Tis the season...

December as always, is a magical busy month. We are days from hearing "Dossier to China" so I am happy for the many activities. We have had parties, Christmas programs, family get togethers, concerts, gift exchanges, drives looking for lights, cookie baking and lots of mischief from Lucy (our elf on the shelf). Having kids makes everything more magical!!

 

                                       Will at his band concert.

                                      Sofia in her "Holiday" concert.

                                    Lize too

                                   Lucy our elf

                                    The girlies. The girls got bears from Aunt Brenda and Lize hasn't put it down since she got it. Aunt Brenda has an amazing gift of making people (ecspecially kids) feel like they are important and matter in a way that can only be a gift from GOD.

Cute aren't they?!

                                      James, his mom and brother.

                                                   Girls with Aunt Barbie (daddy's sister)

This picture sums up Lize and her joyful personality. Ohh how I can't wait for another sweet Asian lil lady.

November fun...

 

What a month.  It started out with the girls' "Gotcha Day" celebrations.  They wanted brownies so here you go:

 

 

 Will and his friends at Scouts -

Molly being cute as ever:

Here's some pics of James' mom, brother and brother's son visit for Thanksgiving.  It's always nice to have family visit:


 
 

 

And after we ate and ate and ate, we decorated our Christmas tree: 

 

We hope everyone had a Great Thanksgiving and remember as we head into the Christmas season, remember the real reason for the season.....

Last three days of European trip in Rome, Italy with Zach

Zach and I spent the last three days of our trip in Rome, Italy.  It was incredible and I can't wait until we go back again. Italy should be on everyone's bucket list.  Here are few pics from our time in Rome:

 

 

James & Zach in Europe

 

 
Zach and I(James) went to Europe for 10 days in October.  Our journey started in Finland (2 days) and the balance of the trip was in Italy.  I'm going to split up the pics into two post: the first part of the trip and then the last part of the trip.

 

 

Here's a couple of pics from Helsinki, Finland

 

 

From Helsinki, we flew to Rome for an overnight stay and then we took the train to Naples (southern Italy)  Once in Naples, we took a 1 1/2 hour boat ride to our home base island for the next 5 days.  We stayed on the island of Ischia, here's a couple of pics from Ischia (the beach photo is looking out our hotel room and then some random pics from around the island):

 

We spent the next five days traveling from our home island to other islands or port towns along the Amalfi Coast of Italy.  In no specific order, here are some pics from our travels to: Capri, Sorrento, Amalfi and Positano:

 
  

 

 

 

On our way back to Rome, we spent most of a day in Pompei.  Wow what an incredible place.

 

What an incredible first 7 days....