When it rains...

So the past six weeks of our lives have been eventful. We had our beautiful baby girl (have I mentioned how cute she is?) after which Ephraim battled kidney stones for 14 days in a row. We were all set to bless baby Kate on February 3rd when his pain started. After 2 ER visits, Ephraim finally had a lithotripsy done on February 16th to remove the stones.

And the latest?...We went snowboarding yesterday up at Brian Head. It was a beautiful day...until I fell and broke my arm. my shoulder. no cast, just a sling for a week until the pain subsides. Then exercises to help it heal faster.

When it rains, it pours. And the medical bills are pouring in. We have met our family's deductible for the year already, so I told my children to get all of their bone-breaking and stitches in now while it will be cheaper. and for those of you who know Andy, you understand.

10 years

So we celebrated our 10 year anniversary this week. It was fun to look back and see how far we have come in the last 10 years. We started out so young, although we weren't even THAT young...we were 24 and 27. But we looked young.


Don't you just love the cheese oozing from this next picture... (and why do I look so much happier than Ephraim?)

It was just Eph and I in the beginning but now we have been blessed with 3 amazing boys. And one on the way (one baby, not one boy. Well, maybe one boy...we don't know yet).




How lucky am I?
Thank you, sweetheart, for an amazing 10 years. We've been a lot of places and have experienced many things. And I'm so glad I've been able to do it with you. I can't wait to see what the next 10 years hold (we just commented last night that on our 20th anniversary, we will have 3 teenage boys...oh my)

The Cruise

We've been able to do some fun things lately with the family and I need to document some of them. The funnest?...is that a word?...Ephraim and I were able to take a cruise for our 10th anniversary (a little early). We sailed on the Carnival Splendor (yes, the one that caught fire back in November) out of Long Beach down the Mexican Riviera. Carnival must have gotten things straightened out because we had the time of our lives.

We were able to go with my parents and really had a blast. (I sure didn't realize 15 years ago how fun my parents could be!) We ate, slept, shopped, ziplined, ate, played cards, slept some more, shopped some more, and laid on the beach. We took a glass bottom boat ride to the very edge of the Baja Peninsula. Pancho didn't mention that the glass bottom was a 12 inch by 12 inch piece of frosted and dirty glass. We couldn't see a single thing. I guess that's what you get for a $20 boat ride in Cabo San Lucas. But it took us to one of the most beautiful beaches I have seen...the Sea of Cortez on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other.

Ephraim and I came away from this trip weighing a collective 11 pounds heavier than when we started. It only took having the flu for a whole week after I got home to lose the weight again.


We would often take a nap in the afternoon and come back to our bed looking like this (oh how I miss this)...


I was able to experience this trip with the love of my life...




The beach...

The ship... (where we watched the Academy Awards Sunday night...)

Are we up for another trip yet? Because I'm ready to go again. Maybe with the kids this time. I missed them so much by the end that I could barely stand it!

Happy Anniversary!

8 years of Wedded Bliss

(We are celebrating our 9th Anniversary)


In all reality, I am blessed to be married to such a wonderful man. A great husband, father, and provider for our family. What a wonderful 9 years it has been.

A look through the years...
(I couldn't get any of our wedding pictures to scan...we got married before digital photography got big...boy we're old)


In all our newlywed splendor...


Baby #1...

baby #2...

and baby #3... (obviously we failed to get a
complete family picture here)


I realize this is picture overload, but we got some great shots as we hiked in Zion National Park for our anniversary...

our hotel...



at the top of the mountain...

My Week as a Vegetarian

To be a Hanks is to love meat. Steak, chicken, pork, you name it. But I've decided to switch things up a bit.

Let me start at the beginning. There was a Biggest Loser Club formed at our church at the start of the year. Each week we receive a new "health challenge", which sometimes I follow and sometimes I don't. This last week's challenge intrigued me. The challenge was to eat "no meat."

I was almost afraid to tell my husband of the 7 day adventure I was about to embark on. We both come from red meat-loving families. The Hanks Family used to raise and slaughter cattle (sorry Marc...a story for another time).

This was the breakdown of my week:

My staples:

• salad
• nuts
• eggs
• cheese
• milk

The verdict?

I love meat. I could never be a full-fledged vegetarian.

I am, however, grateful I took the challenge. I realize I eat way too much meat. I thought more about the food I was putting into my body this past week more than I have at probably any other time in my life. There were many times I chose healthier alternatives. I ate more vegetables, fruits, and healthy nuts.

The resolution:

I will eat less meat (especially red). I will cook healthier alternatives for my family (much to my husband's dismay). We will fill our bodies with more good, nutritious, raw foods, and less caloric-dense processed foods with additives.

Please cheer us on. We need all the help we can get.

