One Beautiful Baby

After two days of blinding Ariel with camera flashes, we finally got "the money shot" for the Beautiful Baby contest on Live! with Regis and Kelly.

In hindsight, I should have planned ahead and took pictures earlier, so you all could have a say and vote (don't worry, I'm sure you'll be doing this later, March 1, wink, wink). Anyway, we'll find out if we made the semi-finals the week of February 22. Should we make finals, we'll be flying out to New York March 1 to be on the show. That's when the public at large will get to vote on the 5 finalists. I'll keep you posted.

Although I'm severely biased, I think Ariel has a good shot. You can visit http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/regisandkelly/contests/beautifulbaby10/index.htmlto check out the competition, I mean galleries for the 2010 baby contest. Wish us luck!

The Little One Stopped for Playful Eight

I apologize for posting Ariel's eight months pictures so late. Being sick makes you want to doing nothing but sleep.

Ariel didn't have a semi-official photo shoot this month. Maybe I'm getting lazy or perhaps there were so many pictures taken over Christmas, I didn't feel the need. Oh well. There are a handful of cutes one, so don't flog me just yet.

Update: Ariel is really getting the handle of getting on her knees and rocking back and forth. She does seem to prefer getting on her toes, but I'm not sure how efficient that will be to crawling. I tried taking some video to show you all, but Ariel knows when the camera is rolling and becomes most uncooperative. I'm still trying for the perfect shot though.

Eric and I have been really concerned about Ariel's food intake. She'll eat a little bit and then start screaming. She had a weight check earlier this week and she only gained 8 ounces since November. I know, not good. Her doctor thinks that her acid reflex is severe and this is preventing her from eating well. The theory totally makes sense. Ariel will eat just enough to satiate the hunger and then she's done, as eating food tends to aggravate the reflux issue and cause pain. Food equals pain, I wouldn't want to eat either. She hates the new medicine and tends to gag on it. The experience is quite traumatizing for all parties involved.

In a rare moment of channel surfing, I stopped by Live! with Regis and Kelly. On this particular day, they announced their "Beautiful Baby" contest. The top prize is a college scholarship worth $125,ooo and a front cover photo for "Parenting" magazine. Of course we're going to enter. So Vicki and I are brainstorming the perfect shot to showcase Ariel's great smile. As soon as we get that done, I'll post the money shot.

Here's our eight month old, rockin' and a rollin'.

tiptoe trippin'
enjoying the shopping cart cover mommy made for Christmas there's a pretty baby in this book
snoozin'

yummy cake
ariel and ysabella (our goddaughter just turned 3!)

Child of God

Happy New Year everyone! I pray that 2010 has started off kindly for all. Ariel and I ushered in the new decade by getting colds. Hooray! We're just now feeling better, so I figured that it was time to update the blog. Ya'll like new stuff, right?

Back in November (shame on me for taking so long to write about this), we had Ariel baptised. As is the funky weather patterns in Colorado, Saturday was warm and sunny and Sunday morning it snowed. All of our guests (about 20 or so) braved the slick conditions to witness the ceremony. My grandfather (who is 80) flew from Ohio to be apart of Ariel's big day. It was a real treat to have him in our house for a few days. We even coerced him to partake of Wii bowling, which he did very well in. I'm pretty sure he beat me!

ariel and all the 'rents

At our church, they perform the baptisms during service. This is nice as the congregation gets to participate and take ownership of their newest Christian brother or sister. Ariel lucked out this week, and was the only baby during the late morning service. Father Pat is good about juggling two babies, but it was nice to have all the attention on our little one.
prepping for the dunk

If I haven't mentioned before, Ariel loves going to church. I think she just enjoys the people. Sometimes, she'll even sing along with the choir. The water in the baptism font is heated, to encourage the babies to smile instead of cry. When Father Pat dunked her in, she smiled and laughed and probably wondered why she was still in a diaper for bath time. The ceremony was short and sweet and Ariel truly enjoyed all the attention. Eric's cousin Kevin is the godfather, and my sister is the godmother. Ariel is one lucky kid.

ariel and godparents

Afterwards, we held a reception at the house with the usual food fare. I found some time to make and decorate Ariel's cake. My skills are bit rusty, but I think it turned out just fine. Here are some pics of the big day. We even took her to Portrait Innovations for her official baptism pics. Auntie Vicki was very gracious to take some pics as well. We don't have the best pictures of the event, as photographer Vicki was in the ceremony. Oh well. Enjoy!

reception lunch (by vicki)

honored guest (by vicki)

can you find the baby? (by vicki)

flirty angel

sweet smile