Gigi and I had a morning out with (some of) the girls from our DNA (“Discipleship, Nurturing, Accountability”) group. DNA groups are like core groups we have at our church for Community Group leaders. Here we are with Kelsi, Wilma, Amanda and Kelly.
We got to meet a new friend in February, Eliza Brianne, shown here with me, Rena and the proud mommy, Kelsi. What a blessing! Gigi likes to tell us, “we have the same [middle] names!”
Gigi loves going to the Zoo or Wild Animal Park. We try to go at least a couple times a month. Here she is with her “cousins” Michael and McKenzie. We love getting to hang out with them now that they live closer. Their mom, Tammy, is technically my step-cousin but we just call them all our cousins.
David’s job is going really well. They’ve been having customers pick up the bikes over the last couple of weeks and are finishing up testing this model and will soon start work on some new designing. We are so thankful for a job that David enjoys going to each morning. Now that the bikes are out and around the county it was fun to get a text from a friend the other day saying he saw one in his neighborhood!
We leave for a weekend in Arizona for Spring Training in just over a week! There’ll be more action on our baseball blog in the near future to be sure. Yay for baseball!
Here’s a look at my photo-a-day project… click the photo to visit the page.
That’s it for the monthly recap! Thanks for reading our blog.
The other day Gigi lost her first balloon up to the heavens. We had just got home from grocery shopping and she was showing off her “Dodger blue” balloon to two of our neighbor when the ribbon slipped right through her fingers and up into the air. (I usually tie it to her wrist– oops!)
I wish I had a picture of the super-sad, pouty lip that emerged as she immediately began to cry big alligator tears as she watched it float away. I tried to console her but she was so sad!
Thankfully, our neighbors came to the rescue! Our next-door neighbor Marc ran in the house and brought out a pink balloon that he proceeded to blow up for her (and assure her that it couldn’t go up in the sky). Then, our neighbor KC squatted down and pointed it out way up there, all excited-like, and told her how the little birdies were going to find it.
She seemed okay, although still a little sad. That night we went to some friends’ house for dinner and a backyard concert (which was awesome). When we got home, we saw something mysterious taped to our fence next to our front door. Sure enough, there was a big, blue Cinderella balloon taped up with a note.
Dear Gigi,
Today I found your blue balloon that flew away from your home. So here is a special balloon for you that I just thought you might like.
From the little bird that found your balloon
What a sweet surprise! Thanks KC for making Gigi’s day! And she didn’t even know how much Gigi has been into Cinderella lately (without having ever seen the movie of course).
Admittedly, I was not in any big rush to get a cell phone once everyone and their mom (and their 5-year old kids) starting getting them. However, I am coming around to the textual revolution and I even have a phone with one of those tiny keyboards that makes me feel very uncoordinated when I have 27 typos per sentence. I tend to stick to full sentences and words when I text and I am convinced that today’s children might as well be illiterate because of the terrible habits they are developing while texting.
Wow, didn’t mean to go there but sometimes that’s the way it goes, LOL. All that being said, I recently began shouting “O-M-Gigi” in our house when something fabulous or wacky happens. This usually solicits quite a chuckle from Gigi which makes me and Nicole laugh harder at my hilarious, original joke. Well the other day Gigi managed to outwit me and responded with a hearty, “O-M-Daddy!” Since then she has also added ,”O-M-Mommy” to her arsenal. Each time she busts out with an O-M-whoever, she is very amused with herself. That’s all. It was very funny and I thought you all should know how funny and witty Gigi is.
I had a really hard time deciding what I wanted to do for birthday. All I could think of at first was ice cream. (And of course family and friends). Eventually I figured out a few things that I would enjoy…
The Friday night before the big day we went out with some friends for Chipotle and then came home to some homemade ice cream… mmmmm. It was a delicious time. I am so blessed with the most amazing friends, and the ice cream came out amazing.
Saturday we had a barbeque at David’s parents’ house– not to celebrate my birthday but rather because his sister and her husband were visiting (!) — which only added to the specialness of my weekend.
Sunday was Valentine’s Day (I already posted about the great day that was but here’s a few more details) which I always think of as a sort of birthday-eve. I love the holiday, all the red and pink, chocolate, and little gifts.
David bought me a really cool hand-silk-screened shirt off etsy with the greek letters spelling out “agape” on it. I love it (and I’m wearing it today, now that our weather cooled off).
I made him a Dodgers beach blanket out of a yard of fleece and a blue towel I found at Ross.
I had lots of little ideas of valentine’s gifts for Gigi but eventually forgot. oops. Oh well, our little sweetheart was totally content with a Mickey Mouse valentine leftover from when I used to work at an elementary school and an envelope full of stickers. Seriously, she was stoked.
Then our family (my parents, my brother and sis-in-law, David’s mom, sis-in-law and bro-in-law) met us at our place and we all drove down to Coronado with our bikes in tow.
It was the.most.beautiful.weather.EVER. that someone who LOVES summer could hope for on her February birthday (well, aside from sitting on the Chilean beach in actual summer which I got to do in ‘02).
We rode bikes. Took pictures. Had an awesome lunch at a very cool spot. Rode some more. Ate some delicious ice cream. Rode back to our parking spot by the park and let Gigi play on the playground. Drove home. Played Wii. Took Gigi to my parents’ to spend the night. Had Rubio’s with the ‘rents and A&A. Went to the movies and saw “Valentine’s Day” (funny!). Went home. Slept in a teensy bit the next day and actually accomplished a few things before picking Gigi up.
