Home!

There are a couple of college girls who have been asking to see photos and videos of the homecoming yesterday.

The day started with the first words out of Anderson's mouth at 5:30 in the morning. He said, "I'm SOOOOOO excited!!!" I goofed with him and asked why. He said, "Same reason as Santa Claus but mom version!" That's how we all felt.

You would not have believed your brothers. They all wanted to dress up to welcome mom and Carys.

Garrett and Anderson had shirts and ties on. Garrett is definitely my son. He needed help buttoning up his dress shirt and making a tie knot. I laughed while I helped him and then told him it was my fault. He can probably count on one hand the times he's seen me in a tie over the last 10 years.

They all dressed up nice. Gi was in his gaúcho clothes. People were all smiling at him and talking to him because he looked pretty cute.

The girls were met with roses and big hugs.

Not long after we got home six girls came to see Carys. They rang the apartment bell and when Carys went down to the street they all screamed, LOUDLY, and for a long time. They talked forever on the street and then everyone came in. They made cookies, giggled, watched a movie, giggled, painted fingernails, giggled, ate supper and giggled.

So, B and Ans, here are your videos and pictures.

The arrival video:


Anderson also cried in the car on the way home. He had to be touching mom then he just put his head down and cried. I love that he doesn't hold anything in. Tears of joy my friends, tears of joy.

Some present time after we got home video:


I can't wait until his birthday next week. More of the same.

Everyone finally together:

The Young Models:

The loud, funny girls:

ONE MORE DAY!!!!

Mom,

i miss you SOOOOO much!!! i can't believe it's only one more day.

i also have pictures.....NACHOOOOOOOOO beard.

also i have some other pictures but if i show you i would spill the beans so you have to wait till tomorrow.

well today i found out that my black chuteiras fit me and i decided to paint the nike sign and everything that was white green to make it look like the chuteira that i wanted. it's already dry but if you brought me home the cool shoes that i wanted i'll just go ahead and wash the green off my shoes but seriously it looks awesome.

can't believe gremio won against inter.

and guess what? when i went to school today i saw all my friends in gremio shirts. not lucas. cause the principal of the school let people where gremio shirts just like he let inter fans where inter shirts when we won the libertadores. and i've got to admit that i'm kind of jealous. why would i say that?

love you and miss you,

anderson

seriously, i miss you SOOO much!!!!

Me: 

I apologize for the photo above. I shaved the beard today and the boys wanted me to do it in stages. First it was Wolverine pork chop sideburns with a goatee. Then just the goatee. Then a fu manchu mustache. Then a regular mustache with a soul patch then just a soul patch. 

I grossed myself out with each stage. Since the 3 week beard was Anderson's idea I allowed him to decided how it would go. He laughed and giggled each time I came out of the bathroom. 

For some reason this picture reminded him of Nacho Libre. 

He picked it out for the blog and asked me to post it. I said, "Are you sure? That picture is grossing me out!" He looked at me and said, "Are you kidding? It's AWESOME!!! You should've kept it for mom to see!" 

He was totally serious. 

Again, I apologize that our son made me put it on here but since it's been his blog for 3 weeks and he put whatever he wanted on here I felt I needed to continue, even at the expense of embarrassing myself,  with his wishes. 

Can't believe you get home tomorrow! We can't wait!! It's been fun watching the boys get ready for your and Carys' arrival tomorrow. They are excited!!!

LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU!!!

TWO!!

Mom,

Today dad cleaned up the house [a little bit] and me and giovanni played a lot.

We watched tintin again. Not as funny as last time but it was awesome.

And you know those soccer shoes that i wanted that were supposed to be black and light green? Well it's SUPER dark green and light green but still i want it. You know how garrett got it too? i tried to warn him that it was light green and dark green but he didn't believe me. Sheesh. Garrett's too cool for us now.

I can't believe you are going to be here in two days!

Love you and miss you,

Anderson

Gi's blog:

And we went to the grocery store today. 

And we went to Applebees Happy Father's Day. 

Love you mom. We are going to give you ------- (he actually said it but I can't share it here.....sorry but we can't ruin the surprise) when you come back. bye mom!

I love mommy and daddy. 

Sunday-3 days and counting

Mom,

Dad ran his 10K. He did really good in it.

It's his birthday and we gave him a coupon book. It was filled with coupons.

And then we went at Applebees.

Right after that we went to rent a movie. We rented Tin Tin.

We miss you and can't wait to see you!!! Only 3 more days.

Love you and miss you,

Anderson


Me:

I've really had a good birthday.

The race was cold and wet (12 celsius). It rained the entire race but not bad. It ended up being perfect weather. I must confess that I was missing my running mate. 

Here I am with my new shirt and medal.

I look real happy don't I?

I don't want to brag but I also scored this awesome Sogipa towel.

Jealous? You should be. Only 350 people in all of Brasil have one. Yes, I am special and yes I still look real happy don't I?

Came home and the kids gave me a coupon book. 

