October Happenings

Our October was spent working on the house, battling illness that everyone in Doha seems to have gotten a taste of, and enjoying the slightly cooler weather by spending some time gardening. The month went by slowly and quickly at the same time, but with lots of fun memories despite how much time was spent in bed sleeping, haha.

Once the weather cooled we found a gardening shop and headed over to get some plants and sod. We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, hot peppers, and herbs with some adorable helpers. 

Thankfully before the illness hit our family the girls got to participate in a fun painting event at their school. Jotun partnered with them to paint all the classrooms over the school break and our girls loved helping paint the library upstairs!

1. Entry way - I love the setup plus the Azeri carpet and lamp. Makes me smile when I walk inside. 
2. The amazing chalkboard and sunglasses holder our friend Riyad made in Azerbaijan before we moved. His work is amazing!
3. Madi and her cat. We seriously have the best cats as they both let Madi carry them around like this without scratching her. 
4. I finally - months later - was able to bring myself to open my goodbye gifts and read my goodbye cards from Baku.
5. The cutest little bath animals.
6. My attempt at making my favorite Vietnamese dish - 
7. Thank you Ikea America for making a box specifically for cats. 
8. We found a vegetable market like the one we had in Baku! Unfortunately it's pretty far away, but worth the visit when we wanted to get reasonably-priced pumpkins for Halloween (seriously the ones in the stores were like $75!) and bulk ingredients for when I plan to make salsa. 
9. The best bathroom sign ever that my friend Chelsea gifted me this summer. It was the first piece of decor I put up when we got into the house, but I'm just now getting around to documenting it.

Madi has discovered that a little bit of cat nip puts CeCe in "play mode".

1. A fun care package from my friend Tricia in Trinidad and Tobago. Thanks girl!
2. Homemade apple sauce in the instant pot. 
3. Peacocks in the backyard. They are all over the compound and the girls were thrilled to see them so close.
4. CeCe was diagnosed with an ear infection and was not happy about her multiple vet visits and ear drops.
5. Sister sleepover in the playroom.
6. An absolutely delicious pizza night with some new friends. 
7. Doha has been hit hard with sporadic rainstorms and thunder/lightning over the past few weeks which caused lots of flooding. Thankfully our compound has been fine, but they did have to switch to using a side entrance due to water on the roads.
8. "I'm not tired." 5 minutes later I find her asleep on the barstool of the kitchen island. 
9. Sunglasses inside. All the time. 

1. Then the illness hit us. Not sure this would be the positions I'd choose for rest, but they did. 
2. Sofa sleeping.
3. Amidst our illness we busted out the card games, board games, and ...
4. Nintendo! We bought it over the summer and hadn't played yet. The girls loved the motorcycle racing and Madi was a great Bubble Bobble partner.
5. Even Jason wasn't immune and ended up with a fever and cough. 
6. Movie nights got better with a popcorn maker.
7. Madi cuddling Zoey in my blanket. Ugh.
8. I have not taken three driving exams and am licensed to drive a manual in three different continents. Please don't make me take anymore, haha.
9. I now know what disappointment tastes like - it's this. It's nothing like the real one.

Even though it was a fun month I am glad it's over and praying we stay healthy the rest of the "winter" season here in Doha. :-)

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Halloween 2018

Since the girls missed trick or treating last year Halloween because of our amazing Cyprus trip they were super excited to go around our compound! I went frugal on costumes and told the girls to rummage through their ridiculously large collection of dress up clothes for their outfits. As a result we had a superhero, Moana, and a princess. Loved it.

We decorated the house a bit and stretched our candy corn collection to last through the holiday. Now we have so much Halloween candy I'll be putting it in their Easter baskets next spring - ha!

Happy Halloween!

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September Blur

The month of September has flown by in a blur thanks so so much happening this month! I'm still surprised it's already October and I'm excited for Jason to bring me back all things candy corn from his trip to Houston. ;-)

The month kicked off with receiving our shipment of goods! Anyone who has been an expat understands how exciting it is to finally get your stuff, but also overwhelming to setup an entire house and realize just how much crap you own - ha!

