Max's 26th

Yesterday we got to celebrate the birth of an amazing husband and father. Charlie and I definitely wanted to make him feel special and know how much we appreciate him so we got up early and decorated the house with balloons and a Happy Birthday Max banner. We then went upstairs to make Max his traditional birthday Breakfast "French Toast Rafael" I didn't realize it was a tradition until I was making it this year and realized I had made it for him every birthday since we've been married so this was the fourth time. We enjoyed a nice breakfast, then Charlie had a nap and Max wanted to spend that time cleaning our room (that's my husband!)   I wanted to spend that time doing something more frivolous but it was his birthday so he got to pick. Right when Charlie woke up we loaded up the car with our hiking stuff and a picnic.

Max and I had realized that we had never been to Multnomah Falls together although it is a national landmark and only about 30 minutes from our house. We decided to spend his birthday taking a family trip there. We also wanted to try out the hiking backpack my sister-in-law, Elizabeth, gave us. The weather was beautiful and we had a wonderful time. Here are some pictures to show the greatness of our hike. 

Smiling and ready to go

The sun was just coming over the mountain, it was beautiful.  and that waterfall on the left, we hiked to the top of that!

Multnomah Falls

In a cave

I love my family

The view while climbing the mountain was pretty decent 

Playing at the top of the waterfall

My favorite picture!

Looking over the edge.

Fascinated with the water.

Loving the Fall colors

goofy family pictures

And then Charlie fell asleep on the way down

 On our hike down, Max had to walk extra steady which is hard when you have to fall and stumble down a hill

Back at the bottom. We were all the way at the very top. 

Charlie kept sleeping when we put him on the ground and ate our lunch. 

 We got home tired and happy. We decided to let Max open his presents although we were going to wait until after dinner when we did cake and candles.
 We were going to go out to dinner but then Max's uncle Jay offered to take us out with some other extended family members to celebrate our birthdays and Danika going off to college. We decided to go with them. It was a fun time and Charlie did well staying up way past his bedtime. When we got back from dinner we had a little cake celebration. We (I) sang to Max, although Max joined in because I think he felt sorry for me having to sing by myself. He blew out his candles and we had a little cake.

Max's FACE!!! He loves cake!

After Charlie went to bed we ended his birthday with a little tradition we started on Max's birthday 4 years ago the night I was released from being a missionary. We spent the evening together in the hammock. I think it was a pretty great birthday!

Thank you for being born Max!!!  

10 months

This is only about a week late but here is the info on my baby from the last month. Mostly this is for my own record so I remember different milestones. It's fun to look back and see how much Charlie has developed

Charlie is a big boy. Still in the 90th percentile for height and 70th for weight. We've met many one-year-olds that are much smaller than Charlie

Charlie has figured out stairs. He never had the opportunity to climb them until this last month.

He has a fantastic bear crawl when he doesn't like to feel concrete under his knees

Charlie started clapping, usually between bites of food

Still not standing for long on his own but goes from feet to bum with great stealth and control. This boy is beefy.

I'm afraid that this boy is going to have as much energy as Max. He will not cuddle and has to constantly be moving and exploring and grabbing (and tasting) everything in sight.

He loves seeing other babies and gets so excited that he flaps his arms like mad and hits the other babies and scares them away.

He has been playing with his voice more and making new sounds. Got the mama and dada down

He rarely cries. And when he does cry, he's very consolable.

He has been sleeping better but still wakes up once in the night. There was one night where he slept all night for 12 hours! My theory is that he needs sustenance in the night to support his massive baby body!

He has a sense of humor! He'll play games with us such as peek a boo, initiating it himself with his blanket, also, he loves being chased. He will laugh and laugh

Charlie played with balloons for the first time this last week and loved it. Especially rubbing them to make them squeak. 

In the last month Charlie has been in California, Washington, and Oregon.

Charlie has tried tons of new foods, some of his favorites include raspberries, saltines, pasta and string cheese.

He still just has two teeth

Charlie loves being outside, going for walks, and playing in water

OMSI

Oh how I love OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) It is one of the most wonderful places in Oregon. When we were moving back to Oregon last year Max and I discussed many of the Oregon things that we would finally get to do. OMSI was near the top of that list. We never went because it was kind of expensive and life just got really busy with a new baby. I went a ton as a kid, with school field trips and during the summer when my cousins had a season pass. Max and I also went as DARE camp counselors in high school . So this year, we thought, "hey, we're grown ups, we can get an OMSI membership if we want." We know we have been adults for quite awhile but sometimes we still have those moments when we realize that we make money and can spend it how we want. Anyway, we can say we did it for Charile but I'm pretty sure Max and I are a little more excited than Charlie. It is only 3 miiles from our house and a perfect place to "get out" even if it's pouring down rain. Point is, I could go on and on about how excited I am to go to OMSI. Charlie and I have gone twice already. Max will come with us this weekend when we go with some cousins. And here are some pictures...  Charlie loves it too!

  Anyway, we haven't even explored half of the museum so we will be doing that all year long.

Our soon-to-be-home

The beginning of September we get back to Oregon and Max gets busy right away working on the house. Shortly after my graduation last year and just before Charlie was born we moved into Max's uncles house while he was working on a second retirement in Central Oregon. He were basically house sitting while he was away and got a great deal out of it. Max's Uncle Jay ended up retiring in May, one year sooner than he was planning. So he moved back here shortly before we left for California. The house is big and we could definitely still live here if need be but we would be happy with our own space and we think Jay has hinted at this as well. He's been a bachelor all his life so i think it is probably weird for him to know that he can't do laundry when the baby is sleeping and other various things. Jay proposed the idea (actually maybe Max brought it up, I'm not sure) that we can help fix up one of Mumzie's properties and live there. Mumzie is Max's grandma and owns a lot of property but now that she is getting older and in the later stages of Alzheimers, the properties have been neglected. Max's uncle Max has been in charge of all her properties and got in way over his head so 3 have been neglected without renters for years. Anyway, instead of paying rent we would become the project managers and fix up the houses so they are ready to rent out. First we are fixing up the one we will live in then work on the other two to earn at least another year of free rent. Good deal right? The house we will be moving into is very close to where we live now, in a nice secluded area surrounded by trees. It has three bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and a garage. It has some fun quirky little things like the ceilings slant and go pretty low upstairs, you have to shower downstairs (for now) and the windows are all pretty low and a little scary upstairs. Max has been working hard to get things ready and he is loving it, he has always wanted to get into property management and this is a great way to learn how to do a ton of the maintenance stuff. So far they have put a ton of new sheet rock in, a new back door, powerwashed the deck, cleaned all the junk out, picked paint colors out (That's my one duty), fixed the plumbing. Soon they will get the wood floors all refinished, the kitchen counters redone, the deck stained, the upstairs ceiling sheet rock replaced, everything painting, tile back splashes installed, hopefully more insulation in the walls, and probably a ton more that I don't even know about because I'm usually home with the baby. Anyway, here are some BEFORE pictures to see what we were working with...it already looks a ton better

This junk has already been cleared out..and look..and mini Harry Potter closet on the right.

Lovely right?

I spy a cute baby

doors were unattached and everywhere

Garage

The master bedroom

The office

Upstairs bathroom

ceiling

I'm loving the backyard!

       That's all for now, we should put some updated pictures up soon. I forgot to take pictures of the utility room and the downstairs bathroom and they have already done a ton of improvements there! We should be moving in with a month.