Austin Zoo

The weather has been really cold lately so the kids (and I) have not been outside in a long time. I have been wanting to check out the Austin Zoo for a while now and the weather was going to be good enough for us to go. Monday, my friend Erin and her two boys along with myself and my two kids all piled in the van (gotta love a van for that) and headed down to the zoo.

Now, I knew this zoo would be smaller than most that I had been to, but smaller does not even describe it! This was more like someone's big backyard with some birds and a few big animals. Both my friend Erin and I were pushing double strollers and there weren't any paved walkways. We were totally off-roading on dirt pathways with huge stones that we had to practically carry our strollers over.

The animals seemed different at this zoo. It may have been that we were the only ones at the zoo that day, but usually when I go to the zoo, the animals just kind of sit there and don't pay any attention to you. But on this day, all of the big cats (tigers, lions, panthers, cougars) were staring us down. The tigers were following us along their fences. It was pretty scary. I have been kind of freaked out about large animals at the zoo since that December tiger attack at the San Diego Zoo (I even have nightmares about it... seriously). Needless to say, we hurried through those big cats. I just kept thinking that since we were the only ones at the zoo that if these big cats got out they were definitely going to be chewing on one of us! AND those fences did not look very high so that was quite unsettling as well.

A few pictures--- I didn't take very many so sorry about the quality.

Adam and Ellie looking at the black bear.
Owen eating fish... not interested in the bear... tolerating the monkeys.
Ellie smiling (with eyes closed) while taking a break from taunting the bear.
The monkey that Ellie was terrified of. It just kept staring at her.

Legal Talk

After much procrastination I finally got the huge urge to take care of some legal matters that we have been needing to take care of for quite some time. I got Daniel, myself and the kids all set up with life insurance. Daniel and I had a bit of life insurance in other places and some if we were killed in an auto accident but nothing else and certainly nothing that would really be beneficial should one or both of us die. So, we finally are set up with life insurance. The insurance company still needs to have an interview with Daniel and will likely have someone come out to the house to verify our height, weight and vitals as well. I feel so weird to suddenly be taking out life insurance because I am afraid if something does actually happen that it might look suspicious (I watch way too much Dateline).

I also started on our Will as well as our Living Wills and Power of Attorney. This is something we have discussed in great detail in the past but I finally got around to actually making it all official. Even though it is a very necessary thing to do, it is still really hard to think about if Daniel and I were to pass on having someone else raise or children. I do realize how important these decisions are though so I am happy we have finally made our wishes legal.

I think I was starting to really feel like we need to get this stuff done because we just keep having more kids and the thought of the burden that would be left to me if Daniel should pass or the immense burden left to the guardians of our children if we hadn't set this stuff up... I can't even imagine. The moral of this story is mostly to all of my friends/family out there who have not yet set these things up, get on it!!!

We're having a.....

I went to the doctors office yesterday and she said she was 99% positive that we are having a GIRL!!! I was pretty sure about it even without the ultrasound, so it was just confirmation of what I already knew. Here are a few pictures of our new baby girl.

Here you are looking at a profile of the whole body. You can see her legs are kind of folded up there at the bottom of her body and you can see her hand there are the top above her chest.
Here is where it shows she is a girl. What you are looking at is her legs, looks like she is kneeling or something since her legs are legs are overlapping a bit. But in the middle you will notice a lack of "male parts" and you see a few small white lines which are the "girl parts".
Here is another picture of her face and body but not as good of a picture.

Daniel and I are really excited to be welcoming another little girl into our family. I would be really happy if we continued having them every other one, works out nicely like that I think! A girl was convenient this time because we already have all the girl clothes in the right seasons. We have pretty much decided on a name but aren't 100% about it yet. I will let you know more about that in a later post!

"Gymsticks"

Just a couple pictures of the kids....

Here is Ellie and Owen reading books together. They really love doing this and I often find them together reading books in Ellie's room. Owen especially is starting to get into it more and more and constantly brings Daniel and I books to read to him. It is so cute. Ellie, of course, still loves books.

Here is a picture of our little dare devil. Owen thinks he is superman and takes risks all the time by climbing on the furniture. Just the other day he climbed on top of the kitchen table and then fell. Luckily, he fell mostly with his body, but still very scary.

Ellie started gymnastics this week. She calls it "gymsticks". She seems to really enjoy it. While she likes being pretty and doing moves in ballet, I think she will really enjoy all the fun equipment at gymnastics.

Catching Up

I am trying to get back on my regular blog-writing schedule. I have been out of the loop for awhile now because we have been dealing with quite a bit of sickness at our house. Someone in our family has been sick since the beginning of December and it has been really difficult trying to get everything back on track since then.

Since Christmas, we have been working on getting back on our regular schedule again. We really haven't been on a good schedule since before Thanksgiving. Laundry days are all mixed up, morning routines aren't what they used to be and just the day to day errands aren't getting done as quickly as they used to. I am feeling ready to get things back in order though!
Here is Elise showing off her freshly painted pink nails. Lately, we have been having a hard time with Ellie. For one, she decided over Christmas break that she didn't want to use the toilet anymore. This was a huge disappointment because she was doing so well before that and we thought she was fully potty trained. So, since we have been home we have been working with her and it has gotten better and we'll really be working hard on it these coming weeks. Also, we have had some discipline problems with Ellie. She has decided that time out is worth it if she can give her brother a good slug for it or if she can throw a fit and drive mom and dad crazy. I think next we will start taking away treasured toys or movies to try and get her to behave a little better. This parenting thing is hard because short of beating her, what can you do? (btw, we are opting not to beat our children... now:))

Lucky for Ellie, when she is not being a horrible two-year-old she still is very sweet and does/says some really funny things. It is what saves her. She knows how to give the best hugs and kisses. Ellie has also started up preschool again and will start again with ballet this week. She still really loves doing those activities.

