Beautiful Day!

It has been a wonderful couple of days here at the Weber house. Despite my horrible cold (I really am sick, but I am trying to convince myself that I am not and still doing things as if I weren't), we have been out and about.

Yesterday was such a beautiful day! It was in the high 80's here. In the evening the weather was SOOOO perfect that we had to spend some time outdoors. Luckily, we have a backyard that allows us to enjoy outside without having to take a hike. We got some great pictures of the kids and even got some video (yes, we found our power cord).

My two handsome men. Yesterday was the first day Owen wore shorts. He has these chubby old woman legs. They are pretty cute.

Ellie was really enjoying picking the dandelions out of the backyard. She was also throwing a baseball around. She has a pretty good arm! I like to think that is from me :)!

Have you ever seen a cuter face?

I love this picture!! You can't tell but Daniel was actually in pain squatting down like that.

Have to include a picture of myself I guess. Though this one is not real flattering, I am usually the photographer. Give me a break, it is 5:30 in the morning! This is a picture of two mamas and their two babies. Just recently Ellie has gotten back into her baby. She tried to hold her baby doll up to my chest the other day and I had to explain to her that her baby is bottle fed.

Today is going to be a fairly busy day. We are going to go to the library today for pre-school story time. We went yesterday to our old library for story time and craft time and Ellie was way more intelligent than those kids (I am not joking, most those kids have never colored before, couldn't hardly speak and Ellie was the only one who cleaned up the toys!) so we are taking her to preschool time instead. This will be our first visit to the Pflugerville library.

We will probably make a trip to Walmart today for some new hubcaps (ours have been flying off since we had the tires changed). Hopefully we will make it to Gymboree's open play time later this afternoon. When dad gets home I think we are going to wash the cars!! Ellie will really love that!

Things are going great with us. Now that things have settled down, we are much more able to go out and be social and show Elise more things that she can learn.

Loving You Is Easy Cause You're Beautiful

I am convinced that God made my children cute to help me forgive them for all the messy stuff they do. I just can't stay mad at these two, whether they spit up and poop on themselves within the same hour (Owen), or they get hold of the spaghetti sauce and smear it all over their face and clothes (Ellie).

This picture was taken around 7 a.m. this morning. By that time, we had already been up for 2 hours.

Ellie likes to snack on 100 calorie packs while she watches her "toons." She likes "Wiggles", "Miska"(Mickey Mouse), and (Doodle)"bops."
Owen is only three months old, but he's already a pro at the "Don't hate me 'cause I'm beautiful" look.

Maybe he learned it from his sister.

Ellie was a little jealous when Owen tried to use her toy...

...but they made up afterwards.

We sure are lucky to have these two gorgeous babes.

School, Babies, Pictures and Life!

It has been a pretty good couple of days for us. I did my visiting teaching the other day and it has definitely gotten to be a little bit more work now that I have to cart around two kids, but it isn't so bad. Luckily I visit sisters with kids so they don't mind my two year old screaming or my 3 month old (3 months today!) crying. My visiting teaching has turned into quite a production. We now are visiting our sisters for like an hour and half each or more! It has gotten a little out of hand. I think it is mostly because I have a bit of a chatty Cathy partner. She is moving out of the ward this month so my route will likely change anyway. It is just taking forever to get it done each month.

The kids are doing great. Ellie, who is forever my helper, has been really thriving lately. She is such a little sponge that I have been feeling particularly guilty for not doing more things with her. I think the guilt of thinking I am not spending enough time with each child is something that I am going to have to fight with all of my children though. I think it has been particularly difficult this time because I, at one time, gave her all of my attention.

So, to help a little bit with giving her more one-on-one time, we re-enrolled Elise in Gymboree. Daniel took her on Saturday and she seemed to enjoy the play time and attention from dad. We are going to alternate weekly on who takes her. I think this summer we will probably enroll her in the gymboree art classes-- she sure likes to color!

