Hello Sunshine

Moore Tornadoes.  Moore rain.  More tornadoes. More rain.  This Great State I call home has had it’s share of weather drama over the past few weeks.  But we are #oklahomastrong.  We have finally had a couple of beautiful days with bright, abundant sunshine!  We were DUE!  The Weavers even got in on the bad weather blues  last week – in the middle of dance recital!  Thursday during dress rehearsal, all the moms and dancers took cover for 30 minutes or so before resuming the run through.  The first show was scheduled for Friday night at 7.  It was postponed until 7:30 as everyone that was there – dancers, staff, spectators, and vendors – was once again shuttled to “safe” locations within the building.  Some dancers and families never showed up in the first place since there was a threat of severe weather, and some left when we were sent to take cover.  So, the show was completely cancelled and rescheduled for Saturday.  In the meantime, we had a babysitter at our house with Mr. Finn.  She called while we were sheltered at the high school to tell us the power had gone out in ½ of our house.  Come to find out, we had lost a VERY large limb on a tree in the back yard, and it had taken out the power lines that run to our house as it fell.  The power company had to shut off all our power due to the fire risk, and we ended up in a hotel for the night – checked in at 11:15 pm!  LONG night….  Then, 2 recitals the next day (the second one was missing lots of dancers, and the dancers were tired, but I am glad we got to get both shows in!).  Here are my favorite images from that very crazy, more than enough, 24 hours:

Dress Rehearsal - before taking cover

Dress Rehearsal - after taking cover and back to work

Recital - Night one "taking cover." SO BORED!

Betsey and Britt - waiting out the storm..

4 hours later - Finn in the hotel room... "I may not be able to fix storm damage, but I stayed at the Holiday Inn last night!"

Since then, we have been trying to enjoy our summer.  T-ball games!  Several have been canceled and rescheduled due to rain, but we are just a couple of weeks from the end of the season!  The rain has been a constant companion, but it comes with cooler temperatures and overcast skys, so it is a nice change for an Oklahoma summer!  The kids are adjusting to days with Nana, and I have started my summer schedule of 4 – 10 hour work days with Wednesdays off.  This past Wednesday was my first.  We did chores around the house in the morning, ate lunch, then went bowling.  We ran a couple of errands, then came home to make Jello play doughcookies.  Over all, a pretty fun day.  But, FWIW, 4 kids who are all very high energy and 3 of them are high maintenance with forceful personalities will wear ANYONE out!  KUDOS to Nana the Wonder Sitter – I don’t know how she does it!

And in Finn news…  We were trying to sleep train him, but then we had to spend a night in a hotel, and he got this silly summer cold - which put us at his specialist on Monday.  (21 pounds!  YAY!) We’ve been derailed a bit on the sleep thing…  But as soon as he is feeling better we are back at it!  he is on breathing treatments and Dimetapp 3x a day right now.  Poor Peanut! Here is a slide show chronicling the first few nights and how it all went:

By Slide.ly - SlideShow Maker

Finn’s Child Development specialist came to the house for an evaluation yesterday.  She was SO HAPPY with his progress.  He has come a long way in a few short weeks, and he warmed up to her very quickly (which is rare).  He even shared toys, pillows, and used tissues with her! LOL!  At the beginning of the appointment, I told her Finn had 5 words: No, Yes, up, down & uh-oh - in that order, all in the last 7-10 days. These 5 words he uses often and appropriately. While she was there, Finn added cup and ball. Can you say, language explosion?!? She said he is now caught up to his actual age as far as language goes! Just a few short months ago he was MONTHS behind!  And of course, since he is running and climbing like crazy, he has caught up physically, too!  Nana the wonder sitter said he used hello and bye-bye, too!  YAY for talking Finn!

Here's hoping the good news and good weather continue!  We want to go SWIMMING, but it's been too cool!  June doesn't quite feel like June... YET!  Stay tuned!

Friday – in tweets!

