The Starkey Stars

Summer Fun!

2009-07-10T08:54:00.006-05:00

Anna practicing writing her own name in the sand!

Look what I caught! :)

Future super model! :)

Anna "hanging" with her friend Connor Smith

Anna loving the "sand mountain"

Mommy and Anna at the beach in New Hampshire

Anna and Keegan

Ok, ok, ok, so I am not very good at keeping up with my blog. SORRY!! I tried to keep it together for a while, but then times like right now when two little arms are begging to sit on my lap and "help" me type happen and I run off to play. :)

We have been having ton of fun this summer. I cannot believe that it is the middle of July already. YIKES!! That means you know what is just around the corner. BIG HUGE YIKES!!! :) Anna and I traveled to Boston the second week of June to visit with my sister, Jason and Keegan. Despite the yucky weather we were able to sneak in a trip to the beach and find lots of other fun things to do! :) We traveled to the beach in Michigan for a long weekend with our friends Kyle and Wendi Smith and their little guy Connor. Anna and Connor had a blast playing on the beach and building castles with their daddies. I am off this weekend for a little get-away with my teacher friends. It will be nice to hang out and catch up. We are off again next weekend to visit my dad and step-mom in Michigan. We haven't seen them since last July, so it will be fun for Anna to see Papa and Grandma B. Our final trip will be at the end of July to Indiana to visit Dave's parents. Whew! Busy, Busy, Busy!!! Of course we keep busy during the week with playdates, gymnastics, trips to the pool, bike rides, and playing at the park! :)

As you can see I am throughly enjoying my summer and love having this time to spend with my family!

Birthday Bash!

2009-02-09T19:48:00.009-06:00

Well, I am finally getting around to updating the blog. Anna celebrated her third birthday since my last post. I cannot believe how quickly time has passed. She is such a big girl now! Above you will see pictures from Anna's first birthday celebration. Her birthday party with friend wasn't until the following weekend, but we couldn't let her actual birthday slip by without a little celebrating. Auntie Kris sent a little chef's outfit to get Anna on the road to chefhood a little early! :) Mommy and Daddy bought her an easel, which as you can see, she is already putting to good use practicing writing her letters. Makes my big teacher heart happy! :) The following weekend we had her birthday party with friends at her favorite place "Golden's Gymnastics." We were able to invite a few of her "older" friends due to the nature of this party! Everyone had a great time and Anna was loving every minute!

I just had add this little video of Anna's little singing performance. I know it is sideways and a little dark but it's all about the song. ENJOY!! :)

Holiday wishes

2008-12-29T15:16:00.004-06:00

We had a wonderful Christmas. Anna was soooo excited for Christmas and couldn't wait for the big day to arrive. We spent most of the week in Jasper, IN with Dave's family. Dave's brother Steve and his wife Jen flew in from California. Unfortuately, his brother Rob and wife Niki had to stay in Kansas City and work. We sure missed having them there. Anna had a great time with Uncle Steve and Auntie Jen, as you will notice in the following pictures. :) I enjoyed catching up on some much needed R & R and a few books I have wanted to read.

Wish we could have spent Christmas with all of you. Anna really brings so much joy into our lives and we throughly enjoyed every minute of our time together. The best part is that Anna was able to celebrate Jesus' birthday as well. We wanted to make sure she understood the true meaning of Christmas.

In the following video you will see Anna with my new "magical" trash can. We told Anna that you have to say "Abracadabra" in order for it to work. She is just mezmerized by the whole thing. :)

Happy New Year everyone!

New pictures!

2008-12-03T20:47:00.002-06:00

Thought you might enjoy a few pictures from Anna's church performance a few weeks ago. She did great and was not afraid in the least to sing in front of 600 people. :)

Busy having fun!

2008-11-22T19:41:00.003-06:00

This is a picture of our budding gymnast. We went to a birthday party at the gymnastics place and Anna was totally in her element. She could care less about the other kids, she wanted to try everything. She hopped up on this balance beam (not very low to the ground as you can see) all by herself and walk across without any help! Anna loves to play "going to sleep." She decided that she and her friends along with Daddy would take a little nap.

Anna wanted to do her own hair for church last week. Let's hope she will let me do it this week as she will be singing up front with her class! :)

She has discoverd the art of paint! She used her Halloween money from Grandma B and Papa to buy herself some paints! Thanks Grandma and Papa!

Fun Days!!!

2008-11-01T08:03:00.007-05:00

As you can see we have just had a grand old time over the past week. Anna has just been soooo excited about Halloween. It is so fun to watch her eyes light up when she saw other kids in their costumes and all of the treats she received. She really understood how this whole Halloween thing worked this year, so she just had a blast. She started the day with a party at daycare, then I picked her up early to go trick or treating at Daddy's work, then we finally made it home to trick or treat in the neighborhood. We only went to our close neighbors because she was pretty much done and had more than enough candy! Auntie Shannon stayed at our house and passed out candy while we took Anna around the neighborhood. Thanks Auntie Shannon!! Surprisingly we had a lot of candy left, we did not have a ton of kids come this year. Good for me as I can put that in my treasure chest at school (as if they will need anymore candy! :)

I had parent/teacher conferences Thursday and Friday (to add to all of the excitement!) 23 out of 25 parents came, so that is a pretty good turn out for me! I will have to hunt down the other two and hope I can lure them in some how! Sadly the two conferences that I didn't have were the ones that needed it the most.

