Czechers

Apples and Oranges

2012-01-28T02:45:00.002-01:00

We're finally "settled" and getting into a routine in Utah. People keep saying, "I bet you're so glad to be back!" Yes, we love being in Utah . . . and we loved Prague. Hard to say what's better - apples or oranges. So here's my list:

Things I love about being in Utah
1. Seeing family almost every day
2. Blue skies and sun - even in winter.
3. Amazing sunsets every night through my front window.
4. Vinson's kindergarten. His teacher is amazing and he has lots of friends.
5. I'm not afraid to return things to the store (they won't yell at me) and I can have fairly complicated conversations over the phone - complain about my phone bill etc.
6. The fact that there are baggers at the store who not only put my food in the bag, but put my food on the conveyer belt and walk me to my car. I could just stand there if I wanted to - not that I do.
7. The English selection in the Library.
8. Alta ski free at three.
9. Having a yard.
10. Mexican food - YUM!

Things I miss about Prague
1. The closeness of the expat community - how quickly tightly knit relationships are made.
2. The Babicka's (grandmothers) who would do anything for you and going to the LDS church every Sunday. I get "homesick" for Prague every Sunday.
2. Walking. It's so easy and beautiful to walk in Prague.
3. The amazing parks with playgrounds that are so fun they would be outlawed here. Way funner (and more dangerous) things than the merry go rounds that are now being taken out of parks in the US.
4. The fact that when I went running I could either run to Prague Castle, or Troja Palace and the whole route was beautiful!
5. Public transportation.
6. Czech - hearing it and being amazed how much I underst00d/or didn't understand and having an accent.
7. The beautiful architecture, history and culture.
8. Being in a "big" city where the concerts, events, activities are centered.
9. Having 14 missionaries at church that my boys looked up to and being asked questions about my religion because it's unique.
10. Chocolate!

Culture shock: Probably the funniest stories are due to the fact that strangers are really friendly in the US. The mail man said hello to me and the kids walking home from school and I was so shocked I couldn't respond and by the time I realized he really was talking to me he was already at the door and I was left feeling rude.

So, yes we love being back and Dan loves his job. We miss the Czech Republic. And really as long as I'm with Dan, I could be happy living anywhere. :)

Christmas Letter 2011

2011-12-27T21:44:00.001-01:00

Dear family and friends,

21011 has been a big year for us!

Dan passed his final geography exam for Charles University and just has to finish writing and defending his dissertation to finish his PhD. This made the prospect of moving back to the US more realistic and he found a job advertisement that was pretty much describing him: a degree in geography, experience using GIS, knowledge of Eastern Europe, and the ability to read Cyrillic alphabets and experience living abroad. Of course, he applied and after several Skype interviews was offered a job with FamilySearch, a across the pond. Dan is now working in Salt Lake and we are living with his grandmother in Kaysville.

Our second miracle this year was the birth of our daughter Charlotte Lucie Reeves in July. She was two weeks late, but born early enough to see Grandma and Grandpa Reeves who traveled to Prague to help our transition to a family of five. Charlotte is the easiest going baby who gets lots of love from her two brothers. She loves to growl, squeal and slobber on anyone lucky enough to hold her.

Benjamin turned three and is finally potty trained! He is quite the talker and loves to play imagination games with Vinson, some of which he leads. He enjoys going to parks and watching Backyardigans.

Vinson has had a big year starting school. He started the school year in a Czech školka (kindergarten), before we had any idea that we would be moving. It was difficult for him in the beginning but he made friends and was learning all kinds of Czech. His transition to kindergarten in the US (no changing clothes/shoes, walking to public parks, etc.) has gone more smoothly than we had anticipated and he has made several friends. The other day he told me he loves America because everyone understands him. J

Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

Dan, Val, Vinson, Benji, and Charlotte

Who looks like who?

2011-10-13T11:54:00.008-01:00

We are a happy family. (In front of the LDS Church after Charlotte's baby blessing.)
When I look at Charlotte I can't believe how much she looks like Vinson to me. What do you think? Here are the kid's passport photos. Charlotte is a few weeks older since it took a little longer for her to get a passport (her first birth certificate said her name was Charlotte Lucie Reevesova). But it's still fun to compare and have the pictures back to back.
Charlotte's passport photo:
Benjamin's passport photo:

Vinson's passport photo:
As for other news, Charlotte's blessing was absolutely beautiful and an amazing experience. Here is Benji "giving" Charlotte a blessing.Charlotte in her blessing dress looking like she's at attention:
Benjamin before he was blessed at church:Vinson before he was blessed at church:Update on školka: Vince is picking up Czech so quickly. He even says some words in Czech at home because it's what comes to his head first.
Funny story: A few days ago Vince pointed to his but and said, "Mam velky zadek." (I have a big but) Now I know he didn't learn that from home - what are they teaching him at school ;-). BUT was too pleased that he was speaking Czech to give a more appropriate response and said, "Wow Vince! You're speaking Czech so well!"

Vinson in školka

2011-09-10T17:41:00.006-01:00

Vinson started školka (Czech kindergarten) last week. He's been really excited. We made sure that he knew that all the kids and teacher would only speak Czech so he wouldn't have any surprises. There are 27 kids in the class. Vince said, "There are so many kids, even so many that I can't count them. . . but the teacher can." Good thing huh? When we got there some other kids were crying and having a hard time. It's a good thing for me that he had no problem and went straight for the toys. Benji had the hardest time because he wanted to stay. Vince likes school. He might not understand everything but it sounds like he's understanding more than he realizes and everyday he says he liked it. I'm really hoping he can make some good friends. He's going to learn a lot this school year.Cultural differences: Kindergarten in the Czech Republic is focused more on social skills so there is more play time and less structured lesson time. We're doing some reading lessons at home so he won't be behind when we move back to the states. Czech kids spend a lot of time changing their clothes. When they arrive they change into their indoor clothes and put on their indoor shoes. They change into pajamas for nap time. The main meal of the day is lunch so they have warm meals. Vince is having a hard time getting used to having soup and meat for lunch everyday. There's a lot of things he is getting used to - but he likes it! Horray!
I'm so proud of my big brave boy!

Charlotte’s Photo Shoot

2011-08-26T07:13:00.003-01:00

My friend, Anička Piškova, offered to do some pictures. They turned out so great! Here are some of my favorites:

A little late but worth the wait!!

2011-07-29T18:32:00.003-01:00

Our little girl has finally arrived! Val gave birth to a beautiful healthy baby just before noon today. Mother and baby are doing fine and we hope to bring them home from the hospital soon.

After being with Val for the delivery, I brought the boys some cool new footwear. Vince was quick to add a face mask so that he could be more like a real doctor!

Later, we all got to go and visit Val and Charlotte (new baby’s name).

Vital stats…

height: 48 cm weight: 3.17 kg

Stories by Vinson

2011-07-25T13:18:00.003-01:00

God told Jonah to go to Nineveh to tell the people to repent. He got on a boat going the wrong way. There was a bad storm and he was thrown into the ocean to save the boat. Jonah got eaten by a whale.

Here he is inside the whale. He’s not very happy. There is smoke coming out of the whale.

The whale spit Jonah out and he went to Nineveh. The people repented.

THE PIRATE

Once there was a pirate that had a huge hat.

And the hat got smaller.

And smaller until it was just the right size. And they saw a door in a tree and they went down the stairs and they saw an X and they dug up treasure!

Vince has been going through 5-10 pieces of paper every day drawing. He's gotten really good. It's fun to see what he comes up with.

Trip to Venice with Emily

2011-06-25T11:56:00.001-01:00

We wanted to let Emily see a little more of Europe than just Prague and went on an awesome trip! Dan made this map that shows what we did.

We stopped in Hallstadt for a lunchbreak. It’s a beautiful mining town on a lake in the Alps.

Then we drove to Lake Bled, Slovenia.

It’s another beautiful city by a lake. There’s a castle and a church on the island in the lake. Our favorite part of Lake Bled was our hike in Vintgar Gorge. The river was so clear, and the foliage was so green and to top it off the hike ended at a waterfall!

The next day we drove to Punta Sabbioni where we camped on the beach. The drive there was beautiful!

The boys liked the beach the best! The water was great!

The next day we took a boat to Venice.

Then we drove to Nevegal where we camped. On the way there were biker names painted all over the road. We missed the Giro by 4 days.

Finally we drove home taking our time driving through the dolomites (Italian Alps). So incredibly beautiful!

Emily's Visit

2011-06-18T19:32:00.006-01:00

My sister Emily came to visit for a month. She "earned" her keep babysitting the boys while I taught English at an elementary school. The boys loved her! It was to the point that when I tried to comfort Benji from crying he yelled, "No, I want Emily!" It was wonderful! We toured around Prague and the Czech Republic and thoroughly wore me out, but had a lot of fun! Here are some highlights:
Kutna Hora Outing at the National Museum
VyšehradWe went to the Estates Theater to see the Marriage of Figaro, then the next night Dan and I were able to go to a Symphony at the Obecni Dum.Day trip to Cesky Krumlov, just me and Emily.Paddle boating on the Vltava We also went on a trip to Lake Bled, Venice and the Dolomites. Pictures of this trip coming up soon! It was so good to have Emily here. We really miss her!

Easter

2011-05-03T11:09:00.006-01:00

Saturday we went to the Easter markets to buy pomlasky - Easter whips. In smaller towns and in the country boys whip girls (to give them fertility) and sing a rhyme in exchange for candy/eggs. We learned how to make pomlasky last year, but it seemed weird to go to a park and cut some willow branches off. The boys enjoyed practicing on each other.

I LOVE Czech Easter eggs!

(Check out the blue egg that is shaped like a basket!)

We enjoyed the animals and craft barn in Old Town Square.

Sunday the boys found their baskets. They got more candy this Easter than Christmas and Halloween combined!

On Easter Monday we have a tradition of going to the Čubovi. They practice the whipping tradition and have four girls! Honza, their only boy, showed us the huge box of candy he got from his whippings - amazing. My lucky boys got to celebrate the Czech and American way and got enough candy to last them a week!

Lisbon, Portugal

2011-04-23T19:01:00.001-01:00

Warning: Travel log with lots of pictures.

Dan had a conference in Lisbon, so I joined him for the first few days of his trip for our annual anniversary getaway. We dropped the kids off at the Bunnells, (thank you Bunnells!!!) and flew to Lisbon after our boys went to bed. On Friday we went to Sintra.

Dan outside the train station. In front of Sintra’s Royal Palace

Moorish Castle

Sintra Palace

The middle building is covered in this tile! It’s BEAUTIFUL!

These lilies were growing like weeds in the garden!

Saturday we started at the Thieves’ Market and found this awesome fireman hat for a euro!

The old trams felt like they were going to fall apart and they went in the narrow streets up and down crazy steep hills. It was like a roller coaster. My favorite was when I got on the tram driver said, “I’m not leaving until this lady has a seat!” Getting some pregnant perks.

Then we went to Belem to see the sights!

We loved the Jeronimos Monastery it was amazingly ornate.

Lisbon was a beautiful city! It was nice to have the conference to pull us there and awesome friends to watch our kids!

Easter Creations

2011-04-12T06:55:00.006-01:00

First, a fun Easter story from Vinson. We were at the park and he was drawing with chalk. Then he told me he was going to play the chicken game. I asked him how it worked. He sat on the ground and drew some eggs under him then jumped up and said, "Let's count how many eggs." It cracked me up! (cracked me up lol!). He kept laying eggs all over the playground, and it was so funny to see him sitting down like he was the chicken. So funny!

An update. I'm insured and registered for a hospital! The stress level has gone down. If you're curious, I got to step 76. I finished the steps here. I finished before at 68.

Last Saturday I invited some friends over to do Czech style Easter Eggs. Dan took the boys to the park while we decorated. Vince's smile is strange because he was trying to eat pistachios shell and all.

It's really easy!
1. Melt 1/2 bees wax 1/2 crayon (crayon for color). I did this by putting the wax in a tea candle container that was attached to the top of a jar. Then I put candles underneath to melt the wax.
2. Stick a glass tipped pin in an eraser so you have a drawing utensil.
3. Dip the pin in the wax and draw lines or dots to make your decoration.

They turned out great! The pictures aren't great since our camera only uses flash half the time.
My latest project is making paper baskets. The family center I volunteer at teaches crafts once a month, so I learned how to make a basket out of a phone book. You can learn how here. It has been perfect to do while listening to General Conference. I love Easter!

Widows Mites - or a few bananas and a treat

2011-03-30T08:38:00.006-01:00

Maybe you're familiar with the Bible story of the Widows mites - if not you can read it here.

Yesterday we were in a park waiting for Dan and Benji was pushing the stroller. The park was practically empty so I wasn't very worried about what the stroller hit. Of course when I wasn't paying attention he ended up running into a young man sitting on a bench. He was clad in military type clothes had a bag and a box of wine. From the look of him I got the impression that he might be homeless.
He offered Benji a banana and when I came to get the stroller he followed me back to our bench to give Vince a banana too.
He started talking to the boys. Vince understood everything and answered correctly only in English.

