Christmas has come and gone!

We had a GREAT Christmas...especially when compared to last year... We had time to prepare and enjoy everything. Bryan had to work on the 24th for half the day, so I stayed home preparing for our Christmas Eve dinner. For that night, we also watched A Christmas Carol, and I thought it was a great movie! (no, I didn't know about the Christmas Carol story...) Then before Tiff went to bed, we got our new pajamas out to get ready for Santa. I have to say I was really surprised that Tiffany didn't try once to go and open the gifts...it's like they weren't even there.

As soon as Tiff went to bed, I got our stockings filled. I felt bad that Bryan had picked some things out for my stocking (last minute) but still...he ended up just wrapping them because I had already filled it with stuff I wanted! hehe...next year I'll leave it up to him!
I'm glad Tiffany doesn't understand enough about Christmas to want to wake up super early...We woke up at our usual time and got ready for the gifts. She first got her stocking and loved everything that was in it...
Then I had her open the gifts I knew would be the least interesting to her...her clothes. And sure enough, she would just open and throw them out and go to the next one. Then we had her open her DVD's...we decided to sign up for the Disney Movie Club and they arrived on the 24th, which was perfect timing!
At last we gave her the big box. I know I was more excited about her gift then she was, but still, she's playing more and more with it and having a good time.
When Tiff was all done, it was Daddy's turn, then Mommy's turn, and this is what our living room looked like when we were all done. (you can see in the middle there my brand new sewing machine! I LOVE it and can't wait to get all my projects done!!!)
My brother and his family came over in the afternoon, when we made a real Brazilian Christmas meal and it was absolutely DELICIOUS! I couldn't stop eating! (my cravings got the best of me!) We exchanged gifts and the kids had a great time playing together.
When the twins woke up, we called our parents so they could see all their grandkids together...it was so cute seeing the four of them interact....Tiffany was as obsessed with the babies as ever...
At last Tiffany and Thomas were starving so they nicely shared their snacks while watching Toy Story...

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas!

I waited so long to download my pictures that I never any of our thanksgiving pictures and it's already Christmas time! As soon as we decided that we weren't going to be moving by the end of the year, I went ahead and got all of our Christmas decorations out!

Tiffany had a lot of fun this year decorating the tree. She wanted to help with everything and absolutely loved when the lights were turned on!
Bryan is always in charge of the lights. I know that when we decide to put lights all around our house he will be more than up to it!

Tiffany claimed her star from the beginning. So when everything was ready, she got up there with daddy and did a great job!

I'm super excited for Christmas this year. We are going to spend it at home and I can't wait to make a lot of good food. Today we baked all day. I need to take pictures of how everything turned out!

Ok, it's been waaay too long since I posted these pics here...I have started working some more because I found someone to watch Tiffany again, and the days that I'm home, I'm too sick to do ANYTHING (and I really mean anything!). But today Bryan is home helping me out, so I feel a lot better! Anyways, about this post! These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago when I went to Provo/Salt Lake to get everything I needed to get done! First I went to buy some silk flowers to make the personal flowers for my friend's wedding. She is getting married in Brazil this month and her sister who lives here took the flowers with her. I can't believe I didn't take any pictures, but they turned out really good for a silk bouquet and I was just very touched to be able to be part of her wedding even though I can't be there. After that we went to visit Bryan's aunt who was leaving for Texas that week and luckily she lives only a street away from my friend Patty, who just had a baby, so we were able to go see them too!
This is Tiffany holding Camila, she was pointing at her and saying "nenem" (baby), she just LOVES babies, she wants to hold them constantly and she is so gentle...it makes me excited to see her become a big sister, she will be great!

We were on a real time crunch with everything we had to do that day, so right after we left Saratoga Springs, we headed to Salt Lake for a playdate at the Discovery Museum at the Gateway. What a fun place for kids. There's just so much for them to do!
Tiffany really liked the market, we went around shopping for a while and she loved all the pretend food.

This was cute, she would grab an item, "scan" it, and then just type on the cashier...I have a video of her...it was so funny!
Because there's so much to do, they spent most of the time playing by themselves, but we got them together a couple of times.
This was Tiff favorite toy...she just wanted to get in and out, in and out, until a kid hurried and got in before she could and she got so upset!

All in all, it was a great day...we saw lots of friends, some family, but I stayed way too long without eating and made myself too sick...
This was after the first big snow storm...Tiff kept calling the snow "bubbles".

