Grandma and Grandpa are coming today!

Well, it is almost time for Grandma and Grandpa to be here. I can't wait for all the things they are going to do with me. Let's think, think, think...HMMMM. (she says while taping her forehead. Mom says, yes she really does this. Anyone seen Pooh?) I hope that Grandpa takes me fishing, and Grandma reads me lots of stories. I want take them to see some fun places in Colorado. Maybe we can see the dinosaurs, or go up to the clouds. Maybe we can go for a drive and see big mountains. Grandma can tell me stories before bed and Grandpa and toss me in the air. I don't care what we do, I just can't wait to spend time with them. I know we'll be having a fun week.

Test your IQ!

I'm taking an independent study class to finish my BYU degree. I had to browse this site for an assignment. Check it out, take the IQ test, it was fun!

http://www.intelligencetest.com/

Let the Countdown Begin!

6 days til Grandma and Grandpa Banks come! I'm more excited than the kids... but that's probably because I haven't told them that they are coming (mostly because I don't wanna deal with the questions of when next Sunday is and why aren't they here already). We've got lots of fun stuff planned!

I don't know why, but we seem to have random connections with Oklahoma: Tyler has cousins who lived there years ago and has visited, a few of my good friends in college were from there, my friend and her family moved there, and my friend here in Denver used to live there and actually home taught the good friends from college who were from there. On Saturday, our very good friends/Tyler's cousin and family stopped by on their way to OK for a High School reunion. We hadn't seem them since BYU so it was fun, fun, FUN to catch up and play with their triplets. We had an enormous breakfast on Sunday to honor the dads in our families and sent them on their way.

Speaking of dads, I just want to pay tribute to the dad/husband in our little family. As I was thinking yesterday of what a great dad he is, I remembered that I always knew he would be, one of the many attributes that attracted me to him. Tyler is definitely a kid at heart, and plays with Lainey and Brady daily. In turn, they both adore him which is fun for me, as a mom, to watch. I think, though, that the best thing that Tyler does for his kids is he takes great care of their mommy. I can't tell you the countless, little, obscure things he does for me that keep me sane... maybe I should try.

• he changes diapers... and definitely his fair share (for example, on Saturday, I think I only changed one, and not because I didn't want to, Tyler just got it done)
• he helps with dinner. We've been grilling a ton this summer, and he comes home, fires up the grill, and cooks to perfection any time I need him to!

• here is a great example: I went through our coupons, throwing out expired ones, and he saw in the pile a coupon to a clothing store I shop at and said, "Oh, are you sure you don't want to go use this?" Unfortunately, it was expired, but I love that he didn't even hesitate to green light me shopping for myself, which I have to admit is sometimes a luxury.
• he gets up with the kids and lets me sleep in every Saturday and the Sundays that he can. I didn't ask or grumble about getting up, he just knows me well enough to know that I would appreciate the extra hour. (I just want all of you to know that sleeping in is like 8 or 8:30. Once at 9:00)
• he buys me ice cream, even though I told him I don't want it in the house any more, but he can sense that I just need some!
• he honors his priesthood and serves whenever he needs to... example: a few weeks ago a neighbor was moving. They hadn't asked the ward for help, but Tyler called to make sure they didn't need anything and went and helped for the afternoon
• he is thrifty! The computer chair I am sitting on now is made from two broken chairs from his office that he has made into one functional chair!
• he gets me a glass of water, even though we are both tired, trying to relax on the couch and I am perfectly able to get up and get my own glass




• I know moms everywhere hate it when the men in their lives feel like they are 'babysitting' their own kids, but Tyler watches the kids A LOT! For meetings, activities, or just grocery shopping. Some weeks, he puts the kids to bed more than I do!
• he knows I'm crazy, but he doesn't say anything.
• he has ideas, dreams, and plans for our future!

I could probably come up with a few more, and I'm sure all your husbands do most of these things too, but, gosh, I picked a good one and I am so grateful for him! I love you, babe!

Lainey-isms

• "Teddy graham all clean!" (an oatmeal teddy graham, as opposed to our usual chocolate chip teddy graham)
• "Mommy, you go sit time out til you listen!"

Lainey's favorite things!

My turn to post since Mommy is too busy to tell you all about me! Here are some of my favorite things:

• Princess Lainey stories. Daddy and Mommy make up silly stories about a Princess Lainey who has all sorts of fun with her brother, Prince Brady. Mommy heard Grandpa Banks tell Princess stories to my Aunt Laurie when she was little (he may have told Princess Carrie stories too, but Mommy can't remember) and Mommy thought I would like to have stories too!
• Dancing. I love to dance. And I love to watch dancing. One of my favorite shows is "Dancing with the Stars" because I can spin and twirl and jump with the girls on the show! I learned all my moves from Mom. She dances with me and shows me how to make an O with my hands above my head. Brady tries to dance too, but he just looks silly cuz all he knows how to do is bob his head back and forth! Mommy lets me listen to my music in the car sometimes, too, but I like her music. It's pretty good. My favorite song of Mommy's music is 'Home' by Michael Buble. I even know some of the words!
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• Coloring. I color everyday! I use my pencils and crayons. I can draw people and I draw them on everything I can (Mom says, I've sent bills in with her stick drawings on them! She draws on any piece of paper she can find.).
• Tantrums. Okay, I don't know if they're one of my favorite things, but I do throw them a lot. Mom even took pictures of me getting upset. She's pretty funny, huh? I hope I always appreciate her sense of humor about my attitude...
  
