Expats

According to Wikipedia...

An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing. The word comes from the Latin terms ex ("out of") and patria ("country, fatherland").

Yep, that's about to be us! We are so excited to begin our adventure as a family and experience a new culture. Officially, we will head to Italy on June 22nd, so the countdown is on! We'll return in June, 2013. So many people have asked if we think we'll stay there after our year is up... While we may fall in love with the country, we both know that we will greatly miss our family and friends! We have so much to learn in regards to language, transportation, lifestyle, etc. It's all a little bit overwhelming, but we are eager to get the experience started.

We'll be living northeast of Milan, most likely in Como or Saronno - in the Lombardy region. The Parker Hannifin plant where Cole will be working is in Veniano, which is a small town of about 3,500 people. Veniano serves as Parker's European headquarters. Here's a map of the three locations, Veniano is the middle marker:


View Italy


We have been fortunate enough to have the services of a relocation company, as well as a tutor in preparation for the trip. There has also been a company working with Cole to process his work visa and assisting us with all of the paperwork necessary to make the move. Overall, the paperwork has been a sticky process and I'm not sure we could have done it on our own - it's a bit overwhelming with multiple options for processing all of the paperwork and the Italian government has a reputation for being kind of confusing to work with.

2012 has already been a whirlwind, after welcoming our sweet baby girl on March 7th, we're now preparing to depart! I've said it before... but this year I am really hoping to regularly update this blog with updates about Eva and Italy! There will be so much to see and do - our year as expats will fly by! Cole is staying in Saronno this week, house hunting and meeting his new coworkers. Hopefully we'll have photos to share of our new "home" soon...

Eva's Arrival!

Baby Shower in Winfield

At our appointment Tuesday, Dr. Welch scheduled an induction date... Evidently at 38 weeks, our little girl is already measuring 40. Hopefully it's because she has her daddy's height and not her mommy's hips! ;)

So Baby E will officially be here on March 7th, assuming she doesn't decide to come earlier! We cut it close with the shower in Winfield - not realizing just how quickly things would progress towards the end of the pregnancy. It was a beautiful shower - organized by my sisters and with some help from Mom, too. The girls hung paper lanterns and tissue paper pom-poms from the ceiling, transforming the country club into an explosion of pink! I'm sure all the golfers filtering in and out appreciated that... They even ordered a cute cake and made a diaper cake, too. It was all really special - so beautiful! Lots of friends and family members came for the shower and it was so great seeing everyone. I always end up feeling guilty after it's all over - there's never enough time to really have a good chat with everybody... but I am so appreciative for the time I did have with everyone and for their generosity, too! 

February Showers!

What a busy, busy month it has been! I am feeling like one spoiled mama - just having finished up our third baby shower! She is not even out of the womb yet, and this child has everything she could possibly need...

First, my dear friend, Sabrina, threw a shower in Manhattan. It was absolutely adorable! Like any southern belle, Sabrina really loves to entertain. She made some delicious food and had such cute decorations and activities, too. The theme was a book shower - so we now have piles and piles of awesome books ready to read to our little girl! Sabrina also had onesies and puffy paint...

It was really fun to see what creative ideas everyone came up with. Her hubby, Ryan, just might have won the prize for best onesie! There was one leftover and later that evening he painted, "My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad!" Of course, Cole appreciated that one. :) So many friends came to celebrate - including a few I hadn't seen in years! My college friend, Tara, came from Topeka and Melissa (one of my childhood friends) drove from Kansas City - and we both cried when she left. I certainly felt loved and the weekend left me in happy, overwhelmed tears. I have been blessed by some fantastic friendships, and it meant so much to be surrounded with such wonderful friends!

Shower number two was at Cole's Aunt Kathy's home, near Salina. It was so fun to see both the Eilders and Hasker sides of the family, along with great friends from that area. Many of Cole's aunts drove really long distances for the shower - again, the weekend left me feeling so spoiled and extremely blessed to have such wonderful family and friends! And left Baby E's closet full of CUTE, girlie clothes!

Shower number three... yes, I said THREE, was in Winfield with family and friends. I have two of the best sisters anyone could ask for - and they went ALL OUT! :) More details to come...

Inspired by Pinterest

Maybe inspired isn't the word... maybe obsessed is more like it. :) In fact, I could totally relate to one post that read:

Pinterest:

It's like fantasy football for girls.

So true. It's been ridiculously fun and probably a little too time consuming... I especially love finding free printable graphics, and each time I come across an Etsy print, I always think... I could so create that myself! So I gave it a shot, both times in an effort to print something I could hang in the nursery.

Here's the first - I used publisher and downloaded lots of free fonts to create it. It's not perfect, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. Now I need to find just the right frame... 

AND I just love this second phrase, too. It's such a fitting quote for any mom. I'm now 31 weeks along and cannot believe there are only 9 weeks to go in this pregnancy! Time is flying by!!! If only we could decide on a name... :)

 

A million little reasons...

Hard to believe it's been nearly an entire year since I've last updated this blog... It makes me sad to see how long I've neglected it, since I truly enjoy blogging and catching up with friends online... but NOW it feels like Cole and I have a million reasons to get with the program and blog regularly!

