Did you know???

Katie is THREE!!!

I can't believe it, really.  My little girl is 3!  Wow.  She's growing and growing and she's so smart and so sweet.  Sure, she can be a stinker when she wants to be but she's such a wonderful little girl.  She adores her little sister, she loves to laugh, learn, and play, and she gives the best hugs.  I'm so thankful for my sweet girl.

Before we left I took cupcakes to her pre-school and made balloon hats for the kids.  It was a little crazy but fun.

Then, on Katie's actual birthday we had a little party with our families.  (By the way, if you live nearby, please don't be offended that you weren't invited!!  It was JUST family because we thought it would be too overwhelming for Katie otherwise, having just arrived 2 days before...  hope you understand...  we love you!). 

I still can't believe that my gandmother, 2 aunts, an uncle, one cousin, and two daughters of two of my cousins (who are just the same age as Katie) came up from Arizona just for the day for the party!  Wow!  How sweet!!!

I was pretty dazed and confused all day.  The day before we had taken Carly to the ER because she was clearly not feeling well and it turned out that she had an ear infection.  She'd hardly slept since we'd arrived so that meant that Mom and Dad (and both sets of grandparents!) hadn't slept much either.  So, I think I was pretty fuzzy all day.  I remember that Katie had fun and that's the most improtant part, right?! 

Our sweet birthday girl!

 Katie and my cousin's little girl popping bubbles.  Part of our Dora Adventure!

My aunts, Katie, and my cousins' girls playing.

 Aww, so sweet.

 The map to find the birthday cake!

 Eating some cake with her cousin!

 Daddy played too!



Ídolos

So, if you hadn't noticed, things have been a little busy this month.  I'll catch up on all of that sometime but for now I thought I'd tell you about our friend, Martim.  He's a good friend from our church in Portugal and he's one of the 2 finalists on the Portugal Idols show!  Just like American Idol but in Portugal!  Can you believe it? We know someone famous!  In Portugal, at least!  He's a great guy and we're really excited for him.  We went to an autograph signing they had for the top 5 so we could say goodbye before we left for 6 months so that's where this picture is from.

The final show is tomorrow night (New Year's Eve) so we'll get to see if he wins or not before we go to bed!  So cool!   

Força, Martim!!!

C is for Cookie!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Whew, we had a busy weekend!  First, Melissa and 2 friends of hers came to visit for a few days during their break from teaching.  Melissa and I were roommates our first year in college.  She taught me how to write a check and let me use her laptop and I taught her how to procrastinate.  Fair trade, right? 

It's fun that she's over on this side of the ocean for a few years too and it's fun to catch up!

She and her friends we the BEST house guests!  They slept in our living room, cleaned my kitchen 2 or 3 times, played with the girls and were so easy to have around.

 We hosted 2 Thansgiving dinners this weekend!  The first was on Friday and was with our American teammates and some Australian friends.  I got the girls dressed up in their fancy dresses, just because it was a reason to dress up! 

 Here's the girls at the kid's table!

 All set to eat!

 The first bird.

 Dinner number 2!

This one was with some people from our Sunday evening Bible Study.  There were 3 Brazilians, 4 Portuguese, and 1 Australian..  Quite the international Thanksgiving!

We have so much to thankful for!!!!

I hope you had a fun Thanksgiving too! 

The Birthday Girl!!!!!!!!!!!!

My sweet, sweet little Carly is one year old today!  Can you believe that a year has passed already??? 

We had a nice day today getting to go to the zoo to see the dolphin show (yeah for zoo passes!!!!!) and making pizza and eating birthday cupcakes together.  It is so wonderful to get to celebrate my little one and remember what we were doing this time last year. 

 Here's us at the dolphin show.  Daddy was working but the girls got to enjoy the show (and later a Happy-birthday-to-the mommy-mocha at Starbucks!  I was the one who did the LABOR, right?!!).

 The proud big sister who was very excited to see the dolphins!

 The birthday girl checking things out.

 Back at home having make your own birthday pizzas!  A friend gave us the BEST recipe for pizza sauce. Yum!

 I just love her sweet smile in this one.

 You can't really see her cupcake but it's in front of her and she is not sure what to think of it...

 On Saturday night we had some friends over to celebrate with us.  I dressed the little lady up in her fancy dress for the occasion! 

Notice the big bump on her forehead.  Poor thing is walking all the time now and that means she's falling quite a bit too.  This time she fell and hit her head on the door frame.  Ouch!

 Opening some presents.

 Singing Happy Birthday in 2 languages!

 Note to self - Don't plan child's birthday party for the time when child normally goes to bed.  She will become fussy quickly and not be interested in said party or guests.

Yep, while everyone else was still eating it became very clear that the Birthday Girl needed to go to bed so we busted out her cupcake and sang but she was not interested.  Poor thing.  Check out the expression on her face.  "What is going on???"

