All the celebrations!

Many weeks ago we celebrated Max's 32nd birthday! We tried to make him feel extra special on his birthday, and then the celebrations kept coming. 

Max wakes up before the rest of us so the day before the boys and I had prepared little notes for him with one of his favorite candies.

I set them out after everyone went to bed. Then I left the rest of  the costco sized bag of candy in his car with a note. haha!

The boys were all up early because they were so excited so we were able to walk Charlie to school.

Once Charlie was at school, Miles and I started making Max's traditional apple pie. We change it up a bit each year. This year was a Dutch Apple Pie with a crumble top. Miles was an excellent pie-maker and could have probably made it all on his own. And I never photographed the pie, but it was amazing!

We then went to Max's work to go out to lunch with him, and there was a very photogenic puppy there.

We made our way to a fun little Italian restaurant! Here is 4/5 of our family.

And there were crayons! So that was exciting!

We left Max back at his work and made our way home...to make one of his favorite dinners (food is the way to his heart)

And once he got home we did some birthday celebrations.

The boys hid the presents and giggled while Max searched for them.

After dinner, presents, and pie we all went out and jumped on the trampoline to wear the kids out then we put them to bed! So perfect, low stress and simple...but the fun wasn't over.

2 years ago, for Max's 30th birthday we threw him a Minute to win it pie exchange birthday party. We decided to do this again, (Charlie has been begging to do it again for a long time) Instead of it being a birthday party...because let's face it, that's just awkward to invite people over to celebrate you. I made it a birthday gift to him that I would plan and throw this party, because it's pretty much one of his favorite things ever. Anyway, the boys helped with a lot of the prep work....

My pictures are random but we had 10 games and I helped the kids do their games while Max coordinated the adult games. We were worried that no one would show up since we had some last minute cancellations but it turned out perfect!

It was a thrilling night and we hope to continue this tradition each year. (we have a box specifically full of minute-to-win-it supplies now) Max just raved about how much he loves these types of gatherings where people young and old are social and get a little bit out of their comfort zone to do silly things.

But the fun didn't end there. Max and his brother-cousin, Justin have birthdays 2 days apart. So there was going to be a family get together at his Uncle's house and Max decided we were going to make all of the family do minute to win it games. But I naturally had to take photos of Edwin in his old man clothes under the dogwood tree.

 And then there's my little tree climber.

 Anyway, I'm getting good at throwing these parties together...

Emma, showing us how it's done!

This was seriously the funniest thing to watch, 2 very old men doing the popcorn game. (finding the 3 blue kernels within a minute) There was mild cursing involved.

Annette being a good sport!

 

And there you have it, the perfect celebrations for Max. And I probably should write something sentimental here but I don't really know how. Hooray for being born Max, we really love you!!!

A wedding and a baby!

Well, this post was going to document an amazing weekend of a family wedding and a new nephew. Which is all super exciting. Then I realized that I had a bunch of other photos in my phone that don't need their own post so they are going here too. 

So here I go...

I've been trying to convince my mom to come down to Portland to watch my kids on a Saturday so Max and I could go to the temple. She was finally able to do it. And she and Don came down with the works to make a gourmet breakfast with the boys. So Max and I got to enjoy a much needed date!

So we took these Not-so needed selfies. We enjoyed walking around and counting 4 weddings and wondering when brides started looking like little babies. we are getting old. 

 Immediately after our date we loaded up in the car to make our way to Salem for a Baertlein family reunion. And we were super late but we were able to see some relatives and I only took a couple of photos by the stained glass!

And this odd photo of a bunch of Baertlein boys managing their excessive energy with wall sits. 

That time Edwin was just being adorable...well that is most of the time!

 He saw his brother peeing in a bush and was trying to figure it out...

On Labor day, Charlie and I were awake before everyone else so we decided to take a run to the new park by us. We had the park to ourselves and it was an excellent impromptu mother/son date!

 And of course there are going to be chickens in this blog post...they only sleep up in the rafters now. Weird birds.

 But they have bonded nicely/

But one night right after we built our run...they got confused at night and one of the birds (Rita) decided to fly up into a tree instead of go into the coop, and it was really hard to get her down. Max eventually broke off the branch she was on.  Cool story.

 And we are still enjoying our baby chicks, which are a lot bigger than this now....

Miles and I made a chicken swing one day, but the chickens didn't really like it. Charlie is forcing them to enjoy it here. 

 He's still a pretty big fan!

One day we had some errands to run near the temple and so we spent some time walking the grounds on a beautiful day!

And now we get to part of the main post. My Step Brother (weird technical term) got married up in Toledo Washington (about 1.5 hours north) Josh and his Bride Valerie looked stunning and the whole event was absolutely beautiful. It was great being able to enjoy a wedding and not worry about photos, but then again, I wished I had brought my camera, because it was a beautiful event!

 Miles would not leave Grandma's side, and didn't want to share her with Grandpa Don.

"Max eating a cupcake"

And I ironically didn't take a photo of the Bride and Groom but we are super excited for Jared and Valerie

 The following day we took a trip down to Eugene to meet our brand new 2 day old nephew. And I got to take photos of him and his family!

Anyway, the wedding and the baby were the main events of this post. Exciting times around here!