Jak se maš? Fine
Jak se jmenueš? Vinson

I explained that we were Americans but had lived in Prague for 4 years so Vince understood only answered in English. The boys weren't extremely friendly. Benji gave him some good smiles and Vince made him laugh because his name is Gorge and Vince thought it was funny that George - like the monkey - was giving them bananas. He ended up giving each of them 2 or 3 bananas. He told me he lived near Hlavni Nadrazi (which has a park that is a popular "resting ground" for the homeless and druggies). We talked for a little while.
Then Gorge told me he was going to the Tabak for a cigarette and asked if we would be there when he got back. I told him we were waiting for my husband but we'd probably still be there. He came back with a cigarette for himself and a pastry for the boys to share.
I really have no idea if my suspicions were correct - and that he was homeless - and if he was giving my boys all the food he had, definitely possible, but it touched me how generous people are to my boys. Maybe to them friendliness and sweet smiles are a rare treat.

February Fun

2011-03-03T09:54:00.001-01:00

For Valentines day the boys made valentines day boxes (or Love Day boxes as the boys would say – darn that Blue’s Clues :) I tried to put something in their box the week leading up to valentines day. They also made valentines for their grandmas. All of them. When I asked Vince how many grandmas he had he said, “A LOT!” “Okay, how many do you have in America?” The reason for the confusion is that there are a lot of really cute old women at church who love the boys and give them chocolate or little presents practically every week.

Benji’s Vinson’s

I’ve also been nesting. I borrowed a friends sewing machine and sewed in all the free time I had for a week. I made this quilt for a friend and started squares for a baby quilt.

Vinson is 5! I can’t believe it time passes so quickly! We had a pirate themed birthday party and had it in the family center I volunteer at. It was pretty wild but everyone had a good time. We made pirate hats and did a treasure hunt.

Vince is such a good helper! I usually have to tell him to leave toys for Benji to pick up when we’re cleaning up. He really tries hard to please and plays so well with Benji. He is phenomenal with legos and loves to ride his bike, help mom cook, and play World of Goo on the computer this is an awesome game! (he also acts out the game with legos). We love Vinson! He’s such a good boy!

2011-03-02T10:51:00.001-01:00

Some of you have asked about updates on my insurance struggle. I added to the list below the last post. It's still not finished . . . There is good news and bad news. The "good" news is that I might actually make it to 100. The bad news is that I STILL DON'T HAVE INSURANCE!!

Shhhh . . . the baby will hear.

2011-02-13T12:55:00.002-01:00

Vinson's favorite food is macaroni and cheese (home made - you can't get it out of a box here). He would eat this every day if I would let him. The problem lately is that the thought of macaroni and cheese, even the thought, makes me sick. So if he eats it I've got to make something else for me. Luckily mac & cheese has been my only problem - pretty much. I asked Vince what he wanted for dinner and he yelled, "Macaroni and Cheese!!!" Then saw my face and whispered, "macaroni and cheese. We've got to be quiet or the baby will hear us and say, 'yucky.'"
They're both very excited to have a sister. They talk to my belly all the time. Hopefully they'll love her just as much when she's here in person. Due July 14th.

100 steps a pregnant foreigner has to take to get Insurance and have a baby in a hospital: Part 1

2011-01-31T13:36:00.014-01:00

I have an urge to listen to hard punk rock and punch a punching bag or throw things. But I'll write this post instead as a way to vent.

Steps a pregnant foreigner (who has the help of someone who speaks fluent Czech) has to take to get insurance. (If you don't have help - don't even try. It's impossible because 1. The people at the foreign insurance office don't speak English. 2. Secretaries for doctors don't speak English - so finding a doctor and setting up appointments are impossible.)

1. Find out what options there are.
2. If you want the insurance to cover the birthing process there really is only one option: VZP
3. Make sure you can pay $3000 in cash for the entire year of insurance or 48,000 kc to be exact. This takes some time.
4. Go to the Foreign insurance office and get the paperwork.
5. Fill out the paperwork
6. Do the following:
Go to a Gyno to have a sonogram and pap smear.
Get blood tests done
Have a physical from a doctor
7. Set up an appointment with the Gyno I saw when I was pregnant before.
8. Go on time but wait 1 1/2 hours to be seen.
9. Only to be turned away because they won't accept VZP for foreigners anyway, oh and be told that I'd be lucky if there were any doctors in Prague who take that type of insurance because it's awful.
10. Stop crying. I am pregnant and emotional after all.
11. Go to the insurance office and demand a list of doctors that accept VZP. 4 years ago this list existed. It doesn't anymore.
12. Find doctors via the internet to call.
13. Call. Answer: "We're sorry, we're not able to take new clients at this time."
14. Repeat step 13 (6 or 7 times).
15. Call. Answer: "We're sorry, we're taking new clients but not with VZP"
16. Repeat step 13 and 15.
17. Call. Answer: "Yes, we are accepting new clients and take VZP but we can't fit you in for 2 1/2 weeks." Set up appointment.
18. Go to MOTOL to get blood tests done.
19. Fill out paperwork only to be told, "We're sorry, we're only open from 8- 10. Come back tomorrow"
20. Go to MOTOL Hospital turn in paper work and pay $140.
21. See the nurse and get bloodwork done.
22. Wait 5 days to pick up results and see a doctor. Go back to MOTOL
23. Wait for an hour to see doctor.
24. Have doctors exam. During questioning she found out I have a weird blood disease: thalassemia. "You might need to have another blood test, since we didn't know this before. You'll have to pay a lot for it. But you probably won't need it."
25. Go to new gyno.
26. Fill out paperwork.
27. Wait 30 min (probably a record low!)
28. Get sonogram and pap smear done. Get pink prenatal book. It was a good thing I knew I needed my prenatal book, because I had to ask for it. Not understood. Describe it. Got the book. Finally! - this is required to register for hospitals in CZ. (Side note: On your 14th week of pregnancy -to the day - you are supposed to sign up for a hospital. I got my book on week 16.)
29. Turn in paper work to insurance office. Wait for their doctors to approve insurance. 1 week.
30. Work on registering for a hospital, now that I have the pink book. Call Apolinář - Full
31. Call Podolí - Full
32. Call Bulovka - Openings!
33. Go to Bluovka
34. Wait
35. Prenatal book, check - passport, check - insurance card . . . what you don't have insurance? Come back when you have insurance. I'll guarantee you a spot for 2 weeks. - Great. I should have insurance by then. . .
36. Get called from insurance office saying there are additional things they want.
37. Go get list - ask what list means only to be told, "I don't know."
38. Wait for insurance person to call someone who knows. Get phone number.
39. Call phone number - Oh wait, it's the idiot who was the "someone who knows." He gave his own number instead of the correct one.
40. Call correct number. No answer.
41. Next morning call the correct number. Talk to the doctor. What's the problem? There were two: The doctor's report had a question mark on it. You can't give someone insurance if there's a question mark on the medical report. There's always someone else to blame - so we get the run around. The second problem was that the law changed two weeks before my blood test and they now require something they didn't before and apparently the message didn't get communicated to the foreign section of the hospital yet, a mistake I had to pay for. It's fair - right? I needed two more blood tests and a letter from my doctor in the US? What! Dan convinced her the letter could be from my Czech doctor.
43. Go to Motol again. They were still sure I didn't need the blood test but my doctor wasn't answering the phone.
44. Talk to the lab doctor. They sent me to Hematology - with directions - section B 3rd floor.
45. Get lost looking for Hematology.
46. A nice doctor took me to Hematology - they game me the wrong directions.
47. Talk to the secretary at Hematology. They said they couldn't schedule me in for 2 weeks. I started crying and they made room for me in a week.
48. By now I was panicking that I wouldn't get a spot in the hospital because it had already been a week plus one week until the appointment plus another week for the results plus another week for the doctor at the insurance place to give me insurance. So we went again to Bulovka.
49. The nurse said, "Where's your insurance card?" We don't have insurance. "Then why are you here? I can't sign you up without insurance." But last time you said we could. "Yeah, if you prepay for the entire delivery." How much is that. "I don't even know. Do you want to do that?" No. "Look I know your situation, and I promise I'll sign you up whenever you get insurance, just don't wait until your last month of pregnancy." PHEW!!! GREAT!
50. Went to Motol again for the appointment.
51. Waited 2 HOURS!
52. Saw the doctor and had another physical.
53. Got my blood drawn.
54. Went to pay for the visit. After gasping the guy said, "You'll probably have to pay more when you pick up the results. I couldn't find everything." What!!
55. Go to Motol to pick up the results. Should be, what 10 min?
56. Wait for another 2 hours! This time I had the kids with me too.
57. The doctor gave me her synopsis. I'm healthy now, but she wants me to come back in a onth because I might have to have a blood transfusion.
58. Pay again. GASP!!! I paid almost the same as last time. This is getting ridiculous. No it was at ridiculous on number 25.
59. Go to the insurance office.
60. Wait for 20 minutes before I interrupted the man two people ahead in the line. All I need to do is give you these papers. Thanks!
61. Call to make sure the results were in and I wasn't making a pointless trip.
62. Repeat 61 seven times.
63. Go to the insurance place. The main lady was sick. The person there didn't know anything. "Come back at 3:00" What are you kidding me. I've been here many times already. If the paperwork was approved it is here somewhere. Call someone.
64. Denied. I started crying uncontrollably.
65. Dan called the doctor and according to her we didn't keep our end of the bargain by giving a medical history from my blood doctor. I don't have a blood doctor. I'm not THAT sick! I did have a paper from the hematologist written to my gynecologist that described my "condition." She gave us another chance.
66. Dan wrote a letter explaining that I'm a healthy person and that they have no right not giving me insurance. If she was a real doctor she would realize that from the results I gave her - He didn't write the last part but yesterday was a really hard day for us.
67. Turn in the paperwork AGAIN and we'll find out next week if 1. I'll get insurance. 2. We'll have to prepay for the birth out of pocket. 3. We've even joked about going to the US, but I don't really see how that would help anything. OR 4. Since we started this process there is another company, Slavia, that does insurance, but it's at least $1,000 more than VZP.
68. Denied AGAIN! I don't understand it. I'm a healthy person. It seems like something that should be fought, but I'm tired, and running out of time.
69. Stop crying.
70. Dan found another insurance agency - which will cost a fortune but has no prerequisite requirements - like a doctors appointment (or 10).
71. Wait until we have enough money.
72. Ask if there's any way to get a discount. What do we have to loose? Dan got us a 5% discount saving us 4,000 kc (about $200).
73. Go to the insurance office. Transfer a fortune to their account.
74. In return I got a cardboard card - written in pen. You would think they could give me a card that looked a little more professional but as long as it works.
75. Go to Bulovka to register for a hospital.
76. Wait in line for an hour for a stamp and a signature. And I'm registered! YEAH!

Family Christmas Letter

2011-01-18T13:46:00.006-01:00

We sent this to some people by email, but for those of you who haven't seen it. . . here it is. (And send me a message so I can get your email in my list of contacts.)

Dear Family and Friends,

As the year comes to a close we can’t help but think about those we love (you) and we’d like to update you on the Reeves family happenings. We are still living in Prague (4 years and counting) and just moved to a bigger apartment. The boys have their own room, we have a full sized fridge, and oven! Very exciting! Still more exciting is the fact that we are expecting a new baby long about next July.

Dan is working on his PhD and has made good progress in the requirements. He’s even a “little Dr.” RNDr. – which doesn’t mean much unless your Czech. Then you would say, “Wow! Impressive!” and call him “Pane Doktore.” Dan gets offered more work (translating and editing from Czech to English) than he can manage, almost entirely from professors in his Geography Department. Dan is now practically Czech, since his language skills are absolutely amazing. Dan is the most amazing husband and father and we are so blessed to have him as part of our family.

Val found several new ways to stay busy this year. She is still volunteering at a local family centre (she also happens to grace their Internet homepage, along with Vince and Benji: http://rcletna.cz). She does all kinds of fun art projects with the boys, some of which she then uses at the family centre (pardon my British, Val is making fun of me ;-). She also teaches a popular singing class for toddlers and moms. In the fall, Val started teaching English at a preschool one day a week. She still finds time to take good care of the three boys in her family and we all appreciate her very much!

Vince is so much fun to have around. He keeps us entertained with his stories, games and prayers. He is a great brother and includes Benji in a lot of his fun and games. He likes pretending to be various superheroes and utilizing his awesome Lego skills. Vince gave organized sports a try recently, at a local football (soccer) club. He seemed to prefer playing tag to playing soccer, although he did enjoy the warm-up drills. We will try again next year.

Benji likes to be with his brother and is picking up language, counting and alphabet skills pretty quickly. He loves to sing, especially I Am a Child of God and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. His favorite pastimes are reading books with daddy, cuddling with mommy, watching Dora and Boots (as he would call it) and playing with Vinson.

We wish all of you a wonderful holiday season. It is great to remember our Savior Jesus Christ, his example, his teachings and his precious gifts. And as always, a new year gives us a great opportunity to reflect and (re-)commit ourselves to be more like Him.

Love, Dan, Val, Vince and Benji Reeves

Mikulaš

2010-12-19T06:55:00.001-01:00

Milulaš was actually two weeks ago, but it was so much fun we still wanted to do this post. (It’s late partly due to laziness and partly because I’ve been working on another post but the darn videos won’t upload. Hopefully that one will come soon.)

