My most favorite day in Austin....

Yesterday was the annual Zilker Park Kite Festival. It is without a doubt my most favorite day in Austin!! It's like the unofficial end of Winter & beginning of Spring and the amazing weather it brings to Central Texas. We met up with a bunch of friends and enjoyed a picnic, watched the kites fly, and of course the warm weather. By the end of the day Gaby was saying it was her favorite day too!!
Sadly there wasn't a whole bunch of wind, but John did manage to get our kite up a little bit...

Getting ready for the rock wall...
My fearless little girl...

Cupcakes are YUMMY!!!

"Ring around the Rosie...."

"....we all fall down!!!"

Aunt Pauline & Baby Will

Great day!!!

Tiny Development/Big Announcement

Guess what????

8 wks

10 wks

14 wks

It took a little while but we have finally been blessed with our second pregnancy!!!

We are super excited and can't wait for this new chapter in our life :)

Gaby is sooo very excited about the baby and loves hugging and kissing my already present belly. She is convinced it's a girl and would like to call her Mia or Sophia. Mia, of course is her cousin and Gaby seems to think we need an Austin Mia and Sophia is a little friend from school a while back who made a very big impression on her I think. It's going to be a challenge to convince her otherwise but we are trying. Anyway, she is really interested in what the baby is doing inside my belly and if he or she can hear us and what it's eating and what it's doing etc. This is definitely such a fun process with her :)


Our due date is August 25th with a c-section already planned for August 18th. It should be a looong hoooot summer....

4 Yr Photo Shoot

She is so darn beautiful :)

The Austin Zoo

Two days after the snow and bitter cold had past we were back up to 60+ degree weather. You gotta love Texas :) We were definitely going a little stir crazy by then, so we decided to take a family trip to our little Austin rescue zoo and enjoy the beautiful weather. Here are some shots from our day... Peacocks are so beautiful... The lion was roaring up a storm. Very cool!
Feeding the llamas... That is soooo funny... I gave this guy my business card. He's in desperate need of a dental intervention... Pigs soaking up the sun... I just had to take a picture of this guy sitting like a gentleman. How cute!

Snow Day!!

Surprisingly, we actually got a snow day here in Austin. Last year we got one so we didn't really expect another one this year but we got it. It was only an inch and a half of snow but that was enough to shut down this whole town. Both Byron's and my offices were closed and of course Gaby's school was closed too. We enjoyed a quiet day at home trying to stay warm and relax as much as possible. A little fun in the snow... Then some hot chocolate with the boys to warm up... And alot of fun computer time... It was a well deserved day of rest :)

4 Yr Check Up

Today, we went to the pediatrician for Gaby's 4 yr check up. Gaby did super at her visit! She passed her vision and hearing tests with flying colors, cooperated with the doctor while she was being poked and prodded and was chatty and outgoing answering questions. I was very proud :)

She weighed in at 40 lbs and 42 inches which now puts her back in the 90% again. She went from 75% to 90% in one year- major growth spurt!

After all that good stuff, then it was time for the shots. I had worked very hard at preparing Gaby for them and she seemed surprisingly ready to take them on. She sat there and held my hands and waited for them and then......screamed bloody murder after they were done. Man, that kid has good lungs!! It took a while to calm her down, and we went and had ice cream afterwards which, of course, made everything better, but wow....that was some scene!

Mia's Bday

Mia's birthday is two weeks after Gaby's but this year her party was exactly one week after Gaby's. It was at this huge gymnastics center where the kids had so much fun jumping and running and flipping and bouncing all over the place. Happy Birthday, sweet Mia!!

Splish, Splash, I was taking a bath!!!

Gaby's Mermaid Birthday Swimming Party

This year the preferred theme was Ariel, The Little Mermaid. So what better than a swimming party?? This is actually Gaby's last semester at Elmer Swim School so it was like a last hoorah at the place we've been going every year since she was 6 months old. With a bunch of her friends and classmates there Gaby had a blast swimming, bouncing in the bounce house, eating dinner together and of course blowing out the candles on the most beautiful Ariel cake (made by my sweet friend Becca!) It was a pretty great party for a very special little 4 yr old :)

Gaby's 4th Bday

It's so hard to believe that our little cutie just turned 4 yrs old!!!!

She is still and always has been such a fantastic little girl. She makes me laugh every single day! Her genuine interest in everything is so contagious. Her sweet dispostion- the way she is so thoughtful, helpful, funny and loving makes her so much fun to be around. We are so very lucky to have her in our lives. As with any 4 yr old, though, of course she has her sassy moments. But honestly its usually hard to keep a straight face when she's sassy. It's funny to see a 4 yr old acting like a 14 yr old.

So the night before her birthday we had a little family celebration which of course included some cake...

Happy New Year!

I know it's a little late but Happy New Year!! I'm not sure I've ever taken such a long break from the blog!! I guess things have been busy since the holidays and honestly I've been taken down by Cedar Fever this whole month. I am tragically, debilitatingly allergic to Cedar and here in the Hill Country it is so very prevalent this time of year. The inability to breathe is so horrible and has just been so exhausting to deal with. But besides that, there have been alot of exciting things going on around here including Gaby's 4th birthday so I need to get to blogging......

Christmas 2010

This year my family came up from Houston to celebrate Christmas. We had a fun, relaxing time eating, opening presents, watching movies, and just hanging out. Gaby's excitement over Santa was contagious. It's so fun to see the holidays through her eyes!