Nana & the birthday party

My mom left this morning to go back to North Carolina.  ::Sigh::  Good for my dad, bad for me.  I wish they lived next door.  While she was here I didn't have much time to blog because I was trying to spend all the time I could with her, but now I need to catch up.

We celebrated my mom's 60th birthday (hope it's okay that I'm telling your age, mom).  We made it a week long celebration, really, starting with giving her a 2 week memebership to our local gym (a great one, if I may say so) and flowers at the airport.

On Thursday I decorated the dinning room and put her gift/card on the table.  We took Mom out to dinner at Red Robbin, her favorite Utah restaurant. Red Robbin is awesome.  They have the nicest servers, awesome decor, and TASTY fries & fry sauce (fry sauce is one of the amazing things about Utah).  If you live near a RR, you should definitely eat there.

Gia loved when we blew at her through our straws, ha ha.

After dinner, we went to Farr's Fresh for ice cream.  Mom wanted ice cream instead of cake, which was okay with me because I love ice cream, especially frozen custard.  And as a plus, Gia got her first little cone of vanilla custard!  She LOVED it!

Ignore the weird look on my face... just focus on the baby.

We went back to the house, watched American Idol and opened my mom's gift.  We wore fun hats and Skyped with my dad, too!

It was incredibly special to spend this birthday with my mom.  We had a great time,and she was excited to share it with us as well (especially with Gia!).  Happy birthday, Mom.  I love you so much!  I hope this year is the best one yet!

Nana & the duck pond

My mom has been in town visiting us for about 10 days, and it's been marvelous.  To my friends who have babies and live near their families, thank God everyday for that blessing.  It's the hardest thing I do, living away from my parents.  I have to trust God's plan for us and make the most of my time with them.  Mom and I have watched movies that Bobby doesn't like to with me (like the episodes of Gilmore Girls that I've seen 50 times), gone to Starbucks & Kid to Kid, played with Gia, and celebrated Mom's birthday.  So, needless to say, our time was sweet.  Thank you Dad, for sacrificing Mom for a couple weeks so that I could have her.

One cool thing we did with Nana was go to feed the ducks and Weber State.  It was a warm, sunny day (those are few and far between at this point in the year), so we took the bread I had been saving and had a little fun with the ducks.  Gia liked it, but didn't get giddy and excited like I thought she would.  Rather, she stared at the ducks with a contemplative look, just studying them and, I think, enjoying the experience.

In this picture you can see the little ducklings with their mama in the background.

Daddy telling Gia all about the ducks.

I love this one!  Bobby made both of them laugh!

I can't wait until my parents come back in August!  Then maybe Gia will actually throw the bread that I give her to the ducks rather than eat it.

Zion - Part 2

After our fun lunch, we went back out to the park to hike some more trails.  Our second trail was not quite as steep, so Bobby used the Bjorn carrier to carry Gia... this made for much easier access to her in order to snap some cute pictures.

One neat thing about the park is that you drive through the canyons to get to each trail.  As we were driving around, I thought about how huge the rocks were and how amazing it is that God has created such beautiful, gigantic landscapes.  There were enormous rock formations on either side of the road, and there had been a rockslide just a couple days before in the park.  It felt both scary and awe-striking to be in between the mountains of rock, seeing their beauty while also knowing that our lives would be over if they decided to crumble.  It made me think about God, and how He deserves our awe-ness and fear.  He is beautiful and majestic, but powerful and able to decide the beginning and end of lives.  I think that when we hear the phrase "fear God," we think of getting a big 'ol spanking or being under a dictator... when actually, it's just a matter of admiring and respecting God, His power and His hand in our lives.

Here are some photos from our second day in Zion:

The most beautiful part of the trail, I thought.  It had blue blue water with a red-rock backdrop.

The water was cold!  Gia wasn't happy that we dipped her toes in it.

A lady who was painting the landscape took our family picture.

Sweet kisses.