  
• Food. I don't like all food, but Mom tries hard to get me to eat everything. Some of my favorites are: chicken nuggets, hot dogs, carrots and dip, green beans, mac and cheese, peaches, chips and salsa (I love salsa, Mom says that's not normal), and noodles!
• Pictures. I love having my picture taken and I love to look through our scrapbooks and see all the Laineys in there. And you can see all the posing I do for Mommy because all these pictures! So fun! I like to try to take pictures with Mommy's camera, too. Here are a few of my pictures.
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I gotta go cause some more trouble! Bye guys!

Isn't life grand?

I just sat down to post and Lainey and Brady are playing with 'their' computer. I don't know what they did but it is beeping at them, and Brady is dancing (bobbing his head forwards and back) to the repetitive beep and Lainey is laughing hysterically at him... I love being a mom! I don't care how hard having two kids is, seeing them together must be heaven on earth. Seriously. I love when Lainey plays with Brady and I can't wait to watch them interact more as they both get older!


I kinda wonder how Lainey will feel about being a mom and raising a family when she is older. The way the world views motherhood currently isn't a good sign, but I hope that if I remind her often that I chose this and I love them and am HAPPY to stay home with them then she might feel the same someday.

We went to the petting zoo today. Lainey was hilarious, as usual. She saw all the animals in about 2 minutes and then spent the next fifteen going around to see them again and again and again and again. Good times!


Mom: Lainey, what was your favorite animal?
Lainey: Chickens, and sheep, and cows, and birdies, and pigs... we went to the park.
Mom: Lainey, what was your favorite animal?
Lainey: (in a more spirited tone...) I got lots of animals, Mom. We went to the park!


Duh, silly me! Here is Lainey on the train at the park! And I can't show one and not the other, so here is Brady just about falling into the toy box and loosing his pants at the same time!


By the way, has anyone read the visiting teaching message for June? We did our VTing at the park. Love, love, love the Elder Scott quote. "You cannot today remotely imagine what that decision to be unwaveringly obedient to the Lord will allow you to accomplish in life. Your quiet, uncompromising determination to live a righteous life will couple you to inspiriation and power beyond your capacity now to understand.... You can qualify through that divine power to be instruments in the hands of God to accomplish what you could not do alone." Whoa. Isn't it great!?

And while we are quoting, here is one for the fridge. I have been dwelling on it for, um, months now. "You do not have to be perfect in this life to be saved! In order to be saved in the Kingdom of God and in order to pass the test of mortality, what you have to do is get on the straight and narrow path. If you're on that path and pressing forward, and you die, you'll never get off the path. There is no such thing as falling off the straight and narrow path in the life to come. This is the time that is given to men to prepare for eternity.

So what must you do? You get on the path that's named the 'straight and narrow.' You do it by entering the gate of repentance and baptism. You stay in teh mainstream of the Church and live as upright and decent people live in the Church- keeping the commandments, paying your tithing, serving in the organizations of the Church, receiving the ordinances you must have, loving the Lord, obeying the commandments, staying on the straight and narrow path.

That's the great hope for Latter-day Saints. There's great hope for anyone who will repent, believe, obey, strive, struggle, and seek to work out his/her salvation. We CAN have peace and joy and happiness in this life, and we can be inheritors of eternal life in the world to come." By Bruce R. McConkie. Maybe I'm the only one worried if I'm doing enough, but this sure made me feel better!

Millions of Peaches

Yesterday we opened our last jar of home canned peaches... The worst part about it is that since we have a flat topped stove now, I doubt that I will be canning again this fall (heard something about how canning ruins the heating element in a flat top stove, if anyone has canned using a flat top, I would love to know how it worked out. Tammy, any info from the home canning expert?). It was a sad day for the Millers, but we tried to enjoy those last few bites. (note the peach juice syrup that dripped on Lainey's shirt...)

Also, an ironic thing happened yesterday when we went to the park... it rained! You would think Mother Nature would have given me a break since I was singing her praises yesterday, but not so much. We had fun for the 20 or so minutes before the deluge.

While I am being a bit of a whiner, I just want to share with you all what I get to go do tonight. The Teachers have planned a combined YM/YW activity and we get to play crab soccer (yes, thats soccer while crab walking...). Leave it to the Teachers to come up with such a creative use of our time...

Must Read List

Those closest to me know that I love to read and I love other people to love what I love. One disclaimer, I read for fun, so there won't be a list of classics here unless it was an entertaining one. So here are a few of my most favorite books of all time:

Pride and Prejudice (absolute favorite) by Ms Jane Austen
The Evening Class by Maeve Binchy (almost anything by her is entertaining, thanks for introducing me to her, Mom)
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom (okay, this one wasn't a light hearted read, but I couldn't put it down!)

I'm always looking for good recommendations, so pass them along!

The adventures begin!

I am now a blogger! What a scary thought. So many friends and family have started blogging and I love reading everyone's blogs, so I thought I would give it a try. I'm all about the communication age, and it's nice to read what everyone else is up to, so hopefully you enjoy reading what we are up to! I'm not a great or entertaining writer, but I do have aspirations to be a better journaler so I consider this my effort in that endeavor. Thanks for good ideas on what to put on our site, fellow bloggers.

The kids and I (and Tyler) have really been enjoying the arrival of summer. I've dubbed this summer Local Park Tour 2007 and the kids and I intend to check out all the area parks we can. A few that we've hit so far:

Marcy Park
Plum Valley Park
Westlands Park
Kistler Park
Civic Green Park
Redstone Park

And next week we are off to Belleview Park to check out the petting zoo! I probably will go on and on in future posts about the things that I love about Denver, and to begin the onslaught I would just like to say that I love the sunny days here. Every morning the sun is shining and the skies are always blue. It's a beautiful thing. On the days it does rain, it may only last a few minutes or doesn't even start until late afternoon, which gives us plenty of time to play in the morning. Its great! In fact, I'm going right now to serve lunch so we can hit the park this afternoon!