Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Da Da....

Yep, he said it! Madden's offical 1st word is Daa daaa. Although he doesn't know what he is saying it is still cute to hear.... especially for daddy! He said it for the first time on sunday and is saying it more and more each day. Cal was a little sad because he wanted him to say Braa Braaa first. What a cute big brother he is.

Pics of the boys.....

Here are some pics of my 2 handsome boys! Some are from the Tempe Christmas parade, some from the park, St. Nick, Madden in an adorable snowman outfit, and then some other random ones. Hope you enjoy.........







Cal was a townsperson in the church play


Madden checking out what he got in his stocking from St. Nick!


Cal scored big this year from St. Nick! Must have been a good boy!








Updates......

I know it has been quite a while since I updated the site. Gosh it hasn't been since Halloween. So I will give you the quick and dirty of what we have been up to since then. Madden is now 6 months old and just getting cuter and smarter by the day! I can't believe my little boy is already 6 months old!! He is taking his sweet ole' time with his milestones. I am not worried about him but, I have to say he is the lazy one out of the two. ha ha I guess he has big shoes to fill when it comes to McCallister! Cal was sitting up at 5 months and crawling and 6 months and one week! I know this was early for him to do these so I can't be too hard on Madden. :) Madden just started sitting alone about a week ago (still hasn't mastered the actual sitting up by himself yet, like I said he is my lazy bones) He loves when I sit him down on a blanket on the floor and surrounded him with all his fun toys! He will just sit and entertain himself for quite sometime! It is so cute to watch him play with all his different toys. So much to explore. It is a happy yet sad moment for me because as I said my baby just seems so grown up to me. I find myself thinking back, as I look at Madden, about when Cal was that age and how cute he was and how fun it was, as a 1st time mommy, seeing my 1st baby do all these fun things! We just had our 6 month checkup on Dec. 2ND and Madden is 16 pounds 3 ounces and 27 inches long. McCallister was 2 inches longer then him at this age. I hope Maddy isn't a shrimp :)Doc says he looks great! I am still nursing him along with feeding him solids. He is definitely a Banks Boy, the kid LOVES food! (Just like his Daddy!) He loves any and everything! He really enjoyed his 1st Thanksgiving because me and Gramma fed him his 1st Turkey Day meal! He enjoyed mashed taters', sweet taters', pumpkin pie, and whatever else we could smash up and let him taste! Then after he ate he passed out! Nothing like a nice and full belly! McCallister ate really good as well, but his favorite part was the pumpkin bars gramma made. They are my favorite too!!
The day after Thanksgiving I headed out for the Black Friday sales. Yes, my crazy self woke up at 5 and headed to the stores. I figured Madden was up to eat at 5 anyway so I fed him and then got him back to sleep, laid him by daddy, and went on to Toys-r-us! That was fun. I was sure tired though by like 9am but, no time to sleep got 2 boys to take care of. Just put myself on autopilot and carried on with the day!
Now on to Christmas stuff.....We put up our decorations and our tree last night and ended the night with a Christmas movie!! We have lots of stuff planned for Christmas events. We are going to see Santa, of course, see the Xmas lights, go to a beautiful Xmas play at a church in North Phoenix, zoo lights, and the list goes on and on. I love Christmas time and I like to celebrate and do fun Christmas related things all the way up to Christmas day! This year I will have a get together at my house on Xmas eve and go to my mom's on Xmas day. Then on the 27Th we head back home to WI to celebrate with Chad's family!
It will be interesting this year to see what Madden thinks of the tree, Santa, and the opening of gifts! I have a feeling he is going to be trying to put a lot of paper in his mouth!! I will take tons of pics of the family as per usual and share them!!
Well that is all for now! I will post some pics of the boys so you can see how big they are both getting!! The Banks Family wishes you all a safe and happy holiday season! We love and miss you all. Can't wait to visit everyone.











Monday, November 24, 2008

Ladies Man!!



I just wanted to post a couple pics of my little "ladies man". Thanks to Deidra and Jessica for buying this cute onesis for him. I love this color on him and just thought he looked so cute, so I thought I would share! Hope you all enjoy!

Ha ha this is Funny! Tag Now I am it!!

So Anjee you got me. So the challenge; pick the 4th album on my computer, pick the 4th picture in the album, and write 4 things about it, then challenge 4 of my friends to do it! Well this is funny because the 4th album on my computer happens to be the "sample" album that comes on the computer. ha ha I thought that was funny so I am following the rules so here I go.






1. I didn't take this photo but, it sure is beautiful!

2. Reminds me of a white christmas back home!

3. Looks sooooo cold. Wonder how many deer are in that forest?!?!

4. WOnder where this photo was taken at? and by who?


So I challenge Wende Scholzen, Lynda Newman, Tammy Chisholm, and Julia Johnston

Monday, November 10, 2008

Nascar.......

So I took McCallister to his first Nascar race this past Sunday! We really aren't big Nascar fans but, Chad got some tickets from a client and they were really good seats so we went for a little bit. I thought it would be an experience for him. He liked it but, he just said that it was too loud after a while. We stayed for a couple hours, we bought a couple things for my sister (who is a huge Nascar fan), sat in our seats for a while and watched the cars go round and round :P, then walked down closer to the track and watched for a bit, then headed out. The nice man next to us let Cal use his binoculars so he could get a better look at things. We were right by the pit so Cal liked to watch the cars pull off and get fixed! Those couple hours were enough for us. It was a fun experience for him but, let's face it, how many times can you watch the cars go around before you get tired of it. (or as Chad says how many times can you watch them make a left turn!) ha ha
We had a good time and we thank the man who gave us the tickets! I will post pictures soon!
GO #17!!!!!!!!! That's for you NE NE!!!!!!!!

