Happy New Year from the Starrs!

Grandma Starr comes for Christmas!

Grandma Janie made a visit to the cold North the weekend before Christmas and we were so glad to see her! Iris and Nora love visiting with Grandma! We're VERY interested in opening presents. Grandma feeds us lunch.

Peekaboo!!!!

Grandma gave us the cutest red-headed twin baby dolls. You can't find a more perfect Christmas present than that!

Iris and Nora love the dolls and play with them every day!

Thank you Grandma! We love you and Jessie. Merry Christmas! Ho Ho Ho.

Bouncin's what Tiggers do best!!!

Home grown fun.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Christmas is rapidly approaching and the girls are on their BEST behavior anticipating Santa's arrival. For example, here is Nora and the beautiful Starr tannenbaum we have repeatedly told her not to touch. Ahhh the Holiday Spirit - alive and well.
Mark and the girls relaxing in the afternoon watching our favorite - "Horton Hears a Who" - for the six hundreth time. "I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant is faithful - one hundred percent!" Dr. Seuss, the cream of the crop!

Alright, so here's my favorite part, well, aside from being with family and friends and celebrating the true meaning of Christmas and being thankful for health and happiness. After all that malarky, I mean, here's my favorite part. Baking. Ahhh baking. And boiling - in this case, butter and sugar until it forms TOFFEE. Yummmmmmmy.

I tried a variation of my Mom's sugar cookies this year using royal icing instead of her Meringue Buttercream. I must admit, Koffee's got it down. Her cookies taste much better. And that's the most important part!

More family (and baking) pictures to come. The Starr Holidays rest for no man, woman, or beast! Hope to see you all very soon! Ho Ho Ho!

Turkey Day Wrap-up

What a merry Turkey day we had! All the family came to Topeka to celebrate the day! Here are the boys preparing to deep fry the turkeys.....looks like trouble to me! Here are all the kids (except Iris) enjoying a wholesome meal of various Frito Lay goodies. L to R: Nora, James, Megan (our exotic Arizona cousin), and Bodie.
Here is the star of Thanksgiving - Poochie the dog. She is new to the family and lives in Belton, MO with my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Tom. Nora and Iris thought she was the bee's knees.

Here are the parents fixing the pre-Thanksgiving vittles. Mmmm! James and Bodie were a little stand-offish with Aunt Kiki, so I dressed in stripes and looked up Cars videos on Youtube to entice them. Worked like a charm!!!

Playing outside was so awesome. What a great weather week to run around with the kiddos. That gal in the hat is Molly Moore - of Judge Judy fame. Incognito with the hat pulled over her face - so no one recognizes her.

Iris and Bodie playing in the shrubbery....lighting was beautiful!

Nana herding the cats.

It was such a great week. Seeing Molly, Colin, and the boys is always fantastic! I wouldn't want to do it again before tomorrow!

Thanks, Cuz!

A HUGE Starr "thank you" to our cousin Quinlan. He was so generous and gave the girls his fantastic kitchen set. They LOVE it and play with it every day. They know how to use the utensils to "mixa-mixa-mixa" in the saucers and pans. It's so much fun. Here are some fun pictures to show their cooking chops. Taking after their chef Daddy!
Iris especially likes to make toast in the toaster.

Thanks again Quinlan!!!

Deck the Halls - and the Hair!

My friend Marci gave me these adorable holiday hair bows for the girls so I promised her a picture. Little did I know how difficult that would be! The bows lasted mere seconds in their hair! But I can see them playing a larger role in Christmases to come!