São João

So my mom has been a little weak sauce on her blogging lately. So I decided to step in and do a post about São João. So são João is pretty much a cowboy holiday. It includes a lot of dancing, one of the dances is square dancing and a dance called ‘’forró’’. We had a party at me and Morgan’s school. The whole jr. high did a square dance. It took like a month to learn but it was totally worth it! 

This is me, Bianca and Morgan in our São João dresses. Bianca helped us go shopping for them.

There are so many bright colors at the São João parties. 

We saw these two cute kids and had to take a picture. They are so cute.

Then we had a little fun party at our house. A sister in our ward and her family came to our apartment to make some types of São João traditional food. The most popular food during São João is corn.But the food took like 5 hours of preparing. It was pretty good though. 

This was in the making of the corn feast.

This is what the food looks like. 

Then on Saturday we had our ward São João party. All of the young women in our ward decorated the church for the party. And the party was also very fun. There were so many people there! And so many dishes of corn foods. But it was a very fun and interesting holiday :) 

My mom, Morg, and me in our plaid outfits :)

This couple is getting married in a couple of weeks :)

This is my dad and a little boy named Mateus (Matthew)

This is Morg and her friends, Jean and Joyce.

Well that was our São João party! It was so fun! But i don't think i will be eating corn for a while :) haha

This and that...

My girls tell me I need to up-date my blog more frequently than every 6 weeks, that might be a stretch for me!  But I ll give you an idea of what we are doing this Thanksgiving/Christmas season.  We are spending the actual Christmas day in the U.S. with all our kids, yay!  But are having quite a few firesides, a high priest party and singles (widows of the ward) dinner, bishopric dinner etc. etc.  So we needed to get festive!

We had to improvise and hang our stockings on the china cupboard.  It is the closest thing to a mantle that we could find....and it is the right length.

 We celebrated Malories birthday on Thanksgiving and on the 28th, we celebrated Thanksgiving with 3 American missionary couples.  I was a little nervous cooking for 3 women that I know are  more experienced cooks.  I was stressed about finding a turkey although they said in the grocery stores that they always get them at Christmas time.  The actual Thanksgiving Day they finally came and I had to pay R$75.00 for a 8 lb turkey (that is about $45.00).  But is was worth it.

I couldn t find any gold or even brown leaves on the beach for my center peice...but we figured out something sort of Autumnish.

It happened to be mutual on Morgans birthday, so I sent the cake and balloons with Dee to bishops meeting and told Morgan that mutual was starting a little later than normal, when we arrived 20 minutes later the girls and Rose ( the Y.W. pres.) had the room decorated and surprised Morgan....she had no idea!

I made an ice cream cake for Mal s birthday....just for something different, but in Recife it is a huge challenge.  It melted soooo fast, the ice cream was almost impossible to work with! Where is aunt Janet when we need her?

We put up our Christmas tree one day when the girls didn t have school and Dee was traveling. It is sort of strange watching the ornaments on the tree blow in the ocean breeze with the sound of the waves in the background.

I decided I needed to create something...it has been a really long time.  So I made some curtains for my kitchen.  I was happy with the way they turned out.  Mal s room is next, she wants zebra print...should be interesting finding that type of material.  Can you see our neighbors, about an arm stretch away?

I ll never get used to some of the things you see on the street.  It s not unusual to see someone just sleeping on the side  walk next to stores etc.  But this guy has it figured out now.  You can save a lot on rent!

  I accomplished one of my goals and ran in an organized race in Brazil.  The guy standing next to me told me about it.  He is the Stake Y.M. s president and the father of one of Malorie s friends.  All of these other guys are members of the church, that like to run ( but not in our stake.)  The race was sponsored by a health club and went along a running sidewalk by the beach and then around the city.  It was about 4 miles and sooo hot!

Typical Tuesday

Our schedule here is a little different.  The girls don't start school until 1:00 P.M. and finish at 5:30.  The morning is spent studying and practicing thier instuments because the evening seems to fly by.  For instance,  Tuesday night we usually arrive home just before six, hurry and eat dinner, then Morgan's math tutor comes about 6:30.  It is so awesome that she is willing to come to our house.  Jéssica is a 20 year old girl from our ward that wants to eventually become a teacher...she is a very good tutor.

At 7:30, in the other corner of the room, our violin teacher, André starts Malorie's  hour lesson.   André is a 24 year old single guy that speaks pretty good English.  He is an amazing violinist and a major perfectionist.  He doesn't  have a lot of experience teaching and gets a little impatient but we are grateful that he too is willing to come to our apartment for the lesson because I don't like to be out after dark, which, by the way, is at 5:30.

I made the last missionary suit photo album (for my boys, anyway).  But plan to make one for one of the sweet sisters in our ward whose son is serving a mission.  Thanks, Trish for your pattern and training!

One of our favorite things to do is make a fresh flower arrangement for our front entry. The flowers arrive in the shop on Tuesday. This particular arrangement cost $7.00 will last almost a whole month.  The flower shop that is closest and most convenient doesn"t have a huge selection of flowers but it is enough for my uncreative brain.

