halloween!

hey there kinfolk. we wanted to give you our halloween lowdown because i am sure you want to know exactly what the neeleman clan did to celebrate. and boy did we celebrate! you know, its funny because i have always liked halloween, but it has never been my holiday, i mean, you know those people, right? they totally rock it, own it and completely kill it - yeah, that has never been me. untilll this year, and then friday night after all our celebrations ended, i thought, now this halloween we killed it folks! we threw a party at our house with all the american families around, ate spaghetti and meatballs, tons of yummy homemade salsa, desserts and of course the "witches brew" with dry ice. the boys and i decorated the house all day and listened to spooky kids music and watched curious george boo fest.

let me rewind a day and tell you about thursday. our friend invited the boys and i over to make halloween crafts, so we went and cut out an orange pumpkin jack-o'-lantern and clued a black witches hat on it. it was simple and fun and all of the sudden i was extremely homesick for the halloween buzz that feels the air this time of year back home. growing up we never spent a lot of money on costumes, probably none to be exact, but we always had a "smoking pumpkin" did trick-or-treating and enjoyed the energy and excitement that the holiday brought. and then i realized that we weren't really going to get that buzz or energy this year because we aren't home... and there were no trick or treaters and no parties and no costumes as far as i could see.

so i thought, shoot! lets throw a party! so we did and it was a huge success. all our favorite people. everyone dressed up. so many chubby babies. and then after dinner we went to our basketball court downstairs and played halloween games such as "roll the pumpking with your broom" couple relay race, balloon stomp, and apple bobbing. but of course i was too busy playing that i didn't one picture of any of that.

 

xo.

an angel and a garden.

yesterday daniel took the afternoon off work and we went for a drive. i may or may not have had a major meltdown yesterday during lunch and told daniel i was running away. it was quite the meltdown. man! so he loaded up everyone in the car and we set out to press the reset button. we drove and we drove. we talked and cried and daniel held my hand tight. charles slept and henry watched the trucks on the freeway. everything really is ok and time with daniel to talk was what i needed.

sometimes when daniel's schedule gets busy and i am left to handle momhood on my own, in a place where i still can't communicate with people, gets incredibly overwhelming. so we drove for awhile.  and then (!!) found this be-a-u-tiful garden that had a sign that said "fresh greens". so, well, we stopped.
daniel told the gardener there that we wanted some salad. we stood and watched while he walked around and picked our salad greens for us. it was incredible. as we were paying him five reais for two huge bags of green goods (i mean, really?!) daniel started to tell the man something about our dream someday to have a garden like that, and chickens and a farm and yada yada yada...

so the man said why don't you guys take a walk in my back yard. and so we did.

and it was just us. walking in these huge fields, with the sunset and berries and rivers and a whole lot of just being still. there were lots of bugs and dirt and taking it reaal slow. and now as i am writing this i am thinking, wow, that man, garden, space, nature and everything about it really was a miracle. i think he was my angel.

so i am here to say, when you think that life is getting way bigger than you are and you are just about to throw in the towel...

god sends us angels.

xx

iLove

oi oi oi!

things here are truckin along. on my last post i talked about the water drought and this past week things got a lot worse. our water gets shut off everyday for the majority of the afternoon. it has been really tough. i have talked about our little porch garden here, here, and here. i was totally in love with it. and this week, with all the heat and no water, almost everything has died and i am soooo sad. it is amazing that when we dont have running water everything else in the world seems a lot smaller. you focus on the basics, the things that really really matter. yes, we have been doing a good amount of thinking and reflecting the last little bit.

i am so thankful that i have the gospel in my life and the knowledge that god will take care of his children. he has a plan, and his ways are not always our ways, but if we trust, we can have peace and hope even in times that are hard.

otherwise, life has been good. daniel and i got to witness the sealing of a beautiful family of three in our ward. it was so beautiful. i am performing in the nutcracker here next month, the the boys and i have been going to a lot of rehearsals. and henry sometimes does my hair for ballet. bath time on the porch, date night with daniel, the boys "organizing" the pantry and a beautiful cake by victoria. 

xoxo

melting

happy middle of the week. hey. how are ya?

we are doing great over here because we are together and we have air conditioner in our bedroom. it is so hoootttt. like wow. campinas is in a major water drought and things are getting very dry. they are starting to cut water in certain neighborhoods and just this morning our water got a significant cut. we still have it, but the pressure is real low.

daniel and i have felt impressed ever since moving here and we needed to be prepared as far as food storage goes. we have started to build up little by little and now i am seeing why. we have started to pray in every prayer that we will get rain, maybe you can too? thanks :)

all the sweaty love from our computer to yours.

xxx

the one toy rule

 at our house we have a "one toy at the table rule". then henry got building blocks. we might have to do some rethinking of the rules because he thinks that all the blocks count as one toy. we had quite the masterpiece before breakfast. and then he insisted with 'happy birthday' oatmeal- and of course we did!

birthday or not, henry should be celebrated! 

 cacti on our porch.

and our tree! it's blooming the most bloomiful orange blossoms. it's wonderful.

xo