Boy they sure do grow fast....

So my baby is getting so big so fast! He turned 5 months on the 28th of Oct. He is currently teething like crazy. His brother got his first tooth at around 6 and a half months so I am expecting his to come somewhere around that time as well! I feel so bad for him because he just seems so miserable at times and I just wish I could help him more. I heard a lot of good things about these homeopathic tablets/drops for teething so I finally broke down and bought some. The ones I got are liquid drops and they are all natural. I only had to use them a few times and they seemed to work ok. (or I guess it could have been coincidence) He actually is being a very good boy, considering.....
It was soooo long ago that I went through this teething stuff with Cal so I don't really remember all the tricks of the trade. I don't recall Cal being very fussy during these times. I don't know if he wasn't fussy or if it has just been so long that I forgot it. hee hee hee If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them! I tried all the standard/known treatments but, maybe someone knows something that I haven't tried yet!!
Here are a few pics of my big boy at 5 months old. Time sure flies....:(





Friday, November 7, 2008

Halloween 2008

Okay so I know I am a little late with posting these but, better late then never right?? This year we did things a little different then just going house to house for candy. My friend invited us to her neighborhood block party where they had a band, lots of food, raffles, a haunted house, and a bouncer for the kids! I figured it would be something different and fun to do this year. We did go house to house for a little while but, spent most of the night at the block party. That was fine with me since I don't allow Cal to have that much candy and then I would end up eating it all! Cal had a blast! He spent most of the night going back and forth between the bouncer and the haunted house. We had lots of fun listening to the band, chatting with friends, and eating good grub. Cal was a Army guy (or spy as he calls it) and Madden was a pea in a pod. Madden even won best costume for his 1st trick or treat! Yay Madden!!! Here are some pics! Hope you all enjoy!








Cal carved these all by himself! One for him, one for his brother!




Monday, October 27, 2008

They just grow way too fast.....

I can't believe my little pumpkin is just a few days away from 5 months old! Time just goes by so fast. (I look at Cal and think where did the last 6 years go???? )Although it is sad that time flies by, it is fun to see Madden grow and develop his little personality. He is really grown to be such a wonderful and good boy! I struggled the first few months with him because he was pretty fussy and had colic. Thankfully he has pretty much outgrown it and became such a happy little boy! He is so much fun now a days. He just loves to play with his feet and roll around on the floor. He loves all his different little toys, he loves to munch on his fingers and even his toes! ha ha It's so cute he will bring his feet to his mouth and just go to town on his toes. Too cute! He is sooooo vocal! He loves to hear himself talk and LOVES to look at himself in the mirror!! I will sit him in his bumbo and put him in front of the mirror and he will just smile and laugh and talk! I love to watch him! He loves attention and to be talked to, especially from the ladies and his brother. It is so awesome to watch him and Cal interact. Madden really loves his brother and will just stare at him. It is so cute to listen to Cal talk to him. He calls him booga.....
Well enough bragging about my babies, thanks for listening to me babble. Here are some cute pictures that I got enjoy.........



It's fun to have a little brother, you can do this to him.



Admiring myself in the mirror!



Me and my brother!



That's right.......I make this bib look good!



My mommy loves me.

Attention family and friends that do not have a blog on this site!

So with the help of a fellow blogger (thanks Anjee) I think I found a way for you all to sign up to receive an email when I update my blog!! There is a box on the upper left area of my blog that says to enter your email here. Once you enter your email then you just have to confirm your "subscription" to my blog and then you should receive emails when I update. I haven't tested this theory but, I subscribed my sister to my blog so I guess she will let me know. Thanks for stopping by!!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Would you be able to help the new blogger.....

So I am new at this whole blogging thing and I am still trying to figure out all the tricks of the trade! The whole reason I started this was to keep friends and family updated since most of my fam lives out of state. I was just wondering if there is a way to do a couple things on here:

1) is there a way to set up a feature that will alert people when you have a new post? if so, how do you do it? can I make a list with emails I want to send it to?

2) is there a way to set up a guestbook or link for people to sign in and leave a comment that they stopped by besides by a post???

If you have any ideas I would love to hear them. Thanks my fellow bloggers...

Friday, October 24, 2008

Pumpkin Patch with my Pumpkins!!



So we went to Vertuccio Farms way the heck out there! Well for us anyways, since we are coming from South Scottsdale. It was pretty fun, we have never been there but, heard about it through some friends. It was a pretty cool evening but, I sort of liked it because it reminded me of being back home in the Midwest! It made it really feel like fall. I miss the changing of the leaves and that cool, crisp fall weather. It was kind of nice to pull out the sweater and put it on (even if it only was for the one evening)! Madden had his first time in a bouncy with the assistance of his big brother. Of course, I only let him in there because there were no other kids in there at the time. We took a look at the animals and went into this huge corn maze! It was actually pretty cool, I have never been in one before and it was neat being in it at night. It was kind of creepy at first but then some other people came in so it made it a little less scary! I guess I am a wimp! It would actually make a good haunted house going thru there. Just add some young kids to jump out and scare you! We ended the night out by picking out some pumpkins and ( of course ) a photo shoot! he he he