Otherwise, all is well from here! I cannot believe that today is the first day of November! When I was working on lesson plans yesterday, I couldn't believe that we only have three full weeks until Thanksgiving! I love this time of the year, more fun times to be had!!! :)

Catching Up!

2008-10-14T20:15:00.003-05:00

Anna wearing her dancing shoes!
Anna and her new found friend (and cousin) Katie.
This is my going to work outfit.
Little Miss Gardener, she wants to do everything mommy does!

Is that a glimpse of the raspberry monster?
Oh no, another glimpse!
Yep, it's me and these raspberries sure are yummy!
Anna enjoying her trip to the pumpkin farm

These pumpkins make cute little seats too!
Look, I picked out my very own pumpkin!
That sure was a lot of work!
Anna and our neighbor girl enjoying the rare opportunity to run in the street while they cleaned the fire hydrant.
We were so glad the weather was warm enough to enjoy this rare opportunity!

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers over the past few weeks. Our trip to Michigan went very well and enjoyed seeing family again.

All is going well here. The weather has been super fabulous, so we have been out and about enjoying the beautiful October weather. Dave has been riding quite a bit lately as this coming weekend is his big ride in Indiana. Last year was his first trip to the Hilly Hundred (Lots of BIG hills, 50 miles each day) he did a great job last year and will do even better this year! Anna and I will stay home and find something fun to do.

With a heavy heart...

2008-09-28T19:26:00.003-05:00

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my Grandpa Balsley was very sick and things were not looking good for him to make it through the night. He was able to get through a few more weeks, but went home to the Lord yesterday morning. Please pray for my family as they remember the wonderful life of my grandpa. I am attaching the obituary so you can read more about William Balsley and the life he lived for Jesus Christ!

Thank you Grandpa for being such a wonderful example of God's love in my life!

http://www.nelson-house.com/obituaries.htm

Ahhhh, I can't keep up!!!

2008-09-15T19:35:00.005-05:00

Anna on a lazy Saturday morning enjoying staying her in PJ's and putting on some of her formal wear!

Connor and Anna enjoying a little R & R (well really they were taking turns tipping each other over in the chair, but they look so innocent in this picture you would never know!) :)

Sorry I know that I promised I would do a better job keeping up with my posts, but... alas I have failed you. I was a single mom last week as Dave was livin' the life in California. He was there at Disneyland for a conference with his work. If it wasn't so stinking far away, Anna and I would have joined him. Oh well, maybe next time. Of course the first day he was gone Anna fell and chipped her tooth at Daycare. She decided that she was going to "ride" on one of the toy tractors Miss Carol pulled out to emphasize Farm week. Of course this 3 inch tractor was not made for the likes of Anna and she fell forward right on her face. She had a nice fat lip and her front tooth was chipped on the bottom. Being the psycho mom that I am, I took her quickly off to see the dentist when I picked her up that afternoon. They were super nice and were understanding of my psycho mom concerns. The dentist buffed out the bottom of the tooth so that it wouldn't be too sharp and it looks a ton better. Anna did great, she sat in the chair all by herself and let the dentist use his tooth tickler. Of course it helped that we had been reading Caliou (a preschool character on PBS) goes to the dentist several times over the past months. She thought she was pretty cool acting like Caliou. The rest of the week flew by like a blur as I had several meetings after school and was racing home to have a little bit of time with Anna. Overall we did great, but I was sure glad to see Dave come home.

A funny story happened this weekend that I thought would give you a chuckle. Anna was getting ready to use the potty and climbed up on her stool to get on her seat. Just as I thought she was ready to sit down she turned around and faced the toilet and stated "I am going to go potty standing up like this Mommy!" I quickly redirected her and told her that she was a girl and only boys use the potty like that. She of course quickly responded... Why?? I fumbled around for a quick answer and told her that she didn't have the same parts as boys and her potty didn't come out the front. YIKES!!! I welcome any other explanations a two year old can understand from my more experienced friends! :)

Not too much else to report from here. We keep ourselves very busy and enjoy every minute we have with Anna. She is truly the joy of our lives! She comes up with the funniest comments that just make us roll all of the time.

Have a good week!

Enjoying the three day weekend!

2008-09-02T19:58:00.002-05:00

Anna enjoying the sprinkler on Friday! It has been quite hot here!
I recently made some dinners at Dinner by Design, a place where you can make your meals ahead and then freeze them until you are ready. On Sunday we decided to try the Cornish Hen grilled on Cedar planks. Well, as you can see things did not work out so well for our Sunday dinner. We soaked the planks for 3 1/2 hours, but they still caught on fire. The directions told us to put the hens on the planks and then close the lid of the grill for 25-35 minutes. Dave decided to check on them after about 12 minutes and this what he found! So, our dinner consisted of cereal and chicken salad on crackers. :)
This is how we labored on Labor day! Dave spent a good part of his day trimming most of the bushes in our yard. This is the first time we have trimmed since they were planted. So needless to say we had a lot of trimming to do. Anna and I helped get everything bagged up at the end. We had 7 full bags at the end of the day.

I will end this note with a request for your prayers. My grandfather has been very sick for quite awhile. My dad called last night to say that he had taken a turn for the worse and it didn't look like he was going to make it through this. I ask that you would pray that God's will would be done and that my Grandpa would not suffer. Grandpa has served the Lord for a very long time and I know he will be thrilled to go home and sit at the feet of Jesus with my Grandma. I am thankful for their guidance in my walk with Christ they have always been an amazing example of His love.

Taking a few minutes to breathe!

