A sweet pair!

A quick post because I just think it is so cute...today we were getting Emily and Viktor ready to go out and deliver some Christmas goodies. Viktor got dressed in his usual winter gear (hat and sunglasses) and Emily decided she needed her hat and sunglasses in order to make the two of them a complete father-daughter pair. So, here they are ready to go on their errands...

Coming soon...a post on getting ready for Christmas!

We are thankful!

Last year we started a tradition of doing our "thankful tree" each night of November as we prepared for Thanksgiving. Here is our thankful tree from this year. As you can see we didn't get our hands up there every night due to other commitments or traveling, but here is a sample of our thankful hands. Notice little Gabi got a hold of the bottom of the trunk and ripped it off. ha. I can only imagine what our Christmas tree will look like before the end of the month! 

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving Emily's class had a little program for the parents followed by a potluck lunch. They sang a really cute song about being thankful. It was hilarious to watch a group of young 3 year olds sing and act out a song. They all seemed puzzled most of the time.  These pictures crack me up because you can see everyone doing their own thing. Cuteness.

Emily was in charge of holding up the "S" in the middle of the poem they read about Thanksgiving. She didn't even stand up all the way. haha.

 Viktor got home from work on Thursday morning and slept for a couple hours before we hopped in the car and went to my parents house in Indiana. We had a good day visiting with them and their neighbors who we hadn't seen in a long while. Here is Viktor carving turkey for the first time!

I'm SO thankful for these two blessings!! Gabriella celebrated her first Thanksgiving!

My parents are renovating their home, but we had a nice, cozy meal...and my brother even joined us for a bit. Emily thinks he is pretty funny!

 We left Bloomington that night and went up to Carmel to stay with our friends for the remainder of the weekend. Sadly, Emily got pretty sick and our trip was cut short. We didn't get very many photos of our time there, but here are a few from my phone.

Emily and Mae bowling. Em loved it!

 One night we went to a place called Bubs for dinner. They had a huge burger, the Big Ugly (1# cooked), that Viktor polished off in no time. His picture is now proudly displayed on the wall of the restaurant.

Oscar and Viktor...they conquered!

Halloween

This year Emily wanted to be a princess for Halloween. I didn't want to spend a lot (or any) money on costumes, so we invaded our friend's stash of Disney princess dresses. Emily decided she wanted to be Belle from Beauty in the Beast. Here are some pictures of the fun festivities. :)

The night before her Halloween party at school...in her dress watching some clips of Beauty and the Beast on YouTube.

She loved being a princess for the day!

Some of the classes had a little parade for all the parents to see the kiddos dressed up. Can you spot her towards the back? She was on the lookout for Mommy and Gabi.

Still looking around for Mommy....

This is when she finally spotted us. She took off running towards me for a hug. Love my girl!

She was so proud!

That night we joined the rest of Wilmore at Treats on Main. We've done this every year we've lived in Wilmore (this was our 5th time!). Daddy and his girls...

Sweet Gabi was dressed as a cute flower (thanks to another friend who let us borrow the costume). Here the girls are with their little buddy, Will, who used to be our neighbor in Kalas Village.

Then we met up with Em's sweet friend, Sydney. Love these two cuties!

Love this family! Our good friends, Luke, Olivia and Sydney. Aren't they cute?!

Our little family....

The following weekend we were invited to the Post family annual Halloween party with their church friends. This is the second or third year we've gone and had such a fun time. Olivia sure knows how to throw a party! :) She also won't allow anyone to enter her house unless they are in costume. So, an hour before going I was frantically searching the marked down aisle at Walmart when I ran into some friends who suggested going as Salt and Pepper. EASY!!! I didn't have to spend a dime. I threw some foil on paper plates (on our heads) and colored some black holes. Cut out  "S" & "P" and taped it on our shirts...and there you go! :) Gabi is wearing the butterfly costume from Emily's first Halloween.

Here is Emily (far left) and her friends trying to get the donuts off the line. Hilarious!

The guys all went bobbing for apples.

Here are all the kiddos in some pretty cute costumes.

Thanks, Olivia, for a great party and a great time of fellowship!

Louisiana!

I've got some catching up to do on the blog! 

In October we made a trek down south to Louisiana to visit our good friends, the Bevils. We had been planning for this trip for a long, long time and we were so happy when the time came to pack up the car and head out on a 12ish hour trip south. I was super nervous about Gabi and how she would handle the car trip. I knew Emily would be fine with her DVD player, some crayons, stickers, books, etc (and she was...happiest girl all day). This was also Emily's second trip to Louisiana. :) Turns out Gabi is a great traveler, too! We left a little before 5am and both girls went back to sleep for a few hours. We made our usual stops for gas and to feed Gabi and everyone stayed pretty happy the entire day. I'm so thankful! We even made it there in less time than we initially thought it would take. 

