More Top Tens...

Top 10 reason why I love the Christmas Season:

1. It's the one time of year that music and reminders about the Savior are accepted most everywhere you go.

2. Spending hours making Christmas treats and delivering them to neighbors

3. Having someone knock at your door and delivering a plate of goodies to you

4. The Inspiring music that reminds us of the most important things in life

5. The smell of a fresh, real, Christmas Tree

6. Getting Christmas Cards and pictures from friends and family

7. Shopping sprees where I have an excuse to spend lots of money and buy lots of gifts

8. The Magical feeling in the air

9. Family Gatherings

10. Amilya going around singing "Jingle Bells" and saying "Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas!"

A time for Gratitude

Thanksgiving was great, but would have been better with Tyler. We spent dinner with my Mom's side of the family, and spent the rest of the Holiday being lazy, watching movies, and went and got a Christmas tree On Saturday. We actually had some snow, so we put the little kids in sleds and walked up in the mountain, cut a tree down, and drug it to the truck. Yes, we are real pioneers. Of course Thanksgiving is always a time to reflect on what we are grateful for, so here is a small list of my gratitudes:

1. I am grateful for a wonderful husband who is so thoughtful and so full of strength and courage.
2. I am grateful for wonderful parents who continue to teach me so much, love me, and put up with me even though I am 24 and still living at home with a very busy and curious 2 year old.
3. I am grateful for Amilya and her sweet spirit, her energy, her creativeness, and how loving she is. If she senses I am hurt, she is sure to say, "You OK Mama?"
4. I am grateful for my health and strength and two healthy legs, which are two things I took for granted for not too long ago.
5. I am grateful for all of my siblings, including my in-law siblings; they are all incredible people.
6. I am grateful for beautiful Star Valley, the mountains, and the 4 seasons we get to experience here.
7 I am grateful for friends who love me despite my weaknesses and are such incredible examples to me.
8. I am grateful for time to actually sit here and write this.
9. I am grateful for my talents and my love for music that inspires me everyday.
10. I am grateful to be me, despite my many weaknesses and trials.

The 10 Top Things Milly has said lately...

1. "Daddy in Korea."
2. "That's not nice."
3. "I wanna lay down."
4. "How Rude."
5. "I love you sweetie."
6. "This my mommy."
7. " Where'd Abby go?"
8. "I wanna snack."
9. "I needa go potty." (No, she is not potty trained yet... at all, but this is a start!)
10. "I wanna a pickle."

An Update on the Bantas

I haven't been blogging very much lately, so I figured it was time for an update.

Tyler:
Tyler has been in Korea for 3 and 1/2 weeks; we're getting close to 1 month down! He is doing as good as he can be on a very small over sea base with mostly single guys who don't know what it's like to leave a wife and a child behind, and who mostly all drink heavily because of the free Beer over there. But there is a small branch on base with about 10 other guys who mostly have families. Tyler and I talk about every day through Skype and web cam. The 15 hour time difference makes it a little challenging at times to coordinate times to talk to each other, though.

Milly:
Milly is doing great and loves to talk to her Daddy, especially on web-cam. I'm so blessed to have her. She keeps me busy, laughing, and smiling. Her latest thing is horses; she loves playing with my little brother's toy horses and my little sister's doll house dolls. She has to bath with them, play with them, and sleep with them at times. She is so funny. She also loves bubble gum. I give my piano students bubble gum, so she begs for a piece when she can, and usually she just swallows it, but lately, she will chew it for about 10-15 minutes, and then I'll ask her if she's done, and she will say "Yes," and spit it out in my hand to throw away. So Smart! Milly was Pebbles from The Flintstones cartoon for Halloween and I was Betty. Milly was so cute, and she loved the idea of holding open her bag and saying "Trick or Treat" for candy.

Me:
Well, I stay busy taking care of Milly, teaching 10 students piano lessons, and sleeping a lot lately, about 2 naps a day to be exact. I was going to wait longer to tell, but what the heck...I'm pregnant, and due about June 11th (according to the Internet)! We're excited, except now I am remembering how tired I was with Milly, and queasy I get when I need food. So, making my bed, cleaning up after Milly daily, and putting on makeup everyday have not been priorities for me lately. But I will get through this and we are excited. I am wondering how you mothers do it with your pregnancies after your first child! Any advice or Empathy would be greatly appreciated.

I was tagged...

I was tagged by Sarah Jackson www.happyjacksons.blogspot.com , so here it goes:

1. I love watching I Love Lucy episodes; my whole family does. We all collect the seasons, and I collect anything that is I Love Lucy. Someday, I will have a guest bedroom completely devoted to I Love Lucy.

2. Breakfast is my all time favorite meal of the day. I love any kind of breakfast food. When I was pregnant with Milly, I craved breakfast all the time, and for like the first 3 months, I ate breakfast food for almost every meal.

3. I have lived on a farm my whole life growing up, and we've had every farm animal in the book. You'd think that I would love cats and dogs and pets, but the truth is... I can't stand any kind of pet, especially indoor pets. Yuck! Animals are meant to go outside, I don't care how short their fur it or how sad they look. I will never have any sort of pet, not even a fish...well maybe a fish someday just for my kids.

4. Some people may not know that in January 2008, I got a flesh eating virus in a sprained ankle and it spread up my leg to my knee. I spent 3 weeks in the University of Utah Hospital and they basically skinned me from the knee down, including all of the tissue. They took skin from my thigh and part of my butt (ouch) and grafted it on my lower leg. Skin Grafts are crazy and take a long time to heal, so I currently have a red interesting looking leg, but at least it's my leg, and someday, nobody will even be able to tell.

5. Tyler and I were neighbors and in the same ward for 4 years before we even spoke or new each other at all, and I was not a shy girl; I dated about every guy in our ward and new all of them, except Tyler. Our paths just never crossed; it was as if we were being kept from each other until 5 months before his mission, we finally met, and it was an instant bond, and the rest is history.

6. I love taking baths; I bath every day. I lay there in hot water and relax at least for just a few minutes. I learned it from my Mother, who takes like a 1/2 hour bath every morning in her jet tub and reads. Life is full of little joys like that.

7. I love life and love learning, and I'm amazed at the hidden treasures of knowledge that there is out there in the world in books and from very gifted people and from the spirit. I truly believe that those who have ears to hear and eyes to see will be led to incredible amounts of knowledge that will help us combat the evil, the negativity, the plagues, and the sicknesses in this world. I believe that this life is a test, yes, but it can be a very successful test if we truly open up our hearts to what the Lord is trying to show us and give us.

I Tag...

Kylie

Lindsey

Jennie

Brooke

Heidi

Jessica

Tyler Begins his tour in Korea

We had a great time with Tyler while he was home for 2 and 1/2 weeks; it was definitely too short, though. We never dreamed that we would be spending the first 18 months of the Air Force apart. We tried to make the best of every day while he was home and now he is in Korea and we are missing him already. I have to look at all the blessings that will come of this, though. Obviously this is what the Lord has in store for us at this time. So I put up my sticker-count-down chart up and we have 2 days down and 363 to go! He is planning on coming home for a few weeks in May and I might get to go and visit him in January, so that will help. So...may the year go fast for the Bantas!

We are a Happy Family!