Fun at the fairgrounds...

The state we live is known in Brazil for one of the largest cattle breeding, agriculture and soy and cotton plantations in our country. We live near the capital of our state, but the northern part of our state is mostly huge farms and plantations. Once a year, our city hosts a big fair where people from all over the state bring their animals, farm equipment, tractors and such for exhibition and sale. It's open to the public and we always enjoy going over there. It's a huge place and it's mostly only open in the evenings. During the day, they host cattle auctions and such, and during the evening, they have local and national shows, many different rides, foods, and handcrafted things for sale.
Hubby absolutely loves agriculture and cattle ;) He was raised in a farm and his love for farming is very obvious. His dream for the future is to settle down and farm...(smile) maybe someday! He's always very eager to go to this fair and show the prince and I all the animals and talk of all he wants in his farm someday. We sure enjoyed it too :)

Looking at the sheep...they had some adorable babies that the prince absolutely fell in love with.

The prince loved looking at the many animals. They have the hugest animals I've ever seen! It's really amazing to see. Looking at them is definitely our favorite part of the fair.

Mommy & the prince :)

And...the prince has a love for tractors since very early on.(He knows where almost every tractor in our town is..his favorite pass-time in the car is looking for tractors) There were hundreds of different tractors and farming machinery there, and he was thrilled to be able to climb up on them and see them from up close!

I love his expression in this photo. He wanted to stay for hours just looking at the tractors and talking about how big they were. I have to admit, he looked pretty small close to the gigantic machines ;)

I think he's inherited his daddy's love for farming ;) I don't know which one of them was most excited over the animals and farming equipment :) We spent our time walking around and looking at different things. We didn't do rides this year...I think we're getting too old for that. For some reason the rides don't trill me anymore...and the prince is not old enough to know what he's missing, so we just skipped that part.

Outing, picnic and pinterest

 It's hard to believe it's been over a month since I last posted! Life around here never seems to slow down! We've been extremely busy this summer. Besides all the normal housework and activities, we've had a lot going on in our lives. I hope to be able to catch up on blogging...so stay tuned and bear with me.

I'll start back in June. June is Valentine's month here in Brazil. We have an annual couple's outing to celebrate. This year we had a special place in a restaurant reserved just for us. We were able to decorate it and have some privacy from the other customers to do our own thing! It was so much fun! We had a wonderful time. We had roses, rose petals, candles, chocolates and soft, romantic music playing! It really was a fun evening for all the couples from our church. Many never go out on dates, so they look forward to this special outing every year.

The table at our outing

 And just for the record, I'm so thankful for my husband! He's all I ever dreamed in a husband and I'm just so blessed to have him in my life. We're made for each other and that's the most amazing thing in this world!

The most amazing man on earth and I :)

Okay, okay...all mushiness aside, we'll continue!

Next up was our Fourth of July celebration...

My pictures are few because my camera was definitely having issues that evening. We had a wonderful picnic with yummy foods ;) 

Of course we made patriotic t-shirts....thanks to pinterest! 

Prince and I and out patriotic t-shirts :)

Talking about pinterest;

I'm finally trying out some of the things I've pinned. Some of the things, I absolutely love.....Others are okay...and then some are just total disasters. But 'tis the way the cookie crumbles. 

I'll have to work on a post on my pinterest fails...there's quite a few of them, and some are pretty hilarious and pretty stupid.. The last fail left my poor face looking red and I won't even begin to describe to you, the burning! Stupid, stupid, stupid. Can't believe I actually fell for it. What dingbat actually believes that cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon and honey will make your face look good?!? (raises hand)

Pretty sad....and miserable.

Don't try it! (Unless you want your face burning up for hours)..

ahem

So there, you've been warned!

That's all for now, folks! I need to get an ice-pack on my burning face...(sigh)

More coming soon.....

Of birthday and randomness

I really can't believe how fast this year is going! So much has happened in just short days that I've not posted...mainly, I had a birthday! I turned 20 something....(and don't dare ask! It's kind of a "if-I-tell-you- I'm-gonna-have-to-kill-you-thing!) I tell you, life is just too short. Seems like I was 15 years old just yesterday...(but we all know it wasn't just yesterday)... sigh

I had a really awesome birthday. My family and friends really spoiled me. I have the best family and friends ;)

We celebrated a little early since my birthday was on a week day and hubby had to work, he took me out to Burger King. It's fairly new here and I had been craving a little taste of America :) It was scrumptious and the prince enjoyed sporting his Burger King crown around the mall.

My sweet mother made me my absolute favorite dessert for my birthday...

It was a.m.a.z.i.n.g! So, so good! I've gained a couple pounds because of all this good stuff ...that's never good :( I had a wonderful birthday and I don't feel older...most days :)

We took prince to get a haircut on Saturday. It was his first time at a barber shop. His daddy or I usually cut his hair, but our hair clipper isn't working since I dropped it  *ahem*   for some odd reason. He didn't think it was too fun to have a total stranger cutting his hair. He cried for a while till he guessed it really wasn't hurting anything and he was being ignored...and stopped, much to our relief ;) Of course I got pictures...lots of them...I get to embarrass him someday (grin)!!!