2008-08-26T19:39:00.006-05:00

Anna decided that she was going to have a birthday party for Auntie Shannon. She picked out everything! :)

Anna and Daddy riding the trike at his work picnic
Enjoying some of summer's best!

Anna playing ping-pong with the most kind Wolff boys.
Anna and Davis trying to enjoy their boat ride all bundled up!
Anna's favorite part - driving the boat!
Anna saw the big boys using the rope swing and just had to try it!

Ok, so I am just getting home for the night but I had a smidge of energy left to update my blog. We had our Open House at school tonight (alway super fun to go back to school after you have been there all day.) I had 8 out of 22 parents come visit. I sure would have like to see more. Thankfully the weather has been much cooler this week. I don't think I have had to turn on my fans once. YEAH!!! Everyone who works with me is thankful as well, because I am not a happy camper when it is hot. I HATE TO BE HOT!!! I guess I should have chosen a school with air conditioning. :)

We went to Dave's work picnic last weekend and Anna was able to enjoy a few fun activities while she was there. She especially enjoyed riding the big trikes with Daddy! :) We also went to "Aunt" Beth's house for a little fun on the boat. Of course Anna couldn't wait to get her hands on the wheel. She loves "driving" the boat. It was fun to hang out with friends and catch up. I sure wish we could get together more often. The only sad part was our good friends Karen & Brock weren't there. They recently moved away from us to Canton, OH. We all missed their smiling faces!

Well, I am going to sign off for today! I will try to keep my blog a little more up to date. Now that I am settling into a schedule, I should be able to get my act together. :)

Delicious Meal

2008-08-12T07:55:00.002-05:00

My friend Kim recently gave us some dress-up clothes that her girls used to wear (her oldest daughter Laura now babysits for us.) Anna just couldn't wait to put them on while fixing "dinner."
As you can see Anna is quite the cook. She loves playing in her kitchen with all of her dinner guests.
Anna is trying to teach Patty, her doll to pray. It was the most precious thing to watch!

I was in my classroom for a few hours yesterday trying to get myself organized. The problem is that I keep finding more things that need to be reorganized so my room still looks like a big mess! Hopefully I will make a little more headway this afternoon. Luckily the weather has been nice and cool, so that makes working in the classroom so much more enjoyable. I am hoping the weather stays this nice next week when school starts, usually that is when the 90's real their ugly head! :)

Enjoying Indiana's best!

2008-08-08T07:59:00.004-05:00

Well, as you can see we couldn't resist yet another "carnibal." We have tried to get Anna to say amusement park, but she likes "carnibal" better. We traveled to Dave's parents house in Jasper, IN last Thursday. Holiday World is 30 minutes from there, so we decided to check it out. Dave went there many times as a child, but hadn't been back in a while. Anna once again throughly enjoyed herself.

Look at me Papa, I am driving my own boat!

We found blue ice cream and just had to try it! Anna loves the color blue, so she was beside herself with excitement!

Anna is really into trains, so Dave found a place in French Lick, IN that had a 2 hour train ride. This was Anna's first ride on a real train, so she thought it was really cool.
Anna and Daddy looking for treasures at the beach.
Look what I found!

Anna has her own personal lake!

We went to the Indianapolis zoo on Tuesday but I forgot the camera in the car. :( It rained most of the time we were there so we were looking a little wet anyway. Beautiful zoo, we had a good time despite the rain. This was Anna's first trip to the zoo, so she loved seeing all of the animals.

I have been back working in my classroom since our return home. I worked part of Wednesday and all day yesterday and still have quite a bit to do. I spent a lot of time moving Kindergarten materials to the new teachers classroom. I am glad to be teaching first grade again, but all of this moving business is overwhelming. Oh well, it's the price you pay to be back where you belong.

No big plans this weekend, so hopefully we will be able to enjoy being home for a few days! :) I am sure I will be able to take a few cute pictures anyway! :)

Trip to Six Flags Chicago

2008-07-30T07:51:00.004-05:00

Our friends Kyle and Wendi Smith invited us to go to Six Flags with them this past weekend. Kyle works for Bank and America and was able to get discounted tickets for us. As you can see the kids had a great time! They were able to ride all of the rides they wanted without having to wait more than five or ten minutes. By the time we were ready to leave the lines were much longer, but it worked out perfectly for us. The guys did go on one roller coaster, but had to wait an hour for that. A good time was had by all! :)

We are heading out to Southern Indiana tomorrow evening. Dave's parents live in Jasper and we will be hanging out with them for a few days. We have lots of day trips planned while we are there. I will be sure to have lots of fun pictures to post!

I found out this past week that I will be teaching first grade again! YEAH!!! I am super excited to be going back to my old stomping grounds and teaching with my awesome partner again. I love working with Kim (yes, everyone calls us Kim squared) and look forward to a great year. This will also give me the opportunity to teach the kids I had last year again (well at least some of them, I promised Kim I would share :) I loved that class, so it will be lots of fun! I can't believe we are 2 1/2 weeks away from the start of school.. YIKES!!! I have a lot of work to do to get ready.

Hope you are all having a great summer!

Cute video!

From the waters of beautiful Michigan!

2008-07-24T19:47:00.005-05:00

As you can see we had a grand time visiting my Dad and step-mom Lois in Michigan this past weekend. Anna caught her first fish, feed ducks for the first time and drove a boat. :) She was very exciting to try new things and explore Papa and Grandma's house.

