the great outdoors

Even though we weren’t officially attending our English ward at the time, we still went on our ward campout out in Spanish Fork Canyon.

Our friend Jenna had just got into town with her two boys, so we offered to take them with us. Vince loved having some other boys to play with, and Gabe and Noah loved being outdoors and exploring (basically all the boys in the ward wandered around finding sticks and playing whatever games little boys like to play – warriors, army men, etc). Russ’ little brother Jordan also came down with us. We were super surprised that his mom let him come – but it was so awesome to have him with us! He’s an awesome kid and was really helpful with the younger kids and with keeping the campsite clean and pitching tents – and really anything that we needed him to help with.

The recreation area had a zipline that our ward got to monopolize for the most part on Friday afternoon. Gabe loved it, and to our surprise (and delight!) Vincente went on it, too! Twice! He is such a little stud. It might have helped that his friend Nick went down several times as well. I even went down once. It was pretty crazy.

Joseline had a good time playing with Nick’s little sister Miriam. The camp area was great for the kids – it wasn’t near any water or cliffs or anything, so we could just let the kids play without having to worry too much. And the older kids in the ward helped keep an eye out on all the little ones. We even brought Doc (apparently dogs weren’t allowed, we found out later, but we kept him on his leash for the most part and he really enjoyed being in the great outdoors! And everyone was really sweet to him).

We built a bonfire down by our campsite, and our wonderful neighbors (our real neighbors who live behind us) were also our neighbors at the campout and they shared some really yummy dinner with us – BBQ pork and funeral potatoes all in dutch ovens. There’s something about cooking food in a dutch oven when you’re camping that is just right. In the morning the ward did pancakes, eggs, bacon, the works for breakfast.

As you can see, these two really enjoyed the trip. It was fun to get to know more of the ward members, and I think going on this campout helped us decide to switch wards. So far we haven’t regretted it!

Monday Musings – Fabulous Five

Or is it “Fantastic Five” – hmm... maybe it’s Fantastic Four, so Fabulous Five is perfect.

Five? Years. In about two months, Russ and I will celebrate our five year anniversary! It’s been a long road – a long, challenging road. But I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything. We get along so well, and love each other a lot. I think he’s pretty fabulous.

Anyway, more about all that in a few months.

We’ll be closing on our first home on Friday! It’s about time, is all I have to say about that.

And yes, I am writing this post on Tuesday, even though it’s “Monday Musings”  - life has been crazy.

There isn’t much I’m thinking about these days – at least, not much I can sort out. I’m getting involved in the community – I LOVE being involved in my community. Even though I missed the voter registration deadline because we were moving in. Bummer. So, no voting this year for me, but I’m getting involved anyway! I want to be a parent coach for a sports team for Vincente in the spring. He can do T-ball and soccer when he turns 4. I’m pretty stoked about it. In December we’re going to go observe some piano and violin lessons and see if he would rather take piano lessons or violin lessons, then he’ll start in January! I’m pretty excited about that, too. I would love to teach him either, but I think it will be valuable for him to have good adults in his life who care about him, besides just me and Papai.

I’m playing the piano in the Primary of our Portuguese Ward. And Russ has a pretty fabulous calling, too – but it’s not official until Sunday, so I’ll wait until next week to tell you what it is. I’m excited that I’ll get to be in Primary when Vincente becomes a Sunbeam. He’s learning a lot of Portuguese in this ward, and even asked to say the prayer in Berçario (Nursery) a few weeks ago.

We will probably attend our neighborhood ward every few months just to get to know the neighbors and let them get to know us. We’ll be having a housewarming party here in a few weeks (FINALLY!) and hopefully that will help, too.

Our life is just full of a lot of things, and it’s pretty happy, too. We have to adjust some of our expectations, and some of our plans – but life is about adapting, and changing our plans to make the best out of our circumstances.

Life is good.

