Week 30

Here's another belly shot! - 30 Weeks!

She is kicking a ton now (I'm now 33 weeks)! I think that's my favorite part - feeling her move! However, I have to admit that we (Daniel and I) are super anxious to meet her!

Aunt Lana

My sweet Aunt Lana's birthday was on March 17th!
She was a woman with so much love!

We purchased her home from my parents this last year and kept her ceramic dog in front.

Daniel planted flowers in it and I just had to take a picture of it on her birthday!

It was so perfect!

We love you and miss you Lana! I'm sure you're enjoying life on the other side!

Daniel's in Brazil

So Daniel and a friend are starting up a business called E.A.S.Y. Going. It's an exchange program that will bring student athletes from Brazil to the USA to play for colleges and universities. A few programs exist like this, but it's very promising. So the two of them (Daniel and Rodrigo) are meeting with clients, investors and doing all sorts of other stuff these next two weeks!
He had such a crazy experience on the way to Brazil, I just had to share.
Cut and pasted from an email he sent me:

"After four hours of flight I was getting tired and a bit achy from seating for a long period of time. I got up from my seat and went back towards the bathroom to stretch by back and legs use the toilet and get a glass of juice (pessego) [peach]. By the way tasted so goood!!! So by having a funny looking shoes I guess this is how everything started. The people that worked from the Tam Airlines started looking at my feet and making comments and pointing to my feet asking a bunch of questions in regards to the five fingers shoes.
Before you know they offer me meals asked to seat down with them talking about different situations that it is going on with Brazil, President Obama's visit here and so forth. Furthermore, they liked me so much that they where able to give me a spot at the first class section. I just didn't believe that was happening. But it did!!!:) I took pictures from every one that befriended in the aircraft. I got here in Guarulhos with no problems passing thru customs, met Wilden (Rodrigo's father) with Rafael (Rodrigo's younger brother) and went to a pizzeria called Zaza to play a prank on Rodrigo.
Wilden spoke with the Oriel,manager from the pizzeria explaining that I was his son's business partner just arrived from USA and would liked to dress me as one of their workers.
Before I know I am all dressed up with red handkerchief in my head and white shirt and pants in the kitchen working. I was cutting tomatoes and flatten and stretching the dough that we ended up using in preparing my pizza of calabreza and catupiri. Rodrigo arrived at the store. I was facing back so he didn't see me at first. Sure enough I turned and asked him what kind of pizza that he would like to eat. It was awesome to see his expression unto his face!"

He hasn't sent pictures, but I'll be sure to post them when he does. It's a little quieter. But I still have the three dogs, a cat and 11 chickens to keep me company!

Baby Bump

Okay - so it's a little more than a "bump" - but here's a photo of me and my belly!
This was taken at 26 weeks - and after a very long day.
(I worked from 10:00 - 7:30 and was pretty tired.)
Hopefully the next photos will turn out a little better.

Story Time

With the baby being over 6 months now, she can hear and recognize our voices. I was reading and have heard about other couples who read to their unborn babies. Daniel liked the idea as well. So we decided that we would like to read her a story every night before bed (getting ready for the real thing). Last night we started. We read "You Are Special" by Max Lucado. I love this book. Daniel did the voice of Eli at the end - so funny. Kind of a cross between what Santa and Yoda would sounds like :) The really cool thing was that she was listening and would move a little as we read.

If you have any suggestions for books, let me know!

Family Reunion

Over this last Christmas (2010), we got all the puppies together!
We were dog-sitting Bentley, Elisa & Josh were in town and brought Mimi, and then we stole Lacey from my parents to complete the reunion.

Seriously, it was so fun!

They all just formed this little circle and were enjoying being together sooo much!

From left to right - Tiger, Bentley, Jasper, Mimi, and Lacey (you can barely see her - she's wearing the pink dress in the picture above!)

So much Love!

Christmas Surprises!

Yes - I know, I know... Christmas was A LONG time ago...

But I forgot to post these adorable pictures!

My lovely puppies decided to take my cabbage patch doll out to the back yard and had a little fun with her. Thankfully, they didn't tear the actual doll - just her clothes.
So, my sweet mother saw the tragedy and took the doll home and then proceeded to MAKE her a new dress and under-garments (bloomerish type).

I actually like this dress better than the original!
(It was a light blue, shiny -fancy dress.)

The bloomers - underneath! - Seriously, I was so excited. It was such a thoughtful gift.

My mom said that she had so much fun making it... Hmm.... I think I can find her some other than doll clothes to make :)