For The Family

Check out these sweet moves from Isaac...WARNING this movie is rather boring like Avatar/death of a salesman/one flew over the cuckoos nest/science class boring. Unless you think Isaac is the cutest baby in the world. Please ignore the crazy mother talking. I don't know who she is. And stop watching at the 1 minute mark.

CHeve and Logie

This week Aunty Chels, Uncle Steve and baby Logan came to stay! We mostly went shopping because what else are you going to do in America when the Aussie dollar is so fabulous?

We did get to the Dinosaur Museum and the Zoo.

When Sean got home from studying he introduced Steve to other American things like taco bell at midnight and the massive menu at Cheesecake Factory.

The boys loved having a baby around and they were mostly nice to him.

Dinosaur Bones Museum

Isaac future weatherman

don't you love Williams Aussie T


Zac trying to put all the matter back together

Will lifting some copper

At Home



Cubby wanted to give Logan kisses all the time

Whats left of Isaac's Spiderman cake. It didn't really turn out because the cake was missing an egg and I forgot that you had to wait till the cake was cool to frost it but hey it tasted great.

The Zoo



I am a little surprised I got a picture of Zac here since William looked at the crocodile for about 20 minutes until Chelsea got him to come and look at something else. I need to get that kid to Australia Zoo or maybe I'll just buy him some Steve Irwin dvds.

Logan wasn't too impressed

Chelsea feeding a Giraffe!

William feeding the giraffe who had a very long tongue.

This is what happens when I say Hey boys look at the camera.

Just a bit of jet lag...

by the way Chelsea and I may end up with matching wardrobes. We now have 2 skirts, a pair of pants and 2 tops that we purchased from the same store at the same time. We'd probably save a lot of money if we lived in the same country.

Eat your veggies

From February 6th to March 3rd I went Vegan.
Well, mostly vegan, I still used chicken stock (that's what I had on hand) and I ate half a fish stick, a bite of cheese and a hamburger (more on that later).
So, I wasn't going to post anything about my vegan (which means no animal products at all) experiment because I didn't think I would want to keep eating like a vegan and I was worried this post would sound all preachy; like I wanted everyone to stop eating animal products. I don't. I'm not your mother. You can eat whatever you like.

Now, that's my "don't be offended by the vegan" disclaimer.

The biggest reason I wanted to record my veganist adventure was because it was so fabulous, that when I'm 50 and half my meals are still vegan, I will want to know how on earth I went from seasoning everything with cheese to being vegan for a month, possibly for longer, or forever? Yikes! So the big question is why did I go vegan? It happened almost accidentally, it was a tipping point really, not a real black and white decision. Here's my journey...

1. Grow up with a health conscious mother. Whose answer for most aliments is "stop eating junk food and eat your veggies/take some vitamins". Spoiler Alert!! She was right! Mothers are smart. Quick go tell a teenager!
2. Get older, notice that you can't do what you could when you were 18.
3. Give birth to a picky eater.
4. Start researching different ways to get said picky eater to eat anything but Cheerios.
5. Try lots of new and different recipes.
6. Watch Supersize Me.
7. Never eat at McDonalds again.
8. Discover that you actually like cooking.
9. Read about nutritional needs of children and adults
10. Follow weelicous.com
11. Watch Food Inc.
12. Never buy cheapo eggs ever again.
13. Stop trusting the FDA.
14. Buy Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook.
15. Try some recipes from Jessica.
16. Sell Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook.
17. Read The Omnivores Dilemma and In Defense of Food.
18. Watch Alicia Silverstone on Oprah talking about being vegan.
19. Think Miss Silverstone must still be a lot like her clueless character.
20. Start to incorporate 3 or more vegetarian meals into your weekly dinner menu hoping your husband doesn't notice.
21. Husband doesn't notice.
22. Watch more Oprah about being a vegan
23. Decide that if Oprah and her employees can go vegan you can too.
24. Go vegan for the week.
25. Read The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone and realise you have to be vegan for a month to really see how it makes you feel.
26. Notice that you are feeling a lot better.
27. Your skin has completely cleared up.
28. You have more energy.
29. Crave a grilled cheese.
30. Try vegan cheese.
31. Spit out vegan cheese.
32. You feel lighter and loose weight for the first time, even though you already thought you were eating well and exercising a ton.
33. Try vegan meat substitute.
34. Throw away vegan meat.
35. Decide not to eat anymore vegan substitutes except for soy milk and almond milk.
36. Have a no-good-horrible-bad day. Send husband for a smash burger. Husband happy, thinks vegan kick is done. Feel sick after you eat burger.
37. Repent. Be vegan again.
38. Try new veggies. Yum.
39. Try new seasoning. Yummy
40. Try a Vegan cake. Yumm-o. Thanks Whole Foods.
41. Run out of good recipes and make a very bad lentil dish.
42. Go to the beach. Stop at Chik-fil-a on the way home and stop being vegan.
43. Within the week put on all the weight you lost, feel super tired, breakout and be in a mostly bad mood all day.
44. Taste cheese, decide you don't like it. Eat chocolate, like it, but get a headache now. Drink milk, spit it out.
45. Find good vegan cookbook.

