THE WEAVERS

A Year of Sadie

2012-02-17T13:06:00.000-08:00

In FAVORITES:

Foods: pasta and yogurt
Toys: Bunny and phones
Places: anywhere outside
People: she's always been a Mama's girl, but she loves her Daddy too and all of her family
Sounds to make: baba, ah-ya, mama, dada, bebe, bash, yah, squealing and humming, general babbling
Sounds to hear: music and singing
Color: pink
Books: Count My Kisses Little One, Big Book of Numbers, Cars, Trucks, Trains and Planes
Drink: soy milk
Show: Sesame Street (for about 10 min)
Games: Peek-a-boo, Isy Bitsy Spider, Pat-a-Cake, she loves to be chased
Animals: Dogs
Other: Baths, dropping things on the ground on purpose (especially food), laughing, digging in the trash, sucking her thumb, her pink sneakers, climbing, chewing, closing doors, eyelashes, kisses and hugs, bedtime, books.

Least favorite Foods: none that I can think of. She can't chew very well so sometimes she gets frustrated if the pieces are too big and she can't swallow them, but otherwise she's a vacuum.
Least favorite Places: Car seat and our laps at church
Least favorite People: Any stranger getting too close to her. This happens a lot and I get a lot of side eye looks from her that plead "HELP ME". It's her own darn fault.
Least favorite Sounds to Hear: Vacuum
Least favorite Animals: Dogs
Others: combing her hair after a bath, clipping her nails, suctioning her nose, wiping her nose, the sun in her eyes, not getting her way.

A Year of Sadie

2012-02-16T15:53:00.000-08:00

In NUMBERS:

3:56 am the time she was born
2,541 diapers she's worn
97 times she puked all over me in the first 5 months of her life, just cuz
100 times I've told her not to get into the trash and she's ignored me
1 sign she has actually learned - "More"
7 average times per day she stops what she's doing to give kisses
6 airplanes she's flown in
3 homes she's lived in
12.5 pounds she's gained since birth
2 weeks ago she became a thumb-sucker
9 states she's visited
1 trip to Canada
4 teeth
5 1/2 months when she started sleeping through the night
0.8 seconds it takes to go from happiness to tantrum
363 days she's made us laugh
5 books on parenting I've read and I'm still just winging it
3 average number of people who stop me when I'm out with Sadie to tell me how beautiful she is
115 videos we have of her
1,871 photos we have of her
Eternity
the time we have left to enjoy her and love her

A Year of Sadie

2012-02-15T12:06:00.000-08:00

In VIDEOS:

A Year of Sadie

2012-02-14T16:11:00.000-08:00

In PHOTOS:

Tourists

2012-02-13T10:23:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we had a San Fran Fun Day. I decided this has to become a monthly activity (at least). It was SO SO SO fun.

Alcatraz in the distance

Ghirardelli ice cream. So delish.

Yummy sourdough at Boudin

I think I could get used to living here.

The Wheels on the Truck Go Round and Round...

2012-02-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

Birthday Part(y) 1

2012-02-06T08:59:00.000-08:00

Since we moved before Sadie's first birthday we HAD to have a party first to celebrate with her friends and family! Leslie made the MOST adorable lady bug cakes on the planet and we watched Sadie open some gifts and just hung out. Very low key. But oh-so-fun. Thanks for coming to our ladybug's first 1st Birthday!

This is the last picture we have of "happy" Sadie since the second we started singing "Happy Birthday" she became terrified and wouldn't touch her cake or look at anyone. It was classic. Maybe on her REAL birthday we'll make her try cake again, without 20 people staring at her.

Change is such hard work

2012-02-01T10:38:00.000-08:00

Sadie's asleep, Brock went in to his first day of work, Mom comes in a few hours and I'm by myself for the first time in a few days. I'm determined not to break down so I thought I'd post a little update.

First of all, THANK YOU so much to all of you wonderful friends and family that helped with our move. That babysat Sadie, helped us pack, took unwanted furniture and food off our hands, carried heavy boxes, disassembled beds and couches, let us stay with you, fed us, drove with us, and were basically there for every little thing we needed the past few days. We could not have done this move so effortlessly without all of you. THANK YOU.

So much for not breaking down.

After 800 miles, six stops, two days and two hotels we made it to San Leandro and unpacked our lives into our cute little 2 bedroom townhouse. It's just as awesome as we remembered it to be and we are so excited about it. The area is great and has lots of parks and shopping and we have a great view of the whole valley and the ocean. We can see the ocean from our house (on a clear day...do those happen here?). I think that's my favorite part.

Now we start the next leg of this journey: unpacking, finding a new pediatrician, locating our meetinghouse for Sunday, meeting neighbors and ward members and hopefully new friends, learning our way around this crazy town, Brock getting accustomed to a longer commute by public transportation, Brock having a new job with new coworkers and bosses, and hopefully in the following days, weeks and months, making this house our home and this city ours.

It's going to be a busy few days unpacking but I'll be sure to do another house tour when it's all put together. I'm good at putting houses together, apparently. Can you make a living out of rearranging the same furniture three different ways??

Entertainment

2012-01-11T10:05:00.000-08:00

These days we have a new form of entertainment. It's called Watching Sadie Walk.

Why is my baby all grown up? Today she slept in until 9:45 am. I thought she had skipped childhood and gone straight to teenager. Oy vey.

Drumroll please...

2012-01-05T14:42:00.000-08:00

What do these movies all have in common?

What's Up Doc?
Princess Diaries
Mrs. Doubtfire
Sister Act
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
The Wedding Planner
Serendipity

They were all shot in the same city. Gee, I wonder what awesome city that could be???

Boom baby. We're moving to San Francisco.

Brock was hired to be an account specialist at a global internet marketing company called iProspect. He starts work February 1st. We are both THRILLED and TERRIFIED. But mostly thrilled.

And terrified.

Okay, thrilled again. Whew!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-04T10:58:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone's holidays were Merry and Bright!

We had a blast in VA for Christmas this year and got to do lots of fun things with our families. Thanks to everyone for such a fun time.

Stay tuned for a real post and some BIG news.

mwahahaha...I'm so evil.

Tis the season

2011-12-14T21:54:00.000-08:00

Merry December to one and all! I feel like I'm breathing for the first time in two months. This is always a busy time of year but I feel like this year it is double.

On Saturday Sadie and I are flying to Virginia to spend the holidays with my family. Brock will be joining us shortly after and then it's party time! We are so looking forward to spending Christmas out there and can't wait to see all the cute kiddies on Christmas morning. It may take us 7 hours to do presents, but we will have a blast I'm sure!

It was my birthday yesterday! Thanks to everyone who wished me well; it was a super fun day and I got spoiled. Lots of fun new jewelry that I'm really excited about. And new clothes and shoes. It's about time folks. The other day I caught Sadie chewing on bits of my grey flats that had fallen off because I wear them EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. So yeah, those are going in the garbage.

And since I'll probably not be posting until the New Year, I just want to take a second to thank you all for reading this ridiculous blog. I'm sure there are more entertaining things to do with your time than check up on our lives, but we have fun sharing our stories with you. We love you. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Banana

2011-12-07T09:59:00.001-08:00

Giving thanks

2011-11-28T11:52:00.000-08:00

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving. We were so thrilled to be able to get away for a few days and hang with family and have nothing to do but play and eat and play. This is why it's the most wonderful time of the year.

Things we were grateful for this Thanksgiving:

Spending time with the Weaver clan in PC
Yummy food and fun company
Andrew and Virginia joining us for dinner and bringing sweet little Elsie
Angels
Becky giving Sadie her first haircut
That Sadie doesn't have a combover anymore
Seeing the Barnards, Livelys, and Beards
Game playing
Snow
Awesome grandparents and aunt/uncle that love Sadie
Babysitters
Pumpkin pie

Nine

2011-11-18T10:51:00.000-08:00

Today my baby is nine months old. That's three months away from a year and that's just too old to think about. This year has FLOWN BY...and then again I can't believe it's only been nine months since Sadie joined our family. Time is crazy. And so is this little girl:

All about Sadie at nine months:

She is a crawling queen
She points at everything

She loves to climb and will climb anything and everything
She is getting better with strangers but it still takes her a while to really warm up to someone
She is a mama's girl
She makes the cutest noises when she babbles. The other day she was crawling around going "No, no, no, no." I guess I should cut back on my "No"s a little....oops.
She has learned how to clap and claps at everything. Daddy's home? CLAP! I climbed your leg? CLAP! You read me a book? CLAP! You looked at me and smiled? CLAP!
She has become little miss independent and wants to feed herself. Problem is she hasn't mastered the spoon yet, so we do it together...and it gets really messy:

All in all, she is a blast and even though she can be a super cranky pants sometimes, we love her to pieces.

Chocolate Days!

2011-11-11T13:40:00.000-08:00

This year, Sadie and I were able to fly home to VA for a couple of days to visit my family. It was so much fun to introduce Sadie to the last of her cousins that she hadn't met yet, and spend time with my Mom and Dad and siblings and their DANG cute kids. It was such a party. Chocolate days used to mean that we would open all the windows in the middle of November and spend hours melting chocolate in the microwave to dip a few chocolates and start all over. We would have Christmas music blasting and when we got a little too sugared up, we could be found dancing around with chocolate covered hands up in the air, trying not to drip any on the floor.

But now. It has become quite the production. NOW we travel up to the tippy-top of Pennsylvania where our friends live. We have tempering machines that melt the chocolate for us! We eat like kings, every meal is fantastic...and the best part? The Dads and Grandpas that play with the kids all day so we can dip and chit chat to our hearts' content! Three glorious days of fun, family, friends, food and of course, chocolate. Sadie made friends with Grandpa, Grandma, Emily, Ryan and John. Fingers are crossed that she remembers everyone when we return in 6 weeks for Christmas.

Snuggling cousins

All lined up with their matching jammies that Michelle made

Playing

Headed out to the bonfire, all bundled up!

Chillin' with Grandpa

The kids in their Halloween costumes

It was such a fun trip. Can't wait for next year!

Ladybug, Sadiebug

2011-10-30T20:18:00.000-07:00

It was a no brainer what Sadie would be for Halloween. We've been calling her "Ladybug Sadiebug" since she was a wee tiny lass. This costume makes me laugh so very very hard. She was nice and cozy in it too, which was a plus. These were taken on our way to our ward Harvest Party on Saturday. There were a number of ladybugs there, but ours was the cutest. No offense other ladybugs. That's just how it is.

Next up, trick-or-treating. Happy Halloween to all!

Mi casa es su casa: Part 1000

2011-10-24T10:53:00.000-07:00

Let's just wrap this up folks. Here's the upstairs "bonus room","loft", "big awesome room that we spend most of our time in". You get the picture. It was this room that sealed the deal.

There are also two bedrooms and a bathroom up here but we probably wont showcase them since one is an office and a MESS right now and the bedroom has a bed in it. I think we can all picture what that might look like.
Thanks for coming on this tour with us! Now come visit for reals.

Silly

2011-10-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

Sadie is currently obsessed with climbing up on anything that stands still long enough. Even my legs while I cook dinner.

This last picture is kind of ridiculous, but I put it in because you can see her two little teeth! So dang cute, but I miss her gummy smile :)

Birthday Boy

2011-10-17T14:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Brock
Happy Birthday to Brock
Happy Birthday dear Brock-oli
Happy Birthday to Brock!

Friday was Brock's 26th birthday. Holy cow that's old. We had a lovely dinner here at home (if I may say so), opened presents, ate cherry pie, watched a movie and took it easy. He got pretty spoiled this year, thanks everybody ;) and Sadie loved helping him open his gifts. I can't wait for Christmas; this girl is going to be all over that wrapping paper. Yikes.

