Today marks a little milestone

We arrived to Italy on the 1st of January so today is officially a month that we have been here. Like I've said, we are doing well and enjoy living here. Although when I talk to you, I get reminded of little things that we did together back in the states and it makes me homesick for about 10 minutes. We have our little stack of scratch paper that has notes of Italian phrases that either the missionaries or the Kids teacher tells us. The one I use most often is "Me dees piachay ma nonu parlo italiano moto bene" That is not at all spelled correctly, but I have to write it the way it sounds so that I can make sure I pronounce it correctly. "I'm sorry but I don't speak Italian very well." Today after dropping the kids off at school I went to scope out a couple gyms. I miss lifting weights! Besides being over priced and ridiculously small quarters for working out (we are so spoiled in America!!!) I was able to communicate in Italian with the people at the front desk. You know, all the important questions, Does it have a daycare, NO. The nice thing, no pushy sales people. It has been cold lately and I'm anxious for it to warm up so we can start taking little weekend trips to surrounding Tuscon cities. We're just doing our thing, and we would love some visitors, so let us know when you want us to pencil you in. ciao!

We celebrate Cloe with a big thumbs DOWN!

After almost 5 years of habitual thumb sucking, Cloe broke the habit! She is now 2 1/2 weeks sober! We took her out for some gelato to celebrate. She got to choose whichever flavor she wanted, and she chose chocolate. It was very thick and yummy. We were talking to her about her teeth and that thumb sucking would make them not pretty. She got concerned, and asked me to put a band aid on her thumb that night. It stayed on for a couple days and then I noticed she really wasn't sucking it anymore. So to thank her for the money she will save us on braces, we took her out for ice cream. Fair trade, right?

From the mouths of Babes

Today the kids are all sick with colds and a cough so we are trying to stay inside. We ended up cleaning our house and while I was moping the bedroom floors, Abbey tipped over the trash. Ryan started to sweep it up when I heard Cloe say "Whoa Dad, I've never seen you sweep before!" and Brody said "yeah, I've never seen you sweep before, good job Dad!" So I came in to see what was going on and Ryan and I couldn't help but laugh. Too cute and so true!

Lazy Saturday at the Park

You gotta love the slow, laid back lifestyle of Italians. We had nothing we HAD to do today, so we went to the park.

The adventure has begun

Hopefully this blog will help keep everyone informed that is interested. We are settled and have adjusted to Italian life. Don't completely understand why they do some of the things they do, but we'll go with it. The food quality is amazing. The produce has so much flavor. you can only buy the produce that is in season at the market.
School is going good for Ryan. He is truckin along, and much faster than we planned. yeah. We are surrounded by parks, so it's easy to keep the kids busy. The playgrounds aren't quite as safe as the ones in the US. So their coordination skills are developing quickly. I don't know how, but they watch Italian cartoons in the morning and sometimes sponge bob square pants even comes on. The shows aren't cheesy, I just get annoyed from the language because I can't understand it. They go to school 3 times a week for 4.5 hours. It is such a lovely break. I jog home from their school, clean the house a little, get ready and then do a couple errands in the city. It is too annoying to take them into the city becuase the sidewalks are so small. Brody is learning the law of gravity and is there a law of motion? The bus drivers here are CRAZY! I can't believe how they drive, they think they are driving motorcyles the way they weave and ride other cars bumper! Anyways, he likes to goof off and stand up sometimes, and when the bus stops and goes again, he goes flying down the aisle. Yes, your mother is always right, sit down and you won't get hurt. I'm sure we will have many more adventures and travels and just updates on our growing kids.