It’s been one of THOSE weeks.  So busy, so crazy, so tiring.  I am going to recap our progress, successes, failures, and regressions in 140 characters or less in each statement.  Twitter style.  I hope you like it!

*Went on a field trip to the Oklahoma Aquarium with Jake's kindergarten class.  Wild & crazy as expected! Jake was afraid of the shark tube.

*Lara's 4th & 5th grade choir gave a spring concert. It was in preparation for TriState. The choir sang 3 songs and each solo/duet/trio sang.

*Lara finished up her leaps and turns dance class in preparation for try outs!

*Emma's Greyhound volleyball team is 10-2 for the season.  Tournament play starts this weekend, but she will miss it and is mad.

*My nephew Peter got married to the most AMAZING girl, Nicole.  It was a beautiful outdoor wedding & we were so glad we got to be there!

*We moved. Into a different house. Across town. 6 people. 5 beds. 2 couches, 2 futons, 4 recliners & a ton of CRAP. WE'RE NEVER MOVING AGAIN!

* Jake's Greyhound T-ball team had their season opener. "They" don't keep score.  "We" do.  They did great! Jake is an excellent first baseman

* Finn's crib converted to a toddler bed in the new house. 4 nights ago. He's doing great - only got lost and ended up in Jake's room once.

* Lara's school choir competed at TriState Music Festival in Enid. Her choir got a "II."  HER TRIO GOT A "I" and were THRILLED!  So proud.

* Emma's double dutch (jump rope) squad is touring the local schools today.  She is SO GOOD! Catches a basketball and dribbles while jumping!

* Team Mercy Miracles Marches for Babies in OKC tomorrow.  As of this writing, Finn is $24 short of his goal. Click the banner to donate.

* Finn and his siblings are super excited for the March for Babies tomorrow!  We have our banner ready!

* 8:00 in the morning we will gather at the Myriad Gardens in OKC with Mercy Miracles and the March of Dimes to MARCH FOR BABIES! Come see us!

* Who doesn't love babies?  Help make happy endings for Moms & Babies by donating to March of Dimes - $24 to go! marchforbabies.org/finnweaversays

* So thankful that @FinnWeaverSays is a Mercy Miracle!  We're marching with them tomorrow in OKC! @marchofdimes @MarchForBabies 

*$24 to go for Finn's goal with Team Mercy Miracles. That's 6 people with $4 each! Donate here: marchforbabies.org/finnweaversays & march w/us tomorrow!

SEE YOU TOMORROW!

Tex-Mex Success!

We just want to take another opportunity to say THANK YOU to all of Finn’s Fans who came out and supported our 2013 Stillwater March for Babies Stillwater KICK-OFF fundraising event for our team at Fuzzy's Taco Shop!  We had a great time seeing all of our friends and family in one place, and of course you can’t beat the food!  It was really a lot of fun – until we hit Toddler Melt-Down mode! LOL!  Poor Finn!  He even fell down the brick steps out on the patio.  Got ANOTHER nice bonk mark on his head from that one!  He’s just to brave (or crazy!) for his own good!  We raised $150 to go toward the March of Dimes and their efforts to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality.  THANK YOU for being involved in the mission the Weaver family is so PASSIONATE about!

 

On the home front, it is April again!  That means we are super busy with all the year-end wrap up stuff!  The girls just finished up with State testing (blech!), and we are sure glad that is over!  Emma has started spring volleyball, and it getting ready to tour the Stillwater Elementary schools with her Double-Dutch jump-roping troupe.  Lara is hurling towards dance recital, but has to get through a choir concert and Tri-State competition with her Trio next week first!  Jake has his first official T-ball game next week, but they had a BLAST at their scrimmage last weekend!  He is one heck of a T-ball player!  He is also going on his first official school field trip tomorrow to the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks!  Britt and I will be along to chaperone as well.  Should be a fun (exhausting) day!  And in Finn news, we got him enrolled in 2 mornings a week of pre-school to start in the Fall!  We are so excited to watch how this changes him!  He is walking (running) all over the place, and his stubborn streak is about a mile wide now!  He is infuriatingly cute, I guess.  Has no fear, climbs everything, and wears us all out!  We love it!

