Beauty and the Geek

It's a ............

2011-10-11T16:28:00.001-07:00

Girl!

New Family Member

2011-07-18T12:25:00.000-07:00

Seth has some exciting news to share with you...He is going to be a
big brother!!! (Sometime around March 4th :) !

Seth's First Steps!

2011-06-19T19:04:00.000-07:00

Today I got the best Father's Day Gift ever, Seth took his first steps! Of course we got it on video and had to share it with all of you!

See the HD version.

Seth Picture a Day

2011-06-10T21:18:00.000-07:00

For the last year Stephanie has been hard at work taking pictures of Seth almost every day! We have put a good number of these together in some scrapbook pages and wanted to share them.

Enjoy!

Click to see the HD version.

Seth is 6 months old!

2010-12-27T10:26:00.000-08:00

Seth is now 6 months. He is such a fun baby! He loves to laugh and spend time with his Mommy and Daddy. He is working on crawling, but he has mastered sitting and eating baby food, and (hopefully I don't jinx myself), sleeping through the night :). We love Seth and are really enjoying all of his growing, learning, and seeing his personality develop.

Seth's First Christmas!

2010-12-26T12:17:00.000-08:00

Before Seth was born we decided to invest in an HD camcorder so we could always remember all his finest moments. But for the first six months of his life, we were always too lazy to get our the nice quality camera and instead just recorded everything with our phones.

Well we decided that if we didn't use the nice camera to record Seth opening (...or just trying to eat the wrapping paper) his first presents, we might as well not even have the camera.

So we used the nice camera, and Seth was just as adorable as ever. So adorable that we ended up filming almost 40 minutes of him. (Can you say first time parents?!) We really wanted to share the precious moments with all of you, so we took the time to edit out all the boring parts...I know it is hard to believe that we could actually be boring! :)

For anybody that wants to truly enjoy the full HD version of the video (720 or 1080), you can see it here.

Let us know what you think of it, we hope you enjoy!

Seth meets puppy

2010-12-20T15:03:00.000-08:00

Today while we were out and about we came across this puppy that Seth absolutely fell in love with!

Enjoy the video:

First Day of Daddy Daycare

2010-12-19T13:08:00.000-08:00

This week Stephanie got a job and I was able to stay home with Seth for the entire day! I will admit I was quite nervous at first, but the day went okay and both Seth and I survived!

One thing Seth loves to do is see himself, especially on our phones which have a forward facing camera. While I was babysitting him I was using this tactic to entertain him a bit and thought it would be funny to record. Well when I decided to record Seth decided to try and eat my phone! I thought the resulting video was quite hilarious!

Stephanie, on the other hand, thought that Seth was going to pick up germs off my phone, however I was more worried about Seth getting his drool all over my phone! I think she wins the contest for best parent in this situation. :)

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

2010-12-09T07:51:00.000-08:00

Free digital scrapbook customized with Smilebox

Halloween

2010-11-10T15:41:00.000-08:00

This year for Halloween, Seth dressed up as a pumpkin. Justin and I were going to dress up as farmers, but we decided it would take too much effort. Pretty much, we just took it easy this Halloween. We really enjoyed being able to trick-or-treat with Seth at the zoo and our ward's trunk-or-treat. Seth was VERY generous in sharing his Halloween candy with us, (He doesn't have a sweet tooth yet ;).

We took Seth to the zoo boo, and we all had fun there! They gave out a lot of candy, had haunted houses that were not too scary, and we were able to watch the baby sea lion :)

Schramm Farms

2010-11-10T15:10:00.000-08:00

We went to Schramm farms to enjoy the harvest atmosphere and the beautiful scenery. We also had fun taking pictures of Seth

Seth's latest accomplishments

2010-10-03T16:59:00.000-07:00

Seth is now 3 1/2 months old and is currently working on some big accomplishments. He showed us that he knows how to roll over...

...stand without help when leaned up against an object for a limited time....

... and hold his head up with ease when laying on his stomach...next step crawling :) We love watching him accomplish these new feats and look forward to the next thing that he will surprise us with. He is growing and changing so fast that it's hard to keep up with all of his new accomplishments.

