Freakinfantastic!

My friend Abby always uses the word "freakinfantastic!" That is EXACTLY how our weekend was!!

Friday night we went sledding...the whole family plus Uncle Yamo and Brandon...our cute neighbor. The kids had a great time and we were the only ones on the sledding hill for most of the night. We got a new tube that would RIP down the hills and hardly bounced at all. It was fun for us "old people" because it didn't HURT like some of the other sleds we have. We all had a great time and laughed so much our teeth hurt...or at least those of us who have sensitive teeth in COLD weather!

Today was absolutely AWESOME! Lets start from the beginning shall we? (A very good place to start ♪)We all know my thoughts and feelings on my good old Dodge Grand Caravan. AKA the "BLUE DART." Yep...blue dart, the thing that scouts do with a match and a fart. Disgusting, nasty, and the perfect word to describe my van.

The van wasn't THAT bad I guess. We did have some good times. We took many trips to California, Southern Utah, Spokane, Yellowstone, Lake Powell, McCall, and many MANY trips back and forth from Salt Lake to Boise and recently from Idaho Falls to Boise and Salt Lake. We got her back in 2005 during the law school days at the tender age of 30,000 miles. We always swore up and and down we would never own a mini van but when the price is right and the family is big enough.....well, it just sort of happened.  It was a great car for 3 Tasmanian devils who SPILL, SPRAY, DRAW ON and DESTROY everything!

Alas, there have been some very BAD times as well. Yes, being STRANDED on the side of the road in the middle of NOWHERE last summer is ringing a bell. Having TONS of brake problems, paint peeling issues, and of course the various HIT and RUN incidents. We had received many dent gifts in that van from anonymous strangers. The air conditioning went out a few times, the heat made strange noises a time or two, we had major issues with the sway bar, and recently the radio would work and then stop working at random. Thank HEAVEN above we had an extended warranty with that baby....over $6,000 dollars in repairs over the course of our relationship. There were days I wished more than anything that I could just send old B.D. off a cliff or blow it to smithereens.  Hey, I have nothing against mini vans, just MY mini van:

(take note of the pretend bullet holes, fire and smoke)

The years continued to roll by, the kids can buckle themselves now, the car has been paid off for 3 years, the warranty expired, and the odometer now read 126,000 miles.  So, the time had come to part ways.

Today was the day we said our good byes. Farewell Blue Dart! And Hallelujah!!!

So let me introduce the newest Starnes Family vehicle:

I've waited a long time for the RIGHT car to come along at the RIGHT price!

 We need 4 wheel drive over here in Siberia plus we've always wanted something that can pull a boat or a trailer. I'm absolutely thrilled beyond words!

I'm SO very blessed.....and not just because I got a new car today. I'm blessed because THIS is my cargo in whatever car I drive:

Happy Day!

Funny little story

Today I was deep cleaning the house when I received a phone call...

"Staci Starnes....this is Mrs. (SoandSo) from your son's elementary school. Dallin isn't feeling well. He was coughing so hard he made himself throw up. Will you come and pick him as soon as possible?"

I jumped in the car. I hauled over there and made it in t minus 4 minutes. All the while I am thinking to myself...... this is so strange. Dallin doesn't have a cough. He hasn't EVER thrown up from coughing. I'm pretty sure if he had a cough I would have noticed.

I walk into the school. The secretary (that I don't recognize) says...."Wow! Thanks so much for getting here so fast. I'll get get him for you...he is back in the nurses office."

Two seconds later the secretary comes back with a cute little blonde boy, with a white face, covered in puke.

Me: "Ummmm, thats not MY Dallin."

Secretary: "What? Are you serious? O my gosh! I am SO sorry. I must have called the wrong house. This boy's name is Dallin too. I feel terrible!"

Me: "Hey, don't feel bad. I'm just glad I'm not the one with the sick boy this weekend!" ☺ Poor kid.

$1.66

Landon and I were running our errands today.

We stopped at the gas station and I got a drink and a little candy for him. (His bribery to be good while we did some shopping.)

Spent $1.66 on both items.


THEN we went to Target with a few coupons in hand.

We spent $1.66 AGAIN, but this time we got:

2 bottles of bathroom cleaner
1 bottle of Listerine
1 box of ibuprofen
1 bottle of jet dry
and 2 pairs of JEANS!

Happy dance time!! TOTALLY made my day! And I NEEDED something good to happen today as we are experiencing 45 mile an hour wind and BLIZZARD like conditions. HURRY UP SPRING!!

President's Day weekend!

Last week Dallin had to do is very first science experiment for the science fair! The project had to be on magnets so we made a little magnet contraption that shows the different pole forces acting upon each other. We called it "Herky Jerky." A magnet hangs down from a nail and swings around like crazy when it comes near the other magnets that are on the bottom part. It was so much fun to go to the school and to see all of the kids demonstrating their projects and answering questions.

After school we hit the road over to Boise for a long Presidents Day weekend. We watched my little brother in the Dinner Show at Timberline. He was the PIRATE KING in the Pirates of Pensance. He did a fantastic job and was so LOUD and FUNNY! It was great to see that side of him. Dallin and Parker LOVED it and they even stayed awake throughout the whole show! I was surprised since it is literally 5 hours long!  I'm so grateful that my good friend was willing to watch Landon because NO WAY would he have made it thorough the whole show. ☺ Thank you Nikki!

It is so hard to believe that my brother is a SENIOR this year. I was feeling really OLD as I walked my kids down the hall at good ol' Timberline and showed them the picture of me on the wall, since we were the very first class to graduate. Crazy how fast time flies. Now that there are no more ROCKS at THS so it will probably be a long time before we have a reason to go over there.

