The Devil in Pink Pants

I've spent the weekend battling a cold I got from Ellie. I think it was the snotty kisses that did me in. It's annoying because I pride myself on my being able to avoid little illnesses like this. However, if it was a choice between Erin or myself, I'm glad I'm the one with the cold. Sickness and pregnancy are never a good mix.

Saturday was really the worst, as I spent most of my day on the toilet. On the bright side, I got a lot of bathroom reading done (I have two types of reading: bathroom reading and bus reading). I finished the biography of Spencer W. Kimball's presidency years, Lengthen Your Stride. Apparently the author (Edward L. Kimball, SWK's son) and the publisher (Deseret Book, owned by the Church) had some heated disagreements about the content of the book, so I was expecting some controversial statements, but I couldn't find any. Maybe they were successful in editing the things they wanted (He includes a longer, 1,000+ page version on a CD that comes with the book, but I haven't looked at it). Overall, it was a good read - especially the chapters on the revelation on the priesthood.

Lucky for me, I didn't have classes today, so I got an extra day of recuperation for free. I'm not totally recovered, but I'm feeling better and I'll go to school tomorrow regardless of how I feel. Whether I'll actually get anything done remains to be seen. The past several work days have been less than productive.

And before I go, I leave you with the little devil who caused all my suffering this weekend. It's just so hard to stay mad at that, you know?

African Queens

Well, it has been a little while since I have written a blog, so there is lots to say.

Well, first off the picture is of Elise and I in our African outfits that Webers brought back for us from Nigeria. Ellie looks much cuter in hers than I do. Not a huge surprise. Mine is a little big. We joked that our whole family could fit in there.

Anyways, there has been a lot going on but I have to think about it since I am covering several weeks. Well, I took Ellie to get new shoes a couple of weeks ago and it was quite the process. First, I thought we would go to Stride Rite and get her shoes. We usually get her church shoes there, but I have always got them on sale before. We went and they want like $40 for a pair of toddler's shoes!!!! No way. So we ventured over to more affordable territory-- Payless Shoe Source. I hadn't been there in awhile but it turns out they had some really cute shoes so I got Ellie 3 pairs. We got her some tennis shoes, some dress shoes and these clogs that she is in love with (she wants to wear them everywhere). Payless was an interesting place to take Ells. She went buck wild!! That girl loves shoes. She was running up and down the aisles and grabbing shoes wherever she could. It was pretty funny. When I went to pay we were the only ones in the store (it is a stand alone store, so it wasn't in a mall or anything) so I let her run around and she got herself lost and was crying out for me. It was cute.

Ellie's vocabulary has been increasing and she is doing more things. She started saying her own name today and will recite a lot of what we say back to us. Still in single words, but soon she will be talking like an adult. We taught her how to put her own diaper in her diaper champ and flip the handle so it goes in, we also taught her to throw stuff in the shopping cart when we go grocery shopping and she has learned to climb up into her own seat when it is time to eat.

Unfortunately, Ellie has been sick the last couple of days. She is pretty bad this evening. She is in bed but we can hear her coughing and having problems trying to breathe. It is just heartbreaking!! I imagine I will be up a few times at least to get her settled down and back to sleep tonight. I have already been in once. I think it helps when I hold her a little more upright. Anyways, I think I will take her to the doctors tomorrow since it will be the third day with this cold and she has been running a slight fever. This is actually the sickest she has been ever so we have been pretty lucky.

I went to the doctors on Friday. It was a pretty routine appointment. I did my diabetes test which seemed a little nastier this time than it was last. I think because last time was orange drink and this time was just a flat cola. Yuck. Anyways, I was poked and prodded while I was there as well. The doctor also scheduled an induction for November 20th so we for sure won't go past that! We decided to do that so we will have things a little more planned out and we know Daniel will be around the first few days and my mom can be here and also because we were due around Thanksgiving we wanted to be sure that our doctor would be available. Of course Owen could come earlier (which I am still hoping for).

I have had a lot of contractions. Still just practice ones, but on Sunday they were really bad and painful so looks like I am going to be suffering for awhile longer! Only 9 more weeks.--- 8 weeks and 6 days. Yippee!!!

