Thanksgiving photos

Thanksgiving in Rome!

Jeff's Aunt Robin and Uncle Gregg came to visit us for Thanksgiving. It was a great week-long visit. They were able to see lots of sites, despite the typical rainy Naples weather. On their own they saw the Naples underground aqueduct system and downtown and Pompeii (which is really being hit hard by this rainy season).

Together we all drove to Rome for Thanksgiving, and we had the 'Auto Grill Pizza' for lunch. It's famous!!! :-) - as it's the huge gas station convenient store stop on the autostrada - but decent! In under 5 hours we were able to see Vatican City including St. Peter's Basilica, the tombs below, the Pope's Castle San Angelo where he would hide out during trouble (he could get there via underground tunnels) on the Tiber River, Popolo Piazza, the Colosseum, and Trevi Fountain. Robin had been to Rome before and played tour guide remembering all the facts from her previous trip. The girls did well and only had one combined melt-down on the subway where we had to get off - nurse and re-group. Oh, and I also had to do a standing feed inside St. Peter's Basilica. Fortunately no one got a picture of that! :-)

Friday Jeff worked a half day, while Robin, Gregg, the girls and I hit the 'Black Friday' sales at the NEX! An extra 25% of boots, savings on pots and pans, and 50% of nail polish!!! Wow - just like America!! Robin and Gregg gave us an early Christmas present of a very nice set of new pots/pans which we desperately needed. Also got some cooking lessons from the master chef himself as Gregg taught us new tricks for beef, fish, and chicken! Friday afternoon Jeff took Robin, Gregg and MoMo to Vomero to go Cameo shopping and to St. Elmo castle. It was a successful shopping day all around, and the Cameo owner thought Mo was adorable and gave her a necklace and cameo as a gift.

Saturday the weather was a little better and they all drove the coast - to Vietri, Amalfi, Positano, Sorrento and back home. Jeff took them to a restaurant that John had taken us to over Christmas and this time the chef came out to hand-feed Morgan! Gregg thought meeting the chef was great and I wish I had been there too.

Sunday was departure day for all - including Jeff who left to go to the AB Conference in San Diego.

Thanks Robin and Gregg for visiting us. We are too far from family and you made it a very special and memorable Thanksgiving.

Love, JeLiMoBe

Granny Annie's vist - part 2

Here are more photos from Granny Annie's visit. While we didn't leave Support Site for two weeks - which was fine with Grandma as this was her 4th visit to Naples in the 1.5 years we've been here where she'd seen what she wanted too - we did have a lot of fun.

Grandma really enjoyed spending time with Morgan who has developed quite a sense of humor. In one of her current favorite books, "Sand Castle Contest" Matthew's family is checking to make sure they have everything they need for their family vacation, and Matthew says, "No - we don't have a dog!" Mo's favorite line, which she now quotes is - "Matthew, we don't even own a dog!!" It's cute.

Bella is a really mellow, happy baby and looks a lot like me. Morgan is absolutely gorgeous as you can see, and really looks like Jeff - she's got fair skin, freckles and Jeff's grandpa's curls. Super cute!!

One fun thing I'm doing during my maternity leave, inspired by my Mom is to took a parenting class. When Morgan was born, my Mom being into children psychology bought me a couple books on "Love and Logic" which offers solutions to getting mad and angry by giving choices to aide in raising responsible, happy kids. Of course, being a new Mom I hadn't had time to open them, but amazingly through Family Fleet on base they offer a 7-week free course on this that happened to coincide perfectly with my leave. It's 2 hours every Monday and it's led by a clinical psychologist, and there is a workbook, videos, and we learn lots from the other parents. While not everything is applicable to us now nor do we agree with it all, it's great for finding our own parenting style. I highly recommend the books and teaching principles!

Here are some more photos from Granny Annie's visit. Love JeLiMoBe + Granny Annie

Granny Annie's Visit

Granny Annie just couldn't stay away from baby Bella and sweet Morgan, so decided to come out to visit. She arrived Oct. 26 and will be here for 2 weeks. It's been great having her here and Morgan loves all the attention - another storybook reader and someone to play with non-stop.

This weekend was actually quite busy for Jeff as he was a Pirate at the Carney Park Halloween event and then worked most of the weekend getting ready for the gym to reopen. Sunday was Halloween and we had a toddler Halloween pizza/beer party. 8 of Morgan's friends and their families came and everyone had a lot of fun. Of course it was a little crazy with all the sugar!!

Here are some photos of the Oct. 23 Breast Cancer Awareness Run, Halloween and our Halloween/birth announcement. As you will see my Mom brought 2 clown costumes, but because it would be hard to wear the entire outfit and feed Bella, I wore a modified version for our party. Bella wore a Pooh outfit for about 10 seconds before getting too hot! Not a great pic, but good enough that we let her out.

Love Liz, Jeff, Bella, Morgan and Granny Annie