My yummy Website!!!

Boys and Girls, the new Suzan Turner Photography website is live!!!!! From now on I'll be posting there, so there will be no more posts here in blogspot.

So please, change your RSS feed and the address on your blog reading list, and go check it out!!!! Let me know what you think!!!!

website: http://suzanturnerphotography.com/
blog: http://suzanturnerphotography.com/blog/

Coming Soon....

... Stay tuned!

Life with Toddler

This morning I found Nicholas under his bed! I have no idea what happened but he looked very comfortable! He is a non-stop boy even when he is asleep! Ah, life with toddler is never boring!

Viva la Musica!

I've been working on photos for Victor Padilla's CD cover for while and last night we had another photo shoot. This time Loli joined us since she recorded a song with Victor that will be featured in his album. We had a blast! This pic is one of my fave and I thought it'd go well with Plato's quote! Hope you guys like it!

Summer time!

Hey You all! I hope you're having a wonderful summer (or winter if you are bellow the Equator line:) We're doing good here in a hot summer by the beach! No complains :) I've been pretty busy traveling all over, playing with my little guy, and working on some exciting projects for the near future. But I'd like to stop by just to say hi and let you all know that soon this blog will be combined with the (upcoming) Suzan Turner Photography's website. It's something that I've been spending a lot of time on and can't wait to see what you guys think! So, stay tuned!

And here some pics of my lil guy enjoying the Aquarius in Barcelona!

 

A Truck Themed Party for His 2nd Birthday!

Nicholas loves trucks so for his 2nd birthday we had a truck themed party! I made all the decorations, cake, cake pops, cupcakes, "brigadeiro", marshmallow with candy melts.... it was a lot of work but so worth it! Also we had a big road all over our living room with trucks, cars, bus....  the kids had a blast!

My fondant truck cake.... so much work!!!! But when Nicholas saw it for the first time.... oh my what a joy! 

The road started from the entrance leading to the living room where the party was!

We had some hot dogs, chips, "Tortilla" (the Spanish Omelet), popcorn, pizza, and olives. Everything was really good, thanks to "Mercadona" (A Spanish Supermarket)

Everybody seemed to be having fun!

As always we sang Happy Birthday in three languages!

Time to open the gifts!!!! Trucks, cars, play tent, clothes (yay, mommy and pappy were very happy), shoes, book, beach toy, piano, cups and plates.... WOW!!!!

Look at the sign of the first pic! So cute, this lil guy wrote it himself!   

It was a lot of work but I'd do it again just to see my little boy having fun like he had! Look at his face!

Children Photo Shoot: Águilas, Spain

Dina is a cute little girl and a good friend of Nicholas. Few weeks ago I had the pleasure to snap some pics of her! She wasn't as much excited to take photos as she was to play with Nicholas' tricycle! But she is so cute that even the silly faces shots turned out good!

When I look at these photos, they bring a warm smile to my face! I hope they will do the same for you!

Portadores de Gloria

Hello you all! Just want to share a video of something I've been working on. This Saturday our theatre group from church will be for the first time evangelizing on the streets. We are very excited and thankful for this great opportunity God has prepared for us. We've been working hard these past weeks, a lot of rehearsals, prayers, fasting.... and with the help of the Holy Spirit we're ready to impact lives for his Glory. We believe this is just the beginning of great things that will be coming on our way!

So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you "Portadores de Gloria" 

Kony 2012

Please watch this video and share it! Let's make a difference!!!!

Inspiring Devotional Blog

One thing that I love living in Spain is getting to meet so many interesting people from all over the world: people who live by faith, a life truly led by God, and deeply inspiring us in our walk with Jesus. Couple weeks ago, we had the pleasure to meet Christine Smith and her husband Chris both British and servants of God who in the 70s "were called in a remarkable way to take the gospel to Gypsies living in the remote caves of Almeria, Spain." -- Christine Smith in About Christine

Christine has a devotional blog which focuses on the trials and challenges in faith that we (women) may encounter. It is a great devotional resource for women. She has written also couple books that my hubby and I have been reading and enjoying them very much! Go check her blog out! Her words and experience are very inspiring for anyone who wants to be uplifted on their journey with God. 

And speaking about inspring, nothing like getting a haircut to refresh us, right? Look at my baby's "joy" as he gets his new look! At least this time we didn't need four people to contain him.

Where is My Body Lotion?

While I was getting ready to take my lil guy to the playground, I couldn't find my body lotion on my dressing table... Guess where it was...

This is what happens when I'm not looking!!!

I posted a video of him giving the chair a lotion bath! Check it out! 

A Melting Pot

I think when God formed me He said, This one is going to be a melting pot! As everybody knows I'm a multicultural person. I grew up in Brazil eating rice and beans with chopsticks. I learned how to read and write the first two forms of Japanese before Portuguese. I married an American, lived to U.S.A for several years, and became an American citizen. Then, we moved to South of Spain where we've been raising our son.

