Happy Easter 2010!!

Easter morn we arose to find these four bunnies huddled near the harth seeking chocolate, jelly beans and other bunny treats. Needless to say the Easter Bunny didn't disappoint and all were sick by 8:09am.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Belle (in the pink plaid dress) did wonderfully in the school's Winter Program. They rang and sang "Jingle Bells" as a preschool class.

Eliza (in the black and white dress) also sang in the program with her 1st grade class. They have been learning to speak Spanish and did all of their songs in Spanish.

Christmas Eve we got to open presents at Grandma Rita's house. We met cousin Madelynn for the first time and enjoyed having Lilli to play with.

Here's the twins on Great Grandpa Lyman's couch Christmas afternoon. They had a wonderful Christmas morning and we all had a delicious dinner followed by fireworks! New year's we were out at Grandpa Lynn's cabin on Priest Lake with cousins Jaden and Kale. It was a very busy season for us. We are very blessed. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Found the camara!

Our camara was no where to be found for some time there. I can't imagine how something 2" X 4" could get lost in our house, but somehow it did. Anyway, here's a family photo we took real quick after church in September. The girls are all doing great. We had to take our Halloween pictures with our film-camara. But I'll have you know that it went wonderfully. Eliza was a girl from the 50's ready to go to a sock hop. Belle was herself, princess Belle from Beauty and the Beast. And the twins were jack o'lanterns.






This was from Belle's birthday at the end of September. We didn't get a post up about her birthday before the camara went MIA. She turned 5 and picked a chocolate butterfly birthday cake. Choosing steak for her birthday dinner pleased us all. Her lastest thing is thinking of a new joke to tell the kids at preschool each day. I love to watch her loving life.

School Begins

Eliza started first grade and Belle preschool this year. Here they are on their first day, each wearing the lates fashion thanks to Grandma Shari.

After a long day of reading, writing and Spanish , Isabelle and Eliza don their super hero costumes to clean up the streets of Northport and make northern Stevens county a safe place for all.

Summer Fun

Here's all the Garner cousins at Lynn & Rita's. Top from left to right: Eliza, Olivia, Belle & Alexus
Bottom from left to right: Lilli (Andrea's), Kale & Jaden (Jared's). Sorry there were no pictures with all 7 looking up.










Here are 3 of the 4 sets of twins on the Walker side of the family. This was at the Walker reunion at Priest Lake. The oldest are my cousin Loren Cox's twin boys, Campbell & Cooper. There's my Alexus & Olivia on the right and the youngest are my cousin Jaynae Bunch's twins,(which happen to be the only boy & girl set) Eleanor & Allister. Not pictured are my cousin Randa Headrick's twin girls.






We went camping on the coast at Deception Pass State Park again this summer. It's kind of our Stark Family Reunion tradition. It's always fun. I could tell it's getting easier with the twins being older because we got camp taken down before noon this year.












Erik and I took advantage of a free babysitter, free hotel stay and free flight and went to Vegas for 3 days. We did enjoy being tourists. We went to a dinner theatre and ate at one of Mario Batali's restaurants, San Marco, just so we could say we did it. Boy, can you go through the money there. I do have to say one of the water shows in front of the Bellagio was my favorite. It was so beautiful I cried. (I know what a baby.)








I felt like I really should have noted Eliza's kindergarten graduation at the beginning of summer. But, better late than never. We are very proud of her. She received a Reading Fluency Award, the Principal's Award, an American Citizenship Award, & the President's Education Award from Barack Obama.

The Twins are Two and Life is Busy!

This is the only digital picture I could find of the twins birthday. Most of the day is on video. I also didn't get a picture of the cake since I dropped the camara in it while attempting the best shot. They had a great birthday none the less. They of course immediately began the frequent use of the word "no" and temper tantrums. But we still think they're pretty cute and enjoy that they also use the word "hug" a lot too.

Erik's mom has been able to visit a few times lately so Erik and I got to go on a date! We went fishing. I was so rusty after 6 years but I caught a nice 16 incher, which was bigger than both Erik's fish put together. Meadow Lake was a beautiful and only 20 minutes from home.

Things You May Have Missed

Belle lost her first tooth. She's 4, that was unexpected for us. She has since lost the tooth next to it as well. So she needs her two front teeth.

Belle played on the TeeBall team. She never really understood the point of playing outfield, but still enjoyed it.

Eliza played TeeBall too. The first two innings the teams hit off the tee but in the third inning the kids try to hit a slow pitch from the coach. Eliza hit better without the tee and loved it.

Eliza turned 6 on April 26th. She helped decorate her own cake and loved the journals and clothes she got. For her birthday dinner she chose to have steak, special potatoes, caesar salad and strawberries.

We are raising pheasants to release when they're full grown. We started with 100 newly-hatched chicks and still have 88 of them. All the chicks we lost were in the first week and I hear that it's pretty normal to lose at least that many. It's been a lot of work and is supposed to be teaching our kids about responsisbility.

Last weekend we hiked to the top of SilverCrown Mountain and took this picture. That's Northport way down below us and the Columbia River. It was gorgeous.