The Famous Recylceable Goliath Bird Eating Tarantula!

Jacob had his first science project due this week. His class is studying the rain forest and they were to choose an animal in the rainforest to research and build a life size model of. I'll spare the drama of rushing around get it done at the last minute. :) He chose to make the Goliath Bird Eating Tarantula out of all recycled materials - challenging but very fun!
Here's the final result!

You never know what Jacob is going to say next...

So Jacob and I are playing Wheel of Fortune (board game) last night and the puzzle was "Case Dismissed".... I was giving him a chance to solve it and was trying to help the little guy out so I asked him - look at it, think about it and take a guess this is your last turn because I know the answer... so he says - serious as ever "Case Demon-Possessed"! I about died laughing!! So then I asked him - what does a judge say when court is over... and he busts out with "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining!!!! " I lost it!!!!! I had to grab the video camera and ask him to repeat it - so this video is the aftermath of course - but still hilarious!! So later I asked him how he knew Judge Judy says that - because let me tell you - he doesn't watch that stuff in our house... yes, thank you grandma and granddad!!! Who else???

Our little genius on the piano...

Jacob's piano teacher gave him an assignment to learn the first measure of Silent Night. He was so inspired after learning it by reading the music all by himself, he was determined to learn the whole song and surprise her at his next lesson. Without ANY help from us, he sat down at the piano and learned the entire song in a matter of hours perfecting it each time. He continues to blow me away with his God-given musical talent. He's an amazing kid - check this out! I'm so proud!!!

The "Most Favoritist"

Thank you Grandpa Dom for the cool new toy you got me for my birthday! I love it!!! It's my favorite toy to play with and I love dancing to the music! Thank you so much!

I was looking for a toybox for all of Gracie's fabulous new toys - keep them off the floor contained, for a minute... So I looked at Toys R Us and Walmart - they wanted like $60-75 for a Little Tykes toybox! What??? No way... Craigslist for a quarter of the cost and just as good! She loves it too. I put all her toys in and let her play with opening and closing the lid - so funny. She grabbed her "I Feel Good" button and put it in there - would open the lid, push the button, close it, dance, then do it all over again for like 20 minutes! This girl has some attention span! :) Check out the video.

One Year...and our first tantrum!

I fixed the kids cheese crisps tonight for dinner and we're eating peacefully when I notice Grace very cleverly placing piece by piece over the side of the table watching to see if I was looking! Little stinker! Then I told her in a very stern voice "NO", she did it again with the defiant look in her eye so I smacked her little hand and said "NO". She had a little fit, not bad and we continue our dinner. I glanced up again and saw her sneaking the pieces now under the tray on to the table! It was like she was looking to see if I noticed! HA HA!! I told her "NO" again and she lost it! I could hardly stand from laughing while trying to keep a straight face! Wish I had that on video! Going to do my best to stop these behaviors before she gets any older! Wish me luck! :)

Four small steps for Grace...

We were over Antionette's house this afternoon in her beautiful newly planted winter lawn with Gracie being totally enchanted with her dogs! She was standing by herself just watching them run by. We were encouraging her to walk and she bravely took 2 steps then another 4 steps! Fell down, and lost all confidence... we'll try again tomorrow and I'll keep you posted! :)

Video of Gracie on Halloween

So close to walking Daddy! Her billy goat laugh is too much!

Tis the Season to have asthma...

Gracie woke up yesterday with musical tune in her chest and a runny nose. :( So I always get mad at the doc's office we were just at the day before. She's never been REALLY sick - like with a fever and everything - just her asthma, cough and runny nose so I shouldn't complain. Think it's not coicendence she had her Hep A shot, which I almost didn't get her either and she had a flu shot. Then she gets sick... urgh... So we're back to breathing treatments every 4 hours and she takes them like a champ! She blows me away - she's the easiest, happiest, most affectionate little girl.

Jacob had dark circles under his eyes this morning, but said he felt ok. All of our friends kids are sick and stayed home from school today too. So long story short - USE ANTIBACTERIAL wipes on everything! YUCK! I hate germs...

a SHOT in the dark...

