Today is the beginning of a brand new year. That means everyone is deciding on their new year's resolutions. Which is good if you plan to stick to it all year long and make a plan to help you a long the way. We have decided NOT to do that anymore. Instead we make goals for each and try our hardest to make a plan that will help us stick to the goals and to help us hit those goals in the end. Sometimes, however, life tends to happen and sticks get thrown in the way. Having to over come them can be very challenging. Overall, our goals for the last year went completely achieved, but they did not go unachieved either. We got close to achieving them and that is a success in and of itself. We managed to work on issues we had going on within the family, grow closer together, work on getting healthier (always seems to be an ongoing goal), and of course traveling to see as much as Europe and such as we can while we are located here!!

So with all this, we have some newer goals and some goals that will be carrying over. Getting healthy and getting into better shape (because lets face it we all need to stay on top of this one for our personal healthy), growing stronger as family and closer together, to spend more quality time together, and of course travel more!!! To help stay on track with some of these....mommy is hoping...blogging will help make us a little more accountable. We shall see.... We are planning a new trip next month to start this year off. We will be headed to Budapest!! Definitely excited for this and can't wait to share some pictures with everyone.

Now to catch up from the last month. Mommy went on a trip with some of her girl friends. They went to Venice for a weekend. Mommy had a lot of fun and took a lot of pictures to share. It is hard to pick to just on or two. During her trip she also met a very nice gentleman. He was from the UK and he had amazing story about taking back his life and how he lives now with happiness and travels as often as he can!! He was an inspiration to keep on pushing forward in her journey with getting into shape and getting even healthier. She is getting there day by day and step by step. My mom works hard.

Christmas for us was amazing. We got to share our family traditions with our military family here in Sicily. They came over and made Gingerbread house and sugar cut out cookies with us!! We had a lot of fun and lots of smiles and laughter!! We are so happy to be able to share these things with those who have become our family so far from our family back in the States!! They are such a blessing to us. We will be forever grateful for the bonds of friendship with them!! Christmas morning came and we received many items we did not think we would get!! It was a great day for all. We got our jammies and Christmas movie on Christmas Eve like every year with hot cocoa and popcorn. We love this gift every year. This year we received Beauty and the Beast Enchanted Christmas. Our Christmas day was spent together at home enjoying our gifts and eating a wonderful dinner that mommy prepared for us!! We had a honey glazed ham with mashed potatoes and gravy, beets, and broccoli and rolls! Yummy....

Last night we celebrated the end of 2016 and brought in 2017. Kayhlynn and Natalie did not stay up until the new year was rung in, but I did. I enjoyed being up with mommy and daddy and trying to watch the football game. Unfortunately, I did not get to see much of the game because I could not hold out for it. I feel asleep before the end of the first quarter. To my disappointment, our team did not win. They played very poorly and deserved the loss they received as a result!! Hopefully, now that their season is over they can take the lessons they learned back home and build from them! Next year, they can be unstoppable!! Our New Year's celebration was at home as a family. Mom made Sauerkraut and pork for us to have at midnight!! Kayhlynn, made us a family dinner that consisted of a salad and great tasting spaghetti!! It was really delicious!! Mom and dad really enjoyed letting her cook dinner for us and allowing her to build on her cooking skills! She did a great job.

Today, things are back to "normal" for us. Mom is doing the laundry and some cleaning. Dad is watching tv and us kids are outside playing with our friends!! Big difference from the days past where we have been spending our time in doors and on our electronics. School resumes on Tuesday and our electronics time will be restricted. Which means, we won't get much time to be on them. Mom and dad like for us to do our chores, homework, play outside, and then have time for electronics if time allows!! Mommy, says she has some pretty big goals she is going to be working on over the course of the next few months and that they will be bringing some new changes to the way things are done. This is kind of scary because we don't like when mommy makes changes without informing us first! Oh well, we will be fine and things will work out well in the end!!

Time to go....the sun has set and it is time to take baths and get ready for a relaxing night in before bed time! We sure hope you enjoyed catching up on all things with us....as our adventures here unfold!! Enjoy the pictures.....

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS