Hog Ball

My parents got tickets to a Hogs Basketball game and invited us to go along.

 

   The highlight of the night for Paige was getting her picture made with one of the Razorback cheerleaders AND getting to hold her pom poms in the picture!

Christmas Eve

We were supposed to meet all of my extended family at Aunt Jan’s house at 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve to have finger foods and open gifts before our church’s Christmas Eve Christ, Candles, and Communion service.  The day had actually gone pretty well and I had cooked the food for the afternoon, bathed the kids, started preparing to get everyone ready to leave.  This is where my breakdown began.  I had intended for Paige to wear her beautiful smocked, allbeit white Christmas dress with her red tights, and black dress shoes.  When I began searching for the dress to put it on her, I found that it wasn’t hanging in her closet as it should have been but it was wadded up in an overnight bag that she had stuffed into her closet instead of unpacking.  I wasn’t happy with her, but would only have to run the iron over it and that shouldn’t take too long.  Wrong.  As I heated the iron and set the ironing board up, I noticed several dirty spots on the (did I mention it’s) white dress!  And each of those spots was in a very visible spot on the dress.  This is where my fury kicked in.  I was so mad! Knowing there was no washing, drying, and ironing the dress in time, we had to search for another outfit for Paige.  Mind you this is all at about 2:30 and I’ve done nothing to my hair, I’m not dressed, and I have no makeup on yet.  The dress fiasco ended up taking up about 30 minutes.  Thankfully Ryan was easy to dress and Stephen was already done. 

Unfortunately, my stress didn’t end there.  I had asked Stephen to separate the presents that we needed to take that night.  Not thinking that would be a big deal, I left him alone to do that and started trying to fix my hair and get dressed.  Within moments, he had separated every single present that was under our tree and had them in piles around the living room.  While I realize now that he was just trying to make it easier in the long run for us, at that moment it put me under.  I lost it.  I couldn’t control my crying and the stress in my shoulders felt like I had a baseball under my skin on each shoulder. 

At this time, I knew being there at 3:00 simply wasn’t going to happen.  So I did what any self respecting nearly 30 year old woman would do…I called my mom crying.  She offered to come get the kids from us and go ahead and take them to Aunt Jan’s and I could have some quiet time and time alone to get myself ready.  I took my time and got myself together in about 30 minutes.  We go to Aunt Jan’s at about 3:40.  And it was fine from there on out.

For our extended family this year we decided to only buy presents for the great-grandkids.  We started drawing names several years ago with the adults, but in the past years we had basically just been exchanging gift cards…and while that ok, it was just getting impersonal and we’d rather give that money we would’ve spent on gift cards to our favorite charities.  Our family chose Arkansas Children’s Hospital because of the involvement we personally had with them in the past few months with Paige.  Additionally, our ongoing “charity” is Stephen’s football team.  We love those boys and we provide food, groceries, sweats, etc whenever they need them.

It took us longer to open presents than we intended so when we looked up, it was 6:40 and our church service started at 6.  It’s the first time we’ve missed in several, several years.  We left Jan’s and went to Mom and Dad’s for awhile, then headed home to get ready for Santa!

Rocking Chair-1 Ryan-0

I knew it would happen eventually.  Stephen and I are standing at church singing when I get the dreaded tap on the shoulder from the nursery coordinator.  She didn’t tell me what was going on while we were still in the worship center, but as soon as we exited I could hear Ryan screaming and the NC told me that Ryan had fallen in the nursery and his forehead met the solid wood rocking chair.  Apparently he tripped and the only part of him to meet the chair was his forehead, and nothing softened the blow. 

One of the precious elderly ladies that keeps the babies during nursery was so shaken up by it and was walking around holding Ryan and they were both just sobbing.  She was so apologetic and was worried Stephen and I would be mad.  Of course I reassured her that it was an accident and that we definitely didn’t hold her responsible in the least.  As soon as I saw the huge knot on Ryan’s forehead, I asked the NC to go get Stephen because he’s much better at handling injuries than I am.  I also asked her to ask a church member who is a doctor to come and take a look in case we needed to head straight to the ER. 

Fortunately, the doctor said that since the bump had “come out” which meant he was going to be ok.  She instructed us on the concussion symptoms we needed to be on the look out for and told us to keep ice on him as long as he could handle it.  Ryan + ice=no bueno.  He hated having it on him at all!  We did our best to put it on for a few seconds here and there, but eventually just gave up on it.  We gave him ibuprofen and prayed for the best. 

After lunch, Ryan seemed to be acting normally so we decided to lay him down for his afternoon nap as normal.  He went right to sleep and I was diligent to go check on him several times during his sleep.  When he woke up the bump’s swelling had gone down considerably and the bruising was coming on. 

