Monday, November 29, 2010

Am I good at blogging these days? Not so much...

Dear trusty blog readers....sorry that I TOTALLY SUCK at this lately. It's not that I don't want to blog or don't have the time, because I do. I just know this is mainly for the pictures, and I have yet to download all of my new camera stuff so I can upload some pics. I'm so horrible at computer stuff, I haven't even tried to download it myself. I just need to get Chris to do it for me...but I keep forgetting! Ugh!


So...just in case you care about whats been going on with The Stark's, I'll type up a quick post, minus pics of my adorably perfect kiddos :-) I think I'll type up 4 separate paragraphs...3 talking about whats been going on with each of my kiddos and one about Chris and I...or something like that. This blog is my version of a scrapbook, so I need to record what's going on at these ages :-)

Lets talk about Landon first. He's the typical 4-yr-old boy. He loves dirt, bugs, sports, and bugging his sisters. He absolutely adores his babies, but he likes to provoke their little girly attitudes they have recently gotten (more on that later). His favorite food right now is penne pasta (he calls it "noodles with holes in em"). He also loves hot dogs, pizza, and candy. Yep, he's really into healthy choices these days ;-) I make him eat his fruits/veggies and drink his milk, but that doesn't mean he likes it. He is still into sports big time. Landon and Daddy play catch with the baseball or football just about every night. Chris also picks him up from school early about once a week or so and takes him to the golf course for a round of golf. He LOVES sports which I am thrilled about! He also loves being outside. He likes to ride his bike and his scooter. He collects sticks and rocks and whatever else I find in those grubby little pockets of his. He likes to pick up sticks and "shoot things" with them. He says he's shooting the deer....nice. Not sure where he got that being that Chris doesn't hunt. Oh well...it's cute to watch him pretend :-)

Landon is doing great in PreK this year. He has learned soooooo much since August. His writing and drawing skills have drastically improved over the past 4 months. I think it's because his PreK class is much more like school than his 2 and 3-yr-old classes were. They have a full-on classroom schedule just like you'd see in elementary school. He can count and count and count and count and count (you get the point, not exactly sure what number he can count to, but it's alot....that's for sure) and he knows all of his letters and sounds. He can write all of his numbers/letters, as well. He writes lots of common words like, mom, dad, dog, cat, or whatever he can sound out. He also writes all of his family members names. Landon has become quite the little artist, too. He has moved on from the stick figures with legs coming out of the head to people with torsos, hair, ears, etc. His drawings are very cute to mommy!

We are in the process of checking into local private schools for Landon to go to next year. He will be VERY young, probably the youngest, child in his grade. His bday is August 20...if he was born only a few weeks later, he wouldn't even be able to start this next year. Chris is worried about him being the youngest and smallest (for sports mainly, I'm sure). Chris isn't really thrilled about sending him to kinder next year at all. He thinks we should wait, but I would like to send him bc I think he'll do fine. So, we kinda came to a happy medium. We decided that we would send him to private kindergarten. That way, the following year, we can send him to public school and if he needs to repeat kinder, he won't even know the difference bc he'll be in a new place with new kids. Plus, Chris and I both started out in private school for K-3rd grades, so we like the idea.

Overall, our boy is perfect! Don't get me wrong, he definitely has his moments where he will argue or throw a bit of a fit if he doesn't get his way. It's not too often though. Right now, our trouble-makers are 2 little blonde-haired, blue-eyed divas that happen to look just alike :-) I was gonna write about them after Landon, but they are gonna have to wait till tmrw. My fingers are cramping from typing and I'm tired. So, I'm off to bed and I'll pick back up tmrw...or the next day :-) or maybe the next. No, I really am gonna get back into my blog groove! It's my only documentation that I even have kids!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Blog Slacker

I must say I have been the biggest blog slacker ever :-( My camera has been out of commission for some time now, so I haven't been taking any pictures. I finally went to Wolf Camera today to have them take a look at it. The guy told me it was pretty much screwed, so now I've gotta get a new one. Being that it's the holiday season, I can't go long without one, so Chris and I are gonna go to Best Buy tmrw after our weekly sushi lunch date. I hope I leave with a new camera!


