00.006-05:00

Well, we had an exciting couple of weeks with Tami's parents, including a week in another country, visiting Tami's brother and his family, as well as two nights in a hospital. Thanks to all those who knew about Ron's illness and were praying for him. He's much better now and they headed home in high spirits. We were sad to see them go, though. Zeke said it best, "Granma no go bye bye. Grandad no go plane." Here are a few pictures from their trip. For more follow these links:

Dan and Tami's Home

Jeff and Becky's Home

Three Wonderful Years!!!

2008-10-14T10:01:00.003-05:00

We got married 3 years ago October 15, and it's been the best three years of my life. Tami is the most magnificent woman with which I could have ever shared my life. No one else I know could do all that she does and still be happily married to me. She's a wonderful wife, a great mother of two and a very hard worker. She works hard at our church, she's learning a new language (soon to be learning a second new language), she keeps the house neat, and much much more.

Baby, you are the embodiment of a biblical and perfect wife. I love you more than words can express and I hope for many many more great years together.

Funnel Cake...

2008-10-01T00:34:00.004-05:00

Yet another food post from the Shackelford family, but we just had to share. Dan woke with the idea of having beignets for breakfast, but after looking up a recipe that called for yeast and four hours in the refrigerator, we decided to try out a funnel cake recipe we found the other day. It was wonderful, even for breakfast!

Mixing the batter.

The funnel.

Putting it in the pan.

Cooking.

The finished product.

Double Stroller!!!

2008-09-13T15:49:00.011-05:00

A few months ago, Tami met a very nice lady and her sister who gave us a double stroller that they didn't have use for anymore. We'd kept it in storage until today, when we decided get it out, clean it up and take it out for a spin. And it was quite a spin.

There is a religious festival here this month and every night about 8 p.m. they have a special meal. We decided to go with some friends of ours to one of the touristy areas in our city to eat. We got Zeke and Kaiyah in the stroller, and they were very cute, and it was easy to push around.

We got out to the place around 6:30 and found a restaurant with a spare table (there weren't many).

Kaiyah slept in the back of the stroller for awhile.

Eventually our food came and we waited for the time to eat.

It finally did, so we, along with everyone else, started eating. Pardon this next picture. Dan was talking.

After we ate, we walked around a little and ate some cotton candy and other sweet stuff.

A while later, we headed home. Tami was holding Kaiyah, so one of Zeke's friends got to ride in the stroller with him. They were both full of sugar and had a lot of fun the whole way home.

Unfortunately, sometime during the night, the rubber came off of one of the back tires. We couldn't find that one. As we were headed home, the other one came off and we managed to save it. The back of it was already being propped up with a stretch cord, so it's looking like the first adventure in the double stroller will be its last. Alas!

Lots of Public Transport...

2008-09-09T08:26:00.006-05:00

We've talked about all the different transport in our city so here are a few pictures of some we were on today. It starts like this:

First, we needed to take Zeke to preschool, so we all piled on a mini-bus that goes pretty close to the school.

Second, we needed a new adapter cord for our computer, and we had heard of a place on the other side of town with lots of computer stuff, so we hopped on a train to go to the water's edge on our side of town.

Disclaimer: This isn't at all like the train we ride. This was a model outside the train station. The train we ride looks like the tramway (see below) but much older.

Third, we got on a boat to go to the other side where they sell computer cords. We got our cord quickly and were back on a boat in no time. After the boat, we got back on the train to get Zeke. After we got Zeke, we got another mini-bus to come back home. Tami got off at home with the kids.

Fourth, Dan continued on the mini-bus to a larger bus stop, where he boarded a full size city bus in order to go to a dentist to get a tooth fixed.

Fifth, the bus took Dan to a metro where he would ride one stop to get to the dentist's office. He didn't get a picture of the metro, either, but this is it's sign. The metro itself looks kind of like the tramway (see below) but underground.

Sixth, after the dental appointment, Dan walked back to the bus station (because it wasn't really that far) and got on a bus headed in the direction of our apartments. The bus took Dan to a tramway stop, where Dan got on his sixth mode of transport for the day and finally managed to get back. It's good to be home!

My day . . .

2008-09-03T07:06:00.004-05:00

I was just typing an email to my friend Dana telling her about my day, and I decided to copy this story over onto our blog. So, here it goes:

"Today I had language study and Dan had work and Zeke had preschool. So, I had to take Kaiyah to language with me. It takes me about 1 ½ hours on the bus to get to my tutor’s home, and then another 1 ½ hours to get back. Then I had to go straight to the preschool to pick Zeke up, which added another 30 minutes or so. I got there just in time. Then I had to walk with 2 kids, one stroller and 2 bags ½ a mile or so to where I catch the public vans. I had to pile all our junk onto the van and ride the 30 minutes home (it’s not that far, it just takes awhile with all the stopping and stuff). All the way home Zeke said "Zeke drive. Zeke drive." I said, "No you have to be grown to drive." So then it was "Zeke grown, Zeke grown." When we finally got close to home I was throwing all our junk out of the van trying to gather up all my children and get them off etc. At this point Zeke didn’t want to ride in the stroller so I had the bags in the stroller, Kaiyah in her pack, and Zeke was helping me to push the stroller. I see a car began backing up, swinging from the road right into my sidewalk (now granted, just as many cars think they have a right to the sidewalk as people.) I figured surely he sees me and I couldn’t really jerk out of the way without loosing Zeke. So I just stood there and the car kept coming! When it bumped into the stroller I finally yelled and they stopped. No damage done. After I gave them a dirty look and made sure they saw Zeke they apologized! Any-who, that was my excitement of the day!"

