Vinson's Big-Three Birthday

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

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!

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

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

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