Got the T-shirt?

We are 43 days from the walk, and Finn's Fans are at 77% of our fundraising goal.  I am confident we will get there, but if you are still wanting to donate, please click on the March of Dimes march for babies logo on the right side of this page and do so soon so your contribution will count towards our total goal on October 6.  Or, read on to see how you can order a shirt for our team and add your contribution that way!

It is time to finalize our T-shirt order!!!!! 

We are ordering our custom Finn's Fans T-shirts from It's a Preemie Thing.  (All images on this post are from their Facebook page.)  They will all have the team name "Finn's Fans" on the front with the trademark preemie footprints indicating Finn's gestational age at birth (26 weeks) and birth weight (1 pound 14 ounces).  The back will say "Finn is proof miracles do happen."  They are all purple shirts, and they have white printing on them.  Available is all sizes - infant, youth, and adult.

The shirts will feature the March of Dimes March for Babies logo on one sleeve, and the It's a Preemie Thing logo on the other, as in the example pictured below:

The shirts vary in price based on size, but we have chosen to set the price at $20.  It's a Preemie Thing donates $2 of each team shirt sold to the national March of Dimes, and we will add any profit from the sale of our local shirts to Finn's Fans totals.

If you would like to show your support for Finn's Fans by purchasing a shirt, please email me with your size and an email to send you a paypal invoice (or arrange other payment).  I will be closing orders at 12noon on Tuesday, August 28, 2012.

So, here's the breakdown:

**Order your Finn's Fans T-shirt

**All sizes - infant, toddler, youth, adult

**Price is $20 - paypal preferred

**Orders close Tuesday at NOON!

Please comment here or email me if you have any questions!  Thank you for your support.  One day, all babies will be born healthy.

First Day of School – Richmond Style

Yesterday, my oldest babies started a new year of school in a new place.  We are now proud to be Richmond Rockets!  The Weavers were welcomed by lots of familiar faces, greeted by friends new and old, and bathed in the excitement of starting a new adventure!  Britt and I both had the opportunity to escort the 3 biggest Dream Weaver kids to school yesterday morning, and while we were a little choked up to leave them there, we both fared well in the end.  Our kiddos were all a bit nervous, but Emma and Lara are lucky enough to have each other – and to be in the same class this year for the first time.  But my brave little man had to face it all alone.  Jake was so strong!  You could see the uneasiness in his eyes, and he had the front of his T-shirt balled up in both hands, but he stood in his spot with the rest of his class and headed from the cafeteria to his first day of Kindergarten like a champ!  The older kids were held in the gym down the hall before class, and we had dropped the girls off first.  I think Jake was surprised to find out he would have to part from his sisters so soon.  After several hugs, the obligatory pictures, and reassurance form his new teacher, Britt and I courageously left the cafeteria, and left our baby boy to fend in the big world of Kindergarten (secretly rejoicing in the fact that his two big sisters were protecting him from a far!)

Emma - 5th Grade - Age 10 - 2012

Lara - 5th Grade - Age 10 - 2012

Jake - Kindergarten - Age 5 - 2012

Our traditional First Day of School pose

                                             

We are excited for what this year brings!  The girls are together in the classroom for the first time since pre-school.  I have known their teacher since I was a little girl, and I feel so blessed that she gets to pour into their lives just like she did mine years ago as a counselor at Falls Creek!  And Jake’s teacher is a perfect fit for him.  I hope she enjoys his antics as much as we do!  

Lara and Emma in the gym before class

Mommy and Jake in the cafeteria before class

Daddy with Jake up on stage before leaving

The other new big change for the kids this year is riding the school bus!  Their first attempt at that went fairly well yesterday afternoon.  The girls helped Jake get where he needed to be, and they all made it home safely.  Jake told me his favorite part of the day was riding the bus and was looking forward to doing it again today!

And while the big kids are at school, our Little Dream Weaver is spending his days with Nana the Wonder Sitter!  I know she is enjoying being down to one Dream Weaver during the day.  He is still fighting through the antibiotics for his ear infection, so he has a lot of adjusting to do!  He loved waving good bye to us all yesterday as we left for school!

And in other news, we are 46 days from the Stillwater march for Babies, and we are at 68% of our team fundraising goal!  Please check out Finn's Fans and help up help tiny babies everywhere!

