Happy Halloween

We went to a costume party for our friend Brooke's 5th party a couple of weeks ago, so I thought I'd share a few shots of our sweet digs.

Gigi was a li'l leopard kitty!

I was a Mullets baseball player and David was an umpire (doubt it, Blue!!).

Confession

I am totally addicted to the world of BLOGS!! I love looking at friends' (and friends of friends', thanks to links!)) cute pictures, stories, thoughts, etc!
I love using it as a time to wind down when Gigi's napping or playing with Daddy, and catch up on people's lives, some of whom were just passing friendships in college or high school, but nonetheless I love seeing what they are up to, at whatever stage of live they're in.
So just an encouragement to you all out there- keep it coming!! And I hope you enjoy reading ours as much as we enjoy making it.
And for my readers who don't have their own yet, you should really consider starting one, if nothing else for my entertainment! heehee. :)

Fire and Ice

While wildfires are raging in Southern California, our Colorado weather has been quite chilly (29 degrees this morning!).
Please pray for the firefighters and residents in SoCal (specifically please pray for my Dad and his department!) as the fires continue with no end in sight yet- it's really scary.

But on a happier note, we enjoyed our first snow (on Sunday)- except when it made our satellite TV signal go out (but at least it came back on for Game 7). Here are a few pictures.Our house in a blanket of snow!

Driving in to our neighborhood after church.

The beautiful view out our living room window.

Our pretty, snowy tree!

Quick Gianna update: Gigi has been exploring the orange veggies this past weekend! She loves carrots mixed with rice cereal (see her "I want more" expression below) and also tried sweet potatoes today, and liked them pretty well too! She is sitting up better each day and scooting/rolling around like she really wants to crawl. So we're officially in the market for baby gates.
Oh, and as much as I like Dice-K and the Red Sox, I've got to cheer for the hometown- so Go Rockies! It's Rocktober in Denver!!!

Scriptures to Remember

This came from a book I'm reading in a moms' Bible study, Having a Mary Spirit, by Joanna Weaver. I'm encouraged to memorize more scripture when I think about how powerful it can be in everyday life!

"What I Know, Not What I Feel"

What I feel afraid...
"The Lord is my light and my salvation-- whom shall I fear?" (Psalm 27:1).

When I feel overwhelmed...
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9).

When I feel like running away...
"And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand" (Romans 14:4).

When I feel threatened...
"O Lord my God, I take refuge in You; save and deliver me from all who pursue me: (Psalm 71:1).

When I feel betrayed...
"Be strong and courageous... For the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave nor forsake you" (Deut. 31: 6).

When I feel confused...
"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him" (James 1:5).

When I feel angry...
"Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires" (James 1:19-20).

When I feel depressed...
"He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along" (Psalm 40:2).

When I feel unloved...
"I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt" (Jeremiah 31:3-4).

God's word is awesome!

Fun with Grammar

If you are curious in knowing what my grammatical pet peeve is, click HERE.

And because I realize that English is sometimes a ridiculously complex language and we almost all make errors daily, here's my most commonly made mistakes that I often knowingly make:

Me and Rena are going to the movies. (no, she's not mean).
I'm voting for the Dodgers. (I suppose I'm actually rooting for them, but I tend to prefer vote for some weird reason).

I know, I know, and I call David a nerd!!

Mommy's new blog!

In order to keep myself involved in the field that I dedicated so many hours to studying, I decided to start a new blog called "Diversión escrita" where I will be posting all things related to Spanish, ie articles, teaching resources, etc.
I love being a stay-at-home mom, but I also plan to go back to teaching at some point in the future, so this will be a tool that I can use in the meantime to locate & organize anything I think relates to Spanish and the teaching of it.
It will also be a sort of platform for me to start doing more translation and possibly tutoring. If you or anyone you know needs translation, I would love to start doing more. I have really enjoyed doing the little that I have. Please visit my new blog, and/or contact me for rates.
To my former colegas and other friends who have studied or are interested in Spanish, please leave me input and email me anything you think I should post/link to!! Gracias!
www.nicolespanol.blogspot.com

Sitting Up

I mentioned in the last post that Gigi is almost sitting up, well, she's getting even better at it! She has been sitting with the boppy or a blanket behind her as a "just-in-case"- and last night she sat up on her own on the couch while Daddy was serenading her! Here's the photo proof:

5 months

It's hard to believe that Gianna is 5 months old already! She's almost sitting up by herself these days and she really wants to crawl, although right now she's only able to "swim" on her tummy. Here are a few recent pictures of our sweet little girl.

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! :)