A Year Ago Today...

We held our daughter for the first time. My tears are flowing remembering the feeling of finally getting to see her beautiful smile and look into her eyes. We can't believe it has been a year already since we visited her in Guatemala. She wasn't quite 4 months old yet, but had the same smiley, giggly, easy going personality that she does now. Every minute that we spent with her was treasured, even that first night when we just laid awake and listened to her breathe. What a gift we had been given.

And even though we had to say goodbye for a couple of months, we know it was worth getting to hold her, feel her, play with her, and fall completely in love.

Today, a year later, we celebrated by taking a long hike on South Table Mountain. It was 60 degrees today, so we couldn't help but get out and soak in the sunshine. Gabi loves the backpack and has learned how to spur Joe to make him "giddy up". Jackson was grateful for the exercise as well.

We're headed to the National Western Stock Show with some friends tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll have some more pictures to post from that soon. Have a great weekend -- hopefully it's a 3-day like mine is! Yea!

Love,

Joe, Tara, & Gabi

Gabi's Daily Doings...

Hi Everyone! We hope everyone's 2009 is off to a great start! Gabi is growing and learning so fast! Here are some of her favorite things to do:

• Not just walk, but RUN everywhere!
• Spinning around in circles
• Trying to jump (quite cute)
• Kicking and throwing balls
• Reading books and pointing out things she knows (Dora characters and animals).
• Playing with her baby doll and taking it on walks in the stroller
• Sunglasses!
• Giggling, especially when tickled
• Doing yoga with mom (she's a pro with downward facing dog and thinks it is so funny whenever I raise my arms above my head)
• Eating with a spoon
• Feeding everything crackers or her milk (book characters, the cat, the dog, her baby)
• The snow!

Do you think this snowsuit is a little big? ;-) All she wants to do is eat the snow!
Big sister in training!

She likes to read books to herself, but we read her lots too!


Applesauce...yum!

Gabi went to see Dr. Julia this week and passed with flying colors. As expected, she is extremely tall for her age (34.5 inches). This is way over the 100th %ile and is about average for a 2 year old. Somehow the Hall genes must have rubbed off on Gabi!

On the other baby front, everything is going well. We had an ultrasound yesterday and all is normal! It was so amazing to see the baby moving around and it's heart beating strong! I've been feeling great too, so that is a plus as well. The belly bump is starting to be obvious now and it is a little strange to be around highschool kids while pregnant...they have so many questions! Fun stuff, though!

Love to you all,

Joe, Tara & Gabi

Happy Holidays!

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and are enjoying this wonderful time of the year. We returned last night from our "Grandma Tour." In 9 days, we drove through 5 states, saw all 6 grandmas, all 3 grandpas, cousins, aunts, uncles, and many friends. We had a fun time and Gabi did great in the car, but were we ever glad to get home! Here are a few pictures from our holidays:

Gabi had more fun with the paper and boxes on Christmas than with the actual gifts.

Daddy & Gabi on Christmas morning.

All dressed up in her Christmas dress ready for Christmas Eve Mass

4 Generations -- Grandma Mary, Great Grandma Dorothy, Mama, & Gabi

The LaMay family at my parents house in Iowa on Christmas Eve

Visiting with Great Grandma Genie in Alliance, NE on our way through

Having fun with Gio at Grammy Joyce's house

"This Christmas business is exhausting!" Notice the Wyoming lounge chair -- a Christmas gift from Grammy Joyce & Papa Dave

So, our travels started Friday, the 19th when we headed up to Buffalo, WY for a quick weekend visit. We attended the Green Christmas party, so we got to see all of Joe's Grandma Phyllis's side of the family. The Monterastellis met us in Buffalo, so Gio and Gabi wore each other out! Now that Gabi is walking, they have lots of fun chasing each other, playing, and stealing each other's sippy cups (well, mostly Gabi stealing Gio's). We also got to catch up with Chris & Tracy Jons in Buffalo as well.

On Sunday afternoon, we headed to Spearfish, SD to stay with Joe's Grandma Fern. We had a nice visit and she kicked our butts in cribbage, as usual! On Monday morning, we started our longest leg of the trip. We drove to Alliance, NE to spend a couple of hours and eat lunch with my Grandma Genie. She is doing well and looking forward to having my Grandpa's book published in a month or so. Next, was to Leigh, NE to visit the Folkens, family friends of the Halls. They just built a beautiful new house and grilled us up some outstanding steaks on their indoor grill, yes, indoor grill. It was very cool.

On Tuesday morning, they gave us a tour of the feedlot that they operate and Gabi got to see Papa Dave's cows getting all fattened up. It was an interesting tour to see how that end of the business works. Later that morning, we headed to Lincoln to pick up my Grandma Dorothy and head to Des Moines, Iowa to my parents' house. It was nice to arrive there and just spend some quality time in one location. They fed us well, we saw the play Triple Espresso, and had lots of fun playing games and visiting. Gabi, Joe, my mom, and I had a bout of the stomach flu. It was short lived and wasn't too bad. Gabi came down with it shortly after we arrived, so she must have picked it up somewhere along the way. That was the only hiccup in the trip, so we were lucky.

