Young & In Love

Gigi's Yaya (my mom) has occasionally asked me whether Gigi has "found her feet yet." Well, I'm here to report that not only has she found them, she is in love with them. She is almost always grabbing them, with socks or not- she doesn't care, and occasionally sucking on her right big toe (I once even caught her sucking on a sock, which seemed a little gross). It's pretty funny. But as I was explaining to our little friend Brooke today, it's not as if her feet are dirty, since she doesn't walk, so hey, go ahead, Gigi, suck away on that big toe while you can, before the inflexibility that you're bound to genetically acquire develops!

P.S. On a totally unrelated note, Gianna went to her 6th MLB game on Monday night (with friends Tom & Dominick from David's work), to see an amazing 1-game playoff between the Rockies and Padres. It was such an exciting game and it was fun to see the hometown team win as everyone was going crazy!! (Sorry to my SD peeps.)

September Recap

September was a big month for all of us! I've posted the rest of this month's pictures in 2 sets: first, our California pictures, up until we left, and second, our first set of pictures in Colorado!
Also, for your entertainment, here's a funny video of Gigi in her new toy. She has joined the ranks with the others her age who love this fun bundle of "over-stimulation," as our friends the Avilas referred to it.


Part 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157602220816897/
Part 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157602214005808/

An Unlikely Role Model

I just read a Fox News article that made me happy. We need more celebrities like this model. While I still don't agree with girls like her flaunting themselves, it seems that at least deep down she has a good moral foundation. Maybe her reasons differ from mine (which come from the Bible), but hey, abstinence is abstinence. Hopefully our daughters will have more role models like Adriana in the future promoting abstinence within pop culture! Here is an excerpt from the article.

"...self-confessed virgin Adriana Lima seems to be among the celebs inspiring an emerging movement toward celibacy.

“Thanks to Adriana, all my friends and I are advocating chastity,” 20-year-old UCLA student Kate Jones told FOXNews.com. “We believe a lot of young girls have forgotten how to respect themselves, and it’s about time we went back to some old-fashioned values."

The abstaining young women spend time blogging and voicing their views on various Internet sites, using the Victoria's Secret and Maybelline model as their inspiration.

“There is definitely is an upcoming trend to wait until marriage even if it doesn’t have a religious motivation,” added a Hollywood-based psychologist. “It’s a positive way for young women to hold on to some power and independence."

Last year, Lima confessed to men’s mag GQ that she planned to stay away from bedroom buddies until her wedding night, despite the fact that millions of men have already seen her in next to nothing.

"They have to respect that this is my choice. If there's no respect, that means they don't want me,” said the 26-year-old Brazilian babe.

Lists

Now that we have been in our new home for almost 2 weeks, I decided to reflect a little on the past and the future.

Top things I will miss about California:1. My family within a short drive
2. My brother being a walk down the hall away
3. Our awesome CA friends
4. The beach
5. Our church
6. Surfing
7. Trader Joe's
8. In'n'Out
9. The weather
10. The Dodgers
11. Philly Grille
12. Golden Spoon

Top things I am excited about in Colorado:1. A new adventure!
2. Our few friends here (and David's aunt!)
3. The mountains and the sky
4. Seasons (T-storms, fall colors, and snow!)
5. Snowboarding
6. Lack of traffic
7. Our Rec Centers
8. SuperTarget!
9. The Light Rail to downtown
10. Finding a new church
11. More space for less money!
12. Having people come visit us!!! (hint, hint!)

It's been hard to leave California, but in the end, my home is wherever the Lord leads, and wherever my husband and baby are!

These lists were inspired by my friend Myste.

We love Boston!

