Weitzel Way

Family Pictures

2012-02-01T23:00:00.000-08:00

Our friend Garin took our family pictures last Saturday in Balboa Park. As Paul put it, "We are not beautiful people." So Garin had quite the task to try to make us look presentable. I think she did a stand-up job. We look downright decent. It may be just that our kids look phenomenal and so they counteract the troll faces that Paul and I pull. Either way, we're happy. Enjoy! If you'd like a hard copy of any of them, let me know and I'll send them to you.

Which ones are your favorites? If you're one of the few people who read this blog not for phishing purposes, I'm going to assume that you care about us and therefore have a favorite picture. Let me know so I know which one to put on my wall. Thanks!

Speed Reecer

2012-01-26T15:10:00.001-08:00

We've been busy this January, but we've been predictably bad at taking pictures of our adventures. At least it's good to know that some things never change, right?

This month we visited Sea World, the Safari Park (on one of the rainiest days this month...there were three of them), the zoo, we went to movies, played with friends, went on walks, and Reece put in many miles on his new bike. Have I mentioned before that I really love living in San Diego? It's so easy to be a mom here. There are always a million things to do, the weather is usually amazing, and there are so many truly incredible people here that let us be their friends.Who knew the Safari Park was so cool? We can get you free parking and one free pass if you come visit us...

Reece and Amelia are growing and learning and it's so fun to watch. Reece is too smart for his own good. One of his favorite things is to turn on the computer, log in, open pbskids.org and play games. He does that all on his own, and it's terrifying to me. I'm all for kids learning how to use computers, but I just didn't know he would learn so quickly and so young. He's also losing a little bit of his two year-old insanity--a trend we hope will continue.

Amelia is just amazing. She is so sweet. I was so afraid of having a daughter because I thought I wouldn't know how to relate to her (even though I'm also somebody's daughter). Being the middle child in a family of 6 boys (plus sisters as bookends), I thought having a girl would be a mystery and a challenge. It's exactly the opposite. I love her cuddles, her giggles, and her nearly-constantly pleasant nature. She's always ready with a smile and a hug. I remember when Reece was her age I kept thinking, "It'll be so fun when he learns how to hug." He just wasn't affectionate or cuddly, but she's been that way since birth.

Mia loves her daddy. It's a great thing for me, because she'll let him put her to sleep, feed her, cuddle her when she's grumpy, etc. All of that = freedom for mommy. Hooray! I should also mention that Paul deserves all of that love, because he is an amazing dad. He also has editing privileges on this blog, so you'll never know who actually wrote that.

Amelia's now got two teeth and has finally mastered rolling over both ways. She's been sitting up since four months, but until last week she was too chubby to roll. Now that she's got it, though, she prefers rolling over to pretty much everything else. (Her inner-monologue: "Wow, I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go to sleep...wait a minute, I could roll over! Yay! Yipee! I'll never sleep again!!!") So basically we love her sweet temperament, and I would have seven more girls if they could all be just like her (that's not an announcement...when I'm pregnant with septuplets, I'll make the announcement much more obvious than that).

I look like a cartoon villain in this picture, but Amelia's chubby cheeks are just too adorable to pass up. Don't you just want to smoosh them? I think I'll go kiss her right now...

Reece had his first race last weekend. Paul's brother John had signed up his girls Amy and Natalie to run in a 1 mile fun run. So we headed to Temecula so Reece could race with his cousins. We pumped him up beforehand, but after an hour drive in the pouring rain, he was a little less than excited to run. So in reality, Paul ran a 1 mile fun run while carrying a reluctant toddler. In the end, Reece got a medal, a shirt that was way too big for him (but fits me), and all sorts of bragging rights. The bragging rights haven't gone to waste. In fact, right after his (dad's) race, he saw a street sign saying "10 MPH" and assumed that was for his race, so he immediately changed his story to be, "I ran 10 miles today. I was super fast. Now I'm super tired." He has been telling us about the race all week and today he informed me that he'll be running another race this coming Saturday. You're all welcome to come watch his imaginary race (he'll probably actually make Paul go running and claim the victory as his own).

Yay, Reece! Is it weird that I teared up while watching him finish that race? He clearly didn't even run it. That's the great thing about being a mom, I guess. Your kid's a winner even if he only falls under the "participant" category.

Have a great day!

It's a Christmas miracle!

2011-12-29T13:25:00.000-08:00

So Christmas was awesome, and it's time we let the world in on the fun. We invited ourselves to Paul's brother David's house for the festivities. We drove up on Christmas Eve and stayed until the morning after Christmas. A HUGE 'thank you' to David and Hillary for letting us crash your house, eat your food, destroy your expensive trinkets (oh wait, that was supposed to be a secret), and all-in-all for being such fantastic hosts. We had a blast. Nancy, John and Cory and kids also came, which just made it even more fun (and crazy...we had 7 adults and 6 1/2 kids...again, THANK YOU, David and Hillary!).

These kids LOVE their Grandma Nancy. She certainly spoils them, as any grandma should. Reece was a little outnumbered by the girls, but he didn't let it phase him.

In case the shirts didn't give it away (and her general baby-ness), this is Amelia's first Christmas.

Amelia and Uncle David.
John and cute, pregnant Cory.

Grandma helped the kids decorate cookies to leave out for Santa.

And the kids helped themselves to some good ol' fashioned bed-jumping (again, sorry to D&H).

Cousins!

What an awesome group of kids.

John and Paul engaged in the grossest marshmallow-stuffing contest I've seen this year. John won, but he made Paul bleed to do it.

I'll take the one on the far right.

Lining up to see if Santa really came.

Stockings are always my favorite part of Christmas morning.

Reece had been eying that red present for a week and had to open it very first. Fun fact: dictionary.com says that both "eyeing" and "eying" are correct spellings of the word, but Microsoft insists that "eyeing" is incorrect. That's how I traditionally spell the word, so I'm going to challenge Microsoft on this one (but I'll fix it in my original sentence because I hate the red squiggly lines).

Amelia actually loved opening presents. Yes, she did enjoy the wrapping paper more, but I was impressed with how attentive she was.

Paul is a good dad.

Here is it! Our AMAZING quiet book that Teresa lovingly and painstakingly made for us. My kids LOVE it (maybe as much as I do). Reece played with it for the entire Sacrament meeting on Sunday, which was a dream for me. Thank you, Teresa and family!

Reece got his first bike, and we have yet to determine if it was a good idea.

This is Paul's "swagger" look (apparently his deodorant is swagger-scented). That's why I married him. Yep...that look right there...sigh. I'm pretty sure he married me because of how awesome I look in bright pink pajama pants.

Amelia loves her grandma.

In fact she kind of loves everyone...

Including you! Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

Also, if you keep hovering over your mailbox waiting for our Christmas card to arrive, you can trudge your way back through the snow. I neglected to do a lot of things this Christmas season, and sending out Christmas cards was one of them. We didn't even get a family picture taken. But as soon as that's done, I promise I will post joyful wishes and "whatever-season-it-happens-to-be" greetings on our blog for all to enjoy. In the meantime, have a safe and happy new year, and remember that we love you!

Also, if you're wondering still what is the Christmas miracle I am referencing in my blog title, the miracle is that I blogged at all. It's a Christmas miracle!

Giving Thanks

2011-11-28T19:39:00.000-08:00

This ranks among the best Thanksgivings we've had in our married life. They're all good (how could a holiday centered around food be bad?), but this year was extra special. We had both Dave and Teresa, and Ryan and Liz's families come visit us for the long weekend, and it was absolutely fantastic.

Dave and Teresa got in Wednesday night, and the boys started off almost immediately with their debating. You can't have a Weitzel-Carr hybrid Thanksgiving without lots of political debates. I welcome this time openly, as it gets the debates out of Paul's system for a while and holds him over until the next time he can meet up with one of his brothers/bro-in-laws.

Dave and I also have a tradition of going on late-night walks. Usually those walks are through the streets of Chandler, so I was very excited to show off some of our local sights.
Ryan, Liz and Owen came in early Thursday morning to join us, and the day was spent cooking in my tiny kitchen and distracting the kids with multiple walks to the park, football games, and lots of laughter, noise, and bed-jumping. Dave and Teresa stayed in our guest suite, which includes one twin bed (complete with slide), one deflated air mattress, and plenty of floor space for their kids. Ryan and Liz opted for a more comfortable spot at the Navy base (thanks to everybody for being so flexible!).

Thursday and Friday nights we forced the adults to play board games with us, but I will go out on a limb and say that everybody had fun. They knew what they were getting into when they came to our house. Paul claims we had the most successful game of Encore! in history. I would agree (Team Carr won with flying colors!).

Friday we hit the beach. We went to La Jolla Shores and let the kids run wild while the boys braved the freezing water to do some boogie boarding. Amelia, Liz and I enjoyed the sun and sand.

After the beach we walked around the San Diego temple. We were accosted by the Sister missionaries, but got away without giving any referrals. Whew. We almost had to do missionary work. That was close.

Dave and I took some time that afternoon to jog through the zoo. It was my favorite visit I've had at the zoo yet (mostly because I wasn't pushing a stroller). It was fun to quickly enjoy the zoo ambiance, but more fun to just hang with Dave.

That night was dinner and more games. Teresa made her amazing white turkey chili and Liz beat Ryan in a balance contest during our Uno game.

Saturday we headed to Old Town and visited the Mormon Battalion museum. We hadn't been there yet, and it was pretty cool! Old Town also provided the only downer of the weekend, as we picked the wrong lunch spot and got stuck with a dirty and sub-par Mexican restaurant.

Then some of us visited Cabrillo National Monument to get some great views of the city, while Teresa took some of the kids to Mission Beach for some more beach time.

Ryan joined me for a jog around the park, which was the fastest jog I've had yet in San Diego (and surely his slowest). But again, the best part was getting the brother-time.

After dinner Ryan and Liz went to dinner with Liz's cousin and the rest of us walked to Balboa Park for a tree-lighting. We missed the entire program, but we made it just in time to see Santa. He was the BEST Santa, and they even gave us a free picture. They had a nice Nativity scene and beautiful lights. The kids did amazingly well, as the walk was about 2 miles round-trip and they'd already been going full speed all day. They kept up with us, no problem. I do have to say that Reece was leading the pack, running and jumping the entire way. That kid has no end to his energy.

I love my family. I am so grateful that I have siblings who live close enough for holiday visits, and who want to be my friends. I'm grateful that my brothers married such amazing women so I can be good friends with my sisters-in-law, and that my son and daughter have such awesome cousins. I'm grateful for excuses to be together, and I look forward to many more!

November Videos

2011-11-18T15:35:00.000-08:00

My kids are too cute to wait this long between posts, and I apologize. Pictures to come.

First we have one of our many impromptu dance parties (which occur far too frequently for a family with zero dancing skills):

Don't you love Paul in that video, dancing with his little girl? Precious. Next we have one of Reece making Amelia laugh. He is her favorite person by probably a million:

Next, we documented Amelia's first haircut. Not really her first, since I had cut a few hairs the day before. But close enough. I think she looks cuter now:

Finally, we have a video of Robot Reece. He pretends to be a robot quite frequently, and it's actually very convenient. I can push a button and he'll do anything. In fact, even if he's not playing Robot Reece, I can say something like, "Which button is the 'Take a bath' button?" and he'll show me a "button," let me push it, and instantly obey. They say you should train your kids to be independent thinkers--I prefer the robot:

Maybe next time I'll gush about how thankful I am to be a stay-at-home mom. After all, 'tis the season for gushing. But not now, 'cause this is taking a long time and my computer tolerance is much less than it used to be. So in the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween Costumes 2011

2011-10-23T19:09:00.000-07:00

This year Reece decided to be a pirate and he decided Amelia would be Baby Jaguar (from Go, Diego Go). We went with a female jaguar, hearts, frills and all. I kind of love it. Happy Halloween, everybody!

