Monday, August 29, 2011

Stacked Full Saturday

This past weekend was PACKED full of things we had to do. We left our house at 8:00 Saturday morning and didn't get home until like 7:30 that night! It was a lot of fun though: helped my brother with his house, went to a baby shower, went to a birthday party and then headed home for a nice movie night. These pics were a compilation of Megan's Baby Shower and Lily's Birthday Party. So glad we were able to spend time with good friends!

Friday Fun!

Last Friday kicked off our 10-day staycation! And what a better way to start it all then with a visit from my bro-in-law and his kids. It was great to see them and it was fun showing off the house.

(and no, I don't know what Ellis was doing in these pictures)...

Pre-K is on it's way...

Ellis had her orientation for her full day Pre-K class. This is her teacher, Ms. Nguyen-Tamara, and one of those cubbies will be hers Mondays-Thursday. My baby girl is growing up....sniff....sniff...

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The C&K Bakery

I decided to start a baking blog of all of the fun recipes I try. My friend Christy and I will be contributing, but would love to have guest posts by anyone who feels like it. Come on over and check it out!

Happy Baking!

http://thecandkbakery.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Weekend Wrap Up

Just some pics from our fun weekend: went boating, played dress up, Ellis made funny faces - the whole nine yards. Fun and enjoyable weekend!

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Goin to Town

Every time we go to Seattle, my FIL calls it going to town. Kinda of funny. Here's some pics of our trip to "town" today to spend some time with Loni's brother Seth.

Ellis and her Cheeto fingers

Friday, August 12, 2011

Tooting Her Own Horn

I feel bad I haven't posted about Ellis in a while - so here she is finally riding the little, slow train all by herself in Seaside, OR. Watch out world, she is a daredevil! This is the first year she has done it all by herself; she has always been too scared and the train whistle has always been too loud for her. I think I rub off on her a little too much. But I was proud of her, she was proud of herself and Loni just called us both wimps and took Stella on the train with him.

Falling Into Summer

Because I have been so devastated by summer and the lack of it's appearance, I am moving right into Fall. And what do you do in fall? That's right, you BAKE!
So I picked up this little diddy at Costco the other day and can't wait to fire up the C&K Bakery again!

The Real Stella: Tantrums and Tears

This picture embodies Stella - she can be sweet as ever but at the drop of a dime can turn into a little walking terror with tantrums and tears who screams, hits and on occasion bites. Who would have known that something like this could come from someone as sweet as me. (I feel my parents rolling their eyes right now). Funny how I still love her to death and wouldn't trade her for the world. <3!

Grandpa Weaver

These girls L.O.V.E their Grandpa Weaver. Whenever he comes over Stella goes running to him. They both have him wrapped around their fingers. I just wanted to share this cute pic of the girls right before bedtime watching America's Got Talent with Gary. 

Funny facts about the girls and their grandpa:

- Gary started this thing called Swing and Swing with the girls. He picks them up by their underarms and swings them through his legs. They will ask him to do this over and over and over.

-Any time we go to Gary's house, Stella goes right up to Gary, takes his hand and leads him to the kitchen cabinet where Gary has stored his special nuts and trail mix. And then demands to have some - which he shares with her no problem.

Au Revoir until September

On Ellis' last day of the five week summer ballet course, the parents were able to come and watch. It was really cute seeing her in action - she is actually much better than I thought she would be (does that make me a bad mom?) - haha. She holds first position, attempts to mimic the teachers, listens really well and loves going to ballet. Stella was happy to watch as long as I kept her fed.



This is her in her line. The girl in red was the teacher, Ms. Veronica's daughter - she was really good. Ellis is now showing a correct 1st position. :)
This was a fairy dance activity they were doing. They would have to 'fly' around gracefully and water their flowers. It was really cute.

This was an umbrella dance they did - they really encourage the girls to be really accurate and do their best. I am in love with British.


This was the other teacher of the class. I am not sure on her name, but she was great with the girls. Ellis brought her purple jump rope for show and tell. I don't know what the girl in the background is doing. Love random people.



British Dance Academy

Ellis started ballet again back in June at British Dance Academy in Renton. A couple of her aunties have attended British so this was a big deal in our family. She loves it, I love it and Stella loves waiting around for her (not). I would call two out of three a success. It was a 5-week summer course and she is now signed up for the fall class on Fridays.


Stella coloring during the class. I had run out of all the snacks I brought for her, so I was pulling strings as ways to entertain her. Haha. She looks like a hot mess with those pony tails. Ellis showing me her "first position". Good thing we are getting her back in to learn these things.



Ellis posing out in front of British. Her Aunt Chantelle has a picture of her in this position as well when she started.





Monday, August 01, 2011

Casa de Weaver

Well - we finally did IT: took the plunge into becoming certified home owners! Below are pics of the new house, but here is the story behind it. In May we decided to put an offer on this house after looking at TONS of houses on the market. Everything that wasn't a short sale was basically crap, so when we stumbled on this gem we got really excited. The builder at this property went belly up shortly after they finished the houses, so this property was bank owned by the time we found it - and had been sitting on the market for a year and a half.


































Anyway - we found it, loved it and decided to put an offer on it in middle of May (as I said above). We offered about $25,000 under what the bank had it listed for. 24 hours later the bank came back at $10,000 more than we offered. 24-hours after that we countered at an increase of $5,000 on our part (meeting in the middle) and the bank rejected the offer. I didn't want to come up $5,000 and the bank didn't want to come down $5,000, so we were at a stale mate. We were pretty disappointed especially considering our lease was going to be up at the end of June and we were ready to get out. Silly us for being so disappointed bc Heavenly Father always knows what is best for us.


During June, we sold the boat (basically overnight), making extra on the boat to contribute to the down paymnet, got our of our lease no problem, were able to save a little bit extra $$, decided we REALLY loved the house and decided to reoffer in July. So on July 5, we made our offer of what the bank wanted (yes, I swallowed my pride), worked it all out and were able to close on July 29 - I consider that record time for a house sale to go through.


Our move went fantastically! Thanks to my bro Tyler, Gary, Dan and Christian, two missionaries from the Skyway Ward, and Loni's friend Aaron Eastman, we were able to move from start to finish in under 2.5 hours. This was meant to be because of how smoothly everything went.


I do have to give kudos to my Real Estate Agent, Joseph Ho. He was fantastic throughout the entire process and has gone above and beyond anything I could have ever expected of our agent. I definitely suggest him to any of you peeps out there looking to move.



Garage View

Entry Way in house



Looking at front of house (my office)











Inside Office








Hall to garage door (left), downstairs bath (straight ahead) and living room/kitchen













Powder Room (downstairs bath)













Looking down hall to living room (storage/coat closet to left)














Kitchen












Kitchen/Dining Room










Stairs next to entry way













Stairs to upper level













Looking at living room from peek hole in stairs











Loft area to left of stairs











Guest Bedroom upstairs














Another view of loft area (can you tell this is Loni's favorite room?)











Upstairs hall view (girls bath to the right, master at end right, laundry direct ahead, girls room, play room and hall closet all on left side.












Girls Bathroom














Hall Closet














Girls Playroom














Ellis/Stella's Room (window facing front of house)












Laundry Room















Master Bedroom













Master Bath and Closet














Master Bath













Master Bath














Master Bath














Master Closet