Titus

We went out in the middle of the week for a date, and it was so exciting!! We decided to go see a show by Titus Burgess. He's a Broadway guy and also a hilarious character in the  show "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" (It's on Netflix) He was doing a one man show and we had no idea what to expect but were just super excited for a night out. And even better news, we timed our date right so we were actually able to go out to eat before the show, for some reason, we always run out of time to eat and end up grabbing chipotle or something quick. We got to try out the Brunch Box which has been a restaurant we've heard about a bunch and never been. We had a tasty sandwich and sweet potato fries. 

 We walked a couple blocks to the show and still had time to walk around the theater before finding our seats, it was just wonderful because we always seem super rushed on dates.

We found our seats, which were surprisingly closer than expected just before the show started. The show was amazing, there was a lot of comedy but mostly singing. It was Titus along with a 3-person band (piano, drums, and bass) All the songs he sang were something significant from his life, he sang a song from Bette Midler that he performed in 5th grade, he sang a Gospel song that he would sing with his grandma while working on their farm, He sang poor unfortunate souls because he played Sebastian in the Broadway version of the Little Mermaid but had hoped he would get to play Ursula. And there were many other songs, many show tunes that had meaning to him. He is very talented and we enjoyed every minute of it. The website said it would be 7:30-10:30 so we got a babysitter until 11ish. Which we kind of felt bad about on a school night. But then the show ended after only one hour which was kind of a bummer but still impressive...but that meant we could still do more dating down town...oh and take bunch of pictures in the pretty lobby. 

With a couple extra hours (And still hoping to get home a little early to let Kaleb go home and sleep) we had a night on the town, At first we ended up going to Target to get some random items. I can't tell you how many dates lead us to Target but it's still fun! Then we were in search of chocolate and there was a nearby S'mores factory. 

It seemed so random and weird and over priced, but we decided to share a S'more that had sweetened toasted coconut and fudge in it.

It's called the 1927 S'mores company but it was established in 2015...hmmm?

Anyway, it was a sticky mess and we probably won't spend $5 on a s'more again. 

And that was our hot night in the big city. Such a fun and different date for us! 

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day. We love a good v-day celebration. Usually from the comfort of our home, so we don't have to worry about getting a babysitter or taking them away from their own potential Valentine. haha. Anyway, the boys woke up to a little box of chocolates then got to do the usual valentine celebrations at school..they came home and dumped and traded all their loot. (Valentines are gettin fancy these days..even when the teacher says NO CANDY!) 

Anyway...Thank goodness I took a picture of this food or else I wouldn't have remembered what we ate...I believe it was Mongolian Beef. And I think it tasted good, haha! Then all I remember is putting the kids to bed. Actually I don't really remember that, I just know that's what always happens next, I don't think we even gave them Chocolate covered Strawberries. 

 Max and I sat and ate chocolate covered strawberries and discussed some of our most memorable Valentine's days. I could really only think of 2, one when we were first dating in high school. and another when we were living in Utah and I had just found out I was pregnant with Charlie. (All the Valentine's days we had since having kids were a blur so thankfully we were able to look back at this trusty old blog and review many years of Valentines.)

Anyway, I'm going to describe the high school date since there is no record of it on this blog yet and even though I remember it 14 years later, it probably will slip my memory at some point. Max was a senior in high school and I had already graduated, (I was the bus driver, remember?) Max created a surprise date for us and I had no expectations. It was my first ever Valentine's day with a Valentine and we had only been officially dating for a couple months. First Max took me to the library and we said we are going to research about Valentine's day and figure out where it came from. I had already heard something on the radio about where it came from so I was a big buzzkill letting him know that I already knew. ha! I'm the worst. Then as we were driving somewhere else (the whole date was a surprise to me) max stopped the car behind Safeway near our houses. It was always a joke to go make-out by the dumpsters behind Safeway but we had never actually done it so we tried that out for a couple minutes, felt really awkward so we left for the next thing. Max drove me to a seafood restaurant, and he mentioned something about having to wait awhile since it's Valentine's day, only to find out that they took us to be seated as soon as we walked in. He had made a reservation, haha, pretty classy for a high schooler. Anyway, we loved our food and as we were eating, we found a set of gloves under the table. We passed them to the waitress and she thanked us profusely, she said the last guests had been calling trying to track down these gloves. Later in the evening, the waitress brought out dessert for us and said it's on the house because they were so grateful we had found the gloves. Being in high school and getting offered a free fancy dessert is basically like hitting the jackpot! And probably why this was one of the most memorable Valentine's days, haha.  
Anyway, after reading our blog, another V-day that stood out was when I was super pregnant with Miles, and Max had made a very thorough slideshow of our life together and I remember at the time, we were just so amazed at how far we had come in life since being "high school sweethearts" so it was funny to see how life had changed since he had made the slideshow and we only had 1 kid.

