It’s A Boy!!

Posted on April 26, 2012 by redambition@starkontrast.com| 3 Comments

We finally have the official word…. we are having a second adorable baby boy!

We’ve all been anxiously awaiting this day for quite some time. As soon as we found out we were pregnant we started speculating about which gender it might be. I immediately felt like it was going to be a boy, but some of my symptoms during this pregnancy have been more similar to what I felt when I was pregnant with Samantha & Morgan. Plus there is a trend in David’s family of having 3 girls and only one boy. I thought we might fall into that same tradition. I was fine with another little baby girl or another baby boy. I just wanted Stark baby number four to be healthy.

Samantha & Jared are off track from school and so they were able to come to the ultrasound as well. We were quite a circus… all 5 of us parading into the doctor’s office. Morgan tends to take control of the office when she comes in and uncharacteristically talks to everyone in the waiting room.

Finally we were able to go back. I laid down, the lights went out and the ultrasound started. The very first image we see on screen is this…..  

He was not being shy AT ALL! It was the clearest shot we got of his little manhood for this session.

We are all so excited… well most of us are. Samantha was on the fence as to which gender of baby she would prefer. She kept going back and forth about why it would be better to have a boy or what reasons meant that a third girl would complete our family. Then when we found out for sure that it was a boy, she finally decided that a girl would be better. She likes having a little baby sister and wanted another one.

On the other hand… when Jared found out it was a tiny baby boy, he was jumping for joy… literally. He was soooo very excited. It was cute to see. He’s been threatening/joking that he is going to have to move out of the house if we had another baby girl. He didn’t think he could handle so much estrogen. When he found out boy, all moving plans ceased, and he has started planning his future with his little baby brother. It is really adorable. Ever since the ultrasound he is constantly rubbing my tummy and kissing it and making sure that nothing bad happens to me, like when Morgan is jumping on me.

Here are a few more of Stark baby boy’s pictures. First a nice side profile of his face. What a cute little nose.

Then there are his little feet…. Love those little piggy toes.

Finally some of the 4D images. This was our first time have 4D. Last time with Morgan we were super impressed when we had 3D and this time it’s only gotten better. 4D is fun. You can see his cute little face with his hands up by his face.

And I think this is my favorite picture…. His face turned up and we got a great shot.

Can’t wait to meet this little guy… Only about 5 more months to go. It will be here before we know it.

Posted in Baby, Baby Stark #4, Doctor's Visit, Pregnancy, Ultrasound

New Couches

Posted on January 18, 2012 by redambition@starkontrast.com| Leave a comment

We have had these microfiber couches since Jared was born (almost 7 1/2 years now). They have been fantastic couches. We got a great deal on them while living in CA and they have been so warm and comfortable. It was always so easy to curl up on a couch and get comfy. However, the large sofa was having a few issues… Under the right cushion, in the lining that separates the springs from the cushions, there was a hole. Things would fall into this abyss and almost be lost forever. It didn’t affect the ability to use the couches, it was just annoying. The other annoying thing about these couches were the fact that the cushions would slip out. If you were sitting on them for a prolonged period of time, you’d have to get up and push the cushions back on. It was quiet obnoxious. Many minutes were wasted every day and night replacing these cushions and pushing them back into place. And this was something that happened since the day we got them.

We had thought we would wait to get new couches when we moved, but we found some extra money that was dying to be spent on some couches so we went looking and shopping around.

The old couches we put up on KSL for free. Anyone could take them that wanted them. I ended up finally get the post done and up at about 11:45 PM. It wasn’t but a minute or two later that our phone started ringing. I had just told David that I had finished putting them up when the phone rang. I was confused and thought maybe it was family and something was wrong, because I mean, who calls a complete stranger at midnight. When I checked the caller ID it was no one that we knew. It went to voice mail and it was actually someone interested in the couches. What?!?!?! I couldn’t believe it. But fine whatever. It wasn’t until after the phone rang 3 more times (after midnight) that I went back to the listing and specified that any interested person should call in the morning. However, the phone kept ringing. Finally, I just deleted the entire ad off of KSL, which seemed to silence the phone. That is it was silent until 6 AM the next morning when two more people called about the couches. I was in complete shock that people would actually call at that hour of the night. I guess a set of free couches, in seemingly good condition based on the picture, was too good to wait till morning.

