Eight Months Young!

  What can I say this baby just keeps getting better with age. She now has two bottom teeth.  She sits up by backing herself up into it.  One of our most favorite things is how she makes fishy faces all the time, and other silly faces by sucking on her lower lip.  Unfortunately we have yet to capture that extreme cuteness on camera.  Harper gets up on her hands and knees all  the time, but still prefers to to scoot all over the place.  We really have no complaints about her (except maybe how she lingers over bottles forever).  She loves every solid food we have given her with the notable exception of rice cereal.  Avery is very concerned about Harper when she cries. One morning Harper started crying  in her crib, and Avery beat me to  Harper.  I found her in the crib with Harper trying to put a blanket on her.  I've also found Avery trying to cheer Harper up when she's crying in her crib by dangling a toy for her in  between the crib slats. I hope Avery is always this concerned about her little sister's well being.

Avery and Harper sweetly playing together.  It does happen.

She loves to stick out her tongue.

You can barely see her  two teeth peeking out on her bottom gums.

Harper showing off her amazing core muscles by sitting up.

Taller than her monkey buddy.

Dangerous Baby Explorations!

Harper was trying to go up a step. She has been trying to do down the stairs as well.  She even backs herself up to go down backwards.

She is such a ham.

She does a lot of baby yoga.

When Avery saw me with the camera she started yelling cheese and ran got  her camera to take pictures too.

House Update #8

  The house looks like cotton candy exploded inside, so that means all the insulation is in.  We might even had some drywall up, but the insulation inspector never showed up.  Hence, the giant piles of drywall you'll see hanging out in the pictures.  The Nana door got re-installed correctly just in time for our weird summer weather to go away and our rain to come back.  Also, I got really excited to see that we have a real garage door now. 

Here's the Nana Door.  It hasn't been in place for about two months now. It's basically a giant folding door.

Daryl said he thought the house smelled like cotton candy.

Yea! A whole bunch of drywall in my kitchen!

More drywall hanging out in the garage along with someone's forgotten Redbull.

This is what the bottom of our deck looks like now.  It's sealed tight so no rain can get through.  I'm sure the girls will enjoy that a lot.

I'm sure glad I don't have to clean that up.

The garage door!  

Avery and her Trike

  Avery got a trike today, so I attempted to teach her how to ride it with mixed results. First  off, the whole venture was hampered by Avery's insistence that her tiger bag be included.  I did manage to get it away from her, but it's really hard to teach one child to ride a trike and watch the other child at the same time.  We lasted a half hour before Harper and I were ready to call it a day.   

She really likes that tiger bag, and she wants to take it with her just about anywhere.

Hey guys someone left me here on the side yard.

Avery's trike injury. She took it like a champ.  She actually fell quite a few times; her balance is a little off.

Harper seemed to like the our very dry grass.

Later, Avery decided to try on Harper's cat hat again.

Adam and Angie's Wedding Reception

  Last Friday brought the official close to all of Adam and Angie's wedding festivities with their reception at the Auburn Golf Course.  Angie did all the center pieces herself and everything looked really nice.  We were lucky enough to have our Aunt Joanne come into town for the reception, and we had a great time with her on Saturday showing her the new house.

Instead  of a guest book you put your wishes for the happy couple on these little cards and hung  them from the "tree."

Here  are the centerpieces.  Each table told a different story about Adam and Angie and their extended families with pictures too. The flowers came from Pike's Place Market that morning.

Here's a shot of myself and Aunt Joanne.

Adam and Angie during their first dance.

Adam looking adoringly at Angie.

Angie looking adoringly  at Adam.

House Update #7

  The big news is that we have passed  our framing inspection, so that means they will  be working on the  insulation this week.  We are one step away from drywall; although we will have to have another inspection for the insulation of course.  It's very exciting though, and we can't wait to see the house all insulated.  While they have been waiting for the framing inspection the siding was all taken down, and it is almost all re-installed correctly.  All of our decks have their sub flooring down, and are waiting to be finished up.  Fortunately this week is supposed  to be sunny and eighty.  Perfect weather for completing some decks. 

Nellie and Paul got Married!

  The nineteenth of last month my sister Nellie got married to her boyfriend of several years Paul.  The wedding was at a resort in the Lake Tahoe area.  (They live in Sacramento, so it made sense for them.)  We drove down with the girls for the weekend. It was really a quick trip.  Besides the  wedding the only touristy things we did was the Duck tour on Lake Tahoe, and we went up the Heavenly Gondolas where they had a fantastic view of Lake Tahoe.  It is a really beautiful place.  We would love to go back again and explore some more.  

Paul, the wedding officiator who is actually a friend of theirs, and my niece Ashlyn.

 My Dad walking Nellie down the aisle.  He was misty eyed of course.

Nellie  posing for everyone before the ceremony takes place.

Avery snuck into this  picture with me, my siblings, and my cousin Lisa.

Avery was burning up  the dance floor.

Harper was put to sleep by my brother Phil, the baby whisperer.

My niece Addison thoroughly enjoying her wedding cupcake.

Everyone under twelve had to wear life jackets on the Duck Tour.   

Harper looking way too cute in her life jacket.  Addison fell asleep during the tour.

This is at the view point stop on the Heavenly Gondola ride we took.  Heavenly is the name of one of the ski resorts up there.  We couldn't get the sippy out of the picture.

This is the view from the gondola.