Garden

Today Mary and Cadie made indoor flower and herb gardens. We can't wait to use fresh basil! Cadie and Jack Ranger both love Mary so much (and I do too!). Today I worked from home and I ran out to get some lunch. I asked Cadie if she wanted to come with me or stay and play with Mary. She opted to stay and play with Mary.
Mary is moving in with us in May. She is so brave! Her Dad, State Rep. Phil King, wanted to check us out so we met him down in Austin two weekend ago. He was wonderful and gave us a tour of the Texas Capitol. He and Cadence got along well. I told him how much we loved his daughter and that we would take good care of her. I guess we passed because she is still planning to come stay with us :)

Jack Ranger: 6 months

My sweet baby boy is 6 months! These pictures are from his 5 month photo session, but I haven't had a chance to post them so I figure now is a good time.
- He is rolling all over and starting to rock back and forth on his hands and knees
- He sleeps through the night in his crib. Usually 12 hours a night.
- He loves his jumper.
- He also is quite the grabber lately and loves to grab at toys, necklaces or earrings
- We keep a blanket on the living room floor and he loves to lay on that blanket, play with toys and watch the household
- He isn't blabbling all that much, but he does have a few periods during the day when he squeals a lot. He is the strong but silent type.
- He will nurse or take a bottle and is just fine with either
- He is a super smiler and smiles almost all day long and rarely cries
- He sucks either thumb and seems to like them both equally.

He bring us so much joy and love and we are proud to be his parents!

Stats: At his 6 mo. dr. appt today he was 16.2 lbs. (50%), 25.5 inches (20%), 16 3/4 Head circumference (30%).

Scarborough Faire

We went to Scarborough Faire yesterday with DD, Big John, Uncle Pee Wee (Preston), and Ascucena (Preston's girlfriend). The weather was beautiful and we had a wonderful time. It was sort-of a celebration for Big John's birthday, which is tomorrow, but we didn't really get to celebrate the birthday because we were too busy checking out the jousting, watching the parade, getting Cadie's face painted, eating, etc. Jack Ranger took a little snooze in the bottom of the stroller.Jack Ranger kept pulling at the sparkles on Cadie's costume, but overall they did well in the stroller together. Grant got this stroller while I was pregnant with Cadie and I thought it was a little silly since we didn't have any kids yet and it was so big. But it can be a stroller and also converts to be pulled behind a bike and I love it now. It has tons of storage and was perfect for the terrain at the fairgrounds. (Aunt Courtney Joyce, notice the cute pumas!)

Cadie picked out this flower herself.

Acuscena took Cadie to watch the parade. I got this little Jasmine outfit for Cadie while I was in Turkey. There was another little girl wearing the exact same outfit and Big John asked where they got it, and they got it in Turkey! I was so glad they didn't get it at Target or something because then it wouldn't a very special souvenir.

A few last pictures from Turkey

The Serpentine Column is an ancient bronze column in the Hippodrome that was part of an ancient Greek sacrifical tripod and was located to Turkey in 324. It has one of the longest literary histories of any object surviving from Greek and Roman antiquity and it at least 2,487 years old.

The spice market - I loved the shopping and brought back scarves, Turkish delight candies and a real jasmine outfit for Cadence.

The ceiling inside the walls of the Harem at the Topkapi Palace which was the residence for the sultans for almost 300 years. 4,000 people lived in the Palace and today it is a museum where I saw the 7th largest diamond in the world and also artifacts such as Abraham's bowl, Joseph's head dressing and a bone from the hand of John the Baptist.

St. Sophia

St. Sophia, the Church of the Divine Wisdom, was built during Emperor Justinian's reign (AD 537) and it remained the greatest church in Christendom until the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Sultan Mehmet II who ordered to convert Hagia Sophia into a mosque. It was the largest church in the world for nearly 1,000 years. As I walked through this building and thought about it being built in AD 537 I was in awe. I saw the chambers where it is said that the leaders of the day gathered to discuss topic such as the acceptance of the Trinity and other significant theogolical decisions. The building is overwhelming large and beautiful. You can tell that is has been retrofitted as a mosque because it does not face east and so there is a strange building inside that faces east and there are large muslim writings added to the walls. It was built quickly for it's time, in a large part because they "borrowed" materials from other countries and buildings. Our tour guide said that the large green marble columns are said to have come from a temple to Athena in Rome. It was just incredible to think about what has happened in the church and how it was created. I am so thankful that Grant convinced me to stay an extra day to see the sites.

The Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque was completed in 1616 and included a complex with tombs, fountains, kitchens and a bath. It has 260 windows and blue Iznik tiles covering the walls. It was a rainy day, but it was still incredibly beautiful. We had to take off our shoes and I thought it was nice to pad around on the soft carpeting.

The ceiling in the back in the women's area.

I really liked the soft red carpet that was throughout the entire building.

Turkey

Mom: "Cadie, do you remember that Mommy is going on a trip? Where am I going?"
Cadie (thinking very hard): "To Ham!"
Mommy (laughing out loud): "Close baby. I am going to Turkey."
****

I just returned from a country named after lunch meat and I had a wonderful time. It was hard to be away from my babies, but the trip was great personally and professionally. I was gone March 26 - April 2 in Istanbul and I stayed at the Polat Renaissance Hotel. The conference that I helped organize was a huge success and included leadership from all over the world. I prepared for the meetings on Monday, we were in session Tuesday through Friday and then on Saturday I was able to go with a group of 9 colleagues on a site-seeing tour.

Istanbul is an amazing city and I got the chance to see the Byzantine Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, St. Sophia, the Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar. I went on a dinner cruise on Friday night on the Bosphorus. We passed under the bridges that separate Europe from Asia and saw the beautiful summer palaces of the Ottoman Empire. I also ate incredible food at Beyti Restaurant, The Suada Club, Fener, and Marmara.

This is the beautiful view from the hotel of the Bosphorus. It was always filled with boats. Eating salt fish at Fener. The fish is cooked in a pack of salt and is delicious!

Our group on the dinner cruise. Ram Balasubramanian, Martha Roos, Adrianne Wright, Ellen Linden, Jaime Montemayor, Annette Couch, Nancy Bittner, me, Randy Sloan.

I did not wean the baby before I left which meant pumping 4 times a day throughout my trip. It was complicated but worth the trouble. I brought home 150 oz. of milk and only had one small milk bag break. I put Jack Ranger's picture outside the cooler filled with milk so that if my bag got searched they would understand. A HUGE thank you to Bunny Mitchell for letting me borrow so much gear and for giving me all the tips and tricks that a nursing mom needs to travel Internationally.