The wonder of Snow. . .

While we were driving home after a lovely visit over the mountain with my dad, and his family for the thanksgiving holiday, we ran into a storm. Actually we were driving right when the storm was coming, and managed to have very little trouble with the roads over the pass. Anyhow, we were stressed and tired and it was taking way longer to get over the pass than we wanted it too. So clearly there was grumpiness in the air- more me than Jesse I'd admit. well Sierra was so excited to see the snow, and when it started snowing in the higher elevations she excitedly would say "Happy Snow Day" over and over again. We had to laugh at that!! This was the first snow of the year and she couldn't help but be really excited...

answer your phone

this means you ben. Oh, and return phone calls too. That is all, we now return to our regularly unscheduled programming

Where Oh Where does all the time go......

Well is has been months since my last post, and I honestly can't say what I have been doing. Hum.. Now I am looking at Seven, Yes Seven more weeks until this little one will show its(Benjamin or Audrey) face. We have had an Ultrasound since the last post, and the baby is beautiful. Growing well, and in the last month growing like crazy.We still don't know what we are having and if anyone looks at my registry you should or soon will find items for both a boy and a girl.. No we aren't having twins, wait until the baby is born or buy the practical things i registered for. I am doing pretty good , except that its beginning to be hard to do basic things, like sleeping good, and getting off the couch or bed. I am feeling a little overwhelmed and anxious not knowing what were having and not being able to feel totally ready.

The girls are doing good. Sierra taught her self how to write her name, and showed us for the first time. I say that she taught her self because as of late my ability to focus, and have patience is not there. Sierra is really excited about her new baby and she is going to teach her baby how to walk, her ABC's, how to write, and tell the baby all her stories. I am afraid that she will be very disappointed at least for a little while. Sierra has also been teaching her sister how to nurse her baby, and pretending that she has a baby coming out of her tummy (thanks to a friend of hers who's mommy is also having a baby). I didn't realize that she would remember so much about her sisters arrival at the age of two. Yikes
Aaliyah is feeling a little out of sorts lately, having a bit of separation anxiety lately, and she knows how to pull her mommies heart strings. Aaliyah is such a big lover, and cuddlier and is so sweet, and says "Mommy, up" with those cute little eyes, and i forget why i said no in the first place. She is potty training and doing pretty good. She has a huge vocabulary, but still says those words with the cute baby talk. The girls love to play with each other even though they tend to still play a little rough.

Sweet little baby!

Hi Everyone,
That is assuming anyone reads this blog. Anyhow, we had our second ultrasound last thursday the 21st, and the baby is beautiful. The heart looks great with all four ventricles, and the arms, legs, hands and feet are developing well. Honestly, I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to see my baby again, as a natural born worrier I am always concerned about how the baby is doing, and if its on track. The only thing that concerned me but really didn't concern my doctor is that the baby is fully breached, which is weird for me because neither girls were in that position for any length of time. This little cutie has a pointy nose, like his (oops or her) daddy. Perhaps because of all the differances it really is a boy, but I try not to think about it.

We Also decided to wait and be surprise, as to what the sex of this baby is. So for several long minutes we waited with eyes closed so that the tech. could check the bladder, and kiddneys, legs, and the sex. We had her write the sex down and sealed it in an envelope that Jesse has hiddened just as a precautionary measure. (You know emotional melt downs and what not) I feel pretty good about waiting most days, God really does know best, and wouldn't give us what isn't perfect for our little family. Who am I to say I know better (I.E. wanting a boy over a girl)
I am going to be thrilled either way, and just excited to be holding my new baby!

Sisters, Sisters

Our Babies are Due January 24th 2007 !
Who will be first?

When Sheaden called to tell me that his wife was pregnant I remember the day- May 26 we were just about to go to dinner with our friends to celebrate my birthday. What was funny was that I knew then that I was pregnant too, but wanted to wait to tell people in my own cute little way. So in my heart is was even more excited about the news, because even though we are many, many miles away from each other we are going through pregnancy together as sisters.

