Christmas Top Ten ish of 2014 list...a little late....

Now that we are stylishly late the the Christmas greeting party or maybe now that most of the Christmas things to get done are done I am finally getting to write the Weight family 2015 top ten ish list.....This year was a long year in some respects but we were really blessed in many ways. Learning how to flip pictures on the computer was not one of the ways I was blessed so turn your head and see what we have been doing....

Christmas Top Ten ish 2014 Edition

1. We are all in one piece and relatively healthy. This is a huge blessing after Taryn's little chop off most of her finger incident. It is still healing but the pins are out and it is still attached to her hand so we are all good.
2 Brent's businesses are growing and doing great. Cannibal Cycles grew enough to necessitate moving into a new bigger office/warehouse space. Witting Innovations has more consulting than Brent can get done and CP 500 is also doing great. Currently Brent and his partner are starting another business involving some medical engineering for an oxygen device and got grants from the National Institute of Health and from the State of Utah to kick it off.We know owning your own businesses can be a risky business and we feel really blessed that slowly but surely things are growing.
3. Amy survived camping with 20 something teenage girls for a week in the mountains and Brent survived a week at home playing with our kiddos.
4. Cami read the Hobbit and any other book she could get her hands on. She played in several soccer tournaments and has continued to work at kicking soccer bum. She also won her school reflections contest with her entry "the world would be a better place if we all knew self defense" (a video about fencing) and did well in her track meet. She is growing up WAY to fast. She has proved on occasion to be an excellent baby sitter and is one of the most responsible 5th grade student council leaders ever.
5. Taryn started sewing classes and is taking her fashion designer aspirations very seriously. She has read all the Percy Jackson books and many others that I can't think of. It has been super fun to watch she and Cami read the same books and then discuss them and learn from each other. Taryn also has spent hours being an amazing school teacher for Jocelyn and teaches her all kinds of interesting things....Taryn feels her true success this year was keeping the whole family in fashion...(as much as we would let her...)
6. Jocelyn is loving preschool, her two wheel bike, is picking up reading, and has the happiest laugh in the universe. She cuddles like there's no tomorrow and she teases Creed (usually in a good way) relentlessly. She still loves her dance classes and can be a fierce soccer player when motivated properly. In the first game of her season she sat on the ground messing around the entire 2nd quarter. After talking to her and letting her know it was not OK to let her team down and that she only got a doughnut if she worked her hardest she got up and scored 4 goals in the 3rd quarter.....Love that funny kid!
7. Creed has, knock on wood, potty trained. He loves superhero underwears,Thomas the train, and action figures. He says some of the funniest things ever and is still bffs with the garbage man. He is constantly moving and climbing and pushing limits. Recently he has decided to have strong opinions about clothing. If it is not green he is NOT interested in wearing it.
8. Brent, Cam, and Taryn survived what was supposed to be a 13 mile 1 day hike...It was really a 17 mile very loooong day hike. There were a few blisters, seriously funny walking with sore muscles, and a uti incident due to not wanting to pee in nature but overall they conquered Zion National Park....
9. Brent was able to spend Mother's Day with his mom. She was awake and talking and it was good quality time. She passed away the next morning and it was such a tender mercy for Brent to have had that time with her.
10. Amy kept up with all the kid taxi driving, and cooking meals, and occasionally the house was clean. Every one's bums got wiped, their mouths fed, their owies kissed, their feelings cuddled, and hopefully they remembered everyday that they were loved inspite of also occasionally getting busted for not making their beds or picking up their junk.
11. Amy and Brent decided to get healthy and have been working on eating a lower sugar, healthier diet. Both of us have lost weight (still more to go) and feel so much better. Hopefully in 2015 we can get back to exercising and kicking bum....
12. We got to spend a lot of time hanging out with extended family and feel very lucky to be a part of  both of our families. We laughed,cried, played practical jokes, and enjoyed being with both sides of the family a lot this year.

May your 2015 be happy, healthy, and filled with remembering that the Weights think you are awesome!

Fall time Major Catch up

I don't know why but blogging has sort of fallen off the radar as life has gotten crazy. I don't want to forget all the good times but I just get busy living them instead of writing them. So  I figure as a catch up post I will go picture crazy with few words....

In October we took a trip up to northern Utah to visit Papa Weight and the cousins. We spent time at the new children's museum. We were there hours and could have stayed hours longer. It was fantastic. 

Over Thanksgiving we took a little field trip to a ghost town only 20 minutes away called Silver Reef. Our cousins came and we had so much fun.

This year decking the halls was so much fun. All four kids were into it even if Creed was just into playing in the empty tree containers.

Just for the record and to avoid the yearly drama of whose turn it is to put up the star Taryn did it this year so it will be Jocelyn's turn next year....

Taryn slammed her finger in the car door and it was a bad deal. The bone was completely broken and it was torn at least half way around the finger and the whole darn tip flopped over to the side. She went into shock and almost passed out twice just getting back into the car. Then she started puking all over the driveway. Grandma ended up taking us to the ER and Brent met us there. After an ER ex ray it was determined we needed an orthopedic surgeon. Lucky for us our friend is an ortho surgeon and although he wasn't even on call he came down and saw us. He tried really hard to set it without pins but it wouldn't stay in place and Taryn was having issues with the pain and fear (for good reason obviously). The ortho friend said she really needed it pinned so off to the OR she went and finally we got home 9 hours later. She had the pins for three+ weeks and still has stitches and splinting 7-8 weeks later. She does still have sensation in her tip and I can't believe the finger nail didn't fall off. Luckily because the break and most of the tear were below her first joint she missed the growth plate and joint. She does have pretty limited movement in her first two fingers but she doesn't complain about the pain anymore. In fact I think she was more concerned about having messy handwriting and not being able to type and do school work than she was about the fact that it seriously killed. She has been a pretty good sport about having no PE and eating in the Principal's office everyday. Her teacher has been nice and let her do a lot of her work orally too. These pictures are three weeks after the fact and you can still see tons of swelling and bruising but knuckles starting to reemerge from swollen sausage fingers.

