THE BANKS FAMILY

Family Pictures

2010-01-09T21:52:00.000-08:00

Family pictures done by the fabulous evieb photography!!! Here are some of our favorites!

P.S. I start school Monday the 11th! Pray for me!!!

Temple Square Lights

2009-12-01T19:21:00.001-08:00

Temple square is beautiful. I don't know how I go about my life living only a mere 20 minutes away and only go up there maybe once a year. I feel ashamed....
But, I did make it up there on saturday with the family for the lights. It was beautiful! It was cold, but we bundled up and enjoyed ourselves walking around the beautiful temple grounds. There definitely is a strong spirit on those grounds and it makes me feel warmth and love. I was so happy to spend the evening with my entire family. I love them and the temple reminds me of how I get to be with them for eternity. Nothing could be better!!! I have the best family in the world. Awesome parents, Best brother who married the best sister-in-law anyone could ever ask for and consequently had the best niece and nephews in the world, coolest little sister (even though she dumped her cat on me for two weeks to babysit) who is coming home from college and I'm so excited to spend more time with her, and OF COURSE the best husband (who has added the best in-laws) and little boy who I can't get enough of. I love to see the temple!!!

Halloween & 15 months old!

2009-11-16T09:22:00.000-08:00

Here is a litte update on the Banks family! Marshall is doing great! He is getting another helicopter license (already passed one of his 2 hard tests) and will be teaching flight part-time when he is done! He has been working really hard and is super excited to get back up in the air. I am getting everything set up to start school in January! I will be getting my bachelors in Health Education Teaching (I think. my mind is about 75% sure). I am SO nervous to go back to school but really excited at the same time. Now I just need to find a daycare for Walker! Walker is doing good here are some pics and little bit about each one!
He loves to put things around his neck and carry them around the house. Not sure where he got that from.

Garden Gnome for halloween. This is the one shot we could get of him with his hat on. It also has a beard, but he would have nothing to do with either of them.

So... this is what he looked like. Totally ruined the costume without the hat and beard. But lesson learned for mom and dad. Toddlers don't do hats and beards well.

This is what he looked like later in the day at grandmas for Halloween. He had a cute halloween shirt on (Thanks Aunt Jadi!!!!) and wore grandma Banks' glasses around.

Here he is before his 15 months wellness checkup! He is doing well! Gained some weight and is finally at the 50% (although they weighed him with all of his clothes on which they have never done before, so I don't think its quite accurate). He was 80% for heigth and had a huge head at 90%. I swear they measure different every time though. But all in all he is doing good and growing up!

So handsome!!!!

Autumn Sunrise

2009-10-14T18:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I am terrible at posting. Not much has been going on for the Banks household. We are loving the fall weather and enjoying the changing leaves. Walker is 14 months old. He has been walking for almost 2 months and I am LOVING that he walks. Yay no more crawling! Too bad that whenever we go outside to walk around he tries to walk as far away as he can get from me! He loves his new found freedom. He's working on tooth #3. Top one! He is a late teether. All the kids at church that are his age have a mouth full of teeth. Freaks. JK.
Marshall is doing well. He is just working his cute little butt off. He has been scouting for deer and looking forward to a well deserved vacation sometime soon. He is great!
I am doing fine. Just trying to be the best SAHM that I can be. I am planning on going back to school this January, but that all depends on whether my grant comes through. Hopefully it will work out. I have applied for a few jobs, but don't know what will happen. I love being a stay at home mom, but I need something else in my life too. Just trying to figure out what that is! We have done a lot of fun things the past few weeks. Gone to the zoo, wheeler farm, the fair and up the canyons to look at the leaves to name a few. Here are some pictures from our adventures!

Summer Fun!

2009-08-25T13:42:00.001-07:00

This summer has been so much fun for us. We have had lots of good times and have enjoyed being able to go out and do whatever! We hope everyone else has had as good of a summer as we have. We have had lots of camping trips, but no pictures to prove it! I suck.... We have done lots of fun things, here are a few that I have on film!

We have played with friends
Baby Ryder was born on August 17th! We are so excited to have him here and part of the family!