Thanks for all of the fun Papa and Grandma! :)

Trip to the mountains of NC

2008-07-13T20:19:00.005-05:00

We have returned from the great Smoky Mountains! My mom and step-dad recently moved from Maine to NC and are currently building a beautiful home up on one of those mountains. My sister Kris and her son Keegan were able to join us as well. The kids had lots of fun getting reacquainted with each other. Anna hasn't seen any of them since this time last year. We had a lot of catching up to do. Dave was able to take a couple of bike rides while he was there. He was a little disappointed that he didn't get to do the big ride he had planned due to lots of loose dogs chasing him.

We took a road trip up the mountain where my mom and Dave are building their new house and saw some beautiful waterfalls. The kids really like seeing the big falls and touching some of the water.

They have a place in their town called the Fun Factory that we had to go and check out. The kids had a blast (I guess we did too! :) They had lots of activities for younger children as well as adults. We had so much fun we went their twice during our trip. :)

Overall a nice trip. We enjoyed seeing everyone and loved watching Anna play with Keegan.

Loads of Fun!!

2008-06-29T19:36:00.003-05:00

Today Anna sang in church for the first time! She did great!! She sang most of the songs and then got a little distracted at the end... she decided that everyone needed to see her bellybutton. Of course, everyone thought it was sooo cute and decided that a kids performance wouldn't be complete without at least one child pulling up their dress. :) Overall, she had fun and we were super proud.

Every year our town holds the Friendship Festival. We decided to take Anna over for a few rides and the parade. We had soooo much fun watching her! She loved watching the Fire trucks go by and blow their sirens as well as pick up candy. When I mentioned to her that we were going to another parade today (they have two parades, the children's parade and the Grand Parade) she said "they throw candy at me??" She now thinks that is what fire trucks are for! :)

This was the best $2.00 we ever spent!!! Anna was beside herself with excitement. As you can see she had the biggest smiles we have ever seen. Everyone watching commented on her excitement and smile, even people walking by stopped to watch her. It was that much fun!!!
Mommy got to ride the helicopter too! :)
Anna and Ben waiting for those fire trucks to come along!

Lovin' the summer!

2008-06-22T18:45:00.002-05:00

Where in the world is Anna???
Peek-A-Boo, I see you!!! She thinks she is sooo sneaky. :) Anna is the greatest hide and seek player there ever was. She absolutely loves playing hide and seek. She realized this week that she could still fit into one of her storage blocks plus put all of her toys on top to make us think she wasn't there. Her current method of counting... 1, 2, 6,7,8,9,10,11,12 wedy or not here I come!!! :)

We bought an ice cream maker this weekend and Anna is in LOVE!!

It has been a busy week, but we were able to find time to go to the pool and park a few times. It is soooo fun to watch her discover and play with all of her friends. We are having so much fun!

Happy Fathers Day!

2008-06-15T15:51:00.008-05:00

Today I celebrate the wonderful man in my life! He is such an amazing husband and father, I cannot express how truly blessed I am.

Thank you Dave for your endless patience and love, your neverending encouragement and support, your constant desire to protect and take care of us, your wonderful laugh and great smile. Today we celebrate you!! THANK YOU!!!

Family Nite Live!

2008-06-12T20:14:00.007-05:00

Anna enjoying a little duck hunting! She didn't realize she would win a prize at the end. :)
From the moment she saw them unload the ponies from the trailer, she was standing at the front of the church just bursting with excitment. She wasn't too sure once she got on, but she rode for the whole time.

Look what I caught! :)
As soon as I heard the words "ice cream," I was all over it!
Mommy taking part in the activities as well.
The happy family :)
I had my first sucker tonight (I won it at the duck pond!) I couldn't believe my tongue turned blue. :)

Our church does Vacation bible school a little differently. The whole family participates and it is in the evening. This was the first year we attended as last year Anna was a little too young. We had a blast. We learned lots of new songs, made cool crafts, and met new friends. We are soooo fortunate to attend a church that LOVES kids, and teaches them about God's love. Anna loves singing all of her fun songs.

Bathing Beauty

2008-06-10T15:00:00.003-05:00

Thought you might enjoy a few pictures of our bathing beauty. We were finally able to get out to the pool today. What a gorgeous day! It was a little cool this morning, but by 11:00am it was perfect. Anna loved playing in the water and the huge sandbox. Hopefully we will have lots more days like today! :)

What a busy week!

2008-06-08T20:23:00.004-05:00

Anna had fun playing ball with Sugar Pops.
This is the outfit Anna decided to wear for our 90 degree weather.

Whew! School was out on Monday and I just hit the ground running. I know that I promised I would be better about posting, but it just didn't work out very well this week. SORRY!!!

One of the reasons I have been so busy is that I have accepted a part-time position at church for the summer. Our Children's pastor is moving to Nashville, which left us without any one at the North Campus. When they called to ask if I would consider taking this position, I quickly said NO! I knew that my main goal this summer was to stay home and be a mom. After the fourth phone call, I decided God was trying to say something to me! I went and talked to the board and decided that this was something I could help out with this summer. Luckily I am sharing the job with two other people, so this gives me the opportunity to still spend lots of time with Anna. Many of the things I need to do, can be done from home. Once the new pastor arrives, he will begin the process of selecting a new children's pastor.

