Christmas 2009 (Finally) and on...

We had a great Christmas 2009! Allie and AJ were as cute as could be all through the Christmas season. They are still asking for Santa to bring presents. They both loved listening to Christmas music, watching Santa shows and "helping" to bake and decorate Christmas cookies.
This year we went to my parents house for Christmas Eve and then had Christmas morning at our house. At first the kids didn't know what to think so we took our time and had a big breakfast before opening presents. Once we began opening presents, I quickly felt overwhelmed, but the kids loved it. Alberto being the great dad that he is, took the time to open each gift and show Allie and AJ how it worked. AJ's got a diesel like "Papa's Big Truck" and once he got that, he was done. That was all he needed. Allie being the girl that she is acted like every little thing was a million dollars. It was so fun. Later that evening, we went to my parents house for dinner where Santa had left a slide for the kids. Needless to say, they love it. Alberto's mom and Stepdad came into town that evening also. The next day, Glauco, Camila and Diogo got into town and we had another round of presents. The kids just love their grandparents, all their Uncles and Aunt Camila so the rest of the weekend was like a dream come true.
Through out the weekend we ate, played with toys and jammed out to Rock Band Beatles. Ever since that weekend the kids have a new love for The Beatles so pretty much every evening now we have dancing time to Beatles music. It is pretty fun. Allie learned on Seasame Street that Tutu's are for dancing so she has to wear her tutu when we dance.



On New Year's Eve, Alberto had to work so the kids and I just hung out around the house. By the time Alberto was getting off work, we were pretty bored and I was feeling sorry for us that we weren't doing something more fun. Alberto decided to try and brighten our night and brought home some party hats, blowers and noise makers along with some sparkling juice. The kids just loved the hats and blowers! Thanks for making our night special Daddy.


In addition to the holidays, we decided it was time to move Allie and AJ into big kid beds and into the same room so we can begin to make space for a new brother or sister. Lucky for us, they have LOVED their new beds and being in the same room at night. Night time has been just perfect, unfortunately, naptime has been a wreck. For some reason as soon as I lay them down and shut the door, they act as if they haven't been together for years, let alone all day everyday and begin to tear up the room and run a muck. I have to admit, the past month with little to no napping has really tested my patience. I am hoping we will figure out some way to get a good nap in before too long. I need nap time.



To wrap up this massive post, a mini up date:This has been such a fun/hard time with 2 two year olds. I swear everyday their vocabulary grows by leaps and bounds. It is so fun to listen to them chat with eachother and tell you exactly what they do and don't want. I am glad to say that overall, Allie and AJ are best friends. Lately they will grab hands and walk all around looking at things and telling eachother silly stuff. There are times, alot of times these days, where they are not so kind to each other. There has been more than once when they will be playing and when I go to check on them they each have scratch marks or AJ has a handful of Allie's hair. They can be brutal. How do kids learn these things?? I am just praying that comes and goes quickly. AJ is Mr. Independent lately. He is always saying, "I do it by myself". He has also started to learn the joy of spitting things out and saying "I no like it". The best AJ news is that he is finally Binkie free! It was easy too! One day it cracked into 2 peices while he was sucking it and he thought he ate it. Now if he asks for it, we tell him "Remember, you ate it" he says, "Yeah I ate it" and he is fine. Allie has been turning into my little encyclopedia. I swear she remembers everything she hears and will bring it up at random times. It is a good reminder to be careful what we say in front of them. She also has picked up all the phrases we commonly use and she will say them before we can. For example, when I finish doing her hair, I always say, "look at mommy" and then I will say, "How Cute!" As soon as I say, "look at mommy", Allie says, "How Cute". Both Allie and AJ are also learning to tease, just like daddy. They love to tease eachother and lately they like to tickle everyone and sneak up and try to scare you. We sure love our babies and we are looking forward to this New Year and all the changes to come.

July

We are all excited for July because that is when our family of 4 will grow by one!! Alberto and I got to hear our new baby's heart beat this week, which is the sweetest sound! We can't wait to find out if Allie and AJ are going to have a brother or a sister!