Happy birthday Brock! We love you!

It's the Great Pumpkin Sadie Beth!

2011-10-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

Last night we took a little trip up the road to a pumpkin patch! We got to go out in the patch with a pair of shears and grab our own pumpkins and we found some real beauties. Sadie even chose her own. We also visited the most random petting zoo (goat, llama, two miniature donkeys and a kangaroo) and watched all the kids playing in the hay maze and corn box. I wanted to jump in that thing so badly.

Sadie didn't know what to make of it all, but we had fun. Yay for Autumn!

Facts

2011-10-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

Pureed prunes look like chocolate syrup.
Pureed prunes do NOT taste like chocolate.

Good thing Sadie doesn't know what she's missing out on yet.

Growing up

2011-09-29T13:33:00.000-07:00

is hard to do. But it sure is fun to watch!

At seven months, Sadie is a expert scooter, and prefers it to actual crawling since she can go faster. She loves to climb and can pull herself up to standing on a few things. She has one little toothy. She has torticollis and sometimes we call her "Loppy" (cuz she's a little lopsided...teehee). She fake coughs for attention and sticks her tongue out when she's concentrating. We're in love.

Mi casa es su casa: Part 4

2011-09-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

But first, a few words from Sadie:

zx ∫≈√∫ ç√˜µ m, ¨¶¨¥˙©†ƒ¥©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©©cl ;;... bn bhn b n mnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn K5jmzz√z`c c

How she manages to get any of those symbols I'll never know. Maybe you just hit the keyboard with your fist and they appear? Moving on.

The nursery! Oh how I wish I could paint this house. This would be the first room. Alas, we do not have that option so I tried to incorporate some color on the walls. This is the Bug's room!

Our little climber

2011-09-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

Mi casa es su casa: Part 3

2011-09-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

Man I'm on a roll! This is the master suite. That's right, when you go from a bedroom that barely fit the bed frame to this, it becomes a suite. Easily one of my favorite rooms now with new bedding and curtains. Who would've thought that curtains could really make a difference?!?!?

Mi casa es su casa: Part 2

2011-09-07T14:30:00.000-07:00

The dining room. This IS the first room you see when you walk in our front door. We decided to do a dining room instead of a living room because there wasn't much room and the upstairs had plenty of room for a family room. Plus it gave us an excuse to get a nice dining room table from Ikea, our favorite place ever.

Express

2011-09-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Brock. I love you.

Mi casa es su casa: Part 1

2011-09-01T15:42:00.000-07:00

So I've been wanting to post pictures of the new house but it's taken a while to get the rooms to where I want them. And then KEEP them looking good. That's really the issue here. Which is why I will start with the kitchen. Not the first room in the house you see upon entering, nor the coolest looking, but I cleaned it today. Therefore, we will begin the tour there.

This room has so many things in it that I love. A dishwasher. Counter space. Cabinets. A dishwasher. Sink disposal. A window. A dishwasher.

(Any ideas out there what to do with this wall? It's too big. And it's in the kitchen so it makes it a little harder to think of something appropriate for the space. Brock says we should put "one of those signs you guys make in Relief Society with the quote about family or something on it." Unfortunately I have not had the pleasure of making such a sign yet.)

Cedar City Vacay

2011-08-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

We just spent the past four days in the exotic Cedar City for the Annual Wride family bonanza of Shakespearean wonderment. Or the Shakespeare Festival. Mom, Dad, Laura, Adam & Marie and family came out for this exciting trip and we had so much fun together! We saw Noises Off!, Richard III, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Music Man. All of the productions were top-notch and we ate yummy food and played in the pool and napped and ate and watched shows and swam some more and it was all just super duper wonderful. Here's my favorite photo from the trip:

Sadie is a water baby, I still stand by this. However, she was not a fan of the freezing pool water.

Here are the boys in the pool:

And the girls:

Get excited...

2011-08-17T21:46:00.000-07:00

For lots of posts and pictures. Not sure when, but soon. In the meantime we're headed out of town for the Shakespeare festival down in Cedar City. Good times will be had by all, I'm sure. In the meantime, here's a cutie pie video to quench your Sadie thirst until we get back and I can get some real posts up.

Success

2011-08-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Sadie has never been into plastic. Never wanted a pacifier or a bottle, and would NOT take either. Eventually we got her onto the paci but only to soothe her to sleep and then we stopped giving it to her because she could go to sleep just fine and the pacifier was pointless when we really needed her to be, well, pacified. The bottle never happened. I think she finished one bottle ever. And it was after lots of tears (from the both of us....)and we tried sporadically and when we left her with babysitters it was always, "Here's her milk, not that she'll take it." and then I would worry the whole time we were gone thinking "She's probably screaming right now because she's hungry and won't take that bottle!" and it was a mess. And then we turned 5 months.
5 months is a magical age where everything and anything in sight needs to be in Sadie's mouth. She is the grabbiest little girl and will put anything she can get her grubby hands on straight into her mouth. So I thought, "If SHE puts the bottle in her own mouth, maybe she'll drink from it?"

Folks. We just tried this very experiment and it worked. Again there were tears but this time of joy as I realized the possibilities this opens up for me. I can leave her, worry-free, with Brock or a babysitter. We can take bottles with us and not have to find somewhere "not awkward" for me to sit and nurse her. Brock can feed her! I don't want to jump the gun here or anything, but I am really excited. I think we can chalk this one up as a success :)

Here we are enjoying our sweet potatoes. Mmmm....

Back in the saddle

2011-08-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

I used the saddle reference because we live in Spanish Fork now so I'm trying to tap into my inner cowgirl ;)

Okay but seriously folks, this past two weeks has been a tad bit ridiculous. Two Sundays ago we checked KSL for homes for rent. We found a couple we wanted to see. Monday I made some calls and set up times to see said homes. One home was only having one open house and we had to go then, Monday, at noon. Brock takes lunch break, we go to house, fall in love with house, get offered house, see five other houses, still feel like first house is the best for us, agree to sign lease on house. Wednesday morning sign lease. Thursday/Friday packing like crazy and show our apartment to new tenant. He loves it, signs lease, we have to be out by August to not pay double rent. Saturday we move.

I still can't believe how quickly our lives changed. We've been here for a week and we are still very much thrilled with the house. There were a few minor setbacks with some appliances and I am getting better at not screaming every time I see a spider (which is not uncommon unfortunately) but overall it's more than we could ask for. And I have a washer/dryer and dishwasher so I'm pretty much in heaven. I will be sure to update as things get put together more, but for now here's the front door!

2 things

2011-07-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

1. It's not a blog post without a picture of Sadie so we'll just get it out of the way. Cute.

2. We're moving! Like, in the process of moving. We are renting a home in Spanish Fork and have been moving all of our stuff in all week and tomorrow is the big day. We have a lot of stuff. We are REALLY excited about the house and it's big and beautiful and not in Provo (we loved you, Provo!). We'll be sure to update as soon as we're all settled in but for now we are busy Weaver beavers.

5 Months!

2011-07-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

That's how long we've had "The Bug". The Sadie Bug. Folks, it would be an understatement to say that we are obsessed with this little girl.

Milestones:

-Took her first airplane ride and was a super trooper!
-Rolls over from belly to back but prefers to roll only to the left for some reason.
-Naps twice a day and sleeps through the night!
-Moved into her own room.
-Tried rice cereal and really likes it, but would prefer that it not come on a spoon. This little girl doesn't like being fed by plastic ANYTHING.
-Loves water! Being in it, drinking it, being in it while drinking it, watching it, anything.
-Is most likely teething. She has been cranky pants this weekend and chewing on her toys like there's no tomorrow. She is a drool factory, which isn't a new development, but it's exaggerated now.
-Is mega ticklish right under her chin and has the greatest laugh. She is a very easy going baby and smiles a lot.
-Loves to be outside. She could sit on the porch all day and watch cars drive by.
-Sits up really well assisted and is trying to sit up all by herself. She can only do it for a few seconds at a time but she wants so badly to be independent.
-Blows bubbles and spits and loves to hear her own voice so she screams or "talks" regularly. Also has a funny fake cough that she thinks is pretty clever.
-Wearing a lot of 6 month clothes and will probably be exclusively in 6 months soon.
-HATES when we wipe her mouth. Which happens a lot (remember the drooling???)
-Gets more beautiful and grown up every day!

Because getting there is half the fun!

2011-07-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

Aaaaaand we're back!
We just spent the last ten days out in New York and the "surrounding area". We had such a blast and saw a TON.

Day 1: Brock, Sadie and I fly to Newark, NJ. Our plane was delayed by two hours so we didn't get to our hotel until 3 am. It was a looong night. Luckily, Sadie did well on the plane and was even flirting with the people on the tram at 2 am. What a trooper.

Day 2: Considering our late arrival, we were allowed to sleep in which was lovely. We then drove down to Lancaster, PA to visit Amish Country. It took us a lot longer than expected because of the holiday traffic and our late departure, but we were really happy to be back on the East Coast with all the treeeees. Such a pretty drive. Amish country was super fun too and Sadie got a little Amish bonnet...best purchase of the trip if I may say so!

Then because it was too late to do Gettysburg we drove to Hershey and took the tour of the factory and ate lots of yummy chocolate. I don't think anyone regrets this detour.

Day 3: Went to church in Harrisburg and then drove to Gettysburg where we met up with Mama Wride!

This day was a favorite for the group. We were there for the 175th anniversary of the battle and while we missed the reenactments, there was a special spirit about the place. And considering all the Weaver boys are history nerds, they were all pretty excited about the cannons and such ;)

Then we started the long drive to Kirtland, Ohio.

Day 4: Happy Fourth Of July!

(She is SO Brock's daughter....look at that mug.)
Toured the Kirtland temple, visitors center, NK Whitney store. Could have had better tour guides, but it was still neat.

We did our own "fireworks" in the parking lot behind our hotel. It was legit. Sparklers and smoke bombs. Sadie was so exhausted but she was determined to watch all of us pyros run around with fire. As soon as we finished she fell asleep in Grandpa's arms. So sweet.

Day 5: Drive to Niagara Falls! No problems crossing the border although it's always a gamble with Cody and Grandpa Travis ;) When we were all settled into our hotel (which rocked our socks off with an awesome view of the Falls) we decided to go out on the Maid of the Mist.

One of the best moments of the whole trip. Sadie didn't love it the whole time, but we sure did! She just couldn't figure out why she was getting wet.

I think my favorite part of the whole thing was that Sadie kept licking the water that was condensing on the inside of Brock's poncho. Guess she was a thirsty little girl! She kills me.

Day 6: Drive to Palmyra, NY.

We visited the Whitmer farm and then had some delish Mexican food in Geneva. When we got home Brock and I took Sadie to meet Adam and Marie who were staying at a hotel just a few minutes from ours! So fun to see family!

Day 7: Took Sadie to the pool and let her swim for the very first time. Success! She is such a water baby.

We spent the afternoon in Palmyra at the Sacred Grove (where we ran into the Adam Wride family!), the Joseph Smith homes, the temple and the Grandin printing press. Then we hooked up with the rest of the Wrides at the Hill Cumorah pageant.

Day 8: We spent the whole day driving to NYC. There was a lot involved with dropping the rental cars off at the airport and then taking a few trains into the city. By the time we got to our hotel it was 9 or so but we were starving so we set out to find some authentic New York pizza. Which we did. And did I mention our hotel was a block from Times Square? Because that was maybe the best idea ever. So fun. My husband was like a little boy in a candy store. And Sadie was pretty intrigued by all the lights and sounds.

Day 9: We packed this day. First we went up to the top of the Empire State Building. Along with 4,000 other people. Took a while but it was fun!