Tiffany's announcement!

(don't worry, I taped the lid and cleaned the whole thing before I let her touch it! hehe)

It's official... baby #2 in on the way! I found out about a month ago and I was actually quite surprised! We had decided to try for another baby but things were a little crazy. We kept making some life decisions that seemed like they would work better if I didn't get pregnant, then I just really thought I wasn't so I stopped worrying about it. Anyways, my period didn't come when I expected so I decided to do a pregnancy test and was honestly thinking that it was just going to give me some peace of mind by telling me I wasn't pregnant, so I could really stop worrying about it. To my surprise, the test was positive, and I remember it took me half an hour just sitting there for it to start sinking in. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I wasn't happy, I was just shocked because I really thought it wasn't going to happen and we were just going to wait and see how our situation would change to try again. But then I was faced with the fact that I was going to go through everything again, the discomforts of pregnancy, delivery, and new baby. It honestly was hard for me, and I'm not the type of woman that LOVES everything about pregnancy. But I have been reminded almost daily of the blessing and privilege that is to be able to have and raise our own children.

I did great for about two weeks. I really wasn't feeling any symptoms except for fatigue...I could sleep all day and night (and still can!). I was even getting hopeful that this time around I wouldn't get sick, but that was SO silly of me. It seems like all of the sudden it hit me: nausea, bloating, sensitivity for smell, dizziness, and even more fatigue. I spent the last week just laying on the couch...so you can imagine what my house looks like! Then Thursday I had to go back to work, and that was just plain torture. I would get lightheaded constantly and just the sick feeling made it very hard, but luckily my managers were very understanding and just let me take as many breaks as I needed.

Yesterday we went to the Dr. for the ultrasound. For some reason the image was kinda fuzzy, but we could see the baby and the heartbeat. I was relieved to know that everything was OK, I like to wait for the ultrasound for a confirmation! We thought at first that I was 8 1/2 weeks but the ultrasound measured 7 1/2 which I think is more accurate. So the due date is June 26, which is only two days after my dad's Birthday.

We are still carrying on with our plans and praying that everything will work out because we know it's Heavenly Father's plan for us right now. Somehow we will make it work and I'll be able to handle what's to come and a new baby, who I know will bring so much joy into our lives. Tiffany is more than ready to be a big sister, and she will love having someone to play with.

Trick or Treat

We had fun this year with Tiffany. She definitely understood a lot better the whole concept and learned pretty quickly that if she said "twick o tweat" she would get candy. The week before Halloween it started snowing, so I knew the temperature was going to drop. I really wanted her to wear her Dora costume, but there was no way I would be able to keep her warm enough in it. So I went to Old Navy and found this adorable Bumble Bee costume that was already at a reduced price, and with my sweet discount got it for way cheap. It was a good thing because all that rain sure made it cold.
If they gave her the option to choose what she wanted, she would stare and the bowl and look for familiar candies or just go straight for the suckers. And then she would pop them right in her mouth. It took a while to get her bag to fill up.

She thought the whole thing was pretty fun, she loved seeing all the other kids dressed up and every time we would go in the rain, she would laugh pretty hard too.
She started to get sugar high pretty quickly and it was like that until the end of the day.
As you can see it rained pretty hard, and it was like that the entire time. It only stopped raining later at night, but then the temperature just dropped. I felt bad for all those trick-or-treaters.
On our way home, I wanted to take her around the neighborhood, but the rained decided to increase, so we just came home and she was content trick-or-treating from our own candy bowl.
I did take her across the street to our neighbors. They have two kids and Tiff loves playing with them. However they were both sick, so we tried to hurry out of there.
I couldn't believe when I found my FAVORITE Brazilian candy in a bag of candies at Wal Mart. Who knew we could find 7 Belo here??? I wonder where I can find more!
I put her back in her Dora costume because she was getting pretty warm and because I wanted to try and take some cute pictures...
Well...that didn't happen! She was just beyond wired up and sugar high. But in the end it was a fun day. We got to spend time together and Tiffany sure had lots of fun!

Halloween Week

Today the library had a Halloween Party during their Preschool reading time and all the kids went in their Halloween costumes. Tiffany finally got to wear her Dora costume that tia Anna made for her. It was definitely the most original one!

