Ward Halloween Party

Last weekend was our halloween party for our ward so Loni and I decided to do something we had never done before - attend it! We put Ellis in her costume from Old Navy and headed out there. I was a little nervous about her liking her costume, but she absolutely loved it. She kept walking around saying Kitty, Kitty. Anyway, the party was fun, lots of games and food and candy. Ellis was all for the candy, but the decorations scare her sometimes. Her favorite thing about the party was the food. Everytime I turned around she had some new food in her hand - heaven knows where she got it. She also realized that most of the buckets/bins contained candy, so she walked around looking in every bucket she could find. She is just like her parents - wanting to know where the candy is....

getting her dressed in the car...

kitty, kitty....

Loni takinga shot at the apples - it is really hard!

I couldn't even get it...

what is that in her hand? why, someone's cupcake she stole...

Argosy Cruise

A couple weekends ago Loni's work hosted an Argosy cruise for thier employees and spouses/significant others. It was a three hour tour (a three hour tour ;)) around Lake Washington and took us up through Kirkland, around the U-district and back into Lake Union. We spent about 10 minutes straight parked in front of Bill Gate's house while the host talked about everything about the house. I would be weirded out by this, but I guess boats do it all day long. Oh, well. Anyway, it was a beautiful day and it was great to put a face to the people Loni talks about at work, so we all had a lot of fun.

All of the Centennial Employees

Aaron and Val posing for pics!



Loni is so into picture taking, he could hardly contain his excitement...

It was FREEZING that day.

Mad Skills

So here is what my pumpkin carving turned out to be - pretty great, huh? I did it totally by hand (after tracing the stencil). I am muy talented! haha...yeah, right.

Family Pics 2

So I went to the blog that Karina Rigtrup keeps and copied some pics to post to let you all see how great she is as a photographer. Here they are:

Love these pictures - especially the ones of Ellis. Karina is very talented - thanks again!

Family Pics

So we finally bit the bullet this past weekend and paid for professional family pictures. The first round of pics taken by Karina Rigtrup (http://afreshtakephotography.com/) are ready for viewing, so feel free to take a look if you want. Go to Clients and type in Weaver as the password. Mind you, we took them on Saturday morning at 9:00 in the frost and freezing weather, so I am pretty pleased with how they turned out considering the elements working against us. There are some beautiful ones of Ellis.

Sue Thulin (http://www.thulinphotography.com/) will have her round up in the next couple weeks, so I will post the link to those if you want also.

By the way, I loved the ladies who took our pictures. Karina and Loni go way back and Sue was the one who actually took our wedding pictures. I would recommend either lady if you are looking to get pictures done!

Four Years and Counting...

It has been four years today since Loni and I were married and what a crazy four years it has been. We have had ups and downs, happines and heartache and everything in between. But we have stayed together and after everything we have been through it has made us more united as a family, more in love as husband and wife and more happy as parents and people in general. I love my family, marriage and especially my husband and look forward what the future will bring to us. As President Monson said "Enjoy life now", I am sure Loni and I will. Love you, Babe, and Happy Anniversary!

For fun, here is how we have evolved over the last four years (notice the how "soft" we have both become...) :)

Pickin' Pumpkins!

Last night Ellis and I went to go find the perfect pumpkin to carve because I was really itching to get into the Holiday Spirit. So we went to a local farmers market by my house to look for some pumpkins. Ellis loved it - she kept trying to pick up the pumpkins but then she realized how heavy the big ones were and headed for the little ones. Here are some pics of her:



I will post later of the actual carving session (which Ellis was not interested in) but thought these would be fun for now.

Conference

So before I begin this post, I just want to say how wonderful conference was for me this time around. It went by incredibly fast and I really felt the speakers were inspired with thier topics. My favorite talk was Henry B Eyrings talk (first speaker, Sunday morning session) about unity. I have noticed that when Loni and I are not united in our goals, our marriage and life things start to go wrong. I just really enjoyed this round of conference - it is nice to hear from the leaders of our church; I feel refreshed now.

