Pray for Kenn

Our pastor at church, Kenn, just got back from Africa at the beginning of January. Well, now he has Malaria and they are going to test him for Dungy Fever too!! He is in very bad shape, according to his wife, and hasn't had any relief since he has been admitted on Sunday. Please pray for him to get some relief and for his headaches and fever to go away. I can only imagine what is going through his mind, and it makes me kind of smile, because if you know Kenn, he is the greatest man. He is probably thankful for everyone around him and thankful he now knows what all those Africans he came in contact with feel like!!! And he is in an awesome hospital with all the medicines he could ask for and those poor people would get tested for Malaria and then go to another station for some meds!!!! That's it! No hospital stays! Please pray for strength for his family and for him to be able to get some rest!!

We finished!

Matt and I finished reading our book, Night Light, by Dr. Dobson and Shirley Dobson. We really enjoyed reading this book together every night. We used to go to bed and turn on the news, but for the past several months we went to bed and talked!!! It was so nice to chat about all sorts of stuff. The book hit on everything: kids, communication, your walk with God alone and as a couple, divorce, arguments, savoring the great times, finance, etc. It was nice to just sit and chat. We definately recommend getting a couple's devotional book. We are going to get another one. I just love my hubby!!

I'll make you feel better

So, I haven't been feeling the greatest lately. It is off and on and all day long! Pretty new experience for me, since with the girls I didn't have a moment of sickness. With Harper I had a little bit, and with this last of my mohicans (yes, this will be our last!), I have been pretty yucky. This morning when Carly got in bed, she kissed me and said I will make you feel better Mom and proceeded to rub, ever so gently, my arm. She is so sweet! I didn't even tell her I wasn't feeling good, she just knew, and she knew that if she was holding me I would feel all better! I love this girl's heart - she always cares about everyone and doesn't want anyone to feel bad!

Harper

Today is a little spot light on the Banks!! He has become quite a little swimmer! We took them all to the pool today and he finally learned how to hold himself up in his float by himself. He looked like a little duck gliding across the water and his little feet just going a mile a minute under the water. He also loves to jump in - something my chicken little girls still won't do by themselves. He just falls into the pool and just about touches the bottom and comes up smiling so big. He is such a fish.

This is Harper this morning enjoying a muffin! This was only his first one - he ate two so he ended up in worse shape than this!

This is Harper unloading the dishwasher. He took everything out and put it on the counter. He loves to do the dishes and he is pretty good at it too. Side note - do not think my child ever walks around in a onesie!! Matt took him to the bathroom and he came out like this. Matt is not allowed to pick out Harper's clothes for the day, because he can't match for the life of him. So he did get dressed after this!!!

This is me after changing Harper's diaper yesterday. I was not feeling good at all, and when I got him up from nap, he had a doosy!! So as I sat in the bathroom gagging, I resorted to strapping the diaper to my face so I wouldn't get sick!!! Oh, the joys of pregnancy!!!

Obama

Today Harper learned two words - snow and Obama. After our morning in the snow, we watched the inauguration. Harper kept walking around the house saying Obama! It was so funny. Here is a video of him saying it. You can hear Carly in the background coaching him to say it. He was a little excited to be sitting in the recliner, but you can still hear it.

Here is another attempt to capture this on video!!

Snow Day!

This morning at 6:30 am, the girls awoke and to their happy surprise, there was snow!!! We told them to go look out the window and they were so excited!! They just sat for a half hour looking out the window at the beautiful white blanket covering our front yard!! Of course they were more than ready to go outside for the first snow this year (it didn't snow last year at all!) We fed them some breakfast and proceeded to bundle them up! We entered our 1 inch snowy wonder at around 8:00 am - we lasted 50 minutes!!! Harper loved it from the get go. He liked walking up the driveway - didn't quite care to crunch in the snow that was in the yard. He got into his car and drove around. I pulled the sled out and took Carly down the "mountain" that is beside our house. It is a very short, steep little hill. Carly and Harper enjoyed going whee, Chloe wanted no part. Of course Carly would only go down with me, but oh well, at least she went down. Matt finally grabbed Chloe and made her go down - she cried! We tried making a snowman (he was very little), but the snow wasn't too packy. These kids would definitely not make it in the north!! Thank you Mom for always bundling us up to go outside in the snow!! That was a lot of work putting on all those layers!!

Here we are all bundled up! Harper's little gloves kept falling off, so his hands were extremely cold!

Here is Matt with them! This is the first time he has ever played with his kids in the snow! It was nice having an extra pair of hands to man all the kids. He enjoyed seeing how excited they were. He has always been at work when it snowed!

After Harper went down the hill, I had to walk back up it. Well, he started falling backwards so I just told him to lay down. He very slowly leaned back and just layed there!! He is such a good boy, he just listened and didn't complain one bit!

Here is Harper and Dad enjoying a little snow ball treat!!!

