Kelsey! Thanksgiving!

About a million years ago, Jake's amazing sister, Kelsey, came to visit us.
It was such a HUGE privilege to show her our life here, we were so honored that she flew all the way over to see us!

Sometimes you have to mix fashion with practicality.

According to their family, Kelsey's been an avid Oreo fan since she was little. So it seemed fitting that Oreos made their debut in Prague the week that she was here. (Side note: since their arrival, there've been billboards all over town encouraging the locals to dunk these strange new sandwich cookies in..... milk! Love it!)

This one's for you, Pancake Pammie!

Kelsey also won Most Helpful Visitor Ever, as she was integral in our hosting of Thanksgiving dinner for 20 people. Thank you, sister!

Prepping pecan pie filling & homemade crust.

WonderJake did it again, this time frying TWO turkeys to perfection.

His shenanigins were a great conversation starter with our neighbors, who neither celebrate American Thanksgiving nor have ever heard of smažený krůtí

Creating Pinterest-worthy centerpieces

Thankful Tree

Topping my list of things I am thankful for: All the little old ladies who gave us (what I thought was) excessive amounts of dinnerware at our wedding showers. We used every piece.

That's a latta wine. And a latta cleanup.

Christmas Day

At 27months(!) Foard was more than ready to move out of his crib, which meant a mini-makeover for the boys' room.
It's never easy for a mom to see that crib come down, though (can I get an 'Amen'?)


Surprise!
Their new bunk beds were waiting when they came downstairs Christmas morning. They hopped right in and stayed there for 30 minutes!


Jake put the beds together not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES (they moved from the garage to the den to the boys' room) so that they could be a surprise on Christmas morning.
(Here he is taking a well-deserved break between constructions #2 and 3.)



We were so excited to spend Christmas weekend with Jessica. It was fun to share the wrapping, building and cooking with her, and to make our own new traditions in the process!


Sweetness.


Transformers miss their family, too.
My favorite picture of this year's holiday.


The Hadleys came over and made the afternoon even better!
Here Dennis shows off their Hunt-boy-made Christmas scape.
What exquisite design.


This is what it looks like to get the preacher to church on time on Christmas Day.

Feeling the Love

Happy Valentine's Day!
Sam woke up to see our table adorned in pink, and asked, "Is Valentimes for boys, too?"
It's true. We just don't see a lot of this color in our house.

Don't miss my gorgeous yellow tulips in the corner! I have quite the cupid.


Most of Hunt Valentine's Day 2012 was brought to us by Pammie. Cookie cutters, cards, pencils, muffin wrappers-- what fun-- thank you thank you, Pammie!
VDay isn't really celebrated around here, so nothing was happening at Sam's school. But he was excited to take Spiderman gifts to his friends, so take them he did. It pays to have a TCK in your class!


Cookie decorating. We used a new recipe out of the famous orange book.
[Which I can't link to here because I've suddenly been blocked from Amazon... any other expats having this problem?]


Obligatory two-year-old Dumping of the Sprinkles, and the delightful result.


Traditional Valentine's stegosaurus.


Jake's masterpiece. Shark Week even thought it was worth a mention.


The runners-up.
[That's purple, not gray. Don't call it gray]


Hope you had a love-ly day as well!

Hadleys' House of Fun

You've seen the Hadleys in their mind-blowing Christmas video.

What you haven't seen is how much we LOVE them, how glad we are that they've chosen the hard road of committing to a (cold!) foreign country and sticking it out through the ups& downs.
Jake & I love to laugh with Dennis & Amy, and our boys think their flat is the coolest place ever, so we're always excited to stop in for a winter treat!



Dennis' career in web design translates into super fun toys to play with.


This is the way we roll (minus the potty dance pose).

Well, it was, before we hit -17degrees and had to add another eight layers and some serious snow boots.

Hot chocolate + fun flat + long tram ride = afternoon crash.


Thanks for the fun times and the sweet pictures, friends!

Fun Fall Catch Up

Always catching up....
Here's some randomness from the fall.

A fun family baseball game with the Ilinčevs .





Preciousness.



It's easy to talk a two-year-old into his first haircut when Older-Brother-On-A-Pedestal is getting one, too.




Jake & friends playing American football-- some of them for the first time!



There's a lot of testosterone around here, but my cup runneth over, for sure.