big bottle boy

here is our nearly 6 month old little beckam baby feeding himself for the 1st time :) he is getting so big! he doesn't hold his bottle for a full feeding or anything, but it's nice that he can hold it for a second if i need my hands for something, and it's so funny to watch him go all cross eyed focusing so hard. so cute!

oh and i have been trying to upload a video on to my blog for forever now, but it just won't work, so here is a link to a video of our little guy and his new talent on youtube :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTpPqLzgOKk

also, this has got to be the cutest little laugh you have ever heard. beckam was a little bit fussy the other night, so dust started swinging a towel around and hitting the floor with it, and becks thought it was just the funniest thing he'd ever seen and was actually giggling! it was so stinkin cute, so check out the video here if you want....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVR_X9zswz8

multnomah falls

i guess portland is home to the 2nd highest year round free falling waterfalls in the US, and it's just down the freeway from us, so we decided to make the most of our memorial day weekend and went to check out the most visited attraction in oregon! it was crazy busy but crazy beautiful too. i know you can't get the total picture of how high these falls are, but they start 620 feet up there!

 

you cross under the freeway to get to the base of these falls, and you can walk up a little ways to get a better look or hike right up to the top. we opted with the better look with it being close to beck's bed time, and we can't wait to take him to the top one of these days. he loved his new little carrier, and i loved that dust decided to take some time away from studying to enjoy the weekend with us, and it was really fun to tour around this great city a little bit!

 

here's becks taking in the falls. he loved hanging out with dad and facing foward so that he could see everything along our little trek. the hat's a little big as you can see, but i guess he's ok with watching the ground cuz he didn't make a peep!

 

splashin in the sun

it seems like there is a little lull in the blogging world these days, and i have had a few complaints from home now on the breaks between my posts, so here are a few to play some catch up :) becks is loving the water more and more these days and has actually figured out how to have some fun with it too. he splashes up a storm in the tub as you can see, and he loves the new little water park that we found downtown.

 

he mostly loves to watch the other kids play in the water, and he just watches the water come up on his feet while i hold those cute little toes in it. clearly, he's not a fan of sitting in the cold outside water in his little diaper, but i'll work on remembering his swimming suit next time and give it another try :)

 

becks is a regular water loving baby, and i know i already put this picture of me and my boy up, but isn't that smile just the most contagious thing you've ever seen?!? makes me smile every day, that's for sure :)

 

4 weeks and counting!

so, we get to come home to the wonderful country called canada in 4 weeks and counting, and we can't wait! we miss our families and our friends and just the little things from home, and we are so excited to spend dust's next break up in the great white north :) yay! here are some random pics from lately that never really amounted to their own post, so they go all jumbled into one - enjoy!

just me and my boy enjoying the portland sun! isn't he getting so big?!?

 

here's my sleeping boy. he seems to be taking after his dad when it comes to sleep - he can do it anywhere and in any position, and when it's time to sleep, there is no stopping him!

 

 

beckam and dad playing on the grass and reading some books together. becks just loves his dad and saves his biggest smiles for their guy time together :) so cute!

 

here is becks helping dad make me a yummy mother's day breakfast - thanks to my 2 favorite boys! i had a great day and just LOVE being a mom :)

 

and....we got to talk to my most favorite brother (elder hill) who is serving down in conway, arkansas on mother's day. it was so fun to hear his voice, and here is beckam chatting with his uncle that he's never met. he loved holding the phone and even gave cars a few giggles. we can't wait for them to meet, and carson is doing so great and will be home in 10 months - yay!

 

i know there have been more videos than usual lately, but becks is just more active and doing more things, and the grandparents love watching him in action, so there ya go :)

becks tried his 1st bites of rice cereal this past week, and it went pretty good! he was very curious and unsure of what was going on, and i'm not sure if he's all that fond of the taste, but he swallowed and was good for a few bites, so i'm happy with that :) he seems to dislike it more and more as we go, but we'll keep at it, and he'll be chowing down green beans and squash in no time!

