UPDATE

Well, it has been a while since I posted actual writing since my last post, but we have been very busy for the past few months and have had a lot of things going on in the Barbosa lives!

Gil and I ended our co-ed soccer season in October, we did not win the season like we would have hoped to and we had a lot of players leave the team for various reasons, but we had fun. We are going to take the next season off and try to get more organized with our new activities.

Erico and Elkin both had a great season in soccer and now they have started to play in some 3v3 tournaments, which is good to develop them in quick touches and to think fast on the field. We have been blessed to have a great group of kids and parents involved on both teams. We will losing our assistant coach for the Spring season, but we will try to handle it as the games approach.

Gil and I went to see Joel Osteen with Mariela, Todd and Claudia. Joel Osteen is a Christian preacher. Even though I do not consider myself to be religious, he is a very positive speaker and what he says makes you want to change the bad habits you're used to and focus on the positive in yourself and the people around you. It was very uplifting and hopefully I will keep moving forward in a positive manner in my life.

I am officially a student with Valencia Community College! I enrolled in their Culinary Arts program. I am very excited about this. I have always loved to cook and bake since I was a little girl and I still enjoy it, so what else beater to go back to school for, RIGHT?!?!

Also, at night I am working for a company called "WEST AT HOME" and it is a way to make a little extra income. All I do is log into the company's program and answer calls from my house! It is not a lot of money because I only work about 5-7 hours a week, but any extra money helps and especially from the comfort of my home!

Well, I hope that everyone had a MERRY CHRISTMAS and will have a HAPPY NEW YEAR. I hope that the new year will bring happiness, love, peace and most of all love to everyone! This year seems to have been hard on a quite a few people I know and hopefully the new year will bring new beginnings!

With much love and respect to all of my family and friends, Happy New Year!

Jodie

U-6 Team Boca

Elkin and some of his team mates entered in their first 3v3 tournament on Dec 1 & 2. We had a great time and the kids played very good, especially since most of them are 5 and one just turned 4!

We look forward to the upcoming tournaments.

I hope you enjoy the video I put together (just give a few minutes for it to load)

U-8 Team Boca

Erico and some his team mates registered for their first 3v3 soccer tournament on Dec. 1 & 2 in Space Coast. We had a great experience and the kids got better with every game that they played.

Please enjoy the video clip I put together. (give it a few minutes to load)

LOVE

I was flipping through some old pictures ,when I should in fact be folding clothes, but I ran across a picture that reminded me of when I first met Gil and why I fell in "LOVE"!

This picture was taken about 6 months before Gil asked me on our first date!


HOT! HOT!! HOT!!!

Happy Birthday Mom aka Grandma!

Since you will travelling to Miami today, the boys wanted to send you this video they did this morning before school. We love you very much and you have always been a great mom!

Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELKS!!!

5 years ago today we were blessed with our second baby boy! From the day he was born you could tell that he wanted to do so much and had so much energy. He had his little eyes open as soon as he was born looking at the world not afraid of the new things and people he saw.

Happy Birthday to my Elkin, today is your day and we wish you so much happiness, joy, adventure, and most of all love.

October 11, 2002


October 11, 2007

Barbosa Family Soccer

As most of you know, the Barbosa Family is VERY active in soccer, from the parents to the kids. So, since we do not have furniture in our formal living room, we decided that we will practice and play soccer there. Also, since Esai tries to participate, Gil showed him how to slide tackle and that adds more fun to the game. ...

The people without socks have "cleats" because you can't slide as well as the people without socks.
Enjoy the small video I put together.

New toy

Last weekend Gil helped my brother Joey clear out his shop, so my brother gave something to Gil for the boys. My brother, Joey, promised Erico this thing about a year ago, and it is something that their cousin Cameron used to use. So for them, it is one of the best presents ever!

Here are some pictures and video.....

Kids teaching the parents...

Well, for the past month or so Gil and I have discussed recycling. We have been wanted to start recylcing, but we have put it on the back burner wth many otherthings. So this past Saturday Erico asked me why people recycle and I explained to him that recycling saves natural resources, energy and our environment.

So I made a promise to him that we would start recycling next week. So I had to do some research on what can be recyled and what can not be recycled, and what goes into what color bin, etc., etc.

I ordered new bins and made a list of what we can recylce and put it on the side of the refrigerator.

In or house, when you say "I promise" you have to stick to your word. We try to teach the boys that your word is very trong and you have to do it, so I promised them and we will start this coming week.

