It has been a couple weeks already. I don't really have anything very exciting going on. So I have not been blogging. I guess I just need to think..think..think...as the say on Winnie the Pooh.

What have we been up to? Well, we went to the car show. Nothing too exciting there. I sat in a few cars that I would love to own one day. I think my favorite was the Honda 2010 CRV. It has some cool features that I had fun playing with. Justin had to sit in the brand new corvette of course. His dream is to own a 1959 corvette, when we retire. I don't know how to add a link to a picture of it. You will have to google it, if you want to see what it looks like. We also saw a pink corvette that had a barbie on it. Justin thought that was my kind of car. I thought it was cute but I would never want to own a pink vehicle. Sorry Mary Kay but No thank you!

I should not say that there is nothing exciting because my days are full of craziness and smiles from my two wonderful children. Some days are hard and some days are not too bad. Everyday starts to feel the same and before I know it a week goes by.

One thing I have been needing to do is have a girls night out. I feel like all I do is take care of the kids and I don't take care of myself. Most days I barely get any make up on. I would love to do some sort of craft with some friends for a night or even to just watch a movie. I want to use my brain to create something beautiful. I need to use some of this creative energy before I lose it.

I am playing basketball with my ward. Its fun to get out and get some exercise. We probably have the youngest ward in the stake, plus most of the team had a baby within the past year. I love the team and our ward. We are losing one team member soon and its sad but wonderful that her husband got a new job. I got to know her last year during basketball and I will miss her.

Well last night I made something new. My mother-in-laws Easy Corn Salsa. Those of you who grew up with me know that I am picky when it comes to food. Well I have changed, my taste buds changed and so did my attitude about food. When I met Justin, he had a rule that I had to try everything at least once, then decide if I like it. By doing that, I realized I had been missing out on a lot of good food. If you asked me ten years ago to try this salsa, I would have said no. I really like it so I am going to share the recipe.

Easy Corn Salsa
3-5 Roma Tomatoes, diced
1 can Corn, drained
1 can Black-eyed Peas, wash and drain
1 bunch Green Onions, chopped
8 oz Zesty Italian dressing

Combine everything and chill. Add 2 chopped Avocados just before serving. Serves 15-20 people.

Yum! I can't wait to eat more.

Our Christmas 2009

We had so much fun this Christmas. We were able to be with both of our families and enjoy the best things in life, celebrating the birth of the Savior and family. This was Zachary's 1st Christmas and Hailee is starting to realize what is going on. I think this is the last year that we can sleep in, and we did just that. We woke up at 9:30am, it was nice but we were supposed to have breakfast with family at that time. Santa brought us some great presents which we opened about an hour after waking up. I can't remember all of the presents that the kids got right now but we are very grateful for all that we received from Santa, our siblings, and parents. Thank you!!


The Voicemale Concert, Zach was in his car seat on the floor.
On our way to the work party, our first date since having Zach.
Our adventure down town at Temple Square. The adventure is trying to find a place to park, oh the memories. We parked at Carl's Jr, ate some food, then walked a few blocks to see the lights. Luckily, we did not get a parking ticket.

Hailee was enjoying the frosting a little too much.
Getting her present that Santa dropped off at the party.

Christmas Eve at the Banks new home!

Justin putting her new tricycle together and here is her new dresser.
Here she is riding it right after it was put together.We got so many wonderful presents from all of our parents, our siblings, and Santa. Thank you all for everything! We are so blessed. We love you all!

Four Months

A few weeks ago our big boy turned four months old. If you have seen him lately you know he is a big boy. He weighed 17 lbs which is the 87% percentile. He has gained 11 lbs since he was born! He has grown so fast that he did not wear the sixth month size very long. He has been wearing the nine month size for about a month now. I wish both of these kids would slow down on the growing. Zach really did not stay little for very long. We better start buying the 12 month size for our big chubba, that's his nickname. I hope it doesn't give him a complex.