I won't write much about Daniel since he promises to write soon. But, he is doing well and seems to be making it through school so far. I think being away from Ellie this summer has made him so much more attached to her. They are inseparable.

Well, I think that is all for now. It is almost 9 so I am going to bed in preparations for the long night ahead!!! Hope you are all well!! Love ya!

Ellie updates

Hello all. Well, Elise Louise has been quite the busy girl. She has learned how to climb and is very good at it. Whenever we leave the computer area open she will climb up onto the chair and play with the computer and mouse. She looks pretty cute doing it so it is hard to get mad. She just likes the light on the mouse and loves to play with the keys on the computer. This next picture is of Ellie and her stool. We got this stool forever ago because I was just short enough not to reach the cupboards in one of our apartments. It is only like 8 inches off the ground. Anyway, Ellie found it and she has always got it. She carries it around all over the apartment. She is very smart though and has learned that she can climb up on higher things using this. For example, when she wants something off the kitchen table that we have stuck there for her NOT to get, she will carry her stool over and stand on it to reach the object. She has also learned that she can climb over the gate we have in front of the kitchen if she places the stool in front of that. She has also had some accidents with the stool. Like I said, she carries the thing everywhere and carries it over her head and runs with it and all sorts of things. She has popped herself several times in the face with it. Poor thing.


This last picture is my favorite. Yes, Ellie has a new hairdo! It is finally long enough for pony tails!!! I did a sloppy job on these since we don't own a comb in our house! (Daniel hasn't combed his hair since his mission apparently). So, when we have a comb we will do a better job, but isn't she cute? --- And hasn't she really gotten to look like her dad? I think so!!!

School's back in session

I shouldn't have worried so much about getting registered before the first day of classes. Apart from a $25 late fee (which I wouldn't have had to pay had I not listened to the graduate secretary), registration meant nothing. Since the first day, my schedule has changed four times. I went to one class on Thursday and when the professor kept asking questions like "How many of you have seen this before?" and I was the only student not raising my hand, I knew the class was not for me. I didn't even finish the hour out - the second he gave us a break, I took off to switch my schedule around.

I talked to the professor of another class I wanted to take and he told me I wasn't ready for his class; I needed to take some prerequisites first. Unfortunately, taking the prerequisites would probably add another year onto my projected graduation date. That's not going to fly with me or Erin. So I managed to convince him to let me audit the class, though it took some persuasion. I think he was kind of miffed that I was skipping the usual route, but what else was I going to do? I'm not going to put off contributing to my research for a year just to satisfy some silly requirement, even if he is the head of the Operations Research department.

So as it stands now, I'm taking two classes and auditing one, in addition to my research responsibilities. It's going to be a busy semester. Now back to pretending I'm doing something productive as I listen to my iPod and surf the 'net.

Skinny Ells

It has been a pretty good week for us. To start off the week we took Ellie to the doctor for her 15 month appointment. 20 lbs. 8oz. -- She is in the 75th percentile in height but still only the 20th percentile for her weight. Not a huge surprise since I had noticed her sprouting up and also noticed that she still doesn't eat as much as other kids. I think she is doing better on the eating front though. She is at least sitting down and eating SOMETHING at each meal. It was a good visit to the pediatrician. It was the first time I have gone to the pediatrician with Ellie and not felt like a bad mother. Usually when I go they go through a list of things that I should have been doing for her and all the things that she should already be learning. However, this time Dr. Gritzka said she was ahead as far as 15 month progress!!! This was exciting for us. Elise knows and says more words than most 15 month old toddlers and she understands and responds to commands. This was exciting news for us. I guess we aren't terrible parents.

While we were at the pediatrician we got the details about what we needed to do to inform the pediatrician we were having another baby. Turns out we do nothing. We just tell the hospital who our pediatrician is and he comes on over to the hospital. He said he was there like all the time so he should see our baby, no problem.

Oooo... my favorite part of the week was our tour of the hospital. It was a pretty nice hospital. It has some nice amenities and I will have my own room which is much better than I had last time. Just seeing the hospital and what we will be doing and where we will be got me pretty excited and I decided I am ready to go!!! However, Owen is only 2/3 cooked so I have to wait a few months still. Bummer. It is especially a bummer since I have started having contractions. They really suck. They are really common in the third trimester so nothing to worry about but they are REALLY uncomfortable. I never had Braxton Hicks with Elise so this is just an added perk I guess.