Owen could not be any sweeter. Daniel and I say it about a hundred times a day, he is just a sweetheart! He is now able to follow us around the room with his eyes. He loves his exersaucer because he can move around and follow us with his body as well. He is really strong and stands up on our lap all the time and doesn't have any problem holding his head up at all. Owen is about to roll over. He has been close many times. Perhaps his favorite person these days is his sister. While he cringes a little whenever she is touching him, he sure likes to stare at her and laugh and smile. Daniel has been working hard at school. How long he has left changes each day, but his goal is to be done by the time he is 30... let's hope so! He is staying a little later each day so he can get more done. It hasn't been bad at all for us. I think when he starts staying past five it will really impact us a bit. We love waiting for him at the window when he comes home each day. Yesterday there were kids playing outside that Ellie was waving to and talking to. Daniel says while he doesn't mind school all that much, his highlight is definitely playing with his kiddies.I have finally gotten to that point that every mother gets to after having a child that I can handle it! I finally feel like I have things under control. I am not scared to go places with both kids anymore, I am getting all the household things that need doing done and I am able to play with my kids and feel relaxed about life! Basically it is that feeling that I could handle something else on my plate without having a major freak out, it's a good feeling. I think it is just that rhythm of day to day life and having a schedule that is finally working out for us.

ELMO!

It has been a wonderful weekend for us! We took lots of pictures and so I will just get on with showing you them!

This weekend was our Sesame Street Live weekend. Despite worrying whether or not Ellie's attention would be kept, we all had a wonderful time. Ellie LOVED IT! She was clapping and singing and shouting "ELLLLMMOOOO!!!!" every two seconds. It was cute.

Here is Ellie at the show. We bought her a t-shirt and a Zoe light up toy as well as an Elmo balloon. I know, I am spoiling her, but I have been feeling guilty since Owen was born that I am not giving her enough attention so I have been over-compensating.

Here are Daniel and Owen at the show. Owen was not real into it.

Here are my favorite people. This was right after the show.

This is our little Owen, smiling away, as always.

Here is Ellie helping to set the table. She is actually pretty good at it and usually puts the forks on the correct side! (this picture was an off day for fork setting)

Here is a picture of the kids together to give you an idea about how big they are with respect to each other.

This is Elise looking out the window for, yes, the garbage man.

More Owen smiling. I know, you can't get enough of it!

Owen kisses and the Garbage man

It has been a pretty good week for us here at the Weber house. Our new computer came last week and it is pretty awesome. I set it up and Daniel installed all the software and drivers. He has deemed it as pretty much my computer since he has his laptop that he primarily uses. I don't think it is really "mine" but it has some features that are good for what I like to do on the computer. We moved the desk and computer stuff into the master bedroom. There is plenty of room for it, which is nice, but the kids have more access to it since they spend a lot of time in our room, especially in the mornings. But the computer has a nice "lock" feature which is super easy and quick to activate. It will make it so kiddies can't mess stuff up!

Owen is giving us kisses (well, I like to think he knows what he is doing). Basically, when I put my lips or cheek up to lips he opens his mouth for a sloppy kiss. Owen is starting to settle into a nice routine of taking two or three long naps during the day. It is really nice because I can get more done and it is a whole lot better than waking up every fifteen minutes. Yesterday we had a photographer come to the house to get the kids pictures done. Owen smiled in just about every picture. I am eager to see them when they're ready!

Elise is busier than ever. She is ALWAYS into something. Despite being a little difficult at times, she really is more fun than ever. She is saying all sorts of things and we even have songs we sing in the car. She is forming short sentences and pretty much knows what most things are called around the house. The picture to the right is of Ellie waiting for the garbage truck to come and pick up our trash. It is one of her favorite things so almost every day when we hear the garbage truck engine, we are both yelling wildly, "GARBAGE MAN!" and we (all three of us) dart to the window to watch him pick up ours and our neighbors' trash.

