Merry Christmas

Wishing all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!
The kids have been saying some really cute things lately, but I just can't get to the blog to post it. I've been having horrible migraines since the end of October and it gets REALLY bad when I look at the computer screen. It's been very hard to get anything done without being able to use the computer (Christmas cards, blog, gift tags for the treats I made our friends...). I last about 5 minutes max, and then need to get off because I'm about to lose it. :(

So I'll just tell 2 quick things about the boys so I don't forget them.

Christopher: He wants to grow his hair out like a girl. I told him boys have short hair. A few days go by and we are on the same topic. He turns to me and says "but mom, Jesus has long hair and he's a boy." Smart cookie, I didn't know how to reply so for now he's growing it out.

Andrew: It's finally "cold" here in Phoenix so I've been forcing him to wear pants. He dresses himself every morning in a t-shirt and shorts and I have to make him go change. Yesterday he comes down stairs wearing shorts, looks at me and says "mom I just want to wear these little pants today" (get it? they are little pants, not shorts, so he can wear them, right?)

Clarissa: We are working VERY hard in getting her to talk. She's 16 months old and has very few words. The one she uses the most is "doh" for dog, followed by a barking sound. She loves seeing Christmas lights. She's by far our kid that gets the most excited when she sees them. We got it on video, but we are having a hard time getting it transferred from Cory's phone to the computer. I'll post it once we get figured out.

Letters from Brazil

So, way back in August we took a family trip to Brazil. I've been meaning to post about it, but never got around. I still want it posted for journaling reasons. At this point I know I won't ever get to it unless I just copy and paste the 3 emails I sent back home to keep everyone here updated. So hence, "Letters from Brazil"in 3 parts.

Part 1
Hey everyone, how are you guys doing? We're doing great here in Brazil. I thought I would send everyone a quick email, since I can't text and I don't like blogging when I'm out of town (my blog is public, so I don't post things until later).
Christopher left the US with a virus (throwing up, fever...) which made him really calm and obedient during the trip. Some blessings come in disguise (poor kid). Itt's taken him almost a whole week to recover, but he's now back to his normal self.
We spent the first 4 days of our trip in Sao Paulo. My parents have a beautiful home there, its large, in a quiet neighborhood with a really fun park. We (I) really enjoyed our time there visiting with all my relatives and celebrating Clarissa 1st birthday. The weather is mild (on the cool side), just perfect!! Cory felt caged in and couldn't wait to leave to come to the beach.
on Monday we got a flight to Natal (on the north of Brazil). My parents live here. Their home has a beautiful view of the beach and we are at walking distance to the pools and beach. The kids and Cory are in heaven (I can't wait to get out of here. I remembered how much I hate the beach, humidity, stickyness... Ahhh, 20 more days of this, not sure I can survive). I realize I don't want to go to Hawaii or Cancun (ever). I'm a city girl!!
I miss you guys, and hope you are all enjoying the back 2 school time (haha).I'm attaching a couple of pictures. The one of Clarissa and my mom needs a little editing (don't mind the women in a thong sun bathing).

 

 

 Me with the kids in front of the 1 st house I  lived. I was born in this little town on the North of Brazil called Caico. We moved from there when I was 1 and I had never gone back to see it until now (27 years later).











Part 2
I'm starting to enjoy Natal a little more. Maybe it's the fact we are spending less time @ the beach and more time in the pool and shopping. The kids are just loving everything. we are getting more tanned and having lots of fun.
My cousin is spending this week here visiting us is she lives 3 hrs away and has 2 kids the boys age. 
Attached is a picture of all the kids when we visited the largest cashew tree in the world (the thing is a whole block wide).
And a picture of the kids @ a water park. Since it's "winter" here we were the only ones there. The kids had a blast. They had a really yummy restaurant attached, so the adults enjoyed the good food. There's also a picture of Clarissa passed out by the pool while big brothers splashed away.
Miss u guys!!

Part 3
This is my last week in Brazil. I can't believe my "vacation" is coming to an end (moms never really go on vacation, I should say Cory's vacation is coming to an end).
I spent all last week in Natal (the beach city) and couldn't handle it any longer, so I bugged my parents enough to switch my flight plans and we headed back to Sao Paulo on Friday. It was a 3 hr flight and the boys were out of control. One of my worst flight experiences ever!!  Christopher became friends with a young couple sitting behind us and next thing you know he was crawling under his seat sitting on the woman's lap. Drew soon joined and the poor girl spent 1.5 hrs with both my kids on her lap entertaining them. Her boyfriend was super nice too and he didn't really seem to mind. I was super embarrassed (forgot to mention that before becoming friends with this couple I caught Christopher @ the emergency exit trying to pry open the door. Pure panic!!)
We are now in Sao Paulo and I'm loving it again. The weather is nice and cool, the house is big so the boys have plenty of room to run around and play. We went to an indoor amusement park this weekend and the boys had a blast.
Clarissa has been walking for about 2 weeks and she's now running.
Miss u all and see u guys very soon!!

