Meme Suzy

Noah's Grandmother-

Meme Suzy

passed away shortly before Christmas.

We were only slightly taken off guard, as her health had been failing for the last year;

however, it is always something that is hard to hear.

Meme was such a wonderful woman who lived an amazing and full life. She scooped me up into her arms and loved me like her own from the minute that I met her. I personally feel very blessed to have had her as part of my life for the last 9 years, and of course Noah-his whole life! She was awesome. I adored her. We all did. We feel very blessed that our kiddos all got to meet her as well. Porter especially, will even get to have some memories with her.

She played the piano beautifully, and I will miss hearing her play the next time we go to visit. Aside from the piano, she was also great at keeping detailed photo albums; which we have all loved looking thru. It is a true gift that she has left for her posterity.

She was vibrant, loving, kind, compassionate, and even elegant.

We love you Meme, and will miss you so much.

Suzy age 9mths

Age 2

Age 9

In Paris-circa 1948

With her sweetheart of 63 years

So fun, I love this picture of her. She was so glamorous!

Meme and Pepe

Meme and Pepe avec Noe age 5

Porter and his Meme

She loved playing with her Great-Grandbabies!

I'm so happy we got to enjoy as much time with all of us as we did.

Meme and her first Grandchild and first Great-Grandchild

Ronan (with Porter and Mommy) meeting her for the first time-

she was in heaven!

Meme was always a go-getter and she kept it up until the very end. This is her outside pruning some of the flowers last fall with Porter in the garden. She was teaching him how to do it. It was so sweet to watch. He loved doing it with her!

And finally, Meme got to meet Miles only a few weeks before she passed away. At this point things had gone downhill quickly, and we could all tell that this was probably the last time we would get to see her. Even though she was not entirely sure of what was going on this last visit, one thing she was sure of was that she LOVED baby Miles! She just lit up when we (but especially the baby) came in the room!

By the looks of that grin on his face, I think he took a shine to her too!

We were lucky enough to get to take the boys to visit only a few weeks before, and we all said our real goodbyes to her at that time. We could tell the time was near, even Porter I think- knew that something was more heavy in the air this time. He kept going back and giving her "one last" hug and kiss. It was hard to leave this time knowing that we would never see her here on Earth again. How grateful I am for the knowledge of Eternal Families.

We really wanted to go to the funeral, but due to schedule conflicts it just was not in the cards. We decided though, that perhaps it was better this way as well. Now our last memory was a good one and we did get to say our goodbyes when she could give us her last loves back.

That's a good way to end it I think.

We love you Meme. You will always be in our hearts.

You will be missed so much.

Abientot, et grosse bisses!

Gingerbread Creation 2011- The Bosphorus

The Final Product!

A different view (complete with oil spill in the Black Sea)

We wanted to create another one of Istanbul's major features this year, after doing the Hagia Sophia last year. We settled on the Bosphorus, and were excited-being that this is the first year we did something with water!

It took some figuring out, but I think it all came together pretty nicely,

and we had a great time as usual.

Our buddies D&L came for the festivities. They did a fantastic job on their creation as well!

You'll notice the two different bridge types? The bridge in the front has wires that meet in a "V", and the back bridge they go straight up and down- we are nothing if not accurate!

Of course there must be traffic on the bridge-

And there is always a traffic jam by Rumeli Hisar!

The oil spill-courtesy of some very very old jolly ranchers that we melted down. We also made sure to include at least one container ship!

This is our friend's final product-

They did Clifford's dog house! (Their 3 year old is a BIG fan)

It turned out awesome as well!! Notice the giant bone and food and water bowls?

We all had a fun time, and once again I'm loving that we have continued this tradition that we started with our friends years ago. It is so fun, and really makes it feel like Christmas time! We missed you Art and Steph! You are always with us though in spirit!

Holiday Party at the CG's Residence

We were able to kick off the holidays in early December by attending the Holiday Party at the Consul General's Residence. It was a lovely party as usual, with lots of yummy treats and Porter's favorite- decorating big sugar cookies. The biggest highlight, however, was of course the visit from Santa! He brings all of the children a gift to open early, and that of course made my their day!

Porter loves getting to sit on Santa's lap-

Ronan, however, was much more interested in just "touching" Santa. He ran right up to him and kept feeling his coat and his beard; saying "it's Santa! it's Santa!" He was mesmerized!

That is, until it was his turn to actually SIT on his lap. Then he was much more interested in the cookie he was eating and just getting away from Santa. ha. What a silly boy.

Miles even enjoyed his turn! He did great with no crying for his very first visit to Santa's lap. Way to go buddy!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Turkey Day in TURKEY!

I've been looking forward to Turkey Day for a while now. Ever since my friend C gave me these awesome pasta noodles!! I was so excited to use them in my mac 'n cheese! And of course, to eat the rest of a delicious Thanksgiving dinner!

The BIRD....

this baby barely fit in our little European oven! Noah did a fantastic job this year though. It was beautiful, and delicious!

The TABLE...

I got the pretty napkin ring holders from my favorite store Zara Home! They have a fun "vintage" feel.

I made fall caramel wrapped/chocolate dipped pretzels for pre-dinner snacks. MMM. Got these from my girl Kesli! They are some of my favorite things!!

My friend L made everyone the cutest Turkeys out of Oreos and Candy Corns! They were so awesome! Definitely made it feel like Turkey Day after that!

