What a guy!

While Andy was in Brazil he surprised me with flowers in the mail - yes they really were delivered by the UPS man! They were beautiful!!! And I am happy to say that after being apart for a month and a half he is now back for good. It's nice to not be a single mom anymore! I don't know how they do it!!

Making Flour

It's nice to be back home and use my wheat grinder again. The kids were fascinated with the process and loved helping - although they thought it was a little too loud!!

Working for Money

Our neighbor came over about a week ago and offered a job to Lucy and Ethan. He said he'd pay them a penny for every walnut they picked up. They thought that was pretty cool. Ethan was especially excited about picking up the walnuts. In a short time he earned $6! Lucy earned a couple of dollars but was more worried about getting her fingers dirty than earning money!

Here is Ethan with his money he earned

Here's to Calvin who was eating cheeseburgers at 8 months!!! (ok - maybe not cheeseburgers!!)

I still can't believe that my nephew, calvin, was eating grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken when we were with him in July. He is only 2 months older than Lucas and Lucas can hardly get ONE CHEERIO down!!Maybe one of these days he'll join Calvin and eat some real food. But at this rate it could be a while!!!
Lucas doesn't care too much about toys right now. All he wants to do is pull himself up to the furniture and try standing on his own. He is so proud of himself!


A new favorite thing of his is this Johnny Jumper my friend is letting us borrow. Given Lucas is part frog he is a big fan. He can't get enough of that jumping!

Kids say the funniest things!!

Tonight for family home evening we talked about Adam and Eve. It lead to other topics and ultimately we discussed how when you get OLD you die and can live with Heavenly
Father (which is a whole different story because for Lucy, the thought of living with Heavenly Father and not in her home with her toys isn't very appealing right now!!). Anyway, my intention was not to talk about death but she started asking about it. So while eating desert tonight she said, once again, "So, when people get OLD they will die and live with Heavenly Father."
"Yes," I said.
She was silent for a moment and then said very matter of fact, "Then I guess grandma will be living with Heavenly Father really soon!"
Not sure which grandma she was referring to but I thought is was so funny!!

Soccer Time!!

Along with starting school, Lucy has also started playing soccer!! It is highly entertaining to watch a bunch of four and five year olds "play" soccer. Lucy enjoyed standing on the field and smiling at us. I don't think she quite understood what this soccer thing was all about and why everyone on the sidelines kept calling at the girls to get the ball. Lucy finally understood that for whatever reason, she was supposed to be moving and chasing the ball. So, she got very good at moving her legs - even if it was just to run in place. She didn't ever want to be the first one to get to the ball because once she got it I don't think she knew what to do with it. It was all very comical!

Here are Lucy and two teammates. Their uniforms are GIANT on them!!

This is one of the few times Lucy was actually in trying to get the ball

Our Little Girl is going to School!!

Yesterday Lucy went to her first day of school. She did great and seemed to enjoy it a lot. Today she was really looking forward to getting back on the bus to go to school. I wasn't sure if she'd have a hard time going to school or not but it was hardest on me. Lucy grabbed my hand nice and tight when it came time to step up on the bus but I stepped up on the bus with her, she let go, sat down, and didn't look back! As the bus drove away I was all tears. It is so strange to have a child old enough to be going to school. I am realizing there is truth to statements like "enjoy having your kids at home - they grow up so fast and will be gone before you know it."

California Fun!!

We had lots of fun going to visit Andy's mom in California. The kids enjoyed playing with cousins, being with Grandma, going to the beach, and of course going to Disneyland.

Grandma took us to the Aquarium. Here are Lucy and Rachel.

I guess Lucas liked the aquarium too!!

We also LOVED the night Chef Robert made us some Japanese food.

Eat up Amy and Mike!

The kids spent quite a bit of time exploring grandma's fruit trees.

It wouldn't be Grandma's house without having fresh squeezed juice.

Beautiful Bride

At the end of our reunion Alisa and Ryan were married in the Salt Lake Temple
Lucy, Ethan, and Lucas - You can dress them up but you can't take them out!!! We had to leave the reception early because of MAJOR melt down!!!

