My 2 pumpkins

We are invited to a team Halloween party at 5pm, so i will have more pixs to post later, but i wanted to get these up first. Its kind of a long story but the quick version is... i bought the kids costumes. first time ever (this is thais's 3rd halloween) and living back in the states has made me excited about halloween again. So we put Thais in her costume a few days ago, she loved it, but then last night when i tried to put both of them in their outfit together, thais didnt want her costume,she wanted tiago's costume. so i gave it to her and he wore his shirt from nana. so i started with a fairy princess and a pumpkin and ended up with 2 pumpkins, lol! i love my kids!!!!

back to basics

we dont have a vacumn, microwave or toaster and let me tell you its been challenging. Good thing we were in Brasil before here to give me some practice. I cant tell you how many hrs i have spent on my knees already, picking up spilled snacks out of the carpet. I am warming up left overs in the oven and boiling hotdogs on the stove, like we used to do back in the day. Its not a huge deal, but now when i go grocery shopping (in borrowed cars) i shop differently. and i try not to make to much food so we dont have left overs. it really has changed my way of cooking and thinking.
Our car is on its way which will be nice, then i will get some used appliances like we did our tv and then we wil be back to normal. but you never know what life is like without something till its gone.

Also its devils night here in detroit. I am not going outside... I have been to detroit before and i have heard about this night before but never lived in it at the moment. so i will keep you posted. i took some pixs and the kids in their costumes but ill save those for tomorrow. it didnt go so well anways, lol!

-heather

Day Off

Ze Roberto had the day off today and this is the last weekend before the season begins so i can only assume this is the calm before the storm. So I dragged the whole family to take professional pictures. I cant tell you how exactly alike Thais and I are, and how Ze and Tiago are. Those 2 boys can sit at home and do nothing, half naked all month and be happy as can be. Thais and I get excited every time the door opens, phone rings or we see some sun. We are just itchin to get out side. She and I can go shopping all day and buy nothing, just a s long as we window shopped and walked around and played with the toys and tried on the clothes. That is pure torture to the boys, lol!

Anyways Tiago and Ze were not in the mood for pixs. Im not even going to post the family one as it is no good at all. And Tiago screamed bloody murder when the photo lady tried to make him laugh, so out of all the pixs, we only got one good one of him but it is soooo cute. Then there is Thais, the picture princess.... anyways i'm happy. We will go back in December for Tiago's 1st bday. I still cant believe I am a month away from having a 2yr old and a 1 yr old. Where did the time go, i want my babies to be babies forever.... dont we all???

New Pixs

So after loading 300 photos and blogging 2 wks worth of travel, i took a few days off. But I am back because my kids are just too darn cute not to share. We have had a pretty quite week. Its cold and rainy here but we had one day of sun, so we went outside and took some pixs. I got a great deal on this inflatable tent thing and the kids just love it. It is great to have a play room, the kids are really getting along well and love playing together. Ill try to load the video of them laughing together. Again too cute not to share.

Tiago is finally adjusting and sleeping almost through the night and both are sleeping in till 9am, instead of 6am when we first got here. And Thais is very close to being fully potty trained, well in house anyways. we havnt tried public toilets yet. I'll spare you the pixs of her potty training days, lol! Tiago is getting new teeth everyday, he shakes his head no and claps his hands when ever he hears or sees someone else doing it. He is really into that cute stage, trouble but still cute. Thais loves shoes and now that i unpacked her closet, she tries on several outfits a day and tells me which ones she wants. We have a real diva in the making, although she hates when you touch her hair, she has to brush it herself. She like taking pictures again and now has tons of poses for the camera. Some of which i wonder where she got them.

The kids are doing great, we are still adjusting, but all in all.... life is good! As i always say, as long as the four of us are together, we are good.

Updated

I have gone back and updated our trip from Brasil. I only loaded some pictures, the rest i will put on our .mac web page but not today. So scroll back to Oct 1st and enjoy read along day by day of our adventures in Brasil. Dont forget to comment, so I know you read it.

UPDATED: I have added 300 pictures to our .mac web page.
http://homepage.mac.com/ohfive/2007


FIRE UPDATE: So far my family is not evacuated. The winds went west towards the ocean, had they gone south, they would have gotten us. Please continue to pray for the thousands who have lost everything and are sleeping in centers tonight.

Thank you,
- heather and fam

Fires

To all my San Diego people. please pack up and be ready to leave if need be. Lets be prepared this time!!!! Better safe than sorry.