This is what it looks like when you are potty trained without any accidents for a week and you earn/receive your spider man action figure. Creed started potty training the same week (2nd week in Nov.) that Taryn had her finger accident so that week was a little rough with poopy accidents. But after that first week he was a champ and has really only had one accident since then (when I didn't hear him calling from nap time that he had to go and he was totally traumatized...). So we are all thankful to be done with diapers....wow what a milestone!

Brent got new office space and a new desk. They out grew their old office/warehouse several months ago and the move was WAY time intensive and WAY stressful and WAY a lot of work but they are very happy to be where they are with more space. Brent and his partner are also in the middle of starting a new company and were happy to receive two big grants-one NIH grant and one from the state. That company is the project of 2015 and is medical engineering related. It is really exciting.

Creed climbs on everything all the time and is smart enough to figure out how to get to brownies that I stashed in the microwave so he couldn't have free reign....Nothing in our house is safe now....

We spent one Monday night viewing a live nativity and going for a train ride/polar express action to view Christmas lights. Creed is WAY into trains (Thomas or any of his friends) so this is his (and Brent's) idea of a good time.

Also a highlight was both Cami and Taryn were awarded the super citizen/super scholar award from their school in September or October (I don't remember which now) and got to run through the halls of their school getting big high fives from everyone. We are really proud of their responsible hard work at school and pray that they always will be great learners and thinkers and kind people.

So that is what we did all fall with some soccer tournaments and family game nights and helping in classrooms and playing outside too....

Jocelyn Faye

Jocelyn Faye....She turned 5 in October and she is growing up soooo fast! She is still our Faye Faye but most of her friends and teachers stick with Jocelyn. Jocelyn is such an awesome kid to have around. Out of all my kids she likes to help out with chores. She likes to follow me around and jumps into help. She loves to fold laundry, mop floors, wash windows, and scrub the toilet. Her latest passion is doing dishes and although she does a great job we have been using WAY more soap lately....Jocelyn is a funny girl and has the  most delightful laugh-seriously it is infectious when she busts up. Jocelyn is a cuddlier. More mornings that not I wake up with her climbing into bed and putting her cold feet on my legs. She is loving preschool and all her buddies there. She constantly wants to have friends over and loves all her buddies. She is proving to be a fast learner and is working on reading. She loves writing letters and numbers and works for hours at a time in her workbook without prompting from me-she just honestly loves working and learning. Jocelyn loves fancy and dresses and sparkles but with her next breath she can be a crazy cowgirl or tough soccer player. She can also be so quiet and reserved and she does not like change-even just changing from one activity to the next can be hard for her. She needs to feel prepared for her next step. She still loves dance classes and soccer and anything Frozen. She hates wearing shoes. Her hair is getting really long and thick and she thinks poop is very funny.She is a good girl and a great sister. We are so lucky to have her in our home. She makes the world and our home a better place to be. We all love this girl. 

Ps...Sorry the photos are all sideways...I have issues.

Taryn the bum kicker

I can't believe this kid turned 9. Seriously she is 9 years old and sassy and loud and confident and knows what she wants and is stubborn and passionate and sooo intense and completely lovable. She is a kid where you never know what you are going to get from her but whatever you get it will be 100%. She is strong and brave and lets you know what she needs. I love this kid.
Sometimes I seriously struggle how to parent such a strong natured kid but I take solace in the fact that if I can't convince her to do something she doesn't want to hopefully her friends won't be able to when she's a teenager either....Now if we can just get her to truly want good things we will be set.
She is doing amazing in school and truly loves reading for hours now. She had a harder time picking up reading and I really respect how hard she worked to get where she is. She has the ability to work hard and stick to it. I really respect that about her. She has read all the Percy Jackson books lately and all the warrior cat books and the giver. She didn't like how that one ended.

She quite dancing this year which I was honestly sad about, not because I actually care about dance at all but because she was beautiful and so graceful to watch. She really had a talent. She also decided to quit soccer. Again I was sad but just mostly for myself since I love to spend fall Saturday mornings on soccer fields yelling really loud.
She did take up more sewing lessons and has created some awesome stuff, bags and skirts etc...She really loves her fashion ideas and she is learning what she wants to so I can't complain. She follows her passions and that makes her happy. (which makes us all happy)
Oh I love this girl. I love that she likes to wear skirts and heels to school every week...several days every week...and when it's not a skirt its skinny jeans.... I love that she spends hours playing school with Jocelyn and now Jocelyn is starting to read. They are such great buddies. I love that she can craft for hours on end. I love that she can be a great friend. I love hearing her sing-she has some serious lungs. I love how she still sleeps with the same teddy bear she was given on day one of life. I love that she asks any and every question that pops into her head....like ANY question. She is such a good kid and I am blessed to call her mine.

PS sorry the pictures are sideways....I have issues....