Tulips

I was planning on just throwing down a bunch of photos from our spring outings right here then I realized how many photos I've been taking so I will devote this blog post to only our Tulip festival outing. When Elizabeth said they were coming into town and going to the tulip fields I knew I had to go. When we went for our first time as a family 2 years ago (for our 5 year anniversary and when Miles was 3 weeks old) I didn't think we would try to make it every year...but it turns out that I'm drawn to it! It also seemed like a great place to try Miles two year old pictures, and if you read a couple posts ago, you see that it didn't really work. Anyway, My boys get to enjoy tractors and mud and I get to enjoy the colors and taking pictures so we are all winners.

 

I don't know about all of you, but with this warmer weather, there have multiple times I've almost gone to tears with happiness. I forget how much my boys need to be outside!  We do a decent job in the Winter but to spend hours outside everyday with my boys has been wonderful, we are all happier and I've said this before but I really love their ages right now. They can do so much on their own but love being with their mom and enjoying all the "cool" places I take them. Anyway, I think this is going to be a wonderful summer with my little team of explorers, 

We met up with James and Elizabeth and family, their kids greeted mine with so much love and enthusiasm. I love their little cousin friendship!

When I was little, I always wanted an older sister. haha. Luckily I had an older brother that had girls to be the "older sisters" to my boys...if that makes any sense.

James took our family pictures!

And you know how I like a good comparison photo...here is the photo from 2014 and 2015

 

And here are the 2016 pictures

So then Miles had a little slip. He got over this one pretty quickly. 

It was so nice to go in the evening when they could play on the tractor for a long time without worries of hogging it. There weren't tons of people there that evening. 

When Miles got down from the tractor he started running. I watched him and I let him get pretty far because it really wasn't busy. I saw him slow to almost a stop...and then collapse into a really big mud puddle. Why he stopped before he fell....I will never know!

 This one made him pretty mad. He didn't know what to do with his dirty hand and he just wanted to be held but we really didn't want to hold him so we just took his picture.  Max helped him get cleaned up a bit.

My Charlie just liked to RUN! He is so happy when he is running! It  was so nice we could let him go pretty far and not lose him. What a beautiful place to run!

Oh yeah, we were taking 2-year old photos!

That pretty much sums up our Miles. 

More running!

And another comparison photo 2014 vs. 2016

He requested many times that I take his photo by this sign, with my camera and my phone.

 ...and then I see him do this!

And then he fell in mud puddle #3 and had to go home (mostly) naked. 

 

A beautiful Friday night outing in our beautiful world. 

Easter

My blog posts are all over the place right now. We've just been busy and I still have some more of my Armenia photos to edit so now I'm attempting a blog post on my phone while sitting on the hammock and watching my boys play in the kiddy pool! So here are some events from Easter.

The day before Easter we found out that the Alpenrose dairy was doing a large Easter egg hunt. This was a tradition that Max did a lot when he was a kid but we had never taken our boys. I was nervous to attend a big event like this. We arrived right as they were counting down to start the hunt, we ended up on the outskirts where there were still tons of eggs and not as many children, so my kids were able to gather some just fine and I didn't see much fighting with other kids (or parents)!  Thank goodness, and my boys were happy with the stash they got. 

Then we had a little time before we needed to go to the Baertlein get together. Max needed to show a house on our property so I decided to take my boys by my red grandmas house where they were doing the first of two Easter get togethers since all the family wasn't able to come on Saturday or Sunday. We weren't planning on going to the Saturday one, but we ended up having a little bit of time and we wanted to see James and Elizabeth's family who were only there on Saturday. We ended up making it in time for another Easter egg hunt. 

A whole bunch of cousins! 

We then went on our way to Hillsboro to meet with Max's side of the family, we ended up needing to drive separately so Max could give his sister a ride




Notice Miles' decorations...yes, that is a whole bottle of sprinkles!


Max's dad (in the center) with two of his brothers....basically triplets.


Miles was throwing candy in his mouth by the handful...we had to move him away a couple times.



