Dad's Birthday Dinner

This year for Dad's birthday, mom and I decided to cook him a special Czechoslovakian dinner, with recipes that my family use to make.  I made some Rohlicky (crescent rolls with poppyseeds).

Mom made some Kolaches, fruit filled pastries, sometimes filled with cottage cheese or a poppyseed filling.

For dinner mom cooked some duck.  Not neccesarily a Czech dish, but when we went over to my grandmas for a special dinner they would make duck.  We also had sour beans, another regular dish at grandmas.  And we made a dish called Bubke.  It's sort of like a crumbled pancake topped with lettuce and a slightly sweetened vinegar and cream sauce.  I hadn't had that in years, so it was fun to try again.

For dessert, mom and I attempted to make Babovka.  This is a ring shaped bread that has a poppyseed filling.  I don't think our recipe was quite what Dad had had before, but it was still pretty tasty.  I had never had it before and mom hadn't made it before either, so we gave it our best effort!  It was a fun dinner to do, and it was pretty fun getting back to my "roots".  Happy Birthday Dad!

Christmas Tree Hunting

This year we decided to go out in the wilderness and chop down our own Christmas tree! It'd been a few years since we had done that, and our friends wanted to go. So we met Jimmy and Sarah and the boys in Stanford and headed up Dry Wolf. The boys were really excited to go sledding. It was a pretty cold day. Libby got in a little sledding too before we sat in the pickup with Sarah and Charlie trying to warm up. But we did manage to find 3 beautiful trees.

Thanksgiving

This year we hosted Thanksgiving again at our house. The whole VanKuiken side of the family was in attendance, about 25 people! It's so fun to see the next generation of cousins all playing together. They had a great time. And Libby had a great time playing with cousins and aunts. We hardly saw her the whole day! And of course, what's a little family get-together without some skeet shooting to top off the day!



Baptism

November 12th was a very special day for us.  Libby was baptised.  We had lots of family and friends come to celebrate with us.  After the ceremony we had a nice dinner at our house to celebrate.  It was a great night and we are so happy to have shared this day with our family and friends.

Tim's sister Colette and her husband Kelly are Libby's Godparents.  Kelly was unable to get the time off to make it, but Tim's brother, Marvin was gracious enough to stand in as a witness.  Thank you Colette and Marvin!

Trip to Missoula

We made a trip to Missoula a few weeks ago and went to the last home Griz game.  It's a long trip to make but we always have fun.  We stayed three nights so it was a little more relaxing.

Of course we had to visit campus and go to the Bookstore so we could get Libby some griz gear!

On game day we went to the Press Box for breakfast and Bloody Mary's, as is tradition!  We then headed over to the tailgates and wandered around and talked to some family and friends that were also going to the game.

It was a pretty cold day, so we only styaed til halftime.  We all were a little chilly.  So we watched the rest of the day in the comfort of our hotel room!  Besides the game, our weekend consisted of eating and shopping!  It was nice t oget away for awhile and have a little mini vacation.

Happy Halloween!

We were really excited for Libby's first Halloween.  I'd have to say Halloween is about my favorite holiday.  It took me months to find a costume for Libby.  But I found found an adorable little black kitty costume.  I wasn't sure how she was goign to like being dressed up in a costume but she didn't seem to mind it one bit! 

We started off Halloween on Saturday night. We had famimly movie night at the school where we watched "Spooky Buddies".  We've been trying to do Family Movie Night every month and so far it's going well.  the kids really seem to enjoy it.  Libby wore a special little Halloween outfit that grandma had bought.

On Halloween we got ready for the program at school.  The kids put on a Halloween concert.  I love going to those programs.  It's so much fun to see the excitement and energy of the little ones and the talent and hard work of the older students.  They did an amazing job.  After the concert the senior class had a dinner fundraiser.  It was quite a yummy meal!  Then after that they had a cake walk, pie eating contest, costume contest ad pumpkin carving contest.  Then the kids all got to go "Trunk-or-Treating".  Across the street in the church, the high school kids constructed a Haunted House in the basement.  They put alot of hard work into it and it looked amazing.  It was a great night.  We are so blessed to live in this great community!

Cutest little kitty ever!

Tim and Libby "Trunk-or-Treating"

My Judith Gap Tiger

Tired little Kittty