Happy Halloween!!!

Trick or treat...so sad it's over now...we really enjoy all the decor for HALLOWEEN.

Miss Claire is 8 years old!

OCTOBER is our FAVORITE month...

It has been 3 long months since we last update our blog. This means that we been really busy and have had the greatest time with our little FAMILY.

I think I'll try to be quick and just make a list of things we been doing the last 3 months:

• Canning pears, peaches, and salsa
• Ballet, piano, and swimming lessons
• Traveling and more traveling to SLC, Moab, Durango, Ouray, and Denver
• Visiting the Denver Mint, Denver Aquarium, and Invesco Field, which is the Broncos stadium (Jimmy thinks that was the highlight of the trip)
• Hiking: Dinosaur Hill, Arches, the Monument (do you count the mall as hiking???)
• Carving pumpkins and going to corn maze
• Eating like pigs and I mean it, we ate like pigs!
• Ice skating
• Sky Diving -- sort of, in a tube of air, it was like flying really!
• Enjoying spending time with my cousin who is visiting from Brazil. We'll miss him, he's going home tomorrow

We are so happy that we could spend time doing all these fun activities with my cousin, we hope he can come and visit soon again...

Now, let me tell you the real reason we love OCTOBER... we just celebrated our 10th wedding aniversary together, it's just incredible to think that we been together for that long, 10 years. . . wow. . .now let's just see what awaits our next 10 years!

The other reason we love OCTOBER is because we had our precious first daughter at the end of OCTOBER, and next week she'll be turning 8 years old, that's right! She is getting baptized and we are all so excited. We can't wait!

OCTOBER is our month of fun and excitement. With small kids, we have a ball decorating the house for Halloween. We love to see others who go out of their way to decorate their houses. Claire calls them "spooky houses."

THE 5 BROWNS

Today was an incredible day! We went to see The 5 Browns, they were amazing! Holy cow, even Hannah had a great time. . .

DUCKLINGS. . .

This is Claire's duck Sparkles.

She is so sweet just like her owner!

This is sparkles & Figaro; Figaro is Hannah's duck and is feisty just like HER owner.


Just weeks old

just a couple days old!

when they got home on April 12

We took the girls to visit the pet store and Hannah just couldn't come home empty handed.

She said: DADDY PLEASE!!! and you know the rest, here we are with the 2 cutest ducklings ever!

First Day of School !!! Almost a month later!!!

This is first day of school 2009
2nd Grade

This is the last day of 1st Grade

Claire is not to happy to go back to school, we spent all summer in Brazil ( it was winter there), but here she is smiling at 7 in the morning and ready to go. . .We love Claire she is the sweetest girl in the world! I'm so thankful to have her as my daughter and sometimes as my teacher. She is starting 2nd grade with Mrs. Gray.

Claire, we hope you enjoy this year, make many new friends and be the BEST you can. . .

We Love You,

Mommy & Papi

“In the Strength of the Lord, I Can Do All Things.”

I decided to accompany Jimmy to a course he had to attend for work in Salt Lake City. The real reason I went was to stay in the hotel that they booked for him and the doctor he went with. Let's just say we wouldn't normally stay at this hotel . . . ever . . . it is the Grand America Hotel. Look it up and you'll see what I mean. But it is a good thing I went.

While Jimmy was attending the course, I decided to do what I do best - shop. And for the first time it paid off. I was at Pottery Barn looking at some things and my eye caught a glance of a familiar face. I am in the young women over the Beehives and have seen this person talk at General Conference. It was Elaine Dalton, the new Young Women General President! When I saw her, I didn't want to miss the opportunity to thank her for her inspirational leadership. Jimmy had commented the day before that he had just listened to her conference talk and loved it.