San Diego!!!

2011-09-23T16:23:00.001-07:00

I apologize to the wide blogging world for withholding pictures of my kids for so long. I realize you've probably been pining away while waiting for me to get my act together. Well, my act is still not quite together and I have doubts that it ever will be again (if it ever was to begin with). But I will give you a few pictures to appease your curiosity/voyeur tendencies/appetite.

We have been having a blast in San Diego. It's beautiful every day (which we appreciate oh so much more after living in Portland), we LOVE our location, Paul has a good job, and my kids keep me more than entertained. I am really loving being a mom; more than ever before. I feel so grateful to be able to be their mama. Not just because they're incredibly cute, and not just because Amelia sleeps through the night (most of the time), or because Reece has an imagination bigger than the giants that chase him around the house (daily...unless they're hiding in his room, or in time out...that's right, I put his imaginary giants in time out, and it's no easy job). It's just everything. There's also the fact that we live half a mile from the zoo, four miles from Sea World, and can see the ocean from our balcony. Jealous? Then come visit! We'll take you out for some great Mexican food and we'll make Reece sleep in the hall so you can have your own private suite (with crib and air mattress included).

I guess part of having a great time being a mom is not taking many pictures. I have been horrible at documenting Amelia's cuteness and Reece's increasing cleverness. I love reading friend's blogs who write quotes from their kids or post silly things they do. You just won't get those things from this blog, because I am a slacker. But you will get pictures. And without further ado...
Reece's new friend is Elijah. We swap babysitting with E's parents, so these kids get to hang out quite a bit. We forced them to wear animal costumes, and cuteness ensued. That lasted about two minutes.

This is how Amelia looks most of the time. Except without the hat. And maybe more puke. Reece calls it "pute," and is super good and bringing me burp rags at a moment's notice.

These are in no order, because Kyle was here in early August. He helped us move and Reece misses him terribly. In fact, while I was posting these pictures Reece kept saying, "I want to see the picture of me with Uncle Kyle!" He misses his buddy.

Amelia comes from Fontana stock.

We visited Dave's family in early September. We were only there for a weekend but we all had a blast. Hooray for living close to family! Also, Reece and Amelia have 16 cousins, and Reece loves them all. In fact, whenever he sees kids that he likes or wants to play with, he calls them his cousins.

Our beautiful, smiley, peaceful girl. She really is an angel.

She's so chill. I can't say that enough. We love her. Also her hair is thinning daily. She takes after her daddy, I guess.

When I was a little girl my mom would tell me that if I stuck out my lower lip any more, a bird would come and land on it. Amelia inherited my bottom lip.

Okay, our kids seriously have the coolest hair. While Amelia's hair doesn't stick straight up naturally, she still has a rockin' natural mohawk. She also has a mullet in the back, but we try to ignore that.

At Sea World on the Elmo ride. We're big fans.

Uncle Bryce came to visit us in late August. We love him. In fact, we even made up a little song about him, which Reece will sing and dance to. It's pretty clever, if you ask me. ("Uncle Bryce is so nice." That's it. Awesome, right?)

At La Jolla Cove with Uncle Kyle. We've since explored this beach more and it's super awesome. Tide pools, sea lions, gorgeous waves, secluded beaches. Sigh...

Now start planning your visits. We can't wait to see you!

Amelia update

2011-09-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

Don't get too excited, we're not actually posting things like our move to San Diego, or the goings-on in our lives. Just one video of how cute Amelia is. She rolled over last week for the first time at 12 weeks. Reece rolled over at 6 weeks, but Amelia is much more graceful. We love her.

Still Alive

2011-07-12T14:54:00.000-07:00

We're still alive and loving our awesome kids. Thought somebody out there might care to know.

Amelia Jane Weitzel

2011-06-08T12:05:00.001-07:00

So...we had a baby. A girl baby, more precisely. I haven't had much time to blog, though we've loaded a few photos onto Paul's Picasa album (link on the right). She's perfect. She's calm and sweet and beautiful. My water broke (ruptured, apparently. They had to break it later again...not sure what happened) and so I got induced about three hours earlier than scheduled. I was on pitocin for 20 hours before she made her debut, though the actual delivery only took about 7 minutes. I wasn't a fan of being on an IV for so long, but the short delivery was a big improvement over last time. A HUGE thanks to Uncle Kyle for babysitting Reece for about 48 hours. I seriously don't know what we would have done without him. In our opinion, he's got a ticket straight into heaven for his help this last week (not sure how much our opinion counts, though).

Reece has taken very well to his little sister. He calls her Mia, which we think is adorable. He loves to give her high fives, send her little toe-piggies to the market, and "comfort" her when she cries (patting her head). We have been so blessed with two amazing kids. And both good babies, besides. Amelia has such a calm temperament (just like her brother did), and hopefully it will stay that way. I even got 6 hours of sleep last night (not simultaneous).

Thanks to everybody for your love and prayers and support. We couldn't be happier. Babies bring such a sweet spirit to a home, and we're basking in her spirit.

Grandma Nancy is on her way to our house right now, and the Carr clan is heading up on Friday/Saturday. We can't wait to see everybody! Amelia's blessing is on Sunday, so if you're in Portland, please come! We'll give you food afterward.

We love our little Amelia Jane!

Reece man, the American hero!

2011-04-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

Reece just keeps doing cute things. None of us are surprised, I'm sure. But it does mean I should be keeping a journal or something to document. Since that's not happening, I'll just continue to occasionally update this blog. You're welcome.

The first video is Reece loving on his little sister, who still happens to be in utero (35 weeks!):

Next we have Reece's turn at leading the FHE song last night:

Photo Book

2011-04-20T14:56:00.001-07:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Spring Burst 5k/10k

2011-04-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

So we have been super busy lately, but I'm not sure what we've done. Paul loves his job and I'm loving spending time with Reece (right now he's shaking his crib bars trying to convince me to let him out of bed without a nap). We've had game nights with Staci, Dave and Kyle, we visited Silver Falls near Salem (possible pictures to come soon), and most importantly for this post, I somehow convinced the lot of us to run a race. Paul ran the 10k and Reece, Kyle, baby and I walked the 5k. Paul did really well and ended up getting 3rd in his age category with a time of 50:32. Our 5k time was around 54 minutes, if that gives you any idea of how awesome Paul is. He literally ran circles around us, as the 10k track just doubled the 5k track. Reece also did amazingly well, thanks to uncle Kyle's iPod touch and it's accompanying Angry Birds game.

The belly in this shot is 33 weeks. And yes, I pushed a double jogging stroller. That doesn't make me awesome, just desperate. Reece was on one side and Curious George on the other. I tried to convince Kyle to let me sit while he pushed all of us, but I guess I'm too heavy these days. Darn. Here's to many more family fun runs!

Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby!

2011-03-27T22:05:00.000-07:00

My baby turned two. Amazing, isn't it? We love him so much more now than we ever have. Even with all his newly-discovered independence and his frequent assertion of the freedom of speech, we just continue to be amazed by what a giant spirit and sweet heart this boy has, and humbled by all the joy he's brought to our lives. He's learning so fast and stringing together sentences that amaze me. Tonight and last night he asked me to sing "Walk in a light" to him (Teach Me To Walk in the Light," and he sang along! This last week he's been saying "Robin Hood come to our house." Not sure where he got that from and it hasn't happened yet, but I'm still kinda hoping it will. His command of pronouns is particularly surprising, and his speech patterns are pretty correct for such a little guy. None of that matters, of course, because all we really notice is that he still has that cool hair.

So to celebrate this amazing guy's 2nd birthday we started out by taking cupcakes to play group.

We didn't want anybody to feel obligated to bring presents, and quite honestly I didn't feel up to throwing a party (I love toddlers but having 10+ of them in my tiny apartment is not appealing in my 7-month pregnant state). We then invited Uncle Kyle over to go bowling with us, and brought in our neighbors for the birthday cupcakes and presents.

Reece preferred to kick the ball, which resulted in several getting stuck halfway down the lane.

I hope Reece felt loved, as he is greatly loved by everybody who knows him (if you know him and don't love him, you are a monster).

He piled all his presents on the table and couldn't wait to dive in and open them all. He was so polite and said "thank you" after opening each one. And he even spent time with each present, making me feel like I didn't waste money in buying them. The kid's smart.

So happy birthday to my special little guy. I am so blessed to be your mama. You truly amaze me every day and make me happier than I ever thought I could be. (Side note: Paul won't let me post the picture entitled "Real birthday booty," with Reece sitting on his new potty chair for the first time. But just know that it's adorable, and perfect blackmail material for later in his life).

Seattle and Vancouver, BC

2011-03-27T21:05:00.001-07:00

I got the best birthday present of my life this year from my darling husband. He woke me up on Friday (March 4) saying he wanted me to open one of my presents early. It felt like a three-ring binder so I was a bit skeptical, plus I love sleep so I thought, "This had better be good." I wasn't disappointed. It was a binder, but inside was a fully planned four-day vacation agenda, including maps, hotel reservations, and two different options for how to spend the day of my birthday. I have to say I was very impressed. It was the PERFECT present for me, because I am always the one to plan the vacation, print the maps, book the hotels, etc. So by the time we get to traveling, I'm not nearly as excited because I've already seen everything via the internet (or I'm just tired of thinking about it). The best part of all: Paul said, "You have about six hours before we leave." He had taken off work early that day, AND taken off the next Monday so we could have a nice, long weekend with which to enjoy ourselves. Pretty amazing guy, right?

We had been discussing the desire to travel to Seattle and Vancouver, BC but I had come to the conclusion that it just couldn't happen with the weather being sketchy and our baby coming in late spring. But Paul made it happen, and I'm so glad he did. He somehow convinced the weather to be beautiful all weekend (like seriously, miraculously beautiful). He booked the perfect hotels for us, right downtown in Seattle and within two blocks of Stanley Park in Vancouver. And he even planned an alternate "Twilight Tour" of Forks, WA, just in case I didn't want to drive to Canada. I don't know any other guy who would spend hours researching Twilight locations and histories (no, he has not read any of the books) just to give me the option of spending a day there. I wasn't super interested in the Twilight stuff (though I have read the books and have gone to two midnight showings), but I loved that he planned it.

We started out by getting to Seattle around 7 PM (thank goodness for portable DVD players or we wouldn't have survived the trip with a toddler). Then we hit the town, wandering around the streets, eating street crepes for dinner (my favorite street food) and marveling about how nice the weather was.

The next morning we hit Pikes Place market, the monorail, and the Space Needle. Then we found perhaps the biggest gem of all (or as I look at it, Paul's reward for planning such a nice trip for me): Seattle's ComiCon. We kept seeing random comic book characters on the streets and headed pretty quickly for the convention center. I have to say, Reece may have been more excited than Paul to see all the "bot-bots," which included everyone from Darth Vader and a storm trooper to anyone wearing a mask.

