does a love of cereal run in the family?

the other day we introduced the girls to rice cereal.  it was pretty hilarious to say the least... avery tried to lap it up like a dog, which made it difficult to actually get the spoon in her mouth since her little tongue kept unintentionally pushing it away.  matilda was a little less interested in the venture.  we would put the spoon up to her mouth and she would make absolutely no attempt to open up and let it in.  once we finally snuck it in there, and she understood that the cereal was for eating, she was a little more keen on the idea.  the girls are now 7 1/2 months old, 4 1/2 months corrected... so we are in no hurry to have them eating solids quite yet... but thought we'd give it a little go so they can get in some good practice before we get serious about it.

matilda making sense of it all..."hmmm open and then EAT...i could get used to this"

avery in a rare moment of actually letting the spoon in

tilly

avery trying to snatch the spoon and feed herself

this picture cracks us up... her little lips look cartoonish

tilly and jana

this picture has nothing to do with eating cereal, but it's still a good one.  our favorite aunt jana came out for an easter visit-- we miss you already jana!

p.s. sorry about all the red eye... i need lessons in photo shop...or a better camera.  the girls do have the "deer -in-the-headlights look down however:).

bathing beauties...

for nana...

avery and matilda are cooing more than ever these days... only avery let us capture a little on film. this one's for nana, but you are all welcome to watch:)

*never mind my nasty baby voice... i can usually get more out of them when i talk back high pitched:)

almost 7 months...

i know all kids seem to grow up fast, but i think it goes even quicker when they're your kids. true, the girls are still under 11 lbs., but they seem so big to me these days. i think it has a lot to do with their ever-increasing awareness too. they are very good at knowing when we are in the room, and will let us know (very loudly, i might add) that they do not approve of us leaving once we set foot outside of it. they are smiling like crazy, and have even started cooing a bit. they have excellent head control when they are laying down, or held sitting up, and they are taking longer naps during the day...(yes!). as much as they are work, they are twice as much fun and we absolutely adore them!
avery...her double chin is coming along quite nicely don't ya think?
tilly girl
the girls gave the bumbos a whirl on st. patrick's day...

tilly approved
avery was worn out by the whole thing
the ends.

our friend the flower...

jordan took this video of the girls right before church on sunday...they just love to watch this little guy!



thanks jayme and family for providing avery and matilda with hours of entertainment:)

ugh.

well, we thought it was croup anyway...so, here's the long story....

about 3 weeks ago avery developed a wheeze that sounded kind of scary, so of course i thought it might be rsv and took into the doc quick. but he said everything checked out so we took her back home. another week goes by and she still has the wheeze, so i take her in again. we saw another doc who said it definitely wasn't in her lungs, but in her upper airway...so he prescribed some acid reflux medicine in case it was reflux that was just irritating the upper airway. ANOTHER week goes by with no improvement, and this time we had plans to go to canada for jordan's gradmother's funeral. anyway, we thought we should have the doc take one more look before we take her out of the country... so jordan took her in (because i knew i would be too emotionally charged)... and it's a good thing he did because the doctor said her airway was so narrow at that point that had we taken her to canada she would have died! are you serious?! we couldn't have figured out that it was this serious sooner?
so we admitted her into american fork hospital so that she could be monitored and begin receiving treatments for croup. jordan would stay over night with her so i could be home with tilly, and then we would switch in the morning. it was NOT fun, but we at least felt better about being in the hospital in case anything too serious happened.
anyway, our 4th day there, jordan called and told me they would be flying her to primary children's hospital in slc, because they just couldn't figure out why she was not responding to treatments. so they intubated my poor little baby, and flew her off.

we met her up there, while aunt jana watched tilly--thank you jana! so there they told us since she wasn't and "emergency case" they would keep her intubated for a couple of days until a doctor could see her. i had two feelings about this...1.)phew, she's not considered an emergency, that's good... and 2.) could we please see someone right away so that the poor thing doesn't have to be on a ventilator longer than necessary! kind of frustrating. fortunately, my mom flew out to stay with me and tilly in slc because jordan had to be back in provo going to school--since he missed a bunch of school the week before.
so, they finally went in with a scope to see what the problem was....drum roll please....
the poor thing had an enormous cyst near her vocal chords that was basically blocking off her airway...she had this tiny little whole to breathe through! while they were in there with the scope, they removed it, and she already sounds a MILLION times better!
so now we are home, reunited as a family, finally! avery is in on the mend. she is still taking the acid reflux medicine to prevent irritation and scarring, as well as amoxicilyn to prevent infection. her throat still sounds a little scratchy, but she is getting there.
anyway, i just wanted to take this opportunity to testify of the reality of our Heavenly Father. this has been a very trying week for our family, and i can't imagine having to go through something so traumatic without at testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. although i was a complete basket-case through it all...i really have been sustained. i am so thankful for family and friends who care enough to fast and pray for our family. we are coming away from this experience feeling incredibly blessed...and we thank you all for your concern!

ladies and gentlemen...we have a diagnosis.....

so, i am not going to take the time to post the ENTIRE story now because, well, i'm exhausted. but i did want to post a small petition for your prayers. our poor little avery has the croup:( she was admitted into american fork hospital on wednesday night, and we expect to be there at least a couple of more days. she does better for the first little while after each treatment, but then her breathing becomes somewhat labored again so we are just waiting this thing out. anyway, as far as we know it's nothing too serious, but serious enough for hospitalization, which is why we are once again asking our dear friends and family to keep us in your very faithful prayers. it has been hard to watch avery have any sort of discomfort, but i think the hardest part of it all so far is that our family has been two halves the last couple of days. matilda, who is healthy, can't be around sister so one of us has been at the hospital with avers, and the other at home with tilly. i'm sure the sisters miss each other just as much as jordan and i miss each other--for right now we are a tag team:) anyway, like i said, i will probably post the whole story later...but we just wanted to keep you in the know..here is avery looking scrumptious in her blessing outfit...