Oct 17th
Halle almost got kicked out of her music class. Well, you know ho
w that girl can scream, and the teacher does not appreciate the interruption. So t
he teacher pulled us aside after class and said that Halle has to stop screaming if she wants to stay in class. I, of course, was bawling because I have NO IDEA how to control my child. Good grief–it was a mess. So, she has one week to redeem herself or we are quitt
ing the class. I’ll let you know the final verdict. She is a pup. Rusty is just trucking a
long with work. He is really busy, which is good for him. Luckily it has warmed back up, so
he and Halle still get to go for bike rides and go to the park. Rusty teaches Elder’s quor
em and really likes it. He has to bribe the men to read the lesson with candy bar
s. If they read for the week they get a candy bar–and he still only hands out 2 or 3 a week! I’d think guys would be all over that!
You will be glad to know that Halle survived this week in music class and did not get
kicked out. (yet) I had a stern talk with her before clas s (which I’m sure she didn’t
understand) and she was a good girl. We also went to a pumpkin patch this week and saw
“anmals.” She was so excited that when we got out of the car and started walking
toward the cages she was chanting “anmals, anmals, anmals” and pumping her little fist.It was so funny. Rusty made her a website so I’ll send thatto your email so you can see
the pictures. Not much new with me. I think I hit a break through with my thesis, so
maybe now I’ll actually be able to get something done instead of just talking about it.
I just wish it would all go away. You will be exicted to know that
a Sears grand, pier one, circuit city and pets mart all opened near
Erie.I don’t have to drive 20 min to the store. Hooray!!!
Nov 15th 2005
It’s been a big week at our house–Halle’s birthday week! Hip hip hooray. She was so cute
on her bday. We had been telling her for a few days that it was going to be her bday and
she would get presents. Well, she woke up that morning and started chanting “birsday,
birsday” We were laughing so hard. Then she yelled at the top of her lungs, “Presents!!!!”
We asked if she wanted to go open her presents and she said, “ok, yea, lets do it!!!! So, so
funny. She loved opening all the presents. She got a play kitchen from Rusty and I, a Dora book and some teddy bear stuff from Mom and Dad and a pony from the Banks.She was in heaven. We had birthday waffles and she go to blow out her candle 3 times. Later that night we went for ice cream at basken robins. She got chocolate peanut butter.So messy. But she ate the entire thing!!! Her birthday party with friends was on sat. I hope you got the pics I sent to your email. It was a whole Dora theme. We had a dora Pinata, but Halle was the only kid who wouldn’t go pull a strin g off of Dora to open the pinata. But, when all the candy started falling out, she jumped up and ran right over to gather her favorite, suckers. We sang Happy bday and turned out the lights and brought out the cake. She totally didn’t know what was happening, so she kept backing away from me till I had her pinned in the corner to blow out the candles. The cake eating wasn’t quite as messy as last year. She was actually using her fork! What a big girl.
Rusty is working on getting a promotion at work, so we really hope that works out. He is working hard and still loving his job. We are trying to make a decision right now if he should go back to school and get his MBA. He will probably apply to the program and then we will go from there. He won’t start until next Aug though. I am just trucking along trying to establish my little Photomax business. I have a bunch of customers and one of my neighbors is going to be a distributor with me. It’s fun and keeps me busy.
Thanksgiving 2005
Dec 5th, 2005
Halle is doing good. She is still a handful–but that will probably never change. We had a
really good sunday school lesson on how our kids are really on loan to us from Heavenly
Father and that he is still the ultimate parent. That made me feel a little bit better knowing I could turn to Him when I just don’t know what to do with Halle. Being a mom is
HARD!!!! But I love her to death. At church on Sunday she gave a very stirring rendition
of the Itsy Bitsy Spitder right during the sacrament. So it was dead quite except for Halle
singing and swaying back and forth on the bench. Everyone around us was cracking up.
What else to tell you? We just got our Christmas tree and made homemade decorations.
Halle loves the lights on the tree and every time we walk in to the room we have to turn
on the lights. She then stands and stares and says, “pretty.”
Christmas 2005
BanksFamilyFive 