Dreaming of a White Christmas

A white Christmas isn't in the cards in Portland, but we did get our first little snow on Friday.

The view from my bedroom window first thing in the morning. 

It was really coming down for a while, but had lightened up by the time I got Rosie down for her nap and Liam bundled up to go outside to see it. He thought it was pretty cool. I was probably even more mesmerized than he was though.

Oregon is full of Christmas tree farms. We found one just a few miles away from our house. Dan and I picked the biggest tree that we thought would fit in our living room. We were a little off and had to chop a few inches off of the base of the tree.

Liam was just a tiny infant during his first Christmas. We spent his second Christmas in California, so we didn't put up a tree that year. Rosie is really breaking me in to having a baby and a Christmas tree. She cannot get enough of it! I finally put chairs up in the hallway to block her off.

We went to another tree farm today so that the kids could meet Santa without the crowds at a mall. Meeting Santa last year did not go over so well. Here's what it looked like:

He did so well this year! After watching a Charlie Brown holiday movie, he wanted to write a letter to Santa. This is what it "said."

Santa comes tomorrow. That lines says, “Don’t say anything until Santa comes, okay?”

A cement truck and a car, I want both of them.

I am a good boy. I’ll tell him if I want to go pee pee. This is Santa Claus’s potty.

We talk a lot about the potty, can you tell?

Anyway, Liam brought his letter to Santa with him to the tree farm and gave it to the Big Guy.  

2 happy kids?!?! A Christmas miracle! 

Halloween Photo Shoot

Rosie is my little doll. Liam gets harder and harder to photograph every passing day.

Happy Halloween!

Birthday Shenanigans part 1

We don't really have any friends here yet, so Liam isn't having a party for his upcoming 3rd birthday. Instead, we drove to the coast last weekend to take a ride on the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad. Since it was close to Halloween, there was a special "Pumpkin train" where the kids dressed in their costumes and got to choose a pumpkin in the freight car.

We started off in the dining car and had the most amazing view while we ate ice cream.

 After our snack, we made our way to the outdoor seating and enjoyed the views. The train would honk its horn when crossing the roads though. Liam and Rosie didn't car so much for that, so we went back inside after a while.

The whole ride was an hour long, which was the perfect length for the kids. 

Happy Fall

We are having such a gorgeous autumn here in Oregon. The weather has been sunny and warm and the leaves on the trees are slowly turning red, orange and yellow. Liam gets a kick out of tromping through them during our afternoon walks. 

I tried to get a picture of Liam throwing the leaves up in the air, but they all turned out like this:

Apple Picking

Several of my friends from Florida posted pictures of beach activities today. We are pretending like it's autumn already in Portland. We've had several days of cool weather already, though today was warm. We took a long drive along the Columbia River Gorge, saw Multhnomah Falls and drove through Hood River to a sweet, little orchard called Draper Girls Country Farm to pick apples. 

We gave Liam an abbreviated science lesson about apples growing on trees. He wasn't as interested in picking them as I had hoped.

If you know nothing else about Rosie, know that Baby Girl loves to eat. She got really excited when we started filling the bucket with apples. She wasn't so thrilled about the fact that Liam wouldn't let her eat one.

My sweet, sweet girl.

The minimum for picking your own apples was 20 lbs, so I'm in desperate need of some good ideas of how to use them all before they go bad. Suggestions are welcome!

Welcome (back) to Portland

I'll blog my pictures from our vacation to California soon. We returned on Saturday with a new member of our household. My sister, Morgan, or Aunt Mo as Liam calls her, is going to be living with us here in Portland. It was also Labor Day weekend and Dan hadn't seen the kids in almost 3 weeks, so we packed a lot of fun into one weekend.

Saturday night we cooked hot dogs and s'mores on the roof of our building. Morgan and I definitely enjoyed the cool Portland evening after spending time in Southern California in August.

I told Morgan that she is officially a city girl now having cooked out on the roof of our apartment building. 

Liam kept talking about the "sparkling hill." It turns out that there was light shining through the slits in the rattan lounge chairs. He's so funny.

Sunday morning we went into Downtown Portland for Voodoo Doughnuts and the walk around the Saturday Market (which should be called "Entire Weekend Market.") The Voodoo Doughnuts were awesome.

I asked Liam if he wanted a doughnut with sprinkles or M&Ms. It was an easy choice for him. He ate very little of the actual doughnut, just picked the M&Ms off of the top.

The Saturday Market is made up of dozens of small vendors stalls and food trucks. There were some amazing artists. When we started back to the streetcar stop, I noticed a lot of people smiling, pointing and "aww"ing at my kids in the stroller.

They are pretty cute.

Funny Dan story, 'cause those are my favorites. Dan got Rosie dressed in the morning before we left. When I picked her up in line for doughnuts, I noticed that she had dark pink bloomers under her onesie. I asked Dan what was going on. He said, "They are her panties!" She also had a diaper on and her onesie snapped over top of the bloomers, so I still don't know the purpose.

Also, check out Rosie's crazy laughs.

6 months old

My sweet little Rosie's first year is already halfway gone. She is such a sweet, happy girl and I can hardly remember our family without her.

She usually wakes up once per night. She is still nursing like a champ. I've started giving her tastes of food. I'm going to try out the Baby Led Weaning method for introducing solid foods to her in hopes of not having another picky eater.

She sits up by herself pretty well, though I don't leave her without pillows around her in case she falls over. She doesn't roll over with any consistency yet, though she likes being on her belly.

Rosie loves Sophie the Giraffe (her baby chew toy) and Liam. He is pretty good with her most of the time.

She laughs so hard when he plays with her, even when he's a little bit rough.

I love these next photos of Rosalyn. They are straight out of my camera, just the product of gorgeous light, an adorable subject and my favorite 50mm lens.

I love Rosie so much and I am so thankful for her. I can't wait to watch her grow up and see who she will become.

Settling In

What an insane weekend! Portland is lovely so far. Ask me again in February though.

Our apartment is cute and in a neat part of town called South Waterfront. There are a bunch of shops and restaurants on street level. There's also a nice park with a splash pad. We've been going out for dinner almost every night. My favorite so far was a Vietnamese place called Bambuza. Liam got a kick out of me feeding him with chop sticks. 

We wasted no time finding the Portland Temple our first day here. They have tours of the grounds during the summers so we're planning to go on Sunday for a proper exploration and photos instead of just a drive by.

Our realtor drove us around the areas in which we think we want to buy a home. The kids have spent a lot of time in the car lately. They are great most of the time, especially when sleeping!

I'll have a 6 month update on Rosie as soon as I upload the pictures from my camera. I'm also doing a real house hunting trip tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!