Trip to the Carnegie Science Center

2010-09-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we decided to take a trip to visit the Carnegie Science Center here in Pittsburgh. We had such a great time! We are sure that Seth is now very knowledgeable in many scientific concepts! :) Well at least we think so!

At the Science Center they had a Michael Jackson themed laser show that we attended. Seth slept through most of it, and when he woke up he was trying to watch the show, but I think the images were moving too fast for him to track. At least he seemed amused!

Also there is a large robotics area in the science center with many cool robots. We took some pictures and videos for you to enjoy!

Here I am posing with the Roboceptionist to the robot area:

Then we found what may be the worlds best air hockey player. In the video it is kind of hard to see just how good the robot is because the young boy playing isn't really pushing the limits. However both Steph and I gave our best shot to scoring on the robot and failed. They had been keeping statistics of the amount of goals scored by the robot and by humans during that day and it was
Robot: 315
Humans: 15

We also saw this robot that was shooting baskets. They even had a hoop on the side that you could shoot on at the same time the robot did. They kept track of the shooting statistics and the robot had made an amazing 80% of his shots and the humans had only made 20%. This is the kind of guy you want to shoot those last minute game winning free-throws!

And for good measure we took a picture with some of our robot friends for memory sake.

Sorry we don't have any amazingly cute pictures of Seth, but rest assured, he is just as cute as always! Except probably a little more cute... ;)

Seth's 3 Month Picture

2010-09-12T18:02:00.000-07:00

So Seth isn't actually 3 months old yet, but I think he is sick of us taking his picture! After 3 days, 5 outfits and over 200 pictures, without further ado, we present his official 3 month picture!

Family Pictures - Carnegie Mellon Style

2010-08-21T14:14:00.000-07:00

Well we decided it would be a good idea to get family pictures as we are just starting a new family adventure. Plus we wanted to buy Carnegie Mellon apparel and this this was a good way to rationalize the purchase!!! :)

We hope you enjoy! We have also changed the theme on our blog which allows the blog to be a bit wider than before, and gave it a new color scheme. Hope you enjoy!

You can see the rest of the pictures here.

The Many Faces of Seth

2010-08-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

We hope you will take the time to see the many faces of our adorable Seth!

If you want to make a video like this yourself you should check our Picasa version 3.8 that was released today. (No I am not being paid to advertise for them....but maybe I should be............)

For an HD version of this video see it on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=769sBaeyvac&hd=1

Seth is Happy!

2010-08-15T18:30:00.000-07:00

Enjoy this video of Seth! He says hello!

Pittsburgh Zoo

2010-08-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday we decided to visit the Zoo so that Seth can start to learn his animals...OK so maybe he isn't that developed yet, but it is a good excuse for us to have some fun looking at the animals!

We particularly enjoyed going beneath the water to see sharks and other fish. See the video and pictures below to enjoy!

Seth isn't quite sure what an Elephant is, but we sure thought they were cool!

Don't worry...I saved my beautiful wife from this dangerous encounter!

Seth didn't seem all that impressed with the sharks in this picture! I was scared mindless!!!!!!

Well if you want to see more images go ahead and visit the Picasa Album.

Final Announcement

2010-06-18T17:21:00.000-07:00

Well we finally decided on a final announcement which went out via this morning's mail. Here is what went out:

However after we sent this invite out we took another picture that we liked even better for the main shot. So here is what we think the best version is, even though it didn't get mailed out:

We have also been uploading new photos as we take them. You can find them here. If the link doesn't work use this address: http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/4508852/1/Seth%20Ryan%20Wagner?h=5baaac

Thanks for all the responses from everyone! We are doing great and love hearing from you!

16-June-2010 8:33pm 8lbs 10oz 21.5inches

2010-06-17T01:48:00.000-07:00

Tell us which one you like better!

See more pictures here.

Pittsburgh, here we come

2010-06-02T20:45:00.000-07:00

On July 28th we will be getting in our sporty little PT Cruiser (oh yea we got a new car...I guess I should talk about that...OK I just did) and moving to Pittsburgh, PA. Ok so not all of our stuff fits in the PT Cruiser so there will be a moving truck taking our stuff as well.