We got home from our little trip to New England on Monday night. We really loved Boston- it is a great city- we think we even liked it better than New York City! As most of you know, the reason we went there was for a Red Sox/Yankees game that David won tickets to. We finally had our standing-room tickets emailed to us the day before we left! They turned out okay though; other than sore backs and legs, the standing room area had a great view, and we really enjoyed the game.
David was amazed at how Boston is truly a baseball town. Everyone talks about the Red Sox, from the lady we shared a taxi from the airport with, to our Duck tour guide. You see people in Sox paraphernalia everywhere, whether they are going to the game or not. We were happy to have the Red Sox win the day we went to the game even. The crowd was amazing, it was like a playoff game, totally sold out with people 4-5 deep in the standing area. Everyone cheers when they should without being prompted, there are no banner boards that tell you to "Get Loud" or "Make noise," because everyone does it at the appropriate time on their own (i.e. everytime there are 2 outs & 2 strikes, etc). We met up with our friend Jeff from HB, and ate at the Cask n' Flagon (a Red Sox fan haven) and I had the BEST fish and chips of my life!We went on a really fun tour on Saturday morning called a Duck tour (thanks, Pete Merandi for the recommendation). It is an old WWII vehicle that goes on land, and then drives right into the water to become a boat (with very entertaining tour guides)! Between that and the Freedom trail, we saw a lot of Boston, including lots of our country's heritage and history. The Freedom Trail we did on Sunday with David's high school friend Katie, who lives in Boston. It is a 2.5 mile walk through town hitting all the historical landmarks like Ben Franklin's grave, Paul Revere's house, the Old North Church, etc. The old brick buildings and uneven roads are so cool.
My favorite part of the city (besides Fenway Park) was the North End, which is where Katie lives. It is the "little Italy" of Boston, and it is so quaint and cute with cobblestone roads and an infinite amount of Italian restaurants and pastry shops. We tried cannolis for the first time- delish! We also walked around Harvard which is beautiful, and I think we feel a little smarter just for visiting. :-) We also had some authentic New England Clam Chowder at the much-recommended Legal Seafood- it was delicious.I hope you enjoy our pictures and I hope you all can visit this awesome city someday! Oh, and Gigi did a great job on the trip overall!
See photos (make sure to click the "i" if you are watching the slideshow so you can see the captions!): http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157602084527531/

We're home!

We officially live in Colorado now! We arrived to our new home on Tuesday, Sept. 11 and received all our stuff on Wednesday. We have made a lot of progress unpacking but we still have more to do. Now today (I know, we're crazy) we leave for Boston and will be back on Monday night, and then we can really settle in.I've posted the pictures from our drive out here, but here's a quick synopsis of how it went:

We left Saturday after David's last Mullets Baseball game (good news, they won and are going to the championship- David is sad to miss it).
We stopped at friends Jason & Kelly Merandi's house in Corona to say hi, see their beautiful house, and David was also able to take a shower.
We then stopped in Primm, Nevada for dinner at Buffalo Bill's Casino where our friend Blair was staying for a race.After dinner we drove through to Washington, Utah (just outside St. George) to stay with family friends Gary and Cindy Snavely. We stayed there until Monday and it was an awesome mini vacation. We visited Zion National Park (and Cindy babysat Gigi) and got to swim in their pool and ride their quad near their house. We had a really fun time, they were fabulous hosts!




On Monday we left Utah and drove all the way to Glenwood Springs, CO. It was fun to stay there because my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins lived there for about 10 years or so and I had been there a long time ago, but didn't really remember it. We stayed at a neat, old hotel - it's a beautiful town in the mountains!
Tuesday morning, we left Glenwood and the rest of the drive from there was just beautiful, going through the Rockies (and they really are rocky!). We stopped for coffee in Beaver Creek (just outside Vail) to have lunch with our friend (my former roommate) Jenny Schlenker who lives there now.Then the drive to Highlands Ranch was just a couple more hours, just enough time to finish listening to Harry Potter 1 on CD (David even liked it!). We picked up our key from our friends the Stopniks and then drove over to our new place. It was a fun few days. Gigi did pretty darn good for a 4-month old on a long, 1100 mile drive!If I missed you on the email with our new address, please email us and we will send it to you.
We look forward to having visitors here (hint, hint!), and we are very thankful that the Lord blessed us with a safe and fun trip!
Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157602013471459/

Summer's End

This summer has flown by like usual. We had a really fun first summer with Gigi. Here are the rest of our pictures from August and a cute little video of one of Gigi's new tricks (with Auntie Rena).
August photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157601887035811/

New 'do!!

