September 2017 in pictures

We got to visit some of our very good friends in the village for Kurban Bayram (or the Sacrifice Festival) at the beginning of September. During the festival an animal is sacrificed and its meat is given to the poor and shared among family members and neighbors. Our friends spent all day cutting and cooking up the meat from a cow. Good times :)

There is nothing quite like being in the village. I love how we are welcomed in and treated like family - and we never leave empty handed. We are always loaded down with fresh veggies from their gardens and this time meat from their cow :)

Celebrating a dear friend's 40th birthday!

It was a peach shortcake in the backyard kind of night!

These two besties were happy to be reunited again after a summer apart!

A Saturday night out on the town with my love!

To moms of littles: Hang in there! There will come a day when you will find yourself waking up to a hot breakfast and coffee all ready for you. All you will have to do is sit down and enjoy and marvel at how your kids are turning into such amazing people!

Celebrating at Aasta's baby shower!!

Yay for sleepovers with Sawyer!

A yard full of neighborhood kids! Love it!

Joel was in Istanbul for some meetings one weekend and this is the treatment I got from my big kids while Joel was gone. I am one lucky mama!

An evening with good friends. S'mores and tea made by the campfire!

We got to hang out with two special little girls one Sunday while their mommy was at the hospital giving birth to their baby brother!

Finally meeting sweet baby Mikail. We love him like he's ours :)

First day of school! Yohanis is in 6th, Colson in 5th, Vienna in 4th and Isaiah in kindergarten. Isaiah's kindergarten teacher is even letting Brooks come two days a week. TWO WHOLE MORNINGS a week I have time to myself - it has been AMAZING!!!

Celebratory first day of school campfire dinner with "stick dough", which is dough that we wrap around a stick and cook over the fire. When they're golden brown they slide right off the stick and we fill them with a big slab of butter, some cheese and sucuk (kinda like sausage). YUM!

Also, I love the fact that our backyard is the gathering place for the neighborhood kids and two of Vienna's friends showed up right at dinner time and joined in on our stick dough tradition. Later two more kids came just in time for s'mores! Love our neighborhood!

The cutest little helper!

Vienna loves snuggling with Snowball.

You can always find this boy in the mud!!

Had to snap a picture of these two accidentally twinning one day!

We had lots of overnight guests in September - what fun . . .

Every day after school Vienna asks if she can go hold baby Mikail. She is so sweet with him!

The boys worked hard one Saturday to make some storage boxes to sell to a friend. They love working alongside of their daddy and they have been learning so much from him!

August 2017 in pictures

We got a pool pass for the month of August. Best.decision.ever! Isaiah learned to swim and the 3 oldest kids became even more confident swimmers. Plus, it's just so dang hot here in August and it was a great way to cool down during the day!

Swimming with friends! YAY!

Picnicking with good friends. This spot is halfway between our houses so it's a great place to meet!

A Sunday at the beach with our neighbors. They took us to a place we've never been before, it was gorgeous! We took breakfast along and ate it on the beach and we also grilled and ate a late lunch on the beach. So much fun . . .

There is nothing quite like an evening by the bay in Izmir! One of our favorite spots is a skate park right by the water, so we'll load up bikes and roller blades and the kids have a blast!

A warm summer evening by the bay with friends.

This is what happens when you fall asleep in your chair in our house!

These guys worked hard for two days straight to make their very own snake trap. They even caught a frog and put it in the cage to lure the snake in. Love love love watching them work together and be creative!

These guys had a sleepover with their good buddy, Samuel!

Loving on sweet baby Shiloh! These guys are pros at baby snuggling! :)

And Vienna had fun doing KJ's hair. She loves anyone that will sit still and let her try out her braiding!

There is never a dull moment in our neighborhood. Our neighbor was teaching us the proper way to butcher roosters.

Daniel came to visit for a few days. Whenever these two get together, there is always a project in the works (they made this fire pit on one of Daniel's visits). Daniel forges knives as a hobby and every time he visits he sharpens all my kitchen knives for me :)

Second round of baby bunnies!

Just another evening in our backyard. Brooks and Isaiah are my pepper pickers and Vienna and the little boys also like to make "soup" with various flowers, grass and things from the garden.

So I have decided I should never get my hair colored in Turkey again. I've gone twice and both times it was a disaster. Last year I ended up with yellow hair and this time orange (it doesn't look like it in the picture on the left, but it was very orange-y, so I bought a box of hair dye and Joel and I tried to fix it ourselves - the picture on the right is the end result. It ended up being a lot darker, but it's better than orange!).

Just some pictures from a typical summer evening in our yard! We love spending time together outside!

Isaiah picking some grapes from a neighbor's grapevines.

Louis was back for another visit!!

Couldn't resist snapping this pictures of Brooks asleep in the van!

There is just something so awe-inspiring about olive trees. They are my absolute favorite. I didn't hesitate to take the kids through the olive grove on our walk home one afternoon!

Love these kiddos of mine!

Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but I think Joel loves the baby bunnies even more than Vienna!!

A family trip to the mountains of Bolu to visit some friends . . .

On the way home we crossed the Osmangazi Bridge - a 2,682 meter long suspension bridge that was opened in 2016.