Happy Birthday Kyle

Yesterday Kyle turned 8 years old. He chose to go to the mall and eat McDonalds for dinner and then we played a few games in their kids center.

I made a cake with a layer of ice cream inside and he opened a couple of gifts.

Even though it was almost bed time. we played in the pool with his new Alligator!

We will be celebrating Kyle's Birthday twice this year. He will be Baptized in St. Louis in two weeks and then we get to have another party with the rest of our family that we miss so much!

LUCKY BOY!

We love you Kyle!

TACO NIGHT

Cooking has been one of the hardest things for me here. I cannot find a lot of items we would normally eat. Today I found this at one of the stores I shop at. After the sticker shock, I put them in my cart and bought them. I knew Tim would strongly disagree with this decision. Good thing he rarely makes it home for dinner and never reads our blog! We loved our 15 dollar taco kit, but the 7 dollar can of refried beans will have to wait for another day. I realized I have no can opener. I need my stuff from the US before I go CRAZY!

Jake and friends at Luana's 15th Birthday Party

Jake with Marinna and Giovanna. It was quite the festa. Brazilians sure like to party considering it lasted until 3am.

Tyler at Leticia's birthday party!

Happy Birthday Tim

Today is Tim's Birthday! and Kim's too! They are twins.

Alison blew up lots of balloons and cleaned the house. I bought a cake and we waited for him to come home from work. As usual it was a little late, but we sang and had Birthday Cake!

Thanks for all your hard work for our family.

We Love You Tim!!

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

The kids spent the week of Carnival at a camp with our church. I think it is a way to keep the kids safe and out of trouble. Alison and Tyler were not sure they wanted to go, but with a little coaxing and a few tears they decided to give it a try.

They had lots of fun activities. Here is Alison trying to learn how to sew. Her and Fernanda were best of friend the entire time.

The boys got to go repelling. Here is Jake giving it a try!

This is a stray dog that would get in the girls tent at night and try to sleep with them. Yuck!

The most favorite was the Dance and BBQ on the last night. I guess they don't really care about the 14 and up rule here. Alison (11yrs) dancing with a boy! Yikes!:)

Tyler and his buddies!

What a great time they all had!

I was so bored while they were gone. I drove up there a couple of times to check and make sure things were okay. On my way up I ran over the biggest spider I have ever seen. I have been carefully going through and washing all the stuff they brought home. So far no creatures have been found!

Tyler and Souza

This is Tyler's new best buddy. It seems that kids here are the same as in the US. They all love video games!

Happy Birthday Jen!

Today is my most favorite sister's Birthday.

( okay only sister, but if I had more she'd be it )

Last year I was able to go to Utah and spend her birthday with her. Now it is just too far! When we were growing up she was the perfect older sister who never got in trouble and I was the annoying little sister. Luckily we have grow out of that and are best of friends no matter how far apart we live!

This is not a great picture, but I was trying to be sneaky!

I often joked about how I would surely need a pool boy to take care of my pool once I got to Brazil. Well, here he is! I like to call him the pool Grandpa! While he is not exactly what I had in mind, he keeps my pool clean and beautiful!