Happy Gotcha Day, Gabi!

Can you believe it has been a year since Gabi has "officially" been our daughter? We cannot believe how fast time has flown by! It doesn't seem like a year ago that we were in Guatemala, waiting in the US Embassy with our little Gabi, and praying that everything would be finalized so we could take our sweet baby home FOREVER! Our lives have been filled with such joy this past year -- Gabriela is such a blessing to Joe and I. We cannot imagine our lives without her, nor do we want to!

We celebrated this special day by cooking and sharing a Guatemalan dinner -- Guatemalan black beans, pollo de crema (creamed chicken), and corn cake. All very tasty! We might have to pull those recipes out on days other than Gotcha Day. Of course, we had to add in some Guatemalan bananas as well! :-)

We gave Gabi the little cat toy that we bought her while in Antigua last year. She loves cats -- one of the first things she does when she gets up in the morning is look for Rocky and say, "cat!"

We also decided to take a family picture on this day every year. Here's the one from today and the one from last year. She is getting so big and her hair has grown so much! Her silly personality is still the same, though!

We ended the day by reading, "A Blessing From Above," a special book about the miracles of adoption.

We're headed up to Buffalo this weekend for a visit to see all of the new lambs, calves, and of course, "papa!!!" (and grammy too!) I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures for another update next week!

Love to you all,

Joe, Tara, and Gabi

A Visit From an Old Friend

We were so glad to have my good friend, Susie, here from New York this past weekend. We showed her around Golden, went on the Coors Brewery tour, took a hike, had lots of Gabi play time, and just enjoyed seeing each other again.


On Saturday night we ate at The Fort -- a very unique restaurant near Morrison. Susie is a food connoisseur, in a sense, so we knew she would like their menu. We all enjoyed a different buffalo entree and had so much fun, especially when we got to wear their infamous hats:



Here are some more pictures of Gabi from the past week or so. She continues to grow and develop her very silly personality.

Sitting in her rocking chair with her two favorite toys -- baby ("baba") and "nana," the lamb. The rocking chair was my mom's when she was little, mine next, and now Gabi's.

Cruising around the backyard on one of many of our 70 degree days!

I took my AP Environmental Science class up to Rocky Mountain National Park last Friday on a snowshoeing winter ecology field trip. We all had so much fun that I thought I would post this picture. They really are a great group of kids and didn't mind waiting for me as I slowly made my way along!

That's all for now! Have a great week!

Tara