Alicey's 3rd Birthday Party

On Friday, August 28th, 2009, Alicey Melo turned 3!!!!!! We love you Alicey! As you can see, Alicey had a princess-themed birthday party! Thanks to her friend, Alyssa, who turned 2 a couple months ago and also had a princess party, all the decoration were provided for us!

And here's this year's birthday cake! I liked mostly how the cake turned out, except for the hershey kisses- I thought they didn't really match, but that's okay! I liked the idea of the ice cream cone towers on the sides!

And here were the party's "amiguinhos" (as Alicey calls her "little friends"). We invited maybe 13 or 14 little kids, and 3 came!!! Sammy and Lucas are Alicey and Olivia's friends from church that live a few blocks away. They're also 1/2 Brazilian. And opposite from Alicey and Olivia, these guys are short and cute! Sammy turned 5 a few days before Alicey turned 3! Alyssa also showed up a little later, but unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of her and Alicey. And we must not forget our "big friends" that came to the party... Aunty Mandy, Tia Rai, Marcia, and Fernanda. To be honest, Alicey didn't even notice that not very many of her friends came. She was excited about the party before anyone even showed up! When I put her to be that night (so cute), she was praying and thanked Heavenly Father for her party, the cake, the presents, and her "amiguinhos".

And here are the presents she got! I think her favorite was from Grandma and Bampa- an electric guitar! She surprised us a few weeks ago when we were asking her what she wanted for her birthday and she cried out a guitar! I think after seeing Mandy's she decided she needed one, too! One day in the car while listening to the Wedding Singer soundtrack, "Video Killed the Radio Star" came up, which starts with some strong guitar beats, I told Alicey that was a guitar playing. Ever since that day, whenever that song comes up, Alicey starts screaming, "guitar!!! guitar!!!! guitar!!!!! I'm going to get a guitar for my birthday, too!"

She also got a bunch of these flower clips (that Tia Rai made) from her friends Sara and Julia that weren't able to make it to the party. I thought they made the party outfit.

And we must not forget the "mesinha" (little table) that Alicey has been asking for for months!! She told us she needed a new table so she could make medicine for Olivia. Who knows where she got that one from! She loved it!

And she also LOVED Mandy's present- a set of big building blocks (leggos). She plays with these every day! Sammy and Lucas gave her a really cool farm puzzle (which I couldn't find a picture of). She's helped me put that together already and gotten it out several times to play with!

Overall, I felt the party was a big success, and most importantly, Alicey loved it!!!

Thanksgiving Point Museum of Ancient Life

So last night we deicded we'd take the girls to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point for a Family Home Evening Activity. When we got there, if anyone is familiar with the building, there's a huge T-Rex painted on the front of the building. We told Alicey we were going to see dinosaurs and she immediately got very nervous. She saw the big dino and said she didn't want to go in. We couldn't help laughing. After convincing her that the dinosaurs were not loose and not even alive for that matter, she consented, as long as Cesar carried her THE WHOLE TIME! Here's me with the girls looking at their first dinosaur. Notice the shirt Olivia is wearing. It's kind of hard to see, but I made it for her this week. It was originally supposed to be for Alicey, but it's kind of hard for me to get the sizing right for some patterns, since I don't really use a pattern. It's "shirred", if anyone knows what that means. The top part is sewn with elastic thread and is streachy.

Alicey enjoyed riding the baby dinosaur...

... while Olivia just wanted to kiss it!

One of Alicey's favorite parts was searching for dinosaur bones at the end of the tour. They bad brushes their for the kids to see what it's like being a dino archeologist! This museum is great for kids because it has little interactive kid stuff like this all throughout!

And Olivia enjoyed brushing the sand off the other brushes!

I really enjoyed spending some educational time with my family. Thanks Cesar for taking us!

Bows!!!

Here's my newest project. I decided Alicey needed some new hair bows, so I bought some cute ribbons and figured out how they work! I think these are a very common thing lots of women in Utah make and sell. Hmmmm... maybe I'll try it someday!

About two weeks ago I decided I wanted to start some projects at home. Why not try my luck at some sewing?! I think I started sewing when I was maybe 8 or 9. My mom had me do some small projects to teach me. And we can't forget the summer of lovin' Erin and I had when we were about 10 and we made lots of stuff, including big, funny rabbits, aprons, crooked shorts, and jumpers. Around that time I also went to a sewing class from a lady in my ward, Sister Ludlow. She wanted to teach her daughter how to sew and thought it would be more enjoyable for her in a few of her friends were involved. I can't really remember, but I probably sewed every once in a while while I was a teenager, as well. And then I took a sewing class at BYU, as well. And that was the extent of my sewing history. I probably haven't done anything for about 10 years.