Thanks to Erico and Elkin, the Barbosa house will start recycling.....

Happy Birthday Roberto and Todd!!

The Barbosa Family wants to wish Roberto and Todd a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY today and many, many more!

Enjoy your songs....


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Share Photos - Free Video Hosting


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Share Photos - Free Video Hosting

Happy Birthday Gil!

The boys and I want to wish Gil a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We are thankful to have you in our lives and wish you MANY more birthdays to come.

We love you, you ROCK!!!

Love,
Jodie, Erico, Elkin and Esai

First Day of School!

The boys had their first day of school last Monday. Erico started 2nd grade and Elkin started Pre-K. They were both very excited to be returning to school.

Erico is lucky because his 1st grade teacher moved up to 2nd grade and most of the students returned to the same class. I think that it is a great idea becuase the kids and teacher don't have to spend the first week trying to get to know each other, they can jump right into learning full speed.

For Elkin, he is at a dfferent school than Erico because Erico's school does not offer VPK. But nonetheless, Elkin is excited to go to school and meet new friends. Next year they will both be in the same school!

Oh yeah, the splint on Elkin's finger, well, he has a small fracture on his pinky finger. Gil, Erico and Elkin were playing keep away with a football and when Elkin went to get the ball from the floor, he lost his balance and fell with all of his weight on his hand. He is gettingbetter and he doesn't have to wear the splint anymore.

Back from Colombia...

We flew to Colombia on August 9th (Esai's birthday) for 9 days. We had such an amazing time. We rented a "finca" in Chinuata for 3 days. The kids played in the pool for a little while becuase the water was ice cold. The warmest part of the day was about 69 degrees F. It was a little weird to have to wear pants and jackets most of the time when back home the coldest part of the day in in the high 70's.

Gil, Raulito, Cathy and I went white water rafting at "Rio Sumapaz" which is in the city of Melgar.
. Our guide picked a few spots for us to jump off of a tall rock into the river and another time he let us all jump out of our raft and just float down the river. It was so amazing becusae the view of the mountains around you were mazing and to be with Cathy and Raulito made even more fun, we laughed so much! (Thank you Tia Elvira for taking care of the boys for us)!

Then on another day we went to a hotel that was across the highway from the finca called Hotel Maduara. It was awesome! They had 4 sections in 2 levels, Climbing wall (rock), Throw lines , High rope games, Tibetian bridges, Trunks pass. The younger kids had their own park to pla in. Then after that Gil and I went with Raulito, Rick and Lore to rappel between the mountains.

We went to the malls, walk through the streets and visited Monserrate. You can look from any point of the city, and you can see Monserrate. It is 3.152 meters above sea level. The view is incredible.

Their is so much to talk about and so many pictures to see. I will try to minimize the amount of picture that I post, but I have about 1200 pictures. So please have patience when you look at my pictures.

Gil's fmily in Colombia is so warm and caring and the culture in Colombia is so different from the states. I will miss not being in Colombia and we will miss our family even more. Hopefully we will visit again very soon.

Colombia Trip Part 2

For part 2 of the trip. See the pictures below of Monserrate and the streets and of course the mountains. I know that I wanted to say more about the trip, but I lost my train of thought. So please enjoy the pictures.

SLINGSHOT!

For those that know Gil well know that he has a FEAR of heights and flying. Well Rick took Gil last night to go on the slingshot and Gil faced his fears! A friend named Joel went went them also. Rick went first with Gil and then with Joel. Enjoy the video....

If you have kids watching the video, I think there were two or three bad words (from Gil)...

The Barbosa's went camping...

Friday afternoon around 4:00, Gil called me and said "Jodie,get the boys stuff ready and our stiff ready because we are going camping!" So I stopped folding clothes and started packing enough for one night and one day. We also took the three dogs with us.

After stopping at Walmart for some necessities we were off to TOSOHATCHEE STATE PARK. The only things that are provided for you are: port a potty, bbq grill and a fire pit.

We had an awesome time setting up camp. We had about 45 minutes to set up the tent and start a fire to last the evening. We bought a propane lantern, but some genius opened the box and took out a specific piece that was needed to keep the lantern lit. After our fire was going, we roasted marshmallows and listened to Gil tell some stories. Scrappy slept in the tent with us, but Bianca and Marina were our watch dogs.

