Under Construction

We have been working slowly on getting our front yard cleaned up and ready to put sod in the front yard. I have ripped out many rose bushes and have been moving rocks. Tim and I have different ideas of how the yard should look like. We put down some redwood bark on top of the grass/weeds that I killed and we roto-tilled it in. A few weekends later we redid all the sprinklers.
Before picture: We are planning on putting sod in October. Hoping for a nice "after" picture in a few months.
Last September we had a pipe break in our back yard. We had it capped off. The same weekend we did the sprinklers we decided to re-build the pipe that was broken. After Tim fixed it by himself (and only making 5 trips to Home Depot, including sprinkler parts). It was fixed and we had running water again in the back yard. But I could hear running water but couldn't see any coming out anywhere. And dark spots started showing up on our dining room wall. At first I thought the kids had smeared chocolate syrup on the wall but I cleaned it up and the next day there were more spots. So I called a plumber and he came out and found that this piece (picture below) had broken and was leaking water (most likely when Tim was tightening everything for the new pipe.)
The water had been leaking for 4 days. So the plumber fixed the broken pipe and left a hole in the wall.
So I started ripping out the rest of the wall where the water damage was. I am hoping we can get the wall fixed this weekend with new sheetrock. This is what our dining area had looked like for the last week:


AND I forgot to add that our new dishwasher kept filling up with water again. (3rd time it has happened.) And I was tired of not having clean dishes when you opened it up after the cycle was over. So we ended up getting a dishwasher from the McKissicks, who had recently moved and couldn't use theirs anymore. Tim replaced the old one with the new one (with a little help from Ted Ballin.) And it works perfect! We are quickly becoming good DIY's.

Now she stands

All of a sudden Avery is growing so quickly. She started pulling herself up to everything. The first picture is at the swimming pool. Love this little girl and her large thighs!

Girls Night Out

We went out for a special girls night July 15 to say "good-bye" to our good friend April Preston who moved down to San Diego. We already miss her very much, but we know she will be visiting often. We went to this swank little restaurant in Downtown Walnut Creek. Ate amazing desserts and enjoyed our girl talk. I am so grateful for this particular group of ladies. We have all been "Concord 1st Ward" members at one time together. It happened that Naomi was up visiting family the same week, which made the night even more hilarious. (Don't ask about the sticks April J. and Tara are holding!)

On all fours

Since the first of June, Avery has gone from learning to sit up on her own to crawling to pulling herself up to objects on her knees. She is crawling pretty quickly now and will follow me around. He is a little video of her crawling (for her Grandma's to watch). Before we know it she will be walking!

Kenny Chesney Concert 7/18/09

Tim's birthday present this year were tickets to the Kenny Chesney concert at AT&T park. We went with Chris & Teri. Ricky Score watch all 4 of our kids for about 9 hours that day. Lady Antebellum opened the show. They were awesome live. (you know some groups have great "studio voices" but not great live - not the case with them.) Tim even got to meet them before the concert, had his picture taken with them and got their autographs.

Miranda Lambert was next. She was OK. I wouldn't pay money to see her again. Tim liked her.

Who says country concerts have to have cowboys hats?

Sugarland was supposed to be next, but they cancelled because Jennifer Nettles was sick. They would have been cool to seen. Maybe another time. Tim was pretty upset that they cancelled.
Finally, in the cold SF air, Kenny Chesney made his way to the stage. We were 20 rows from the stage so the concert was pretty awesome from where we were. We brought our nice "professional" camera and there was a security guard who kept getting on Tim for taking pictures with it. He threatened to kick him out so we didn't take too many great pictures. (Side note: Tim got hit on by some Lesbians. I'm thinking they wanted a 3-some?!? Next time he should stand by his wife during a concert!) Anyway, it was a great night with great music.

The concert goers: Tim, Brittany

Teri & Chris

Caden's diving skills

The Bellyflop:

The Dive:

The "Cannonball Flip":

Fourth of July '09

For the 4th this year we decided it was our patriotic duty to go boating for the day. We had a great time with the Rossi's. Tim got thrown off the tube as usual. I tried wake boarding, but couldn't quite get up. We went to dinner at Chili's, got home and went to sleep.

Caden trusts Chris pulling him on the tube.
Miles happy!
Miles grumpy.
Caden jumping off the edge of the boat.
Avery & Tim took a snooze on the beach.

Best seats in the house

Tonight, Alexandra, Avery and I watched the fireworks from the Singing Flag looking out the window sitting on Alexandra's bed. Great view, didn't have to fight crowds and traffic. New tradition? Maybe!

Avery & Food

For a long time, Avery wasn't eating very well and not gaining enough weight. The Dr. was a little concerned. She had blood work done and I talked to a nutritionist a few times to make sure she was getting enough calories.

NOW, this girl eats everything she can get her hands on. In the video, my Grandma was crumbling feta cheese for a salad. My Grandma was first giving her little bites of the cheese, but Avery decided that she wasn't getting food fast enough and she helped herself.

What we did during our trip to Utah

We went to Utah to be with family. Tim's parents were leaving for their mission. We were able to go Tuesday morning to the Church office building where they were set apart as full time missionaries by Elder Oaks. What a neat experience it was.
Tim and I snuck a picture with Elder Oaks. (He didn't know we took the picture, it was like meeting a celebrity.) We went to lunch together as a family at the Church cafeteria. Tim loaded up on the low-priced food.
Wednesday we went out to lunch at Winger's with Aunt Suzi and President and Sister Doll, right before they entered the MTC for their Mission Presidents seminar.Saying goodbye. One last picture with Grandma and Grandpa.Grandpa and Grandpa Doll with our kids. When they return from their mission; Miles will be 12, Caden 9, Alexandra 5 and Avery (almost) 4. That's weird to think about.
President and Sister Doll, aka Grandma and Grandpa.
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My brother,Parker, took Caden, Alexandra and I fishing Thursday night. We went to a pond hidden behind Lone Peak High School. We didn't catch anything but had fun still.
Thursday morning we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open house with some of my family. Alexandra had a hard time and I didn't get to enjoy the temple like I would have liked. But it is beautiful.
Tim and Miles flew home Wednesday night. Me and the rest of the kids stayed until Sunday night. We were planning on going to a family reunion for my mom's side of the family. I was hurrying down the stairs Saturday morning to get ready for the reunion. I turned my ankle and heard a "pop". Instead of going to the reunion. My dad ended up taking me to the Urgent Care in Utah, where I had X-rays on my right ankle and it was sprained. I spent the rest of the day lying my parents couch and trying to take care of the girls, with my dads help. I told my dad he should be thankful that I got him of going to the reunion, his was response was "Yes, but that means I also don't get to go golfing." The next day we flew back to Cali, my foot wrapped up and hobbling through the airplane. I did get a wheelchair through security and to our car. This is a picture of my ankle 6 days after the incident. It still is a little sore, but I was able to walk on it fairly quickly.

Just Because ...

She is so darn cute. Avery just turned 10 months. She has finally started to grow up! (which also makes me a little sad since she is our last). She can now sit up on her own. She LOVES table food. Rice, beans, mac & cheese are some of her favorites. She is figuring out how to crawl. She is up on her hands and knees and rocks but hasn't figured out how to move her hands forward yet. I'm sure she will figure it out very soon. I could not decide which pictures were my favorites, so here are a bunch of our quickly growing baby girl.