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Stephanie Howell

reading, organizing, shopping, momming too close to the sun. Home is wherever the Army sends us.

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  3. SO excited for you.
    but get your cute selves down to me before you leave pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease.
    love you all so much.
    hope jimmy’s healing well!
    xoxoxo.

  11. Wow! Sounds awesome (and a little daunting, but this is *you* doing it and not me — hahahahaha.) Can’t wait to hear more.

  12. Molto bene! I have been using Rosetta Stone to learn Italian for my 10 day adventure. Gotta say, I’d be soaking it all up if I was moving there. That part of Italy is definitely on my short list. Have fun planning!

  13. So very very exciting! Is this a two year gig? This is awesome news. You will have such a great time. And the girls? An experience that will resonate with them for the rest of their lives.

  15. Shut. Up! How exciting! Can’t wait to live vicariously through your adventures. And Harper’s ‘ashion.

  20. So happy for you all! What a great adventure ahead. I knew you had mentioned it could be Australia and we would have loved to share about our time there. Your girls will gain so much from that experience!

  21. My boss, who is a former ranger himself, remembers his time in Italy fondly, as 2 of his 4 sons were born there. 🙂 Said you will have a wonderful time! 🙂

  23. stephanie! I live in France , just on the other side of the italian border:!!everysummer we go to Cervia on the Adriatic seaside for a week! I would love to meet you in Italy for a scrapbook afternoon!!

  24. Oh my gosh. How completely amazing. What a great adventure for the girls! And you and your husband too! Hope you eat bread and pasta every day!

  27. FUN! That’s is in the north. I might come and visit. Still have to convince DH to look after the kids or I’ll ask the aunties or my mum!

  35. wow, that is beyond exciting, Stephanie! you’ll love Italy and you’ll only be 3 hours away from my home (Ljubljana, Slovenia) 😉 from Vicenza you’ll have numerous opportunities for trips, not only around Italy (that’s just plain beautiful and so relaxed), but also to Slovenia or Croatia for that matter (you should google both (and Slovenian wines as well :P)). yay!

  36. Enjoy your time there eating and enjoying all the wonderful sites and the great fashions. what a wonderful experience for your girls. Buon viaggio.

  37. Congratularions!! Feel free to ask if you want to visit Barcelona (or other cities in Spain) I happyly will help you if I can 🙂 Where is Vicenza? I’ve been in Italy about 3 times and it’s AMAZING (my favorite city is, by far, Florence, but Venice, Roma and Verona are so beautiful too)
    I wish you all the best in this new chapter <3 (and I'm enjoying reading your blog this "family year" it's beautiful to see you all together)
    xoxo, Bea

  39. Such a great opportunity! You’ll love the military community in Europe. Grew up in Belguim stationed there with my dad… back in the day! Such a wonderful chance to show expose your girls to other cultures and experiences! So happy for you and your sweet family!

  48. How exciting for you and I will definitely be living vicariously through you. I had a friend that transferred in from Vincenza and I always thought it was romantic how he talked about it…….doesn’t hurt that he was the most gorgeous male (wearing a tie no less) I had ever seen. Made him exotic a bit! Have a great time and take lots of pictures.

  49. Oh, so excited for you (and maybe a little jealous!!!). We have been back from Germany for 7 months and we are missing the traveling and culture a lot more than we expected to. Enjoy every minute of it. Your girls are going to have a blast! We traveled easily in Europe by car and train. Best experiences ever! I cannot wait to read about your time there.

  50. Oh and I meant to mention……the Italian “ashion”…Harper will be in heaven. I can see you adopting the Italian style also, it would look good on you!

  51. How exciting! I know many Americans that moved to foreign countries and loved it. It was wonderful to raise their children in another country. I bet your kids will pick up the language fast since they are so young. My kids have had children in their classes that moved here from another country and didn’t speak a word of English. They caught on very quickly as they were “forced” to use English as the classmates didn’t speak their language. Kids just soak it up! What a wonderful opportunity!

  52. SO excited for you and your family. Harper will be in her element…Italy is so ‘ashion! Would love it if you hopped over and visited the UK 🙂

  55. How exciting!!! You will have so many stories to tell and pictures to scrapbook!!! I hope you are able to find good scrapbook stores and maybe even teach!! AND you will actually be able to stay put for more than a year!! Cant wait to follow your journey here on your blog!!

