Christmas 2009

Despite all of the craziness with moving and getting settled, we had a good Christmas. We were able to move into our house on the 23rd and thanks to my friend Carol, we got mostly everything unloaded that same day. On the 24th I just kept unpacking and putting stuff away until Bryan got home from work. We then were able to go buy some food to make a special dinner and buy something for Tiffany for Christmas. Everything closed at 6pm so we didn't have much time to get her anything special, we just found a couple of toys we thought she would like. Our dinner ended up delicious and it was just SO GOOD to relax in our new place.

These are backwards again. Here Tiff is opening her gifts from Bryan's family. We went to Bear Lake on the 25th to be with family.
Here is mine and Bryan's Christmas gift! This house is part of a program that we were able to qualify for where it is a rent-to-own house and we will have the opportunity to buy it in a few years for a REALLY good price. We don't know if we will stay in it for that long, but I don't want to think about moving again for quite some time, so for now this is our house. We get to treat it as if it was our own pretty much and we pay a really good price for rent. I absolutely LOVE IT. It is a 3 bed 2 bath house, 2 car garage and well, after living in apartments for so long, it is a HOUSE! Oh yeah, and this house is in Kamas, UT (I can give our new address to those who want it later.) But yeah, we're about 15 min from Park City, 20 min from Heber where Bryan works and about 40 min from Salt Lake. We will be doing a lot more driving then we're used to, but it's a great town to live in.
This is on Christmas morning. Tiff wasn't very happy because she was hungry and not feeling very well, but she still enjoyed her gifts and scattered them all over the house already!

Again this was on the 23rd, Tiff was helping Carol and I to decorate our tree.
Here is on the 23rd when we took a break from unpacking to put our Christmas tree up.

I just really have to say that I learned a GREAT deal about faith during these past months. We wanted all this change for SO long but we didn't know how in the world we would be able to accomplish it. Then after much prayer, things just started falling into place. Heavenly Father really knew all along what He wanted for us, we just had to trust in Him and let Him guide us. I'm so thankful for this trial period, because it's making me much more appreciative of these blessings.

Season's Greetings!

This is the only one I was able to upload to my blog. I have a different one in Portuguese, and another one in English. We're loading all of our stuff into Bryan's uncle's trailer tomorrow and I don't know when I'll have access to my computer again, so I just wanted to post our Christmas Card for those I didn't get around to sending one. And the ones I did send one to, I don't think they got it for some reason (probably got stolen from our mailbox here!).

I just wanted to wish all of you my dear friends that are with us through this blog a Merry Christmas! Thanks for checking us out every once in a while and for being part of our lives in one way or another! I really appreciate our friendship and hope we'll keep in touch for many years to come! This year I'm having a different Christmas experience and I'm feeling a lot more appreciative of the things I have in my life, so I just wanted to take the time to tell each one of you that I'm thankful for our friendship and for the things you added to my life (trust me, you ALL have in some way). I hope everyone will have a fun and relaxing Holiday Season and will be able to remember the real meaning of it all. I'm so thankful for my Savior, and for all that He has done for me.

Mean Santa!

Yesterday I took Tiffany to the mall to see Santa Claus. Since we're moving and don't have anything decorated for Christmas, she hasn't really been seeing much of anything that has to do with Christmas, SPECIALLY Santa Claus, so I knew she wouldn't know what to think of him. As soon as she spotted him, she froze. So I picked her up and took her to him and she already started freaking out, but I really wanted a picture so he picked her up and this is how it turned out! I felt bad, like I was torturing her, so I hurried and got her out of there. I think we'll need to prepare her more next year!

Thanksgiving week

We had a fun Thanksgiving. We didn't know if we were going to be able to go anywhere until pretty much the day of, but we ended up going to Bear Lake and be with family. The food was DELICIOUS... and that was one of the reasons we went, because if we would've stayed home I would've had to cook Thanksgiving dinner for our little family and I wouldn't even know where to begin! Tiffany had a LOT of fun with her cousin Gage, and now that both are walking, they interacted a lot more, it was cute to watch!

They both loved the pillows on the floor and kept falling on them and on each other...we were all just laughing our heads off watching them.

Aunt Shannon hadn't seen them since they were little babies, so she had fun playing with both of them.

Gage is so tall, he is 2 months younger than Tiff but they are pretty much the same height.

They had so much fun that of course someone had to get hurt. Tiff went to hug Gage who was standing right in front of a corner...well, they both feel down, he hit the back of his head and Tiff got the worst of it hitting it right on her forehead. At first I didn't think she got really hurt, but she was crying so much that I picked her up...when I looked at her again she had this HUGE bump on her head and everybody freaked out! It grew so fast it was scary and I didn't know what to do. We tried to put something cold on it so it would go down but she only left it on for a little bit. Luckily the swelling started to go down pretty fast and the next it was pretty much gone. Needless to say that after that Bryan and I were panicking with every move of hers...
Here's how I can get Tiff to eat more and in turn sleep longer at night: I'm trying to let her eat more by herself. I really don't like dirty babies and dirty kitchen floor, but I'm working on it. SHe really does like to feed herself, now I just need to think of more things she can manage to put in her mouth by herself.
It's been way different packing this time with a toddler around the house trying to play with the boxes and everything that is in the boxes!
Just two days ago we had the Relief Society Christmas Dinner. I was invited to participate in the planning committee and I had a lot of fun. Everybody came together to make this activity a success.
After the dinner we had a presentation, but since I was the one in charge of the curtains and of setting the stage for each part, I didn't get to take pictures, but it was about the Women at Christ's Birth. I had never thought about the perspective that these women had, since they are never really mentioned in the scriptures, but we had the mother of Mary, and the mother of Joseph, and the Inn keeper's wife and a few others talk about their feelings during that occasion. It was a very neat program and it gave me a different perspective to Christmas.

Now about the big changes in our lives right now...we still haven't decided on a place to live. We're been looking at a few places and next week Bryan will go look at some of them and then hopefully we'll find the best one. He starts Monday on his new job, and yesterday was his last day at his old job. Needless to say he is super relieved and excited to do something better. He is going to be in Salt Lake and Heber next week for training and I'll be here doing all the packing and cleaning (YAY :( ). It's going to be pretty crazy, specially because it is right before Christmas. We haven't done anything to prepare for it yet, we haven't even bought any gifts or made any plans yet, so we'll see what will happen. I guess moving will be our best gift right now, and whatever comes with it will be a plus!