I'm back!

It has been almost a year! Last time I posted I was leaving Brazil and it feels like it was a long time ago! I was thinking of going back and updating month by month, but I decided that I will go through my pictures and write some stuff randomly, but let me just share a few things that we have been up to. My cute kids are as busy as they can be. From the moment they wake me up till late at night, they just don't stop!! Nichael is doing great. He goes to preschool in the afternoon and he loves it. During his free time he loves to play with his cars, trains, monster trucks, ride his bike, bug his sister and watch all of the superhero movies I'll let him. Khloe is a talker and she goes through phases of vocabulary words that she likes to use. At the moment she says "that's cool mom" and asks "why" ALL the time! She loves to play with blocks, to color, stickers, lipsticks, mom's makeup, paint her nails and to bug her brother! We have a new addition to the family...we got a dog. The kids named him Hook from "captain Hook". They wanted to name him Peter Pan, but I though that would be kinda of awkward...HAHA...so Tim suggested Hook and we all loved it! He is a black lab and a very sweet and kind dog. The kids just love him. Khloe thinks she's his little mom and she is in charge of feeding him everyday. She does a great job at it! Nichael just play rough with him and he takes it...well, it took a little adjusting, but I think they are good buddies now. I am happily done with one more semester with three more classes to go! Wahoooo! I'm taking a summer class and my last two during the fall and that's it! I can not wait until December! Tim has been up to nothing...I guess he's been helping everybody else with their stuff and working around the house and he seams to be doing ok! He likes to walk the dog in the morning. I think I posted that we had purchase a house and I can't believe that it has been almost a year. We love it here. We love our neighborhood. There's a bunch of little kids and it's quiet and friendly. I love even more during spring and summer when everybody gets to get out and play. My mom came for Khloe's bday in January. She wanted to come because she was here for Nichael's third bday and she wanted to be her for Khloe's third bday! It was a quick trip, but we had lots of fun. We celebrated Khloe's bday then we went to Sea World and Disneyland. It was great. Khloe was tall enough to go in all of the rides and it was perfect. I loved that my mom came to visit! I miss her! I'm planning our summer and we'll be doing lots of fun stuff! I'm excited to have a little break from school and I'm enjoying having lots of free time. I've been trying to concentrate on doing small but meaningful activities with the kids and focusing on them as much as I can. I think that this past year I had my attentions somewhat distracted on things that were not so much important. I'm glad I'm taking the time to reflect and refocus and it's amazing the things we realize when we take a step back and "breath". These last couple of months has been hard, but I do believe that we always learn lessons even though bad things happen. I have been trying to focus more on me, my family, and on the things that matters most and I'm so grateful for them!!! Vanessa.

Those are some of our last's year family pictures. Khloe was 2 and Nichael was 5.