October (better late than never)

Caleb had a hoot with the witches at Gardner Village. So cute!! You have to go on the witch hunt there. You do a with scavenger hunt, and then turn it in to get a 25 cent cookie. Yummy!


Caleb chillin with the witches!


We love watching Caleb run around in his sleeper. He looks like Yoda, ha ha!


Marcus' baby blessing!! The three Kelly grandsons, they're all such cuties!


If you haven't been to Cornbelly's, you must go!!! It's literally the coolest, fall place ever! I can't wait to take Caleb next year, when he'll actually enjoy it, ha ha!


We love the Kelly family, Halloween party! Can't go wrong with pumpkin carving, family, costumes, and good food!


Me and my cute Kindergarten class!! I love holidays as a teacher. It's like I get to be a kid again!!


James came to my school's Halloween parade and came with my Kindergarten class. It was hilarious, and all the kids just loved Gingy!


Caleb's greatest boo boo yet! He fell on his mini piano, and his mouth just filled with blood, and got everywhere!! Luckily mom was wearing a red shirt. I was freaking out a bit, but right after he stopped bleeding, he was all smiles again!


James, ridin the bull at our ward party! What a hoot! Every time I looked at his costume, I couldn't help but crack up!

Caleb's 1st Year!

Hallelujah, we are all still alive and thriving! If you had asked me a year ago what this year had in store for me, I probably would've said, "I have no clue!!!" I really began motherhood with very little knowledge about babies and how to raise one of my own. Now, I feel like a veteran, ha ha, hardly, but at least I have an idea of what the first year of a new baby brings . . . . .

A baby's first year brings: lots of tears of joy, tears of sadness, tears of frustration, tears of lack of sleep, just lots and lots of tears, bumps, baths, burp rags, late nights, early mornings, poopy diapers, leaky diapers, diapers, diapers, diapers, nursing, creams, giggles, slobber, crawling, chasing, walking, car rides, strollers, cuddling, smiles, teething, spit up, eating, baby books, pictures, videos, baby einstein, toys, lost hair, frizzy hair, messy hair, soft baby hair, onesies, laundry, cooking, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, baby proofing, sore back, sore all over, penny pinching, moving, doctors check ups, tylenol, wanting to exercise but don't have time or energy, but most of all, a whole lot of L O V E :)

I got made fun of for probably over planning my baby's first birthday party, but I couldn't help myself. Not only was it my first baby's first birthday, but I love to plan parties, so I had a blast with it. Here are a few pics to give you a glimpse of what it was like.

You can't have a party with out an invitation!!


Since I love polka dots, and Caleb's room is brown, baby blue, and white polka dots, I figured this would be a fun theme.


Here is the back drop of Caleb's party. I'm so glad the weather turned out nice so we could have it outside.


Here are just some of the family that showed up earlier. We had more friends show up later. Sadly Grandma Kelly, Megan, and Cooper couldn't come because Cooper got a concussion. As well, Allison and Josh couldn't because Josh had to go to the ER. Bad luck, I guess!


I had all of the food be circles or polka dots. Not all of it was at the table when I took this picture, but we had meatballs, bagle bites, cheese ball, melon balls, guacamole with circle chips, olives, cucumbers, cherry tomotoes, etc.


This was the desert table, with cupcakes, polka dot sugar cookies, almond joy m & m's, and of course, a polka dot birthday cake! In the front, I made a banner that had a picture from each month of Caleb's life.



This was the activity table where I had people write down how many cheerios they thought were in the jar, guess the months of some of Caleb's firsts, and write on the picture frame reasons why they loved Caleb. I made pinwheels and stuck them on the pencils. Oh, and of course the winners got Dots candies!


Here's a close up of Caleb's birthday cake. I almost did fondant, but I'm so glad that I didn't, because it wouldn't have been near as messy!


Here's a close up of the cupcakes.


Another pic of the desert table


That stinker only wore his polka dot birthday hat for a few seconds!


He LOVED all of the chocolate frosting. I eventually had to take it away from him, lol!


He looked like a hobo with the frosting, ha ha. His face is classic!


We love our baby so much, and seriously can't believe he's already 1. Time certainly flies!!

Summer 2010 update

My perfect way to kick off the summer. Real game and David Cook concert!! My cute sister in law was kind enough to take me, and it was so fun. I love their studium.


David Cook was really sexy in person. Even though I voted for David Archuletta, I still think David Cook is pretty awesome!


I had some fun making vinyl prints for Caleb's room with my Cricut. What an awesome machine!!




Caleb's first swim, ever! He loves the water, and is one heck of a splasher!


Caleb had lots of fun with his cousins at the aquarium. His favorite are the penguins!