On Saturday afternoon, we drove back to Lincoln to drop my Gramma Dot off and spend some time with my Aunt Virginia, Uncle Gary, and cousin Allie. It was great to see them and Gabi just adored Gary, just like I did when I was a little girl (and still do!) We heard all about Allie's wedding plans. She is marrying Brad on May 23rd. That just happens to be my due date, so I doubt we'll make it to the wedding, unfortunately, but we are so excited for them! Finally, on Sunday we headed home. It was was quite the undertaking in the middle of winter with a little one, but we probably won't be able to do it again for quite sometime with another little one on the way. We are so thankful that we saw so many people and that everyone is doing wonderful! Thank you all for your hospitality and time!

Well, I've rambled on long enough for one blog posting. We do hope you all have a Happy and Blessed New Year!

Love, Joe, Tara, & Gabi

Gabi's Big News!

I'm Going To Be A BIG SISTER!!!

Yea! I'm almost 16 weeks pregnant now and due around May 23rd! Everything is going well and we are counting our blessings everyday! I was pretty sick up until 12 weeks, but have been feeling great recently! We heard the heartbeat again yesterday and it was going strong at 158 bpm. We are not going to find out the gender early, because wondering and hoping and guessing and being surprised is just too fun!

Thank you for letting us share our joy with you! We know Gabi is going to be a great big sister -- she is such an affectionate, gentle, and happy little girl. We'll keep you updated on our progress!

Love,

Joe, Tara, & Gabi

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello Everyone! We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was complete with family, lots of food, some intense Mexican Train Domino playing, and being entertained by Gabi.

The feast is ready! Our Thanksgiving guests -- Tom, Dave, Joe, Tara, Mary, Gary, and Joyce is the picture taker (Gabi was napping)

Gabi enjoying her first Thanksgiving dinner -- she loved it, of course!

As previously mentioned, Gabi was our entertainment for the weekend. She loved having everyone around to clap for her and laugh at her. She loves her family!

Riding her fire truck


Helping Papa Dave unwrap his ornament during the annual Thanksgiving ornament exchange.

Wearing Uncle Tom's big boots

Giddy Up Horsey!

"Here Comes the Bumblebee..."

Gabi is walking more and more everyday. We have lots of fun with her! We're so thankful our family was able to join us -- thank you all for traveling so far and for the fun time.

Tune back later this week for a big announcement from Gabi!

Love, Joe, Tara, & Gabi

Watch Out...Here She Comes!

Gabi is officially a walker! We've been practicing for a few days and she thinks it is so fun to walk between Joe and I. It started as 1 or 2 steps between us and then collapsing in giggles and now, as you can see in the video, she is making it pretty far. She still crawls most of the time because it is a lot more efficient, but she is getting better fast! Let the chase begin!

Fall has decided to come to Golden, even though our weather has been very dry and warm for the most part. Joe has raked up close to 30 bags of leaves so far. Remember that silver maple tree I mentioned in a previous post, it isn't so well-liked in the fall! :) Gabi didn't know what to think when I put her in the pile of leaves and didn't want to touch them at first, but she warmed up quickly as you can see in the video.

"Yuck."

"Hmmm, whadat?" :-)

"Leaves are pretty fun afterall!"

Now if we could just get her to use a rake...maybe next fall!

We hope you all are looking forward to Thanksgiving. Both sets of parents and my brother, Tom, will be joining us in Golden. It will be a full house and sure to be lots of fun! May we give Thanks to God for all of the joys He has given us this year.

Love to you all,

Joe, Tara, & Gabi

Happy Halloween!

Hi Everyone! We hope you all had a fun Halloween and are enjoying the fall weather (we definitely can't complain -- it's been in the 70s all week!) Here are some pictures from Gabi's Halloween. She loved being in her peacock costume and acted even sillier than her normal silly self in it.

We went to visit lots of people for Halloween -- some neighbors, Joe's office, Tara's school (Thursday night), and actually took her out trick or treating with some friends around Golden. The picture above was taken by our neighbor, Angie, in her front yard. The picture below is at Brian & Julia's house with friend Lily before our candy-seeking outing! Lily was a cute bumblebee.

We spent last weekend in Buffalo visiting Joe's family. Gio and Gabi had such a fun time playing. Greer got them on video and posted it to YouTube. Click Here to see the video of their fun times together. We also went to the pumpkin festival in town and picked out a couple of pumpkins. They have so much fun together.

We put Gabi in her costume last weekend as well, so Grammy and Papa could see her. It is the cutest when she is crawling because the wings pretty much blanket her entire body, so all you see is the little tail wiggling back and forth. Good for a few giggles!

This is the rear view:

Gabi is just about ready to walk -- she gets closer and closer each day. I'm sure by my next post, we'll have some footage of those first steps. Her new thing is to say, "What's that?" (Heard as "Whatdat?") and point at an object. I bet we hear it and answer it at least 100 times a day. She is very observant and curious and it's fun to see her putting everything together. She still loves books, being around people, and being outside looking at everything.

We hope you all had a very fun Halloween! Thanks for checking in on us!

Love, Joe, Tara, & Gabriela Peacock