"Bless You"

Our sweet Gianna loves to say Bless You when someone sneezes, coughs or makes some other similar noise. I caught her saying "Bless You, Mommy" after I made some noise and then she proceeded to bless others as well. :)

Old Video Recently Edited

Hope you enjoyed that, and I have a few more up my sleeve!!

Almanor Crew Meet-Up

If you saw our February photos you may have noticed we had a little get-together with part of the Almanor crew, aka the families I grew up camping with every summer.

It's always fun when we're all together and this time was no exception. We met up at the Churney's new house (which they've done an amazing job fixing up) in Orange, and a highlight was definitely seeing Gigi get to play with her friend Ryan who's only a month younger than her, and his new baby brother Jayden.

We of course missed the rest of the crew (including this family and this one), but hopefully one of these days we'll all make it up to the lake for a reunion!

Love you guys!!Gigi's first time "holding" a baby!

P.S. Kelly, I owe you pictures, I'll email them soon or your can download them off my flickr account. :)

January Photos and A Message to Bennett Markley

sI've been meaning to post this link...
Here are all of our January Photos on Flickr.

Gigi's First "Vlog" (Video Blog)

Something Gigi loves is to watch "movies" that our friends post of their kids on their blogs. Today she literally asked me to watch one of her favorites- Bennett Laughing-- Click the link so you can see how cute he is (she likes the dancing one, too), but don't forget to come back here and scroll down!

Here's Gigi smiling away as she watches Bennett...


And in response, she wanted to do a Vlog for Bennett:

Amazing Family Photos

Our extremely talented friends, Danielle & Jared Zacharias of sidebysidevideo.com took these awesome photos of us at one of our family's favorite beaches, Stone Steps. It's in Encinitas right down the street from David's great-aunt's house.


I'm blown away at how cute some of these are. Capturing Gigi like this "on film" is not an easy feat with how crazy our little toddler is these days! There's no way I can pick out my favorites right now so here are just a couple and then I encourage you to enjoy the slideshow below.

7x7 Prayer For Our Children

I posted on Gidget Goes Home today on how I plan to pray for Gigi specifically 7 times a day, 7 days a week (or as close to that as possible each day). You can visit there to see my digitally-scrapboooked prayer cards and to read more about!

I hope you have a fun weekend and enjoy the SuperB owl (as Jim Rome and therefore David affectionately refer to it).

Weekend in Sac!

Gigi and I flew up to Sacramento this weekend for a fun time with family and friends. We were so stoked that David was able to come out from Colorado too and we loved spending the weekend with him; it made us even more anxious for when he's finally out here for good!

We stayed with our friends Dave, Emily & Isabelle as we have been wanting to visit them ever since Dave had a bit of a health scare last month. We loved meeting Isabelle and Gigi was so happy to meet another new friend, Ih-belle. Gigi & Izzy got to take a couple of baths together and Gigi got to play with all of Emmy's fun toys that she has from her speech therapy days, and Mommy was happy to eat yummy abalone for dinner- mmm!!

Bath time!

We also went to celebrate with the Bennett side of the fam and Gigi got to go to Aunt Carly's bridal shower and spend time with her and Uncle Chase, Granny and Granpa and even Aunt Stacey, who came all the way from Indiana, surprising her little sister! During the shower, David and his dad got to play golf at the golf course that David worked at in high school with his buddy Taylor and his dad ~ just like the old days.

Surprise!

At Carly's Shower

On Sunday, we also spent time with Kristina & Sarah, another one of Gigi's friends. It was so cute to see the three girls sort of "hanging out" together and observing the different stages each of them is in.

Moms & Daughters, the next generation

Isabelle (~6 mos.), Sarah (~11 mos.), Gianna (~21 mos.)

Speaking of stages, sweet little Gigi Bri has officially entered the Terrible Twos, as of Carly's shower, which she pretty much spent in one constant tantrum (sorry, ladies!). Although, she sort of redeemed & refreshed herself yesterday with two good naps, and a good night's sleep.

Thanks, everyone, for a really fun weekend!

