Merry 2010 Christmas and Happy New Year!

Get ready everyone, because this month was FULL of events!! We were planning to spend a quiet Christmas just the four of us when, on December 16, I was pleasantly surprised by the arrival of my parents. Apparently, everyone knew about it except me. John had been lying to me for over 2 months and had helped my parents plan the surprise trip. According to him, he had dropped quite a few hints but I had missed every single one of them. Duuuhhhh.... The point is, mom and dad were here, I was in shock, thrilled, amazed, excited and they were staying until January 2. Perfect!! But the surprises didn't end there,....nooooooo......My sister-in-law was supposed to deliver their first child on January 6 but little baby Clara decided that December 20 was a better date so I became an aunt for the first time this year! She was born at 6:40 p.m. and weighed 5.9 lbs (2,710 kgs).

Below is the video of our family welcoming baby Clara to the world and a picture of the little princess smiling at everyone!

I also had a chance to surprise John but only had to lie for about 5 days. His dad also came to Dallas for Christmas and he came bearing gifts, just like Santa, but the kind of gifts the adults LOVE to receive: oysters, crabs, shrimp, ham, and desserts! Thanks Dampaw!!

John made his seafood gumbo for Christmas Eve, my dad did the portuguese "pudim" that I looooooove, and my father-in-law took care of the ham for Christmas Day. All my mom and I had to do is take care of the side dishes, play with the girls, and do the dishes. VERY relaxing. Oh, and I was recovering from my tonsil surgery so I had a great excuse not to help that much....lol Basically, I made sure to record everything for posterity.

The proud daddy with his two little princesses.

 Dampaw bought cookies to decorate and the girls had a blast with the M&Ms and the food coloring.

Our Christmas table and meal ready to be devoured. The main dish was, of course, the famous gumbo. But the ham looked pretty good too.

 The rest of the days were spent making the most out of my parents' stay here with the girls. They played a lot with them, read them stories, went for walks around the neighborhood and changed as many diapers as humanly possible (YES!). I know they will miss them a lot but we will see them again and everyday on Skype, just to make sure the girls feel like they are really close by. I miss them already and I can't wait to see them again for the summer, when we will have three girls playing on the beach. That will be a blast!

New Year's Eve was spent quietly at home, just us. John had to work, unfortunately, but he called just in time to spend midnight wishing me and the girls an incredible 2011. We love you, daddy!! It was better to spend it at home because both girls were a bit sick and I was still recovering from my tonsil surgery. We are now ready for an exciting 2011! We leave you with a video of some moments spent with the family having a good time. See you next month!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Seasons Greetings everyone and get ready, because Christmas is just around the corner!! But for now, let's start with Thanksgiving. We begin our journey, and yes, it is called a journey because it was a multi-city adventure tallying up nearly 1500 miles (2200km). We left home and first drove to Cleveland, Mississippi, where we spent three days at the Tedford's, our cousins from our Dampaw's side of the family. This is the second year in a row that we have spent three days of the Thanksgiving week there and think this might turn into a tradition, even though it takes 6 hours to get there...lol. We were so excited to see everyone and once again were warmly welcomed by Lee, David, Ms. Lois, Jessica, Joyce and Robin. Above is a picture of the whole group. You will notice how tightly Lee is holding on to Julia and Joana because after three days of cuddling and holding them, she was not ready to let them go. They miss you too, Lee, so come and see us soon!

The highlight of our stay is every evening, which is spent outside in the cold, around a huge fire pit, holding a drink and laughing until our tummies hurt because Joyce, Lee and others just can't stop telling jokes or funny stories. The boys had a chance to go deer hunting and had no luck spotting a deer....but Jessica did, a four-point buck which she nailed with one shot...HAH!! Go girl!! Anyway, the boys were excited that Jessica got here first deer and they spent the rest of the week shooting at targets. Even Joana shot a rifle....yup, that's right. She sat on Dampaw's lap and was cheered on by cousin Tyler and Daddy before she pulled the trigger. After she

sot the rifle, she turned and said: "Daddy I shot it!!"

