puppy love

since i had a photo shoot with mae this weekend to get some shots for my photography club (yes, i know, i'm pretty nerdy) i thought i'd share. she's so freakin' cute!

and this last picture is mae playing with blue our neighbor; to know blue is to love him!

something i never get to enjoy.

it's 7:48 a.m. and brandon is still sleeping *shock* i had to sneak in and take some pictures; because seriously, that boy is normally the first one to wake up. at least he's considerate and will keep quiet and play with toys until everyone else is up.... none the less he's always the first up and ready to go... although, i guess it's not hard when you get to run around in your undies all day ;)

mornings should start later.

because everyone in my house is way too cranky before 8 am.

just in case you didn't know.

i know that some of you who are reading my blog are kind of new to the blogging world. here's a few things you should know. at the bottom of each page there's a little link that says, "older posts" and you can read more than just what i have on the page you are viewing. also on the side of the page is a list of topics that i've "blogged" about. oh and you can click on each picture that i post to view them bigger :)
hope this helps. and i know it might seem like common sense to some people, but just wanted to help out the people who might not be so computer savy!

hair today

emma was brave and let me practice my hair stylin' skills *lol*

adoption

i know there are people out there who are interested in adoption and might not know the first place to start; well, be sure to check out this page!

http://www.reecesrainbow.org

okay, back to our regularly scheduled program.

more for ds awareness month! :)

http://mamamonkmee.blogspot.com/2008/09/give-away.html

check it out; she's doing a giveaway for ds awareness :)

recycling 101

i found this at the thrift store in the free pile and all i could think was: CUPCAKE STAND! and for those folks who don't have kids or have never used one of these, it's to hold your jars of baby food; it even spins! geesh, i'm so easily amused!

and here's the recipe:

Filling:

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1/3 c. sugar

1 egg

1/8 tsp. salt

1 c. chocolate chips

1 c. peanut butter chips (or just use more chocolate if you want)

Cupcakes:1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1 c. sugar

1/4 c. baking cocoa

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. water

1/3 c. vegetable oil

1 Tbs. white vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla

In a bowl, beat cream cheese. Add sugar, egg, salt. Mix well. Fold in chips. Set aside. For cupcakes, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Mix well. Fill paper-lined muffin cups half full with batter. Top each with 2 Tbs. of cream cheese mixture. Bake at 350º for 25-30 minutes. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pan. Makes 18.

recipe courtesy: http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com

so what are you waiting for?? go make some for your family!

all roads lead to incirlik.

well, today we made the trek from our house to adana and back. we (me, kris and andrea) ate at our maid's house, and then had the adventure of driving home. i love turkey; and really need to glue my camera to my neck because i always miss out on the greatest pictures!! next month we'll be going back to see our maid's grandbaby (who's due sometime in october) so there will definately be camera's in tow!

olivia finally got her shots!

well, i finally got olivia caught up on her shots; trust me, normally i do pretty good, but poor thing, between moving and well just random craziness, she was so far behind on her shots that they probably thought we were a bunch of hippies who were against vaccines. so not the case!

however now we are back in the ranks of good parents and vaccinated babies! and on the plus side, after i get her ppd shot checked i can FINALLY start volunteering and the family support center pays for my daycare. i get 10 free hours a week per child. good for me and good for the rugrats to get out and socialize!

here she is showing off her dora sticker and one with her infamous upside down binky:

she wanted breakfast

so she went to the cupboard and pulled out the cereal!

where nonno is going:

sharm el sheikh: http://www.sharmguide.com/
looks like fun stuff!

please remind me to:

a) watch my three year old when there's a bag of marshmellows in the house.

and

b) to take a picture the next time my daughter's hands are cemented together with marshmellow and toothpaste.

having kids is the quickest way to get a sense of humor! and for the record wet wipes clean everything; even your new carpets ;)

i <3 cupcakes!

i just bought the cutest custom! (that's right folks; i picked the colors I WANTED!!) little cupcake charm on etsy, here's a picture:

and in case you want to buy something, this girl makes some of the coolest charms, here's her etsy address: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=54343

The 2nd Annual 31 for 21 Challenge

http://unringingthebell.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/09/the-2nd-annual.html

check it out!

just so you know!

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month

picnic in the park and new hoodie day...

some new pictures; unfortunately none from our picnic in the park! i picked mark up for lunch with the two little rugrats and we decided to grab some food from the commissary and then eat lunch at arkadash park; i really gotta start bringing my camera with me!! next time; we plan on making it at least a weekly adventure now that the weather has cooled down some!

then tonight we took a stroll down to the alley. brandon wanted to see the train tracks, and was pretty ticked off that all the trains were sleeping. none the less, he had a good time walking and saying, "haba" (his form of merhaba; which means hello in turkish) to all the turks. needless to say they got a kick out of it!
well, here's some pictures of the kids in their knock off skater hoodies.

michael:

samuel:

i think they were going for the tough skater kid look; sam pulled it off a little better with his somber self *lol*

you never know what the mailman is going to bring you!

the sender left strict instructions to abandon if not collected... i can't imagine why ;)

peekaboo!

and yes, brandon really does own clothes... though you'd never know it by any of the pictures *lol* that's what it's like having a 3 year old!

i <3 my neighbors!

this is emma:

this is her gigantic tooth!

truthiness; (noun). 1 : "truth that comes from the gut, not books." -stephen colbert

the past always looks better in your rearview.
people love to lament about how they would change things if they could go back.
but each path leads you somewhere that you were meant to go.
removing a painful or bad event
could erase a future wonderful event.
if removing a painful past
erased the beautiful future
would you still choose to do it?
how do you choose what to let go of?
little things build character;
and little things are stepping stones to bigger and better things.

