Lingering in Portland

Dec 18th- Jan 10th
Before we went to Portland for Christmas, we packed up our entire house in Bothell.  Eric got offered a temporary raise for a temporary transfer to Atlanta, Georgia. We figured our kids are young and not in school, we are young, why not? We also kinda wanted an adventure... We are close to Alabama where my older sister lives and we rarely get to see them. We are also close-ish to warm beaches and ports of call and other stuff out in the south I have never seen.
So we packed everything up and left it in our first home and drove to Portland. Eric came back to Bothell after Christmas to work and be there for the movers and the people taking our cars. Then my mom drove us up to Seattle to catch our flight to Georgia.  Me and the kids were in Portland for nearly a month and it was glorious. Here is what we did:

OMSI:

 Stark Street Pizza: (I don't care Ryan, it is actually the best tasting pizza I have ever had. Not even nostalgia-influenced)

 Tess and the boys saw their very first movie in a movie theater- Frozen. They all did surprisingly well. Or Eric and I thought they did because my parents took them out and around while the rest of us enjoyed the movie. So good. I got sisters. I related. And cried.
(You can't even see them because it's in a theater, duh. But it had to be documented)

Moroccan Dinner date with the other married's:

Bowling:

Watched the rain:

Ate grandma and grandpa's food:

Photobombed:
(I love Tess's reaction to Bruce's kiss.
And how Tess pokes his eye)

 Selfies with Lacey/Cici:

Took family baths:

Parks with cereal boxes of course:

Roy really struggled with naps while we were there.  They were in pack n plays and they can escape out of those so I had to lay in the hall so I could put Roy back in bed for the 29032378423th time. Bruce sleeps when you tell him to. Tess is ticked off for the first few nights in a strange place then sleeps like and angel/Bruce. So we were all tired but loved every second of it. I have the coolest family.

2013 Christmas in Portland

This year we spent Christmas with my family in Portland. A Parham Christmas consists of lots of eating, volleyball playing, playing board games, watching children's movies, and trying to convince ourselves that 5 babies don't slow us down.

We rode the tram (public transportation) to downtown portland. The boys loved it and screamed 'train' the whole way. I lost my phone on the flight to Georgia so I am lacking in many pictures. Still not over it. Southwest officially stopped looking. Anyway, we had fun running around the giant tree and getting hot chocolate.

All the single ladies:

In our house we have a Christmas program where you come up with a family activity, dress up, sing, and do some chimes. With so many little kids, we had to adjust like everything but it was so perfect. Kids really do make holidays even more fun. And sisters.

  How we play the Oreo game:

 How Tess plays the Oreo game:

 All of us siblings' first letters in our names spell out "BLACK"  So my mom made us these onesies:

 All we need is the 'B'. We are 'LACK'ing our little 'B'.

Santa got the boys these horsies. They play a song "I'm a little pony clippity clop clippity clop..." They pushed those buttons repeatedly and even Ryan would get caught humming "I'm a little pony"

 They LOVED opening presents.

 

 Matching PJ's // New best friends

The Santa pictures:

 

And the best part of Christmas was seeing baby brother. Africa is seriously lucky to have this missionary:

It was so nice to see family again. There's something about seeing your family love on your children. It's always so weird when we finally put them to bed and it's just silent. We really don't know what to do with ourselves. We did have some interesting revelations. One about who pees in the shower and who doesn't.  We raised our hands and let's just say the only two people that don't were in their 50's.  Ryan was in the room guys.