My favorite part was when Reece met Sauron from Lord of the Rings. We told him who it was and he was very forward in saying hello, or rather, "Hi, lord of a ring guy!" Then he cuddled up close and whispered to me, "Scared." But he didn't show it and he actually still talks about Sauron/lord of a ring guy.

That afternoon/evening we walked down by the waterfront and watched the sunset. I still can't believe how amazingly beautiful it was. I'm so used to constant, or at least intermittent rain, and I expected it to be even worse further north. I think it was God's birthday present to me. Thanks!

Sunday morning we found a local church house and attended Sacrament meeting, then jetted up to Vancouver. We took a detour (which Paul had also planned) so we could drive along the coast.
When we finally got to the border we had a loving encounter with the border patrol. I wish we had this on video. Paul tried to be friendly with the patrol guard but it only led to further interrogations. Things like, "Why is your car registered in California?" "This is a pretty short trip to come all the way from Portland." And my favorite, Paul asked the guy where he was from (thinking he may be either American or Canadian) and the guy asked, "Where are you going?" Paul: "British Columbia." Guy: "Then where do you think I'm from?" The full interrogation took probably three or four minutes, but I guess we are kind of dangerous-looking people. Especially Reece in all his toddler glory and me with my belly. Who knows what I could be hiding in there?

So we got to Vancouver around three and immediately headed to the Capilano suspension bridge. It's about 450 feet across and 230 feet above the ground. And most importantly, from wikipedia: The bridge has been featured as a setting in episodes of several television series, including MacGyver, Sliders, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, and Psych.

After the bridge we headed up Grouse mountain (site of many of Vancouver's Olympic events) to check out the ski slopes. We were probably the only people up there that weren't skiing, but we had a great time checking out the views of Vancouver, the hundreds of "bot-bots" (Reece was in heaven because one of the robots/skiers talked to him on the gondola ride down...we were glad nobody knew what he was talking about when he kept calling them robots. But in his defense, they were all wearing head gear and goggles, so it's kind of an easy mistake for a toddler to make). Riding gondolas up mountains is one of my favorite vacation activities, so Paul gets extra points for planning this.

We spent the rest of the night crashing in our huge hotel room and enjoying Canadian TV (also a vacation tradition). The next morning we walked through Stanley Park, chasing geese and counting dogs.

Then we jumped in the car in the hopes of beating traffic for the long drive home. Overall we had a fantastic time and I'm not sure how Paul's going to beat this next year when I turn 30. Good job, babe. You are amazing!

Finally, our favorite tradition: stocking up on foreign candy. That's one happy pregnant woman.

Boring Post

2011-03-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

The title of this post in no way indicates the nature of the post itself. It is only meant to describe, in short, our amazing adventures in the town of Boring, Oregon. That's right, there does exist such a place and yes, we did visit it. It took about three hours of driving round-trip and we spent about five minutes total outside of the car. So you can see the necessity of blogging about it because otherwise the trip was kind of a bust (don't tell Paul I said that...he's been asking me to post about this trip for weeks now).

Paul thought it was cool that the middle school was called "Boring Middle School." Not much incentive for the students to attend. Nor can the parents ever argue that school is not actually boring.

But I guess the students don't have much to complain about when they, themselves, are also boring.
This was the only sign we saw that suggested there was something interesting going on behind the scenes.

Reece Rhyme Time

2011-03-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

I have so oh, so many things to blog about and I have fallen oh, so far behind. I apologize to all of you loyal followers (Ryan, Kyle and Owen), and I hope these little videos keeps you going until I get the gumption to post some of our other pics and stories. These were both taken this last week. In case you don't speak Reece-ese, the first is One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, and the second is the church and steeple rhyme. Enjoy!

Webcam Shenanigans

2011-03-02T13:30:00.000-08:00

First, the world debut of Reece and mom singing "You Are My Sunshine."

And now a bit of "Little Boy Blue." You don't have to think it's cute. This is all for me.

25 weeks!!!

2011-02-12T22:37:00.000-08:00

For some reason I feel like being 25 weeks pregnant is significant. I mean, I still have 15 weeks left (hopefully...or hopefully not? Hard to tell). At this point nobody is wondering whether or not I'm pregnant, but I still feel pretty good. Not too huge to be uncomfortable (but getting there), still able to sleep most of the night (though the insomnia is definitely increasing), and maintaining a pretty healthy level of energy to play with my super active toddler. We'll see how quickly that energy depletes.

Here are some videos for all you curious folk out there. Yes, I stick out much more than I did with Reece (which I didn't think was possible), but don't forget that I still have 15 glorious weeks with which to grow this little doll. So I promise the videos and pictures will get much more shocking as the weeks progress. Yipee.

And we can't have a post without some cute thing about Reece, so here is his latest: He has a crazy-funny imagination. Yesterday he wanted to climb on the table and I wouldn't let him so he tried to convince me that he was a cat (because it's apparently okay for cats to climb on the table). I'm talking meowing, crawling around, licking stuff, the works. He found out that cats don't get to climb on the table, either. He also likes to invent games. This game I dedicate to my dear friend Laurel, with whom I created several couch games our freshman year at BYU. We even had Couch Olympics, they were so elaborate. Apparently couch games are genetic. Reece's favorite is called "Really Hurt," in which he and his dad pretend-fall off his little couch then exclaim, "Ow! Really hurt!" Poor kid has had so much head trauma already in his life. At least he tries to make the best of it.

Two Wild and Crazy Guys

2011-02-02T16:12:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's overwhelming being surrounded by such charming, sophisticated, beautiful men. I thought you should all share a little in my constant joy:

Last night Reece and I built a fort and played our harmonicas. He's actually a pretty good harmonica player, able to play single notes and such. This is his new camera face. He even says "cheese!"

He normally hates to wear hats, but I guess he was feeling like a thug (does the pink detract from the "thug" appearance?).

Reece got new superman pajamas and even though he has no idea who Superman is, he has taken to flying around the house (with dad's help...disappointing, I know) and flexing his muscles. I mean more often than normal.

I just love his face.
We've had unnaturally good weather this January, so we took a hike in Forest Park, near Pittock Mansion. Every trail in Forest Park looks exactly like this (about 5 minutes drive from our house).

Now my other handsome guy. I shrunk his wool sweater, but I think it looks better than ever.

Did you forget this face? The widow's peak is not on purpose. He just gets tired of me cutting his hair, and that part always comes last. It adds a little shape to his huge, round head, I guess.

This is not as obscene as you think, I promise. Reece declared himself "Bubble Man," though he got a bit of help from his dad.

Don't you love them?

22 Week Fiesta!

2011-01-24T13:24:00.000-08:00

We had this great idea to have a Mexican fiesta. We were going to invite friends and have all this amazing food and music and maybe even watch Three Amigos. What actually happened was we had no friends over, but I made honey lime enchiladas (amazing, by the way...got the recipe from my friend Jenny's blog), we wore sombreros for about 30 seconds, and we watched one youtube video of a mariachi band. That counts, right?

Happy 22 weeks, everybody!

Cape Disappointment

2011-01-19T13:06:00.000-08:00

We spent the weekend trying to be cool, and thus "camping" on the Oregon Coast. It happened to coincide with the worst thunderstorms of the season, but also with a rare three-day weekend, so off we went. We went KOA camping, which turned out to be awesome, as we got our second night free. We had an indoor pool and warm showers, WiFi in our cabin (which had electricity and heat), not to mention the raccoons living under our cabin. I think it may have changed the way we camp forever.Above is one of our only pictures with somebody in it. There is a shipwreck in the background, dating back to 1906 or so. The rain was too heavy to take out our camera most of the time, and often too heavy to get me out of the car either.

We did a little Lewis & Clark tour, visiting Fort Stevens State Park, Fort Clatsop, Astoria, and Cape Disappointment (which Paul insists that he "did wrong," because we weren't disappointed at all). We happened to catch a special event at Fort Clatsop called "Wintering," in which we got to travel back in time and talk to members of the Lewis & Clark expedition in the (recreated) fort where they spent their winter in the Northwest.

Paul and Reece loved it. Paul had recently watched a documentary, so he picked the brains of the actors, who were actually quite savvy in their history. Reece got to trade some of his snacks for beads and buttons, which he carried around all day.

Recreated Fort Clatsop.

One of the actors.

Across the Columbia River and at the southwest-most tip of Washington.

On the way home we had our one last adventure, which was finding out that the road was flooded and having to backtrack and add an extra hour on to our drive home. Luckily Oregon is beautiful, even with all the rain.

So all in all we had a good time and may even try "being cool" again. We want to get in as many adventures as we can before little Skittles is born.

Goonies house (it says that on the map). We had a nice Goonie-filled tour of Astoria.

Ooh, Baby Baby!

2011-01-13T14:08:00.000-08:00

Anybody who reads this blog already knows, but let's celebrate anyway: we're having a GIRL!!!

We had the 20 week ultrasound on Monday, after begging the doctor to let us find out before Christmas, only to be rejected. Had we found out, it surely would have increased the amount of pink in our suitcases.

We are super excited to welcome this little girl into our family. Reece has already taken to feeling my belly, including kissing and cuddling with it. Now we can start teaching him how to take care of a little sister. He is already so caring and loving and gentle that I'm sure he'll be an amazing big brother.

We saw some great profile shots during the ultrasound but we didn't get any super good pictures to take home. Here, at least, is proof she has a head:

Paul claims that when we got our first look of her, he knew it was a girl because she looked "more feminine." I think that just means that her head isn't quite as huge as Reece's head was. Thank goodness!

Sideways shot, but check out those guns on that arm! I don't think she'll have any trouble defending herself against her big brother.

And of course, her perfect little foot. She hasn't reached my ribs yet, so I still love this foot.

We're super excited and can't wait to meet our new little one. We're taking name suggestions, and may even consider naming her after a favorite aunt/uncle/friend, for the right price. Let the bidding begin!

Christmas Vacation

2011-01-03T08:42:00.000-08:00

We spent the last two weeks in Utah and Colorado partying with family. We had a blast playing with family and enjoying plenty of snow. Grandma Nancy picked us up from the airport and we spent the day playing at her house. Reece immediately recognized snow, though the only time he's ever seen snow was in Switzerland this summer. They got nearly two feet of snow in 24 hours while we were in Sanpete, and another nice snowstorm while we were visiting Adam and Kerrie's family in Colorado. So Reece got plenty of chances to don his awesome boots and his "pirate" gloves (they have skulls and crossbones...he picked them out).

Reece LOVED Grandma Nancy's house. He even woke up super early so he could play with her train (mom took a nap on the floor next to the train).

This next picture is not indicative at all of Reece's time at Grandma Nancy's. He LOVED his grandma and had a blast at her house. But what's Christmas-time without a few tears?

We then headed down to Sanpete to spend some time with the Carr family. Reece had so many uncles around, he didn't know what to do. He eventually just started calling all adult males "Uncle," but did not hesitate to spend any and all of his time cajoling them into playing with him. Mama Wendy loved having four willing babysitters around. Dave and Teresa's family stopped by for a day on their way to Idaho and Reece got to see his other favorite person, Eva. In fact, while posting this blog Reece kept asking for "More Eva."