 

here is a video of our little guy who takes after his dad with his sleeping habits (for the most part). when he's tired, not much will stop him from sleeping as you can see. we were heading back from a park today, and lacey got in the back seat to try and keep becks awake til we got home so that he could nap in his crib, but she failed miserably as anyone would when he has his mind set that it's nap time. nothing she did could get those eyes open - so cute!

get those arms working!

here are a couple of videos that we took yesterday. it looks like becks wants to start crawling a little early, but his arms just won't work for him so not for now thankfully! we were pretty impressed with how strong he's getting though :)



the next one is just some bath time for the grandparents. he loves to splash around a lot more now and still looks forward to bath time every night!

new toys

we have found a few new toys to entertain our little becks, so i thought i'd share them with you :) firstly, he LOVES his new high chair! our friend julie was de-cluttering her house and was getting rid of her high chair, so we gladly took it, and i brought it out of our storage the other day to try it out. becks loves hanging out with me in the kitchen and playing with his toys from the tray. we have to put a blanket under him to make him high enough to reach the toys of course, but he loves it!

 

the next toy is hilarious to me, but he loves his new toothbrush! haha we always play in our big bathroom mirror and make faces together, but he often got sidetracked by our toothbrush holder. so, we gave him one for fun, and it now follows us everywhere we go :) it probably feels so good on his teething gums, and it's super cute to watch him play with it. we just have to make sure that he grabs it near the top so that he doesn't shove it down his throat!

 

and here's a video of the cutest new toy that becks has found - his voice! :) he loves hearing himself jibber jabber, and he hits some pretty high notes too!

mamma mia!

i know that lots of us are going to do mother's day posts on our blogs, and i know that most of you don't care to hear about how my mom is the best, but since i'm sure she doesn't get sick of hearing how amazing i think she is, here is my take on mother's day this year :)

first of all, i am lucky enough to have 3 mothers in my life, and i think i'll take a minute or two on each of them to honor them and to thank them and to pay tribute to them on this special day. cindy - you're first!

 

here's cindy - a mother to lots of kids and some kids-in-law too! i feel so lucky and blessed to have such a great mother-in-law. cindy is such an amazing mother and an awesome example of patience and organization and spirituality and purity and loyalty, and the list could go on and on. i love the spirit that is in her house, and i love the time that i get to spend with her. i want to be better when i'm with her, and i am better because of her love and example. thank you for accepting me into the family cindy and for making us feel welcome whenever we are in your home and for the cards and packages that you think to send us down here in portland. it means a lot to know that you're thinking of us, and we miss you tons and can't wait to see you this summer :)

next is mo mo, and there is a lot to say about this amazing woman too! she raised an amazing son, and i know that i owe a lot of who he is today (and he's pretty awesome if you ask me!) to her, and i am so thankful for that. mona has me in awe every time she smiles in the face of rough times or speaks and acts with patience and kindness in the face of negativity. she has such a happy positive outlook and is such a great example to me of enjoying this journey called life and being aware of the many blessings that we have each and every day. above our door hangs a sign saying - it's only a good day if you make it a good day - and the sign is a gift from her but so is the saying. she makes every day a good day and loves her children and grandchildren more than anything in the world. i was so excited to add her to my amazing mother list, and i'm so proud to be her daughter-in-law. love you mo mo :)

 

and....last but not least of course is my own mommy dearest! this lady is the epitomy of motherhood to me. she lives for her kids and her husband. she loves life and serves not only her kids and her husband but everyone around her, and she's happy while she does it. she works hard and plays hard and loves her "down time" which is usually walking the dogs or working in the garden or deep cleaning her laundry room. she never misses a game and is our #1 fan in anything that we decided to do. she is so supportive and loving and would drop anything to help out one of her kids. us girls love turning on some shania twain and dancing with our crazy mom while we do the dishes, and we love watching her make up her crazy moves as she goes. she is an amazing cook and has taught me so much about being a mom and a wife. she's an amaazing grandma to little becks, and she is a true friend and ya.....i just couldn't ask for a better person to be my mamma mia! mom - i love you, and i could go on forever about how amazing you are, and i wish i was there to celebrate with you :)

 

 

to all of you mothers out there - hope you had a super fantastic mothers day! you have the errand of angels and hold the future of the world in your arms as your rock your babies and wrestle with your toddlers and laugh with your kids and talk to your teens. keep up the good work :)

sick boy ambulance fun

so...here is my sick boy. he's been coughy stuffy heavy breathing boy for a few days now, so we had a jammie stay at home and sleep as much as possible day yesterday :) here he is in his cute pj's from cousin aj just chillin with his toy and watchin some tv!

