Last Saturday

We took the kids out to explore some property where we may move. We knew we had to get out to enjoy the gorgeous weather. But first the girls danced to music in the parking lot while we waited for BR to get our sandwiches.

6 months old

Beckham is 6 months old now. He is such a cute little chubby man. We love him around here. Just in the last few weeks, I have noticed a huge jump in his development. He is starting to do so many things, and is really growing out of his newborn stage. A few bits about Beck-a-roo

• He LOVES to be swaddled, and always has. He is a cuddler. When he was born, he would sleep great, but only if he was curled right up next to me. I had to sleep on the couch with him in a laundry basket next to me, and my hand on him to ween him from having to be in the bed with me. And always, if I would hold him to put him to sleep, he would burry his nose in my armpit and be out. Now he has settled for being swaddled. As soon as I wrap him up tight (the tighter the better) and give him a passy, his eyes roll back in his head, perfectly relaxed.
• He smiles at everyone he sees. All of our kids have been smiley babies, and haven't really been afraid of strangers, but this little guy smiles at everyone who looks at him.
• He is really scared by loud noises. Everytime, his lower lip juts out and he starts to whimper.
• He weighs more than either of the girls weighed at 1 year, and is growing out of his 9 month clothing.
• He loves to kick, kick, he is constantly kicking.
• He loves to play with toys and puts them straight in his mouth. His absolute favorite toy is a crinkly wrapper, and will cry if he drops it.
• He LOVES his bottle.
• He is an eater, and still eats (no solid food yet) about every 3 hours.
• He always smells good, even after he spits up all over, he still smells sweet. I don't know how he does it.
• He'll cry, and as soon as the problem is fixed, he is over it immediately.
• He loves his toes.
• He is always warm.....maybe hot is the word.... He always wakes up sweaty.
• When he is tired and gets excited, he tenses up his face, opens his mouth and growls.
• He loves it when I "eat" his neck.
• He LOVES to be thrown in the air.
• He babbles, and especially loves to say, "Bwaaa, baa,baaa, Bwaaa."
• Whenever I hold him facing me, he will open his mouth wide and try to "eat" me.
• He has the softest, squishiest skin on the planet.
• We adore him.

Her toothless grin

I was so sad for Liv to lose her first teeth. Mostly because I loved her little teeth, and losing them meant they were gone forever. But look at this cute smile. This picture was taken 2 weeks ago, and she has since lost 2 more teeth, and there is another one about to follow. That will make 6!

*I had to laugh when Liv came running down to me with her mouth slightly bloody and an excited expression on her face. She knew that her second front tooth was loose enough for me to pull it out. I was surprised because it hadn't been very loose that morning. When I asked her what happened she said, "Well, Gwen and I were fighting, and I thought about biting Gwen, and when I put my mouth on her back, I felt my tooth pop." Biting usually isn't an issue around our house, and I guess the one time Liv thought she'd try it out, her teeth didn't hold up =0). Better luck next time.

Boston

A while back, we planned a trip down to Boston to visit our good friends, the Plachinta's. Sadly, their little girl, Lilia, got sick the day before we got there and plans had to change. We decided to try out Priceline and booked a hotel. Over all, it was a fun little 3 day weekend trip, which included our first try at sleeping all 3 kids in one hotel room. After the first night, I learned an important lesson... Liv and Gwen in one bed is not a restful experience. Gwen woke up at least 10 times to Liv's kicking/cuddling. Beckham is the only one who slept through the night. We learned our lesson and put Gwen on the floor after that, and we were all much happier the following morning. Our activities included going to the temple, swimming in the Hotel's pool, going to the Boston Children's museum, and eating yummy food. Brad and I would freely admit that, other than the temple, food is our biggest draw to visiting Boston. We dream about it the whole drive down. Legal Test Kitchen was my favorite this time around. Here are the pictures of our fun. I think the girls would be happy if we had skipped everything else and swam the whole time.