Reece also learned very quickly that he loves his Grandpa Mel. He took to calling him just "Mel," and never hesitated to cuddle up with "Mel" to get some cookies and some cartoons.

We got to spend some time painting Grandma and Grandpa Allred's new apartment in Wales and show off Reece's love of horsey rides to Great-Grandpa Allred. One of Reece's favorite games to play with dad is "pick the color of horse" and daddy Paul does a great job of making sure the black horse bounces the highest and eventually bucks you off (just like Grandpa's horses).

Now on to our Christmas Eve extravaganza. Paul and I made a game we called "Carranium," which is basically a rip off of the Cranium game, but involving activities catered to the Carr family Christmas traditions and history. Here's dad acting out a Christmas memory. It didn't take long for everyone to guess:

Our teams also took turns acting out the Nativity. Teams got points depending on how many elements of the Nativity they included in their 60 second presentation. Strangely enough, both teams included a caganer. They got points, but they were reluctant points.

Here's one of the "penalties" each team got if they landed on a yellow square. They don't seem to be suffering too much.

Our gingerbread house competition was spirited, though Grandma Terri's team kind of ran away with it.

Another of the competitions, each team wrote an original Christmas song, getting points for creativity, rhyming, and number of team participants. The teams tied on this one.

I think we'll probably try this game again. We had a blast. Other highlights included: watching Jim push Bryce down the hill (and ripping his pants in the process), Matthew and Jason both putting their own faces in the snow, Dena getting sent to stand under the "Mistletoe of Shame" (Reece kissed her out), and dad's penalty of running three times around Jim (the "ginger"bread penalty). Thanks to everybody for being such good sports and putting up with our crazy games.

Moving on, Reece has trouble differentiating between "pee" and "poo." Possibly too much information, but makes for some funny situations.

Rounding out the vacation, we got to spend a night with Great-Grandma Carr:

And I promise we spent some time in Colorado with Adam and Kerrie's family, but we hardly took any pictures. Here's a bit of proof:

Reece keeps asking for his "cousin's house," or for his "uncles." We had so much fun and loved seeing so many people we love. That's the best part of Christmas (that, and the presents), and I'm so grateful that I have such amazing family. We really are incredibly blessed. I would wax more prolific, but this is taking forever and Reece is threatening to eat an entire box of chocolates. Merry Christmas for the last time, and Happy New Year to everyone!

Pre-Christmas Christmas

2010-12-16T13:28:00.000-08:00

We had a little pseudo-Christmas celebration this last Sunday. We are flying out to Utah/Colorado for the holidays and we didn't want to pack any big presents. So we had Reece open his "huge" presents a couple of weeks early. It was really fun, but Paul and I both now feel like Christmas is already over. For Reece it will be a wonderful surprise to get more presents next week at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and now that he knows Santa = presents, he gets a lot more excited when he sees Santa paraphernalia. These videos will be all sorts of fun for me to watch for years and years, but probably kind of boring for everyone else. Just so you know, it looks like a ton of presents, but we wrapped every possible thing to put under that tree. He really only got three presents (which is fine with me). Also we keep a tiny Christmas tree so the presents look more abundant by comparison. It's genius, I know.

This last one is just for fun. This is Paul Skyping his mom late one night. He tried to make her think she was seeing things. She was a good sport.

Now it's time for our real Christmas celebration. Reece and I head to Utah tomorrow for some quality family time and Paul joins us next week. We can't wait! Merry Christmas to everybody and please know that we love you. Unless you're one of those people who keeps trying to post SPAM in my comments section. I don't love you.

World's greatest cuddler

2010-12-15T21:59:00.000-08:00

Reece is the best cuddler in the world. I just love it. He also tries to get out of bed at least three times before he actually goes to sleep. The reason he still tries it is because I give in so often. What can I say, I love to cuddle with him. Lately when we're away from home he'll ask for his bear or his blankey and then say "home...cuddle." Then as soon as we get home he grabs his bear, his blanket and his mama and we cuddle away. I just love love love that little boy.

I post this now because I'm trying to be strong and not go in to get him while he's calling for me (it's 10 PM and he's two hours past his bedtime...dad was babysitting, bless his heart). He keeps saying "Mama, cuddle!" How can a mom resist that? My answer: blogging about it. It worked, apparently, because he's now asleep. It was harder tonight too because he has a killer heat rash on his leg and he kept telling me about his "sore." Maybe if I go cuddle with him it'll go away...

Pregnancy: week 14

2010-12-03T13:09:00.001-08:00

I have to edit this post a bit from what I previously said because Paul got mad at me. If you don't check our blog every hour, I was ranting about how pregnancy makes you feel fat. He said I'm not fat and I shouldn't complain because I'm healthy. I appreciate his support. So I am amending that rant to say that I am grateful to be healthy. It's so nice to go to the doctor and to feel like I'm doing everything I can do keep myself and my baby healthy. I am coming to accept that my body just needs to gain more weight than average during pregnancy, and that's going to have to be okay. I worked hard to get it off before, and I can do it again. So here I am at 14 weeks pregnant. I am SOOOOO glad to not be sick anymore.

So I know this is ridiculous, but I had a really smokin' hot picture that I took the same day, but I accidentally erased it. So you get this one instead. Not quite as smokin' hot, but probably closer to how I actually look.

Now the good stuff: I have started to feel the little flutterings of a baby in my belly. Nothing huge yet, but this is about the same time when I started to feel Reece kicking around in there. It's very exciting, and pretty much the only good part of pregnancy (besides getting the baby at the end, of course). I've talked to several women who loved pregnancy (my sister included) and I think they're all crazy. There are good things, but they're outweighed in my mind by all the crappy things. Remember: we're not taking the whole "getting a baby" thing into account. That's so awesome that it is obviously worth going through the 9-month gauntlet of pregnancy. Otherwise there's no way I would have done it again.

So with all that said, I am very grateful that I am healthy, that the baby seems to be healthy, and that Reece is healthy. Pregnancy is a miracle, even though it sucks sometimes.

Notice I didn't say that Paul is healthy. He actually broke his wrist this week. He had a pretty bad crash on his bike when his back tire hit the train tracks wrong. It was dark outside and he was wearing all black, so we're grateful he didn't get run over or hurt even worse. We're still waiting to hear if he needs a full cast, but he's in constant pain and has a hard time doing most simple tasks. I still wonder if he crashed on purpose just to get out of doing dishes and changing diapers. Hmm...probably not.

Notice Reece's pants go up to his chest. He's just so short and he insists that his pants don't touch his toes. I think it's adorable.

So that's our week. A little about Reece and I'll be done: he is amazing. He is so funny and a real jokester. When Kyle was in town he started spitting in people's faces. But he'd be sly about it. He'd go in for a kiss, then at the last minute he'd spit right in your face. Now when he does it he'll say "no no no" and then "Kyle" because he really only wants to spit in Kyle's face. It's sweet.

Another trick he plays is fake sleeping. He'll say "night night," then pretend to snore. Then, when he thinks he's lulled you into a false sense of security, he'll roar like a bear. This started when Paul would fake being asleep and Reece would growl to wake him up.

He is best friends with his teddy bear. He'll ask it questions like "Belly? 'Kay." Then he'll tickle the bear's belly (only after getting permission, of course). Or he'll put the bear in a basket and push him around the house (like Paul does to Reece). He always makes sure the bear gets enough to eat and drink at mealtimes, and he definitely gives the bear plenty of hugs and kisses.

One of my favorite things is a Reece cuddle. He LOVES to cuddle, and he's super good at it. He gets his blanket, his bear and his parent and just cuddles right in. He really is the sweetest boy. He's very obedient (most of the time...for now), he's very compassionate, and very funny. We couldn't love him more.

So you now wonder, with how awesome Reece is, how could I possibly complain about pregnancy? It's a funny thing being a parent and feeling your love grow for your kids. You definitely love your child more if you sacrifice for them, so by the time they're born you can't help but feel so much love because you've spent so many nauseous hours letting that love grow. Or something like that. I guess if the next kid isn't as cool as Reece, I may change my sentiments (kidding, kidding).

Thanks: Given

2010-11-30T08:32:00.001-08:00

We flew to Phoenix for Thanksgiving to spend time with Dave and Teresa's family. Tyler and Bryce also drove down, so it was a regular Carr extravaganza. We had a blast, though we wish we could have stayed longer. It was so refreshing for me to be around people I know and love and to have somebody to talk to. Also the sunshine was nice. I seriously feel rejuvenated since that trip. Thanks for having us, Dave and Teresa!

Waiting at the airport at midnight. Reece was doing great. Me, not so great.

Eva loved reading to Reece. Porter loved jumping on Paul. Reece basically followed these kids around everywhere and he loved playing with them so much he pretty much woke up an hour earlier than normal every single day.

Paul and I wrote a murder mystery for Wednesday night. The title was "Cereal Killer," with all cereal mascots as the characters. It was kind of a bust since we wrote it in about 5 hours, but it was still fun to get dressed up a little and try to manipulate each other.

Dave and Teresa's friends Eric and Jeri. They had the best costumes and were very good sports.

Dave as Cap'n Crunch and Teresa as Mrs. Butterworth. Dave caused a lot of scandal in this game, which I'm pretty sure he loved doing.

One of Reece and Ivy's many tea parties. Dave got them started with Mountain Dew, and even looking at the pictures Reece started freaking out and demanding more "sugar."

Climbing on Thanksgiving day.

Our only picture of the entire Thanksgiving gang.

Reece loves him some Eva.

Thanksgiving lunch, due to a delayed turkey. Not a bad tradition, I'd say.

Reece disappeared several times to go dig in the backyard. It was SO nice having good weather so we could go outside.

The cutest attendees at the party.

Back in Portland, "painting" cookies.

Oh yeah, that's some good Christmas prep.

Halloween, Birthday and Magic Tricks...oh my!

2010-11-08T14:39:00.000-08:00

Let's start this post out right. Reece was Elmo for Halloween, but I neglected to take any pictures that day, so this was taken this morning. Talk about an excited kid...

Last week we celebrated Paul's 29th birthday. That's the age everybody says they are when they want to pretend to be young, so I figure he's at a good stage in life. He says he's well past middle-age for a Weitzel male, but let's hope he stays around a lot longer than that. We did a semi-themed birthday for our Super Dad. He really is an amazing husband and father, not to mention my best friend. I'm so grateful to have him around.

This was supposed to be a Superman cake, but I ran out of red M&Ms. Close enough, right? Apparently it was good enough for Reece.

Happy birthday, dad!

If you seen us on Skype in the last two weeks then you've seen these two new Reece-tricks. But they're pretty cute, so it's high time I preserved them for the ages. To start us off, the best magic trick you've ever seen...from a 19-month old baby:

And next we have the world's best knock-knock joke...by a baby:

2010-10-24T15:02:00.000-07:00

So I've been completely slacking in the blogging area of my life. My reasons are fair, I suppose: I'm lazy. Also we haven't done very much that's been super exciting. We did, however, go to the coast a couple weeks ago (we picked the rainiest day), along with the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

So Paul had to prove his manliness and go in the freezing water. You can't tell, but the rain was coming down sideways, and quite a bit of it, too. I think I got more wet than Paul while waiting on the shore.

He is quite the man.
We loved the cheese factory (who wouldn't?). We had plenty of cheese samples and piles of ice cream. Dad, if you ever come visit us, we'll buy you the 30-scoop bowl. We also just might buy it in your honor because it looks awesome.