Chloe assembling her frosty snack!!

Carly getting ready to eat her frosty snack! It has an Oreo bottom, cake frosting for the glue, marsh mellows for the body, and Trix for the eyes and nose!

Chloe!!

Today I was going to do circle time with the girls and I told them to sit on the couch and wait for me. When I go to sit down, Chloe tells me she is going to have a baby. I look and the child's stomach and she has stuff shoved in her pjs to make her look pregnant!! What a hoot. She makes me laugh so much!

I'm going to stay 3 Mom!

The other morning during the kids' breakfast, Carly was eating her cereal and announces, "Mom, I'm not going to get bigger. I am going to stay 3 and stay with you!" Oh, if it was only that easy! I love my babies!! How sweet of her to stay 3 for me. I can't believe how fast they are growing. It is so sad to me that in a year and a half our lives are going to be turned upside down when we embark on the new adventure of SCHOOL!! I love my 7:30 morning getting out of bed and if I don't want to go anywhere, I don't have to. My time is quickly coming to an end of my lackadaisical days!!

Our Little Nut!!

Here is a picture of our little nut!! Yes it is only 1 baby!!! I am 7 weeks pregnant and due August 26th. We are so excited! The girls say that they can't wait to hold the little baby and give it a bath. Harper, oblivious, will point to the pic and say Bae. Pray that everything goes well with this pregnancy!

Get Yourself Together

This morning during breakfast, Chloe was not too happy with her grits. So she decided she needed to whine about everything. She was sent to bed to cool off once, and then came back and only lasted about 10 minutes before she was sent back to bed. As she was walking the long way to her room, howling the entire way, Carly was bounding in the playroom and matter-of-factly states, "Chloe needs to get herself together!" Well, Matt and I just couldn't stop laughing at her cuteness. Then she lays on the floor and tells us to make her like a puzzle. Matt and I, confused at what she was wanting us to do, just pretend that her arms and legs were pieces and were sticking them on her. We couldn't get why she was asking us to do this. Then she stands up and says, "There! Now I'm all put together!!" Goofball was wanting us to put her together like Chloe needed to get herself together!!! I love the literalness in their innocent 3 yr. old mind!

Happy New Year's

Happy New Year's everyone!! We hope you all have enjoyed the last day of 2008 and the first day of 2009! Matt was off both of these days, so maybe that means we will be seeing more of him this year - ha - wishful thinking!! We cleaned the whole house yesterday, putting away all of the Christmas decorations. We had a lot of help! All three of these little monkeys were helping hand Matt stuff into the attic. We really enjoyed them participating, it made it fun to put everything away! Then we took the kids to my parent's house while we went out to eat with TJ and Deanna to Outback. Yummy! Then we went bowling. Of course all the lanes were taken, but luckily for us we had an awesome salesman with us, Matt, and he got us a lane!! He is such a talker, but it worked out for us. So we bowled for an hour and a half with Jeff and Heather too. It was lots of fun, partly because I won the last round!! I have never bowled over 100 in my life and I got 100 in the 7th frame - we couldn't finish because the time was up. We picked up the kids and headed home around 11:30 - Carly and Chloe were up the whole time - they almost made it to midnight, but I could barely keep my eyes open, so they went straight to bed when we got home.

Here is Harper and Carly on top of the ladder. They were helping change the air filters in the house. Harper could climb up and down that ladder all by himself! He has no fear! He would stand at the second from the top and hold his hands up - kind of like he enjoyed the thrill of being hands free!!

Money, Money: I made a can of collards and a can of black eyed peas. Collards is supposed to give you money this year and peas - luck. What is it with money?! I told the girls that they needed to eat the collards so they will get lots of money for their piggy banks this year - man, they gobbled those things up!!! Can you believe my 3 yr. olds ate collards so this year they will get coins for their pigs!! Money sure does motivate a lot of our actions.

Sweet Kisses

Matt and my favorite part of the day is right before we go to bed at night. We go and kiss all of our babies good night and just peer over their beds and talk about how sweet each one of them are. I love seeing my babies sleeping - they are so sweet. Harper is always in some type of crazy position, but my favorite one is with his arms tucked up under him and his butt in the air. I love when his lips are curled up too -he looks so kissable. If he is close enough to the edge, then I can squish my lips through the crib slats and kiss him. I have tried bending into the bed, but have gotten stuck many times and Matt has had to pull me back out, hurting my stomach, and then we get into an uncontrollable laughing spat. The girls are easier to kiss. So we get to kiss them every night. Sometimes they will start talking in their sleep, which is pretty funny. We tell Chloe when she gets up the words she says. The latest were feathers and bears. She just blurts these out, she must be dreaming of them. I don't think Matt and I will ever be able to stop this ritual, it is just too fun!! It leaves us with such a peaceful image of our angels before we go to bed - I love my kids!!!