Feb Photos!

Since the weather has been the biggest adjustment for us here in Colorado, I can honestly say that I have never been happier for March to arrive! Despite the fact that the month tends to be the snowiest of the year in the Denver area,, and the kookiest (with highs in the 70s and 80s and the next day, 30s with snow), it still brings us closer to spring, and warmer weather! I am so tired of wearing long pants and shoes everyday!!
We thankfully are flying to Orlando tomorrow for a much needed respite from the cold and to see some Dodgers spring training games! Be expecting some pictures of the beach, and lots of green foliage when we return!But in the meantime, here are our pictures from the month of February. You'll notice pictures from around the house (including her room- I took those for her baby book), Gigi's 9 month photos that I took of her rather than going to a portrait studio, first bath in the big-girl tub, Gigi's swimming class, and the Zoo among others.
I will mention that we had a great time taking Gigi to the Denver Zoo for the first time- she loved looking at and talking to the animals. I'm not sure if the bigger highlight of the day though was the baby giraffe jumping over the first railing and almost out of the pen (David saw it but the rest of us were inside looking at the other giraffes) or, the monkey who looked like Rafiki doing a back flip- I am dead serious, he did a standing back tuck right there in his exhibit; it was amazing. Wish I could have caught that on video!Click for photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157604001893338/

Future Musician?

Camera Ham!

I'm 27!

Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes and helped to make my day special!! In addition to all that, I had a great day...

David, Gigi & I went to lunch at a yummy deli, and got a scoop at Baskin Robbins! Yum!

Then we did a little shopping at Old Navy and Best Buy (got a Dyson- woohoo!).

And finally we dropped Gigi off at our friends the Stopniks' house for the evening and we went out on the town! We took the train downtown and had a yummy shrimp dinner at Bubba Gump's. That much I was aware of, but the exciting part of the night was a surprise! David took me to see Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy at the Denver Performing Arts Complex. It was fabulous! I mean, so good! It's a show similar to Cirque du Soleil but done by an American company. Lots of good tumbling action, elaborate costumes, and crazy talented peeps. We both really enjoyed it.

Here we are all dressed up at the Stoppies' house.

Meanwhile, Gigi had a fun time with her friends Brooke & Britton. They even got to all take a bath together and get cool mohawks!

A Valentine's Day gift...

Hi everyone!
Here's a photo of Mommy & me today in our cute Valentine's outfits...
I have a gift for you! It's a video of me! Yay! It's sort of old, but Mommy is working on getting all the clips edited and put together, so there will be more posted soon!





Love, Gianna

(here's a rare shot of me being camera shy--
Mommy thinks I look cute even though I'm not smiling)

9 months old!

Our little Gigi Bri is now 9 months old! Just a little update on her... she weighed in at 15 lbs 9 oz (~20th %ile) is 26 5/8'' long (50th %ile) at the doc's last week. So she's still pretty tiny but to us she seems to be getting big! Must just be because she is doing so much these days (or because her crazy hair is getting so long!).
She's officially cruising the furniture, although she is a speedy little crawler so she usually resorts to that as her choice mode of transportation. She is still very vocal, and has added to her repertoire an energetic "yeee-eah!" that elicits many smiles, and cute little deeoo- like sounds. She's still a bit of a challenge in the nap area-- taking as long as an hour and a half to finally give in to sleep, although usually once she's out she'll sleep for a good while.
She has several teeth now-- 2 on bottom, and 3+ that are poking out on top. She still likes to play in her corral although we have opened it now to give her a bigger play area. Her favorite game these days is "Peek-a-boo" which she even initiates by herself (video forthcoming on that!).

So to say the least, we are thoroughly enjoying parenting this little sweetie and are enjoying the fun stage that she is at right now!The goofy girl playing around.

Side note: I was about to get mad if I heard one more time about the 80-degree weather in California... but then today our high hit 64!!!!! I'm currently wearing shorts in my house! Yippee! Now if only it wasn't supposed to snow 8 inches tomorrow... oh well, only a little over 2 weeks before we go to Florida!

A child's wise prayer...

Our pastor shared this on Sunday... it was in the context of a child who had lost something special & valuable and prayed that God would help him find it, then explained his prayer to his sister.

I think we can all learn from and probably use this as a reminder in our lives!

"Perhaps Jesus will help me find _______ (enter your lost object, etc here), but if not, He'll show me how to live without it and to be satisfied in Him alone."

Joyful January!

Here are our family photos from the month January. Included are some fun pictures from a minor-league hockey game we went to, along with lots of other fun shots. Some of them I have posted in other blog posts, but a lot of them will be new to you. Enjoy!
Gigi goes to the doc for her 9-month appointment a week from today so we will be sure to give you a size update for her then!
In the meantime, Happy Birthday, Dad!
Click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157603835423217/

Our sassy girl! (thanks to Aunt Carly for the cute shirt.)