Paul had Veteran's Day off (hooray for being a government employee!) so we hit the pumpkin patch. They had both a train AND a boat ride, plus we took this wheelbarrow ride for free.
We didn't get a picture of the mechanical shark, but there was also this pretty cool dragon. What pumpkin patch has metal sharks and dragons? We loved it.
Here's Reece's face if you ask him to smile for the camera. Apparently smiling is pinching your cheeks. Good thing his cheeks are still nice and pinch-able.

And finally, Paul was nice enough to let me take a nap yesterday afternoon. When I woke up, the men in the house had turned back to their caveman instincts (shirts off and everything). Paul made finger paints out of pudding and they painted some pretty impressive stuff (Paul painted the Mona Lisa and Starry Night; Reece painted the floor and his face).
Who knew art could taste so good?

Portland, Portland, it's a wonderful town!

2010-09-30T14:17:00.000-07:00

We can't believe it, but our little guy is now 18 months old. He is more fun than ever as he explores, discovers, and all in all causes a ruckus day after day. We have loved being in Portland so far (we've even had good weather!) and we look forward to many more fun adventures. Reece and I have zoo passes, children's museum passes, and a gym membership to keep us busy. And Paul has work to keep him busy. I'll let you decide who makes you more jealous.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, a bunch of videos of Reece as we explore Portland:

I finally got a video of Reece's adorable scrunchy face. He gives us this smile all the time, but then when you ask him to smile, he pinches his cheeks (not quite as cute). I sure do love this kid.

We spent a few hours at the Pirate Festival. Look closely and you just might see a dancing dragon, a running shark, and any number of swashbucklers (besides us). It was worth trudging through the rain to see this:

And then, of course, leave it to the pirate festival to answer the greatest of life's questions: Who wins the fight between a shark and a ninja?

Our first time at the Oregon Zoo. It's actually a pretty good zoo, with plenty of playgrounds and fountains for a toddler with a short attention span.

Here Reece shows off his amazing vowel vocabulary (he knows one letter, and he thinks it's his name):

Vive la France!!!

2010-09-15T13:39:00.000-07:00

My goodness, have things changed. First of all, we now live in a different state. For anybody who knows our history, it's not surprising that our Labor Day weekend consisted of driving 12+ hours and moving to a new town. In our 4 1/2 year marriage we have lived in 8 different apartments in 4 different states. This was our biggest move to date, so needless to say we are tired of packing, unpacking, driving, and moving in general. (Is this a good time to mention that we're moving to San Diego next September?). But we have had some amazing experiences, met some incredible people, and we are so blessed to have consistent work, so we couldn't be happier.

It's also no surprise that we took advantage of our change of employment to go on another crazy vacation. Reece was actually super awesome most of the time,and we always had a cute photo subject. And thanks to a heavy baby/stroller combination, we didn't gain any weight, despite the combined efforts of delicious french bread, crepes with Nutella, glaces, and that delectable Swiss chocolate.

The best part of our entire trip, and in fact the whole reason we planned this vacation, was spending time with Ryan, Liz and Owen. It was SO SO SO SO wonderful being able to hang out with them and see their town and let Reece and Owen play together. Owen is such a good cousin and Reece learned a lot from him. He's now much better at eating hot dogs, really enjoys juice from a box and applesauce from a squeezable tube, and his language has really taken off since his Owen experience. Not his French, unfortunately. Actually, he's probably been speaking French all along and I just didn't realize it. The French people LOVED him, and Reece being fluent in French would definitely explain a lot. Anyway, it was also nice to talk to Liz, since I haven't had much of a chance since high school, really. Plus Paul and Ryan were constantly engaged in some boring conversation or another, so not only did Paul let off some conversational steam, but I had a fun person to talk to in the meantime.

We spent a few days in Paris, all of which we loved. As Paul said, "We kicked the trash out of Paris." We really did. We saw everything in all of our guide books, and then some. Then we spent two days in the Chateau de Cherveux, which I thought was in the Loire valley when I booked it, but apparently I was very wrong. Luckily Ryan and Liz were very nice about it, but we had a two hour + drive to get to and from the Loire valley castles. It ate up a good part of our day, but it gave us some quality time in the car. We drove through the Dordogne region on the way back to Toulouse and it was gorgeous. Then we forgot our camera as Ryan gave us a tour through Toulouse, and again when playing petanque in the park (two of my favorite things we did...mostly because I'm so amazingly awesome at petanque). We did get good pictures of our time on the beach and our great hike in the Pyrenees. Ryan and Liz were nice enough to drive across the border so I could say that I've been to Spain. We ate tapas at a bar there and they tasted terrible. But other than that Spain was nice. We uploaded all our photos to our Picasa page, so if the next twenty or so pics aren't enough, see the link on the right. Enjoy!

For any of you on the fence about visiting Ryan and Liz, I would definitely recommend it. We loved our time there and you can't ask for a more beautiful country or more fun hosts.

Posing on the Seine with Notre Dame in the background.

Our nightly hang-out. We were here until after 11 PM most nights, as we hadn't yet adjusted to the time change. Lots of people and beautiful views plus perfect weather. Even Reece kept saying "cool."

From the top of the Arc du Triomph. My, what handsome boys I have!

We hiked to the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower and yes, I was wearing flip-flops. It was totally worth the hike, as it was WAY cheaper than the elevators and WAY faster too.

Napoleon's tomb. It's huge. Like....huge. It's two levels down from where Paul is standing.

This was at Versailles. We were tired and tried to take a shortcut and it led us to this pit of death. I can't be sure but I think the bottom was full of poisonous snakes and sharks. And yes, those are sharp spikes on the opposite side. Renaissance death traps.

Gates of Versailles. Super elaborate and over the top. So naturally it was awesome to visit.

Getting in some family time.

The Chateau de Cherveux where we stayed for two nights for SUPER cheap. I'm talking like 45 euro a night. Staying in a castle was a dream come true for our family and we're excited to tell Reece about how cool we used to be.

This was at chateau Chenonceau. I was tempted to do the same thing.

Chateau Chambord was huge and looked fake, but it was my favorite castle of the day.

Reece survived on these chocolate cookies on this trip. At least we know where he got those chubby cheeks.

Looking over the Dordogne region. So beautiful. We were there for only a few hours but we fell in love. Some day we'll take a hot air balloon ride over this valley. In our dreams.

The boys spent a good portion of the beach day building these castles, which had connecting underground tunnels and a reflecting pool. The little boys then destroyed them while the big boys were snorkeling.

This picture makes me smile every time I see it. We miss you, Owen!

Our hike in the Pyrenees to Lac d'Oo. The water was so incredibly clear. The little boys threw rocks in the water and looked at the polywogs while Ryan ran around to the waterfall on the other side.
So beautiful. I mean the waterfall.

This was the last of a series of pictures in which Owen's head pops up from behind as a nice surprise.

We strategically placed ourselves right in front of the waterfall. Genius.

Then after a couple of nice, low-key days in Toulouse where I had so much fun I completely forgot to take pictures, and then 9 hours of train rides, we made it to the Matterhorn near Zermatt, Switzerland. After last year's vacation, Paul's been dreaming of visiting the Matterhorn. And honestly, he's been dreaming of it since he was 48 inches tall and started braving the abominable snowman and bobsleds at Disneyland. So the long train rides were totally worth it. The mountain was absolutely gorgeous and the four hours we spent at Zermatt made for the perfect vacation day. We took the gondola to the top, played in the snow, ate lots of chocolate, threw rocks off the mountain, and all in all reveled in this Swiss bliss.

Zermatt from the gondola.

A unique experience only parents can enjoy.

Behind us is where the Jet d'Eau is supposed to be. We saw it the first night in Geneva, but winds were too strong this day. Made for a nice walk out on the water, though.

The best of Geneva. This is what Reece does when you say "Put up your dukes!"

In the end the best part of all of this was having time to spend together as a family. It's totally worth the time and trudging and tuppence to do it.

Yosemite!

2010-07-13T15:36:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a mini-family reunion in Yosemite. We camped with Paul's aunt, cousins and brother and families. They're such a fun group of people and we had a blast. We uploaded our pictures onto our Picasa page. It was gorgeous and awesome and we loved it.

Our tent was very snug and our baby got much less sleep than he needed, but we had a great time and can't wait to go camping again. Reece LOVED it, especially chasing squirrels and cousins, and yelling at birds and adults.

Paul got a killer black eye while rafting.

It actually looked worse after a couple of days, but it's getting better now. The funny part was that he had an interview two days later. It turns out the black eye may have helped in the interview, though, because Paul got the job offer and we'll be moving to San Diego for a year in 2011-2012. We're grateful for the clerkship, but maybe not so excited about moving yet again.

Back to Yosemite:This was the only real hike we did, but it was definitely worthwhile. Reece slept for a good portion of the hike, and only woke up when we got to the waterfall mist. My quads were killing me the next day from climbing up the rocks with the baby pack on. Totally worth it, though.

So now that we're moving to Portland in 6 weeks, who wishes they had come to visit us? Don't worry, even though we won't be living here for a while, we are more than willing to come back to Yosemite and join anybody who wants to camp in the most beautiful national park in America.

Hop Up, Jump In!

2010-07-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

Reece is a very physical baby. He loves learning new tricks and often gets frustrated because he can't quite master a task. He learns fast, though. His latest trick is jumping. Paul spent a good amount of time teaching Reece how to bend his knees, and often re-emphasizes that Reece needs to push off his toes. It's pretty cute to watch them interact. Reece loves his dad. He yells "daaaaa!" every time he sees Paul after a long absence. He'll tackle Paul if he catches him on the floor. And Reece loves giving daddy big kisses. This first video shows off my boys' latest war wounds. Paul got a fat black eye from our Yosemite camping trip and Reece got his face nice and scraped up. It also proves that Reece is not pleasant all the time. Just so you know, Paul got Reece addicted to jelly bellies (another special part of their relationship) and Reece is crying because I won't let him have any more.

Here's a sample of Reece's hopping techniques:

Happy Hollow petting zoo

2010-06-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

Saturday we managed to sneak in some family time in between Paul's Blackberry's incessant ringing. We made our way to Happy Hollow petting zoo in San Jose. They were having an all-you-can-eat ice cream party, all rides and animal petting included. Turns out they shut down the ice cream booths early, so we didn't quite get all we could eat. But it was still pretty fun. Reece touched a lot of goats, donkeys, horses, sheep and cows. He also spent quality time with exotic parrots and guinea pigs. A good time was had by all.

So the goats kind of stampeded while we were in the pen. Reece held his own pretty well and didn't lose any fingers.

Reece has this adorable fake-ish laugh. When he's excited or surprised he curls his arms in to his chest and giggles, then my heart melts.

Other pictures that would have been great: Reece took his first carousel ride...and hated it. He rode the alligator but really wanted the monkey but didn't decide until it was too late. Then he saw his dad standing by the ride and tried to jump off to get to him. The funniest part was that as soon as we got off the ride, Reece pointed at the ride and growled, as if telling his dad, "Yeah, I conquered that ride." So he talks big, but he was just a big baby on the actual ride.

Baby Kisses

2010-06-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

Baby kisses are the sweetest things in the world. And I have to say that Reece is a very good baby kisser. I mean that in both senses that yes, he is a baby and gives good kisses, but also that he loves to kiss babies...especially himself.

