Always my favorite time of year for sure! We had a great Spring Break! We've been planning for AGES to take Jordan to see my grandma, she's wanted to take a trip for so long, but it's always a fiasco with a little one in tow so I've promised her a girl's only trip and finally it worked out that we were able to do just that. We invited Maddie to go with us, figured it'd be fun for both of them, they could entertain each other, spend time with grandma and allow the adults to spend time together as well.  We left on Saturday bright and early. The girls had a blast in the car together, they never shut up. They played Go Fish!, ate snacks and listened to music. We got out at the Texas border and took a picture and then got to grandma's house at around 2ish. The girls were so excited to be there, we visited for a couple of hours and then Aunt Sandy showed up. She'd stopped at Hobby Lobby (which was a fiasco in itself if you know my Aunt Sandy......she was a tiny bit overwhelmed by Hobby Lobby, haha, she found an escort thought :) and picked up a TON of art projects and crafts for the girls, such a great idea! Once Sandy got there the girls were busy busy busy! We had a great dinner with my grandparents and Sandy and then watched a movie together before bed. We tried putting the girls to bed a little earlier and the goofballs giggled on the blowup mattress until we had to go in and get onto them for being too loud. The next morning we went to a mall in Tyler, had fun shopping around. We ate lunch out, the girls enjoyed their Mexican food. Then we played some more at grandmas house and watched The Secret Life of Bees together before bed. Monday morning grandma took the girls out on the golf cart to look at the lake and the great houses. They had a BLAST! We headed home Monday afternoon. Jordan was just thrilled that she'd gotten to take a girl's trip!

Let's see, other Starr happennings....the girls both had the flu about a week before spring break. Tatum went to bed Tuesday night and when she woke up Wed morning she was bright red and burning up, 103 degree fever. Took her in and sure enough, it was the flu. Jordan had a great day at school Wed, got home and within 90 minutes was running 103, so we kept her home the rest of the week and she was much better by the weekend. It was rough though, it'll surely be the last year we don't get flu shots!

The girls had the flu on my actual birthday, so that day wasn't exactly a day of celebration! Mom had planned a really yummy dinner and luckily we were able to postpone it without ruining all of our yummy seafood. On the Monday before my bday Jess took me to see New Kids on the Block! We had the BEST time, man they put on an amazing show! We saw 5 people we worked with at Arby's and sat and screamed with thousands of girls our age who had probably been screaming at the concert we went to when we were 12 years old! We had the best time! We got to celebrate with a bday lunch on Sunday, mom did a Cajun Boiling Pot type lunch....crab legs, lobster, shrimp, potatoes, sausage and corn. It was fabulous! And then Jess made some "death by butter" type brownies, haha. They were a blonde brownie with maple butter sauce, oh my! So fun!

And the last news......my baby boy is FOUR!!!! He had a bday on Saturday. We pass a fire station every time we go to church and he's just fascinated with watching for the trucks to be out or catching a glimpse of a fireman, and one day he said "I'm gonna be a fiweman when I gwo up!"........soooo I called and the fire station does free tours for groups so we had his party at the fire station and then had plans to go to the park up the street afterwards. It ended up being too chilly for the park, but the fire station was soooo much fun! The firemen were so sweet and took a lot of time with the kids, letting them climb up in the trucks, push buttons, do a mock fire run, or whatever they call it, and then pulled the trucks out for picture time. We toured inside and saw where they sleep and eat, it was really neat! Then we came back to our house for presents and cake. Jess did an AMAZING job on the firetruck cake, it was so cute!

We bought him a bicycle for his bday......Caleb took him out that morning to ride it before his party. He pushed him, standing right behind him, to the next house but then wanted to let him pedal back by himself (it has training wheels).....Alex was on it about 5.6 seconds before he had his first crash :( Poor guy hopped off, started jumping around and shaking it off and then without ever crying said "I'm not afraid of dat ting!" HAHA! We laughed so hard! He asks to ride it each day, but now wants to stay in the house and ride it on the carpet, we'll have to change that!

