Christmas 2012

This Christmas was certainly very special. Vovô and Vovó came from Portugal to visit and we enjoyed every minute with had with them. Needless to say that they were welcomed to the airport with hugs and kisses and lots of screaming and smiling. Check out the video!!

 It was certainly meant to be a special Christmas. We had snow for a few days and together with the lights decorating the houses in our neighborhood, it created some very special memories.

Joana gave her first Hobby Lobby concert showing off her piano skills with only a few months of practice. She did great and wasn't even nervous!

One of the most fun days we spent was at the Madagascar on Ice at the Gaylord Hotel here in Dallas. It is a stunning display of gigantic Madagascar and Christmas related character all carved in ice!! There are also fun games like ice slides that we really enjoyed doing together. It was, of course, FREEZING!!! And the end of the night, some of us, were very tired.

This was also the year we started the Elf on the Shelf tradition. The girls named him Jerry and this was the firs and only time they were allowed to touch him. From that day onwards, Jerry would just show up in a different, strange or funny spot every morning when they woke up. He would listen to them, watch them and then fly to Santa every night to tell him how the girls had behaved. Ozzy was also in the spirit of things and allowed us to name him one of Santa's deer.

Now we were ready for the Christmas dinner. The girls posed for pictures and the adults started enjoying the Portuguese drinks.  The table was beautifully set and we were about to enjoy the Portuguese codfish dinner that vovó prepared for the whole family. We had fun playing together, eating together and spending such great quality time together. Of course the best part was without doubt watching the girls open their presents. See the videos below. It was a great way to end 2012. See you next year!!!

Halloween and Thanksgiving 2012

 Halloween was also celebrated at school and the only thing that I had was the witch hat so I went with it.

 The girls decided to be superheroes this year. Julia was super girl and Joana was spider girl!

 We had a great time at the pumpkin patch in Sunnyvale and Julia was going crazy with all the gigantic pumpkins!! She said "Mommy, they're ENORMOUS!! This is redonculous!!" Where does she get these words? lol

 They just looked so cute in these outfits I had to make sure to include this picture.

 These pictures were taken at the Sunnyvale Fest where they had a blast especially at the petting zoo.

And then we were off to see the Lantern Festival in Dallas, one of the most exciting and spectacular displays of lights the girls had ever seen. We are certainly ready for Christmas now.

Julia's 3rd Birthday!

Our little girl is growing so fast and is so excited to turn 3!! She is such a kind, loving child full of energy and a sense of humor that makes us giggle everyday!

 Julia had to make sure her favorite boyfriend, Zachary, would be present at the party, and he was so very happy to see and play with his girl!

 Of course, Hello Kitty was the theme of the party and the birthday girl was very happy to get tons of Hello Kitties to cuddle with at night.
 Doesn't she look adorable in her princess outfit?

 All the kids had a great time playing on the swing set and the waterslide.

It was also very important to make sure Joana would celebrate her sister's birthday at school. They had a great time opening gifts and eating yummy snacks.

Swimming with Ms Carol - Year 2

Ms. Carol did it once again. Two intense but fun weeks with Ms. Carol learning more swimming techniques and the improvement is astounding! They are getting so good at swimming, floating, diving and both John and I can tell they will be ready to tackle the waves on our family trip to Galveston next week! Thank you Ms. Carol. We will see you again next year!

Performances

This post will be mainly about different types of performances. Anything from dancing in the living room to singing the Portuguese National Anthem to gymnastics and a ballet and tap recital. It has mainly Joana's performances because Julia is still too young to take ballet and tap but she seems to be interested in doing it next year.  One of their favorite shows is Bubble Guppies. It's an fun and interactive kids show that teaches them about a variety of topics and has great catchy songs that they love to sing and dance to. Their favorite one is, as you can see below, "I want to be a cowgirl."

On June 10, Portugal's Day, Joana was ready to sing the Portuguese National Anthem. It is quite long and difficult to learn because it has so many difficult words, but Joana learned it in 7 days and sang it beautifully for all to hear! We were so proud! She loves the song so much that she has been asking me to sing it to her every night as a lullaby.

And while we are on anthems, apparently Joana learned God Bless America at school so she wanted

Their favorite activity on Saturdays is gymnastics. They love to tumble, jump on the trampolines and do all the obstacle courses. Their coaches are so much fun and dynamic that they are exhausted at the end of the class. This is Julia's favorite sport and she makes a point to let me know because she tumbles on the carpet at home and jumps from one couch to the other without any difficulty. She is definitely a good jumper...ehehehe

At the beginning of June, after 8 months of attending ballet and tap classes, Joana had her first dance recital. Unfortunately, it was so dark and she was so far away that the video was of very poor quality. However, we were able to snag a few adorable pictures and a quick video of her before the recital. She was so excited and ready to perform!

 This was also a month of accidents. Vovó decided to leave her finger on a very heavy door while it was closing and the result,...while a shattered finger bone, 5 stitches and a lot of pain medicine. She didn't lose her sense of humor, though :)

During Julia's swimming classes with Ms. Carol, not only did she learn more swimming techniques but she also found time to flirt with the red headed boy, Isiah, and show him how well she sings Itsy Bitsy spider. Check it out :)

Happy 4th Birthday Joana

One of the best surprises for Joana's birthday was having Titi Jen, Namaw, Tyler and Dylan at our house to celebrate the day! Titi Jen spoiled the girls with makeovers, dress ups, braided hair, make up, ......you name it! Namaw and the boys played with the girls and we all had a great time during the party.

Joana's closest friends posed for these adorable pictures. On the left, our neighbor Aidan and on the right Vanessa from school.

And to top it all off, Vovô and Vovó were present for this special day! With so many princess presents, daddy's famous crawfish boil, so many friends and family it was without a doubt, a memorable day!

Julia liked it too....because there was cake....with blue icing....eheheheh

Right after Joana's birthday it was my 36 birthday. Daddy surprised me with a home baked cake that he and the girls prepared for me. I loved the surprise!

Vovô e Vovó for Easter!

It is now the end of March and Vovô is staying with us for 2 weeks and Vovó for two months! Joana and Julia are so excited and they arrive right about Easter celebration so let's get our bunny ears ready and find that candy in the easter eggs!

The most fun was going on the Easter egg hunt at church, though. The Easter Bunny left a lot of candy for all the kids to grab! HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!