Rio de Janeiro!!

RIO!!!! This weekend we went to Rio and had an awesome time together! I am so glad we went! 

Here is the view from our hotel room! YAY! 

This is on our first day... eating breakfast at the buffet, SJ is enjoying a Pão do Queijo! 

Here is a really big bug we saw while walking up to see the Christ. 

And here it is!!! The Christ Statue! 

Here is a view from the Christ Statue! 

After the Christ Statue, we headed over to the Pão de Açucar, a mountain where you take cable cars up to the top. Here is a picture from a car passing another. 

Here is another view, except from the Pão de Açucar! 

Up on the mountain, there were little picture taking stations and it was showing the history of Rio and such and such. Above, you will see all of the lister kids in one of the old bus things. (I am the extremely tall man! )

After sight-seeing, we went back to the hotel and to the pool! These are my feet by the way.. :) 

My mom took this picture of all 4 of the children in the pool! We had lots of fun together this weekend and I would defiantly go back to Rio! 

At the hotel (and sometimes even in our backyard) there are little monkeys wandering around the trees! They are cute but never get very close to people.  

Right down below the pool, we went to the beach as well. Here you can see our happy little (or not so little) family walking down the beach! 

Here we are jumping waves! We were really close to shore that day because the waves and current were strong.

Last but not least, our wonderful kid portrait! I didn't know that Sydney was also kissing Hudson! It was a good picture though! :) 

Just Chilling!

After we visited our family in America we came back to Brazil and relaxed! Here it is summer so our Christmas break is way longer and we go back to school on the 30th. I thought I would just make sure people know I'm still alive so here are some pics of what I've been doing...or what not. 

Here is Benny after Hudson attacked his toys and buried him in them. 

New York- The rest of the days :)

This week was super fun because (duh) we were in New York City! I am so glad that I got to go with all of my family and be able to do all the fun things I did. We had lots of fun and I am so grateful that I didn't miss anything major in school! Below are the pictures of the rest of my time in New York! I hope you enjoy and I hope that I might be able to go again someday! :) 

On our 2nd day, my mom and dad went to work and my mom "socialized" (shopped) with the other wives. So that meant it was a homework day. We did go out for dinner and it was really good! 

Here I am eating while sydney thinks it a good time to take a picture. 

This is a pic of when we were walking to the hotel. All the lights were really cool! :) 

Right outside the pizza place, there was the "Late Show" sign. Of course we has to take a picture! :) 

The start of another day picture! (always gotta have one!) 

On this day we started early and headed over to the shore for a statue of liberty tour. Huddy saw this flight carrier -in the background- and wanted a picture! 

Here is a picture I got of the statue of liberty, its not the best picture and it looked better in person! I loved going on a boat and the tour guide was great. He explained most everything we saw. 

Afterwards, we went to times square and it was really cool! I loved how it looked like what you see in all the movies! :)

We got lunch at Chevy's. It was really nice to have some comfort food after meat and rice everyday (I have nothing against it though) :) 

Here is a new day, our last day. We went ice skating (as you will see below) and we got up bright and early to do so! 

Here Sydney and I are iceskating though I think I spent more time slipping than I did actually skating..(hehe) 

Here we all are getting our smiley faces photographed at the ice skating rink in Central Park! 

We went to FAO Schwartz, a HUGE toy store! If you wanted a toy, you could find it there. They even had a section where you could make your own muppet! Here I am in the animal aisle and I saw a moose hat, well, I had to try it on. :)

We stopped by a store that was beautifully decorated on the inside. As Sydney says, "It doesn't even come close to the real thing!" 

We were walking and we saw the Museum of Natural History. For those of you who don't know this, this is the museum that was used in "Night at the Museum" Huddy saw it and was all like "There's Rexy! (the dinasour)" He loved it and even got a dinosaur shirt. 

Here is another picture with Huddy and the "long neck" and he likes to call it! 

As you can see, Huddy was super psyched about our visit there! He still talks about it at dinner and when he prays, he thanks God for us ice skating and going to see the dinosaurs! :) 

New York- Day 1

Wednesday we landed in New York!!! (well actually, Newark) We got to the hotel bright and early, ate breakfast, got ready, and left for an awesome day in New York! We went to Gap, the American Girl Store, MACY'S, Starbucks, etc. Here are some pictures below, enjoy!

Here Sydney and I are getting ready for the day..it was really cold. (duh) 

This is the view from our window, you can see all the way down the street! 

We are at the American Girl Store here. It was really cool to see all the stuff in person (not just on a magazine) and Syd liked it because it was "organized"...?

As we were walking, we saw this old church. I thought it was pretty so I took a picture! (of course) 

This is the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center (not lit up, there is a pic further down) 

Huddy saw the lion at the Library here so we took a picture! He was all like "I wanna picture with da wion!" 

As you can see, here I am with the tree when it IS lit! It was really cool! 

I am so glad that we got to go to New York with our parents! It is so cool and I can't wait for tomorrow! :) 

Some New "Improvements" (and other interesting things)

This weekend Joilsen (our driver), his step dad, and his step dad's friend came to paint some rooms in our house. They painted SJ and my room, Sydney's room, and the pool house. We also had Thanksgiving (of course) and finished organizing some boxes. Here are some pics that are much more interesting than they sound up here! :) Enjoy!

This is the wonderful apple pie that I made for Thanksgiving. Surprisingly, it tastes better than it looks! :) 

While going through our stuff, we found a little elf costume and put it on Benny. I don't think he liked it but it was REALLY cute. :) 

Here you can see the pretty blue paint that we used in our room. It looks better in person. Hopefully all of you who read this could come visit sometime. :)  

Another great paint job, in the small hallway connecting our room with a "hangout" as SJ likes to call it. It is supposed to be orange but the computer faded it a bit. 

Something(s) New

This weekend is a 6 day weekend because of different holidays here in Brazil. During the weekend my dad and I made a play house for my little brother, Hudson, and it looks really cool. Here are some pictures below. 

This is a picture when we were almost finished, we just needed to add the slide and swings. 

Another picture, but from the SIDE view "Ooooo" 

Another wonderful activity that we enjoyed this weekend is putting up our Christmas tree. Our tree is originally too tall for the house so we took of the bottom, biggest section and it still scraped the ceiling! It was so much fun getting to decorate with everyone and have Huddy excited by every ornament. Below there are some more pictures. :) Enjoy!

Sarah Jane just being her crazy self. 

Me hanging up ornaments. :D

The tree as a finished product. YAY! It was tons of fun :)