Halloween

Halloween is by far my kids favorite "holiday". This year they got an insane amount of candy, it should actually be illegal to give kids that much sugar. There was the church trunk or treat, preschool trick or treat, and then the regular night time festivities. I bought all our costumes last year, but could not convince the boys to wear them. So I had to buy new costumes for them.
Hope you guys had a happy Halloween, and thank goodness it's now all over!!!

                                    She's the cutest witch!

 

Our friends the Timothys come trick or treating with us every year, this is their cute little girl Livy. 

This big boy was VERY HAPPY with his candy (he only got half the amount Drew got, because on Halloween day he actually got into so much trouble that we took away trick or treating from him. He could only go to the houses right on our street. - We weren't so mean to take it all away).

Accessory Baby

Who needs clothes when you've got accessories? Clarissa is our accessory baby. She fights us to put clothes on, but begs to have us put shoes, sun glasses, hats...

 

 She loves to carry purse, backpack, pumpkin (anything) around.

 We finally took her 1 year pictures. She gave us a really hard time not wanting to smile, but we finally were able to get it out of her (for 1 picture). Stinker!!

My Baby is 1

I can't believe Clarissa turned one (last month!!) Where has time gone? She's growing up way too fast and I hate it. She's the cutest, sweetest little girl. We just love her to pieces. We celebrated her birthday with 2 parties while we were in Brazil (more on that trip later).

First party in Sao Paulo with my family. Grandparents and great grandparents

 Big brothers helped blow out the candles.

 My best friend, Marina, and her mother

 Cousins

 Second party in Natal

 This party was a lot more kid friendly and it was on her actual birthday. These are some of the friends we made while there. (There were several boys there too, including the brothers, but for some reason they didn't get in any picture)

 My little cake queen!! She LOVED being able to eat the cake all by herself.

Clarissa started walking 1 week after her birthday. She's my little wonderer. She just loves to walk all over the house. She plays better with cars than with dolls (hum, I wonder why? I doesn't help that we have a gazillion cars and only 2 dolls). She likes to chase the boys around. Her newest thing is to "play" hide and seek with them. She totally thinks she knows what she is doing. She puts her ears up to a wall and starts "counting". After about 3 babbles she runs around the living room. It's super cute.
She's thinning out a lot (another thing I'm not happy about. She could stay chubby for a little longer). She's now in the 95% for weight (25 lbs) and 97% for height (31.5 in). It's the first time in her life that height has been greater that weight.
Clarissa LOVES to play with water (any kind, including the toilet). She's fearless in the pool, and I'm sure she will be swimming real quick (well, once we start her in swim lessons, which will be around her 3rd birthday).
She's my best vegetable eater EVER!! Even at this young age my boys weren't big fans of veggies, but she loves them. She's my only child that I've been able to hand her a green been or carrot and she eats it all gone.
We love you Baby Bel and hope you had a great birthday!!!

Drew is 3!!

Our little guy turned 3 in July and we celebrated with a fun robot party. We invited some friends and family to party with us at our favorite splash park. Drew had a great time and felt very loved by his guests.

 

Here are some of Drew's favorite things:
Movie: Ben 10, Avengers (anything that involves fighting)
Food: Pizza
Drink: Milk (he could have it all day if I let him)
Friends: Jacob, Christopher and Micah
Place: My sister's house (and the water park by her place)
Toys: Robots, Ironman and Hulk figurines
Game/Play: Tickle (he's super ticklish)
He is a cuddle bug (although when I call him my cuddle bug he says, "No, I'm just a bug").
He loves playing with his cousins.
Drew started preschool this semester and to my surprise he hasn't been too fond of it. He has fun at school, but doesn't really like getting there.
We love having this little guy in our family and couldn't imagine our lives without him!

Christopher is 4

I can't believe my "little" guy has turned 4 this month. We celebrated with a fun ice cream party at a splash park. Christopher loved having all his friends come and the attention he received. He's such a little social guy.

Happy Birthday Big Guy!!!

Splash Pads

It has been SO HOT around here, the only way to survive is to get in the water. We've been swimming and playing at splash parks A LOT this summer. We've been to a few different ones. We recently went to a really fun park up in Anthem and the kids loved it. The splash area was a little lame (for my liking), but the park was amazing. It had lakes for fishing, a HUGE play area for the kids, and a choo choo train ride. We had a great time.