We stayed for quite awhile since this is a side of the family we really don't see very often. It was good to see Max's older half siblings and his niece and nephew that are basically our age. Miles went without a nap so I just enjoyed the brief cuddles when we got home around 5:30

It didn't take long for big brother to disturb the peace so we got right on with our egg dying. Charlie kept getting confused by the word dye! English is so weird and that is a random detail I wanted to throw in there.





I then went on a late night grocery store run and found this guy doing the same thing.



The Easter Bunny left some great gardening supplies for the boys, including a big bag of dirt. They each got a little shovel, gardening gloves, seed packets, bubbles, a football and some candy. We have since been gardening a lot and they love it!



Our Easter morning celebration was brief with a quick breakfast, basket check and Easter egg hunt. 



We then attended our regular church meetings. It is extra wonderful to be able to feel the spirit and take the sacrement on Easter Sunday. I had multiple discussions with the boys (mostly Charlie) about the Resurection and how Jesus got his body again and it was perfect and how we will recieve perfect bodies again and we won't even need glasses. It is still a beautiful concept that I don't think I can ever really grasp in this life so it seems difficult to teach my children sometimes but I do love their innocence and immediate trust and love for Jesus.

After church, Max had some meeting so we decided to put Miles down for a nap before heading over to my red Grandma's house again. When Max got home we were able to try and nap until Miles got up. Then we made our way over to Grandma's house. Where there was another Easter Egg hunt.

They were also celebrating the March birthdays (and Miles' early April birthday) so they got to blow out some candles on the Easter bunny cake.





We enjoyed the family time and eventually were ready to call it a night and get our kids in bed!

Miles is 2!!!

Our handsome little Miles turned two, and he still is such a delight! Sometimes I feel like I'm just waiting from some Terrible Twos to hit. But he is still a happy little guy. We had plans of just going and taking some nice two year old photos while visiting the tulip festival but Miles had made other plans with some mud puddles, and since we are having amazing weather and going on excellent outings, Miles ended up with many two year old photos, so enjoy. 

  

Not the photos I was expecting but still a great memory. 

So Miles, he has the most bashful sense of humor. He loves to make people laugh but as soon as you do, he turns into this shy little boy and giggles and hides his face. 

 He seems to have some magnetic force to mud puddles since he fell into three separate mud puddles on our tulip outing alone.

He loves doing and talking about anything that Charlie likes. He'll repeat pretty much anything Charlie says. They often fight over toys. But there is also the occasional time when Charlie invests interest in really helping Miles learn something new. Like counting or potty training. Miles likes to pray at dinner time and Charlie loves to be the one to help him. It is kind of precious. They usually end up saying an excellent prayer!

 Some of our favorite phrases from Miles are "What's this for?" "Daddy, Hold you?" The way he says Daddy.."Deeeaddy" "I love you mommy" I know there are a lot more but it's late and I can't think of them. Maybe I'll remember by the time I make his birthday party post.

Miles LOVES reading Harry Potter with Daddy. They finished the third book on Miles birthday. He requests it every night. He talks about Harry Potter wearing glasses, and flying broomsticks, Hagrid, Dumbledore, and Dobby. We are so proud and excited that our children are already interested in reading Harry Potter because we definitely don't mind reading it again.

 Miles loves to throw his food when he gets bored eating it. I keep hoping he will grow out of this phase but it hasn't happened yet.

After a long Winter he has loved being outside all waking hours. When he wakes up from naps, he usually asks "be outside?" It has been amazing to have such wonderful weather because both boys (and myself) are in much better moods. 

Miles was acting ready for potty training and after some nightmares going through potty training with Charlie we decided we wanted to start earlier with Miles. So we started doing the whole three day thing last weekend and he did great on Day one, not so great on days 2 and 3. But then the last couple of days he's been doing excellent, even waking up dry from naps. I still have put him in a diaper on a couple outings we went out on today and yesterday but he kept that dry too. So we are feeling hopeful. But you know, we are also expecting a couple years for it to really stick. haha!

 

Miles has an awesome run! As you can tell!

And there is a little bit about our sweet boy, I feel like I'm missing a lot of details just know that we feel privileged to be his parents. I love my little family so much.