Blurry Pictures

20 minutes of trying to get ONE decent picture with my daughter.

Still a blurry Tali...

(Below) This time mommy wasn't paying attention...or was she?

YAY! Not exactly blurry, but not exactly a great picture either. We'll take it!

That's how we spent 20 minutes of our day.

New Additions To My Baby Blanket

I posted a little bit ago a baby blanket that I was making, and I wanted to show the new additions I made to it. It's hard to see the sun in the picture, but it's new. That block of red fabric isn't sewn on, I just laid it there for the picture. One day I'll use that fabric to sew on a baby name in about that same area. I'm very happy with it! Glad that it is pretty much done.

This is my beautiful Atalia Rae. She is my best friend and my motivation to be a better person. She is my greatest blessing. I love her!

Popie and His Girls.

She loves to share her pretend food. Possibly the only thing she likes to share.

I kinda love it when Atalia finds my jewelry and casualy wears it around the house playing.

Atalia and Popie. Cousin Sage is about to come join in the fun.

I think this is heaven for Popie.

Many Expressions Only Your Mom Cares About.

Sometimes you may think, "Why does that person post multiple pictures of almost the extact same picture?" Well, to a mom they are completely different. Each little expression is priceless and precious. It's hard to just pick one!!

Atalia has to be the messiest eater! She has no problem getting food all over her hands, face, hair, or anywhere! I think you can see some spaghetti flung on the wall. I've learned to coordinate giving her messy food to eat before bath time.

Found some more pictures of Sage and Atalia. Didn't know I had them!

This is the baby blanket I've been working on. Nothing professional, but I like it. It still needs a little something extra, but I'm not exactly sure what it is. Any suggestions? I thought about cutting out some letters in fabric and sewing a name on it underneath the dinosaurs, but I don't know!

We made a comfy spot for Tali in our room to watch some cartoons.

She's watching herself on the Mac Photo booth.

Again, watching herself on the computer.

Eat an Ice-Cream Cone Mess-Free

(I found this in a magazine and I thought I would re-create it for other's amusement.)

"To lick a scoop without looking like a loser, first tackle the edge between the cone and the ice cream itself, not the top, says Ray Karam, Cold Stone Creamery's tastemaster. Even out the cone by licking each side equally in an upward motion toward the top. It's okay to use a spoon..."

I unknowingly have been using this technique. Couldn't help but feel a little proud of myself :)

James and I went to see Despicable Me last night. We loved it! I want to go see it again. It wasn't as much funny as it was cute. But it did have it's funny parts too. All I have to say, if you haven't seen it yet, wait for the unicorn song.

:)

I have this urge to write something, but I don't know what to write about. hmmm...I have a gazillion (sp?) thoughts going on in my head that start out strong and end with a dot dot dot...dot.......dot. Maybe I can pick one thought and hope it picks up steam from there. I'm gonna pick the thought "The Danger of Daydreaming" (yes, I did just give it a title).

I am a daydreamer. Sometimes I look forward to just having some alone time to just dream. I'm embarrassed to say what some of my daydreams are because some of them are as miniscule as what I would make for dinner for my family for a week. Other times I dream bigger, like maybe my husband sells a book, he becomes famous (in my dream I don't think I would really like all the attention of being the famous one) and what I would wear if I were on the red carpet with him. Other dreams are about buying a nice starter home and being super mom.

Lately, I've been doing a lot of the latter dream. Doing that, makes me start to look at others and think, "They have that." And then Laurissa (yes, I'm briefly going into third person) thinks, "I wish I had that." And THAT makes daydreaming dangerous! (at least for me) My whole life I've wanted to jump forward to that next phase of life. Dreaming about how much happier life will be once I start high school......once I get my license (which in my case was when I was 19 years old) (I have no good explanation for that)....once I get married.....once I finish school....I think you get the point. Yes, all of those things or phases of life have made me happy, but sometimes I don't realize that until it has passed. Is it too late to make a new year's resolution? Find the positive in where you are in life and enjoy it. No matter how hard it may seem or how much better the future may appear, I think you may look back and miss some of the things from those past phases of life. I'm glad I've had this epiphany at 23 years old instead of 100 (my goal is to live to be a hundred).

That is the end of my thought.

.....I will still daydream here and there....... :)

We got up this morning and went to two fairs. The first one was like an emergency prepared fair. Which was kinda neat actually, with lots of pamphlets on things that you can work on to be ready for in life. I always like a "to-do" list, so I gobbled those up.

The second one was a town fair. It was a lot of fun seeing Atalia take in all the sights and sounds. She would start dancing as we passed by booths playing music, rudely ignored Ronald McDonald, loved bouncing her balloon, and pointed to everything in between. James had his first deep fried twinkie (yum) and I had a deep fried swiss roll (yum yum) (James described his twinkie as the most delicious doughnut he's ever had). We also tried deep fried pickles. They were good, but one was more than enough for me. Atalia was so sleepy on her way home and I think she is going to be taking an extra long nap today (I LOVE fairs!). Maybe that means I can start on that baby blanket I've been wanting to do :) Love starting out days with lots of fun things to do and then still have lots of time left in the day for more!

Our camera broke, so until we figure out a camera, I have no updated pictures (drives me crazy!). I get easily bored without pictures though, so I posted some pictures that I found on the internet to show you best what our food looked like.

This is what my deep fried swiss roll looked like.

This is what James's deep fried twinkie looked like.

And we got deep fried pickles to share with everyone.

Mimi and Sage.

Sage looks adorable in this picture :)

After we ate, Jon and Tyler decided to buy two pies to take home from the restaurant for the family. They were surprised to find out it was $80 for each pie. (LOL They assumed it would be around $20 I think) The pies were very yummy!!

Most of the group got crab.

We ate at the Black Pelican (I think that is what it was called). I had the BEST salmon I've ever eaten at that restaurant!

Here is James with Atalia after a long day at the beach. Tali fell asleep in a tent that we brought to the beach with us. There was a crease that let in some light and it fell across Tali's face while she slept and gave her this diagonal sunburn across her face. It was kinda funny looking, but I'm glad that it is the only sunburn she got.

This was the dock off the house we stayed in at the Outer Banks. There were two kayaks we could take out onto the water. We did a lot of swimming here. The water was amazingly warm! I miss it!

Uncle Jon and Tali (Tali has my earring in her mouth)

Atalia sometimes likes to sit on her head.

If you look closely, you can see Tali's hand on Sage's shoulder. So sweet.

Sage hugging on Tali (or using Tali to hold herself up) (or maybe both!). Our family met at the Outer Banks this summer. Everyone was there! It's been years since we have gotten the whole Starn family together. It was a huge blessing and lots of fun. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of Tali at the beach. Our camera is broken and I didn't want to chance getting sand all over someone else's. I wish I would have chanced it though lol. Atalia LOVED the sand and would just lay down in it and roll. Lots of fun memories!

Tali and Sage playing in Tali's room. Sage was funny playing with that toy. She would make this funny face every time she would close the toy computer on that toy table thing......maybe you'd have to have been there.

Daddy and his little girl

Love them :)

Family Vacation

My sister and her family visited not too long ago. It was Atalia's real first time playing with her cousin, Sage (now they are old enough to really interact). Sage (on the left) doesn't know her own strength and Atalia (on the right) is very timid with new people. So, we stuck them in Atalia's teepee to quicken their bond. Eventually, Tali warmed up to Sage and she would give little pats or hugs to Sage while her back was turned.