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!
01 November 2013
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 รจ 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!!
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 รจ 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!!
16 July 2013
Auf Wiedersehen, Bamberg...
and buon giorno, mia bella Vicenza! It's about that time, folks. We are trekking down to Italy in a matter of days.
We have a new mailing address --
CMR 427 Box 3804
APO, AE 09630
And a few fun pictures of the bouts of relaxation we have had over the past month. Click right here! As you'll see, we relax by doing various exercises, and we tend to enjoy both day and night in jammie gear. With no A/C to speak of in this country, there is little motivation to get dolled up unless we have a valid reason.
Speaking of -- we are getting dolled up tonight for dinner with the Ecklors, some dear friends we have made here in Bamberg. We will miss them, even though we are excited about our next adventure.
Enjoy the pictures!
We have a new mailing address --
CMR 427 Box 3804
APO, AE 09630
And a few fun pictures of the bouts of relaxation we have had over the past month. Click right here! As you'll see, we relax by doing various exercises, and we tend to enjoy both day and night in jammie gear. With no A/C to speak of in this country, there is little motivation to get dolled up unless we have a valid reason.
Speaking of -- we are getting dolled up tonight for dinner with the Ecklors, some dear friends we have made here in Bamberg. We will miss them, even though we are excited about our next adventure.
Enjoy the pictures!
10 July 2013
Independence Day, Bamberg Style
And this time, we had Daddy and the boys home to help us celebrate one of the greatest holidays ever established.
We managed to take a few shots while we enjoyed the gorgeous weather, fun events, and fabulous company. You can check them out here!
This year serves as the last one in which Bamberg will celebrate America's independence. Although the post will still technically be open next July, there will be only a few soldiers and families around -- not enough to support the financing and efforts needed to conduct the day's events. We are thankful that we had a celebration at all; many American bases overseas were not given the funding to celebrate the holiday this year. #EFFTHEFURLOUGH (disclaimer: not really a hashtag link. Just a link to a related article. This revelation should not surprise anyone reading this blog... but we don't follow the hashtag craze. It is funny though.) What's not funny is that we have soldiers stationed around the world that can't even throw down on our nation's birthday. The men and women sacrificing everything to give us cause to celebrate are stuck watching the NYC fireworks on July 5th on their TV screens. It's not the same, and it doesn't seem right at all.
However, Bamberg did a nice job of giving us all that patriotic feeling, with hamburger, hot dogs, brats, drinks, bouncy houses, dance floors, and live music. After the sun went down, the fireworks went up -- a show lasting around 10+ minutes. As you'll see in the video below, the fireworks were beautiful! And yours truly (Jess here, not Zeke... sorry to disappoint) hopped up on stage and sang our nation's hymn to complete the event. (And Pappy, notice I threw in a verse of "O, America!" at the end -- enjoy!)
Happy Berfday, 'Merica. We miss you dearly.
We managed to take a few shots while we enjoyed the gorgeous weather, fun events, and fabulous company. You can check them out here!
This year serves as the last one in which Bamberg will celebrate America's independence. Although the post will still technically be open next July, there will be only a few soldiers and families around -- not enough to support the financing and efforts needed to conduct the day's events. We are thankful that we had a celebration at all; many American bases overseas were not given the funding to celebrate the holiday this year. #EFFTHEFURLOUGH (disclaimer: not really a hashtag link. Just a link to a related article. This revelation should not surprise anyone reading this blog... but we don't follow the hashtag craze. It is funny though.) What's not funny is that we have soldiers stationed around the world that can't even throw down on our nation's birthday. The men and women sacrificing everything to give us cause to celebrate are stuck watching the NYC fireworks on July 5th on their TV screens. It's not the same, and it doesn't seem right at all.
However, Bamberg did a nice job of giving us all that patriotic feeling, with hamburger, hot dogs, brats, drinks, bouncy houses, dance floors, and live music. After the sun went down, the fireworks went up -- a show lasting around 10+ minutes. As you'll see in the video below, the fireworks were beautiful! And yours truly (Jess here, not Zeke... sorry to disappoint) hopped up on stage and sang our nation's hymn to complete the event. (And Pappy, notice I threw in a verse of "O, America!" at the end -- enjoy!)
Happy Berfday, 'Merica. We miss you dearly.
20 June 2013
Six Hours Ahead
And yet months behind on this blog. But that's a good thing -- life moves at its swiftest when you enjoy it.
Instead of trying to apologize through pictures of memories long since created, I'll throw some cute Liam videos at you to catch you up... and hopefully appease you.
03 May 2013
Cruises Are LAME.
JUST KIDDING!
To celebrate Zeke's homecoming and get away from it all, we chose to hop on a plane to Florida and roll out on a Disney cruise ship. Bound for 8 days in the Caribbean. Now THAT is how you celebrate! Or at least how we celebrate. A cruise has managed to be a bookend to every one of our deployments!
Unlike last year's cruise, which was chock-full of beautiful scenery, history, culture, and information, this cruise was full of everything we needed now: sunshine, relaxation, sunshine, beaches, awesome family time, and sunshine. And sunshine. And some more sunshine.
So no history lessons or long-winded diatribes this round -- just some amazing pics ahead. For now, we will hook you up with the shots the Disney pros took of us on the cruise. Await more albums and maybe even a video or two in the coming days!
17 March 2013
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