Adventures

While Sheaden and Kim were visiting our Dad Dennis drove over to see them as well. He took all of us to the local children's museum where kids can just be kids. The adults had a great time playing in the sand, creating channels in the water, and solving those impossible puzzles while the kid ran around dressing up, singing and dancing. There was fun had for all- well except Jesse who was working hard, because it was in the middle of the week. There is lots for the kids to do like craft time, and all the materials are set out so the kids can just create, and mommy can participate too. There is a stage with lots of dress up clothes and tap shoes so the kids can imagine that they are preformers. There is even a space that is just for babies, that is padded, and lots of educational things to stimulate their little minds.

Visitors

I was Thrilled to find out that My older Bro. Sheaden and his Wife Kim were coming to Spokane for a few days on their way back home to California. We don't get to see them much so it was special to spend some time. We went to Silver Mountain in Idaho and rode the Gondola Which the girls(actually as you can see Aaliyah thought it was a bit scary) thought was pretty cool, and at the top there was a little park and a jumping castle that they had fun jumping around in the castle with Grandma, we had the whole place to our self. It was nice to have more family in town, I haven't really been around my brother in about 5 1/2 years seeing him only occasionally, and alot has changed since then for both of us.

Lazy Days of Summer

Well this summer has been a busy one, with trips to the lake, picnics, park days and family camping trips our weekends have been really full.
My favorite past time has been when my girlfriend Alicia and her boys came over to swim in our pool -Our I say as if we own it, HA HA yes we live in a apartment, which incidently has been getting smaller. (the WALLS they are closing in) Oops sorry, back on track.
Our kids- Sierra, Joshua, Isaiah, and Aaliyah have grow alot this summer becoming more independant. They all play very well together, infact when Alex and Alicia had Baby Elijah on Aug 21, 2006 and I watched her boys we had nothing but fun !!!
In this Picture I told Aaliyah to crawl across this little wadding pool, and she started scooting in a squat. My little silly!
Joshua here who is going to be 4 yrs. old just 10 days after Sierra loves to show off his newest and coolest tricks. He says "look at me I am stronger" and Sierra who is clearly my Drama Queen is constantly busy running around playing and bossing the other kids around. Actually they both are constantly thinking they are the bosses and will even goes as far as to punish their younger siblings. Isaiah, is my little buddy who is usually serious, especially around strangers. He however talks really good, and has a beautiful smile. He loves to tackle his older brother. He plays really good with Aaliyah, and will even put up with sierra pretending that he is her baby.

My Pa would be so Proud!

So in the spirit of my favorite dad, I took my family to Spokane's farmers market today. Although it was pretty hot out, we had a pretty good time. One of our favorite things to do when we go visit my family in Yakima is going to their market. They close a couple of blocks downtown and kick it old school. They have all kinds of fruits and veggies, kettle corn, and all kinds of good food (my favorite is the chicken shish kabobs, mmmmm!!) Unfortunately for us, the Yakima market is probably six or seven times bigger than ours.

We have a decent selection of fruits and vegetables depending on the weekend and a couple of bread makers. We ended up with a nice selection of peaches, nectarines, huckleberries and a few other odds and ends. The fruit we've eaten so far have been pretty good. Our good friends the Carillos showed up while we were there too. It's always good to see them, and the kids love it. Ok speaking of the kids, let's finish this little post up with a few pics of the munchkins.

Daddy's Girls

Ok, ok, I think everybody out there must be suffering from some serious withdrawls. Lookin back through the posts a bit, I've noticed that there has been a severe lack of cute little girls on this "family" blog. So, I snapped a few caps of my little sweeties. First of all, lets start with what happens when you let a mini rockstar dress herself.


That's right. All you posers better recognize. Sierra's in the house and she's bringing it real! And in case you didn't know, she's rockin a posse.






















Ok, what can I say? I love me my babies. How can you not when you got some cuties like these? So before we go, we're gonna have to have a little "groupie" picture of me with my rockstar sweeties.


