Sassy Baby

Sometimes I see a random picture on my computer which sets off an instant need to look at all my pictures. Watch my kiddos growing, and remember the adorable moments. Just for fun I decided to post a few ones of Syd since there have been a lot of Becks pictures lately.

This is a picture from a really special day. And I may post about this day in the future, but for now it's my special day. But Sydnee was an angel.



This is when Sydnee's hair really started to curl, we were taking family pictures at Freestone park and I miss my snuggly, giggly little girl



Sydnee's "palm trees" in her hair and her cute pouty lip!

She's always been so happy and goofy

This is the picture which is truly my favorite memory. The moment when my baby became my little girl. We went to see Beauty and the Beast on stage when Sass was 4. Sydnee was riveted, she was absolutely mesmerized and cried at the end when the Beast died. Afterward with my junky (camera cause I forgot my nice one) I snapped this amazing unset up picture. It shows her little girl hopes and dreams and for me just makes me happy knowing that for a little while her world was magical and filled with roses and princesses and singing.

Something good.... I love my daughter, and her last day of school is this week. She's disappointed because she hasn't learned all of her subtraction. I love that she loves learning and school!

K

pouty face

I take my health for granted. I don't realize how awesome it is to have a working body until it's not working. And that SUCKS! It ruins everything! I have a busted shoulder. I actually don't exactly know what's wrong with it, only that it's not getting better!

Here's the lovely story in ALL it's detail, cause I think the events leading up to this are really important! (kinda)

I am a typical girl and dislike anything in the rodent genre. I've had some traumatic experiences with rats (seriously EWWW) getting into my room as a teenager and my parents not believing me even though I refused to even enter the basement for weeks. They later found out I was telling the truth!

Living in Colorado seems to mean that while I lose all the bugs from AZ, I pick up mice. Especially in my garage in the winter.

I CANNOT stand the thought of even going into my garage knowing there was a mouse. I actually bought traps, but I can't stand to go into the garage and actually set them up. Ryan promised multiple times to set them up.....

Moving along... it was a few days before Christmas and I was wrapping gifts late at night. Well I needed to hide them and Ryan was sleeping so for the first time in MONTHS I went into the garage to hide the gifts.

Then I heard it... A MONSTER, it was chasing me, coming to eat my face! So I ran, of course! And as I was running my foot missed the step and as I rolled to dramatically to save my life, I fell onto the landing with my arm outstretched on my lateral scapula.

At first I was sure I dislocated my shoulder, but later I convinced myself that it was just a few pulled muscles and put on a brace for a few days.

It seemed to get better, after a workout it would sometimes ache and sometimes after a long day I would have to sleep with it propped on a pillow. But it's become constant. The brace doesn't do much anymore, and I walk around most of the day with my right arm hanging dead. There's no comfortable position and it's killing me!

I guess I have to go get it checked out now... 5 months later


This pic is one I took with my phone when Becks was sad he didn't get crayons at the new Cheddar's restaurant. Love this face!

This is back at Christmas!! Can't believe it's still not better

Something good.... I did get my flowers planted this weekend! My yard is so pretty

K

Fun at the ZOO

Sydnee and Ryan Lewis used to be in the same preschool class. And at the end of the year we all got to go to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Gavin Lewis is in the same class now (Beckham isn't) But we went to the zoo at the end of the year anyway!

I look forward to days like this when I get to spend time with just Beckham. I always feel like he doesn't get as many Mommy/Beckham days as Sydnee has.

Look at this face, wouldn't you be excited to spend all day with him?


As you enter the Zoo there is the BEST part which is feeding the giraffes. This is actually in my mind the ONLY cool part about the Cheyenne Mt Zoo, I prefer Denver Zoo by far. Since there were a MILLION field trips all entering the zoo at the same moment and everyone rushed to feed the giraffes so we bypassed and decided to feed them last. But we had to stop and take pictures....

Nice timing Lisa...


There we go! Gavin, Beckham, Logan and Kayli (Krystal's kids)

Becks and Mommy! He's so awesome

There is a classic picture of Sydnee and Ryan when we came so we redid it with Beckham and Gavin. These 2 shots just show me how fast time is going

There are always peacocks walking around the zoo, Beckham thought it would like to play with his stick. This is quite an honor for the peacock, Beckham never willingly shares his swords (stick) he walked around with that in his hand all day

Mommy and Baby Tigers

My best girls! I love these girlie's. We have so much fun together and I always know I can count on them!

This is how Beckham speaks when he is saying something important. His finger comes up and he pronounces something. The other day his pronouncement was "People don't have guts, fish have guts!"

(You heard it here first)

Hip HipHop HipHopAnonymous (name that movie)

So this is the moment where with bated breath I sat back and waited for magic to happen. Beckham is really Harry Potter and he was going to release the gigantic snake and then we would soon receive our letter from Hogwarts....

:( nothing happened

The cool giraffe exhibit. This truly is the only reason to go to this Zoo. But you definitely do have to do this a some point in your life

Baby Morgan was there too, she wasn't exactly sure about the giraffes

Gavin (His shirt is totally a Phoenix Suns shirt, and Lisa disagreed and had no idea what I was talking about. But really any self respecting AZ born person would see a purple and orange shirt and assume Phoenix Suns, not Tommy Hilfinger)

Yes that giraffe is trying to lick me!

Beckham (I think we should take this home as a pet, I would name him Spot)

Those tongues are SERIOUS!

Beckham imitating them, but he wanted gummy snacks instead of lettuce leaves. Can't say I blame him

Me and Spot!

