Trying to Catch Up!!!

I know, I know.  I am waaay behind on posting updates.  This having a baby doesn't really leave you a lot of time to blog, much less showering, eating, going to the bathroom, sleeping.....

Anyway thought I would post some recent pictures.  My Christmas pictures are on my other computer and I don't have the internet hooked up on it yet.  When I get everything back in order I'll post some Christmas pictures.

This is from New Years.  We went to Chico Hot Springs on New Year's Eve to swim around for awhile, spent the night in Livingston.  Libby loves the water!  We got her a little innertube that she could float around in.  She just kicked back and enjoyed the water.  She was so cute in her little pnk frilly swimsuit.  We swam for about an hour and a half and she was so content.  So glad she likes the water.  On New Year's Day we met Aunt Colette and Uncle Kelly at White Sulphur Hot Springs for another soak in the hot springs.

Libby and daddy plowing snow:

Tim's birthday was on a very blustery day.  Gust up to 70 mph+.  Lots of semis blowing over, electricity out for awhile, shingles and garbage cans and barbecue tarps flying all over.  It was an eventful day!  Was glad when he was home for a nice birthday supper.  I made steaks with a peppercorn gravy.  The fun part was his birthday cake.  I worked long and hard to make the perfect cake for him.  I made a red velvet cake.  This was my first time using rolled fondant and I think it turned out pretty well for my first time.  I made Tim a toolbox birthday cake.  I was kind of proud of it.  Definitely learned a lot so hopefully the future cakes will go better.

Playing in her car walker:

Playing with Chris and Charlie:

With Sarah & Jimmy:

Valentine's Day



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!