This first video is to show what a great baby kisser he is (because he's a baby and kisses well):

Anyway, as soon as he saw himself on camera he couldn't resist kissing his own adorable face. And who can blame him?

Then it just kept going. Because it was too cute to stop.

I would also like to mention that every time we watched these videos he tried to kiss himself again and again. He also waves to himself in the videos. He's very obedient and attentive.

MARATHON!

2010-06-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

I did it! This is the stuff dreams are made of. Nightmare-ish type dreams, yes, but dreams nonetheless. But nightmare or not, I am officially a marathon finisher. It sounded kind of anticlimactic to me before the race to be a marathon "finisher." But now I feel like I've really earned that title. Here are a few notes about the race, because I'm too tired to put the whole long, boring story on here (you're welcome):

The race started in Aptos, CA (10 miles east of Santa Cruz) in the forest of Nisene Marks

Elevation gain: 2500' in first 12 miles
Then you run back down...that part was great
You run on the Aptos Creek fire road, which is pretty well packed down and honestly not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting brutal hills like in the Muir Woods 25k, but this was milder than I thought.
It was also longer than I thought. The last 5 miles were pretty tough, but I ended up running neck-in-neck with another girl and we pushed each other for a few of the toughest miles I've ever run.
I talked to a guy on the way up the mountain who has run 27 marathons. This was his 6th time running this particular marathon. People are insane. He told me I was also insane for picking this particular race for my first marathon. I agreed with him.
I never had any crazy goals for this race like "I'm not going to stop the whole time," but it turns out I didn't stop the whole time. I did pause at one aid station, but only because they tricked me. I thought I was at the turn-around, but I still had 1/4 mile to go.
My best hope for a finishing time was 5 hours. That was a guess based on my other long runs and on the crazy elevation gain in this run. I am pleased to say that I finished in 4:43:??. The only thing that bugs me is that the guy who finished right in front of me kept stopping and walking up the hills. I passed him probably four times and he still ended up beating me. He even stopped to take a phone call in the last two miles. I was too tired by that point to pass him out of spite. I never thought my spite would fail me, but there you go.
Reece was the only baby at the race. Paul was awesome and pushed the stroller 2 miles up the road to meet me and run the last two miles with me. He got some applause of his own while approaching the finish line (I sent him ahead of me because Reece kept wanting me to hold him), and it is fair to say that while I ran a marathon, Paul finished the marathon.
While looting the food table afterward an older man (who was amazing) asked me, "You're the mom, right?" Then said, "Great job." Sweet! I got bonus points just for having a baby at the race. What that guy doesn't know is that a) Reece is almost 15 months old, and b) I have never EVER pushed Reece in the jogging stroller while running. Way too much work and my hat's off to women who do it.
In the end, it was an amazing experience to train for, and run, this marathon (and I can now say that honestly because it's DONE!). I learned so much about how strong I can be and how to push myself beyond my limits, again and again. So if you're thinking, "Maybe I should run a marathon?" You're crazy. If you're thinking, "I should do a 10k, or go hiking in the mountains, or learn how to unicycle," then maybe you're less crazy and you should do it. I don't think I will unicycle any time soon. I have no hand/eye/butt coordination. This is turning out to be much less inspiring than I hoped. So maybe I'm not a very inspirational person, but you know who is? That guy who ran 27 marathons. Think about him and then go do something cool.

Kinda sad that even at the beginning of the race I don't look like I'm running (see above picture). It's the new trend in marathon running: don't actually run.

The buffet afterward (the only real reason we run, right?). The girl behind me helped push me through miles 21-23. Then she took off and beat me by several minutes. Dang.

My feet look nasty. They were so dirty and I didn't trip, nor did I run through any puddles. Just running on dirt.

First video is me running at mile 24. Like I said, the new trend is not actually running. I am sooooo slow.

Crossing the finish line. Yahoo!

Running necessity.

Barney addict

2010-06-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

I never thought I would be the mom of a Barney addict. After confessing this to some siblings my brother Bryce reminded me that I am still in control of what he watches on TV. So I thought I could contain it. Suppress it at least. But there are some forces more powerful than a mother's intentions. You really can't stop the Barney train.

I love in this video how you can feel Reece's intensity. His little hands shake with excitement. Usually he dances along with the music and has a slightly more maniacal laugh. You can tell every time Barney comes on the screen, as the squealing increases. Hilarious.

And this one would have been a great sampling of his latest tricks, but he got too distracted watching himself on camera.

King Reece

2010-05-27T15:29:00.000-07:00

Reece loves wearing his blankets like capes. He hasn't quite caught the superhero idea yet, but he likes it when we call him King Reece. He even found his own brand of scepter. Also, he has a huge scab on his forehead from diving off the curb at church this Sunday (every good king needs war wounds). And of course, Reece has plenty of loyal, albeit inanimate, subjects. That monkey worships him.

Presenting...Hayley and Jess Housekeeper!

2010-05-23T09:24:00.000-07:00

Hayley's wedding pictures are up. Follow the link and enjoy! You should be able to copy the pictures to your computer just by right-clicking on them. Let me know if you need some pics sent to you.

We had such an amazing time seeing everyone for the wedding. Too bad for Hayley she had to leave and go to Cancun. I'm sure she missed us. We definitely loved having (almost) everyone there. We missed you, Liz and Owen!

So congratulations to the newlyweds, and welcome to the family Uncle Jesse!

Upload Overload

2010-04-27T09:41:00.000-07:00

You know those parents who think their kid is so cute that everybody should care about every tiny little thing? Well, if you haven't pinned us as those parents, now's the time. I finally found the cable to upload photos, so prepare for an overload of uploads. Don't feel pressure to watch them all. I'll never know if you do or not. And Reece won't love you any less. But, as he is the cutest kid in the world, you may just increase your happiness level exponentially with each video. It's worth a shot, right?

For our first course, a light sampling of Reece and crackers:

For your entertainment, some classical music:

Feel free to dance along:

Reece loves playing games with dad:

And finally, our little dentist in the making:

Also, Paul requested me to post some "awesome pictures." So I did a quick search for "awesome pictures" and this is what I found:

Pretty inspirational, if you ask me. This last one may become my motto (I mean, "If God Loves Me, Why Can't I Get My Locker Open?").

The Cat Came Back the Very Next Day

2010-04-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had an experience that took me back to my childhood. Any stray animal that came around our house (and often our own animals) would get threatened by my dad to be "taken for a drive." That meant he would take them to some undisclosed location (the dump) and drop them off. I don't think he ever actually did it, and I've caught him several times snuggling with our cats, but we heard the threats quite often. Apparently my dad wasn't the only one to threaten such actions. Paul's dad was known to make similar threats to cats, dogs, and sons who caused him grief. I think our dads would have been great friends.

Anyway, Paul drove 35 minutes on the freeway just to drop me off on a lonely road on top of a mountain. I'm pretty sure he was hoping I wouldn't find my way home. There was no shoulder on the road and the cars zoomed past with no regard for the slow, blindingly-white-legged runner on the side. I kept a small tally while I was making my way home to distract myself from the persistent thoughts that nag of "why am I doing this?" and "why did I think this was a good idea?"

So here goes:

Miles: 17

Elevation change: 2000'

Hours running: 3 (new record! Thank you, 5 miles of steep downhill)

Highways: 3

Dead snakes: 2

Dead snakes I didn't see until I almost stepped on them and thought they were alive: 2

Black crows: at least two dozen

Bikers: at least 70

Other runners: 1

Other runners going much, much faster than me: 1

Lizards: dozens

Lizards I almost stepped on: 1

Ocean views: 4 miles

Bay views: 10 miles

Nature preserves: 4

Number of times I sang Kelly Clarkson songs to myself: at least 100 (not traditionally a KC fan, so this one surprises even me)

Number of times I got lost: 0!!!!! This is a first for me, seriously.

That's about it. Not interesting. Welcome to my Saturdays.

View of San Mateo county. Taken by Paul on his way home from dropping me off. You could see both ocean and bay from this road. Then you run through a bunch of redwoods. Gorgeous.

I think you can see the ocean somewhere in this shot.

But now for the real reason you're all here:

Reece's new favorite game is chess. That is to say, his favorite game is "eat dad's chess pieces." He's pretty good at it. He's actually figured out that the pieces are supposed to move on squares on the board and so he'll move them back and forth. It's pretty cute.

He also loves putting sticky things on his forehead: nerf bullets, stickers, food, etc.

Hello, ladies.

Muir Woods 25K

2010-04-12T13:37:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I'm on my long runs I think about what I'm going to post on my blog for the next week. Running three hours alone every Saturday is so taxing and boring that it's often the only thing that gets me through. "How can I brag about what I'm doing right now?" Well by the time I finish my run I'm usually too tired to blog/brag (brog?) about it, and this week is no exception. But I really did do something super awesome on Saturday so now that I can kind of move my body again (stress the "kind of" part), I need to do a little bragging. I ran the Muir Woods 25K. It is a trail run through Muir Woods, which is a gorgeous redwood forest about an hour north of us. The race started on Stinson Beach and ran over the mountain down into Muir Woods, then back over the mountain to the beach. So I started at sea level, climbed a freaking high mountain (1800 foot incline), down again to almost sea level, up again over the mountain and back to the shore. It was hard.

We got to the race about ten minutes before start time, having spent the night before in Mill Valley. The car ride got me a little sick but that wore off as soon as I started running. The air was crisp and got even crisper as we trudged our way up the mountain to the misty peaks (yes, it was raining at the top). The incline of 1800 feet was all in the first 3 miles, so the trail was so steep that at one point we literally had to climb a 10-foot ladder. It was next to a gorgeous waterfall, and how often do you get to say that you climbed a ladder during a race? So at that point I was just thinking how cool it was to be doing this run.

It wasn't until about mile four that I lost it. Quite literally, actually, I lost the trail. I ran off on my own for about five minutes (down a very steep hill) before realizing that there were no other runners nearby. So I backtracked and got back on the trail just in time for four miles of downhill. That was fun, but in an effort to make up lost time (and because it's fun to run down hiking trails) I twisted my ankle. Nothing serious, so I slowed down a bit and kept jogging. Then I lost it again...literally. At mile 7 I started talking to a guy and we both missed our turn-off. We jogged for about five minutes before turning around and getting back on the path. That's right folks, I added a good 20 minutes to my total running time because I am an idiot. I was distracted by either looking down so I didn't trip or talking to a stranger I'd never see again.

I found the trail just in time to start my second incline for another four miles. This was definitely the hardest part of the race. I was feeling pretty discouraged because the people I had started running with in the beginning were so far ahead of me. And all the time I made up on the downhill was wasted because I got lost the second time. So I kept telling myself that I wasn't doing this to win the race, just to get good marathon training. So I jogged as much as I could uphill (I walked quite a bit of the uphill stuff, along with everybody else) and felt some satisfaction in passing the same runners for the second time.

The last four miles were awesome. It felt great to be running downhill again, and even with all the switchbacks and tree stumps and branches strategically placed at head-level (the forest is tricky...Paul said I was one of the only ones to come out without mud and blood all over me, though I did smack my head into a tree branch), I had a real runner's high all the way through to the finish line (of course I may have just been delirious from hitting my head).

