The first picture was taken about a week

ago, during our biggest snow so far. Ezra scooted around a bit in the back yard. The strange thing was that sometime in the night it warmed up and most of the snow was melted by the morning. But temps haven't gotten above 40 in about 2 weeks.

The next series of pictures was taken last weekend when we went to a town called Bad Wimpfen for a Christmas market. There sooo many Christmas market to go to. All big towns have at least one, and many small towns have them as well. Most of them have a lot of the same thing, but they might add a couple of local specialties either in food or craft and performances by local singing or playing groups. We missed a middle school band performance in the square. Bad Wimpfen was a cool, old town about an hour and half away.

Jonas was appropriately bundled. Mike even zipped up his jacket around him after we took this picture. So he was good. Ezra on the other hand, was a little chilly. We forgot a hat for him, so I attempted to wrap his head in my scarf and pull it around his neck--like an old lady. He had a coat on and a blanket over him, but I think his legs were cold. We only walked around for a little over an hour probably. Here Ezra and I are enjoying hot chocolate and a waffle.

Here's Jonas and his red cheeks. We started cereal a couple of days ago. I don't think he can decided if he likes it or not.

Just a few quick pics... First dual bath. As we have to pay for water at this house, and as Jonas is pretty much sitting on his own, there will many more double baths to come. Plus, having a brother in the bath with you makes it twice as fun!

Another first: Ezra's first night in his big boy bed. He donated his crib to Jonas. He's done pretty well so far.

Jonas' 5 month birthday. What a handsome boy! Even if he does have eczema cheeks. Poor kid. Some days are better than others for the redness. Of course they had to be bad for this picture...

Matching jammies!

We love our brother!

This weekend, we decided to take our first German day trip. Mike set his sights on the birthplace of Beethoven in Bonn, Germany, and the Dom in Cologne, Germany. It wasn't as close as we thought--a little over 2 hours each way.

The pink building is the front of Beethoven's birthplace and where he lived until the age of 22. My favorite part was seeing his pianos, some of the sheet music he had written, and his hearing devices. The picture of the 4 of us was taken in the "back yard" with a sculpture of Beethoven in the background (it looks like it's coming out of my head). We then walked into the town square and that's were the building with all the flags was. Bonn was actually the capital of Germany for a short while before it changed to Berlin. The picture of the obelisk was also in the square. There was a market going on and some food vendors so Mike ate some sort of weiner. We also picked up some yummy breads for SUPER cheap. Then we headed back out onto the road to travel about 45 more min to Cologne.

After driving around trying to find a place to park, we were too late to make the climb up to the observation deck in the catherdral (The Dom). I don't know if you can tell how huge it is, but it dwarfs everything else in the skyline. The inside was cavernous. I took a few pics of the amazing stained glass, but they're kind of dark and blurry so I didn't include them. What I did include however, is a picture of a ghost. Ha, ha right? Let me first say, that I am unsure as to what I believe about ghosts. I definitely believe in angels and demons, but I'm not sure what category ghosts fall into if any. Also, I will preface by saying that on Halloween Mike and I were wanting to watch something scary and stumbled upon a ghost show on TV. It explained about "orbs" (round, fuzzy, balls of light in a photo or video) and "vortexes" (supposedly part of an apparition in a photo). I have never experienced those things in any photo I have ever taken, but in the cathedral I took a pic of the ceiling in a wierd area and captured both. I'm sure it's some sort of reaction of light in the lense, or some otherwise explainable photographical (is that a word?) phenominon, but I thought it was coincidental and more than a little spooky and wanted to share it will all of you. I would also officially like to declare the Dom in Cologne, haunted. Ha!! Whatever...

Disclaimer: I am unable to run spell check and I'm in a super big hurry, so please don't think I'm an idiot if I spelled something wrong. :)

As most of you know, we are currently in temporary lodging at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. We have been searching for a house, have narrowed it down to two and will be making our decision this week. Hopefully, it won't take too long to move in. The first several pictures were taken at our last Sunday school fellowship where we had a pumpkin carving contest. We did not win "most creative" or "most artistic", but we did when the best prize--"most spiritual". Ha! The picture of our zebra and lion was taken right before we went "trunk or treating" at Aviano.

In other news, we had our first trip to the emergency room. Ezra fell in the room and busted his head on the tile, where the tile meets the carpet. I was alone with the kids and had NO idea where to go or how to get there, so I called the emergency number. So I firetruck and then an ambulance showed up to assist us. We went to the ER where they gave him 3 staples to close the wound. It's a little hard to see. They even stapled some of his hair in there. (Apparently, that's ok.) He was a trooper though.

