I Love...

...making cookies with my Katie...

...and watching her delight when she eats a fresh baked one...

 ...southern California weather in January...

...these sweet faces...

...my wonderful husband...

...we celebrated our 7th anniversary this week!

Out for a Jog

With Elmo!

A friend gave us this giant Elmo doll recently and Katie and I took him for a jog!  I bet we made a few people smile!

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!