Why is it always so hard...

I absolutely love getting onto other's blogs and checking in on them, but when it comes to updating my own it feels like such a chore! I need to update and give a synopsis of whats been going on at the Stark house:

NOVEMBER: We celebrated my Birthday, wahoo to getting old! Had Thanksgiving with my family, and starting getting into the hectic Christmas shopping fever.


DECEMBER: Feels like we shopped almost every night. So exhausting, and expensive. yikes! Bella was so fun to watch at her Christmas performance, Uncle Josh and Aunt Denise were able to come! And not only did we enjoy the tubing hill at Gorgoza on Christmas Eve, we also had a fantastic Christmas and were able to spend some low-key time at home for the first fews hours of the morning, and then made the rounds with both sides of the family as the day progressed.

School Christmas Program:

Christmas Morning:

Going tubing with mommy:

And daddy:


JANUARY: Tyler quit his job at his Dad's office, and started an internship at a Drug/Rehab facility in Heber. A new semester started, and both Ty and I went back to school. Ty is teaching two classes this semester at UVU, and I am going back to school at the U.

Making snow angels:


FEBRUARY: Bella turned 4 on the 14th, we had a few parties and she loved all the attention. Tyler started a second internship at a Marriage/Family center in Orem.

Birthday Princess:

Opening presents:

Birthday Cake:

Daddy Daughter Dance:



Although things have felt chaotic and messy, we savor our weekends and time together as a family at night. We try to relax every second we can, and can't wait for a few fun trips we have planned throughout the year!

Halloween

Halloween has come and gone. Bella decided to be Wendy (from Peter Pan), and asked daddy if he would be Peter Pan. Ty was up to the challenge. And even though he didn't wear tights, I thought he made a fantastic Peter. Mommy made a last minute decision to borrow a Tinker Bell costume to complete the theme. We tried forcing Chester to be Nana, but he wouldn't keep the sash on his head. Sadly I didn't get any pictures of the whole family.

Bella also had a Halloween parade at school that Grandma, Nana and aunt Meag attended.

Breakfast with the Princesses

We decided while we were in Disney World we would shell out the money to go to breakfast at Cinderella's Castle, when in Rome... The food wasn't anything special, but Bella loved all the princesses that came to our table for a visit. And Tyler and I later realized that since we had seen all the princesses at once, we didn't have to stand in excessively long lines to meet these princesses...bonus!



For some reason Bella was acting shy around her "favorite princess." (I think her favorite princess changed almost daily during our vacation)

Disney World!!

At the end of August we had a wonderful, albeit hot and sticky, vacation in Florida. Bella loved the rides and meeting the princesses! We stayed at an awesome Marriott hotel, and hit all the parks during our stay. We went to Magic Kingdom, Epcot (mmmmm I'm still dreaming about the yummy french pastries we ate), Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and we were also able to squeeze in both Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon. We were tired often, and very warm, but we survived and had fun being together as a family.
Bella's wishing star - Breakfast at Cinderella's Castle

Animal Kingdom

Bella's pouty face



Riding Dumbo

Island Park

Whew, we are blasting through this summer at 100 mph!

At the beginning of July we took our annual trip with the Stark family and headed to Island Park, Idaho. This is my all-time favorite Stark family tradition. This year the weather was cooler, so we didn't bring the boat (bummer). Instead of spending days on the boat, we went into Yellowstone and visited Old Faithful. As a small child I remember it being more impressive. Hmmm.... I guess everything looked more impressive to me as a child. We were looking forward to seeing herds of Bison, but only saw one lonely bison. We almost missed him because he looked like a stationary rock.

Bella had a blast and we loved every minute we were at the cabin!! We can't wait for next year!


Old Faithful






Bella dancing on the dock, whilst singing to herself



Now that Island Park is behind us, we look forward to taking Bella to Disney World at the end of August!! Wahoo!! (I'm not sure who is more excited Bella, or me).