We sure love this baby boy!

I don't know why but I just felt like taking his picture during changing time. I love his expression and his chubbiness!


Some things Zach can do now are:

• Grabbing things and bringing them to his mouth. Like his toys or my hair.
  
• Hold up his head up during tummy time. He is very strong and he can hold his head very high.
• Rolling over, he can almost get on his belly but his arm gets in the way.
  
• Cooing and laughing. We LOVE his little noises. We really LOVE getting him to laugh! It is one of the cutest things. He likes to watch big sister and laugh at her.

Happy Holidays 2009

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of family and good food. Thanksgiving is always a great time to be with family and to be grateful for all we have. I love this time of year, eating amazingly good food and being around family... both of which are my favorite things. The next day is full of crazy shopping for those who wake up early. I went at 9 am and got some great deals. I am glad I did because I met this very nice lady. We were at Kohl's and the line was to the back of the store. We talked the whole time and it went by so quickly, I did not want to say good bye.

The day after Thanksgiving is my favorite day because I get to put the Christmas tree up! This year I put the tree up and put lights on, then I waited to put on the ornaments so I could decide what to do. I did not want to have a tree that only had ornaments on the top. A few days later, I decided to let Hailee help me. I gave her the unbreakable ornaments and she got all excited to put them on the tree. I put about three ornaments that are breakable at the top. She grabs an ornament about every other day, but she is pretty good at taking them off. I re-used some ribbon from Christmas presents and the tree looks great! It is small but prefect for us at this stage in life. We did not know how big it was until we took it out of the box three years ago, hey that's what you get for less than $20. We will have a big tree one day.

I am excited to see Hailee this year and it is Zach's first Christmas. I hope there will be snow. I love snow! I love December especially when there is snow. I get so excited when it is snowing. I could sit and watch it snow all day. It all goes back to when I was a little girl sitting outside by myself playing in the snow. Everything is white and the snow just falls, the most amazing thing about it is the silence! When we were engaged, we waited until it snowed to take our engagement pictures in the freezing Logan canyon. It was beautiful and perfect!

I can't forget about the Christmas lights! I love driving around and seeing lights. SO much to do in a month. It can be stressful but it is such a fun time of year. I love feeling the Christmas spirit, but mostly knowing the reason for the season. The Lord Jesus Christ! I never want to forget the Christ part of Christmas! Merry Christmas! I hope you can know Christ in your life! May you have a wonderful season full of love and happiness.

Its Official...

We have a two year old! It seems like this has come so quickly but two years can fly by. We had a party with family and celebrated. She got lots of wonderful gifts and we ate some cake. She got a stroller with a nice smelling doll, a couple cute outfits, princess cell phone with changeable faces, lots of cute Pj's, a cash register, and sesame street doctor kit. Thank you everyone for the gifts and helping us celebrate our sweet little girl.

I wanted to have a special cake this year so after much thought I decided to make a cake. Not just any old cake, I decided to make a Mickey Mouse cake. This did not seem like it would be that hard, his head is three circles. I was right that was easy, but the frosting choice was not so easy. I had a vision of doing starlets with Black or brown frosting. I had no idea how much time it takes to do that. After I had already started doing the starlets, I found a website that had examples of mickey cakes other people made. I realized at that moment that I did not want to use frosting anymore. I don't even like frosting that much. My ideal cake would have cool whip and pudding on it. If I would have researched before purchasing the frosting then maybe I could have used cool whip and crushed oreos. Did I learn nothing from college? That is all you do in college research and more research. I should know this by now. I think this is what they call mommy brain. Here is my master piece.
Waiting for everyone to arrive.
I put in a an awful lot of work for something that disappears so quickly. It was worth it, for my sweet girl! The best moment was when she started to eat it right after daddy helped blow out the candles. We would have more pictures but my memory card was full. A girl that loves her chocolate, just like mommy!


I wanted to do a now and then, so here it is. This is Now.
That was November 2007.