Video Time

Just a little catch up with Jack:



Finn showing off his mad animal sound skills:

Independence

It happened. And it happened a lot sooner than I had anticipated. Jack went to the bathroom in the men's restroom all by himself while we were out running errands.

Let me back up.

On Friday, I took the boys out to run some errands. Jack's new thing is wanting to use every single public restroom possible. He just thinks it is fun. Me on the other hand, not so much. Especially when I have a Target cart full of stuff and his little brother sitting in the cart. I'm definitely not afraid to wheel the whole flipping cart inside the women's restroom though, don't worry. And now that Jack is peeing standing up, it only takes him like 3 seconds to pee. But either way, it's a chore. Well on Friday we were at the grocery store and I had just finished checking out. I was bagging my groceries when all of the sudden, Jack bee lines it for the restrooms. I scream "Jack, get back here" and he yells back "I have to go potty" and he just opens the men's door and walks in. I thought to myself, oh good Lord, here we go. I thought about chasing after him, but then I wondered what could really go wrong? I was standing right outside the door. So many things were racing through my mind in this short period of time. Good things, bad things, super scary things.  Even though I have two boys, the thought of them someday having to use mens restrooms never occurred to me, as silly as that sounds. And it's really not that big of a deal - but the first time it happens is kind of a big deal in my eyes. So anyway, Jack came out like 30 seconds later and screams "I went potty just like DADDY" he was so proud. ha ha. He will still go into the women's restrooms with me, obviously, but if it were up to him, he'd only pee in urinals.

Don't worry, I wasn't in the men's bathroom - Tom took his picture. HA HA. 

3rd Annual Brendan Loney Golf Classic!

3rd Annual Brendan Loney Golf Classic
Fox Hollow Golf Course
St. Michael, MN


Thursday, August 18th, 2011 at 12 PM


Register Here

It's about that time again. Organizing and planning for the 3rd Annual Brendan Loney Golf Classic. As most of you know, my brother suffered a spinal cord injury almost two years ago that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down. The medical expenses, the equipment he needs on a daily basis, and bills all add up and this fundraising event helps my family out more than you know.  Not to mention, the past two years of this event have been so much fun with all of our family and friends gathered together, celebrating how far Brendan has come since that tragic day in July 2009. The first year was overwhelming. My brother and mom were still in Colorado at the time. In fact this event was put together in less than a month and it was unbelievable. It was so emotional for me, my dad, and Tom. But last year...last year was just a celebration of all Brendan's accomplishments. It was so much fun having Brendan and my mom a part of the days festivities.

So I'm asking you all to do me a favor. Do you have a special talent (crafting, sewing, knitting, photography, massages, hair styling, cooking, drawing, etc)? Do you have any extra sports tickets you'd be willing to donate? Do you have anything you might be able to offer to the silent auction? Or are you creative and want to create a little gift of your own to set up for auction (gift cards, movies, a themed basket of some sort)? Then, please enter your item into our silent auction item list. 

Do you work for a company that might be interested in sponsoring a hole? If so, check out this link and send my mom your company's logo. (her info is on the bottom left of the screen on this link)

Do you like to play golf? Get together a foursome and sign up. Bring a client. Bring a friend. Ask your boss or coworker. Trust me, this is for a good cause.

This year the event will take place on Thursday, August 18th with a 1 PM shotgun tee off time. 11 AM free range balls, 12:00 registration, 12:45 speaker.

REGISTER HERE
For golf and dinner, dinner only, silent auction items, and to order your shirts and sweatshirts this year too! Hooray.

If you have any other questions in regards to this event, please don't hesitate to ask me.
mfstarkey (at) gmail (dot) com

Kansas City Recap

Right after we got to Katie's house from her picking me up from the airport

Baby Hudson

Baby Brendan

Brendan's big brother, Connor

Katie, Me, Julie

Delicious beer

The Cowboy Bar, not sure of the name

Inside of Angel's Rock Bar

Katie was so excited to be at Angel's Rock Bar, she threw her bra on the chandelier

My Mom and Dad for the weekend

Dusty had a mad curve ball

Katie startin out

Dang girl, look at that form

I have no form whatsoever....don't worry, it's really cool to wear a dress while bowling

And this is how I bowl

I'd like to point out that even though I sucked the first two frames, I came back and got 2nd place. I won't say who ended up in last. Cough, cough - Dusty

Mmmmmm, Grease

Yummy guac

Katie bought this wine especially for me

*These are just a fraction of the pictures I took. We did so much more and I seriously had an amazing time.

A boy and his blankie

Finn is very attached to his blankie. It was actually given to us as a gift for Jack, but Jack never really used it. It is seriously the softest blanket in the world. And Finn walks around the house with it all day long. He sleeps with it and he just loves it. I think it's so adorable he has an attachment item, Jack never had one besides his nuk. I'm sure I wont think it's adorable when he is five or six and still wants to carry a blanket around everywhere, but oh well. My mom threw my brother's blankie out and it's still a sore subject for my brother to talk about :-)

I snapped a few pics of Finn and his giraffe blanket the other day. He's such a cuddly little boy.