2009 Family Pictures

We got our family pictures done a few weeks ago and I am so excited to have them back. I was really worried that there wouldn't be any great ones of the kids, but lucky for us we got some really cute pictures of both of them. I even liked some of the ones of just Alberto and I. Here are a few of my favorites:

Birthday Bash and Halloween

Our babies turned 2 on November 15th! We had a great party with lots of friends and family on the 14th. We (I) decided to have the party at our house this year instead of using the clubhouse. It was super crowded, but fun and the kids really enjoyed it. Alberto braved the cold and grilled burgers and hotdogs and my mom and I made the kids a monkey and giraffe cake. We had a jungle themed party since both kids love animals and their favorite movie is Madagascar. They know all the animal noises, even some animals that don't have a "noise", Allie and AJ have a noise for them. Allie and AJ loved all their gifts and have had a great time playing with them since. I haven't really bought them new toys since their birthday last year so they were so happy to have new things. It was fun to have their little friends uncles, aunt and grandparents around to celebrate.
I haven't taken time to write all the cute things they do lately and now I am regreting it because some of that stuff has come and gone so quickly and I don't remember all of it. I still can't get used to how quickly kids change. Here's whats going on with them at Two!
AJ: AJ has turned into our shy guy in the last few months. He doesn't say much to people that he doesn't know, but once he knows you, he is a sweet heart. He LOVES trucks and cars right now and likes to line them up all around the house and make all the engine sounds. He also loves to watch cartoon movies and Elmo. He really gets into shows. It is funny to watch him get all wrapped up in the characters. He loves to ask, "What is it?" and "What's it say?" When you call him he says, "I'm comin" as he runs in the room. Both kids like to ask people, "You alright?" when they cough or sneeze or seem hurt in anyway. They both like to be asked, "Are you alright?" If you forget to ask them, they'll remind you and then answer, "I'm fine". AJ is the best at pouting. He has an enormous lower lip and when he gets sad he will milk that sad face for all it is worth. He also gives the best hugs, especially when he is sad and needs a love. I hope that lasts for a long time.
Allie: Allie is more of a show off than AJ. She is generally cheerful and gives lots of smiles, hugs and kisses. She is a major copy cat and picks up on everything she hears. I have to be really careful as I have already taught her some naughty words. Lately she says, "Mommy, I'm jealous" and "I'm hungry" all the time. It is so funny. I am not sure where she picked up "I'm jealous", but she doesn't know what it means, she just says it randomly. Alberto taught her to say "I'm hungry" in Portuguese so that is why she says that. Both kids like to sing songs and will walk around singing with eachother. It is so cute. Allie has taken to her babies lately. She likes to pretend to feed them and cover them with blankets. It is funny to me how she is all into girl stuff and we really haven't pushed it at all. She knows about princesses, even though we have nothing princess in our house. She was thrilled to get a tutu for her birthday and loves to wear it all around. Allie has always been a little OCD, but lately she gets all upset when she spills anything on her clothes. I think she learned that from her dad.
We have been so blessed to have two wonderful, well tempered babies. We are so grateful to be parents not only to twins, but to a boy and a girl. It is has been so fun to watch them grow and interact and develop their own personalities. I am grateful for their similiarities, and especially for their differences. Happy Birthday AJ and Allie! Mommy and Daddy love you more than words can say!
Halloween:
This year for Halloween the kids were kind of stand-offish about costumes. My mom pulled out some of the costumes she had made for my brothers and I growing up and the only one the kids seemed ok with was a pumpkin. So, my mom sewed each of them a new pumpkin and I was so excited. I got Allie to try it on once for a minute and AJ wouldn't come near his. I was pretty sure we'd end up not wearing costumes on Halloween. However, a few days before, Allie took a sudden interest in hers and began to ask to wear her pumpkin. I was glad. The night before Halloween our neighborhood had a party and AJ still would not wear his pumpkin. I hoped seeing the other kids would change his mind, but it did not. On Halloween, we went to my parents and the kids were so excited for candy. We finally told AJ he couldn't have candy unless he wore his pumpkin. He was not happy, but he let Alberto put it on. We never got him to wear the hat, but at least we got both of them in their pumpkins for trick-or-treating.