1. A cup of coffee as I survey the chaos and try to decide which boxes to tackle. 
2. Jet lag - this girl fell asleep in my arms in the middle of a restaurant while we waited for dinner. The girls all have been superb with jet lag and besides being a bit tired were sleeping just fine (thankfully!)
3. The cats enjoying "their" baskets being unpacked.
4. The most tolerant cat ever. She's been allowing Madi to carry her around and hold her hostage to pet her.
5. Never mind that it's like 45 C (113 F) outside - snow boots are clearly the optimal shoe choice. 🤦🏻‍♀️
6. A distraught Madi asking if this sign means she's not allowed to enter Ikea...😂
7. Loving our new custom-made headboard and bed setup. ❤️
8. I love that we've been living in safe communities where the girls are allowed the freedom to scooter outside without me. (I snapped this picture from the kitchen while doing dishes.) We've set them boundaries within our street and staying on the sidewalk and they love going out on their own. 
9. Ice cream treat after their first day at school!

And speaking about first days at school - here's our crew ready for their first day! They've transitioned so well, love their teachers, and are making some great friends. 

1. A fun lunch date with Daddy at the end of the week.
2. This dress. Evy has put it on every.single.day. after school for the past three weeks. 
3. Back in business making bread and salsa - but after just a week and a half the salsa turned to vinegar?! I've never had that happen. Anyone got a clue why??
4. Did I mention Zoey is an incredibly tolerant cat...
5. The cutest Kate Spade outfits the girls wore to church one Friday.
6. Brunching at the St Regis after church and checking out the giant Oryx. 
7. Sometimes the best dinners look the ugliest. Broccoli, chicken, cheese, and rice in the instant pot.
8. Liv and her bead heart creation. She loves making them!
9. Madi and her bead heart creation. This has been a lifesaver for the girls to do something quiet and wind down in the evening.

1. Repurposing - The left is a piece of the twins crib that I am using as a jewelry hook/display. I was going to buy eye hooks to put on it, but I am kind of liking the layered look of just wrapping them on the rods. 
2. The reason we had the extra crib piece above is because I had the idea to turn the crib into a bench. We used one of the drivers in Baku (the same one who made our headboard above!) and he did amazing. Then I had a friends housekeeper make the cushion and pillows. I love the finished look!
3. In purging the massive amount of junk we've accumulated I had planners going back to 2012!!
4. Zoey helping me purge papers from our files. 
5. If you are a friend on Facebook you might have seen me post this picture of Evy in her Christmas dress. I mistakenly hung them and she's been asking for the past couple weeks to wear it after school, on the weekend, etc. I used the excuse that it was a church dress so of course Friday morning when we were getting ready for church her alligator tears at wearing got me to cave. And then everyone said to let her wear it and not hide it after I washed it so it will stay in her closet now. 😂
6. White chocolate and cranberry cookies (my favorite) for our dinner guests, another family that moved from Azerbaijan to Qatar around the same time as us. 
7. Jason had to go to Houston for work and left sweet notes for the girls the morning he left.
8. Olivia picking up leaves on the school grounds before heading to the car. She made quite the scene when she saw them on the ground next to our car the following day (where I'd thrown them out so they didn't stay in the car...)
9. Evy in a princess dress (of course) with her lego creation.

1. Madi discovered Uno this summer with her cousins so we've started playing together. The twins are on a team with me or Jason (but Liv can actually play really well on her own). It's been fun to start a tradition of a family game night. 
2. I let each of the girls have a sleepover one night while Jason's away. This girl just took up a small part of the bed. 🙄
3. An exhausting school week...so exhausting she didn't make it on the crib mattress adjacent to her or the bed that was right in front of her and instead chose to fall asleep on the tile floor with her head on the small round carpet... 🤦🏻‍♀️
4. "Let's put on comfy clothes and watch a movie!"I come down in sweats and a tank top and she comes down in a sparkly one piece jumper. How is this my child!?
5. The girls all started Awana this month and memorized their first verses to earn their vests. Madi memorized John 3:16 and the twins memorized "God loved us and sent His Son." So neat to see them learning Scripture!
6. Clearly Jason is out of town... #dinnerofchampions
7. Madi is doing gymnastics on Thursdays (and after the first lesson the instructor told us we may need to move her to a more advanced class!). The twins are too young to attend the same place so we enrolled them in the school's gymnastics program twice a week. 
8. Homemade donuts on a Saturday morning. The girls loved decorating them!
9. Awkward cat, amazing carpet. I regret only buying four Azerbaijani carpets - ha!

September has been challenging in a lot of ways (learning our way around a new city, grocery stores, etc.), but we've found a wonderful church to start attending and some great activities for our family to get involved in as settle into our new city. 

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