My Trip to KC

This past weekend, I got to take a quick little trip to Kansas City to visit my super amazing friend, Katie. Katie and I met our junior year in college. We became instant friends when we both noticed we had on the same doc martin shoes. We sat by each other and ended up doing a project together. And seriously, I don't think I would have survived Omaha without Katie. Tom was gone a lot for Air Force training and so I basically lived at Katie's apartment with her in the summers when Tom was gone and I was taking a million college credits to catch up from my semester off. We had SO much fun together. We would do the most random things and just laugh hysterically. Katie has one of the funniest laughs I've ever heard. I'm not really even sure how to describe it. Sometimes it sounds like a machine gun. And if she laughs when she's drinking something, there is a 99.9% chance that it will come out her nose or mouth.

I don't think it's possible for people not to like Katie. Seriously. She's the most personable, caring, thoughtful person I know. I just wish we lived a little closer together. Katie and her husband now live in Kansas City (they are both from Iowa). I had such a wonderful visit with Katie and Dusty. I have a ton of pictures I will work on getting up here later this week. I was also able to see two of Tom's cousins and their new babies! That was so great too. I'll post more pictures and stories this week.

When I booked this trip a few months ago, I didn't even look at the calendar to realize it was Father's Day weekend. How horrible is that? I felt really bad. Tom was totally fine with it, and I came home at a descent time yesterday, but still. Good thing I bought him a few goodies from KC. Tom cooked an amazing dinner last night - yes that's right, he cooked dinner on Father's day. And it might have been one of the best dinners we've ever had. I'm not sure what you'd call it but it was angel hair pasta with shrimp, yellow and red peppers, roma tomatoes, in a white wine, lemon, basil sauce. Holy amazingness. Oh and Tom also cleaned the carpets in our entire house. Is he Superman or what?!

Today I feel like cleaning and organizing the house. We'll see how far I get....

Here's my homegirl, Katie.

In the Power and Lights area downtown Kansas City. The "Beatles" were playing behind us.

Bailey Love

We had Bailey for a little over a year before we had Jack.  We even sent Bailey to an 8 week training school when we moved back to MN. That seriously was the best thing we could have done for her. She's still a spaz of a dog, but she's a part of our family. When Jack came along, Bailey was obsessed with him. She wouldn't leave him alone and Jack was in awe of her. But then slowly, Bailey started to realize that we weren't paying attention to her as much and she started to just ignore Jack. When Finn came along, Bailey wanted nothing to do with him. It's like she knew that this was another reason she would be neglected. ha. Smart dog. Anyway, Finn has just started wanting kisses from Bailey and I forgot that Jack used to do this too - run up to Bailey with his mouth open welcoming her to kiss his mouth. ha ha. Here is a pretty cute video from last night after dinner.



In other news...I'm having a really difficult time with Jack this week. He is getting so bossy, he has selective hearing, and we are butting heads on everything. People weren't kidding when they said three's are worse than two's. But I do have to say, they are a lot better too. It seems like with every age milestone things get easier and harder all at the same time. For example - potty training. We are DONE with diapers and pull-ups COMPLETELY! How awesome is that? Hip hip hooray. But....this means that Jack has to go to the bathroom about 20 million times before he actually falls asleep at night. And hey, I'll take it over buying and changing diapers, but it's just another little hurdle that you are not prepared for in regards to potty training. Oh well - I'm just excited to only have one kid in diapers.

Summer Lovin'

I feel like I've been slacking in my photography lately and that makes me sad. The more I use my camera, the more I love it and learn new things. But when I take week long breaks, I forget things. So I'm going to challenge myself to bring my camera to more places and whatnot.

Last week, I strapped on my favorite lens to use in the summertime and snapped pics of the boys playing outside in the 100 degree weather.

Then on Sunday, Tom was out on our deck and yelled for me to come outside. This is what we saw:

Yesterday we celebrated Ari's 2nd birthday at a park with some of her friends and family. We had a great time. I brought my camera and shot over 200 pictures. ha. Don't worry, I''ll just share a few:

Teri made this awesome princess castle cake!

Starkey Men, minus Grandpa, Dan, and Tristan

My new favorite picture of Finn

Haha, Finn looks like a newborn

Proud parents snapping pics of their 2 year old

And now I have a new blog to share with you! You know my bestie Alissa just got married and she and her hubby are moving into their new house this weekend! She decided to start a blog called My Own Kitchen I am super excited! She's going to be sharing some of her favorite recipes and whatnot. She also just purchased a sweet camera, so hopefully she will share some of her photography skills as well.  Hop on over to blog, check it out, and if you are intrigued - start following her! Hooray for fun new blogs.

PS - It's both of our boys' Godmother's birthdays today! Crazy, huh? Happy Birthday Alissa and Kel! We love you!

HAHA, don't be mad. It's the only pic I had of us three! It's ok though because I look like a man in the photo. You girls are glowing! ha ha.

Happy Monday.

Basil and a Birthday

Last night I used my own FRESH basil in our pasta sauce. And let me tell you, it was delish! Look at how beautiful my plant is...

I'm still waiting on the peppers and tomatoes, but my tomato plant is starting to blossom and I hear that's a good sign. Maybe my thumb isn't so black after all.

Tonight is date night for me and Tom! We don't know what we're doing tonight. Maybe dinner. Maybe a movie. Either way, it's a nice little getaway for a few hours.

And today, my niece is TWO years old! Can you believe it? Happy 2nd Birthday Ariana!

Happy weekend-ing!