lightning strikes

i have never really been scared of lightning or thunder. i actually really enjoy a good thunder storm, but last night was crazy! i'm home in raymond for a little visit, and i was a little nervous when i was completely blinded by the lightning through our kitchen window last night, and then i swear the thunder was right outside our front door cuz the whole house shook, and we were minus electricity for 6 hours!


here's me and kait huddled on the couch together while dad got out the safety head lights as you can see! safety 1st with big ron :)



we made some good memories as we mocked dad's head lights (even though they really did come in handy!) and kait's pj's/spandex, tank, and socks and as we tried to stay quiet so that becks wouldn't wake up. here's the 3 of us tired girls at 4:30am enjoying the storm!


beckam slept through the whole thing after being fussy and awake with stupid teething for an hour before the lightning struck. as you can see, he made it into bed with me though - he's got me wrapped around that little finger of his! anyway, good thunder storm times at the hill house :)

mmmm....pickles

while we visited canada, dust told his mom that beckam was in need of some basketball type shorts. lucky for us, she found this little number, and it has quickly become one of our very favorites! (thanks gramma moj!) also lucky of us, one of beckam's fashion conscious aunts (thanks so much krissy poo!) got him this little pair of jordans. dust was soooo in love with them and has been counting the days til beck's feet would fit them. i'm not sure that he totally fills these baller shoes yet, but they matched his baller outfit, and i was bored the other day so we got him all dressed up for some pics :) we can just see him now.....slamming it down at sugar bowl!

 

he even stood by himself for a few seconds so that i could get a picture of my little guy all dressed up with nowhere to go! he's so stinkin cute :)

 

 

mmmm.....pickles is right! beckam loves him some pickle juice and loves to chomp on them and get all smelly and sticky, and those 2 little teeth have even chomped the end off a few times!

 

here's a few randoms too. it has been crazy hot here lately, but beckam just loves ths swaddle and can't sleep without it, so here's him all tuckered out in his crib hot as can be all wrapped up! whatcha gonna do :)

 

here's how we do laundry around these parts. beckam loves his mom and doesn't really like to watch me wander away from him, so when i walked out of the room to do the laundry the other day and he broke out into hysterics, i just brought him along! he was lovin life!

 

good times around these parts :)

surprise!!!

so with my birthday being celebrated in canada and with canada, i wasn't expecting anything besides some belated birthday wishes from my girls here in portland. july 1st makes it hard to do the surprise birthday party thing cuz it's all about family time and parades and rodeos and such, so just getting some happy birthday messages on facebook or phone calls along with the fireworks they have in my honor (of course!) make me a very happy birthday girl every year. so.....when lace said we had to go and pick up a text book for aaron last thursday, i was expecting to do just that, but boy was i wrong!


you'd think i would have clued in when we walked past a famous dessert restaurant and when she waltzed right past the host (to supposedly meet some guy who sold aaron his text book on craig's list - come on lyndsey!) to one of the back tables, but still - i was confused and completely clueless!


clearly, i was a little overwhelmed and super duper excited to find a table full of my friends smiling back at me, and i guess i just kept calling them all jerks - oops! i don't really remember that part cuz i was in total shock, but i did eventually make it to the chair tied with happy birthday balloons at the end of the table for me :)

 

lacey was the brains behind the whole shinanigan, and she did a fabulous job! she slipped a few times i guess, but i never caught on, so she must have covered her tracks well. she's awesome in case you didn't know, and i am so thankful to her for one of the best surprises i've ever had!

 

the night came complete with presents and candles and dessert and chatting and laughing and pictures and good times had by all :) it was perfect!

 

here's the 3 blonde girls in white - nicole, me, and val. nicole got in on the trickery when she told me she had to come over to practice her make up on me earlier that day. she wanted me to feel cute on my night out on the town with the girls, and she did a fabulous job! i did feel cute and special and on top of the world really :) thanks chickee!




here are all of us girls outside of papa hydens - the best dessert restaurant ever! i told lace on the way home that it was like watching a really powerful movie that stays with you days later and you remember parts of it and feel like they were real. so...i guess it was surreal for me! it started out as an annoying drive across the city to pick up a silly text book. then, it turned to shock as i understood why lace decided to bring her camera and wallet to meet the text book guy when i saw the table full of hot mamas. then, it turned to can't stop smiling happiness as i realized how good they got me and how lucky i was to have such awesome friends. then, there was full tummies after plates of dessert were served to us, and then there was my reflection on the way home of what a truly great night it was! i have the greatest friends down here, and i just wanna say thanks for an awesome night chickees! you're the best :)