This weekend we took Anna to the Rail Festival in Kankakee. They had an old coach car that we could walk through as well as a caboose. Anna is really into Thomas the train right now, so she seemed to really enjoy sitting on a real train.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate a little more this week so we can get out to the pool. I was able to get a membership to the local water park through school. I am looking forward to getting Anna out swimming. :)

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

2008-05-25T21:09:00.003-05:00

This weekend several of my friends got together and had our annual yard sale. My friend Beth lives on a very busy street that leads to the river access, so we have always had great success with our yard sales there. Thank goodness she was selling her decorative instruments, the kids had a great time playing "music" for all of our shoppers! :)
Thought I would add a picture of "Auntie" Shannon. Anna considers her part of our family as when naming off family members, Auntie Shannon is right up there with Mommy and Daddy!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of our cutie before we left for church this morning! She wanted to make sure everyone got a good look at her boo boo's from yesterday! We will have to start working on sitting ladylike!

Today we went back to our friends Beth and Kevin's house. The recently purchased a pontoon boat and invited us over for a ride. Today was a great day as it was sunny and 80 degrees. Yeah! It was fun to get together with friends we haven't seen in a while and enjoy a nice boat ride.

Only 4 days and two hours left of school! YEAH!! Hopefully my entries won't be so few and far between in the future.

Cute stories

2008-05-14T20:03:00.004-05:00

Yesterday Anna decided that it was time for her to go potty all by herself. She has been potty trained for several months now, but we usually are there to assist her with clothes, etc. Well, me being the great mom that I am, decided that she needs to be more independent and let her run off to the potty on her own. Well, she was back there for quite a while singing and having herself a grand ol' time. She came running back out, told me she had accomplished her task and proceeded to run outside to play on her swing set. A few minutes later she was back inside stating that she had to "go potty." This, of course threw up the red flags for me, and I proceeded back to the bathroom. There I found an empty roll of toilet paper and a brand new roll in little Miss Independents hands. The incredibly intelligent mother that I am forgot how exciting toilet paper can be for a two year old! :) She made sure she got it all in the toilet though! :) Luckily, the mess wasn't too bad and she was able to take care of all of her business "by herself!" :)

I also forgot to mention in my last posting about a card I received from one of my students. He arrived Friday morning with a card he made at home for me. His card said,
" Mrs. Starkey Happy Mothers Day! Mrs. Starkey ses Ana codl not make a card for mothers day I wanen to make a card Mrs. Starkey your grate love David.

Can you even stand it?? I read his card and stood there crying. He is a child that came to me speaking very very little english (no english at home) and now is one of the top kids in my class. I wish I could have 30 Davids! This is why I teach!

Hope you are having a good week! Only 12 day of school left! YIPPEEEEEEEEE!!! :)

I'm Baaaack!

2008-05-11T17:32:00.005-05:00

As you can see while I was preparing for my trip to Atlanta, Anna thought that she should be packed up in my suitcase. She even added a few pieces of her "coffee set." It was very hard to leave her as she is starting to realize what is going on when the suitcases come out. I really enjoyed my time in Atlanta though! The weather was gorgeous and the conference wasn't too bad either. :) I really started to get homesick on Wednesday and was more than ready to come home on Thursday.

My mom and step-dad Dave recently moved to Franklin, NC which happens to be located 2 short hours from Atlanta. They were kind enough to drive down for dinner on Monday night. It was great to visit with them as I haven't seen them since last July. We have already booked our tickets to fly out to see their new house in July.

Anna and I did lots of Mommy and me activities for Mother's Day today! She helped me with the laundry (as you can see we built a laundry train to make it more fun.) She also helped me make some cookies (she really liked the M & M's we added!) I love being a mom! :)

Life at Maximum speed

2008-05-03T08:30:00.003-05:00

As you can see, Anna is enjoying life at maximum speed. This is her friend Ben. He is the son of my friend Pam who takes care of Anna on Thursdays and Fridays. Ben and Anna are two peas in a pod, they act like they are brother and sister. Ben just can't wait for Anna to arrive on Thursday's and begs me everytime for her to stay longer. I am soooo thankful for Pam! She is so wonderful to Anna and just loves her so much. We have been fortunate to have such great child care this year. God sure has been good!
Well, I was home again for two days this week with a sick Anna. She was up several times on Monday night with a fever, so I called the sub service at 2am to tell them I wouldn't be in to work on Tuesday (Substitutes are so scarce, I wanted to make sure I was at the top of the list to get one.) She continued a 101 fever on Tuesday so I took her to see the doctor. The doctor saw lots of puss pockets on the back of her really red throat, she was sure it was strep, but the test came back negative. She put her on an antibiotic just to be sure. By early Wednesday morning her fever broke and she was feeling much better. She was still up a lot in the night on Wednesday so Mommy was super tired for work on Thursday. :$

I am leaving for Atlanta tomorrow afternoon. I will be attending the International Reading Conference. Several other teachers from my district will be attending as well. I am looking forward to getting away from school for a few days, although getting ready for a substitute for several days is NOT fun! Maybe Dave will post a few pictures of he and Anna having tons of fun without me! :)

Feeling much better!

2008-04-20T16:19:00.004-05:00

Anna looking sooo cute in her new summer clothes! Mommy was anxious to get everything out.
Our friends Kyle, Wendi and Connor Smith came to visit yesterday. Anna of course was out of her mind excited and couldn't wait for him to arrive. They were able to play on her new swing set and then we took them to the Children's museum here in town. They had a great time!

This has been a tough week for me! I have been down and out with a nasty sinus infection. I was sick the week before, but was feeling better by Sunday. Then Monday night I started to really feel terrible. Finally on Wednesday I went to the doctor to get some antibiotics to try and get rid of the evil infection. I am still not feeling my best, but anything is better than how I felt earlier in the week.

