River Rafting

We river rafted with Avery along the Green River under the Flaming Gorge Dam. 

Avery slept through the class 3 rapids, which are really not very rapid for those of you who aren't familiar with the class system.  She was awake for most of the rafting though. 

She enjoyed being outside and hanging out with Ruby, but hated her life jacket which kinda squeezed her like she was a giant marshmallow.  Honestly Avery kinda is like a giant marshmallow. :)

Camping was rough and I ended up sleeping in the car with her at 2 a.m. so she wouldn't wake up other campers.  But it was still a great trip.

It was so nice to get outside!!  I can't wait for our next camping trip!

 

   

 

2013 Staycation

This year the Pinnell family had a staycation in SLC.  We went to Lagoon (Grandma and Gramps stayed home with all the babies-- thank you!!!!!!) went fishing/swimming at Pineview Reservoir, rented a bounce-house for Grandma's yard, had a slip-n-slide that Nat and I pulled and flung the kids across with the hose, and did a lot of indoor projects.  It was so fun, and Avery loved being with her cousins. 

I didn't take many phone-photos but there are a few.  I didn't get photos of Gramps, Beth, Moya, Alee, or Asher.
Grandma with crying kids, an inevitable part of every family vacation, lol:


It's hard to tell by the photo, but Jamie was "woooo-hooo"ing like a little kid.  I think he had as much fun as his kids did on this one. :)







The little boys loved this ride.


Griff, my waterslide and rollercoaster partner staring into the sun:


The cool brave older cousins (not including Asher.)


Avery the chunky monkey.  She loved the lake!

Avery is 8.something months

Avery is so much fun at this age.  She says, "Mama" all the time and "Dada" sometimes.  She gives hi-fives and claps her hands.  Today I asked her to say Banana and she said, "Ba-mama."  It was probably a fluke, kids don't usually talk this early.  Or maybe she is just brilliant. :)

She stands and can take steps if she's holding on to something, but hasn't figured out crawling yet.  She'll sometimes push herself across the room backwards attempting to crawl and get frustrated.  She'll eat a banana like an adult- just chomp big bites right off the fruit.  And she still loves putting things in her mouth and snuggling up to her stuffed animal Unicorn.

Every night she's lip-to-lip with Unicorn.

Pupils still different sizes.

Remodel Update

We've been living in chaos at the new house for several weeks now but are getting close to finishing the remodel.

On top of living without a kitchen or floors and living out of boxes, with construction workers in and out most days, we realized we were probably exposed to asbestos.  That was not fun.

I took a sample of linoleum-glue to a lab where it tested positive for asbestos.  It was from the linoleum we'd just spent hours chipping away at and ripping out.  So we bought some special cleaning equipment, took Avery to a sitter, and spent 12 hours with hepa-masks on vacuuming and wiping down everything in our house.  EVERYTHING.  I mean every pencil, piece of paper, tool, wall, ceiling, everything.  And now I feel mostly safe to live here.  We are hiring an environmental consultant to do an air test and confirm that the problem is taken care of.  But man, what a headache.

Anyhow, we are really excited about our progress!  here are a couple photos of the kitchen:

Original:

Wall out (we had to leave a pillar for that vent):

Drywall and lights in:

Tile floor, and cabinets ready for install:

Avery is 6 Months Old

Avery is six months old!  Sometimes I beg her to slow down and go back to that sweet newborn stage- I loved it so much!  But at the same time I am enjoying her more and more as she grows.  She has become so much FUN!  I feel like she and I understand each other and it is awesome.

At six months she's sitting up really well, she's rolling over, she has one tooth starting to poke out, and she babbles, "ma ma ma" and, "da da da."  And she is squishy and rolly polly as ever.

To celebrate her half birthday we had a picknick.  

Here are a bunch of photos of her for your viewing pleasure:

 

   

  

 

   

Daddy's girl

  

   

   

She wears this shower cap all the time, he he. 

   

 

Awesome Hairdos

   

 

All Clear!

Avery's second MRI came back normal.  I felt like I lost 20 pounds just hearing those words.

My heart really goes out to all moms out there who aren't so fortunate. :(   :(   :(   I didn't realize that the hard part of being a parent would be like this.

I still get nervous when I see her eyes blink asymmetrically. But it is not a brain tumor like they feared.

This MRI was much better.  We asked for sedation BEFORE they started the IV so they squirted some versed in her nose and waited for her to get all loopy and then tried for the IV.  They got one in her ankle on the 3rd try and she hardly seemed to mind.

My poor baby.  What a relief.

New House

We are about to close on a new house!  We needed more than two bedrooms per floor to make it easier to have more kids.  Plus interest rates are really low right now.  Plus we really REALLY wanted a garage. :)

It is 35 years old and 35 years out dated, so we will have to gut the place and start from scratch to make it our dream home.  

Here are some photos:

 

  Notice the green walls and 70's curtains and carpet:

   

 

 Awesome closed off kitchen with antique stove. 

 Huge master bedroom (almost twice as big as our current one.)  And 70's carpets and curtains.

  

Yay!!