Wish upon a Starr

Cute Maddy girl. A couple shots of our little baby.

Messy Maddy girl.



Maddy "bare".



Cute Maddy!!

Kevin has about 5 minutes of back stretching before the kids pounce. They can't resist the urge to wrestle him when they see him laying on the floor resting. Kevin always plays along with them, he's a good daddy that way.



Cute Matthew falling off.



Maddy wanting to play too



Yay! She made it!!



Poor Kevin!! Even though I think he secretly LOVES it!!

Universal sign for "want more"!

I have made rice many times at home, can I get Maddy to eat it? No. We go out to eat with grandma and she wants to eat it. We were talking, and I turned around to check on Maddy, and this is what I saw. It was so funny!! Gave her some rice, she ate it and was happy. Get to talking again, turn around again, and she is doing this again. She would be so excited that her hands would be shaking. Silly girl!

Our JACKOLANTERNS!!! Well, the ones that go finished. Allison's and Matthew's. Kevin and I spent too much time on the internet looking for ideas. Then the ideas we found and really wanted, and really thought we could do, we couldn't do. So, two jackolanterns for the Starr family this year. It's okay, because with the dog, they didn't last long. Lady likes to roll them like soccer balls, sometimes you can't tell who is chasing who. It's pretty funny to watch!



With the lights off, obviously. I think they turned out pretty awesome!!



We did our Halloween playing on Saturday. Our ward did a trunk or treat, which was a blast. Real creative people in our ward. The Clarks had a cute idea. They had a tent set up, someone at the door to control the flow of people. When we got inside (I had to drag Madalynn in, she knew something was going on) Sis. Clark was dressed up as a witch. She stood next to a table that was set with plates and such. The center of the table had a big silver serving bowl with lid. She thanked the kids for coming, invited them to climb the ladder so they could reach in the serving bowl for the candy. As she said that, she lifted the lid. There was the candy just like she said, but Bro. Clarks head was there too!!!!! My not-so-brave kiddos just sat there and stared. We tried to get them to take a candy, but they wouldn't move. I grabbed some for them, and moved on. Clark family, you rock!!!!
Then the Collett Family, who's house was right behind where we had the trunk or treat, had a spook alley to go through. They have some very fun witch collectables/decorations, it was fun to just look at all the decorations. The kids actually enjoyed that one. It wasn't "too" scary says miss Allison.
After the trunk or treat, we headed to Grt. Grandma Mansfield's house. We plan on staying a little bit to visit with her. She is so sweet, and so proud of her flowers. That is all she could talk about. Sweet sweet grandma!!
Then we headed into town to Grandma and Grandpa Mansfield's house for pictures and treats! And we all usually time it just right, we usually end up there at the same time. So it's fun to talk about each others festivities and such.

Here are our lovely costumes. Matthew first, as "Bumble Bee" the Transformer. While we were trunk or treating, he saw another kid dressed up as "Optimus Prime". He thought that was so cool. Couldn't take his eyes off of him. (He loves the transformers! Whenever we are in the car and we happen to pass a semi, if it looks like Optimus, then he will comment that it was him. If it is a semi that doesn't look like Optimus, then he will comment that it wasn't him. He is ALWAYS looking for Optimus! There is a car that resembles Bumble Bee that we see from time to time, and yes he geeks out when he see it and says that is Bumble Bee because he has "racing stripes". How does he know what racing stripes are anyway? Cute little boy of mine! I could go on and on about our little driving conversations and the transformers. Another day maybe...)

Bumble Bee



Here is Allison as a Vampire Princess. We were excited that it was something different then a Disney Princess, or a fairy. This is still a "princess" but a little more Halloween-ish. We even got to paint her face. And she had cool glow in the dark vampire teeth, but we couldn't find them.

Vampire Princess



Madalynn was a little purple witch. She of course hated the hat. We were only able to keep her distracted enough to take pictures and that was it. She did really good at the trunk or treat. Every time someone would put a candy into her bag, she would hold it completely open with both hands, and just look into the bag. And then she would look some more. She LOVED the idea of walking around to strange people giving her candy.

Purple Witch



The whole gang (and yes I dressed up. I knew there would be other adults dressed up at the trunk or treat, so could go dressed up with out feeling to silly. And I was right. A good chunk of them had dressed up. Good times!!!).



Happy Halloween!!!

Okay, scratch the post that is after this one, but was really done before this one. We found a way to get the photos to load, YEA!!!!!! I've got some major catching up to do, starting with this one. Again, way behind. (p.s. don't scratch the whole post, just me complaining about the computer.)


Miss Allison and her first day of school!!!! All dressed up and ready to go, and she couldn't be more excited!



Here is Matthew, who isn't to excited that he has to stay home another year.



Miss Madalynn who is just happy to be getting her picture taken.



The bus stop, just us.



The bus, she is the second one to get picked up, so it's pretty empty when she gets on. She has the sweetest bus driver though!

Kevin has taken the lap top downstairs, and this computer is not liking my SD card. So I don't have any photos for this one, but I still wanted to write about this. It actually happened last Christmas, and I completely forgot about it till today. Matthew was watching "The Polar Express", his favorite movie because of the train, and it just made me think of something that he said last year. We had watched the movie at least a dozen times. One night I was tucking him into bed and he just asked in his most sincere sweet little voice if he could ride on The Polar Express. I just told that I didn't know and he would just have to fall asleep and hope that it comes. He grabbed his blanket, pulled it under his chin, closed his eyes with a big smile on his face, and tried to go to sleep as fast as he could.