The new bed situation went much better last night. She woke up twice in the middle of the night but I have implemented a new strategy where I just keep putting her in her bed and walking out the door without saying a word. I had to do this about 8 times before she went to bed last night but I thought that was pretty good. Hopefully this is progress!

I have been pretty busy with (kids and cleaning of course) a project for spring break. My family rented a house down in Surfside over spring break. I wish I could go into more detail, but since it is a surprise, I can't! But, it is keeping me busy every spare minute I can get!

Daniel has been busy with school. He is working a lot more than last semester. Last semester was kind of unproductive for him I think. Dan said that he feels much better about the progress of research, he is at least doing stuff on it!

This week we are looking forward to Sesame Street Live! I also hope it warms up a little bit because I really want to take the kids to the park tomorrow. We shall see!

Big Girl Bed

Owen has his own room and Ellie has a new bed. After some hectic furniture rearrangement Friday afternoon, the first night with the kids in their own rooms went fairly well. Ellie slept in until 5:15 (about normal for her) and Owen didn't have any problems. Saturday night, however, was a different story. Owen woke up three or four times and Ellie was up at 3:00 am and decided it was time to play. So this new arrangement may take a little more getting used to than we originally thought. And here are some pictures:

Owen and I were rooting for the Bears on Superbowl Sunday...

But this Austin native is really a Texas fan at heart (Hook 'em Horns!)

Moving the bedrooms around required some disassembly and reassembly.

Ellie's new bed (Coincidentally our old bed)

Owen's new crib (proof that I got it back into one piece)

This week in review

It has been a pretty good week for us. The kids and I went down to Katy for a couple of days. Daniel was really busy with a conference and meetings he had going on at school so was going to have a few late nights. My dad is out of town for almost 6 weeks straight so it was a perfect time to go down for a couple of days. It was productive for me. I was able to buy a few shirts and a couple pairs of shoes that I desperately needed (I don't think I have bought shoes in years). It was definitely an adventure taking the kids to the mall-- they both had simultaneous freak outs and even with my mom and I double teaming, it was a little stressful.

The picture to the right is of Elise and Owen playing with Owen's toys. Ellie is pretty cute in that she shows him how it works and then pries his little fists open to stick the toy in his hand so he can do it.

Owen has stopped taking a bottle all together. There just weren't tons of opportunities to give Owen a bottle and he is just pretty particular. I don't think I am going to force it on him, but I am unsure about how I will wean him now. With Ellie, I just phased out nursing and put her on a bottle. I might have to go directly to a sippy cup with Owen. Anyway, his not taking a bottle makes going out a bit tricky. I have to time it accordingly or either nurse in the car or find a bathroom. VERY inconvenient!

Our new computer is being delivered today. We are pretty excited about it since we desperately need a new one. Our current one has just gotten old and has really slowed down significantly. It makes it really annoying to do much of anything on it. Plus it just isn't set up for what we use it for the most. We mostly do pictures and some video and then just every day stuff.

Not this weekend but next weekend we are taking Ellie to Sesame Street Live. It is only an hour and a half long so I think she will be fine to sit through it. She has really gotten into cartoons and loves puppets and what not. We are all going. From the website it really sounded like kids of all ages (including babies) are there. Tickets were relatively cheap, so we are looking forward to it. They allow cameras there so I will have to get lots of pictures. The picture to the right here is of Elise and Owen watching some cartoons the other morning. Doesn't Owen look older than 2 months!!!!????

Ellie has been helping me out more than ever (well, I don't know if it is really helping me out, but she enjoys helping). She now helps set the table. She even knows how to set the silverware properly! It is pretty impressive!

Like I mentioned before, Daniel has been pretty busy at school. He has been pretty wiped, but I think things have slowed down a bit. It seems like he is feeling more pressure to do more on the research he is doing. I imagine that is what he will primarily work on all summer. For him it is just a matter of sticking to his self-set schedule.