Gracie had her one year check up yesterday and was finally 18 whole pounds! Whoo hoo! We opted out of the MMR - and I strongly urge and encourage you to research this before giving this shot to your child. The amount of mercury used in these shots have been proven to be linked to autism. Of course, the US is one of the ONLY countries that don't recognize these - however the vaccine has been banned in many other countries because of this reason. We prayed about this prior to her doctor visit and I felt very strongly against it. This feeling was affirmed by casual converstaion with people leading to this very thing with their own personal experiences. Now I don't believe this is the only cause of course - and I am still weighing the options. I'm just not ready to make that decision and can elect to get it later when their bodies can handle such a dose.

By age two, American children have received 237 micrograms of mercury through vaccines alone, which far exceeds current EPA "safe" levels of .1 mcg/kg. per day. That's one-tenth of a microgram, not one microgram.

These one-day blasts of mercury are called "bolus doses". Although they far exceed "safe" levels, there has never been any research conducted on the toxicity of such bolus doses of mercury given to infants all these years.

Historically, the toxicity of mercury has been known for more than a century. The Mad Hatter was more than a fantasy character from Alice in Wonderland. Mad Hatter's disease became well known in England in the mid-1800s, when hat-makers were subject to inhaling the vapors from the mercury-based stiffening compound they used on felt to make top hats.

Some info taken from this website - well worth a good read. Educate yourself and don't believe everything our government tells you.

http://www.ithyroid.com/autism.htm

Gracie's 1st Birthday!

Grace Marie Bango turned ONE on Saturday, November 1st! How did that happen??? She's been the best baby, and it's so exciting to see her growing and changing daily. She's so close to walking, but still needs mommy with her for security. :) I love it, it won't be long before she's so independent and I'll miss these times. We had a great time on her birthday enjoying time and fellowship with our family and close friends that have been close to Gracie. Special thanks to my dear friends Antionette and Kim for their time and love in caring for Gracie, and to Taylor who is a fantastic babysitter! We're so blessed to have all of you in our life and we're so thankful you were able to spend the day with us. Brandy and I arranged Luke and Gracie's marriage for sometime in 2030. :)

Grace was so into all her presents and has had a blast playing with all her new toys! She was adorable in her new birthday dress I just couldn't resist - it was too precious, and 60% off so hey! Why not! :)

Jacob new school pictures

I can't get over how old Jacob looks - his saving grace are those baby teeth he can't seem to shake. As silly as it sounds - I'm so thankful he hasn't lost them yet. I'm so silly when I get so emotional over these things - I actually cried when he lost his first tooth. I knew that this was the beginning of him growing up and his looks changing to a more mature little boy. Silly I know - but just wait until you get there. :) OK, maybe it's just me...

Halloween

We had such a great time on Halloween this year - so much better than last year when I was as big as a house waiting to go in the hospital! We had Auntie Dena and our dear friends over with their two adorable children (love you guys!). Jacob was the handsome Jedi, Ethan was Batman, Luke was a police officer, and Gracie was Tinkerbell. ADORABLE!

Happy Harvest! I love October!

The second week of October we made the trek out to Schepf farms with Grandma and Granddad.

I almost cried when they closed down Young's Farm. I dreamed of making that a family tradition - but I guess the land developers had another idea. Schepf farm was OK - we had a great time, but it's no Young's Farm. Gracie absolutely loves being outside in her stroller - she's such a trooper. We rode the train, played on the playground, Jacob and Granddad rode the roller coaster, had lunch with the swarm of bees... :)


We had a great day and I just cherish these memories with my parents. We won't always have them and I'm just so thankful they can enjoy the kids and the kids can spend time with them as much as we can in our busy schedules.

A couple weeks later we went to the "Fun Farm" with the Children's Ministry from church. The Fun Farm was really the "Fear Farm" and was comical walking around at 10am seeing limbs and bloody heads.. but hey - tis the season! We had a great time though! The kids rode the little farm train, and we walked through the corn maze... Thanks Johnny-Mo for tackling the stroller for me throughout the entire thing trying to manuever over fallen corn halks... Jacob and Kyle went in before us and made it all the way though and still had time run back through to find us and show us the way out! It was a wonderful time of fellowship though with the Morris, Theis, and Evans Family.

Here's a pic of the group of kiddos: Chloe, Kyle, Jacob, Gracie, Abihail, and Taylor.

New Shoes!

