Scottsdale Photos

Ema Karen with the girls. Tessa was very busy emptying Great Papa's vegetable basket!


Great Papa

Nana Lola with her girls
At the Phoenician pool



Papa Kent

Tessa and Gracie
Tessa and her friend, Gracie enjoying bath time together!

Just wanted to post a few photos Papa just sent me from Scottsdale last week. Tessa took her first crawling "steps" 3 days ago! I was so excited I was clapping for her, and she started clapping back! She lunges forward, takes a few crawling movements, then falls on her tummy. She can then push herself back up to her hands and knees and sit back up if she chooses to do so. She has been working on her "downward dog" yoga pose as well.
Tessa is still gaining weight very slowly, so the doc wants us to push solids on her even more and give her Pediasure as a daily supplement. He's not too worried about her yet; she is definitely not failing to thrive, the little girl has more energy than Jesse and I combined, I think! :)

My first vacation...

Maya!


Great Papa

family shot at the beach in San Diego

Tessa's first Broncos game

5 generation shot we've been waiting for!!

Well, Tessa is officially a jet-setter. She loves to travel and is nothing but a chatter box on the planes. We had a great time visiting all the family in San Diego this past weekend! We stayed at Aunt Deb and Uncle Bob's beautiful home in San Marcos and got to see cousin Jennifer, Great Grandma Sharon, Great Grandpa Dick, Great Great Grandma Powell, Uncle Josh, Grandma Karen, plus we got to spend some time with Maya. Tessa took her first trip to the beach--she loved the sand, but not the ocean so much (it was too cold, I think). Tessa and I then met Nana Lola and Papa in Scottsdale and stayed at the Phoenician, which was the most fancy, pretty resort I've been to yet. We mostly hung out at the pool. We went up to have dinner with Great Papa and Grandma Karen Monday night, but other than that, we just relaxed in the sun! What a great trip!

Happy Halloween!

Well, Tessa is now 7 1/2 months old. We had her in her Halloween costume for a whole 5 minutes or so before she let us know she was ready for bed. She has been pulling herself up onto things and can stand unassisted holding onto the coffee table or my neck skin (she's a great pincher these days:). She lunges forward from the sitting position to grab toys and takes a couple of "steps" with her hands, but then falls on her tummy. She can kind of scoot around the floor a bit, but isn't quite crawling. She cut her first 2 teeth a few weeks ago now and since teething began, she hasn't been sleeping at night very well at all. For almost 2 months now, she seems to wake every two hours and wants to nurse (or comfort suck). We aren't into the "cry-it-out" method, so I'm just hoping it stops someday. We bought a Baby Sleep Book by Dr. Sears, who is all about attachment parenting, day and night, so hopefully we'll find some useful tips in that! Wish us luck, we're tired! :)
We've got a couple trips planned this month...Tessa and I are flying out with Grandma Karen to San Diego on Thursday for Great Great Grandma Powell's 95th birthday! Jesse flies out on Friday night with Uncle Josh, so it should be a party! Great Grandma Sharon will be there as well, so we'll finally get to have that 5 generation photo taken! Tessa and I fly from there to Phoenix on Sunday to visit Nana Lola and Papa at the Phoenician in Scottsdale for a few days! We are all then going to Minnesota for Thanksgiving and Christina's wedding! The weather here is still fantastic--it's been in the 70s and sunny, so we've been getting out to walk quite a bit. We officially started the Gymboree music class on Tuesdays--I think Tessa really enjoys the tunes and instruments. She has also discovered how loud her voice can get and loves screaming for joy!