Monday Musings -- “Os pequeninos deixai vir a mim”

“Pois, é teu Pai e muito te-ama”

This is a line from the Portuguese translation of the song, “My Heavenly Father Loves Me” from the LDS Children’s Songbook,

(in English)

(em Português)

I have always loved this song – in English, of course – and it was one of the first songs from the Children’s Songbook that I learned to play. When we made the decision to raise our children bilingual, we realized that we were going to need the resources to teach them the gospel both in English and in Portuguese. So we bought scriptures (including the Book of Mormon stories, and recently the Old Testament stories), manuals, and the Children’s Songbook (and CDs!) in Portuguese. We read the scriptures as a family in Portuguese, and we have family home evening, and family prayer, and sing songs as a family all in Portuguese.

I absolutely love the Children’s Songs. I was raised to have a deep love for music, and for the gospel, and the music in the Children’s Songbook are just ingrained in me! They come to mind all the time when I am studying the principles of the gospel. They are a perfect simple introduction to the gospel, and the music is so sweet and beautiful, I just feel warm all over when I play and sing these songs.

When music is translated into another language, the basic underlying meaning of the music is preserved (as much as possible), but the words and expressions can be vastly different.

For example, this words of this song (My Heavenly Father Loves Me) read:

Pray, He is there, Speak, He is listening,

You are His child, His love now surrounds you.

He hears your prayers, He loves the children.

Of such is the kingdom, the kingdom of Heaven.

Whereas the Portuguese translation reads:

Sim, perto está. Sim, Ele te ovre.

(Yes, He is near. Yes, He is listening to you).

Pois, é teu Pai e muito te-ama

(For he is your Father and he loves you very much.)

Com terno amor, ama as crianças,

(With tender love, He loves the children)

Pois delas é o reino, o reino do céu.

(For such is the kingdom, the kingdom of Heaven)

I think the Portuguese expression is much more beautiful than the English translation that I just wrote there, but I just love that the words in the Portuguese translation say “He loves you very much.” The words “His love now surrounds you” are very poetic and beautiful – but I am a fan of simple and direct. You can’t get more simple than “He loves you very much.” This is the testimony that I have – that Heavenly Father loves me very much and it is the testimony I want to share with everyone, especially my own children: é muito te-ama.

Please let that piece of truth touch your heart. Because it is true:

é muito te-ama.

(if you’re wondering – I use Windows Live Writer to write my blog,

and downloaded this MP3 Player Plugin for Writer to embed the mp3’s in this post)

Taylorsville 5th Ward

Still no word on the house, but that doesn’t deter us from talking about it, praying about it,

(seriously – don’t laugh, we actually fasted about this house this month. It feels that important and right to us. When I was thinking about what I should fast about, the first thought that came to me was “The house.” So yeah. Don’t laugh)

and from looking up the ward boundaries.

Needless to say we were pretty stoked when we found the house was in the ward boundaries of this ward. Yes. You read that correctly - a Portuguese speaking ward. The meeting house is a few miles away, instead of a few blocks away, but we feel really good about this ward.

Hopefully if I listen to the Book of Mormon in Portuguese enough,

I’ll even understand what they’re saying!

In any case, it will be great for our kids (can you say lots of Brazillian friends?!), and I will learn a third language. I’m well on my way to becoming a polyglot linguist like my husband. Now I just need to teach him calculus (maybe we should start with algebra...).

Portuguese is much more useful than German, anyway. Portuguese = Spanish (not really, but our kids will have a MUCH bigger advantage in learning Spanish that your average American). German = English with a funny accent. Ha ha, not really, but Portuguese is a lot closer to Spanish than German is, and it’s either Spanish or Chinese, as far as usefulness goes

(Did I tell you Russ mentioned doing Border Patrol the other day... but then we talked about it and I reminded him how much he likes people from other countries and that his heart would probably break every time he sent an illegal immigrant back to Mexico. I think hunting down terrorists is probably a much better use of his time – and he won’t feel bad sending them anywhere).

So yeah, in anticipation of attending a Portuguese speaking ward in Utah (and potentially having a calling where I will need to speak Portuguese.... I was thinking about it, and the only callings I can avoid speaking much Portuguese would be ward organist or primary pianist... so yeah, don’t so much want to do that for my entire life), I am starting up my Portuguese studies again. I downloaded the Book of Mormon in Portuguese – as well as April 2010 General Conference (I’ve almost listened to it twice through in English, so hopefully I’ll be so familiar with it that I’ll be able to understand it, mostly...). And I’m going to dive back into my Portuguese textbooks that I got from the BYU Bookstore back in March.