Well, we're off for a playdate at the mall with Jess!

I made my grandpa's stew for dinner last week....always makes me miss him! Alex and Tatum adore it, we were sitting down to eat  and they started shovelling their spoons into their mouths. Alex looked up at one point and said "What are dese owange tings in heah???" (or 'what are these orange things in here' for those of us who don't read Alexisms well). I told him they were carrots and he scooped up another one and said "Oh I love dese cawots!" Made me giggle!

It's been a while since I sat and really updated the blog, I thought this might be a good time for that! I'm babysitting two extra kids today, 5 kids under 3 years old, it's been a wild day, but they're all napping. Soooo, I grabbed a cup of coffee, turned off the tv and have had some quiet time.

Let's see....a Jordan update. Hmmm, she just joined Junior Great Books and is really excited about getting her first book to read. She'll get to go during lunch once a week to discuss her book, she's very excited to do a book club like mommy! She's also attending a workshop each Friday after school for a couple of months with some Tulsa architects. Some women in the architect field are coming to teach them about the field and introduce them to some local businesswomen. She really enjoyed the first one and has her first assignment to take a picture of a local building and find out some history and interesting facts about it. She chose daddy's high school. Should be fun!

Alex update: the boy LOVES school! He adores it. It's been one of the best decisions we've made for him. He was so so ready for interaction with kids his age. One of his favorite things to do is buy his own lunch. His favorite is "chiwi and cheese and fwuit"! Caleb asked him one night when he was putting him to bed how school was going and he put his little arms under his head like he was star-gazing and with this cute little amazed look he listed off some of the reasons school was awesome "They have cars and wace twacks, and awmy men, and Miss Shelly makes me wunch...."he just adores it! We did have a minor incident last week when he came home with some toys from Mrs. Lewellen's class (the other 3 year old teacher next door). We're convinced that leaving Mimi's each time with a bag full of toys he shops through the toybox for has probably spoiled him a bit. So we had a little lesson on how you ask for things and what stealing is and I think his innocent little 3 year old head learned something new. He took a little apology note and a bag full of Mrs. Lewellens' toys back to school on Thursday that week. She cracked up and swears he's the cutest thing ever and could have just kept the toys....wouldn't that have taught him a great lesson? haha

And Tatum.....oh Tatum :) I think she's hit that terrible 2's stage. She's not terrible, but boy does that girl have things in her head that she wants to accomplish and anything or anyone who stands in the way of those visions, boy do they pay! She knows how to bat those eyelashes at daddy and she would really prefer that he save all his his hugs and kisses for her....God forbid he lay a kiss or hug on mommy, she WILL be right behind it with some Tatum lovin' of her own. She's a mess. She's starting to calm down a tiny bit, she enjoys listening to a book, really really enjoys time with Jordan reading to her, it's a really sweet time usually right before bed. Jordan's such a great big sister and loves to read to her.

and a small update on me....I've decided to return to work next year. Several things played a factor in my decision, but the biggest reason is financial. The kids are getting older and their activities are costing more money, feeding our family of five is getting more and more expensive....and quite frankly with the downfall of our economy right now, it sounds wise to return to work when the district HAS to rehire me. I've taken two years of FMLA, after one year I was guaranteed a position at MacArthur, after two years I was no longer guaranteed MacA, but still guaranteed a position. So last week I told a good friend at church about my intentions and she told me she thought there'd be an opening at her school. I emailed her principal and asked to meet with me informally. So I went in on Tuesday and after chatting for a little while he offered me four different positions that he thought would be available. I believe I'll be doing 4th grade at Disney Elem. I'm excited about that! He told me I still have time to interview at other schools if I'd like, but the job is mine if I want it, so we'll make it official as soon as the allocations for next year come out. I think it'll be fun. I'm nervous about going back into the classroom, leaving Tatum, etc. Jess has offered to watch Tatum for me, such a huge huge blessing. I know she'll have fun, she'll be so so well cared for, and she'll just do great with her. I'm sad that I won't be home with her all day anymore, but since I've had this in-home job of taking care of other people's children it hasn't always felt like I'm a true stay at home mom, my attention's always been split. So, I really think we'll do this for a year, we'll put Tatum in the 3 year old program we did for Jordan and Alex after that. I really feel it's the best decision for us.....