It was definitely the hardest run I've ever done. Not the hardest physical thing I've ever done, but a close second (thank you, pregnancy, for making me realize that I can do anything). I have to say it has been an amazing experience to continually push myself to do things I never thought I could/would/should do. It does not sound appealing to run 15.5 miles. If you think that sounds fun, you are crazy. But the sense of accomplishment that comes with it is phenomenal. I often think to myself, "Sure, I could do that if I wanted to," but then I never really do it. So actually proving to myself that I can do it was much harder than I ever thought it would be, but because it was hard it was so much more rewarding. Does that make sense?

What is my reward? Well, I get to brag on my blog. Oh, and I've been excruciatingly sore for the past two days. That's a reward, right? I have lost two pounds after three months of crazy-intense training. Hmm...there's got to be something better than that. I guess seeing this face at the finish line is a pretty good reward:

What's next? Mark your calendars for June 5. We are t-minus two months to marathon time!

Popsicles!

2010-03-25T16:02:00.001-07:00

Popsicles are the best part of spring/summer by a huge margin. I plan to eat at least 47 million of them this season. I'm all about making worthy goals. The next best thing about summer is camping/hiking, followed closely by blossoms on trees and tennis. But since we have all of those things year-round in beautiful northern California, the popsicles are the novelty these days. Two common occurrences in our house as of late: me trying to steal Reece's popsicles, and lots of crazy baby-walking. Reece does the baby-walking, not me. He's just so much better at it than I am.

Count the steps in this next one. I counted 14. Yesterday at the park he pulled a 20-stepper, but this is a good example of his latest abilities.

He's a Big Boy and a Baby

2010-03-17T21:01:00.001-07:00

My baby turned one. It's crazy! I am so happy to be his mama. He is so loving and fun and tender and such a jokester. John, Cory and their girls came up to spend a few days with us and celebrate the big guy's big day. Amy put it perfectly when she said, of Reece: "He's a big boy and a baby." Too true and a little sad for his mama to see him growing up so fast. Here's his birthday song video. Don't hate us for our perfectly in-tune, amazing vocals.

Let him eat more cake:

Some photos of the same event:

Natalie and Amy helped him clean off his face:

Happy birthday, baby Reece!

It's my birthday too, yeah!

2010-03-08T10:25:00.000-08:00

Let's start this off right:

Okay, now the boring stuff. Happy birthday to me.

I'm happy to be 28. This last year has been amazing and I'm so grateful to have lived it. I am so blessed to have been Reece's mom almost the entire time I was 27. I would say this has been my best year yet. I can only hope that 28 is comparable. If so, I don't mind at all getting older. In fact, I can't wait to see what adventures lie ahead for us.

I started my 27-28 year 40 pounds heavier than I ended it. Thanks to having a baby 9 days later and then putting in some crazy hours these last two months, I am finally down to pre-pregnancy weight. That, for me, is a very happy birthday present to myself. Granted, I am not pre-pregnancy size, but you can't have everything.

I celebrated my birthday on Saturday with a great little hike in the morning with my boys (poor Reece was so sick):
This was followed immediately by a kickin' run (13.4 miles...take that, head cold!), then dinner with my amazing husband that night. We had friends over for games on Sunday and took naps to get over our various sicknesses.

Reece had a fever and so he got whatever he wanted. I ended the night with the traditional birthday dance...with myself. Pretty much just spinning in circles and flailing my arms wildly.

Yes, this qualifies as dancing. For me, anyway. Hope you all had a great my-birthday, too.

The Boy Who Could Fly

2010-03-04T09:38:00.000-08:00

To clear this up right off the bat: Reece can't fly. But do you remember that movie? I don't. It came out in 1986 and I was four. But I will imagine what that movie would be like.

Reece can't fly, but he can almost walk. He's taken 5-6 consecutive steps in a row for the past several days, so we are increasingly worried. My attempts to capture it on film have been much harder than anticipated. Please enjoy our attempts:

At first I tried his favorite monkey as motivation. He proved too smart for me.

He's very goal-oriented.

But then he started to get frustrated.

And in the end all it took was the proper motivation.

General Cuteness (he's been promoted from Colonel)

2010-03-02T22:40:00.000-08:00

I took these this last week. He just melts my heart.

Baby Stilts

2010-02-22T09:31:00.000-08:00

Some general cuteness from the Reece-man. One from a couple of weeks ago, just because I can watch him play for hours and I think everyone else should too. Kinda long, so no pressure to watch it. The second one's plenty short and also just cute.

Kind of as a side note, when I listen to myself talk to Reece I remind myself of Stewie from Family Guy (especially the last minute of the clip).

My Own Brand of Half Marathon

2010-02-08T10:54:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I didn't actually run a half marathon. But my pedometer said I did, so for now that's going to have to be good enough for me.

My plan for last Saturday's run was to do a little bit shorter distance than the previous week and substitute in some hills for cross-training.

The run started out very sluggish, despite my excitement. I was, honestly, excited to run. I try to pump myself up all week and continually visualize the run I'm going to do so by Saturday I can actually push myself out the door and do it. Well, I was excited to go, but as soon as I started running my feet felt like lead. That lasted for about two miles and then I finally started to get into my groove. And since I was feeling so very groovy, I missed my turn. And I continued to miss my turn for an entire mile. I didn't realize I had gone the wrong way until I got to the freeway. But I was still feeling pretty good, so after backtracking that entire mile I decided to continue on with my original plan.

I then got lost two more times. I eventually found my route and jogged up the Dish (pretty popular hiking spot on Stanford campus), which has an elevation gain of 500 feet. Not too bad, unless you condense that into a very short distance, and also have already been jogging for 6.5 miles. My original goals of jogging all the way up were not quite accomplished, but I got some good practice walking up steep hills. The most discouraging thing about this run was that my marathon includes an elevation gain of 2500 feet. All I could think was "There is no way I can do my marathon."

Once I got back onto Stanford campus my legs were screaming and my bladder was threatening to burst (gotta love the post-pregnancy perks) and I had to give up my pride and walk. It was actually pretty humbling because it seems such a simple thing to just keep jogging, and at that point I had only jogged probably 9 miles, but I couldn't jog any more. So I walked for about 1.5 miles, thinking to myself the whole time that this was the time to push myself because this was how I would get stronger. But my legs and my bladder were conspiring against me (too much information?).

I did manage to pull myself together and jog very slowly for the last mile (yay, little victory!), but all in all I felt pretty defeated. My pedometer gave me a nice little treat at the end, telling me I had gone 13.38 miles, but alas, it was incorrect. Due to steep hills and quite a bit of walking, the distance was off by almost two miles. That's kind of like running a half marathon, right? I think I might tinker with it a bit more and maybe next week I can do the full marathon in two hours and be done with all this training craziness.

This is how sick I look when I get home. Poor Paul.

And then, because there has to be something cute about this post:

No TV, no beer make Homer...something...something

2010-02-01T13:43:00.001-08:00

As of today the Paul and Wendy Weitzels are instituting a NO-TV FEBRUARY. Why? Because we came home from a date night a few weeks ago to find our babysitters (much to our surprise) reading books! My first thought was, "Who does that anymore? That's so 1945." Then I realized, "Wait, I LOVE reading books!" and I have been going through a serious process of repentance ever since. So for that reason, and also because we figure it'll make us more interesting people (and because we need more time to beat World 9 in Super Mario Wii), we are going TV-free for a month. Why February? Because it's the shortest.

As part of my addiction-kicking process, here's a list of shows that I will truly miss:

1) The Bachelor: Will Ali and Vienna ever accept one another as potential loves for Jake? Where will the RV road trip take them next? What do all the girls have against Vienna in the first place?

2) The Biggest Loser: I am addicted to this show. I love it. It inspires me. It's part of the reason I'm training for a marathon. I fast-forward past all the product endorsements 'cause I think they're lame, but I love seeing people accomplish things they never thought they could do and come out stronger (by the way, I ran 10 MILES! on Saturday...never thought I could do it...thank you, Biggest Loser). Who will leave the show in the time that I'm gone? Who will win the at-home weigh-in between Blue and Yellow?

3) NBC's Thursday night line-up of Community, Parks & Recreation, The Office and 30 Rock: Yes, I watch them all. Afterward Paul and I vote on which show was the funniest. The Office hasn't won yet this season. And last week's episode was horrific. But we watch it so as not to prove fair-weather fans, and because we're too lazy to get up from the butt grooves we've formed on our couches to change the channel.

4) Anything on the Food Network: No more Chopped. No more daytime cooking shows to get me through my workouts. No more Alton Brown to tell me why my food cooks the way it does. I may starve to death.

5) Morning cartoons with Reece: He loves Handy Manny and Dora the Explorer. He never watches a full episode (poor kid's got a short attention span), but he loves the songs and it's one of the only times I get to cuddle with him now that he's all big and cruising around the furniture and opening cupboards and what not.

So that's it. Will I survive? Only time will tell. Will this be the longest February in my 27 years of existence? Quite possibly. Will Jake pick Tenley and send home the cheesy swimsuit model Gia? Well, friends, ask me in March (wait a couple of days because I might spend the first week or so glued to my DVR).

Also, if you have any books you think I should definitely read in all my spare time, please let me know!

Reece's First Haircut

2010-01-24T20:02:00.000-08:00

It had to be done. It was getting out of hand. His hair had a personality of its own. Every day we had people asking us if we had styled it on purpose. To the countless masses: the mohawk was natural. It was also at least three inches long. We used the longest piece on the clippers and it is now only one inch long. Still a mohawk (that couldn't be helped) but at least a slightly more controlled mohawk.

Here's Reece pre-haircut:

And post-cut:

He even did the classic "I'm not happy with life" pre-cut face and the "Everything is perfect now" post-cut face. Kid should be in infomercials.

In real-time news, he just barely finished crying himself to sleep. He's had a hard time making it through the night since his month-long ear infection in December/January and now he's got three teeth coming in at once. Poor guy.

Can we do it? Yes we can!

2010-01-21T20:35:00.000-08:00

I've been putting off this blog for a couple of weeks now, but I think it's time to make the announcement. No, this isn't about Reece (what, a blog post that's not about Reece?), and no, I'm not pregnant (thank goodness). This is about attempting to accomplish one of my life goals. And I decided that I have to tell as many people as I can so that I cannot back out of it. I am going to run a MARATHON!

I never really thought I could run a marathon. I honestly still don't think I can do it. But in the last month that I've been training, I've already done things that I hadn't done before and I'm starting to think that a marathon might be possible. Last Saturday I ran 7 miles. That was farther than I've ever gone in my life, and I didn't die. Two weeks before that I ran 5 miles for the first time since Reece was born, and both times I did a little inner-celebratory dance and thought to myself, "Maybe I can do this."

Isn't that inspiring? This image was from an article about a runner who died just after crossing the finish line (not the guy in the picture). Sure makes you want to run, doesn't it?

I love this picture because the girl is puking mid-stride. I only hope I can gain that skill.

As I said, I am not a runner. I like to work out. But it's not because I like to push myself or try to improve or anything. I just like to feel like I've done something good for my body that day. Pushing myself to go further and faster has not really been my style. I more like to have a calories goal, and then any day that I get to the gym is a good day, regardless of what else does or does not happen. It's silly, I know, but I guess it's my hobby/obsession.

