We woke up to Charlie exclaiming that there is snow outside! Oh boy he was excited. It was a Sunday and we just switched to having earlier church so we couldn't go out to play right away. As it turns out, in true Oregon fashion, church was canceled after the first hour. Max still had to stay after for a bit to do some clerk work so I played in the gym with the boys for awhile. Eventually we got home, but for some reason I had only slept for 2 hours the night before so we decided all to nap instead of playing in the snow. Then after Max and I woke up we had a visit from our home teacher (member from church) we saw that it was nearing 4 pm and starting to get dark so I immediately got Charlie ready and Max woke up Miles to go see snow for his very first time. (You never know how long this snow will last in Oregon so we had to play in it right away.) By the time we went out there was freezing rain coming down but we didn't let that dampen our fun. Charlie loved crunching through the snow and our beautiful attempt at a snowman.
Throwing snow!
Then Miles was finally bundled up and ready to explore for his first time. He loved our little snowman too! (That's what he's pointing to in the photo)
He kept looking at his hands and saying "dirty"
Ok,..maybe I'm obsessed with his cute little face!
So, we don't have a sled. I know they aren't even expensive, but you would only get to use it for a day every other year around here. But we did have this old pool waiting for its spot in the garbage, and that worked as a sled. Classy, I know!
My favorite gentlemen!
More of the best faces!
We went to the driveway of the vacant house behind us, it is the steepest and scariest driveway around. And it turns out that it is great for pool sledding!
Do you see that incline behind them?
Miles wasn't as much as a fan.
We stayed out until the boys' hands were soaked through and it became dark.
There was freezing rain all night but the next morning it was cleared enough that Max still had to go to work, Since there was still tons of snow (covered in an inch of ice) on the ground we went out to play in it a lot. It is certainly a lot of work to dress all of us in our snow gear by myself.
We made some scientific observations with the magnifying glass.
It was super slippery. It was funny to watch Miles walk. Most of the time he wanted to hold my hand and say "slippery" repeatedly. Although it sounded a lot like "sleepy, sleepy!"
But Charlie was in heaven. Breaking and shattering pieces of ice seems to be an excellent pass-time for a 4-year old boy. He would throw pieces of ice at trees, stomp on them, and hit them with a baseball bat. He could have been outside forever!
My poor small-headed child.
The snow and ice didn't even cover the grass completely but it was still enough to have fun.
Peach Tree
Plum Tree
But this sweet face just kills me! He was being quite the charmer.
After some nap and quiet time we went out again to explore the "ice jungle" The bamboo became so heavy with ice that the branches were hanging over making a jungle in our yard.
Then Miles pulled off the carrots from our little snowman and started munching on them.
There you have it, an Oregon snow day, we are happy to see that the snow and ice didn't last more than 2 days. And now Miles has been introduced to the snow, and he is a fan. And Charlie continues to be a fan. And if that is all the snow we get this year, we may need to take a little trip to Mt. Hood.
Looking back on 2015 we realized there weren't many "big" events. We didn't buy a house or a car, we didn't have a baby or get pregnant. We didn't even really travel very far. But we had so much growth as individuals and as a family, which as it turns out, are pretty big things. If you read our blog, I guess you would know what we've been up to. But before I review the year, here are some of our celebrations.
We kind of like having a quiet New Years at home. The boys can go to bed on time and Max and I can enjoy a special home date. Also, we are not on the roads with all the drunk drivers (and all the marijuana smokers here now!) We have done this for a couple years and we love just reviewing our year together, setting goals for the upcoming year, and eating Chocolate covered Strawberries.
This year, we let the boys join in on the Strawberry eating.
We discussed the fun things that we had done the past year and what we'd like to do in the coming year, this must have been the normal dinner table distracted conversation because I don't really remember what the boys said. Oh well.
We then showed them a New Years countdown around 8:30 and put them to bed. They needed sleep and Max and I were excited about our date.
When the boys were asleep we pulled out the real chocolate covered strawberries which are not pictured since they ended up in our bellies pretty quickly. We drank sparkling cider, played games and discussed life. It was simple and wonderful.