Well, I hear one of the five kiddos waking up, better run....

The things they say crack me up!!!

Alex went to climb into bed and noticed that Jordan had grabbed his pillow and taken it to the top bunk with her. He was LIVID with her, put his hands on his hips and yelled "You are DISGUSTING!" Haha, not sure what was so sickening about it, but boy did it disturb him!

Last night on American Idol there was a girl who'd grown up homeless, her mom and her siblings had gone from shelter to shelter. Jordan asked what homeless meant and I told and asked her if that made her so much more thankful for what God's given us and that her daddy works really hard to provide for his family and she said "Oh yes it does" and then thought for a minute and said "I know how they could get some money though!" and I asked her how and she said "They could just go on Deal or No Deal!.......or get a job or something" :) WOW, it's that easy huh? I thought it was innocently cute of her.

My baby boy goes to preschool now! Well, a K3 program at Southpark, it's where we sent Jordan when she was at that "missed the cutoff for preschool but really needs social interaction and a little mmmph" stage. I enrolled him over the break so that he could start right as the 2nd semester started. He was THRILLED!!! We bought a backpack in Branson, Mimi bought him a blanket for naptime and he couldn't WAIT to buy his lunch. On his first day I woke him up and he eagerly got his clothes on and told me he wanted to take his lunch in his choo-choo lunchbox, so I packed him a sammy, some pretzels, some fruit snacks and a juice and loaded up 3 18 month olds to tag along with us as we dropped him off for his first day. Took several pictures and we skipped into class. Of course he clammed up when we got there, wouldn't look anyone in the eyes, but complied with where to sit and what to do and I left.....left my little boy who's only "shtree" in preschool! WAH! I asked him before we left if he wanted to take his duckie for naptime and he said "no mom, I won't be scared at my school!" Duh mom, big boy stuff! Caleb's principal overheard him talking about it being Alex's first day and sent him home early to pick him up, very sweet gesture! Caleb said his teacher gave a great report about his first day and even mentioned how proud she was of Grams (Caleb's mom who teaches 1st grade there) for only checking on him 4-5 times and not every 30 minutes as she did when Jordan was there :) I think he's really really going to like it! He already insists on buying his lunch, and just thought he was Mr. Hot Stuff for buying his own "chiwi wif cheese and a yummy cookie" that Mrs. Shelly made him, haha.

So this morning Alex didn't want the muffins I made for breakfast. He said "I want those things I had last time....." Well, as descriptive and narrow as he made the search I still didn't understand so I asked him to repeat it and he did. Still not quite understanding what those thingies were I said "Alex, can you show me what you're talking about???" and he said "Uh momma, I can't do dis all day!" and stormed off.

Oh my! Good thing he's cute :)

Wow, it's been a while since I wrote....must have gotten busy with the holidays and stuff! We had a busy, busy holiday month, but lots and lots of fun and many great memories! I had fun shopping for the kids for Christmas (so much fun that I am STILL finding things I hid from the kids....guess I'll save them for next year, haha, IF I remember them then).

