Sierra Nicole

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!

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

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!

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 . . .

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

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...

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

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

What we've been up to . . .

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

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...

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!!!

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...

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!