4th of July

Hello Everyone,

We had a great 4th of July and week after. We spent the weekend of the 4th up in Hatch, NM celebrating Rachel's Dad's birthday. The week after, my sister Heather and her kids McKenna, Mason, and Salem got to see their new cousin up close. Even though we just hung around the house all week, it was alot of fun catching up, getting to see the kids play, and introducing Gabi to her new family. Take Care:)

Week 1

Well, it has been a wonderful first week with Gabriella. We appreciate all of our visitors and their support. Grandma Debbie was in town last weekend, and we look forward to visiting her and Danny in a couple of weeks. Also, my sister-in-law Heather will be in town soon along with McKenna, Mason, and Salem to visit their new cousin.

Unfortunately, Aaron has to return to work tommorrow. Gabi and I will miss him, and I keep praying that I will be OK without him during the weekdays. Gabi is doing well. She had her second doctor appointment this morning, and thankfully there are no health issues.

Gabi's First Day

Here's some pictures and a video from Gabriella's first day. Grandma and Grandpa Palomino, Aunt Anita, and Cousin Tiffani were all at the hospital. We can't wait for Grandma Martinez to come visit tomorrow and the rest of the gang to meet her!

Gabriella's Here

Finally, our daughter has arrived. Gabriella Rae Benefiel was born on June 24, 2009 at 9:46pm. She weighs 7lbs 14oz, is 21 in. long, and is in great health. I was getting ready to go to work when Rachel started having contractions and we decided it was time. The labor began around 7:30am, and unfortunately, Rachel had to wait over 7 hours for an epidural, and had already dialated to 7cm. Despite that, everything else went very well, and we couldn't ask for a greater blessing:)

Baby Shower #3

Hello Everyone,

We've been lagging once again:) A couple of weekends ago, my Dad, David came down and we went out for a nice dinner and had a great time. The next day, Danny and Debbie were down to attend Rachel's third shower. It was organized by Mission Lutheran School. There were a lot of fun games including pass the diaper and build-the-baby out of play-do. As you can see from the photos, everyone had a blast. We'd like to extend a special thank you to Alicia, Melinda and all the teachers and parents from MLS for throwing the shower and being so good to Rachel as well as all of our family and friends who were able to attend.

Rachel is now 37 weeks along, and we are ready for Gabriella to arrive soemtime in the next three weeks. We are very excited and cannot wait to be parents:)

Baby Shower #2

Hello Everyone,

Last weekend our church threw Rachel a baby shower. It was heald at a small farm north of town. Everyone had a great time. We've known the people at St. Andrews for years and we are all really close. We even had some of our Sunday School kids show up and they had a blast:)