This was Bobby's favorite part of our last trail.  It was a long tunnel carved out of the mountainous rock.  There were carved out "windows" along the way, and it was like driving on a rollercoaster.  Bobby really enjoyed it.

A slanted rock... not sure if it has a real name or not.

I named this one "Sliding Rock."  Not sure if it has a real name or not, either.

We wore Gia out!

I forgot to add this picture to my previous blog.  This rainbow showed up on our first trail, and I was tickled because rainbows have a special place in mine and Bobby's hearts.  Maybe I'll elaborate on that in another blog at some point.

On our last day in Zion we took Gia to the playground and put her on the slide for the first time. I think Bobby and I had more fun than she did, although she enjoyed jumping forward from the top of the slide into Bobby's arms.

Last but not least, here's a picture of a sign that I thought was hilarious. I thought it was funny that there needed to be a sign telling people not to drink from the dirty water that was dripping down the side of the hill.  

 

Our trip to Zion - part one

Bobby, Gia and I went to Zion National Park last weekend.  It was a month before our anniversary, but if we went in March, we got such a good deal on the hotel that we went a little early. It took us 5 1/2 hours to get there, but half the fun of going on vacations for us is driving there.  We had great conversations and listened to all kinds of music, including Hootie and the Blowfish and Toby Mac.  I love road trips!

We were literally within walking distance of the park, and our hotel room was awesome.  The staff were so accommodating and kind, even letting us take the microwave at night so that I could heat up Gia's bottle if she woke up before 8am, which she did.  We had the greatest time just relaxing in that comfortable bed and watching cable... oh cable, how I miss you.

We hung out and ate the fajitas I had brought, along with mint Oreos that were on sale.  You'll notice the reduced price on the oreo pack...a regular priced pack of Oreos cost $8 at the local store.  We were shocked.

We got up on Friday and ate poptarts while watching The Dog Wisperer.  Then we went to the part and spent the morning hiking a couple of trails.  It was beautiful and amazing, just appreciating God's creation and taking a lot of pictures.

The highlight of my day, however, was when we went to the awesome little diner for lunch.  Our waitress was so sweet and just loved Gia.  She told us that if we left Gianna with her, we could have our meals on the house.  This struck me as hilarious because my dad always tells me the story about how, when I was a baby, someone at Abbott's Frozen Custard offered him a free ice cream if they could keep me.  Whenever I teased my dad growing up, he would say, "I should have taken that free Abbotts."  Now I'll get to say to Gia, "I should have taken that free hamburger."

More to come tomorrow.  I have too much to say and too many pictures just to put it all in one blog.  Let's just say it was an incredible, much needed vacation for us! 

Gianna-- 9 months

I waited to post this until I could go to the doctor and get Gia's stats.  

Weight:   16 lbs 2.5 oz (35%)

Height:    27 inches (35%)

Head:   70% (yup, still bigger than her body)

9 months goes by fast!  Gia has been alive as long as the amount of time I was pregnant.  That means it's been 1 1/2 years since God created this little beauty and since we knew that we were going to be parents.  Crazy!

This month has been one of change in our little doll baby (as Bobby's mom calls her).  Here are some of the things that have been going on:

Learned to crawl

Learned to clap

Gives kisses

Finally got down to 4 feedings in the day (and still one at night)

Babbles much more

Laughs every time Nola runs towards her

Going to bed by 8pm

Sleeping 11 hours at night (with one wake up) and 3-4 hours in the day

We now usually rock her to sleep... I realize this is not what experts say to do, but I just love snuggling with her.

It's a fight to get her to eat, except for sweet potatoes

She can wear 3M and 6M clothes, but is long enough for some 9M pants.

I found that doubling up on her socks makes them stay on

Got her first tooth

LOVES music, especially live (like at church)

Loves the church nursery

Got sick with a fever/cold and then stomach bug... yuck!

Went into size 3 diapers

Out-grew her infant shoes

 

Her personality continues to develop and she seems so aware of everything going on around her.  As we are getting more sleep, we are finally saying to each other, "okay, I think we can do this again."