A Group Of Stahrs

Our Family Life…All Together

11 Jan 2011
3 Comments

Ten On Tuesday

1.  Our final outing over Christmas break was to the Denver Aquarium.  It was snowing by the time we got to Denver and when we were ready to leave, there was already about 3 inches of snow on the ground.  It took 2 1/2 hours to get home when it should have been about an hour!

2.  No worries though.  Jeremiah handled it well!  I never dry in that stuff if I don’t have to.

3.  The kids were fond of the fish and things we saw.  The tarantula was a favorite…

and these two bearded dragons…I wonder what they were saying to each other…

and this sting ray was smiling at me, I think…

You had to know I was going to include a Stahr Fish…

4.  My loves all on the bridge…

5.  Check out Jacob’s face.  It makes me laugh every time I see this picture.  Especially since he is so close to the mermaid’s chest. 

6.  Tomorrow Mazie turns 9.  NINE YEARS, people!  How the heck did that happen?

7.  I was just thinking about when I was carrying her in my belly.  I had back labor on this night all those years ago.  I decided to take a hot shower and go to bed.  At 2:30am that labor started up again with a vengeance and later that evening arrived a beautiful, squeaky (yes, she kind of squeaked instead of cried)little girl.  *sigh*

8.  She wants to wait until tomorrow after supper to open all her presents!

9.  Jamie is the official Light Operator tomorrow night.  Don’t know what a Light Operator is?  Well, I’ll tell you it’s a big job!  She is in charge of turning out the lights at just the right moment and starts the singing.  Then she has to turn the lights on at the exact right moment so no one drops any cake or gets scared in the dark!  She is super excited.

10.  Jacob thinks tomorrow is when he turns four and gets to open presents.  He will be very happy for Mazie when she is finished with all her things and he gets to play with her…if she lets him!

Happy Tuesday

Posted in Adventures, Kids, Random and tagged , , ,
10 Jan 2011

Snow Day

Today was a snow day.  Yep, we got an extended weekend due to snow.  These pictures are from a day or two before New Years when we got our first snow.  However, you can rest assured that the same playing was going on today!  Although Jacob did stay out a little longer than last time.

Jacob is a master when it comes to making snow angels.  He should be since he is constantly practicing on the carpet…

He also enjoys knocking the snow off of the tree…

The girls went to work, cleaning off the play set…

which made Jacob want to try.  So dad put more snow on the slide so he could try…

I think that smile says it all.  There was also a little taste testing.  Don’t worry, we made sure it wasn’t yellow!

Back to school tomorrow!

Posted in Adventures, Kids and tagged ,
08 Jan 2011
1 Comment

Jeremiah’s Birthday

Today Jeremiah is no longer able to taunt me about being 5 weeks older.  He had his turn today!  Now we are the same age.   The kids gave him lots of birthday kisses.  Sometimes at the same time…

And they each gave him their handmade cards and fun gifts.  The surest way to let everyone know what is inside a gift or package is to let Jacob know.  So that’s why he had no idea what was inside when Dad asked what was in the box…

I think Jacob was just as excited to open presents as Dad was!  After a yummy dinner of homemade lasagna, it was onto the cake.   And the kids belted out “happy birthday” while Dad prepared for blowing out the candles…

Jeremiah’s favorite is red velvet with peanut butter icing.

Happy Birthday, Jeremiah!  We love you!!

Posted in birthdays and tagged
06 Jan 2011
1 Comment

Outing #2

Our second outing was to the Buell Children’s Museum.  Mazie had been there on a field trip last year and was so excited about it so we decided to check it out as a family. 

When we walked in there was this little corner of dress up stuff and the girls went straight to it.  Can you believe she is turning 9?

While the girls were doing, well, girly things, Jacob decided to jump onto the computer center they had set up for kids to color cool pictures of Christmas-y themed pages…

One of the highlights was the Odyssey room.  They transformed it from a place where you could pretend you were in space and catching planets to a magical winter wonderland where you could see what you would be like as a snowman!  So the fam stood in front of this huge screen and a projector made snowmen based on your height…

Another big highlight was building a playhouse.  Jacob and Dad set out to do just that…

Then Mazie came along and talked Jacob into sitting inside the playhouse until Dad was finished…

But Jamie was all about it.  She was bossing, I mean, instructing dad to put that board there and this little one here and “don’t forget the window”…

Then when it was all done and Jamie was pleased with the work, they tore it down for other kids to build. 