And did I mention the Weaver’s are moving?  Just across town, but we are still trying to pack and we start moving in 2 days!  This all seems a bit Deja-vu from last year at this time…  You think we would learn!  We are downsizing a bit, and moving back to our old neighborhood, so it is a good thing.  Just bad timing. LOL!  And that’s not the most exciting thing happening this weekend!  Our nephew, Peter is getting married to the most wonderful young lady I have ever met!  We love Nicole and can’t wait to celebrate their wedding and welcome her to the family!

So, next time I blog, I will be at a new address, have a new family member, and probably be very close to walking in the Oklahoma City March for Babies.  We are 10 days away from the walk, and Finn still needs to raise $50 more for Team Mercy Miracles!  Click the Link on the Right in the banner section to make a difference for babies!

Hoppy Easter

Despite ½ of the six Dream Weavers being on antibiotics this week (Emma – strep, Finn – another upper respiratory infection, me – Strep), we had a fun Easter as a family.  The week leading up to it was crazy with doctor’s appointments, missed school and work, and the business of kid’s activities.  T-ball practice has started, Emma started a new season of Volleyball this past weekend, and her Odyssey of the Mind team is 2 weeks from their State competition!  I always forget how BUSY Spring is, until it gets here!  We even squeezed in a quick family picture session on a bright Saturday afternoon!  We needed a family picture for our March of Dimes Stillwater March for Babies Ambassador Family paperwork, and we’ve put it off several times due to weather, illness, and being busy.  We were SO glad to get that taken care of!  And I can't wait to share the results!

I really love Easter.  I read through 2 different 1 week reading plans on YouVersion leading up to Easter to help remind me WHY we celebrate this holiday.  I love Good Friday – because we know Sunday’s coming!  A lot can happen in just 3 days!  I love that Christmas is the promise and Easter is the PROOF!  He bled and suffered for us.  He died for us! And he ROSE for US!  I love the newness of Spring, and the fun new clothes everyone breaks out for the occasion!  Britt wore a bow tie!  I had a fun new eyelet dress and a trendy necklace.  The girls were in new dresses and shoes, and the boys in plaid shirts – Jake with bright green skinny pants and Finn in skinny jeans.  We looked good, if I do say so myself!  There are no pictures of just us, but here are a few from our festivities.

getting ready for the egg hunt

Mom and her boys (Finn in his 2nd outfit for the day!)

Aunt Paula with Lara and Emma

 

We started the day off with the kids tearing into their Easter baskets – which were devoid of the “traditional” Weaver gift of swim suits  due to the fact that the EB was clueless on size, style and colors for the big kids, and Finn already has 4 for this season (he got a new outfit instead).  

The kids got certificates to pick out their own when the weather warms up.  Peeps, Reeses, sunglasses, headbands and flip flops rounded out the baskets.  Britt had hidden 100+ plastic candy filled eggs in our yard, so the hunt was ON!  The big kids came inside with 25, 27 and 29 eggs – so they did a pretty good job of being even without even trying!  Finn had 2.  LOL!  And, we found a few more later in the afternoon…  Then, It was off to church at LifeChurch.tv Stillwater!  We experienced and AWESOME worship set, which included this opening:

And this:

Of course, Craig Groschel’s message was amazing, too!  What an awesome experience.  We lunched at Aunt Paula’s house with all the Grandparents.  That was the smallest group we have had over there in while, but it was super fun.  The big kids played a little baseball in the front yard as it was a BEAUTIFUL day, and took a trip down to the pond as well.  It was a very nice afternoon.  That night, we went to my parents house to watch the last installment of “The Bible” on the History channel as a family.  It was truly a great way to spend this glorious holiday.  So thankful for my family, for my savior, and for the amazing blessings we have all around us.