A Fun Weekend

Last weekend we took a few extra days and went up North to see our brothers, Camila, Alberto's mom and also to celebrate Alberto's 28th birthday. It was a really fun trip.
We left here Thursday morning and decided we'd go all the way to Logan. On our way up we made a stop in Fillmore to eat lunch and let the kids run. They had this bear (pictured below) at the gas station and the kids enjoyed sitting by it and eating their food. Once we made it to Logan we went to eat at one of our favorite restaurants (EL Torro Viejo= The Old Bull), looked around the town where we met and fell in love and visit John and Summer, our good friends and neighbors that just moved to Logan recently. I love Logan and I was happy to be back.
On Friday, we had a delicious breakfast at Angie's another Logan favorite, drove around town a little more and then headed back down to SLC. Once there we decided to take the kids to the zoo, since last time we took them it began to pour rain before they could see most of their favorite animals. The zoo was super fun. At first the kids were afraid, but once they realized the animals don't get too close, they cut loose and had a blast. It was a fun time to be at the zoo because we got to see the baby elephant, a baby giraffe and baby tigers. Who doesn't love baby animals? Later on Friday, we went to dinner with Wes, Glauco and Camila and then went to Toys R Us. The kids were in heaven once they found the section with the ride-on toys. While the uncles and aunt watched the kids, we got them a bunch of stuff for birthdays and Christmas.




On Saturday, we shopped a lot. We got stuff for the kids birthday party, and we took them to their first movie in the theater. We saw "UP" and they loved it. It was so cute how they were getting into it. While I was dragging Alberto all over town, Glauco and Camila were planning a surprise party for his birthday. It ended up being a really fun party. They decorated with a Batman theme, Alberto LOVES Batman, and they invited some of Alberto's really good Brazilian friends. It was fun to see all of them!





On Sunday we went to the outlet stores in Park City with Wes. I found so many cute clothes for the kids, I could have spent much more money, but luckily I have a little self control. Sunday evening, Alberto's mom and her husband came down from Idaho and we all went out to dinner at PF Chang. It was delicious and the kids even liked it!
On Monday, we hung out with the uncles and aunt a little more and then headed home. Allie and AJ sure love seeing their Uncles and Aunt.

Funny Fall

This is such a random post, but who cares. First off, I wanted to share some funny things from around our place.
Allie has never been faithfully to one object, except her thumb. AJ has always needed his binkie and the same puppy, but Allie often chooses something different she wants to sleep with. This has made her crib full of stuff. Recently, she has been wanting to sleep holding all of it. After she goes to sleep, I sneak in and move it all so she doesn't smoother herself under the mess.
Lately Allie has been doing her #2 on the toilet quite a bit, but the problem is Allie will hold it until she absolutely cannot hold it anymore. Last night she kept asking to "Poop on toilet" so we put her on and in an effort to get her to relax and let it go, I read her a book. She ended up sitting there for along time looking at a book.
This is AJ patiently waiting for Allie to finish her business. He is OBSESSED with his cars and trucks lately. He is very possessive of them and doesn't want to share. The car he is driving in this picture is such a piece. It falls apart all the time and he brings it to me and says "Mommy, FICK it! FICK it, please" I love to hear those words, they make me laugh.
Last night the kids and I attempted to carve pumpkins. I wanted to do two, but one ended up being all the motivation I had. The kids were so helpful scooping out the insides and then enjoyed a cupcake our neighbors brought over for them.
The other night I made stir fry, knowing full well that Alberto and the kids would not like it. AJ however, surprised me. He gobbled it up as if it was his last meal and the best food he ever ate. What a happy day for a mommy of two picky toddlers!

Lately...