I have to say that I'm surprised at her lack of interest in the cupcakes.  Don't 1 year olds normally make a big mess and eat up as much ccake and frosting as they can get their little hands on?  Both Saturday (when she was really tired) and tonight she wasn't interested at all in her cupcake.  She especially didn't like how the frosting felt on her fingers and still didn't want to eat it even when I put a little on her tongue to taste it.  Ok, I guess she won't be our big sweet tooth.  Katie has that department covered anyway.

I am SO thankful for this little girl.  What an amazing blessing she is and what a gift it is to be her mommy.  Lord, I praise you for this sweet little life!

A Few Catch Up Pictures

Our camera battery charger somehow dissapeared but we were able to get another sent to us last week so here I am with just a few catch up pictures...

She'll be 1 in 3 days but I've made it this far, I have to post the 11 month picture!  It was taken (almost) on time. 

She's so squirmy that it's really hard to get a posed picture of her right now.

 My feet before the race.

 Neon yellow shirts!  Imagine thousands of people wearing them all together... kind of nauseating! 

Making Cookies

My friend Kim recently introduced me to this website with recipes for kids.  I've tried a few things and they've been good!  My favorite so far are homemade graham crackers.  Yum! 

This week we made them for our second time.  The recipe is really easy to make and Katie loves cutting out the shapes.  The first time I made them I didn't roll out the dough very thin so they basically came out like gingerbread cookies minus the ginger - soft and cinimmony.  Yum!  This time I rolled them out a little thinner and cooked them a little longer so they're a bit more crunchy like actual graham crackers.  Both have been good, it just depends on what you're going for.  Also, I've used molasses instead of honey just because I had some that a friend gave me and Carly isn't supposed to have honey yet. 

Note the incredible amount of drool on Carly's shirt!  She's teething and has a cold so there is an amazing amount of drool coming out of the cute little almost one year old!  Poor thing!  She likes the cookies though!

Busting out the old camera

Trying to keep the grandparents happy with some fresh pictures.

Just kidding, they haven't even asked for any!

I dug around and found our older digital camera to use while we wait for a new battery charger to arrive for our regular camera.  Enjoy some funny moments from the last week or so!

Little Pumpkin

 I just love the way she's laughing in this one.

 This is what happens when Big Sister gets a hold of the head bands!

Teething again... everything goes in the mouth!

 Keeping everyone lined up just as they should be.  What a good first born!

Hope you're having a good week!

Leave a comment and let me know you were here!  I wonder sometimes who stops by...

10K

Last Sunday Jonathan and I ran a 10K together!  Wow!  This is a pretty amazing feat for me.  I don't think I've ever run that much before in my life!  Jonathan ran it last year and the year before but this was my first time and he stayed with me the whole time.  What a guy. 

Back in the spring when Jonathan convinced me to sign up with him for this I started doing a program called Couch to 5K with these podcasts.  It's great!  It starts you off very slowly running and walking at short intervals and works you up to running for 30 minutes straight.  I got off track when the heat of the summer started and all of our visitors started arriving.  About 8 weeks ago my good friend Kim started doing the same program and is keeping a blog about it.  Seeing her get out with her two little ones inspired me to get back out there and keep going with the program so I picked it back up and I've been running with her (Ok, from afar, she doesn't live over here!) the past several weeks.  

We're on week 7 which has you running 25 minutes straight so I wasn't sure how far I'd be able to go considering this was a 10K and I was working toward half of that!  I did great (if I do say so myself)!  We ran more than 6 kilometers before I wanted to stop and walk a little but we were back to running before we hit the 7 kilometer marker and we ran the rest of the way.  The last K was the hardest but we were so close to the end that I couldn't stop! 

I have to say that it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be.  I think there were more than 10,000 participants - wow!!  We got shirts (rather ugly this year, I must say) and water and fruit at the end and a medal - yes, I now have a running medal!  Are you proud or what?  The run goes mainly along the coast but has some pretty big hills too.  It was quite a feat for me to accomplish this.  I might even be willing to do it again! 

Unfortunately we can't find our camera battery charger ANYWHERE so I can't upload the 1 picture we took of the two of us.  You really should see the color of these shirts - ugly.  The good news is that if we wear them at night we're sure to never get hit by a car - they're impossible not to see.  And 10,000 people in this color... wow. 

Putting Things in Perspective

I've been feeling kind of crabby and tired the last few days and just kind of grumpy.  I was driving home the other day feeling sorry for myself when I thought of little Elisabeth.

Elisabeth is the youngest daughter of another American family we know over here and she is only a few weeks older than Carly.  On Friday little Elisabeth was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor on her kidney.  She started chemotherapy yesterday. 

Then I thought of some friends who have been wanting to have a baby for a long time and after fianlly being able to concieve, recently suffered a miscarriage. 