We have already signed a lease agreement on an apartment in Pittsburgh and we took this picture from our new living room.

For anybody that believed that I took this photo from our living room....I have some great stuff to sell you! ;)

I (Justin) have been accepted into a very exciting dual PhD program at Carnegie Mellon University and the Universidade de Porto (in Portugal). We will spend two years in Pittsburgh, and then three years in Porto, Portugal and then I will walk away with a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from both schools.

We first made the decision to go to graduate school about this time last year. We weren't sure where we would go, or where we should even apply, but we felt that it was the right decision for our family. So I decided to visit the University of Idaho and Washington State University (WSU) to ask questions and get a feel for what graduate school would really be like. I was dumb-founded when WSU offered to not only waive my tuition, but actually PAY ME to go to school there. That lead to Stephanie needing to deflate my head as it had grown largely out of proportion, and then I started applying to any and every school I could imagine myself going to. I figured if WSU was going to give me the red carpet, I should see who else would before committing.

Countless hours of writing application essays and filling out my entire life story countless times on each schools application later...I had applied to the following Schools:

MIT

Stanford

UCLA

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)

University of Utah

University of Washington

University of Texas-Austin

WSU

Ohio State University
Every school except MIT and Stanford (who simply said sorry Charlie) made similar offers to the one WSU had made. Most of them even paid for me to go and visit them! So I spent five weekends in a row traveling to different schools, trying to decide which one would be the best fit.

I was very excited about the offer CMU made and the possibility of going to Portugal. Stephanie, on the other hand, took quite a while to warm up to the possibility of living in Portugal for three years. But none the less we made our final decision and now we are awaiting to embark on a journey of a lifetime as a young family!

Baby Update

2010-06-02T20:09:00.000-07:00

Well many people have been asking us if we are ready for Seth to arrive. I would ask if Seth is going to be ready for us! We are so super excited to bring home a bundle of joy that our apartment is jam packed with baby stuff!

Just look at our spare bedroom:

I took this picture from the door so there isn't much room left in the room. The stroller is jammed alongside the rocking chair which is squeezing next to the crib. Then we have the bassinet and car seat in the middle of the room because quite frankly there is no other place to put them! Well we may be drowning in baby stuff, but we sure love it!

A little while back a surprise baby shower was thrown for Steph at work. They gave us a diaper cake, we thought it was picture worthy, so enjoy!

Seth Ryan Wagner

2010-04-21T20:22:00.001-07:00

Here is Seth Ryan Wagner. When we were first married, I asked Justin what boy names he likes, he humored my question and without much thought, said that he liked the name "Seth." I hadn't thought much about that name before, but I liked it and agreed that it was a good name. When I was pregnant, we both kind of assumed that if it was a boy, we would name him Seth. It was a boy and the name stuck. Besides, doesn't he look like a Seth in this picture? :)
Justin's middle name is Ryan, and in both of our families, the oldest son has the same middle name as the dad, so this was an easy decision. Something fun we found out about the name Seth is that in the scriptures Seth was one of the first son's of Adam, and it said that Seth was a righteous man and was just like his father. Justin was pretty excited to hear that because he thinks it means that Seth will be an engineer just like him :)

31 weeks down, about 9 more to go!

2010-04-21T20:03:00.001-07:00

This pregnancy has been going great! We are going to a birthing class this Saturday, and we have a crib and many other baby things set up and ready to go, so hopefully we'll be prepared when Seth comes...well as prepared as possible :)

It's a boy!

2010-04-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

We were very excited to find out that we are having a boy! Justin was especially glad, even though he might have been paying more attention to the numbers at the side of the ultrasound then the pictures of the baby. (typical for an electrical engineer;)

Baby!

2009-10-27T17:51:00.001-07:00

We are proud to announce that we are going to have a baby! Stephanie is 6 weeks along and the due date is June 17th!

Campout!

2009-07-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! We have some pictures to share from our campout this past weekend.