I am serving in the Y.W.'s organization now.  This is an project that we did for mutual.  We covered wood frames with cute strapbook paper and put vinyl letter that said, "Sorria! é uma filha de Deus" translated, "Smile! you are a daughter of God". The girls love creating things but it is hard to find inexpensive, practital things to do.We tried a simple stitching project....it was a disaster! But aren't they a beautiful bunch of Y.W?!

An update: long in coming

The big event of the year was sending out our 4th missionary to Romania from Brazil at age 18! I didn't think I could handle it, but having all the kids(except Trae and Lis) there with us, helped....the next day when they left was torture!

Dave was very prepared and anxious to serve. I am going to miss that boy here with us in Recife. We don't see a lot of Dee, so Dave was my right hand man...he loved to drive in the crazy traffic of Jaboatão dos Guararapes.

This lovely lady is the reason for my visit back to the U.S. for a couple of weeks. She is so beautiful and such a good baby. I am already homesick for her and all the kids and family and friends and my dryer and the disposal and the feeling of being safe...oops....no complaining!!

I loved being able to visit during the Fall. The colors were beautiful (and the air a little nippy) Ave and I had a great time together...when I could keep her from her mom....we even had a few sleep overs.

You don't see any thing like this in Recife. They have pumkins, but they are a little strange looking. I was missing my little girls and husband here. Having everyone together has become an extra special treat!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is Thanksgiving and a very unusual one for us in Brazil. We are missing the usual things like pumpkin pie and homemade rolls, but especially our family. The kids not with us are with some of our other favorite people....my family, and it just so happens to be my dad's 82nd birthday! I want to wish him a wonderful day!! I started out writing the top ten things that I love about my dad but couldn't stop at just ten so here are the top 20 (and there are more)

1. The way he makes me feel like I'm his very favorite person.

2. The way he loves my mother.

3. The way he gives my children so much attention and love.

4. The way he relates with the younger generation.

5. His big hands that remind me of how hard he has worked all through life.

6. The way he works hard to stay in good physical condition.

7. His spiritual depth and understanding of the gospel.

8. The way he tells a good joke... and he always has one!

9. The proud look he gets on his face when I do something good.

10. His long legs.

11. The way he teaches and his awesome stories.

12. His positive attitude about life.

13. The way he encourages me to be a better mom by saying, "Bon, you sure are a great mom".

14. His hugs.

15. The way he scrapes my driveway after a big snow.

16. The way he sacrifices to do mundane things for me like drop me off at the top of Pomerelle.

17. The way he sacrifices to do BIG things for me and my family!

18. The way he trusts me to cut his hair.

19. The way he supports me in outrageous decisions like moving to Brazil.

and last, but not least....

20. His example and testimony of the gospel.

I love you dad...have a great day and give my kids a big hug and kiss! Macey has one for you from me!!

This was taken after our Thanksgiving dinner at Morg and Mals school. The kids Malories age sang a medley of Thanksgiving songs, then we had a buffet style dinner. It was pretty good...they still had to have their brazilian rice and farofa and the famous Brazilian chocolate cake, but they did have turkey and mashed potatoes. We wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. We love you all and are counting our blessings so we keep from crying about not being with ALL our family today. And by the way.....we are very blessed!!

This is the beginning of our adventures in Brasil. This was at the Sao Paulo airport, about a 4 hour plane trip from our new home of Recife. We each got to bring 2 peices of luggage, that was counting the electric piano and guitar. We have discovered that you can get by with a lot less stuff and still be happy!

The third week end in Recife we visited one of our favorite beaches....Porto de Galinas. I broke my foot, stepping out of bed (my foot was asleep and I didn't know it!) the first week so I had to miss out on the snorkeling.

By the looks of this picture you may think that Dee is on easy street. Poor guy! just trying to get some work done in a noisy apartment. He hasn't found a place in town for an office, so we have set up an office in the corner of the family room. It usually works well except when he gets calls during lunch hour. He had to move to a bedroom to find enough quiet to have a conference call!

It was so great to have Trae and Lis and Avery join us. Trae has been a big help to his dad and it is great to have another translater and Lis, I just love having another woman in the house (Mace doesn't quite quailify as a full fledged woman yet) but we love having her around. She is the best especially because she isn't afraid to drive in the crazy traffic of Recife! Avery absolutely loves the beach! I made the mistake of giving her some shells to play with on the sand and when she tried putting them in her mouth I said "yucky" but she thought I said "cookie" so needless to say, she tried to eat the shells the rest of the afternoon.

When Dave joined us it was kind of like having a son return from a mission. I missed him sooo much and when I saw him get off the plane, I started to cry! The girls jumped for joy they were so excited!! We took him to another beach his first week end here. Along this beach about a foot under the sand there is a clay type soil that spas use on skin to help keep it looking youthful, so of course, we covered our whole bodies. Fabio Bu was our tour guide, A really cool guy, he is taking us on a fishing trip near his home, this weekend.

Our apartment isn't really baby proofed and I'm not really sure how to do it. There is not one drawer in the entire apartment....bathrooms included. It is kind of a haven for a 15 month old. Having fun in the vegetable/fruit bin!

The bishop and his family invited us to go with them and some friends to the friends cabin. The friend is Mozart Soures a newly sustained area authority. It was a great get away. It was at a higher altitude so the weather was perfect, we actually could have used light sweaters in the evening....now that is unusual!