Red Grandma

This last weekend we were able to celebrate my Grandma Wilcox's 81st birthday! It is always exciting to celebrate because she is a pretty wonderful grandma. It was requested that I take some pictures since James and Elizabeth's family wouldn't be able to make it down. I can't say I did that great on the picture taking...but I will try to document the event here so you guys can still get a feel for the excitement you missed. We first met at Izzy's buffet. Our family was the last to arrive so we were pretty impressed with how many of Grandma's posterity were there. We were all filling up nearly 4 tables. Let's just break down this posterity for a minute. (The main purpose of our family blog is to keep a record and document our family stories so this seems the appropriate place to do that.)

Dale and Nancy Wilcox (my grandparents)

6 children (5 were present, 1 passed away nearly two years ago)

19 Grandchildren (11 were present) and a whole bunch of spouses!

14 (almost 15!)  great grandchildren   6 were present!

That is a basic rundown but it definitely seemed like a great turnout                         

                           

Like I said, I really didn't do that great with the picture taking but here are a couple!

Kaden-Great Grandchild, 1.5 years

Aaron-Grandchild, 3.5 years

Timmy Grandchild, 5 years

Cheesy Charlie-great grandson, 2.5 years
Max-Grandson-in-law

And of course, a couple pictures of my boys!

We ate a whole lot of food then the plan was to go spend the evening at my grandma's house for games. As everyone was leaving, Max and I took a quick trip to Old Navy to get Max some jeans, he was in need and we didn't know when we would have time later...our Old Navy trip was a success then we headed over to Grandma's. Max and I got to play phase ten which was pretty exciting because usually one of us is following Charlie around seeing what he's getting into. We spent time visiting with family and eating birthday cake. It was a great way to spend time as a family and celebrate an amazing woman!

OMSI with some flashbacks

I'm not sure how many more outings I will have with just Charlie and me. Of course we plan to have parent/child outings in the future but who knows how much longer he will be an only child. We've been filling our time with swim class and other Mother/Son outings and I love it...even though it is pretty exhausting these days. We haven't been to OMSI in awhile and wanted to get some visits in before baby brother comes. We also wanted to check out the new Tony Hawk: Rad Science exhibit! So that is what we did. 

Overall Charlie wasn't that impressed with the new exhibit and we only looked at part of it. We'll go back again soon and look at the rest. Lisa, your boys might love it, we can go sometime when you are here. 

We then went to the health science exhibit which is one of Charlie's favorites. Except he apparently really hates looking at the fetal section which is my favorite right now. He would scream when we went to look at the babies. Is that a bad sign?

He climbed right up and tried some push-ups. 

And here is a movie of Charlie's impressive jump rope skills. He was able to jump on beat and do pretty well!

 

And just to see a little flashback...these ear pictures were taken 1 year apart from each other. 

Then we had a great time in the little kids playground

He has grown so much in just over a year

He has become quite the scientist

Anyway, that was our little outing and some comparison pictures. It wont be long until baby brother is right there exploring with us. And shortly thereafter both boys will be running in opposite directions leaving me to hunt down one or the other...this seems to be my number one fear about having two kids....oh well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. 

Feeling the Love

This year, Valentine's day was simple and amazing. Neither of us could think of any particular outing we wanted to do for a date so we decided that we would spend Valentine's Day together as a family and it was perfect. 

In the morning, we all woke up and had a delicious breakfast of Cream of Wheat with Strawberries. This is usually our breakfast of choice when Max is home. And yes, he got to be home all day on a Friday!

After breakfast I got ready to get my hair done. As many of you know, I have this long mane of hippy hair that I'm not that great at maintaining, part of the reason is because I really don't like spending money on myself, and as of late, I've usually just been pulling my hair back because I rather spend my time doing other things. I was supposed to have my appointment last Saturday but we were snowed in so it was rescheduled for Valentine's day which worked in my favor as McKenzie spent over an hour on my hair washing, cutting, and styling. This was kind of my first time going to a real salon! I got the recommendation to go to McKenzie from my amazing friend Melissa! Anyway, I don't think I had trimmed my hair since June and Max was realizing it was increasingly difficult to get his fingers through it so he whole heartedly encouraged me to go get a hair cut! It was an excellent Valentine's day treat. Here are the results. It really isn't much shorter but so much healthier!

Charlie was sleeping when I got home. Shortly after, we woke him up to take him to a Doctors appointment. He has had a long lasting cough that we decided to go have checked out. We all went together so we could go out for an early dinner afterward. Charlie love's going to the doctor so it was a a decent experience. It turns out he's fine and his lungs are clear. The best part about going to his doctor on Valentine's day was that someone had donated a whole bunch of roses for the patients and Max picked one out for Charlie to give me! Total Bonus!