Here is Owen (ignoring the camera). Poor Owen is teething pretty badly right now. His molars are coming in and they even look painful. So, we have been dealing with quite a bit of whining from him. However, Owen continues to be the best little boy. He is a great little sleeper, loves to play and has recently discovered how wonderful being held in mom's lap is. Too bad that he has to share it with his sister.
Here is our new entertainment center that houses our new flatscreen LCD. We were a little disappointed in the entertainment center (we bought it online) because we thought it would be a bit taller so the kids wouldn't reach the tv and had hoped that the accompanying shelf would have been the same height. But, overall it will work for us for now. It is much better than the old cabinet and has our electronics up high and we are happy for that. We are still working on filling it up and will probably move some wall hangings around.

Daniel really loves the new TV but is disappointed that our cable provider doesn't have more HD channels. I think he just wants them all. We still have a million channels now which is more than we will ever need. He has liked watching the football playoffs in high def and is excited for LOST in HD as well.

In baby news, there is no news. I go to the doctor on Friday and seeing as I will be past the 17 week mark, I might find out what we are having. That would be exciting, but I am not getting my hopes up because I did last time and wasn't able to find out until later on. My instinct is still that it is a girl. There have been a lot of similarities between this pregnancy and my pregnancy with Ellie. At this point it would surprise me if it were a boy. Either way, I would be really excited though! I like the thought of having them every other one but Owen is the best baby that I would not mind another like him!

Vacation Fun

We had so much fun on our Christmas vacation. We did a lot of relaxing and hanging out but also were able to do some other things too. Here are some pictures from our vacation.

Papa and Grammy McPherson bought this moon walk for all of their grandkids for their backyard. Ellie and Owen loved it (so did Kyra when she came)! It was great to let them outside and they had so much fun.Here is Ellie trying out the slide.

Owen checking out the camera.
Owen messing with Papa's face.

GG (Great Grandma) feeding Owen some Pepsi.
Ellie dressing up. Dad especially loved seeing his daughter dressed up as a bride!
Funny smile.
Look at those toes!

This trip we were able to take some pictures with the whole Weber clan. Considering there were 3 babies, it wasn't too bad.

Picture of our little Weber family.

One of all those cutie pie Weber grandchildren.

The McPherson Family recently had family pictures done so we just tried to get some decent shots in the backyard.... it's always worth a try, right?

The following are some pictures of my brother on his mission. He sent home some pictures and I thought I would include a few of my favorites.

We miss you Pat!!!-------- We had a great Christmas and are very thankful to both sets of our parents for always being so good to us!

Christmas Morning

Usually we do Christmas with my family first since we like to get up REALLY early, but this year my grandma was in the hospital so we held off hoping she would make it home in time for presents. So, we were off to the Webers! We had so much fun opening presents with Grandpa and Grandma, Steve, Lindsay and Spencer and Jordan.

Here is Owen checking out his new riding toy from Grandpa and Grandma.
Here he is trying it out!
Ellie was taken care of as well... she got this Dora tricycle that she has been nuts about ever since.
Santa brought Ellie a Bitty Baby so she can have her own baby as mom will eventually have another. She has really loved it, she likes to take it with her everywhere.
Owen got a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He thought that was pretty neat and stared at the pictures on the box for a good while.
Cute.
More cute.
Dress up clothes! Ellie received a lot of dress up clothes and she is always wearing them around the house. She absolutely loves to dress up and look like a princess.

Back to the McPhersons:
I believe this is a princess dress up kit.

Ellie's new Razor scooter from Santa. She is still working on it.

That Weber Christmas really tuckered out Owen so he decided that a nap was the way to go.

He's so sweet!

More opening Santa presents. Santa wraps all of his presents in tissue paper so the kids can tell them apart. They always open up Santa first.

Owen wakes up just in time to open more presents.

Owen gets a Mickey from Grammy and Papa. He thought that was pretty great.

We had such a wonderful Christmas. We all got a ridiculous amount of presents... which we are SOOOOO grateful for. It was definitely a good thing that we had a van to take them all home in!

Christmas Lights

Over the Christmas break, we toured a neighborhood called Pecan Grove which is right by my parents new house. Almost everyone decorates with lights in this neighborhood and it was really fun to take the kids and look at all of them. It was also great to do in the evenings right before bed because the kids would just knock out!

All of the following pictures are of ONE house!!!

They had this bubble maker which was so fun. The kids loved it!Dad and Owen enjoying the bubbles.
Of course, I had to get a shot of Daniel in front of the Simpsons display.

The picture above and the picture below are of a screen that they have set up where a camera is on you and you can see yourself in the screen. Ellie LOVED it! You can't really tell, but the picture above is of Grammy holding Ellie and below is of me holding Ellie.

They had this miniature display too. It was fun.

We really enjoyed the lights and plan on making this a new tradition whenever we go to my parents' house for Christmas.