Last night we babysat Ellie's little friend Ally. Her mom and dad are in the same situation that our family is in. He is a grad student, they are poor, they are expecting a son on Halloween, so pretty much the same situation. We decided to start switching off babysitting with them so we can each go on dates. It is fun because we will have some time alone and Ellie will have a play date. Ally was afraid of Daniel (apparently she has issues with men) and both Ellie and Ally were possessive over their sippy cups. Besides that it was just another Ellie around. We are also going to watch each other's kids when we each have our babies. We both have family within 3 hours of us so we needed someone to watch our daughters when we went into labor. It is a pretty good arrangement we have going I think.

Box Babies

This week has been a fairly eventful week as far as our weeks usually go. The weekend started off with Daniel's parents coming up to visit. It was wonderful having them here. They were able to see our apartment all put together (they were here last when we were moving in). We went out for some yummy barbeque and played a little speed scrabble (sadly, Daniel still reigns as champion). We had fun that morning visiting and playing with Ellie. Of course, there was the wasp incident that Daniel described, but Ellie faired very well. I think I made things a little more dramatic because I was scared she would be allergic and also I just didn't really know what to do. However, she is practically recovered. She has a couple of dots on her but that is all. She cried for about 15 minutes after the stings but that is it. I felt worse for Brent who had been stung many times!!

After the grandparents left, we headed up to Dallas to visit my sister Kim, Ryan and Kyra. Ellie was really good in the car. She slept for about an hour and was happy the rest of the time. I had to make a little potty stop (darn pregnancy!) so she got a drink for the road (which ended up all over her of course). Anything to keep a baby happy in the car. We took a wrong turn somewhere so we ended up taking an extra hour to get there. Ugh. But we got there eventually!!

The weekend went well. We spent most of Saturday doing family pictures. It was very interesting taking pictures with 8 adults and 2 babies. Ellie was, of course, not really cooperative, so we have no smiling pictures of her. Go figure. However, we finally have a picture of our little family (Dan, Ellie and I) so we are happy about that. Kyra and Ellie got along great. Kyra can walk now so the two of them were pretty cute together. They ran all over the house together.

Since getting back to Austin we have mostly been watching our 4th season of 24. Daniel has also tried to register for his classes 3 times now but the lady that can do it has been wrong about the time each time Daniel has gone down there. It has been stressful for him but I am confident that he will get signed up tomorrow.

This afternoon we are going to go take a tour of the hospital where Owen will be born. It is a pretty nice hospital so I am anxious to hear about their amenities.

We are mostly just happy to be back home and to be here for awhile and back into our routine. Hope everyone is well.

It's the queen of something!

This past weekend Elise had a run in with some angry wasps that had made their home on our balcony. You can see the softball sized nest to the left. She was out there blowing bubbles with her Grandparents Weber, and when they moved the little table, the wasps got angry and started stinging. Dad got stung five times and Elise was stung at least twice (we found some marks on her head later that suggest she was stung a couple more times up there). Mom somehow escaped unscathed (for some reason she feels bad that she didn't take a few stings as well - though I don't get it; I sure don't feel bad I didn't get stung).

Erin was able to summon up some super-human Mom strength and quickly grabbed Ellie and brought her inside. I've rarely seen her move so quickly - especially six months pregnant. In fact the only other time I can remember was when we were in that car accident shortly after Ellie was born. I don't think the car had stopped moving and Erin was already out the door and into the back seat screaming "My baby!"

Erin's first instinct was to get Ells out of her clothes. This was smart because a wasp had climbed under her shirt and left two stings (you can see them after the swelling had gone down on the right).

Erin insisted on taking her to the pediatrician, though by the time we were in the car it was obvious that Ellie would survive. The swelling had already gone down quite a bit and Ellie was laughing and singing like nothing had happened. Later we realized that the first stings are freebies - even if you're allergic, you won't go into anaphylactic shock during the first incident. The doctor told us to give her some Benadryl (I had suggested we do this right after she was stung - that First Aid merit badge wasn't for naught) to reduce the swelling.