I had a post written about our trip to Yellowstone, but never quite finished it. I could have blogged about our fun trips to Table Rock Lake last summer, but it just didn't get done. Life is certainly busy, and my mind hasn't been very focused on blogging this past year. We spent over a year trying to get pregnant, and it was emotional roller coaster - especially for me. Throughout the process, Cole managed to be the calm, steady one... I'm sure he thought his wife was going nuts - more than once! It's possible that he even told me that. He was just so sure that nothing was wrong with either of us, faithful that God's timing would be just right, and he kept reminding me to relax and be patient. This is one time I don't mind admitting that he was RIGHT!

We are expecting a baby girl March 15th, and couldn't be more excited! nervous! unprepared! Don't get me wrong, we are so ready to be parents and mostly just very excited for the future, but we know, as tiny as she will be, Baby E is going to rock our world! Life will change dramatically in March - ready or not! :)

Making her debut March 15, 2012! :)

As if having a baby isn't a big enough game-changer, we learned a few months ago that Cole was nominated and accepted to a foreign exchange program through his job.  So our little family of three will head to Veniano, Italy in late June. (For one year.) Veniano is a small town of about 3,500 in northern Italy, near Milan. We will be about one hour from snow skiing in the Swiss Alps and one hour from the coast. (I'm dying to capture the scenery and can't wait to take lots of photos!)  So, we'll spend our very first year as a family of three together in Italy - it still sounds crazy, even to me! We are thrilled with this opportunity...  truly a once-in-a-lifetime chance for us to experience another culture.

Bring on 2012! I'm, um, pretty sure we can handle it...

Rally Time

 

Last weekend I had so much fun doing the "bling thing" with my favorite jewelry ladies. Premier had their Regional Rally in Kansas City for the second year in a row... LOVE that it's in KC. Three years ago we made the very chilly trek to Des Moines - yikes! I'm pretty sure at one point the temperature gage read -25 degrees that year... BRR!!!

Here are some of my favorite photos from our girl-time!

Isn't Kailen adorable??? Here she is walking across the stage for her "Amethyst" award! GO, KAILEN, GO!!!

 Here I am with my upline, Heather and one of my favorite "Designers," Kasey! :) We had a fantastic time - and Premier released their new spring line at the Rally! WOW!!! I am loving all the new spring pieces. In fact, I just received my shipment today! Now I'm faced with a very tough dilemma... what to wear first?!?!?!

2010 Christmas Card!

THIS is our first-ever Christmas card! :) Cole really wanted the dogs to be dressed up in outfits, but I just didn't have the energy for that... maybe next year! :) Merry Christmas, blogging friends!

Picture Perfect

Last month my friend Stacey sent me a text asking if I would be willing to take some family pictures for her. Of course I wanted to!  They  have the cutest little girl who is just about two, and I was dying to take some shots of her gorgeous blue eyes!!!  I was sooo excited for another chance to play with my camera...

Until I learned that "family pictures" included:

• THREE kiddos under two years of age (Stacey's daughter AND her sister's super cute twins)
• SEVEN adults (plus two baby bumps!)

My friendly little photo session jumped from a manageable group of three to TEN! (12 if you count the bumps.)

GULP! Going in, I was extremely nervous. I think overall, we had a fun time and wound up with some adorable pictures, not hard to do when you're shooting such cute kids! The group shots were the toughest... As you can imagine, it was pretty challenging to get all of the kiddos looking at the camera. I did my best! :) Some of my favorite moments from the day wound up being candids of the kids in the leaves. 

They are so precious...

Phoenix

FINALLY - posting about our trip to Phoenix! YIKES - I'm behind on this blog!!

Last month In September, Mom and I were (finally) able to travel to Phoenix and visit Jess... We had a wonderful trip, although it went by way too fast. During our short stay we spent some quality time with Jess, watched her get her white coat, helped her pick out a new couch and chair, saw the sights with Uncle Jeff and had a fun dinner with Uncle Phil and our cousin, Chase.

The last time I was in Arizona I was only five or six years old. My only memories include:

1) Laying on the floor of our mini-van (seat belts? nah.) and always knowing what direction we were going. Seriously, my parents would randomly ask and I always knew. Too bad I don't still have those skills; now I'm pretty directionally challenged.

2) Visiting my Aunt Ruth. She lived in a tee pee at the time, making her our "coolest" aunt, by far. We even got to sleep with her in the tee pee. Mom and Dad opted for the camper. You may think this is weird. We thought it was AWESOME, and still do. We're not talking about a tent. It was a full-size tee pee, loft included! Still today she is loved for her, um, "quirky" lifestyle... although she is now a homeowner.

We flew out of Wichita on a Thursday and Uncle Jeff picked us up at the airport. It was HOT in Arizona, still in the 100's, which was a little higher than normal for them. At the time, Jess was struggling to adjust to the temperatures... I'm sure now that it's December she has changed her tune a bit! :)

Here are some photos from the trip:

After the white-coat ceremony with mom.

Uncle Jeff took us to the south end of Phoenix to look out over the city. The view was awesome, and he was able to teach us so much about Phoenix. For example, there are only sky scrapers in a small portion of downtown because a city ordinance limits building height... and prevents the awesome views from being blocked by giganto buildings!

Towards the end of our trip, we ate at "Chino Bandito's" in Phoenix, which has been featured on "Diners, Dives & Drive-Ins" on The Food Network... It was a cross between Chinese and Mexican... an interesting place! Definitely a "dive," but fun to check out!

Can't wait to go back and visit again soon. I was hoping K-State's bowl game would be in AZ, but no such luck.  Last week Jess made it home for Thanksgiving and we're so excited that she can be back for Christmas, too!!! Speaking of which... Can you believe Christmas is just a few weeks away?!