Many have asked if we felt the Earthquake at all. I hadn't slept well all week so by Friday morning at 4:30 am I was totally out of it. Dave never hears/feels anything so he didn't wake up either. Many of my work collegues felt it though, which is surprising because we are about 200 miles north of the actually earthquake site. It would have been fun to experience it though! :)

Thought you might enjoy a few pictures of Anna helping Daddy get the laundry started. She is very helpful getting the clothes in the basket, but then thinks she deserves a ride when she is finished! :)

Only 28 school days left!!!!!!!!! YIPPPEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to winter in Illinois

2008-04-13T14:57:00.005-05:00

Well, I haven't had much to report this week as we have been cooped up trying to stay warm. Last weekend we were outside without coats, this week/weekend is has done nothing but rain or snow and the temps have been in the 30's & 40's. I am super super super SICK of this weather. It looks as though this week is going to be much nicer, if not they may have to admit me to the pshyc ward because I am going to seriously LOSE IT!!!!

Anna attended the birthday party of a daycare friend yesterday. The party was actually at the gymnastics center where we go every Monday. Anna was thrilled to be able to go on anything she wanted without having to stay with her class like she usually does. As you can see in the pictures above, she had a great time! I think her favorite aparatus is the rings. I can't believe she is able to hang on and swing on her own. She does really well hanging on when the teacher flips her in class. Maybe my jesting about her being a gymnast isn't that far off. :)

Enjoying the warmer weather!

2008-04-06T19:36:00.004-05:00

Well, as you can see we throughly enjoyed being outside this weekend. Anna has been begging to get into the trailer for a bike ride, and it was finally warm enough to go for a nice ride. She loved every minute. :) I can't wait to get out and ride on a more regular basis. Dave has already been out riding quite a bit, but he is a little more die-hard than I am. He is planning to participate in a 50 mile Easter ride in two weeks.

We brought Anna's new tricycle up from the basement for it's official first ride. Anna is starting to understand how to pedal, but prefers to move it with her feet. I am sure she will be off and racing before too long. Hope all of you were able to enjoy some nice weather this weekend as well.

Yeah Daddy!! Superhero of the year!

2008-04-02T19:34:00.003-05:00

Well, as you can see my Daddy has done it again! My playset is finished and I am lovin' it!!! Today the weather was a little warmer so I was able to get out and enjoy my new playset to it's fullest. I hope some of you will come and play with me soon!

Love you lots!

Anna

Almost there and lovin' it!

2008-03-31T20:09:00.003-05:00

Well as you can see the playset is almost complete! Unfortunately the weather has not cooperated and the swings haven't been put up. Anna was quite happy with the current status though! She had so much fun climbing up and down and then finally enjoying the slide. Just after Dave and I asked how many times we would be taking her to the ER this summer, she feel off the ladder. UGGGHHHH!!! I am hoping she will no longer go down the ladder and instead use the slide. What do you think of my rope work? I did add a little elbow grease to this project! :) Really though, Dave worked soooo hard trying to get everything completed. He did an awesome job!

Thought you might also enjoy some new pictures of our budding gymnast! She is really starting to strut her stuff! :) Sorry the pictures are a little blurry, but she NEVER stops moving!!!

Super Daddy!

2008-03-29T14:48:00.002-05:00

Hey! It's me Anna! I am writing to show you how things are going with my new super cool playset. Daddy has been working on it all week (even though the temperatures have been in the 30's and 40's.) He put on the roof this morning and will work the rest of the day to get most of it finished. I hope to send you a final picture of my super cool playset tomorrow. Hopefully it will be of me having tons of fun! :)

Happy Easter!

2008-03-24T14:46:00.006-05:00

Anna had a great time hunting for eggs at Grandma & Sugar Pops house this year. We had to hide the eggs in the house as it was quite cool outside this year. She loved finding all of the eggs and enjoyed a few of the treats hidden inside.
We decorated eggs on Saturday with the egg kit Anna picked out herself, hence the Sesame Street theme. I was amazed at how bright and colorful the eggs were. Anna liked adding her own details with the stickers.

On Friday we took Anna to the park because the weather was so beautiful (high 60's.) It was amazing to see how much she has changed since we last visited the park. She is a climbing machine. Anything that looked like it was climbable, she tried! She had a great time and we had a lot of fun watching her. Unfortunately, the weather turned much cooler for the rest of the weekend. I am hoping the weather will get warmer this week during my Spring break.

And the winner is...

2008-03-15T13:38:00.003-05:00

We are the proud new owners of this beautiful playset (minus all of those kids!) Of course it is the coolest playset in the neighborhood, so we may have our fair share of munchkins running around! We picked it up this morning and are making room in our garage for all of the boxes. We are hoping the weather will warm up after Easter so we can start assembling! YEAH!!

Anna is finally starting to feel better. She was rid of the evil fever late yesterday morning and is slowly working back up to speed. She is still not her happy go lucky self yet, but we are starting to see some glimpses. Dave stayed home with her yesterday as she was still running a fever into the night and early AM Friday. We were supposed to go to an Easter activity at Dave's work this morning, but decided it would be best to keep her away from other kids and not push her to quick. I am sad because I know that she would have loved being around the other kids and playing. Oh well, maybe next year.

Home, home, home, again...

