California and some...

This was actually taken this morning at the Eagle Mountain Pioneer Days Parade I took the girls to earlier today.  We had lots of fun.  Alicey was mostly worried about when more candy was going to be thrown to her...  Aren't they adorable?!

A week ago I got back from visiting my parents in California with Alicey and Olivia (Cesar had to stay home to work).  It was SOOOOO nice to be able to relax lots, get caught up with some old friends, and play with my girls lots.  Alicey and Olivia LOVED being read to, especially by grandma...

We went to the park like every day...  Here's Olivia and Sam playing in the sand.  I almost bought the girls buckets and shovels when I got home to play in the sand with, but then I remembered that the parks in Utah all have woodchips instead of sand...

We played with Summer, Hank, Leah, and Sam whenever possible!  Here we are at the Underwood Family Farm in Moorpark. 

We got to pick our OWN berries and EAT them!  YUM!

They also had these really cute wagons to pull the kids around in.  They were VERY helpful when we had to walk about a half a mile to get to the strawberries!

And Olivia was so excited when she finally found a tractor she could ride around on for FREE!

And Alicey had a close encounter with a liger (half tiger half lion).  She didn't seem too afraid. 

And don't forget the dance parties we had!  Olivia just barely made it in to thise one...

And luckily we all made it back to Utah alive last Saturday!  My dad drove back with me to help with the girls.  We just want to say thankyou to all who made our trip so relaxing and enjoyable-  Mom, Dad, Summer, Hank, Leah, and Sam!  We love you guys!  And Summer, we're SOOOO excited you'll be a Sister missionary in another month!!!!

Disney on Ice!

And we're back! First, some pictures...

My angels wearing their new Easter dresses Grandma sent them!

Alicey's joy school group.

Alicey shows off her "Cat in the Hat" hat she made... and a wooden angel?

I love my family!

My Valentine's Day surprise for the girls!

Aren't they adorable?!

Hank and Leah came a month or so ago and we all went sledding together!

COUSINS!

Alicey's fine sense of style! These earrings were some of Nana's that Alicey inherited when we were in Arizona for Pa's funeral.

So I figure instead of never coming back to write another blog entry because of being so overwhelmed by how far behind I am, I better just skip the past half a year and tell you what's happening right now in the Melo home!

Well, we're in the proccess of building a new home in the Ranches of Eagle Mountain, Utah. After looking hard for a newer home on a big lot in many different areas and just NOT being able to find one in our price range (besides short sales), we looked into going through a constructor. We were surprised to find out we could get a brand new home, on a .75 acre lot, for about the same amount as a NOT new home on a SMALL lot. We're going through McArthur Homes, and are very excited to be able to move in sometime this summer! I'll try to update you with some pictures along the way...

Alicey and Olivia are getting big and old FAST! Alicey has recently begun speaking English I'd say the majority of the time. I don't know at this point if I should just forget about it or maybe encourage her to speak Portuguese at home. Of course in the long run that's what I would like, but do I need to enforce this while she's so little? Alicey doesn't like me to tell her what to do, so I'm afraid if I insist whe just won't want to. Why is it such a big deal? Because half of her entire family ONLY speaks Portuguese and I don't want her to lose the chance to be able to communicate with them for the rest of her life.

Olivia loves to play with her "babies"- and doll or stuffed animal- and put them to sleep all throughout the house. She is very independent (unlike Alicey) and is happiest playing by herself. Though, the first thing she says whenever I get her up in the morning is "Poppy? Alicey?" Her vocabulary is definitely growing, but she hasn't gotten much further than 1-2 word phrases. I'm not worried about it. She's still 1. Her hair has gotten really long and always falls into her face, since she won't leave anything in her hair for longer than a few minutes. I don't want to cut it because I love long hair and want her hair to grow!

Last week Alicey and I went to see Disney on Ice with my friend, Railene, and her daughter, Alyssa. The girls had tons of fun, though I'd say Alicey only had patience for the first half of the show. After that, she kept trying to come up with excuses to leave, like going to the bathroom, SEVERAL times. Right before the intermission she waved her hand towards the ice rink and said "I'm tired of all of this!" Too bad, I thought, we're staying 'til the end! Alicey connected with about half of the characters that appeard- the Little Mermaid and the Lions King are two of her favorites, while Cars and the Tinker Bell movie aren't. It was fun to go out with just her for something special and to see our friends Rai and Alyssa! Here are some pictures and videos of the experience...

This curtain is a good abreviation of the entire show!

Alicey and Alyssa- buddies since birth! Tinker Bell coming down from the sky!

Meet the princesses before the show starts! Alyssa wasn't very excited about taking pictures.

Ok- I'm exhausted! I think I'll stop now!

Halloween Fun!!!

So here we are getting ready to go trick-or-treating. As you can see, Olivia decided she wanted to be a cupcake this year. It turned out to be quite an inconvenient costume for sweet Olivia. She kept falling over (hence the constant hand holding), pulling off the sprinkles, and she could only shuffle her feet, rather than take normal steps. But hey, she was cute, wasn't she?!

And cute Alicey. She was an angel this year, though dressed as a witch! As patient as could be with her slow little sister, and SOOOO excited about going to more and more houses! She kept telling me throghout the evening that she couldn't eat anything until she got home. Ok!

And here's Olivia trying to be patient to get another piece of candy in her mouth! You should see the inside of her costume by the end of the evening- it was right up against her mouth most of the time.

Alicey excited to knock on another door...

Alicey trying to be patient along the way. You can see how Olivia was super slow. Mandy came with us trick-or-treating while Cesar stayed at home and handed out candy.

Alicey is so fotogenic!

Here's Alicey's preschool class. They had a Halloween parade right before Halloween. I guess most little girls want to be princesses... It's fun to be different!

Earlier in October we also went to Gardner's Village for a Family Home Evening activity. It was so much fun! The girls LOVED finding all the witches everywhere! And getting a cookie for finding all the hidden ones at the end. Here's Cesar, Olivia, and Alicey almost getting attacked by a witch flying on a bicycle!!!

Here's me and my twin witch!

I think we're going to have to make a tradition out of going to see the witches at Gardner's Village each Halloween from now on! I would definitely recommend this activity to anyone, with or without kids! We all had so much fun!

New Clothes and Some...

So here are some new pictures of my two beautiful daughters (actually, mostly Alicey- she's gotten most of the "new" clothes recently) I just finished sewing this nightgown for Alicey with some scrap fabric that was leftover from Olivia's Halloween costume. I think she likes it!

And here's Alicey in a new dress I just bought her from my friends' new business- Ladybug Girls (Alicey's nursery teacher made it!).

And here's a peak of Alicey's witch costume!

Olivia's gotten so much older!

And I just love how my girls are such good friends (most of the time)!

My girls

Recently Alicey has begun climbing into Olivia's crib to play with her (luckily she knows she can do this only AFTER nap time). Don't they look cute? Such good friends..Alicey my angel...

Then this morning Alicey was sucking on a push pop lollipop I bought her yesterday upstairs, and Olivia's was downstairs in the kitchen. Olivia grabbed it from Alicey and Alicey got VERY defensive... after hereing a lot of screaming, I walked into the bedroom just as Alicey chomped down on Olivia's face! Yeah, like I said, my little angel...

My husband's tropical forest

So, recently Cesar decided to realize his dream in life (or one of them)- begin creating Bonzai trees. His plan is to see if they last until next year and then to sell them on ebay, ksl classifieds, and to local stores. Since these are all tropical plants, and we live in Utah, he has to keep them indoors. So our guest bedroom was extended to Cesar's plants...

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!!!