Charlie is 2

On the 12th Charlie turned two...actually the date was 11-12-13 which is pretty cool. He took his sweet time coming out so he didn't make it in time for the 11-11-11 birthday so we at least get to celebrate this significant date.

The morning started abruptly because I heard Charlie in the bathroom instead of his bedroom. This has never happened. He is in a toddler bed but rarely gets out. We also have a "child proof" door handle on the inside of his door so he shouldn't be able to get out if he tried. It's more of a safety precaution than anything because his door opens straight to the top of the stairs. Anyway, I'm hoping it was just a fluke and I maybe didn't completely latch the door the night before. That being said he was just in the bathroom brushing his teeth (his toothbrush has become his favorite toy) and being as safe and happy (and proud) as can be.
Charlie got to eat oatmeal (his favorite) for breakfast. He gets to eat this more often now that he has proven himself in control of a spoon and he doesn't even get that messy!

Another reason that Charlie's birthday is special is because he shares it with a very special friend from Armenia. Siranush! I'm guilty of not keeping as close to her as I feel I should  but we at least made sure to give her a little birthday call before she went to bed in Armenia.

Then Charlie and I went to OMSI to have a special birthday visit. We haven't been there in nearly a month because of traveling and being sick so it was super fun. I remembered my camera, I even remembered to charge my camera battery before we left...the problem is, I left the battery plugged into the wall at home so I was still unable to take pictures at OMSI. I already have tons of pictures from our OMSI outings so I guess it's not that big of a deal.

We came back and Charlie fell asleep in the car. I transferred him up to his bed and he enjoyed a nice long nap.
When he woke up, we made his birthday cupcakes together. He loves helping in the kitchen, and usually I'm patient enough to let him help :) When he sees me in the kitchen, especially near the mixer, he will pull out "his" stool and set it up right by me.

He also got to taste-test the dough. Don't worry, there are no raw eggs in this cake mix. 

The following pictures make me laugh...when Charlie looked at them he said "mouth...dirty" he has recently found that he doesn't like being dirty.

Charlie is singing to himself in the next two pictures.

 When the cupcakes were ready and his present was wrapped. We went over to Max's uncle Jay's house for a small family party. We had pizza, veggies, grapes, and cupcakes.

Charlie was pretty excited about the pizza

 He then had fun playing with his uncle/cousins/relatives. And especially Mum-Z's dog.

 It's crazy what a difference a year makes, Charlie was a natural at blowing his candles out this year!

Charlie liked wrestling with his family members but it soon got pretty crazy and we had to pull him out.

 And then Charlie got to open a couple presents.

He requested Uncle Jay's help

 He absolutely loves the Rubber Duckies from River Grandma Annette. He had so much fun playing with daddy but I love this picture because of Mum-z in the background looking so happy and content when she doesn't even really remember us. She loved watching Charlie play.

He then got a little more playtime with his (Max's) cousins

Charlie gets to have another birthday party with his friends this weekend so we look forward to that.
We absolutely love our big two-year-old. He learns so much everyday and we learn so much about his wonderful personality. We look forward to his next year as he continues to grow and learns what it means to be a big brother.  

Brothers

We finally got to go and find out the gender of our little one. It seemed like we had to wait forever. Max and I both felt pretty sure it was a boy. He seemed confident actually when I just thought...'well, I only know boy so that is probably all I can visualize myself with.' I love the idea of having a second son but I also thought is would be great to have a girl experience (whatever that means) 

So here is the gender shot...

 To give you a clue...although I'm pretty sure anyone reading this already knows what we're having... The above picture is a booty shot with his legs on the bottom The large lump in the middle reveals our baby's gender! I'm not gonna lie...Max and I were both impressed. (And yes, I know I'll be embarrassed to show this blog post to my son when he's an adult)

It's a boy! Charlie's getting a brother...as of now..he doesn't really care but we're excited for him. Max and I have always thought we want more boys than girls and if we were only to have a houseful of one gender, we would definitely prefer boys. I say this but I'm absolutely positive we would love daughters if that is what we were blessed with. We are just excited. We'll have a house full of strong laborers! Future oarsman for our rafting trips. Max is excited to put them to work on future properties we will own. Haha, It will be funny to look back on this and see how things change as we get to know our children better and their personalities. All we know is that Charlie takes after his dad and his super strength so we know we've got that going for our kids...(seriously he already lifts weights, does pull ups, and does pretty great sit ups, and you can feel his 8-pack)

Anyway, here is our new little guy waving at us!

And here is the best profile shot our ultra sound tech was able to get, she got it after she had already made a CD of pictures for us so it isn't as clear.

We are definitely excited to welcome this little guy into our family. Not so much ready, but definitely excited. Adapting to two kids is probably going to be crazy but we are getting ready to take on the challenge. 