Here's what the coupons were (spelled just as it was written):
One free car wash.
10 free wrestling rouds. Garrett:Nacho. Anderson: HHH. Giovanni:Tormentor
One head/foot massage (with a picture of a head, a foot and a back).
One free coupon for anything that u want!
1000 free coupons to play how much games u want to play on xbox or PS3.
And my favorite:
One free coupon for a lesson to be cool and not a goober like u. 

Anderson was watching Pica Pau on a Brasilian station but it was in English. He was freaking out.

Gi then came over and started making Pica Pau's noise. We had to film it. It reminded me of another little Pica Pau. 


Don't you love the, "I love Disney World" comment at the end? I told you he is talking about going there almost every day. Have no idea how that got started but he is locked in.

After I came home the birthday calls started coming in. 

Bronwyn and then Ansley called and sang happy birthday.

Melissa and Gary called while I was talking to B and they left a message.

Mom and Dad called, with some help this time, and did their traditional Blume birthday thing.

Having our U.S. phone number is really a blessing isn't it? 

André and Fabi also called to wish me a happy birthday. Very cool.

In the middle of all the calls I heard the dryer making some horrible noises. Yes again. Sorry. But this time it was scary awful. So I decided to do minor surgery for the 10th time in the last 6 months.

This is what I found inside.

Final tally? 2 socks, 5 wash cloths, 2 pairs of underwear, 28, yes 28,  dryer sheets and 2 of our mesh bags? What? How did those two bags even get into the dryer without clothes?

I'm pretty sure most of the stuff is ruined but I bagged it up to see if you might know a secret to get the black tar out of them.

Anyway. I think it's time to suck it up and buy a new dryer. The gap in the seal is, obviously, only getting worse.

We've had a good 10 year run. Can you say payments in 10 vezes? Thankful we can do that.

We loved everything we got at Applebees (as noted by the boys thanking me about 10 times each for taking them there).

You won't believe what Quigs did while we were there.

During the Tin Tin movie Gi watched the pirates fighting and, of course, had to become a pirate himself.

Garrett and I are going to watch, if we can stay up, Moneyball tonight. 

Gi's prayer at bedtime:

"Dear God, Thank You for mom and Carys being home safe and thank You for being nice to people."

I liked how he thanked God for your, already, safe arrival in 3 days. I also think he nailed God's character didn't he? Pretty insightful for a 3 year old. 

Ready for you to get home. Just being honest. 

Sogipa Saturday

Mom,

This morning the boys wrestled in the bed with dad and garrett kicked me in the head. [accidently]

For lunch we ate at paulinho's. Today he made sagu JUST for me! it was the best sagu i've ever had in my whole entire life.

Today i ran in a race and i got in second place. I got a silver medal. [literally]

After that i decided to go to parker's house. There was a brasilian there called elias. i had recognized him from dohm's. he speaks really good english. we are good friends now.

giovanni ran too. he was awesome!! even better than me.

love you and miss you,

anderson

Me:

I know you really wanted to be here today for the stuff at Sogipa. Wished you were here too.

We ran into Cam and the boys in the gym. Anderson and Parker ran in the same race and Blake ran later. They all had fun and did great. 

Gi was scared at the big crowd at first but agreed to run the race with me helping him after he saw other dads running with their kids. He could not stop looking at his medal after the race. I was asked, by Arianne, to put Anderson's medal on him. He liked that. 

Anderson filmed Gi's race. He did a pretty good job. 

Some shots from the day:

Here is a short video of some of the stuff that happened today.

After the race Anderson said, "I tried hard to pass that girl Dad but she just shut the door on me. She shut the door on me."

Gi continues to spend half the day in Cars 2 world and the other half as Batman. He wore his cape to the race and on the way home. This is what he did for 10 minutes on the way home.


He really is Batman!

It's fun hanging out with THE Batman.

My favorite shot from the day even though I got it too late.

Quigs WAS Batman when the Sogipa guy drove by on his little tractor. He waved at Gi who put his hands on his hips and stared the guy down. I know we are supposed to be raising our kids to have good manners but sheesh come on. Batman doesn't smile at bad guys.

Friday

Mom,

Today i found my 25 reais that i thought i lost.

After school lucas came over. We played a lot.

We went to thi thi's party. It was awesome! I scored a goal. Actually 3. And i did a assist.

Lucas's mom [Alexia] took me home.

Today was fun!

[And by the way, i know what i want you to bring back. you know how i'm going to start soccer at sogipa? well, i need cleats to play on that kind of soccer field and i already know what kind of shoe i want. it's nike. black with a light green nike symbol.]

Love, Anderson.

Me:

Gi came home from school dressed up as a soldier. 

Not sure why today was soldier day but he was super excited to be one. 

Within 5 minutes of Lucas being here I found them running around like this:

Giovanni's underwear on everyone's head. I think it's funny Lucas got stuck with the pair that got washed with red clothes. He didn't seem to mind. 

5 minutes later they were all running around in just their underwear. Like I said, it's a frat house here right now. 

Giovanni made sure Lucas felt at home. 

Quigs was in the Cars 2 zone for half the day. The other half?  He became Batman. I mean he literally became Batman. He wore the cape in the house. He wore it to the party Anderson and Lucas went to and he wore it when we went to pick up Garrett from soccer practice. He wore it until he climbed into bed.