She also came thru with DELICIOUS homemade rolls! I can never make them turn out right. Yay for good rolls on Thanksgiving!

The TREATS...

yes, we had plenty! There were also 3 pies, yummy pumpkin fruit dip, and a pumpkin sheet cake with cream cheese frosting! These darling cupcakes were some of my favorites though!

L was a fantastic baker this year!

I sadly didn't really get any photos of people? Guess we were having too much fun stuffing ourselves silly. We did come away from the day with this one though! Ronan went to town on that Turkey leg! It was awesome! He loved every bite of it.

We had a lovely day, with wonderful company and enjoyed feeling like we were home in the States for just a little while. We ate an early dinner, and were even able to watch on the Macey's Thanksgiving Day parade in the background!

Happy Turkey Day everyone!

We will always enjoy our memory of Turkey Day in Turkey!

I love Paris in the Springtime, I love Paris in the FALL!

As the other posts I've already done informed you, we recently took our yearly trip to France! We had a wonderful time as usual, filled with delicious food, awesome sites, and terrific company. This time our friends D & L from Istanbul came along with us! Of course we had a duty to our friends and ourselves to make sure Miles sees all of the Parisian landmarks, so we made sure to include Paris this go round.

Also, to be fair, even though the other boys have been to France multiple times, Porter is finally at an age where he really might remember some of the things we saw! So to him, it was like seeing everything for the very first time!

Our family at one of my favorite places on earth:

VERSAILLES

The grounds were so gorgeous this time! Of course, my camera battery died before I could take any pictures of all the leaves! They were so awesome. It really was so beautiful in the fall. Kicking myself forever for not getting some more pictures of the grounds…:(

Miles was thoroughly enjoying himself as we toured the Hall of Mirrors!

I had to prove that we tried to force feed him some history though…

Daddy and Ronan in the Hall of Mirrors

Outside in the front courtyard

Porter was so excited for weeks before our trip! It was all for this. He couldn't wait to see the Eiffel Tower! He just kept staring up at it! So cute. It really was "SO much bigger" than he thought.

A family shot, although, once again…messed with the settings and we are a bit blurry. The tower itself is crisp for the photo though!

Of course we need a little Notre Dame. I can't have a trip to Paris without some flying buttresses!

Me and Miss L outside the Louvre.

Now, this is my favorite picture. Mommy, Miles and Porter with Mona. Miles hitting Porter in the face was classic. I told Porter that we had to go to this Museum just so he could see this painting. We told him it was a "very important piece of art". So we went, he saw, he got hit in the face and now he recognizes her everytime we see something with her on it! I've done my duty.

BTW, he has noticed her quite a few times in the last few weeks! She is in a lot of different advertisements apparently all around the world!

Ronan preferred to stay outside and do this…

(with Daddy of course)

He could not get enough of those pigeons! He chased them everywhere, tried to feed them, and then he even grabbed one! Yuck! Flying rats I tell you…guuhh. There were multiple handwashings and sanitizings after that incident.

Now my friend L is a genius and found the directions for Debuave and Gallais. The oldest chocolate shop in Paris. It was founded in 1800 to make treats for the King of France! There are more now throughout the world, but this is the original. Everything in the store was beautiful and it smelled wonderful! Definitely the prettiest chocolates I've ever seen!

(they also had a price tag to match though, so we just bought a few treats and called it good!)

L-the genuis behind this adventure

Since it is always expensive no matter where you stay in Paris, we opted to only spend a shorter amount of time, but in our favorite hotel ever! We stayed here once before when we came with our other friends G & M. That time we got a killer deal. This time we didn't get quite that killer deal, but it is definitely better to go in the off season. In any case, it has a fantastic location, easy parking and it is SO beautiful. A littler more than the other hotels, but to us it was SO worth it.

As it turns out, the USA Men's National Soccer Team also has great taste in hotels! They were playing a friendly against France soon after we were there, and they were staying at our hotel! We saw them outside being interviewed, and then later Noah got this pic of Jurgen Klinsmen inside having an individual interview! We are big soccer fans in our house, so this was VERY exciting!

As I mentioned, we only did a couple of days in Paris and then headed on to other adventures in France, like Le Mont St Michel and seeing some family. These boys handled the road tripping like champs though! Here is a picture of all my babies zonked out! Also, we got some Bubble Bums booster seats for the trip and they were awesome!!

Among the other adventures we also hit our favorite ice cream shop in the whole world! Their strawberry ice cream is to die for! The view is beautiful too, being that it is in a little seaside village on the Atlantic! Mmmm, still dreaming about it. Can't wait till next time!

D & L also found these beauties in a little patisserie in Limoges one day while they were exploring! They graciously brought some to us to share and they were incredible. Hands down the prettiest and most delicious one I've ever eaten. I think it was cherry/pistachio. They had sparkly purple dust on them though as well, which was just so gorgeous!

And yes, by the time the end of our trip came I was apparently not so good with getting pictures! I always start out strong…hmm. Anyway, we hit another few castles, did some fun shopping, and enjoyed driving through wine country in the south of France. All of the leaves on the grapevines were changing colors and it was a beautiful drive. Actually, the colors were changing all over France and the entire trip was gorgeous! Here is a picture of Porter in front of the castle in Carcassone from the last end of the trip.

You can just take my word for it though that it was all cool. We had a great time, and will anxiously be awaiting the next trip! France, we love you!