Halloween

We had big plans for Halloween, okay, not really that big but the standard things like pumpkin patches, pumpkin carving, and trick or treating! We were out of town for most of October with Max's hunting trip, the east coast, and Tacoma so the Pumpkin patch didn't happen. I was determined to take Charlie to a pumpkin patch the week of Halloween, alone if I had to. Charlie had started to get sick before we left for Tacoma and it got worse after we returned. He had a low fever starting the Tuesday before Halloween. Each day I was hoping he would be better so we could go have some fall festivities and each morning was promising with a low or non-existent fever but by the time his nap was done, his fever was back up. We went to the doctors that Friday and they couldn't find any possible explanation other than him having a cold so they said to come back Monday if he still had a fever. We ended up going back and they found an ear infection that was hard to determine at the first visit. So after nearly a week of being sick he is feeling a whole lot better...but this post is not about Charlie's sickness, we're talking about Halloween! He luckily was able to participate in a church's Trunk or Treat that was held the Friday before we left for Tacoma.
On Halloween day he was still pretty sick but we thought it would be good to get out of the house. Last year we started a Halloween tradition where we would take Charlie to all his grandparents' and great grandparents houses, instead of trick or treating door-to-door. I'm sure very few children have all their grandparents and great grandparents from both sides live within 10 minutes of each other. Another joy of being home in Oregon! We decided to take him out and see how he did with a couple visits. He did pretty well but by the end of the night, his fever was back up to 102. Poor guy. We're glad we finally found the problem and were able to treat it. The following are some Halloweenish pictures that are all out of order. But enjoy...

Pumpkin Heads

Max pulled out some of our past costumes and put them on Charlie, here he is wearing a do-rag. He also wore the avatar wig and tail

In the mornings, when Charlie wasn't feeling so sick we would get outside a bit. 

Tiger sighting in our jungle!

He refused to keep the hood on

He sure likes to help

Our pumpkins were never carved. This is a more recent picture from when he was feeling better. He sure likes playing with them though.

Daddy, Mommy, Charlie, and baby pumpkins!

Charlie is also batman in disguise

Visiting Grandpa on Halloween night. He wasn't feeling good at all. 

At the end of Halloween night!

And here are some phone pictures from his sick-days

He wasn't happy when he woke up from naps. We watched a lot of Sesame Street

His body got so exhausted that he would just fall asleep

Charlie was having a particularly rough day and Max came home for lunch, he immediately calmed down and fell asleep in his arms. 

Everett's Blessing

Last weekend we were able to go up to Tacoma to participate in our brand-new nephew, Everett's, blessing weekend. We have been lucky enough to attend all three of my brother's kid's blessing days. Everett was given his blessing in James and Elizabeth's home. Many family members were able to come together. It's always a good time when we get to spend time with this family. It also thrilled me to see Gwenevere's excitement the moment we walked in the door.

 After the blessing, Elizabeth and James had prepared an amazing dinner for everyone. Yum...

Everyone enjoyed giving Everett lots of cuddles although he most preferred to be with his mom.

Uncle Austin holding Everett

 This little girl is such a beauty. 

Cousin Taylor was scoping out the cupcakes

Charlie loved seeing all the fun kid stuff that his cousins had!

 Grace and Charlie loved each other at times and not-so-much at other times. They both sure know how to have fun and make up neat games but that 2-year-old possessiveness overtook each of them a time or two.

They made up this blanket jump rope game on their own then laughed and laughed

I was curious how Charlie would act around a new baby, seeing as we're getting one whether he wants it or not. He was definitely interested but also a little nervous to touch. He has the same reaction with dogs and cats. 

The brief moment he was happy in my arms!

I love seeing the cousins play together

This is Charlie being the gentleman that he is. He desperately wanted his Great Red Grandma to join in the dancing. She politely declined

Dear Everett, Your uncle is not as creepy as he seems :)

 After all of the family left we were the lucky ones that got to stay the night. Max actually had a test for the Seattle Fire Department the following day. I actually think Elizabeth planned the blessing the same weekend so we could make one trip...what a sweetheart!
It ended up being a bit of a rough night with Charlie and Grace not feeling too great but we survived just fine.

Big Blue Eyes

Grace and Gwenevere each have a very loved cat. Charlie got to hold one of the kittys. 

 The next morning was Sunday. Elizabeth made an absolutely amazing breakfast. I have a hard enough time cooking for my little family so she is constantly impressing me. We cleaned up breakfast and had some lazy time before church. Max left for his 5 hour test (not including the 50 minute travel time one way) around the same time we left for church. We were able to see Gwenevere in her primary program during Sacrament meeting. Her line was "My favorite creation was kittens" It was my favorite part of the program. She spoke it clear and perfect! Charlie and Grace enjoyed eating throughout the whole meeting then dancing together while the congregation sang "Called to Serve" as the closing hymn. Charlie did great going into nursery. He seems to do better in other wards as he has recently been more clingy in our own ward. Anyway, we came home and had some delicious chips and salsa. A Roemhildt tradition that I think my mom started.

And this is what happens when you have big sisters...you get buried in puppies. 

 Then I got to practice taking more pictures of these gorgeous girls. They will definitely pose more than Charlie so it made the experience a little better.

So stunning!

Gorgeous

The most beautiful nieces!

Gwenevere and Kiki

Now a family of 5!

We played until dinner time which is about the same time Max got home. He had some Chili and cornbread. ( I've recently noticed how much I document food on our blog....I don't know what this says about me but I think it's interesting) We ate then needed to pack up the car and drive the 2.5 hours back home so Max could go to work the next day.
Notes about Max's test: He feels that this is the best Fire Fighter Application test that he has done yet. He won't know his scores for a couple weeks but he feels confident that he did well. If he gets a high score he will be invited back for a chief interview, then if that goes well, he will be invited back for another chief interview and a physical test. I have never heard Max sound so chipper after a test so that is definitely a good sign. Fire Fighting is very competitive so we don't know what to expect but we did play a bit of the dream-game while driving home.

We want to especially thank The James and Elizabeth family for housing us on such a busy and exciting weekend. We love spending time with that family and hope a visit is in the near future.