Our winter has officially started, but it hasn't been extremely winterish yet. It's been pretty hot all the time. Our rose bush had over one hundred rose on it yesterday. It's right in front of our porch, so we really enjoy the beauty and the fragrance of them
and....
the prince enjoys smelling them and helping mommy pick some to put on our table.

I just love the face he makes as he smells the roses. It sure makes me giggle :) It's so fun to enjoy nature with such my precious little toddler. He makes any dull day the brightest :)
And that's it for now, folks!

Project Complete!

I am so excited to finally be able to share with you the project that has kept us busy during the last few weeks! This was one of the hardest and most time consuming projects I have ever taken on, but it was so well worth all the hard work.

I have the privilege to teach the preschooler and kindergarten Sunday school class and for the longest time I've wanted to remodel the room we meet in but was always afraid to start such a huge task all by myself. This year, we had an answer to my prayers added to our church family:) Meet my new helper and friend, Diesica.

She recently married a childhood friend and since then has become my awesome friend and an amazing helper! I can't begin to describe how thankful I am for her sweet spirit. It's been so much fun working with her and getting to know her better. We've had so much fun  out shopping or working together...there always is a ton of laughter :) I am extremely grateful for her fun spirit and her willingness to help. (I'm also thankful for her hubby who so graciously "borrowed" her to us :)

We repaired and painted the furniture, desks, and chairs.

We had a HUGE project ahead of us and also some major difficulties..most of all, finances. It was amazing to see how God supplied almost everything we needed. He used many different people who so graciously gave. I am just overwhelmed at God's goodness to us!

This is kind of what the room looked like before. Bare, bare white walls...

Someone gave up the paint they had for their own house so that we could paint the room...and this is what it looks like after we finished!

Amazing, isn't it?!?! I am just thrilled with the results. It was so worth all the hard work we went through. I am also thankful for my wonderful hubby and some other men from our church who worked long hours some evenings to paint the room for us! They did such a good job!

We're beyond thrilled with the results! I am sure the kids will enjoy it. There are still many things we'd like to do, but we're taking one step at a time.
 I can't get over how cute it looks....God is so good! Can't you tell how excited I am?!?!

When life gives you lemons... suck on them :)

My son is really a strange kid.... he loves lemons. He begs for lemons and hardly makes faces while sucking on them.

Crazy kid! I get shivers just seeing him suck on it ...

{crazy kid suckin' on a lemon}

We have three lemon trees and they are all full of fruit and flowers. The wind carries the fragrance of the lemon blossoms in our house...it's pretty wonderful! It smells a.m.a.z.i.n.g. We have a bunch of lemons, so I am looking for good recipes to use. I plan on squeezing and freezing a bunch this week.

{Lemon blossom}

We're enjoying rain this week. It's rained hard since yesterday. I think it's the very end of the rainy season and start of our winter.

{Rain storm approaching...and our horse, Cheyenne grazing}

We've had a busy week working on a very big project for my Sunday school class...and I will be posting on that sometime soon, so stay tuned :)

A Dog, a Boy, and Presents

My parent's dog recently had puppies...6 of them. They're adorable and the prince has enjoyed playing with them.

My Dad decided to keep one out for us.... because our other dog is totally... retarded.  Yep, I am not in good terms with him. During the last few weeks, he has eaten my broom and totally ruined two of my favorite plants...(seriously, how does he know which ones are my favorites?) sigh...

Anyways...now we don't know for sure if we're keeping the new dog, so I'm trying not to get too attached.

Isn't he cute?!?!

He still doesn't have a name...so he's just "dog" to us. I try not to let that cute little face fool me. He's going to grow up and probably do the same thing the other creature...who I won't even say the name...does!

My parents just got back from a trip to Rome, Egypt, and Israel in celebration of their 25th anniversary. It's been so fun to hear all the stories they have to tell...and to get all the interesting gifts. Prince's favorite is a toy camel from Egypt that plays Egyptian music... ummm...I won't say it's my favorite, but it's pretty cute...that is, except for the music ;)

Mommy's favorite gift for the prince was the tallith.  Doesn't he look CUTE? I don't know why he doesn't think it's fun.....I have big plans for this tallith as decor in his room! He should be excited, right?!?!

Prince also enjoys spending time looking at pictures. He will sit for a grand amount of  60 seconds while grandpa tries to tell him about all the places he visited :) Yup, that's pretty good...from 0.2 second attention span, we're actually progressing!

So, that's what keeps the little prince busy.... he falls into bed quite tired each night from all the hard work of the day. Being a kid is hard...ya know?!?!

Long time no see!

It's hard to believe that over a month has passed since I last posted! Let's say I was taking a blogging break during this time :) Ya know...time to not feel pressured about posting! But, I am BACK! And I hope this time to stay! Life's pretty much crazy...I can just say this year has been a crazy one for us. So much going on...one thing after the other and to think the year is almost half way over! Wow, wow, wow! Time sure flies when you're having fun! All in all, life's great! Little man is growing...overnight is seems! He's getting to be quite the independent and big boy!

I will be catching up during the next few weeks.. so stay tuned!

Happy Easter!

He is not here...for he is risen!

Happy Easter from our family!