We have played, played, played! (Walker is obsessed with laundry, don't know why)

We have had lots of family reunions. Here is a picture of Walker with his great-great grandma, Yep thats 5 generations!

We have swam our little hearts out!

We have seen one of the worlds few albino elk!

We have gotten face to face with some grizzlies!

We have been attacked by a baby goat!

Seriously, the goat wouldn't leave us alone....

We almost adopted him.... he walked with us throughout the park. I guess walker tasted pretty good!

We've eaten like pigs. Okay, I guess I can't technically say "we've".

Our toes have been tickled by baby bambi

We went swimming with aunt Hannah at lava hot springs and it was SUPER fun!

And we've had the best 1st birthday ever!

We are bummed for summer to end, but we love fall!

1st Birthday!

2009-08-13T08:35:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WALKER!

Eating the birthday cake!
Digging in!

Showing off! He really enjoyed the cake

until it got too globby on his hands then he just

wanted to throw it and get his hands

wiped off.

Opening presents!

Walker and cousin McCord

Grandpa Banks, Byron and the birthday boy.

Walker enjoyed crawling around and saying hi to everyone.

Walker and dad getting ready for the party!

Yesterday was Walkers first birthday. We had a little family get together to celebrate his birthday. It was a lot of fun. We ate really yummy food and had banana splits afterwards! Ilove banana splits. Walker had no idea what was going on, but he had a fun time. He got some really cute presents that he has been playing with all morning and making the noises associated with them. He loves to do his motor boat lips. I'm glad its over with, but I'm really sad that he is no longer a baby. I look forward to begin the next year of his life and all the fun times I know we are going to have.

Updating! Hallelujah!

2009-06-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

Well, a little update on the family.... Marsh and I are doing fine. As good as we could I guess. We got moved in with my parents, which is so much fun as always. That brings up new and old challenges, but we are making the best of it. Walker loves living at my parents house because there are so many other people who will pick him up when I get tired of it. He LOVES to see other people besides me......rude....! Anyways, we have a lot of fun because my mom is out of school for the summer and we have someone to hang out with and stay busy with. Marsh is busy working two jobs. He doesn't get home til late so we don't see that much of him, but he is so wonderful and hard working. I am so appreciative of him. Marsh got in a really bad motorcycle accident a couple of weeks ago. He crashed his dirt bike really hard and hit his head. He was luckily wearing his helmet. He was out of commission for a week. with symptoms from his crash and another mysterious illness. He had to miss work and everything. The doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, but he finally started to recover. That was a really hard week for us, but we are better now. I have been doing good. Just chugging a long. I am enjoying being back in the neighborhood, going to aerobics, and being a Webelos den leader (both Marsh and I were called as that) . We are just enjoying the summer! My cousin Danielle had her baby the other day and we are waiting anxiously for Court & Jami's 3rd in August. Yay for cute new little babies that aren't mine!!!!!! Couldn't handle that....not yet........ Here is a picture of Walker in his Sundays best....

Hallelujah! Even Another Post!

2009-06-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

Walker turned 10 months old June 12th. So, since I was about a month late on his 9 months pictures we went and got pictures taken. They turned out so cute!

Hallelujah! Another Post!

2009-06-30T18:51:00.000-07:00

Walker got his first haircut a couple of weeks ago. He did surprisingly well. He didn't scream or cry at all! He just sat there wondering what was going on. His hair got SO long all of the sudden and he was always so sweaty so we decided to give him a buzz. It looks so much better! He looks older with his hair buzz. I love it!

Before

During

After

We took a weekend trip down to St. George with my mom and sister. It was super hot, of course! He did really well for having to sit in his car seat for hours. We swam and swam, but him being so incredibly white and blonde I had to lather him in sunblock every half hour. I was afraid he would come out as red as a lobster, but he did okay. We shopped and just enjoyed a quick vacation in the heat.

Walker loves going out to eat. He doesn't really care to eat, but he LOVES to people watch. I guess he's a lot like his mom. Marshall always kicks me under the table at restaurants because I will spend most of my time watching other people. There have been plenty of dinners where we haven't spoken more than two words to each other because I am lost in my people watching. Maybe i'm a little weird....maybe.....

