KYLE TURNS NINE

We celebrated with lunch at Applebee's! He got the new 3DS and some games!

They brought him cake and sang to him! 

(In Portuguese of course)

It was a Fun day! Happy Birthday cute boy!

GIRL AND HER GUITAR

Alison wanted a guitar for Christmas last year, but she would not let me sign her up for lessons. She told me she would learn how to play from you tube. I laughed and thought it was crazy, but she really has learned a lot! She spends many hours in her room practicing! Click on the arrow and she how cute she is!

Tim and Kathy visit Brazil

Tim had a work trip to Florida and Missouri last month. He made plans to bring his Mom and Dad back to Brazil when he returned. We did not tell the kids because we wanted them to be surprised. It was GREAT!!!

The day after they arrived the three oldest had to go to church camp. They were a little bummed to leave Grandma and Gramps, but we promised to visit the camp.

So hot so they spent lots of time in the pool!!!

We came up the following day for church. This is where they held sacrament meeting.

It was so hot after three hours Kathy and I were more than happy to come home!!!

It was nice to have a few days with only Kyle around and Tim had time off work for Carnival. This picture is taken at the Big Tree in Granga Olga. The neighborhood we lived in for two months when we first arrived in Brazil.

We ate at Mc D's which is a real treat since it is so expensive! (Gramps paid :))

Gramps found his favorite new store and helped Tim with a few home projects.

Kathy taking pictures of the kids skating below her balcony.

They helped me do the grocery shopping and gramps enjoyed picking out strange food for the maid to make for lunch. After the beans flavored with pig ears (hair still attached) Kathy and I put a stop to his fun!

On Sunday we had a BBQ with all our friends. They showed Gramps the art of BBQ Brazilian style which is very different than we are use to.

We visited the Temple in Campinas. Such a Beautiful place!

After a tour of the Temple grounds we headed to the largest Mall in Latin America for lunch.

It was so crazy busy!

Gramps and Tim at our Friday night Pizza tradition.

I buy most of my fruits and veggies at the outdoor market. I love to go, but I'm usually the only one who likes this and it is difficult for me to go alone because with no cash registers i have to understand what the people are telling me is my total. I'm sure I get ripped off a lot, but what can you do?

Picking tomatoes

Gramps got this great picture. Isn't it beautiful !! It rained while we were there so not many people were out and about.

Grandma doing a little shopping at the Feira! Jake making sure she doesn't have any trouble.


You can't leave the market without having a Pastel. So yummy!!!!

Here is a picture of our house. Good thing Gramps was so good with the camera. I don't think I have ever posted a picture of our place!

It was so fun to have them here and so sad to say goodbye! We hope they will come back real soon!!!

Jake's BBQ

Jake, Danilo, and Saulo

Shopping for the food and drinks for the party!

Jake was wanting to have a party for his Birthday, but because his birthday is on a holiday he planned the BBQ for the middle of January so more of his friends would be in town.

He and Danilo made the guest list. I was shocked to hear they invited 100 people. I didn't even know he knew 100 kids here in Brazil, but he said you don't need to know them all!! :)

I think there ended up to be about 70 teenagers. Yikes it was crazy, but the boys did all the cooking themselves!

I don't know why this picture is so blurry. It was 1 am so maybe my camera was as tired as me!

We told the kids no alcohol was allowed inside so by the end of the night the party had migrated the the front of the house! Teenagers think they are so sneaky!!!

Next party will be much smaller!!!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday!

I love this crazy guy! He taught me many things, but the number one is... Never give up even when life is really really hard!!!

My dad grew up without the stability of a Mom and Dad. He never learned what it felt like to know your family will always be there for you. As a parent he always wanted us kids to feel loved and tried hard to be a better parent than he ever had.

He served a mission for our church in Brazil many years ago. I grew up learning that Brazil was a wonderful country full of loving people. Now I live here in Brazil with my own little family. I feel blessed to be here among the people who showed my Dad such love and acceptance.