How cute are these new shoes?! Baby New Balance for $6 on E-bay - can't beat it! She does great in them too, helps her stand steady and not to mention she's adorable! She's walking now if I hold just one of her hands and walk her around the house! She'll be after big brother in no time! :)

I cherish our playtimes in the morning! She is so in to all of her toys and is starting to use her imagination! She tried giving her baby doll her binkie yesterday and loves pretending to talk on her play phone. :)

The Bango Band

Gracie loves to join brother on the piano when he plays - he's so great about it and doesn't mind the distraction at all. :) Dom is excited he'll have his family band in a few years from now! :)

Jacob started piano lessons last week and his teacher was blown away by his talent. She said she hasn't seen anyone his age with that kind of natural talent without any lessons. To brag a little further, he was just placed in the CogAT gifted program at school. He needs to be challenged - it'll be so good for him.

If you like to talk to tomatoes...

Loves dancin' with Veggie Tales! :)

Go Baby Go!

This video is a couple weeks old, but I had to post it anyway since I'm so behind. She had just started learning how to use her new push toy! She's a regular pro at it now, but watching her learn to use for the first time was priceless. Jacob is such an amazing big brother - he's so protective and ready to play with her.

Following Directions

Our little girl is following directions so good now! We can ask her to do several simple things, like get your baby, give kisses and cuddles, get your ball, get your cup, go to the kitchen, find brother and she's walking with just holding one of our hands! She's getting big so quick! She's really trying to communicate with us a lot more now verbally as well. She has dada and mama down and really tries to say brother - gets out the "bra", tries to say ball, and all done. :) I'm so incredibily thankful she's such an amazing baby. She loves just sitting down by me and playing for a good 30-45 minutes all by herself keeping herself entertained with her toys. We set up her little pink playhouse tent with some toys for her in the living room and she LOVES it! She'll play and hang out in the tent peaking out now and then to play peek a boo. I can't believe she's going to be a year old in less than two months!

Simon Says...and other stuff

Gracie officially knows how to play simon says... well ok without the simon says part. I asked her last night in the bathub, "get your duck, get your turtle, splash, and give kisses - and she did it all on command! She knows "where's your binkie?" too and she'll look for it and stick it in her mouth! So cute! She's growing up so fast and talking so much! I can tell she is trying to say different things with the sounds she's using - and she studies me all day when I'm talking on the phone or with Jacob.

Clapping hands is almost mastered! She stops and looks at both of her hands before she claps each time like - how do you do this again? :)


I just found out yesterday I start my new job on August 25th! FULL TIME AT HOME! What a blessing this is. I'm so excited!

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart - Psalm 37:4

Taking up a new venture!

Gracie just continues to amaze me everyday. She's become so independent tooling around the house all by herself now for over a month. She does so well with us telling her no too. She will look up at us before touching something she knows she's not supposed to touch - light sockets, the tv, cords...etc. and just watch us to see if we're going to tell her no! You can see it on her face! As soon as we tell her no, she stops and goes on to something else. Blows my mind!

She's started imitating our sounds too and Jacob loves playing that game with her. She'll call for him in the house and want him to start copying her sounds - it's so funny hear them back and forth with each other.

We're all most there with on command "bo kisses"! Her favorite thing to do is crawl up to the dishwasher, pull herself up, and stand there talking to and waving at the baby in the mirror. She's picked up a new habit of pointing at everything and saying "Dat" with her voice going up at the end of the word.. Ok so I call it a word.

Last night we had our friends and their adorable children over for dinner - E-Drake and Lukeabeara. Luke is almost 5 months old and is the same size as our little Gracie! She was fascinated with him and was a little flirt. So cute - they'll grow up being good friends. I'm so thankful for that.

Today she figured out she could push the activity table across the floor by walking with it - first time she's ever done that and she looked quite proud of herself. I'm relieved she's figured out how to get from sitting to crawling to standing and back down again with crashing and burning... almost was tempted to by a baby helmet there for a while.

Need a baby gate in a bad way...

We start school on August 11th. Jacob is really excited to start his new school and seems to be adjusting well to the change - really helps since Seth will be in his class. This kid's SAT scores were out of the park... seriously. Scoring a 10th grade equiv level on Language, 5th grade in a few other subjects, some 4th grade... I gave them to the principal at his new school and she was amazed. He'll be placed in a gifted cluster program - and bless his little heart - I hope they can do something about that common sense issue he's got going on. My goodness. He's the sweetest kid, so thoughtful and generous and good-spirited...but man oh man... the common sense sometimes - or lack there of kills me! I love that kid to death. He's such an amazing kid and such a great big brother. He loves his little sister so much - I never imagined he would be this great with her. We just bought all the school supplies today and he started to get really excited once we got home and sorted everything. He's really looking forward to school.

