Big Brother in Training

I always thought I wouldn't want my kids to have an army of stuffed animals. Actually I still don't want that. Charlie has a small collection and I would like to keep it that way. My negative opinion about stuffed animals has recently shifted a bit as I see Charlie starting to have some serious imaginative play with them. I've always known that these types of toys would provide Charlie with more enlightening experiences than anything electronic that claims to teach the ABCs

Charlie's favorite animal is his giraffe who we just call Giraffe. Also, Charlie has never been particularly clingy to any one animal, toy, or personal item. So starting a couple days ago we started using giraffe in our bedtime routine. We'd pretend to give giraffe milk and brush his teeth then Charlie in turn, would be more excited about these activities. 

A couple days later Charlie kept Giraffe with him all day long and made sure Giraffe had a chance in participating in all the activities that Charlie enjoys. Charlie laid down with Giraffe for a nap, (after wrapping him up in a blanket) 

Charlie also showed giraffe his favorite games on my phone and held Giraffe's hand as he attempted to let Giraffe push the buttons...(which doesn't really work in the days of touchscreens) 

(I've included some blurry phone photos to spice up this blog post) 

He helped Giraffe play with his toys

HE made sure Giraffe got food to eat. 

 He brought out a loaf of bread. and tried to put a piece in Giraffe's hand, then to his mouth. When giraffe didn't eat it, Charlie gobbled it down.

 Charlie brushed Giraffe's hair.

... and made sure he got his vegetables

Later, Charlie brought over a chair for Giraffe and looked at his favorite animal book with him. 

Later he tried to put a diaper on giraffe and of course give him milk to drink. 

These other pictures are from a couple weeks earlier when Charlie was trying to coach Giraffe. 

He set up Giraffe with the work out bands then stood by him and started doing squats. 

Another time, Charlie was practicing push ups in his bed then set Giraffe up to do push ups!

The thing I love most about this is that Charlie has learned most of these things from observing the way I take care of him. I also love seeing how patient and sweet he is with his Giraffe. I can only hope this is a glimpse of how he will be with his baby brother.  

24 weeks

They say that at 24 weeks along in pregnancy your uterus is the size of a soccer ball. I find this statistic particularly amusing. It's so crazy to see a soccer ball and think that it could fit inside me. Then I see these pictures and feel like an oversized soccer ball.

During  my pregnancy with Charlie we took these funny pictures so we could compare my belly with one Max's soccer ball belly. We are so mature!

July 2011

We figured we needed to do the same thing with this pregnancy to compare. I will be 24 weeks tomorrow, it was getting late and we were laughing like crazy and these are the pictures that came about. I know we probably look like children but oh well, we had so much fun with this. Also, we need to send a special thanks to our live-in photographer Justin. He is pretty handy to have around! 

December 2013 (24 weeks) 

 I love the following picture because Justin kind of captured exactly what we look like when we stay up too late and everything is funny. This was not posed.

And as the night got later we somehow ended up climbing under the Christmas tree and taking pictures.?? I know, we are weird but we sure know how to have fun!

Bus-Day

Our ultimate bus pig-out day was today. It is one of my favorite family tradition. It is basically a progressive dinner that goes all day long with my mom's side of the family. Eating all day long is sure a great plan for my pregnant self! Alright, we do go a little overboard but everything is so delicious! My mom drives the bus and we go to a bunch of different family member's homes for a food and sometimes an activity. We had six stops on the agenda one of which was our house. We start in the morning by meeting at the bus yard and hopping on the bus. Charlie was pretty excited about the freedom of being unbuckled on the bus. His freedom quickly led him to believe he was entitled to walk around and climb on the bus seats. We didn't really let him but I thought that was interesting. Anyway, with everyone on the bus we left for our first stop at my Aunt Deanna and Uncle Bryan's house where we ate Cinnabons and hot cocoa...not exactly the breakfast of champions but oh so delicious! For the first couple of pictures, I forgot my camera was on a certain setting so they all look kind of blue...whoops 

Charlie was certain that his place was in the driver's seat. He couldn't walk by without trying to climb up and drive!

Kim and Chloe

 Gwenevere and Lexi were pretty cute together.

Dishing up our cinnabons!

Max and Everett gad some chillin' on the couch time. 

This little guy is just so cute!

Charlie was checking out Everett!

My handsome Russian (but actually German)  man! 

Charlie got another driving turn before we left for our next stop!

 We then went to My Aunt Cindy and Uncle Doug's house for a delicious breakfast casserole and to play Christmas songs with the bells.

But of course before getting out off the bus, Charlie had to drive it again, this time Grandma helped him!

One of Charlie's favorite parts of the day was all the new things he could explore. He loved seeing all the different toys at each of the houses. He got particularly excited when Aunt Cindy pulled out the bells for the Christmas music.

This boy is just so handsome that I couldn't stop taking pictures of him.

Then we tried out some Christmas Bells, this was our first year with the new bells so we had a little bit to learn. 

 The kids loved it. there was a whole lot of extra noise with all the little kids having their own bell but it was still fun.

Mr. Kaden just woke up and would only make this face. It was so funny!

 Then we found a whole bunch of the kids were sitting in the hall playing with toys and then I realized that the adults were all playing with the bells, enjoying the time without all the extra noise provided by the young children.

 Max and Charlie took a very brief trampoline break before loading back up on the bus

 On the road to the next house, Uncle Jay and Aunt Natalie's house, Charlie decided to he was tired enough to sleep.

He fell asleep biting his lip. 

So then I go to the back of the bus where my 16 (almost 17) year old brother is sitting. I figured he was a teenager up to no good or at least playing on his phone or something...but what do I realize.? He was knitting. It made me laugh so hard that my baby brother was sitting in the back of the bus knitting. He's just cool like that!

 Then Max fell asleep with his baby boy.

 When we got to the next stop we were able to assemble all 42 of us to get a picture in front of the bus. It was kind of an exciting moment. This was the biggest group yet!

We then ate pulled pork sandwiches at Jay and Natalie's house in Vancouver.

This handsome cousin, Aaron, was fascinated with this elf hat dancing on his head!

 Charlie seriously loved seeing all the new toys that he doesn't get to see very often. He wanted to explore everything!

We then ventured to our house and packed our little living room and kitchen while Aunt Val read a Christmas story to the kids.  

We snacked on fruits and veggies at our house.  

We then went to my mom's house for soup and I apparently stopped taking pictures. From here we actually had to leave so we had to do some fancy planning to get our car picked up so we could get to our church's  Christmas party. We would have probably just skipped our church party but we had really wanted to invite Max's river Grandma and the church party was a beautiful presentation of the nativity with a dinner. It is one of those times where it helps us to re-focus on the true meaning of Christmas, and we knew that grandma Annette would enjoy it. Because we left early, we missed the last stop at my Red Grandma's house where they did the pinata which was kind of a bummer but we are glad we were able to spend time with Annette too. 

Anyway, this is an absolute favorite tradition among our family members. We've been doing it on the bus for 15 years and before that we just took cars. It started so we would have a chance to see every ones Christmas decorations and it has become something we look forward to every year. I've only missed one year while on my mission.