Henley Trick or Treats?

Henley goes to mothers day out on Wednesday's and Friday's during the week. The babies were so supposed to dress up on Wednesday and trick or treat throughout the school at the older kids rooms. There are only four babies in her class and only two of them dressed up! I almost did not dress her in her costume because she gets really fussy around school time because it is nap time! However, I did not want her to miss this fun opportunity to dress up and trick or treat for the first time. Henley woke up in a good mood and later than usual so I knew I could get away with putting on her costume. It was hard picking out her costume this year because you just never know if it will be freezing cold or ridiculously hot in October down here! I was thinking warmer so she is a flower!

I can never stick around to long after I drop her off in the morning because she will get upset. I quickly took some pictures of her and Porter ( my friend Susan's little boy) because they were the only two that dressed up for Halloween. Here are some snapshots of Mrs. Serious and her future husband...

Today Christian wears his costume and they all go trick or treating at this retirement center across the street from their school! He can not wait! Christian LOVES candy and I think this is quickly becoming his favorite holiday! I just hope he has not eaten all the candy before I can pick him up and take it away! I will post some pictures of that later today or tomorrow.

Boo at the Zoo!

This past Friday the Banta family and our friends the Copelands packed up all our kids (5) and headed for the zoo! Every year the Birmingham Zoo puts on a Halloween Extravaganza with spooky train rides, hay rides, trick or treating and fun for the whole family! It has become a tradition in our household since Christian could say, "Trick or Treat"!

I was hesitant that we would be going because after we got over all the colds and sniffles, Christian came down with a stomach bug...which he gave to me! He woke up Tuesday morning projectile vomiting and has had diarrhea for days! It was supposed to be a 36 hour thing, but then he went and started throwing up again on Friday morning! Seriously? However, I think that was the last of the last of his stomach bug! I promised him that if he kept his lunch in his tummy that we would go to the zoo! No fever and with our friends not concerned about this virus catching on to their kids we headed out to the zoo! I know, I know all you parents are reading this thinking what in the world were we thinking? Well, when you have a three year old who is really looking forward to something and you are too, then you just go! According to the doctors he was not contagious anymore anyway, so what the hell?

The zoo opened at 5:00pm and that is when we arrived there to start our night! Everything was going so smoothly and the boys were all having a blast! It was a little chilly, but we were prepared and had the kids bundled up! Christian was supposed to be the transformer Optimus Prime, but at the last minute I got an e-mail that they had sold out of his costume! Furious! Brian took Christian Friday afternoon looking for a costume that was acceptable and he would wear for the zoo! He ended up being a power ranger...he does not even know who the power rangers are!!!:) The kids were all dressed in their costumes and looking very cute when we entered the zoo.

We walked around and they trick or treated from the zoo employees, who were also dressed up! We then headed for the Carousel to take the first ride of the night! On the way to the carousel we had to stop many times to play games and trick or treat more! Christian already has enough candy to last him for a long time! The carousel ride was fun for everybody and they make it go backwards during Halloween! Preston, Elijah, Porter, Henley and Christian all loved it, but it made be a little dizzy! When that was over it was off to the petting zoo too see which animals would be out and about to be tortured by little kids! There were not to many, but there was a rat that a zoo keeper was holding! Elijah and Christian kept calling him Ratatouille! :)

After the petting zoo we wandered through a pumpkin patch and did more trick or treating! I have to say, that these kids have gotten very good at asking for candy! The last thing we did was ride the spooky, haunted train through the zoo! This is actually very fun and all the kids enjoy the lights and sounds you encounter on the ride! We all had a great time!

If that was not enough stimulation for our children, we all decided to go out and eat dinner! I have no idea what we were thinking, but it just went down hill from there! The older kids were wired and not to bad to deal with, but the babies were up way past bedtime! It was a stupid decision on our parts and we definitely learned our lesson! We do not think that we will ever try to drag Henley out to eat when it is time for her to go to bed! Wow! She was grumpy and I had a hard time getting her to fall asleep on my shoulder, but she did! After dinner we went home and went to bed! I think we were all worn out!

Henley's 1st Birthday!

It is so hard for us to believe that it has been a year since our baby girl Henley entered this world on October 2nd 2008! I have gone from wondering what I would do with a girl to what in the world would I do WITHOUT our girl! Henley is just our sweet baby that is growing up so quickly before our eyes! Today we went to the annual punkin patch they have in our neighborhood and I saw this tiny, tiny baby. It made me sad to think that this time last year she was just a few days old! Wow, how time flies by each day! I think once you have children your life hits the fast forward button and before you know it they are grown! I want it to slow down because I am enjoying the kids ages sooo much right now! Brian and I laugh constantly at our kids and the funny things they do! We were just discussing how quickly Henley has picked up things that Christian might not have been doing at this age! Maybe he was and my memory is just horrible, but I think we might have a smarty pants on our hands! Most of our family knows how serious she is and maybe she is just taking it all in and processing everything she watches? We are curious to watch her little personality develop and see who she becomes as she grows older! However, right now she is still very much a mamma's girl. I find it hard sometimes, but I love that she always reaches for mommy!