We haven't really been doing a whole lot of interesting things around here lately. I know that's about to change though with all of the holidays approaching. I had a house full of sick kids last week, so that was no fun. Poor girls both had double ear infections :-((( They felt horrible! They were feeling a bit better by the weekend, so we dropped them off to spend some time with their Nommie and Poppy, and we took Landon to the Ranger game. Chris' company had a suite reserved for the Sat playoff game. I hope they make it to the World Series and maybe we will get to go again. Landon LOVES the Ranger game. That evening, a few of my girlfriends and I spent some patio time at El Arroyo for Kara's birthday. Today, I took my dad to lunch at Olive Garden for his birthday. It was a fun weekend and start to my week.

This weekend should be super fun. My very good friend Erika is getting married to one of my best friend's brother, Thomas. Chris and I are going to the wedding and then to the reception at Joe T Garcia's. Yum! I'm super excited for a night out with great friends. The rest of the weekend is dedicated to fall fun. We are heading to the pumpkin patch to get some pics (if I have a camera...grrrr) and then home to carve our family of pumpkins. I've also got some crafty Halloween stuff for the kiddos to do. I better have a camera by then so I can document our fun!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Kids Pictures

I got the kids pictures taken last week. I had Paige Walker do the honors, and they turned out AWESOME!!!! The whole picture taking experience was a little chaotic with 3 small children, but Paige managed to capture some amazing shots of my beauties :-) Go to www.paigewalkerphotography.com to view the photos. Sorry, can't figure out how to make the website a link.


-click on clients and the password is stark3

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Thoughts...

I don't have any new pictures to post...I must admit, I've been THE WORLD'S WORST about snapping any pics of my kids (or anything for that matter) lately. But I've noticed that my blog is being very neglected these past few months, so I thought I'd just post some thoughts...


I LOVE staying home with my kids, like REALLY LOVE IT. These past 2 years have been THE BEST years of my life so far. Don't get me wrong, being a SAHM is hard work. Luckily I have a sitter to allow me to run errands and have a little time off from time to time. Lord knows it is absolutely impossible to grocery shop with 2 babies (no room for the groceries!) Although being a SAHM is tough at times, I personally think it is the best and most important job in the entire world for a mother of young children. I'm SOOOO thankful that I am getting this opportunity.

But tonight (and the past few days) I have found myself very nostalgic about my days as a working mom. I LOVE LOVE LOVE teaching. It's a huge part of who I am. I talked to my old team leader (Joni) the other day...which I'm sure is what started all of this reminiscing. I just really miss it. Not only do I miss the "teaching" part of the job, but I REALLY miss my team. I had such an amazing group of girls I worked with for 6 years. We got along perfectly and had really become best friends. Joni was seriously like a 2nd mom to me. I can trust her with ANYTHING and she taught me the ropes of my profession. She is hands down THE BEST teacher I have ever known. Being that I grew so close to Joni, Amy, and Robin, it's hard to just up and leave your bff's. I also miss all of the little stuff that comes along with being a teacher...Christmas parties, fun assemblies where the whole school would gather in the cafeteria, our VERY quick lunches where we would sit together and gossip or whatever, getting my room all spiffy for Open House (and then going to El Fenix with my team afterwards, every year), I even miss the dreaded 2nd Wed of the month faculty meetings (I would do just about anything to sit in a room full of ADULTS for an hour these days), I just miss it all.

I know I am truly blessed to be able to stay home with my children, and I wouldn't change it for anything. I wouldn't have given up my PERFECT position as a 3rd grade teacher at Dunn if I didn't think it was worth it. I LOVE my day to day happenings with my sweeties. We have soooo much fun together during the day. I am so lucky to be able to spend these first years of their lives with them because I will never get them back. But with the decision to raise these babies myself the first couple of years comes the loss of a perfect position. The awesome thing about my job is that the job itself isn't going anywhere. I will always be able to go back to teaching. Unfortunately, I think my days as a 3rd grade teacher at Dunn ES are long gone. My spot has been filled, and honestly, no one really leaves that school unless they retire or move away. My classroom has been filled with another teacher's belongings and I don't see that changing.
I mean, Team 3 at Dunn is undoubtedly the best team ever, so who would leave it? Me. I left for the perfect reason, though. To allow my children the opportunity to be with mommy for the 1st few years of their lives. Who knows...maybe by some miracle, they'll need a fifth teacher and I'll get back on. Highly doubtful, but not impossible.

