iLove

so last week was quiet something. i got the biggest stye (in my eye) on planet earth. i mean couldn't leave the house for a week, or open my eye, and throw away all my eye makeup afterwards bad. and it hurt muito. MUITO.

ok i did go one place during my stye stay and that was to our church's "festa julino" bash. wow. i threw on some shades and we all went. i have said it once before and i will say it again, brazilians really know how to throw a party. huge blow up play things for the kids, tons of bbq meat, sandwiches, homemade cotton candy, every dessert you can think of, drinks, decor, music, people, fun, and wow, a lot of the last one. really fun.

we have ourselves a fun little garden brewing on out deck nowadays. it is getting very romantic and green and practical all at the same time. today i kept going out to our garden to pick things for dinner, i felt so capable. it was wonderful. i keep telling daniel that i want our whole house to feel like a secret garden, to feel alive. and i think he is 90% on board. as i was cleaning up tonight he was looking up the best plants to grow at home. ginger, avocado tree and rosemary are up next for our garden. i'm so excited.

we have strawberries and whipped cream for all our deserts lately. daniel was noticing today that the strawberries here are different than the ones in the states, they are just them, ya know? no added hormones and who knows what they put into those giant california berries you see at the store. these are small, red, and have character strawberries. i like them.

charles and henry are growing like weeds over here and are becoming closer and closer everyday. tonight while we were eating leftover spaghetti on the floor for dinner (while daniel was home-teaching), they were crawling around, giggling their little heads off. it makes me so happy seeing them together.

we are really doing great over here.

xxx

team us.

^^^henry and i doing ear infection research for little brother.^^

isnt God so kind to give us families? we take care of each other.

when hannah came.

 last week daniel's sister hannah came to visit us, for the best/shortest 3 days of our lives. we had such a good time with her. she made us all so happy.

she played with the boys, ran with the boys, wrestled with the boys, cooked with us, adventured to the giant green house with us and ate the best pizza i have ever eaten in brazil with us. it was a huge success. henry insisted she sleep in his bed and cuddled up next to her and we didnt hear a peep from him for 9 hours! folks, that never happens.

hannah come back. henry woke up 3 times last night. 

xxx

the time we went to a world cup game//salvador, brasil

tuesday we headed to the airport around 9am and caught a flight to salvador, about a 2 hour plane ride. daniel got tickets to the usa x belgium world cup game. (!!!)

we thought about getting babysitters and just daniel and i go, or just take charles, buuuut i am pretty terrible at leaving my kids. so we thought, i mean how crazy could a little soccer game be, right? we will just take them both! ha! it's settled.

the plane ride there was great. henry slept the whole time and charles and i played with the free snacks and then took a little nap ourselves. daniel was somewhere in the front. he switched with a lady behind us so she could sit with her daughter...thanks honey!

salvador, brasil.

the babies really were troopers. they slept on the go, did awesome on both plane rides and soaked in the game (litereally, it was sooo humid.) like they were old time pros.

the energy there was unreal. that was the best part, the moment we landed we could feel the game buzz, it was nuts.

the stadium was surrounded by homes like the ones below. every balcony had a brazilian flag. werk.

the boys were on our laps, it was tight! and lucky for us we, the people on the end of the row wanted to exit for more drinks about, oh, every 2 minutes. no big deal. then trying to nurse, make bottles, juggle the big camera, eat the popsickle before it melted, protect the kids eyes from who knows what that crazy people were doing around us was a bit crazy. and good thing for us neither team scored the entire game, so we went into overtime! yes. by that point henry was yelling, i'n want curious george! i'n want curious george! and charles just wanted to nurse without the red, white and blue man in front of us screaming, i believe that we will win! i believe that we will win! (which, apparently he didn't believe hard enough).

so we headed out while daddy stayed for overtime. but were we went was where all the drunkies were. so after about the 15th man coming up to me while i was holding two crying babies and asking for my picture- i was really glad for the game to be over. we were close usa, so close.

but what an adventure! we took the 11pm flight back home and got em casa about 2 am.

memories made, fifa plastic water cups in the cupboard, pictures taken, and a check off the bucket list.

amen.

xxx