Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Things I have learned about my family this week

I may have been married for 5 1/2 years to my wonderful husband and mother to two of the sweetest, cutest boys in the world (my maybe biased opinion) for over 3 years now but I still learn new things about them weekly! For instance:

Ben: His favorite fruit is apples (and this is major since he has no favorites of anything!!!)
His favorite kitchen gadget is: the apple slicer:)
He really REALLY wants to go to Germany

Samuel: His recently discovered FAVORITE color is: RED
He speaks Turkish (this morning he said "Kaboo" which he informed me is Turkish for
"Turkish":)
His new favorite cereal is "Oh's", a long time childhood favorite of mine!

Zakkai: He LOVES to drive cars and is very good at making car noises
He is getting very good at communicating! "Pleath, book" "Pleath, Ray" "Have cici"
(cookie)
He is our family clown! He loves to make silly and disgruntled faces to make us laugh!
If his nap is cut short for some reason, he wakes up VERY grumpy and it takes awhile for him to snap out of it (that just might come from my side of the family:)

My life is full of such joy because of my three men! I am so looking forward to discovering new things about them for the rest of my life! And here are a few things maybe you didn't know about me!

Heidi: My FAVORITE color is yellow (it's a happy color, full of joy and sunshine)
Someday I would like to get good enough to sell quilts as a business
I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to go to Europe! (did I mention REALLY??)
Someday I would like to write a book

Friday, September 26, 2008

Apple Picking!

Samuel and daddy pick apples
Zakkai and his "heawy" bag

My Three Men


Today we nearly got eaten alive at the apple orchard. Oh yes, I am not kidding! I think the mosquitos almost carried Zakkai away until we caught him just in time! It must have been the heavy bag of apples that weighted him to the ground:)

We have been anxiously awaiting apple-picking season for a year now! We found a wonderful apple orchard tucked away in Indiana last year (yes, even good things come from Indiana). We had so much fun last year. Samuel picked rotten apples off the ground and put them in his own special bag and we threw them each out everytime he turned around (shhh..) and then....before we got in our car and headed home, we bought two lonely donuts to split between us all on the drive. Only two...sigh. We broke the cinnamon sugary crusted apple cinnamon doughnut in half and raised a morsel to our mouths only to be blown away by the moistness, the flavor, the incredible melt-in-your mouth texture. Hurriedly we crammed the doughnuts in our mouths, only stopping to share a small bite with Samuel (I know! You are thinking what selfish parents we are!!) We didn't think the frosted pumpkin doughnut could be as good until....we got our first taste of the orange colored delicassy. Oh my, who knew that doughnuts could be so good?!!

And so....for one very long year, we have been anxiously awaiting apple-picking season. Oh yes, we love the apples and everything that you can make with them: apple butter, applesauce, apple pancakes, apple cake, apple muffins, and don't forget the apple pie! But even through all the pleasures we get out of these yummy apple-licous treats.......we cannnot forget those doughnuts.....

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Lahmacun and Family Art


This afternoon, we spend a happy chunk of time creating a family masterpiece!!!! Decorated by the very artistic Thomas family! What do you think? Should we frame it? Sell it? Perhaps we should give out art lessons! We've got some future Picasso's on our hands, I think:)


I know mine isn't the most interesting blog to read. As a matter of fact, I'd like to post more often and tell you about the wonderful exciting adventures in the Thomas household....except there aren't many:) So I'll just tell you what we've been up to: We have been taking walks to parks, the lake: the boys love to watch the boats, the Adler Planetarium, the zoo....

A friend made cupcakes for our housegroup last week and very thoughtfully gave us two to set aside for Samuel and Zakkai. This was a RARE treat since our "dessert" usually consists of fruit (okay, okay, I should say "their" dessert. Mine just might be more like...ice cream...) They were so excited to eat these! Samuel licked all the chocolate icing off and then inhaled the cupcake; Zakkai inspected the cupcake suspiciously (he hates bread) but the second he got a lick of that chocolate....it didn't take him long to eat it! (see picture)


Zakkai is talking SO much! Pretty much every

phrase that he says begins with the word "No" or "Uh-Oh." For example: Me: "Zakkai, do you want to eat breakfast?" Zakkai: "No. No, bwekfass!" Me: "Zakkai, it's time for bed!" Zakkai: "No bed!" Anyone wonder why I am afraid for this child to turn TWO??!! He's adorable though and I could just eat him up despite the fact that he's so busy I need about 6 pairs of eyes to watch him:) And today for some reason, he has started adding and "A" on the end of every word. No idea why! He kind of sounds Italian;) Maybe another language buff in the making!
Samuel, the ever smart 3 year old, is
coming up with more and more clever ways to outsmart us! He thinks he is sneaky but what he doesn't know (please don't tell him yet) is that his brilliant mother and father have been at this a wee bit longer and just might outsmart him! For instance: At dinnertime (what is it with kids and their food!) he will decide suddenly after enjoying some tasty morsels of food that he doesn't like it anymore. It could be that there is a green speck in it that too closely resembles a vegetable...who knows. So he will set down his fork, put on a very stubborn face (he gets that from Ben, I'm sure) and will tell us that he is "reawy" (really) tired and wants to go to bed. Hmm....wants to go to
bed at 5:30pm? I don't think so....