His first official “boo boo” was a a big one.  And I hope they’re few and far between, but somehow I get the feeling that Ryan will be a walking boo boo before it’s all said and done.

Sunday Best

Since Christmas is nearing Paige wore her Christmas dress to church this morning and Ryan was looking especially handsome as well, so I tried to take a picture of them in front of the  Christmas tree.  This was the best we came up with, and as you can see…Ryan is NOT happy! Paige looks sweet and innocent, though! Expect to see Paige’s dress in many more posts-we will get our wear out of her smocked Christmas dress.

Life Saved

 

Today, this girl…

wrote this:

We’ve been talking a ton with Paige about asking Jesus into her heart.  She’s really always had the right answers, but it hadn’t sank in on a personal level for her. This past week has been super hard with her attitude, her words, her tone, and her temperament.  On several occasions she would tell me that “the devil is telling me right now not to obey you, Mommy”.  I knew then that it wasn’t just me wanting and desiring for her decision to be made, but that it was really on the verge of happening.  Stephen and I prayed diligently through the week that her decision would come on her own and that it would be real for her.  When she burst into my bedroom this morning, she shared that she had asked Jesus into her heart.  She was beyond excited…BEYOND.  Stephen and I are so proud of her and we’re looking forward to her baptism soon.

Traditional Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving Day, we always meet with Stephen’s family (siblings, parents, grandma, and aunts, uncles, and cousins) at his sister’s house.  This year I cooked the ham, crockpot green beans, and corn casserole.  After lunch, we took some pictures then everyone went their ways.  We went to Stephen’s parent’s house and hung out and let Ryan nap…and looked at Black Friday ads until our eyes were crossing!

For some reason we didn’t get an entire family shot this year…but this is all the Banning women.  From the left:  Hallie (our 2nd oldest niece), Tatum (3rd niece), Me, Kim (Stephen’s sister) who is holding Kelby (4th niece), Peggy (Stephen’s mom) who is holding my Paige, Hannah (1st niece), Parker (5th niece), and Amanda (Stephen’s SIL, married to his brother).

The boys are outnumber 2:1 on Stephen’s side of the family.  It’s perfectly even on my side for now…which is the way it’s always been except for the years that Paige was the only grandchild.  From left:  Stephen(baby of his family by 11 and 14 years!) holding Ryan, the 7th grandchild and only boy, Greg (Stephen’s BIL, married to Kim), Michael (oldest brother), and Stephen’s dad, JB, is sitting. 

The complete Banning Grandkids picture…barring acts of God alone, we’re all done having kids!  From left: Tatum (#3), Hallie (#2), Hannah (#1) holding Ryan (#7), Kelby (#4), Parker (#5), and Paige (#6).

Here are all the kiddos with Papaw Jb and Grandma

Why we didn’t get a picture of me and Stephen and our kids is beyond me! I feel so bad that that picture didn’t happen.  BUT, we did get a picture of just Stephen and I which seems to never happen anymore!

Non-Traditional Thanksgiving 2011

My sister and I are the pickiest eaters on the planet, hands down.  Neither of us enjoys traditional Thanksgiving fare like turkey or dressing.  When we would all gather with my Mom’s extended family many years ago, she always made sure someone was making a ham (or she just made it herself), plain mashed potatoes (none with cream cheese or sour cream included were acceptable), and normal bread.  That’s about all we would eat.  Desserts were a little easier, but don’t even think about putting a pie with meringue in front of us or cheesecake, pumpkin anything, or oatmeal raisin cookies. Stick with plain chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, etc.  Leslie would go for peanut butter desserts, but I didn’t (and still don’t) like them. 

All that to say, when our large extended family started celebrating with individual parts our Mom ditched the entire traditional food idea and went for something we all like:  steaks, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and bread.  I used to hate Thanksgiving because I hated the food…now, bring it on!

We had Thanksgiving with my parents and Leslie and Zach on Wednesday night at our house.  It was really fun to have everyone in our house!  Mom brought all of the food over and Leslie and I did desserts…nothing with meringue or pumpkin was anywhere near our kitchen!  Dad grilled the steaks while we had baked potatoes, corn on the cob, bread, shrimp and cocktail sauce, and chips and salsa in the kitchen.

I promise I did help get the food ready, but someone had to be behind the camera as well!  Our house isn’t large enough to host many family events, but since it was just the 6 adults and my two kids it was perfect.

My Dad provided Ryan with his first bite of shrimp ever and he loved it! I won’t touch shrimp for money (I’ve tried!) or anything else you might think to bribe me with.  Ain’t happenin’.