Mikulaš is the Czech Santa Clause, only he comes on December 5th instead of Christmas. (Baby Jesus is the one who delivers the presents – all of them – and the tree). Mikulaš is always found with an angel and Cert (a devil). Usually the threesome goes to homes and comes to schools. But you are bound to find them roaming downtown on Dec. 5th. So we always head for Old Town Square. If you have been good Mikulaš checks and finds your name in his book. If you are nice the Angel will give you a present (commonly a chocolate depicting Mikulaš, Cert or an Angel). If you are bad than Cert frightens you with his chains and gives you a bag of rocks – to help you want to be better – so actually Cert is good .

Mikulaš wasn’t able to come to our house this year but left some chocolates for the boys because they were so good. Vince is the perfect age for this. All other years we had to hunt down Mikulaš, but this year Vince was a magnet for them. Mikulaš asks you if you were good and then usually asks you to sing a rhyme. Vince was pretty cute saying, “hodný, hodný!” Good, good. We taught Vince how to say, “Can I in English.” and then he sang Twinkle Twinkle little star. We got some good candy and Benji was only afraid of Cert until he got the candy.

Skills

2010-12-16T19:01:00.002-01:00

Benji has really enjoyed music! We catch him singing songs to himself all the time. I've tried uploading the video TOO MANY TIMES! So you can click on this link to see it. Benji is singing Where is Thumbkin but got stuck on pointer here.

We wanted to have Vince interacting with Czech kids more, so we tried out soccer. It was interesting! Vince was the smallest and almost the youngest on the team and he finally told me he didn't like how the other kids ran so much faster than him. I didn't blame him. We lasted a month, but are going to try again in the summer. Vince learned some valuable words in Czech like "stop, stay there, right there." I overheard him telling it to Benji. And he made a good friend Marion (the oldest biggest boy who liked to play tag with Vince during breaks - unfortunately Vince wanted to extend this to practice time too. The coach was really great! But probably glad we stopped coming. Practice went something like this (Vince is in blue):

Halloween

2010-11-17T18:51:00.001-01:00

We went trick or treating to Nebusice (one of the only places in Prague you can trick-or-treat). Benji ate candy the entire time we trick-or-treated. Vince ended up with about double the candy. Benji’s got his mom’s sweet tooth.

Benji got to dress up at his music class.

I like to take the kids to Stromovka to get their pictures before Halloween. Vince couldn’t decide what to be so I got pictures of him as Vodnik (a Czech fairytale water sprite).

Then we had another photo shoot with the boys in their lion costumes.

Slovakia Part 3–The End (For everyone but Dan that is)

2010-10-29T19:20:00.001-01:00

Sunday we went to church in Košice. We doubled the size of the Mormon congregation (practically) seeing as Mormon missionaries haven’t been there very long and it’s a very young branch. It rained.

Košice has an awesome city center with fountains that “dance” to music played over speakers. The kids could have spent all day there – Val too.

We didn’t have the internet in the apartment so every now and then we would haul the kids to the school. Dan’s a pretty unique student: married . . . with kids . . . American . . . and Mormon! No wonder all of his professors know him by name.

After we left Dan gave two lectures at the University. The first one was on Mormon culture and history. The second one was on Utah’s unique regional geography. They both went really well.

We took a couple more trips. First we went to Levoča. It has an amazing wooden altar in a really beautiful church.

Then we went to Bardejov which has a really cute square. We also took a bus to another Skanzen (outdoor museum)

We had an “adventure” coming home. I came home by myself with two boys, a large stroller and a 60 pound suitcase. We had to ride the train to a smaller station to get on the night train to come home. The night train came and I was the first one on with the stroller and Vince. The train car guy took me to our room, then I ran back to get the suitcase. I was stressed! Dan said, "don't worry you have time." I hauled the suitcase back to our room and then the train car guy talked to me again because he wanted me to pay more money because I had a kid and we only paid for one bed. I had to cut him off cause Dan was still holding Benji. Vince was in the room, I said I'd be right back. Started towards the doors and the train started moving. I freaked. What about Ben! Then I ran back and this nice looking guy was holding Benji sleeping in his arms. Phew!!! I love Slovaks! They are SO NICE! I got Benji and then went back to the car. The train guy then realized I had 2 kids and one bed so he came to try to get me to pay for another bed (I would have done it, but had no money) - so he told me under no circumstances was I to sleep in the other bed- all in Slovak with me speaking Czech. I was pretty impressed with myself. (Slovak to me is exactly like Czech spoken with a Ukrainian accent). I slept . . . not well but we made it home!

Dan: “And I had to wait until the next day to find out if sleeping Benji made it back to Mama and Vince…”

Slovakia … part 2

2010-10-24T18:57:00.001-01:00

Here is Princess Mirka. She is a geography student at Prešov who invited our family to see Stará Ľubovňa Castle where she works.

Benji and Vince “almost” there after hiking through town. And up the hill. Funny how all castles are on hills. Castle in sight!

This is how our boys play chess. Benji seems to be winning.

My favorite part of the castle would have to be the boar rug and the stalactites growing in the dungeon.

Stará Ľubovňa also has a skanzen (kind of like Pioneer village –for you Utahans) cute old log cabins and churches gathered in a little museum village.

Our boys were a little suspicious of the locals.

Slovakia

2010-10-23T18:42:00.006-01:00

Dan was invited to be a guest lecturer at the University of Prešov and got a foreign exchange grant as long as he stayed there at least 3 1/2 weeks. Through his program he has to do some study abroad time so we decided it was a good opportunity to work on his requirement and see Slovakia.
The only downside was that Val and the kids could only stay for 1 1/2 weeks.

We took the night train. Vince was super excited because he got to sleep on the top bunk!Prešov is a really cute city with amazingly friendly people!Here Vince is at the "pizza park."We had authentic halušky! Yum! Dinner was great! (Even though Benji shattered his glass on the floor.The boys favorite part of Prešov was probably throwing rocks off the bridge by the university building. I kept taking pictures of the old women. They were so cute with their skirts, aprons, and scarfs!Here we are at a Špiš Castle (known for being enormous!) We had to hike up this big hill and walk to the other side of the castle to get to the entrance. It was worth the hike - the castle was awesome!More Slovakia travel log to follow:

We are a Happy Family!

2010-09-18T05:17:00.002-01:00

New Place!

2010-09-06T19:15:00.001-01:00

We're moving up in life! Literally. We moved up the street, up the hill to a bigger and better apartment! Yes, we're still in Prague and will be for at least 2 more years. The realization that our three year plan came and went and we aren't planning on leaving Prague anytime soon kicked in and we had to branch out from a temporary living mindset. We've changed our way of thinking - bought toys for Christmas that we knew couldn't go back to the U.S. with us. And we decided we needed a bigger apartment. So, during almost all of Dan's free time for the last few months, Dan has been looking for a new apartment in the right location, with the right price, furnished, etc. We - I mean Dan entirely by himself with my blessing - found a really great place! and it's only three blocks away from our old apartment, so it's close to public transportation and in between two of the biggest parks in Prague. But the absolute best part about it is that the boys have their own room - where they can play with toys that I'm not tripping over all the time. We can have friends over in the evening and they don't have to hide in our bedroom until they kids fall asleep. It makes the house so much easier to keep clean - and we have room for company to crash.
It's amazing what little things I'm getting excited about - cooking with an oven, having a "bigger"washer, a freezer that freezes things solid. It's hard to believe we lived for 4 years with a two room apartment and a hallway/kitchen. The boys slept in the living room/office/dining room and my kitchen had a toaster oven - that's it - toaster oven - and our mini fridge was in a closet in our bedroom. Yes, definitely enjoying the new place!

Mothers worst nightmare!

2010-08-15T19:38:00.003-01:00

My friend Tiffa came to visit us and we decided to go paddleboating on the river. After a great time we walked to the tram stop where it was unusually crowded. It is high tourist season and the stop we were at (Narodni Divadlo - for you prazaci) was packed. Our tram came and Tiffa helped me onto the tram where I did my usual check list. Benji - check, Vinson - where is Vinson? There are so many people and he often runs to a chair by himself and sits down. Sweeping the chairs and getting more anxious, "Vinson! Vinson!" The tram shut the doors and started pulling away. I still thought there was a good chance Vince was on the tram. He is so independent lately. As the tram pulls away in slow motion I see Vinson on the platform crying and walking into the street to follow the tram. The tram turned and he was out of sight. For those who don't know the stop from Narodni Divadlo to Staromestka is one of the longest, and it's one where trams and cars share the street. I was imagining Vince getting plowed. He's so small I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't even see him. My face went white and some nice Czech women who caught on to what was going on and watched this whole thing were as horrified as myself. One told me to push the emergency button and the other ran towards the driver to explain the problem. I buzzed and buzzed and the tram stopped - more likely from traffic than that the woman actually reached the driver or my buzzing - and I forced the doors open and sprinted back to Vinson praying that he was safe. Then I saw him holding an old woman's hand. Vince saw me and ran to me still crying. Vince: "Mom you got on the tram and I wasn't on the tram." We talked about what happened and how both of us would make sure it never happened again. Phew!!! Then I was getting panicky as we were walking back to the next tram stop that Tiffa wouldn't get off at the next stop and she would get lost with Benji and if this were the case I knew she didn't know how to get to our house. But there she was waiting at the next stop. Double phew!! That was enough excitement to last . . . well forever. I love Vinson!

Quick Trip

2010-08-15T18:13:00.012-01:00

While Valerie's friend Tiffa was in town, we decided to go on a short road trip...Road Trip Excitement!

Tiffa needed to be in Vienna on Wednesday and there are a couple of chateaus on the way to Vienna that have been on our want-to-visit list for a long time.

On Tuesday morning we picked up a rental car and headed for Mikulov:
where we ate some lunch.
Then we went on a tour of nearby Lednice Chateau:
before traveling a few kilometers to Valtice to see the outside of another chateau:
and eat some dinner.This whole time, strange things had been going on with the rental car. I thought it was an alignment issue after I checked (several times) to see if we had a flat tire. As we were driving back to Mikulov to the hostel we were going to stay at, the problem was so bad that the steering wheel was rhythmically vibrating and we started hearing a repetitive clunking sound from the front tires.A local family of good Samaritans noticed, and were kind enough to tell us, that we were down to one lug nut out of five on the driver side front wheel. Apparently the entire wheel was wobbling back and forth as we drove. From outside the car, it was an easier problem to diagnose:The man who stopped us was super helpful. We jacked the car up and "borrowed one lug nut from each of the other wheels, so that they were all just one nut short of a complete set and the car worked wonderfully the rest of the trip!

Mikulov at night.

The next morning we drove to Vienna and met up with Tiffa's friend Dan. We had lunch together and saw a little of the town, before we went our separate ways.

"Hang loose lane"

Val and I drug the boys through Vienna's Kunsthistorsche MuseumMy favorite part of this picture is that Vinson is so obviously bored with Caravaggio's David and Goliath David mit dem Haupt des Goliath in the background:

before we hit the road for Melk...

the site of a huge baroque monastery overlooking the Danube:
We stayed the night and went through the monastery the next morning.

We then drove through the scenic Wachau Valley between Melk and Krems and made our way back into Czechia and home.We asked Vince about his favorite part of the trip... "riding in the car". Not only is riding in a car a novelty for our boys, they had a portable dvd player in the back seat to keep them entertained. It's funny all we go through to have adventures and see interesting sites...
All in all though, it was a great trip.

Body Painting

2010-07-03T17:00:00.005-01:00

We have been lucky enough to join an art group every Thursday morning. We've done some pretty messy stuff in a nearby park and of course the kids end up covered in paint. Well, wouldn't it be fun if that was the point? Give the kids paint and brushes and say get messy! But where? This time it ended up being at our house because we happen to have a hose in the parking lot behind our apartment, which was better than everyone else, so last week we did body painting here. (All you with back yards are so lucky!)
I love this picture. It's blotto painting on bellies!Paint tag! You're it!Cleaning up. Benji loved being in the garbage can full of water. He wouldn't let me take him out until everything was all cleaned up.

Why is it so hard to take a good passport photo?

2010-06-22T08:04:00.001-01:00

I needed a passport photo and decided it would be easier to do it myself at home. This is what we got, even with bribery and pleading to just look at me and smile.
For those who can't read this it says: Too angry, too mischievous, too innocent, too squinty, too ferocious, too cheesy, too distracted, and distracted, Good Enough!!

Summer is here!

2010-06-10T19:09:00.007-01:00

Last Saturday was the first weekend that really felt like summer so we decided to have a super awesome day! First we took the motorcycles to the park. After the hill Dan and I wore our rollerblades. This video shows just how masterfully the boys are at riding by now.Sidenote: after watching this video you can imagine a lot better what it's like for me going to the park weekly. Vince rides his motorcycle down, most the time stopping where he is supposed to, but usually as far in front of Benji as shown in this video. Benji is riding much too fast for his skill level (in his mother's opinion), but having too much fun for me to stop him. So I try to hold on to his collar and run down the hill and manage the stroller with the other hand while keeping an eye on Vinson. Every now and then I have to put Benji in the stroller and chase Vince down yelling "STOP VINSON STOP!!!" You can imagine the fun looks I get during this charade.
Back to our super awesome Saturday: We roller bladed through the park to Zámek Troja (a beautiful chateau across the river from us.) On the way the boys learned some tricks.
Then we evaded the crocodiles and made our way through a maze to the treasure tree.