Then we wandered down to Ground Zero and checked out the new trade tower. We went to a little chapel across the street where the rescuers were housed during the months of cleanup. It has a lot of photos and a shrine to the rescuers and medics and everyone that helped NYC during that terrible time. It was very touching.

We then walked down to Battery Park and had some lunch and a great view of the Statue of Liberty.

Our plan was to go to China town but after some metro trouble we had to head back to the hotel to change and get ready for WICKED! Emily and Maddie were so sweet to drive down to babysit Miss Sadie for us so we could go. I will say this: I was skeptical about the show. There's a lot of hype and I was worried that it wouldn't be as wonderful as I'd heard. I'd even heard some of the songs and thought they were annoying (Popular...). However, I LOVED it. Love Love Loved it. The end.

Oh except an extra awesome shout out to Em and Maddie. Thanks again for helping us out!

Day 10: We didn't have a whole lot of time in the city but we did go down to the Manhattan temple and Central Park for a little bit. Next time we go to NYC we're going to give ourselves a few more days. We HEART NY!

And thanks to the Weavers for taking us on this super awesome trip and not complaining when we had to stop every few hours to feed Sadie. We really loved spending the week with you all!

Leaving on a jet plane

2011-06-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow! SO excited. I'm trying to get past the nerves of traveling with Sadie because whatever happens, happens. We'll live. And it will be such a fun trip no matter what. So look out NY! NJ! PA! OH! and Canada! We got places to go, things to see, food to eat, shows to watch, hours to drive and family to bug.

Oh and in case you were wondering, this little chunk is now twice her birth weight!

Also, I just realized that it's been a year today since we found out I was pregnant. Cool.

We so excited!

2011-06-24T09:59:00.000-07:00

For a few reasons.

1. It's Friday! And Brock gets to play intramurals because we're still in a student ward. Flag football game tonight and ultimate frisbee tomorrow. Whew!
2. A week from today we fly to NY and begin our whirlwind tour of everything east of the Mississippi.
3. I finally get to see a show on Broadway :)
4. My little Blister graduated from High School. I am so proud :)
5. So did Cody, we are still very proud. He also had to write a children's book for one of his classes and we got it in the mail yesterday. He illustrated it too and it's the cutest thing! Thanks Uncle Cody!
6. We have now officially put an offer on two townhomes here in Utah. Both are short sales so we wont hear back for a little while but it's pretty fun and I find myself decorating them (in my head) already! *Sigh*
7. We are parents to the most fantastic little bug ever.

How we roll

2011-06-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

June?

2011-06-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

It's June already and Utah is FINALLY warming up! Whoohoo! Oh wait, we don't have AC...why was I wishing for warm weather again??? Gah.

But no worries, things are looking up these days! We just got pre-approved for a loan and it was more than we thought it would be so we're totally stoked about that. Time to house hunt! :) We spent two days at Ikea last week browsing and wishing. We also got Sadie a crib and dressers for her "new room" whenever we get one for her. This is her excited face:

The past few weeks have been big for her too. She has started really trying to roll over and has accomplished the feat three times! Although twice her jungle mat stopped her from rolling ALL the way over and the one time she did make it she burst into tears. So scary!

She is also napping in her crib (which is awesome folks, awesome) and sleeping pretty great at night. Yay for sleep! The only issues we've run into are that she is getting too strong for her swaddle blankets so sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night to her slurping on her hands. Boy does she love those hands. I hope the obsession ends soon because they can be so distracting!

Aaaaannnnndddd let's just talk about those thighs for a minute. Never mind, they speak for themselves.
LOVE.

C'mon!

2011-05-27T14:16:00.000-07:00

Okay Spring, here's the thing. See, I have this new baby and we spend a lot of time at home. A LOT. And don't get me wrong, I love spending time with her...it's just that we have a teensy housie and sometimes this mommy needs to get out. So I was wondering if you could come play, or at least send your buddy Summer because I am seriously getting tired of this cold, wet weather.

Kthanks!

Random Thoughts

2011-05-18T22:28:00.000-07:00

1. Sadie's asleep and Brock's out playing basketball and all I've done is read blogs and "window shop" online for baby bathing suits. I am such a bum and why does no one sell bathing suits for infants? Probably cuz you're supposed to keep them out of the sun. Psh.
2. Got to visit Tany and Marcus and their new baby boy John today and it was so fun! He weighs what Sadie did when she was born and I had already forgotten what it feels like to hold such a tiny baby. I can't believe mine is so big now!
3. Harrison's spring music concert was quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen. It made Brock and I excited for when Sadie is in preschool and one of those cute wiggly toddlers. Oh my gosh I think I died laughing multiple times.
4. I am getting really antsy to move. I want to decorate a nursery SO bad. If we get a house it's the first thing I'm doing. I put together tons of ideas when I was pregnant and can't wait to start working on them!
5. Today is Sadie's three month birthday. It kills me how fun she is these days!
6. Getting so excited for our vacation this summer to NY! Just 6 more weeks!!!
7. Really nervous about taking a 4 1/2 month old on a road trip. She's not the biggest fan of her car seat. Should be interesting.
8. I'm getting my eyebrows done tomorrow for the first time since Sadie was born. I am so excited to look good again!
9. Thinking about chopping my hair. Sadie is starting to yank on it and it HURTS. I know she can't control her hands quite yet and doesn't mean to but OUCH. Chin length bob again? Or just keep putting it up in a pony tail every single day?
10. Video I am in love with. Of course Brock can get her to smile for the camera.

2

2011-05-16T11:03:00.000-07:00

2 years ago these crazy kids got married.

Best decision ever.

The Hawk

2011-05-04T19:48:00.000-07:00

Sadie's hair is getting a little too long to put up in a faux hawk anymore. Maybe it's time to branch out...braids, pigtails, cornrows...

Okay, maybe we'll wait on those for a little while!

Highlights

2011-04-27T12:07:00.000-07:00

The past two weeks have been one phenomenal event after the other.

First we went to the zoo for Harrison's birthday:

Sadie was so excited to go but slept through most of it. And we ended up leaving early due to the rain, but it was still fun!

Then the big event: Brock graduated! From college! It was great times. Both of our families came out to support us and we had so much fun with them.

On Sunday we finally blessed our beautiful little girl. It was wonderful to have so much support from family and friends and it was a wonderful occasion. Sadie wore a dress that her Great-Grandma Weaver made for her. It was perfect and she was so angelic.

Needless to say we feel very blessed these days.

Video time!

2011-04-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

Some cute videos to get you though the rest of the week. This first one has a little Brian Regan going on in the background so feel free to laugh along.

This next one is during her favorite part of the day, and consequently mine! Skip to 1:30 to hear the good stuff. And I don't mean my ridiculous commentary. For some reason I sound like a fool in every video we take of Sadie. Time for me to learn to just keep my mouth shut.

Favorite

2011-03-31T15:48:00.000-07:00

My new favorite thing: making Sadie smile. She is getting SO smiley and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. Bad news though, folks...we cannot catch it to share with you. This little girl is so fascinated with cameras. The second I pull it out she gets very serious and just stares at the big black object in mommy's face and all hope of smiles are dashed. This is the closest I've come:

Other favorites:

Brock is almost done with school! He graduates in a few weeks and we cannot wait! Both families are coming for the big day and we'll finally bless this little girl.
Conference weekend! We're taking Sadie up to Park City for her first sleepover :)
Warm weather. I love spring!
Mom and Dad Wride! Both celebrated their birthdays this week. HAAPPPPYYYY BIRTHDAYYYYYYYY! We love you. Now come visit, okay? How about in 2 1/2 weeks? Great.

1 month!

2011-03-18T08:43:00.001-07:00

Can we just talk for a minute about how crazy it is that my little baby is a month old today?

I guess there's not much else to say, other than IT'S CRAZY. And I'd appreciate time slowing down just a smidgeon, thank you.

And on a completely different note, this website is one of my faves for a good laugh:

http://catalogliving.net/

You're welcome :)

Birth story

2011-03-10T19:15:00.000-08:00

For those interested (I know I like reading these, but they're not for everybody). I had written this out but wanted to put an edited version on the blog because the original was SUPER long. Turns out I am not so good at editing so this is pretty much the whole thing. Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 16 I had a doctor’s appointment and I had not dilated or effaced at all and there were no signs that our little baby was on the way. I was convinced that I would go over the due date by a few days.

On Thursday, February 17 I wasn’t feeling well, I was having what felt like menstrual cramps all morning. I sat on the computer and worked on different things and took it easy, thinking I was just feeling the effects of being on my feet a lot the day before. At about 4 pm I realized that I was having a lot of cramps and that they were starting and stopping and then in between I would feel just fine and I thought to myself, “I wonder if this is something more than just feeling crampy…” so I got on the computer and googled “Can contractions feel like menstrual cramps?” Lo and behold everything that came up said YES. Lots of stories of women who’s early labor felt like cramps. So this made me a little excited but I was still feeling cautious, like I could be starting labor or I could feel like this for days. When Brock got home at 5:30 I told him, “Just so you are aware, I have been having cramps today and some people describe early labor as feeling like menstrual cramps. I don’t want to make a big deal about it because this could last a while, but at least we know that something’s happening!” We had dinner and then Brock had to go to class and take a test that night.

Brock got home from class a little after 7 pm and at this point I was pretty sure I was in early labor. The contractions were pretty regular, but still not very painful, mostly uncomfortable, and not close together. We decided to go to Peter and Leslie’s for our weekly Thursday TV night because my philosophy was “I can sit at home and contract or we can hang out with family and watch funny TV and contract” so we took our exercise ball so I could sit on that. We were there until about 9:30 pm, the whole time my contractions were getting worse and worse and I was getting pretty uncomfortable as the night went on. I sat on the floor and leaned on the exercise ball and all of a sudden I felt a quick spurt of leaking so I jumped up and ran to the bathroom. I was so embarrassed! I thought that I had either wet my pants or my water broke, but it wasn’t very much liquid so I was a little wary. I walked out of the bathroom and told Brock we should probably go home. So we said goodbye to Peter and Leslie (who were excited because they were sure I would be going to the hospital soon. In fact, we found out later that Peter texted Mom, “You might be looking for tickets soon!”) and got in the car and drove home, the whole time my contractions getting worse and worse.

When we got home we started timing the contractions and packing the hospital bags and getting everything together. After we timed contractions for a while and they were 3 minutes apart very consistently, I called Dr. Parker (the doctor on call) and we talked and he said that we should get to the hospital so they could see if my water really had broken. So we packed the car and headed up to Orem, the whole time I was contracting and we were getting more and more anxious! When we got to the hospital at 11 pm it took us a few minutes to get into the women’s center because I had a really bad contraction and we had to stand in the parking lot while I got through that. Then we raced into the L&D and the nurse sitting there, Marianne, showed us into our labor room and got me all set up to check my cervix and if my water had indeed broken.

I changed, got on the bed and she came in and gave me a really painful internal examination. I was only dilated to a 1.5 so I was disappointed by that, but she confirmed that my water had broken so I was checked into the hospital and we were going to have that baby soon! She even wrote February 18 on the board as the birth date, since we knew her birthday now. That was really exciting for me, to know my daughter’s birthday finally! She asked all sorts of medical questions and filled out paper work while I writhed on the bed in pain. I tried answering all of her questions but the contractions were coming so quickly and so painfully that I couldn’t speak sometimes. Finally she said she was going to call Dr. Parker and see if he thought I could get the epidural and so we waited for a few minutes and got the approval. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural and Marianne held my hand and talked to me while I leaned on Brock. I cannot say enough what an amazing labor nurse Marianne was; it was such a blessing to have her there the whole time. The anesthesiologist left and said he would check on me in a half hour to see how it was going and that half hour was pretty bad. For some reason, probably that I was progressing so quickly, the epidural did not kick in. After the half hour when he came back in to check on me and I was still in pain he increased the dose and that finally worked. At this point Marianne checked my cervix again and I was at a 4 so we were pretty shocked. It was 1 am and she said we should try to get some sleep and she would come back at 3 to check again. The next two hours we tried to sleep and I think we both kind of dozed a little here and there but mostly we were too excited and my mind was racing. Luckily I couldn’t feel any more contractions so I was comfortable again.