Stephen and Zach especially enjoyed the pre-meal snacks.  Stephen looks like he got caught digging into something he wasn’t supposed to have!

During dinner, Zach needed a steak knife and since all of our small ones were in use, he grabbed the largest on we have!  He said it got the job done, however.

Paige definitely enjoyed the  bread-Funny thing is, Leslie used to eat her pieces of bread exactly like Paige is doing.  I’ve said it 1,000 times before but if I hadn’t witnessed her birth, I’d swear she belonged to my sister.

Ryan wasn’t much of a steak fan (I think it’s too much work for this lazy little eater!), but he loved everything else.  He crashed hard that night and woke up not feeling so hot the next day.

Unfortunately, we didn’t pose for any family pictures.  I honestly think we forgot about it.  So, this is as close to a whole group picture as we got.  Pictures or not, we had a great time and we’re very thankful for family!

Let it Begin…

Warrior Basketball 2011-2012 begins tonight. 

Winding Down

This Thursday is our last Jr. High game of the year.  Our record isn’t going to end up the way we hoped it would.  But, you know what, I think the first year of truly being a head coach is about learning what works to motivate the boys, figuring out how to work as a head coach and be in charge of other coaches, treading lightly and being careful when you speak to parents about playing times for their son, and balancing all of that with more work and having a family.  It’s been hard on all of us.  I’m thankful that this is the last week, but in so many ways I’m sad!

We’ve built relationships with these boys that are absolutely precious to me.  Stephen’s players have been taught respect, love for Christ and one another, and responsibility and accountability-lesson that sadly haven’t been taught at home a lot of the time.  I love running into them at the county fair or WalMart or at church and just being able to talk to them about nothing, but seeing their faces light up because someone is giving them their undivided attention.  Precious.  Honestly, I love his team.  BWhite, JWhite, Ross, Frost, Hanuska, Magdaleno, Douglas, Benton, Green, the list goes on…

Our family has learned a lot during the course of this football season.  I’ve learned that I can a lot more than I thought I could with 2 kids by myself.  Paige has learned how to be a phenomenal helper to me, Ryan has learned to love football and head banging and tackling, and Stephen has learned that even though football is his job, it’s still a game and in the grand scheme of this life, being a football coach is a very small part of our lives and eternity.  The big job we all have to to live our lives to impact eternity.  Eternity, people! That’s big stuff.  Stephen is a small part of these boys lives, but he wants to impact them in a BIG way.  I’m so proud of him! He loves Christ, he loves us, he loves his job, and he loves his boys.  I’m blessed to be a small part of their lives and more blessed to get to stand next to Stephen!

A Doctor and her Patient

Since Paige decided to be a Doctor for Halloween, it was only appropriate that Ryan be her patient.  The costumes were very affordable and Paige got most of her “accessories” from ACH when she had her test done on the 27th.  We didn’t do much trick or treating this year…we went to a trunk-or-treat at a local church and then headed to Aunt Jan’s for our annual soup and snacks Halloween event.  Happy Halloween 2011!

Booted

Like my lovely new accessory?  Yeah, me either.  I had foot surgery on Thursday and I’m unable to put pressure onto my foot because of the location of the surgery…right on the ball of my foot.  So, I’m in the boot until I can start applying pressure without constant burning and throbbing.  It honestly looks much worse than it is! Stephen has done an incredible job taking care of me and stepping up big time with the kids.  My parents and sister helped out tremendously this weekend with Paige and Stephen had Ryan one on one, so it was manageable! 

It’s impossible to stay off my foot as much as I should with 2 kids alone during the day, but I’m doing my best.  During naptime for Ryan, I’m planted on my bed.  And when Stephen gets home, he takes it all on and I’m very thankful!

Trip to Children’s #2

Stephen, Paige, and I went to Little Rock yesterday to have my foot surgery and Paige’s catheter dye test done.  We left at about 8:15 (Stephen’s parents came to pick up Ryan and take him to Ozark with them for the day) and rolled into the foot clinic a few minutes before 10:00.  My surgery was first and then we went to lunch with my sister and her husband, then we headed to Children’s. 