The first Monday of our break we went to Branson. We rented a suite at the Still Waters Resort. It was really nice, it had a kitchen, a nice living room with a fireplace, a huge bedroom and nice jacuzzi bathtub and a great view of the lake and hills. When we first pulled up Alex said "We got a new house?????" and a bit later he said "I wike our new Bransas house momma!" I think Branson and Kansas have been intertwined in his little mind b/c that's what he calls it, Bransas. The first day we were there we did Silver Dollar City. It was freezing cold, but the next day was suppose to be raining AND cold, so we chose just cold and made a day of it. We bundled up in layers upon layers, took the warming pads my dad sent with us (how cute is he? he was digging up warming things and gloves for hours for us all). We LOVED all the Christmas decorations, everything was so so pretty and the kids were so excited to be there! It took about 7 minutes for a little of the excitement to diminish for Alex and Tatum though, they were so cold they were frozen quiet. We took this cute bunting for Tatum and she was so bundled up all you could see were her cheeks. Nothing slowed Jordan down though, she bounced up and down the sidewalks, which were surprisingly very quiet. We went in lots of shops and had a great day despite the cold. Jordan wanted to stay long enough for the evening parade and we thought we'd make it, but right before it started Tatum freaked out, she'd had enough of the frigid temp and was ready for the warmth, so we let Jordan stay with Grams and Pops and Kristi and the 4 of us went back to the resort to warm up.

The 2nd day we were there we went to the outlets and shopped, that was a lot of fun. Then in the evening we went to Branson Landing, so so pretty! The kids saw Santa and got their pic taken. Tatum was LESS than thrilled, well she was SO less than thrilled that she screamed bloody murder.....but who doesn't have a screaming with Santa pic??? Caleb took the kids to see Desperaux, and then we all met up for dinner at the Landing, it was a nice, nice day! Alex squealed when he saw a fudge shop "Daddy, wook, I gotta show you somfing.....it's a big giant brownie store!" haha, of course daddy obliged and Alex skipped through Branson Landing with a new backpack and some peanut buttah fudge inside it :)


We came back on Christmas Eve and were home in time for the kids to nap before the festivities at mom's house. Mom slaved in the kitchen ALL day and we had the yummiest dinner....ham, turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, 6 different pies. The kids decorated a gingerbread house....Jordan was the most interested in that, she was so articulate about what she wanted and where she wanted it and it was a good thing Alex has a short attention span b/c she got to do most of it with the help of only Maddie. The guys played Guitar Hero or RockBand or something like that, it was comical. They sang and drummed and strummed the guitar, it was a lot of fun. My hubby's NOT a rapper :) My son is a mighty fine drummer though! and my mom surprised me with a few solo's I wasn't aware she knew the words to! The kids got spoiled rotten with tons of fun stuff to fill the house, they were so excited with their new things. Caleb had me call my mom at about 9:30 and tell her where he thought she may end up in her afterlife for buying a racetrack that took TWO hours to assemble. Alex thinks it's the coolest thing though, you shake the cars up and they race around these two levels of track, very cool! Jordan got some ultra neat American Girl furniture for her dolls and a matching robe for her and  her doll. Tatum got a rocking horse that plays a game on the computer. She loves bouncing on that thing!

Christmas morning was so fun! Jordan woke up with a nightmare at about 5am. I woke with her and calmed her down by saying "Santa's been here....wanna go peek???" She bounded to the living room and the joy on her face when she saw her new Kit doll and stocking full of goodies was good enough to make up for being woken at 5am. So so sweet, she snuck back in bed and I'm not sure if she slept anymore.....patiently waiting for Alex to wake up as well. Jordan politely tapped on my shoulder at about 7:30 and said she could hear Tatum, so both the girls got up and saw all of their new things, so so fun. Then Alex strolled out of bed and quickly woke up when he saw his new gorilla mountain and stocking full of fun things as well. We had a great morning as a family and then drove to Arkansas for a soup dinner and even more gifts. After that we drove home for 30 minutes and then headed to my grandma's house for a Dirty Santa game and snacks GALORE! It was fun, we played a game where grandma had a bag full of presents, we passed them around as she read a story "Twinkle, Twinkle Christmas Star"....full of laughs...both at our inability to follow directions and Baker's inability to enjoy anything family oriented, haha. We had fun though, the kids enjoyed playing with each other and had a great time as well!