Finn's Fans

We are working diligently to raise funds for our Finn’s Fans March of Dimes March for Babies Team!  We are at 63% of our goal.  There are 52 days left until the walk!

Here is how you can join Finn's Fans!!

1. Join our walk here in Stillwater. By joining our walking team, you can set your individual fundraising goal that will be added to our team amount. Our totals will then go to the March of Dimes. (Click the link at the bottom of the post to go to our March of Dimes Team Page)  And by joining us to walk ... you will get an AWESOME Finn's Fans t-shirt!! (Check out some examples from It’s a Preemie Thing here: March for babies Team Shirts 2012

2. If you are unable to join us for the walk, you can still support our team and the March of Dimes by making a monetary donation. I can be as little as $1 and as much as $1 trillion!! (Click the link at the bottom of the post to go to our March of Dimes Team Page)

3. Times are tough ... we know that first hand. If a monetary donation is not in your budget, please join us in praying for all the walkers as well as all the March of Dimes researchers and organization.

We are truly blessed by your friendship and we thank you in advance!!

Britt & Betsey Weaver
Emma, Lara, Jake and Finn

Finn’s Story

Finn’s Fans event page on Facebook

March for Babies Finn's Fans Team Page

FOUND! Mario Kart Video

So, if you read my Monday Night blog post about our cheap date night and the surprising entertainment, it left you as curious as it did me.  Who were these mad cap young folks trying to reenact a video game LEGEND in a parking garage on a hot summer night in North Central Oklahoma?  And, quite frankly, WHY?!?!?!? So, I found myself surfing and searching YouTube in hopes that I would be enlightened.  And luckily, my super sleuth internet skills did not fail me today!

I FOUND IT!

The official video these kids made of there Monday night adventures.  I give you, AM ROLL CALL FALL 2012:


I was kind of sad to realize you couldn't even see a glimpse of our van in the footage.  They probably edited us out to prove there were no witnesses!  Thanks for the fun night, people I will never meet!  :)

Monday Night Date Night

Britt and I are going through the Family ID workshop with some other couples from our LifeGroup, and part of our homework this week was to go on a date night.  And to make sure it happened for everyone, our leaders had us do a “babysitting exchange” before we left group Sunday night.  That way, everyone got a chance to go out, everyone got free babysitting, AND it was already on the calendar! NO EXCUSES!  NO BACKING OUT!  So, last night, we packed up our 4 kids and took them to another family’s home while we went out on our date for a “Private Drive In” experience.

I am pretty proud of my creative date night idea, which really turned out to be a lot of fun!  We don’t have money to spend on a date night like a dinner and a movie right now, but we also knew just going to our house to watch a rented movie would mean we would get engrossed in our phones or laptops or tablets, get up 100 times to do this or that, and generally be distracted by our surroundings.  So, I came up with a fun little (cheap) idea for a date night – a “Private Drive In.”  I rented a movie from Red Box, grabbed my laptop, told my husband to pick a to go dinner for us to eat, and we set out for our adventure. While trying to decide the perfect spot to watch our movie as it was super-hot outside (103 hot!), we decided we needed a place with some built in shade.   After a Sonic stop, we decided the best place to have our drive in move was on a middle level of a parking garage on campus.  That way it would be shaded enough to see the screen, and hopefully a little cooler!  We found a good spot where the sun wasn’t going to obstruct our view on the highest covered level of the structure, parked, put the movie in, and dove in to our food. About 1/3 of the way through our movie, the REAL entertainment for the night began…

We had finished eating, the story was well under way (we were watching Joyful Noise), and we were having a very nice time.  When, we heard some very loud rumbling from behind us.  Earlier in the evening, we had seen 2 pick-ups loaded with “stuff” in the back head up to the top level of the garage.  I had wondered what they were up to – even thought it might be a cookout.  But, we were about to find out just who and what they were doing.  As the rumbling got louder, we were both turning our heads trying to see what it was and where it was coming from.  When they came into view coming down the ramp from the top level of the garage…  6 – 8 of them…  College Students…  On various wheeled apparatuses… Dressed in full costumes from Mario Brothers!  It was truly a sight to behold!  Mario and Luigi were in rolling office chairs.  Toad riding the back of a grocery cart.  Princess Peach – in a full length pink tutu - on a small red Radio Flyer tricycle.  Donkey Kong (in a full gorilla costume with a neck tie.  In this 103 degree heat!) in a yellow garden cart with big wheels.  And Yoshi perched atop a Little Tykes Cozy Coupe car!  They even had a red box with a question mark painted on it that they were aiming for!  The first time we were simply shocked and amused.  We watched them push their carts back up the parking garage ramp, and ready themselves to do it again.  The second time, we really laughed with them – this was hilarious!  Somewhere around the 3^rd, 4^th or 5^th trip down, we got out our phones to film it and a camera to take pictures.  We were trying to remain a bit inconspicuous, although they probably didn’t care one way or the other if we documented it!  One girl’s sole job was to capture it all on film!  So, here is what we got:

