I AM ALIVE!!!!

So, my last post was in April. APRIL! I used to be such a good blogger, but life definitely got in the way. Things got busy and something had to go. If it makes you feel any better, I haven't been following any of your blogs either :)

Here are the highlights of what has been going on since I last posted. We packed up the house, sold off a lot of our stuff at a yard sale, Brett graduated from dental school, we moved out of Ohio to Washington, we went to Hawaii for Brett's sister's wedding, we went to a family reunion, we had a his sisters reception, we lived with Brett's parent's for 6 weeks (and did not want to upload pictures to their computer...PS...thank you again to them. I know it wasn't easy to have us crashing all over your house for so long!), we moved to Port Angeles, Brett FINALLY got licensed, we had Cole's 4th birthday and Parker's 7th, and we have started finally settling into life. I am leaving out some things, but that is the gist. With all of that going on, I just couldn't bring myself to blog even though I had a ton of stuff to post. But now, it is time to do some blogging, so I guess this is a warning to all those who follow me. You will be seeing a lot of the Startin Family over the next little while because I have a TON of catching up to do! STAY TUNED...

Emma's First Birthday!

Can you believe she is ONE already? It has been a great year and I don't know what our family would be like without her here. So, here is a rundown of the day...(Disclaimer: This is going to be a monster of a post. I wanted to capture all of the moments for the grandparents who couldn't be here. You were missed!)

Here we are at Red Robin...

We had them sing Happy Birthday to her and as you can see, she was confused at first, and then panicked and reached for Brett.

They gave her a balloon and put it on her hand. She was not happy about it and tried everything to get it off.

I love this one. She was laughing hysterically at Cole who was playing peek-a-boo. She loves Cole. Don't mind all of the junk in the back...we had to make a goodwill run :)

Here is us singing Happy Birthday. We invited our neighbor Rita over. I don't think she knew I was videotaping throughout the next videos because she was pretty loud :) Oh, and Brett and I made and decorated the cake.

Some pictures of Emma eating her cake. She started out eating relatively clean, but when she was done eating, she just played in the frosting.

Eating the cake.

Playing in the cake :)

A Beautiful Sight

Happy Birthday Papa!

I know, I know...I have been MIA on this blog for a while. I will make it up to you all, I promise. But for now, I am just posting a video that the kids made for my dad for his birthday. I love Emma at the end :) His b-day was actually on the 5th, but for some reason this has not been emailing properly. Anyhoo, happy birthday dad....I LOVE YOU!

Dinner Time

The boys are so cute and always want to make sure that Emma is eating with them so they scoot her highchair wherever they are. They are such great big brothers!

Cole and his Snacks

The other day when Cole asked for a snack I told him he could have EITHER an apple, some grapes, or some string cheese. This is what I came downstairs to find.

Cincinnati Trip

In March we went to Cincinnati because Brett was there working in a clinic for 2 weeks. The kids and I drove down there to stay for a night. It was a bit chaotic at times and I think I underestimated the whole road-trip-with-three-kids-by-myself thing but for the most part it was a great trip. Actually, I think I just overestimated myself :)

Outside of the Cincinnati Museum Emma was really into watching movies in the car.

The Children's Museum. We were there for 5 hours and had such a blast!