Hoene Family Xmas Blog 2015

Hello Family! 2015 is drawing to a close and it was a good year. We didn't really do anything special this year, except maybe get a year older ;).  I will just share a little about each of us.

Little Henry - turned 3 at the end of March. This year he started going to the same pre-school that Sophia attended last year. He goes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. He LOVES to play with construction machinery toys, especially skid steers. He likes to help daddy at work and get rides in the real skid steer and tractors. He has started talking a lot more, mostly about skid steers and the work he is doing with said skid steer. He has the sweetest little voice, so listening to him talk melts my heart. Swimming lessons started this year too. Buddy does not want to put his head under water, so he is still in the beginner level.

 Sophia - turned 5 at the end of October. This year she learned how to ride a bike with no training wheels! She also started the pre-k program at Campus Cooperative Preschool which is every morning. Her teachers refer to her as a leader of the class since she is so outgoing and personable. (this has been both a blessing and a curse with bossiness). She is very good at including others and helping out when needed.  Sophia has excelled at swim lessons. She has advanced 3 levels since we started. There is still a way to go, but it's a great start. Sophia LOVES horses and the color purple. Her birthday theme this year was horses. She had barrel racing and pin the tail on the pony at her party. All her friends got to go home with their own "pony". She really loves doing art projects.

  Sophia and Henry on their first day of school for the 2015-2016 school year

Big Henry - manager of the University of Illinois Dairy farm. Henry grew an awesome garden again this year. The garden keeps growing with Henry's growing green thumb. This fall we transplanted wild blackberries from the pond by Brenda's house. We are hoping for a good crop to enjoy in pies next summer. Henry loves that Sophia and Buddy like living on the farm. He has shown them how to milk the cows and likes the "help" in the garden. Henry went up to Madison for the World Dairy Expo in October.

Kelly is still doing a lot with the mom's support group Mothers & More. As a co-leader I have been in charge of more scheduling and making the group fun. I have met a lot of great ladies I am lucky to call my friend. I took the kids to Nashville, TN this spring for Mother's Day weekend. We went down with my mom and Casey to visit Brittany. It was a really fun trip (stressful, but fun). We also went on a family trip to Wisconsin this summer and visited The Kyles. I'm so glad we were able to see Becky, Katie, Isaac and Aubrey while we were there. Ruth Anne and John's new place is really nice!

 At the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, WI

 Swimming at Ruth Anne and John's

 The group in Nashville!

 Henry and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this October. 

We went on a day date and had a really nice time, just the 2 of us.

We found out early this year we were expecting our third baby!  We welcomed Tess Pauline Hoene on November 3, 2015. We have been spending the last month adjusting to a new baby and 3 kids for that matter. Tess is really sweet and loves her big brother and sister already. She has recently started smiling a big gummy smile and cooing. Sophia and Henry are so in love. Me and Henry are, too, for that matter. 

 That's a big pumpkin right there!

 The proudest big brother and sister you've ever seen!

 We hope everyone has a great holiday and happy new year! Merry Christmas!

Love,
The Hoenes
Henry, Kelly, Sophia, Henry & Tess

Currey X-Mas Update 2015

2015 was another great year for the Currey family!  We've enjoyed watching Aubrey grow up this year and are having so much fun playing with her as she can do more and more.  She's recently gotten really into coloring so that's been a great excuse for me to bust out my coloring skills.  I won't bore you with any examples but I'm sure you can just imagine how amazing our coloring looks.

In other news, we're still in India at the American Embassy School.  This will be our 5th year here!  There have been a few challenges this year with the school board but for the most part we really enjoy our jobs here and plan to stay for at least another year.  It's hard to beat the career growth that we have experienced here and it's a great place to have little kids.

Isaac and I finished our Master's Degrees of Science in Interdisciplinary Education this month so that's pretty exciting.  One more thing to check off my list of things to do!  I've also finally gotten into teaching the IB.  I started teaching IB Economics this year and it's been a surprisingly smooth transition so far.  Fingers crossed that it continues!  I've really enjoyed learning new things and I feel like I understand the news so much more now!  I can even bust out really smart sounding terms like Fiduciary and I finally know what the FED is!  Most importantly, it should be MUCH easier for Isaac and I to find jobs when we move on since there is a huge shortage of IB Econ teachers in the international community.

Other than work stuff, we have been blessed with another pregnancy!  Yes, I'm expecting a baby boy this March.  We're very excited to welcome the newest member to our family and can't wait for you all to meet him!

AND we've traveled a bit, as well.  Last Christmas we visited Australia for a few weeks.  Here are some pics from the trip:


Last Christmas in Oz

Koalas smell like Eucalyptus!  

This is a pic from a viewpoint on the Great Ocean Road outside of Melbourne.  The rock formations are called the Twelve Apostles

In Feb Aubrey Turned 1!