Henley is not walking at this point in time, but I feel she is getting very close! She loves pushing toys all over the house and chasing her brother is her favorite past time! I think Christian is quickly becoming one of her favorites, regardless of the mean things he does to her daily! I love watching them interact especially when they know I am not watching! Christian was helping me the other night work with her and the walking. It was so sweet when he would go across the room and call her to him, "come on Hen you can do it"! So adorable! When she would get to him he would hug her and say, "Yeah, good job!" If only he would be that nice to her all the time! I think I tell him 100 times a day to leave her alone, give that back to her and stop pushing her! The one day I wanted the sibling love to be flowing was on Henley's 1st birthday! I wanted her day to be perfect and hassle free of her big brother and it pretty much happened that way! Her birthday fell on Friday, but we had her party on Saturday morning. We invited all our family and close friends that are in her life regularly! We were very excited that her Nene ( Brian's Mom) was able to be here to help celebrate! She loved all her new toys especially the Learning House from Nene and Poppy, the stroller from Grandma and Boppa and her chair that we gave to her.

The party started around 11:00 which I timed around her morning nap and she woke up after the first guests started to arrive. Thank goodness she took a good nap because I wanted her in a good mood for the party. Henley was in a great mood and looked precious in the outfit that I appliqued and monogrammed for her for her special day! We had food, drinks and of course the football games on in the other room! How could I have a party on a Saturday, in the middle of the day and not have games on for the men? The kids played, everyone ate and then we did the cake! This is my favorite time for any baby's 1st birthday because you just never know what will happen. Henely was not so sure at first, but soon realized that this was indeed her favorite thing to eat...sweets! She was very clean in the beginning and just used her fingers, but once she got a taste of the chocolate cake...well it got more messy! I have to think it was due to the fact that her big brother and cousin Bennett were helping her out a little bit. Not to mention I think they were enjoying the cake themselves too! :) We took a picture at one point with all the cousins digging in to Henley's smashcake! Very cute!

I usually do not open gifts at birthday party's because it is to much chaos and very overwhelming for the birthday kid. However, I am not so sure any three year old can pass up the opportunity to open presents especially when they belong to his little sister. Before I knew it Christian was opening his sister's presents. I hardly had time to get a pen and write down who gave who what! I can say, that at least he would show her what she received after he opened her gifts. I think Bennett even got in on the action at one point! It was chaos and and funny to watch! Hopefully, next year will be different. I still do not think that Henley gets to play with any of her new things without her brother trying to steal it out from under her. I think some of her favorite times are when he is not around and she can play in peace!

I think that it was a great day and Henley had a great first birthday! Happy Birthday baby girl we love you so much!!! For those that know and love our little girl...the pictures fit her little Miss Serious attitude! Notice hardly any smiles in these pictures??? What in the world is she thinking about so intently? Got to love her!!!

End so it begins....

I have always heard that when you have a son to get ready to be at the ball field all the time!!! Really?? I never thought that I would love to watch a three year old run around chasing a ball but, I did and I do! I am now one of those stupid soccer moms running around cheering on my son and taking a hundred photos! Agh...the things we moms do! So as you are probably guessing, Christian started Soccer two weeks ago. I have to be a bias mom and say, he is so stinking cute in his soccer outfit! He does not like to where the chin guards and they do not have too, but they are so freaking adorable! He was so excited the first day he was going to play soccer and so was his daddy! Brian has been working with him and those of you who know him can only imagine what he has been teaching him! First, Brian taught him how to score a goal and then he taught him how to do a dance when he accomplished it! Yep! If you know Brian than you can picture little Christian doing this dumb, cute little dance on the field!

The program is called mini-kickers and it is three and four year olds learning soccer. One parent has to be on the field at all times with the their kid to help them. We are fully aware that it will mostly be a bunch of little guys running around a field picking up the ball, sitting down on the field, running to mom/dad or just staring up at the sky! Pure hilarious enjoyment that we will blackmail our child with later in his life! He has only had one game and it was really just a practice and meet the coach type of deal. The fields were so wet that everybody of all ages were out there doing the same scenario except the older kids who actually know how to play! This past Sunday the game was cancelled due to the rain. We have five more weeks of this and we can not wait to watch him grow and learn about something new! We also can not wait to laugh until we cry because these kids are just so cute to watch! We will post more pictures and updates as everyone progresses in the game!:)