A little homebrew

Valentine's Day

For someone who really isn't excited about a commercialized holiday that has become pretty meaningless in America, I feel like we have quite a history with this day in my family.
Exhibits A-F:

First of all, 90 years ago today, my Grandpa Ehli was born. It must have been cold that day in South Dakota, and they didn't have running water until the last children were born. My, my, am I grateful we have so many options for birthing babies these days!
*Correction* Grandpa was born in North Dakota. They didn't move to South Dakota until he was 2. And they didn't have running water until after all 9 of the children were born!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

A little less than 90 years ago, my Grandma Berwold was born in Yellowstone National Park. Her mom and dad had immigrated from Norway just a few years before her birth. I imagine Great Grandma Velsvick in particular missing having family around, both for the help in childbirth, and for the celebration. There was an aunt there with them who more likely than not helped birth baby Grandma.
Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Pulled this one from the archives!

Moving decades and decades closer to today, 7 years ago today, Joel was in Scotland, I was in Seattle. He sent me this card (through my roommate Alissa), along with my wedding ring, and bunches of daffodils.

I chose both.

Two years ago today, we found out we were pregnant!

One year ago today we had this little precious dressed all in red and lace.

And that brings us to today. I dressed Marie up like a valentine, as you can see. Pigtails came later, sorry you missed out on that.  We are in the midst of sickness. Marie got sick 2 weeks ago and still has green stuff coming out of her nose. I got sick a week ago and still have a raging cough.  We do not have high expectations out of today.

Marie is delightful and confounding, precious and even more precious when I get a break from her once in a while. We love her so. I have a feeling there are many people out there willing to be her valentine this year!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Some Christmas

Marie is at a pretty ideal age for Christmas - too young to expect presents, but old enough to enjoy. And young enough that we can dress her up super cute and love on her adorableness. She's so sweet and is currently into kissing. I read her her Christmas book yesterday (Annie and the Wild Animals by Jan Brett - pretty much perfect for her right now! Kitties AND other animals!), and the last page with Annie and the kitties, she kept kissing and kissing the page. I love it! She seems to be learning new skills and words pretty much every other hour these days. Come see!

Marie with the stocking I made her this year, and her Christmas sweater! 

Love that face!

Hair clips from grandma. This is her "posing for the camera" face. Cute...

Grandma and Grandpa Ehli and 3 out of 5 grandkids. So festive!

So cute! Can I hug you all at the same time?

Be my valentine??

Give me a cuddle!!
Look at me! I can stand!Don't you just love what I've done with my cheeks? Soo kissable!!
The top photo, Marie is in a dress my mom made for me when I was a baby!

3 1/2 months

and this is her favorite activity - napping and nursing together, at her pleasure.I'm quite surprised it was only a couple weeks ago that she slept 8 hours straight. I have been lucky with 3 hours straight lately. I think she is teething... is that possible this early? She has the symptoms.

I am loving her mornings. She wakes happy, and the first time she sees me or her dad, she has a big ol' smile for us. What a wonderful greeting. Today the baby and I slept in until 8:30 together!

Oh my goodness.

Way back in spring of this year, I cast on for this beautiful little project in a natural wool tweed. Before we knew Marie was Marie, and actually, before we knew the baby was a she. I love this little vest, and knew from knitting it once before that I wanted my babe to be wrapped in it.
But oh my, how can it fit her so perfectly already? Seeing her in it is so precious, and I can't resist even more cuddles of that warm little belly and baby-scented neck. But it fitting her means she will grow. Bigger and older and wiser.I must keep reminding her to take her time growing.
Do you think she will listen?

11 days

11 days. That went fast. It is quite a spectacular change, going from the two of us to the three of us. I have spent the last 11 days doing all of the things you would expect, except probably with more sleep than you expect. Marie is very accommodating and only cries when she's hungry, happy to sleep or chill out when not hungry. I've also been reflecting on the birth often. The depth of that experience.. I think I will be reflecting on it for quite some time.


Happy Halloween from Marie! I think this might be the best shot of her red hair so far...Happy in Daddy's hands.With Grandma and Grandpa - Grandpa Ehli is so enamored with her!
The uncles getting baby saavy.

A fitting portrayal of Marie's first 10 days.

A visit back to the midwives today found Marie is now 9 lbs 3 oz, meaning she's gained 3 oz, meaning we must be doing something right! Yay for first time parenthood.

I have quickly learned the unbelievable gift of meals delivered from friends. And I subsequently apologize for not realizing the depth of this gesture until I am the recipient. Here's to contributing to this for other people in the future!

It's a baby!

Dear Friends and Family,

After nine months of careful planning, Heather decided to have a baby last night. After a very quick, intense labor, Marie Iona Mehitabel Shaver was born at 9:30 pm, October 20, in a birthing tub at the Center for Birth in Seattle. She was very alert and healthy, weighed nine pounds, and measured 21 1/2 inches long. Her eyes were open and she was smiling as she slid into the water of the tub! We are very grateful that Heather's mom, Randi and our good friend Ruth were able to attend the birth. We are also grateful that no medication or intervention of any kind were required. It was an amazing experience! We're so excited (and a little scared!) to start this new chapter of our lives. Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Love,

Heather, Joel, and Marie

Our Contribution to Society

I believe that all of the appropriate family members, family friends, church family, etc. have now been personally notified of this event and that it is now safe/appropriate to document it on the blog and facebook. Here is the e-mail Heather sent out a couple of weeks ago:

Hello dear friends,

Joel and I are delighted to tell you we're pregnant!