It was so sweet, the little smile on his face. He was probably more excited for that then the idea that Santa was coming that night. It broke my heart that I couldn't do anything for him, but it was still so sweet. He of course remembered about it when he woke up the next morning, so we had a talk over breakfast, didn't ruin it for him though, but we were able to cleverly come up with a story (I actually don't remember what we told him), that made him happy again. And he still loves the movie, it hasn't been Christmas for a while but that movie comes out at least once a month.

The blog is updated if you want to take a peek. Imagine that .

My little girl is growing up so fast! I can't believe that 6 years ago we were in the hospital just in awe over the little miracle that lay in our arms. Where has the time gone? She is a smart, tenderhearted little girl. Eager to help, eager to learn, eager to do good. I love her!!

Here is Allison opening her presents.



Yea! More Barbies!



She LOVES to color and draw...



Here is Madalynn making her move to the presents. She was pretty fast and excited to get to some of those presents.



Here is the family party at Grandma's house. More presents!!! Yea!!!



Fancy shoes that she wears all the time!



Here most favorite toy, the princess castle!



Here is her cake. It's from the princess and the frog. She loved it, but was a little sad that I didn't make the princess, that I left her a frog. After doing Sadie's cake, and Snow White looking more like Cher, I didn't feel quite ready to do another "human" character. (If you want to see more of this cake and Sadie's cake, check out my cake blog. Give me a day or two to get caught up on that blog though)



Happy Birthday Allison!!! I sure do LOVE you!!

Allison and Matthew working hard on some fancy bracelets, crowns, hats, etc..., just use your imagination.



Hard at work, twist here, twist there...



Chloe also hard at work. Up close are the fancy bracelets that they made for me. Pretty cute huh?!



Here is another FHE photo. We made sheep, yummy yummy sheep! The kiddos pretty proud of their work. Again, Matthews "posed" smile is so funny to me, love that boy!



Here is Madalynn, helping us eat the legs off of the sheep. Mmmmmmm, yummy mallows!

This is how Ms. Madalynn insists on wearing our shoes. It is so cute, it just makes me laugh every time. This is also how she wears her own shoes if mom and dad are too slow putting them on for her.

Not sure if you can see this, but she has two shirts on. We have to make sure that we have any shirt that she could possibly wear picked up, or she insists that she wears it.


Here is a better picture of her with my shoes and her two shirts.



This is me trying to get a picture of her looking at the camera, which is next to impossible. She loves the camera and gets real mad if I put it away with out letting her see it. So, if she sees me with the camera she comes running. Notice the tongue. I think that is going to be her trait.



She caught me!!! So, here is a nice close up of Madalynn. And again, her tongue.



These next pics, she happened to find Allison's shirt. A little big for her to wear as a shirt, but a dress...could almost work. I was doing the morning dishes, I had obviously helped her put the shirt on, but then she went back to the kid's room. She then comes out wearing the awesome alien antenna's that we made for family fun friday. So of course I had to get the camera out. Notice the tongue again. In just about every picture. She sure is cute even with the little tongue hanging out like that. I can't wait till she grows up. I remember my little brother Michael. He always got teased for having his tongue out whenever he did anything that took some concentration. Maddy might be the same.








And here she comes again to get me and the camera, RUN!!!!!

My baby is already 1. Ahhhhhh!!!!! Where did the time go? It has been such a fun year with Madalynn in our family. Matthew adores her, and I think he will be the bigger brother that watches over her. He is the one that is always concerned what she is putting into her mouth, and he also has no fear getting it out of her mouth or out of her hands before it goes into her mouth. Sweet little boy. Allison loves helping me with her. She will go into Madalynn's room when Madalynn wakes up. She will talk with her or try to make her laugh until I get there to get her out. We are soooo glad to have her in our family!

Here are the pictures of the celebration at Grandma & Grandpa Mansfield's house. I love it when the kids get old enough to finally understand the unwrapping of the presents. It is so fun to watch there little facial expressions. She must have a lot of people who love her, because she came home with lots of presents!



Love her face in this one.



As in this one. How is it that little kids, even at this age, know when they are getting clothes? Her face says it all in this one. However, Kevin sure is excited!! (So was I, there is some cute, cute bling on this outfit).



Her is her cake. I thought it turned out pretty darn cute!! She wasn't too sure what to think of it. We helped her by putting her hand into the cake, still she was unsure. After watching her for a moment, and watching what she was doing with the icing that was already on her hands. I realized that she didn't like the mess. I went into the kitchen, grabbed her a spoon, handed it to her, and she had no problem after that. However my camera card was full, so I don't have any pictures of her eating the cake. My mom let me use her camera so at least I have pictures of her eating just none that I can put up on the blog.






Happy Birthday miss Madalynn!!!

This actually was more like a Family Fun Saturday, Monday, Tuesday. We ended spreading this out a little bit. But because we did that, we were able to share our FFF with some of the kids cousins who came out to visit. The Bowman family came out for a visit, that we LOVED, and since I had a couple extra headbands, I thought it would be fun to include them in our alien antenna making. That was a lot of fun. Each of the kids had there own idea for their antenna. I personally loved Blake's single antenna on top.



Matthew was a little shy wearing his, it was hard for me to get a good picture of him with it on. That is until they went outside to play with their tractors.



Matthew and Blake went out to play with their tractors. Matthew wasn't out their longer then 5 minutes when he ran back inside wanting his alien antenna. So her are some cute pics, through the window, of Matthew wearing his alien antenna.



Madalynn wearing hers.



The cute alien candy (I suppose I should stop saying cute. Matthew and Dad didn't find it to terribly cute).



Then we actually didn't even get the movie watched until Tammie and her kids had left. It was a "cute" movie. The kids thought it was pretty great, and we had a good time throwing this one together, and making it last a couple of extra days. Good times!!