The thing about wasps is that they don't die after they sting you like bees do. They live to sting again. Dad was able to get revenge on the wasp that crawled up Ellie's shirt, as it was inside the apartment. Later that day, I got in my wasp suit and sprayed the nest with some wasp killer. I think I took down about 15 or 20 of them in one fell swoop. Let this be a lesson to wasps everywhere - if you come after my family, I will hunt you down and kill you. I wanted to pin the wasp carcasses to the porch wall as a warning, but Erin nixed that idea - too gross, she said.

Ellie has fully recovered and I think Erin will eventually realize that she's a good Mom and it's not her fault. I actually feel pretty good about the whole experience. We knew what to do in an emergency situation and our instincts were right. Maybe we're not terrible parents after all. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go get Ellie off the kitchen table.

A little Daddy attachment?

Since we have been back in Austin, Daniel and Elise have been quite the pair. I think because Daniel was gone a lot this summer and Ellie is realizing he is here for awhile, she thinks she should be with him constantly. She has always loved books, but she is obsessed with them right now and wants them to be read to her constantly. AND not by just anyone, mostly just dad. She will go in her book basket where we keep her books, grab a book, run over to the chair in her room and whine until her dad comes into the bedroom and sees what she wants. It is kinda cute. This picture was yesterday when they disappeared for like an hour and I hunted them down and found them reading books together.


It has also been difficult moving in our stuff because Daniel would have to leave to go downstairs for a new load and Ellie would say "bye bye" and then cry when the door shut. After awhile I think she figured out he was going to keep coming back.

Today Ellie and I went to Radijazz. Yeah, I had never heard of it either but it is this place in Austin where there are a bunch of little play areas for kids to run around and everything is soft. It is more targeted to toddlers which was perfect for Ells. Yeah, Ellie is still pretty terrified of Pump it Up so this is a nice alternative. We are thinking we might take her again next week. In fact, she is finally laying down for a decent nap after running around there, so I am pretty certain we will take her again!!!

SURVIVING another year

Well, we are back in Austin now. It was quite a bit of work to move us from Houston to Austin. For some reason, I am sure Daniel is to blame, we have accumulated quite a bit more stuff. Go figure.

Today is Daniel's and my 3rd anniversary. We didn't do much to celebrate. We got a video camera for my birthday that counted for our anniversary too. It was expensive. So far, the only thing we have done for our anniversaries is move. It will be nice not to do that one year. We figure we will have a big "to do" every 5 years. It was still fun to reminisce about what we did on our wedding day and how things have been this year and how this next year will be. We went out to dinner tonight and while out I asked Daniel what he wanted, what goals he had for the upcoming year of our marriage. He answered, "TO SURVIVE!". I hope he was referring to the busy year in school and a new baby coming this year. At least, he better be.

We played a little cribbage tonight and I really got whooped. I got skunked twice and almost got double skunked the second time. I am sure I will massacre him in the rematch though. I just offered to play a game of speed scrabble, but Daniel must be afraid since he denied me a game. Elise spent game time coloring in her coloring book. She has gotten much better about not eating the crayons but we still have to watch her. She did take a big chunk out of purple to which we let her know that coloring time was over.

We've been working doubly hard on getting a good sleeping routine for Ellie. She sleeps wonderfully at night... THANK GOODNESS... It took long enough. And she also takes a descent nap but lately she has been taking a 30 minute nap in the morning and then nothing the rest of the day. She is just dying to sleep by 5:30, but by that time it is too late and we have to struggle keeping her up. I think we are making progress though, she took her nap at 11:00 this morning. Ideally, we would like her nap to be right after lunch. We'll get there.

I think that Thursday we will be going to a play group while Daniel is doing some school business. I am kind of excited for that because Ellie has missed her friends here.

Most of this week will be spent just doing errands. We have a lot of things that need to be done before Daniel starts school. I have been a little melancholy this week since this is the week we were supposed to go on our cruise, but the doctor told me I would be too pregnant. It was a bummer. However, thinking about it it would have been a nightmare with Ellie at this age. She just wants to run everywhere. Still, it would have been fun.