When I look at my little guy playing with the spaniards kids my heart smiles! I'm now raising a melting pot too! Not only through his ethnicity background but also through exposing him to different cultures and languages! Nicholas has no shame to play and to communicate with the other kids. There is no awkwardness, no walls, no limits.... he is just there with an open heart that takes all in.  He eats all the different food we give to him, he explores all the interesting places we take him, and he smiles to all the accents and languages around him.

He speaks a mixture of words he knows, dall done (all done), mais, papple (apple), cacua (agua), bye-bye, hi, hola, shoes, camon (caminhao), bird, leitin (leitinho), no quer (nao quiero)... and he signs. And though the kids might not understand him all the time he still manages to have fun. I noticed actually that my little guy is very popular among them. They are always calling him to play, Nicholaaaaas (they emphasize the end of his name) or Camcam (Nicholas used to call trucks camcam) and it amazes me cause all the kids speak to him in Spanish and he in English/Portuguese/sign language and they still get along pretty well.

Being a multicultural family has also its challenging when raising kids. For example, dealing with three languages at once (I gave up on Japanese for now) can be overwhelming. How many times both hubby and I have heard, so what language is he speaking? Are you guys teaching him Portuguese, English, or Spanish? Or when we choose a parenting method that might conflict with one of the other cultures can sometimes surprise or even offend people. I remember when Nicholas wasn't even one year old yet, a Spanish lady from a bakery gave him a lollipop and I kindly had to tell her he can't have candy yet. Or when Nicholas after couple months on eating solids started eating what we would eat and American moms were very surprised that I wasn't following the baby feeding chart. Or even when I said no to chocolate milk while I was with my Brazilian family I got a, Why not?

The truth is we're not a conventional family. We don't do things according to only one culture. We don't speak only one language. And we are not family and friends with people from only one nation. We're a melting pot family who daily speaks three languages, who loves meeting people with different nationality, and who eats a variety of food everyday! Some days we're up to a juice hamburger and french fries. Other days we're craving some feijoada. There are days we're into some sushi and sashimi. And there are days that all we want is a big paella de marisco.

Being a melting pot family doesn't make us better than any other families. It just makes us to approach the circumstances in our life differently.

And here are some pics from other interesting place we took our munchkin: Castillo de Lorca - Fortaleza del Sol.

 

Málaga, Spain (iPhone pics)

We went to Málaga for the weekend. Here are some pics from my phone.

Having Fun

We have some friends from US visiting us so we've been having a lot of fun! Good food, good views and good company... Thank you Lord for your blessings!!!

Here are some pics taken with my phone:

Exploring Switzerland with a Toddler!

Last year my hubby needed to travel for his work and I as a good wife that I am went to make him some company! What a sacrifice we wives have to do, right? hehehehe...

But the truth is we had a pleasant time together as a family! Nicholas is big enough now to enjoy it. He is very curious and I love watching him explore all of theses new places we're taking him. We flew to Geneva, Switzerland then rented a car and drove to Marseille, South of France. From there, we stopped at Monaco and stayed a night in Nice (Since Monaco is crazy expensive). Then drove up to Milan, Italy and then back to Geneva. The good thing of driving was we could see a lot of the breathtaking views from French Riviera and the country side of France and Italy, but the down side.... a lot of tollroad! We had to pay an expensive fee to go through a huge tunnel, that later we learned it was the Mont Blanc Tunnel, a road tunnel in the Alpes. And the funny/silly thing was that hubby and I were like how much did you say? But we're just crossing it... we didn't know if we were on a wrong road going to a ski resort or something. Dummy Tourists!

Switzerland is the most beautiful country that I've been so far!!!! And we explored only few places around the Lake Geneva Region. For me the highlight was the Chateau de Chillon (Chillon Castle). Goregeous!!! A castle by the lake with extraordinary views all around.

Here are some pics from Switzerland. I'll try to post more pics from the other places.

Cold Night in Geneva

Chillon Castle

Inside of the Castle! It's gorgeous

Nicholas was our lil explorer!

What a view!

Montreux, a charming place with wonderful views too! Food in Switzerland is really expensive even at Mc Donald's.

Nicholas enjoyed every minute of it!

As we went to hide from the cold by getting some coffee our lil guy quickly made some new friends.

He even tried to ride his new friend's scooter.

Here is Lausanne. I was solo with Nicholas in this hilly town while dear hubby was at work. So after he dropped us off somewhere in the city, Nicholas and I went exploring it. I didn't know exactly where we were and got a litlle lost. But from getting lost I was able to see some interesting side of Lausanne. Like the smiley window (top left). My goal was to see the cathedral but talking to some Swiss moms, who were all very nice, convinced me it'd be impossible to get there by pushing a stroller. They all were in a good shape and I really think it's from pushing strollers up and down the hills everyday!

Since I couldn't do much in the center of Lausanne, I decided to get a metro and went to see the cost side. Again, beautiful views of the Alpes! Nicholas had a lot of fun watching the birds/ducks/geese and running cheerfully that by the time we were heading back to meet with his papai he was worn out!

My Everyday joy! How can I resist him?!