(Google Earth view of the maze)
There is a maze in the garden that is made slightly more difficult with water obstacles. We made it a game and told Vince the water was full of crocodiles. He has such a great imagination. "Ahh crocodiles! Turn around . . . .this way! Ahh crocodiles!" Very fun!

We had a great picnic in Troja. Here's Benji saying "cheese" with a mouth full of popcorn. And then we headed to the zoo (which happens to be across the street). Saw the hipposand elephants Rode the train. Swam with the ducks. There actually was a mother duck and her two baby ducks underneath the bridge being terrorized by the children. Who could ask for anything more (...perhaps the ducks...) ?! Such a great day!!!

Dan Saves the Day

2010-05-13T17:59:00.004-01:00

So, I realize I left you hanging. . . Dan did actually get back from D.C. - a long time ago. He was only 2 days later than expected (instead of the week that we had thought.) And his timing couldn't have been better.
The day Dan got home was . . . one of those that makes you count down the minutes until bedtime. We went in the back yard - concrete slab where cars can park - to ride bikes. After a little while Vince was doing a dance. "Vince, do you have to go to the bathroom?" "No, . . . Mom it's too late." So we changed and went back outside since we still had a half an hour until art class. Dance. . . Changed . . . Dance . . . Changed and by this time we were running late for art class. After cleaning up the third time I haphazardly grabbed everything we would need for art class and shut the door.
It seemed like slow motion. The door closing and me realizing I left my keys inside - TOO LATE! So we headed to art class. I figured I could think things through and since we were out anyway.
My thoughts went something like this:
Assuming I couldn't get into our apartment what could we do?
Do I have any money? - No.
I have my phone. Whose house could I crash at for a week without clothes, diapers, bottles, anything?
Hmm . . . I think I might have left the back door open in my hurrying when I put Vince's bike on the balcony. I sure hope so!
We're only on the first floor. Who has a ladder?
Okay we'll try for that and then what?

So I got home . . . buzzing a neighbor to get in and headed up to their apartment. From the elevator I thought I saw Dan in the hallway. Not possible. Benji starts yelling "Daddy! Daddy!" It sure looked like Dan.
And there he was . . . with the door open! And at that moment I am happy to say that I was more excited to see Dan than the open door.

Videos of the kids in case Dan gets homesick

2010-04-19T17:31:00.005-01:00

Benji loves to help us read Moo Baa La la la. For some reason blogger wouldn't upload this video so it's from youtube. I am not responsible for any adverting ;)
Vince couldn't stand not being the center of attention so we captured his talents as well.

In other news Dan left a week ago to D.C. for the AAG (Association of American Geographers) Conference. We figured he should make some good U.S. connections so he can get a job in the U.S. when he graduates. Unfortunately Iceland blew up and . . . Dan's flight was canceled. So, he's stuck in D.C. for the moment.
On the bright side:
-He's at the Crain's house. They lived in Prague for 3 months just down the street from us and we've stayed in touch through blogs. We wish they still lived down the street from us! Thank goodness we aren't having to pay for a hotel!
-Randall (Dan's brother) will be in D.C. this week so they get to see each other.
-And volcano permitting he will only be there another week and get back in time for our anniversary. (Note the sarcasm.)

The kids have been really good so I'm not going crazy as bad as I might have imagined. We've stayed busy playing with friends and going to parks. But I can say I'm grateful for how much easier life is when he is around. Love you Dan!

Easter both ways!

2010-04-13T16:47:00.008-01:00

We celebrated Easter the Czech and American ways this year! We have a tradition that Magda comes over and does Czech style eggs with us every year. I love it! I guess this isn't completely Czech because our boys participate in creating the eggs. If you see an egg and say, "Wow, that's amazing!" Magda probably made it, but I'm much better than two years ago!Later we had some of our friends over to dye eggs. Color with crayon, drop in dye, put stickers on it. Can't get more American than that! In Czech tradition, while the girls are making eggs the boys are making pomlasky (Easter whips). Dan learned how to make them this year! The finished products. This is our Easter tree. They are very common in front yards with eggs and ribbons tied to the tree. Since we don't have a yard this is what we did.

The boys got Easter buckets (since we had no sandbox buckets) this year and were very excited about their candy! Benji calls anything sweet cookie now. So all morning he was running around saying, "Cookie, cookie!" Sidenote: Cookie is not to be confused with Kuk (Czech for peek a boo) Unless one is prepared with actual cookies while playing the game tears may result. Lesson learned.

Easter Monday is when the boys go and whip the girls to get eggs. We always go to the čubovi's house because 1. They have 4 girls (one boy) 2. We love them and it's a good excuse to go to their house. 3. Romana (mother) is the first Czech woman I could understand. She has a knack of using simple words and enunciates really well. So she was someone I was comfortable visiting our first year here.

The pictures for this and Easter Sunday are on our camera which Dan has in America. I'll have him add them later.

Our Handsome Four Year Old. . . I mean Vince

2010-03-14T19:30:00.003-01:00

We were at a church activity and I was helping make tortillas for a Mexican feast. Vince was also helping by rolling out the dough. While I was cooking I overheard the following conversation:

Sister Anderson: Vince you're such a good helper.
Vinson: My first name is handsome.
Sister Anderson: You are handsome.
Vinson: Yeah, My names are Handsome Vinson Reeves.
On another note Vince turned four at the end of last month and had a really fun birthday party with his friends. We played pin the smokepipe on Thomas, the Fishing game, and had a prize walk (like cake walk but with prizes instead.) Eleven of his good friends come and we had a great time!
We (Mom, Dad and Benji) were saving an extra special present for his actual birthday (the day after his party)... we gave him a cool little bike. He has been asking for a bike that has pedals that go like this - imagine him kicking his feet in circles - for over a year. He's already doing awesome - with training wheels - and leaving Benji, on his motorcycle, in the dust. Good thing we're only a few blocks away from a park!

Big Bag

2010-01-19T13:46:00.002-01:00

Benji thought this big bag was a blast! He would put it on his head and would run blindly around the house. I cut the hole in the front for safety. The best toys are things lying around the house!

Sledding!

2010-01-19T13:36:00.004-01:00

Since we've moved here there has been hardly any snow in Prague. A few years ago there was a cross country ski race at Vystaviště, a few blocks away and afterwards they put the leftover snow in the park by us. That't pretty much the extent of our snow experience until this year. Prague hasn't had this much snow since the 1970's! The day after the biggest snowfall (over one foot!), we went sledding in the park down the street! Thanks to the Vondruškovi for letting us use their sled! The boys LOVED it! Benji giggled when we went down the hill. Much different from Vinson. The first time, we tried sledding with Vince, he refused to go and cried the whole time I went down the hill (maybe he thought I'd die?). This time around, both boys and parents had a good time.

Family Christmas Letter

2010-01-03T06:04:00.002-01:00

We should update you on where we are and why. It seems like the entire year we were trying to figure out where we would be next year. Our plans have changed too many times to count. Dan finished his Masters Degree at Charles University in Prague. We planned on going to graduate school in the U.S. where we could visit home or at least call whenever we wanted, but this didn’t work out. So we planned on going straight to a career and getting a PhD later, but this didn’t work out either. So we are prolonging our Prague adventures for 3-4 more years while Dan continues his studies and gets his PhD from Charles University.

Dan finished his thesis (Adventists and Mormons in Czechia: Distribution, position and manifestations of social capital) and received high marks and glowing reviews. Dan is really enjoying his studies and is getting more work than ever translating his professors’ articles and books into English (so technically he gets paid to study). He’s interested in studying religious identity in Central Europe for his dissertation. The PhD program is intended to last four years, but we’re hoping to finish in three!

Val is finally comfortable with Czech, though far from fluent. She does really well with children Czech, pregnant Czech, and religious Czech, but can hold a one on one conversation with anyone who is patient enough. The boys keep her busier than ever with play dates, going to the zoo, an at home preschool with Vinson’s friend Lolo and we also volunteer at a family center once a week. This way Val can practice her Czech and the boys can play with the toys.

Vinson’s favorite thing to do is to play pretend. He would rather act out Dora the Explorer or Franklin than watch them. He is several different animals every day and if I call him “Vinson” when we are playing he always responds with, “No, I’m baby tiger” or whatever he is at the time. We signed him up for an art class once a week and he loves it. He also enjoys playing games on the computer and has become expert with the mouse.

Benjamin is amazingly mobile and aggressive for a 1 year old. He runs, climbs, and defends his toys. This is fine when he is playing with Vinson, but I have to watch him closely when we play with other kids his age or older. He loves to dance and be involved when Vinson is playing and loves reading books with his dad (or anyone for that matter). He says “mama” and “bye” and is absolutely adorable.

We were able to go to Utah and San Diego this last summer and enjoyed seeing the family again. Being away from them and knowing they are missing a lot of the fun from watching the boys growing up is the hardest part about living so far away. We also miss seeing our friends from Utah enjoy spending time with our amazing friends in Prague. Other than that we love living in Prague. The scenery is beautiful, the parks are amazing, we love the people and enjoy having the opportunity to see more of the Czech Republic and Europe.

Love, Dan Val Vinson and Benjamin Reeves

December in a nutshell

2010-01-01T14:13:00.006-01:00

December was a lot of fun. December 5th was Mikuláš (St. Nicholas Day). Mikuláš comes around with a devil (Čert) and angel. Čert scares you if you've been bad -or gives your parents a whip . . . this happens about as often as people actually get coal in their stocking - and the angel gives you candy if you've been good. Our neighbors were dressing up and offered to stop by our place.
We got a live Christmas tree this year and used the stroller to bring it home. It was REALLY pokey. We made a trip to Dresden for Vinson's visa and got to see their Christmas markets. German Christmas markets are the best!!!We made gingerbread houses. Benji particularly liked eating the candy. And said hello to the carp outside our apartment daily. (Czechs eat carp for dinner on Christmas Eve. So they sell them "fresh" and you can pick it out and take it to your bathtub or have it killed on the spot.)Benji got chicken pox on Christmas day. Here we are celebrating New Years with a movie and popcorn.

20 anniversary Velvet Revolution March

2009-11-19T17:10:00.005-01:00

Twenty years ago on November 17, the Velvet Revolution began in Prague. Students marched from Dan's school (Charles University in Albertov) to commemorate the death of Jan Opletal (A student killed by the Nazi's 50 years before). Police were aware protests would occur, seeing as the Berlin Wall fell down a week previously, and massed to stop this from happening. The march began peaceful - students would jingle their keys as a way to make peaceful noise - and then it turned into an anti communism march that went downtown where the police trapped the students and beat them up - long story short. For the 20 year anniversary they had a big march that followed the same route as student march 20 years ago and ended with live music and some wimpy fireworks. We celebrated with everyone else only how one would do with kids - taking short cuts and seeing the most lively parts - aka the beginning of the procession - see video below. (Dan's "office" is in the building on the right of the picture).

Happy Halloween

2009-11-01T19:16:00.002-01:00

The kids were so cute this year that I took them to the park for a photo shoot before Halloween. Vince loved being Buzz Lightyear and got into character running around. Benji loved looking at himself in mirrors and was able to growl pretty well for a jaguar. I was surprised how well the group picture turned out. Vince was even holding Benji's hand. Now imagine him growling!Zoom! To infinity and beyond!

To celebrate we had a pumpkin carving party with a few of Vinson's friends. It was a lot of fun!

Rain Boots!

2009-10-24T19:26:00.004-01:00

Vince and Benji both got rain boots and we decided to have some fun! Benji loved splashing!

Vince had fun on his motorcycle. Maybe a little too much fun!!

Utah Trip!

2009-10-03T08:01:00.007-01:00

We had so much fun in Utah! Now our family has met Benjamin and the boys got to know their aunts and uncles better. It is cute to hear Vince talk about his "papa's" - grandpa's. I had a hard time deciding what to write about so I'll just post some of highlights. The absolute best part about being in the states was seeing family! We also missed the mountains, and got some good mountain time in.We went hiking up the canyon!And hiking to Timpanogos Cave.We had a birthday party for Benjamin!And went to our cabin.Then we played at the dinosaur museum.We weren't in Hooper very long but we still fed the sheep.And went canoeing at the bird refuge.

Trip to Slovakia

2009-08-23T15:59:00.010-01:00

So I was able to attend a conference on the geography of religion at the University of Prešov in Slovakia back in August. We did some cool and "religious" tourism, while we were there. Geography conferences usually involve some kind of field trip(s) and this was no exception.

We visited several wooden cathedrals from the Greek Catholic Church (notice the uniquely different crosses and the three tower architecture). The Greek Catholics are something of an inbetween in that they acknowledge the Pope in Rome but they use the Eastern liturgy for their masses and ordinances, like the Russian and Greek Orthodox Churches.
A number of these traditional wooden churches are listed jointly as a UNESCO cultural heritage site.
This first wooden church is in the village of Ladomirova in northeast Slovakia. They have just recently replaced the wood on the outer walls. It was originally built in 1742. The design of the towers is really amazing!

