Lately...

I have been wanting to update my blog lately for my own sake, but I am too lazy. Here is a run down of what we have been up to:
1. Weekend before Easter- Glauco, Camila and Diogo came to visit. The kids love having company and were happy to spend lots of time with these 3.
2. Easter Weekend- Saturday we took the kids to a local egg hunt, worked in the garden and colored Easter eggs (AJ broke 2 eggs and Allie dropped an unboiled egg, but aside from that, it was fun). On Sunday the kids were thrilled to find the Easter Bunny had come. They loved hunting for eggs and finding their baskets. These two are totally spoiled, they each got 3 Easter baskets (thanks Nana and Great Mama). Later that day, we went on a fun picnic with my family.
3. Potty Training- I finally broke down and decided to get real about potty training this month. The first two days were ROUGH!! By the second afternoon I ended up teary eyed in my room saying a prayer that one of the kids would have even a little success and much to my delight, shortly after that, AJ did a pee in the potty!! Thank goodness he did or I would have given up. Alberto had the next 4 days off in a row and I really think having him home made all the difference. It was great for me to have the support and the kids (especially AJ) loved having daddy their to celebrate their success with them. By day 4 of potty training they were doing great and now we are over 2 weeks into it and doing great overall.
4. This week- Alberto is graduating with his Bachelor Degree from SUU (way to go daddy). We are so proud of all his hard work and his dedication to providing the best for us. Glauco and Camila are here with us spending a few days before they move back to Brasil next week and later this weekend Cecilia and Dale (my in-laws) will be here too. We are so glad that Glauco and Camila could come spend some time with us before they go. We will miss having them around.
5. Baby #3- I am now 31 weeks pregnant and doing great. I feel bad that I have not really said much about this pregnancy. People ask me all the time if I am having twins again. I feel sort of bad because I know my belly is huge and it makes me wonder if I am going to have a giant baby. Aside from the huge belly it has been a good pregnancy. We feel very confident that it is a girl who is coming to our family and the kids are getting more and more interested in her and my belly. I think they are going to be great with the baby. It is definitely different this time around. With two other kids and working at home, I don't have time to sit and day dream and wonder and read like I did with the twins. Overall, I feel really calm, but not completely ready for another child. I have been nesting like crazy and all I want to do is get my house in order, but I am also really tired. People ask me a lot too if it is easier being pregnant with just one baby. I am sure it must be, but I can't really remember the twins pregnancy being too bad. I swear this baby moves just as much or more than they did. My belly doesn't get as distorted with just one rolling around, but she sure can keep me awake at night. At my last appointment I had an ultra sound to check my plecenta (which is fine) and the baby was laying horizontal, just like the twins. My doctor said, most babies would be breech or head down already, but not to worry yet. She said my uterus is probably so stretched out, the baby just has a ton of room to lay however. Lucky baby :)
6. Allie and AJ update- As always, the kids are changing and growing faster than I can believe. They are speaking so well lately. It seems that from day to day their vocabulary grows and they are using more and more sentences. They are also both really into asking questions these days. They are constantly asking "What are you doing?", "What is this?", "What sound that makes?" (What makes that sound?) and "Where's ______?" I can't wait for them to start asking "Why?" :) I have noticed lately that they like to mock me. For example, everyday probably more times than necessary, I complain about my back hurting. So the other day AJ came up to me holding his back and said "Oh, my back hurts. Oh, my back hurts." It was funny. You quickly learn what you say too often when you have two toddlers (I won't share some of the other words and phrases I have taught them). They repeat everything! They are getting really good at pretending too. I love to watch them play together and see how their imaginations are growing. A few of their favorite pretending things are making food for each other, and pretending to be different animals. They are also learning that they can pretend one object is something else. Both Allie and AJ love our cat, Shanaynay. They chase her around all day trying to get her to play with them. They love to give her treats and are always asking where she is when she is out of sight. They will go up to her and say, "Hey little Buddy, Whatchya Doin?" I can't tell if Shanaynay really likes all the attention or if she is just too lazy to hide from them. In the past few months, the kids have started waking up really early in the morning. At first this made me so mad, but I am getting used to it. Allie loves to climb in our bed and get under the covers and snuggle and AJ either wants to watch as show or have someone get up and play with him. He is a morning person like daddy used to be until I taught him to be lazy :). As always the kids still love to be outside (preferably in the dirt at Nana and Papa's), watch their favorite shows, play with their friends, go bye-bye and dance to the Beatles (AJ with his guitar and Allie in her Tutu). They have both become big fans of going to church too. They love nursery because they get to see their friends and will ask several times during the week if we can go to church and "play with the kids." I am glad they love it and hope it lasts. In the last month or so, they have taken over prayer time. I am so surprised at how good they are at praying. AJ likes to say thank you for every wall, light, window etc.. he can see, ("Thank you for my wall, Thank you for the other wall...") and Allie likes to give thanks for hamburger sandwiches.
AJ has become such a mans man. He loves to be with the guys and "fight" with daddy. He has this deep voice and can be super bossy, but he is still such a tender heart. When ever he gets hurt he wants mommy to "Kiss it" and when he is sad he will give me big snuggly hugs. I am glad he lets me do this because aside from that, he doesn't let me love him nearly as much as he used to. I can't believe how good he is getting at teasing Allie. He will take her morning milk or something she is playing with and say "This is my milk or this is my toy" and Allie screams every time, he loves it. He is going to have such a great time when he has 2 little sisters to torment. AJ also loves, loves, loves automobiles of any sort. When we are driving he is always looking out the window trying to spot trucks, race cars and motorcycles. He has to make sure everyone in the car sees and acknowledges every one of them too.
While AJ has taken to all the men in his life, Allie has become more interested in being with us women. It is so funny how that all works out. Just today she came with Camila and I to the grocery store and had to take her "curse" (purse) so she could be like us. A few days ago I was wearing a skirt around the house for comfort sake and so she had to wear a skirt too, not a dress a skirt. Later when I tried to change into jeans before going out, she burst into tears screaming, "NO!! Wear your skirt like Allie." She loves wearing dresses, skirts and pink and being a princess. She also suddenly likes to have her hair in pony tails. Just recently we were at a bbq and Allie got to dress up in princess clothes. She was in heaven parading around with her plastic high heels, tiara, magic wand and Snow White dress. I wish I had my camera because it was so cute. We will have to look into some dress up clothes one of the these days. She has also turned into quite a clingy little thing. She loves to snuggle and will grab my face and say, "I love you mom".