We're 13 weeks along, and the baby is due October 21st. Everything looks great so far, no problems at all. When we saw the baby on the ultrasound at 7 weeks, it looked very much like a seahorse. Despite how adorable seahorses are, we're rooting for the end product to be a baby.

Incidentally, we found out we were pregnant the same day we found out Joel passed his PhD (One labor ending, another beginning...).

We are beyond grateful for the love and support you all have given us in our lives and marriage so far. We welcome you to celebrate with us as our lives change once again!

Love,
Heather & Joel Shaver

Back to Hungary, part 3: Places that are NOT Hungary.

This is NOT Hungary.
This is Vienna.
Exhibit A: The cathedral in the centre of the city. Lovely, so dramatic, in the night and the day. The roof is pretty amazing. Vienna had lots of roofs like that, that are different colours, very bright and vivacious. So did the big city in Hungary we went to.
Exhibit B: This is a building in Vienna not too far from the cathedral. I find the painting appealing. (This is not a pun.)
Exhibit C: This is at the War Museum in Vienna. Do you like the armoured man's skirt? Apparently, they didn't actually use the skirt armour in battles. They saved that for special occassions, like fancy shmancy balls and courting rituals, parades, that sort of thing. You know, armoured fashion.

We also went to the Museum of Musical Instruments, which was pretty much the coolest museum we've ever been to. They had Mozart's piano, and some other crazy instruments that seemed like something out of a really intelligent 12 year old's dreams. Joel liked the guitar with a built in foot pedal capo.

This is also NOT Hungary.
This is Slovenia.
Richard took us for superb iced coffee with ice cream and the thickest, most gorgeous whipped cream I've ever tasted.The view from the castle. There were loads of vineyards on the hillsides.
This is inside the castle. We saw endless examples of the type of embroidery I would spend my whole life striving for. I will show you some that I brought back with me later.

We enjoyed our day trip to Slovenia.

This is ALSO NOT Hungary. This is Croatia.The colour of the water. I wanted so badly to jump in and never come out again, to swim in it so much that I turned that immense shade of blue, and it would be part of me forever.
Waterfalls, water falling.
Water falling, falling, falling, splash!
The puppy sleeping on my lap on the drive. When we arrived at the national park, she refused to go up the stairs. She was so tired. Tired and gorgeous.
I LOVE teals and blues and greens all together. It speaks to my soul in such an immense way. It frees my heart. Do you know what I mean? Just looking at even the photos makes my heart feel fluttery in an 'I'm-falling-in-love' sort of way. Is that totally ridiculous? I just love teal water so much.
It was like Disneyland, with all the people! But Disneyland doesn't even come close. I choose natural, clear, teal water over shiny plastic any day.

You Don't Even Like Me: A poem by Joel

You don't even like me.
You wish that I had no legs.
You wish I had a wooden leg.
You wish I had an immaculately manicured handlebar mustache
And an allergy to aluminum foil.
You wish I spoke the language of the squirrels.
You wish I could teach you to navigate by the stars.
And you wish that I wore a red t-shirt everywhere.
You wish I smelled like bleach.
You wish I could water-ski barefoot.
And you wish I was a professional potato farmer.

This is Her.

This is my wife, Heather, in the morning, dressed for work. Every day she goes to her social work job, helping the people of Glasgow. Glasgow is a cold city, so she wears this special coat to keep her warm. Heather's favorite breakfast is corn flakes with bananas, and a cup of tea. She is happy because she likes the morning. She can watch the sun rise as she walks to her job. Sometimes on the way to work she sees cats, and pets them. Hi Heather!

Wedding Pictures!

Here are our lovely wedding pictures! Or here, if you'd rather watch a slide show.
I know Joel doesn't post much, so if you weren't aware that he actually got married, I'm sure he'll be very sorry. Since he doesn't update, I figured I better break in to tell y'all about our freshly uploaded photos.

There are a few on there from Lynne, who made us a gorgeous photo album full of her own photos from the wedding!

Here is something else, to make the post more exciting (or really scary).

From the Honeymoon: A Preview

La Cueva Del Pirata, Isla Holbox, Quintana Roo, Mexico

Important News

I know you said not to break radio silence, but this is important! I think it is in your best interests to visit our wedding website!!! Thanks for the site, Nate! It's awesome!

News of Great Import

On January 5, 2006, in the Glasgow Necropolis, under the steady but approving gaze of a statue of John Knox, I made a proposal to my best friend Heather Ehli that we become married.

Heather thought this was a good idea, and instantly agreed.

This makes her my fiancée.

They'll GET you!!!

Everyone look at what my beautiful, exceptional, marvellous, stellar girlfriend Heather sent me!