Spring Break! 

Isaac had a conference in Istanbul leading up to Spring Break so we decided to make a trip of it and visited both Istanbul and Cappadocia which were both AMAZING.  See Photo evidence.  Cappadocia is where ancient Christians hid out in these crazy underground cities that were carved out of hills.  If you ever get a chance, I strongly recommend a visit.  It's like another planet!

Underground City from the time of the Hittites!  Google it, Katie! 

Aubrey's trying to pick the perfect carpet for her room.

Inside the Hagia Sofia.  I've been wanting to go here for years!  (Google it Katie!  :))

Istanbul: Hagia Sofia

View from our apartment in Istanbul!

Cappadocia

Summer Fun!
On the way back to the U.S. we visited Italy.  We went to Rome, Florence and Cinque Tierre.

The Colosseum 

Cinque Tierre

Aubrey sure does love Sculpture!  Or, I'm tickling her..... or BOTH!  (Michelangelo's David)

Florence viewpoint (note sleeping baby on back)

And over the summer we traveled to Texas, Arizona (to visit Isaac's bro and his wife), Madison, and I went to New Mexico for an IB training.

Texas:

Texas Ranger's game with Aubs.  She made it through ALL 9 INNINGS!!

Arizona:


Here's a pic of a visit from the Hoene's in Madison!

This fall we really didn't travel very much but we did finally get to Sri Lanka!  Here's a pic of Isaac learning to surf there!



and here's a pic of Aubs on Halloween because it's too darn cute to not share:

She learned to smile on command on this night!

And for the holidays we'll be going to Penang, Malaysia with some friends who live in Hong Kong.  They have a little girl a few months younger than Aubrey so it should be a great time for the kids AND for us.  We worked with them in Thailand and try to meet up once a year.

Well, I think that's all of the pics and information anyone can handle (esp me!).  I hope that all of you are having a wonderful holiday season and that 2015 was everything you hoped it would be!

Love,
   Becky, Isaac and Aubrey

Casey's 2015 Holiday Update

2015! And what a year it was!

I have been very busy, per usual. Lots of working, (still at Downtown Dental-- 3 years in January!) lots of traveling, and many memories made along the way.


I'm just going to make a month by month list of all the places we visited this year as opposed to delving into each trip, because the adventures were numerous!

January- Breckenridge, CO [NYE and Skiing]

Heading to the slopes in Breck!

February- Cozumel, Mexico [WARM WEATHER ESCAPE]

Sunset in Cozumel

March-April were spent being chilly in Chicago and celebrating a 2 year dating anniversary :)

May- Nashville, TN  [Mother's Day with mama Brenda and Kelly + kids]

June- D.C. and Baltimore  [Crab Festival]

CRAB FEAST LUNCH in Baltimore, MD

July- San Francisco, CA  [1st time to visit an old H.S. friend]

My friend Katie and I in front of the Golden Gate Bridge

July(round 2)- Cleveland, OH [Wedding]

Brittany and I also were able to visit Grandma and Grandpa when she was here visiting in July-- here's a photo from that:

August and September were spent moving into/organizing the new place where JR and I co-habitate!

1721 W Roscoe St
Unit 2F
Chicago, IL 60657

Vantage point from the back door of our new place on the day we moved in!

October- Seattle, WA  [1st time to explore and celebrate JR's                              cousin's wedding]

Space Needle at Night

No more travels have happened since Seattle, and we're now in November. This month has been pretty cool thanks to Kelly and Henry, because they made me an Auntie x3! Tess Pauline is such a sweetie so lucky to join a happy, loving family :) I'm so thankful for a new snuggle buddy!

Sophia- 5, Henry- 3, Tess- on her birthday (November 3, 2015)

A couple other exciting things happened this year related to my favorite sports team-- the Chicago Blackhawks! I'm still a newbie hockey fan, but I can smack-talk with the best of 'em. I enjoy learning more and more about the sport and truly love watching it. (It doesn't hurt that my team has created a dynasty) JR and I were able to attend Game 4 of the Nashville Predators series (yes, that's the one that went to triple-OT with an eventual Hawks victory!)

Stanley Cup playoffs Game 4 vs Nashville Predators
Hawks win in Triple OT 

JR has a trend going for Blackhawks-themed birthdays because this year we got to touch the cup! Pretty much the coolest 6 seconds of my life.

Met the Stanley Cup and Chicago's Field Museum (10/14/15)

 
Just writing about all these adventures is wearing me out, but this is how I love spending my time, and I'm lucky to have some of the best people to share it with.

Wishing you all a healthy and happy holiday season!!

Cheers!

Casey + JR

Chicago Tree Lighting Ceremony in Millennium Park