This church in Bodružal is one of the oldest eastern churches in Slovakia. It was built in 1658. All of these churches have fascinating interiors, but they do not allow pictures inside. They have a lot of icons (symbology-rich pictures of apostles and Christ) which make up an iconostasis -- a barrier of sorts beyond which only certain members of the church and the clergy can go.

This Catholic, wooden church in Hervatov (note the single tower and its basic Catholic cross... which you actually can't see in this picture) is one of the oldest wooden churches in Slovakia. It was built around 1650. I was able to take some pictures of the interior, which had some neat wall paintings (St. George) and wood carvings.

This is the main square of Bardejov, a pretty town in northeast Slovakia. I took this picture from the tower of the old Gothic cathedral, which contains the intricately designed alter below.

On our way back to Prague, we (I was traveling with a professor and two other students) stopped at Spišský Castle...
...and Vlkolínec, an old mountain village with unique and well-preserved architecture.I really liked this Slovak landscape with the flock of sheep. It was fun to hear all of the sheep bells ringing.

Phone Call

2009-08-07T13:35:00.003-01:00

This probably doesn't need explanation, but "jo" pronounced "yo" is "yeah" in Czech. I love when they start pretending to talk on the phone.

Where's Grandpa's House?

2009-07-23T16:53:00.003-01:00

Vinson: "I want to go to Grandpa's house."
Val: "Vinson, where is Grandpa's house?"
Vinson: "In the computer."

And he's off!

2009-07-23T16:24:00.004-01:00

This was filmed about 2 weeks ago. now he's walking all over the place and wanting to be turned loose. Pretty awesome for 10 months!

Český ráj (Bohemian Paradise)

2009-07-12T15:52:00.006-01:00

Monday, the 6th was a Czech holiday so we decided to go on a výlet (day trip - it's such a good word and there's not a really good English equivalent).
We had been wanting to visit Český ráj for a long time and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
As you can see, we brought Vinson's "ikle" (motorcycle) along. It helps him walk a lot faster... Due to the nature of the trails we ended up walking on (see pictures), I got to carry ikle quite a bit. It was all worth it though for the last kilometer of trail, when it was the miracle that helped Vince finish the 5k hike. He's quite a trooper, when he needs to be.
Benji had a lot of fun walking (with help) up and down the rock stairs. He is a really happy kid most of the time. He loves being independent and mobile!

So . . . do you know if you're staying yet?

2009-07-04T18:03:00.003-01:00

The question we get asked all the time! The only problem with it is we STILL don't have an answer. We want a job in the U.S. - then we can move closer to the family, hopefully close enough to drive home for the holidays. The problem is the jobs Dan has applied for are with the BLM or Forest Service and they are taking FOREVER to decide who to hire. We almost wish they would just say, "sorry, thanks for trying we had a million applicants and didn't even see your form hidden in the pile." Then at least we could go on with our lives with one plan. I'm trying to eat all of our food all by myself of course :) (to prepare for our move to the U.S.), and at the same time I am planning how to rearrange the apartment for the next year. I can only mentally pack all of our stuff into 6 suitcases so many times! Seriously. We have to decide soon . . . come on job! You want Dan, you just don't know it yet. Get on it!
We will decide soon. If there is no job, we have ourselves a great gig here. Good job, already accepted to a PHD program and professors clammering for the native English speaker to help them with their projects. We love Prague and have a lot of great friends here but as the Czechs say, "všude dobře, ale doma nejlíp." - Everywhere is good, but home is the best.

I can't wait to walk!!

2009-06-04T05:25:00.003-01:00

I am so big and cool! -Benjamin

It's official! Dan's finished his Masters Degree!!!

2009-05-28T11:23:00.002-01:00

We are so excited to announce that Dan is officially done with school for his masters. He received a written critique on his Thesis from two professors and they both thought it was wonderful. One even wrote that it was the best masters thesis he had read for several years. The other offered him an opportunity to work on a new religious atlas for the Czech Republic. They both highly recommended that all or part of it be published. Dan is amazing! Graduation isn't until the end of July, so we have from here to then to figure out what we're going to do afterwards.

Athens

2009-05-24T18:05:00.002-01:00

Hopefully we didn't celebrate Dan's graduation too early (his thesis defense and final exam are on Wednesday), but we wanted to travel somewhere before plane tickets got more expensive for the summer . . . so we looked into flights to London and Barcelona - but ended up going to Athens. Some friends watched Vinson so Dan, Benjamin and I flew out for a three day trip. We had a blast! We got to see a lot of the old sights: the acropolis, the agora and the National Archeological Museum. We also were able to go to the beach. Unfortunately Benjamin thought I would disappear if I went in the water so I didn't get to swim much. Benji loves salty rocks :) Completely natural, right? We also got to eat Greek gyros which are amazing! We had one everyday!
When we got home, Dan and Vince got to wear matching Greek shirts and it was fun to be a complete family again. It's amazing how much we missed Vince after three days. Benji might have missed Vinson most of all.

Český rozhlas

2009-05-16T08:22:00.003-01:00

A couple of weeks back, we got a phone call from a friend, who is the media representative for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A Czech public radio station, Český rozhlas 6 (something like BBC in the UK), was looking for some Mormons they could interview for a weekly program that they do about different churches in Czech society. To make a long story short, a radio guy came and interviewed me (Dan). This interview was condensed into a half-hour long program and broadcast last Saturday.
Tonight (16.5), the same program will focus on Mormons again. The program's host also interviewed a Czech friend of ours, Jarda Haječek, and I expect tonight's program will focus on that interview. I was happy with the outcome of the interview. The program last week was quite positive and portrayed Mormons well, in my severely biased opinion ;-)
Anyways, I downloaded the interview from the internet (http://www.rozhlas.cz/cro6/audio) and made a link to it (on the right side of our blog: Files to download). So if you're interested, feel free to listen!

Finished!!!

2009-05-10T18:54:00.005-01:00

Dan is FINALLY finished with his thesis. He has been going pretty much non-stop since January and literally non-stop for the last few weeks. Here Dan is about an hour away from finishing (about midnight) and finding mistake after mistake and thinking it will never end. Though I am biased and think that Dan is absolutely amazing, I've read his thesis and think that it's really easy to read and interesting. If you're interested in learning about "Adventist and Mormon congregations in Chechia" you can download the whole bloomin' thing here. Yeah! I finally get my husband back! So if you want to know what this is - read Dan's Diploma work (that's what it's called in Czech) :)

Videos of Benjamin that make me laugh

2009-04-27T05:58:00.006-01:00

Random side note - I was on the tram the other day and a lady was surprised that Benjamin already had shoes. I thought that this was interesting because I got scolded so many times when Vinson was Benjamin's age because he didn't have any shoes. Benji has 11 pairs of shoes! I love shoes! And aren't they all so cute? They all get plenty o use :)

How to make Czech Easter Eggs!

2009-04-19T12:25:00.006-01:00

Our good friend Magda taught us how to do Czech Easter eggs last year and we thought we'd pass the information on. She made an awesome invention. It was a baby jar with metal lids hooked on with wires. That way you can put a candle under the lids to melt wax. The key is to mix BEES WAX with a crayon of your desired color. Then you melt the wax using a candle underneath. Your painting instrument is the back of a pencil - eraser side with a glass ball pin stuck in the eraser. Dip the pin's end into the melted wax mixture and then paint it onto the egg.
They turned out pretty good, don't you think? The amazing ones were done by Magda.

A marathon together.

2009-04-13T04:02:00.004-01:00

I've been wanting to do the Prague half marathon since I found out about it the first year we were here. Last year I was pregnant so I signed Dan and I up to run this year. It was a great excuse to have Dan watch the kids in the mornings and get out and run. Unfortunately Dan hadn't run since January, he has been too busy working on his thesis. Everyone assumed he would die. We ended up running most of it with my friends Maylia and Emily. Their pace was perfect. We started in the back so we passed people the whole time until about 19K when I started to hurt. Now you'd think Dan would be dying but no he was keeping me going - saying cute little things to keep me distracted, "Val you're so hot when you run" etc. We didn't walk and got a pretty good time: 2:09. So pretty much we are amazing! Dan says since we both did a half we can say "We ran a marathon together."

Strike three...

2009-04-09T03:57:00.003-01:00

So Dan got his third letter from UBC the other day. "We regret to inform you . . . " So now for plan B. Dan has been applying for Geography jobs teaching at Jr. Colleges and Universities and GIS jobs. But we're still mostly focused on graduating from school here. Dan's almost done with his thesis. I think the end has to be the hardest part. I guess we'll move back to the U.S. when there's a job to move home to. Once again - we'll keep you posted.

Grad School?

2009-03-24T09:54:00.005-01:00

Dan has applied to graduate school at the University of Utah, University of Colorado and University of British Columbia in Vancouver Canada. So far we have received rejection letters from Utah and Colorado. We're still waiting to hear from UBC. We both figured that getting a masters at Charles University, where the studies are in Czech, would be the hardest part of Dan's teaching-at-a-university dream. So cross your fingers and hold your thumbs for UBC! I guess plan B is to work in Prague and apply for jobs online in the U.S. until we feel like we have something to move back to - hopefully in Utah. We'll keep you posted.

Vinson's Big-Three Birthday

2009-03-08T12:22:00.009-01:00

This is how Vinson woke up on his birthday. I guess he was in a hurry to get the celebrations underway!!
Vinson turned three last weekend and we celebrated with his good friend Lo Lo and her Mom. Unfortunately Lo Lo's Papa was on a business trip and couldn't join us. We went to Beckiland, which as you will see is a superfun indoor playground for kids and parents... Benjamin loved it too. There was so much to see. His arms were flapping in excitement most of the time. Lo Lo loved the trampolines. Vinson and Dan really enjoyed the "monkey" rope area. This particular spot allowed us to climb over a nice two story drop. Luckily, none of us fell through the small holes in the webbed tunnel.
Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Vinson, Happy Birthday to you!

Vince and his imaginary holka

2009-02-10T05:38:00.002-01:00

Vince has an imaginary friend. They've been friends for a few weeks. Her name is holka (which means girl in Czech - you pronounce it Hulk uh). They play together pretty well but have their moments. Once she decided to climb on our cabinet so Vince started yelling at her to come down. When she wouldn't he decided to climb up and force her down. The only problem with an imaginary friend is that I can't intervene. I kept pretending to pull her down and said, "see she came down." but Vince didn't believe me. And I had to fight Vince from climbing on the cabinet. Another funny moment with Holka was last week when we went to the zoo with his real best friend Lolo -short for Laurence. Vince wouldn't hold her hand because he was already holding holka's hand. Shafted.
Every now and then Vince turns into Holka's mommy when he disciplines her. "Holka no! Time out! Did you hear me? 1, 2, 3 . . ." I asked him if he could be Holka's daddy and he said no. It makes me wonder if he's using it as a release for his frustrations with his own mommy whom he sounds an awful lot like . . . Dan doesn't yell as much and always uses a soft voice with him.
Finally yesterday was kind of interesting. We went to Tesco (the Czech equivilent of Walmart) and he walked sometimes because Holka wanted to ride in the stroller. While we were at the check out she ran away. I wouldn't let Vince chase her for obvious reasons. So he ran to the balcony and started yelling at her. "Holka stop! Wait there!" Then Vince and I went down the escalators and as soon as we were close to the bottom he said, "Holka! How are you!" I was suprised she actually waited :)

I Love Food!

2009-01-26T06:52:00.002-01:00

Benjamin is quite the little eater. The only problem is that he has exema on his forehead and constantly wants to scratch it. We're pretty good at distracting him. This is what happens when he's itchy while he's eating.

Randall and Lynn's Visit

2009-01-20T17:22:00.008-01:00

We have been so excited for Dan's brother Randall and his wife Lynn to come to visit us and we had a blast despite the freezing temperature. The week before they came and the week they were here was the coldest it's been since we've lived here. It was cold enough there were chunks of ice in the Vltava and people were ice skating on a smaller part of the river. I got an awesome hat for Christmas so I stayed warm. We still went out occasionally to show them the city. On their second day here we went to Vyšehrad and Vinson had a hard time. I was prepared... Vince was wearing tights, socks, pajama pants, snow pants, a shirt, jacket, coat, gloves, hat, boots, and a huge blanket, but, after 45 minutes, he started crying because it was too cold. Not even the fruit snacks my mom sent were good enough to distract him. He would only stop crying long enough to swallow. So we headed to the trams and went home. I had been worried because it was so cold and we had made plans to go to Budapest with Randall and Lynn. I called my friend Melinda and she agreed to watch Vince for two days while we were gone. I owe her BIG!!
On the train Benji started his fascination with food. See him eyeing those crackers? Now when I feed him cereal he cries,when the spoon goes back to the bowl to get refilled. I want food now mommy!Here are Randall and Lynn on the train.
By the time we were done dropping our stuff at the hotel it was starting to get dark. We saw St. Stephens Cathedral, which was amazing. The Chain Bridge was absolutely beautiful!
The next day we had planned on going to the baths. I wasn't sure how it would work with Benjamin, but Dan forgot his swim suit, so we split up and Dan and I checked out more of the city. I was astounded by the Parliment building. Dan and I spent a lot of time there.Then I, of course, wanted to check out the Lady of the Rock Cathedral. It is in a cave. I guess when Communism took over they cemented over the opening but the cement was taken out when the Communists left. It wasn't nearly as cool as Timpanogos Cave. It was a dead cave with popcorn so it looked man made. My favorite spot in Budapest was the castle. We spent the rest of our time there and then took the 7 hour train ride home.