We retold the story when we went back to our friends’ house to pick up our children.  The wife said, “This kind of thing would only happen to you guys!”  So true!  If you are scouring youtube and come across more footage, please be sure to share it with us.  We had a blast living vicariously through them, and it made for a date night we will never forget!  And, we will probably try the private drive in thing again.  It worked out really well – once Mario and his friends quit rumbling down the ramp! And aside from the noise pigeons who call the garage home…

Later in the week we take on all the other kids from the group in our home so the other couples can get a date night in.  We think we’ll have about 13 kids in our house.  Should be LOUD!

Edited to add: I made a follow up post - WITH VIDEO PROOF!

10 months and going strong

Today, Finn Ricker Weaver is officially 10 months old.  I am not sure how much he weighs, but we would guess between 16 and 17 pounds.  And he is TALL!  He is like Jake was at this age, all arms and torso.  LONG and skinny!  And he is such a joy!  He smiles and giggles all the time.  We are so glad that he is doing so well, and we know we are blessed to have such a wonderful outcome!

Finn is siting up unassisted – has even made it from laying down to sitting up once, has 2 bottom teeth, just transferred over to his 9 month clothing this weekend, and as soon as we run out of size 2 diapers in the house we will break out the size 3’s.  I think he could stand to change over now, but I have to see those last 20 or so diapers not get used!  He can get up on his hands and knees, but doesn’t stay there long.  He has rocked back and forth a few times, so crawling is not too far off!  He can stand up when holding on to something, too.  He LOVES to laugh and laugh and laugh!  Just in the last day or so he has added that “ga” sound to his cooing, too.  He is really doing so well!  We don’t know how much he weighs exactly or how long he is, but based on his recent patterns, I would say he is about 16-17 pounds and at least 27” long.

This week we were presented with a precious gift for Finn, too.  A young lady named Payton is 11 years old and she and her cousins make quilts for sick kids in hospitals.  She saw the article about Finn in this summer’s OBI newsletter, and she chose to make his an OSU themed quilt.  The final product was delivered to us this week, and I snapped a picture of Finn enjoying it.

Here is the text of the letter Payton wrote to send with the quilt:

7/13/12
Dear Weaver Family,
I read about Finn's story in the OBI Pulse flyer. I decided that I wanted to make him a quilt.

My Memaw loves sewing and wanted to teach us grandkids how to quilt. It started as a one week a year during spring break and we called it Kuzin Kamp. Now it includes 20 of us all year long.

Last summer we decided to make blankets for sick children and most of them go to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa. I was told that Finn's room was OSU so I hope he likes his quilt.

We have a Kuzin Kamp facebook page if you want to send us a picture of Finn and his blanket.

Sincerely,
Payton
11 yrs.

And I will leave you today with the infectious laugh of our 10 month old miracle.  God is GOOD!

Drumroll Please….

It is finally time to reveal the winning team name for our March of Dimes Stillwater March for Babies team!  I want to thank everyone for taking the time to vote, and for supporting our efforts in making sure no other families have to go through what we did. We want babies to be born healthy!

So, in a distant second, was the team name “Finn’s Dream Weavers.”  This was one of my favorites!  And the best write in vote goes to Fred with “The Finn McMissles!”  Good one!  But, the winner, and official Weaver Family team name is…

Finn’s Fans!

(#finnfan)

There were 6 official votes on the blog for this name, and using random.org, the winner of our free team T-shirt is my “Aunt” Brona!  I can’t wait to get our shirts in so I can share one with you out in Western Kansas!

Stay Tuned for the blog for more opportunities to help Finn’s Fans!