The next morning we made breakfast and then went on a 2 1/2 mile nature walk. We saw A LOT of Banana Spiders, which by the way are not poisonous. After our nature walk, we made another fire to cook lunch. After we relaxed we noticed that it was only 1:30pm, so I started to pack up camp because it looked like it was going to rain hard. So while I was putting everything in the car, Gil and the kids made our last big fire. We waited around for the rain, and it came down HARD! The fire went out, then we ran to the car with the dogs and jumped in.

Here are some pics....

Garfield

Sunday night I came home from buying something to eat and when the boys and I got out of the car there was a cat on top of Gil's car. when I got out of the car, he did not run. So I know that he wasn't a street cat because you can't even look at a street cat without it running off.

So I called Gil outside and then I gave it a lot of food, because the cat was so skinny that when you would touch his waist (closer to the tail end) it was maybe one inch thick. He was SOOOOOO skinny. I felt so bad for the cat, but we could not let it in because MJ would not get along with him and we weren't sure how aggressive he was. Well the boys fell in love with him instantly, but we told them that we would continue to feed it as long as it would come around and he would be our "outside" cat.

Needless to say he was back every day this week and we would sit outside with him and feed him and play with him. So when the boys asked me if they could name him I said "of course" so his name is GARFIELD!

Here are some pictures of Garfield. OH! by the way his waist is at least 2 - 4 inches thick now. He is getting healthy!

Happy Birthday Rick

We want to wish Rick a Happy Birthday. We hope you have a wonderfuly day. You are a great father, brother, tio, brother-in-law and friend.

Love,
The Barbosa Family

(I will post a video once Esai wakes up from his nap!)

What we learned today....

The boys found some of Gil's ties that he used to have to wear to work. And of course they ask ME how to tie a tie?!?!?!?!?! So I turned my trusty ol' computer and off we went to learn how to tie a tie.

http://www.tie-a-tie.net/halfwindsor.html

This is the result.... A Half Windsor Tie

We are going to Colombia!!!!

I am so excited because we are finally travelling to Colombia, South America! Gil has not been to Colombia since the beginning of 1994 so he has been past due on his travels to Colombia.



We are going with the boys and they are even more excited than I am. they get to fly in an airplane for the first time and get to meet their great-grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins for the first time!



I will take many pictures so I can post when we get back. We leave the morning of the 9th of August and come back on the 18th. Just in time for the first day of school for Erico and Elkin on the 20th of August!

Family update

Well I have not posted in almost one month. I did something to my blog and sort of messed it up and couldn't get it back to the way I wanted it. So I was able to copy some of my old posts to this new blog (the link is on the right side of the screen).

Next time I play with the layout, I will backup my template first!

So we have done alot in the past few weeks.

We went to visit my dad and step-mom in cape coral with my brother and his family. we stayed for four nights. The kids love visiting their abuelo and nana. Also since we did not have a birthday party back home, we had a "fake" birthday party for Erico.

Erico and Elkin spent one week in soccer camp from 9-12. They had a lot of fun their also.

See the slideshow below of our activities:

Happy Birthday Dami

Happy Birthday Dami! We are so amazed that youhave grown up so fast. We can't beleive that you are 5 years old!

We love you very much and the boys wanted to sing happy birthday to you the way you sing Happy Birthday to them.

We hope that you had a great day.

Love always, Tio Coco, Tia Jodie, Erico, Elkin y Esai

The Changes of Life......

It is amazing how from the moment we are conceived all of the incredible changes that we go through. Having three boys, I know that my life is going to be full of crazy and exciting changes.
Since Erico is the oldest of all the boys, he will get to experience many changes before his brothers. For example, in less than the nineteen days that we have had in the month of June, Erico has transformed. See pictures below.

This picture is from June 5, 2007 (bottom right tooth)

This picture is from June 14, 2007 (top front tooth)

I love seeing the changes that losing teeth has on a person' go s broke!
I love you Erico and you are an amazing kid and an awesome son.....

I just wanted to take a minute to say how much I appreciate my husband. Yes, it is true that sometimes he can REALLY drive me crazy as I know I do the same to him, but overall, he is such an AWESOME HUSBAND!

I can run through so many things that make him such an incredible man, husband and dad, but it might bore a few.

Gil, I love you very much and want to thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to us as your family and to our house! We have been through many hurdles over the past ten years and we might have stumbled over a few, but we keep getting up and pushing forward.

Our 7 year anniversary just past on June 6th, and even though we did not go out to do anything special. Just having another year with you is special enough to me.... We have love and that is enough to keep me wanting to stay together forever.

Love,

Jodie