Our Christmas Letter

2008-12-27T18:47:00.001-01:00

Dear Family and Friends,
We want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and all the best into the new year. We are very grateful for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and for the way that Christmas time helps us step back and reflect a little on who we are and where we are headed. We would love to sit down and talk with each of you in person and exchange stories about your recent adventures in life. Because we are not able to fulfill this wish, we will share with you a brief, one-sided conversation concerning our busy and happy 2008 to update you on what we are up to.
Dan is still studying at Charles University in Prague. He is studying Social Geography and plans to attend yet another university to get his Ph.D. He is applying to the University of Utah, University of British Columbia in Vancouver and the University of Colorado. If everything goes as planned, he will become a professor and hopefully teach at a college/university in Utah. He currently is working on his thesis which focuses on the social capital within Mormon and Adventist church communities in the Czech Republic from a geographic point-of-view. When he’s not busy with school, he works as a translator from Czech into English and teaches English part time at Charles University. He is extremely busy but is very good at making time for the family.
Val stays busy being a first class mother – I know that all the mothers reading this will understand what I mean by that. The rest of us (Dan is writing this paragraph) will just have to try to comprehend. She is amazing at keeping our household fed, clothed, clean and – as much as possible – happy. She has made many lasting friendships with other mothers in our neighborhood. She does quite well with speaking and understanding Czech now and is becoming a pro at taking Benjamin to the doctor (I mean as far as language and cultural/medical-system knowledge is required). Val and I continue to enjoy reading books together and we still manage to occasionally play a board game, when we’re not too tired or busy after the kids have gone to sleep.
Vinson, or the doggie, piggie, fishy or whatever he is pretending to be at the moment, is full of fun and imagination. He is such a good big brother. He always tries to involve Benjamin in everything we do. One of his favorite things to do is lay next to Benji and wiggle like him. He loves making trains in the house and makes everyone wear their conductor shoes and hats. He loves to go to parks and to the zoo. The animals aren’t his favorite part though; he’ll tell Daddy about riding in the little zoo train or playing in the kiddie pool before mentioning any animals.
Benjamin is the happiest baby imaginable. He loves attention and simply looking at him often brings a smile. He is very interested lately in seeing what everything tastes like, so when people offer him a finger it immediately goes to his mouth. One of his favorite past times is being thrown in the air and doing actions to “The Wheels on the Bus” as Mom and Vinson sing. Mom is extremely lucky because he takes good long naps and sleeps really well through the night: most often he only wakes up once during the night.
Highlights for our family during 2008:
• Dan and Val’s short trip to Paris to celebrate four wonderful years of marriage.
• Seeing Val’s sister Anna and going to Austria and Bavaria with her.
• Benjamin’s birth and a visit from Grandma Davis where we saw some castles and cute towns in Czechia.
We have really enjoyed living in Prague and time seems to be moving very quickly. Although we look forward to living in the same time zone (or very close to that) as our families do, we will miss a lot of people and a lot of things about living in the Czech Republic. Dan should graduate in July and we plan to return to Utah for a few weeks before staying in Utah at the U, or heading to Vancouver or Boulder.
Love Dan, Valerie, Vinson and Benjamin Reeves

Mikulaš

2008-12-09T07:10:00.008-01:00

December 5th is the Czech holiday Mikulaš. Mikulaš is how you say Nicholas in Czech and Mikulaš is the Czech St. Nicholas. Instead of being fat and in a red suit Mikulaš looks like a pope. He hangs out with an angel and a devil named čert (pronounced chert). First I'll tell you how Czech's celebrate then I'll tell you what we did on Mikulaš. A lot of Czechs either have Mikulaš, čert and the angel come to their house and have a party where they invite friends over or they are visited by the threesome at school. Parents prepare beforehand a list of three things the child does good and three the child does that are bad. Mikulaš reads the list and čert shakes chains at the kids and scares them, I've heard they give parents a whip. This is all to help the child want to be better. Then when the three good things are read off the angel gives the child candy. Or the kids recite a poem or sing a song and the angel will give them candy. The kids are scared to death of čert and usually they are crying and if they're young enough pee their pants. My friend works at a preschool and the parents have to bring an extra pair of clothes on that day. A lot of people go to Old Town Square on Mikulaš. Some dress up. Some bring their kids, and some are just there for the Christmas market and presentation that you can only see if you get there way early. We decided to dress up. Vinson was čert and Benji was Mikulaš. I, of course was an angel, but didn't dress up. Czechs in general don't talk to strangers. The trams are silent unless there are drunk Germans or loud Americans on them. So it makes it extra fun when strangers come up and say, "Oh look there's a baby Mikulaš! How cute!! Oh and what a cute little čert too!" Old Town Square was crazy, but we didn't have a stroller this time so it was a lot easier to get around . . . but still not very easy. We saw a Mikulaš on stilts, and two čerts that had big bells attached on their back and were dancing so it was like they were making their own loud music. Vinson got to . . . well Dan tried to get him to sing a song but he played shy so he got candy for . . . being cute. Twice.

Our son the celebrity

2008-12-07T17:15:00.004-01:00

So the other day, Valerie was talking with our neighbors and they pulled out this little Prague city magazine and said, "Isn't this Vinson??" We were pretty surprised to see our cute little son gracing the cover of this internationally-acclaimed, fashion magazine with worldwide circulation. Of course, we have known from the beginning that Vince is an incredibly cute kid, but it's nice to see the rest of the world starting to take notice. Okay, okay, the magazine is just a little monthly community bulletin type thing for the downtown areas in Prague. The cover article explores things to do and places to go with small children in the center of the city. Still, it is pretty fun and it is a really cute picture.

It took Val and I probably half an hour of actively searching our memories to figure out when and where we think the picture was taken. Our theory is spring 2007 near the castle. The magazine was printed for May 2008.

Grandpa Ward

2008-11-27T10:41:00.004-01:00

My Grandpa Ward passed away last weekend and I have been thinking a lot lately about what he meant to me and some of the lessons he passed on. He was very talented musically. I loved hearing him play the piano, before his fingers became too sensitive and he wasn't able to play like he wanted to. He enjoyed sharing stories about how music really enriched his service as a Mormon missionary in Texas during the 1940's. He and a few other missionaries formed a small musical group and toured the mission (Texas and Louisiana) to put on concerts and even play for a radio station or two.

A little four-generation picture. If we wanted to get technical, my Mom
should have been in here with us, since Grandpa Ward is her father, but hey,
we're all family, anyways.

I have been trying to think of a favorite Grandpa Ward moment or story from my life. It's interesting that while no one moment seems to really stand out, there are thousands of small moments that paint a wonderful picture of my Grandpa. He had an amazing ability to love others and to express that love (I would describe it as a Christlike love) in the way that he talked with them and served them. I really admire the way that my Grandpa would help me, my family - and anyone else for that matter - without making any fuss or show of it. Perhaps that doesn't seem so remarkable, but I can think of several times, when I barely noticed or was only peripherally aware of the fact that my Grandpa had done something to help me. I am absolutely certain that there are many more instances, where he helped me and I didn't even notice. He had a quiet, humble and unassuming manner of making life better for the people he came in contact with.

...And I loved hearing him sneeze! It just sounded unique and ... Grandpa Ward.

Happy Boy

2008-11-25T08:18:00.003-01:00

Benjamin is such a happy baby. He can't wait for someone to look at him so he can give them a cute baby grin. He's "talking" a lot too.

Cute Benjamin!

2008-11-18T14:06:00.003-01:00

I'm so lucky! I get to be mom to two of the cutest boys in the world!
We love cute little Benjamin. Just a few weeks ago he started to smile and we caught it on film! Vince loves to involve Benji in everything. He just can't wait for him to grow up a little bit and become a playmate, but he's done pretty good regardless. The other day I found Vinson reading Benji a book.Dan helped Benji ride the tractor while Vince rode his motorcycle. Vince was so upset when Dan got tired and Benji had to call it quits.This is Vinson and Benji riding a "train."
Vince wanted to write something:
dvn,bfvbvvbvbnmvjhjhvh4rrrrrrrrrrrr6

Adventures in Potty Training part 2

2008-11-14T08:33:00.004-01:00

Once again if you don't want to read about bodily fluids please stop now. This is so awful I've wondered about writing it at all but as I follow a lot of your blogs and a lot of you have kids that you're trying to potty train and are having a frustrating time I figured I could write this and you could think to yourself: at least it's not THAT bad. Or if you have a story (and I'm not talking about my friends sisters cousin stories) that makes this look good, I would LOVE to hear it and think to myself, "Whew, at least he didn't do that . . . " Vinson is going to hate me when he grows up if he ever finds out the things I tell the entire world about him.
Vinson has started working lately. He gets on his motorcycle and says, "Bye mom, I'm going to work." Then he'll usually give me a kiss, the same routine as when Dan goes to work. Then he proceeds to put all of his toys into my bedroom sometimes taking one toy at a time and making a big pile of toys. One Saturday Vince said, "Bye Mom, bye Dad, I'm going to work." We started chatting and after a while realized we'd been talking for a while without seeing Vinson come back for toys. So then Vinson says, "Mom, Dad, pojd" (Czech for come here). So we went together. We opened the door and there was Vinson beaming and looking like he'd done something wonderful. This is what he had done. He pooped his pants and then had taken them off. Sometime during this he thought to himself, this is kind of like the paints that mom lets me play with, maybe I'll do some art work. So then he proceeded to "paint" the floor, one of his toys, and his motorcycle with poop. Dan and I were horror struck. We kind of stood there in silence for a minute torn between laughing, and crying and what to say or do to punish and how much. It's hard to gage exactly how much Vinson grasped that this was wrong especially after his obvious pride in his work. Dan said, "Vinson, you've done a very bad thing. Poop is not paint, you only put poop in the toilet." I turned my head to smile. Dan cleaned up Vinson - his punishment was having a cold shower. I started cleaning the floor with bleach and threw away the sponge afterwards. His motorcycle and toy also had a bleach bath followed by a real bath. Then I heard Dan say, "You made a big mess. You should ask mom if there's anything you can do to help clean up." My mind searched for ways he could help. The only thing that came to me that actually would help was something that I knew that Vince woud think it was fun, I didn't want to support him doing this sort of activity again ever, but I went for it. He had to swirl his underwear in the toiled with a plastic knife (then I could throw it away), lift, flush, swirl, lift flush etc. until I could handle cleaning them. Dan had to supervise. He should have thought before offering Vince's services. Maybe you're asking, why not just throw the underwear away. I would have but my mom brought me nice American tiolet training pants. They have padding that holds the water in so there isn't a wetness all over the floor. Europeans don't have potty training underwear. Their kids run around their house with nothing on bottom and a kiddie pottie in every room of the house. When they do go to underwear it's skimpy bikini underwear. At least that's what I've observed and found. All I have to say about this experience is YUCK!!! GROSS!!! EWW!!! UGH!!! I did take a picture. From the picture it might not look that bad, but believe me it was!

Trick or Treat!

2008-11-04T10:17:00.004-01:00

We are lucky that there is a suburb of Prague that has trick or treating. Vince was superman and Benjamin was a cow. My friend lent me the cow costume. Trick or treating was a lot of fun. Vinson didn't want to put on his costume until I said, "Vince let me tell you what is going to happen. You will go to a house, say trick or treat, and they'll give you candy, but only if you have a costume." There was no protests after that. At the first house he kept standing there after she gave him candy. I had to pull him away. Then he got what was going on and ran from house to house. Benjamin slept for most of it, but when he woke up the little cow kept wanting milk. We brought candy to help refill bowls that were almost empty. There are so many trick or treaters you can barely shut the door. Those who were prepared had boxes of candy.
We were also excited about the branch Halloween party. Val invited three families and they all came. Of the 5 awards for costumes someone from each family got something. Vinson and Sofie doing Kolo Kolo mlynsky (ring around the rosies the Czech version.
Nella, Jahim, Vinson and Sofie. No one wanted the picture taken.I dressed up as Kostičky. He's on a TV show here. I thought he was pretty well known, but apparently he wasn't as popular as I thought.
Benjamin slept through the whole thing, even the balloon popping and woke up with enough time for everyone to want to hold him.

Halloween

2008-11-04T09:57:00.004-01:00

Besides Christmas, Halloween is my favorite holiday! We had our annual pumpkin carving party!

Vinson painted his pumpkin.Here is the gang: Chris and Ivana (this was her first experience carving pumpkins, drinking root beer and having carmel apples), Jirka and Renca, Dan Vince and Val (Benjamin was sleeping.)
Later we got invited to a pumpkin carving party with the Bywaters. Sofia, Oliver, Elliot and Vinson. Vinson's was a train pumpkin. He's obsessed with trains lately.