By golly, I’m going to speak Portuguese

if it’s the last thing I do!

It would sure be easier with Russ around, though... :( No one to talk to around here... except my kids, and Vince doesn’t like Portuguese, and Joss doesn’t really speak yet.

Vincente has quite the little attitude.

And lately he is getting kind of jealous of the attention that Joseline gets. Which is odd, since he's never been jealous before 8-o

As I try to approach Vincente (for ... anything, really) "No, Mamãe, you walk away!"

Today when I was talking to my friend, Michelle, "Mamãe, listen to me talking now!"

Vincente's prayer... every time.... "Dear Heavenly Father, and thank you for this day, name of Jesus Christ, AY-men!" Even at meals :) When we try to tell him "Remember to say 'Thank you for the food'" He tells us "No! It's MY turn!" and proceeds to start at the beginning again.

Me or Grandma: "Vincente, do you want some ___ (fill in the blank with food item)"
Vincente: "No, I just want ___!" (fill in the blank with a more preferred food item)

Vincente, upon finishing his sandwich: "I want a new one!"

Vincente, upon receiving said new sandwich: "Ooooh, THANK you!"

Vincente, when we want him to go to bed/eat his food/do pretty much anything "I don't think so!" (or, alternatively, "Eu ascho que não!")

Long Time

It’s been a while, and I’ve been taking too many pictures (again!) but I’ve decided to start only posting my very favorite pictures or the pictures that go along with a particular story/event I want to share. And then not spend so much time talking about the stuff that went on. I’d like to … but my life is probably not nearly as interesting as the pictures are cute :)

I’m going to work more on scrapbooking and eventually I’m going to start printing pictures to hang in our home (this fall… when we have a “home”)

Anyway, life has been very eventful this month. My parents came to visit, we went to the aquarium with them, the farmers market, and did a bazillion other things.

Now we’re getting ready for yard selling and moving and such.

I can’t believe our time here is almost finished.

 

We’ll be moving back to UT on March 1 (well, me and the babies) – but those plans are kind of tentative… they’ve changed at least 4 times since the beginning of the year…

 

Then it will be job hunting for me, graduation for Russ from DLI on April 1 (which I may or may not attend… he said he doesn’t care as much about his graduation from DLI as he cared about his graduation from BYU – I can’t blame him… bachelor’s degree and 5+ languages vs. associates and 1 language… hmm, it’s easy to see which schooling wins in the “coolness” dept for him)

In other news, Joseline still does not walk, I speak more Portuguese at home (and have committed to speaking Portuguese to the kids this summer while Russ is in AZ), Vince speaks Portuguese in the evenings and on weekends when Russ is home, and Joseline mostly just giggles. Oh yeah, and makes the “car” noise. Like every time she sees anything with wheels. Motorcycles, cars, push toys, etc. It’s pretty much hilarious. Her favorite toys are cars, and dishes. Good thing we have a lot of each.

 
And she loves Lightening McQueen. If Vince’s Cars toys are out and she has a choice, she goes for the Cars toys before the Hotwheels. I can’t blame her – they are pretty fun cars.

Vince goes potty almost all by himself and FINALLY puts his undies back on by himself. I just stopped helping him one day. The first few days he ran around naked because he wouldn’t put them on by himself. Then I started taking away toys/privileges if he wasn’t “underweared” Now he just does it himself.

 

Russ is getting ready to take the Chinese DLPT on March 20 (another recent for our early departure). He’s doing pretty well in class, but still hates doing homework. I totally understand though. We are SO much more entertaining than his homework :)

I am mostly hanging out with the kids, marking off my to-do list every day, and SO enjoying my garden which is blooming all sorts of beautiful flowers (the flowers are totally coming with me to UT).

We try to go to the library more often, and I’ve started doing a run/kid swap with a friend – she runs while I watch her 2 year old, then I run while she watches my kids! It’s working out great, and I’ve been pretty consistently working back up to a 10 min mile for 3 miles. I hit it just about on the head on Wednesday, and I hope to do a 4.1 mile loop next week, probably on Friday. With lots of hideous hills. It’s going to be a great run, though. Half-marathon, here I come! I’m progressing, slowly but surely.

