Strawberries....Yummy! Yummy!

A big THANK YOU to our friend who allowed us to indulge! We picked, ate, cut, ate, canned and ate strawberries until our bellies were full. Man I love this time of the year in Florida!

NEW vehicle to us.

We have been talking about purchasing a SUV (with the 3rd row) for a while. We really needed a vehicle that would carry more people. I so dislike having to take more than one vehicle when extended family members go somewhere with us.

Considering this was going to be a 3rd vehicle we bought used. We have been looking for a while (because I am picky and CHEAP) and with much searching & waiting we FINALLY found this....

 

It was an older man who owned it and could no longer drive real well. It has been taken good care of and is fully loaded with low miles. We got it for $3,000+ less than what most used ones are going for. Anyone who knows me knows I love a great deal. My first thought was it was too good to be true. It turned out to be an answer to our prayers. We went and looked at it and the the biggest thing it needed was a set of new tires. It does have leather seating, which most people would love, but not me. I am going to have the seats recovered with cloth. Leather in Florida, to me, makes for a hot, slippery and sweaty seat.

With gas prices back on the rise, our Carolla is still our favorite car! :)

One year older and wiser too!

Justin had a birthday! I love it when Justin or the girls have birthdays. I love planning fun stuff and shopping for birthday surprises.

So for Justin birthday this year he got more Pilot lessons and a new flight instructor. :)

Justin has been taking pilot lessons. Bank in November, the guy he was taking them from left the company to be a full time private pilot. So lessons had been on hold for Justin. Well.....not any more. He is back flying. I found another instructor that he likes just as much as the other one. He is also learning to take off and land on a grass field. This is a little more difficult and challenging and Justin is loving every minute of it.

Here is a picture of Justin getting ready to fly. He is going through all the pre-flight stuff.

Justin's goal is to someday have his own plane. Not for sure how I feel about this just yet. It's a scary thought.

Happy Birthday Justin! I hope to celebrate MANY more with you.

Cakes, Cakes, and MORE Cakes!

In January, I did 3 wedding cakes. They are fun to do, but I am always a nervous wreck.....I am so afraid they won't taste good or the will turn out ugly. This is why they are done at no charge. :)

1st Place at the Science Fair

This was the first year a science project was due at the Stalker house. We attended a "Science Fair" information class held at the school, then picked our topic and then begin work.

AND GUESS WHAT???????...... Emma won first place over all the other 4th graders. She was so excited and we were so proud of her. She worked really hard on the project. And believe it or not, it was kinda fun!

Congratulations Emma!!! You are awesome!

Here is Emma with a few other kids from her school who went to Districts too after winning at school level.

Emma, you are awesome and just so "d-a-r-n" cute!!!!

A Christmas Cruise

This year for Christmas we went on a Cruise with some of our favorite people! We love this family so much and truly enjoy spending every moment we get with them. They are AWESOME!

The cruise took us to 3 different countries ( Belize, Honduras and Mexico) and to the Florida Keys. We had a great time and are looking forward to our next cruise in October.

There were so many pictures I put them on a slide show. Enjoy!

Big Apple!

No TURKEY for Thanksgiving this year! We had an APPLE! A BIG Apple. We went to New York. We had such a wonderful time. We went to all the tourist hot spots and even did some shopping too. Some of my family from Kentucky were part of a 4H group that was in NYC the same time we were. This allowed us to spend some time with them. Watching the Macy's day parade with them was a highlight.

Some other highlights... 
     Girls playing on the big floor piano at FAO Schwarz
     Going to the Tiffany Store and buying a few things
     Dylan's Candy Shop
     Eating a hot dog on the street
     Riding in a subway
     Statue of Liberty
     Memorial for the World Trade Centers
     Going to Harlem!  
Yep! That is right....we got off on the wrong stop and ended up in Harlem. It took us a couple of blocks to realize what we had done. Then a nice lady approached us to help guide us back to the subway. Apparently she could tell we were in the wrong area. :) But believe it or not Harlem was one of the cleanest areas we saw.

Here are some pictures to show our fun...

Another Blessed day

Grace got baptized on October 5, 2010. We are so excited and proud of her decision. She is a young lady who is amazingly spiritually strong. It was such a beautiful day. Many friends and family camp to see this very special occasion. The room was FULL.

We love you Grace! You are a sweet daughter of Heavenly Father. We are so glad to be the one's raising you for him.