This museum was fun but it took us only two hours to do everything.  I think it is set up for classes to visit instead of families.  However, it would be the type of thing to do often if you live near it (instead of our hour-long drive, one way).  But we did have fun and that’s what matters!

Posted in Adventures, Family and tagged , ,
04 Jan 2011
4 Comments

Ten On Tuesday

1.  All the kids have started back to school and it has been quiet!  The girls started back yesterday and Jacob started back today.  I love school!

2.  Now if only I could get school to start for my husband before January 18.  Just kidding. I love you, hunny! 😉

3.  Jeremiah did start his big project today.  Operation Get The Basement Organized!  It actually looks so much better and he’s not even half way done. 

4.  I know Christmas is over and we’ve had our tree and decorations down since the day after Christmas but we’re still singing the song.  Probably will be until June, in fact. 

5.  Did you know that Frosty The Snowman carried a roast beef to the billiage?  Yep, that’s right.  Jacob’s version of the beloved song is: Down to the Billiage, with a roast beef in his hand.  It’s simply too funny to correct.  He’ll get it right next year anyway.

6.  He thinks that is what the Chipmunks are singing anyway.  We have the Chipmunks coming out our ears!

7.  We had a lovely New Years Day.  The Egberts came for a traditional pork and sauerkraut meal and we also celebrated Rachel’s birthday!  I made her a topsy-turvy cake.  You can read about it more over at the cake site.

8.  I’ve been told there’s a big birthday coming this weekend.  My dear husband is finally going to be the same age as me and can no longer taunt me about being older (at least until December 4)!

9.  There is another special birthday coming after that.  Mazie called Mickey Mouse on Sunday to let him know she was turning 9.  It was pretty cool how they had it set up.  Mickey even spoke to her.  This is all pretty funny since she couldn’t even hold the phone at Disneyland when she turned 3!  Her name may be scrolling on the birthday list on PlayHouse Disney, if you watch.

10.  I thought maybe I would have a little bit of a vacation when the kids started back to school.  But guess what?  Time doesn’t slow down when you want it to!  Who knew?

Happy Tuesday!

Posted in birthdays, Family, Friends, Kids, Random
03 Jan 2011
2 Comments

Outing #1

Our first outing over Winter break was to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  The kids were so excited to see all the displays of bugs when we walked in.

But our favorite exhibit was the Space Odyssey, by far!  There was so much to do there.  Jacob directed a rocked ship with a joy stick…

Mazie learned about waning and waxing of the moon as she pretended to be Earth…

We learned new things about the different animals.  I think Jamie asked me a dozen times if the animals were real and you could see Jacob watching to see if any would move. 

The dinosaurs were a close second.  I think Jacob knew most of the types of dinos and if he didn’t he quickly learned!

But anywhere the kids were together, they were happy…

Posted in Adventures and tagged , , ,
29 Dec 2010
2 Comments

The Big Christmas Eve/Day Post

This post was supposed to be blogged yesterday but I decided to watch a movie with my love instead!  So here we go.  Christmas eve was just lovely.  We let the kids open some of their gifts so it wouldn’t be so overwhelming on Christmas day.  It’s better for everyone if we do that!

Dad and Jacob got the same gift from Stahr Mam and Pappy John…this year’s Hess truck…

When it was time to get ready for bed, the kids did a quick check on where Santa was (noradsanta.org)

and set out a plate of cookies, a plate of carrots, a bowl of reindeer food, and a cup of milk which Santa and his reindeer made a big mess of…

The kids also put letters out for Santa and he replied with his letter like he does every year.  Mazie had the honor of reading Santa’s letter this year…

This was the before picture…

I didn’t take an after because anyone who has children or has seen children open gifts knows what that looks like!  And Santa was busy collecting the paper scraps anyway.  So it was relatively tidy during the whole process. 

Isn’t he a handsome Santa?

The kids were pretty pleased with all their gifts this year.  everyone went way overboard, as usual!