We discussed (and listed) some of the highlights of 2015 which include increased adventures as a family, such as more camping trips, beach trips, a rafting trip, forest outings, and hotel stays. All things that used to feel somewhat daunting. We both feel like we have become more confident in our parenting and we are loving the dynamic of our family of four. Now that Miles is a little older it has been fun to try to do more as a family. (we are still quite imperfect parents, but it is nice to know that we are improving). We feel that our marriage is even stronger as we constantly try to support each other in all of our endeavors and express appreciation for each other's contributions to our family.
In our home we finally have kitchen cabinets and no lead in or outside of our house...(ok we're still figuring out the upstairs bathtub but we are close.) This is a huge accomplishment.
Overall, our whole family has improved health and we eat more nutritiously. Miles' lead issue was taken care and we are staying on top of Charlie's eye issues, he will need an eye surgery in the coming months but that should be routine and help his depth perception. Max and I are super healthy as of now, no back pain, or knee pain for Max! We are just getting stronger everyday. My excellent health is really something that I need to take the time to appreciate. Oh and Charlie started doing push-ups.
Financially, we completely paid off our car at the beginning of the year, and we've been saving up for a down payment on our first house.
Now let's brag about Max's accomplishments: At the beginning of the year his mom suffered a huge heart attack, she is recovering quite well now, but Max had to take over a lot of responsibility, such as being completely in charge of their finances and paying their bills, paying off their debt, going through the whole home buying process for them to get their house, fixing up and selling their cars, and cleaning out all their storage stuff left behind after they moved. It has been a huge task but it has also gotten his parents in a much better position. So it has been completely worth it for him. And I hope my kids are watching and taking notes...haha!
Dreamboat right?
As if that is not enough with his full time job, he also completely fixed up this house that has been the bane of our existence. One of the properties we manage has been mostly vacant and in need of serious repair for as long as we've lived here. It was a scary house, the first couple of times I went in it, I had nightmares the following nights that I was trapped in it with my children and we couldn't breath. BUT, Max has worked so hard to make it a beautiful and livable house that even I would live in now. It is mere weeks away from taking the final pictures and putting it up for rent. (stay tuned for a before/after photo post) This was a huge task and so satisfying to finally see it come together. Let us know if any of you want to be our neighbor and live in this lovely house. OH yeah, and a patio is being poured right now as I type this! So proud of that Max!
Oh but that's not all for Max, he was called as the ward clerk at the beginning of the year and has devoted a lot of time serving in the church in his calling. Not to mention he is a very involved father and husband! Man, we are lucky!
Oh yeah, and did I mention we started our own real estate business? That's been taking another chunk of time but we are having so much fun working together.
Charlie started Sunbeams and also started doing preschool with two of his best friends and me and the other moms as his teachers. He loves preschool and gets so excited about anything put in front of his face. He is always astounding me with his ingenuity and his inventive mind. He got to go on his first rafting trip did amazingly well.
Miles began walking and talking up a storm this year. He amazes us with his speaking and the things he picks up. He sings twinkle twinkle little star very well. He has the greatest personality and I'm in denial that he will ever hit the terrible twos or threes.
I feel that I have improved on my personal scripture study. Also, like I already mentioned, I feel like I've improved as a mom. I'm not so intimidated about taking my boys on different outings and to the store. I feel that I've become a better wife as I really try to take time to express my appreciation to Max for all he does for our family (and it's a lot!) I served as Charlie's sunbeam teacher (poor kid doesn't get a break from me) I have made vast improvements on my photography. I've also improved my nutrition and become stronger.
So all in all 2015 was a year of growth for us as we are always striving to be better. When we looked back at our goals in years past we saw that we are always progressing which is reassuring that we are actually achieving goals and moving forward.
And now we come to 2016 which will be a big exciting year for us.
Some of our goals include:
Buying our first home and delegating the property management stuff!
Traveling to Armenia for a photography storytelling workshop.
Traveling to Chile to see Walter and Melina married and baptized
Grow our business.
Charlie's Eye surgery
Buy a second car
Start potty training Miles
Finish Potty training Charlie...seriously the poop is killing us!
Get in bed by 11pm 3-4 nights a week.
Start printing my blog out
Print our yearly photo book
Quarterly temple attendance
Monthly Family Service project for FHE.
There are more and we still have weekly planning sessions to go over finances and make our weekly goals so I'm sure we will still accomplish a lot this coming year.