Awesome.
Thanks to all who wished me a happy day. A happy day (or several days) it was indeed.
We had a fabulous, warm day… a fun morning teaching Sunday school, a relaxing afternoon where Gigi actually napped, and a sunset picnic dinner at Moonlight. Perfect.
When people find out that Nicole’s birthday is February 15, I sometimes get asked if we have a combined Valentine’s Day/birthday celebration. I usually respond with something like,”Heck, no! That would not go over well.” The truth is that I enjoy having the two days so close. For one day, we get to celebrate the love that has brought us together and the next I get to celebrate the object of my love. This makes for an extended and dense time of celebration and – a little selfishly – makes it very easy to remember Nicole’s special day.
Nicole has become quite an accomplished blogger and I often give her some playful grief about all of the blogs she reads and writes now. I am pretty sure she knows that I support her, but to make certain she gets the message I wanted to surprise her with a special Valentine’s Day message in her favorite medium – a blog.
If I were to send this message in the style of Bill Shakespeare, I might say something like:
My Dearest Nicole-
Thou art the finest damsel mine eyes have seen. Thou wouldst not smell any sweeter if you were a rose. Oh, snapeth, I love thee…
However, I have never read any of Shakespeare’s work and Nicole knows that so she might not find much sincerity in such prose. Perhaps a little more sincere would be a message about something with which I am a little more familiar. For example, if I were to use baseball analogies I might have the following to say:
-God hit a home run when he made you.
-You are the Babe to my Ruth, the sacrifice to my bunt, the sunflower to my seeds.
Ok, these are off-the-charts cheesy, but they’d be slightly more believable than the thou-infested note above. I don’t think these will do, though, for my sweet wife. The real message goes like this:
Nicole-
I am so thankful that you have learned to put up with me. When we met almost 9 years ago, my heart was captivated by you. With each passing moment, your love, talent, and passion confirm God’s choice of you as my wife. Your endeavors as a homemaker are genuine, inspiring and usually very tasty when manifested in food form. You will always have my support and my love in all that you do and all that you want to do. Happy Valentine’s Day.
To start off 20101, I joined a new website where I have been chronicling our daily life with one photo or collage per day (those of you on facebook have probably noticed these).
Here’s a glance at January’s 365Project Calendar (click photo to visit my page for daily details)… You can even subscribe to my photos if you want to make sure you don’t miss one!
As for the rest of the photos… we started up with swim lessons again at Murray Callan Swim School and Gigi is doing awesome. This month also included attending a bridal shower, 2 baby showers (one that I helped throw), a lot of rain (relatively speaking), a little puddle-jumping and big-wave watching, and the usual fun times with family and friends.
Here’s a slideshow or you can click over to flickr view them bigger with some captions.
I guess I got so excited about the New Year, that I skipped right past December here! Oops!
We took a lot of photos, so I’ll just let them speak for themselves. If you’re in a reader/email, you may need to click over to view these slideshows.
December, Part 1: Encinitas Christmas Parade, our church’s Christmas Under the Stars, Bennett Family Christmas party, and other around-the-house and with-friends photos.
December, Part 2: Christmas Boat Parade in the San Diego Harbor, Walking the kitties with Sarah and Scott, our Community Group Christmas dinner (complete with gourmet french pastries), some homemade Christmas gifts, our visit with the Dears, and New Year’s Eve- a Zoo day with the Hollis fam and my parents’ annual bunko party.
Celebrating Christmas: Christmas Eve with the Pavones, Grandma, the Andersons, the Hollis fam and the Bennetts; Christmas morning with the Pavones plus the Eccles for dinner; and the day after Christmas.
I just read a cool post about doing a New Year’s Journal for your kids, and I love the idea. Since this blog is our family’s digital journal, I decided to do it here. Someday, I will print these out for Gigi and give them to her. I guess I’ll need to go back and add one for ‘08 and ‘07, too. Good thing she’s still young.
Gianna Brianne: 2009
Vitals
Height: ~34 inches
Weight: ~27 pounds
Places Visited{deep breath, this will be a long list!}
Arizona (Spring Training) (March)
Legoland, CA (March)
Sacramento (Chase & Carly’s wedding) (March)
Portland, OR (March/April)
Bend, OR (April)
Sebsastopol/Santa Rosa, CA (April)
Camping in Carlsbad (April)
Camping in Huntington Beach (April)
Simi Valley, CA (Jordan & Jazmin’s wedding) (May)
Ladoga, IN (the Leonards’ house) (May & June)
Milwaukee, WI (May)
Chicago, IL (May-June)
Fair Oaks Farms, IN (June)
Detroit, MI (June)
Toronto, Canada (June)
Niagara Falls (NY side) (June)
Williamsport, Gettysburg, Philadelphia & Pittsburgh, PA (June)
Washington, D.C (June)
Alexandria, VA (June)
New York & Poughkeepskie, NY (June)
Cleveland & Cinncinatti, OH + a short drive to Kentuncky! (June)
Camping in Carlsbad (November)
+ more baseball games at Petco Park, Dodger Stadium, and Angel stadium
