High School

How many people "pretend" marry the bus driver at their high school grad night party then go on to marry them in real life? I like to think we were the first!

June 2005

We're so excited to celebrate 4 years of marriage this week. They have been the best 4 years of our lives!

May 2, 2009

Ps. Anna, thanks for not taking our wedding pictures with a Polaroid! Your photos turned out way better!

Summer Glimpse

We've had amazing weather this week and it has made me really excited to spend every summer day with this little guy. 

That being said, we better get outside.

Funny Faces

Charlie entertains us with all his funny faces, I'm always trying to document them but it is nearly impossible for this busy toddler. Here are some I've caught on my phone over the last couple of months. 

"The cheesy smile"

"Mind wandering to a happy thought..."

"I have a secret"

"This baby is so cute"
He got so excited to see my baby pictures!

"I must never be confined indoors"

"Are you going to take me outside or must I learn to work the locks?.."

"I'm so excited, I can't make eye contact"

"How am I supposed to know?"

"Whistle while you work"

"I love eating"

"What are these? Donuts for ants..."

"Favorite song on the radio"

"The great Houdini"

I haven't really captured our favorite face. He makes it when he gets really excited to see something, such as a cat or dog. He purses his lips together, makes his eyes huge and points.
I love this kid, especially how excited he gets about everything!

Charlie's garden

Charlie received some supplies in his Easter basket to start a garden. We decided to make our garden for family night. As of now, Charlie isn't that excited about it. I guess he mostly wants to play with the gardening tools and throw dirt. I'm hoping that as we make it a routine to daily water the plants and as he starts to see sprouts he will get more excited. Either way, I'm excited, we haven't lived anywhere where we could grow vegetables pretty much ever. This year we are starting small because we didn't have much "garden area" to work with. (Actually we do, I just haven't been that motivated to prep the land, and since we are beginners we will just start in pots.) Anyway, for family night we started to put the dirt in pots and plant some seeds. Charlie went around carrying some seeds in film canisters that Max had brought back from Chile. He then lost/hid the seeds in the drain pipe, forcing Max to spend the rest of the evening trying to retrieve them. Only one of two was retrieved Not the ideal family night but we got some of our plants started. We planted Strawberries, peas, tomatoes, sunflowers, (those I will plant out in the common courtyard area after they sprout) and some of Max's Chilean seeds. (not sure if they will work, but definitely worth a try)

Our front porch garden, it will soon be moved to the backyard. 

 Charlie really hasn't got the idea of how to use his water can and how to aim the right amount of water in the plant but we are working on it and I'm sure he'll catch on by the end of summer.

Whelp, that's all, just want to document future progress in Charlie's garden.

Easter Festivities

We have had a busy couple of weeks, with getting projects going on some of the properties here and finding new tenants for one of the houses. Max has done most of the work as well as work full time. I have helped clean the vacant house to prepare for our new neighbors but that's pretty much it. With life so busy it was a real treat to take a break, reflect on our Savior's atonement and spend some good quality time with the family!

On Friday night we dyed Easter Eggs. Charlie was thrilled and eager about this, so much that the cups of dye nearly toppled over on more than one occasion. He liked to aggressively grab the egg and drop it in the dye. We were happy he got so "egg-cited" about it but I think next time we will probably need to take more precautions to let him participate more! 

While the eggs were soaking, we distracted Charlie with a whole bunch of stickers found in the egg dying kit. 

He had a great time decorating us too!

Saturday night the Easter Bunny stopped by and left this lovely basket for Charlie. He now has everything he needs to start his own garden of strawberries, tomatoes, and peas. We're new at the gardening thing so we are starting small and it will be fun for Charlie to go outside everyday this summer to water his plants. We held off on the candy seeing as we knew he would be spoiled with it later from some other relatives!

We hid 4 eggs for him to find to see if he was that interested in finding them. He did enjoy it! When he noticed one he would get his surprised Charlie face, pick it up, look at it, then put it in his mouth...turning his lips colors. 

Can you spot the egg?

I think he liked his new toys, I caught his playing quietly with them all...

A little bit later Max's family members came over for an Easter brunch that we were hosting.  We made French Toast Raphael and had fresh strawberries, mangoes, and grapes. Yum! Max and his brothers Brent and Justin then filled and hid plastic Easter eggs out in the yard.  Thank goodness for Aunt Lisa who is always prepared with her camera and photography skills. The following pictures I stole from her!

Mr. Handsome

Once Charlie figured out that there were Jelly beans in the eggs he was content just stopping and eating the candy as he went. Many eggs spilled candy in the dirt due to Charlie's eagerness. Apparently Max thought it was okay to eat them out of the dirt...

It took a crowd to get him to put the eggs in his bucket!

It's springtime in our yard!

And a family picture. 

We then were able to attend church. This really helped us focus more on the true meaning of Easter. Charlie was a little restless (1 month until nursery) but during the last hour his grandma went to play with him in the hall so Max and I could listen better. We soon realized how tired we got without our wiggly boy!

After church we rushed off to Charlie's third and final Easter egg hunt of the day. We went to Red Grandma's house who always throws the best hunt around. She even makes sure all the eggs have the same amount of candy and counts the eggs so everyone gets the same amount! Charlie once again opened the eggs as he found them spilling M&Ms throughout the grass.  I wish I took more pictures. It was a fun hunt with all the cousins and second cousins and aunts and uncles!

It was a fun and busy day filled with family and joy! I would like to say Charlie slept well that night...but he didn't and surprise surprise...I found 3 molars in his mouth today.