We celebrated Maggie's first birthday last Sunday. The day started with an Ellis family tradition. Maggie's breakfast chair was decorated with balloons and a birthday candle placed in her cereal. The party was originally planned as an afternoon picnic in...
The first ever Baca family vacation is in the books. We arrived back in Arizona from our California road trip last Saturday. We were on the road 16 days, lodged at 10 different locations and drove over 2,400 miles. The...
The great Baca family vacation of 2009 is underway. We're two days into our 16 day trek across California. The first seven days of the trip will be spent driving around CA introducing Maggie to all of our family and...
Marissa and John hosted the Ellis clan Sunday for a swim party. Given the 115 degree high, it was a great way to spend the day. Maggie got to spend the day with her cousins Reef and Xavier. I think...
Each Friday Debra's folks host us for Pizza Night. It has become the first of what we hope will be many family traditions for Debra, Maggie and me. Ed orders Papa Johns pizza and bakes up some chicken wings. There's...
Marissa and John wanted to get some pictures of the family before the baby was born. He (the baby, AKA Pink, AKA name unknown) is actually being delivered around 1P today. So we joined them at a park near their...
Yesterday we enjoyed a beautiful Sunday afternoon with a picnic in the park near our house. We ate delicious veggie wraps, Sun Chips and Hansen's sodas. Leftover Valentines chocolates made a nice desert. Maggie was quite content laying on the...
My aunt and uncle, Oleta and Reuben, are visiting. Last night we all went out to El Encanto Dos near Cave Creek. It was Reuben's first time meeting Maggie and she just loved him. I think it was the bushy...
Last Friday we got Maggie and her cousin Xavier together at Grandma's house. They're a bit young for playing, but things got entertaining when they started latching onto one another. In one picture it looks like Xavier is trying to...
We had a wonderful (and overfed) holiday this year. Debra and I decided to exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve morning. I went the gadget route and got her a Flip Mino HD. When you're the parent of a three-month old,...
2008 was a wonderful year for the Baca family. After getting engaged in November of 2007, Debra and I wed on March 25 March 15. It meant so much to us to spend such a special day with our family...
Jennifer and Jason welcomed little Xavier into the world around 9:30P last Thursday. It's just raining babies in the Ellis clan. He's a beautiful little boy. At birth he was bigger than Maggie was at her two month checkup! Anyway,...
Maggie was baptized this last Sunday at Shadow Rock. It was a nice ceremony. Ken (the minister) mixed in some poignant imagery about the significance and scarcity of water here in the Valley. For us in Arizona, we know that...
Having a baby 'changes everything'. We heard that countless times during our pregnancy. Some said it with a touch of stress or fatigue in their voice. "Ugh, it changes everything." Others said, "It changes.......everything," with a twinkle of joy in...
Okay, I'll admit right up front that a five week old baby probably doesn't get much out of dressing up for Halloween. But her parents and grandparents got a real kick out of it. I was keen on dressing up...
There is nothing like lazy Saturday mornings playing with Maggie. Well, she's not actually playing yet. But she is quite peaceful and alert this morning. She slept most of the night and this morning I'm pretty sure I got her...
Sunday, October 5 was the scheduled baby shower for friends and family. As you know, Maggie decided to make an early appearance. Apparently she didn't want to miss the party. It was such a treat having Maggie there for everyone...
Our precious little girl was born on 9/27 at 12:03A. Maggie is 6 pounds and 20 inches long. She has dark curly hair and deep cobalt eyes. She's beautiful. We've been up almost four days straight, labor lasted 37 hours,...
This last week we met with our midwife for the first time. Debra and I have decided to have a home birth. If you hadn't already heard, I'm sure your first reaction might be akin to ARE YOU NUTS?! We...
John and Marissa got a suite at the D-Backs vs. Braves game yesterday afternoon for Ed's birthday. It was a real treat. The game was a wash, but a good time was had by all. Michael gave a fine rendition...
Our niece Kat is staying over for a few days, helping Debra pack up her condo. Last night the three of us broke out our new Monopoly game. I hadn't played since I was 12. They've added a bunch of...
We capped off a busy weekend with a trip downtown to see the D-backs play the Padres. Bryan had taken his family for Father's Day while I was in San Diego, and the ticket agent gave him a deal on...
We've been blogging about our soon-to-be nuclear family, but never really introduced everyone to our current family. I should admit up front that I wasn't much of an animal lover before I met Debra. We always had pets back in...
As the pregnancy progresses we're getting more and more attention. The outpouring of advice and well-wishes means a great deal to us. I never anticipated how necessary and welcome all of the support would be. The themes of late are...
I joined Debra in San Diego this past weekend for Carole and Brandon's wedding. It was a wonderful ceremony. It was held right on the harbor around sunset. The reception was at the same location and everyone seemed to...
Debra is out of town this week. She is in San Diego with her cousin Carole, helping with Carole's wedding preparations. So I've been left to fend for myself and fend off the other four ladies of the house (Dulce,...
A few weeks back we attended the annual Sinclair family reunion in Tempe. What a great experience. The reunion is a gathering of Diane's family, the Sinclairs, going back over 50 years. Each year they get together on Mother's Day....
I spent most of this week re-vamping the blog. Most of the changes might look minor, but my coding skills are limited so they took me a while. We hope you like the new look. Debra hasn't felt much like...
We just finished our fifteenth week of pregnancy. Debra seems to have been spared most of the first-trimester nausea, but she's been pretty tired these last few weeks. According to the baby book, the little one is 3-4 inches in...
We still haven’t spent much time looking through photos, but we wanted to get some posted before our one year anniversary. So we picked out some of our favorites and posted them on Flickr. Our photographer took over 2,000 and...
We haven't updated the blog in a while. With all the wedding and honeymoon activity, the blog was WAY down on our list of To-Dos. We got back from the honeymoon in Nicaragua with plans to update everyone on the...
I spent this last weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area visiting some of my cousins. I had business in San Francisco on Monday and decided to go out early to see family. My cousin Steve decided to throw...