And tonight my dearest husband, who has been raving over certain delicacies he had in Turkey, decided to make us some authentic, made-from-scratch Turkish food! The result (see picture) was Lahmacun (LaH-ma-joon). Homemade pita bread and on top is a mixture of ground lamb, tomatoes, garlic, onions, paprika, fresh parsley, and salt....baked in the oven and voila! I admit, I was suspicious but it was....good! Even Zakkai devoured it and kept asking for more! It was crispy on the edges and a little spicy. I must say, I am very impressed with my husband! What's next? Homemade Bakhlava?!


Monday, September 15, 2008

Favorite Sayings...

Here's a few sayings/phrases/words we hear OFTEN around our house from Zakkai, Samuel or Us! See if you can guess who's who!:

*"No"
*"No bed"
*"Nose"
*"No throw!!"
*"No fwow!!
*"I just pwobabwy need help"
*"Help!"
*"Uh-Oh!"
*"Pwease"
*"He's just a wittle stinker"
*"A TRAIN/BUS/AIRPLANE/SIREN!!!!!!"
*"Zakkai!"
*"Oh-no, Oshtwucktion!!" (construction)
*"Bye-bye, chwah chwuh" (trash truck)
*"Uh-Oh, mess!"
*"Can I watch Thomas?"
*"Eat?! Eat?! Eat?!"
*"Be gentle!"
*"Ray?!"
*"Giraffee's my BEST friend"
*"I don't HAVE to go potty!!!"
*Time to go to bed!!!!"

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Rain, Rain Go Away!!!!




We have been enjoying some serious Daddy-time over the past 4 1/2 days!! It has been SO nice to have him back! The boys can't get enough of him! Zakkai wants to sit on his lap every chance he can get (see picture above!) and Samuel wants to show daddy all 486 of his trains (slight exaggeration). We are adjusting to being back together again. It will be difficult to start school again in two weeks (yuck!) because we have missed out on so much time together so we are trying to fit in lots of family fun activities now! So far we've played, gone to the park, watched movies and yesterday we drove to Indiana to meet Ben's mom, brother and his family at The Cracker Barrel. It was a nice reunion! And then Ben and I went on a date last night! We went to a nice fondue restaurant and feasted on chocolate fondue with pound cake, strawberries, bananas, pineapple, apples....It makes my mouth water just thinking about it!
Next on our to do list is the zoo, museum, and more parks! At the moment though, we are stuck inside because it has been RAINING for 2 1/2 days now! Serious rain, too. Maybe we could add rowing down the street in a canoe for our fun list.....I know we needed rain but....enough already!!
Thank you to everyone who prayed for us, thought about us and encouraged us this summer! We felt the prayers. There was no way we could've made it through this separation without them! All of the emails, phone calls and hugs I received from friends and family anticipating our reunion were SO encouraging! I cannot believe the summer is over and now it is time to prepare for another year. At times it feels overwhelming but one thing Ben and I both learned from this summer was that God gives us the strength we need for each new day!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

One HAPPY Family!!!




Ben arrived home safely last night at 5pm!!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Our last week

My name is....

My name is Samuel. Let me tell you about myself

*I LOVE my trains and play with them all day
*I love to talk and sometimes talk my mommy's
ear off, whatever that means
*I love being a big boy
*I love to play outside and go down the slide and
climb
*I love my giraffees
*I am really into playing with legos and building
construction trucks
*I like to boss my little brother around because
he's a stinker
*My favorite foods are: oatmeal with frozen
blueberries (I could eat it every morning!),
cheese, cracker, bananas with peanut butter,
any kind of fruit, muffins and special drinks
*I LOVE my daddy and want to be just like him!
*I am sweet and sensitive but I'm also the boss
when mommy isn't paying attention because
big boys know what babies shouldn't be doing!





My name is Zakkai. Let me tell you about myself:

*I am 18 months old going on terrible 2

*I am ornery

*I have a buddha belly

*I love to scream

*I love to laugh

*I am talking a lot

*I love to try on shoes (it doens't matter whose)

*I love to look at myself in the mirror

*My favorite foods are: cheese, crackers, yogurt

milk, noodles and green beans (mommy's

happy about that)

*I am a stinker as my brother reminds me all

the time

*I love to do puzzles and snuggle with stuffed

animals

*I love life and exploring everything in it!
*And I LOVE blankies or "ray" as I call them!


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