I think he had a lot of fun!

Something good... New restaurant Cheddar's in Colorado Springs, is yummy and cheap!

K

Jean Wilson Banks

My Great Grandfather Jean Wilson Banks passed away this weekend. There are a million things I could say and write about how I feel, memories I have, how amazing I thought this man was... But for some reason right now I don't really have the words. So I'm going to post his obituary with some of my comments intermingled...

Jean Wilson Banks, 93, passed away Saturday, May 14, 2011 in Richfield, UT. He was born September 20, 1917 in Yankton, South Dakota to Will Carlton and Rachel Everett Banks. At the age of six years his mother passed away, at which time he went to live with his paternal grandparents in Lynd, Minnesota. He graduated from Lynd High School.

Following graduation from high school he went to Washington state where he worked in the gold mines and at a saw mill for a short time. He then joined the Marine Corps in 1937. While in the Marine Corps he served on Guam and was later stationed with the Marine battalion serving in the Shanghai conflict in Shanghai, China.

Jean was then sent to Honolulu, Hawaii where he was stationed at Pearl Harbor and where he met and married his beautiful native Hawaiian maiden, Ella Kuikuiehu Keanini on November 1, 1941. She preceded him in death in November 2004, after 63 years of marriage.

How could he not fall in love with this gorgeous wahine?

While still newlyweds, Jean & Ella were living in the Navy housing at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 when the bombing of Pearl Harbor took place. My grandfather was awarded a Purple Heart from Pearl Harbor They had many interesting experience during this time. They spent the rest of WWII stationed in the Hawaiian Islands. Their four children were all born in Hawaii: Clayre (Dr. De N., deceased) Jones, Jeanne (Roger T) Ogden, Val (James P) Miller, Eugene Wilson (Evelyn) Banks. They have 28 grandchildren, 84 great-grandchildren (me) and 27 great-great-grandchildren (Sydnee and Beckham)

This is a picture of when Sydnee was only 2 weeks old. It's 5 generations.

Jean Wilson Banks

Clayre Elgin Kailianukamakaokalani Banks Jones

Clay LaMoyne Jones

Koren LaNette Iki Manu Jones Iannoli

Sydnee Lehua Iannoli

(Please ignore my just pregnant chubby face)

Jean remained in the Marine Corps until 1949 at which time he transferred to the Army Air Corps and then to the US Air Force where he was a special weapons instructor. He retired from the military in 1959. He spent several years following retirement working for the civil service at the Tooele Army Depot in Tooele, Utah and at the Poulsbo Torpedo Naval Station in Poulsbo, Washington, He and Ella then retired to Tolleson, Arizona (Oh don't we all LOVE Tolleson?)where they remained until Jean moved to Sigurd to stay with his daughter, Jeanne.

My Grandfather was frequently honored and invited to Pearl Harbor Memorials. It's always made me proud to know that my family contributed in fighting against to one of the most devastating attacks in US history. Beckham was born on December 7th and I am happy that we can share that day celebrating

For the longest time this is exactly how I would picture my Grandfather. He would hide out and set up some rockers and a TV in the BARN!

My Grandparents were together for 63 years. And it was heartbreaking when my Grandmother became sick. My Grandfather really missed her for the past 7 1/2 years.

I am proud of my heritage, of my family and the examples that they have been for me. I hope to be able to continue their example by raising a beautiful family and making sure my children know who they came from.

Aloha 'Oe Grandpa Banks! We love you

K

Smiles

I love taking pictures. I constantly have my camera. My adorable kiddos happen to be extremely photogenic (don't know where they got that from) and they currently don't mind taking pictures, especially if it's using Mommy's phone and they get to see their beautiful smiling faces immediately after I take the picture. I know these aren't professional, they're not perfectly framed, the lighting sucks, some are blurry. But all I can see is the smiles. The gigantic smiles that we all have, being together as a family. I love my kids, they are the greatest parts of my life!

Something good.... you can't tell but Beckham has a pirate shirt in every picture. I may be feeding into the pirate obsession! But it's so cute! His new favorite is Jake and the Neverland Pirates on Disney. Which he's only seen once since I don't usually allow TV. But I'm thinking we're going to have a pirate party this summer. Not for a birthday... just cause ;)
K

Reminders

I need to remember how quickly they grow

I need to remember when they said words wrong

I need to remember what they looked like when I watched them sleeping

I need to remember all the moments they made me smile

I need to remember how I sang to them every night

I need to remember the funny messes they made

I need to remember how precious they are

I need to remember to hold them a little longer before they wiggle away

I need to remember that I can never tell them "I love you" too much


These pictures are 4 years and one blink of my eye difference



Something good.... going to the zoo tomorrow with just Becks. He rarely gets alone Mommy time! I'm so excited, don't be suprised if he's spoiled rotten!
K

Things that make Becks happy

When I went to AZ, Beckham stayed in Pagosa Springs with my parents (Sydnee had to come home and go to school) Well my parents drove to Durango, CO and took Becks on a train ride. This little boy is obsessed with trains! From the age 1-4 he CONSTANTLY had a train in his hand. He's growing up a little and is now obsessed with pirates, but he still has a fascination with trains. I know he's growing up, even though I constantly tell him he's my baby. I love this picture, I think it perfectly captures what makes Beckham happy, and his childhood love and innocence. And seeing a genuine smile on his adorable face always makes me smile.

Love you most my baby!


Something good.... My Mom's been helping me organize my house! Thanks Mom
K