Face Lift!

 BEFORE

 DURING...

 Josh and Bevin's house...during...

 There was a lot of this...for the last few days...painters outside my windows.

 AFTER...front view

 side/front view...notice where the painters decided to wash their brushes and rollers off...thanks guys...that's a great look of paint streaking all the way down our driveway and hill. good job guys!

 back/side view

back view

So painting our house should help with heat in the summer and not letting water in during the rainy winter. At any rate, it's much more warm and inviting. so we are so thankful!

Jesse is FIVE!!

 Not sure how it happened, but I no longer have any pre-school children. All of my children are school-aged! It's so fun and a little sad! 

 Family presents in the morning, including a fun mask from Toby.

 a cool erector set car from Grammy and Papa

 some cool marbles also from G and P

 A cool ninja costume from Mimi and Boppa

 he felt stronger and cooler already!

 The boys didn't lose anytime and set to work building the car while I made birthday donuts for breakfast!

 very cool...

 yummy donut on the special plate

 the pirate ship cake...DON'T ASK! I have a cake crisis every time I make a cake. A cake crisis is defined as a moment during the cake making process at which I think I will probably throw the entire thing at the wall. I have been known to throw all out temper tantrums. This cake was seemingly fool-proof and was going along so easily and perfectly, until it decided that the it wouldn't stick together and literally crumbled to pieces. Tim helped me piece it back together and we held it together with this foil strip. sigh...

 There were no complaints from the Pirate though!

 The kids found a hidden Treasure Map during the party!

 It showed them where to find some secret treasures buried around our neighborhood

 the kids...young and old...gathered around to find out where to go next...

 they went running through the streets screaming with delight...it was so fun for all of them.

 X marks the spot...they found a box full of TREASURE!

 Even the women wanted to get in on the treasure.

 I love Fairoz and her fun-loving self! She is always quick to laugh!

Time to eat cake...the cannon candles were lit...

and he blew them out!

 Present Time....lots of silly gifts from the "dukan"...the little corner market!

 While people weren't looking, this little cake-stealer was enjoying snitching bites from everyone's cake!

 Ms. Carol bought Jesse a "party popper"...

 so much fun...

so much to clean up...but it was worth it! Now on to coping with the fact that I have no more babies in my house! I am told that means I shouldn't "baby" Jesse anymore! Let's just say, I'm gonna try my best!

Things are Growing!

 I have never gardened. In fact, usually everything I plant dies. But our yard was so desperately brown and dusty and dry and altogether horrible that something HAD to be done. Besides before we moved here God told me I would have a green yard! Well...it wasn't green when we moved in...but I have learned so much and enjoyed every moment of trying to bring a little green out of this dry land. So we planted a grape vine almost 2 years ago when we first moved here and it has grown from 2 feet tall to 8 feet tall or longer in some branches. And this year we are getting a few clusters of grapes! This is absolutely astounding to me! To think I didn't kill it and this came from the driest land around. My neighbors have had to coach me every step of the way. Patiently showing me how to plant and how to water. Getting their hands dirty in the ground and showing me how to plant and how to care for every plant. I am so grateful to them! God has shown me much through this garden as well. Lessons on Life coming from nothing. Lessons on storing up water for the dry times. Lessons on tying up sagging branches to stronger ones. I could go on and on...

 Our pomegranate trees are giving us fruit this year too! May it be true of our neighbors and friends too...may their lives bring forth fruit. May our lives too bring forth more fruit this year!

 This year we have tomatoes, peppers, mint, basil, cilantro, cucumbers and a bunch of flowers.

 Our grass came back and is beautiful and green. A happy place for LOTS of children to roll around together on a soft place. That is...if I don't get too tired of the noise and chaos and kick them out in a moment of overdose!

Last but not least are our tadpoles are growing! Last year we didn't make it through a full growth. But this year we have gone from tiny tadpoles...

...to sprouting little legs...

 ...to sprouting little arms

...FROG! Metamorphosis is fascinating! A little gross...but mostly really cool! They are super tiny frogs though. Who knew?! Our neighbors are totally disgusted by this and ask us to kill them every day claiming they are full of disease...but even they can't resist coming to check up on their progress! I love watching things grow and am so thankful for getting a front row seat in the physical and the spiritual as we await more growth all around us!

Mother's Day...one day late!

 Since we traveled home from Turkey all day on Mother's Day...which was horrendously long incidentally and we ended up in Mosul on accident because of construction...the kids surprised me with a little outing the day after Mother's Day!

 The kids put a blind fold on me and then led me precariously through the streets...

... to this amazing place! I got to pick out roses for our garden! Can you believe this lush and beautiful nursery exists in Iraq?! The guys that run it are fiercely proud of their flowers and apparently won't sell any of the big roses...only the minis!

 so we got this beautiful orange one

 this fuschia tea rose

and after some coercing managed to get this larger yellow one wrangled out of their hands! They are now planted in my garden and are amazingly beautiful and fragrant! I love my fun family! I am one blessed Momma!

Windy Day!

 Today was windy and we are tired...so we didn't do much! Look at these tired faces. Today Toby said, "I LOVE home! I can't wait to go home!"

 Toby taking in all the beauty of God's creation!

 They just can't resist the cats!

 The staff at Maximus Grill...so kind to us!

 The flower pics are for my neighbor Nazila....she would LOVE to see all the beautiful flowers here! I wish I could bring them all back for her.

 We decided since it was too cold to swim that we should explore a little!

 I promised that if they would take a normal picture (above) that they could take a silly picture and that I would post both...I didn't know it was going to be of their rear-ends! Such creative children!

 We went walking back on this dirt road, through the groves of citrus trees...

 the boys protected us from all evil

 who lives here?? what a great location.

 Mr. Mahmut, our favorite server!

Our last night at Mini-Disco! Yeah! Thank you Ms. Hurrem and Mr. Ali!