The next day we did Christmas with Caleb's parents.....another day full of presents and MORE food......needless to say we needed a couple of days of Christmas detox after all of that!

Well, kiddos are demanding some attention. I'll be back later with some holiday pics and more....

Well, we've had a long couple of weeks! In the grand scheme of things, life could be oh so much worse. I had a few mopey days of "woe is me" fun and decided it was ridiculous to pout about material things being gone. After a very moving message at church on Sunday I decided to choose joy...I won't mope about the teenagers who stole our gps just 48 hours after we bought it. I won't mope about my brakes going out on my car (well not while I was driving or anything, no dramatic  highway scenes or anything). I won't mope about Caleb's cell phone getting stolen from his desk at work. Nope, all of those things could be and were replaced and all that really matters in life wasn't hurt or damaged. Sure, my seven year old now knows about theft (she saw me crying and well, we couldn't let her sweet little innocent mind think mommy and daddy were having issues, so we just explained it to her), but she also knows now that it's not the end of the world, that life keeps going. (She did have some very sweet explanations for why someone would rummage through our car and steal our gps, all our loose change, and daddy's Oakley's...."Well maybe it was someone's bday and they didn't have a present, so maybe, just maybe they borrowed it and maybe just maybe they'll bring it back someday, k?") I've had several  thoughts of "how dare someone who is probably under the age of 18 without a job, etc etc etc come steal from a family of one income whose man works 60 hours a week to provide for them"?????? But then David's dad spoke at church about the first 3 months since they lost him, only 3 years old......and well, all of a sudden everything's put into perspective! We're all healthy and happy, warm home, Christmas tree, presents under the tree, 3 kids whose eyes sparkle and light up at the sight of Christmas lights around town....life is good....really good!

Ok, must get ready for a playdate today, but in closing, I have to share my cousin Kim's blog, I really must win an apron :)

http://www.kimheinecke.com/

Will be back soon...

Ok so I'm the worst blogger ever! I kept meaning to post and then thought "oh I've got too much I could say" and then it'd get pushed to the side. So here I am, we'll try to catch up!

Let's see.....we did Jordan's bday party, she had the BEST time! We shipped the boys off, actually I gave Caleb the option of staying the night at his mom's or enduring the 8 girls squealing from the comfort of his bed and he opted for no squealing and the comfort of his mom's guestroom with Alex instead :)  Jess and I spent the ENTIRE day before the party making the cakes. I baked a 13X9 inch cake and cut it into small rectangles to be the beds. I soooo should have used my mini loaf pan instead, frosting those things was pretty much the vain of my existance! UGH! But the fondant part was a lot of fun! Jordan chose the colors of the girls sleeping bags and we rolled it out in fondant and then decorated each one with little polka dots or stars or hearts, they were so cute! Then we draped those over the cakes and made little heads out of fondant and then Jess used her decorating magic to give them all their hair color, they turned out so so cute!

I had Aunt Kristi come help out at the party. Since Davdi's in Kuwait she's enjoyed getting out of the house more often and I think she really enjoyed being our nail technician for the night! Lucia's mom, Lezlie, stayed and did the hair and Aunt Jess came and did the hair station as well. There was a nail station, a hair station and then I manned the lip gloss/bath salts station. We made our own bubblegum flavored lip gloss and some scented bath salts. We put facial masks on, got in our pj's, turned the music up, lit candles and dimmed the lights, and just had the BEST time! They were done with the stations by about 7;30 and the helpers left so we cleared out the living room, popped some popcorn and watched both High School Musical 1 and 2. They danced and sang their little hearts out! It was so so cute! They kept saying "This is the BEST party ever!" Jordan kept acting like "Well, duh, of course it is!" :)


What else? Jordan's last soccer game was Saturday, she's had games every Saturday for about 8 weeks now. She did so well, she's come a long way from the 3 year old soccer team she was on years ago, boy are those great memories, haha. Caleb use to have to go stand out on the field with her, and with his highly competitive personality, it was not fun for him to be the dad of the crying 3 year old who did NOT want to play soccer. Now she's scoring goals and defending and doing all kinds of things daddy can brag on! So fun! They won 6 games and lost only 2!