 

hot hot hot

it has been HOT here lately! i have learned to love and appreciate the heat - as long as we're at the pool anyway. we go down with lots of moms and tots pretty much every day around 3:30, and we love it :) beckam kicks his feet and smiles big every time he sees the pool, and he doesn't take nearly as long to get used to the chilly water now. we love cooling off and visiting with friends and can't wait for 3:30 to roll around so that we can load up the stroller and head on down!

 

also, with the hot weather we've been having down here, there is ALWAYS watermelon in the fridge! we are watermelon loves to the extreme, and we recently found out that beckam is too! i love this curious little face :) haha

 

 

 

anyway, it's supposed to be like 38 here this weekend - burn baby burn!

berry lovin

i love summer for many many reasons - the sun, the walks, the holidays, the bbq's, the freezies and popsicles and slurpees, the air conditioning, the tan, the pool, the beach and so on and so on but......one of the most exciting reasons to love summer for me is the food!!! (namely fruit - lots and lots of fruit!) so, when lacey mentioned that some of the girls in the ward went berry picking and that she wanted to go, i jumped all over that :)

 

nicole and val loaded their combined 3 kids into a car, and lacey and i did the same in another car, and we were on our way to sauvie island for some berry picking! here are megan, erika, and aj all loaded up in the berry cart for a ride to the raspberry bushes!


there were soooo many juicy huge raspberries ripe for the picking, and we did some serious damage between the 4 of us!

 

lucky for lacey (or not so much when he wandered off without telling her!) she had a little helper in aj. he loved picking the berries and was so stinkin cute as usual!

 

my little guy decided to sit on a blanket, play with some toys, and try his 1st raspberry instead of helping mom pick.....here he is wondering what this juicy squishy red new toy is....


surprise surprise - straight to the mouth like everything else! haha


a little sour at 1st i guess!


in the end though - loved it! must take after his mom :)


here's us in the blueberry bushes. i love me my blueberry muffins and fresh blueberries - mmmmmmm!

 

it may not look like a lot, but i picked myself 8lbs of fresh summer berries :) it was lots of fun, and the snacking along the way did not disappoint either! bring on the jam and smoothies and ice cream with berries on top!

 

brilliant!

we quite enjoy a little restaurant down here called claim jumper, and we went there last weekend to find quite the brilliant little invention. now i'm a 1st time mom, so if you've already heard of this - please forgive me.

 

becks is new to the high chair world and is not new to the teething world, so this little sticky place mat is awesome!!! he always wants to chew on the edge of the table or the edge of anything, so this way, the gross edge of the used all day restaurant table is clean and he can chew away - yay! brilliant and he loved it!

 

oh and here are dust's flinstones ribs - haha he had to share them with the whole table in order to finish that plate off!

 

1st airplane ride!

here are a few pics from beckam's 1st airplane ride - our adventure from calgary to portland! it was all good while i had my mom with me to pull the crazy heavy suitcase or push the stroller with my 2 huge carry ons or hold becks, but when i was left to do all 3 of those things by myself, the adventure began!

 

i held beckam facing forward and pushed the stroller with one arm and then pulled the suitcase behind me through the 30 minutes we spent in the customs line. then, i looked like an idiot while i searched for all of our documents with becks in my arms, and when i finally made it to my gate (5 minutes before my flight was supposed to take off), beckam put on an intense poop grunt show, and i had to change him on my lap cuz it was time to board! haha it was quite the overwhelming experience!

 

once we got on the plane, becks did pretty good. it was a tiny plane, and we were seated next to this body builder of a guy of course, but luck was on our side when they moved him to an empty seat to give me some more room. becks slept for a bit and played with his toys and looked out the window and was a real trooper! every time he fussed, i felt bad for everyone on the plane and tried to shush him with something, and we made it without anyone freaking out on me - phew!

 

our plane was an hour late, so we eventually found dust wandering around looking for us, and i couldn't have handed the suitcase over to him any faster! we were so excited to see him, and becks was all smiles for his long lost dad!

 

overall - a little overwhelming and i learned that 2 is better than 1 when you're traveling with a baby :)