Speaking of swimming, my sister moved down here this month and we've been loving swimming with the cousins. They have a really fun community pool near their house and we've been there a couple times. Yesterday Christopher said he wanted to jump from the diving board, and we let him. We were all amazed at how gutsy this little guy is. He jumped several times and swam to the side of the pool all alone. We were a little concerned at first because we couldn't be in the pool to help him to the side, but he did it by himself. He's also been going down the big slide and swimming out of the pool alone. I guess all those years of swim school have finally paid off.

Mother's Day

We had a low key mother day, but it was just perfect. Cory let me sleep in and made me breakfast. Later that night we went to my in-laws and celebrated mother's-day and Cory's birthday all at once. (Cory turned 28 the day before). This is me and the kids right before we left to church.

 Clarissa is our little princess!! She is so fun to have around.

Preschool Graduation

Christopher had his preschool graduation back in May. Since he's going to preschool next year again it wasn't a big deal for us, but he LOVED all the attention. Drew is actually going to school with him this year too. Oh, I can't wait until Fall comes around!! (Summers are just too long, specially if you live in Arizona).

This is Christopher an his AWESOME teacher. This poor women has no idea what's coming her way this fall.

Cinco de Maio

I have a ton of things to catch up on, so instead of trying to make one big post I think I'll do a bunch of little ones. This way I can make quick posts and I just need to be at the computer a little at a time.

 Our friends invited us to spend a day with them at the lake for the Cinco de Maio. The boys LOVED it. Christopher woke up the next day asking for a boat for his birthday. Haha, if only things were that easy.

Sprink Break, Conference and Easter

We had a fun month and have been super busy.

Spring Break

Christopher had spring break during the second week in March. We had a really fun week doing things around town. To start of our staycation Cory went camping in the backyard with the boys. Well, Christopher was the only one that slept in the tent with Cory. Drew was kicked out around 8:30. He wouldn’t lie down and kept asking to go sleep in his room. Ha, that’s my kid. Why sleep outside on the hard, cold floor, when you have a perfectly good bed inside the house?

During the rest of the week we got to spend time hanging out with friends, going to Chucke Cheese, the park, and going to Pump it Up. The week culminated with a church Easter egg hunt and flying kites at the park. This is the boys at Chucke Cheese with their vampire teeth prize.

Ward Easter activity. Umm, candy for breakfast. Who could ask for anything else?

Conference in Utah

For general conference this year Cory and I decided to surprise my parents and show up in Utah to spend the weekend with them. They were in town only for that week and didn’t have time to come fly down to Phoenix to see us, so we decided to come to them. We drove all day Thursday and got to their house at 1:00am. We rang the door bell, woke them up and totally surprised them. This is a once in a life time opportunity for us, since surprising them with a trip to Brazil is pretty much impossible. My sister also bought last minute tickets to go to Utah so we ended up having a really good time playing with cousins and visiting with grandparents. Near my parents house there’s this trampoline place, and since our kids are all still 3 or younger they got to play for FREE!! They loved jumping around in between conferences, and we loved being able to walk in and walk out of the place without having to pay anything.

Outside Tucano's (Brazilian restaurant). When we go to Utah we always have to eat at 3 places. Tucano's, Cafe Rio, and Chuck A Rama!!

Drew and Sabrina (cousin) at the trampoline place.

My mom with Clarissa

On the way back home we stopped in southern Utah to visit Great Grandma Garrett. The boys really enjoyed eating all of grandma’s candy and Clarissa enjoyed a short little nap on grandma’s lap. I didn’t realize, but that was grandma’s first time seeing the baby (and she was already 7 months old).

Easter

The Easter Bunny stopped by our house this year and left the kids some yummy eggs. The day before the” bunny” had threaten to bring the boys only strawberries and grapes in their eggs because they had already had too much candy. When Sunday morning arrived Christopher ran into our room and the first thing he asked was “Did the Easter bunny leave me strawberries or candy?” Then we went outside for the egg hunt and he was very pleased to see that the bunny had left him candy. Clarissa also got some eggs, but her eggs were filled with baby puffs. She loved eating it all up!

(Christopher is in this new phase where he refuses to take pictures)

Quick Updates

Clarissa is already 8 months old and she’s crawling (army crawling) all over. She can go anywhere and is having a great time being so mobile.

Drew and Christopher are as terrible as it gets. These boys are going to make me go gray way sooner then I should. They are constantly getting into trouble. Christopher knows how to open all our 5 locks and escape out the front door. Drew happily follows, so now I have to keep a constant eye on where they are at. Christopher still loves to climb and his newest idea is to climb on our backyard wall. One of these days I’ll find him roaming the busy street behind my house. He’s still totally obsessed with Selena Gomez (I guess buying him a Selena CD doesn’t quite help him get over her) and his new favorite music video is Michael Jackson “I’m bad”. I am seriously getting tired of it, I much rather listen to Selena Gomez than to have to listen to Michael Jackson and have my son dancing like him (although it is VERY funny to watch).