Brinda's Head West!

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Here we go...

We have less than a week left in our house in Groton and then we are leaving on our road trip to head west! Our final destination, for those who do not know yet, is Utah! Carlton accepted a job at US Magnesium in a new lithium processing plant. He will be one of the foremen, once the plant is up and running. He will be helping to set up the processes and procedures before the plant opens. We took a trip out to Utah in the beginning of March to look at houses and we found one to buy! So we are in the midst of the house purchasing process and hoping that nothing gets delayed due to Covid-19.

Here are some pics of the house - it is a new construction, so we will be doing the landscaping for the yard and hopefully finish the basement at some point. It's 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath and 3,200 sq. ft. on a .24 acre lot.

Front of house, 3 car garage

Mud room w/ half bath across the way

Kitchen w/ double oven & granite countertops

View from kitchen to dining area and family room

Family room w/ gas fireplace

We have had to greatly change our plans for the drive out west. Originally we were going to reverse our route when we drove out here to CT...including driving to San Diego to visit friends there. But with all this chaos around Covid-19, we have had to make changes. Now we are driving straight to Missouri with overnight stops along the way. We will stay for a couple days and then head to Wichita for a day. From there we plan to head to Phoenix to stay with my parents for a few days to give the kids some time to be out of the car. Then we will head up to Utah and hope that everything with the house is progressing as it should. Hopefully no one gets sick along the way and we don't kill each other from all the time spent in the car!

In other news, Mr. Gavin turned three on the 18th! We had to cancel his birthday party but we still had a small celebration with the four of us and he still got to blow out candles and have birthday cake.

And on the same day that I had my birthday, Ms. Avery turned 10 months old! She has gotten very good at standing while holding onto things and then lowering herself back down to the floor. Walking is just around the corner!

Thank you Amelia for the awesome birthday gift!

We are sorry that we will not get to see family and friends as we make our way to our new home!! We hope that you all are staying safe and healthy amid the chaos. We will have a new address for you soon (mailbox hasn't been established on our new street yet). Hopefully we will be able to visit friends or have you visit us before 2020 ends!

Thursday, February 27, 2020

On the Move!

Avery has been scooting around backwards and rolling around to get places. Now in the past week she has discovered crawling forward! She has also learned to clap now and loves cheering anyone with her new skill! Here she is clapping:

Here is her crawling:

She has been very smiley lately and showing off her two bottom teeth. She is also beginning to pull herself up to standing whenever she can!

Daddy cuddles

Daddy's girl!

Cheesy grin

Pulling herself up

Being a sweet big brother

Pretty proud of herself!

Yogurt mustache

9 months old!

Avery playing hide and seek with Daddy.

Shower cap pics

First time in the big bathtub!

That's all I have for updated pics and videos for now!! Hope you enjoyed the cuteness!

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Changes are Happening!

Miss Avery has been rolling all over to get places! No crawling yet but she has gotten on her hands and knees several times, she just doesn't seem to know what to do after that. Here's a video of her doing the "inchworm" as I call it.

Gavin got to experience his first bout of Croup a couple weeks ago. Luckily it was a mild case and only needed a single dose of medication. Then we all got colds after that, so everyone got to have the fun of being sick! Avery turned 8 months old on January 22nd. She loves her big brother and is having fun exploring whatever she can get into. Here are some pictures:

G and his friend Amelia!

Cuddle bugs

Look what I can do!

Now in a high chair!

Reading to his sister

Supergirl with her new sign!

Now that we have recovered, Gavin is back to all his normal classes and activities. We also finally got to finish the sign for Avery's room. We chose to stick with the Superheros theme that we used for Gavin's name. For Avery we used: Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Wasp, and Supergirl.

Another change to our lives is that we have found a new home for our dogs, Edge and Bubbles. We have been going back and forth about it for months now and decided it was best for them. They were not getting attention from us or the kids really. They spent most of their days laying on their beds and sleeping. They really needed a new family that had older kids who would play with them and spend lots of time with them. We found them a home with kids, youngest is 6, and the family was very excited to get both dogs! We were excited that the dogs got to stay together and they are with a family that can spend lots of time with them. Here are some pics and videos we took during our last few days with the dogs.

Bubbles and her ball

Mr. Edge

The dogs enjoying their new home!

We miss the dogs but are very glad they are getting love and attention. It will also make the move across the country easier.

Speaking of that, we are counting down the days we have left in CT! Our current plan is to leave around April 1st and drive west. Carlton is busy job hunting and even got flown to Salt Lake City last week for a job interview. That interview went well and we are waiting to see if he is offered a position. Hopefully he will find something soon that he really wants to do and we will have a destination for our move! We will definitely keep you posted!

Here is a video of some baby giggles to end this post!

Monday, December 30, 2019

December Happenings

I cannot believe we are already facing the end of 2019 and the beginning of a new decade already! Since my last post, Avery has had a lot of firsts! First time seeing snow and sledding:

And

First time meeting Mrs. Claus and Santa!