Missing Teeth and Little Artist

Benjamin lost two more teeth this past weekend. He lost the first tooth at some point during the day but didn’t tell us, then Nathan found this note to the tooth fairy, where Benjamin confessed he didn’t tell his mom and dad that he lost the tooth! Then Benjamin decided to hide his tooth, which didn’t make it easy for the tooth fairy, so the tooth fairy hid his money, haha. The next morning, Benjamin pulled out a second tooth, but he told us about it...he is clever!

Benjamin loves art, and he recently re-started drawing again. Most days before or after school, you can find him by the window or at the table drawing all kinds of things. Here is is drawing the landscape downstairs.

This is a birthday cake from the online art lessons he received for his birthday.

Dreaming about the Salem pool in the summertime.

He found several YouTube channels that give drawing tutorials, and he has been drawing up a storm. These are lots of emojis.

A howling wolf

A pug. He hung his favorite drawings above his bed :)

We love our sweet little artist.

Christmas Spirit

Our Christmas tree has been up for well over a month now. As we unpacked our shipment, we thought why not put up the tree? Our tree is full of ornaments of memories of places we visited and things we have experienced over the years, pictures of our family, and ornaments from Nathan’s childhood. It puts off a warm glow and we love sitting around it and listening to music.

A couple of weeks ago, we decorated the rest of the house. Here are our stockings...Eliza’s stocking is not visible, but it is hanging on the right side of the chest. On top is our nativity we bought in Bethlehem several years ago.

Several Christmas statues inside the china cabinet, and an Advent calendar with bible readings that Mark and Betty sent us a few years ago.

We bought this pretty plate in Jordan, it says Merry Christmas in Arabic - Eid ilMilad.

A couple more Christmas statues on our bookshelf. Nathan gets all the house decorating credit. He has a great eye for this and he has done a great job around the house.

The kids playroom was spiced up with some Christmas cheer too.

We love how cozy it feels to have the Christmas decor up! 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a quiet and enjoyable day and hope yours was good too.  During the month of November, we made a thankful tree. Each night someone talked about something they are thankful for, and here is the blooming thankful tree. I am so thankful for these three, amongst many other things!

We are also very thankful for Kadem, our new nanny. Kadem has been working with our family since mid September. She is such a kind and patient woman and she is great with the kids. This is her younger daughter, Ebru, who sometimes comes with her to play with the kids. She and her husband also have an older daughter, Ezgi, that lives near the Syrian border, and she is working as an economist. 

With the new COVID restrictions, kids under 20 are allowed outside between 1-4pm each day, so we take advantage of it. This day we went to the forest behind our neighborhood to play, walk around, and Nathan took the boys for a run on one of his loops.

For dinner I cooked a small brown sugar maple syrup ham in the crock pot, mashed sweet potatoes, mixed veggies, and pumpkin pie. Simple and delicious.

We are so thankful for all of God’s blessings and faithfulness, and we pray you all had a wonderful holiday too!

School Conferences and Updates

We recently had  parent-teacher conferences at the boys’ school. We arrived at school early so the boys could give us a tour of the playground, library, cafeteria, and snack bar before heading to their classes. 

The boys love visiting the library and the librarian let them each check out a book while we were there.

Both boys received great reports from their teachers. They are both doing well academically, they have made friends with the kids in their classes, and their teachers have enjoyed getting to know them.  We celebrated their accomplishments with simit (a turkish bread with sesame seeds on top), coffee, and juice from the snack bar afterwards. 

The boys have been such troopers this year. They started the first 7 weeks of school online, then they were able to start going to school twice a week. They loved meeting new friends and attending school in-person. The school arranged a schedule so half of the grades attended in-person twice a week (only grades K-5 were permitted to attend at this time), and the other half of the class attended the other two other days, with Friday being an online day for the entire school.  Attending part-time in person lasted for a month before the COVID cases here, like everywhere else in the world, began rising significantly and the Turkish government returned school to online until at least the remainder of the calendar year. Despite the challenges of moving to a new country in the midst of a pandemic, we are thankful for how well the boys are adjusting and how flexible and resilient they are. We are so proud of them.

Well Checks

The kids all had their annual well-check ups and everyone had a good report! The first day Caleb and Benjamin went for their appointments. Both boys are growing well. Caleb is about 50lbs and 50.5 inches tall. Benjamin is about 52lbs and 51 inches tall. 

The doctor’s office is across the street from a nice park downtown, so after appointments we went to play and for some Turkish treats -  fried köfte, tea, and dondurma, the Turkish name for ice cream.

Another day, Eliza had her appointment. She was excited to get into taxicab to go. She also had a great appointment, weighing in at almost 30lbs and 37 inches.

Playing at the park and running through the birds :).

Yummy, ice cream!

Thankful that everyone is healthy and praying we all remain healthy during this season.

 

Ulus

A couple of weeks ago we took the boys to the old part of Ankara, called Ulus, to see the Ankara Castle and walk around. The old city is quaint with cobblestone narrow winding roads and small shops. 

After walking through some streets, we got to the caste. It was small, this was was pretty much it. We walked along the top and enjoyed a panoramic view of the city.

Next, we went to an art shop to look at paintings. Talking to the owner, it turned out the store was part of the Russian federation of artists. After buying a painting from the store, he offered to take us to a house down the street that sells Russian paintings. The painters were trained as artists in Russia and then immigrated to Turkey after the fall of the Soviet Union. Many of the artists were in their 80’s now, and some are still living in Turkey. The government required the shop close for some reason in March due to COVID, so we were the only people there. It was a very interesting place to visit. He said the house was decorated in typical Russian style. There were very ornate and shiny gold decorations around the house, used as stairwell oranaments, and along the ceilings. The walls and ceilings were painted very brightly in shades of reds, blues, and greens. About halfway through the tour,  he told me I could take pictures. It was fascinating.

We went to the roof of the house for another great view of the city. He pointed out a prominent restaurant next door that world political leaders visit when they come to Ankara. 

Afterwards, we indulged in a Turkish breakfast. Lots of bread, meat, cheese, and dips. It was delicious.

Our last stop was to a wood shop. The owner buys old doors from around the country, and he makes them into furniture. We are considering having end-tables made from the panels of these doors from Cappadocia  that are about 100 years old.

It was a fun day exploring downtown!

Around the hood

 We are loving the fall weather and changing colors! I never get tired of the view from our kitchen.

We enjoy playing outside everyday and are so thankful for all the space and parks our neighborhood provides.

The boys are good helpers with Eliza. Caleb is helping her across the little stream. She adores her big brothers.

This is what we call the sand playground, for obvious reasons.

This girl loves to play with her shoes off, even when it is cold!

She has a baby in her belly...or a basketball.

On the weekends, Nathan goes for a run in the forest across the street. One morning when the kids had school and he had the day off,  we went out together and he showed me the trails. Look how pretty this is!

I am really glad Nathan found a peaceful place to run that is so close to our house. 

On the mornings we have home school, the kids and I go for a run before we start the day.

Caleb wanted to wear his Halloween costume one morning to run...why not?

Caleb loves a nearby bookstore called Arkadas. He found a new comic book series called Fairy Tale that he likes reading.

The same bookstore opened up in another nearby mall too!

Oh, how I love all the extra time with these three :).