Did I mention that my wife is a hottie?

Ok, so I somehow snuck onto the blog to post this very cute picture of my wife. Yeah Alisa-- the pearls were fantastic. This is Amy after her big talk in Church (notice the smile?)Now quick, post your comments before Amy kills me and deletes this post!

-Andy

Dual Citizen

Well, here is our little dual citizen! Here is Lucas holding onto both of his passports! We went last week to pick up a Brazilian passport for Lucas. He can't leave Brazil without a Brazilian one. Apparently they won't even recognize his U.S. passport because he is a Brazilian citizen. So, he now has 2 birth certificates and 2 passports. (Isn't he cute?!?!?)

Sacrament talk

I'm happy to say that I actually gave a talk today in our church....in Portuguese. Thanks to Andy who helped me write out my talk in Portuguese and listen to me say it over and over. He had it memorized by the time I gave it today. I was so glad for all his help and am glad the talk went well. Of course, who knows if anyone understood what I said but I felt good about it.

Peanut Butter Anyone?!?!?

You can't buy peanut butter here. So, we stocked up before leaving St. Joesph and have had our moms bring us some. Just thought you'd all like to know that we are the lucky owners of the contaminated peanut butter that was recalled last week. Luckily we had not opened it and it will be going into the garbage tonight!

Carnaval

This week was Carnaval. Andy had Monday through Wed. off of work. We loved having him home and spending time all together. People kept telling us we had to go to the carnival parade here and that it was tame compared to what you find in Rio. They said it would be safe to bring the kids. So, we decided to give it a try and experience small town Brazilian carnival and are glad we did.


Here we are waiting for the parade to start. It was SUPPOSED to start at 8:00

.....still waiting and enjoying a churro filled with dolce de leite - yummmmm!
......and still waiting so we bought popcorn a little later on
......and still waiting so kept giving the kids licorice that we brought from home

.....and still waiting! So, even though this is a bad picture I had to include it. We arrived at 7:30pm. Keep in mind our kids are usually about ready for bed by now. Plus we had Lucas who has to nurse every 2 1/2 - 3 hours. So, 8:00 came around and nothing was happening. It was about 9:15 (1 hour and 45 min. after arriving) before it actually started. Luckily our kids were good. No melt downs until we walked through the door later that night. We had to take pictures of the time because this is VERY Brazilian. Nothing ever seems to start on time and I'm not talking about being just 5 or 10 min. late!

But, once the parade actually did start our kids LOVED it. They were dancing to the music and amazed with all the colorful costumes. We had a great evening.

Our little fish

I thought this was a pretty cool picture! I just happened to snap at the right time. Ethan LOVES being in the water. He really can't get enough of it! Most young kids like the water but don't really like getting their heads wet. However, that is all Ethan wants to do. If he could hold his breath long enough he'd spend all of his time under water. He is definitely our little fish. He also can't get enough of Andy throwing him high into the air! It is fun to watch!

Oh Happy Day!!

I am happy to say the today I started running again and boy did it feel good! It's been a long time. It felt so good to get out the running shoes and headphones! I'm very much out of shape but it just feels good to be moving my body and sweat because I want to and not just because it's so hot here!!

Birthday Boy

Before Lucas was born Ethan was still my baby. Now that Lucas is here I have realized how BIG Ethan really is and it seemed so strange to me to be celebrating his 3rd birthday. Andy came home for lunch and we had cake and ice cream and opened presents. Ethan who has not been allowed to have many sweets ever since being diagnosed with diabetes was so thrilled to eat birthday cake. We had a great day!

We love Lucas!!

People keep asking to see more Lucas pictures so here they are. We are sooooo grateful for all the help we got from my mom and Andy's mom. It was very hard to say good bye. We enjoyed both the help and the company. I don't think we would have survived without the help! Lucas is such a WONDERFUL SWEET baby. If only they all came as good as him! He is so mellow and low key. He sleeps very well at night and I am happy to report last night he slept for 10 1/2 hours! Life is good when you are getting sleep!

Truth Be Told

I had to wait to post this for fear that my mom and mother-in-law would not want to come visit! The truth is WE HAVE BUGS!!! Below is just a sampling of some of the bugs and some of the random bites our kids wake up with. Check out the size of Ethan's "bite". It looks more like another knee cap. And yes, I am horrified every time I see a cockroach running across the floor. I was especially grossed out one day when I went to get a pair of pants out of my closet and found a cockroach crawling up the pants!! And I was alone when I discovered this GIANT spider. I trapped it and waited for Andy to get home. I could not kill it. It was too fast and big. Each night seems to bring a new bug. This week has been cricket week. We're not sure how the bugs make their way into our house but they always manage to find a way!!