We have been spending as much time outside as possible. We went to the park with my cousin Jake and he pushed Walker in the swing. Walker loved it! This picture was his first experience in a swing. SInce then we try to stop at the elementary schools on our walks and swing. He giggles so hard!

Hallelujah! A New Post!

2009-06-30T18:41:00.000-07:00

Walker finally around 9 months learned to pull himself up to stand! He loves that he can do it and has since mastered it. He loves to suck on skin. I don't know why, but if you have a piece of skin exposed (well, mostly me) he will suck the skin right off of you. No teeth yet.... just a lot of slobber.

Moving

2009-04-21T20:35:00.000-07:00

Moving sucks......

But it doesn't suck as bad when you have a helper as cute as this!

Easter Weekend

2009-04-13T19:34:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter to everyone! We hope that you all had a wonderful easter and you were visited by the easter bunny with lots of yummy treats! We had a wonderful weekend! We decided to get out of town and go camping. We camped on the Dome Plateau. It is just east of Moab. The weather was iffy, but ended up being perfect for riding in the dirt. It was wet enough to keep the dust down. Marshall and I were lucky enough to have such a wonderful mother and mother-in-law who watched Walker all day Saturday at camp so we could go riding. I felt really bad leaving her all by herself at camp all day long with a baby. But she offered and we definitely weren't not going to take her up on it. Thank you mom, we owe you! Walker is doing really great. He is scooting around like crazy. He's practiced quite a bit and is getting really fast moving around the house. He loves to crawl into the bathroom and play with the bathroom rugs. Weird. Marsh and I are doing good. We are moving out of the mortuary and back in with the parents. Hopefully things are starting to change for us and we will be out on our own soon though! Here are some pictures from our fun weekend camping!
Walker helped Marshall work on his bike before we left.

Future motorcycle rider!

He was such a good little camper. I was super nervous to go camping with him, but he slept through the night and just enjoyed being out and about.

A Beautiful overlook of the Colorado river, red rock, and snow covered La Sal Mountains. Do we live in the best state or what?

The Easter Bunny doesn't skip over the campers in the middle of the desert!

Mom and Walker after a long day of riding

Me and The Man

Marshall standing in a cool cut-out on the side of the sandstone wall.

Cool caves that we climbed around in.

On top of the world!!

This is a cool arch we rode up to and then hiked in.

Wam weather fun!

2009-03-23T13:40:00.000-07:00

We had quite the fun week last week with the warm weather. Walker and I got out and about and on Friday we went to the zoo! We definitely enjoyed the weather and the company and just being out. Too bad Walker had no clue that we were looking at animals. He just chilled in the stroller and enjoyed the ride. The zoo was a lot of fun. It seemed super shorter than I have ever remembered it, but maybe thats just because I am an adult now and nothing seems as cool as it was when I was younger. We spent the week with my little sister who was in town from college for spring break. It was fun seeing her and spending time with her.
I took Walker to the doctor on the 12th because I finally have gotten sick of his spitting up. He has spit up a lot since he was a baby. The pediatricians told me that he would just grow out of it and it will take time, but I am just so sick of waiting! So I went to another pediatrician and she said the same thing, but at least she said I could try some medicine to see if it would make it any better. So far I haven't seen a difference with the medicine. He has reflux, but it doesn't bother him. He doesn't seem to be in pain with heartburn or anything like that. He just pukes and pukes a lot. All day long. It sucks! I can't wait for him to grow out of it! He better grow out of it too! My only concern is that it might cause permanent damage. That acid coming up all the time has to be bad on his throat doesn't it? But the pediatricians never say anything about it. They act like it's not a big deal. Hopefully it's not, but I just get frustrated. Anyone else have this problem with any of their kids? I've only heard of one other person having this problem with their kid and they said it didn't go away until they were 1 1/2 years old! Ugh! Anyways....thats enough of my complaining. Enjoy the pics. Sorry for the lack of posts as of late!