We had a very full week and we are so thankful for the Bevils opening their home to us, and especially to Sophie for sharing her room and toys with our girls all week! We did a lot of baking, visiting, walking, playing, eating (ha), etc. Viktor was able to share with the youth at their church, which he loved doing! And, one evening Missy and Bevil invited some of their good friends over for some Gumbo and to hear about our ministry in Hungary...it was a great time of fellowship! The girls and I were able to attend BSF since Missy attends at their church. It was so fun to get to experience another BSF group. One afternoon our family went to meet the father of our good friend here in KY. Luke was raised in that area of LA, but is currently a student at Asbury. It was so fun to meet his dad, and later his mom and brother's family. We even got to tour his home! Hopefully next time we go, he and his sweet family will be there with us! On Friday, a friend of theirs and her daughter came over to watch the kiddos so we could all go out. We went straight to Orange Leaf, then went up to the church to hang out while Bevil had a meeting. Missy, Viktor, and I busted out the Just Dance and enjoyed some laughter to pass the time! We made a quick stop at home to put the littlest kiddos to bed and then went back out to a high school football game to support some of their youth kiddos. And, after all this, we even managed a trip to the pumpkin patch on Saturday! 

We had such a full week, but it was so much fun!! The Bevil's have always been like family to us and we definitely felt right at home there with their church family, friends, etc. It was such a blessed week and we are grateful for the time we had together and all the wonderful people we met. Trusting the Lord will take us back in the near future! :)

These two have a very special bond. Bevil was Emily's "manny" during the few weeks that I went back to work after she was born. She has always adored him!

Sweet Shosh! I love her spunky personality. She and Em were good buds (unless they had to share!).

Playdough...and Gabi eager to play with the big girls. :)

Sophie loved Gabi and was always watching out for her. Too cute!

Emily teaching the guys how to make pretzel treats.

More activities to keep the girls entertained.

Sweetest girls!

Getting the house ready for our dinner party...everyone loves a steam mop!

I miss playing dollhouse with this sweet girl!

Emily was thrilled to see the HUGE bowl of pickles given to us at lunch at the Pickle Barrel. Her favorite food since about 8 months old! ha!

All Viktor wanted to eat while we were in the south was some Alligator...his wish came true. And, I tried it...it does not taste like chicken.

Missy made some Hungarian flag cookies to give out to the dinner guests...they were so cute (as is everything she bakes!).

Ok, so after almost a week of 3 children and 4 adults under one roof, we went a little crazy when we were "released" to enjoy some adult only time on Friday. ha. We love our Orange Leaf!

Missy, sorry, but this picture is just too cute of you enjoying our Just Dance marathon! :) If I looked cute, I would post a picture...you should be honored! :)

Baking buddies! Emily loves these special times with Missy.

Walking with two beautiful girls outside the pumpkin patch. My little buddies.

At least one of us was looking at the camera...haha.

I love this picture. So much love. We are blessed!

Thank you, Missy, Bevil and Sophie, for your wonderful hospitality. 

We love you and miss you dearly! 

Today we are thankful for the amazing friends that God has blessed us with all around the world!

How to Cook a Thanksgiving Turkey

In case you have ever wondered how to cook a Thanksgiving turkey (by a 3 year old's standard), here you go! Emily came home from preschool today with a great recipe!! :)

In case you can't read it:

Get a turkey from your mommy. Before you cook it you need to don't cook it. Cook the turkey at 2 degrees for a long time. The turkey is done when my mommy cooks it because I can't open the oven. You can eat corn with the turkey. For dessert you can eat strawberries.

We voted!

Today we loaded up the car and drove a mile or so down the road to a little country church to vote. I had bundled the girls up thinking we might have to wait outside in a line for a while, packed some snacks, etc. We found our way into the little fellowship hall, walked up to the check-in desk, signed our names, grabbed about ten "I voted" stickers to entertain both girls, Viktor grabbed Em, I grabbed Gabi, we voted, and left. We were literally in and out of there in under 5 minutes!!! 

Here is a picture (sorry for the lack of quality from the cell phone) of Viktor voting in his first election since becoming a US citizen!!

Sweetness...

 This pretty much sums it up....

Happy Fall!

Things have been CRAZY around here! I cannot believe October is halfway over. Before we know it we'll be getting ready for Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. Phew!

The past 2-3 weeks have been busy! We've had sick kiddos (not fun, especially for the littlest munchkin), traveled to Ohio to speak in two churches, had several guests over for dinner, had several guests come from out of town and stay with us (3 in the past week!), and now we are preparing for a week-long trip to Louisiana! Though we have been busy, and very tired at times, we wouldn't trade all of our visits with friends for anything. We feel so blessed by our times together.

Here are just a few pictures of some fun times in the past couple of weeks.

Gabi trying her first solid food...she's not really a fan yet, but is slowly getting more interested.

She would rather skip her own baby food and have whatever we are eating/drinking! 

Mmmmm...Dr. Pepper.

We celebrated Gabriella's 6 month birthday on the 11th. Emily felt it was necessary to bake a cake...we couldn't resist! You can't tell from the angle of this picture, but we used a "0" for the candle. ha.

This past weekend we enjoyed a visit from Pop and Mimi. Here are Emily and Pop playing a good game of chase around our yard. These two have so much fun together!

Taking a break from all the activity.

Gabi trying on Pop's hat...adorable! :)

My dad helped us winterize the apartment...these pictures crack me up!

After some shopping in the morning, picking our sweet friend, Jennie, up from the airport, naps, and winterizing the apartment, we still found time in the day for a trip to the orchard! This is our fifth year to visit Boyds Orchard! 

Mimi insisted we all ride the train.

Last year Emily went down this same slide all by herself...this year she insisted someone go with her. Whaaaaa?? Silly girl!

Our two little pumpkins!

Emily was home from school on Monday for Fall Break, so we packed a little lunch and enjoyed a picnic at the park. The girls loved sliding side by side!