After spending about 30 minutes with her, she asked, "do you have a cell phone with a camera to take our picture?" I said, "No, but I have a digital camera!" The result is shown below. I can't describe the feelings I had while being with her. She truly is an example of how a woman should be. She is a woman of God and lives what she teaches. I feel very grateful for my children and me to have this opportunity to spend some time with such a special person. This is a memory that we will never forget. A reference to her conference talk in October of 2008 is Elaine S. Dalton, “A Return to Virtue,” Liahona, Nov 2008, 78–80. It is an incredible talk. You can read it at http://www.lds.org/.

Elaine S. Dalton, “A Return to Virtue,” Liahona, Nov 2008, 78–80

JUST GOT BACK FROM BRAZIL!!!

I have a lot to catch up on over the last 3 months. The girls and I just got back from Brazil 2 weeks ago. Jimmy was able to go for 10 days, which was nice since he hasn't been to Brazil for 6 years. We had a great time, but it was nice to come home. Jimmy did another remodel project while I was gone. I guess he wanted to keep himself busy for those 2 months! Here are some pictures of the before and after of the remodel.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER

Mother, mom, mommy. . .

WOW. . . This weekend has been one of the best weekends of my life! We left the kids with my sister-in-law (THANK YOU LISA!!!) and Jimmy took me to Denver for a "Romantic Weekend Out". We went to a very nice restaurant called Gabriel's. It is an authentic Italian restaurant in Sedalia, Colorado. It was a 2 1/2 hour fine dining experience! After our 4-course meal and dessert (we got two by the way), he took me to watch Star Trek.

I can't forget to mention that before dinner we went shopping. Weird huh! (I had to check to see if that was my husband or somebody else in his body. . .) I felt like we were dating again, we talked about so many things, made so many plans for the future, and gave thanks for the many blessings in our lives.

Having two wonderful adorable little girls is one of the best blessings a "MOTHER" can ask for. I love being a mom because of all the little things that I learn from my girls. They show me so much love and compassion. Also, they are so loving and happy. They are so grateful for what I do for them and I am grateful that they are so healthy. I love to spend time with my girls. I love to watch Hannah doing ballet and Claire practice piano. I love to read books with them and do their hair and nails. These are special moments for me.

The Rest of the Weekend

This weekend we went to Utah so that Jimmy could run in the Half Marathon event in Salt Lake City. (See the next post for details) While we were there, we visited some family and friends. It was wonderful. At our friend Preston's house (we also know him as Hideki), we watched a very fun movie called "Bolt". It was hilarious! Also, we played Mario Kart on the Wii. Preston has a screen that is 144 inches, which divided in 4's while playing Mario Kart, we all got a 72 inch screen . . . nice! On this same screen, we watched UFC in HD. It was awesome! This was Leia's first experience with UFC. She said, "I hope to see a Brazilian fighter." She soon learned that half of the fighters are Brazilian. Have I mentioned that we met Royce Gracie at Disneyland? That'll have to be another post. Let's just say Leia's hooked on UFC now.

Claire and Hannah love Preston's mother Yasuko (sp?), and his wife Ksenia. Claire and Hannah played with Ksenia's hair for hours and Yasuko doted over the children the entire time. (Yasuko and Ksenia are HUGE fans of UFC, btw). They have a fish tank full of beautiful corals and ocean fish including Nemo, Marlin and Dori. The heck with a babysitter, just get them a fish tank! The kids sat in front of that thing as much as possible. I even caught Hannah looking at their book on sea corals! She wouldn't put the thing down to come eat dinner!

While driving back from Salt Lake, we stopped by and visited Leia's Uncle's sister. It's a little confusing. She's the one holding the dog above. It was a lot of fun to go to her house and visit with her for a couple of hours. She has 5 dogs, 7 cats, 2 birds and 2 ducks, and yes she has 5 children, 3 girls and 2 boys! Claire said, "wow, you have a little zoo here!" We all laughed. The kids had a ball playing with all the animals and being chased by one of the ducks.

We also took the opportunity to show the kids my grandmother's grave, which is in the West Jordon Cemetery close to Gardner Village. It's hard to believe that she's been gone for 6 years next month. She loved Claire. Claire was only 2 when she died.

All in all it was a very busy weekend, but also very enjoyable.