Oh, Dear!

Tyler went into Bella's room to check on her before going to bed last night, and this is what he found:

Happy Birthday Bella!

What a fun day! We spent time playing at the park, opening presents, and eating yummy cake. I can't believe our little girl is one!

Size 2

I'm finally down to a size two!!




Ya right, I wish. . . . Bella has finally grown out of size one diapers! I know this seems like a silly milestone, but I was almost proud clunking the huge box of size two diapers in my Costco cart.

Texas in January

You know your in Texas in January when:


all the convertibles are driving with their tops down

people are jogging in tank tops

people are still wearing shorts

Bella's summer clothes are in her dresser

the Zoo is still open

the sprinklers are coming on at night

and the landscaping business is still hopping


Man what a different "winter" this had been for us!!

Friends and Family

As our trip draws to a close we look back and smile. We are grateful for the time we had with friends and family. Thank you for opening your hearts and your homes to us. There are those we did not get to visit; we can only wish for more time to see every single one of you. We wish you all good luck in the New Year! Lots of love - The Stark Family

Merry Christmas!

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas! We have enjoyed our stay thus far; even the snow. Bella was a blast to watch on Christmas morning. We didn't expect her to be excited or to understand what was going on. Amazingly, she was thrilled with each opened present.






We hope to see ALL of you soon. . .If we haven't seen or visited with you yet, be patient. We are making it around to everybody slowly. Happy Holidays!!

8 Crazy Nights!!

I can't believe we will be in Utah in eight more nights!! Time is flying! We can't wait to see everybody and catch up. Although I still have a massive amount of strategic packing to be done, what joy, I am counting down the days like a kid waiting for Christmas. And I am loving every minute. I cannot wait for this holiday season!!

A Time to be Thankful

With Thanksgiving behind us and Christmas quickly approaching, we find ourselves grateful for many things. I recently received an email from the relief society presidency in my ward asking for help with hurricane Ike victims. Even though hurricane Ike hit months ago, families in Houston are still surviving with the bare minimum. Mother's in the city are requesting Christmas decorations. As I pondered this unusual request, I began to think about my past Christmas' and wondered how I would feel as a small child with no Christmas decorations. I feel impressed that these mothers are trying to do everything in their power to create the spirit of Christmas in their home. I hope that the decorations sent to them will make the difference they are hoping for.

I am grateful for many things in my life (if I start a list, you would get way too bored). I am truly grateful for my beautiful family and my warm, safe home. I love my husband and am so appreciative of him and everything he does for this family. I hope we can all tell those around us how much we love them, especially at this special time of year. Love you all!!

Sweet Sweet Victory!

Dannielle, Isabella and I joined a few friends at a local sports bar for the 2008 edition of the Holy War. There was one other couple cheering on the Utes and about 20 BYU fans. Funny how that many fans made less noise than us Utah fans. Oh that's right there was nothing for them to cheer about. Go Utes!

48-24 Yeah Baby!

Funny Pictures

I've been accumulating some funny pictures on my cell phone and decided it would be fun to share them with you all.
Dannielle is generally a good driver. I think she's only hit 1 car since we've been married. But this is noteworthy for other reasons. Some of you might be thinking Tyler and his camera better get out of the way she's going to hit him. Well because I'm writting this now you should have concluded that I survived. The car isn't actually moving, infact it's parked and Dannielle is inside our friend's house. Yes this is parallel parking at it's finest. When questioned she said she was scared she was going to hit the boy playing basketball across the street. ???

I snapped this fine picture ascending Big Cottonwood Canyon sometime in March 2008. There was about 1" of snow on the road and this crazy clown was scootn' up the mountain on his hog! I think he was white knuckle under those gloves!

This pictured was captured just outside of St. George Utah. The proud owner had welded/bolted a motorcycle ramp to his car. Awesome? I think so.

I took this picture upon entering the men's restroom at a gas station I stopped at while driving to Texas. My first reaction was shock that they expect you to share a toilet paper dispenser. Just as I was finishing Senator Larry Craig walked in and I got the #$!! out of there!

What scares you?

I felt it necessary to explain why we are going private with our blog. Due to the boringness of the real story I found this picture (Thanks Nate and Liz) and added it just for a touch of interesting. It was a day after Dannielle's Birthday and she had asked me why I hadn't posted a long glamorous "I love my wife and it's her birthday" message. Being extremely lazy but witty I replied, "I don't know how safe it is to let the whole world know when your birthday is. What if identity thieves read this? They would then have your name and birthday." Dannielle wasn't just easily satisfied with my answer she immediately fell ill to the idea that there are weirdo's out there that might be reading our blog. So many of you have responded positively to the idea and have shown great support of her paranoid behavior. Thank you for being good friends, it makes up for my delinquencies as a husband.
Anyway I apologize for causing this change in accessibility because I hate taking the extra steps to log in to private blogs. And if one of you would kindly let Dannielle know she share's the same last name with any weirdo's reading our blog.