Beach Babe

Swinging in San Clemente

Well, I'm happy to report that Gigi has a new found love-- the beach!! She has had a bit of a hiatus from the beach but now that we're starting to go more often she's loving it. She actually cries when we leave.

She loves to talk about the beach, ocean (sounds like oh sh**!! -pretty funny), birdies, sand, surfers, surfboards & skateboards (she calls them boarders), water, and doggies.

Here's a video (sorry, unedited) of Gigi in Coronado... when we first arrived she would barely walk on the sand, but she was chasing the birds in no time!

Happy Halloween! {+ Oct. Photos!}

Tonight Gigi went trick-or-treating with her best neighbor friend, Keira! They were adorable!
Here they are this afternoon in their matching pumpkin shirts, and then later this evening dressed up as a Chargers cheerleader and a 50s girl {note: it's virtually impossible to get these two to smile at the camera the same time!}.

Gigi finally got the hang of it after a few houses. She liked carrying her little bag of treats around, and had fun examining "her" loot. :)

One of our neighbors was nice enough to give the little girls Teddy Grahams, so we let Gigi have a "treat" when we got home! {p.s. This picture shows the first time she said "cheese" when posing for a photo!}

October was a fun month in Colorado, and included two of Gigi's other best friends, Wyatt & Brooke's birthday parties!
Here are the rest of the month's pictures:
http://flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157608547716184/

Celebrity Look-Alike- Go Dodgers + Denver Bull version!

There can be no doubt about this celebrity look alike... it's Manny and the Manny-ette!








Seriously though, we had a fun time at the Dodgers/Rockies game on Sunday. (Gigi's actually signaling "home run" in that shot, although #1 would work too!)Gigi even took a nap in the mei-tai (thanks, Stacey, we still love that thing!).
And the day before we also went downtown to a really neat park with our friends, the Matthews (and later David went to another Dodgers game). To say that Gigi loves little Wyatt would be a gross understatement.David has a beef to pick with whoever coined this statement... he thinks it's a lot of bull.It's written on a cool Denver landmark though! Periodically they repaint this bull; I like this version about why Denver's unique.

Giveaway!

Sorry for the shameless self promotion twice in one week, but hey, this is for your own good... it's a giveaway on Gidget Goes Home!
I'm finally opening up my Etsy shop and I'm celebrating with free stuff for one lucky winner!
So, go check it out, if you haven't already!

Oh, and here's 2 recent shot of Gigi with her new-found love... the phone! Every time she gets her hand on one, she holds it up to her ear, places it awkwardly on her shoulder (must be copying something I've done!) and says, "uh-woh?" So serious. It is adorable.

Yogism + Cute White Shoes

Here's a classic Yogi Berra quote we heard last weekend:

"It's hard to make predictions, especially about the future."

On a totally unrelated note, here are a couple of cute shots of Gigi in her "new" (read: hand-me-down from Keira the neighbor), snazzy, white shoes. She was all dressed up for church in these pics (dress made by Yaya!).

15 Months Old

Our little girl is getting big! In addition to her relatively large vocabulary (those listed above are just a sample), she also continues to sign (please, all done, more, yes, music... and now, "home run!" She's working on "safe!" too). A new trick is pointing out the things she knows and saying it, like a hat on a person in a book, water on the TV (olympic diving), etc. It's really cool to see her continue to develop into such a smart little girl!
Side note: this scrapblog is the first one I made from scratch! You can use their pre-made layouts or you can start with a blank slate and use all their cool backgrounds, "stickers," etc. It was a little more work, but more artistically satisfying and fun! :)

Muffin-Tin Lunch!

This idea has been going around the blogosphere so I decided to try it!
Gigi can be a little picky at mealtime (drat! we were determined to not have picky eaters!) so I thought I'd mix things up a little. I say at mealtime because I know she likes these things, she just seems to get out of the mood for somethings at times. Like for example, she'll munch a piece of watermelon at Farmer's Market, but then does not want to eat it at mealtime. Weird girl. It was a really good watermelon too.
She seemed to enjoy the muffin tin (said, "woooow" when I first set it down), so I'm going to try to implement Muffin Tin Mondays, just for fun. I just gotta stay close by though for when she starts to pick up the tin! Has anyone else tried this?