When we got to the Radiology department it was packed.  I was worried already because Stephen had come with us to this appointment (and I’m SO glad he did) and he had a football game in Pottsville that night and he wanted to be at the field by 5:30.  A packed radiology department didn’t bode well for us getting to Pottsville at that time.  Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait too terribly long before they called Paige back.  Stephen and I both got to go with her and my sister held all of our stuff in the waiting room.  They took a normal x-ray of her abdomen before they began the dye test and that kind of eased Paige into the whole experience.  After the x-ray, we headed to a procedure room for the dye test.  Paige had to strip down and put on a hospital gown (I didn’t take any pictures because I was concerned it was against the rules, especially since we were around x-ray equipment) and lay on a large metal “bed”.  They cleaned her with betadine while Stephen and I had to put on lead vests to protect us from the x-rays.  Stephen’s was leopard print (which Paige thought was hysterical, as did I) and mine had the 101 Dalmations on it.  We knew the worst part was next, which was inserting the catheter.  Stephen and I each held on of her hands and I sang to her and Stephen tried to distract her and keep her mind off of what was happening. 

Unfortunately, our ploy didn’t work so well because Paige screamed and cried hysterically when the catheter was inserted.  Who can blame her though?  She was amazing during the procedure and we couldn’t have been more proud of our daughter.  After the catheter was in, they began injecting dye into her bladder and watched it go into her kidneys as well.  We could see her bladder on a tv screen they had in the room and we could see when it was about 90% full of liquid.  The technicians asked Paige if she needed to go to the bathroom and when she answered with an emphatic “yes!” , they slowly removed the catheter from her bladder.  They then asked her to go pee pee while she was laying on the table so they could watch the liquid exit her system. 

They told us informally that everything looked healthy, but we still had to meet with the urologist.  Because Paige was so incredible during the procedure, they loaded her up with goodies.  Paige wore her Halloween costume to the appointment (she’s a doctor) and everyone loved it.  They gave her gloves, masks, shot injectors, coloring books and crayons, stickers, etc.  She was on Cloud 9.

  This is Paige after she got loaded up after her dye test.  Stephen and I were blown absolutely away by how incredible she was during the test.  We knew we had an amazing daughter, but she proved it to us even more on Thursday.

She’s proud to be a “Doctor in Training”!

When we left radiology, we went to the gift shop and Paige picked out a Brittany from Alvin and the Chipmunks Beanie Baby.  Then we headed to see Paige’s urologist.  We had to wait quite awhile there before we saw the doctor.  When he came in, though, he had wonderful news from the dye test!  He said Paige’s anatomy is “beautiful and healthy”! We learned some new techniques to avoid so many UTIs and so far they’re going really well. 

We made it to the game, unfortunately it wasn’t until 6:30…an hour after Stephen wanted to be there.  There’s just nothing you can do about it in stand still traffic! 

Field Trip

This morning Ryan and I met Paige’s class at the local pumpkin patch!  The kids got to listen and learn about how pumpkins grow and about all the many different types of pumpkins there are.  After their short lesson, the kids were able to pick out a pumpkin to take home.  Paige picked up several before finally deciding on one.

See, I said she picked up quite a few before finding just the right one. 

It wasn’t hard to find the right one for Ryan!

This, unfortunately, is the best picture I could get of Paige and Ryan.  There was just tons going on around us and Ryan was extremely interested in climbing through the pile of pumpkins!

One of Paige’s teachers caught this one of the 3 of us.  Ryan looks like he’s about to escape from the stroller-good thing he was buckled in!  We’re going to go back when Stephen can join us.  And when there aren’t quite so many others there!

Paige’s Show and Tell: Her Daddy!

On Thursday, Stephen got the be a special guest in Paige’s class because they were learning about the letter “F” and Stephen is a Football coach!  He brought along a jersey, set of shoulder pads, a helmet, a football, and the headsets they use on game nights.  Each student got the opportunity to try each thing on and to talk with Coach Banning on the headsets-they thought it was SO cool!  Paige, of course, enjoyed having her Daddy there and showing him off.

  Stephen taught the whole class how to say “Touchdown Panthers!”

Since Stephen was Paige’s guest, she got to be the first one to try on all the equipment.

I think her favorite part was talking to Daddy on the headsets!

Stephen left each of the kids a small football to take home.  I think they enjoyed having him there…I know he enjoyed being there!

It Just Comes Naturally

 

Paige attended her third cheerleading mini-camp this week and loved it as always!  It’s nice to have connections with the cheer sponsors.  ;-)  Paige and Kaci (in the picture above) know each other from when she went to Kids Count Preschool…when I worked there.  Paige was a helper to Kaci and was very sweet to her all week.

Nanny, Papa, Leslie, and Zach all came to watch Paige perform. 

The High School cheerleaders taught the girls 2 cheers, 2 chants, and 2 dances during the week.  They only had time to perform 1 of the dances that night, though. It mainly centered on Justin Bieber…everyone 5-7 year old’s crush, right?

Paige has lots of support, I must say.  She’s a natural performer when it comes to cheerleading.  I have NO idea where she gets that from.  ;-)