  56. Wow! I cannot imagine. I’m sure you will approach this adventure with your usual humor and grace. And your girls – oh your girls! The adventure of a lifetime. How blessed they will be to experience this – all the while having their loving mama and daddy with them.

  58. Can’t even imagine your eyes when you heard it for the first time!
    Three years! Oh, my!
    You will be more than ok, cause you are a team! Great and scary adventure. Excited for you!

  59. WOOT! I love your excitement!! You guys will love it, and better to do when kidlets are small! I am super excited for you! Can’t wait to see all the photos on here!! XOXO

  63. How utterly exciting!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t wait to live vicariously through you! What an awesome, life exchanging experience that is guaranteed to be!!!

  64. You will love it!
    We took our kids last summer and had a blast!
    I’m so excited for you!!

  67. Shuuuuut uuuuupppp! It is my dream to live international and Italy would be veeeery high on that list. So excited for you! And jealous. But mostly excited. 🙂

  68. Congratulazioni! Che l’avventura meravigliosa per la sua famiglia. Spero che lei scriverà tuttavia sul suo blog.
    P.S. I’m much better in English & French here in Canada. 😉

  69. “Vicenza is approximately 60 km west of Venice and 200 km east of Milan.” Wow, now I’m really envious. LOL

  74. I’ve been to Italy twice. It’s the only place I’ve been where I felt homesick for it once I left. You will have such an amazing life there! The people, the food, sunshine, history, art…ah, soak it all up. I can’t wait to hear about your adventures through your blog. Congrats!

  77. How exciting for your whole family! I must admit I am a little jealous! I sure it will be an amazing adventure for all of you!

  78. I’m so excited for you guys!! We was stationed at Aviano AB! Loved it! It’s about two hours from where you are going! Best advice embrace the culture and travel, travel, travel!! 🙂

  81. Awesome! Italy is my very favorite country I’ve visited so far. I hope you love it as much as I do!

  82. How incredibly exciting!! I am a big fan of your blog (even though I very rarely comment, sorry!) and can’t wait to see Italy through your blog! I’ve always wanted to go to Italy. What an adventure!

  85. Yay! I’m so excited for you! It will be awesome to read about the Howell Family adventures in Italy.

  86. How exciting. My cousin and her family ,whose husband is in the Air Force, are being sent to Italy this summer too:)

  87. I just read the other posts, my cousin will be there for 3 years as well. Hopefully I’ll get to visit her there;)

  91. Wow what a great adventure for your family! I can’t wait to read about your experience via your blog. Does that mean you’ll be all together as a family again?

  95. How fantastic, your kids will have such amazing memories. We’ve not long since got back from 18 months in the Falklands with ours and they still talk about the penguins. As a side not where did you get the Italy map we are off to Tuscany for our summer holiday this year and it would make a great mini book cover!!

  96. Wow! I know you all will be sorely missed, but what a great experience, especially for your girls! Plus, since we moved to Norway last Summer, we’re a little closer now! If we find ourselves planning a trip to Italy at any point I will be sure to contact you! 🙂 Congrats! Best of luck!

  98. WOW! How funny…Do you know I follow your blog from Italy? I’m an Italian girl and I live near Vicenza..
    If you have question/need some help.. 🙂
    Best luck!

  100. wow…I am a wee bit jealous! The art, the ‘ashion, the history, the architecture, the FOOD. What an experience for all of you. Lucky, lucky Howells. Those litle girls will all be speaking Italian. 😉 Cannot wait to experience Italy through your blog. I grew up in an Italian “neighborhood” in PA. It’s probably as close as I’ll ever get!

  101. I’m so excited for you all and as others have said, can’t wait to be part of your new adventures together in ITALY!! Thank you for letting us share it with you. 🙂
    I would love to hear the story of how you found out you may be moving there and how the big girls took it. A big step for them too. I’m sure it will be lots of fun but hard too with the language and cultural differences. Will be praying for you.
    I’m surprised that J is to be stationed there but only because I know very little about his job and how it works. (I live in Scotland). What will he be doing (maybe that’s confidential) and will he be home every night as he is just now? If he is, how awesome for you and the girls!