Lately there have been so many cute things that the kids have said or done that I want to post about, but I am just too lazy to sit down and post. When I started my online job last year, we did the Color Code thing and I am a White personality. I don't remember the positive things about being White, but I do remember one of the negative things was that White's have a tendancy to be lazy. That is how I knew I was really a White. I am so lazy about the dumbest stuff.
Anyhow, as I said Allie and AJ are so cute and fun and smart. I just love them to bits and even though they wear me down all day, I miss them after they go to bed at night and I just can't relax when I am away from them for too long. They have changed so much over this last year. Where did my babies go??
Seeing my kiddos sit together and "read" books is one of my favorite things in this world.




Recently we went on a Pine Valley picnic, another one of my favorite things.





In September we took the kids to the rodeo and to Swiss Days. The rodeo was so fun for the kids. They loved seeing the animals and the cowboys and cowgirls and even dressed up in some rodeo attire. The pictures below were intended to show their cute outfits, but taking a picture of 2 toddlers is hard! The kids loved the swiss days parade too. They had fun seeing all the people and animals and machines and also learned about the goodness of candy!

It was Brazilian...with pictures

That is what I say when people aske me how our trip to Brazil was. It has taken us a few weeks to get back into the swing of things since arriving home from our two week excursion in Alberto's homeland. Between work, school, and getting back on schedule... I am still tired. After much thought I think the best way to blog about this trip is to break it into subjects rather than a day to day run down. Alberto and I have agreed it was a "trip" rather than a "vacation", but all in all it was a good experience and very important for Alberto.
RANDOM PICTURES:
Our last name is very common in Brazil. It was all over the place.
A Favela (Ghetto).
Alberto's childhood home and where his sister now lives.
This is how the building look. This picture is impressive because there isn't much traffic. That was rare.

TRAVELING:
We, meaning I, were nervous about what it might be like to fly internationally with two toddlers. Surprisingly enough the toddlers were not the hard part. Airport personel were the hard part. I could not believe the lack of help and human interaction that was available as we tried to check in for our flights. It took FOREVER and we barely made it onto our first flight. What a way to start a trip I was already nervous about. I will not go on about the rest of our airport hold ups and annoyances. I guess that is to be expected. The kids were really well behaved on the planes going to Brazil and coming home. They slept some and ate some and ran around the airports like it was Disneyland. It was a little difficult trying to keep them in their seatbelts and from staring over the tops of their seats and the people behind them, but all in all 30 hours to Brazil and 24 hours back, didn't end up being as bad as it sounded.
ACCOMMODATIONS AND THE CITY:
We stayed with Alberto's sister, Daniella, and her two girls in the house Alberto grew up in. It was interesting to see where he grew up and how much it had changed, yet how much it had stayed the same. Our family slept on an air mattress in the living room. This was rough, but Alberto and I actually enjoyed it to some degree. It was really fun to see the kids go through their night time rituals and snuggle and chat with them in the dark. It was interesting too that Allie wanted to sleep by me and AJ wanted to sleep by Alberto each night. If we tried to change this arrangement they became quite upset.
The houses in Brazil are so different. When we arrrived at Alberto's house I had to ask where we were because it was not obvious what so ever that we were in a drive way and behind that giant gate there was a home. As it goes in most cities, everything is very close together or connected. The houses are generally quite small and covered in tile. I don't think I saw carpet the whole time. As you drive through the city there are all sorts of businesses mixed in with housing, people setting up shop in their garages or on the side walks. One minute you are going through a Favela (ghetto), the next you are in what is considered a middle class neighborhood and every place is covered in spray paint. At first I thought it was all grafiti then after being around for a few days, I realized some of it was there on purpose, it just looked like grafiti because I don't read Portuguese :) One lesson I had to learn very fast was that I couldn't judge a place by its curb appeal or lack there of, once inside it is so much better.
DRIVING:
Many people warned me that driving in Brazil would be so different from here. I believed them, but didn't realize people could be so crazy. There are literally no rules. People create their own lanes, run lights when they are taking to long to turn green, they never signal and NEVER NEVER do something curteous like let another car in front of them. It is truly every man for himself. We learned that there is some unwritten rule that after dark you don't have to stop at red lights. What?? When people wreck, they jump out look it over and drive away, no police, no exchange of insurance. The motor cycles are the worst. They squeeze between cars and weave in and out and blow through intersection like nothing. I was a nervous wreck watching these idiots. The good news is they all wear helmets. Allie and AJ liked seeing all the motorcycles (aka: Michaels) and buses and big trucks (aka: big cuck) which are not actually big in Brazil. However they did get nervous at times also. On our way to the airport to fly home, we were in bad traffic and everyone was packed in like sardines. Much of the time we were wedged between buses or trucks and after a while AJ started saying "Oh NO bus" and "Oh NO big cuck" over and over. He was afraid of how close they were to him. Poor kid. We were blessed with safety and Alberto did an awesome job driving. I was really worried, but he kept his cool the whole time.
VISITING AND PEOPLE:
The bulk of our trip was spent visiting. We visited Alberto's mom's side of the family, several neighbors and old friends and ward members. The best was Alberto getting to see his sister after more than 8 years apart and meeting his two neices for the first time. It was obviously the first time for the kids and I to meet them too. This was the main reason for the trip and really made it worth it. People in Brazil are so nice. I already knew this because I have been around many Brazilians here in Utah. They love to talk and celebrate and hug and kiss. Everyone is loud, some louder than others, but its always loud. I was surprised at how everyone we saw and every place we went, it was as if Alberto never left. There was never an awkward silence or lag in conversation. I knew everyone in America loved Alberto, but guess what, everyone in Brazil loves him too. After a couple days, Alberto ended up making a little calendar/schedule for himself because everyone wanted to have us over for a meal and a visit. We had something lined up all the time. It was hard on the kids and I, but I am glad we got to meet people that were so influential in his childhood and he LOVED catching up with all of them and of course showing off his kids.