Owen is doing well. We went to the doctor's office yesterday and he sounded and measured perfectly so all is well. At my ultrasound he was moving so much that they weren't able to get a really good look at the spine so my doctor offered us to get another ultrasound to ease our minds. Seeing as ultrasounds are expensive and that nothing could really be done if they found something wrong, we declined. We will love this babe no matter what. There is another test that they do early on in the pregnancy that tests whether or not the baby is down syndrome. It is kind of a sensitive test and has a lot of false positives in which a lot of women have to go through amniocentesis to check for sure and nothing ends up being wrong and the mom is freaking out the whole time thinking something is wrong with her baby. However, even if something is wrong with the baby, there is nothing that can be done. I think those tests are just to make moms freak out about not having a normal child.

Well, I am already tired (it is 7 o'clock) and I need to spend some time with my groom on our anniversary. Hope everyone is well... we are!

S-M-R-T

To start off, I still reign supreme as Speed Scrabble champion.

I managed to survive my last week of work, presentations and all. I did the whole exit interview and my boss (really my boss's boss) said they were impressed with everything I did and that they would find something for me to do if I wanted to come back next summer. Afterwards, I had to give him a demonstration of my superior intelligence by repeatedly trying to pull a labeled push door as I was leaving. I wonder if they still want me back. To cap the whole experience I was "red-lighted" as I was leaving (when you get red-lighted, you have to pull over and have your car searched to ensure that you're not leaving the plant with proprietary material -- "Security is EVERYBODY'S problem" at ExxonMobil, literally).

We're back in Austin, and I managed to get all of our stuff up to our third floor apartment without giving myself a heart attack, though just barely. While our apartment is still here, a lot has changed, including the locks on our storage closet and mailbox.

I still haven't registered for classes, but I know what I'm taking. Three courses: Multivariable control, large scale systems optimization, and reservoir engineering. Hopefully I won't burn out, but as long as I can manage to open the doors the right way, I'll consider it a victory.

Kwyjibo on the loose!

Last Wednesday, we had dinner with the Hedengrens (two social events in less than a week - probably a record for us introverts). John graduated from BYU a several years before I did and earned his Ph.D. under Dr. Edgar at UT. So we have a lot in common.

While we were there we played "Speed Scrabble," a version where each player creates words from their own tiles. Erin and I were probably too humble when describing our Scrabble skills, as the Hedengrens seemed pretty surprised when we massacred them. I did feel a little bad, as they were the ones who suggested and taught us the game. They didn't know what they were getting into. We're just too competitive - when we smell blood, we can't help but go for the kill.

So we've been playing Speed Scrabble all weekend, and I'd like to say it while it's still true - I am currently the undefeated champion of Speed Scrabble. There have been a couple of close calls, but so far nobody has been able to get to 500 points faster than I have. I'm sure this will have changed by this time next week, so I'm getting my gloating in now, before it's too late.

I have one more week of work (the presentations start Wednesday) and then it's back to school. I'm anxious to get back to Austin, but I know I'm going to be much busier this semester. I'll talk more about my upcoming schedule next post, and we'll see if I can survive another weekend of intense Speed Scrabble action.

Boy oh Boy

Last night I was laying down in bed staring at my stomach and it was moving all over the place! It looked like it looked when I was eight months pregnant with Ellie! This little Owen is a mover and a shaker that is for sure. He never seems to perform when his dad has his hands on to feel but just about every other time he is MOVING. Just the other day I felt like all of my insides were bruised because he was just moving constantly. It is just so crazy how different my two children have been inside the womb. Just goes to show that they already have little personalities.

So, I have four other friends who are expecting boys within a month of ours. It is pretty crazy. Must be the year of the boy or something. I don't know anyone having a girl.

The other night was spaghetti night. Need I say more?

Ellie Lou has gotten pretty accustomed to "feeding the animals" here at the McPherson zoo. Toby is getting fat I think. We have had to go back to basics and just feed her by spoon ourselves (obviously spaghetti night she was on her own... otherwise, we have bad aim!). It will be good to get back home and back to reality where there is no one to eat her droppings off of the floor-- just mom to clean them up-- which reminds me that we should really get something plastic to go under her high chair for a bit.

This next picture is typical Ells this summer. We have been putting a ladder on the stairs to keep her from going up them constantly and so when she hears someone upstairs she just hangs on the ladder calling their name or yelling something or another. The funniest thing is that I am always yelling up the stairs to my mom, "MOOOOOOM!" and so Ellie has picked up on that and yells (in kind of a loud annoying voice- obviously not mimicking that from me), "MMMMAAAAA!". So we are working on her saying "Grandma". She did say "ga-ma" one time but no grandmothers were around to witness, so I have been told it doesn't count.