 

today was more eventful though! i decided that i needed to be a good mom and make sure that becks just had a cold, so me and lace ventured to a walk in clinic with our sick boys this morning. it seemed like a nice clinic, and we had a nice nurse and doctor, but things turned not so nice when the doctor got a worried look on her face after listening to beckam's breathing. she said she didn't like the sound of it and that his saturation was only 84 when it should be 95+ (???). they did this little breathing treatment thing and then said that he was retracting more than he should be (using his tummy muscles to breathe) still, and then the talk of ambulance came up....WHAT?!?!? i was flabbergasted and of course asked if we could just drive to emergency, but the doctor said she didn't know what was wrong and couldn't take any chances and that was that....the sirens were sounding, and me and becks were both in for our 1st ambulance ride!

 

lacey took aj and went to my house to get some formula and to see if she could find dust at the school and then met me at the hospital. i'm sooooo thankful that she was there! tears welled at one point when i realized that i was miles away from family and from my doctor and from the canadian health care system and that my husband didn't have a cell i could reach him on and when i thought about the things that could be wrong with my little becks, and she kept me calm and encouraged me and then ran off to get everything i might need during our stay in emergency (love you lace!!!) they had me get on the stretcher holding becks with this giant oxygen mask on his face, and they strapped me in and wheeled me out through the waiting room with him in my arms (embarrassing/awkward/crazy?? uh....ya!). it was so surreal and so weird, and i was just thankful that he was allowed to suck on his soother with the mask on so that he stayed calm while they did their thing. the ambulance guys were so nice, and becks slept on the way there - he was so pooped and so cute.

 

we got to the children's wing in this christian hospital, and the nurses/doctor were so nice and so helpful, and after some temperature taking, some heart beat listening, some oxygen level observing, we got the news that becks has bronchiolitis - a common cold for an adult but a little more for a baby. we got a little puffer for him and a bulb syringe to clear out his congestion and a referral to a doctor for follow up, and that was that! the ambulance ride was kind of extreme for what we found out, but i'm glad that they took good care of us and assumed the worst and made sure that everything was covered. i'm also glad that we invested in emergency insurance coverage from back home cuz one of the emt's said that the base charge for an ambulance ride is $800!! that means we'll probably be receiving a bill for over $1000 some day in the near future, and thankfully we will send it up north and get a cheque back - whew!

 

anyway....that's our story from the day. becks was a champ - he was smiley and happy for the most part, and the only time i had to turn my head was when the respiratory therapist was clearing out his sinuses. becks didn't like that so much so neither did his mom! thankfully, lace found dust, so he was there with us, and thankfully we are home, and our 1st ambulance ride didn't result in any real emergency :)

 

enjoy the cute pics of our little guy in his gown getting top treatment from his mom and dad and aunt and nephew, and here he is totally tuckered out after leaving the hospital - so cute! thank you again lace for all you did to help :)

 

rollin rollin rollin

huh.....i have been trying to upload videos on this silly blog for forever now, and one finally worked! here is our little guy with his new accomplishment - rollin over :) he only goes from front to back for now, and are so proud of our little roller!



here's another one of becks just giggling and chatting with his mama - so cute!

calling all toddler moms!

so...my remember my cutest nephew ever? well, he still is as cute as ever, but he is causing some grief to his mom these days, and she is in need of some advice from all of you wise toddler moms out there! she just put a post up yesterday about a little fun filled grocery shopping trip with aj and is looking for some help with one entering what they call the "terrible twos." if you have the time, skim over it and see what you think. i wish i could help, but i'm not there yet and just feel for the gal who is expecting number 2 in under 2 months now - fun!

thanks blogger friends :) her blog is poytress.blogspot.com

some randoms

long time no see blogger world! i just haven't been in the blogging mood for a while, especially since my computer decided to pick up a virus from somewhere and get all wonky on me, but i'm back and thought i'd share a few randoms of our boy lately to satisfy the grandparents and to get back in the swing of things.....enjoy!

 

here's our boy in his bumbo, and this is how he lets me know that he's all done with his bumbo time - arches the back and tries his darndest to get out on his own - thus the danger warning about this little chair!

 

and it looks like becks is taking after both of his parents with his love of books! well, at least he loves the colors on the pages and the cuddle time he gets with dad :) good enough for us!

 

this is how becks lets me know that he's all done in his chair - slides down and tries to slide right out. i know i need to use the buckle thingy, but it's so restricting!

 

haha and this is our little guy trying to get his fingers in his mouth while trying to get the soother out - thankfully i caught him in the act and got this keeper :)

so there you have it - some randoms of the boy, and i'm happy to report that all is still well down in the rainy city of portland. becks is sick right now, and his little coughs and runny nose break my heart, but he is such a happy little guy, and i just can't get enough of this mom thing - love it!