Just a day in the life of Tami . . .

Not as young as I used to be...

2008-09-01T06:31:00.006-05:00

So, when I was in college, as I worked with children, one of my favorite things to do was to pick them up and twirl them around. They liked it, too. They would run up to me and yell, Mr. Dan, twirl me, twirl me!" And I would for at least half an hour every Monday afternoon.

So, the other day, I saw Tami twirling Zeke around and I thought, 'I guess he is getting big enough to do that.' The next day, I picked Zeke up under his arms and began to twirl him in circles. He thought it was fun and wanted me to do it some more. So I picked him up again and started doing it. He and I were both walking a little funnily afterwards, but about a minute later, he was fine. I, on the other hand, had a bellyache for the rest of the day. This happened to me once before, too, when I lived in Brazil and rode the teacups with Anna Brawner, who was 5 at the time. Yeah, the teacups!! Oh well! I guess I'm just not as young as I used to be.

Fried Okra...

2008-07-28T00:16:00.005-05:00

Yet another food post from the Shackelford family. This one is dedicated to Dan's Grandma Beulah, who makes some of the best fried okra around. They harvest their okra really small over here, so when you cut it up, it's really little and we weren't sure it would work well fried. We finally decided to try it anyway the other night. It was really really good. The fact that it was so small meant that there was more breading on it per capita, and nobody was sad about that.

Lemonade!!!

2008-07-26T08:30:00.004-05:00

I worked at Chick-Fil-A during college and have tried to remember for quite some time what the recipe for the lemonade was. I remembered it was very easy, but couldn't remember the measurements. Today it dawned on me that I may be able to find it on the internet. I did and we made some today. It was wonderful, and tasted like Chick-Fil-A, as far as we can remember. (They haven't opened their branch here yet.) The recipe, split almost in four for home use rather than in restaurants is below:

2 3/4 cups of sugar
2 cups of fresh squeezed lemon juice
8 cups of water

Just mix it up and enjoy!

Clothing Woes . . .

2008-07-22T23:49:00.003-05:00

Well, this post is really just a plea for empathy. You see, most people have a hard time keeping their children properly clothed, free from dirt, stains, holes etc. My more serious problem is keeping my HUSBAND properly clothed. Unlike anyone else I know, Dan has a great ability for getting holes in his clothes. Before we moved overseas, I made sure that Dan had plenty of jeans and khakis to bring with us, because he wears a 36 length pant and you can't just find those anywhere. We moved in October. By January he was down to one pair that didn't have a hole or a grease stain on them! So, as people have come to see us, I've ordered several more pairs of pants for him. Well, here is a picture of their current state. The jeans are four months old and have a huge rip in the knee. The khakis are two months old and the day before yesterday he somehow managed to rip the pocket just from rubbing against a car. Don't you like his mending job!

A Visit from a Pigeon...

2008-07-15T12:39:00.005-05:00

Not to be outdone by Dan's sisters, who found a chicken at their parents' house, (read about that on Elizabeth's and Tori's blogs) we found a pigeon on our balcony the other day. Tami and Zeke woke up Monday morning while Dan was out of town to find a pigeon on their balcony. They gave him some bread and water and he stayed there all day long. We think he had a hurt wing. Dan got home last night and the pigeon was still sitting out there on our minuscule balcony. He went out and said hi to him and went to bed.

This morning, they woke up and he was still there. Unfortunately, Dan's grandmother doesn't have a large plot of land near here where she can take care of the pigeon (refer back to the chicken story). So, we were kind of at a loss of what to do. Dan went out and waved at the pigeon (he did NOT shoo him away) and the pigeon flew from our balcony to the roof of a building across the street. He stayed over there most of the day.

A few hours later, though, we found him again on our balcony. We guess he felt at home here. So we gave him a little more bread and played with him a bit. Zeke really enjoyed him. After a while he got back up on the rail and we bade him farewell again. This time he flew around the corner and we're not sure where he went. We'll let you know if he shows up again. In case he does show up again, we'd love to hear ideas of what to do with an injured pigeon. (Please keep them humane.)

Here are a few pictures of the fun times and a video of Zeke playing:

Another shot of our little friend.

Tami and Zeke watching the bird. Kaiyah didn't show much interest.

Zeke calling the bird. You'll see this in the video below.

Date Night...

2008-07-03T00:09:00.003-05:00

Well, since Dan's mom is here, she graciously volunteered to keep the kids and let us go out on a date. Yesterday afternoon felt kind of like going to high school prom with all the getting ready and stuff. We had Dan's mother take a picture before we left the house.

It was a little different with a little one hanging on to you, not wanting you to go.

But alas, we went, and it was lots of fun! It's not every city where you get to take a tram and a boat just to go on a date.

There is more about it here if you want to see.