Happy Birthday Dad! Because of you I know I can do hard things....

Jake turns 17

We celebrated Jakes birthday on New Years Eve with our great friends. After a yummy meal and lots of fireworks we sang Happy Birthday to him just after midnight. He and Danilo are planning a huge BBQ at our house to also celebrate so I will be posting about that soon!

Happy Birthday Jake!!! We don't always see eye to eye, but I think your AWESOME!!!!

WEEKENDS!!!

I am climbing on board with this whole staying up late on the weekends. We have great friends here who have become more like family to us this past 11 months. This is the gang at our house trying to decide what we want for dinner. It took awhile with this many. We ended up sending the men out to the bakery for sandwiches and ate at 10:30pm. Good thing I took a nap :)

The view from the 2nd floor.

NATAL 2011

We celebrated Christmas this year Brazilian style by opening presents after midnight Christmas Eve. It was great because after we went to bed there were no children waking me up every hour to see if it was time yet!!!

All Jake wanted this year were clothes and money!!!

He is constantly going out with friends and is finding out how expensive this is and not being able to earn any money has been hard! He had his first job at age 11 and loves having his own money!!!

Tyler loves all things soccer !!! His favorite team is Real Madrid.

He also loves all things xbox!!!

Kyle loves to read the Diary of a Whimpy Kid books. He has been waiting patiently for this new one. He finished it in 2 days!!!

Skateboarding is a new favorite thing as well. He has many scrapes and bruises, but refuses to stop!!!

Alison adores all things Justin Bieber!!! She is a little Bieber crazy!!!

She wanted a guitar so bad. I asked her how she was going to learn and if she wanted me to sign her up for lessons, but she says she will learn how to play from youtube!!! I laughed at this , but she has already learned a song! I will post a video later.

Tim spoiled me with lots of my favorite Bamboo kitchen stuff.

Tim wasn't so sure about staying up so late, but he was a good sport! Santa brought him new pants and shirts and his favorite gum Big Red!!! which is not available in Brazil.

Overall Christmas was a big success!!! We missed our family in the US and spent a lot of time on Skype. We also had four missionaries for the day so they could talk with their families. I've decided that I don't want to be away for another Christmas so I have one year to talk Tim into the idea. Wish me LUCK!!!

CHRISTMAS EVE

We spent Christmas Eve with our favorite Brazilian families. The party started at 8pm and dinner was at 10pm. We were the first to leave at 12:30am! Traditionally here in Brazil you stay up to welcome the birth of Christ at midnight. I heard the party lasted till 3am! Crazy people!!!

SUMMER TIME

I can't believe we survived an entire year of school here in Brazil. We had some ups and downs, but overall it went smoother than I expected! This is a picture of Kyle with his teacher. She loves to hug and kiss him which is normal here in Brazil. He is still trying to get use to this practice.

Here is the snack area where Kyle and his friends have a sandwich of bread with some kind of cheese spread and a piece of fruit everyday. They sit at those tables then have a few minutes to play hide and go seek tag!

Tyler had a super successful year of many friends!!! His grades struggled a bit, but the girls didn't seem to mind. I think at his age it is harder to feel comfortable with a new language. The last few months he has come a long way and I am so proud of him!!!

Jake has a group of really fun friends. This picture is on the last day of school when they tried to have a BBQ in the classroom. Jake supplied the George foreman which was promptly confiscated by the administrator. Jake has done so great with the language. I worried most about him because he will need to get into college in a couple of years, but he studied so much the first couple of months and now you would never know he is an American. He also has adapted to the environment here quickly. He loves everything about the Brazilian way!

Alison is still the most shy about speaking Portuguese, but i know she understands every word because she translates for me all the time. She has the most darling friends that spend lots of time in our home. She will continue in her extra help Portuguese class until she has more confidence in the language.

Tyler and the Ladies! Oh boy!

I am looking forward to relaxing for a couple of months with no homework or driving to the school six times a day!!!