Anyway, after that big old trip down memory lane our disco dance party began! One thing that I'm pretty proud of is how good we've gotten at home dates. We really enjoy doing pretty much anything together so we have to consciously decided when we are going to do a home date then make sure we put our phones away and get our usual night time chores done so we can enjoy that date...This night we decided that our living room was a dance club. haha!

Pictures were random and awkward

And, let's be real, a lot of our home dates end up like this...we haven't matured much since high school.

Anyway, I don't know what else to write here, but hooray for free v-day dates and trips down memory lane. The next day, Max was one of a couple people that put together a family valentines dance party at our church...I didn't really take photos but her's our flyer, haha!

Oh and I took this photo of him making some sort of makeshift light-holder. bahaha

Anyway, it was fun to dance around with the kids, eat snacks, and then send them into the movie room so Max and I could dance....I'd like to think we've become better dancers through all this, but I'm not sure that's true. Anyway, Happy Love day!

Edwin is 3

My baby boy turned 3 last month, and it certainly has been a crazy month for multiple reasons but let's look back at a simpler time...

In the last couple of months he has come out of his shell in so many ways. He's always been a little timid around pretty much anyone besides his family, and it will take him a bit to warm up to other familiar people. When we went to the bus stop he would hide behind me if anyone was looking at him. He tried to always hold back his emotions if there was someone unfamiliar near by. This seems like something of the past with his new 3 year old self. He has found a new level of confidence and sass that we didn't see coming. We've seen him telling off his brothers making them cower. Most of his intense "personality" has come out in the last 6 weeks so that probably wouldn't be fair to focus on that for this birthday post since he was quite the angelic child up until the beginning of the year. 

Edwin is a wonderful little sidekick. He's pretty easy going and just tags-along anywhere we need to go. He is my easiest child to take places because he has some awareness of where I am. It's been so fun to have time with him while brothers are in school. We've been able to do swim classes together and gymnastics. Occasionally we get out to the children's museum or zoo or parks, but most of our outings include the grocery store or Dr appointments.

He loves dogs, specifically his dog stuffed animals. I haven't had a kid love stuffies in the same way before. It's cute to see him take care of his doggy and let me know when his dog is sad and see how he comforts his sad dog. He loves real dogs from a distance and always wants to pet them until he gets close. He was also bitten by a dog a month ago and he's been more jumpy around dogs and he gets startled when the chickens follow him which has never been an issue before. Leash your dogs people.. My baby spent 5 hours in the ER and still has a mark on his leg, luckily he's still doing pretty well.

Monster trucks and cars are his favorite toys, he will usually have his hands full of them at any given moment and they are also always scattered across our floors and any surface in our house. That being said, he is very good at playing by himself. I was worried he wouldn't know what to do with himself when his brothers went to school but it turns out that he likes his quiet play time.

He cruises on his tippy bike and will ride it through our gravel rain or shine. Hopefully he will move up to a bigger bike this summer. 

 We started potty training him at the beginning of the year and that has been going great. I haven't done night time or nap training yet because I'm lazy but we're going to run out of diapers soon so that will be a thing.

 The words "I hate..." have come out of his mouth more frequently. My older boys didn't even know this was a phrase (Side story: Once when Charlie was 4 or 5, he fell down at the park and scrapped up his leg pretty bad, I could tell by his cry that it hurt really bad and he screamed...really loud... "This...is not....my favorite!!!!!" Like he didn't even think to say he hated it.) But sadly, that word has entered all of my boys; vocabulary and Edwin uses it way too much...He says he hates me frequently, and he hates our house and if he's mad at a brother he will say he hates them. In contrast, he also says he loves us, it just depends on what mood he's in. 

