A Day of Love...

Happy Valentine's Day! We hope you all had a wonderful day filled with lots of love. Ours was fairly low-key, but filled with lots of hugs and kisses -- not much different than most of our days with our little Gabi girl!

Showing off her new bang trim.

"Funny Face" She loves to do her infamous trumpet lips on command now!

We went to the zoo last week when the weather was so nice, so here are a couple of pictures from that. Gabi thought it was great and loved the monkeys, ducks, and sea lions the best! They were feeding most of the animals when we were there, so Gabi would say "mmmm" when she saw something eating.

Giggling at the silly sea lions!


Do you see the elephant? He was pretty busy eating dinner. "Mmmm."

We hope you all have a great weekend! I have Monday and Tuesday off, so I'm hoping to get some time to work on Gabi's scrapbook. I'm finished up until 6 months old, so just 11 months to go...yikes! We take way too many pictures if you haven't noticed. I wonder what it will be like when there are 2!

Take care,

Joe, Tara, & Gabi

Fun in the Mountains

We had a nice 3-day weekend in Breckenridge with my parents. It was great to get away and for Gabi to spend some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa.

Snowshoeing -- What a beautiful day!

Since I couldn't go skiing, Gabi and I spent lots of time in the swimming pool. She pretty much giggled the entire time and was so fun.

Practicing blowing bubbles!

Swimming with Grandpa Gary

We hope you all are doing well. We're staying plenty busy and loving every minute of it.

We found out on Friday that Gabi is going to have another boy cousin! Greer and Amanda are due a few weeks after we are! It will be so fun!

Love, Joe, Tara, & Gabriela

Miss Busy Body...

Hi Everyone! Here are a few pictures from the past week or so. Enjoy!

Gabi is very dramatic when she says "Maaaama" or "Daaaaada," as she is doing in this picture.

These overalls have to be the cutest ever...a Christmas gift from Grammy and Papa.

Gabi spinning and trying to jump!

Gabi has had a few sleeping issues lately. After a 48 hour period of about 10 hours of total sleep, this was the result during dinner. She just wanted to play and be held and not be in her crib. We're back to normal now (knock on wood).

It was so warm last week -- 60s and 70s, so Gabi and I got out everyday and went for long walks to the park and to run around on the golf course. It was a nice break from the cold of winter. We're back to 20 and snow today.

Meeting a llama at the National Western Stock Show.

Petting a sheep. Gabi likes all animals, but I think horses are her favorite.

Gabi is a little animal herself, so we thought about leaving her in this pen, but ended up letting her out and taking her home. ;-)

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

Joe, Tara, & Gabi

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