Blah

2009-03-15T18:58:00.001-07:00

Sorry there haven't been any postings lately. This picure sums up how I feel lately....thus the no blogging. I will blog again...... when I feel that I have some blog worthy news.

XOXO

2009-02-13T22:00:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to post a tribute to my wonderful husband. I love him so much and I want everyone to know what a wonderful husband he is.

He makes my day everyday!

He makes me laugh all the time.

He is such a hard worker and I really admire him for that.

He is passionate about flying.

He is a great pilot and I know that one day his dream will come true.

He upholds his priesthood responsibility and teaches me about the gospel and about myself everyday.

He is such a great dad to Walker.

He is really good looking. He will be the first to tell you that though. :)

I love him so much! I love you Marshall!

6 months!!

2009-02-13T20:50:00.001-08:00

Update

2009-02-10T08:19:00.001-08:00

Well, a month has passed since I posted last so I thought I would write a quick update! Life is going good!! Life as a new mother is getting better and better. Walker is getting big and smart. He rolls over like crazy. He will NOT stay on his back anymore. He practices all night in his crib! The nights are awesome now! He goes to bed at 8 and usually doesn't wake up until 7 or 730 in the morning! Marshall and I are loving our alone time at night! Woo WOo! Just kidding. Marshall is STILL looking for a job flying helicopters, but the way the economy is now the jobs are slim pickins. Helicopters are a luxury and something people are having to start doing without. Darn it! Hopefully the economy will make its turn around sometime soon (fingers crossed) and he can find a job! Meanwhile he is working at a steel factory which is great in the mean time. We are really thankful that he has a job at all! I am just plugging away day by day. I celebrated my 24th birthday the other day! I had a great birthday. Marshall took me down to the gateway for lunch and we actually had a star sighting!! Stanley Tucci ( I know him from The Devil Wears Prada, but he is in a lot of other things). Not a HUGE star, but my first star sighting none the less. Marsh then paid for me to get my hair done. Which I needed desperately. So I had a good birthday! The other day we went to the hunting expo and saw another star, Well, two stars actually. Shaun Bradley the 7 foot 6 inch basketball player. A Utah native. And Jeff Foxworthy! Yeah we sat there and stared at him for quite a while. Star struck. If I moved to California i'm pretty sure i'd spend everyday trying to see celebrities. Maybe I'm a little too obsessed. We are planning a trip down to Moab to go riding, but the weather is looking a little grim so i'm not sure we will be going! oh well. Anyways, that is whats new with us. I'm sure I will be posting in a few days as Walker is turning 6 months!!!!

5 months!

2009-01-12T18:28:00.001-08:00

My baby is 5 months old today! Holy cow! He is just getting cuter and cuter everyday!

House-Sitters-R-Us

2009-01-12T18:09:00.000-08:00

This past week we have been house/baby sitting for my relatives while they were gone on a cruise. We watched my cousins 6 year old little boy all week. We had such a fun time with him. He is such a joy to be around. He is so amazing. He is blind and has been since birth. He was dealt a pretty rough hand, but he deals with it so well and is just always happy and upbeat. I learned a lot from him this past week. I learned patience (well, I tried my hardest!). I learned that I CAN deal with whatever heavenly father gives me. I learned to be thankful for the healthy baby boy I have. I learned to be even more appreciative of my spouse. I learned to not take the little things for granted (now if I can just remember that on a daily basis). I learned that I have amazing relatives, who I look up to and I learned that I have an angel of a six year old cousin! I am so thankful for that experience.

