Christmas Morning

The kids waiting to go downstairs.

Kara opening up one of her favorite gifts...

Bryan opening up one of his favorite gifts.........

Christmas Singing Program

Here is Mr. Bryan singing his heart out. He was so embarassed because he had to shake his butt during the song. He sang a song in Spanish. He did a great job. It was also hat day at school for the grade who brought the most canned food.
Kara was quite a great little singer. She was also asked to chime the bells for the song, We wish you a Merry Christmas. There were only a few children asked and she was very excited to do this. Thank you Mrs. Tapia for asking her!!!

Banks Christmas Party

Here is our cute family at the annual Banks Christmas Party. They have been having this party for 36 years. They now having quite a bunch of kids and even my family comes to the party. They look forward to it every year. This year Lou's brother flew in for the party from California with his wife and fun little boy Ryan. The kids had a blast with him while he was here.

Kara's New Hairdo

Kara is Styling! She is so excited about her new short hairdo and says it looks like her teacher's hair (Mrs. Tapia). Dad is excited since now he can even do her hair and make it look good.

Bryan and Kara earn awards

We are so proud of Kara and Bryan for their recent awards at school. Bryan is student of the month at WestVale Elementary and Kara is Wolf of the Quarter at WestVale Elementary.

Bryan's award is for Caring and Fairness. He is really a good kid and his mom and dad are so proud of him. Bryan cares about others and is a good example to his friends. He loves to read and stays up usually until 10:00 PM reading.

Kara's award was for being an all-around good student. Her teacher also tells us that she is very caring and will play with kids on the playground who have nobody to play with. She loves school and also loves to read. Kara has read almost all of the Junie B. Jones books. She is also really into piano, most she has taught herself. Maybe we will get her lessons.

Utah Crushes BYU, 48-24!

The Cougs were the latest victim of the UTE power house. I thought this game would've been closer, but the Utes D was too much for Max Hall, BYU's quarterback. He was so frustrated by the Ute D that he joined the Utes by throwing to our players instead of BYU receivers. You could say he was Utah's MVP--5 interceptions and 1 fumble. But, that would not be fair to Brian Johnson, Utah's quarterback, who was absolutely brilliant.

Go UTES!!!!!!! Bring on the traitor Urban Meyer and the Florida Gators!

UTAH BY 5

I wish that I could say that the Utes are going to crush the cougs tomorrow, but given the history of this series it will be close. However, the Utes will prevail and be off to the BCS where real teams play and BYU will make their annual pilgrimege to the Vegas Bowl to play yet another mediocre team.

GO UTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Tree

It is November 19 and our Christmas tree is already up (whatever happened to Thanksgiving). We have a pre-lit tree so it was a snap to put up and then the kids decorated it. They were competing with each other to see who put the most ornaments on the tree and all of them ended up in clumps. Leigh evened it out after they went to bed.

We purchase an ornament everytime we go on vacation so that we can remember all of our vacations--it is a nice way to preserve memories. Here is the one from Disney World this year.

Utes Ranked #7 in BCS

The Utes are ranked #7 in the BCS after pulling out a hard fought win against TCU last week. Chances are good that they will go to another BCS Bowl game if they win their last 2 games of the season. We are hoping that they end up someplace close (Arizona) so that we can attend the game. We expect another hard fought battle when they play the team from down South in 2 weeks. We are already getting psyched! In honor of the best football team in the state, our blog will be red and black. Go UTES!

Yes We Can!

Today, we were part of history. Leigh and Lou cast their ballots for the first African-American president in US history. We did not vote for Barack Obama because he is black since we don't see the world as black and white. We voted for him because of who he is and his ability to bring change to the United States. He will help the US regain its status as the most revered and respected nation in the world. Barack Obama inspires us to reach for new heights and will lead with hope. Yes we Can!

It was great because Bryan and Kara were very interested in the Presidential Race. Leigh was at Children's Place this summer and saw these great shirts. Well, Bryan went to the local Rec Center on Voting Day so Leigh took his shirt. Yes Bryan is as big as Leigh or close. Lou and Leigh feel strongly about voting and that it is a wonderful right to be able to vote. If you don't vote you can not complain. We pray for Barack Obama and that he can make the right decisions for our country and that he will be safe along with his beautiful family. In God we Trust!!

