California here we come!

Today was all about cleaning and packing. It took a while to get things done, but everything is finally ready for our trip tomorrow. Giovanna went to bed with a big smile on her face! It will be her first time in an airplane and at the beach. Let's hope for beautiful and warm days!

I packed some snacks and activity books to entertain her in our two hours flight. We will get in O.C early in the morning, so we are planning to go straight to San Diego since our hotel check-in wont be until 3:00pm.

I'm thrilled with this trip! Four days to enjoy ourselves and the golden coast! Yupppiiiii!

Getting out of Utah and all the responsibilities we have here means a lot at this moment. Life hasn't been exactly easy and we deserve a little break.

Family Vacation

I can't believe in three more days we will be in CALIFORNIA! I've been looking forward to this family trip. We deserve it and I'm really excited!

San Diego, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Newport, Disneyland, Beach, Sun!!!

Family reunion, Disneyland 2011

Giovanna Mendes Bellini AKA Giovi

When I found out I was pregnant I had an outburst of mixing feelings. The news came in a time when Ale and I  were still adjusting to our new life as a newly-married couple in a foreign land far from home and family.

The months following our baby birth weren't easy either. So many things happened at the same time- bad news, trials, and frustrations. But Heavenly Father never failed us. We felt His love and care in all times.

We named our baby girl Giovanna which means God is gracious or Gift of God. And she truly is! Sometimes it takes time to understand why some things happen. I know Giovanna came to bless our marriage and to unit Ale and I even more.

Giovanna is a sweet girl. She loves her family, and misses her grandma so much! She misses her aunt, uncle, and cousins too. She is a talker. She talks on the phone, to her toys, and to people everywhere. She is also really emotional, you can easily hurt her feelings. She is super girly- loves pink, dresses, princesses, make up, polish nails, and jewels. She has an excellent memory, and she is very active.

Silly things she says:

"Hi, chique"
"Just pouquinho, mamae"
"Naninha still hungry. She quer paozinho, carninha e tomate"
"Vovo aviao. Vovo longe"

Cheio e Vazio

 Atividades Cheio e Vazio para imprimir

Flowers and Horses

Don't you love Spring? Blue sky, sunny and rainy days, beautiful flowers, green grass and trees, pleasant weather. 

On days like this I make sure our family spend time outside as much as we can. Each one of us have our favorite activity- Giovanna likes picnics, Ale likes riding his motorcycle, and I like to take them to festivals.

Yesterday I was walking outside and I felt an amazing fragrance of honey coming from this tree. I wish you could smell it! Nature is perfect indeed!

Every time we are in South Jordan watching the Haymore girls, Giovanna runs to pet their horses.

And feed them too.

I love flowers and horses!

Missionary Egg Hunt

Yesterday we had the missionaries over for dinner and Family Home Evening. Since last Sunday was Easter, we decided to do an Easter activity with them. We weren't sure if the missionaries could go on an Easter egg hunt so I planned my own version of the Resurrection Eggs.

I filled a bunch of Easter eggs with chocolates. I also put inside them objects that represented the atonement of Jesus Christ and His glorious resurrection. Then I placed them all in a basket. I had the missionaries get as much eggs as they could in a certain amount of time and then open each one of them. Every time they found an object they should explain what that object represented. If the answer was right they would get more chocolates, if  the answer was wrong I would take one chocolate away. It was really fun!

Dear Elder Kennedy and Elder Dos Santos,

Thank you for the good time and for your testimony! 

Would you like to meet with the missionaries?
Click HERE

Easter 2014

How was your Easter? I hope you had a special time with your loved ones! 

Nostra Famiglia had fun taking Giovanna to the egg hunt in our community, dyeing Easter eggs and having some friends over for dinner. 

We also had a special Family Home Evening about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. I got an awesome idea for this activity HERE.