Ellie has learned lots and lots of words. Hi, Bye-Bye, shoes, car, ball, papa, mama, dada, juice, no, cheese, thank you (sorta, comes out more like "tantu"), nigh-night --- that is all I can think of at this moment, but she is always talking these days whether or not it makes sense is something else. She has been really good about going and getting things and putting them away. I tell her to go get a diaper or go get her shoes or go get her milk etc. and she will scurry off to go get it. She also points at the things she wants. When I can't decide whether or not to give her juice or milk she comes to the fridge and points to which one she wants. She also knows when she wants to go to sleep. Just the other day she was so cute because she was so tired that she went and got her cup of milk and then went over to the quilt rack, grabbed a blanket and dragged it over to me (we were sitting at the table playing a game at the time). SOOO CUTE. Of course she knows who people are now. For example, I say "where's Uncle Evan?" and she goes and finds him or points to him or looks right at him. She does that with pretty much everyone she knows.

Ok, that is enough from me for now. I just can't help but brag about my little babe. She is getting so old now! 15 months on the 21st! Sheesh.

Star Wipes

The weekend goes by much too fast. On Friday, we went over to Brandon and Elena's for dinner. Brandon is an old friend from high school. They have a daughter who is about nine months older than Ellie, and a brand new son. So Erin was pumping them for information about what it's like having two kids, what's different, what's hard, easy, etc. I think she's a little anxious about our new addition, who is currently bouncing around her insides like a pinball. Apparently Owen has been a lot more active than Ellie. I'll be happy as long as he sleeps through the night. I got off easy with Ells. She only wanted Mom at night, so even when I did get up with her, I didn't do much. I have a sinking feeling that's not going to fly with this next one. So I'm crossing my fingers that he'll be a good sleeper.

I'm still enjoying work, even though it has slowed down some now that we're nearing the end. I've spent the past several work days honing my PowerPoint skills in preparation for my final presentation (what does it look like if I have each letter drop in separately?). There's still some things to do to finish up the actual project, but I've stalled out because I don't have the necessary computer privileges. In both of my internships that has been the largest obstacle keeping me from getting things done. I don't know if it works the same way outside of ExxonMobil, but it is a Pain (with a capital P) not only to get things set up, but to get them set up right. I could have finished this project in half the time if I had the right resources available from the start. I think some of this was due to key people taking their vacation around the time I showed up (another big problem with summer internships).

I have to give this presentation three times to three very different groups of people. I present to the HR people who basically rubber-stamp approved my hiring, then a group of upper-level management, and finally to a mixed group of engineers from the plant and the research facility (the people who actually care about the stuff I'm doing). I asked if I should prepare three different presentations and was told to just give the same presentation to everybody. I think I'm going to get a lot of blank stares. Basically the only people who understand what an applications engineer does are other applications engineers (which is good for job security, but bad if you're ever trying to get a point across). I just hope I can convince people I actually did something of value this summer. Now, should I star wipe to the next slide or have it spin in like a pinwheel?

Birthday weekend and MORE!

This picture is kind of funny. We took Ellie to Rainforest Cafe a few weeks ago (you know the place that has all the animals that come to life and the thunderstorm every 20 minutes) and this is her yelling at something. It might have been when the Elephants went off or something. It is pretty funny though.


Here is our beautious Elise Louise goofing off. She found this basket that she could get into but then couldn't get out of so she freaked out because she wanted to do it on her own but she couldn't. She looked pretty cute in there so I took this picture.

Well, last weekend was my birthday weekend. It was really fun! Daniel and I started out the morning bageling with my family (a Saturday tradition), then we left to go shopping. We were specifically looking for a pregnancy wedding ring for me. My hands and feet swell up big time during pregnancy so we were on the hunt of a Walmart ring. However, we came up empty handed because they didn't have my size... my fingers were too fat for Walmart I guess.