At 9 AM we called back the very first lady that had called the night before. They were going to come out and pick up the couches later that morning. Of course it started raining so they postponed their trip until that Saturday evening.

The couches were gone.

We ended up at shopping at RC Willey and we found these fantastic leather couches. They were on sale, and best of all… we would have two weeks to decide if we liked them. If not we can take them back and exchange them. Love that!

Posted in Home

Concordia Cruise Ship

Posted on January 14, 2012 by redambition@starkontrast.com| Leave a comment

Wow…. When I heard this story about the cruise ship tragedy I couldn’t believe it. We just went on our first cruise back in November of 2009. After having been on a cruise ship, and seeing how they are set up and then the idea of this happening to us while we were on vacation is just appalling.

I went in to work for a few hours this morning and when I opened up my internet browser it automatically opens up to msn.com and the front page story was about this cruise ship. It had just happened and so in between calls I was on the internet looking for information about what happened and how many people were injured or worse.

Basically the ship had gone too close to the shore of an island near Italy. The rocks were well marked on oceanic maps and the captain made a poor decision to go off course which caused the ship to sail too close to the rocks that were under the water surface which then tore a hole in the side of the ship, causing it to fill with water and collapse onto its side. As I was reading through,  it was reminiscent of the Titanic in several ways. Apparently the staff wouldn’t pull down the life boats when the passengers heard and felt the contact. They were telling people to go back to their rooms. People were jumping off the boat and  swimming to shore as the boat started to sink in the water. It sounded like mass-mayhem. There were over 4,000 passengers on board and while many were injured, an expected 6 dead, but there are still missing people left to be accounted for.

Unbelievable….. apparently the final count for those that died was 26. Such a tragedy and one that could have been avoided.

Posted in Cruise

Falling Asleep

Posted on January 11, 2012 by redambition@starkontrast.com| Leave a comment

Morgan has been taking fantastic naps during the day… she will sleep for 2 1/2 to 3 hours easily. Then she’ll go to bed at around 7:30 PM. Sounds perfect right? Well, unfortunately she has been waking up at 3 AM and has been wide awake! She is ready to play. She doesn’t want to stay in bed, she wants to be up and out. Even if I bring her to bed with me, she doesn’t lay down nicely, she wants to play. That is NO BUENO!

In an effort to help change her sleeping habits, I kept her from taking a nap today. She was actually in a great mood. She wasn’t cranky, she was having lots of fun playing. It was great. I thought we had a sure success.

Then at dinner time, she was eating some noodles with Parmesan cheese on them and it was quite comical watching her eat. She was soooo exhausted that her eyes were droopy and tired as she was trying to get the food from the plate into her mouth. Then she couldn’t hold out anymore. She succumbed to the enticing world of sleep.

She actually fell asleep in her high chair. Poor thing.

I knew that if she slept for too long she’d never go to sleep that night. It was 5 PM…. way past nap time. So we let her sleep for about 30 minutes and then we woke her up. She was CRANKY! 7:30 couldn’t come soon enough. She fell asleep rather easily and actually slept through the night.

The next day we tried a new approach that has been working well… I will put her to sleep at around 1 or 1:30 for a nap and only let her sleep for an hour to an hour and a half. Then I have to wake her up. She usually wakes up in a good mood and then goes to sleep at her scheduled bedtime of 7:30 without much fuss. And best of all… she sleeps through the night and awakes at a delightful 7:30 or 8 AM. Perfect.

Posted in Food, Morgan, Sleeping/Nap Time

Visiting Teaching Message & Treat

Posted on January 9, 2012 by redambition@starkontrast.com| Leave a comment


There ain’t nothing better than brownies… in my opinion. I like the crust/edge of a brownie the best and so when I made these little brownie bites, they were the perfect ratio of soft middle with a chewy edge. And to make them even better, right after I pulled them out of the oven I put an unwrapped HUG on top and pushed it in a bit. The brownies were just made from a Betty Crocker Fudge Brownie boxed mix and baked in a mini muffin pan. Once they were cooled I put them into a Ziploc bag and then into a cute little red bag with a visiting teaching message attached.