I did it! Today I chopped off about 14 inches or so of hair to donate to Locks of Love. It was fun, and I was glad to get rid of my heavy head of hair. Now my head feels light and fluffy! I'd been growing my hair out for 4 years, since our wedding when it was just above my shoulders.
Here's the photo documentation!
BEFORE:












DURING:











AFTER!!!

Gigi's first camping trip

Gianna went camping for the first time last weekend! We met up with Yaya & Papa up at Bass Lake, where we camped for the weekend with good family friends the Nances & Hunns too. Gigi went on her first boat ride- she liked the movement of the boat, but was not such a big fan of the too-big life vest- and she also slept in a tent! Gigi got lots of love from her grandparents and psuedo-aunt Emily & -auntie-grandma Lynn!Then we drove to Pismo Beach, where David spent one night with us, and then Gigi & I stayed with my parents for a few more days when he had to go home to go back to work. When we were there, we saw a few of our SLO friends, the Squareburgers, the Spencers, the Sorbellos & the Reys, and we also spent time with family friends, the Merandis and the Churneys. Gigi got to meet another boyfriend, Ryan Merandi, who is exactly 1 month younger than her and almost the same size! They had a fun play date under Ryan's jungle gym together, kicking their legs and farting away.
It was especially fun for me to hang out with the Merandis at Pismo Coast Village, which is where we met them many years ago.
Here's the photo set from our trip:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157601683008971/

Gigi is 3 months old!

Here is a cute pic of Gigi in the boppy at 3 months. For those of you wondering if she inherited the "Bennett Butt," you'll like her onesie- it says "Does this diaper make my butt look big?"
At her 3-month doctors' appointment she weighed in at 11 pounds, 9 ounces, and thankfully she only had to get one shot!!This second photo is Gigi at San Onofre. Last Friday we had a fun day at the beach, taking turns surfing (the waves were super fun). Gigi slept most of the time, like she usually does at the beach. We're off to Bass Lake this evening to meet up with my family and some friends. It will be Gianna's first camping trip!

Colorado Pics

We had a great time in Colorado on our house-hunting trip. Here are the photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157601294282393/

Our Future Home

So, this is our house that we will be living in when we move to Colorado. It's in Highlands Ranch, which is about a half-hour south of Denver (near Littleton). We leave September 8th, and make the drive out to Colorado. We are starting to get excited, especially after finding a house to rent. This place is such an amazing value, compared to California prices!!
Thankfully, we know a few people that will be close-by in Colorado, including David's aunt Annette, and our friends the Stopniks and the Thompsons. We will have plenty of room for guests, so start planning your ski trips, people! :)

Coos are cute, Part 2

If you haven't seen it yet, scroll down for part one of this special series. :)

Coos are cute

Meeting more cousins!

Reuben, Gigi, & Peter, reading to go swimming!

We had a super fun time last week when we had David's mom, sister Stacey and our nephews Peter and Reuben visiting. The Leonards adopted Reuben from Korea a few months ago and we were so happy to meet him. He is a very happy, cute little guy. And it was great for Stacey and her kids to meet Gianna!
We did lots of fun things- hit up all of Stacey's favorite Southern California spots, and more. Here is the link to the photo album, there are a lot of fun ones to look at!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600986546942/

P.S. I also added a few cute pics of Gigi in her flower girl dress to the "July 07- first half" album that I got from the Dears (thanks guys!). Gigi at 10.5 weeks- she's full of smiles these days!

Gianna is 10 weeks old!

Look how much she has grown already!!

