Jingle Bells

Christmas definitely sneaked up on us this year. Last year I was so ready for it, we had all our presents bought and wrapped one month before. This year however... I'm ashamed to say that everything was last minute. My excuse is that we were really busy at the end of the year. I went to Arizona for my best friend's mission farewell in October, In November we went camping and on a cruise, and then SUDDENLY it was December already. Last minute shopping or not, we had a wonderful Christmas.

We got to go to Utah again this year. Eddie could only get 2 days off from work so we were only there for 4 days. We drove this time and I wish we hadn't.

We got there on the morning of Dec. 23, and that day was already busy. My mom had scheduled family pictures at the studio and so the girls spent the afternoon doing hair and make-up and Eddie and dad went to the gym. Unfortunately I don't have the picture on my computer, but I'll post it soon.

On Christmas Eve we went caroling, we sang Silent Night in Portuguese to 7 families in my parents ward. We somehow managed to sound pretty good. Steph, Catherine, and Priscila (my cousin) sang soprano, mom and I - alto, and dad and Eddie - bass. It was pretty neat.

This year we had deep fried turkey, yuuuuum! (By the way... as I'm writing I'm realizing how many missed opportunities I had of taking great pictures, I don't have a picture of the turkey!) My dad started late and so we didn't eat until 11:30 pm, hahah. Mom and dad did a little spiritual devotional before dinner, then we ate.

Steph, Catherine, and Priscila waiting for the devotional to start.

We were starving! No one wanted to take picture at this point. Can you see the turkey??

Secret Santa was a blast! Of course we had to play charades to guess who had who. I got some long-sleeve shirts from Catherine, Mom got a Slow-Cooker recipe book from me, Priscila got a perfume from Eddie, Steph got pj pants from dad, and I don't remember the rest.

Christmas day is always the best. Catherine always wakes us up bright and early to go open all the presents. This year our budget was smaller than last, but for some reason this Christmas seemed a lot richer. We got amazing presents but that's not what did it for me, the spirit of Christmas really touched our family this year.

Old Navy coat I got from Eddie

Crock-Pot mom got from dad

Steph got Eddie's old guitar from us, but she was ecstatic... she's starting to learn how to play.

I got Eddie a guitar stand

Catherine opening up a gift

A new straightener from mom, she literally screamed

Mom got a journal from Steph

Keemie got a new bed, and it was hilarious because the second she saw it she jumped in. She wouldn't even let Laban get anywhere close to it.

Dad got the deep fryer from mom

Pri got watch from mom

Dad gave mom a stylish alarm clock/CD player

Dad got from mom a new cuia... brazilian herbal tea drinking thing from the south (where dad is from)

Catherine has a porcelain doll collection and every year she gets a new one from dad

Those were not all the the presents. In my family we have the custom of each person giving a present to every other person in the family, so we each get around 5 gifts.... pretty fun! But I wasn't about to put every picture on here :)

After presents comes Christmas breakfast!!!!

Mom and dad making french toast

We played lots of games on Christmas day and just hung out in our PJ's at home. It was great as it always is. We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!!!

1 Year Anniversary!!!

I can't believe a whole year has gone by. Time really does fly when you're having fun huh? The best way I can try to describe this last year is...ADVENTUROUS. We went on so many trips, met so many people, and started our new life from scratch.

We have met wonderful people here in Merced, and even though we are excited to buy a house we will be sad to leave the people we love so much here. We made amazing friends whom we hope to keep forever; we will always hold the memories we created here dear to us.

We also traveled a lot this year. I love going places I've never been to before. We spend our honeymoon in Hawaii, then we went to San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Hollywood, Malibu, Recife & Porto de Galinhas (Brazil), Utah, Yosemite Nat'l Park, Napa Valley, and now Disneyland...

That's right, we celebrated our first year anniversary at Disneyland. It was great! I had been to Disney World in Florida, but Eddie hadn't been to any and I think he loved it. Everyone gets to be a kid there right? We even bought an autograph book to get some of the Disney characters' autographs! We spent the whole day between Disneyland and California Adventure. We had a great time. I hope you all enjoy the pictures!!

Camping in Yosemite National Park

Hello friends and family!

It has been a little while since the last time I posted, but I only have one thing to write about really...so it's not that bad.

Two weekends ago, Eddie and I went camping in Yosemite. We went with our best friends here in Merced, a couple from our ward...Corrin and Ryan. Corrin is in the Young Women's presidency with me and Ryan works with the Young Men and is our chiropractor.

We went to Yosemite on Friday (May 7th) and came back on Sunday. We got there pretty late Friday night because we couldn't leave until both Eddie and Ryan were off work and we were lost for about 45 minutes trying to find our campground. Friday night after setting up our tents and making a fire in the dark we just hung out. We had smores and talked around the campfire. I was afraid Eddie and I were going to be cold because up in Yosemite at night during this time of the year is normally under 30 degrees. I brought 7 blankets plus our air mattress so we wouldn't have to sleep straight on the ground, we were nice and warm. I felt bad for Corryan (is how we abbreviate their name, heheh) because their air mattress deflated completely throughout the night, and Corrin was freezing! Overall it was a good night...no bears! ;)

Saturday morning we started our day with a delicious breakfast. We brought our little camp stove which was nice and very convenient. Corrin made delicious pancakes, Eddie made the bacon, I made the eggs, and Ryan was in charge of the fire and hot chocolates! We were nice and full and ready to start exploring the park.

(The tent in the background are Mr. and Mrs. Flintstone...we will never forget them! Let's just say that the camps were extremely close to each other, the walls on a tent are very thin, and they were not shy AT ALL!!!!!)

Anyway...

First the boys went fishing...or tried to at least. They didn't catch anything...well, kind of...Eddie caught a nice stick, hahah.

Then we drove around the park just to admire the BEAUTIFUL views and all of the creations of Heavenly Father...it was an awesome trip. Yosemite is surrounded by beautiful mountains, tons of waterfalls, lots of trees, lakes, rivers, etc... I was in charge of pictures so here you go...

Beautiful huh? My favorite part of the whole trip was visiting Bridalveil Falls, we didn't feel like doing a super long hike, some of us don't like hiking very much so we did this one, and it was nice and paved and easy and GORGEOUS! When we were going up we noticed that everyone was coming back soaked! It didn't make sense though because it was cold outside, there was no way in heaven that these people were playing in the water. Well, not too long after we understood. At the base of the waterfall it was like it was pouring rain. Bridalveil Falls is tall, big, and is a straight fall (not through rocks) and consequently just by standing close to it you get soaked. It was so much fun!! The pictures are not very good because the camera got a little bit wet, but it's the best I could do under the circumstances :) ...

Very cool isn't it? Well, we went back to camp in the afternoon and had Nathan's hot dogs (the best) for appetizers, then cooked a delicious foil dinner (Corrin's idea), and later we had some peach cobbler. Three-course dinner, not bad for camping eh? We played some games around the fire and talked for a while after dinner and then went to bed.

It was a great trip and I recommend it to anyone who ever comes to visit this area of California. You are welcome to stay with us if we're still living here... :) I hope you liked the pictures!