And some ribbon to finish them off.

Even after filling up 4 bags with these little gems… there were plenty left over for me to enjoy. Delish!

Posted in Baking, Relief Society/Visiting Teaching

Primary Ring in the New Years

Posted on January 8, 2012 by redambition@starkontrast.com| Leave a comment

I like to do themed games or methods for picking out songs to sing during singing time in Primary. Since we are right at the beginning of the new year, I brought the 2012 glasses, the horns, and then these crackers that were filled with some large confetti and a song to sing. We had a little New Years party in Primary. I made these from the empty cardboard toilet paper rolls or paper towel rolls. Split the tube down the middle (so they were easier to “crack”) and then stuffed with the confetti and song. Finally I wrapped them up in some wrapping paper and tied ribbon on the ends. Done! It was a quick and easy prep time for the kids and they had lots of fun.

When the chosen child came up to chose a cracker, I put the glasses on them and then they said… Happy New Year and pulled it open. For the junior primary I just had the name of the song on the paper. For the senior primary, I made it a little bit harder and put a clue or riddle on the paper and they had to figure out which song it was.

Posted in Crafts, Music, Primary

Happy Hair

Posted on January 8, 2012 by redambition@starkontrast.com| Leave a comment

Samantha had a lot of fun playing with Morgan and doing her hair. She had her camera and they had a little photo shoot while changing her hair style from a faux-hawk to a cute little Pebbles pony tail on top. I love all the funny faces Morgan kept making in the pictures. It’s fun to see the things that Samantha records on her camera.

Posted in Hair, Morgan, Samantha

It’s BAAAACK!

Posted on January 7, 2012 by redambition@starkontrast.com| Leave a comment

Well… I looked out the window and what did I see? Snow. Not Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree, but SNOW covering that apricot tree.

In my opinion it has been a FAN-freakin-TASTIC winter! The weather has been consistently around 40 degrees or higher during the day. After coming from CA that isn’t very warm, but after living here in Utah for a few years and having at least 4-5 feet of snow by now, this is nice.

I know it isn’t great for the ski resorts, but they are making their own snow, which I hear isn’t as great as the real stuff, but it works. I know it isn’t ideal for our water reserves, but I guess they didn’t drain the reservoir as much as they could have, so there is still a lot of water there.But without taking any of that into account… I was happy it hasn’t been snowing. However, it was really beautiful when I peeked out the blinds this morning and saw the fluffy white stuff covering the ground. Wonder how long it will stay???

Posted in California, Snow, Winter

Morgan’s Snack Time

Posted on January 5, 2012 by redambition@starkontrast.com| Leave a comment

Morgan knows how to open the pantry door all by herself and I swear this girl is always hungry! She will get into the pantry and pull out 3, 4, 5, or more containers of snacks, then she sits down in the middle and takes turns taking a cracker or pretzel or marshmallow out of each container and eating them. YUM!

What a cute little handful I have here. These containers are wonderful but it didn’t take very long for her to learn how to crack them open.

Posted in Food, Morgan

Laundry Baskets

Posted on January 4, 2012 by redambition@starkontrast.com| Leave a comment

Another thing I’ve been doing to keep things more organized is that everyone gets their own laundry basket. I just used a sharpie and wrote the kids names on them. I’d heard about how you can let your kids personalize it themselves but I didn’t really want crazy drawings all over the baskets. I’d also thought of using vinyl to put their names on them, but thought that could be scratched off. So I went simple and just wrote their names on the sides and on the insides.
On laundry day, I wash everyone’s clothes (at least I do this for now… soon when they get a bit older they will be doing that themselves). If they are in school, I will fold up their clothes that go into drawers, and lay out the ones that need to be hung up. If they are off track or during the summer, they have to do it themselves or at least help me fold their own clothes. Then they always put their own stuff away. They have their own basket, so they don’t’ have to run up and down the stairs picking up piles of clothes, or I can just put the basket into their room and it is ready for them when they get home.

Posted in Cleaning, Home, Organization