Family Reunion Fun

We had a great time at our family reunion in Utah. As always it was fun to hang out with the family. We stayed plenty busy and it was a little crazy with 37 people staying in one house but it was all very fun!!
Just the Christensen siblings went to St. George with mom and dad to go to tianna's wedding. This is a blurry picture but i had to include it because it was such a fun day!! It was just like old times only this time liz wasn't stuffing her diapers with skittles (Liz - you know I had to throw that in!!!)

We had fun at the pioneer day parade and then went to Ensign Peek where the kids had fun doing who knows what!!! (that is where I opted out and went home to put Lucas to bed)

Here are Cameron and Clayton. If you couldn't find Ethan he was on the trampoline. He loved that thing!!!
We also had fun roasting marshmallows in Grandma and Grandpa's back yard.
We took a trip to the Kendacott (sp?) mine. It was pretty neat and some of the trucks there were GIANT. Check out this tire!!

What cute little boys. Here are Lucas, Zachary, and Calvin. They are all less than 3 months apart.

We did have a little down time and had fun swimming. That is Andy under the waterfall with Lucy, Ethan, and Spencer.

We enjoyed going to the Rodeo - Yee Haw!!!

Goodbye Brazil

I have not been blogging for quite some time now!!! We left Brazil over a month ago and life has been a little crazy ever since!!! But I am now back into blogging!!!

Our movers came 3 days before we actually left Brazil. We were suddenly without toys or anything to do for 3 days!!

We spent a lot of our time saying goodbye to friends and visiting certain places for the last time. Here are the kids with Steffen. He is a German boy who lived in our neighborhood. They LOVED playing with him just about every day.

The women at church SURPRISED me with a going away party. It was soooo nice of them. They are all such wonderful women and were so kind to me. There were a lot of tears this night as I told them all goodbye.

We went to the Bishop's house for a going away Churrasco. It was so fun and very kind of Dianna and Elanie to plan!


The day before we left I made one last visit to Elanie. She gave me a manicure. She was finishing Dianna's pedicure when I arrived. I LOVE these girls!!! Elanie even gave Lucy a pedicure. Lucy felt so special!


It was also sad to say goodbye to Isabel and her family. They were such kind neighbors. After Lucas was born she came to my house every week to teach me portuguese. It was very kind of her.

We also said goodbye to Camilla and Fernanda. We wouldn't have survived Brazil without them. Fernanda was so good to me and always willing to help. We will miss them so much!

After all the sad goodbyes it was off to the airport. Here is a shot of one of the luggage carts. We had a TON of luggage. This is not even all of it - not to mention we also had 3 kids to take care of. We were very strategic in getting into the airport and it was a great relief to get our luggage checked in.
And now the story begins.....
Here are Lucy and Ethan waiting in the airport - which we ended up doing a lot of!!! I'm not sure how to make this short but I will try. About 4 hours into our 10 or 11 hour flight (with 3 kids!!!) to Dallas the airplane had to make an emergency landing. We landed in Manaus (sp?) and sat on the runway for 5 HOURS!!!! So about the time we should have been landing in Dallas we were just taking off. We were glad to finally take off again only to find out we were being sent to Miami instead. So, we arrive in Miami - which felt like a foreign country - where we had to find a flight that would eventually get us to Utah which was our final destination. So after standing in line for 2 hours we had tickets to fly to New Orleans where we would have 45 min. to make the connecting flight to Dallas. By the time we got there we would have to spend the night and wait for a flight out to utah the next day!!! We were lucky to make our connection in New Orleans due to weather and were soooooo o happy to find a hotel and sleep for a bit before leaving the next morning. We did finally arrive in Utah - 24 hours late but we did arrive and miracle of miracles all our luggage caught up to us by the time we got there!! It was a long exhausting trip but thank goodness our kids were ANGELS!!!! They were so good. It could have been much worse if they had been crying and well you know!!!!

Although I am very happy to be back in the United States it was really hard to leave Brazil. It was hard to say goodbye knowing that more than likely we will not be back and won't see these people. We love Brazilians. They are ALL so nice. I don't think you can find a kinder people. We learned a LOT in the year we were gone and had some wonderful experiences. We will always be grateful for the wonderful friends who made life in Brazil much easier.