The One with a Photo Shoot

October 11-13, 2019

Not bad for a slightly busy weekend.  Much of the weekend was focused on little brother - with his broken hand, basketball tryouts, and the agonizing anticipation of the team roster getting posted!  GEEZ!  But this one was still about the girls.  This was our first weekend with Emma in the house again with no distractions, and it had ALL KINDS of "moments" - good, bad, indifferent...  We were all on a learning curve for sure.  But it was nice to know where she was all the time and to have her around.  She is helpful and funny!

Friday Night Lights had us all dressed in pink!  And some of us had glitter in our hair!  It was COLD, but fun night.  Stillwater advanced to 6-0 with a 60 point win over Choctaw.  74-14 was the final score.  And the final activity of the night was getting the glitter out of Lara's hair because she had senior pictures the next day...

Some of the girls IN the Gatorade cart...

...How the Gatorade cart should be used...

Halftime Selfie

Saturday, the girls both got up early and headed to Guthrie together.   They worked at Missy's Donuts and Bakery until about 2pm - when it was time to head back and gear up for SENIOR PICTURES!  They went from Guthrie to Orlando to get some more clothes for Emma, then back here to Stillwater to get ready.  We met our photographer at the OSU Botanical Gardens at 5:00pm, then went downtown at about 6pm, and finally wrapped up around 7:15 as the sun was going down and it was getting chilly.  I have not seen the photographer's proofs yet, but Jake took a couplle "behind the scenes" shots, and I took a few silly pics of the "treasures" the girls found downtown.

They were snap chatting while we waited for the photographer

Behind the Scenes

Emma was dumpster diving while Lara was getting photographed

Lara found the Biebs in a store window

Sunday we all got up early, went to 8:30am church, and spent the rest of the day doing homework and getting ready for another busy week!  Emma is going back to Orlando on Wednesday.  And it is fall break for all their schools at the end of the week.  Stillwater has THURSDAY Night Lights this week, too.  So there's never a normal week!  Here's to 32 more weekends before they graduate!

FINN: Eight is Great

Happy 8th Birthday, Finn Ricker Weaver!

October 5, 2019

We had a Spider-man themed part at the Ultimate Air trampoline park in Stillwater.  Finn declared it the best day of his life!  He was so full of joy and exuberance this day!  What a fun afternoon.  (The anticipation to party time was a little stressful at times, but he made it!)  He had some great friends and family come to celebrate with him, and we are loving having an eight-year-old in our house again.

Finn is smart, emotional, funny, finicky (Still!), fierce, loving, caring, reserved, cautious, and imaginative.  HE loves LEGO sets, YouTube, Minecraft, Fortnite, Mario Brothers, and watching people play these game son YouTube.  He likes to play UNO, Monopoly, the Game of Life, Trouble (Star Wars edition) and any other board game family members will humor him with.  He likes to watch Fuller House on Netflix, along with whatever current kid movies are available,  He is SO CREATIVE and can spend hours with his LEGOs building things and making up stories for the characters.  He started piano lessons recently and is really enjoying this hobby!  He is a joy to watch grow.

Iw ould be remiss to mention his stubborn streak.  He gets his mind set and it is hard to change!  But that is to be celebrated, too!

This is also the day we will remember as the one where Jake was playing dodgeball and ended up with a broken pinky which required surgery to set...

Here are some pictures from the day:

Spidey-Finn

Pizza And Cake! (This is right after Jake injured himself)

End of the party (Look at Jake, you can see he is in pain)

It was a late night, but of course, he had to start building right away!  We woke up Sunday morning to this:

And, he got to ditch the car seat!

On Monday, he got to celebrate with his 2nd grade class at school (Friday was another classmate's birthday, so we chose Monday.  Mom and Dad made awesome butterfly snacks (Lara helped too!)

Sure looks like it is great to be 8!  We love you, Finn!  Thank you for completing our family!

The One with the Steep Rollercoaster

October 4 -6, 2019

This is the one.  The one I knew was coming but didn't know when or what it would look like.  The good news is, everyone is safe.  And healthy.  But to stay that way, some changes need to be made.  The rollercoaster is FAST and FURIOUS and relentless.  But I will find the joy in the journey and the testimony in this test.  As I hope everyone involved will as well.

Let's go back to Friday, where it all began...

Friday Night Lights in Midwest City.  Pioneers come out with a win.  The Weaver clan (minus Finn, who was in Perkins with Nana and Grandpa) made it back to our house about 11:45.  Lara and the team were about a half-hour behind us; plus she had to unload and clean at the high school then drive back across town.  She got home at about 12:15am.  Knowing she had to get up early to go to the donut shop, she was ready to go to bed after a quick chat with us.  Fun night!

But the wee hours of Saturday morning hit like a ton of bricks.  Emma's dad called with some disturbing information about 12:30am.  No details needed.  It just changed a lot of things very quickly.  So the rest of the weekend focused on our new situation.

Meanwhile, Finn turned eight on Saturday.  And had a birthday party at Ultimate Air.  Lara got off work in Gurrie early to come to the party.  BUT!  She had a blowout on her car about 8 miles from town.  Luckily, Justin, as well as Nana and Grandpa, were able to get to her and put her spare on - she made it to the party!  About 30 minutes before the part was over, Jake hurt his hand playing extreme didge ball, and what we thought was a simple jam tuned into a bad break and surgery.  Emma and Lara have really had to up the Big Sister game this week!

Sunday was spent playing catchup, adjusting to the new normal, and getting ready for the next week.  This is a weekend I never want to repeat.

Every day we are all vowing to "DO BETTER."  Next weekend is a new chapter.  I can't wait to read it!