Holiday Fun

2008-12-28T15:09:00.000-08:00

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was great! Santa doesn't deliver to morturarys. So that sucked, but we still had a great time. We went over to the Christiansens in the morning and opened presents with them and then went over to grandma and grandpa C's to have Christmas morning breakfast. Can you say delicious??? Salsa on everything! AND kneaders french toast. MMMMMMM! I'm pretty sure I've gained 10 pounds in the last few days. The ten pounds I was supposed to start losing come the new year. Dang. After that wonderful meal we went over to grandma and grandpa Banks and celebrated with them! We had a great time talking with them and we got a beautiful candle. Later that evening we went and saw the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. WAY long movie, but Brad Pitt was good to look at. We have enjoyed the snow. I thing it is a lot of fun to have a lot of snow. I hate driving in it, but I still thing it's fun. It just makes me think of everything being clean when it snows. My sister is in town from college, but has mono so i'm excited to see her but she can't do much. We celebrated my moms 50th birthday last week as well. I didn't take any pictures, but it was a really fun surprise party! So that was pretty much our Christmas day!
The tree. A little bare, but thats how we like it.
Can anyone see the baby? His dad loves him in camo! We're a little bit country.

Walker and dad!

Walker on christmas morning in his christmas jammies. Just wanting to take a nap!

Aunt Hannah gave Walker a new toy to play with. He is still too small for it, but he doesn't mind hanging out in it for a couple minutes while I clean the kitchen. He is getting SO big! Life is getting pretty fun with him. What a fun little guy!

We made our first attempt on starting Walker on rice cereal. It failed miserably. He was all sorts of confused. So we tried for a while and gave up. We didn't have the right equipment anyways. No baby spoons. I guess we'll just keep trying!

We made out trip down to grandma Mayfields the day after christmas. It was a really crappy drive down, but we made it and we had a wonderful time eating delicious food and going sledding. We look forward to sledding every year in Mayfield canyon. It was REALLY super cold so we didn't go as far up the canyon as we would have liked, but we still had a lot of fun. Here is a picture of Marsh in his snow attire. Does anyone else think we should invest in some snow gear? Doesn't everyone wear hip waders and tennis shoes when they go sledding? I'm pretty sure he is doing a pelvic thrust to.......

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night?

2008-12-12T13:46:00.001-08:00

I haven't posted in an eternity! Life has been a little bit stressful and busy for us. I have been sick, Walker has been sick and both of us were sick during our one insuranceless month! Of course! I have been working longer hours these past few weeks because of the holiday rush. So i ususally don't get home until around 8 or 9 at night and poor Marsh has to clean the mortuary by himself. This past week has been hectic. Walker has been constipated (poor little guy) and we have had to switch to all formula. So this past week we haven't gotten much sleep ( getting up in the middle of the night to make a bottle SUCKS)and the poor little guy is just confused, but I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. :) We have a lot of holiday parties to go to that I'm excited for. Hey! You can't beat a free dinner! And some time away from the munchkin. We went and got Walkers christmas pictures taken last saturday. Let me tell you, I was NOT impressed with Sears at taking his pictures. Cheesy cheesy backdrops ( and of course marsh picked the cheesiest one of them all that he HAD to have) and they were SO SO SO SO slow. That was the worst part. You would think that they would know by now that when you are taking portraits for an infant you would try to do things as fast as possible, because you only have a few precious moments before they start SCREAMING! We got a few cute ones though. There are a TON of pictures of him sucking his hands because that is just all he seemed to want to do! But my heart just melted when i saw the pictures. What a cute little bugger. And he has his daddies ears!!! He is four months today! yay!

Baby Blessing

2008-11-03T13:39:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was Walkers baby blessing. I had the worst nerves all day long. I just prayed and prayed that he would be quiet during the blessing and most importantly that he wouldn't poop on his BORROWED blessing outfit. Well, one of the two prayers was answered. Anyone want to guess which one? Needless to say I dont have any pictures besides the one below of him in his white blessing outfit. Thank heaven it became white again though. The blessing was beautiful and I felt really good afterwards. I huge sigh of relief that it is all over with. I am really blessed to have such wonderful family that came and supported Marshall and I. We really appreciate them coming and taking time out of their schedules to be with us on this important day. So... thanks to all! We had an awesome dinner afterwords which is, of course, my favorite part. All in all the day went well. I could have done without the embarassing blowout, but oh well. We love you Walker!!!!

Trick or treat, smell my feet!