Halloween 2008

Here are our kids. Bryan was a Babe Magnet, Kara was Miley Cyrus, and Hannah was a Ghost. (you can see Lou in the mirror)

What a great Halloween. I can not remember better weather. It was in the 60's. Lou kept saying that he felt like the kids were Trick or Treating in California. I kept saying St. George. I was just happy that they didn't have to wear big heavy coats.
We started off the day going to Lou's mothers work and then to lunch with the family. Then we went to my mom's school and then to some friends house. We finally got home around 4:00P.M. I told the kids to take a nap. Ha Ha. They started going around our neighborhood at 6:00P.M. Then we went over to another friends house to see them and show them our costumes. I had a dark wig on and Lou was a pirate. Then we went to my parent's house for dinner and walk around the neighborhood a little. The kids wanted to stop and Lou and I couldn't believe what we were hearing. They wanted to stop going to homes for FREE candy!! What kind of kids do we have? We dragged them to a couple more homes and then went in. We ate dinner and then Bryan and his cousin answered the door bell at my parents house and there stood girls!! They were so excited, and acting crazy (after they left). Then they went out and started following them around the corner. Crazy boys! After all of that we went to Lou's parents house and saw them and showed his dad the kids costumes. We got home around 11:00 P.M.
Happy Halloween!!

Halloween Party 2008

Here we are at the Cahoon's house for a halloweeen party. We had dinner, carved pumpkins, and then watched Goosebumps. Which is actually a pretty scary show. Kara ended up in our bed around 5:00 the next morning.
Scooping out the guts.
Marinn looking pretty!
They did a great job!! I really liked the pumpkin without a nose. That one turned out really cool.

Kara Loses Her First Tooth

Well, she lost it kind of forcibly. No, Bryan did not knock it out. The dentist had to pull it since her permanent tooth was coming in behind it and her baby tooth was not even loose.

The dentist was amazed at how well she did; he said she was a real trooper. I wonder how much the dentist will give for a pulled tooth, including the root.

Disney World / Cruise 2008

Last week, we set out on a Disney adventure--4 days at Disney World and 3 days on a Disney Cruise. It was a very busy schedule, but we had a great time. Joining us were the Cahoon family, Barbara, and the Allreds. It was Lou, Bryan, Kara, Jen, Nick, and Debbie's first time at Disney World.

Here is the whole group in front of Mt. Everest in Animal Kingdom. Top row left: Debbie, Orlan, Miran, Hillary, Jennifer, Leigh, Lou, and Barbara. Bottom Row: Paul, Bryan, Nicholas, Kara, and Michael.


The trip started for us with a midnight flight out of Salt Lake. We arrived in Atlanta at 5:00 A.M. and crashed in the airport for a few hours until our 8:30 flight to Orlando. While we were boarding that flight, the pilot grabbed Kara and Bryan and let them sit in the cockpit. They were excited and mesmerized by all of the buttons.

The first day was spent at the large pool at the resort.




Day 2: Disney World, Hollywood Studios



Here we rode the Tower of Terror and the Rockin' Roller Coaster. It was nice because Kara was just tall enough to ride all of the rides. And of course, she enjoyed the roller coasters.


Day 3: Disney World, Epcot Center


One day at Epcot is not nearly enough time. We rode Mission to Mars (the easy version) and the Test Track. But, the highlight was tasting the different sodas from around the world and visiting the different countries. We only made it to half the countries. We definitely need to go back to see the rest along with SpaceShip Earth and many other exhibits we missed. The Finding Nemo ride and the aquarium were really neat.

Day 4: Disney World, Magic Kingdom

This day, we were the red Utah family. We received many comments since there were also many other Utah people in DisneyWorld (school was out for UEA). It was nice seeing how the rides differed from DisneyLand, but we much prefer DisneyLand to Magic Kingdom. Kara went to her "laughing place" on Splash Mountain and Bryan's "laughing place" was the ThunderMountain Railroad.

Day 5: Disney World, Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom is a wonderful place, animals and rides. Again, we need to go back again since we did not see it all. The safari is a must-do for anybody planning on going to Animal Kingdom. And, you cannot forget the Yeti of Expedition Everest. Bryan rode it 4 times and still wanted more.

Days 6-8: Disney Cruise, Nassau Bahamas and Castaway Cay
3 days is too short for a cruise--not much time to relax. But, we still had fun. Bryan and Kara both loved hanging out in kids club, the shows were spectacular, and Bryan loved all of the food. He was always eating! And, he was excited that he could order from the adult menu at dinner. Most of the time though his eyes were bigger than his stomach.

Castaway Cay was the highlight. We spent the whole day Saturday on the beach floating in the lagoon or Lou was snorkeling. We were trying to figure out how we could get left there--but then we heard about the bugs at night.

The kids with the Black Pearl in the background at Castaway Cay

Bryan really enjoyed having his cousin, Paul, and good friend, Nicholoas, on the trip with him.

Leigh and Kara were able to see the Pirates in the Caribbean Party this year. The weather was fantastic and the fireworks were a lot better than last year. We were fortunate that the weather was good for the entire cruise and trip.

Here are the kids in Nassau. It was the one time that they smiled there. Traffic was crazy on narrow streets and it was a different atmosphere from what they were used to. Needless to say, they were a bit uncomfortable with Leigh's walking tour of the city. But, we got to see some nice sites off of the beaten path--like the Queen's Staircase.

Overall, we had a great time.