Christmas Letter 2010

The lights have been hung, the tree has been trimmed and the gifts have been wrapped waiting for Christmas morning. Now we want to draw closer to friends and family by sharing some happenings from this year 2010.

Karen started 1^st grade this year and just loves it. She has made lots of new friends, which she comes home each day asking if she can go play with them. The most exciting thing that happened to her this year is that she lost her first tooth! With another one loose, she is excited to sing “All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth”.

Michael started pre-school and loves learning his letters and numbers etc. He tries to read like his big sister and actually knows a few words now. He has also become quite the ladies man with the pretty girls in his class, which makes dad proud and nervous at the same time. When Michael is not at school, he is playing on the Wii, kicking a soccer ball, running around the house or playing with his sister.

Neils: I continue to work for Winder Farms and I am increasing my knowledge and experience in the information technology field. When not working, you can find me watching my Utah Utes play football, reading history books or serving my community as a community emergency response team leader (CERT). I was able to serve in this capacity when a fire started on the other side of the mountain we live on and raced up and over towards our town. Thankfully the fire was stopped before the evacuation reached our neighborhood, but we still remember the blackened sky filled with smoke and ash, and hope to never experience anything like that again.

Jen: I can describe my year in a single word, busy. It’s crazy to keep up with my kids as they grow! However, with Karen in school and Michael in preschool I find that I have a little time to do things that I want to do. When not running to pick up the kids, playing with them or helping with homework, you can find me shopping, cleaning, reading, doing projects, blogging or playing on facebook. I recently discovered digital scrapbooking and I love it.

Neils watched the Ken Burn’s PBS special on national parks and announced that we must go see America’s first national park, Yellowstone! It was our first family trip and we all loved it. We were fascinated and excited by all the animals and beautiful sights. We could have never done it without our portable DVD player! Thanks Mom & Dad Stark.

Thank you all for your friendship and love. We feel blessed for having you in our lives. We pray that each of you is safe and happy and wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas.

With love, Neils, Jen, Karen & Michael Stark

Christmas Elf

Last year Karen & Michael had some friends that had special Christmas elf visitors and they wanted so much to have one too. So this year we asked Santa if he could send one to us. The day after Thanksgiving we were excited to see that our own elf had come to our home! The kids were just as excited as could be. We had a letter from Santa telling us about our magic elf. When we name the elf he would receive his magic. He watches the kids and each evening returns to Santa to let him know how good the kids were. The elf cannot talk to the kids and we were told that if they touched him he would lose his magic. When Michael heard that he immediately wanted to touch the elf. We were very surprised by this and on asking why, we found out that Michael was very scared of the elf now because he was magic. He wanted to send the elf back to Santa and not have him here at all. We spent a lot of time talking to him and trying to figure out how to handle this. Meanwhile Karen was getting very upset and nearing tears because Michael was going to touch the elf and he would lose his magic. So Mommy and Daddy had to get online and talk with Santa to work out something so Michael wouldn't be scared anymore and Karen wouldn't worry about the elf losing his magic. Santa was very helpful and said that in this special circumstance, Jingle Jangle (the name the kids chose) could keep his magic even if he was touched. This satisfied Karen and after a day with Jingle Jangle (or Elfy for short) Michael was soon excited to have him here too.

Since then our elf has shown up each morning somewhere different. Here are some pictures of our elf's antics.
It's been a lot of fun and the kids are so excited each morning to find out where Elfy is now. On Christmas Eve he will return to Santa until next year. Karen is very sad about this, but I'm sure she will get over it especially after getting presents on Christmas morning. If you haven't heard about Christmas elves you can "google" Elf on the Shelf and you can find out all about how to get one of your own.

Family Photo Shoot

We recently had family pictures taken. We had several turn out nice so I thought we would share. I love the kids pictures, they all turned out so cute. We sure made some cute kids don't ya think?

Halloween Time

This has been a very fun, full month preparing for the 5 Halloween celebrations this year. Whew, I'm glad it's over! It started out with picking out pumpkins. This year we went to a large pumpkin patch. There were so many pumpkins the kids had a hard time picking out their favorite. We ended up with 6 tiny ones, 2 little ones, a medium sized one and a big one. Can you say "Mommy is a pushover"?
We went home and painted pumpkins. It was a lot of fun. Michael started out doing a great job, but then went a bit crazy with the paint. I think he thought he had to use all of the paint I put out for him to use. I helped by painting the original face back on after he was done.The next big event was last Saturday when we had a Halloween party with Neils family. Karen and I were leopards, Michael was so excited to be a pumpkin and Neils wore a werewolf shirt because I wouldn't let him be the faceless reaper.We played some Halloween carnival games, had a costume parade and an early dinner. It was a blast. The kids had been counting the days and were so excited when it finally came around. We did fishing, pumpkin bean bag toss, penny drop, and pin the spider on the web.After the games we had all the kids have a donut eating contest. The kids loved eating without their hands. After one bite Karen declared that she didn't like it, but Michael scarfed it all down. Yummy chocolate donuts. The adults didn't want to be left out so we did it next. Everyone got it in their mouth with one bite since they were mini donuts, so we had to make it that the first one to swallow would be the winner. It was funny and I think everyone won since we all got to eat chocolate donuts.I thought it was great that everyone participated and dressed up for the event. There were some very creative and fun costumes!Next was Michael's preschool Halloween party on Thursday. Here he is with his cute teacher. We're so proud of Michael that he's doing so well and even starting to read a little. She's been a great teacher!Karen's school party was next which she asked me to dress up again so that we could be leopards together. Michael joined us too. We helped with the party by doing the Halloween bingo. It was fun!Next was a surprise visit to grandpa's work. They really get into it there and even had 3 little spook alleys. Nearly everyone had candy to give the kids so they came home with half their bucket full. It was so nice of grandpa to invite us, we had a great time and the kids were so excited to see where grandpa works.
Our ward Halloween party was Friday night. They had some fun carnival games and treats, but the kid's favorite part was decorating their own cupcakes. When they were done you couldn't even see the frosting. They LOVED it, though Karen only ate the candy and the frosting, it is the best part after all. Halloween night was rainy and cold and our final Halloween activity (whew!) Here we are ready to go. I was extra cautious and made the kids dress extra warm and made them ponchos to wear. They decided that they were a ghost pumpkin and a ghost leopard.We got home with full pumpkins and tired little kiddies. They were so happy and are still excited today. They have been playing trick or treat to every door in the house. So cute. What a fun Halloween we had and we hope you all had a fun Halloween too!

First Tooth

I'm so proud! My little girl lost her first tooth. She was so brave as I tied the floss around her tooth and pulled. It didn't even bleed that much. She's so excited and happy about losing her very first tooth. Michael wanted so much to lose a tooth too and be a part of this big event. He even put a cotton ball under his pillow to try to get the tooth fairy to leave him something too. So cute! Here are a couple pictures of the big event.


Here she is putting her tooth under the pillow in a little box shaped like a tooth for the tooth fairy. So cute!
Funniest thing is that Neils got squeemish when we got ready to pull the tooth out. He's usually not that way and I would have never thought pulling a tooth would make him cringe. He's so cute!