We enjoyed Dampaw's crawfish stew and fried shrimp, and were spoiled by Aunt Lois and Maw Maw O with their breakfast bonanza every morning. Great-grandmothers are gifted in spoiling everyone with their good cooking. Here is an adorable picture of the girls with Mawmaw O and Ms. Lois on her birthday, a day before Thanksgiving.

We even had time to take the girls to a picture studio to take their first formal Christmas pictures together. You will see those on next month's blog.

One of the funnies moments there was capture in the video below. Ms. Lois's house has a ramp that goes from the carport to the entrance of the house. Well, the girls thought the ramp was a slide as used it as such. Check it out...lol

After three days, we were off to New Orleans to spend the rest of the Thanksgiving week with Namaw & Steve, Ti-Ti Jen & Dylan, Uncle Bill & Uncle Roland, Nanny & Uncle Terry, Muggy & Nicole, Maw Maw and lots of other family members. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Maw Maw's house and everyone was there. It was great! Uncle Bill gave daddy a really cool Saints Super Bowl poster along with some other Who-Dat goodies....Awesome! Daddy made his world famous Who-Dat Gumbo, Maw Maw put together her amazingly delicious Rice Dressing, and Nanny baked up a box full of Pecan Pies. Julia loved the gumbo and the pecan pies, which was all she wanted to eat for three days straight. Nanny should be happy to know that the pecan pies were gone before we made back home...mmm! The girls loved spending time with everyone, especially Namaw and Maw Maw. Namaw played hide and seek, chase, and peek-a-boo with Joana & Julia. Maw Maw played horsey with them by bouncing them up and down on her legs, which is pretty good for a 75 year old biddy. Below is a picture of Julia after waking up being spoiled again by Namaw and Pawpaw Steve.

After three days there, we were off to Texas again....and seven hours later, we arrived home safe and sound. Thank heavens for the DVD player and the Dora DVD because without them,....it would have taken us twice as long to get home. Julia looked pretty tired, don't you think?

Now it's time to deck the halls, decorate the tree and get ready for Christmas. We will spend it here at home and we can't wait to see what Santa will bring the girls. I hope this coming Christmas will be full of Joy & Cheer and many great surprises for everyone. See you next month!

Citizenship and Halloween - Booh!!

We start with one of the most endearing pictures I have taken of our little girls. When they are not fighting for toys and shouting their favorite word "Mine!", they are actually quite loving. Granted, they have to be strapped in and moving at a speed of at least 35 miles per hour, but hey! They are still loving! Anyway,...everyday, on our way to Joana's school in the morning and also at 4:30 p.m when we pick her up, Julia asks for her sister's

hand and they ride the whole way ( a total of 6 minutes) holding hands. It's pretty adorable.

Julia is now 15 months and everyday she seems to say more and more words but we will wait until she turns 18 months and do the same type of list we did with Joana when she was that age. We have counted 35 so far but we will build the anticipation until then.

Below is a picture of Ms. Billie, the lady at the daycare at the gym where I work out everyday. Ms. Billie's loving nature has made a huge difference on Julia's attitude about not being with me for an hour a day. Before we get there I ask her if she wants to go see Ms. Billie and she says "Yeah" or "Xim" (Sim,...yes) and, once we get there, she does not want to be carried. She wants to walk by herself to the room to greet Ms. Billie. YEAH!

And now for the Halloween pictures. Julia was a cute little Pumpkin and Joana was a fairy. We had a great time Trick or Treating. Below is a video of Joana practicing her sentence to try to get as much candy as possible. This is the second year we spend Halloween at Patsy and Keith's house with all of our friends and all their kids (about 25 people). Below is also a picture of our friends daughters who joined us in the Trick or Treat marathon: Dalia, Dasia, Jasmine, Reginee and Payton.

Finally, I hit a landmark in my 10 years here. On October 15, 2010 I, became a US Citizen. I am really excited about it and am thrilled to be able to contribute even more to a country that has given me so much.

Daycare is Fun!!

