Stark Part

In order to do this blog thing right I need to start at the end and go backwards..........

On Sunday the day after Christmas we gathered at Brian and Rhonda's house..( a HUGE THANK YOU to them for taking on the crowd! Their daughter Sami was gracious enough to serve tea and crumpets to the waiting guests!!

A little toast to Christmas!!

Come on everyone join in!!
I thought it was really lovely that Travis and Michael joined in and played along!!

WHAT THE HECK!?!?!
:)

After partaking in a LOT of great food we gathered downstairs for some gift giving!!
My guys and Travis waiting patiently!!

Some of the other family members taking it all in!!

We all know that Lukas has a love for anything with a stick that he can carry...so aunt sisstalker got him a stick horse. And since his gpa has a vast history with the stick horse he showed him how to ride it!

I know you all are dieing to know the story!!

When he was very young and living near 44th st. he and his sister Dianne decided to ride their stick horses ( with all the appropriate attire) to a little place called Candy Ann's which was a VERY long ride down a VERY busy road! At one point a police officer drove past and thought it strange to see 2 under 5yr. olds riding those horses down Division Ave.!!!! He stopped those riders and asked them if they knew where they lived and that he(the sheriff) would give them a ride home! Their Very PREGNANT mother noticing that her children were missing had jumped in her car in search of her runaways, only to pass them waving out of the back window of a Police car!!!! :)

Sami and Cody wearing the gift tags!!! And saying HO HO HO!!

It wouldn't be a family gathering if my kiddo's were not picking on one another!!

Victoria trying on here tutu!!

And in the words of a little girl in Kentucky that Jesse, Amy and Lukas ran into over a year ago!!

"Good Luck to you little boy, chewing on your mamma's purse!!"

Victoria seemed to love Amy's blanket!!

My sister Janet knitted us a scarf and Lukas kept calling Nancy's Elmo and hugging it!!!

If you can read these shirts I can tell you the answer to the question!!

I am the evil sister and couldn't be more proud!!

Come on Janet whats a little lick between sissy's!!!!

See even Lukas says lighten up!!!!

After all the hub bub Sarah took some time to hang with her favorite little man!!

All in all we had a GREAT CHRISTMAS!!

THANK YOU again to Brian and Rhonda for hosting the gathering!

Thanks to everyone else for being such a great family.....it was fun!!!

Blog slacker here!!

Blog slacker reporting!!!

We are very hopeful that the owl that met it's demise was not Hootie or Blowfish so we had to make sure that the nest box was ready just in case. Dave was brave and up he went!

I kid you not it is a long ways up and not the easiest to get to!

But someone had to do it and I can guarantee it was not going to be me!! Now we wait and hope for new owlets in the spring, we are still thinking about replacing the nest box camera, but hate to make that much of an investment if they don't come back!?!

Sarah and Dave went to the local mini dealer for the showing of the new 4 wheel drive mini....this is the one Dave wanted!! In my opinion...yuck!!!

Now this one on the other hand....... it's a beauty!!!

Shhhhhhhhhhhh............. g- ma left the computer running so thought I would chime in and tell you about part of my weekend. On Friday I got to hang out with g-ma...she said something about having shakes from withdrawal symptoms because it had been since Thanksgiving weekend since she saw me last. Here I am hanging out watching Polar Express....I LOVE this movie!!!!!!

Then I had some work to catch up on.....This is the most awesome drill ever!!!

Ok, so Polar Express was still on and while I really wanted to concentrate on my work I had to keep an eye on the goings on!! I may have broken my pliers....which gpa fixed....and now they are way cool to chew on!!

Gma and gpa put up the tree and there is a lot of cool things to look at! I had to show brown puppy and lemur all the lights and ornaments.....and maybe I realized that lemur made a cute ornament and left him there!

After we did some art it was a chance for me to sit in my box and watch some Thomas....

(Gma disclaimer to follow)
Seriously, I stay really busy and gma does not always just have the tube on for me to watch!!!!!

This time she even let me have a snack in the box with brown puppy!

I even shared that treat with brown puppy....he really is my bestest buddy!

Soon after gpa came home from work I suited up and headed out to help him shovel the driveway.....my work is never done!!

What do you mean you don't clear the snow off the driveway with a broom and a rake....it makes really cool patterns!!

Then gpa helped me make this snowball!!

That just got bigger and BIGGER...and BIGGER !!!

And after we made 3 of them and stacked them up it made this thing gpa called a snowman. Gma brought out some clothes for it, so I helped get him dressed!!

Here is the finished product....pretty awesome if I do say so!!

On Saturday Ward family, northern edition came down for a visit. We went and checked out the train barn......it has TONS of trains and tracks that have been there for ....well forever!!!

I am waiting for gpa to build me on of these!!!!!!

Another reason they came for a visit was to celebrate my mommy's birthday! We went to this place called Kumo's where they cook right in front of you....I was waiting anxiously for what they said was a big flame!!

OH MY GOODNESS.....they were not kidding!!!

Although it was cool.....it did scare me a little bit so I may have hidden my face in my mom's arms for a few seconds!! I would like to know why everyone in this picture seems to be laughing!?!?!?!