At 3 am Marianne walked in with Dr. Parker. He said he had just felt like he needed to come in then and she saw him in the hall so she asked if he wanted to check me. He checked and I was at a 10! He looked up at me and said “Well, I guess it was inspired because you’re ready to start pushing. She’s right there!” So he left to get some sleep before the delivery and Marianne went to go get things ready and Brock and I sat together for a bit and talked about how crazy this all was and how quickly it had passed. After a bit she came back in and we got all set up for delivery and then I started pushing. I would push three times for each contraction while Brock counted. He was so encouraging and did a perfect job being just what I needed the whole time. It was such a surreal experience to not be able to feel anything that was going on but be working so hard. And after the first contraction they (Brock and Marianne) could see the baby’s head and they kept saying, “Oh wow, she has so much hair!” I couldn’t believe they could already see the head and I wanted to see so I had Marianne bring the mirror over so I could watch the rest of the delivery. We pushed for a while and I tore a bit so Marianne suggested that Dr. Parker might cut an episiotomy to help me. The baby was coming so quickly though that when she called him in he put on his scrubs and we started pushing again. When he sat down, Dr. Parker accidentally knocked the mirror so I couldn’t see the delivery anymore. The next time I had a contraction I pushed three times and Marianne asked if I could see and I said no and Dr Parker said, “Just look down!” I looked and there was a little head right there and then he pulled her all the way out and there was my little girl all red and wrinkly and she was screeching like a little pterodactyl. I just kept saying “She’s so perfect!” over and over while I watched the doctor rub her down. She was born at 3:56 am. I only pushed for about 25 minutes! It was a dream labor.

I got to hold her immediately which was great and Brock and I just sat and stared at her. The nurses kept rubbing her down and checking her vitals and everything was so great and everyone kept saying how beautiful she was and how much hair she had! It was by far the most amazing thing I’ve ever done and I feel so blessed to have our little Sadie with us.

This Daddy

2011-03-07T15:56:00.001-08:00

loves his girl. How did I get so lucky? Makes me wanna burst out in song...
"somewhere in my youth or childhoooooood
I must have done something gooooood...."

(name that movie.)

Miss Sadie

2011-03-01T18:11:00.000-08:00

So I have been a total slacker, but it's time for an update! We had a baby! Wow. And not just any baby, but the sweetest, cutest little baby ever. It's crazy that we have a little girl, and that she's 11 days old. We've already noticed her changing a ton and getting older and smarter.

Some Sadie facts:
1. She loves to eat. She had gained back all the weight she lost post-birth and then some when we went in for her 5 day checkup.
2. She snorts like a pig when she's fussy/hungry. It's hilarious.
3. She has a mullet.
4. She used to have a cry like a pterodactyl, but now she's figuring out how to really cry. We miss her little high-pitched screeches.
5. She has a hard time keeping all of her food in her tummy which results in multiple outfit changes a day. Good thing we have lots of clothes for her!
6. She sleeps pretty well. She likes to be held, she likes to be swaddled and warm, she loves white noise and having her head rubbed.
7. She has her daddy wrapped around her finger. And her mommy and her grandparents. And just about anyone else who meets her.
8. She is so pretty. And yes, that is a fact.

Here she is:

Sadie Beth Weaver
Born: 02/18/2011
3:56 am
6 lbs 9 oz, 19 inches

Pretty awesome

2011-02-16T19:53:00.001-08:00

-Grocery shopping when most of the items in my cart don't expire until after Baby's due date...totally awesome :)
-This CD is phenomenal.
-People need lessons on how to speak to a pregnant women. There is no need to mention size. Ever. A nice, "Wow, congratulations! You look great!" will suffice.
-If you have music on your website/blog and it is hidden, I do not stay. It should be made available to shut off the moment I hear the first few notes of your cutesie playlist. I usually have my own music on, thank you very much.
-Our kitchen is disgusting right now. Somehow we've managed to use every single dish we own and I really should go wash some of them...but I'm tired.
-We have a car seat in our backseat and a crib in our room. Weird.
-Just got a text from Brock saying, "Have you seen the weather outside?! Don't go into labor tonight!" because even though it was 50 degrees this afternoon, it is indeed blizzarding outside. Awesome, Utah.
-Folding baby clothes is just about the greatest pastime.
-The Provo Bakery should have seating inside so you don't have to eat your pastry in your car.
-My life is pretty awesome right now.
-But seriously, time to go do dishes...

To My Love

2011-02-14T14:44:00.000-08:00

I love you, and that's the beginning of everything.

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

Dear Baby

2011-01-27T12:46:00.000-08:00

We are very excited to meet you! Come soon so I can take pictures of you instead of your empty clothes.

In memory of

2011-01-23T17:24:00.000-08:00

I was going to blog tonight, but I think Laura said everything I was feeling. I love her list of memories. Some of them I remembered and some I didn't so I'm glad she wrote all of those down. I won't lie, I cried reading it. I'm crying now. That dumb dog was really a wonderful dog. Love you Mack.

http://lwride.blogspot.com/

Bad News Bears

2011-01-18T17:42:00.000-08:00

Unemployment

+

Pregnancy Cravings

+

Internet Access

=

Bad News Bears.

Folks, we're going to need an intervention here. Thursday I was having crazy intense cravings for donuts. Warm, flaky, glazed Krispy Kremes to be exact. So I thought, "I wonder how hard it would be to make donuts?" Three minutes later and I had found my recipe and today I made donuts. And they are, in a word, delectable.

So what's the problem? They are really, really, yummy. And I cannot say no to a yummy donut. And the recipe ended up making about double what it said it would. So we now have a kitchen full of donuts, and trust me, it is not good. I think I'm going to send most of them to work with Brock tomorrow, although part of me wants them all for myself. But I've eaten plenty, trust me.

Moral of the story is STOP LOOKING UP RECIPES ON THE INTERNET, KATE! It's a bad, bad, bad idea. Because now that I know I can make these, I have no excuse the next time I'm feeling like I need a donut. Or 30.

Enero

2011-01-12T10:31:00.000-08:00

Baby: She is roughly the size of a honeydew now, and I am feeling it. She is also insanely active. I could just sit and watch my belly do the wave for hours, and sometimes I do. I tried recording it earlier but after watching the video back I realized it's about as exciting as watching someone's stomach move. Apparently it's much more exciting when you can FEEL it. Whodathunk?!!? She also gets the hiccups at least once a day (that I notice) but usually twice.
And because everybody and their dog is SOOOO interested, we do not yet have a name for our little girl. In fact we even added one to the list a few nights ago so we're back up to 6 options. I don't think we'll narrow it down much before we go to the hospital. It's not that we are trying to be super secretive, we really just don't know what her name is going to be. But mark my words it will not be made up and it will not be a fabric pattern.

Brock: Is working full time now and taking an evening class as he finishes his LAST semester at BYU. So far he's not loving his class but it's worth it to be done in four months. He is able to be home for dinner every night which is AWESOME, and is enjoying having more free time in the evenings. I am loving this new development as well. We've been watching Netflix and playing games that we got for Christmas (Blokus anyone?).

Kate: I'm going on "maternity leave" on Monday. I put that in quotations because I will not be going back to work (at least not for this company). I guess it's time to start getting more photo jobs! I'm getting a little nervous about being out of work for so long, especially before the baby comes....I think I might go crazy waiting for her to come. Luckily I've made a loose calendar of things I need to do/buy/make before she gets here so hopefully the weeks will still go quickly.

We're just hanging in there, looking forward to NEXT MONTH when we have a baby. I can't wait to have a little, snuggly, sweet smelling baby to entertain myself with 24/7. And if you're lucky I may let you come visit her too!

Happy 2011!

2011-01-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

Well, it's the New Year already. We loved 2010. We were very blessed this past year to be able to see both of our families a few times, visit some fun places, celebrate a year of marriage, get pregnant so easily and to have such a great pregnancy so far, have wonderful jobs that we both enjoyed, and just have lots of fun with friends and family. We feel very lucky and are ready for this new year with all of it's new adventures.

I am now going to attempt to summarize the past few weeks as best I can: This year we spent Christmas in Park City with the Weavers. It was a blast.

More details? Okay, but only because you asked! We had so much fun. We went to the Nutcracker with Mama Weaver and Kaitlynn and it was very wonderful and beautiful and everything the Nutcracker should be. Not to mention we were so close to the stage I could have joined the Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier for the pas de deux...but that is frowned upon I'm sure. And it would technically no longer be a pas de deux...but that's beside the point.

Brock, Kaitlynn and I all had to work some of the days but the rest of the time we all hung out and ate good food, watched movies, played games and enjoyed the snow. We had a white Christmas this year for sure. The guys loved it because they got to snowboard in some lovely fresh powder pretty much every day they went out. And I am still trying to figure out how anything can be classified as "fun" when it's -5 degrees.

This was also the year of parties. Christmas parties with the Johnson side, the Weaver side, the Wride side, a baby shower thrown by Grandma U and Becky (THANK YOU!) and a fun New Years extravaganza in Park City.

For Christmas we got a video camera...one of those fun Flip cameras (for the baby of course!) but we've been having some fun with it in the meantime. To see some videos we've taken recently, check out my youtube channel!

In closing, Happy New Year! We love you all,

The Weavers

Happy Birthday Kate!

2010-12-13T21:25:00.001-08:00

She's the big 23 and a mom to be! We celebrated Kate's birthday today by going out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse then opening a few presents at home. Kate got spoiled with new dresses, socks, movies, and cute bag for when juniorette comes. Love you babe!

Portfolio

2010-12-09T14:50:00.000-08:00

Wow, we're already 1/3 way through December. Does anyone else feel like this year has just been a blur? Why didn't 2010 want to stick around a little longer? I promise we can be fun! Oh well, we're looking forward to 2011 too, so I guess it's just fine this way.

In the last week Brock has been getting ready for the end of the semester. In fact, I think today is technically the last day of BYU classes? He's been busy putting together his portfolio for his final. We hired one of his coworkers who does graphic design to make up the design for his portfolio and then we put it all together Sunday night. Tuesday night we had to come up with an interesting way to "package" or present the portfolio. Oh the life of creative majors. We decided to make a folder like a vinyl sleeve (because he's a musician, get it?? :)) using some of the same design elements from his portfolio and then include a CD of one of his songs, his resume, cover sheet and portfolio. If you got that in the mail you'd remember it, right? The correct answer is yes because that is what we stayed up two nights working on. Anywho, I am very proud of him. He has been working insanely hard this semester and taking great care of me and the little squash :)
Here is Brock on his way out the door for his interview (part of the final...he doesn't turn everything in until next week):

Front of vinyl sleeve and portfolio

Showing off the back

One more week and then we can take a break from school! :) Bring on Christmas, we are so ready for some chill time.

In other news we're in the third trimester over here and the baby is so active! I couldn't fall asleep last night because she was punching all my insides and when I woke up this morning she was already at it again. I got an email the other day (I get weekly emails telling me how big she is now, what is developing and what we should be doing to prepare at the current stage of pregnancy) instructing me to start counting her kicks in the morning and in the evenings, that I should feel at least ten movements in an hour. Not necessary. I feel ten movements in two minutes. She is an octopus.