So where does one start who wants to sew? I would say one needs a sewing machine! I used to have one of those. My mom gave me her old one when I got married. Then I moved to Brazil and took it with me. A few months later, I moved back and left the machine with my mother-in-law, Maria Alicey. I saw her a month ago and she kept telling me how happy she was that I had given it to her because her other one had just broken! Anyway, two weeks ago, once I decided I wanted to start sewing, I bought a machine. It's a Brother 50 Stitch Computerized Sewing Machine-Limited Edition Project Runway from Walmart. I think we've gotten along pretty well since I got it! Here it is:



And here's some of the projects I've been working on:



The first was a baby blanket for my friend's baby shower. I always loved these shaggy blankets and wanted one for my babies, so I decided to try out making one for Ruth. I thought it turned out pretty well! I'll have to make one for my girls now!


And closer...

The next one is kind of hard to see in these pictures, but I forgot my camera when they wore them for the first time. Thank you Mandy for donating these! I made Fourth of July dresses for my girls!

Then I made these butterfly room decorations last week for Olivia's room.

I made this "clutch" (that's what Mandy tells me it's called) for Summer for her birthday last week, too. I've never made a purse before and thought it was a good experience! I liked the colors. Thanks Grandma for all the scraps you gave me last week!

So how, do you ask, did I find time to make all of these things? Well, like I said, I got kind of excited about my new machine, and since daytime sewing is kind of hard with two little girls (I've tried it a little bit but not with much success), I've ended up working ofen late into the night. I downloaded some books on tape (MP3's) and listen while I sew. Don't ask me which book, I shouldn't be reading/listening to it again...

And where have I come up with these ideas? Well, I've discovered something really cool offered on a lot of web sites by a lot of people. They're called tutorials. They walk you step by step with pictures and explanations, and all for free! Here's the tutorial for the clutch I made Summer.

For the past year and a half, I think, I have been working with a wonderful lady named Ruth Rodrigues in our primary. Ruth followed me as music leader in the Brazilian ward we belong to. She also, like me, is an American married to a Brazilian, though she did not speak any Portuguese when she married her husband, Breno. When she was called as music chorister in our ward, she spoke fluent Spanish and not a lot of Portuguese. I was so impressed with her dedication to the children and her calling. She did such a wonderful job! Anyone could tell watching her with the children how much she loved them! She is moving to Missouri this week. She is also pregnant and very close to her delivery in the next month or so. Last week we had a baby shower for her. Here are some pictures: Ruth after opening her presents.

Hungry guests: Vera, Flavia, Juliana, and Tirzah.

Tirzah, Janese and her baby, and Ruth!

The shower was held at one of Ruth's nursing friends' home. That's Lindsay and her baby in the middle. Celia and Silvia showed up for the last part of the shower. They took a break from work to come. How thoughtful!

Here we have one of the games- cutting pictures out of baby magazines to see who could best come up with Ruth's baby boy...

Juliana thought she should have won this game...

We also played another funny game where everyone had to drink juice from a bottle and see who could finish first. I don't have any pictures of that one. Too bad. I don't think anyone had enough patience to finish. My mouth REALLY hurt after a minute or two!

Since Cesar works a lot from his computer at home translating, or in portuguese, his "trabalho", Alicey always wants to "trabalhar" too. Well, this past Saturday our neighborhood had a big garage sale and we found this "trabalho" for Alicey! It doesn't really work, but she doesn't care! It's a kid laptop!And here we have Alicey and Olivia enjoying their new "weeee" we bought when we got back from Brazil. For now it's in our living room. It's been really rainy outside recently and with the dogs in the back yard, it's safer here. They love playing on it, even though it's pretty small for Alicey. Olivia climbs up the slide, stands up, and then usually won't come down. She'll stand there bouncing, walking back and forth, and yelling, until one of us goes over there and helps her down.

And here we have Alicey and Olivia's favorite new present- a play house! Cesar's mom sent us home with some money to buy toys for the girls, and my parents gave us money for birthday presents for the girls this summer, and with it we bought this! It has a working door bell and cordless phone! They are playing it in write now as I write this! Thank you Mom, Dad, and Vovo Alicey!!! And finally, here's what Olivia just did when I handed her a bowl of fishy crackers...

Olivia shows off her beautiful skin problems here! We're not really sure what this is, probably a mixture of some kind of virus, allergies, bug bites, and heat. And it ended up spreading over her whole body... We took her to a doctor here and he gave us a perscription for some medicine that's really been helping. It's faded and not very noticable anymore.