New York City

After an awesome trip to Cancun we hurried home to our Bells, and left her again the next week to go to New York City. This was our second time back to NYC. This time we stayed in Times Square, making walking distances from things so much better. We saw Mama Mia (I totally ate it up, and was probably singing Abba to myself for a few weeks), and Avenue Q. Tyler was a sport, and tried to get us tickets to Chicago. They were out by the time we got to the ticket counter :(

We visited a lot of Cathedrals. They were so beautiful and ornate, but lacking in any spirituality.





We were also able to visit with the Riley's, an old mission buddy of Tylers. And somewhere in the mix of all that we attended a bunch of dental meetings. Ya, we were working while we were there.

And did I mention, that Tyler is now best friends with Flava Flav? YEAH BOY!!

See ya in a week

Tyler and I are headed to Cancun for the week. We are both very excited to have a fun relaxing vacation. Don't even bother leaving comments about how jealous you are, I already know.

Long time. . .

Bella let me know this is our "Happy Family"





A typical Bella pose when asked to smile for the camera




By far my favorite picture!


Wow! It's been a long time since the last post! So I will do a quick update. . . .We had our family pictures done in the fall of 2010. I can't believe it had been two years since the last family picture. Isabella has changed so much, it's surreal. Christmas came and went too fast. We had a wonderful time with both our families and enjoyed almost every minute of the holiday craziness! Now as the winter progresses, we look forward to Bells third birthday. People keep telling me that threes are much worse than two, I hope they are all lying to me! Although Bella makes my life complete, it would seem she is testing every limitation possible these days. I hope the New Year is finding all of our friends well! We promise to come out of our cave more often and interact with others :) More posts coming soon. . . . I hope!

Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! We had a blast trick-or-treating while the rain stalled for an hour. Bella decided to be Cinderella and Tyler was her prince charming. It was so funny to watch Bella this year. She was so excited she kept giggling to herself and yelling after Tyler, "hurry daddy prince" or "I'm coming daddy prince." Her excitement was contagious. I can't wait to see how she responds to Christmas this year (She's already pointing out things she wants Santa to bring her).

More posts to come as our house becomes re-organized (kitchen and bathroom ... done. now cleaning up the aftermath)


This was my costume at work, I was Marie Antoinette. Bella kept asking me why I wanted "owies" painted on my face and neck. Too cute!

The Last Months of Summer

What a crazy summer! After getting back from NYC, things settled back to normal. We packed in activities every weekend; the Zoo, Camping, Lagoon, weekend trips to Heber, Bear Lake, Island Park, and tons of hanging out with friends and family.

Recently we found the energy to redo the bathroom (the other half that was not yet completed), start on the kitchen, and complete some major yard work.
We started the bathroom on Tuesday of this week, and are looking forward the use of our shower again. Previously we replaced the flooring, cabinets/countertop, lighting fixtures and did some painting. After dealing with a crummy shower and bath tub, we decided to knock out a few walls and do it right. We hired a contractor (ambitious I know), and sat back and enjoyed the show. We now have a linen closet and a brand new bath/shower with tile walls. I think it looks awesome....we are hoping to use it on Tuesday of this week.
For any of you that have heard me talk about this house, I'm sure I complained about the kitchen. I won't go into detail, but let's just say I am as excited as a kid on Christmas morning to get my kitchen completed. We started demolition last weekend, and removed all the upper cabinets in preparation for the electrical work that needs to be done. We will be replacing all the cabinets/countertops, installing new lighting fixtures, stainless steel appliances and creating a countertop height bar for another eating area. Our install date for the kitchen is the 20th.
As far as the outside goes, Tyler really used his muscle and removed two giant steel laundry posts that were about 3 feet into the ground, tore down a section of the fence that was falling down, and removed the shrubs taking over the front flower box (they were so big he had to connect a tow rope to the back of the Rav and pull them out). He also cleaned out the garage, which still had items from the first round of cleanup. We ended up making $27 at the metal recyclers for the steel and copper we found in his grandpa's garage. Better than nothing I suppose.
Now as September progresses, we look forward to a house with no contractors coming in and out, not living out of random piles strewn about the house, and having the ability to shower whenever I want to!