I've struggled with even calling this my hobby because I feel like I should be better at it if it's getting that distinct classification, but since I work out almost every day, the only way I can justify it is by deeming it a "hobby."

So why the marathon, then? If I'm not a real runner and I'm not competitive, why torture myself now? Well, staying at home with Reece has been wonderful, but I've really been searching for something beyond being mom. I've wanted something that would improve me and stretch my limits and see what I could do. Plus (and this is more honest than I should be) I still had to lose 6 pounds of baby weight.

That's all I've got for now on the subject. I want to run a marathon and I think I might be able to try to do it. I did find, after hours of frustrated searching, an acceptable marathon. It's on June 5 (a Saturday) in Aptos, CA. That's close to Santa Cruz and only an hour away from us. Believe me, it's not easy finding a marathon on a Saturday in California.

So I'm not going to try to break any records or win any medals (because you get a medal just for finishing...he he he...suckers). I just want to do it. For me. Because I can. Right?

Two Years Worth of Blogging

2010-01-09T22:48:00.000-08:00

Happy 2010! We had a great Christmas with Nancy, post-Christmas with David and Hillary & Co., and a fantastic post-New Year's with the Carr family in Utah. Just a couple pictures from the last couple of weeks:

This is our best Christmas present ever.

Reece loves his Grandma Nancy.

We all got footsie pajamas for Christmas Eve (okay, so Paul just reused his pajamas from his birthday. And Nancy's pajamas were made for a 10-year old girl). Maybe next year we'll just go with normal pajamas.

Yay, Christmas morning!

"I can't wait to eat that monkey."

Playing at the park on Christmas day.

Reece loved playing at Grandma Carr's house. He loved it so much that he couldn't sit still and kept trying to destroy her balls of yarn (such a sweet little kitty) and destroy her Christmas ornaments.

Grandpa Allred loves to give horsey rides. Reece loved it until Grandpa got to end of the "Little lady goes nimmy nimmy," etc. Reece freaked out. Super funny.

Kyle has claimed the status of "Favorite Uncle," which may be the case, if only for the identical hair styles.

Bryce and Reece hangin' out at the mall. Those two crazy guys. We had more pictures with Grandma Terri and Grandpa Mel, but my favorite picture of Grandma Terri could not be posted (due to certain threats by those involved). Reece got so excited to be in a picture with Grandma Terri that he actually punched her in the nose, resulting in much blood and hilarious, yet un-postable pictures. Thanks for a wonderful Christmas, everyone!

We got to see Raini and Dave Stout (and Dave's cool mom) at the Winchester Mystery House. I figured out the mystery: the Winchester lady was crazy.

Paul, Reece and I went for our first family jog across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was only about 3 miles total, but a little harder due to high winds and a malfunctioning jogging stroller. Hopefully this doesn't discourage further jogging adventures.

Paul's face says, "Look at me, I'm a happy, smiling tourist." Paul's brain says, "I want to throw this stroller off the bridge." Not with the baby in it, of course. It's just leans heavily to the left and tries to crash itself into other bridge walkers. So if you're interested in ramming into unsuspecting civilians, feel free to borrow our jogging stroller.

WARNING: Baby Pictures May Cause Overuse of the Word "Cute"

2009-12-22T12:47:00.000-08:00

I figure it's about time for some more Reece photos. The world needs a constant and updating supply of Reece pictures and it's my solemn responsibility to supply them. So here we go:

We have been practicing opening presents so that he can really burn through his presents on Christmas morning. He eventually opened this entire present and found, much to his surprise, a ball inside!

Our tree is, surprisingly, still intact. He hasn't broken one ornament or choked on one pine needle. He has certainly tried to do both of these things, but he's not quite fast enough yet.

Did I mention that he's adorable?

Christmas Destruction

2009-12-13T17:03:00.000-08:00

It has been so fun to decorate our apartment for Christmas, and probably even more fun watching Reece destroy it all. His "crawl" is very unconventional but he is very fast and his reach is surprisingly high. Luckily he's not too interested in the Christmas ornaments or even the presents yet, though we expect that might change soon.

Hayley's Engaged!

2009-12-12T00:04:00.001-08:00

So...my baby sister is engaged. She's not really a baby; she's 19. And I don't think I've ever even called her my "baby sister," but it makes it sound so much more dramatic that way. I'm so happy for her and she's so much more normal than I ever was when it comes to dating and relationships (I love you, Paul). She's so well-adjusted and not-crazy that really I'm just happy for her to have found a guy that apparently is amazing. I've never met him, but I guess he's perfect and wonderful and everything she's ever wanted. Plus his last name is Housekeeper, so Hayley will marry-morph from one noun into another, much more alliterative noun.Isn't she beautiful? He's a lucky guy.

I would like to be the first to extend a bloggable olive leaf to our new brother-in-law and say: Jess, you'd better take good care of my sister or I will hurt you. And with the necessary threats out of the way, welcome to the family! You're so lucky to have captured Hayley's heart. She's such a sweet, loving, empathetic person. She's a great listener and the best friend. I can't think of anyone who would make a better wife. She'll do everything she can to make you happy forever. I only wish I could marry her. Too bad I'm already married...and she's my sister...and that's weird.

So congratulations to the newly engaged couple! May you make many beautiful cousins for Reece (how's that for pressure?). Trashegofshi mire! (May you inherit well...standard Albanian wedding well-wishing...it makes sense, darn it). Hooray!

Best Christmas Picture EVER

2009-12-06T13:15:00.000-08:00

We, of course, think that this is the best Santa picture of all time. We are up for the challenge, however, if you have adorable pictures of your kids with Santa that you want to showcase. Please let us know where we can see these pictures so everyone can benefit mutually from our/your beautiful kids. Reece, in his habit of loving strangers, took to Santa immediately. I guess you could say the adoration was mutual. I'm guessing Reece is on the "Good" list this year.

Also, we finally uploaded more pictures into our web albums. You can see pictures of Reece's wild mohawk, as well as our latest adventures in San Francisco with Tyler and Bryce, and some New York pictures with Markie.

Our Own Brand of Super Hero

2009-11-14T09:07:00.001-08:00

Reece has been changing in crazy ways these last couple of weeks. He is almost crawling. He has been doing his army scoot for a couple weeks now (pulling himself with his arms and letting his little legs dangle behind; takes after his Grandpa Mel...for the army part, not the little legs part) and he even modified it so that he would turn in circles all across the floor. If he wanted something a foot in front of him, he'd turn in several 360 degree circles until he had scooted just far enough to reach it. Pretty funny kid. Well now he's starting to get the idea that he can also use his legs, so the crawling is imminent. This isn't the best video of him almost-crawling - he can make it pretty much all the way across a room - but he was tired this morning so we didn't want to push it too far. Please enjoy our little Reece-ster:

He also has two teeth. They are just coming in but they're hard to capture on film. I feel like he's getting super powers. He's got his super-bite now, enabling him to eat Cheerios and bananas more efficiently (who wouldn't consider that a super power?), and he's developing his super-crawl (a combo of arm pulling, sick 360s and cute mini leg scoots-see above video). And perhaps the most powerful of all, his super-charm. He will stare at women until they give him their attention, then just bask in his own cuteness. Reece's friend Nichelle (YMCA child care provider) said the other day, "He is adorable. I mean, all babies are cute, but he is adorable. Like, he should be in commercials." Reece has used his super power charms to win her over. Now he's the favorite baby at the Y and he gets people who don't even have kids stopping in just to woo him. Then two days ago we were at Wendy's and the manager brought us a FREE meal. He had been cooing over Reece and then BAM, free food. When does that ever happen at Wendy's? Thank you, Captain Charm.

If you're ever planning on visiting us you'd best be warned: Reece will have you wrapped around his little finger. And when he does, you'd better be careful: he bites.

Welcome to our Halloween-time

2009-11-01T20:42:00.000-08:00

Every year that we lived in Los Angeles we would go to Disneyland at Halloween time. I even had my own song that I would sing for that special trip (see title of post). I really missed it this year, though I'm pretty sure Paul will never miss hearing that song, which only had the one line and which I would sing constantly for about a week. This year, though I really missed Disneyland, we did have Reece. And Reece is better than 1000 Disneylands.

Reece was a hot dog for Halloween (he requested it. I said "Don't you want to go as something more time-sensitive? Like dress up like Obama or Al Gore?" But again, he insisted on going as a little wiener). Paul and I dressed up as hot dog vendors, and we actually won his work costume competition. But with such a cute baby, it was kind of a shoe-in. We also had a little secret touch to our costumes, which was our custom logo that we ironed onto our hats and aprons:Please don't sue us, Wienerschnitzel. I promise nobody noticed, and my hard work of cutting and pasting in Paint was all for naught. Now for the real Weitzelschnitzel:

Paul also had his birthday this weekend (today, actually). He's now finally old enough to own a pair of feetsie pajamas (you know the baby pajamas with the little feet...yeah, those). He also got a hot dog cake to match our hot dog ensemble from yesterday. It didn't work out as pretty as I hoped, and we certainly can't eat it, as it's made of Twinkies and pound cake (we're trying to NOT die of pound cake overdose).

And finally just some cute pictures of Reece. I know that's what you really came for, but you get bonus points if you read this far...sucker.

Just Like Daddy

2009-10-18T16:04:00.000-07:00

Despite my best efforts, Reece is taking after his dad. Sure, that's a good thing as far as ambitions and morals and being a great human being; but the video games, oh the video games! Fortunately, at least for right now, Reece is more interested in just chewing on the controller and cord rather than conquering beasts and perfecting a pix-elated character. But I fear that all too soon his Weitzel/Carr boy genes will take over and he will be lost forever.

(Side note: you can kinda see his mohawk in this second picture. It looks like a tuft of hair floating two inches above his head. It won't stay down even when we try, and it certainly gets a lot of attention from the ladies).

Go, Banana!

2009-10-09T21:28:00.000-07:00

Just a cute video of Reece from today. I'll try to get more good pics of his radical mohawk. It's seriously two inches tall and totally natural. A lot of babies have to spend hours grooming to get that kind of killer hairdo. Not our baby. His hair just screams for attention, and oftentimes so does Reece. Usually, thank goodness, he is less likely to scream than to just stare people down until they fawn over him.

Here he is talking to Grandma Nancy on the phone. He always gets this look when he's on the phone, though he rarely makes a sound. You can also kinda see the mohawk here.

Reece loves loves loves Teddy Bear's Picnic (the original song, not the Internet Sensation version). It somehow ended up being his bedtime book/song. He gets so excited when we start to sing (Paul includes an opening fanfare each night so Reece starts flapping his arms and squealing when he hears the drumroll) and it is pretty much the only book that Reece doesn't try to eat as soon as he sees it. It's even worked as a calming ploy when we try to actually get him to sleep. He'll cuddle with his book. The book could be a bit more cuddly in return, but I'm sure with enough drool it'll end up nice and soft soon enough. For this video, I left Reece sitting in the middle of the bed, the book out of reach (I thought) and closed, and I came back to find him doing a little light reading.

Reece Today

2009-10-06T18:04:00.000-07:00

Reece is 6 1/2 months old now and he just got a crib today. No more sleeping in a drawer for our little guy. He loves it so far, and I love that his bed no longer slopes toward the middle (play yards are fantastic, but his needed a bit of an upgrade). He also loves that his stuffed animals can all fit in his bed with him. So please do enjoy our little Reece-man.