To those reading this wondering about my San Diego family, as of right now they are in their house safe still. They have not been asked to leave yet this time, but they are packing as i type, some are packed and are ready to leave in a minutes notice. All they can do is sit and wait.

I have been glued to my computer watching live San Diego tv feeds for the last 6 hrs and on the phone all the time, checking in. I will post as i know, but as of right now, all is well. Lets just pray it stays that way, but please remember those who are not as lucky.

-heather

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/videostream/11724377/detail.html

Detroit

I wish we were still in Brasil. I got so many things to do here and no time and Ze is gone practicing already, we dont have our car... the list goes on but we are slowly getting there. I have a lot of photos i want to take to show you all but give me another couple days, i just loaded over 1,000 from Brasil. Im kind of photo'd out, lol!

Our apartment is nice, 2 big bedrooms, we took the beds out of the kids room to make room for their toys. We actually have a dining room, where we sit down as a family and eat together. and there is a lot of grass around our building which on warm days will be nice. They say they have a game room, indoor pol and gym all for free, but we havnt checked them out yet, but i know we will. There are 3 other Brasilians on the team and the whole team lives in our building complex, so we should be ok here for the winter.

We went to a mall which had a play area, I can really tell that Thais is a 2yr old now. She just got so big over night. They both are so cute. This is the first time they have lived in the states and i think they know it. They dont hear french, spanish, or portuguese. It always takes them a few days to adjust so hoping it goes by fast. Thais was very excited to have all of her toys here waiting for here and she loves jumping on her big girl bed, lol!

Back From Brasil

Yes we have finally made it back from beautiful Brasil. We are trying to get settled into our new city and home in the states. Ze has already started his new job and we have unpacked a lot. w ehave internet but only one computer and Ze and I arent so good at sharing it, lol! So bare with us the next few days but I promise I will post all of our pixs and all of our adventures over the last couple of weeks. Just wanted to let you know we are alive and doing great!!!
-h

Blast from the Past

While in Brasil, we took a lot of pictures of old photos. We did this to make sure they live on. We were hoping to get pictures of Ze's mom but no one had any. We did find a lot of Ze when he was younger and they are pretty funny. So of course, you know me.. i am going to post them, lol!

We also asked a lot of questions to his family members, we would stay up late at night asking each sister what she remembered about them being kids, i asked his dad how he met his mom and asked his school teacher if he was a good student. It was fun and I am glad we asked, for we now have so many new memories and phots of the past. It made our trip complete.

Ze's Grandfather and Grandmother


Ze with friends in his teens



The youngest photo we have of Ze at this time. Bottom row, 2nd from the left

Day 17-18/ Return Flight

We arrived in Teresina that afternoon. It is even hotter here than in the other state we were in. I didnt think it was possible but it is. So we spent most the evening in my sister in law's work. Where i checked internet for the first time 2 wks. Thais loves to play with Jimmy and Jennifer loves to play with Tiago. When we were here on our arrival, it was night time and life was stll a blur so i didnt really get to see or understand the city. Teresina is the capital of this state and a very busy place. Even if the airport only has one gate and one baggae claim, this is a very busy city. We spent the night and the morning, before heading to the airport to begin our long journey back to North America. We said our good byes to Diego whom i feel is much more than just a nephew but more like a brother and a best friend. And to Joselita who while we spent the least amount of time with her out of the sisters, she is real down to earth and we got along great. It is sad to leave for we dont know when we will be back, but i couldnt be more thankful that we even had the time we did.

We flew to Fortaleza for a lay over and got delayed, which made us late getting to Sao Palo, and we were 20 mins from missing our flight to the states. So we didnt have to time to shop or let the kids run around or anything. So on the plane we got for another 9 hr all nighter, where the kids sleep and we dont. Watched a few more movies, got to DC, then connected to Detroit.

We were so confused upon our arrival, we didnt know what day it was, what time zone we were in, barely knew the month, i kept speaking the wrong language, using american money felt like monopoly money, since it had been so long since we have lived in the states. But here we are...... back in the states. We got picked up by the team and went to our new apartment, in our new city, in our new country.

Our last 48 hrs

Well this is it. Our last 48hrs in Brasil. We will be leaving in the morning to drive back to Teresina with just Diego to catch our 4 planes back to North America. We will spend the night at Joselita's again, this time at her office since its got air conditioning. I cant believe how fast these 2 weeks have gone, i only know that i promise it will not be another 7 yrs before Ze Roberto returns home. I may not have been born here but this is my home and this is where my children will live, visit and know. I am so thankful to be a part of this family and love them all so much. I am very sad to leave and had tears in my eyes the morning we drove away.