  110. what a lovely experience! welcome to europe, i am in the netherlands but love italy, maybe you can have a look at the cookbooks of tessa kiros ( ciao bella), lovely italian food but also beautiful pictures of italy. just to experience a little italy. What a great chance to get to know europe ( must do paris,amsterdam,london,zurich, but also in italy parma,florence)

  111. Yay!! That’s fun that you will be on this side of the world! It would definitely be fun to scrap for an afternoon some day…maybe with Sophie from France 🙂

  113. Oh how exciting. The girls will gain so much from the experience. I spent 9 years in Japan as a child and the adventure has served me well as an adult. I know you will all love this time in your lives and I can’t wait to hear all about it. Thanks for sharing your excitement with all of us.

  115. WOW is about all I can say! Lucky Howell’s!
    YOU must blog about every inch of it so we stay at home American’s can live through your adventures! The opportunity for you girls is PRICELESS!
    So excited for you!

  117. An adventure in more than one way! You will definitely have to write a book…Italy with four girls… start practicing your Italian.

  118. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! Northern Italy is the best!!! Plus, you’re so close to Venice, to the mountains, the lake country, Florence and Rome are only a few hours by train! (And go to Milan and ESPECIALLY Torino. People usually pass them over, but they’re so worth it. Piemonte is the best for wine and Torino has their chocolate festival in February/March.)
    You’ll have an amazing time, they’ll all be charmed by your darling girls – Italians love bambini! Living there was one of the best experiences of my life.
    Buon viaggio!!

  121. I never comment, but I am a daily reader of your blog. I absolutely love your family and enjoy reading your posts. I am super duper excited for you and your girls. What a beautiful, wonderful opportunity. God Bless you on your new journey and I definetly look forward to your daily bloggings from Italy.

  123. I always read your blog, but never comment. How exciting for you and your beautiful family. You are going to love, love, love Italy!!! So much to do, so much to see and the food, oh the food. We have a house in the Campania region and we visit every August. My 7 yr old daughter will not go to bed at night unless we have walked to the piazza for gelato. I look forward to reading about your adventures!

  126. OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU!!!!!!! I can’t wait for the Howell Italy Chronicles 🙂 What an opportunity!! What fun the girls will have. Oh I can just see the look on Sadie’s face when someone speaks Italian to her. And the babies trying real gelato for the first time and Harper loving all the Italian ‘ashion. You’re going to have sooo much fun!!!
    On a side note, what happened to J?? What’d I miss? Is he ok?
    ((hugs))

  132. I hope you have an amazing time, what a wonderful place, I can’t wait to hear about it. I was there a few years ago and would love to go back. Ciao!
    ps I just found your blog through Cocoa Daisy and really enjoy it!

  136. ITALY!!! How fabby for you all. The art, the architecture, the food, the people. . . . .I could go on! My late dad was stationed there during WW2, fell in love with the place (and a few ladies!) and took us back to show us the wonderful country.
    You will love, love, love Italy.

  137. OH, how very, very exciting!! I must admit I’m slightly jealous and that’s a a rare thing for me. I don’t practice jealousy. BUT I’m part Italian and I feel like I am being called to go!!! Sadly, It’s a long way off in my future, if at all. I know you will enjoy every minute and if I wasn’t an avid reader of your blog already, I know I won’t be missing a word. Do share it all!! Wishing you and your team the adventure of a lifetime!!

  139. Congratulations! Very exciting. I never got to Vicenza, but when when we lived in Livorno I remember hearing about the “big” military base @ Vicenza. My husband was stationed at Camp Darby in Livorno, Italy. He was only a Sgt. so we had to live on the economy. We lucked out a got a gorgeous penthouse apartment. I was only able to join him for 8 months, but it was amazing! It was 26 years ago and I want to take my husband back before we become to old. He would have lived there forever. That was before cell phones or the Internet so we definitely had some adventures. The people are so wonderful and they really have the right ideas about living in the here and now. Family is so much more important than money. My favorite Ristorante closed for the summer because the family spends the summer on the beach together. Every day they have a Sunday meal late afternoon. The Italian women will dote on your beautiful girls.