Here is the belly at 28 weeks.

Giving Thanks

2010-11-30T12:44:00.000-08:00

Since my last post got a little out of hand and very quickly, I will make this more of a picture post, because let's face it, pictures are way more fun. Especially when you see the darlingness that was our Thanksgiving break this year. Basically it consisted of lots of eating, snuggling with sweet babies, napping, beautiful Christmas music, football, chocolate dipping, and did I mention the three act play "The Christmas Miracle" performed by our very own nieces and nephews? Because it was amazing. Especially all the impromptu snickering and "backstage" complaints from the overworked actors..."Maddie, I thought you said this was going to be shoooort!"

(You cannot deny that John has the most delectable baby legs of all time.)

I love seeing him holding little babies. I can't wait until he gets to hold our little girl, and luckily, neither can he!

Explaining the chocolate day rules to our newest dipper. She did great, minus a few accidental finger licks (it's hard to remember that rule when you've got chocolate up to your wrist!

We had such a fun time over the break and loved being with our awesome family. Now we're ready for Christmas! (Literally, we put our tree up last night and decorated our house. Oh how I love this season!)

Happy December!!!

Weekend Winter Wonderland

2010-11-22T12:40:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we had our first big snow! Actually, I don't really know if Provo did or not, because I got stuck up in Park City, but boy did we get snow up there! Wanna hear a funny story? Okay, but only because you asked!

Saturday morning I went and took some pictures of Peter and Leslie's family. It was pretty chilly and overcast and I was worried it was going to start snowing/raining at any moment (forecast called for it all day!) but it went well and the kids did great (for a while...:)). Right as we were finishing the wind picked up but still no precipitation. I was planning on going up to Park City to spend the afternoon/evening with Grandma Bev and the Weaver aunts and girl cousins who were staying there while attending this last week's Time Out For Women conference in SLC. I had already been warned by Beverly that it was supposed to storm, so not to worry about coming up if it looked bad.

Brock played flag football with the ward in what I'm told is prime football weather. I don't get it.

For lunch Pedro and Lesilia (I don't know if they know this, but that's what Brock calls them. Fun fact!) were kind enough to take us to CPK where we had some scrumptious pizzas and warmed our bellies. Then we went to Iceberg and got ice cream shakes that reversed the effects of the aforementioned warm pizza. Still delish! Thanks guys!

So at about 3 o'clock I sent a very bundled Brock to the BYU football game with Peter. Again, it's crazy overcast and FREEZING and windy and sounds pretty miserable, no? And at any minute it could start raining. Brrrr. I then got ready to drive up to PC because hey, there is no inclement weather! No biggie. (Another fun fact: this is the first time I've driven up Parley's Canyon. I was so brave! The end.)

I was supposed to have arrived before the ladies got back from TOFW and take Brock's cousin Chelsea to the outlet malls and do some Christmas shopping. Only I was later than I had expected and they were all there when I got there. My bad. At this point it started hailing a little outside. Just those little tiny balls of frozen-ness. No biggie. So we dragged them all over to the mall and shopped and watched as Chelsea got her ears pierced. Poor thing, I don't think she knew what she was getting into having everyone watching making comments. Anywho, that's a story for another time. Actually, probably not. This story isn't even worth it, so if you're reading I hope you don't feel gypped.

During this outing it changed from those tiny hail balls to more slushy rain-type snow. I am so good a describing precipitation, in case you hadn't caught on yet. By the time we went to dinner there was a good, slippery layer of slush on the ground. Now would be a good time to let you in on the fact that we were all driving around in one vehicle during all of this. 5 adults, one teen and a fetus. Comfy. So back to dinner. Panda Express. My fortune cookie said something along the lines of "A fun getaway would do your soul some good." Done, fortune cookie. Done.

Meanwhile Brock and Peter are still freezing their buns off at the BYU game (dang football games last FOREVER.) Cougars are winning. Male bonding is occurring.

So us ladies head back to the condo and and cozy up on the couches to thaw out. By this point the roads are very slushy and there some good accumulation of snow. We watched "How to Train Your Dragon". Very cute movie, I approved. During the movie we were all chatting with Kaitlynn (who had a hot date so she hadn't come up yet...rawr) about whether or not she should make the drive up since it was getting a little iffy out there. At this point I started to wonder how the heck I was going to get home, but I kept hoping maybe I would just magically appear in Provo later that night. We finally decided it probably wasn't all that safe so she didn't come up (WE MISSED YOU KATE! I MISSED YOU!) but it was probably for the best.

Brock's night included watching BYU kill whoever the heck we played and then going over to a buddy's house and playing Halo for way too many hours. He admits its not something he would want to do everyday because it literally sucked the life out of him to play video games and eat crap for so long, but that it was a good time. More male bonding ensued.

After the movie we went upstairs and that's when I kind of realized just how bad it was outside. I guessed 4 inches, Natalie guessed 6 inches and Darlene told us we were both bonkers, that is was DEFINITELY at least 8 inches. I have no sense of quantity so we're going to go with 7 inches so they can both be right. Still though, lots of snow and it wasn't slowing down and looking out the window there was a huge line of traffic going west on I-80 which we all know means ACCIDENT. Therefore I texted Brock and said, sorry dude. I'm not going to come home tonight.

Did I plan on spending the night? Not so much. But nevertheless I did. And because I am pregnant, or no one wanted to snuggle with me, I got banished to the upstairs all by my lonesome. Can you tell I don't like sleeping alone anymore? I just kept praying that the snow would quit so they could clear the roads and I could go home! Not that I don't love Park City, but I had kind of left Brock in a lurch with no car. Not to mention the forecast was snow for the next three days. Straight. So if I couldn't make it home then, what were the chances that it would get better later on? Needless to say I was freaking out just a tad.

When I woke up Sunday morning the snow was still coming down like crazy and there were a few more inches. The roads looked pretty much the same to me as they had the night before, but with the daylight I was feeling more confident in my driving skills so I thought I would at least get ready and try to get out if there was a break. So I showered and ate breakfast and went outside to dig my car out of the snow drifts only to find Beverly (bless her heart) shoveling the snow off the driveway. I brushed the 14+ inches of snow off my car and de-iced all the windows and just as I was finishing it stopped snowing! Miracle of miracles! We decided I should be okay getting home so I prepped myself for the drive down the canyon. I am happy to report that it was a pretty uneventful drive. The roads were slushy down the canyon but once I got to SLC it was easy again. I did have my first Braxton Hicks this weekend and if those are aggravated by stress then I know exactly where they came from.

I got home just in time to throw on a dress, straighten my hair and drive over to the church building and join Brock for the last part of Sacrament meeting. I was exhausted and still wound up from all my worrying but just glad to be home. Then I got to go hang out in Nursery for two hours. That helped me relax :) I was telling Laura and Brett last night that it's getting bad in there, they should just release me. I can't find the energy to stand up and break up each fight anymore so if they don't obey the verbal warnings, they pretty much get away with it until someone starts crying. Not to mention that reading time has become a little less comfortable since they all fight over my lap except I don't have one anymore so yesterday I had kids sitting on my legs and knees, craning their necks to see the book. Not fun.

Did I say this was a funny story? Hmm...I could have sworn I said it was going to be a long story with absolutely no point whatsoever, just me venting about being a wiener and not wanting to drive in the snow. I guess to make it up to you for reading (if you did!) I could leave you with these lovely images of my 26 week self. Brock doesn't like that I call myself a beached whale, but seriously, I can't even get up out of bed sometimes without his help. Lame sauce. And I still have 14 weeks!

Have a great Thanksgiving! We're going to VA on Wednesday and it cannot come soon enough. peace.

Countdown

2010-11-08T12:54:00.000-08:00

to baby girl Weaver: 107 days
to Christmas: 46 days
to Thanksgiving: 17 days

Oh it's the MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR.

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

To be honest with you all, Halloween has never been my favorite holiday...or anywhere near it. I hate scary movies, spiders, spider webs, skeletons, ghosts, haunted houses, costumes and creepy masks...basically everything that most people love about Halloween. I enjoyed Trick-or-Treating as a kid, but only for the massive amounts of candy that I would end up with. So from the age of being too old to T-or-T anymore until recently, I've pretty much ignored the holiday. However, I think I'm coming around to a better way of celebrating this haunted day.

Last year we had some friends over and made caramel apples and played games. FUN.

This year we got a few more couples together and spent the weekend up at the condo in Park City. SO FUN.

Brittany put together an amazingly delicious menu for the weekend and we had more treats and candy than we knew what to do with! So of course, we ate most of it. We went swimming, shopping, ate great food, made caramel apples, played games, vegged on the couches, hung out and generally just relaxed and had a good ol' time!

(Blogger is telling me that vegged isn't a word. Whatevs.)

I think I'm beginning to like Halloween. And if I were tempted to dress up for this holiday, I probably would have gone this route:

Thanks to the Weavers for letting us use their place, yet again, to get away from the inevitable "Provo blues". Besides, we never could have had this many people over to our little apartment. Thanks to everyone who came too! It made for such a fun weekend that so many people decided to join us. We have the coolest friends.

Birthdays, Bashes and Baby Clothes!

2010-10-21T15:47:00.000-07:00

Oh my!

October is not over yet, not by any means, and it always seems to be our busiest month. Pretty much all the Weavers were born this month (okay 3/5) so it's a month long celebration, there's General Conference, Halloween, school, work, and now pregnancy. And I don't think the party will stop until the New Year. And even then it's not really stopping...just going on a brief hiatus until the end of February.

We started October off with Papa Weaver's 50th birthday. He's kind of bummed about being so old, but seeing as how he'll be a grandpa soon, it's about time he grow up a little ;) Plus, 50 is young. I have to say that because my own dear parents are not so young anymore ;) What?!?! Who said that?!? Rude. You guys are spring chicks.

Then Brock turned a quarter of a century old! 25! Now THAT'S old! We had the requested spaghetti dinner and cherry pie dessert. Why he wants spaghetti for his birthday dinner, I will never know, but he's the birthday boy and gets to choose!

I had been kind of sneaky and asked a bunch of our friends to come over for games and dessert and got a mediocre response. I thought, "Well, I tried. At least a few people are coming and it will be fun!"

7 pm on the dot and half the people I had invited were already at our house! We had people over all night and it was a blast. Thank you to all those who came and showed Brock some love on his bday, it really meant a lot to him. And I've learned that people just don't RSVP these days. No biggie ;) He also got lots of fun presents and I think enjoyed his birthday quite a lot.

Saturday we went to the ReAL Salt Lake game and watched them destroy FC Dallas. Definitely different from soccer games overseas, but still really fun. Salt Lake loves their soccer team! Who woulda thunk?!?!?

Last week Brock was also promoted at work. His boss quit, so he is basically taking on all of his responsibilities. While we feel extremely blessed right now and this is a great opportunity for Brock, it has also been stressing the poor boy out. He has had a lot of work to do for school projects and has been really busy trying to get in the groove of things at work. It's a lot at once. Luckily he is very good at managing his time and is such a hard worker.

This has also been a big month for us baby-wise. Found out we're having a girl, bought her very first outfit and she is constantly entertaining us already. This girl has some moves! Holy cow. When she's not pushing for extended periods of time on my bladder, she's karate chopping my intestines and has recently decided she likes to show off to her daddy. Last night she was going crazy and as soon as Brock would put his hand on my belly she would be still as a mouse. Stinker. Then he would give up and she'd go back to throwing a little party. Finally it was just too late so we gave up trying to get her to move for him.