We had a fun Christmas day.  We relaxed, tried out all our gifts, relaxed, had a yummy brisket dinner, relaxed, ate lots of cookies and even played with a few…

Jacob decided to put on a puppet show with one of the gingerbread pops.  It ended with him biting more off of his head…

The End!

Posted in Holidays and tagged
24 Dec 2010
3 Comments

It’s A Wonderful Life!

We’ve been busy this week.  But I’m going to share with you some of the Christmas-y things we’ve been doing.  The kids helped make cookies one day this week.  Jacob was first…

He rolled out the sugar cookie dough…

Pressed the snoopy cookie cutter into the dough…

and out came a giant cookie…

He was so proud.   Then it was Jamie’s turn.  She was all about putting the ingredients into Ruby…

and watching the dough mix.  Then she was very determined to roll her cookies perfectly into the oats before placing them onto the cookie sheet…

While they were baking, she cleaned up her mess.  She does bake like her mama…

Her end result…Peanut butter oatmeal cookies with chocolate and peanut butter drizzle…

Then it was Mazie’s turn.  She decided to make peanut butter temptations.  She insisted on unwrapping (and enjoying a few) the candies.

She, too, was happy to clean up after herself…

No pictures of those but they are yummy!  More of the sugar cookies…

Also another tradition here in our house is to Santa watch.  The kids checked out where Santa was before they headed for bath time and bed.  They looked at a few of the videos from some of the places he’s already been to.  It’s quite fun to see their excitement…

So with lots of visions in their heads they are fast asleep while I am enjoying It’s A Wonderful Life with my dear husband.  It truly is A Wonderful Life on this special night.  Happy Christmas, everyone!

Posted in Family, Holidays and tagged , ,
19 Dec 2010
6 Comments

Taekwondo Test

Yesterday, Jamie and I tested for our next belts in taekwondo.  I have to say, that Jamie rocked her part of the test!  She was the only red senior belt testing for red senior II.  So when Master Pejo called her up to test, she was pretty nervous but used her self-control to keep it hidden.  I knew she was nervous but she didn’t show it while she was actually testing!

Here she is doing her poomse…Tae Guek Chil Jang…

kyroogi formulas…

one-step sparring…

As you can see, she was the smallest on top of being the only red senior.  A little bit for her to swallow.  But she did so great.  It was time for her to stand in front of everyone to break her boards.  She had a combination board break this time.  She had to do an elbow strike…

and ax kick…

and broke both boards on the first try.  She was so proud.  You could just see it in her face!  I love that look.  Then it was time for her to receive her new belt.  It looks the same but she has white tape at the ends to show she is a red senior II belt.  Dae Sabumnim was there to present the belts…

Then it was my turn.  Poomse, one-step sparring, and kyroogi formulas…

and my board break.  I had to do dero ilbo junjin round house (spinning round house)…

Then onto my new belt.  It looks just like Jamie’s without the stripes at the end…

The best part is now Jamie and I can practice and go to class together!  Oh, and Jamie got a medal for have 15 or more blue character stripes on her belt.  She also had the most of the girls and received the trophy!

It was a great morning!  Our treat is some dark chocolate peppermint bark (for the red and white belts).

Posted in Taekwondo and tagged
17 Dec 2010
2 Comments

Christmas Parties 2 and 3

So today the girls had their parties.  It happened to be a half day which meant their parties were at the same time.  No worries though…Jacob and I had a blast at Jamie’s party.  Jacob and Jamie colored (together) a candy cane and put it together.  Jamie decorated a sugar cookie and cut it in half for Jacob to share.  They shared a plate of food too.  After a bunch of treats (read: way too many) were handed out, it was time to leave for the day!

While we were having fun at Jamie’s party, Jeremiah went to Mazie’s party.  The fourth graders had a project ready to go.  They were building graham cracker houses.  Mazie said she couldn’t quite figure out how to make a pointy roof with the graham crackers so her house became an apartment.  It did take the entire hour of the party to create this living palace but it was fun to watch…

So now we’ve started our two weeks of Winter break and we’ve got a few things planned over those two weeks!

Posted in Holidays, Kids and tagged

Post Navigation

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →