Record sales

We had an exciting day today. Since the opening of our American Dessert stand downtown on May 3rd, we had our best day of sales today. We sold 50 pieces! This is really good, because in the past, we were having a good day if we sold 15. Beth, our employee who mans the stand, has taken to the streets selling. She definitely has a gifting in sales, and just loves it. Chad's goal is to be selling 1,000 pieces per day by the end of the year :) Guess who the visionary / dreamer is in our relationship??? Time will tell where this business goes!!

Fun pictures

Here are a few pictures from the other night out at the rock jetty...


Her hair is finally long enough to put in little pigtails!! Gotta love that red hair... where did that come from?!?!

What a week...

This has been one of those weeks... one where you just want to brace yourself for what is going to happen next. We are really feeling like we are in a spiritual battle. Things had been coming along so smoothly with the transition and Victor & Vânia arriving, and then all of a sudden things started happening. It just reminds us of how real the spiritual war is that we are in. The enemy is NOT happy with our growing church and the awesome new things that are happening with the new leadership that is coming in. So we are more aware than ever of how we need to be on guard and doing our prayerful part in this spiritual war. We are planning for the month of June to be a month of serious prayer and fasting especially for the leadership here. We are so excited for what God has planned for the future, and we want to make sure that no plans of the enemy stand in the way of His plans!! So we would appreciate your prayers and support, as always, during this crucial time.

As for family-life, we are doing well. Elysia has a bottom tooth coming through, so she is not always her jolly self these days. Larissa's favorite song just now is "Old McDonald", but she doesn't like when I sing along with her - she wants to sing it by herself. We're pretty sure Giselle is going to be a drum player. She loves hitting things while Chad is playing guitar, and she has amazing rhythm. Baby is quite active these days. I'm 24 weeks along and feeling great physically. We are having quite a time finding a name for our little girl. We already came up with 3 girls' names, so we're running out of ideas!

Here are some pictures from this past week.





Silliness at bedtime.
















Bedtime kisses...















And hugs.









Yup, she crawls up on the couch all by herself.
















Everyone looking out the front door (including Molly).














At the beach with Victor & Vânia and their little girl Vanessa (the one one the left).

Our corner we call home

Here are a few pictures for you to see our little apartment at Bruce & Lyndell's house...


This is our main room (living room, office & bedroom).


Here is the same room from the other side, looking in from the varanda (porch).




This is taken standing in front of the computer in the middle of the room. Straight ahead is the shower to the left and the 1/2 bath to the right. Then there are two small rooms off either wing - to the right is the playroom and to the left is the girls' bedroom.



This is the toyroom. As you can see, we had to improvise to hang our clothing.



Here is the girls' bedroom. When they're not sleeping, Larissa's mattress gets pushed in under Giselle's bed. Larissa often rolls off and sleeps on the floor with just her head up on the mattress.

So there it is... our little corner of home for the next 2 1/2 months. We obviously don't spend all of our time in this area - we have the family room, kitchen, and back area downstairs where we all hang out together a lot.

My Little Helpers

Giselle & Larissa have all of a sudden taken an interest in helping with the dishes. They do a remarkably good job in drying them all the way too. Larissa is a little more thorough... might take after her mom.

Yup, another girl...

I just had an ultrasound this morning, and they confirmed that we are having another girl!! I had 2 ultrasounds before, but she had her legs crossed both times and the doctor wasn't able to tell for sure. So now we have to start thinking seriously about a name...

Home Is Where Your Stuff Is

I have finally decided to enter the blog world! My goal is to post once a week. Our lives are a bit crazy right now, but hopefully I will be able to keep all of our family and friends informed of what's happening in our lives.

The title of this post is something that we say a lot these days. When we first moved, the girls had a hard time knowing where "home" was, because we are living at Bruce & Lyndell's house. So we explained to them that we have all of our "stuff" in our living space at Bruce & Lyndell's, so that is our home. This will be true for another 2 1/2 months yet, at which point we will be moving to Juazeiro for about 4 months. That will then be home, because that's "where our stuff will be". Then in December that will change once again (providing all goes to plan) as we move to the states.

The girls are doing very well. Elysia just turned 1 on Wednesday, and we had fun celebrating her first year. She is walking and loves to climb on anything possible. Giselle is 3 1/2 and loves to watch tv. That can even be golf or baseball - whatever is on tv, she's glued to it. The other night she was watching a basketball game with Daddy, and I told her it was time to go to bed. She looked at me and said, "But I'm watching the game, Mommy." Larissa is 2 1/2 and talking like crazy. She constantly makes us laugh with the things she comes up with. She also likes to dance (especially during praise and worship at church) and sing made-up songs. All three girls love to play together... most of the time.

Here are the 3 princesses out at the beach a couple of weeks ago. It is nearly impossible to get them all smiling together like this for the camera!!

Elysia's first birthday!

Here I am with my 3 precious little girls last night at church (Mother's Day).