He made me take a video of Batman. Here it is:



You can hear Garrett in the background talking to Pops thanking him for his new chuteiras. He is very excited and can't wait for you guys to get home so he can try them out. Thanks Pops and Grandmommy for the early birthday present!!

By the way, Garrett scored 2 goals in practice today as a zagueiro. Pretty cool. Next stop.....Inter!

Dia 23

Mom,

Today i went to school and got a convite to Henrique's party. It's at planet ball. Too many parties there!! Tomorrow me and Lucas are going to Thi Thi's party. Guess where it's at? planet ball!
and 20 days ago I went to Yuri's party which was also at planet ball. and a couple of months ago this year I went to lucas schilling's birthday party and guess where it was? planet ball!!

After school i went to soccer and i scored a goal in the training, not the game.

Me and Giovanni played work dress up again but this time it was summer version.

and i tried the uruguayan hot dogs. i thought they were going to be bad at first but they were awesome.

love you and miss you,

anderson


Gi's Blog:

I went to Jojipa and I saw Luigi at the praçinha and I played play doh at school. (Then he said, "What's a Luigi?" He had heard Anderson say that name earlier.)

Me:

Yesterday I took the boys to the pista. It was 93 degrees. The forecast says a high of 58 and rain for both Saturday and Sunday. You know what the topic next week will be again......"Mudança de temperatura." Everyone will have the flu just as you are getting home. I feel sorry for you and Carys because you guys are going to have "thermic shock." We'll have some Halls ready for you.

Anderson is enthralled by all the vereador stickers, banners, outdoors, etc. He thinks they are all running against each other and he keeps asking me who I would vote for. 

Today we saw the best advertising yet. It was this giant guy at a stop light. 

He was nice. He waved at Gi, posed for the picture and then gave us a thumbs up. 

One game the boys played today was Avengers. They had to play in Avengers underwear and that's all. Since Anderson is the only one who has Avengers underwear he shared with Gi. 

The boys are going to sleep about 7:45 every night. They are both out in just a couple of minutes. . 

One of our nightly traditions has been to read this book. 

It's the only book they want read. 

Anderson wanted me to take video for you of his practice today. Here is his after practice penalty kick. 

And here is Gi in the, once again, Cars 2 zone during Anderson's practice.

Wednesday

Dear Mom,

Today i went to Sogipa and played with Giovanni. We had a cookie picnic. It was very fun.

I played xbox again and as usual won all the tennis games i played.

At Sogipa i saw lucas and he asked me if i wanted to do an aula experimental.

Freitas is going to have a man night with us.

love you and miss you,

Anderson

Me: 

Spent the morning at the ferragem with Paulo Renato and Freitas. Got to see Auri and Mau Mau before they went to the airport. 

They are all excited to talk about the CUFA house after you get home. 

When I picked up Gi from school the first thing he said was, "So how was your day at the ferragem?" I had to look away for a second, before I answered, so he wouldn't see me laugh because he was very serious. 

Garrett got home from school and Quigs asked him, "So how was your day at school?"

We prayed for Garrett before school to do good on his test. Gi wanted to pray. We got in a circle, Gi told us to hold hands and then he prayed for Garrett's test. Very cool. 

I made some Ramilo sandwiches for lunch and, again, the little guys had chicken nuggets for supper. They might turn into chicken nuggets before next Wednesday because that's all they want for supper. I think they will all be happy when the best cook we know comes home. I know I will be happy!

This is the only photo I took today. Thought you would like it. 

I just now saw Anderson's face. Pretty typical of our family.  I love our kids!

Love and miss You!!!!

Tuesday

Mom,

Today, well, this morning, i made a paper world grand prix race track for Vanto.

And at night.......... Me and Dad played x box. i played like 50 games of tennis and won all of them. Dad played baseball and whenever he made a H.R. [Home run] he would take off his shorts and his shirt and wave his shirt in the air.

Vera made us lunch as usual it was really good. 

And i went to soccer and played fine. 

Love you and miss you,

Anderson

Me:

Gi has been in the Cars 2 zone over the last couple of days. 

Yesterday he lined up his cars in race formation with the rest of the guys watching the race. 

He wasn't happy until Daryl Cartrip was set up high on the couch to give the play by play of the race. 



Vera found a couple of Bronwyn's friends that she left behind in Carys' room.

I signed the kids up for the Sogipa race on Saturday and me for the 10k on Sunday. Garrett responded to that with, "You are going to run a 10k on your birthday?" Like that was the dumbest thing he's ever heard to do on your birthday. I thought that was funny. 

Garrett said he did good on his test yesterday. He's got one today and one tomorrow. He's been studying hard. 

I bought a Coke Zero yesterday, took it home and put it in the fridge. I told Garrett he could have the rest. He got it out and then came and asked me what this means. 

I had no idea. We both thought it was weird. 

This is how hot it's been at night in the apartment. 

Everyone is using fans. Weird, weird winter. 

As far as the stripping down with the X-Box.....it's a man house. What can I say? It's like a fraternity house around here right now. We are doing all kinds of crazy things.