Hazel Rivers - 7 Months

Happy 7 months!  Miss Hazel is getting pretty good a sitting up. Still not ready to do it solo, but she's practicing.  She can roll from back to tummy and tummy to back, but still prefers to be on her back. 

We are very into eating solids now.  She loves it! Up to 3 meals a day and long list of foods she enjoys. One of her favorites is peas and pears right now.  

Enjoys tummy time.  She's just starting to get on her knees, guess she's got crawling in the back of her mind. 

Loves to sit up on the couch. 

Her all time favorite thing is to be carried around in the Bjorn. She loves this old thing. It is neat that it was first our cousin Wells, then cousin Caroline used it, then it got handed down to Ollie and now Hazel is enjoying it.  

Lake Day

A fun friends day out at Watauga Lake!

Gorgeous day!

The kids had a blast tubing 

Love our sweet friend, Sophia

Book Release Party

My old boss, Kim, from Sugar Mtn wrote a book. She titled it The Aviatrix.  It's about her journey of learning to fly an airplane and what flying means to her.  Apparently it's part one of a two part series. The next book is supposed to be a biography.  She had her book release party in the most appropriate place, her airplane hanger. It was an interesting evening, the kids loved the airplanes and there was free wine.  Haha

John David, Elijah, Ollie and Sophia in front of Gunther's plane. That's Kim's husband and Sophia's uncle...that's how we got the VIP invite...thanks Sophia!

Sweet boys actually listening to Kim's speech

Wrangling up all the kiddos to go play in the grass and watch the airplanes 

Running around chasing airplanes

Watching Kim's plane take off

Alpine Tubing

Ollie got to come with me on Alpine's employee tubing trip down the new river in Boone. Of course he had a blast and everyone loved having him there 

Some of the Alpine crew

Ollie afterwards 

Sweet Summertime

We're just enjoying the sweet moments of summer... walks, hammock swings, naps and snuggles

VPC Builders Company Picnic

We had fun at VPC's BBQ picnic! 

Ollie played frisbee almost the entire time. He had a blast!

44 Hours without Power

Last weekend a crazy thunderstorm came through and knocked out our power and the entire county's  power.  The storm brought high winds, which took down lots of trees and power poles. The High Country hadn't seen damage so severe since the ice storm of 2009. Luckily we didn't have any damage and we didn't lose any trees. 

Anyways, when the powers out its good know people in the building industry. Then you can borrow useful tools to help your situation....like a generator 

Then you can redecorate with a bunch of power cords to hook up your stuff

Had a cooler, the fridge hooked up, then the WiFi and eventually the A/C unit upstairs. Thank you generator for giving us back a couple of life's modern conveniences!

We did end up using the spring to wash our dishes and our child.  When you're on well water, no power means no pump, which means no water.  

Then we decided to embrace our situation and have a little fun...mobile wash station

What's more fun than running through a sprinkler on a hot day

Shortly after this our power was restored and all was right with the world :-)

Happy 4th!

No 4th of July would be complete without a cookout at Grammy and DeDat's house

Ollie and Hazel on their 1st Fourth of July 

Happy 4th from the Smiths