Stupid

2008-10-21T14:34:00.002-01:00

So every now and then I come home from Albert (the grocery store) with something absolutely stupid. Today I wanted some ground beef, or beef period for dinner. Everything either came absolutely huge or the right size and small but not labeled with words I knew. I found one that was a good size and that I thought would be the right thing and came home with . . . ground liver. Great. Yesterday - now just because I was stupid twice in a row doesn't mean these kinds of things happen all the time. Maybe once every two or three months until - yesterday I bought pork fat thinking it was butter. This time it was all my fault. The margarine that I usually get was gone and I grabbed a package that looked exactly the same, same size, same brand only a lighter color - must be butter. And, yes, I DO know the word for butter, but didn't think I needed to look on the package. When I opened it up it wasn't yellow any more, the wrapping gave it a yellow tint, now it was white. Dan told me I bought pork fat. AHHH! Other mistakes I've made: I've bought butter milk wanting real milk twice, and flattened corn thinking it was oatmeal. Oh the joys of knowing only playground Czech, conversational Czech, or Mormon Czech. So I'm crossing my fingers and holding my thumbs that I won't be stupid again. . . at least not anytime soon.

Family Pictures

2008-10-15T10:51:00.004-01:00

Dan and I went to a park by our house and took a bunch of family pictures. This one is our favorite.
My cute boys!

How is Vince coping?

2008-09-25T14:34:00.007-01:00

Fun videos of BIG BOY VINSON!
Having two kids is definitely different than having just one. Vince has had two major ways of coping that are completely opposite but understandable. One way of coping is that he wants to be a baby too. When we left the hospital Dan had to carry Vince out in a blanket just like Benji. He also has a new liking for milk. Vince would always ask for juice before but now he wants to be like the baby.
The other way he copes is that he wants to be a big boy. His favorite saying now is "Vinson do it." He has learned how to get into the fridge and he will come walking into the living room with a big container of juice and he'll want to pour it. We've only had one big spill so far. Sometimes he wants to do absolutely ridiculous things like make me re-zip his zipper so that he can do it and when he has a problem at the end he'll finally ask for help. One excellent by-product of this is that he now is pee potty trained!! YEAH!! Of course he sill does it almost entirely for the candy he gets at the end.
Otherwise Vince absolutely loves Benji and kisses him all the time. He loves holding him and tries to pick him up by himself so we're always on guard. Occasionally he will give Benji a hard slap in the face but most of the time he's really good.
A lot of people say Vince and Benji look a lot alike. I don't really think so. What do you think?
Benjamin's passport photo:
Vinson's passport photo:
Benjamin before he was blessed at church:
Vinson before he was blessed at church:

Having a Baby in the Czech Republic

2008-09-15T09:12:00.000-01:00

Could it be a prison? It kind of felt like it . . .
Maybe a grocery store? They used grocery carts as strollers.
Well I've had a lot of requests to write about what it's like having a baby in the Czech Republic. I wrote this and realized it was really long, so the three things that struck me as being the most odd were 1. The whole shopping carts as strollers thing was different. 2. They put a big tatoo on Benjamin's chest to identify him. I had a bracelet with his name and number on my wrist. And 3. that I had to weigh the baby, take his temperature and record everything. What did the nurses do? Check to make sure my numbers looked good. So now feel free to read as much or as little as you want. It's kind of divided into two parts: Pregnancy and delivery, and hosptial stay.
Pregnancy and Delivery
This blog is dedicated to Alena Pilková who is watching Vinson at the park right now and is the only way that I would have time to write a blog like this. So I've had a lot of people ask what it's like having a baby in the Czech Republic. It's a lot different than the U.S., or at least my experience with Vinson in the U.S. The last month of pregnancy in the Czech Republic you go to the hospital for check ups because the doctor that you have visited for the pregnancy to that point doesn't do deliveries (or at least mine didn't). I had to have three check ups. First I have to preface this with the fact that Prague is experiencing a baby boom right now. To give you an idea: I called to sign up for the hosptial at 13 weeks into the pregnancy and Benjamin had 2 due dates. One was in August and the second was September 2nd. It was a good thing he had a Sepember due date because August was already full at all of the hospitals. So they are short on facilities. All of the mothers in the last month of their pregnancy - or with an at-risk pregnancy - go for these check ups and so there are about 20 women waiting on hard couches for the first half of the check up (about a 2 hour wait). I had no idea it would be so awful, so I didn't bring a book or anything and nearly died from boredom. Then they check the baby's movement and heart rate. I had to do plenty of these with Vinson, but there was no waiting. Only four mothers can do this at a time and it's a 20 minute process for each mother, but there's always a chair empty because the nurse wasn't very fast. And then, if that wasn't enough, you wait in another line to see a doctor. About a 4 hour process, altogether. It was a different doctor each time and they would check dialation and if the baby had dropped, etc. Everytime, I had a checkup scheduled I would hope and hope that Benjamin would come before the next one because they took so long and I had to find someone to watch Vinson. (Thanks Melinda!!!)

As a little bit of background information, with Vinson I was induced and had an epidural before feeling much of anything, so I felt like this was my second pregnancy but my first real labor experience. I didn't really know what a contraction felt like or when I should expect Benjamin to come (early or late) according to the due date, etc. I had been having really sporadic contractions for an entire week and then on the morning of the 5th I had contractions every 10 minutes. Dan and I called a taxi and woke the Kings up to watch Vinson at three in the morning. I had 3 contractions in the taxi, but it didn't faze the driver one bit. At the hospital they said that the contractions were too far apart and that I should go home and come back later. No buses were running - it was 5 in the morning, after all - so we walked to the tram stop and took a tram home. I could tell people were adverting their eyes because it was obvious when I was having a contraction. I think I did pretty good at being inconspicuous, though.

After trying to sleep at home for a while, I went to Melinda's house and paced around waiting for the contractions to get more frequent. I called Dan and we went to the hospital. Again, on the bus I kept having contractions, but it was the bus that goes to the hospital- you would think people would assume this was normal, but I have been suprised how few pregnant women I see on the bus. With all of the ones in the checkup lines, they must get there by car or some other way. So, yeah, I was somewhat of a spectacle and again, people diverted their eyes. This time we were admitted to the hospital. I had to be strapped in for them to check my contractions for 20 minutes. By this time they were getting pretty bad and I just wanted them to give me an epidural as soon as I got there. They skipped some of their normal prep work and had Dan sign a bunch papers that the expectant mother usually signs and I was taken to the delivery center. It is a big room with partitions separating all of the mothers who are delivering babies. I had heard about this before and had visions of me having an epidural and feeling nothing but hearing two or three women screaming and cursing (in Czech) while I was delivering the baby. But I was the only one delivering at the time and didn't have to hear someone else screaming. I got an epidural. YEAH! Epidurals aren't very common here, so one of my biggest concerns was that an anethesiologist wouldn't be on duty or something and I would have to tough it out. Benjamin came fairly quickly. The umbilical cord was around his neck so he came out really purple, but he was/is healthy.

Hosptial Stay

2008-09-14T17:14:00.001-01:00

The minimum stay for babies is three days (with the day of delivery not being counted as a day) so I was stuck in the hosptal for 4 days. The rooms are shared, normally, with three mothers per room. My absolute biggest fear during pregnancy was that I would be stuck in this room with two other mothers who had become fast friends and would talk to each other really fast (in Czech), that they would both the kind that are harder to understand (using more academic words or slurred speech or something) and they would ignore me. I realize this is lame, but this was definately my biggest fear. I ended up in a room with one other mother who had delivered her baby 6 weeks premature and, therefore, was pretty much free to do whatever she wanted and wasn't in the room hardly at all. I would say her English was about as good as my Czech so she helped me understand a few times. On my second day, she was moved to another room so then I had my own room which was nice because I didn't get woken up by other mothers or babies, but kind of lonely and boring.

I have to brag a little in that I did really well with the nurses not speaking English. I understood everything, eventually. There were several times I had to say I didn't understand and they would try again. For instance, I knew the Czech word for poop: "bobek", but not the word for stool, so I would get the idea and say "bobek?" and they would say, "yeah." The nurses were all good at using simple words and pantamiming everything. One of the nurses spoke to me in English pretty well; her son lives in California. Her English was really good but she kept saying "hospitality" instead of "hospitalization", it struck me as really funny. "We will make a report about your hospitality."

A few things that were interesting about the stay and vastly different from the U.S. First I believe they were trying to get rid of all of your baby fat while you stayed in the hospital. For breakfast we had 2 rohliky (rolls) and a little thing of jam. Then for lunch we had soup that tasted like alphabet soup watered down with hardly any noodles or meat or anything. I was so starved the first day that I gulped it down, but I couldn't eat it the next day. Then they brought a more substantial lunch/dinner item. I had: noodles that were cooked too long with bland gravy, a tiny slice of fatty ham and dry dumplings, a small slice of pork and rice with gravy. Finally for "dinner" we got more rohliky, a small thing of yoghurt, and a cup of milk. (All other meals were served with coffee, so I had water :) Thankfully I had friends bring me food or I might have starved to death.

Second, the nurses watch the baby for the first night and then you are in charge. You take the baby's temperature twice a day, weigh it before and after feedings, and everything else you would expect a nurse to do in the U.S. The nurses would come in once a day to check your records and tell the doctors if there were problems. To pass the time I read all 550 pages of The Three Musketeers and finished that the night before I left so the next morning I twiddled my thumbs waiting for the time to come when I could leave.

So, that was my experience having a baby in the Czech Republic. I'm sure this is more than you ever wanted to know, but hopefully it was interesting if nothing else.

Vince and Benji

2008-09-08T19:00:00.003-01:00

Benjamin

2008-09-08T18:14:00.004-01:00

BENJAMIN BRIAN REEVES

So, it's been a while since we wrote. We were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our second son and I am happy to say he finally showed up. For an entire week before he was born, Valerie was having irregular contractions, so we got a little impatient. They only had to send us home from the hospital once, though (at 4 am on the day Benji was born), because we were not close enough to delivery. Val and I went back home (Vinson was, thankfully, at a friend's place) and spent a few hours timing contractions and trying to distract ourselves. We went back to the hospital around noon and Benjamin was born at about 2:15 pm on September 5th.

Vital statistics,
weight: 3.175 kilograms = 7 pounds
height: 50 cm = 19.7 inches

What a beautiful mother!! Val looks so good here and I honestly took this picture ten minutes or so after Benji was born. I would be lucky to live through labor, let alone come out of it looking like this!

Vinson and Benjamin got acquainted that evening. They hit things off pretty quick (and Vinson didn't hit Benji until Sunday, so that was a good 48 hours of peace). Vinson calls him "my baby" and loves pushing Benji around in the hospital bassinet-on-wheels.

We've got Mom seriously outnumbered now guys! Good thing she likes to camp and mountain bike and rock climb...

Dilemma: To praise or not to praise?

2008-08-14T17:07:00.004-01:00

As a preface, Dan told me that people with kids would appreciate all of this talk about bowel movements, but everyone else would think we were crazy. So, would I tell this to my brother James or sister Emily? James . . . Yes, but he wouldn't like it. Emily . . . definately. So now that you know what this blog is about feel free to read or not to read at your own wish being full aware what I'm going to discuss.
A few months ago we decided it would be really nice to have Vinson potty trained before the baby came. Well the baby is about two weeks away and we're still working on it. During the process we've had some dilemmas. From everything I've read (and I usually don't read anything about raising kids, but after a month of complete failure and starting to go crazy from it I figured advice couldn't hurt) this is a difficult process for the child to so to make it easier you shouldn't punish mistakes. I understand this. You should also praise good behavior. Duh. Often the only way to get Vinson to sit on the potty is with the prospect in mind that if he actually "performs" or as Dan would say, "makes a deposit" he will get some candy. But we've had a few circumstances where there's a question of how to react. I'll give the two most dramatic examples we've had and you'll see what I mean. Hopefully Vinson won't get too upset that these instances were made public :)
1. This was towards the beginning of potty training where we were excited when he knew he needed to go potty before actually going. I asked Vinson if he needed to go potty. "No . . . no potty, I don't want it!" You know, the normal reaction. Milliseconds later he pulled his pants down and aimed AT THE WALL and went potty. Do I scold him for purposely peeing on the wall? Praise him for knowing he had to go potty before doing so? I took the middle ground and tried not to react.
2. This one just happened two days ago. Vinson was sitting on the potty and shouted, "poop!" Yeah! Great! If I had to choose which mess to clean up it would be pee anyday. Well, he was curious and caught his poop, then was grossed out by the texture and threw it on the floor. SO CLOSE!! I ask you honestly, to praise or not to praise? I ended up doing a mixture of scolding and praising but he didn't get candy for it.

Austrian Swan Defending his Turf

2008-07-31T17:11:00.003-01:00

Anna (Val's sister) took this gorgeous picture of a swan, elegantly swimming around Plansee, Austria. We were enjoying the evening on the lake shore, when Vinson and I had a close encounter with this very swan. He had this part of the lake to himself and apparently felt a little threatened by our wading in "his" lake.