Postscrip...The family didn't exactly follow this with me. They did, however, eat what meatless meals I made for dinner.

Also, I ate fish. I have a hard time putting fish in the meat category.

Love Story

This is a late Valentine love story of sorts. And the condensed version goes something like this...

Boy meets girl.
Girl falls in love with boy.
Boy finally realizes he is in love with girl, also.
Boy and girl get married on July 21st, 2001.
Boy and girl live a great, fun, married life with no kids for 4 years...Pleasant Grove, American Fork, and then onto Louisville, Kentucky for graduate school (boy is getting closer to dream of becoming a marriage therapist).
Boy graduates from grad school in May, 2005 and girl delivers 1st son 2 months later.
Boy and girl leave Louisville in June 2006 and drive across the country to live in good ol' Hurricane, Utah.
Boy starts new job.
Girl delivers 2nd son 14 months and 22 days after the first (no, this was not planned).
Boy and girl purchase a beautiful home in Hurricane.
Girl delivers 3rd son in March, 2009.

We never know, starting out, what life has in store for us. I'm so glad that ours has taken us where it has so far.

Ephraim and I celebrated life last weekend and took a trip up to Salt Lake. We dropped the kids off at Chris and Heidi's (thank you guys) and spent a glorious weekend in the snow. Food, movies, snowboarding, shopping, more food (did I mention that I didn't have to cut up anyone else's food?)



Thank you, honey, for a blessed life. I wouldn't change a thing.

My Fathers

My husband is the best father I could ever ask for my children. And in the words of my children, this is why...

• He snuggles with us every day when he comes home from work
  
• He let us watch movies (that's why they never cried when I left for work)
  
• He has our blonde hair and blue eyes (remember, this is in the words of my children)
  
• He takes us in his car without car seats (hmmmm...)
• He has LOTS of muscles

I find it funny (but not surprising) that my children always cry for their father when they get hurt or are upset. I'm a red still working on the whole sympathy thing.

My dad...is the greatest example of love, laughter, generosity and kindness that I have ever known. I have many memories of growing up with my dad...riding with him and about four of my friends in his tiny little Fiero, accompanying him on speaking engagements, and watching him pull weeds from the garden in his suit and nice shoes...to name a few. My dad will probably never know how lucky I feel to be his daughter.


To my father-in-law and my grandfather... I count myself exceptionally lucky to have you in my life.

Popeye and an Explanation

So let me explain my Color Code situation to you. We (the Hanks Family) are believers in the Color Code…we don’t base our lives on it, but are believers…we got into it because my husband’s company pretty much runs off of it. I post this explanation because of the comments on my “red” personality from my last post.

I am a red. I was born a red, raised a red, and will innately always be a red. Ask my mom. I have always been very independent, bossy, focused, and goal driven. I used to correct peoples’ grammar when I was younger…not something of which I’m proud.

At one point I must have realized that the strength of my red personality turned people off. The biggest complaint I had from every guy I dated semi-seriously was that I never opened up. Reds are not great at sharing feelings. So I slowly changed little by little. Every day I would try to play down the limitations of the “red” personality in me. But I regressed a bit when I got married almost 8 years ago.

My lovely husband is a white. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Color Code, whites are motivated by peace and have this amazing ability to stay calm in any situation…very self-regulated and diplomatic. These are some of the great qualities my incredible husband possesses. But every color personality has its weaknesses. Whites can have a hard time making decisions, are quite unassertive, and can be very laid-back. Ephraim is so slooooooow in making decisions…very methodical and precise but slow. This has brought back a lot of my red, at least in my marital relationship. Someone has to make decisions, and sometimes quickly. I love that. I know where I’m headed, where I want to end up, and am usually quite efficient at getting there. When a decision needs to be made (and greatly affects me), I’m usually on my feet, making that decision (and many times a darn good one, I like to think). So I am the primary decision maker in the life of my family (after consultation, of course). And Ephraim is OK with that most of the time…except for every once in a while when he remembers that he is the Patriarch of our family and should probably be doing more of this type of stuff. And blue is my secondary color, for those of you who guessed that. I can be compassionate and sensitive when I let my guard down.

Eph and I have had many interesting discussions on this in our marriage. I love that he is a white and has such a calming effect on our family. Many times the balance of our personalities comes together well and sometimes we still have to work on it (ie, me not being so bossy and controlling).

As for “Popeye”, here is the picture. Dad, I hope this makes you happy. I’m not sure why Ephraim is making this face or why his lips are green. But here it is. I think this is the first picture I have posted of me not pregnant. Hooray! Hopefully we'll be having a baby next month.

Still summer

The great weather has been hanging around even longer than expected. Here the kids are playing outside again (all three of them).