I was also able to get away and see some friends which is always so much fun. We indulged ourselves at the Cheesecake Factory and then went to see the movie "I am Number Four." I absolutely LOVED the book and did NOT love the movie! It was ok but probably only worth a dollar movie or a redbox in my opinion. I HATE when that happens! O well, it was fun anyway. It's always a good time when I get to see all my girlfriends in Boise.

Sunday we went to church, hung out, and tried to launch a rocket my brother had built. We were all SO excited to watch it take flight! We counted down from 10.......3.....2.....1! Aaaaaaaaand, it didn't do anything. Probably because it was Sunday.

Today we went to IHOP and had breakfast with my parents and Jason. After breakfast we went over to the big field again and tried to launch the rocket one more time.

IT worked!

Then we launched ourselves back to Idaho Falls! Feels SO good to be home!

Landon's prayer

"...And please bless that me and Parker and Dallin will always have SHINY TEETH. And please bless that me and Parker and Dallin will find a lot of MONEY!"
Amen.

LOVE is in the air!

 We had a fantastic Valentines Day yesterday! I taught preschool and we did lots of fun heart crafts and played some fun games. We frosted heart cookies and made our heart hats. The kids were running around making buzzing noises..too cute!

 Sure the kids were dressed like "love bugs" but these two.....well, it just might be the real thing. Landon talks about KATE all day long! And from what I've heard......she does the same thing about Landon. Here we go...another twitterpated Starnes boy! What am I going to do??? She IS pretty darn cute though. At least my boys have good taste. hehe

 That evening ALL of my boys and I enjoyed some candlelight takeout and some DELISH cupcakes from Cocoa Bean! This cupcake place is my new obsession!

Then Nate went down to the man cave to ride his bike and I headed off to Zumba. It really was the PERFECT Valentines Day. Hey, we had to work off those Cocoa Bean calories right???

Valentine's Party!

Friday night was our Valentines Party! We had lots of yummy treats and had a blast getting to know some of the couples in our ward a little bit better! It is always so much fun hearing how everyone met, things they do/do not do together as a couple and as always, the BEST part is hearing the POEMS that all of the men HAVE to write for their wives! I LOVE watching them squirm a bit! They all did a fantastic job!

Nate said I looked like a big Valentine in my red shirt.......yeah, so maybe I did. I ♥ Valentine's Day! What a great night! ☺
Oh yeah, and a HUGE shout out to my ROCK STAR boys. They went to bed at 7:00pm and didn't even come out of their rooms ONCE! I forgot they were even home! Love those sweet boys!

Valentines

I saw this little idea floating around online and decided my kids were going to make them for their class Valentines! They turned out SO stinkin cute! Well....the kids are pretty darn cute to begin with so it's pretty hard to go wrong....in my opinion anyway! ☺I told the boys to go and find a red shirt for their pictures and they both picked thier redneck fleece pullovers. Happy Valentines, from the eastern Idaho redneck Starnes boys! hehe

A little ♥ Day craft!

Valentines day is around the corner! I ♥ Valentines Day! We've been decorating the house in preparation for our Valentine's party this weekend. They boys have been helping me hang the tulle and lights up and we made our heart tree again. So much fun!

Last night I wanted to make a cute little craft for my table. I ran over to Porter's (our local craft store) and bought some things and attempted to be creative. I have to say though, it turned out pretty cute and I only spent $4! Some of the things I already had (the mod podge, paper, glue.)  I bought this little wooden "thing"...I don't even know what to call it...kind of looks like a barbie drive in movie screen????, and some X's and O's and after a little paint and mod podge...VOILA!

Before:

 After:

Happy ♥ day!

Weekend in UT.

A girl can only handle so many days of -15 degree weather. I started feeling really CONFINED to the house and decided that I needed to leave this ICEBERG and go to Utah this weekend. It was actually colder here than in ALASKA last week! Whaaaaat? (Summers are nice here....summers are nice here....I have to keep repeating that over and over to myself!)  There were lots of good reasons to go anyway.

Reason #1:
I've wanted to go and visit my Grandma Rufener in the rehab center. She is getting better day by day. Seeing her face when we walked into her room unannounced was PRICELESS. The boys had made her some little homemade get well cards and even though our visit was only about 30 minutes, I think it really lifted her spirits.

Reason #2:
I wanted to take Ash out for her birthday! We went to the Spaghetti Factory with NO kids and had a great time. I gave her her birthday gift which was a photo book filled with pictures of us through the years. It's fun to go back and look at some of those crazy 80's hair do's!

Reason #3:
Ashley's sweet baby was blessed on Sunday! Isn't she just YUMMY?? I'm so happy we were able to be there for her blessing.

 Reason #4: I wanted to take the boys to the dinosaur museum AND spend some good quality time with my Grandma EE. We had a wonderful afternoon watching the boys go CRAZY over all of the exhibits.

That is one major thing I miss about being up in such a small town. I miss having things like the Discovery Center and even the ZOO (since ours is closed in the winter!)

Loved the 40 degree temps and sunshine! Hated the SMOG and the traffic!

Happy 30th Ash!

My best friend turned the big 3-0 today! We've grown up together.....literally since the day I was born. (Since I am born 5 months later than her! ☺)

Here we are on the back steps on my first birthday: (Eating ice cream)

 Here we are a few years later....eating MORE ice cream. Hmmmm...I see a common theme here! :)

 Hanging out during the college years:

 Attending each others college graduations:

Bridesmaids at each other's weddings:

I love you Ash! I'm SO excited to see you this weekend...get ready, we're going out for ICE CREAM!

Yikes.

I realize that I had previously been WARNED about the temps here in the winter but really.......this SUCKS!

Add in some wind chill and we're down to -30 today! Brrrrrrrr.