The Gruenes Gang!!!: January 2016

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Deployment Ball 2016!

I rarely get dressed up for anything, so this was a big step for me!

We even got Alyssa to dress up for the night!

My dressy little girl!

So handsome!

My two boys all dressed up!

Just the girls and I!

Happy New Year here is a January update!

January 13th our family attended the Deployment Ball, which wasn't actually a ball, but we all had a great time dressing up anyway!!!

All dressed up!

Our new year started off with a few hiccups. Our van tire had a slow leak in it, which turned out to be a cracked valve stem. It isn't so easy to get American vehicle parts over here in Italy, so the part that we ordered turned out to be the wrong one. In the meantime another tire started doing the same thing, so we decided to just order and replace all four valve stems, which finally got fixed today January 30th thanks to Bill. So, Bill no longer has to fill the van tires every morning and we can start going places again!!!

Alyssa came down with strep throat on the 7th of January, with Hannah following suit on the 14th of January. Daniel has lucked out so far!!! Nothing really gets them down when they are sick, I've got some tough kiddos!

The kids have had a few sleepovers this month, along with a couple birthday parties! I had an awesome lunch date with a couple good friends, which always makes my day.

Basketball season started for Alyssa and Daniel on the 4th of January. They are loving it so far! They practice twice a week and have games every Saturday through the middle of March.

Daniel with his coaches and team!

Alyssa in defense mode!

Hannah started going to play practice again after Christmas break and has her "Alice in Wonderland" performances next week! I can't wait to see her perform on stage for the first time! She started baton on the 11th and also continues Cooking Club! This week she was also in Cheer Camp, which was an awesome experience for her!

Baseball/Softball registration opens in about week. I am excited to get all three back into the same sport again, even if it is just for one sport season!

January 8th I had my in-processing date for my Substitute Teacher position. At that time I was given my official hire date of January 25th. I was not expecting to start on the 25th, but was called right away that morning to come in for my first full day of work. I ended up working 2 1/2 days my first week and it was only a four day school week. If this keeps up I am going to be one busy mama! I am loving it so far and look forward to teaching more classes and grades.

January 18th we had Daniel's 7th birthday party at Boscomato again! He loves that place! His cake this year is his own creation Imaginext vs. Avengers!

7 years old already, where did the time go?

Here is the birthday crew, some may be missing!

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

2015 in Review...

Love this picture even though it is a bit blurry.

2015 turned out to be an amazing year for us! In January we decided to start getting rid of daily toxins from our house that you don't normal think about. We decided to see what these Young Living oils were all about! Since then I have started making my own laundry soap, deodorant, snot and cough rub for colds, chapstick, sunscreen, bug spray, and the list goes on and on! I am learning more each and every day.

This is what we started with and have since added to our oils.

In March, I (Michelle) started the Trim Healthy Mama (THM) way of eating full time. From Dec. 2014 when I started cutting flavored creamer out of my coffee to July 2015 I lost a total of 30 pounds and four pants sizes. Take note that is just seven months. Since then I have maintained my current weight and will continue to eat this way the rest of my life!

Love this book!

During 2015 I dedicated my time to helping out with the Awana program at Aviano Baptist Church, doing child care for our PWOC group, helping out with PTA at the kids school and chaperoning on almost all the kids field trips for school. It was a great year! I ended the year with a job offer at the school for being a substitute teacher in 2016! I continue to be a runner, I still love taking pictures of my family as you can see, photo book making has been my new thing over the past few years as I really find it hard to find the time to scrapbook. Although, I still have everything organized and ready to go for scrapbooking! Now if I can just make some time to do it!!!

Nerd night at AWANA!

Bill got another deployment under his belt. He left in April and came back home to us in November. We missed him while he was gone, but were still able to see him through facetime a couple times a week. Bill has continued working on getting his bachlors degree and is very close. It will be some time this year that he completes it. Bill has also used some of his free time to help out with the Awana program. He continues to support our family by proudly serving in the United States Air Force, we are very proud of him!

Bill's picture in Bagram

Alyssa had another great year! She participated in basketball, softball, football and soccer this past year. She continues to get awesome grades. She got the A/B honor roll the first semester then from there on out she got the A honor roll, getting the Principals Award at the end of the school year! She still loves art and math and now spends some of her free time reading, which was new this past summer!

Hannah continues to amaze me, she is not my sporty kid, but still played both baseball and football this past year! She does a super job in school and is a great role model. This year she was selected for Student Council by her teacher. She is in Cooking Club, Baton, and is even trying something new. She tried out for the Alice in Wonderland play and will be part of the ensemble, pictures to come in February 2016. Hannah is our toy kid and loves playing with her American Girl dolls and Monster High dolls!

Hannah on her "wedding" day!

Daniel is always looking for a challenge and keeping up with his sisters! This past year he was in basketball, baseball, football and soccer. He tried music club this past year and was not a big fan of it, but at least he gave it a try! Daniel excels in school, his teacher is always challenging him. He loves to play card and board games along with his iPad mini.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Exploring Polcenigo~Presepi (Dec. 27th)

The kids just love checking out the Italian Nativity scenes!

Taking a break...

Checking out the water system that is normally flowing though town.

St. James Church

Checking it all out!

I wish they did this in the states!!!

One last one...so this concludes my posts for 2015! It was a great year!!!

Friday, January 08, 2016

The rest of our day in Jesolo!~Dec. 26th, 2015

I love this picture, it's even better than a real Santa, at least the ones I have seen this year!!!

One last day at SeaLife Jesolo

One of our favorites!

One last picture with "Iggy".

The picture turned out pretty neat too!

Ending the day...heading over to McDonalds!!!

Time at the beach!!!

Bill and the kids!

It amazed us how low the water was at the beach....The water is normally up to the pier.

The kids on the pier!

Alyssa and dad

Love the background!

Yep that's Hannah and Daniel wrestling in the sand...

The Jesolo Sand Nativity~Dec. 26th, 2015

We checked out the Jesolo Sand Nativity this year! It was really neat, there we around 10 different sand sculpture inside the tent. Amazing to see all the hard work put into this!

Bill and the kids by the entrance to the Nativity...

The kids by the Pope!

This was the final sculpture, it just amazes me to see that someone actually made these.

Christmas Day 2015

Our family spent Christmas Day serving single and unaccompanied Airman dinner. We helped set up the event, served and helped with the clean up the event. A great way to teach the kids to be humble and do things for others on Christmas! Here they are jumping rope outside the Community Center, while we waited for the doors to be opened!!!