~peace

The new digs

So, I was getting pretty tired of the old funky default blogger templates, so they had to go. As you can see here, we've got a whole new pad to chill in. Yes, I realize that those are flowers at the top of the page, but I don't care. I absolutely love the new look. Much thanks goes out to the designers on this one (no it wasn't me :^() I just think it has a nice clean feel and I love all the graphical elements used on the page. Also, the newly revised flickr badge is pretty sweet too. That one took me a bit to figure out, but it's all good now. Let us know what you think of the new look. Hope you enjoy it as much as me.

newest addition debut

Well I had my first ultrasound July 28 2006, and I am thrilled that i am 14 weeks along, 2 whole weeks ahead of what I thought. Yessss ! Closer to the finish.

Actually , this pregnancy has been really differant for me, I am still exhausted, emotional, and generally hard to live with, however i am not throwing up 4-5 times a day (weird), I am craving Thai foods, and sour candies, weirdest of all I had a few scares with my heart lately. Actually i was convinced that i was dieing, because i was rushed in to see 3 differant specialists including a heart surgeon to figure out what was going on. Words like occasional PVC's, and heart arythmia were thrown around, and then finally they concluded that whatever(or whoever) is causing this is not life threatening. For those of you who can't tell the babies head is down in the right corner, the white is the babies developing bones and organs, you can see the babies tummy, and the mouth and nose. the black spot in the picture on the top is the babies heart. I hope you are as thrilled to meet our newest addition as we are.

Granny's panties

Granny's Panties is the name for one of the rapids on this river

While Jesse and I were enjoying our long awaited vacation we decided to enbark on an adventure of sorts. White water rafting! Jesse had never been white water rafting, and i have only gone one other time in high school. so we set off to meet up with the group of 12 people we didn't know, actually we sort of knew them because they were the front desk staff at the hotel we spent 3 days at.

Anyhow our guide was awesome, a local business man who owned the skiing lodge in town. Jesse and I were placed in the front of the raft, and with a little practice maneuvered the waters like pros. Our guide took us through some killer rapids, once both jesse and I were knocked into the raft buried in a mountain of water. This particular rapid is called rodeo hole, and if we could have afforded the $50 dollars the photographer wanted we would beable to show you the entire raft buried in Water. we hit this rapid right on!! Oh yeah...

Something Fun!

Hey all. This picture is something that Melinie and I worked up when we were on our Leavenworth vacation. It received a somewhat mixed response from those who saw it. So, I thought I would put it up here and see what we get back from our distinguished electronic guests. Please let us know what you think!

A Little Adventure

Well, as I said before, we have something a little more fun to get back into after our last post. Mel and I just thought we would toss out a few more pics from our Leavenworth anniversary trip. We had a lot of fun, and I think the only thing we don't really have pictures of is our biking. Ok, here you go, these are fairly self explanatory.


Jet tubs are pretty cool, especially when your a guy and you have no idea how much bubble sauce (technical term) to put in!
Our little horseback riding adventure. One of our guides was getting training, so we got the extra long version. Mel's horse was named Blue, and and mine was named Gus. Gus was the only male out of all of the outfits horses....that big stud.


This is just picture of a canal we had to cross over during our ride. We thought it was kinda cool looking, so there you go. Also, this was the second to last picture before our camera batteries died, so.....

Well, I was gonna toss in some of our whitewater rafting pics, but I'm outta time and whatnot, so, more to come later.

A Loss in the Family

Well, today my family suffered the first loss of a pet. That's right, one of our Angel Fish was found to have a disease upon our return from vacation. This morning when Melinie was feeding our fish (we had four,) and she noticed that something was wrong with ....we'll call her Betty. Ok, I admit, we don't remember their original names. But isn't that supposed to be our kids job? Well that might have been a little hard since we have had the fish since before we had any kids!