New July Photos

Is it possible to take too many pictures of your first child? :) I think not! She's just way too cute!! Here are some pictures from the fun events of the first half of July. Gigi's really getting big!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600859555769/

Last week was a week of a few firsts for Gianna. On Monday she met her cousin Riley who is just 5 weeks older than her when I met her Aunt Tiffany and Great-Aunt Jann for lunch in Orange. Riley and Gigi had fun staring at each other.
And on Tuesday she went to her first Dodger game! The Dodgers won and it was the day that they made history by being the first sports franchise to have 175,000,000 fans! We had a fun time hanging out with Alex & Angelina, and Aunt Laurel, Uncle Joe & Marissa!
We spent her first 4th of July at the beach and bbq-ing with friends from David's work. She didn't seem to mind the fireworks at all, and we had a lot of fun.









Yesterday we spent the afternoon celebrating the retirement of a good family friend from the fire department where my dad works. Apparently in the car on the way down, Gigi laughed a little giggle in the back seat with Unc A and Angelina-- mommy & daddy will have to see it for themselves though to make it official. :-)









More pictures from all these events will be forthcoming!

Diaper Rash Remedy!!

Just wanted to share a little secret for babies with red, sore tushies. Gigi had a pretty bad diaper rash last weekend and her doctor, Dr. Pauline Pepek, gave us a somewhat obscure but miraculous remedy!

Mix a 50/50 batch of 1% cortizone cream with Lotrimin (or generic) anti-athletes foot cream (I got a nifty little bottle from the travel section at Target to mix it in). It medicates the area nicely and then you cover the medication with your diaper rash ointment of choice (we use A&D, Buttpaste and/or Aquaphor) to seal the medication and block the pee/poop from the skin. After just a couple of applications at diaper changes, her rash almost completely disappeared [enter sigh of relief here]!

Is June really over?

Everyone always talks about how time flies and it's true! Here are the rest of our photos from June. Gigi got to be the littlest flower girl ever possibly in her Auntie Rena & Uncle Jesse's wedding. It was a really fun night but I didn't do a very good job taking pictures. Hopefully I'll get some more pictures that actually show Gigi in her cute dress soon from the other girls.

This month Gigi went swimming for the first time in my parents' pool! She seemed to like it, or at least, it didn't bother her. :) I will post a video of that later. Gigi also went to her first bachelorette party! Although, most of the time she just hung out with Yaya.

Here are the links:
Rena's bachelorette & the Frey Wedding:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600625332561/
Gigi- Weeks 7-8:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600668867897/

8 Weeks Old!

Today Gianna had to have her 4 shots at the doctor's office. She had one in the hospital and it didn't really bother her, but today's were obviously very painful, and it was pretty traumatic for all three of us; I think we all had teary eyes. After she finally calmed down, I fed her before we left, and then she seemed fine and fell asleep. So hopefully she isn't too fussy tomorrow as a result, since we are off to Gigi's first Dodgers game tomorrow night!!
I've been working on editing some video clips and here a couple of little movies I've put together for you all!

thoughts on sleep

I've been reflecting on Gigi's sleep habits and wanted to share a little... we've been so blessed that she has been sleeping between 5-7 hours every night since she was 6 days old.
I have some friends who have had really rough times as far as babies/sleeping goes, so I don't at all mean to brag. I don't know why God chose to bless us this way, but He did. In this time, we've heard lots of comments like, "she's spoiling you! (my mom)", "don't get used to that!" (Gigi's doc), etc.
But through it all, we've been praying, and have been confident that the Lord is bigger than everything, I mean, he created Gianna, so He's definitely big enough to control her sleep habits! Thanks also to a friend, one of our pastors' wives, Heidi, for encouraging us to just keep praying and have faith that God could keep it up.
So I guess my motive behind sharing all this is simply to give God all the glory. Ultimately, it's not how well we stick to our Babywise philosophy, or how much we love our daughter, or even how much we pray, that is the reason behind this miracle of sleep-- it it is simply because of God's amazing grace and for that we are so thankful!

Go Angels!

Just a quick update from little ol' me...
Last night we went to my second Angels game and they won in the 11th inning! We had to stay until the end because it was Big Bang Friday! Too bad I just slept right through those fireworks; I heard they were awesome. And supposedly there was a really annoying lady behind us but I didn't notice that either. We went with my Unc A and his girlfriend, Angelina. I'm still looking forward to my first Dodgers game though! It's in July.
Love,
Gigi
P.S. A big thanks goes out to my Unc A for making my really cute birth announcements!!