Premature Potty-ing!!

After we get Gigi undressed for her baths, we let her walk naked to the bathroom (partly because how cute are little naked buns walking down the hall?). A couple of times when the bath wasn't ready yet, she has accidentally done a little tinkling on the bath mat. So when we were visiting our friends the Millers a couple of weeks ago, they loaned us their potty that's currently not in use. We set it up in the bathroom and sort of just for fun started sitting Gigi on it before the bath, enthusiastically telling her, "Go potty, Gigi!" and "Do you have to go peepee?" We weren't really expecting her to do it.
But sure enough (probably unbeknownst to her!) she peed in the potty! Here's the proof...

We were so excited we gave her all her toys in the bath.Don't worry we're not holding our breath that she'll be potty trained at a super early age... but we'll keep sitting her on it for fun!

What age did you start potty training?

July Recap

Can't believe it's August already... My apologies for neglecting this blog a little as I work on getting the other one going...

Here's a new scrapblog of Gigi's newest skill:And here are the pictures from the rest of July (with captions!):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157606524106770/

And, as a bonus, here's some video of Gigi "skateboarding."

Love you all!

gettin' back to our roots

**UPDATE: Gidget Goes Home has a new home: http://gidgetgoeshome.com

So this is our family blog... but sometimes, I just can't help myself, and I have to post on some random topic, that you, our beloved readers may or may not care about. It's sort of like word vomit, although I usually mean to say it. This just probably isn't the proper venue for said words.
(Exhibits A, B, C, D.) For further example, I realize, Dad that you'd rather see pictures of Gigi than read about my adventures in cloth diapering. :)

All this to say that my personal blog is now going to be my outlet for set ramblings and rantings. From the deep thoughts to the superficial, that's where you'll find it. This blog will be reserved for family updates. I may remind you from time to time of what's going on over there at Gidget Goes Home, or you can check the cute li'l widget in the sidebar here that says "Gidget Goes Home: What's New?" for the most recent updates.

Basically, the theme is my stay-at-home adventures, and my attempts to fill my days with simple, crafty, green & fun living!
Come on over and bookmark or subscribe if you haven't already.

Now, in order to implement my new plan, I feel I must share a cute shot of Gigi Bri with you. Here she is today on top of Gigi Mountain, i.e. my attempt to redirect her out-of-control climbing habits.

Visitors from the West

We had a great weekend with David's parents (aka Granny & Granpa) visiting! David got to go golfing with them on Friday, then Saturday we spent the day in Evergreen, for lunch and a walk around the lake.
Sunday we went to church and the farmer's market, and then we spent Monday downtown, doing a ballpark tour, a tour of the Capitol, and seeing the Dodgers cream the Rockies.
It was so fun for Gigi to spend time with Granny & Granpa. And we even got to go on a date one night to see the movie "Hancock"! Thanks for visiting; we miss you already! :)
Here are the pictures (with captions!):
http://flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157606371599038/

Corn cob, anyone?

she's so corny sometimes.

"I thought the Rockies would be a little rockier..."

We spent last weekend camping at Rocky Mountain National Park-- our first camping trip with just the 3 of us! It was amazingly beautiful, with great weather, and Gigi was a champ. We love our big tent but look forward to someday when we can upgrade to something a little more substantial. :)
On Saturday, we went on an amazing 3.6-mile hike that went to 3 lakes. The scenery was unbelievably green and lush! We also went on a 9-mile off-road drive up above 12,000 feet. It was awesome to be driving above the tree line- we felt like we were in the alps or something. Gigi had a fun weekend using her new bike trailer/stroller too!

Also, on Sunday we picked up Auntie Rena who was visiting her great aunt nearby. She stayed with us until today and we had a great time! She even taught Gigi how to say "yo" (or more like "o-yo-yo").

Check out all our sweet photos for sure!
http://flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157606191606671/