And then I stopped feeling sorry for myself.  My baby doesn't have cancer.  I am so blessed to have two beautiful little girls and a wonderful husband - and so many other amazing things the Lord has chosen to give me. 

Potty training may be a big pain in the neck.  Nap times may not always go so well.  I may feel up to my eyeballs in laundry and dirty dishes most days. 

But let's put things in perspective. 

It doesn't make my frustrations go away but it sure does put things in perspective to remember that there are much bigger things going on out there. 

Pray for little Elisabeth and her family.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Tim!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Tim!!!  Can't wait to see you in a few months!!!

We took 2 takes because Carly cried mid-song the first time around and then the second time Katie was a little silly.... so, enjoy...  :-)  By the way, she's singing in both Portugue first so that's why you can't understand her at the begining!

(It's amazing how much she's grown since last year!)

Baby Steps

The little cutie can walk up to 10 steps already but this is all I've been able to catch on film so far. 

Enjoy!

Vote, Vote, Vote!!!

My good friend Christina is a semi-finalist in a contest to design a new gift card for Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf!!!  It features a picture of her adorable son Judson who passed away in November 2007 when he was just about the age that Katie is now. 

You can read her note and her story below and click here to vote for her card! 

Do it!  Right now!  It's easy!!!!!!!



Dear friends and family...


Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf had a contest to design a gift card that tells your own personal CBTL story and we are thrilled to announce that my design honoring Judson was chosen as a semi-finalist!!! But we need your help...the winning design (featured as a 2011 gift card) will be the one that gets the most votes from the public.

Would you take a moment to:

• Vote for Jud. Click here and then click "vote" under Judson's design.  It's really that simple!!!

• Forward this email to friends and ask for their vote to help us spread the word.
See below to read the full story behind this design.

So grateful for your love and support,
Christina
P.S. They only allow one vote per computer over the two week voting period (ends Oct. 29th), but you can vote on every computer in your home & office and if you have a phone with internet access, you can vote on your phone too.

Judson's CBTL Story
 Some of my sweetest memories with my son, Judson, are of our frequent outings to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. From the time he was born I took him in his infant seat to sit and sip with me. In no time he graduated to the in-store high chair—eating crackers, fruit leather and other snacks from my purse while I delighted in my Moroccan Mint Lattes. Jud and I regularly chatted, laughed, played, and learned together while seated at a Coffee Bean signature oak table.

 The big milestone of our CBTL adventures came when I ordered Judson his very own “coffee” for the first time. The barista served up the perfect kid’s hot chocolate; some of Jud’s drink dribbled down his shirt, some of it spilled onto the table, and much of it covered his face, but the excitement that radiated from my beloved boy between sips is etched in my memory forever.

 In fact, every subsequent special occasion when Judson received his own drink was met with all the enthusiasm seen in this picture that was taken July 9, 2007 on a visit to a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Los Angeles. This was just prior to a doctor’s appointment for Jud that proved to shape the course of our lives.

Sadly, my sweet, dearly-loved boy was diagnosed with late-onset Krabbe disease—a rare, genetic, incurable leukodystrophy. Judson died just a few months later.

As you can imagine, this makes all my many memories with Judson at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf treasured gifts. And I believe this expressive photo, in particular, captures the beauty, personality, and joy of Judson that characterized his life and our time together at the Coffee Bean.

I am thankful to CBTL for providing such a great environment for me to make cherished memories with my precious son!

http://STORYofJUDSON.com

Judson Levasheff: Christmas Eve 2004-November 7,2007
 Christina Levasheff
STORYofJUDSON.com
JudsonsLegacy.com

10 months old!

Once again, I took this (almost) on time but it took me 2 weeks to post it!  She's already only 6 days away from 11 months!  Amazing!

Carly's big news is that she has been taking several steps together.  This little lady is ready to start walking!  It's so cute to see her so proud of herself when she reaches her destination.  What a sweet girl!

Road Trip!

At the end of the summer we were able to take a road trip to visit several friends in fun places!  Ahh, the benefits of living in Europe! 

Stop #1 was visiting this sweet family in Germany.  When we arrived Katie landed in Little Girl Toy Heaven!  We'd been on the road for a while and with 3 little girls and a basement there were so many new fun toys to explore.  We had a great time hanging out and letting the girls play together.  Us Moms and Dads got to play some games after the kiddos went to bed.  It was a great time!

 Stop #2 was in Switzerland to visit our good friend Robyn and her new hubby Brad.  They took us to the Nestle Chocolate Factory!  Wow!  It was so fun! 

You have to read this sign that was up in the tour:

 Chocolate is life.  :-)

 The tour ended in the tasting room - oh my!  Way more than I could eat - so rich, so good!

 After the chocolate factory we went to a cheese factory.  No exactly chocolate but still really fun and yummy!

Stop #3 was at a guest house in Austria where we had a few days on our own and then my sister and her hubby and our nephew came to join us.  It was beautiful! 

 Ice cream date with my sister!