2012 review-February

So February was devoted to unpacking...and more unpacking.  We only had  a few inches of snow all winter, which I was overjoyed about!  The kids were a little sad (but this past winter more than made up for it!) but took advantage of the few inches we got!

 Olivia was excited to FINALLY start ballet class.  She had been begging for a year, but was too young and then we were moving.   Such a cute little ballerina.



Germany is covered with Castles, so we made a trip to Marksburg castle for a day trip.


I love the interior of the castles.  I couldn't imagine how they lived back then!




The highlight of February was going to Italy.  Our first big family adventure.

 This was the villa we stayed in outside of Milano.

 The kids were troopers, it was quite a ride to get there.  But is was worth it...

 The USA/Italy soccer match in Genova, was awesome.

We also got to explore the Genova aquarium.

Hiking to the top of the Milano duomo was a highlight for the kids.   Seeing the "Last Supper"  was a personal highlight of mine!  So amazing.

It was an unforgettable trip!  We love Italy, and it was a great February!

2012 in review-January

This past year was a big one for our family.  Since I did so terribly blogging, I thought I would review the past year and what I missed!  Here's some highlights of January.

 We arrived in Germany about 5 days before Christmas (this is a little of December too).  So we were able to hit a few of the Christmas markets.


We spent Christmas eve in Heidelberg with some friends that we had known in Georgia-the Gillespie's.


Christmas in the hotel.


We were livin' it up in the Mainz Hilton hotel.  The novelty actually wore off after about a week.  This is the kids in the elevator on the way to go to school.  There were a few times as I was herding the kids down to breakfast and out to the car at 7 am, that I wondered what we had done!

 The kids started school and adjusted beautifully.  Micah was excited that we had moved in in time for him to participate in the school spelling bee.  We were super excited when he won!  Definitely a highlight!

 Room Service:)

 Jude got his first tooth at age 3 1/2 months...many more to follow.

 Micah turned 10.  He celebrated in his usual style.  Out to eat and a homemade ice cream cake.  Does it get any easier?!

We were also able to move into our house in mid January.  It was/is a long process unpacking with a infant but we were so excited to get to know our little village and start adjusting to our new home in Germany!