Tiffany didn't want to sit down with all the other kids...she still doesn't care much for the stories, but she sure liked the witch (buxa) that she now knows thanks to all the Dora episodes that have witches in them!
They always decorate the entire room and Tiffany just loved seeing all the different things.
After the stories they always have some craft and games for the kids. Today she got to decorate a spooky house with all these sticker foams. She loves anything with stickers so she had a blast!
Doesn't she look adorable in her Dora costume?!
And of course we couldn't go without candy! They gave each of the kids a bag with candy and she went straight for the sucker!

Tiff's room

This is probably the 10th time I move things around in Tiff's room, but I think I finally like it! Last time I went to Rexburg I stopped at Porters (oh how I miss that store!) and got some cute things to make for her room. I needed new letters because the ones I made when she was born got ruined with all our movings. I also got a cute hanger and the 3 flower picture frame thingy. It was fun decorating these things! I love being crafty!
The table and chair take a lot more room than I would like, but she uses them so much that I don't want to have to move them.
The purple part of the curtain is actually from my room back in Brazil, my mom brought when she came, and she also make the adorable little things that hang from it. You can't see it in the picture, but there are 4 of them, and it just adds SO much!
All the stuffed animals are mostly mine from growing up and from our engagement. Bryan would give me a new one every month leading up to our wedding. It makes her room a little crowded, but for now it works. I think her favorite part right now are all the books, and the little play food Jasmine and Eric (Aline's kids) gave her for her birthday.
I just wanted to show this lamp that I updated. I actually got it for my 15th birthday and it was black with white in the middle, and it was designed to be a picture frame. But I forgot that the reason I never used it here is because the part that plugs in the wall was different. But I wanted to put it in her room so bad that I just cut that part off, bought a new one from Home Depot, and fixed it! I was so proud of myself! But of course I had to make sure I was doing it right or I could blow up the house or something! (no, not really, but you never know!)
And here is Tiffany feeding her addiction! One day while I was at work, Bryan wanted to watch something else but Tiffany kept asking for Dora, so he brought our old TV from the garage and put Dora for her to watch while he watched his program. Yeah...I'm not very happy about it, especially because she sits inches from it and thinks she has to watch it all day long! I do all sorts of things to distract her, but she always brings it up!

Pumpkins

I finally got our pumpkins yesterday to add to our decoration. I wanted to go to a pumpkin patch or something, but it hasn't happened yet, so I just got these for now!
And today I thought Tiff looked so adorable with this dress she got from Aubrey and Naomi for her birthday (thanks Patty!) that I decided to take some pictures. It was her first time seeing the pumpkins so she loved playing with them.
She is just getting so big! She is finally getting used to nursery...she cries a little when I leave her, but them after I go check on her she is totally fine. I love seeing all her grow up and learn new things!

October so far...

I've been wanting to come back to my blog for a while, but never find the time/motivation, and then it just feels like I'm too behind! So I'm gonna try and just post little by little and see if I can do better!

Yesterday the Brazilians here in Utah got together to celebrate Children's Day (Oct 12). I remember it always being kind of a big deal in Brazil when I was a kid...we always got a toy or something and just had fun! So I want to make it a big deal for Tiff too! We took the kids to the farm country at Thanksgiving Point. It was my first time there and I really enjoyed it. I think it's a great place to take kids and just let them connect with nature a little.
We wanted to take a picture of all the kids that went, but these were the only ones that would fit so we just got them first! (Eric, Jennifer, Tiffany and Jasmine)
The pony rides are the big attraction there, so I was excited to take Tiff. I really thought she would freak out, but she held on the entire time and LOVED it (even though you can't really tell in this picture...such a concentrated little girl!) She kept asking to "wide" (aka ride) and wide!
The plan was to bring a little toy for each of your kids, so I found this Dora bubble whistle and thought it was the perfect combination for Tiff (Dora and bubbles are probably her top favorite things right now!) But I couldn't get the bubbles to come out right, so she had fund just blowing the whistle and laughing with Eric every time she made a sound!

On the 4th it was Bryan's Birthday, so Tiff helped me make cupcakes. She loves to sit on our counter and just help me with whatever I'm making and I just KNOW that I'm going to miss this... so I let her!

She quickly remembered from her birthday about the candles, so Bryan let her blow his candles two (twice!)

Gotta love birthday time and all the yumi stuff we eat! I might need another excuse to make more cupcakes now that I finally got me some cupcake pans to make them with!