Curiosity

Every day on my way to and from work I drive by this place and have been wondering what it is. Today I decided to stop and ask... And the answer is: It's a 55 year-old working farm! (And a really cool place to take pictures:))

Christmas

Christmas was just absolutely wonderful. We had brunch at our house and it was so great to have so many people over.

After brunch we opened gifts - and there were so many!

These are just the gifts we had under the tree before everyone else arrived.
As you can see I bought the Rock Band game for Curtis and everyone loved it! We had such a great time playing! On the vocals: my sister, on the guitar: my mother in law, on the drums: my brother-in-law. Curtis is in the back waiting for a turn!

My father-in-law really got into it. Check out his rocker shades!

Brett is so talented!

Nathan liked his gifts too:


The best part of the day was just having the whole family together (Matt & Missie we really missed you)! I didn't take very many pictures because I was just busy really enjoying the day.

Christmas' Eve

For Christmas' Eve we had dinner at my sister's and Nathan got to open a few gifts.

This is Nathan receiving his first Christmas gift of the night. Look how happy he is:


Wow, it's a big one!

Oh, I wonder what it is...

With grandma, grandpa, and his new trains :)

How many intelligent adults does it take to put a baby's car together?

Santa's helpers

Our friends Mary and Brett sent us this and I just cannot stop laughing!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1467458087

Thanks guys, I love it!

Christmas Cards

One of the things I love about the Christmas season is receiving Christmas cards. It's just so fun to find a special piece of mail in the middle of all your bills and "unsolicited mail". For some reason there's something very special about a handwritten note. Maybe it's just me but to know that someone took the time to send me a card in the mail makes me feel very happy. So thank you to all my friends who thought about me and took the time to send me a Christmas card this year!
For our Christmas cards, I know it's cheesy but I love having our family photo taken. I don't know how I manage to convince everyone that this is a good idea, but they always show up and smile for the camera :) We'll have to see how much longer I can keep this up.
Here's our photo from this year. If you didn't get a card from us, please email me your address so we can send you one next year :)

Holiday Shopping

First of all, today I met one of the most interesting man I've ever met. I had to get my favorite pair of boots repaired and found this little place on Guadalupe and McClintock - Abe's Shoe Repair. I knew I liked him right away when he was asking me when I wanted to pick up my boots and before I even had time to process the question he said "I have best idea, you wait now!" So we were chatting while he made my boots look brand-new and I asked him if he was ready for Christmas and he said "Of course, I have nothing to worry about, that's my wife's business.'' Well, unfortunately I wasn't ready like my new friend Abe so I had to go to Fashion Square Mall and finish my Christmas shopping.
You could sense the chaos from Scottsdale Road! So many people! And let me tell you they are not all full of Holiday Cheer :) The incredible thing is that positive thinking really works! I found the most perfect parking spot right away, found the exact gift I was looking for in under 10 minutes and was out of there and off to my mom's Christmas dinner - which by the way was amazing! The food was obviously delicious and the Priest who does the masses in Portuguese came over and we practiced songs for the Christmas mass. Well, let me just say that my family has THE worst singing voice ever. The only two who can sing are Jason and Curtis but they can't speak Portuguese so it was absolutely hilarious. If you are brave enough to come hear us sing, come to mass next Sunday. It will surely be entertaining, just not for the right reason!
Now that I only have one more gift to get I cannot wait until Christmas - I'm soo excited!
Oh, and if you ever need shoes repaired go see Abe. Just meeting him is worth the trip. And one more really cool thing about him is that he is from Bethlehem! I had never met anyone from Bethlehem before!

Comments

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Isabella or Ryder?

Sunday afternoon I had the pleasure to go meet with Denise and her husband Steve. They are expecting their first baby whom should be coming some time in February. They don't want to find out if it's a boy or girl until the big day comes. However, they are starting to think of some names... The two names they mentioned to me were Isabella and Ryder. Both so cute!
I met them in a really special place for Denise - the house her grandfather built in the 1960's and her grandparents lived in for many years. It is now the clubhouse for an apartment complex. Although a lot has changed, it was fun searching for things that were original to the house.
Thank you guys, you were so much fun! I can't wait to meet (and photograph) the little one!

Girls' Christmas Dinner

Oh I had so much fun! It makes me so happy to know that I have so many wonderful friends.

I think I'm going to officially call this "Our First Annual Girls' Christmas Party". This way we have to do it again next year :)

I hope you girls enjoyed the food, the fun and the friends.

Special thanks to my mom for the wonderful Brazilian food and my friend Myrian for the dessert and the beans!

From left to right: Kelly, Dani, Tricia, Ignez, Nathan - yes he crashed the party!, Elina, Trisha, Karri, Jannete, Myrian, and Shanel.

Instead of place cards, I put special ornaments at each place and had the girls guess where they were supposed to sit. They did so well!

My mom's birthday

This past Tuesday was my mom's 60th birthday. Her favorite restaurant is the Cheesecake Factory so that's where we go every year to celebrate her birthday. I feel so blessed to be able to have my family so close to me. We all try to get together almost every weekend but it had been a while since we were ALL together and it was so much fun! I love my family! Have you seen the movie "Little Miss Sunshine"? I think it's a perfect portrayal of what families are all about. We are all individuals but when it comes to families we all love each other so much that the differences become insignificant and you are all there for each other and knowing you have your family to support you no matter what makes life so much more enjoyable!
My cousin just sent me the sweetest email saying how special families are and how great it is to know that we can go years without seeing or talking to each other but when we get together it feels like we just hung out the day before, and that's so true!
I often wish I was closer to my extended family (they are all in Brazil) but I do feel blessed that my husband has such a wonderful family and that I really do feel like I have cousins and uncles and aunts here.
Anyways, happy birthday mom! And thank you for our wonderful family!

I love Christmas!

This weekend we officially kick-started our Holiday Season!

1. I decorated our tree. One of my favorite things about Christmas is putting my ornaments on the tree. I date all of my ornaments and write the name of the person who gave it to me on them . It's so fun to take them out of the box and remember all of the memories that each one brings.

2. Curt put our lights up outside. He had a few setbacks (such as forgeting to leave the end that plugs in near the outlet) but it looks great!

3. I had my first white chocolate peppermint latte this year - AND got to try the eggnog coffee.

4. I got to wear my new winter boots. Yay! It's finally cold enough :)

With all the fun commercial stuff that Christmas brings let's not forget the true meaning of Christmas.

5. I also put my Nativity Scene up (which my mother-in-law gave it to me and it's so beautiful) and prayed.

Conor and Brooke

This was such a memorable wedding! All the details were just perfect but the ceremony didn't go very well. There was construction going on in the church while the wedding ceremony was being performed. Conor and Brooke are such a great couple though that they were just smiling the whole time. You could tell they just knew that the most important thing is that they were there together and getting married! Here are a few pictures from Brooke and Conor's wedding. If you want to see the rest of them, let me know and I'll send you the link to the album - which includes construction pictures :)

Brooke bought these necklaces for all her bridesmaids.


The beautiful mother of the bride, Nancy.


This is Brooke's sister, Brandy, and her little girl Avery.

Something borrowed...

Her aunt Mary made all the bouquets.

This is Tassie, she's Brooke's cousin and I'm signing her up to America's Next Top Model!