Our Crazy New 3 Year Old

Church with my buddy!

Walker is now potty trained, sleeping in a big boy bed, and asking to do everything that his siblings do.  He is a funny little boy who is growing up quickly.

He is undeniably a Banta....stubborn, bossy, blue-eyed with a BIG temper!  Every bad trait is balanced with a good one though....the boy makes us laugh daily with his dancing, loves hard, is a wonderful eater and just a beautiful child.  Just a few pictures of our baby over the past couple months.

Sleeping in his big boy bed

Riding scooters with Preston, looking for fish

Blow drying his hair

Splashing in puddles!

Eric Church Concert

This weekend, Steve and I snuck away for another wonderful concert.  Eric Church returned to the BJCC and performed a double set (no opening bands, just him).  He played continuously for 3.5 hours, and was totally into it the whole time!  We met up with the Passarellas for drinks and dinner beforehand, and arrived on time for concert. 

Steve and I had terrible seats in the upper bowl, one in front of the other.  Neither of us were excited about walking up to the nosebleed section, so we decided to risk it, and sit in a couple of seats in the lower bowl near the Mike and Courtney.  We got kicked out, so we moved a little further down, only to get kicked out again.  We ended up sitting right behind the equipment table, but high enough to see over it perfectly and have a great view of Eric Church.  There were several rows that were empty, so Mike and Courtney moved over to sit with us, as did Cathy and Brian Browning and their friends.

It was a terrific night of singing and dancing, and it was that much better that we got to do it all in awesome seats with fun people around us.

What a show!

Mercedes Marathon

me, Cindy, Candace, Kadie and Lindsey

Back in August, I joined the Service Guild....a volunteer organization that raises money and services The Bell Center.  As a member, you volunteer in a classroom with the same child every week for a semester.  My time didn't begin until January,  and I work with a little girl with Downs Syndrome.  It isn't my favorite thing to do each week (it is tough), but what a gift for these families with these children.  The kids either attend Tues/Thur or Wed/Fri for two hours.  Each child has a volunteer (me), a PT, OT, Speech Pathologist and Special Ed teacher on their team.  The employees put together a specific treatment plan for each child, and we all work together to help the child achieve their goals. 

before I took off

They have one major fundraiser a year, the Service Guild Gala, in March of every year, and several smaller ones.  One of the other ones is running for a child during the Mercedes Marathon.  They ask every runner to raise $100/mile, so if you run a full marathon then you strive to raise $2610.  I formed a team of five women, and we all tried to raise money.  We had a blast getting to know each other better, and fun training for our individual segments.  The race was Sunday, Feb 12th in the morning.  Cindy Bembry started us off with the first 6 miles, then me with 3 miles, then Kadie Fry with the next 6 miles, who passed it off to Lindsey Chitwood who ran another 3 miles, and then Candace Crouch pulled up the rear with the final 8 miles.  It was warm day (which I was fine with), but all of the serious runners were hoping for cooler weather.  I was able to run a little with Kadie, and then we both ran the final mile with Candace.  It was a long morning, but a very fun one.

Steve and kids came to support me

After my segment, but before Sara ran hers (the final 8 for her team)

Kadie and me halfway through!

We made it!!

not too shabby for some older ladies! :)

In fact, we had so much fun doing the race, we decided to enter another one.  Since we weren't all able to run together, we registered for the Birmingham Wine 10K, where they toast us with champagne at the end!  Now that is my kind of race!

Potty Training Our Baby!

multi-tasking....pottying and watching a movie

January 1, 2017, I woke up with a mission, a mission to potty train Walker!  So that morning we woke up and I put him in underpants.  I asked him what he wanted to drink, and gave him anything and everything so he would drink a lot and potty often!  Since I had to be home to care for Bennett and Preston, it was a perfect time to hole up and do it.  Walker set up his "office" at the kitchen island and we pretty much did not leave that area for two days. 

Walker stayed naked or in underpants for the first two days of the year.  He had a permanently stained red upper lip from all of the Gatorade he drank, but he did awesome with the training.  He only wet the front of the underpants a little a couple of times, right before he went potty, and never had a full on accident.  If he ever did leave the kitchen, it was right after he went potty, and only for 20-30 minutes.  He had a couple of problems with pooping, but he finally went on day 2 (he was so proud of himself), and once he did....he kept going!


Day 3, Bennett insisted on taking him to Target for his first outing.  She wanted to buy him a birthday present with her own money.  So we packed him a change of clothes, and went on our way.  As we were about to leave, she took him to the restroom.  Needless to say, he did great and continued to improve with letting us know he needed to go. 

Day 4, Walker returned to school.  I packed several extra pairs of underpants, a change of clothes and a pull-up in case he completely revolted, but he did fabulous!  No accidents!

watching a movie while still sitting on hardwood floors

Proud face after using potty at school!

We are almost a full month into the potty training now, and Walker has done fantastic!  He has had two accidents (both due to getting too busy and waiting until the last minute), but he has this!  If we are diligent to just ask him occasionally, he won't make any errors.  We are so proud of him!

Happy 82th Birthday Mimi!

Due to the snowstorm of 2017, everyone was pretty homebound over Mimi's birthday.  However, we were NOT going to let her birthday pass by and not celebrate the woman who goes out of her way to celebrate everyone else's birthday all year long.  So a week after Myra's birthday, everyone gathered at our house for a fun family dinner.

We catered in Taco Mama, and Michelle and Sara baked the most perfect cake.  We ate, drank, sang happy birthday and watched old family videos.  It was a great night reminiscing!

Snow Day!

 Going sledding at 8:30pm

Every time it snows in Alabama, everyone goes outside to enjoy it!  It is always short-lived, so you have to get out and play in it while it is here....even if it comes MUCH later than the weatherman predicts.  This year, they canceled school so no one would get caught in a snowstorm.  Sadly there was NO snow until night, about 8-8:30!  But like I said, the kids wanted to go out sledding. As parents, we gambled that school would be cancelled again, so we let them go have fun!

Fun Daddy for the win!

However, the mad dash for ski clothes didn't go well.  We couldn't find the right sizes in our large stash of clothes, so we made due with what we could find.  Steve and the big kids went out sledding, and Walker and I stayed in and found the right apparel for the following day.

Pres and Jonas

After a good night of sleep, we all awoke ready to hit whatever snow was still left.  As you can tell from the pictures, there really wasn't much there.  However, the temps dropped overnight, so it all iced over.  Thankfully for us, we live near a pretty impressive hill that happens to be a newly paved road.  All of the neighbors were gathering on it too, and it ended up being a big party of children and adults taking turns sledding down it, and seeing how far we could all get.

It brought back good memories for me, sledding down hills in Oak Park Drive, and I had to partake in the fun too.  I even convinced Walker to give it a try, and he loved it!  We kept going higher and higher on the hill, and finally learned the trick to steering these cheap plastic sleds with our feet.

We had a blast for a couple of hours, but the sun started to warm things up, and before we knew it, our icy hill was a mushy mess.  Oh well, no school and a fun morning was had by all!

Bundled up and ready to go!

Selfie before sledding down the big hill

Beck loved the snow!