Daycare is finally fun. After a month of crying and kicking and calling for mommy and daddy both Joana and Julia are enjoying daycare. Joana, now 29 months old, loves to go to school and talks about her "amigos" (that's friends, in Portuguese), and Ms. Danielle (her teacher). She participates in all the activities and seems to have no problems in the classroom. I believe the sharing issue only arises if Julia is involved. A few interesting things about Joana at school according to her teacher and the school directo: she likes to walk around with her backpack all day and there was even a couple of times when she feel asleep with it. I had to insist that she leave her backpack in her cubby like everyone else. And after a few "but she's so cute when she does it..." they finally agreed that the backpack belonged in the cubby. She asks the questions "What's that?" a lot and when you answer, she says "That's right!" We think that's funny because she might be getting it from school. Below is a picture of Joana with one of the outfits I bought her for the fall. She is looking quite trendy when she goes to school and this particular outfit we call "Rock Star". And yes, those are tiny leather (pretend) boots. Below is a video of her account of the school experience.

I have been going to a gym everyday of the week to see if I can shed about 30 pounds and the gym offers daycare while you work out. Julia reached a milestone at the age of 14 months when she spent the whole hour ,while I was working out, without crying. Thank you, Ms. Billie for being so loving and so patient with our little girl. We knew it was only a matter of time. So what is new about Julia? Well, she likes to say "no", when she should actually be saying "yes" and she knows it, so she giggles afterwards. She defends herself from her sister by pulling her hair (we are trying to stop that, trust me), she likes to stand and sit on tables and she has no concept of danger. An example of it is how she will throw herself down the slide even if no one were there, but we always are, thankfully.

Two fun things about this month: we had a very successful garage sale where we were able to sell all of their baby clothes and toys and Namaw and Steve surprised us by driving for 12 hours....yes....12 hours, on their Harley to visit us for 4 days. We had a lot of fun with them here and made the most of each moment. Especially Namaw, who does her best to spoil the granddaughters in as little time as possible and she always achieves her goal! We love you, Namaw!! Below is a picture with Julia on the Harley. Very cool, huh? And Julia too. lol Check out the video where it shows a bit of how much she already understands. Her new words this month are "bubble" and "olá" (hello, in Portuguese).

Caribbean Cruise and Joana's First Day of School!

FINALLY! We were off to our Caribbean Cruise! We went to Jaimaica where we enjoyed the beach and the sun. The girls LOVED playing in the sand and how great it felt to swim in the ocean. Below is a picture of John and the girls enjoying the warm waters of Doctor's Cave Beach.

Then we were off to Grand Cayman to swim with the Stingrays and Joana loves talking about the "Raias graaaaaandes" (Biiiiig stingrays) that she saw but would not touch. Our last stop was Cozumel, Mexico, but we decided to stay on the boat because John and I had already been there and the girls were already sunburned enough and quite tired from the two previous days. They loved the big boat experience and had a great time with Vovó, Vovô and Dampaw. Here is a picture of Dampaw with his girls and of us enjoying the pool on the boat.

Below are some formal pictures taken on the boat that we thought you would all like to see. I found out that Joana loved to pose for pictures so we enjoyed the modelling session that came with it. Quite a few people stopped to see her pose and we had a good laugh with all that she was willing to do to look good. Julia wasn't not enjoying the attention as much so we had to bribe her with a lollipop to stay still and we had to play "Peekaboo" to make her smile. But, hey, it worked!!

Julia is now 13 months and is doing really well. She is very active, likes to play by herself, watch T.V. and dance in front of the T.V. She also likes to pretend she is a puppy and sometimes we hear her bark randomly at the house. Vovô taught her to shake her head to say "No" so that is now her favorite thing to do. She can also say "Ozzy", "Mama", "Papa", "Iulia", "Aua" (I think that is "agua" which means "water"). She is very particular about what she wants to eat so, if she is not paying attention to the spoon she will point to the item that she wants you to feed her. Pretty interesting. lol. She has started to watch "Your Baby Can Read" and is already immitating some of the sounds and gestures from the video.

Joana started her first week of school on September 1st and loved her first day. She didn't even cry! Unfortunately, she didn't realize she was going to start going there everyday so the crying started on the 2nd day and it hasn't stopped. According to her teacher, though, she is fine after I leave. When I ask her if she had fun she always says "Yes!" and she wants to go back the next day, but once I arrive at the school the crying starts again. LOL...oh well.