This Easter we also tried a new Peruvian restaurant (K Rico) for the first time. It was really good and different. Growing up our family always had cod fish on Easter day. It was our tradition. Since I am far from home I have to come up with new ones.

We also had Mindy and Tales over to dye eggs with Giovanna. It was her first time dyeing Easter eggs. How fun!

Giovanna gets a horse

This week started with a lot to do, organize, and clean. Yesterday Giovanna helped me do our Ovos de Pascoa. Easter is one of our favorite time of the year!

Today I organized our living room shelf where I keep all our games and keepsakes. I'm also planning to organize all the closets and hopefully get rid of some things by the end of this week, so we can enjoy Easter and have some friends over in a clean house.

Did I tell you Giovanna is into horses lately? Although she loves them, she is still a little afraid of them. A couple of weeks ago a friend saddled a horse for her but she didn't ride it at all. We will try it again soon.

After that, everyday now she says she wants a horse (a real one). I don't judge her,  I would love to have one too! Horses are my favorite animal. Anyways, after days asking, asking, and asking, I finally bought her one. And she loves it!

Weekend

Friday night was a great night! I got to see a dear friend from Brazil. We talked, laughed, and had a delicious food at the Gourmandise Bakery & Cafe. 

Have you tried their grilled cheese sandwich? The best one I've had so far. I got back home a little before 1am. It's been awhile since I had that much fun on a girls night out! Thank you Suzana and Rebecca! I had a blast!

Yesterday we spent a couple of hours in the park with our little one. I'm so glad the weather is getting warmer and nicer. I love being outdoors! I also took the time to exercise and meditate. 

Later on we had a baptism of a wonderful family - a father, a mother and their 2 beautiful daughters. It was really special and I'm sure heavens are celebrating for their decision to get baptized and confirmed members of The Church o Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I'm incredibly blessed for also being a member of the church and having the knowledge I have, for having a dear Heavenly Father who loves me and is always ready to wipe away all my tears! He sees me and answers my prayers.

I know sometimes we may have doubts in our hearts. Today I thought about myself, about being far from my family, from my motherland. I thought about the decisions I have made, decisions I still have to make, the trials and difficulties I've been through, and all the blessings I have received from my Heavenly Father's hands. I cried. And I asked Him in my heart if I am heading to the right direction. He talked to me once more through Helaman, chapter 12.

“And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men: yea, we can see that the Lord in His great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in Him”.

Our Heavenly Father is ready to give us anything we need for our well being here on earth, and on His infinite goodness He will bless us if we only be constant, trust in Him and in His promises.

I am awesome

Work check

workout check

dinner check

shower check

bed check

Good night!

                      

Tomorrow is Friday. Hooray! I hope you enjoy this video. And don't forget: You are awesome!

Happy Birthday Mom!

My wonderful mother turned 62 yesterday.

I'm so proud of being daughter of a strong, faithful, beautiful woman like her!

Heavenly Father knows how I wished to be there to look into her eyes and say how much I love her. But He also knows the right time to make things happen.

Happy Birthday mom!

I love you!

Misconceptions about Mormonism

Sometimes it is hard to treat people with kindness when they are disrespectful and mean to us and our believes. It is even harder to love them when these same people sometimes cause us suffering and pain. But that's exactly what Jesus Christ taught us through His perfect example, treating everyone with kindness, patience and pure love, and we should follow His example in all things.

I met the missionaries and got baptized about sixteen years ago. I was fourteen. Before that I had never heard about the church, Mormons, or Joseph Smith. One day we opened our doors to the missionaries and learned about the gospel. Even though the things they taught us sounded a little strange, we never were disrespectful to their believes.

If we had decided not to become members of the church, we would simply thank them and let them go. Fortunately, the truth of the gospel touched our hearts, and today I have a strong testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So for those who have no idea what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is, click Here to found out about it.

For those who already heard about the church and would like to learn more click Here.

