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.