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.

Healthful Exercise, Delightful Pleasure.

This fun mother and son outing all happened because of a free admission coupon received in the mail! You can't beat free, especially when it is to Oaks park roller skating rink which is full of fond memories for both Max and myself. My favorite of those memories is going together in high school and longing for the "Couples only" skate so I could hold his hand! I wasn't let down, I think there may have even been 2 "couple skates" that evening! Cheesy but true! Anyway, we found out that Oaks Park has a Toddler Skate on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the morning. There are songs and dances and even snacks. It started at 10:00am and sadly (lucky) for me Charlie has been sleeping past 10. I finally woke him up shortly after 10 because I couldn't contain my roller skating excitement any longer. After a quick breakfast we were off. 

Healthful Exercise Delightful Pleasure

He still gets to use the "baby" skates

When we first arrived Charlie and I both put skates on. I'm pretty sure other parents were glaring at me for trying to show my newly walking toddler how to skate while putting myself in a more unsteady state. We did just fine but I eventually decided that Charlie could have a better learning experience if I was on solid ground. I was holding onto both his hands for most of this experience so I wasn't able to get too many pictures. Charlie did impress me with how he could scoot around pretty well in those skates so maybe if I wasn't as iron gripped, I could have seen him skate more. He did slip several times but he seems to have great reflexes so he never hit his head, and he didn't cry once!

He paused to find his belly button!

I think he's chasing Chipper the Squirrel. (The Oaks Park mascot)  

This is the reason that this is the best skating rink around, the Pipe Organ! All the pipes are right there above the rink!

No one was playing the organ this time, we just had to listen to silly kids songs. 

Anyway, I'm thinking we will want to go back sometime soon, or maybe when Charlie is a little more steady and can fit into real skates.

Lazy Sunday

I love lazy afternoons where you can just be with your family and not worry that something else is not getting done. I love that Max doesn't have to stress about homework anymore. I love that I get to be a stay-at-home mom and dedicate all of my time and energy into taking care of myself and my two incredibly handsome men! I love the peace that comes from knowing our family is eternal. I love the joy that we feel when we are together.
That being said, here are some very amateur pictures we took together on our lazy Sunday afternoon.

He is actually crying here...

I love my little family!

80th

 On Thursday we got to celebrate this amazing woman's 80th birthday. My red Grandma! She is probably one of the coolest 80 year-olds around mostly because she owns pretty much every nintendo and the like in her home so her grand kids could always have a party there. Even as teenagers we loved hanging out at our grandma's house more than our own home. She would always have homemade cookies and popcorn for us. She is also the amazing lady who patiently taught me piano throughout my life. She is incredibly talented and intelligent and we are so lucky that she is our grandma (and Charlie's great grandma)!

We celebrated with her by going to Reinlander German restaurant where we indulged in fondue and bratwursts and were serenaded by a talented accordion player and vocalist!

And Charlie also got some grandma time 

PS. The accordian player reminded me of the birthday where I was serenaded by one of the best accordianists around....Leah, oh how we miss you!

Spaghetti

Every young child needs some good messy spaghetti pictures! I don't make spaghetti very often so I'm pretty sure this was Charlie's first time trying it...He loved it, and the mess was something to be proud of!

This kid cracks me up!!

And he's done!

That's all, just thought I would share!

Cupid, draw back your bow...

I have come to love it when holidays fall on week-days, I've somehow convinced Max that we get to have a week-day celebration and a weekend celebration, this also rings true for our anniversary and birthdays! This way, we can celebrate twice, as a family of three and as a couple. It's the perfect plan. That is just what happened this year for Valentine's day! On Thursday (day of) Max had to work all day and I was home with my fevery son. Lucky for me, Charlie is a strong boy that doesn't let a fever get in the way of his joy. For the most part he was just as pleasant as usual with only a slight decrease in sleeping and appetite. During the day Charlie and I made a valentine for Daddy! He was also content enough to allow me to make our valentine's ham dinner. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the way to Max's heart is HAM!!  

This year we even made it heart-shaped. The asparagus was supposed to be heart shaped too, I don't know what happened. 

And I just want to throw out a plug for those fudgey delicious cookies right there. Max and I have been trying to eat healthy and since I love to bake it has occasionally made this goal difficult. These cookies however, are "healthy." They are made with black beans and are still amazingly delicious. Try them! I dare you! Here's the recipe...Delicious Cookies!!

As it turns out, Charlie is a ham pig too!

That evening Max and I were able to spend some enjoyable home time together. 

On Saturday, We arranged a Valentine's date for Charlie and my mom. That way, Max and I could leave and not disturb their date. Clever right? Charlie and his grandma enjoyed a candle-lit dinner and some playtime. while Max and I got to hit the town. We haven't been able to go on very many dates in the evening when Charlie has to go to bed so this one was extra special.

We decided to make our date have the whole Valentine theme so we started by playing cupid at Archer's Afield. Max has been wanting to do this for awhile. This archery place was near where we grew up and has a lot of good childhood memories. I was a little intimidated at first when I couldn't get my arrows near the target but I figured it out and we ended up having so much fun.

The awkward pose of the night.

My best shot. 

When our arms got tired we finished and the night was still young. We then went to the mall for a Jamba dinner and in search for a Valentinesy item. We didn't come home with the item we were searching for but we did find an amazing deal on a wonderful king-size comforter which we have needed for our bed. That's kind of Valentinesish right? Anyway, it felt so good to be out on a wonderful date and not feel like we needed to rush home to get the baby in bed. We knew he was well taken care of so we could have a stress-free night.

And seriously, how does a girl get so lucky to have these two incredibly handsome valentines?