Well that was longer than I thought it was going to be.

In summary, being Vegan made me feel really good. So good in fact, that I could happily be vegan. Maybe. The good feeling is so much better than any hamburger, bacon strip or baked goodie. That being said I won't become a vegan right away. I am sick of making two dinners. Oh and I did cut out all processed sugar while doing my vegan experiment so maybe I'll have to do a no processed sugar experiment to see if it was the no sugar or the no animal products that made me feel so good. It was probably the higher intake of veggies and whole grains along with the no sugar that really made a huge difference. Maybe I'll try some "clean" eating, has anyone ever done that before? or if I had any self discipline I could just eat mostly vegan but I don't I think I could. The all things in moderation idea doesn't sit well with my stomach.

Well there it is and here's the preachy part....try a vegan meal, it is a little difficult to get your head around the idea of dinner not being meat, starch and vegetable but you might just feel fabulously healthy after you eat it. And just think of all the little cows/chickens you'll be saving in the process (if you like that kind of stuff).

Oh and Food Inc. may just change your life. watch it today.

And I haven't gone all animal rightsy on you. I do believe we should treat animals kindly, like don't throw kittens in the river or bulldoze cows but I really have no beef (haha that was seans pun) with eating animals. Come to think of it I really don't mind anyone eating any animal, unless they are endangered. Does that make me a horrible person? Don't tell Peta or the English.

Why?

this picture has nothing to do with this post I just thought it was cute and I haven't been taking many photos lately. Otherwise you'd know we went to the beach this week and had a fabulous time.

Just when I thought it was over! The past 3 days Mr Zac was accident free. I was so excited that our house would become a diaper free zone that I totally forgot hes not potty trained I am. We had 8 accidents today! 8! which means he didn't make it to the potty once. we ran out of undies. we stayed home all day. I just never made him go to the potty which means hes not potty trained. I am being trained in the art of guessing when he needs to go. When will the torture end?!?!

Zac-A-Doo

My little Zac attack,

• You are 3
• You are still humming to yourself anytime you need to concentrate
• You tell amazingly detailed stories with sound effects
• You do your own sound effects not just for your toys but for yourself.
• You love to help me cook but refuse to eat most of it.
• You do a fabulous job at emptying the dishwasher.
• You love to play dance party, super heroes (you are almost always black spiderman who is sometimes mean and sometimes kind)
• Sometimes you tell me stories about Steve, I'm not sure if you are talking about uncle steve or you have an imaginary friend called Steve.
• You love to have your legs and belly sratched.
• You insist on chosing your own clothes
• And you hardly ever look straight ahead while running.

Happy Birthday!

Birthday Boy!

Zackies Birthday Top 5

5. He is now 3 so that means he can climb up the stairs to the top of the fort in the kids zone at the Y. Like a good mother I dump my kids there for forever (according to Will) so I can exercise.

4. He got to play with Hazel and Lucy! Like a fabulous mother I dumped my birthday boy at the babysitters and went on a date.

3. He got presents from Grandma and Grandpa Berensen. Like a super mum I immediately put away the puzzle because I didn't want to clean it up and put in the movie.

2. He got Spiderman cupcakes from HEB. Like an awesome mum I spent hours and hours practicing my credit card swipe not my cupcake making skills.

1. We went to the store together to buy his birthday present. Like the thoughtful, organized mum I am we decided on the way if we wanted to go to the pet store or the toy store. Petco won and we have a brand new fish! Meet Fishy Blue, he is a rockstar. For the record I did suggest other more creative names.

doesn't Cubby look like a little boy in this picture?

This is only the beginning of the birthday extravaganza! the Rellies arrive on Monday so you'll get to see my cake making skills then, which may or may not involve bribing one of the many talented cake decorators in MW2 RS.

Friday Faves

Only in Texas....

just to clarify, thats a seceede bumper sticker on the right and Texas Independance on the left and then to top it all off a texas flag tint in/on the back window. The Rodeo is in town. I am already sick of the traffic it creates.