ARIZONA! Featuring: Dave's family, Sedona and Grand Canyon

Just to make sure we start this blog right, here's some adorable Reece-ness (by the way, he is two months old today! Crazy!):
Now on to Arizona: After Paul graduated (yay!), we decided to take a little vacation to visit Dave and Teresa. It's one of our favorite vacations, and even though they're coming to California next week, we couldnt' resist making the trip. They were nice enough to let us come, especially on such short notice. We loved seeing Dave's work and playing with their kids. We wish we could have had more time with them, and I wish that I wouldn't have slept so much (I never thought I would say that). But super fun nonetheless.


Dueling babies.

Slide Rock, near Sedona. Much cooler than Grand Canyon, even though we got there just an hour before closing.


Although Grand Canyon was pretty cool, too.
Reece did pretty well for his first big road trip.

Paul Graduated!

Yahoo! Paul finally graduated from UCLA Law School! I am so proud of him. He has worked so hard for three years.

He got amazing grades, was the President of the Federalist Society (which was hardly even existent when he joined first year, but his third year he was in the top tier nationally in both quality and quantity of events. He got a personal note from the president of the national Federalist society congratulating him on a job well done. He hosted at least a dozen events with speakers and debates and had over 200 people at certain events). He made the moot court honors program, he had an externship with Judge Kozinski (like a clerkship but for law students), worked on a death row case with the DA of Van Nuys (the guy was eventually sentenced to death...how's that for success?), and most importantly Paul had a fantastic internship with Davis Polk & Wardwell in both Menlo Park, CA and New York, NY. Now he starts working for Davis Polk, Menlo Park in September and we are so excited to start his career.

I have to be the one to post this because he would never brag, but as his wife I am very happy to brag about him. He did all of this while serving as Elder's Quorum President, Second Counselor in a Bishopric, and now serving in the High Priest group leadership. He never studied on a Sunday, not even once. He certainly has been an amazing example to me of how hard work and faith can pay off in great ways. I'm so grateful to be married to such a stud (and not in the horse breeding kind of way). Way to go, babe!

Now he starts his bar classes on Monday and takes the bar in late July. Then he can achieve his dream of being called Dr. Paul Weitzel, Esquire. (By the way, I keep telling him that he's not a doctor, but he thinks it's funny, so I allow it). A big thanks to David and Hillary and kids for coming and taking great pictures and then babysitting so we could go to dinner. We love you guys!

Reece and Katie:
Mama and Reece:
All dressed up for the occasion:
Yahoo!

The only one not wearing his cap.
Molly and Katie with Uncle Paul:
Congrats, daddy!

Nah nah nah nah...Reece-Man!

He's getting cuter every day. It's hard to imagine, but true. I love his little coos and gurgles. he's much more active (meaning he likes to pull my hair when he gets the chance, and he can successfully remove my glasses from my face). Here are a couple of videos to prove his cuteness:


This was taken at 5 weeks old (Monday, April 19).


This was taken last Wednesday (April 22). He's such an angel.


This was taken today. He rolled over for the first time last Friday, and it took about 30 tries to get him on video today (hence his unhappy demeanor).

Cutest video ever

So Reece learned to smile.

Speed Reecer

Reece is now 26 days old. He's gained over a pound and over an inch. Also, his nicknames are constantly changing. I like Speed Reecer because I had a Speed Racer poster on my wall for about four years. Plus when Reece was on my team for Mario Kart, I won.

We are loving having him around. He is a very good baby and already likes to play little tricks on his mom and dad (like peeing on his dad three times while getting his diaper changed). Hilarious. Here are just a few newer pics:

This one is from his first week of life. He just looks so beautiful.

This one is a couple weeks old. I love his little mohawk.

This was taken today and shows his sticky face. It's sticky because one trick he likes to play is "Get milk all over my face by being a sporadic eater."


And of course, an adorable video.


This was taken last week. Those of you from Sanpete will notice the "Special Delivery" shirt from Sanpete Valley hospital. We have probably four of them that we inherited from either Dena's kids or Layne.

This is Paul living through his son. We've got the Dylan outfit and the guitar. We'll see if Reece can really fulfill his dad's dreams for him by loving Bob Dylan as much as Paul does.

Or not.

Reece Paul Weitzel

Baby's here. He's doing great. He is, in fact, absolutely perfect.

Stats: 8 lbs, 3 oz. 20 inches, 36 cm head, born 3:31 AM Monday the 16th after 24 hours and 21 minutes of labor. Wendy went 62 hours with only 4.5 hours sleep. She's amazing.

See more pictures here.

The Final Weeks

We're getting there...slowly. It turns out I have no patience. We are 39 1/2 weeks pregnant now and for some reason I feel like he should be here already. He's still kicking a ton, which leads Paul to say such dastardly things like "He probably won't come for another two weeks." How dare he. But we'll see. Here are some pics we've taken recently to celebrate one thing or another.Driving through Malibu.

Malibu canyon. Paul looks cute. By the way, this was in February. Aren't you all jealous of us living in Southern California? Woot-woot.

My baby shower in early February at Aunt Cheryl's house. Everybody was so generous and it was an awesome shower. Thank you so much! This cake was delicious, by the way.

So many cute clothes. I can't wait to dress him up. Thank goodness for other people with good fashion sense or my baby would never wear cute clothes.


My birthday! And my amazing strawberry cake. Cake seems to be a running theme throughout this post. Hmm...I wish I had some cake right now...


And now the 37 1/2 week video. I'm even bigger now. I know, I know, it's impossible to imagine. But I also put on makeup sometimes, which did not happen in this video. So add two weeks to the belly and some mascara to the eyes and that's where I'm at right now.