2008-11-03T13:28:00.001-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful halloween! Ours was good. Walker made a cute pumpkin. Marsh and i were too lazy to dress up. We trick or treated around my parents neighborhood with the family and really enjoyed it. Was the weather not perfect? It felt so nice. Walker enjoyed hanging in his carrier and looking around while the kiddos went door to door. I cant wait until he can walk around and enjoy it more!

We like to move it move it! Phisically, Physically, Physically Fit!

2008-11-03T13:11:00.000-08:00

I am trying my best to do what I can exercise wise. During my pregnancy I was so excited to be not pregnant and exercise and get my pre-married life body back. I'm sure all of us have those aspirations pre and post baby and find it much more difficult to find time to exercise. Maybe not so much time, but a way to do it without having to pay for it and figuring out a way to have some uninterrupted exercise time. I'm finding it hard to do. So Walker and I have enjoyed taking our walks through Murray park and around the neighborhood (which is hard because lets face it, my neighborhood is state street, the slums and southern exposure). Walker loves his carrier. We put him in it everynight while we clean and he always falls asleep. Before he falls asleep though I get to enjoy this cute angel little face just staring up at me. i.e. picture below. I love it. I should have invested in a more expensive and cushy carrier because this one puts quite a strain on your shoulders and back after a while. Now that the weather has turned I need to find a new way to get my legs moving. An indoor way I suppose.

Tagged by Hannah?? 4th of 4th

2008-10-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

I tag anyone else who would like to participate in this tag!~

This picture was in the fourth photo file and the fourth picture in that photo file. I laughed when it was this picture. This is a backseat picture taken by my friend Jenevieve (love you vievers!) on Marshall and I's first date. Well, it was a double date, thus the Jenevieve in the backseat taking the photo. I'm not quite sure why the photo was taken and it isn't the best photo, but I love it because everytime Marshall and I see it I tell him he looks really nervous because he is playing with his lip. He insists that he was not nervous on our first date, but I always say yes you were! He was driving us to the ice skating rink where on our first date he head butted me in the crotchal area. What an awesome memory!!!

Bowl-A-Rama

2008-10-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a fun one. We started out the weekend with a surprise from my little sister. She came all the way from school in Kansas to visit us for the weekend. It was really fun to see her and hear about all the fun she is having at school. Friday night we went over to Court & Jami's and ate dinner and decorated halloween cookies with the kidos. Saturday was a beautiful day. We went bowling and had a blast! I don't think my parents have gone bowling in decades. Probably since the snow cap lanes days. It was fun. My dad beat us all. He even got a sore hip from bowling....signs of old age? Jk dad! True to Christiansen style, well, more of Lauren and Fred style we had a hard time finding bowling balls with finger holes big enough to fit our sausage fingers. We laughed over that. So... the weekend was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to next weekend and putting Walker into his costume! His blessing is this sunday too. I'm nervous!!!!!! Walker has started laughing. At first it was just laughing in his sleep, but now he is laughing while awake too. I love it!

Shots

2008-10-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

Walker got his immunizations today. I felt so bad for him.... He handled it pretty well though. Blood curdling scream and then a pout face for a while, but when we got home I gave him some more tylenol and then he was fine! Here's some pics!

2 Months!

2008-10-12T19:14:00.002-07:00

My little guy is two months old today. Happy two months Walker! We love you! I am getting excited for the holiday season! I have wished and wished and wished for cold weather and now it is here, and I think I take my wish back :). BRRRRR...... Tomorrow is Walkers two month checkup and he is going to get all of his shots. I am so nervous for him. He has no idea whats coming tomorrow. Poor little guy. I will probably cry again. I cried when they had to prick his heel and take blood for his PKU. I'm such a wimp!

p.s. He isn't a red head. For some reason he has red hair in all of his pictures, but when you see him in person it is a mix of blonde and brown. Weird!

p.p.s. He has mad scientist hair....i swear i comb it every day though.

p.p.p.s. I need to take cuter pictures. These were the newest I had! He loves his swing! Can't you tell? He puts his arms up like he's on a roller coaster.

Walkers first smile

2008-09-21T19:58:00.000-07:00

Figured out how to get them off my phone! yay!

