March 17-19, 2011: A Visit from Tia Megan

We were so thrilled to have Tia Megan and Danny visit us from Orange County earlier this month. Tia Megan hadn't seen Ellie since our Christmas in Colorado, so we were thankful that she and Danny took the time to come up and spend some quality time with our little Bean. We ate yummy food, took a nice walk on the Dish, relaxed, and set up Grant's new office. Thank you so much, Megan and Danny, for all of your manual labor in the new office!

As usual, Tia Megan spoiled Ellie with some adorable clothes; this time, Seven jeans and a cute top. I cannot believe that my 5 1/2 month old has Seven jeans (pics of those to come)! Thank you, Megan! Ellie sure loved giggling and snuggling with her Tia.


We truly loved the opportunity to just relax with family. On Saturday, Grant's cousins Corbett, Nadalie and Kyle came down and joined us all for a St. Patrick's Day celebration. I'm so bummed that we did not get any photos of their first time meeting Ellie, and of all of the fun we had eating good food and playing one of our favorite games, Wits and Wagers. On Sunday, we had another amazing family night with Kevin and Katherine coming to spend the evening with us. This may have been the first time that all of Grant's Gaudette-Cross siblings got together outside of Visalia! It's fun to hang out as adults. We celebrated the occasion with s'mores!

March 4-11, 2012: Vacation in Sunny Scottsdale

Grant and I decided that a vacation was in order to soak in some quality family time before I return to work. After much deliberation over the best destination to travel to with a new baby, we decided on Scottsdale, AZ. We originally wanted to go to Hawaii. However, since you can't snorkel or scuba dive with an infant, and our beach time would be limited with an infant, we decided that Hawaii just wasn't in the cards for now. But Grant promised me that we would make our trip an "Operation Hawaiian Vacation in Scottsdale." And so it was!

We soaked in some sun and took Ellie swimming for her first time!





We went on a tour of all of the shaved ice locations in the greater Phoenix area!


And we even went to the Arizona Aloha Festival, an event that draws thousands of people to celebrate and enjoy Hawaiian culture through performances, food and shopping. We were so glad that Richard, Jen, Rhett (and Abby, in utero) joined us for the event. And, we were so glad to get even more shaved ice there!


Grant played a round of golf at the Phoenician with Richard, and we went to two Spring Training baseball games: A's vs. Angels, and Giants vs. Reds. Ellie had a hard time at the baseball games -- it turned out all of the cheering impeded her from taking naps.




Most of all, we enjoyed all of the family time. We have been so busy since Ellie's arrival, and have been blessed with so many visitors, that it's been rare to spend quality time with just the three of us. Our trip to Scottsdale was absolutely perfect in that regard!

March 4, 2012: 5 Months Old and Counting

Ellie's little personality is really starting to develop. She is becoming quite our little giggle-monster, and we couldn't be more in love!

At five months old, Ellie:
-likes to play "peek-a-boo"
-is ticklish in her armpits, at the sides of her neck, and on her feet
-eats sweet potato, avocado and pear, but does not like banana
-sleeps most nights from around 8:30pm-6:00am, waking up now and then for us to replace her pacifier in her mouth
-sleeps in her crib downstairs, and no longer in our room
-rolls with ease from back to front and sometimes rolls from front to back
-pushes herself up high during tummy time
-still does a lot of "coo-ing"

It's sure incredible to see this little bean growing and changing.