Famous for the day!

Hollywood Studios for the day! We had a great time and the kids were involved in everything! And when I say the kids......I mean Justin too. :)

Rodeo Drive!

 Doing a little Hulla Hooping!

Here is Justin in a pretend movie. It was Pearl Harbor.

And of course... the Stalker family with their favorite monster!

A little summer vacation.....

We had not been to Kentucky for a while so this summer it was at the top of our "MUST DO" list. May I say We had a blast! We decided to fly into Lexington this time. It truly is beautiful horse country. Another cool thing about Lexington is this castle. It was once rumored to be built by Lee Majors (The Fall Guy) an actor from the 80's, who was building it for Farrah Faucet. That was just a rumor from fairy tail land. It was really built by a wealthy developer for his new bride. They had traveled to Europe for their honeymoon. She fell in love with the castles so Mr. Martin (the wealthy developer) built her one.
The homes are so beautiful.


One thing we did this time was go to "Dale Hollow Lake" and go camping and cruise the lake. We had SOOOOOOO much fun. We had a picnic on the lake and the girls got to do some tubing. My cousins even got to ski. Emma wanted to but her feet were too small for the ski's.

After the lake we drove over to my Aunt Sue and Uncle Malcolm's house. It was so nice getting to visit with them. My Uncle is amazing cook and has many cook books from all over. My Aunt was born with a green thumb and has plants that I could never imagine so big. I really enjoyed spending time with them.

That same day we took the girls to the ferry. This is the only working free ferry in the State of Kentucky.

Here is a slide show of the fun!

Emma turns 9!!!!

This year Emma wanted an "Alice in Wonderland" themed party. It was a lot of fun putting it together and turned out super cute.

This is a candy bar we did.

Then of course the food bar.

Picture of her opening gifts with some friends. They have bathing suites on because we did a 30 foot water slide down the back hill. They had the best time with it. I think even a few adults got in on the action.

Here is the party tent prior to party.

We even did the cupcake route. Just like the movie.



Here she is on the actual date of her birthday. That is granddad sitting in the background.

Emma wanted to go to the Japanese Steak House.....this is the "cake" they brought out to her.
They even TRIED to sing Happy Birthday. It was so funny, but very thoughtful.


Emma and Grace waiting for the rice. :)

Happy Birthday Emma! I hope you have at least 90 more! Love you lots!

Us and our 32 kids go to Nauvoo!

Justin and I were bless to be able to go to with the Stake Youth to Nauvoo. We pulled the luggage and food trailer with our truck. The trip was an amazing experience and we loved every minute of it. It was such a testimony builder of the Early church history. Here are a few things we got to see and do...





We took a little side adventure through Nashville. We got to see "Music Row" and the "Ryman" aka Original "Grand Ol' Opry".

We got to drive by the St. Louis Arch.

One of our greatest moments was to be able to work in the Nauvoo Temple.

We also got to go to Carthage and see the jail that Joseph Smith was held at. He fell out of the 2nd story window after being shot. We also got to see the original door that has the bullet holes through it.
Justin and I standing in front of the Nauvoo Temple.

One of Justin's highlights was visiting the "Browning" house. This is the home of Jonathon Browning the Founder of Browning Guns. We got to see his work shop and some of the early weapons he built.

One of the highlights for the girls was getting to see the BYU Ambassadors.

The most difficult thing we did was going on a 3 mile Trek. It was a huge struggle. I have so much respect for the early saints who had to pull a hand cart. I really don't know if I could have done it.

This picture was taken right before we got our carts and the journey began.

Here is what the carts looked like.

This is just a small sampling of what we ALL went through.

The trip was one of the most exciting trips I have ever been on. We learned a lot and enjoyed spending it with the youth. Justin and I are looking forward to taking our girls back so they can experience the same feelings and things we did.

End of the 2009 -2010 School Year

Another school year has past and the girls will be moving on to the 4th and 2nd grade. This year I did these cute shirts up for them. Their classmates got to sign the back.

Because the girls school does a form of tag teaching they have two teachers each. Theses are the gifts we did for them...

For the past 3 years we have had Karyn as our PTA President. She has done an amazing job and will be greatly missed. It is official now and the torch has been pasted on to me.

This is a gift that was given to Karyn to say thanks for all the hard work. It is a quilt of t-shirts that have been used at the school while she has served in the PTA.