Liam: Five Months Old

Liam is five months old already!  He's such a smiley, happy little baby boy and so much fun to be around.  Lately he loves to be in his jumperoo and is usually bouncing his legs around even when he's not in it.  I guess he fits the "bouncing baby boy" stereotype quite well.  His unofficial weight is 16.5 pounds and he still fits nicely in his onesie. 

I'm not sure if turning five months is supposed to be so serious, but Liam sure looks somber in these pictures.  I usually take a few pictures and here are the four I took - almost the same exact expression in all of them, and that includes a few where Chad is trying to make him laugh! 

So here is my serious boy, surrendering to the fact he is five months old:

Slip and Slide

Remember how fun slip and slides are?  To double our fun we put two of them together on a recent hot weekend.  The boys had a blast and those of us watching them did too!

The Hotelo Part 2

After Chad was done with his work in Pierre we spent the next 2 nights in Chamberlain.  Hotel pool?  Check.  City park?  Check.  That was all we needed to keep busy while Chad was working!  Beckett must have had a grand time because several times since we've been home he has asked to go back to the hotelo. 

The view from our hotel!

Proud mom moment:  Beckett helped me get ice and broke into singing Ice Ice Baby after we filled the container. 

This is a 419 pound marlin that was caught in Hawaii.  Beckett was as excited about pointing it out the 12th time as he was the first.

 Beckett is quite the little fish and loves the "biiiiiiiig pool!"  Can you tell he has a small pool at home?!

I Present to You: Prince William

I posted earlier about our fear that some day Prince Harry might get lost and we wouldn't have a backup.  After searching UK Ebay, I found what I thought to be the perfect stand-in.  Upon arrival in the U.S. I found this bear is a bit larger than Prince Harry.  So, introducing Prince Harry's older brother, Prince William!

Not nearly as loved on as Prince Harry, but hopefully an acceptable substitute should we ever need him in that capacity.

The Hotelo

The boys and I are traveling with Chad this week.  He has work to do in Pierre and Chamberlain, so we decided to tag along for a little fun.  We arrived in Pierre Sunday and have kept busy since.  Before our trip I sent away for a Pierre Visitors Guide to plan some activities, but Beckett couldn't be happier swimming in the hotel pool!  Actually, he calls the hotel a "hotelo."  Apparently I need to enunciate things better. 

This afternoon we'll drive to Chamberlain to another hotelo with a pool.  Here's what we've been up to in Pierre (besides swimming which I failed to get a picture of). 

Prince Harry at the State Capitol.  Coming from the Royal Family, he is very interested in American politics.

Feeding the ducks on Capitol Lake.

The turtles were hungry too!

And so were the big, fat, gross carp!  I know they can't crawl out of the water and get me, but I was very creeped out by the carp.  And they were just big bullies to the ducks and turtles.

Besides pool swimming Beckett was content spending lots of time playing with sand and throwing rocks in the river. 

We went inside the Capitol when Chad got off work.  The red arrow is pointing to Paul Paulson, Chad's great-grandfather, who served in the House of Representatives for the state from 1915-1918 and again in 1927-1930.

Beckett points out Herman Paulson, Chad's grandfather, who also served the fine state of South Dakota from 1961-1972.  Pretty neat!  Even though I'm sure they were both Republicans.  :)

The boys and I have had lots of fun on our trip so far, even though this picture would indicate otherwise!

I Won Something!

Remember my post showing off the curtain rod art display in my home?  The company I purchased the wall quote from has a monthly contest so I submitted my photo in the hopes of winning a $50 gift certificate (for even more wall quotes!)  I didn't win the monthly prize, but I received a mention on their blog and a smaller gift certificate!!  How fun is that? 

Thanks for letting me brag.  :)

Here is the link highlighting the curtain rod idea.  Of course now I need to decide which wall quote to order next!

Brought To You By the Letter B

Several weeks ago I started doing a "letter of the week" with Beckett.  We focus on one letter of the alphabet and try to incorporate that letter with our activities that week - whether it's somewhere we go, something we eat, or something we talk about.  I cannot take credit for this cute idea - I stole it from my friend Emilie! 

We do not go in alphabet order at my house.  We started with P (for Paulson) then went to D, B, S and our current letter is L.  (After P, D and B I realized I needed to pick a letter that didn't sound or look so much like those.  I'm going to confuse the little guy!) 

Our most successful letter so far has been B.  I don't think we could have packed much more into that week, and I had cooperative friends and family that helped reinforce our letter.  Here is a glimpse of our week with the letter B.

We started the week having burgers at grandpa and grandma's.  I also got to meet their new puppy, Lizzie!

Then it was off to Nana and Papa's for a few days.  Here is Beckett's bare butt swimming in the pool.

Baking bars with Nana.  We also went to the bakery where Nana works to have lunch with her.

Visiting a wildlife refuge in Missouri Valley where we saw lots of birds, had a snack of berries, and learned about the sinking Bertrand boat.

We also blew bubbles with Aunt Glenda.

Beckett spent a lot of time bouncing on the trampoline in his blue crocs.

And not to be left out, Liam did some bouncing as well.