Great Mama's House

In March we decided to go back to Pennsylvania to visit my grandma (Allie calls her Great Mama) and my mom's family. This was the second time we have taken this trip with the kids. We were a bit nervous about going in March with the crazy snow they have had out east this year, but we totally lucked out and had the most beautiful weather the whole time. While we were there, we took the kids to the Pittsburgh Zoo, did some shopping, visited with family, ate a ton, and had a party for my grandma's 86th birthday.
I was a little nervous about this trip because everyone back there has dogs and my kids are afraid of dogs. In the end, we had some panicking, but overall both Allie and AJ did well. We discovered that as long as the dogs aren't in their faces, they are ok with them. The kids ended up really liking my grandma's little dog, Max, and of course they loved her cat, Too-Tia (Tia). While we were there, they enjoyed playing with Ian, playing songs on the organ and playing resturaunt on the ramp in my grandma's garage.

My Uncle Jim and Aunt Nancy have a beautiful home and property with a horse, 4 miniture horses and 5 big dogs. It is always fun to go there and enjoy all the animals and beauty. Allie and AJ loved riding around on the ponies and my uncle's quad with my cousin's little boy, Ian.

A Love of Books

Right now it is nap time, which means work time for me, but instead I am skimming through blogs, essentially avoiding my responsibilities. As I am sure you have all heard me gripe about in recent months, since moving the twins into the same room, nap time has turned into crazy time. I have a new system that is working for the most part. I lay the kids down, shut the door, let them run a muck and make a huge mess for about 20-30 minutes, then go back in, lay them down again and lay by each of them until they fall asleep. Well today, I laid them down, shut the door and came to my computer waiting to hear the sounds of destruction, but they never came. A tiny bit a chit-chat in the beginning and then totally silence for the last 10 minutes. I decided I better get in there because all parents know, silence is not a good sound. There was a small part of me holding out hope that I'd open the door and find them both asleep already; wishful thinking... Much to my surprise however, the kids had found a basket of books I recently shoved under AJ's bed and were each engrossed in their own book. I am so glad my kids love books so much!!

The Tie Breaker

Up until now our little family has been equal- 2 boys and 2 girls. Today we found out that we are adding one to the girl's team. We were really excited to find out that our new baby appears to be a girl. We are not 100% sure yet because the baby was being shy all through the ultra sound and the best shot we could get was with the babies legs close together and the umbilical cord in between her legs. My doctor felt pretty confident that it is a girl, but will hopefully confirm it in 2 more months when I have to go back for another ultra sound. The baby looks perfect with all the important parts and organs in tact and normal. We are really excited about having another girl. We both really thought it would be a boy, but lately I have been secretly hoping for a girl. I really want to do all the dresses and flowers and pink again.

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!