2008-03-13T13:11:00.005-05:00

Well, this is what mommy does when she is home with a sick Anna. As I mentioned in my previous email, this was going to be a very busy week. Well, it turned out a little different that I had planned. Anna woke up SEVERAL times Monday night crying with a fever. I stayed home with her Tuesday, but she was fine. Wednesday I was ready for work and woke her up and she was burning up with a 102 fever. So... Dave stayed home in the AM and I came home for the afternoon shift. I took her to the doctor yesterday afternoon and he said she had an upper resperitory/sinus infection. I gave her the antibiotics and hoped for the best. She continued to run a fever through the night and into this morning, so here I am!! :) When I put her down for her nap a little bit ago, she did not have a fever. I am hoping to return to work tomorrow as I have 27 report cards to finish by tomorrow afternoon, and I still have a few assessments to complete. YIKES!!! Oh well, Anna and I have had fun building towers and playing "coffee" party. She thinks she has a coffee set instead of a tea set, I guess my love of coffee has rubbed off on her. Dave said yesterday when he was home with her, they had coffee in every room of this house. I sure wish I had a picture of that to share with you! :)

Yipppeeee, it's bike ridin' time!

2008-03-10T19:57:00.003-05:00

As promised in my previous email, Dave and his new bike. Of course, little Miss Anna couldn't let Daddy ride his bike without her, so she snuck into the picture as well. We haven't brought Anna's new cool tricycle up from the basement yet, so she is riding one that was loaned to us. We are excited that her feet are almost able to push the peddles. The temperature is still quite cool (around 40,) but Dave just couldn't wait any longer! Tommorow is supposed to be in the 50's, Halleluiah!!! I am sooooooo sick of this stinking cold, snowy weather. If only I was independently wealthy, I would move to Hawaii tomorrow!! :)

Sunday with the Starkey's

2008-03-09T13:41:00.002-05:00

Just thought you might enjoy these cutie pie pictures! Anna was eating her breakfast before we left for church and I just had to take a picture. :)

We spent the day in Naperville, IL yesterday. Dave wanted to go up to the bike store to look at bikes. He has been thinking about buying himself a new bike for a long time, but kept holding off until he was sure he LOVED riding. He found a very nice bike and is now the proud owner of a beautiful road bike. He was hoping he might get out for a ride today, but of course the weather is not cooperating (30 is a little cold for even a little ride.) The weather man says we might hit 50 this week so he will be watching the weather very closely. We will be looking for fun places to ride this summer. Know of any good places??? He is really hoping to get in some good riding when we travel to his parents house for Easter. They have some great hills for him to ride. I will post a picture of Dave and his new bike when the weather cooperates.

We also looked at another playset yesterday. Some friends of ours have a membership to Costco and told us about the playset they saw. It is a very nice set at a fraction of the cost of those we saw at Rainbow. We went out in the backyard today to measure and see what it will look like in our yard. The nice thing about this set is all of the wood is precut so it would save Dave lots of time hauling wood home and getting everything cut. Of course this may not be a good thing because that means no new tools. :) I will keep you posted, I know you can't wait to find out what we will choose.

Busy week ahead as it is assessment/testing time at school. I just love this time of the year. Parent/Teacher conferences are the week after so I have a lot of work to do. At least Spring break starts right after we are finished with conferences so that will be something to look forward to! :)

More Fun!

2008-03-04T19:22:00.000-06:00

We recently visited the showroom for Rainbow Play Equipment. WOW!! We had heard about this company through some friends and knew that it was pretty high end stuff. We basically went to get ideas for our future play set. Well, these sets were incredible! Of course there was a price tag that was a shocker as well. They had many different sizes and the largest in the showroom was only $22,000! Well at least Anna had a ball playing on everything and trying out new things. I would definately recommend these playsets to anyone who has some extra change laying around. Of course we would always accept donations to those of us who are less fortunate. Poor Anna!

Casmir Pulaski, Gotta love that guy!

2008-03-03T19:23:00.000-06:00

Ode to Casmir…
Dear O Casmir, I love you so…
you’re a hero for sure
in the great city of Chicago

A Polish General I’m told
a hero to behold
I’m just glad for the day at home
as I celebrate with my coffee and scone!

Can you tell I have enjoyed my day at home??? :)

As you can see we have ourselves a little fish! This weekend we traveled to Arlington Heights, IL with our friends Kyle and Wendi Smith. We met them at a hotel/water park there. It was great for the kids as there was a large pool/slide area that was the perfect depth for them. Connor enjoyed going down the slides as much as possible while Anna loved realized she could touch the bottom while on her hands and knees.
This was the closest we could get Connor to Anna. He is much more interested in slides than girls! :) Our little bathing beauty! It was fun to watch her explore and try new things! :)

PS - Soon after we got back to the room to get a bath and get ready for bed, Anna realized that we had brought Connor's jammies. She immediately gave his jammies to him (we had ajoining rooms) and proceeded to put her own jammies on. So far she has not asked for his jammies and seems quite content to wear her own! Too Funny! :) I know you will be sad to not see her in those blue jammies anymore.

Look what we did!!!

2008-02-26T19:33:00.001-06:00

This weeked Dave decided he was going to organize Anna's closet. We have been wanting to get new shelving instead of the wooden rods. We desperately needed shelving to help us get organized. Of course a simple project it was not, as the original hardware was very difficult to remove and some drywall work needed to be done before he could start. Of course we couldn't do all of that and not paint. So... a two hour project turned in to two days! It was hard to take a good picture, but you can see off to the side are a half wall of shelves as well. YEAAAAAHHH! Organizition is sooo exciting! :) As you will also notice, Anna is STILL wearing Connor's jammies. She refuses to wear anything else! I did finally talk her into wear her cute ballerina jammies tonight so I could wash Connor's. She has also asked EVERY morning to wear Connor's jammies to Ms. Carol's (daycare.) Somehow I have sidetracked her and she has worn her clothes instead!