After that we went to see a movie, "Lady in the Water". It was good I guess. A little different, but all of M. Night's movies are. I am not sure if Daniel liked it, he kept saying that he had to pay close attention because the whole story was just told verbally for the most part. After the movie, we did a little house hunting and looked at model homes. It wasn't very successful because we were looking at the North side of I-10 which is generally a little cheaper and it was really hard to find one stories that were big enough (we want 4 bedrooms and an open floor plan). Moving into a house is still some time off but it was fun to look and perhaps we will look again SOON! After house hunting, we went out to lunch. We were going to go someplace fancy but I wasn't hungry enough for it so we just went to Bennigan's. It was still scrumptious and enjoyable.

After lunch, we checked into the Omni hotel. I like that hotel. I thought it was pretty and the bed was SUPER comfy. I took a nice little nap and Daniel caught up on Sports Center or movies or something (I wasn't conscious). We thought about going to an Astros game but it was sold out so we went to another movie (Evan gets free tickets for us so it was a nice cheap date). We saw "You, Me and Dupree". It was funny. Before the movie we got milkshakes--- YUMMY!

That was pretty much our day. About the time of the second movie I really started missing Ellie. I knew she was probably fine, but I had never been away from her so long and was really missing her something terrible. So the rest of the evening and morning all I could think about was Ellie. Daniel too.

The next morning we had a yummy breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then headed back home. Elise seemed unphased by our absence and seemed to take much more of a liking to my parents than us. Go figure. It was fun but hard for me to do, but definitely something we needed to do. We had never been away from her overnight and needed to do it because we would be away from her quite a bit when Owen is born. Plus, we just needed some alone time since Daniel has been away most of the summer and we hadn't really had alone time since Ellie was born. We mostly bring Ellie on our dates with us!:)

Well, that was the birthday weekend. As far as presents go... I got a gift card to Kohls (already spent), my Henckels Santoku knife which I had been dying for, a shirt, a head massager (long story on that one) and a video camera so we can start taking some video of the kiddies.

Bittle-less in Baytown

I'm back in Baytown to start another week away from Erin and Ellie. Only three weeks left!

I'll leave it to Erin to tell you about her birthday weekend. Suffice it to say that I'm still trying to live up to that first birthday weekend when we were dating. I set the bar way too high that year....

The internship is going well. I'm enjoying the work here much more compared to last summer. There's more to do, and what there is to do is more interesting. The big negative is having to say goodbye to the family every Sunday. Driving away with Ellie waving through the window breaks my heart every time.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to getting back to Austin and seeing my girls every day. Just three more weeks...

Summer in Katy

This has been a very interesting summer thus far for the Weber clan. Daniel has been in Baytown during the week working at Exxon and Elise and I have been living with my family. It has been pretty tough but we have made the most of it. Ellie is growing faster than ever. Mostly I have noticed that she has gotten a lot taller. She is busier than ever as well. The pictures that I have included are of one of the times when she played with the hose in the front yard. She loves doing that. There is also a picture of her eating dirt for the first time... hopefully realizing that it isn't for her.

Our most exciting news of the summer is finding out that we are going to have a son in November. We haven't permanently settled on the name, but we are strongly leaning towards Owen Brent Weber. Boy names have been kind of tough for us, but I think we have pretty much settled on this one.

This weekend is my birthday weekend. I am pretty excited because it will be the first time that Daniel and I have gotten time away from Ellie (more than 4 or 5 hours anyway) since she was born. We are going to stay the night at the Omni Hotel and just go to a movie and dinner and do a little shopping. Basically just have a little "couple" time. It will be our only chance before the new baby and the first real chance to spend time together just the two of us since Daniel started working at Exxon this summer. Not to mention that our dates in Austin have always included Ellie. --- That is really our own fault but she needs to learn to be away from us sometimes, especially since I will be away from her for several days when I have the baby. We have some friends in Austin that have a daughter a couple months older than Ellie and are expecting a son 3 weeks earlier than ours that we are going to start trading off with for dates. I imagine we will need a little freedom once in awhile!

Ok, well that is all the rambling from me for awhile, hope the blog works out for everyone Ryan & Kim's seems nice so hopefully ours will be comparable. Love you all!

Welcome

Welcome to the Weber Family Blog! I intend for this to be a place where family and friends can get a quick update on how we are and what we're doing. Hopefully I can be diligent in keeping it updated. As for now, it's a work in progress, so it may evolve as we go along.