Our new website -- TheBanksOffshore.com

 

www.thebanksoffshore.com

 

If you are still following this blog, first of all thank you for your persistence, considering we haven't posted anything in over three years!

Since that time, a lot has happened in our lives, not the least of which is a call to move back to Africa to serve as long-term medical missionaries in Burundi.  We have started another website to share more about that journey, and our stories will continue there.  Please head on over to find out more. 

www.thebanksoffshore.com

Happy Birthday Liam!

Liam just turned 3!  We had a party at Ozark Mountain Gymnastics for him.   He is all about Toy Story right now, so we went with it!  He and Zeke dressed up like Woody, and Mommy was Jessie.  

 The kids were able to run around, jump on the trampoline, and of course play in the foam pit! 

 Liam had a blast and got lots of fun presents.  He dresses up like either Buzz or Woody almost everyday! 

 "To infinity - and beyond!"

A Wonderful Season of Life

What a season in which we find ourselves. The Bratvold side of the family really multiplied this year!
Last Christmas my parents had 1 grandchild.
This year they have 4 grandchildren!

I had Zeke in 2011 and my sister had not one, but two darling girls in August! John and Kari came to Missouri from Portland in November, then Kari was able to stay all through December! John came back at the end of December and we all had a family Christmas and rang in the New Year together! Ok, so only John, Kari, Logan and I were up to ring in the New Year.

Christmas was at our house for both sides of the family! I completely went overboard and did 3 trees, 3 wreaths, 2 chandeliers, and a staircase. I loved doing it though!

We had a great time together, made many of memories, and my sister took a TON of pictures. Literally. Like 700 or something crazy like that.

Don't worry, I won't post them all! But maybe. Here we go!

My Aunt Gail, "Gigi", was able to come up from Florida to spend a week with us. Thanks to Jerry for sparing her! We missed him and Cameron too.

Zeke needed lots of help opening his presents.

 In fact usually eating the wrapping paper was much more entertaining than any gift!

I just think Liam looks so big here! Isn't he such a big boy?!

Sisters!

A framed print of Kari's two little sisters sitting on our boots (awwwww)

Matching sister jammies...what?! Oh c'mon, you know it's still cute.

Three generations of sisters:

My gift to myself.  Logan's gift to me:

Throws that totally match our house!

Speaking of matching my house, my Mom completely outdid herself and made me adorable oven mitts and potholders.  Love.

Theeee coolest present of the day was to Logan from my parents.  

They wrapped up a big box of their old (and now valuable) LP's.

First came albums of bands that Logan had only vaguely heard of.

Then he thought maybe this was a joke, or really a gift for me, when Barbra Streisand and Dionne Warwick were in there!


Hope started to rise when Logan pulled out John Denver.

Woah, wait a minute.

Bob Dylan?  For Real?

Wait Logan, it gets better...

The Beatles!  An original A Hard Day's Night album!

The records kept coming out of that box like Mary Poppins' bag.

Logan spent much of the afternoon examining these albums and looking them up online.  What a neat gift.  We will treasure this collection!

Christmas was a great time with family, but the guys were completely wiped out!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night.

Happy Birthday, Zeke!

Zeke is one year old! His birthday was January 6th. We celebrated a little early because my sister and her family were still in town for Christmas.

(Actually Kari is taking this picture.) What fun to be able to be with family for his first birthday, because we were in Kenya on Liam's first birthday!! Here are a few highlights of the day: Just waking up and getting ready for "My 1st Birthday!"

He wasn't so interested in the cake. He just had fun feeding us!

Mommy tries to convince him to walk...

Mimi and Me

Taking this new toy for a test drive!

Play Ball!

May 2012 be even better than 2011!

Christmas with the Banks

Not Christmas with the Kranks, the Banks! We were far from Kranky. It was great. The cousins slept in their snug little beds with coordinating jammies.

We woke up early Christmas morning to a glowing tree full of presents.

We opened several presents before it was time to get ready for church. It's always so cool when Christmas falls on a Sunday. What an opportunity to keep focused on the real reason of Christmas. Both Aletheia and Liam seemed to understand the story of Christmas. We talked about it several times through the day. They had so much fun together!

The adults had fun too! We had quality time in the kitchen while Granny watched the kids. New Year's Resolution: spend more time with Logan's brothers and my sisters-in-law!!

New Year, New Post

Happy New Year! It has been so long since I've blogged, the format has completely changed on me and the website to post on Blogger does not look familiar at all! We told our friends, Eric and Rachel, that we are finished blogging. It sounded a little sad, and too permanent, so maybe I will still post every once in a while. We will see if anyone is out there following! Christmas was fun with Logan's family and with my family. We hosted the Banks in our home on Christmas Eve and Day, then the Bratvold family a few days later. Along with celebrating the New Year, we also have already celebrated Zeke's first birthday! He is not 1 until the 6th, but we went ahead and did his party while my sister was in town. Since I am out of practice blogging, I really do not have anything clever or profound to say. Instead I will just upload a few pictures of our recent family photoshoot.

I hope that inspiration will strike soon for another blog post. Happy New Year to all!