A minute later and she hit me so hard I was worried she had busted out of there! So I said, "Okay, try again" and Brock was able to "witness" an entire dance routine designed especially for him by our little ballerina. It was pretty cool. He was so cute, every time she kicked his face would get all excited and he said something like, "Why don't you freak out every time she moves??? this is so crazy!!"

Also, my belly button is stretching out and we discovered I have a new talent as well! While waiting for our little peanut to move last night, Brock got me laughing pretty hard about something and it made my belly button pop up. Which, of course, made me laugh even harder. It was so weird, but I'm discovering that second trimester is a gazillion times more enjoyable than the first. I mean, I'll take kicks to the gut and popping belly buttons any day over nausea and bloating. Thank you very much.

Tired of reading yet? I'm tired of writing.

Here's a picture of our little girl's first outfit. Yes, those are wiener dogs and hearts...we are that cool!

Half way!

2010-10-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

20 weeks and half way to February 23rd!

(In case you were wondering, these pictures are extremely awkward to take. Brock kept saying, "Well, aren't you going to smile or something?" So this is what we get.)

We went in for the anatomy ultrasound on Friday and everything was perfect. Not to mention the most exciting news of ALL, that we're having

She is darling and she put on quite a show for us! I was nervous that she would be sneaky and hide, but that was not the case at all! I've been able to feel her for about a week now, just small kicks and flutters, but it was amazing to see how much she is actually moving inside of me! The ultrasound tech was very sweet and took lots of pictures for us which was just fine with me! It was amazing to see a blob and then have her say, "Now this is her stomach" or "These here are her kidneys". I'm glad there are people in the world who can tell, because I sure couldn't!

Unfortunately we only got some of the pictures scanned before our scanner decided that it didn't want us to be happy and stopped cooperating. So these are the pictures we have for now:

Her sweet little face

Her legs, she was so cute all curled up in a little ball

Her hand up by her face. She was flexing her tiny fingers for us.

Gorgeous, isn't she? *sigh* We're totally nuts about her.

Hello October!

2010-10-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

(18 weeks)

Q. What's the difference between a pregnant woman and a model?
A. Nothing, if the pregnant woman's husband knows what's good for him.

But seriously folks, one week from today we'll know what that little bump is! I mean we know it's a baby...we don't REALLY think there's a mango in there...but we'll be able to start narrowing down names (wouldn't you like to know :)), shopping for little outfits and referring to the baby by their appropriate gender! Can. Not. Wait.

Until then, we're very much excited for this!

Welcome Autumn!

2010-09-21T13:31:00.001-07:00

Here in the Weaver household we are very excited about the prospect of Fall. After a pretty toasty summer it's nice to step outside and have a cool breeze to refresh you. It's also much more comfortable in our house, and the night time is delightful. It's nice to be able to cuddle in blankets and want to cozy up to one another again. Yay Fall!

School has started but so far (at least it seems to me) that it's not as bad as we thought. But it's kind of early still I guess. Brock has entered his last BIG semester in the advertising major which includes his capstone class and their client for the semester is none other than Haagen-Dazs. Of course we have to do LOTS of research and I am more than willing to eat my fair share. For the sake of research.

Brock is also participating in some fall intramural sports: ultimate frisbee and football. He is very excited about this.

Kate spends her days working and growing a person. No big deal. The second trimester has definitely been better than the first, but there are still days when I feel like the baby is just reminding me that he/she is still there. Thanks baby.

So far we know this baby loves all things salty, as well as Chef Boyardee Ravioli, chicken noodle soup and chocolate ice cream. Especially Haagen-Dazs. Just sayin'.

This week our little one is about 5 1/2 inches long and about 5 ounces. Any day now I could feel it moving, but I don't think I'll feel him/her this early. Although I do think that the preferred spot for "hanging out" is somewhere near my bladder. Maybe he/she thinks it's a trampoline???? Not sure. It's also supposed to have pretty developed ears now so we make a point to talk to/sing to and play awesome music to it. Just in case.

We go in two weeks from Friday for the ultrasound, so start submitting your guesses. According to the "Chinese Gender Chart" it's a girl...and she talks already!

Hi Sweetie!

Awkward.

I've got the magic.

2010-09-13T09:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, another video. AND it's a pregnancy video. Get used to it, that's all we talk about here. I saw this on a blog today and it may have made my eyes tear up a little. Don't worry though, it won't do that to you. I just wish I was this cute in the morning...I love all the yawns and her spunk. If we tried this it would be a lot of the same pajamas over and over, same pose over and over. Cole is fierce. My idea of fierce in the morning is screaming at Brock (in my head of course, I don't have THAT much energy!) every time he opens our squeaky closet door.

Then again, it would be fun to have something like this for the baby to see.

And a shout out to Rabbit for the awesome song.

Magic- A Belly Grows from The Panic Room Videos on Vimeo.

Whistler Adventure

2010-09-02T15:17:00.000-07:00

So we promised exciting posts, and have we delivered or what?!?!? Thanks for the enthusiasm about our good news, we are beyond thrilled and can't wait to be parents! We find out in a few weeks what our little peanut is, so stay tuned. It's going to be epic.

The last week of August we spent in Whistler Canada with Brock's family. Whistler is awesome, so if you get the chance to go, winter or summer...it rocks. We ate out tons, lounged around reading and playing games, walking around the Village eating ice cream and window shopping. Oh yeah and having amazing adventures. (See below posts) It wasn't the most relaxing vacation we've ever been on, but it was so much fun. And who needs to relax anyways?!?! Much more fun to push yourself to the limit. Again. And again. And then eat so much you look pregnant. Oh wait...

Aerial Obstacle Course

2010-09-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

Probably the coolest thing we did in Whistler. I don't know how you could finish this course and not feel insanely proud of that accomplishment. It took us about three hours and there were 4 different levels, each one more intense and higher into the trees than the last. We had a guide, but she was on the ground the whole time and I think I saw her once after we started, when she yelled up to me how to get across a particularly intense obstacle that had me totally freaked out. After that...we were pretty much on our own.

Harnesses are hot.

Crossing an impossible obstacle. The balls spun so you had to wedge your feet against the ropes to keep from slipping off. And then jump onto a swinging log. Who comes up with these????

I love this photo of Kaitlynn, shows how incredibly unstable the course was.

High in the trees!!

Almost to the end.

So fun. So hard, but so fun. There were lots of obstacles, zip-lines, "Tarzan" ropes, nets, and overall mayhem. But we all did it and boy was I sore the next day.

Rock Climbing

2010-09-02T14:27:00.000-07:00

Aside from playing tennis on our "down" days, we went climbing at a cool little place called The Core. And by we, everybody but Laura and I...and Callie of course, although we did sneak her in.

Again with the harnesses! :)

Hiking Whistler Peak

2010-09-02T13:41:00.000-07:00

The last big hurrah was hiking around the peak of Whistler mountain. It was a beautiful, warm day and at 7500 ft is was just lovely.

Feeling good about this hike so far...check out that view!

We caught up to a family who had come across a couple of what the signs at the peak called "Hoary Marmots"...or as they were quickly renamed by some of the less mature Weavers..."low standards" marmots. :)

Pretty stream trickling down the mountain side.

The views were gorgeous and ALMOST enough to distract from the fact that I was getting pretty exhausted.

I think this is the beginning of me begging them to leave me for the bears.

Luckily we were almost there. After another glacier...and some more hiking...and another rock...or 2,409,576...and 2 hours later. THEN we were almost there.

Luckily I have a nice husband who let me go at my pace but ever let me quit (not that that was an option by that point). It was a beautiful hike and it was fun to be with family. Plus, one day I can show these pictures to our little peanut and say, "You were the reason Mommy looked and felt like she was dying!" That and lack of exercise of course, but let's not change the subject here!

All in all, we had a blast in Canada. So much fun and good food and even better company. Thanks again Weavers for the awesome trip!

New title.

2010-08-27T11:03:00.001-07:00

I know you've all been waiting for it :)

Two

2010-08-11T11:56:00.000-07:00

This sweet slideshow makes me want to learn French...and have a cute daughter. That's all.

A video I saw today that made me smile and love life just that much more:

-

Catch Up

2010-07-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

Hi folks. Long time no see! It's not like me to go for so long without boring you all with my ridiculous posts about nothing...my apologies. Because let me tell you, we've had quite the month! Maybe. Let's see...I left off on the 5th of July with a lame-o video...since then Brock has been working hard at LeadGenix and going to summer term at BYU...which probably wouldn't be so painful if his two classes a week weren't from 5-10 pm on Tuesday/Thursday. Talk about an unfortunate schedule. We don't seem to be able to see each other as much as we'd like these days, but we're two weeks away from finals and then he gets a two week break! Thanks BYU! We really have been living for the weekends this month and we've done some fun stuff:

Kate photographed her first solo wedding and it went great! Glad to have one under the belt, I'm legit now :)

Visited family in Hooper earlier this month and got to go to the ARISE! Spectacular with Gma and Gpa Weaver. It was only 100,000,000 degrees but we survived and the performance was incredible! Brock's cousins were in it and it was fun to watch them and the other 3,500 kids dancing on the field and singing, it was really powerful. (PS. one of those numbers is made up, the other is not, See if you can guess.)
Next day we were able to visit the Wride side in SLC for dinner at Grandma Wride's house. Her backyard will forever be my favorite place for a bbq. I'm sad she's planning on making Dad rip out her backyard fountain next month...*sniff*

The next week Papa Weaver and Cody flew in and took Brock to a 311 concert. Sounds like they had a blast but I feel good about my choice not to attend :) That weekend we went up to Park City to hang with them and the boys went mountain biking (again sounds fun but I probably would have died...). They only had minor cuts and bruises...even after being thrown over the handlebars *cough..Brock*. We ate out a ton, shopped, and saw the movie Inception (which was alright. Okay, it was pretty fantastic). I'm proud of Leonardo DiCaprio for making a comeback.

That's pretty much our July. Lots of working, studying, reading, sleeping, and more working. Good times. August will be fun though so we have that to hang on to. My family will be out here in less than two weeks and I'm so excited. Also, Peter and Leslie will have their little girl in a few weeks, whooohooo! Then we're headed to Whistler with the Weaver clan and again, we can't wait! Then I will have good ammunition for posts so you can start reading fun stuff. You're welcome!

5th of July

2010-07-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

Independéncia

2010-07-05T14:33:00.000-07:00

Here in Utah, since Independence Day fell on a Sunday, we've had 3 days of celebration!

Saturday, we went up by the Provo Temple to watch the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire. We were joined by P, L, and H, and Rachel and Eric.

Sunday, we had fish tacos at Peter and Leslie's. We thought eating Hispanic food was a fantastic way to celebrate our country's independence. (Sorry, no pics) After dinner we made a fire and roasted marshmallows and had S'mores. Much more American!

Today, we went to Freedom Days Parade in Provo. Luckily for us it was right down the street so we didn't have to drive or take our mobile couch :)

In the afternoon we thought we'de go swimming in the reservoir but we're cheap (they make you pay for parking!) so we ended up at Vivian Park where we had a picnic and played games and napped. It was a really beautiful day so we're glad we got out for a few hours.

Hope everyone had a great 4th as well!

Update-a-doodle-doo

2010-07-02T13:05:00.000-07:00

I blog like I journal - sporadic lists of events that probably don't make a lot of sense, but that's okay I think. As long as it's done, right? At least for my journal, I don't think anyone likes to read a blog like that. Doh.

In the last month or so of our lives the following has occurred (and unfortunately in no particular order...):

1. We repainted Rick and Shauna's living room while they were in Italy (yeah guess who got the better part of THAT deal! Sheesh...)
2. We went to see Toy Story 3 in 3D with Peter, Leslie and Harrison and it was super cute and funny. Not to mention Harrison was a hoot, and even brought along my favorite "Baby Walter" (who we were just informed is not necessarily a baby, but his name IS Baby...makes sense, right??)

