Thanksgiving 2014

This one definitely goes down in the books for being unforgettable...

With the help of a neighbor, Dan and Jimmy helped catch and pluck our birds:

TWENTY of our FAVORITE people came from the North to join us for the weekend...

 After hours of being barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen...no shame, only joy:

...we pulled off a legit Thanksgiving meal in the middle of nowhere North Africa: 

My friend Anna is so pretty you can't tell she was in the kitchen for hours too :)

... And this meal would not have been possible without our fearless kitchen leader, CHERYL, her sidekick, Kali, and our friends from America who brought us things like cranberry, crunchy onions, sweet potatoes, decorations etc., etc.,...Thank you!!! Yum, Yum! We love you!

We may have even started a new tradition: Passing the turkey leg around the table so everyone can have a bite?...

Dan and friends led us in giving thanks to God for all of his good and perfect gifts: 

...And to top it off a desert excursion opportunity was included...

...as well as a surprise diaper shower...really so surprised...thank you, friends!...

 ...and the birthday celebration of one sweet little girl: 

 As always the Baileys left Thanksgiving stuffed to the brim...full of yummy food and the love of good friends and family and grateful to God for it all.

Eid Kabeer

We had a lovely time going to our first Eid Kabeer. The people here are so hospitable that they invited our visiting American group…so if you're feeling up for a good old fashioned sheep slaughtering and BBQ, keep your calendars clear for October next year, and come see us!
Felicity and I opted out of the slaughtering day in favor of the BBQ day so this post only has pictures from day two of the celebration…

The kids had their own little grills…so cute:

Felicity loving her some grilled sheep:

 It was really good. I forgot to mention it was 9 a.m. Protein for breakfast is always a good thing!

If they can, every family within a family buys their very own sheep. It is a lot of work for the women to clean and prepare all of the meat. Our friends had four sheep, one for each nuclear family. Here our neighbor is using the sheep heads to show us the difference between a 300 dinar sheep and a 500 dinar sheep. 1 dinar is about $0.60. Families will be eating from these sheep for months to come…from the freezer of course.

I was so relieved when she told me they do not eat anything from the heads or the horns! They just keep them for fun ;)...

We were so grateful for the opportunity to share in this celebration and hope we can return the hospitality and generosity ten fold in days to come…Although I'm not sure we can compete with lamb for breakfast!

Fourth of July Fun

We had a lovely holiday with friends, family, and our itty bitty firecracker :) ...

(24 weeks)

Giving thanks to the One who gives us freedom...

Interdependence Day with our Bloomingdale Church Family...

Fourth of July Breakfast...

Fernandez Fun...

Fireworks with the Rich/Murray/Riems...

Twins...

The End.

Fun Five

For pretty much every special occasion Dan and I have a tradition of getting at least two cards to honor the event...one serious and one FuNnY.

This year when I was picking out my FuN card, one particular card ScReAmEd, "I'm the one!!" It was the PeRfeCt card...At the same time, I thought to myself, "If Dan sees this one, he won't be able to resist!"

And guess what? I was right about both things. Amazingly enough Dan did get the same card...

...and it was the PeRfeCt card because I'm definitely loving this man...

...until I CrOaK :)

The End

Sunday Afternoon...

I just couldn't help myself. I love this man and the sweet peace and rest of Sunday afternoon...

Chinese New Year

This weekend we went out with some dear friends to bring in the ChiNeSe NeW YeAr...

Our friends NiTa and AdRiaN never fail to EnRiCh our lives by giving us new experiences so we knew that when they invited us to join their friends for a Chinese New Year celebration it was not going to be your Americanized KuNg PaO ChIckEn and CraB RaNgOoN...Oh no, we knew that this was going to be the ReAl DeaL.Ten courses of pure ChiNeSe DeLiGhT...

The aPpeTiZeR:


...and SoUp....

...the MaIn CoUrSeS and SiDe DiSheS begin...

...DeSsErt...

...and last but certainly not least...

...and even though I don't take such things seriously, it just so happens that mine was true:

It is with an extremely full stomach and great joy and gratitude in my heart for my dear husband, friends, family, and Savior that I wish you a very Happy New Year... ChInEsE style.