Happy Birthday Julia!!

Hello everyone! Julia turned one year old this month and we celebrated it Hawaiian style! We were thankful to have all our friends and our family from Portugal (grandpa, grandma, uncle Jorge and aunt Ana who is 4 months pregnant with a little girl) to celebrate such an important day in our little girl's life.

Julia is doing very well at 20 pounds (9 Kilos) and 30 inches (76 cms). She is saying "papa", "mama", "Dora", "Julia", "abua", which means "agua" (water, in Portuguese). She waves hi and bye, blows kisses, does "High Fives" and claps her hands. She understands a lot and is now trying to say "no" by shaking her head but sometimes loses her balance and falls down. It's pretty funny to watch, really.

She enjoys many types of food and fruit but is very stubborn about eating soup so mommy tricks her by dangling a cookie in front of her so that she can open her mouth and then mommy slides a spoonfull of soup in her mouth. It's quite an art, at this point, that has been developed in order to accomplish this feat. But hey, it works. And yes, mommy does give Julia a piece of the cookie after she eats the soup.

Joana is saying full sentences and is getting potty trained so that she starts her first day of school without any issues. That's right! Joana will be going to preschool on September 1st and she is very excited about that because there are "amigos" (friends) at school. And she loves her friends.

We are all very excited because in one week all four of us, plus dampaw (Grandpa Johnny), Vovô (Grandpa Jorge) and Vovó (Grandma Victoria) are all going on an exciting cruise to the Caribbean. We will have pics and videos of that fun vacation on our next blog.

I can walk!!

That's right! It's official! Julia walked at the tender age of 10 months and 3 weeks and is loving the fact that she can literally stand up to her big sister....ehehehe. Julia is also enjoying her 5 teeth and making sure she bites everything in her path, including mommy and daddy. Baby food?? Forget it!! She rejected baby food from the very beginning and now that she has more teeth, all she wants to do is try new things, even if they are not edible.

As far as speech is concerned, she is doing really well and can say "mama", "dada", "mum-mum" which is the name of a snack she and Joana love. Most recently, and the to the amazement of all of us, she uttered the word "pum" which has become very famous in our circle of friend. Allow me to explain, Joana enjoys saysing "Pum, o pum da Joana" which means in English "Fart, Joana's fart" everytime she, well...farts. Funny, I know. But funnier is to see Julia say it in the most non chalant manner, as if it is the most normal thing in the world: to announce one's gas release. I wish I had a video of it, really, but it is not the easiest thing to catch on camera, so sorry about that.

Another interesting thing that Julia does is, when we watch their shows before bedtime on my computer in bed, she always crawls to look behind the computer to try to understand where the images are coming from. When she sees them on the screen, she giggles and claps her hands. Oh well, at least she is entertaining herself. lol

The video below shows how good of a copy cat she is. Brittney and I had a good time filming this one.

Joana is working on full sentences now and has pretty much taken over my new iPhone. It appears that my phone is no longer primarily for work purposes but rather to entertain Joana. The amount of apps that I downloaded that have educational games and activities is incredible. There are so many!! Joana has puzzles that teach her shapes and words and feelings, she has spelling games, number games, color games, animal games, you guys,...the possibilities are endless!! She is already learning to write numbers and words just because she thinks it's fun! I love it mainly because I use it to distract her while I shove food in her mouth during lunch or dinner. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. And I did. Below is a picture of Joana with her nails painted for the first time, thanks to Brittney, best babysitter ever!! The other picture shows Joana posing after her haircut. Very cute, indeed!

We enjoyed this month with visits from grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts and we are looking forward to next month with Vovô, vovó, Tio Jorge and Tia Ana coming. The most exciting news, of course, is that Joana and Julia are going to have another cousin. Yup, Tia Ana is pregnant and we can't wait to see if it will be a boy or a girl!!

I will end with the most endearing moment I experienced in the car with both girls. Since they are interacting so much more now that Julia is almost one, they giggle and scream and play with each other in the car. The best part, though, was when Joana asked Julia to give her her hand and I caught that moment while waiting for a red light. Adorable, don´t you think?