And for those who have misunderstood our believes and don't like us for any reason, let me clarify a few things:

-We love our religion and we would like to share the happiness of the gospel with you. If you have your own religion and don't want to hear it, we will respect that and leave you alone.

 -We are Mormons and, YES, we will let our kids play with yours. If your kids are swearing or being mean to other children we will kindly say: "We don't talk like that and we don't treat people like that. Do you still want to play?"

-Joseph Smith is not our God. He is a prophet of God who restored the Gospel. We don't adore him but we deeply love and appreciate him.

-We are Christians and we believe in Jesus Christ.  

-We are not rich- at least not all of us. 

-We are friendly. Don't be scared. If any member of the church was rough on you remember there are all kind of people everywhere (including church).

-We are not boring.We just don't need to drink to be funny/fun.

-We dance and listen to music- good ones.

-We are not racist.

-We don't have multiple spouses. Sorry. 

-The Book of Mormon is not our Bible. We believe in the Bible as we believe in the Book of Mormon, which is another testament of Jesus Christ.

-We are free and have agency to choose and act for ourselves. 

-We don't do creepy things or get naked in the temple. The temple is a holy place to do holy things.

-If you hear members of the church criticizing other people, they are wrong! This is not part of the teachings of Jesus Christ or counseling of our prophet.

-If a non-active member tells you terrible things about the church don't believe it. He/she is just hurt.

-Men are not better than women. Each one has their own divine characteristics and equal importance in the kingdom of God.

-Women are not forced to get married and have twenty children. We just believe in the sacred nature of marriage and family. Some couples decide to have two children, some decide to have six. It's up to them to decide. 

-We are not better than you. 

-We are not perfect.

-We don't hate homosexual people. Many of us have homosexual friends and even family members that we love, care and respect very much. We just agree that the homosexual act is wrong. Leviticus 18:22; 20:13 - Romans 1:2, 26-27 - I Corinthians 6:9.

-We love to serve and will serve you no matter your gender, nationality, religion, or political view. We will serve you anytime. Anywhere.

**You can read this post on your own idiom. Just click on the translation link on the top of the page and choose your language. If you have any question about our faith you can contact me or chat with the missionaries HERE. To request a free copy of the Book of Mormon click HERE.

Maior e Menor

Atividades Pequeno x Grande para imprimir

 Fonte: http://aprendendoaensinar1.blogspot.com

Arts, Time, and Disney

I've always looked forward to decorate my wall with paintings, drawings and arts of my children. I'm so happy and grateful for having a healthy, active, smart daughter. I love doing any type of project and activity with her. It's my duty and joy help her develop skills, improve abilities and discover herself.

In times where TV and video games have become more attractive than books and toys, or even playing outside, I think it is important to teach them how to be creative and industrious. Giovanna loves anything involving messes, so we have a lot of fun painting, playing with bubbles, play dough, and cooking.

Today we made a countdown calendar to our trip to Disneyland. I had this idea after Giovanna kept saying she wanted to go to Disney "right now". As the days go by she places a sticker on the calendar until the big day.

With this calendar I am being able to teach her how to be patient and wait the right time to have things. Also she is having a little notion of what a calendar is.

General Conference ideas

 April is here and it is a busy month for us with birthdays, General Conference, Easter, etc.

Yesterday I had a very long day and at night I took the time to work on Giovanna's Easter basket. I usually buy Easter stuff throughout the year- Easter books, stuffed bunnies, and other things we can easily find anytime at thrift stores.

This year I'm filling her basket with the cutest singing plush bunny, a fairy book, a beach towel, coloring kit, and chocolates. We also bought a princess Ariel doll for her. I'm sure she will love it!

I'm also planning our LDS General Conference weekend. I'll be printing some General Conference activities for Giovanna.

I'll print a church statistical report for me and Ale to guess.

Watch LDS General Women's Meeting HERE to be uplifted and learn you are a precious daughter of Heavenly Father.