James loves pop, so I thought this would be a cheap, cute gift.


I thought I'd go a little old school with part of James' fathers day gifts. I remember loving these candy posters back in the day, so I made James one.


"Backstreets back alright!!!!" Best concert ever with the cutest girls ever. It was so great reliving my teeny bopper years, and my young crush on Brian. What a blast!!!!


Such a ghetto stage, but they still know how to put on a great show!


There are now 16 grandkids in the Banks family!! We're huge, and there are still lots more to come. I love it that when we all get together, the grandkids have so much fun. I just wish that everyone lived closer. My favorite thing is how Caleb and Wes are still in their carriers, lol!


Our first hike in Zions, and it was gorgeous!


Hiking up the narrows was so fun and refreshing on a hot day. Caleb was such a trooper, and James was clear ahead of everyone, even with a super heavy baby on his back. My little nephews were also troopers and hiked through the water with no shoes! Even though they're tough hawaiian boys, I wouldn't have made it a foot without my tevas!


I'm excited for when these two are older and can be the best of buddies!! It's too funny to see how different they are already. Even though Wesley is a month and a half older than Caleb, Caleb is double the size, and a lot louder. He's going through a screaming phase where even though it's because he's excited, it's so loud!! I thought Caleb was a mama's boy, but Wes takes the cake. He won't go to anyone, but Barbara.
Speaking of Barbara, my prayers are with her and her family. A couple of weeks ago, she had a seizure in the middle of the night, and Troy woke up to her convulsing and blood coming out of her mouth. She was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, and she didn't remember any of it. She now can't drive a car or hold a baby until they figure out what happened. I feel awful, and I wish we lived closer to help, but our thoughts and prayers are with them.


Beautiful Bryce Canyon. I think it's breath taking. It's was really hot though, and I was bummed that we had to drive 4 hours to go there instead of spending more time with the fam. It was great though. Any one with a Utah license plate got into the park for free that weekend!


All the Banks grandkids hot tubbing!


My family went to the Olympic Park up in Park City and did the Alpine Slide and the Zipline. What a blast!!


Caleb loves wearing sunglasses!


I love Caleb in hats, especially cowboy hats. I'm going to have to get one for him. He loved being outside, up in the Uintahs for the Kelly family camping trip.


We put Caleb in his playpen, for the first time, to just play in, and not sleep in. He had a blast in it! It scared me a little though, because he would hold onto the side, and then just fall backwards onto his back, and totally laugh. Even when he hurt himself, he got right back up and did it again. What a silly guy!
Camping this year was great, because we got hang out with everyone up there, and then came home to sleep! Now that's my kind of camping. Since I've been in this family, my camping circumstances have been less than ideal. The first year we left our honeymoon early and I had a parasite, and the stinky outhouse was like a 5 minute walk! The second year, I was about 8 months prego, and it was sweltering hot! Let's just say, I again became aquainted with the outhouse, and didn't sleep at all. This year, I have a 10 month old baby who loves to crawl and doesn't sleep well at night, especially somewhere new. I'm glad that James agreed to sleep in our own bed, and come home and take a nice shower! Don't get me wrong, I love the outdoors. I just don't love going to the bathroom and sleeping outdoors with the mosquitoes and bears.


While at Liberty Park for the 24th, we walked past the Rotary Club Park, and I saw my entire family's name on this plaque. I didn't even know it existed, so I took this cheezy pic of Caleb in front of it. I love it when he does his silly smile!
For the 24th we walked around Liberty Park, went to the Wentworths for a BBQ (It was the entire fam and just us, and Dan wasn't even there. Let's just say, I felt a little awkward at first), took Caleb home to sleep, and then rushed back down for the fireworks. It was crazy though, some of the fireworks fell over and miss fired into the crowd, burning 10 people. The show ended early, and there were all these fire trucks and ambulances trying to rush through the crowds. I'm just glad we weren't right by where it was happening.



My dad got some tables for a Youthlink charity even at La Caille, so some of my family was able to eat a nice meal there. Nummy!!! I felt bad though, because they were raising money there, and our $5 donation was pretty chinzy. Oh well, hopefully in the future we'll have extra money for donations :)



Me and my new peacock friend :)

Spring Fever/ Birthday Fun!

Jackie looked so beautiful on her wedding. Oh how I love this couple!





The tulips were absolutely beautiful at Jackie's wedding this April. I felt a little cheesey taking pictures in front of the temple, but I'm glad my husband was such a great sport about it.



This picture cracks me up. It looks like he's getting drunk, lol!