Thank you for visiting us and see you next month when we will celabrate Julia´s first birthday!!

Summer fun!!

Hello everyone!

Summer is here and the fun has already started! Julia enjoyed her first swimming pool experience during Memorial Weekend and she LOVED IT! She is certainly not afraid of the water as you will be able to see with the pics and videos below and enjoys seeing her sister splash around her. Julia is doing great and continues to be a healthy happy little girl. She had her third tooth out this month and is starting to test her balance while standing. Joana is using more and more words everyday and sometimes she even puts short sentences together. She likes to show Julia how to move her tongue from side to side while making funny sounds and, as you can see by the pic on the left, they entertain each other quite often and for a good period of time like that.


Joana is also enjoying the summer and showed us that she is still loves the pool and likes to swim with her floaties on all by herself. I think the girls are ready for some beach action. And they will get it at the end of August when we take our cruise.




Funny things about Julia this month:

• she likes to close doors and then knock on them. She particularly enjoys our bedroom door because it has a mirror behind it so she gets to see herself making funny faces.


• she sneaks to the laundry room where Ozzy's food and water are, and splashes her hands in his water bowl and attempts to put dog food in her mouth....yuck, I know.


• she waves to everyone who passes by her and says "Hi Baby"...she loooooves the attention.


• she doesn't like baby food very much but she is very interested in adult food. It's a shame she only has three teeth, though, and I think that is what frustrates her the most. We did find out that, just like Joana, Julia loves corn. Check it out:

• she is not afraid of much, in fact, she was the first to ride the battery powered car that Joana got for her birthday. Once John showed Julia where the button was, she was on her way giggling and wiggling her legs.

Funny things about Joana this month:

• Her newest thing is "titiqueta" which is "tag" or "etiqueta" in Portuguese. She will find the tag in the shirt she is wearing and hold on to it while she is watching TV or playing. She asks to see our "titiqueta" to compare the sizes too. Yesterday, she couldn't find one in the shirt she was wearing, so she took off the shorts and held on to the shorts tag, hugging it, until she could fall asleep. Fascinating, huh? lol


• She counts to 12 in both languages and likes to show off how well she knows the numbers when we go to the store. She also likes to show that she knows the names of many fruits and vegetables and will point them out quite loudly sometimes. The one thing we need to make sure is that she will not run from us and play hide and seek at the store.


• Speaking of hide and seek, Joana likes to play that game at the house and when we realized she is being very quiet and start looking for her, she is usually hiding. Her favorite hiding place is under a rug (VERY inconspicuous see video below), behind a curtain (we always spot the legs that she forgets to hide...lol) or under the table.


• Bones....yes, our little toddler loves to gnaw on bones. Uncle Jorge would be really proud of her because she can clean a bone almost as well as he does.

Happy Second Birthday, Jojo! - Julia's ninth month and first two teeth!

Hey everyone!

This month was an exciting one. Joana's second birthday was celebrated with the "traditional" crawfish boil, vovó Toya, vovô Jorge and Namaw were here for her birthday, as well as all our local friends. First of all, thank you to all our friends and relatives who came to the birthday bash. We loved having you over and we had a blast all day! We had a big group of people and tons of crawfish for everyone. We also had the famous bounce house where Joana spent most of her time. This was the first year she was actually able to enjoy it. And believe me, she made the most of it! The video below shows Joana with her little friend Aidan who was being very sweet about trying to give her the balloon she had lost.

The party theme was Dora the Explorer and Diego and the theme was everywhere: the plates, the cups, the decoration, the balloons, the table cloth, the party favors, and even the bounce house itself. Well,...if you are gonna do it, do it right...lol.

Jojo loved ALL of her presents but the ones she got to use first were the cool shades and the rocking chair to watch....Dora...of course, on TV that same day with her friend Landon in the back on the rocking horse.

Julia was enjoying the crowd but wasn't really sure what was going on. The most important thing for her was that she would get to eat ice-cream and would be carried around by many people.

The weather has been really nice so we have been enjoying a lot of time outside as you can see by the pictures below.