Going Private

Recently we have toyed with the idea of going private. Unfortunately we no longer live in a safe and trusting world. We didn't have an instance that caused us to go private, we just feel that it's for the best. We enjoy being a part of the blog world, and we love keeping in touch with everyone. Please leave your e-mail on the comment page if you know neither Tyler or I have it. Once you post your e-mail, we will be sure to delete the comment to keep your e-mail information private.

Trick or Treat

Last night was our ward's Trunk-or-Treat. Being first timers, we weren't sure what to expect. We decorated our trunk, dressed Bella in her ballerina costume, and began our twenty minute drive to the church. I had bought a bag of candy containing 105 pieces; while driving we decided to get rid of the whoppers first because they are the grossest candy, leaving us with the Hershey bars, Reese's, and kitkats to eat all by ourselves. Little did we know that by nights end the ginormous bag of candy would be down to a meager 6 pieces! Our plans of gorging on candy for the next week were foiled!! I selfishly thought of taking Bella treating along the row of cars and eating the candy by myself, but I just didn't feel good about that. There will always be next year!

Bella found the treat basket we had and decided she wanted in on this yummy holiday.

Visitors!

Me an Aunt Sierra

Me and Aunt Mels

Polly want a cracker?

All the family down on the River Walk

Wee! What a fun ride!!

If you haven't already guesses it, we had visitors. Josh and Denise flew in Tuesday, while the rest of Tyler's family (not including Mindy and Nate) came into town last Wednesday. I spent all Wednesday afternoon with Josh and Denise at the outlet malls in San Marcos. After a lot of shopping we met up with Tyler for dinner. Unfortunately Bella and I missed out on some awesome Mexican food. We went to YW instead. Thursday we went to the zoo with everyone except Ty and Cory (they were attending a dental convention seminar). After a lot of walking we met Tyler and Cory downtown on the River Walk. We had yummy food at the Rain Forest Cafe. The next morning we all went to Seaworld. It was so much fun! They have really made some changes since the last time I went, granted I was 9 years old. . . Anyway, they had some awesome rides and Isabella loved the dolphin feeding tank. That night we went to Texas' best BBQ - Rudy's. The following day everyone except Bella, Sheryl and I went to Six Flags. Instead we spent the entire day shopping. Yay! Sunday was spent at church and at the Cutler's home. It went by so fast; we still can't believe they are gone! We loved having Ty's family down to visit.

We can't believe we will be in Utah in 8 weeks! I'm practically bursting from the anticipation!!

Approaching 4 years!

As we approach our 4 year anniversary I thought it would be fun to take a look back at what has happened with Ty and Dannielle.
This was taken by our wedding photographer in Logan, UT. We still have his contact information if anyone is interested. He was amazing!

During year number one we co-founded a non profit organization and carried out a humanitarian trip to Cambodia. This is a picture of the well we had drilled for an orphanage just outside of Phnom Penh.

For our 1st Anniversary/Dannielle's Birthday we added Chesterfield to our family!

For anniversary #2 we made it to Hawaii!

Anniversary #3 was the half way mark for pregnancy #1.

In February we welcomed Bella into our Family and I've been tired ever since.

Bella and I have been good nap buddies from the beginning.

We are now getting ready for Halloween. If it's this fun before she's even 1, I can't wait to see how much fun it is when she's old enough to care!


Dannielle is pressuring me to tell you all how much fun it's been. If I have to be honest...It has been a lot of fun. I can't imagine finding someone greater than Dannielle. She tolerates me and even thinks I'm funny at times. She has been an incredible motivator as I've progressed through school and continue to prepare for the future. She is an amazing mother, and usually gets it right after I tell her what to do;) And of course life would not be nearly as much fun without all of our friends and family. We have been blessed with an amazing support system and love you all dearly. Thanks for taking a look back at these fantastic years we've shared together!


On a side note-I usually try to add a song to each post that "matches" up with the theme. I'm wondering if anyone even has the volume on while browsing blogs or if you are all like me and turn the sound off? I will probably continue to add music to my posts because I think it's fun, just wanted to see what other people thought?