I decided to brave another peek....just to make sure that nothing caught on fire!!

Ok, that's a little better and not out of control!! The food was awesome....I think I did a great job feeding my self all that rice, chicken, broccoli, and especially those mushrooms. I was a little disgusted when the man cooking the food started to throw it at everyone!!! Man my daddy can sure catch a lot of stuff in his mouth!!!! He was AWESOME!!!

After all that excitement and a full tummy I needed a little rest...thanks mom!!

That was until we ordered the fried cheesecake for dessert...........YUM!!!

And with that I best get off of here I hear gma coming!!! Shhhhhhhhhh...

Well, he said it better than I could anyway!!!

See ya soon!

WICKED!!

I know..I know...there are a lot of things that I am supposed to be blogging about!! Most importantly I didn't blog and wish my dear daughter-in-law a happy birthday....my bad!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY!

I promise to catch up soon, but I must tell you about what I did last night!!

That's right.....WICKED!!!!

I do believe this could be my all time FAVORITE play.This is the 2nd time I have seen it and the production in Kalamazoo was AWESOME!!

What made it even more special is that I got to see it with these 3 women!!

My wonderful mom, daughter and daughter-in-law!! All I told my mom was I would pick her up, but not what we were doing. We got to hang out together, have some eats and then headed to the play.

We finally got in and took our seats...2nd row thank you. I risked my life getting this picture taken!! They were very vigilant watching out for cameras!!! Promised that I would only take it facing away from the stage and she let it go!! Others were forced to delete the pictures from phones and cameras...I know you all think I am a rebel, but I was a good witch and followed the rules!!

I know I am ...wicked....(hehe get it!!!) and took another photo of my girls. We had a GREAT time. For those who have never seen this show.....it is a MUST ( yes Janet even you, the flying monkeys are not that bad!!) Sarah has gone 2 other times and this was my second time.....when can we do it again?!?!?!
The production was amazing and the performances were spectacular. Loved seeing the differences with other actors. For the most part they were stellar. The Wizard and Fiyero were a little weak in comparison but boy that GA-linda and Elphaba were magnificent!!
Love these Girls!!

When we left it had just started to do this!!!

By the time we dropped off Amy and headed back home it was really coming down!! No way to tell where the lane markers were on the roads but we made it without a scratch!
And boy was it worth it...I got to spend time with great people, see a awesome play , listen to (and maybe, just maybe) sing some songs, and when I woke up this morning got to look in on my favorite little guy who spent the night at the house!
THANK YOU GIRLS, For Good says it all!!! let's all sing along!

Big Steamie!!!

Hope no one minds if I step in and take over g-mas blog again! I just had to get on here and tell you about my big adventure!!

G-pa, g-ma, aunt Yaya, mommy and daddy and I went to a city called Coopersville to see a really big steamie!! (train to you who don't know!)

Here we are taking it all in!!

Mommy, daddy and I posing on the front of the train!!

I have been very intrigued with the movie Polar Express and couldn't wait to get my ticket punched by the conductor!!

Finally, we were on the train. It was a tad bit overwhelming!

Oh, mommy this is going to be so much fun!!

Grandpa showing me the tracks that are made out of Jobie wood, just like they use in Soder!!! For you who are not up on all this that would be where Thomas and his friends live!!

Me and my daddy!!

G-ma says these are 2 of her favorite people in the world....I tend to agree!!

I was making sure that puppy had his ticket....didn't want him to get kicked off!!!

See they had the train all decorated for the holidays, and there was this guy in a red suit too! Someone said it was Santa, but I saw him last week so this must be one of his helpers! I said hi anyways, just in case!

I took puppy to meet him!

Ummmm....not too sure about this!!

Happy to be back in my seat!!

I did get a cool teddy bear puppet from Santa, and g-pa helped me to play with him! I don't mind g-pa's Santa beard but that other guys was way out of control!!

Mommy's turn!!

There he goes to see the other kids in the other cars of the train!

Daddy and g-pa talked sailboats a lot on this trip!!

They also had a princess on the train....she read us the book The Polar Express...she was really nice!Aunt yaya took me back to see the caboose....she is a cool aunt. I do have to admit that I like playing jokes on her!! When she asks me if Iwant to do something with her I always say yes.....then right away in my very cutest voice I can muster...I say NO YAYA!!!! :) :)

As always g-pa always lets me try new things!! Here he was letting me hang from the luggage rack!! OH, g-pa!!!

I really LOVE my yaya!!

I got this really cool watch at the Taco Bell's before we went on the train! G-pa wanted to wear it and I was happy to oblige!

My mommy is the VERY BEST mommy EVER!! We have so much fun together!

My buddy and me checking out the steamies engine......don't tell me...I know it is really a "naughty diesel" OH well!!

It was a REALLY fun time....... I think I am going to like this thing they call the holiday season!! I say bring it on!!!

We all had a great time and were so thankful that Amy, Jesse and Lukas let us experience it with them. Thanks again Lukas for telling us all about your day on the train!

The sleigh says it all......that is what this little man brings to us!!!!!!