Julia got her first two teeth at the tender age of nine months. They are the bottom teeth and they came out at the same time. She is now 17.8 lbs (8 kgs) and 29 inches (73.6 cms). She continues to be a happy baby and can entertain herself very well playing with her cubes and her train or anything else that she can find. She loves to watch TV and stays focused for quite a bit of time. She is crawling everywhere and waves her arms up and down as if she wants to fly. It's really funny. She claps her hands when she is happy and says "dada" "mama" and..."at"....her favorite word. Below is a video with her playing with one of her favorite toys, ...her alphabet train and cubes. Unfortunately, this video the end is not the best....,you´ll see.

One of Joana's obsessions is stilll the wonder of bubbles. This a good video of both of the girls and we thought it was just cute and would like to share it with you. Have fun.

Julia - 8 months and crawling away....Joana - Almost birthday time again!!

Hey everyone,

So finally it happened, Julia started crawling at 7 months and one week. And now, she can go from the kitchen to the office in less than one minute. We consider that fast...lol. She looks quite tired in this picture from all the crawling.

She is also trying to say certain words. The first one was da-da-da-da...and now, very repeatedly the word "at"...don't ask me why...she just says it a lot. The video only shows her saying it a couple of times, but sometimes she holds on to the window sill, standing, and says "at" 8 to 10 times in a row. It's pretty funny.

She loves to crawl but her favorite thing is getting to a place where she can stand. That way, she can actually feel like one of us...lol...and when she gets there she gives out little "Aaaaahhhhsss" to let us know that she is up and when we acknowledge her she smiles, just like she did for this photo.

The most exciting this about this month? The arrival of Vovó Victoria and Vovô Jorge as well as Namaw for Joana's birthday in April! They arrived at the end of the month of March and we can't wait to have them over.

Joana is almost two. She has been practicing the answer to the question "How old are you?" because she was used to saying "One!"...now she is trying to remember to say "Two".

On March 21st, as you will see in the video below, we were hit with a snow storm and, in one night, we got close to 10 inches of snow. It was all gone the next day, but what a surprise for Jojo, who thought she was going to start wearing shorts and t-shirts, to pull out her gloves, hat, jacket and boots and go play in the snow. She loved it, though!

SUPERBOWL, SNOW AND SO MUCH MORE!

Ok, we have to dedicate this month to the incredible accomplishment of the New Orleans Saints football team. After being 13 and 0, then becoming the NFC Champions, they became the center of attention of the whole nation as they won the Superbowl. Needless to say that Mardi Gras came early to New Orleans and hung around for longer than normal.

John is ecstatic that his "Man Cave" now displays his football team's accomplishments for this year and it's looking GREAT!

Other than that, the girls had a great time with their cousins, Maw Maw and Uncle Roland when they came over to see us for Carnival. Below are some pictures of them.

One of the most beautiful moments this month was, without doubt, the three days of snow that we had. We probably got close to 14 inches (35 cms) of snow. Joana couldn't stop saying "Wow" and absolutely loved the whole experience. John made sure to build the largest snowman possible who stood stubbornly in our backyard for three days after all the snow was gone. We have the video and pics to prove all of this below.

Joana and Julia are doing great. They are interacting more and more with each other and have even started sharing some toys when they are playing. Julia is still not crawling and is continuously more interested in walking. She is also teething and, as you will see by the video below, she is enjoying gnawing on anything that can soothe that pain. It is quite funny to watch her, though, because she makes some funny faces. Enjoy.

Joana is loving everything that is new, of course, and is talking more and more each day. She is very good about saying Thank you and You´re Welcome (sometimes one after the other, without letting the other person answer), Sorry, God Bless You, and Excuse Me (sometimes she says Excuse You instead of Excuse Me, which is funny). Her normal obsessions with anything round (ball, baloons, bubbles, etc) still continue. Enjoy this Bubbles moment.

This month was an incredible month for me as far as work is concerned. The most exciting thing that happened was the opportunity that I was offered to work side by side with two veteran simultaneous interpreters and learn so much from them. My first experience doing simultaneous interpretation in Portuguese was amazing and I can't wait to do more in the future!!