Our hotel is right next to some on base housing, so I took Ezra around to a few houses just to have the experience. He did great and was even saying "thank you" by then end of the night.

Here's a pic of one of our perpective houses. Mike likes this

one because it's in the country and has a great view of the surrounding countryside. I like it too, but it's 20-30 min from base and doesn't have a fence around the back yard. The other is a townhouse with neighbors (ugh), but it's waaayyyy closer to town. Mike could be at work in 10 minutes, and we could potentially walk to church. But it's surrounded by Americans (which to us is a negative). Decisions, decisions....

Gotta go. Mike's watching the kids in the room so I can steal away a few minutes to come and blog. There's no internet in the room... :( :( :(

Last Saturday was our church's hay ride and weenie roast. Jonas wore Ezra's giraffe costume from last year, and Ezra's zebra costume (that we ordered online) didn't come in time, so he had to be a pumpkin. I wish I had gotten a picture of him with the hat on, but as you can tell from the pictures, he was NOT cooperating. I think he was as annoyed with me trying to take pictures of him as I was annoyed with him for not smiling or being still for me to take a picture. Here's a picture of our little barnyard. Jonas-giraffe, Molly-cow, Gabriel-bear. Dad and Ezra enjoyed hot dogs and smores roasted over the fire. Then, Ezra had his first hay ride through the brush and cornfields in the Italian country side. Jonas was a sleepy giraffe.

Jonas had his 4 month well baby check up on Monday. He's 17 lbs 4 oz and 26 1/2 in. tall. He's the 90th percentile for length and almost the 90th for weight. Big boy! We also got some ointment for the eczema on his cheeks. You can tell how red and chapped they were on Saturday, and after using the cream for only 3 days, you can tell they are 100% better! Yea! He also got his two bottom teeth on Saturday and rolled from back to tummy. He plays with his toes all the time.

Ok, this is officially my last Italian blog. We leave for Germany on Monday.

Jonas is 19 weeks today. This is a great picture of Ezra. Jonas looks a little concerned...

The first picture is another hike up to the Manigo castle. Same group as last time, only Molly and Jonas are on the outside this time. Also, Elisa's parents were here for a visit so they joined us, and Lindsay and Hudson (new friends) came along as well.

Jonas is 18 weeks and Ezra is 20 months. This is a picture of us after our picnic.

Daddy was in charge of the kiddos while Mom did some cleaning. They made an Allison train to watch TV. I'm not sure who was having the most fun.

Ezra got his first airplane tatoo at Ciara's birthday party. He was pretty thrilled.

This may be the last blog for a while. We move out of our house tomorrow and move into the hotel on base for 10 days. Then we'll drive to Germany, move into the hotel there, and try to find a house.

Ciao Italia. :(

This was kind of an eventful week. Jonas is 17 weeks (turns 4 months on Sunday) and Ezra will be 20 months on Monday.

We had our first snow on the mountain Oct 1st. It was exciting even though it was melted by late in the day. :( I took some pictures as proof that it did in fact exist.

The first couple of pictures were taken at Cena d'Amore. Jack (one of our church's resident Italians) makes amazing pasta for the church once a month. Here's Ezra with Jack and Jonas with Elisa.

Also last weekend, there was a race a couple of towns over in Maniago. Italians love fast cars (ie Lamberghini, Ferarri, etc). While we didn't see any fancy cars, Italians will soup up anything with 4 wheels. Here are a couple of pics of some cars we saw in passing, and also the grounds where the "pit crews" were set up.

In Cavasso last weekend, they had a pumpkin festival. It lasted all weekend, but we just went for a couple of hours on Sun. afternoon. They had a giant slide that Mike and Ezra made it down right before they packed it up. Which might have actually been a good thing because of course Ezra wanted to go again. We also watched some dancers (kid and adult) do mostly couples ballroom dancing--all styles. While we were watching the dancers, I tried some "gnochi di zucca". Gnochi (pronounced no-kee) is a typical Italian dish. They are potatoe dumplings. I'm not too big of a fan, because they are pretty flavorless (although some parmesian cheese on top makes them better). The ones I had were pumpkin flavored potatoe dumplings. Interesting huh? They weren't too bad. We bought this shirt, but it'll be a couple of years before Ezra will fit into it--"Festa Della Zucca" is Pumpkin Festival.

Last, Mike finally got orders on Tuesday. Our house will be packed out on the 17th and we'll be headed to Germany on the 27th. It's the beginning of the end of our Italian experience. :(