 He seemed to like giving them to me and smothering me with kisses. I love my mini-Valentine!




We then went out for a 3:30 pm family dinner date. It turned out perfect because we were the only people in the whole restaurant. We beat the V-day crowds. We went to a Mexican restaurant called Casa Colima which is right next to where we used to live. It was also the restaurant Max and I went to the night before we went into the hospital for Charlie's birth. I loved spending time with my 2 handsome Valentines.

Probably the best parts about this restaurant are the vibrant decor and the huge cow (with tennis shoes I might add) outside!

After dinner we still had time to kill before Charlie's bedtime so we went to Target. I don't know why but I really love going to target with Max and Charlie. Maybe it's because Max hula hoops in the middle of the store.

Yup that's my handsome husband showing off another of his many talents. 

We wandered the store for awhile, and laughed tons!

When we got home we turned on The Incredibles while Max finished his top secret project on the computer. That way Max could concentrate and I didn't have to chase Charlie around the house! We then put Charlie to bed and it became time for our in-home date. 

Max had been working on a project on the computer for a couple days and I wasn't sure what it was. The only time he could work on it was in the evenings when I was right there by him! haha! He then made the grand reveal to me. 

He had created this amazing slideshow documenting so much of our history and life together and how he feels so blessed and lucky to for me and Charlie. He worked hard picking songs that were meaningful to us and timing pictures with them. And here's the thing...it made me cry. haha! I never cry in movies but this one really touched me and was a beautiful gesture from Max. Call me cheesy, but thoughtful gifts that don't cost a penny are my favorite! (PS, this was way cooler than the Harry Potter Valentine's I left around the house for him) 

Anyway, this may be long but I loved every second of it so I'm posting it here if anyone is interested in seeing it. And you should totally watch it because it is amazing!

After oogling over the slideshow for awhile, we decided to make chocolate covered strawberries at 11:30 at night. It turned out to be a great idea minus the massive heartburn I've been getting these days. Oh well, it was worth it!

Overall, I absolutely loved the simplicity of this Valentine's day. I loved spending it with my boys. I love feeling the love and appreciation from my husband and I hope he knows how much I love and appreciate him. 

Taxidermy

On Thursday, Charlie and I took a trip to the taxidermist. I can't say I've ever done that before...and I'm not sure if I ever will again. For that reason, this little event should be documented right?

We actually went because Max's deer pelt was ready to pick up It only took 4 months for them to prepare it. I really have no idea what goes in to taxidermy so I'm not sure if that's a great time frame. Anyway, we get to this busy part of SE Portland and go into this somewhat suspicious looking building called Artistic Taxidermy. We walked in to the store only to be stared at by hundreds of large game animals. It was a little intimidating and Charlie loved it. He was most excited about the real, alive dog which was super friendly. We picked up our new deer pelt blanket, then looked a little longer at the many animals mounted on the walls and crowding the store.We then went on our way. Just for the record, when I was a kid I was absolutely terrified of those trophy deer heads that people had on their walls. I thought they would come alive. Maybe Charlie isn't afraid because he lived in uncle Jay's house for a year where there are huge, award winning, deer heads and antlers all over the walls.I was a little startled when we got the animal pelt because of how much it still looked like the animal. I was kind of thinking it would be a rectangle and the tail would be gone. Anyway, here it is, Rocko's warm soft skin!

 

As weird as it is, it really keeps you warm.  

And that is my mildly exciting taxidermy story!

Snowed In

When it snows in Portland the whole city shuts down. I have always loved this. I loved being able to stay home from school and play in the snow all day because it would only happen maybe one day a year before it melted. In high school Max and I lived within walking distance of each other and during my senior year we had a whole week off of school and it was the best! Anyway, I know what you may be thinking, Portlandians are wimps. They wont even try to venture into the snow! I have agreed with this as well, especially after living in Utah. But here's the thing. Because this snow is so rare in Portland, the city has not made the same investments in snow removal equipment as in cities that have regular snow. So the roads are extra slick and most community members aren't very confident or overly confident driving on them so it makes everything a big mess. We haven't had this much snow since 2008 when Max was driving home from BYU for Christmas and to propose to me. So my point is, maybe we are wimps, but I love it!

Here is Charlie last winter and this is all the snow we got then, I had melted by noon. 

Thursday morning Charlie and I go to Target and some dry snowflakes are falling. They were just blowing all over the road so it didn't look like much was going to happen with them. We then met Max for lunch at a job site. The roads were still clear. After about 40 minutes we left to take a 20 minute drive home. The snow had started to stick and made the ground more slick. The short drive ended up taking an hour with the backed up freeway and the slippery roads. I could even feel my car slipping a little. When we got to our road I had a hard time getting my car up the hill. I never even realized it was much of a hill but I would get up the hill a couple of feet then slip backward as I would try to accelerate more up the hill. It took us awhile but we made it up a little bit at a time. I'm glad we got home when we did because the snow started pouring and our car would have never made it up if we were any later. 