I'm 6 Weeks Old!

Hi Everyone. I wanted to personally update you all on ME, now that I am six weeks old! I'm getting bigger every day, working on my double chin and my leg & arm rolls.In the last few days, I started smiling more at my mommy and daddy. It's cool, because it always makes them smile back at me. I also started "talking"-- saying things like "goo" and other cool words that mom likes to try and imitate.

We had a fun Father's Day yesterday. We went to ESPN Zone so Daddy could watch the Dodgers on the really big TV. I pretty much slept the whole time, which is what I usually do at loud restaurants.
Well, that pretty much sums it up for me, it's time for me to take a nap. I do have a new photo album for you to look at. Mommy just loves taking pictures of me, must be because I'm so cute!
Click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600392699240/

Bennett Family Fun

Granny & Grandpa feeding Gigi at the game.

Well, this post is a little late, but I wanted to finally say that we had a great time with the Bennetts visiting! David's parents and his sister Carly (& her boyfriend Chase) all came to visit for a long weekend over the first weekend in June. We went to Gigi's first baseball game (to see the Angels because the Dodgers were out of town), and also saw David's aunt and uncle Jann & Bill there. Gigi went to her first Mullets baseball game too and saw her daddy pitch, and the Bennetts all got to take part in Alex's birthday party racing extravaganza. Also, 3 out of the 4 Bennett-side aunts came out from Riverside on Sunday to go to dinner. It was great to see the extended family that we don't see often.Bennetts & Pavones at Alex's birthday.

Also, last weekend we were down in SD for my friend Sarah's wedding-- I was her matron of honor. It was probably the most beautiful wedding I've been to, or at least way up at the top of the list. :) The ceremony site overlooked the beach in Carlsbad where Sarah & I learned to surf. :) And Gigi looked adorable in a dress that almost matched mine!











Here are the links to the latest albums:
Bennetts visiting: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600316696737/
Alex's party: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600320657063/
Sarah's wedding: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennettars/sets/72157600344682238/

What's in a name?

By now, most of you know the significance behind Gigi's name. But just in case you don't, I wanted to give a little explanation...The First Name: "Gianna" comes from Italian and it means "God is gracious." I found the name online, a while back, and wrote it down on a scrap of paper and put it into the desk drawer. Months later, after 2 miscarriages, we decided it was a fitting name, because we really felt the power of God's grace after finally being able to get (and stay) pregnant. We also liked it because it lent itself to the nickname "Gigi" (I've always loved nicknames). A good college friend of ours, Shannon Flett, has a friend (who we knew casually) named Gigi and I always loved the name (and she's a great surfer too!).

The Second Name: Last September I lost one of my best friends, Brianne Nicole Shelton. She died in a plane crash while heading to Mexico to do a medical missions trip. The day I found out that she died, was, oddly enough, the same day I received the call from my doctor's office telling me that after a series of blood tests monitoring my hormone levels, I was indeed pregnant. It was a day of roller-coaster-like emotions, to say the least. We found out Gigi's due date was May 12 and we realized that it was Nurse's Day; Brianne was a nurse, and a darn good one, from what I hear. From the beginning, I felt strongly that Gigi was a girl-- and the middle name was perfectly fitting. We hope that when she's older, Gianna realizes how special her middle name is and that she becomes a young women who makes as much of an impact on her sphere of the world as her namesake did.
The Third Name: In keeping with the double "N" pattern, we chose a last name for her that had the same double letters, and reflected my love of Jane Austen. Just kidding! Now let's just wait and see if she lives up to this name, and ends up with a "Bennett Butt."

Here are pictures of Gianna with Debbie and Kelsi Shelton (Brianne's mom & sister), and a tummy time photo with her special blanket from the Sheltons that was made with the fabric from one of Brianne's scrubs (top of post).