 Edwin has never been a big risk taker, it wasn't until recently that he would slide down a slide without holding someones hand, or jump off of an elevated surface, or climb out of his bed. But he does all those things with confidence now. Like he finally started climbing out of his crib day one of quarantine. I didn't really need that in my life but I guess I can be grateful that he waited 3 years instead of 18 months. like his brothers....

Anyway, this was his first birthday interview which was fun, now that he's a pretty great talker. 

Name: Edwin Baertlein James

Nicknames: Doggy doo doo

How old are you? 3 (Pronounced fwee)

What is your favorite color? Ummm..light blue

What is your favorite animal? umm...doggy doo doos

What is your favorite book? "umm....Cars 2"

What is your favorite TV show? "umm...Cars 2"

What is your favorite movie? "ummm...I already said my movie"

What is your favorite song? "ummm....Cars 2"

What is your favorite food? "ummmm um um....potty train treats"

What is your favorite drink? "ummm....blueberries and green cups" 

What is your favorite snack? "umm..Z-bars and applesauce"

What is your favorite treat? "ummm...chocolate chips"

What is your favorite outfit? "church clothes"

What is your favorite game? "ummm...uh, uh, Don't eat Pete"

What is your favorite toy? "um....Lightening McQueen!"

Who is your best friend? "Ummm...Mater"

What do you want to be when you grow up? "a cat"
What is your favorite thing to do? "Ice Cream sundaes"

What is your favorite thing to do outside? "Drive the tractor down a bumpy road....It's the bumpy road song"

What is your favorite holiday? "Ice cream and chocolate chips"

Where is your favorite place to go? Store that has pjmask cars....see video
 never mind, I can't get the video to load and it's already taken way too long to post this.

What is your favorite restaurant? "Um um restaurant...like pretzels and circle things and chocolate milk"

Where do you want to go on vacation? "Where the tram is uh and go outside Daddy's work"

What do you love? "Umm....ice cream and chocolate chips"
 What did you do on your birthday? "I put lightening McQueen and Mater on my cake"

What is Mom good at? "poop in the potty and then get a treat"

What is Dad good at?  "uhhh....Skateborading?" ha, well if he is, I've never seen it!

What is Charlie good at? "just playing so much put on the colors"

What is Miles good at? "Painting"

What is Edwin good at? "Ice cream and chocolate chips"

What makes you laugh? When Doggy does like this..." Makes his stuffy be silly

What are you afraid of?  'Umm...skeletons, skeleton robots"

What do you like to do with your family? "Like to swim"

What do you love to learn about? "Church"

Tell me a joke? "I can, like knock knock who's there?" "Who?" "Um...cow...rawr"
What is something you learned this year? "poo poo in the pee pee"
 What makes mommy laugh? "umm..." he starts making obscure noises and flipping all over the couch. 
 What's a nice thing you have done for someone?"Ummm....no one"


For Edwin's birthday, we celebrated a little early since Max was going to be participating in a sleep study at his work during Edwin's actual birthday so after big brother's had their gymnastic class, We went to the Children's museum together as a family. I've never been on a Saturday, and at the end of the day, it was crazy and the toys were a mess but it was nice to have two adults chasing these kids. I mostly stayed with Edwin. 

 We stayed until they kicked us out then grabbed a pizza on the way home. Chowed that down and brought out Edwin's requested birthday cake. He had told me we wanted a car cake and a doggy cake so we incorporated both into one cake. It is the fanciest cake I've ever made and I was really proud of it. The boys all helped at some point. 

One of my favorite phrases he says is 'This is delicious mom!" He mentioned that a couple times while eating his cake.  

He also requested that there is a chocolate chip doggy poo....so that happened, of course that was the piece everyone wanted. Boys are weird

So good!!!

Anyway, we spent the evening opening his gifts. He got a paw patrol car, and a cape, and stickers. 
We are so thrilled Edwin is ours forever.