My bakers

We have had a bread maker collecting dust in our pantry for years. Recently, Scott has become a bread making master. Yummm, fresh fluffy warm bread is the best! He occasionally has a little helper who likes to help mix the ingredients.

Getting close...

Liam is going to be crawling across the floor before we know it.  He gets up on all fours and either scoots backwards or lunges forward onto his tummy.



When he gets frustrated with crawling, we sit him up to play.  He stays like that for a while then gets frustrated because he can't reach something he wants.  See the theme?  He's ready to move so he can get what he wants!

We'll drink to that

We've started to introduce the sippy cup to Liam.  The jury is still out - he enjoys biting it, dropping it and banging it on his highchair; however, he is not yet super fond of drinking out of it.  All in due time - I remember this taking a while for Karsten to get used to as well.







Forget the cup - this caterpillar is more fun and doesn't hurt when I bop myself in the face!

Wordless Wednesday - wonder how I get to those toys

First slide for Liam

Tonight at dinner we were talking about playing on the clubhouse after we ate.  We asked Karsten if Liam could go down the slide. He started to say 'but him no have....' then was stumped.  He said 'umm, but him too small'.  We agreed and asked if mommy or daddy could go down the slide with Liam.  He told us no, we were too big (gee, thanks Karsten!) but he said Liam could slide with him.

Check out the hoodies, this was a crazy late May day when it was in the high 50's and breezy.

Karsten was super excited to go down the slide with Liam - we were a little concerned he would forget he was supposed to be holding onto him, so Scott was the spotter.


Trying to see Liam's face to see if he was having fun.


Weeeeeeee off they go!


Success - Liam giggled as he was sliding down the slide.  I see many more pictures like this in our future!

Swingset construction zone

The swingset building has begun!  Our backyard has a big slope to it, so they had to do some digging to try to find a relatively level spot to put the swingset tower.  We were using an existing swingset frame that my dad built a few years ago.


My dad and Scott got a start on Thursday so they would be able to get a lot done without having a little helper around.  They got rained out on Friday, so bright and early on Saturday morning, they were ready to go again.  This time they had a little helper who wanted to do everything they were doing.


He was enamored with the drill - made me a bit nervous, but he learned how to carry it and how to (help) use it.


Watching Papa cut boards for the swingset.


Chuck putting the deck on the swingset tower.


Chuck taking a break with Liam.  We lucked out that there was beautiful weather for the swingset building - a bit warm, but not smothering heat with no breeze.


And the decking is complete on the swingset - Karsten got to try it out and thought it was pretty cool.


Karsten says 'it's portant to measure'.  I think Papa taught him that. :)


Karsten took some time away from his building to push Liam in the swing.




Papa building the rock wall.


And it's complete!  Two and a half days of hard work from Chuck, Scott and Karsten.  Don't worry, there will be another swing added so they can both swing, we just haven't gotten it yet.


Karsten was so excited about the slide!




Taking his first trip up the ladder onto the swingset.


He got the hang of the ladder quickly!!






Look at me, I made it to the top!


Slides are so much fun!








Fun at any age!


Karsten stopped playing for a few minutes to pet Madison.  Nice puppy he says.  :)


He said 'Thanks Papa and Daddy - I love my clubhouse!'

Welcome to summer!

Our neighboorhood pool opening is one of many signs that summer is here.  We had plans of waiting a few days and letting the water get warmer, but it's been so nice outside, we decided to give it a whirl.

Karsten wanted to know what the teacher was going to teach him today at the pool.  When we explained that swim lessons were over and we were just going swimming, I think he was temporarily perplexed.  Then he discovered that Liam and I were getting in the water with them, and he was all for this 'new' adventure.  Guess he doesn't remember all the fun we had at the pool last summer.

Sporting his water wings and shades (at an interesting angle).  He wasn't happy about having sunscreen applied, but oh well, he bounced back.


Proof that I got in the pool.  Neither Karsten or Liam wanted to look up to have their picture taken.


Liam was a big fan of the plastic raft (aka the yellow duck).  He would kick his legs happily and let us guide him all around the pool.


Just chillin'


We'll be back soon for another trip to the pool - hopefully the water will be a tad warmer!  It took our breath away as we got in it!

Wordless Wednesday - playing together

6 month pictures!

Liam's six month pictures got off to an interesting start.  There were clouds building in the west but the weatherman seemed to think storms would hold off for at least another hour or two - perfect, that's all we need to get pictures completer!  When we pulled up to the park where we were taking pictures, there were police standing at the entrance.  I tried to drive on past but that didn't work - the nice policeman wouldn't let us drive into the park to take pictures because there was some sort of festival going on in the park and they were not letting people park in the park.  SIGH.

Thankfully, Kendra at KJane Designs was quick thinking and came up with another park that ended up being perfect.  It's like it was meant to be! Below are a few pictures from the day...I tried to limit it to just a few, but it was really tough so you get to see more than a few.

All of Liam's practice sitting up worked and he sat up like a champ.


In these pictures, he was facing a busy road where the cars passing by were far more interesting than looking at Kendra's camera or any of the toys I was waving around like a crazy woman.






But he gave us good smiles here - I love these!








He loves playing with his toes, if he's on his back, his toes are in his mouth.  Usually when he's sitting up, he ends up tipping over when he becomes obsessed with his toes.




There was lots to look at on this step - he kept trying to grab at leaves and other things within in his reach.


We have pictures of Karsten in this tie for his 6 month pictures, so I wanted to try to get one of Liam - success!


Love this!!


This was the last picture and shortly after this was taken, we started to feel raindrops. Perfect!


Check out how Kendra got the last picture of Liam - she went to 'great heights' for such a fantastic picture!  Thanks Kendra!!