I'm Finished!!!!

I know you are supposed to get worse with each kid but that is not the case for me.

These are my last few pages from Banks' Baby Book.

Now to start on Nayvee!

I was a little ticked at myself after working on these last ones.

I think I was having crazy mother mush brains and forgot to take pictures for like 3 months

I can't go back now but I can repeatedly SHAKE my head when i think about it.

yup, no pictures of any of our visitors! so if any of you are reading this and you have

a good picture of banks and yourselves or your children

I would GREATLY appreciate them!

This would be one of those moments when I am really shaking my head!

can you believe I didn't take of picture of Banks' in his outfit

that he got blessed in. Let alone a family picture... nope nothin!

This is a picture from the next day before Grandma and Grandpa left!

Yup shaking my head again as we speak!

Birthday Boy

We took John his favorite treat "pumpkin ecstasy" 

to school so the kids could see him

on his birthday!

Everyone kept asking Nayvee how old her dad was

and the response was

Super OLD!

29 Years Young!

Happy Birthday John

29 things we love about you

1.  you're hilarious

2. a fabulous father

3. incredibly smart

4. a Proud Mormon

5. GOOD LOOKING

6.  you Loves Sports

7. Musical

8. you try to make everyone feel important

9. American Idol Fan

10. Small town boy

11. deep thinker

12. you don't care that I don't iron

13. patient, patient, patient

14. hard worker (even at -30 C)

15. lets me put my ice cold feet on his warm legs

16. lets me stay at home with our kids

17. loves his family

18. Great Friend

19. Can Slam a basketball at 29

20. you love pumpkin anything

21. that you call us at lunch and on your way home

22. your random knowledge about EVERYTHING

23. That you let me visit my family and never complain

24. that you love ice cream

25. that you do the grocery shopping

26. that  you love to play with the kids

(especially hide-and-seek...that's from nayvee)

27. your deep voice

28. how happy we are when you can be with us

and last but not least...

29. How hard you are working to take care of us!

We hope you have had a fabulous day!

WE LOVE YOU TONS

Tiny Dancer

Nayvee has just started taking 

a little dance class

at the church.

She is just so stink'n cute

I had to bring her right home

for a little photo shoot.

of course it wouldn't be Nayvee

with out a little sass!

It's official

he's not a baby anymore.

He sports his hat and thinks he's so BIG!

Nayvee loves to blow bubbles

we don't have a yard to play in, so this is an

awesome activity that we can do right in front

of our apartment in the driveway.

Sometimes it's nice to just go outside to play

instead of lugging everyone up to the park.

Fever

So Nayvee was talking to my mom on the phone the other night

and my mom asked her if she had been sick. 

Her answer was, "I got the fever".

 My mom told her that she had better go and litsten to the fever song. 

So we have been rock'n out to it for the past few days. 

We decided we really liked the song
so we have added it to our playlist for your enjoyment.

 I will have to say that I have a day dream
that one day John will playing the upright bass 

and will be able to sing this song along with him. 

it's funny, at first i was thinking when i am old
 and number 30 popped into my head. 

Well since that is only six months away
we are gonna have to bump that old number up to 40. 

Which honestly lets get this straight...when i really think about it, 

80 is old 

and everything else is still on the more youthful side. 

 I have sisters in their 40's
and a mom who is edging ever so closely to 60, 

and i wouldn't for one second 

think that they are old.

Happy Easter

There is nothing better then General Conference Sunday 

except when it's on Easter Sunday!

I will admit that the kids would probably be a little more reverent

if we watched Conference at the church but

sometimes it's just nice to stay home.

We have had such a fun Easter week. On thursday we made

Hot Cross Buns a major Easter tradition in my family.

(you are supposed to make a cross with the icing but in my opinion 

the more icing the better, and you know how Mormons and Crosses go.)

 I was surprised to find out 

that most people had not tasted them before and

only knew of them from the nursery rhyme. 

Crazy! 

We went to an Easter party on Friday 

where we dyed easter eggs and had an easter egg hunt.

Nayvee asked this morning if we could have Easter again.

A Visit from Grandma and Grandpa

John's Parents came out to visit while we were on

 SPRING BREAK!

The weather is always excellent when they come 

and of course the rain returned they day they left.

John's mom has always wanted to go on a tour of 

the city so this time they made it happen.

We all had such a great time and it was a beautiful day.

Our tour guide Thadius was full of all kinds of 

weird information about san francisco.

It was a really fun way to see the city, especially downtown!

This is a taco place that John and his friends

 come to quite often and LOVE. 

It is amazing how unique

 all the different areas of  San Francisco are.

I'll post more from there visit when i get them finished.

something I don't want to forget

So Nayvee is supposed to be learning the first verse of

Follow the prophet

for the primary presentation this year.

So while we were making cupcakes I figured it would be

a good time

to start going over the words.

So i began with putting on the music so graciously given to us
by the presidency.

 I told her to listen close. 

It's hard to listen close
when you are pouring the batter in the cup cake papers.

 The first few lines go by pretty quick, since the song has
a pretty good tempo.

all the sudden she looks up and says, with a confused look on her face

Adam got Eaten?

So i explained that no, it a place called Eden.

Then she says, so you get eaten there?

I just couldn't hold it in and the the chuckles began.

we both had a good laugh

and i told her she was silly.

she replied with, "I learned how to be silly just today at Joy School...this is the silliest day of my life!"

Hard at Work

I have been hard at work

on Banks' Baby Book again.

I decided i would do the first year of his life

 about half way through the year.

So now that he is just over a year I am back at the beginning.

It was so fun to look at all the pictures again

but sad too!

I have cried quite a few times because of 

HOW TIME FLIES!

I had some discussions with friends and family 

over the past few weeks about how 

I hope when it is all said and done

that I can have every single memory back.

Our brains are amazing and i know it is all stored up there somewhere.

I am sure that heavenly father is very mindful of mothers

 (especially the ones who feel like their brains turn more into mush with each baby)

he will let me have all of these cherished

moments back.

This is a long post....so happy scrolling

My Nayvee Bean

We are definitely creatures of habit and Nayvee is no exception.

She loves her cocoa and can't go a day with out it.

For one of my photography assignments I had to do

 "a day in the life of..." 

so I thought I would choose Nayvee

I am really loving this stage of Nayvee and Banks.

Don't get me wrong, there are always a few crazy moments everyday but over all they are 

FAB-U-LOUS!

They play so good together and it just keeps getting better 

the bigger Banks gets.

Nayvee is the mother hen of the house and Banks is content 

to just tag along for the ride.

Let the Sun Shine!!!

John finished his quarter yesterday 

and I can't believe how fast

this year has Gone!

Thankfully the rain has stopped and the beautiful

weather has arrived. 

Yesterday was so fun, we headed to the beach for the afternoon

and then had a BBQ afterwards. 

It's so nice when John can relax and not worry that 

something needs to be done tomorrow.

Usually once or twice a month we go on a

 family date

to IN-N-OUT. This is one place we will

miss when we don't live in California.

Park day...it's a lifesaver

We went to the Chinese New Year Parade in

Union Square. We had an awesome spot 

right in the front. It was the longest parade I have ever been to. 

We had to leave early because our kids couldn't take it any

longer. Who would have thought.

Notice in the picture by the float,

 there is the remnants of a fire works display. 

It was so loud I thought someone put my head

 inside a bombshell. 

I am pretty sure it was about 1000 black cat firecrackers 

going off at one time...I am not even exaggerating. 

I plugged banks' ears for him, but who was going to plug my ears?

I guess if i go deaf at least he can hear.