Stephanie and I invited Jordan and Amy McCoy to go camping with us at Liberty Lake County Park, and we had such a blast! For Jordan and I it was like a flashback to the millions of times we had been to that park for Ward and Scout campouts. However for Stephanie and Amy it was a great first time adventure!

We arrived at the park on Friday around 3pm and set up camp, then we immediately took off hiking. That park has a very beautiful and scenic 7 mile hike that leads up to a waterfall, cabin, and then brings you back to camp in a loop. We couldn't resist taking pictures at the waterfall as well as a spot that had a view to die for. So here they are for your viewing pleasure!

You might also notice that Jordan is wearing a BYU shirt and I am sporting the most beautiful University of Utah shirt. This was not planned, and yes we are still friends! ;)

You would think that by now I would have learned that grey shirts show sweat a lot more than other colors, but then again isn't the whole point of camping to get dirty?!

Best Birthday party ever!

2009-06-05T17:12:00.000-07:00

We went to the best birthday party ever! One of the dentist's where I work invited the entire office to his daughter's birthday party. Justin and I arrived at the end of the party when they were just starting to clean up, but we got to try out the funnest blowup bouncer ever. We didn't bring our swimsuits, but we couldn't let a possible once-in-a-lifetime opportunity pass us by, so we jumped right in to the pool with freezing hose water and had a blast. We recommend everyone renting one of these for their own personal use or for their "kids" birthday party, and make sure to invite us :)

College Basketball games

2009-03-10T20:33:00.000-07:00

We have been having some fun and cheap dates by going to college basketball games. We got some free tickets for Cheneys basketball game because I am now EWU alumni, and we've been watching games at NIC (in Coeur d'Alene), because Justin's friend from Snow college played a couple of games there. Did you know that like a Zamboni, there is a Gym-boni? Here's a picture of it below. It's a little blurry, maybe because it was so fast :) It's not as cool as a Zamboni...but it's close.

We went with our friends DJ and Melissa to this game, and had a lot of fun on our group date. We went with Marv, Pam, and Zach this game, and it was a lot of fun too! At one of the games, NIC was tied with the other team and there was only 1.5 seconds left in the game. The ball was thrown in to NIC at the side opposite of their basket and the player shot from the opposite free throw line and made it as the buzzer went off. It was amazing! and we were all there to witness it! It was played all over the news and if you looked really really really close, you could kind of see us standing and cheering in the background. Practically famous ;) Camera 1 Camera 2

Did I mention that Zach came with us . . . well he's in this picture with us.

Stephanie's birthday

2009-03-10T20:09:00.000-07:00

Since you can easily make up new traditions as newlyweds, I decided to come up with a great birthday tradition. This idea was inspired by the fact that my birthday was coming soon. So, the tradition is that the birthday person can choose everything they want to do and eat on that day, and the other person has to go along with it. So, on my birthday we slept in, ate fruity pebbles, went to a ham radio class from 9-2 (that was not really my choice, but an obligation for our calling as stake emergency communication specialists for the bishops storehouse), bought a children's book at Barnes and Noble (called Llama Llama Red Pajama, it's excellent!), ate dinner at Hu Hot, watched the movie, August Rush, and played soccer (we won our game). It was the perfect birthday (minus the ham radio class), and Justin was so supportive and sweet the entire day. I am excited to come up with some more traditions for our family, but I am a little nervous about what Justin will come up with on his birthday, (he has a bigger imagination than I do ;). `

SNOW!

2009-03-10T19:59:00.000-07:00

"The winter storm that has paralyzed Spokane set a record for the amount of snow dumped in a 24- hour period. The National Weather Service recorded 17 inches of snow at Spokane International Airport in the 24 hours that ended at 4 a.m., 4 inches more than the record of 13 inches set in 1984 - records have been kept since 1881. More than 3 inches of additional snow had fallen on the city since 4 a.m., driving the total to more than 20 inches." On Thursday morning there was so much snow that I couldn't make it to work, and school was cancelled for Justin. It was fun being snowed in for one day, but we were soon ready for the snow to be gone.

One nice thing about renting is that we never had to shovel anything off of our sidewalk or driveway because our manager did, but we didn't get out of shoveling snow off of our cars!!!