THE BEACH:
The weather was a dream come true while we were there, so we decided to load up our rental car, which was to biggest rental car available, yet so small, and head to the beach for a few days. Alberto and I had planned to stay in a nice hotel or resort type place, but his sister had a friend who offered us her beach house. It was a nice place and had plenty of room for the 8 of us, but we ended up having several problems from his niece getting eaten alive by Mosquitos to power outages in parts of the house to no hot showers. Once the showers went out, we decided to pack up and move on. We headed to another beach and found a cute place to stay for one more night. The beaches were beautiful and it was warm enough to go in the water. The kids LOVED it! They played and played and played. I can't wait to take them to California next summer. The beach was definitely the most fun of the trip. There is just something wonderful about the sand and the waves and the breeze.

FOOD:
For months before we left Alberto was telling me all the things he planned to eat while in Brazil. Just as he planned, he ate and ate and ate. I was actually surprised at all the unhealthy, fried foods we consumed. I had to remind myself that the average Brazilian does not eat like this each day. Alberto just wanted all the "good stuff" and people wanted to make us all the "good stuff" to celebrate our visit. I generally liked the food, some of it I could live without, but the real meals were all delicious. I love the flavors that go into their foods. The kids had a hard time without all their favorites. There were days we went to McDonalds inspite of the ridiculous prices and bought them chicken nuggies and fries just so we knew they had eaten something. The milk was an issue for AJ. People generally buy milk in a box there and AJ was not having it. He would take a tiny sip and hand me the cup back if I tried giving him boxed milk. We had to go all over town looking for cold milk. We finally found two stores that carried milk in a carton that was kept cold and AJ was satisfied with that. It was hard to find though and the stores were usually out of it.
IN SUMMARY:
I am glad we finally made this trip and got that out of Alberto's system :) kidding. But really it was a good experience for all of us. Alberto had a great time showing us around and introducing us to the life he knew. Making this trip helped me to understand a lot about my husband and his family and really made me appreciate the life we have here in America. I think I needed that, I know I needed that. I know the kids won't remember it, but I think this was the perfect age to take them and jump start their Portuguese. They picked up a lot of words and by the end of the trip they were saying "Oi" and "Tchau" (chow) instead of "hi" and "bye".