Charlie took a nap and slept until it was nearly dark so he didn't get much time to play in the snow. 

 He was pretty unsure about the snow and didn't last long before he wanted to go back inside.

Max worked a little late and had to go get snow tires on his truck before coming home. Even with that, he wasn't able to get up the hill in his truck and had to park out on the street. 

Friday:

Max didn't have to go to work! We were pretty excited about this. We enjoyed a warm cream of wheat breakfast and some family time. I took Charlie out in the snow and once again he was not that interested despite the way he constantly talks about snowmen. Max's boss and co-worker came to help get the truck off the street and up to our house. They were successful.  We then came in for lunch. Charlie took a nap and I just enjoyed every minute of Max being home with us. 

After nap time I worked on dinner while Max took Charlie out to play. Charlie seemed to have a much more enjoyable time when he was playing with his daddy. I guess he was just more fun. They built a little snowman, and threw snowballs, ate icicles, and cleared paths by the doorways. I'm glad Charlie has a high energy daddy because I got exhausted hearing about all of this. Bending over to pick up snow just didn't seem like it was worth the effort and I guess that explains why Charlie didn't have as much fun with me.   

This bulldozer was an excellent tool for clearing the snow.

Eating snow and icicles seemed to be Charlie's favorite. Luckily we live in a pretty secluded area so it was all pretty clean.

Charlie loved having snow thrown at him.

This snow was so powdery that it was pretty difficult to make a snowman but they did their best. 

Saturday:

It was snowing hard all day and didn't look like it was going away so we felt no pressure to go play in it. We decided to have a cleaning day. After breakfast, Max and Charlie cleaned up the living room while I did laundry and dishes.  Max had just finished vacuuming when our power went out. He was excited that he was able to get it done and even had the thought that he wanted to hurry and get it done in case the power went out...priorities! Sadly, the laundry and dishwasher had not finished before the power went out. The power was only out for an hour but in that hour we got all our candles ready, ate a cold lunch, and took steps to preserve the heat in our house.

Charlie took a shortish nap and then we cleaned the bathrooms. Charlie was able to help Max work on prepping our stairs to put carpet down. He was a great helper and Max was extremely patient with him which left me time to thoroughly clean our infant car seat and the pack 'n play in preparation for baby brother. I was also able to make chocolate chip cookies. 

Saturday was supposed to be a busy day with a cousin outing to the children's museum, a wonderful haircut I was looking forward to, a birthday party, a hot chocolate party, and the missionaries were going to come. Everything was canceled because of the weather. I'm serious when I say the city shuts down. 

Anyway, We had dinner and Charlie went to bed without leaving the house once. 

After putting Charlie down, Max and I went on a "romantic" hand in hand walk around the property in the snow. We ended up taking out the garbage and recycling which made it not as romantic. Also, the freezing rain had started earlier in the afternoon and made a layer of ice on the snow. Every foot step turned into a loud crackling crunch. Not so much the soft quiet snow that we were expecting. We laughed and it felt good to get some fresh air together. 

 Sunday:
Church was canceled. We got to sleep in a little bit. After breakfast and getting ready for the day we all went outside in hopes to have a little picnic at the playground near our house. We got outside and played in the snow for a bit, and took pictures of my 33 week belly.

Max started clearing the foot of snow and ice off of our car while Charlie munched down on some snow. The snow was pretty deep and Charlie wasn't a fan of walking in it. He kept asking us to help him or to hold him.

There were thick sheets of ice on top of the soft snow Max cleaned off the car. Charlie thought it was hilarious when Max threw these pieces and they shattered. 

Max's work truck

We read in a weather advisory that we should stay away from trees because branches could snap or trees could fall over at any time. It seemed like a pretty ridiculous request in our neighborhood. You can't get too far from any trees.

 That's a pretty big icicle.

 We never made it to the playground for our picnic even though it isn't that far, Charlie just did not want to walk in the snow and ice. We decided to go on our deck and eat some cheese and fruit snacks.

We then went inside and had Macaroni for lunch. Charlie was so tired that he was sleep eating. He loves some mac and cheese so he kept eating even though he was exhausted. 

We were all tired so we all took naps. The rest of the day was spent inside. The snow started to melt today but there is still a ton. Most of the schools are still closed tomorrow. Max plans on going to work so we hope that works, if not, we will just enjoy having him home for another day!