Olivia with her Tia Rose at the beach.

Cesar and his daughters, as goofy as can be!

Olivia LOOOOOVES to play in the water! She splashes, jumps, kicks, and smiles!

Alicey won't go into the water without holding someone's hand. She's not quite as enthusiastic as Olivia is...

Alicey and her "sorvete" (icecream)...

The Melo family in Salvador, Brazil!

So here we are in Salvador, Brazil! Our flight went surprisingly well with Alicey and Olvia. Our longest part was from Chicago to Sao Paulo and Alicey fell asleep a half our after we took off and woke up a half hour before landing. Olivia wasn't quite as cooperative, but still didn't give too much trouble. Then on the last flight from Sao Paulo to Salvador, Olivia slept until I had to stand up to get out of the plain, and Alicey spent most of the time playing with a little boy sitting in front of us.

So we arrived Saturday afternoon and spent the afternoon with Cesar's family. On Sunday, church started at 8:00 am, so we had a pretty early start. That evening Rose had planned a birthday party for Olivia with a beautiful cake, LOTS of treats, balloons, and lots of friends and family! I didn't even know about it until Sunday!

Then Sunday night I woke up around 11 p.m. (we went to bed early). I heard a bunch of noise under our bed. Then I wondered if maybe Alicey's restless sleep had gone overboard... She had been sleeping on a mattress on the ground next to our bed. I peaked over Cesar to where Alicey was supposed to be, and as I suspected, she wasn't there. I woke Cesar up and told him of my conclusion. We looked under the bed and there she was- rolling around in her sleep. Cesar grabbed her arm and pulled her out. We layed her in bed with us and she kept kicking her legs on the bed and tossing a bunch. We tried talking to her and finding out what was wrong but she wouldn't respond. Then I wondered if maybe the mosquito bites she had gotten the night before (several that had been quite red when she went to sleep) were bothering her. I turned a light on and we noticed that several had blistered and a few had even broken upon. She was miserable. It was HOT, HUMID, and very uncomfortable! Then she started crying and of course woke Olivia up. I went in and tried to calm her down. After a while I put her back in her bed but she cried for a good 15 minutes straight! Finally I went back in there, picked her up, and noticed that her head was all wet. I HAD heard a strange noise before when I was calming her down, that could have been water dropping from the ceiling. So I went closer and noticed that there WAS water dripping on Olivia, poor thing! I called Cesar and we moved her bed and changed her sheets. After nursing her again for a while, she did end up falling asleep.

That was all during the night from Sunday to Monday. Alicey kept waking us up during the night complaining about her bites. The next day we bought an allergy cream, neosporin, and bandaids to fix her up. I also gave her some Benadryl I had brought for the flight (which I didn't end up using to put Olivia to sleep). We realized it was pretty much a mixture of the heat, humidity, and allergy Alicey had that caused such a severe reaction. She finally started getting better this morning, Tuesday. We haven't been able to go outside with her to avoid any more problems. And though it has been raining TONS here lately, it didn't rain at all yesterday or today. It would have been nice to go down to the beach, but that's okay.

So, here we are. In spite of all the drama, the girls are LOVING it here with all of Cesar's family. Alicey's favorites are her two cousins, Margarida and Manuela- Margo and Manu (13 and 8 years old) that she calls "minha meninas" (my girls). And Olivia's favorite is her grandpa Messias. It's pretty cute. Every time he walks by she reaches out to him to pick her up. Alicey and Olivia eat bread rolls all day long (in fact, that's what they're doing as I write this). Olivia's hair has also gotten quite curly here. And Cesar seams right at home! There's nothing really for me to help with here so I pretty much just watch over Alicey and Olivia all day. Cesar works for a few hours translating and managing his on-line math course each day. Cesar's mom feeds us meals and snacks about every two hours. Lots to eat. And that's about it so far. We don't have too many plans to do a lot of site seeing. We'll probably do more on the weekends because Cesar's sister, Rose, can drive us around. I'll update this later once more has happened!

Alicey is definitely growing up!
beautiful Easter dresses from Grandma!!!


CANDY!!!!


Ok, so it's been forever and we're moving this weekend and shortly after going to Brazil for a month. So, I guess I'd better post something before all that. So a lot's happened in our family recently. My favorite is that Alicey has finally been potty trained!!!!! Yeah!!!!! We took advantage of all the extra Easter candy around the house and used it as an incentive each time she was able to use the potty. No more diapers (for her)! Also, check out Olivia's newest feat:

This was a couple weeks ago...



And this was yesterday...