New Casa!

Cruising with her new wagon...

Tessa loves her rice pudding!

The view from our new house!


Well, with help from Grandma Nancy, Uncle Josh and his girlfriend, Lauren, we were able to do some serious damage in the moving department Saturday. We now have most everything out of the old house, into the new, and unpacked! The garage is another story, but we're hoping to get it moved over here this week, for we want to go to Breck and ski this weekend. We all just love the new house--it is beautiful! You all are welcome anytime!
Tessa has been a little doll lately. Something new everyday! She learned how to roll her tounge, blow spit bubbles and is starting to listen to us when we ask her to do something. She is starting to say different words we teach her; not every time we say them, but frequently enough to make us both believe she's starting to talk. We went to a Ped. Dietritian last week and she told me Tessa is a grazer. Since we have been feeding her on more of a schedule with more options of food at each meal, she has been eating like a champ! She feeds herself bagel pieces with cream cheese, dips crackers in pudding and loves grapes, corn, peas, cheese and anything else she can feed herself.
Hope everyone is doing well! Keep in touch!
Love,
Lindsay, Jesse and Tessa

Hi there, everyone! I wanted to get a few more photos of Tessa on here. We are thinking her first real word is either "bubbles" or "kitty." She's said both in front of the object a couple of times now. Even if she's not realizing what these words mean, she's certainly trying to mimick our words and phrases. She has been crawling all over the place and pulls herself up onto everything! She is cruising and pushing her wagon, but gets nervous when we let go and she's standing alone. We just had a playgroup over here today--6 of Tessa's little friends came over to play on this 65 degree, sunny Colorado day!
Another exciting piece of news: we put in an offer on a house that was going into forclosure. We thought they may write a counter-offer, since we low-balled them, but they agreed to our offer, as long as we close at the end of this month. So, we are moving in 10 days. We have been super busy getting things squared away with the new house and finding someone to move into the old house (our lease is until the end of March). The house is beautiful, nestled in the bluffs about 15 minutes SE of our current house. It is across the street from another park with hiking trails, so we are happy about that. It is a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom stucco house. You all will have to come out and visit!
We had her Cardiologist appt last week and her repair looks good; no hypertension, so that's great. They did say they found a small piece of tissue behind her mitral valve that they will keep an eye on. There is a chance that it could restrict blood flow in the future, requiring another surgery. Dr. Duster says that chance is less than 10%, so we are trying not to worry. Who knows, by the time she may need this, they could be able to fix it with a cath. So, we're just not going to think about that until we have to.

Hola!

Hola everyone! As you can see, Tessa and I just got back from a great vacation with the Pickrell family in Mexico! Tessa loves the beach and pool and is already asking me if we can go back. Next time, we're bringing Daddy though, we both missed him tons! We're hoping to make it back there soon, because I've taken up a new hobby, kite boarding. I took a lesson and love it. It is a very dangerous sport, though. The kite got away from me when getting out of the water; they're truly like powerful engines. I was thrown in the air, landed on my head and drug across the sand on my back towards the jungle. I got a wicked sandburn on my back and am still quite sore. Despite my fear, I got back on the kite and am ready for more. We had such a lovely time with everyone in the warm weather!
I don't think I've updated this in a while, so let's go back to Christmas...Tessa was a little angel. She has been so pleasant lately--just a happy baby that is eating better, sleeping better and is just content most of the time (as long as you're giving her the bulk of your attention:) We spent Christmas Eve at Aunt Kimmy and Uncle Bob's house. All of the cousins from the C-Springs area were there and we had a blast playing Cranium and Catch Phrase until 1:00am. Grandma Karen and Grandpa Michael came down to stay with us, so we spent Christmas morning opening gifts and Santa stocking stuffers before church. Ha! Just kidding! Anyways, we then went out to the ranch for the day--Auntie Lee Lee was in town and Tessa's new cousin, Alex, even came out! We had a nice light dinner and good company, of course. We also spent new year's eve at the ranch this year--had a smoked prime rib and king crab dinner and were in bed before midnight. Yes, we are old.

Happy Holidays

Tessa and her boyfriend, Ben

hiking on the coldest day this year in Colorado Springs!

4 Generation shot!

Well, Miss Tessa is 9 months old and is doing wonderfully. I just thought I'd post a few more photos and a cute video I took today. She has another check up with her Ped. Tuesday; she's been eating quite a bit better, so I think her weight gain won't be an issue this time! She has started liking to eat what we're eating better than her baby food, so we've been letting her experiment. She loves crackers and bits of tofu, but she wants to feed them to herself. We're staying in Colorado for Christmas this year. We're spending Christmas Eve with Grandma Karen, Grandpa Michael, Uncle Kiahi and Aunt Anne at Aunt Kimmy and Uncle Bob's house this year (with all of the cousins, of course), it will be a blast, I'm sure. We will then be spending Christmas Day with Grandpa Terry and Grandma Nancy, as well as all of the uncles, aunts and cousin, Alex. Tessa and I leave for Mexico to meet up with my family on January 2nd for a week. We will miss Daddy, of course, but are excited to lay on the beach and play in the pool!
Happy holidays to you all!
Love,
Lindsay, Jesse and Tessa

Big Girl!

Stephie and Andy
Tessa and Tessa
Uncle Michael
Great Uncle Lee
Joy just loved little Tessa
Uncle Charlie. Nice headband, hey? :)


Uncle Jake and Tessa's cousin, Alex, born November 20


We had a great time in Minnesota--Christina's wedding was beautiful and she was a gorgeous bride! Great Grandpa Ownie, Uncle Lee, Stephie, Andy, Brady, Janelle, Kirk and Janelle's Mother all came from South Dakota for Thanksgiving. 27 people (including the King's and the Mozingo's) came over for the big feast--we had a housefull! Tessa got to meet Tammy's new baby, Mason, and spent quite a bit of time with Owen (Jessie's boy).
Tessa has quite the personality these days...she mimics us, babbles up a storm and even throws mini fits! She started crawling a couple of weeks ago and has figured out she can get what she wants by crawling to it. She is actually eating fairly well these days--she likes sweet potatoes with butter, fruit, yo baby yogart and her new favorite is mac and cheese. Her Pediatrition says if she keeps eating well and takes a couple of ounces of Pediasure a day, she should gain decent weight. Maybe we'll get to see what it would be like to have no medical worries for a while! She so sweet and gets cuter by the minute (however that may be possible:).

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!