Baby Kelly 4 Has the Floor...

Ciao, la mia famiglia e gli amici,

I don't have much time to write (lots of sleeping, stretching, and growing to do in the next four months), but I just wanted to share something with you...

I am so thankful that my mom is a strategic hoarder.

Deutschland, oh Deutschland!

Before we inundate you with pictures of bella Italia, we thought we'd leave you with some fond memories of Germany. We are happy to be here now, but don't get us wrong -- we really were blessed to have the times we did in Germany. It was a surprisingly comforting, secure, and peaceful place to be while Zeke was deployed, and it felt like home for the time we lived there.

Here are some pictures for you from one of our final vacation spots!

Pottenstein, Bayern, Deutschland.

In this fabulous little village nestled between our Bamberg post and the Grafenwöhr base,

we found so many treasures! 

The first treasure was a guesthouse with a restaurant much like the "Steak On A Stone" concepts in the States. Zeke ordered a 26 oz. bone-in ribeye... Liam I and shared a plate of kangaroo, wild boar, wild hare, and crocodile. I'm not joking. The meats came out to us completely rare and sitting on a sizzling hot stone, with herb butter and dipping sauces to use as you please. We cut it ourselves, cooked the meat to our liking, and ate until we had no room left to breathe. AMAZING. And the rooms there for lodging were wonderful! We would have stayed for an entire weekend, but the weather was rough and we rolled out the morning after our gorgefest. We knew we would definitely be back.

The reason for our guaranteed return? There are actually two:

Frankenrodel & Frankenbob (ROLLERCOASTERS!!). This rollercoaster park is so cool! One of the fun things about Germany is that the facilities don't strictly regulate what you can do with your kids. The German places provide safe, fun, crazy environments, and you make the parental decision whether your child is old enough to handle the attraction. I hated the fact that I was never tall enough to ride anything in the U.S. until I was like 20 years old. I mean, come on! Anyhoo, it was a blast. Liam went down it several times, first with this slow-ass gal and then with his way cooler speed demon Daddy. SO FUN! Oh, did I mention the rollercoaster carts are individually operated? As in, the Germans trust people to man their own little carts? WHOA.

And, in true German fashion, the amusement park also had a bouncy house, a creepy bungee-jumping matrix, and ice cream. Oh, Deutschland.

Teufelshöhle (the Devil's Cave). This natural cave is the longest cave in all of Deutschland. It isn't as scary as it sounds. The cave gets its name from the legend that the Devil guarded the cave and lured various livestock and wild animals to come into the cave for an untimely death. Skeletal remains of various animals were found in the cave, including a humongous cave bear skeleton reconstructed and put on display in the cave. The tour was given in both Deutsch and English, but Liam was as good a narrator of the surroundings as any professional cave explorer.

Enjoy the pictures, and get yourselves ready for Italia in the coming posts!

Happy Halloween from Italy!

I bet most of you are feeling bad for us during the holiday season, thinking we don't get to feel as American during our time on foreign soil...

Bad news for ya: we got TWO Halloweens this year!  This past weekend, the USO put together a fun outdoor family night at the high school track. Liam was able to rock out in his Cookie Monster gear and go down a huge bouncy slide. And last night for the big Halloween spectacular, some of our battalions in the 173rd organized a wonderful gathering at the base. Only our units, only our kids, only our decorations, only our candy. No tears from anyone that I could see! Just fun, friends, and tons of holiday spirit. There was even a chili cook-off!

Enjoy these pictures -- and try not to laugh too hard at Baby Kelly 4's appearance as Elmo.

Click here for a new photo album on our site! We hope everyone's holiday was a blast!

It's Still 2013, Right?

So... yeah. A bit of a delay. Maybe it's the 6-hour time difference? Oops.

Some updates for you:

1.  We are living in Italy. It is bellissima! One of these days/weeks/months we will post some pics of our new home and some of our adventures celebrating La Dolce Vita.

2.  We're adding another gorgeous little munchkin to our family. The due date is 27 March, so Spring will be full of all kinds of new life to celebrate! We don't know what the sex is, and we're not sure if we will have the chance to find out... but at least we're guaranteed to know when the baby is born  :)

3.  Life is good. Full. Peaceful. At times, stressful. But good.  We're under the same roof, strengthening our foundation as a family, and appreciating the gifts God gives us daily. Don't get me wrong -- work is hard on Zeke, Liam is testing his emotional maturity (and our sanity) as he careens through his fourth year of life, and I keep breaking things on our tile floors (with no good excuse). But other than that? La vita è bella.

I will post some fun Halloween pictures to our album in just a bit and will attach a link on here. And I promise "just a bit" means today.  :)

Ciao!!