sometimes cuteness just happens!

ps. aren't olivia's 50 cent thrift store airwalks too cute??!!

nostalgic

while i realize that you can never go back (and nor would i ever want to) i had some really good friends in high school. the kind of friends that you keep forever, and that even after ten years you can pick right back up where you left off... there are some things in life that you just cannot buy, and great friends are one of them!

now quit laughing at my pictures and get back to work!!

family fun game night

so tonight we played games. first we started off with pictureka! which was sooo much fun; especially since it was something that sam could play too! i highly recomend it; we bought it after watching our neighbors play... however, if you live in japan and happen to be my neice and nephew or their mother; you should not buy this... you would hate it. yeah... that's it... or it might be because you might get one in the mail... so after three fun games (two of which i won! woo hoo!) we busted out with scrabble. our all time favorite!!! here's some shots of that!

brandon helping michael spell:


daddy trying to look at michael's letters:


daddy with the best letters ever!


oh, but the night didn't end there! after sam and the babies were in bed, we hear mae barking like a maniac... well, the only time mae barks is when she's super excited.. and normally the source of her excitement can only mean one thing:





sure enough, a fat little hedgehog had wandered into our yard. so we brought it inside, took a few pictures and then released her out front.

ps. be sure to click on the picture of mark and the hedgehog and laugh at the shirt he's wearing! see, everyone wants to be a saint!!

hide and seek.

so when brandon doesn't want you to see him, this is what he does!

and if you tell him that you can still see him, he just shakes his head and giggles :)

this is what sam does whenever i pull out the camera!

don't you just want to give him a big old kiss?

speaking of bad hair days...

he told me i couldn't blog about it!

i got michael's hair cut yesterday; and he's totally pissed, but he looks super cute and well, with school pictures coming up, he had to make a sacrifice. look how cute he is! the first hair reminds me of a throwback from when i was in hs *lol* but of course the straight down and in your face thing is what's cool with the kiddos now. however, he's regardless, he's mad about the haircut! still, just wanted to share:

before:

after:

down in his face like the current trend:

and for those of you feeling sorry for him; don't, because he was going out of his way to make those pouty faces; hence why he's trying to hide his smile in the first picture!! also, i did just take him in for a trim; however, it seems to be a hairstylist's curse that they don't know the meaning of the word trim. still, i think it's cute and now he's free to grow it out until next school pictures!

pajama monkey

i put olivia's toddler bed in her room to get her used to it, but she still sleeps in her crib. well, today, she was playing really quietly, and when i went up to check on her, this is what i found!

of course once she saw me she got up and got down, but still, it was so cute to see her just laying in her bed. notice the nice mess she made of her room *lol*

speechless.

i told my oldest son that i needed to rebrush his hair this morning (imagine the lower picture; boy with hair slicked straight forward) and he looked at me, dead serious, and said, "leave it like this mommy, i need to look my best today so that i can ask a girl out." and i laughed, because i was once a preteen and anything my mother said about how i looked was stupid. thank you God for cameras so that one day when he regains his senses, i will have something to make fun of him with *insert evil laugh here*

silence....

waiting. to make plans. to get an idea for the future. hoping for the best, but making plans for other things... for all our planning, we are never really ready for life. i love you guys. and hope you know this.

everything happens for a reason.

i don't want to be sappy, but i believe this quite deeply.
there is a bigger picture, a bigger plan.
sometimes we just give up too quickly.

"how we survive, is what makes us who we are."

things i may not have told you in my myspace bulletins.

1. when i was younger i used to call worms george. all worms were george. i don't know why or where this fixation came from but worms were george.

2. tea makes me want to puke. seriously, i can't even drink it to be polite. serious gag reflex. except elma cai; which would be apple tea. however, i'm pretty sure that's not real tea. it's just some sugar and apple flavoring.

3. i have a secret love affair with comics. more specifically archie comics. how nerdy is that? it can't even be an obsession with cool comics.

4. i don't think i've slept through the night more than three days in a row. something always wakes me up. sometimes i go back to bed, other times i don't for hours. not fun.

5. i love google. i google everything. and my newest obsession is finding blogs about things i'm interested in on google. my favorites is so full it always takes me forever to find what i'm looking for!

breakfast time at the trail's means....

kisses from your brothers before school:

bananas and yoghurt:

and SESAME STREET!!! YAY!!!

hurricane emo has hit full force...

note the skinny jeans, pink backpack and ugly hair... it was only a matter of time. and he used to be such a cute little boy *lol*

craftiness 101

the board schedule's i made:

the princess clock i made for olivia. i couldn't find a place to ship me one (it was originally a really ugly bright yellow clock with huge numbers. a little spray paint and some stickers later and voila!)

dodea schools...

this is all i'm saying:

terrifying pointlessness.

i have decided to go back to school. what more can i say about that? blech....

michael bo bikle...

this is michael.

the preteen boy

who is silly

and lives

to make us laugh.

and the same boy

who wants to wear pink

and buy skinny jeans

because all his friends are.

feel free to laugh;

because one day you'll have kids

and they'll do the same thing! ;)

the saddest boy in the world.

his name is sam.

and to know sam

is to love sam.

but sometimes

he's just so freakin' sad...

and it's a shame,

because when he smiles

he looks like this:

ms.livy walking

as promised the pictures of olivia walking...