Anyway, on to my post. So it was a hassle trying to keep Ellis entertained during conference yesterday, even though we watched it from the comfort of our house via the internet. One thing we did was set up an obstacle course where she would put the stool next to the back of the couch, climb over onto the couch, fall on her face, then continue off the couch, falling on her face on the floor. She thought this was hilarious! Once she got bored from that (about 10 minutes), she went off to do her own thing. After a couple minutes Loni and I hear: "Momma....Mom-ma!" so we go to find her. Well, she had found one of Loni's old beanies and had put it on all by herself. She was so proud of herself, which is why she was trying to get our attention. Here are the pictures:

The Phantom of the Opera!

This coming Thursday is Loni and I's fourth wedding anniversary and to celebrate, we bought tickets to go see the Phantom of the Opera at the Paramount in Seattle. I had never seen the performance in person, just the movie, but every one I have talked to said it is incredible, so we were both excited. So we got all dressed up, dropped Ellis off and headed downtown. The night was a lot of fun - we were both dressed up and it really reminded me of when we were first married and had less cares and worries. We ate at Gordon Biersch at Pacific Place - my pasta was delicious - and then headed to the play. I don't even have words to describe how great the performance was - it was incredible. The actors and actresses are incredibly talented and had such great voices - it was really, sorry to be redundant, incredible. It was a lot of fun and lots of thanks to Lanae and Amber for watching Ellis for us. Anyway, here are some pics of the night:

My Little Goofball

So ever since Loni has had his motocycle, Ellis has had this facisnation with bikes and anything associated with them. Especially helmets. Everytime Loni's helmet is within reach she will go and drag it over to one of us and have us put it on her head since it is too heavy for her to pick up. Well, I think one day she got tired of having to ask us to help her, so she went to the cupboards to create her own "helmet" - out of a strainer. Now she will put it on all the time and walk around the house wearing her it and making motorcycle noises. Then the other day, I think she realized there are multiple uses for her helmet, because she was using it as a chair. What can I say, she is Loni's kid! :)

wearing her helmet...
multiple uses...
up close and personal (yes that is food on her face)...

Crazy 8's

I was tagged and so I thought this would be fun:

8 T.V. shows I love to watch:
- House
- The Office
- Scrubs (when it comes on)
- 90210
- Jon & Kate plus 8
- Project Runway
- Kitchen Nightmares
- Thomas (for Ellis)

8 Favorite Places to Eat:
- Cheesecake Factory
- The Best Pho & Thai (it really is the best!)
- Taco Bell (does this count as a restaurant?)
- Red Robin (love those bottomless fries!)
- Wendy's (again, does this count?)
- Casa de Weaver (ie: my home kitchen)
- Happy at the Bay Teriyaki
- Sunday dinners at the Weavers

8 Things that happened yesterday:
- went to work
- went to the gym (yay!)
- made dinner
- did laundry
- had lunch with my mom (and she bought me birthday presents - thanks again, mom!)
- played with Ellis
- sat down to watch The Office - and it wasn't on! The horror!
- made arrangements for someone to watch Ellis so Loni & I could go to Phantom of the Opera for our anniversary

8 Things I look forward to:
- going to The Phantom of the Opera tonight
- Loni & I's 4th anniversary
- Seeing Ellis experience the upcoming holidays as a toddler
- Fall and the festivities associated with it
- My birthday
- Trip to Utah in November
- Twilight Movie (i am borderline obsessed about this - yes I am a dork)
- Christmas

8 Things I love about Fall*:
- the smells
- baking
- the beautiful scenery everywhere
- my marriage anniversary and birthday
- the decorations
- being bundled up in sweaters
- getting ready for the upcoming holidays
- the pumpkins!
*disclaimer - Fall is really my favorite time of year, so I am biased in this posting; I love everything about Fall...

8 Things on my wish list:
- to get into a house
- that the economy will turn around
- that Ellis will just go to sleep the first time I put her in her bed
- that I will get back to my pre-pregnancy weight
- to inherit millions ;)
- that Loni & I will live happily ever after
- that Ellis will grow up to be strong, independent, loving, faithful and happy
- that I could help out more people

I tag Clarissa, Kyla and Kandy!

I wanted to illustrate how beautiful Seattle is during the fall (and to reminisce a bit) so here are some pictures from my wedding, which was in the fall: