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!

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!!!

Last week we took a few days off to go on a little vacation! It was SO MUCH FUN!! First we went up to Rexburg to meet my twin nieces. The next day we went up to Yellowstone and spent the day there. I forgot how beautiful that area is, and even though we didn't see a whole lot of wild life, we had an amazing time! The next day, after visiting with my brother and his family for a little while, we drove to Bear Lake, where we got to spend a day at the lake and it was PERFECT! Tiffany finally enjoyed it, since now she LOVES water, but she still didn't want anything to do with the sand. The next day we headed back home to finish off the week working, working, and working...but it was SO worth it!

Me with Carol and Bryan with Gabi. It's pretty easy to tell them apart, which is a good thing! Aren't they two little angels?!
Tiffany and Thomas. These two together are trouble!
Tiff and Bryan at Yellowstone. It was so hot that they decided to cool off a little!
This time Old Faithful actually got pretty high. And we got lucky because it started 10 min after we got there!

This elk was just hanging out while every one stared at him!

This elk just kept walking towards us.
Tiff got to hang out with her cousin Gage for a little while too, and these two just had a great time!
Tiff just loved her cousins...she wanted to hold and kiss them, and she was so sweet with them!
My beach baby. We found this float at my mother-in-law's and it was perfect, she never got scared of the water, not even when it got too deep for her. That was actually her favorite part!

She liked her float so much she wouldn't leave it alone.

Tiffany and her cousin Boden, I think because he is older, she just loves to follow him around and play with him. They had a lot of fun together!
Having her fist Popsicle all by herself...I know, I hate seeing her making a mess, but sometimes you just have to let it go!
We accomplished so much in these few days, it was great! Tiffany hang out with all of her cousins, and we just had the best time as a family!

Backyard...

This year's 4th of July is turning out to be a relaxing, family time fun! Both Bryan and I have Monday off, and what's summer without grilling, right?! Our grill is in Bear Lake and since we don't have any way to bring it here, we decided to buy a smaller one to also have when we go camping (if we ever do!) or even just go up the mountain or somewhere for some fun outdoor activity. It turned out to be a great idea! Even though we had to improvise a stand for it, we've been enjoying just being out in our backyard hanging out!

After cooking some hamburgers and sausages, we used the rest of the fire for some s'mores!

Mine is double marshmallows so needless to say I felt sick after only a couple s'mores...
Bryan doesn't really like the marshmallow, so he only cooked half of one just for the fun of it!
Today was actually colder than usual, so we had to bundle up a little bit, but Tiff LOVES LOVES LOVES bubbles, she can do it for EVER!
And she actually makes quite a few on her own!
Upside down...
In the air...
or just being carried around....Tiff just LOVES to hang out outside!

YAY for jobs that give us paid holidays! We've been needing some time to relax these last few weeks...we've just been constantly on the go and time is going by too fast!

Tiff always liked this cabinet, but now she loves to get in there and close the doors. She can do that for the longest time and cracks up every time she opens them! I love that smile!

Every week I try to make a trip to the library with her. She won't let me sit and read to her, but she LOVES to just flip through the books and she aways find a favorite one that she will look through for the longest time.

The other day I finally took her to the pool. I had some really long days at work and the house was a mess, but I just needed to get out and do something fun. I knew she wasn't going to like it at first, but I was surprised by how quickly she warmed up to it and started actually enjoying the whole thing. I couldn't hold her anymore, she just wanted to wonder around and didn't even freak out when she fell in a couple of times! I seriously had the BEST of times with her that day!
But it was cold when we got out, which made her a little sick the next day...so now I feel bad about taking her back, but I need to do it! The pool is so close to our house and it's so much fun!
Daddy's early Father's Day gift! Our old TV got messed up during our last move, so it was really a necessity!
Brazil's first game! Tiff and I stayed home because I thought we would be able to watch it online...
Well, it didn't work out so well! I did watch most of it (especially the goals!) but it really wasn't the best...still it was fun to dress up and cheer for our country!

Temple Square

This Monday I had to go to SLC to do some fingerprinting for my new job...I got hired as a part-time Teller at the Wells Fargo in Heber (which means Bryan was transfered to Kimball Junction since we can't work in the same branch-it was really the other way around, because he transfered they offered me the job, but anyways!). The whole thing only took about 2 minutes, so I decided not to waste a PERFECT SUNNY day and drive right back to cold, too windy Kamas! We stopped at a few places to shop, but I really wanted to take Tiff to the Temple Square. As you can see in the pics, she LOVED it...it was such a nice weather and there were so many pretty flowers and things to look at that she never looked at the camera. She would only smile like that when someone was walking by.

I can't get over how big she is! Sometimes I just look at her and can't believe she can do all these things...This week she finally started to say more words again...she's repeating the ones she already knew, and she is starting to say new ones like ovo, obrigada (it sounds more like igada), she also says thank you perfectly and she uses both depending on what we say to her, which makes me think she will be bilingual from the beginning. She also says uva, suco, nite nite, and I can't think of more...anyways, I know she's behind on that department, but I can understand how confusing it all seems to her, and in her own time she will figure it all out!

As for my job situation, those of you who were wondering...I'm still going to try and keep my GAP job for as long as I can possibly do it without being too stressful for me and my family because the discounts are too good...I went shopping for clothes for my new job and couldn't believe how much I saved at both GAP and Banana Republic! So I'll still be part-time, even with both jobs, but with the traveling back and forth, it might get a little crazy! I'm also working with this wedding planner in Park City and helping her out with a couple of weddings this summer which then really adds up and makes me a full-time, but at least the weddings are few and far in between.

I always saw myself as a stay-at-home mom, but after starting work again, I realized that I really don't like to be home so much...DON"T GET ME WRONG, I know my priorities, and being a mom is at the TOP of my list, and I also know that I might be working too much right now for that, but once things calm down and I have the option of being home, I'll always want to have something to keep me busy. I'm really hoping to get enough experience that I can start doing my own Wedding Planning and flowers, which then will allow me to stay home, choose my hours and be productive...I just feel like I need to have some sort of commitment so that I spend my time wisely. If I just stay home then I kinda get lazy and don't really know how to prioritize my time. And I can also see the benefit of it for Tiff...she was always so attached to me, but now she plays so much better and seems so much happier because she doesn't revolve around me anymore.

All I can say is that even though everything is not perfect, life is good right now! I feel like we're really going somewhere now and we're settled in a nice place where Tiff can grow and we can have lots of good family time. We enjoy every moment we have together and help each other out a lot more because we're both so busy. I know Bryan wishes things were slower and we had more time to travel and relax, but I think I wasn't doing anything for so long, that I really don't mind it....we'll see in a few months when everything becomes a routine!