I'm "planning" on staying home one more year after this year. Landon is supposed to start kinder next year, but I think we'll hold him back until the following year because of his super late Aug. 20 bday. Chris is very concerned about him being the youngest and smallest. So, if we wait, the girls will be 3 when Landon starts kinder and I definitely want them in preschool by then. It will be the perfect time for me to return to teaching. SCARY!! I've taught one grade, at one school, with the same girls, and that's it. I can't imagine another grade or another school...and no one will ever compare to Joni, Amy, and Robin. Ughhhhh...makes me sick to my stomach to think about it. I swear, if my old spot just happened to come back open this coming school year, I'd go back a year early just to be back at Dunn with my old girls.

But until it's time to get back into the working world, I'm gonna just enjoy my time with my lovies. Not everyone gets this opportunity. I need to remember how lucky I am.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

My baby is 4-years-old!!!!!

Landon turned 4 on Friday!!!! I can't believe he is growing up so fast :-( It seems like just yesterday when we were staying up all night with him as a newborn. It's so weird...Chris and I were talking the other day about how hard it is to remember how life was before Landon. It is easy for us to remember life before the girls because the memories of our first baby are still so vivid. But life before Landon???? Who knows...we seriously don't remember it! Weird.... Anywaz...for his 4th birthday, he wanted to have a pool party. We have a pool in our backyard, but deep pools are not exactly great for little kids to play in. So, we decided on Howard Moore Play Pool in Arlington. It was perfect!!!! The pool is 1 1/2 ft deep all over, so all of the kids could touch, even the pretties...although they kept loosing their footing and plunging underneath the water constantly! Thank goodness for Nana and Daddy who kept a VERY close eye on them the entire party so I could be a good hostess :-) Thank you! Landon and his friends had a great time. We ate pizza and cake, swam till we had pruney fingers and toes, and Landon got tons of great birthday gifts!

My ADORABLE, BRILLIANT, PERFECT 4-year-old Birthday Boy!!!! Yes, I'm bragging about my kid...that's what blogs are for :-)

Wow Wow Wubbzy was the theme. That is Landon's favorite show on Nick Jr right now.

Presents!!

Adorable Benjamin!

Landry and her little sister. Landry is in Landon's class at school.

Landon getting a little help with the candles from best buddy Mitchell.

Singing Happy Birthday

Wow! Look at my cool cake!

Daddy and Allie under the waterfall.

Johnna and Ben

Audrey and Jackson. Jackson is too cool for school throwing that peace sign :-)

Landry

Nana and Allie. I love this picture! It is too cute!

Best buds from school...Mitchell and Landon

Uncle Shaun and hmmmm....not quite sure! ha!

Claire and Lauren


Cute-pa-tootie Mitchell

GG, Aunt Steph, and Grandma (aka Chris' grandma, Chris' brother's wife (due anyday), and Chris' mom) Oh! and baby Austin, our newest nephew!

Grayson, Jamey, Stevi, Denton, Kimmie, and Audrey

Gabby, Kyler, and Kyler's mom Sara (Landon's friends from school)

My BRILLIANT, and I mean brilliant niece Olivia. I'm pretty sure she's a real-life genius.

Emily...I LOVE that sweet face!!!

Sweet Claire

So much fun!!

Awe...Landon giving his sister some love. Do I know which one? Not so much....

Cutie Chloe

The Pretties with Daddy!

Pretty Audrey

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Summertime Fun

We've been staying busy this summer, doing things like......

Playing in the rain





Hanging out with Caden at Abbey's Playtown















Having storytime with daddy while mommy cooks dinner


Going to the neighborhood park during the cool evenings to run around and play baseball




And spending lots of time staying cool at the pool with Grayson, Denton, and Hayden









We sure are enjoying our summer!!