I'll have to admit that my other recent happenning was standing in line for an hour to watch Twilight :) I got sinfully sucked into the books and could NOT put them down! Who'd have thought I'd be reading a series about vampires! Typically I read and fall asleep after 10-20 pages, but not these books. I'd pick them up and end up making myself put them down in fear that I'd be exhausted the next day. Crazy! The movie was incredibly cheesy though, but still fun. I went with Jana, Kristi and Jess. Jess got as sucked in as I did, if not more. She left the boys with John for the night and stood in line for TWO hours to save a spot! Jana and I stopped at Starbucks for a latte to sneak in (it WAS a 10:35 movie, much past our typical bedtime!)

Oooh ooh ooh, and the last thing before signing off for the day, Caleb and I took a trip with Nathan and Jana to Dallas last weekend! A kid-free, care-free trip. We had a BLAST! Fred and Sharon watched the kids Friday night (actually my dad, the saint, watched the kids on his day off on Friday and then Sharon took them home that evening) and then my parents got them Saturday evening and took them to church on Sunday. We left early Friday morning and hit the outlets as soon as we got there. We shopped our hearts out! Caleb told me I could home with very litttle for the kiddos and that I was shopping mostly for myself. So I obeyed :) I bought two cute pairs of pants at Ann Taylor and a cute little button down shirt that could go with either pair, one pair was pin-striped and the other was a plaid. I got a knee-length sweater, a leopard-print skirt and cute little brown sweater with 3/4 length sleeves, it has a silk layer in it and a bow, so cute! I bought the kids a few things too, but really had fun shopping for myself! After hitting the outlets and doing lunch we found our hotel and googled a couple of restaurants trying to decide on our nice dinner. We decided on Fogo de Chao. We got dressed up, had some drinks and went out on the town. Oh man the food was fabulous, it's a Brazilian Steakhouse, Caleb was in heaven! They have a fabulous salad bar with fancy cheeses and meats and all kinds of things I didn't even know the names of, haha. Then Nathan, the amazing navigator, drove us around to see some sights and take in Dallas at night, it was great fun, we listened to music and sang and just had a great time!

The next day we slept in and then hit the Galleria. We had the best time, we went to American Girl and spent Mimi and Aunt Jessica's money on Jordan's Christmas presents. Mimi got her a Kit doll and Jess got her a robe for her and her doll and matching slippers as well! Caleb and I got a few outfits for her doll for Christmas presents. Caleb was highly hurt when we left, realizing how jipped he'd been by being born a boy.....he can remember getting a basketball for Christmas the year his sis raked in with the expensive American Girl doll stuff, haha. Poor baby :) Anyway, we shopped our hearts out, AGAIN :) And then we went to the King Tut exhibit, oh it was so so fascinating!!!! We had a great time. After that we went to the HEB market and had fun picking up neat cheeses and meats and breads, so fun! We decided to do a pizza night since we were in a suite with a full kitchen. So the guys picked up some fun kinds of sausages and bacon and the girls picked up some yummy veggies and cheeses and Jana and I had the BEST time cooking! Our girly pizza was so so yummy! It had walnuts and gorgonzola cheese and peppers and onions and butternut squash, oh it was fabulous!!! We ate and drank and chatted and just had the best time!!!!

So it was a much-needed break from mommy-hood and the monotany I can sometimes feel from staying home! I came back refreshed and reconnected with my man, it was so nice!!!!