Twinsies

Melanie gave Natalie this nightie for Christmas, and it came with a matching one for her baby doll.  She thinks it's just the greatest thing ever!

James' 1st Birthday

It's party time....

Baby James just turned ONE!!!

Waitin' for the party to start.

...and the kids have found the toy bin!

Lookin' like Daddy in his Police uniform

He's even got a donut!

Natalie thought it was her place to sit in the high chair and eat all of the Cheerios. So nice of James to share!

Grandma Bauer did a great job on the cake!

Presents!!!

Natalie trying to sweet-talk Grandpa into giving her a drink of coffee

Cake!!!

"Here's some for you, Daddy!"

Happy 1st Birthday, Buddy!!!!

Pics of the little peeps

What do you do at a restaurant when you're waiting for food to come, and the kids are getting antsy? Why, you start snapping pictures and showing them how cute they are, of course!

Love these little people!

Friends

Natalie has become very fond of the dogs....especially Kallie.  She lays all over their bed and tends to crowd them out sometimes.  Kiki puts up with it for a while, then finds another place to sit. Kallie loves it.

Kallie even cuddles with Natalie's blanket when she leaves it laying around on the floor.  Kallie has always been so good with the kids.  It's pretty sweet!

Salsa

A guy from church gave us about 26 lbs. of tomatoes.  I had a couple of pounds, and needed to do something with all of them, so I made a huge batch of salsa.  I got a little brave.... I made it with a recipe that had a reputation of being really good, but I had never tried it before.  Turns out, it's a great recipe!  Good thing, because it made 34 pints of salsa!

The finished product

Sick Baby Girl

This past week has been a rough one in the Starr household.  Natalie started it out by puking up her breakfast on Sunday morning, and running a really high fever.  She slept most of the day, and whined constantly when she was awake.  She refused to drink anything, and wanted Mommy to hold her all the time. Tylenol and Ibuprofen helped with the fevers a little, but she was still miserable.  Monday was basically the same, except she started looking more dehydrated.

On Tuesday, I finally took her to the doctor.  I was a bit suspicious that she had an ear infection.  She was continuing to have high fevers, a runny nose, vomiting, and she was starting to hold on to her ears.  My suspicions were confirmed... double ear infection.  The doctor told us that she would give us another 24 hours to try and rehydrate her at home, if she still wasn't drinking at that point, we'd have to go into the Emergency Room and get rehydrated with IV fluids.  So, with Amoxicillin on board, and lots of prayer and coaxing, she started drinking better.  She slept better at night, which made her much happier during the day.

(Sunday morning)

She carried her green bowl around all day in case she got sick... just like the big kids do when they aren't feeling well.  It was pretty cute.  She was sad when Daddy and the other kids left for Sunday School, and she had to stay home.  She was definitely happy when they all got back from church!  She sat on Sissy's lap and snuggled for a while with her blankie.

Nolan was pretty sad that Natie was sick.

At the doctor's office, feeling a bit puny.

Wednesday, she wanted a protein shake when I made one for the other kids.

She still slept a lot, but was starting to act like she felt better.

Today, she's drinking well, starting to eat some real food, and spunky as ever!  Thank you, God, for touching our baby girl!

Busy bakers

The kids are doing a lot of 'baking' today with their Play Doh