Holiday Cheer

I must admit that I have been the absolute worst with taking pictures this holiday season. We did a lot to get in the spirit of Christmas, and it still seemed to creep up on us and get really busy during Christmas Eve and Christmas. If I did remember to take photos, they are from my phone. But here are a couple things we did...

Decorating tree: 

Last year when we were decorating the tree, it was a rather stressful experience. Ornaments were being thrown and broken and the boys didn't really seem to be having fun. This year was much better. Charlie was so excited and kept smiling and saying "it feels like Christmas." Miles liked playing with the ornaments but was a little more gentle than last year.

And Miles dissected some ornaments as well. Most were still fixable but we did have a few casualties.


 
Putting up Christmas lights.  BBQ:
Max put up the Christmas lights on our house this year. I have always done it in the past and I enjoy it but I guess I'm not supposed to be on a roof or ladder while I'm this pregnant.He put them up shortly after Thanksgiving when it was still somewhat warm here so I was outside barbecuing hoping that he would enjoy the aroma as he worked. Haha

Homemade wreath:
Max has been wanting to make a wreath for awhile using brush from our yard so we made it happen this year. I did nothing to help with this but I was super proud of the result, it may become a tradition!



Stringing popcorn: 
This one was kind of a dud, but I tried. I like the look of stringed popcorn and the boys were excited to try but mostly the popcorn was just eaten, or dropped. The needles were lost or the thread tangled. I spent all my time helping the boys untangle their thread just to see them eating the popcorn they just put on a thread (like it was some sort of candy necklace) We ended up having nothing to show for it and two lost needles, that thankfully showed up a short time later. 
 

Dollar store Christmas Shopping:
We wanted the boys to enjoy some Christmas shopping so we took them to the Dollar tree to pick out gifts for the family. They got so excited about this. I was mostly with Miles and it was so fun to watch him pick out something he thought each family member would like then trade it later for something he thought they would like even better. He went through a couple ideas for Charlie (a sparkly hat, a ninja turtle plate, pencils, a barbie) and ended up with a net/catch toy that Charlie really likes.
 
 


 Snow play:
My last two blog posts were about playing in the snow but I had these photos in my phone after we played late into the night. Both boys asleep with rosy cheeks. It was just too precious. 
 



Progressive eating day:
One of my favorite traditions was revived this year. Just without the bus. We used our own cars this year and visited 4 different houses on my mom's side of the family (ours included) and ate all day long. We started at my Aunt Natalie and Uncle Jay's house where we ate some delicious breakfast and played the bells. Then went down to my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Doug's house and ate some sandwiches and Italian Sodas and played Jingo (Bingo, but with a J ;) Then we went to my house for fruits and veggies. Then ended at Red Grandma's house for our pizza and pinata.

 

My boys got the most excited about seeing all their cousins' toys. It was so hard to leave them when it was time to go to the next house.

 And I was the absolute worst with photos of this event, I've realized the bigger my belly gets, the less likely I am to carry my camera around, so these photos were taken from Elizabeth.

We had already left this house by the time they started sledding since our house was next and we wanted to get all the food out and ready. But it looks like so much fun!

 My grandma's house was last where we eat pizza and do a pinata in her garage.

We left right after the pinata to go join in at our niece Shadow's 8th birthday. Again, I was lame at photos but here is one of Miles and August.

 It was a great and exhausting day!


Gingerbread:
 We had a gingerbread day with our friends Joe and Lindsay and their girls. Once again I was super lame at photos. (This post is mostly me apologizing for not doing photos...I should stop that!) The cookies tasted amazing and we experimented with making gingerbread houses...it didn't work so well. But we will keep trying in the future. 
 

Max's gingerbread house

The kids ended up being on a wild sugar high plus they were excited to get together because it had been awhile. 

And here is a gingerbread structure we saw at OMSI that puts ours to shame.

Christmas Lights, cocoa, Christmas music:
We have done this in the past but we made a deliberate attempt to get the boys excited about going around to look at Christmas Lights this year. They were super excited! We each got to bring our own mug of hot cocoa (with a lid) the boys each brought a mini candy cane and we set off in our neighborhood to look at Christmas lights.  We enjoyed the Christmas music and seeing all the lights even if it seems less people decorated this year. The boys especially loved the color changing lights and large blown-up Christmas characters.


Christmas cards:
This was the first year we have sent out Christmas cards. When I realized we always have a whole lot of photos of us, I figured we better do it, especially for our family members that don't see our blog or photos. Here is a very rough picture of our cards...

Our letter went like this:

The Baertleins 2016 Highlights

We’ve had a busy and exciting year. In January, Max left his job at Grow Construction and embarked on our own family real estate business which has been moving forward throughout the year.

In March, Rebecca returned to the beautiful land of Armenia to participate in a National Geographic Storytelling Photo Workshop. Max became a stay at home dad for 2 weeks (and survived just fine) while Rebecca spent time reconnecting with the Armenian people and enhancing her photography skills.

In April, Miles turned two! He is a joy to have in our family. He is kind and cuddly and loves his family, but has also become more social in the past few months. He likes to speak, tell stories and sing songs, often they are stories and songs that he makes up. He loves to make up jokes as well.

In May, Max and Rebecca celebrated their 7 year anniversary by exploring downtown Portland. 7 years have flown by and we love how we’ve grown so much closer over the years!

The summer was filled with beach trips, camping trips, hikes, the Tillamook cheese factory, rafting, hammock time, parks, picnics, good books, the kiddie pool, our own preschool with friends, and finding out that another little boy will be joining our family come January (or February…)

September kicked off with Max’s 30th birthday. He spent his birthday in San Diego participating in a huge 24-hour scavenger race called Questival. It was a fun and unique celebration. Charlie also started attending his first co-op preschool away from his mom. He absolutely loves it and may just be the boy with the most energy in the class (those of you that knew Max as a child are probably not surprised at all)

In October, Rebecca celebrated her 31st birthday. Rebecca loves being able to stay at home with her boys and volunteer in Charlie’s preschool. She has also been expanding her photography knowledge and has kept plenty busy with photoshoots.

In November, Charlie turned 5 years old. He is a strong and active little man. He is a friend to everyone and loves to make people laugh. He loves to invent games and show his creativity in many ways.

We look forward to the exciting holiday season and our upcoming addition. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! If you would like to keep up on our lives. We have a regularly updated blog at www.maxandrebeccafamily.blogspot.com Feel free to stalk us and watch our family grow!

Pineapples and Snowmen. 

We got a little crafty this year for our family gifts. For cousins and kids we made these little snowmen, made with microwave popcorn. and we had some fun nights, crafting and watching Christmas movies. Max made personalized, wood burnt, name ornaments on each gift.

For the grandparents, great grandparents, and adult siblings we made these pineapples out of sparkling cider, dove chocolate and bamboo leaves from our yard. We love the way they turned out. Charlie helped a lot with the pineapples and a little with the snowmen, We were glad we were able to give something to everyone of our family members we visited on Christmas Eve and Christmas. We made nearly 50 of the snowmen and 17 of the pineapples.




And here are some random cuddles/wrestling while Charlie is in Timeout




































And we have had a lot of hot cocoa. And Max and i laugh really hard whenever we see a picture of someone with their sleeves over their hands trying to look all cozy, so sometimes we take selfies and send them to each other..and then laugh about it. And I'm sure this is not funny to anyone else but whatever!

And Merry Christmas...More on Christmas Eve and Christmas celebrations coming up soon! (not that I was any better at taking pictures ;)