PS. This is not a Baby Walter, but I found him hard to locate on the Google.
PSS. or PPS. Try googling "Stuffed animal giraffe" and try not to cringe, I dare you! I now think giraffes are the least understood animals, anatomically, by toy manufacturers. Just sayin'.

Moving on!

3. We've become very addicted to Netflix...we can watch on our computer, TV, Wii...anywhere we want. LOVE. We're watching the Star Wars series at the present time, but the old ones...the good ones. Unfortunately our trial expires this month so we're squeezing in the last few movies while we can. Next in our queue??? Saturday's Warrior. Time to educate this husband of mine!

4. Working, working, working. Going well for both of us, which is rad. Brock even got to go to Seattle a few weeks back for an SEO conference. AND got to see his family. How convenient!

5. Speaking of Brock...the poor boy is going straight through until he graduates which means he went to school Spring term and is now going to Summer term. We are definitely looking forward to the end of August when he will get two weeks off before Fall. That boy needs a break.

6. Kate is having fun with her photography business. Hope you guys are checking out the photo blog and website for recent work. She has a wedding next week up in Layton that she's stoked for.

7. Kate also got to see Nicole and her kids last weekend when she took pictures of their new baby Symoni. So fun to see everyone again and have them call her Mackenzie....ah, like old times :)

8. We finally got to see our friends Andrew and Virginia after some time and played Bocci ball. Brock then corrupted us all by teaching us Poker. Turns out Kate has a really great Poker face that goes something like this, "Oh my gosh!!! *Wide smile* "You should just all fold, wow, I have great cards! Whoo!"

Something like that. Let it be known that the girls KILLED the boys at Poker...so apparently having NO Poker face is just as good as having a good Poker face.

9. Oh HELLO?!?!?! World Cup anyone? We've been following pretty closely. Very proud of the US for getting so far, but of course our real loyalties lie with Spain. ¡Viva España!

10. Just needed to round it off with ten, couldn't leave you with nine. So yeah, Number 10....Happy 4th Of July coming up!

Also...MAJOR SHOUT OUT to my little Blister on turning 17 yesterday!!! Happy Birthday Bean!!!

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-21T10:13:00.001-07:00

Happy Father's Day (belated) to the wonderful men in our life! We are truly blessed to have such great Dads and Grandpas!
PS. I don't have any pictures of Grandpa Rex or Grandpa John but they are included in this as well of course.

These are all from the wedding...sorry...but they are pretty great!

We love you!!!

Bet you didn't know

2010-05-26T15:33:00.000-07:00

I married a rockstar.

This room has had quite the transition in the year that we've lived here:

1. "Extra stuff and junk" room

2. Office

3. Office and "other junk" room

4. Recording studio.....and "still has lots of junk in it" room

Like I said, expect a CD sometime in the ....uhhh....future!

One Year

2010-05-17T11:21:00.000-07:00

Well folks, we made it! One whole year! For those of you who doubted, well...I don't think that was anyone...but we showed you!!!!

This is what we look like at 1 year:

Except this picture is nast. So we took another:

Doh. Focus failure. I sure wish we had someone who knew how to use a camera in this family.

And because this picture shows Brock's patience with me:

Is it just me or does he just look SO IN LOVE with me!?!?!? I mean, look at the devotion and love in his eyes. I know some of you might confuse this look with exasperation, but you are wrong. That's love baby.

Happy One Year Sweetie Pie Honey Buns!

PS. I think TAMN is rubbing off on me....

I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.

2010-05-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

May has been a pretty awesome month thus far, and will only get better (1 year anniversary coming up folks!). The first weekend in May we went up to Kate's parents' condo in Park City to clean. And clean we did!

We scrubbed every last corner of this place, took all the linens with us to dry clean and we'll be dropping in again this weekend to put everything back together.

Last Monday was Harrison's 3rd birthday and it was a lot of fun. Leslie outdid herself again with a huge airplane cake and fabulous homemade pizza. Harrison cried when we sang "Happy Birthday" to him. It's rough being 3!

Wednesday we got a new nephew (see below).

Thursday Kate took some more engagements. Her business is really picking up! Spread the word! http://www.kateweaverphoto.com

Friday we drove up to Hooper to hang with the Weaver grandparents. They fed us yummy food and Gpa kicked our trash in Wii bowling. "How do you do this again?" my toe!!!!

Saturday we joined Mama and Papa Weaver in Logan for Kaitlynn's graduation from USU. We're so proud!!!! They didn't have a professional photographer so they invited one "representative" from each family to come down to the floor while their graduate received their diploma and take pictures. Guess who was chosen! So when her row stood up I ran down to catch her walk across the stage and at the end I think I scared her because she didn't know I was down there and I had to yell her name to get her attention :)

We went to lunch at Texas Roadhouse and back to their hotel for some quick grad pictures:

We drove back to Hooper for a minute to change before visiting Grandma U in Ogden. Watched the Laker-Jazz game. Weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Sunday: MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!!! We went to church with the Weaver clan, which was nice. And early too! We're big fans of early church now and can't wait until September when we hopefully go a little earlier than 2 pm. There are two Weaver missionaries out right now so some of the family went to go talk to them. And the rest of us napped and read. Then we made dinner while the mothers relaxed. After dinner we had a little gift exchange the rest of the Weavers came over and we had a graduation party for the two Kates (even though it was Mother's Day) so we ate more goodies and then everybody performed a rap for Kaitlynn and I. Everyone was supposed to write a few lines for each of us, some stuck to that, others went above and beyond (ehem...Brett and Laura...) but it was positively the funniest thing I've ever seen. Darlene brought her keyboard and put on a "rap beat" and people were wearing "sideways hats and chains" and tons of bling. Everybody had a good time laughing and rapping.

We got home last night and got to sleep in our own bed again and go back to work today. We got some awesome graduation contributions from our parents which we used to get some things we need/want...but mostly want. They were each others' Mother's Day/Father's Day gifts, as well as anniversary gifts :) and mine came in the mail today!

Thanks Honey! I'm liking this whole "I'll pick out what I want and we'll say it's from you!" gift-giving concept! I'll update when Brock gets his but I'll give you a hint: look for his new CD coming later this year ;)

And, because it needs to be said:

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all the wonderful moms out there, creating and changing lives every day for the better! And to our own Mothers who are wonderful examples to us and whom we love so very, very much! You're the Bees' Knees!

Mwas mwas.

Ps. For more pics see my Flickr page

John B. Wride

2010-05-06T10:44:00.000-07:00

We've got a new nephew!!!

John Barnard Wride was born yesterday evening weighing in at an incredible 10 lbs 2 oz. Where Marie was hiding that huge baby, I will never know! I even had a dream last night that we went to VA to meet him and he was huge, like a 5 mo. old...laughing and smiling and cooing. I kept telling Marie, "You gave birth to a toddler!!" Odd. But we are so excited! Here's some darling pictures I stole from A&M that make me a little teary-eyed. :)

Welcome little Johnny! We love you!

Graduation!

2010-04-25T11:01:00.000-07:00

On Thursday and Friday we celebrated Kate's graduation. Lots of fun, family and food! Here are some pics to document this milestone in our lives!

The Marriott Center a little full!

Humoring Brock :)

Thank you to everyone who came! We love you all!

Best of Muse!

2010-04-07T14:08:00.000-07:00

Monday night Brock, Papa Weaver and I went to see Muse at the "E" Center and there are just no words. It simultaneously blew our minds and took our breath away. Basically, we're lucky to be alive! Uh-MAZING. My ears were ringing all night, my eyes were sore from watching all those lasers and I keep replaying my favorite parts of the concert in my brain (which I recovered after it was blown away by the awesomeness that is Muse live)

(Didn't take a camera so thank goodness for google images)

Best songs of the night: Uprising, duh!; Starlight; and United States of Eurasia

Best quotes of the night: Brett: "Is it insulting to a gay dude if you tell him he's the man??"
Brock as every song began "This is the best song!" or "This is my favorite!"

Best seats of the night: ours. Fourth row baby!!!!

Best hairdos of the night: After running a quarter mile in a blizzard, Kate definitely pulled off the best "drowned rat" look. Brett's hair was, of course, impeccable.

Best teeth of the night: Matthew Bellamy. Now there's a true Brit for you! *gag* Good thing he plays a mean guitar AND is a beautiful pianist. *swoon*

Haha...jk. Fun night though! Thanks Papa Weaver (like he'll ever even read this, good thing we thanked him in person a million times) for taking us and for going to see Muse a second time!

Now who wants to drive to Vegas with us on Saturday to see them??!?!?!? :)

UPdate

2010-03-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

So for some reason I feel like I haven't blogged in a while. Probably because I'm on the computer 8 hours a day and NONE of it is for blogging...but I thought it was time for a little post. A tasty morsel, if you will.

Brock's basketball team has been plowing through the first rounds of finals and have another game tonight, and if they win this one, on Thursday night too! Whew! They are the "Civil 7" and from what I've seen, are the ONLY civil intramural bballers out there. They have played some scary folks. Being civil gets you places! :)

Kate was very proud of her nursery lesson on Sunday about the Resurrection. There's something really wonderful about hearing your nursery kids tell their parents, "...and when they went into the 'toon' it was empty because Jesus is ALIVE!!!" (still need to work on TOMB, but it was close enough!)

Brock played his guitar for a fireside on Sunday evening. He did a wonderful job and the music was beautiful. We have video but unfortunately the sound is pretty bad because they didn't have the speakers on. He has another gig on the 10th of April in a little cafe in Provo. Come one, come all!

Happy Birthday To Mama and Papa Wride! Wish we could have been there for the festivities!!! Good thing you have PLENTY more birthdays to celebrate! :)

Not our news, but our neighbors had their baby and she is to-die-for cute! Can't wait to take some pics of her!

Kaitlynn came down last weekend with some friends so we got to see her for a bit. We will be seeing her again this weekend when we go up to the condo with some buddies for Conference and Easter! So excited for that!

Next Monday = MUSE CONCERT! WHOOHOOO!!! Twill be a rockin' good time :)

Also coming up is Kate's graduation and lots of fun family time. We are excited to see both sides of the family for BOTH Kates' graduations :) April is sure to be a winner of a month! Not to mention we're coming up on one year and MY how time has flown!

Anywho, I believe that does a fine job for now.

****And don't forget April Fools Day....;)

Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

2010-03-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

For Mom and anyone else who wants an easy homemade soup recipe!

*disclaimer: this photo is not mine and my soup was not so pretty.

Chicken Noodle Soup

1 whole chicken or 2 whole chicken breasts
2+ qt. water (enough to cover)
4 chicken bouillon cubes
4 potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 carrots, peeled and cut bite-size
(this recipe doesn't call for celery but I think it's good in CNS so you can add some too if you want! probably 1-2 C. chopped celery)

Homemade noodles:

1 beaten egg
1 tsp. salt
1 C. flour
2 Tbsp water

Cook chicken in pot covered in water and bouillon. Simmer until done. Remove meat and set aside to cool. Skim off fat from liquid and strain out foam. Remove skin from chicken and shred into bite-sized pieces. Place in fridge. Add celery and carrots to broth and bring to boil. Add prepared noodles and boil open kettle for 15 min. Add potatoes and chicken. Simmer until potatoes are tender. If needed, add more water and bouillon for additional broth.

To prepare noodles:

Mix all ingredients. Form into ball. Divide in half. Roll into ovals and cut into strips with a pizza cutter or knife. Set aside until time to add to soup. (I would recommend making these thinner than you think because once they are in the soup they SWELL)

Yummy! Make sure you have some salted crackers with this :)

Oh no they didn't!