Pictures will soon follow.

Friends

We have been back in Utah for nearly a year and are still trying to catch up on the year and a half that we missed out on. This summer has proven to be the time to catch up.
During the first part of June I had my first break in school so Dannielle and I planned a trip without Bella! We chose to head east. I spent a portion of my childhood in Virginia as my dad was in dental school, but Dannielle had never been to that part of the country. Conveniently we have great friends that live in Northern Virginia and we planned to head there and see all that we could in 8 days.
Our first stop was Reston, VA. Cole was in my MTC group and has been putting up with me for nearly ten years now! I have to believe that JC keeps them on the move so our children won't influence their children for the worse, but they are great, great friends.
This picture was taken at Great Falls. We had a great picnic and a nice little hike, and as always we were entertained by the toddlers!

After a few days in Virginia, Dannielle and I headed to New York. We had a rental car and drove up through New Jersey. We stopped in Atlantic City to watch Le Grand Cirque at the Tropicana. It was a good show and at $30/ticket I think it was well priced. Atlantic City was SCARY! We have no pictures because we got in and got out as fast as we could!
During our time in new York we stayed on Staten Island and took the ferry into Manhattan everyday. Dannielle got some great pictures on our ferry rides.
The Brooklyn Bridge on a rainy night, after seeing Wicked.


The Met
Me in a Zen garden

Not found in Cambodia

I think they got the idea for this one from a Vegas hotel

Dannielle in Central Park

Dannielle at 30 Rock (We like the show too!)

Back to Virginia. We stopped in Arlington on our way back into town. I have not been to many places that have the reverent feeling that Arlington has. It was a highlight of my trip. My uncle owns a monument business and I have helped him place headstones for the past few months. I actually really enjoy cemeteries, and find them amazingly peaceful. I have great respect for those that serve our country, and the wives that many of them leave behind. I hope all of you have an opportunity to visit Arlington and pay respect to those that have died for our great United States.

Changing of the guards at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier



View from the Arlington House

Other things to see in DC




This weekend we were invited to spend time up at Bear Lake with more of our friends. We didn't pack the camera for the trip and only got a few pictures from Dannielle's phone. The pictures don't quite do justice to the amount of fun we had. It was truly a summation of everything we missed when we lived out of state.

We have been blessed with great friends that are spread all over the world, and I have learned through our travels that this world really isn't that big. I met a girl on the subway in New York that was from one of the areas I served in while in Cambodia. I heard her speak khmae with a friend and jumped right into their conversation. They were amazed and even took a picture of the white guy on the subway that spoke khmae. I think I'm on someone's facebook page now! While waiting in the airport to fly home from DC, I saw a childhood friend that I haven't seen in 6 years. We caught up on things as we waited for the same plane. As we were walking out of Arlington Cemetery a girl asked to borrow my phone because she had become separated from her family. She asked if it was OK to dial an 801 area code, I said that would be fine considering my phone was also an 801 area code. She lives just a short drive from my parents house. I have always been impressed by the connections we make during life and as I reflect on these things I believe that there is a higher order to things. Thanks to all of our friends that enlighten our lives!

A few pictures of what we've done so far...

This is just outside Madison Square Park on Broadway

A picture of the Statue from the Staten Island Ferry Tuesday night

John Krasinski filming in Madison Square Park

Potomac River from Great Falls National Park

May?

I can't believe I haven't posted since March...sorry friends in Texas, D.C., Arizona, Canada, Cali and Oregon.


Bella is getting so big and talks ALL the time! Her stories are so random they make me laugh. Yesterday as we were walking out to our car I asked her to listen to mommy. She said "I just say no mommy." I then asked her why she wouldn't want to listen to mommy and her reply was "because you said some naughty words." I had to bite back my smile while I continued to discuss the importance of listening.

Tyler and I are getting ready to go to D.C/NYC to visit some friends. Anything we shouldn't miss? Well, hopefully I will get around to posting pics of our fun trip...if not see ya in July :)