When the middle picture (from the sequence of three) was taken, the swan was making a growling sound like a dog does to defend his food. I had no idea that swans had a tendency to be aggressive towards humans or that they could make growling noises like that. I still can't speak for swans generally, but this particular swan on this particular evening gave a cool show.

Daddy's are so much funner than Mommies.

2008-07-23T15:38:00.004-01:00

At least once a day I am told by Vinson to "Go away" because it's time for just him and daddy or Vinson comes to Dan and and invites him to play with the train set. Dan is a great Daddy so I am not offended. Just a note of explaination: Vince put the grocery bag on his head then gave Dan the bigger one and said "Daddy bag . . . Vinson bag." It was very spontaneous and fun to watch.

Road Trip Part 2

2008-07-09T04:54:00.011-01:00

Saturday evening, we were a little sad that we didn't have more time to see Berchtesgaden's old town, but Vinson is an awesome alarm clock and helped us get up bright and early on Sunday, in time to see more of the town. It was a beautiful morning and it was like walking in a post card because the town was so cute with the Alps towering over it.

I was suprised that people actually dressed up in their folk outfits but we saw so many people dressed up. Maybe it was because they were going to church? Either way it was fun to see. We planned to be in Salzburg Sunday so we could go to church. Afterwards we wandered around the town. Vinson was really good for the first hour we were there because he was asleep. He didn't wake up very happy, so we didn't stay very long. He was very excited to go for another ride in the "blue car" though.
We stayed in a camp site right by a lake that night. It was absolutely beautiful. For me it was like staying by Silver lake up American Fork canyon only the mountains were much higher. Vinson loved playing in the water.
Our last day in Germany we went to see Schloss Hohenschwangau and Schloss Neuschwanstein (aka the Disneyland Castle). Neuschwanstein is only half completed because Von Ludwig II, who was building it, died. It definitely is a fairytale castle. On the way home we stopped in Munich and had an hour or so to explore. We especially liked the Rathouse.

Road Trip Part 1

2008-07-02T16:39:00.012-01:00

My sister Anna came to visit! Yeah!!! So we planned a road trip. We rented a "blue car" - Vinson now knows very well what the color blue is and points out all cars that happen to be blue - and headed to Český Krumlov which is in the southern part of the Czech Republic. Here Anna and I are at the castle. Dan and I went there for our anniversary last year and we loved it. They were having their "Rose Festival" where you get to see people dressed up and they have different programs. We heard the folk singer and saw a parade of "royalty" - people dressed up in fancy clothes.It might not be what you would think a castle would look like, but that's one thing I've learned here: castles come in all shapes and sizes. It was half price if you took the tour in Czech, so Dan let us know the more interesting parts. I suprised myself and actually understood quite a bit. Our tour guide was dressed up :) Vinson's favorite part of the city was the fact that we let him take his motorcycle. He insisted on riding it or carrying it most of the day even on crazy huge cobblestones. We also got some yummy Turkish Honey. When we ate it we thought it was called "Turkish Delight." Mmmm Good!But I would have to say our biggest "adventure" was camping. Since the rose festival was going on all of the hotels/hostels/pensions, you name it, were booked months in advance - at least all of the ones I was willing to pay for - but I was able to find a camp site. Czech's like to do river trips where they camp along the river and come ashore to see castles or cool cities. The grey and yellow tent is the one we borrowed from friends. The good thing was that there was enough noise, mostly in Czech, that it all blended together and we were able to go to sleep - albeit several hours later than normal for Vinson.

DAY 2: We drove to Berchtesgaden the slightly slower but more scenic route along a bunch of really pretty lakes.
Here I am with Vinson and the "blue car." Vinson has really started to jabber. Since he never talks when we're on the phone with grandparents here's a video to prove it :)

We stopped at one of the first bed and breakfasts we saw and although her house was full but she had a friend that had a place. Since she couldn't get a hold of her friend she drove Dan to her friends house and we stayed in the cutest house with the cutest old German lady. We had our own rooms (me and Dan) (Anna and Vinson) and breakfast for 17 euros each. We figured anything less than 30 eruos was awesome. Our first stop after finding a place to stay was the Eagle's Nest. It was a huge house given to Hitler for a birthday present. Dan and I were stoked! We got to see the Alps without clouds. It was amazing! Though it made me a little homesick for American Fork Canyon.

After the Eagle's Nest we went to Königsee which was a beautiful lake where we could ride out on a boat and see a monastery that was built on the other side of the river. The boat "tour guides" were apparently very funny in German. Dan understood quite a bit and passed the information on. The coolest part was when one of them tooted a trumpet and waited and then what he played was repeated back in an echo. Vince made a cute friend. He combed her hair and tickled her and she was very patient and seemed to like it.

Where did June disappear to?

2008-06-30T16:09:00.004-01:00

June was a crazy busy month for us. I (this is Dan, by the way) had my final exams for the spring semester, which meant lots of studying and a couple of projects. A couple of professors asked me to translate/edit articles into English for them. It was nice to have an opportunity to make some more money, but the timing could have been a little more spaced out. Anyway, I was busy with those things and Val was busy working on an amazing quilt for little boy #2. Vinson stayed busy getting into mischief here and there, taking Val to the park to play and playing with his friends. These pictures are from our first boat outing on the Vltava River here in town. I say first, because we really enjoyed it and have already gone a second time with Val's sister Anna, while she was in town. You can rent these little paddle boats and cruise around for an hour or two. We went with Brit and Melinda and Vince's good friend Lolo. It was a perfect Saturday evening activity to unwind after one of our busy June weeks.

Tagged - My Man

2008-05-28T05:38:00.005-01:00

Like Lynn, my sister in law, said answering questions about Dan is easy.
1. What is his name?
Daniel Vinson Reeves
2. How long have you been together?
We got married 4 years ago.

3. How long did you date?
We started dating in October and got engaged in January and married in April.

4. How old is he? 29
5. Who eats more? He does, unless I'm pregnant.

6. Who said 'I love you' first?
He did.
7. Who is taller?
Dan is, but that's not exactly hard ;) He's the perfect height!

8. Who is smarter?
Dan can hands down beat me in almost every category except budgeting.
9. Who does the laundry?
I do.
10. Who does the dishes?
I do. Dan's really good at helping around the house, but his least favorite chore is dishes.
11. Who pays the bills?
I did in the states, but he does here because they're in Czech. 12. Who mows the lawn?
Hmm. . . . it'd really be nice to have a lawn.
13. Who cooks dinner?
I do, and he never complains.
14. Who drives when you are together?
Almost always Dan, when we had a car . . . but we're not missing it with gas prices and repairs. The trams usually don't deal with traffic either.

15. Who sleeps on the RIGHT side of the bed?
Dan does at the moment if you're looking at the bed. If you're in the bed I do. What kind of question is this?
16. Who kissed who first?
It was very mutual, but I helped A LOT.
17. Who asked who out first?
These questions don't really tell anyone much. I met Dan in a TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) class. Dan had to take one class to graduate and it would delay him a year. So he got a second minor. Which is how we met. Dan sat next to me in class and I liked him right away. The next day I got to class early and sat in the exact same seat hoping he would sit next to me again and he did. It took Dan a long time to actually ask me out and I helped. I used a pick up line on him. "So, my name's Valerie but you can call me. . . " He called and we went bowling. We've hung out just about everyday since.
18. Who proposed first?
He did. We went to Cedar City to visit my sister and spent Sunday afternoon in Kolab Canyon. Dan went off by himself for a minute and then led me to an area that had rose petals all over the ground. I seriously thought he had found the remnants of another romantic moment. Then he dropped to his knee. His goal was to suprise me and he did. Of course I said yes!

19. Who has more siblings?
I do. I have two brothers and 3 sisters. Dan has two brothers and two sisters.
20. Who wears the pants in the family?
We both do. I hate wearing skirts. Actually it depends on what you're talking about. We compliment each other very well so any weakness either of us have, it's a strenght for the other person.

Keeping Mommy Straight

2008-05-15T09:32:00.005-01:00

I'm so lucky that I get to be Vinson's mommy! Sometimes I wonder who is teaching who. The other day we had french toast for dinner and Vinson was helping. Of course I was trying to cook and wash dishes at the same time and was slightly distracted. Vinson thought he would help by pouring the egg batter into the frying pan with the french toast. I yelled, "Vinson! NO NO NO! If you can't help you've got to go into the living room!" and I roughly carried him into the living room expecting Dan to jump up and help me. I don't yell very often, but when I do it's almost always because Vinson did something that made a big mess that he wouldn't have known not to do . . . he was just curious. After a minute or two I usually appologize and explain to Vinson why it made mommy mad. Dan by nature doesn't yell ever and it always shocks him to hear how high my volume can go. He picked Vinson up and asked me not to yell. I can't help it. Afterwards I always feel stupid for yelling at Vinson. So, this made me mad and I didn't do my routine appology. To make it worse a minute later Vinson ran into the kitchen and said "Ty, ty, ty" the Czech way of saying "No, no, no" or shaking your finger at someone. Now I laugh and say, awe that's cute.
Also last Thursday I was teaching a new student from 11-12. We usually eat lunch at 11 and I could tell Vinson was getting hungry so I asked him if he wanted a hotdog. I warmed it up and got it ready as quickly as I could because I was in the middle of a lesson. I figured I'd have at least 10 minutes of peace once he got his hotdog, but Vinson kept whining. "Vinson! Can't you just eat your hotdog?!" "Mommy, Amen." Awe! So I explained to my student that we pray before we eat and had a quick prayer with Vinson. What a good boy! Sure, it was a little awkward, but well worth it.

Tribute

2008-05-14T12:26:00.001-01:00

This is my mom! Now that I am a mom I try everyday to be as good of a mom to Vinson as my mom was with me. I feel like I'm striving for perfection. I used to think, "Man, I must have been a great kid!" because I'd think back on my life and I honestly can't remember my mom yelling at me, or showing anything but love to me and my brothers and sisters and most of all to my dad. Now that I am a mom, I realize that this shows me more of what an amazing mom I had instead of what a good kid I was. We call home every Sunday and I'm constantly amazed at little things my mom does for my family. It makes me realize how often my mom did things for me that I didn't even notice or didn't appreciate. My mom is so good at giving me and my brothers and sisters all the love and attention we need. I remember fighting with my brothers and sisters one afternoon about who mom loved the most. I hope I can love all of my kids in a way that they will be sure I loved them all best. Mom you're the best!!
I (Dan is writing now, for a change) want to write a little something about my mom too... I like to think back on the times before I started kindergarten and during the summers in elementary school, when I spent a lot more time with mom and watched her weekday routine. I was always impressed with the way she worked hard to take care of the yard and garden, the seemingly never-ending dirty clothes and dirty dishes, vaccuuming, mopping and whatever else needed to be done. Through all of this, however, she was always there when I needed her and she spent time answering my questions, encouraging my curiosity and helping me explore my world through books and stories. I especially appreciate the way mom focused on teaching us to work. Although, we never seemed to make the (BIG) yard and garden as nice as mom would have liked, I have a lot of good memories of the projects we did complete and progress and upkeep that we did manage to do.
To this day, my favorite smell in the world (especially when I'm hungry) is my mom's homemade bread. She made a big batch of bread (five loaves) nearly every week. I loved eating the fresh bread, hot from the oven with homemade raspberry jam. THANKS MOM! I love you!

About me

2008-05-12T12:19:00.010-01:00

A)Four places I go over and over:

1. Letna park. It's walking distance from my house and I usually meet my friend Smilka there. Vinson usually wears himself out playing there so he'll usually have a nap when we get home.
(Smilka with Sofie and Vinson)

2. Honestly, the place I go the most is Albert (a grocery store) across the street. I'm there at least 4 times a week. I've been there as much as three times in one day. All the workers adore Vinson and give him candy.
3. To the bathroom :) (I'm pregnant afterall)
4. I'm at the church building at least once a week (sometimes more) and make it a point to visit the King's house or meet them at the park once a week. (Melinda, Laurence, Vinson and me)

B)Four people who email me the most:
1. Dan's uncle Ron who usually sends funny stories but often times it's only funny if you're old (that means they are getting more funny all the time ;-).
2. Facebook
3. One of the Tuesday afternoon girls. (Me and what I used to call the "American girls" but now includes Americans, a Czech and an Argentinan, meet every Tuesday for a scripture group.)
4. Rachael!

C)Four of my favorite foods:
1. Chocolate
2. Anything with sugar
3. Crazy european cheeses
4. Mexican food (Still haven't found a good mexican restaurant here.)

D)Four Places in which I would rather be right now:
1. I'm perfectly content where I am. I love being in Prague and having the opportunity to stay home with Vinson.
2. But . . . if I could beam myself somewhere I'd be at my mom's house every Sunday night.
3. Exploring another European city
4. Timapanogos Cave

Four people I'm tagging:
1. Lynn
2. Stacy
3. Karey
4. Three is enough.

F)Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. When we moved here I only brought a few movies. One was "The Court Jester"
2. Princess Bride is probably the movie I've seen the most.
3. Otherwise I prefer watching a variety of movies.
4. Vince makes us watch Vcelka Maja over and over or Pat and Mat (Czech cartoons)