Caleb is growing up so fast!! He just started to army crawl, and if I look away for even just a second, he's across the room, dumping over the trash can, with newspaper in his mouth. Every age I've said is my favorite, but right now really is. He says "mama" all of the time, and James always tries to get him to say "dada" lol! He loves to eat anything and everything, especially if I'm eating it. He's noticed all sorts of fun things to do with his mouth and lungs. Unfortunately, his scream is incredibly ear piercing, and no matter what I do, he laughs and thinks that he's so funny every time he screams (I can't help, but think it's cute, except for when he screams in the middle of sacrament meeting). He loves to smile and flirt with girls. He learned how to make farting noises on his arm today (already imitating daddy). It's a good thing he's so cute when he's awake, though, because right now he's waking up around 4 times a night, and won't go back to sleep unless I nurse him. It's frustrating because every time he starts sleeping through the night, he dashes my hopes, and goes through a rough phase. I think now it's because we decided to switch rooms with him, since he was sleeping in the closet because his room was too bright and our t.v. was in it as well. He's like his daddy, and doesn't like change, but hopefully he gets over this quick. It's exhausting.



Caleb had the cutest creases on his face from his sheets.



So as a stay at home mom, one of my new favorite shows is "Good Things Utah". I tivo it every day, and I just adore the girls on it. I decided that I had to go, so I went online, got tickets, and my friend Konni came along. It was such a blast. There were only like 5 of us in the audience, and the girls were even cuter and friendlier in person. I gave Konni the scoop on all of the "contributors", and we got to eat strawberry bread, tomatoes with goat cheese and basil, protein chocolates, 4 different kinds of Arizona drinks, and we both won perfume!! I seriously want to go all of the time now!



We just had to take these pictures, and pretend we were news casters! What a hoot!



I can't believe I'm 26! It was such a fun birthday! I got a ton of free meals, so if you haven't already, sign up online for all of these birthday clubs: noodles and company, red robin, ruby tuesdays, coldstone, tucanos, baskin robins, and sweet tomatoes. At almost all of these places, you don't even need to buy anything. It's like a $9 meal for FREE. So great!!

The night before my birthday, I had a friends dinner at the new Corner Cafe and Bakery, and it was great seeing all of my girlies!! On my birthday my awesome mom made me her delicious strawberry crepes, yummo! I did a fun step class at the gym. I went to Kneaders for lunch with James (my fav sandwich is their turkey, avocado on foccacia), then James got me a CRICUT!!!! YAY, I've wanted one so bad for years, and I can't believe I got one. I've been having so much fun playing with it. It's a dangerous time waster though, ha ha! James thinks that it's the equivalent of an X Box for him, but I'm not totally sold on that. That night my dad took me out and we got Macaroni Grill to go (they had to special order my favorite salmon dish because they don't have it on the menu anymore, so sad) We then went and saw the new Robin Hood and ate our Macaroni Grill in the theater, with our popcorn and drinks. Such a fun Gene experience. I'm just surprised that he didn't bring grocery bags in to dump the popcorn so we can get our free refill on the spot. No shame! My wonderful mother in law watched Caleb, and after we had Coldstone ice cream cake. I've decided I'm just not a cake person. I'd take a chocolate chip cookie over cake any day!!



We went to the Bees game with a bunch of couples from our ward. It was so much fun, and only $3 a person! The rootbeer I bought was more than the ticket to get in! I have to admit though, I didn't really watch the game. I had fun talking to Allison and being in that ambiance!!

Just a few more things. I signed the papers last week to return to Twin Peaks as a half day Kindergarten Teacher. I love my school, and I'm excited to return to teaching, although staying at home and teaching piano lessons has been bliss. I'm loving motherhood, and it's going to be hard to leave Caleb; even for half a day. We're really lucky though, because James is going to be able to take morning classes, and then come home to watch Caleb while I teach in the afternoons. We just need to figure out what we're going to do this January to May while James is hoping to intern. I REALLY don't want to do day care, but that might be our only option. If anyone knows a stay at home mom that could use a little extra money, let me know!!

It was great. My friend, Allison, who has an AMAZING voice sang "I Stand All Amazed" in our sacrament meeting today and asked me to accompany her. It sounded so nice, and when we finished, I swear that half of the congregation had tears in their eyes. That girl sings with the spirit. I felt lucky to be a part of it.

Well, here are some random pictures of a couple of my craft undertakings. I'm new to this, so they're not great, but I love doing it, so hopefully I'll get better!



My cricut, yay!!!



I took an ugly, cheap, white frame, and spray painted it black, and glued scrapbook paper to the plain mat that came with it.



My first project with my cricut! I was just messing around with it, and decided that I wanted a summer decoration to put in front of our tv.

Super lame, I know, to put some of my crafts up, but I just got excited about them, and wanted to post pictures on my blog. Besides, I think a total of like 4 people might read this.