2010-03-14T20:22:00.000-07:00

We did! And we love our new iMac. Maybe too much.

Kate's favorite features: super speedy!, photo editing is going to be a breeeeeze and so pretty, Skyping with family is now IN the picture, and it's pretty, and many more discoveries coming, I'm sure!

Brock's favorite features: super speedy!, garageband, when he's typing a document he can make everything behind it black, swiping in the corners gives you all sorts of fun results like new desktops and stuff, no scroll button on mouse but it still scrolls!

And we're still just experimenting. We watched Spiderman on it last night and every 20 minutes or so Brock would lean over and say, "This is so awesome!" or "Our new computer rocks!" or something along those lines. He even dreamt about it last night.

I think I have some competition.

Chicken Soup

2010-03-09T16:59:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest update, the 411, the lowdown on the Weavers.

But first, a link to my YouTube channel (Grandma Wride: "What a stupid name!") so you can all check out Brock's latest concert at the Velour in Provo! Whoot whoot.

1. Kate works from home, gets paid by the hour and sells baby bathtubs. Be jealous.
2. Brock has had three concerts in the last month, and will play again on March 28th! Come one, come all - this one is free!
3. Kate is working on wedding thank you cards again...if you haven't received one yet, it's coming!!!
4. Brock's basketball team is in the playoffs! First game is this Friday night!
5. We learned how to play Canasta! Thanks Andrew and Virginia!
6. We got to see lots of family when Jaxson was baptized and spent the day with Gma Wride.
7. We found out we're going to VA for Thanksgiving, thanks to Mama and Papa Weaver!
8. Kate got her hairs cut (not enough to warrant a photograph, but she weighs ten pounds lighter!) and Brock thinks it's sexy :)
9. Brock was released from his calling, only to be re-sustained to the same calling a few minutes later :) Oops! Hahaha.
10. Brock is the new SMO account manager for the Utah Blaze, Arena Football team! Niiiiice.
11. And Kate made homemade chicken soup with homemade noodles. Delish!

Well, I think that's about it. Paz afuera.

Brock at the Grove

2010-03-01T13:57:00.000-08:00

Playing "Two Coins" by Dispatch. Awesome filming by Kate. Be impressed.

Happy Valentime's!

2010-02-15T11:34:00.000-08:00

Our Valentines this year were our awesome Moms! They both sent us rockin' packages full of candy and love! It's a good thing we have them around to make our holidays delicious and fun!

Saturday evening we spent with Tany and Marquita watching the Olympics and eating ourselves into comas. And Brock rocked us in Ticket to Ride, his new FAVORITE game (although I must point out that Saturday was his first win....sooo....yeah.)

Sunday morning I prepared a Valentine breakfast while he was HTing and surprised him! I used all the fancy decorations Mama Wride sent to dress the table (and ourselves!) and wore my sweet diggetty socks Mama Weaver sent! And I fried eggs for the first time! Success! It was classy!

Sunday evening we played Jenga:

and Blink which I DID win :) And then Brock gave me his Valentine's Day present: "Let's read Harry Potter!" (we're on book two now!) So we read a few chapters and then watched the lost pilot episode of I LOVE LUCY that Mama Weaver also bestowed upon us.

Needless to say, we had a fun, cheap Valentine's Day and it was awesome! XOXOXOX

Great news!

2010-02-06T17:18:00.000-08:00

Por fin!

After:
36 applications submitted on Craigslist
5 applications submitted in person to studios/photographers
2 applications submitted to BYU career placement website
2 interviews
1 rejection

Kate finally has a job! Yes, she already had a job. What a joke. Now she has a real one. With real hours and real pay and real interest!

We are pleased to introduce you to the new Co-Manager of Sales in the United States for Puj, LLC. Sounds fancy, huh? It is.

So for all you new moms, preggers and soon-to-be-preggers out there (you know who you are!) the answer is yes, Kate is your new best friend ;)

Kate Squared

2010-01-31T19:33:00.000-08:00

Thursday night Brock and some friends flew to Jackson Hole, WY to meet Papa Weaver and about 20 others to have a snowboarding extravaganza weekend of snow and fun! Sounds awesome right???? Except, did you miss the part where BROCK went. Leaving Kate in Provo. To wallow in her loneliness...

Not to fear! Friday night Kate was joined by Kate! YEP, you read that right! Two Kate Weavers under one roof for the whole weekend. We had a great time being girly and crying and watching movies and being lazy.

Kate was kind enough to let me take some portraits of her for my website/blog so we went down to an orchard and found an awesome surprise! About 40 deer were already chillin' in the spot we had in mind and they weren't going anywhere. So naturally we took some pictures of them and hung out for a bit before we started our own photo shoot. For some faves check out my Photography Blog .

Another noteworthy event of the weekend was the fact that Kate taught me in 20 minutes what I have been wanting to learn for 22 years: HOW TO FRENCH BRAID! I can now proudly say that I am able to french braid my own hair! And somewhat well! Documentation for mother:

So yes, I missed my husband terribly this weekend, but the girls still had some fun!

PS. Because this is OUR blog and not MINE (but Brock never writes, ehem....) here's a recap of his weekend! He and Oliver, Julie and Ariel left Thursday night to join some friends in Jackson and got to stay in a mansion (Papa Weaver's friends are the bombest) and get awesome massages and went hiking and snowboarding in the back country as well as at a sweet resort in JH. He is very sore but had a BLAST and loved hanging out with his Dad and "shreddin' the pow" (okay, I'm still working on the boarding lingo. haha). And if he were writing this he would probably mention how miserable he was without me. Probably.

New Addition!

2010-01-22T11:19:00.000-08:00

We would like to introduce everyone to the newest member of our family, MEREDITH!

Bahaha....creepy, no?!?!
My boss said I could go through the frames in the back, that they were gonna get rid of some and I liked this 20x24 (how many of those can you get for free??!?) so I snatched it up. When we got home I realized just how strange the picture was, especially for us to have in our home. But until we have our own little princess to put in there, looks like Meredith is moving in! My favorite part is that any time I walk into the office she is SHHHHH!!!-ing me, so I immediately feel like I'm in a library and I try to be quiet. Stupid little girl, telling me to be quiet in MY OWN HOUSE! Rude.

PS. If you recognize this child, please don't tell her mother! k thanks!

Best part, worst part

2010-01-14T20:33:00.000-08:00

A tribute to Mackenzie Dickson Parks, here's a segment I like to call

BEST PART/WORST PART

and it goes a little something like this:

BEST PART: Brock's intramural basketball team had their first game tonight!! So fun!
BEST PART: Kate got to have some fun girl talk/baby talk during said basketball game :)
BEST PART: Brock didn't get yelled at by any of his clients at work today (this does not happen often, he just has some lame-os)
BEST PART: Kate dropped off a few more job applications and got to talk to the owner of Kew's (camera service in Provo) for an hour and a half. What a funny old man. Hopefully they decide they need to hire her :)
BEST PART: Brock got to have a long talk with his boss today about the future of the company and was very excited about it :) (Also, not sure if this has been mentioned but he got a raise earlier in the year. AWESOME!!!!)
BEST PART: Went to see Dr. Sanders and Brock is still cancer-free and lacking in the suspicious moles department! Whoot!
BEST PART: Kate got to accompany her husband to SLC and back this morning which was fun, and the nurse liked her moccasins, so HA.

WORST PART: Kate is still unemployed, despite her best efforts.
WORST PART: Brock's awesome intramural team did not win their game. Aw schucks.
WORST PART: Kate dressed like a sister missionary today against her better judgement and options. Sad day for fashion.
WORST PART: Brock has to watch 1 1/2 hours of online tutorials for an advertising class and it keeps having to re-buffer. Only it never does. So that's lame.

Whew, looks like today was a good day after all: More BEST than WORST. That's a good sign! Happy long weekend coming up :) Hopefully you are doing something exciting. We're picking out fabric for curtains. Yes folks, Kate is going to try her hand at sewing.

Again.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-05T19:09:00.000-08:00

Happy 2010 everybody! I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season and got to spend time with loved ones. We certainly did! And without further ado, the Weaver's First Christmas!!!!

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
one Ewok, complete with blanket in case she gets cold in the snow!

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
tons of snow in Virginia, and tons of fun sledding!

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
the best model in the world, wearing ear muffs and all!

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
a majestic pooch looking off in the distance. What a stud!

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
FIVE RUNNING FEETS! and other silly Polar Express activities!

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
a husband who so willingly played with 6 grandkids and built a rockin' fort!

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
a ridiculous Christmas morning with presents piled high for all to see!

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
irony that bubble wrap is clearly better than gifts! (silly Santa!)

On the ninth day of Christmas his true love gave to him,
an amp. It rocks. and so do mom and dad wride for their generous donation :)

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
a new nephew!!! It's a boyyyyy!!!! :)

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
bonding family members, makes me happy to see!

On the twelveth day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
an ugly sweater party and awesome models at which to laugh! I mean, WITH!

Whew! That's exhausting!

So, needless to say, we had a blast with BOTH of our families and loved seeing everyone! Now we just need a vacation from our vacation! Happy New Year one and all, and may 2010 be as exciting as you wish!

Kate's Gradge-e-ated!!

2009-12-17T20:36:00.000-08:00

Just a quick shout out to my lovely wife for completing her last final today. You did it honey! You're all done!

Kate has worked hard. We look forward to her walking in cap and gown in April. In the mean time, Kate will be earning her masters in advertising. That is, she'll be helping me get through school =) Love you Kate!

I'm 11 twice!

2009-12-14T10:31:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday to meee! I have to say, I had a pretty rad birthday and it's all thanks to my wonderful family and friends. So Thank You everyone! Brock took me to the First Presidency Christmas devotional last Sunday and then Saturday night we went to the MoTab Concert with Natalie Cole! I may or may not have gotten a little teary-eyed when she sang "The Christmas Song" and spoke about her father. Holy smokes good concert! I also had a little surprise Saturday. Brock and I were playing the Wii (for the last time...sad) and Brock goes, "Did you hear that? Sounds like someone's knocking on our door." Well, I hadn't heard anything, I thought he was hearing the people upstairs but he kept saying, "go see if someone's here" and the like so I got the hint and went to the door to find Laura, kate and little Callie! How fun! We picked up Kate's friend and went to lunch and then came home and I got to open some of my presents early. What a great day! They also got me approx. 40 lbs of chocolate cake from Costco! Sunday I got to open the rest of my gifts and play games with some friends. I've also decided that since I am 22 for the next year I will appear in any photograph doing the following:

Yeah, I'm that cool. Thanks to everyone who made my birthday celebrations so wonderful! Love you all!

Also, we bought a new TV on Saturday (ours died on us...sad) and I took lots of pictures of Brock setting it up, but none of the finished product. Retard. So here's our new 19'' HDTV-DVD combo that we bought with Best Buy gift cards! Still in the wrapping! Yay!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

2009-12-08T13:05:00.000-08:00

Finals! Yay! Oh wait, I think I meant DECEMBER! Yeah, most definitely because it's December. And to welcome in this most joyous of seasons, the winter weather is finally upon us. We woke up Sunday morning to SNOW! And it keeps coming!

December means chocolate (a week from tomorrow is the big day!), my birthday!!!, snow, Christmas, seeing family, hot chocolate, snuggling, holiday tunes, surprises, decorations, the wonderful spirit of giving, great concerts and celebrating the birth of our Savior! How could anyone not like December? I don't talk to those people...
December is also the end of Fall semester, and unfortunately, FINALS. Which are gonna be fun. Minus the fun part. Wish us luck!

and for lack of more pictures to put up, here's my monkey vest! Looks like something Elvis would wear, but the class loved it!