Ok, back on track here. Anyways, Betty wasn't looking too good, so Melinie rushed off to the pet store to read up on the situation, and to get some help. Upon her return home with much knowledge and multiple medicines, our nurse got to work. There was water treatments, artificial joints, difibulators, 100 cc's of something another and.....ok, so maybe just the water treatments. Unfortunately, it was too late for little Betty. R.I.P. sweety. The saddest part of this story, however, is yet to come. You see, Angel Fish are very prone to pairing, and we bought our fish in two sets of two. So Betty's best friend is now left basically alone in our big lonely tank.

We will be watching the rest of the fish closely to see if they will make it through. Unfortunately, the disease the took Betty is said to be fairly contagious. It is a little sad, but Sierra took it in stride pretty well when we told her that one of her fishies had to go see Jesus. Evidently it was Angel Sushi night in Heaven. Ok, so enough of this downer post. Stay tuned for something a little better.

P.S. Yes we know the water is funny colored, it is actually the medicine that Mel put in that is making it that color.

Storm

On our way to Leavenworth, we drove into this storm, it was fantastic, and a bit scary. We went from clear skies, and looked out into this blank canvas, what i would imagine the eye of the storm looked like. when we finally got into this storm we couldn't see anything all around us, there was rain, lighting, and hail. I was thankful when we finally got out of it.

Much Needed Break

Well Jesse has been planning a surprise vacation, that we are currently on. I found out today that we were going to Leavenworth, WA. We have a huge list of activites which include Horseback riding, white water rafting, possible massages, and biking the many trails around leavenworth. I was a bit concerned about leaving the girls, this is the first time i have left Aaliyah, but being only 3 hours away makes me feel a little better( They are also in really good hands, Thanks Alex and Alicia!!!).

Anyhow our room is really cool, I love it! Jesse Knows that i am a die hard romantic, and have always loved four-poster beds, and jetted tubs! I have such an wonderful man!! More later

Pneumonia

Encarta Dictionary : An inflammation of one or both lungs, usually caused by infection from a bacterium or virus or, less commonly, bya chemical or physical irritant.

March has been an eventfull month to say the least. we actually were in the Valley Hospital ER thursday morning because Aaliyah was wheezing, shaking, and coughing. They did an ex ray, and gave her a breathing treatment. On friday she didn't change much at all, her fever was still 102.8, and she was didn't eat or drink anything for like three days. Urgent care thursday night, where they did some blood work, and gave her a shot of antibiotic, but then she woke up friday morning wheezing, and coughing again so i took her to Sacred Heart. Aaliyah was admitted to Sacred Heart hospital Friday morning after running a 102.8-103.8 fever and that was with tylenol and advil every 3 hours. I don't know about you, but i hate hospitals. Actually I really hate the ER, for some reason i think that everyone who works there is so hardened by what they see, they loose all compassion and just start poking, and prodding. Babies need extra tender care( Mommies too for that matter), my poor baby had a IV put into her little hand, and X-Ray's taken, and a cathiter, blood drawn, needless to say She was not happy. Actually i have never hear her scream like that before. I was in tears twice that morning while we were in the ER. She had her own room, with orders that visitors were to check in at the front desk, and the staff were supposed to wear masks, and gloves because they didn't know if she was contagious, and they didn't want her to pick anything up from anyone else. She wasn't allowed to play in the play room so she had toys in her hospital crib.

Hospital cribs are scary- Huge (probably five feet tall) with metal bars that slide up and down for easier access. Wouldn't want to make a scared baby feel comforted by decorating the room, or making the bed less like a jail.
This entire experiance was scary for me, i felt so helpless and with Aaliyah being sick she never wanted me to leave her sight.
Her Albuterial treatment was kinda cute though it was a plastic tube with oxygen being pushed through, kinda like a humidifer, and she would push her little nose against the tube. breathing the medicine in..
Well March is Almost over, and lets hope the Weavers have no more hospital visits, no more injuries, and no more cysts bursting. Only happy things- Actually jesse is the only one left who hasn't ever been in the hosptial, he says that he is invincible.