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!