The Post Wide Yard sale is on Saturday (the 6th) and my goal is to make $1000!!! Can I do it!? Better bet your bottom dollar I will!! I’ve got lots to sell, and I have the very best spot on the lot, which is going to be all decorated pretty, and I always have a “free stuff” box, which I’m going to place at the BACK of my spot this time, instead of the front, so people have to walk past all my COOL stuff to get to the free stuff :) You’d think I was in marketing or something.

 

  

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the random update and the pictures. Just a few BAZILLION of my very favorites from the past weeks. (Sorry, I wrote “few” before I actually went through my pictures to see how many favorites I had… )

what a wonderful world

This picture is mostly just because I feel like I need to post a picture when I post on my blog. It gives you readers a little more incentive to read ;) I've really appreciated all the comments on my blog - you guys all make me feel sooo loved and remembered (I miss all our old pals from the Y - we can't wait to be in Utah again to spend time with you, if you're still around!!)

Anyway, the picture above is Vincente admiring the fish we're fish-sitting for the Power family. He likes to feed them and thinks it's hilarious when they eat the food. A few days ago, Russ was sitting with Vincente at the fish tank and they were talking about the fish in Portuguese. It was the first time I've ever heard Vincente speak 100% Portuguese - he was actually having a "conversation" in Portuguese with Russ! It was great! He did the same thing again today for a while. It's funny because even though I speak some Portuguese with Vincente, he won't speak entirely in Portguese with me. It is really cool to see that his Portuguese language skills are developing. His English skills are still better, but his Portuguese skills (I would say) are mostly right on with a normal 2 year old. He is above level for his English speaking skills (I'd say his English speech skills are closer to 3 year old).

I took Joseline to the pediatrician yesterday, and I really really liked our pediatrician. I scheduled an appointment for Vincente's 2 year check up and Joseline's 1 month checkup. It was nice to have such a good pediatrician. She's really nice and helpful and she seemed to trust me as a mother, and was just really laid back. When I asked if it was okay that Joseline is sleeping 6-8 hours at night (I know - how did I get lucky and get the kid who sleeps all night!?), and the pediatrician was completely fine since Joseline is gaining weight and nursing well. I know some doctors just have their ideas they stick to and they would be like "No, you should wake her up!" I really like a doctor who is flexible and willing to look at you like you're an individual and have individual needs and abilities. I've never liked doctors very much (which is one reason I like my CNMs better than an OB - although I do really like my OB here - he's a lot like my midwives :D ), so it's nice to have a pediatrician I like.

The low-down on Joseline's first Dr visit:

8lbs 15oz

23 in. (probably not 100% accurate... I'm sure she hasn't grown 2.5 inches since birth... but you never know)

Dr. Lim (our ped) said she looks great! And since Joseline's not my first child, she said she didn't want me to come in for the weekly visit they usually recommend for newborns. We'll just see her at Joseline's 1 month checkup. What a relief - a pediatrician who trusts that if I feel like Joseline needs to be seen, I'll make sure she's seen, otherwise, she thinks I'll do a great job taking care of my newborn on my own.

Heh, speaking of which, I was grocery shopping today and I left Vince home with Russ and took Joseline with me (the easier of the two to take shopping... Joseline just slept the whole time). Anyway, I was just about done shopping and this old lady looks into Joseline's infant carrier and is like "How old is your baby?" I replied "About two weeks." Then this lady is like "Isn't it a little early to have her out?" or something to that effect. I said "Oh, I think she's fine." But what I wanted to say was "Not if people like you don't come breathe on her." But that would have been mean. Really, though, if you see a tiny newborn baby and you're honestly concerned about them being out and around people with all their nasty germs wouldn't you stay the heck away? But no - the people who are the most "concerned" about you having your newborn out in the world are the ones who want to stick their germ-infested fingers in your infant carrier and poke at your baby and lean their heads in and breathe their disease infested breath into your child's face. If people like that just kept their hands and breath to themselves, it would be perfectly fine for me to take my newborn out.

