Back to School

 Olivia's off to Kindergarten!

 Alexus started Kindergarten too!

 Belle's off to 2nd grade!

 Eliza's a 4th grader now!

 Chablis started her sophomore year.

5 beautiful girls!

January 2012

Can't believe I haven't posted yet this year, feels like I did.  Anyway here's a few photos from the new year.

Liesel's blessing day at church.

Here's Alexus at one of the many, many basketball games we've watched this month.  The team has had a great season.  Our favorite games are when Dad gets excited and jumps up and down.

Liesel was about 2 ft. long and 15 pounds at her month mark.  She can give smiles and tries to talk.  So sweet and innocent, we love her!

Found the Camara!- here's what's been going on.

All the Garner cousins on Christmas Eve-- Olivia, Alexus, Eliza, Madelynn, Lilli, Belle, Liesel, Kale, Jaden and Ellery  at the Priest Lake cabin.

Stark cousins on Christmas Day at the Big H.

Visiting Tomi's grandparents.  Great grandma Marie & grandpa George Walker and Great grandma Delores & grandpa Norman Garner.

A Lesson in Responsibility?

Not sure who's going to learn first.  The kids-- to be responsible for our new chickens.  Or me--to stop taking on more responsibilities.  Should be an adventure.

Thanksgiving 2011
Got to spend Thanksgiving with some of my family at the cabin.  This is Lilli holding Liesel.  It was great to see the Loders and Uncle Zach for the first time since Liesel was born.  Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!  Liesel is three weeks old now.  Her doctor appointment last week showed she's growing well and is over 10 lbs. now.

Still following me?-- finally a new post

Today was Liesel's first day at church. She pretty much slept through it all. She's been a pretty good baby for me. Thinking about all the possible outcomes when I went to the hospital last week, things really ended up the best they could for mom and baby. We're all healthy and well. Alexus & Olivia have had a twinge of jealousy as evidenced by yet another hair cutting incident this week. Lexi's is not noticable this time but Liv's got 1" bangs. I guess she's getting the attention she wanted now. We took time Friday to make some carameled apples and all the girls had a good time. Mostly just the caramel and chocolate got eaten though.

Halloween 2010

Olivia the bunny, Belle the chef, Eliza the cowgirl & Alexus the lion. The twins are already asking how long til they can go "Halloweening" again and get lots of candy. They were really impressed with this holiday!

Happy Birthday Isabelle Su!

That's a 6 on her cake. Can you believe it? Belle brings so much fun and spunk to our house. We're so thankful for her. She's doing excellent in Kindergarten and she's starting to be more aware of others and their feelings. Although today she told her Sunday school teacher that she has "a little fur" on her upper lip. So glad the teacher thought it was cute and was not offended.

Off to School

These three were so excited for the first day of school. They were ready 30 minutes before the bus came. Chablis, Eliza and Belle all passed the first day with flying colors:-)

Already halfway through Summer?

Alexus & Olivia turned three June 15. They are so cute, most of the time. Family gave them some wonderful presents and memories. If you can't tell from the picture, Olivia is in pink with hair down and Alexus in purple with hair pulled back.

Look what Erik brought home yesterday. Another girl (chocolate lab). We haven't named her yet.

Grandma Shari & Aunt Bre came over for the 4th of July. We wore matching shirts to the fireworks. Good times!

School's Out for Summer

With Friday being the last day of school we decided to mix in a little family fishing trip amongst the parties and graduation this weekend. We loaded up the crew and headed to our "secret" lake and every body caught at least one fish. Belle caught 3 and lost a fourth and the twins got a double. It was a nice official kickoff to our summer of 2010.

Baseball Season Ends

Erik coached the baseball team this spring. They made it into the regional playoffs, so all the team sported mohawks. They lost yesterday to ACH, so the season is over and hopefully Erik will let me cut his hair now.

Mother's Day

The girls and Dad woke up early on Mother's Day and made heart-shaped donuts with chocolate icing and sprinkles for breakfast! It was a good day.

Twins still wear us out

One night we could not get the twins to fall asleep (long naps earlier in the day), so we were just happy that they stayed in their room and let us go to bed. This was the scene the next morning. They have tucked themselves in to their collapsible clothes hampers for beds after staying up to destroy the bedroom all night. This will be cute later right?

Eliza's Birthday

Eliza turned 7 on April 26th! She asked for a "wedding cake" that was pink with white roses. It was fun for us to make. She received lots of fun presents and exclaimed, "I got a bill!" After she opened a card with birthday money in it. :-) Hopefully she'll understand the difference between the two before she gets too much older.

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.