Christmas

2009-03-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

We decided to carry on Justin's family tradition by buying each other a Christmas ornament every year. The ornament would represent something memorable that happened during the year.

My ornament to Justin was two precious moments ice skating together, since that is one of our favorite activities to do together, and we spent quite a few dates ice skating and getting to know one another better.
Justin gave me an ornament representing our wedding along with the date we were sealed. It was really sweet that he personalized it. We both loved our ornaments, and buying and exchanging them was one of our Christmas highlights. We needed somewhere to put our new ornaments, but we thought that getting a real Christmas tree is a lot of work and buying one cost a lot of money, so we settled for this dollar store tree. It was perfect! Whatever ornaments couldn't fit on the tree, sat around the tree. We spent Thanksgiving with the Butterfields and Christmas with the Wagners. We are so blessed to be apart of two wonderful families!

It's been a while. . .

2009-03-10T19:09:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while since we last posted, and we have heard that many of you look at our page hoping that something exciting has happened to us besides a Halloween party. We have also had someone question how our marriage was going because nothing new has been posted, but Justin's response to that was, "things are going really well!. . . that's why we haven't posted." We haven't really gotten in to blogging yet, but for all of our friends and family, we will attempt to catch you up since Halloween.

Halloween of 2008

2008-12-12T16:09:00.000-08:00

We decided that for our first Halloween together we needed to go all out. That means carving a pumpkin, dressing up, and partying late into the night. So we worked hard together to carve our pumpkin. (Thanks Mark for the idea on the pumpkin design). Then we dressed up as secret agents. (Notice Justin's official earpiece, which was what inspired our costumes).

Then we went to a Halloween dinner and costume party at our friends, Marcus and Jenny's house. We had a great themed meal, ate a ton of sweets, and played a rousing game of Apples to Apples late into the night. Halloween of 2008 was a complete success!

Whip Cream Fight

2008-09-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well let's just say that Steph and I are a little crazy. We have been doing creative dates and so Steph blind folded me and drove me around the valley to get me lost so that I wouldn't know the destination and then took me for a walk in a forested area where we proceeded to have a whip cream fight. Here are the pics:

Our Wedding Videos

2008-07-13T15:31:00.000-07:00

Here is our wedding video that Micah Brown put together for us! We absolutely love it! We hope you will enjoy it as well!

And here is a short section we like to call "Crazy Wagners". Just watch it...you will understand the title. (assuming you don't already know that we are crazy!)

Here is a short section from the ring ceremony and many candid shots of many who attended.

And in this video we explain how we met, dated and got engaged!

If you would like to have videos like these of your own, check out Micah's website and get in contact with him!

http://www.easystreetfilms.com/

Final Announcement!

2008-06-03T00:47:00.001-07:00

Well we would like to thank all of you that casted your vote for the invitation pictures, and now we present to you the final draft that was mass printed and mass mailed today!

So relating this to the polls everybody took, number 16 took the cake as the main picture, and on the back numbers 3, 11 and 21 were used. Now hopefully you can remember what you voted on! Hope you enjoy!

Wedding Slideshow/Video

2008-05-23T00:22:00.000-07:00

We have created a small video showing us as we were growing up (well actually we still are, and most likely we won't ever fully grow up ;) ), and showing a few pictures from our dating stage, then the engagement stage. We hope you enjoy it!

The polls are in!

2008-03-07T15:45:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all of you who voted on our engagement pictures! All of your input helped us narrow down our choices! And just for the fun of it, here are the results!

If you desire you can still vote, and we will update the graph accordingly. Enjoy!

Announcement Picture Selection

2008-03-03T12:34:00.000-08:00

Well this weekend we took our announcement pictures. The results were that we took home about 500 digital images and had to start the selection process. The first round of the selection narrowed the choices to 80. Then second round brought us to 40, finally the third round brought us to 21. Now for the fourth and final round we are leaving the selection up to friends and family.

Here is how the process works, first go to our web album and look at the pictures. Then fill out our online form to let us know which ones you like best! Picture numbers are based on their location in the album (the first picture of the album being number 1 and the last one being number 21). We would appreciate it if you would choose ONE main picture and THREE complementary pictures to be used in our announcement.