Anna is now taking gymnastic classes! She started yesterday and boy was that fun to watch. Anna is usually a pretty good listener, but she sure had trouble last night. The gym was filled with three or more other classes going on at the same time. She was sure that she was supposed to be involved in all of those classes as well. She would complete the task asked of her and take off! Good thing there are only 6 two-year olds in the class. Sorry the first two pictures aren't super clear, I was standing in the parents section and couldn't get the best pictures!

Just me and my Baby!

2008-02-20T19:18:00.000-06:00

Thought you might enjoy this cute picture of Anna and her Baby. Recently Grandma sent Anna a cute pink hat, as seen in previous pictures. Well, Anna was sure that Baby needed a cute hat as well, so Grandma kindly made one for Baby too! When we left this morning she put Baby's hat on then promptly said "coat?" She is getting the hang of the going out routine! :) Speaking of routine, last night Dave gave Anna a bath and was getting her jammies on when I came in to help. Anna then stood up and said "Mommy's turn, bye-bye Daddy!" She knew that it was Mommy's turn to put on her lotion and read her a story. We are amazed how quickly she is learning to say things. She now has an opinion of what she will wear. "Jeans Mommy, Jeans please!" For the last two days she only wants to wear jeans. Could this really be starting already? :)

Way too much on my plate!

2008-02-19T21:47:00.000-06:00

Ok, so after the Saturday with nothing to do... I suddenly found my schedule full again. :+ I apologize for my tardiness in posting. I am attaching a few pictures from the past few days. Anna's future beau had his second birthday party on Saturday. She loves going to Connor's house because he has the coolest toys. As you can see she really enjoyed playing chef. Connor's kitchen has an outdoor grill (the MANLY kitchen) and she was quite the grill master. It was surprising to us that she knew so much about grilling. We don't recall a time that she was close enough to observe the fine art of grilling. It must be that genius shinning through once again. I do believe we need to get her signed up for gifted classes! :) We forgot to bring jammies for Anna to wear home that evening, so we borrowed a pair of Connor's thinking it wouldn't make a difference to her. She of course was happy to wear these cute jammies and now insists that she wear "Connor's jammies" everynight! Good thing she doesn't wear them out in public as everyone will really think she is a boy. I can't wait for her hair to grow out so everyone quits calling her a boy! She could be wearing ALL pink including a PINK hairbow and people will still say "What a cute little guy!" URRRGHHH! Not that I have issues with that or anything!

I have been dealing with a bad case of hives over the past several days! It started last Thursday morning and has continually gotten worse. Sunday was the worst day as I wanted to pull every strand of my hair out! I have no idea what in the world has caused this, but I am glad they are finally going away.

Well, another busy week ahead! It was nice to have to day off yesterday and Casmir Pulaski day is only two short weeks away! Yeah !!! :) Gotta love that guy!

A Saturday with nothing to do...

2008-02-09T13:23:00.000-06:00

So these are the kind of things we do on a day with nothing planned! Anna decided that today was the day she was going to pick out what she was going to wear. As you can see she made an excellent choice! :) Usually the swimsuit is not an option, but I recently washed it so it would be ready for a trip in a few weeks. She found it right away and decided that is what she wanted to wear. Of course we can't forget the boots, as this is the current footwear of choice, even with a really cute Sunday dress! :$ We decided the outfit above would not do in the cold weather so this is the final selection. She got the outfit for her birthday and Grandma Balsley made her a new cutie pink hat. :)
This picture was taken at 3 months!
This picture today!!! What a huge shocker for mommy! We were playing with her babies and she decided they needed to go for a ride in the laundry basket. Well obviously they were have way to much fun for her to not join in! :) All of this excitment before noon! I wonder what the rest of the day will hold???

Blessings abound...

2008-02-07T20:00:00.000-06:00

Time sure flies when you are having fun! I can't believe that I am already celebrating another birthday. But, it is on days like this that I celebrate how blessed I am! So many of you have sent cards, called or emailed birthday wishes. I am truly overwhelmed by the love I have felt this week. Thank you sooo much for celebrating me! :) The picture above not only makes me wish that I was back in Hawaii, but reminds me of all of the great times I have been able to experience over the past year. God is soooo good!!!!

Snow storm fun!

2008-02-04T19:54:00.000-06:00

Well, I have now figured out how to add pictures! Yeah! As you can see we have been the lucky receipients of LOTS of snow. It has been a ton of fun taking Anna outside to play. She was so excited when we built "snowy." She also had a lot of fun helping daddy clear the driveway. Anna has yet to understand that some of her toys are not meant to be used in the winter. Oh well, she had fun. It sure was nice to have a three day weekend. I think this was the first weekend we have not had a full schedule since before Thanksgiving. I have meetings tomorrow so I won't be in the classroom. This is a very good thing as I will get a chance to sleep in an extra 1/2 hour. Hopefully Anna will cooperate with this plan. I am hoping to have a little time to go through our Hawaii pictures so I can so you some of the amazing pictures we took. I sure wish we were back there. Could someone please tell me why I live in the frozen tundra?

My first try!

2008-02-01T08:23:00.000-06:00

Hello Everyone!

I finally have a day off! :) We are in the midst of a winter storm and I have a SNOW DAY! YIPPEEE!!!!!! I have been wanting to start a blog since my friend Amy started hers. I love been able to keep up with her family even though we are not able to talk all of the time. Thanks Amy!

I am going to keep this short until I figure out how this all works. Keep watching for more entries in the future.