Okay, enough of my ranting. This post is too long as it is.

My Adorable Kid

I just got an email from our friend Emily who used to watch Vince while I was at school. She spoke Portuguese with him, and he loved her SOO much! She sent a couple pictures of Vince, and the most ADORABLE video of him!! So, here they are:

The Best Day of My Life

After the day I married Russ and the day Vincente was born... so technically the third best day of my life, but that doesn't make nearly as catchy a title.

This morning we woke up super early so we could get through the gate at the post and find the theater where the graduation was held. We got there in plenty of time (and good thing, because by the time the thing started it was standing room only!). We got a seat in the third or fourth row back. Just before the ceremony started, Delta Company, 48th Infantry Battalion marched in to the theater. They kind of went around the back, so we went out on the front steps and watched them come in.

Russ has been Platoon guide for the past two or three weeks, so he was at the corner of his platoon right in front of the Drill Sergeant, which was nice because it made it really easy to see him. I kept pointing him out to Vincente. They marched across the stage first when they came in, and then they stood up on stage in platoons, introducing themselves. When Russ introduced himself, I think Vincente finally recognized that Papai was here (he heard Russ' voice!).

After the ceremony, the platoons lined up outside to meet their families. I don't know what I was expecting from Vincente, but when we walked up to Russ, I said "Here's Papai!" And Russ reached out to see if Vincente would come to him. At first, Vince looked a little unsure, but when I started handing him off, he got all smiley and went right to Russ, and started touching his nose and eyes and mouth and cuddling against Russ' shoulder.

It was the best thing I have ever seen. Vincente knew exactly who Russ was, and become Russ' little buddy right from the first moment he saw him.

My dad took us out to eat and then watched Vincente for us for a while so we could have some couple time. Then we took Vincente to the park while my dad went golfing. Vincente was super fun at the park. It was amazing to me how much Portuguese Vince spoke when he was with Russ! It was like the lights turned on, and he started spewing Portuguese!! I've been trying to keep him familiar with Portuguese - using the Portuguese word for things, etc, but Vince never seems to want to speak Portuguese with me. With Russ, that's all he wanted to speak! You wouldn't think he even remembered any Portuguese. Kids are so smart, and Vince picked it up really fast!

We had steak for dinner, then took Russ back to the barracks. Vince was loving Pai the whole way there, saying "Eu te amo, eu te amo, eu te amo..." over and over again. I could tell that he didn't want Russ to leave. He kept trying to get Russ to look at the moon and the stars with him. Then when it was finally time to leave Russ, I held out my arms for Vincente. Usually when I do that (when he is with anyone but Russ) Vince almost leaps into my arms. He actually pushed my face away when I tried to get him from Russ. Poor little guy just wanted to stay with his Papai.

I finally got him back in the car, and his face looked soooo forlorn. It mirrored the ache that started swelling up in my heart. Then I distracted him by promising to buy him chicken nuggets for dinner.

So that was our wonderful day. Oh yes, and I told Russ what we're having - it's a girl!! I will have an entire post for that once I get back to Arkansas. I'll also update this post with a few more pictures from graduation (since all of the pictures from the graduation are on my dad's camera).

Oh yes, and Russ is actually flying out to California... not to Arizona... so instead of us making a big move to AZ in January, we may be PCSing to CA in January... crazy Army orders changing.

Communication!

I got a letter from Russ today. It's entirely in Portuguese (apparently I asked him to write in Portuguese. He asked me on Sunday if I was serious... and being more in my right mind I said "Heck no!" My Portuguese skills are only one step above non-existant!).

So now I'm trying to translate his letter! Wish me luck!

the first day

So, now I will finally write about the first day of classes, even though it's been two days of classes. I am taking survey of Geometry (taught by a high school geometry teacher) and Number Theory, taught by the cutest British professor.

Both should be pretty easy. And Vincente gets to hang out with our portuguese speaking friend, Emily. I know it's been really good for him so far - he gets to hear another person speak Portuguese, so it's not as hard for him to learn. Anyway, he spends time with her while I'm in class, and then we come home and hang out with O Pai.

I have a feeling this summer is going to be perfect. I love my family, and hopefully we'll be able to grow into a family of four!