Dom and I saw X-files movie tonight - was really good. Really awesome to see a movie like that glorify our King. The story boiled down to not losing faith in God, and the freedom of forgiveness. Little disturbing at points... but the basis of the story was really good. Yes, God listens to your prayers, yes He forgives your sins, and all He wants in return is faith and trust in Him. Beautiful.

Goofy Gracie

Gracie is such a nut - she has such personality... a very silly one. She started playing with her tongue a couple weeks ago and she's absolutely fascinated with it. She's copying all of our motions and loves putting her finger up to her mouth and listening to her own voice as she strums her lips like a guitar string making the silliest noises. Her tongue finds it's way out every time she sees something that she wants and starts after it with determination. She reminds me so much of Jacob at this age.

Zoo Pics (see more at thebangos.smugmug.com)

The Phoenix Zoo

I decided to take a week off of work mainly to spend time with Jacob. He's been looking foward to this week all summer and one of the things he really wanted to do was go to the zoo. I told him it would probably be too hot but we'll see and to pray for cool weather!

Jacob thought is was pretty awesome that God answered our prayer on Monday. We woke up to and overcast 81 degrees outside!

We packed up some snacks and doughnuts...can't forget the doughnuts... and headed off to the zoo at 630am.... coffee anyone?


Gracie did great just hanging out in her stroller and was more interested in the trees than in the animals but whatever works! She did stop and look at the ducks that were crossing the path by the lake. Sitting there with her foot propped up on her carseat just chillin watching the ducks cross. We checked out the Harmony Farm petting zoo to see the goats and she was very interested in touching them and talking to them! So cute! Then she was out for the count the rest of the time at the zoo. She's like her daddy and will sleep anywhere!

Jacob was on map patrol and took his job VERY seriously. He led us around the whole zoo following the map by every detail. He enjoyed trying to show his sister all the animals and was quick to point out the rear ends of all the animals... what a boy!

On out Jacob wanted to do the camel ride which lasted all of a minute and was $5! After getting off the camel and walking off the steps he says "that wasn't a very long camel ride for 5 bucks!" LOVE IT!!!

After the zoo we went to Grandma and Granddads to eat lunch then home to play the Wii. We had a great day!

Wii Had Fun at Grandma & Granddad's!

On Saturday we spent the day with Grandma and Granddad and brought the Wii our friends let us borrow during vacation. Granddad was bound and determined to play a game of bowling with us. He figured it out pretty quick and bowled a 118 - which is NOT BAD for a blind dude! :) After bowling he was ready to move on to baseball and mom even stood up and said "Let me try!". We had so much fun! (I can't get the video to post though - anyone have a tip for me?) I absolutely cherish these moments with my parents seeing them with their grandchildren. I'm so thankful our children have such awesome grandparents. Gracie was copying Granddad's patterns of patting his hands on the little white table that was just her size. I think she may have some "drumming genes" in there somewhere!

Creepy Crawling Baby!

I

can't believe Grace is eight months old already. I feel like I've missed so much I should have written about. Never too late to start though - right?!

Grace started crawling on July 1st - her 8 month birthday. She had been scooting around for a couple weeks, then on the first, it clicked. She was off! She's so determined as she seeks her destination with her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth - it's so funny!!!

I HIGHLY reccommend "Baby Legs" for when your baby starts crawling. Doesn't work real well on the tile - but on the carpet it keeps her from getting rug burns. You can find them at any specialty baby shop.

She's talking so much more now too. She calls me from her room at night when she wakes up and wants me to come in her room. "mam maa mamma ma ma" and when she sees Daddy - it's like she knows what she's saying! "da da da da da"

At dinner the other night we had her intently waching us as we were all telling her "I love you" she was really trying to copy our sounds. So precious. She really is the sweetest thing. Such a cuddler, I love it.

Yesterday, she decided to get up on her knees and pull herself to standing on her Leap Frog activity table and then walk all the way around it! She loves opening and closing the little latch that's on there and turning the pages of the book. She'll stand there for at least 15 mintues doing that.

can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Promise to keep up....

I'm terrible about keeping up with blogging about what's happening in our life. I'm really going to try to keep this blog up - or at least get it started... for starters...