We are tallying the votes and will let you know what the results are at the end. So please spend 5 minutes of your time to let us know which pictures you like best!

Our First Letter!

2008-02-26T00:17:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Brittany and Cody Tak (Brittany is my cousin for those who are not aware), we are now officially on the map. We received our very first letter addressed to both of us!
Yes this is very exciting news and we are glad to share it with all of you! Also I would like to thank Brittany for the lovely "Happy Engagement" card she sent us!

*actual addresses have been modified to protect the innocent

The Engagement!

2008-02-12T22:30:00.001-08:00

Seeing as there has been much excitement amongst the Wagner family regarding the most current engagement. This will serve as a reference to clear up any and all questions regarding what really went down at 7:30pm February 8th 2008. Of course, both parties will provide their own version of the story, and it is left up to the reader to believe whomever they wish.

According to Beauty (aka Stephanie):

After a wonderful experience of doing temple baptisms, Justin and I went to his place to enjoy another evening together. He decided that we should have a dinner together. He got together all of the preparations for us to eat a wonderful meal. He even turned the lights down low and lit some candles to set the mood. It was a very romantic atmosphere, especially since Justin was looking so good in his suit and tie. We were having wonderful conversation, and Justin was periodically making very sweet comments to me throughout the tasty dinner. Then he said, "This has been so romantic with us having gone to the temple and now eating a candlelight dinner, and there is only one thing that could make it better. . ." He then proceeded to get down on his knee and opened up a velvet black box with a beautiful and large sparkly diamond, and then continued ". . . Stephanie, will you marry me?" At first I was shocked, but then I was overjoyed! I hugged and kissed him and because I was so overcome in the moment, I couldn't remember if I had told him "yes." But he assured me that I had! Right after his proposal, he was pointing out to me the ring that he chose, but I was more interested in just holding him. He is my perfect prince charming and I am so excited to be sealed to him for eternity!

According to the Geek (aka Justin):

Well as I recall I had made a business transaction with 'Kay Jewelers Incorporated' around 3:45pm the afternoon of the previously mentioned day. From there it was necessary to perform an upgrade on the coverings of my biological infrastructure as to thus comply with the regulations set by the location we would be attending(the Temple)...

TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER.....

Upon arrival to the residency of Marvin and Pamela Wagner I decided that it would be of need to recharge the energy stored within our biological infrastructures, and so I proceeded to make the necessary arrangements to do so (place the day before's Sheppard Pie in the microwave). It was then brought to my attention that special lighting arrangements were to be made. So I proceeded to induce a chemical reaction within the composition that is sometimes referred to as a 'Candle'. With such lighting arrangements in place it was no longer necessary to consume the energy being dissipated into heat by the incandesants overhead, I thus proceeded to resolve this issue.

At this stage I slipped away in order to put in a marriage request with the presiding authority of the Butterfield residency located in Moses Lake on Turnagin Court. The request was then passed to the first counselor for a sustaining vote (I also had to ask Patty). The sustaining was unanimous in the positive.

With the go ahead light I then returned to the previously established 'romantic' atmosphere to be in the presence of the stated 'Beauty'. I then proceeded to increase the magnitude of romantic feelings; however I did encounter some interference (David) that caused the coefficient of efficiency of the previously stated attempts to drop below what one might refer to as a 'desirable' level. However the loss of efficiency was not large enough as to cause the planned 'proposal' to fail.

With all preparations in place I then was able to present the binding contract (cleverly disguised in White Gold and Diamonds) to 'Beauty' on bended knee. Negotiations were successful and both parties agreed to be sealed for all time and eternity on the 27th of June 2008 in the Spokane Washington Temple!

So there you have it, both sides of the story, which one do you think comes closest to the truth? Unfortunately there seems to be only three persons who were able to witness the event. One of which does not possesss the capability to remember the event while the perspective of the other two seems to have been slightly influenced by twitterpation. I guess we may never know what really happened................

To see pictures of this joyous occation click here.