Update

2008-09-19T15:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't posted in the last little while because I've been waiting on cute pictures to post, but lets face it... I sit at home all day long. So, no pictures yet. I have cute pictures on my phone, but don't know how to get them off the phone and onto the computer. Am I retarded or is it possible? Walker is getting big finally! We have been to the doctor a little more than once a week for weight check-ups. The doctor has been really concerned because he wasn't gaining adequate weight the first 3-4 weeks of his life, so we have been feeding like crazy! And I am proud to say that he is gaining like a champ! Up to about 9 lbs now! Everyone keeps commenting on how tiny he is, but to me he is getting to be a chunk. Thats because I get to see him every minute of every day. I can almost see him grow! But we are very proud of him. He had his first real smile yesterday. Not just a gas smile, which I love, but an actual smile.I'm proud to be the comedian that got him to smile first! And ever since then I just keep on trying. I LOVE to see him smile. If I can get the pictures off my phone i would put one of him up! Help? Marshall started a new job in Salt Lake. He is working with metal. Still not his helicopter job yet, but we will keep trying. Hopefully some day soon we can get him back up in the air where he loves to be. The mortuary is clean as a whistle. I actually don't mind cleaning once I'm in there. It gives me a chore that I sort of look forward to. We plan on blessing Walker the end of October. There is something happening every sunday between now and then so we will have to put it off til then. Can't wait! I'm already feeling the anxiety of having the congregation stare and patiently wait for the mom to get up and bear her testimony. We all know we wait and expect the mom to get up, don't pretend like you don't. Well, thats about all thats going on in our life right now. Nothing too exciting! I will try to be a better blogger. I'm a really good blog stalker, but I need to do my fair share too!

Baby Walker

2008-08-21T10:50:00.000-07:00

Walker Karl Banks was born on August 12, 2008 at 5:46 am. He was 7 lbs 7 oz and 20 inches long. He came about a week before his due date, which was what I was praying for, but when labor did come I decided i wanted to wait another week for this. Too bad! He was coming whether I was ready or not. He came with a little bit of a surprise. My doctor had told me at my last check up that he was head down, but when I got to the hospital after my water broke he was coming arm first! What a stinker!!! Already making things difficult. So, I had to face a c-section. Which I won't lie was a huge let down, but I definitely wanted him here and safe so I swallowed my pride and we went for it. For some reason the on call doctor didn't want to come until 5 in the morning. I was there at 2 in the morning and OF COURSE my doctor was on vacation. So, I sat there for 3 hours dealing with meaningless contractions (he was coming out c-section anyways), but I figured I wanted to experience the contractions for a little while so I didn't feel completely jipped. By the way--I find myself pretty lucky doing it c-section because those three hours of contractions were hell. Kudos to those of you who dealt with them for a much longer time. So...he came. He is perfectly healthy!! Marshall and I just love him to death. The first week has DEFINITELY been rough. I guess it will just take time to get the hang of this 24/7 responsibility. He's a good little guy though. Anyways... here's some pics!

The Baby Crib

2008-08-05T13:48:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to FINALLY have the babies room all set up! I had to wait until two weeks before my due date to do the one thing I was looking forward to most. So...as some of you may know we moved into a new-old apartment. New to us, but VERY old (1915) building. The walls in the babies room were already painted blue with white stripes. Which... doesn't really go with my crib, but it could be worse. And I am in no mood or condition to re-paint right now. So.... it will have to do. I love my crib! It was a cheaper target crib, but it looks just as good as those really expensive ones! So I am pleased! The room is a little bit hodge podge right now, but maybe with time I will get it all coordinated. I had this idea of doing a hunting theme, but it didn't really work out. I kept changing my mind all the time, so now I have part hunting theme, part brown paisley, part circus. I'm sure baby Walker doesn't mind one single bit. He'll love it!

New to blogging

2008-08-04T09:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have been putting this off for months but it is finally time to start blogging. Baby Walker will be here any day now and I figured i had better get this started now before the craziness of having a baby comes. I want to be able to share all the exciting things that are to come with everybody and now is better than later. So... be patient while I figure this thing out.