Jennifer Starr

And....That's a Wrap.

Dear Readers,

It's official; this is my last post on my beloved little blog here. It's been so fun, but it's time to move on. Life has just gotten too fast and furious to keep up here. I can't believe, I kept this up consecutively for three years: blogging starting in January 2009 through December 2011.

The last three years have had lots of highs and lows.... life changed over this three year span. And now, life is just continuing to change so quickly and my priorities have changed... that I feel in some weird way that I've outgrown my little bloggy blog here.

Moving forward~ I'll be posting our personal photos on facebook to keep in touch with our friends and family better. I'll also be blogging now from my J.Starr Biz Blog...but this blog won't serve as a online scrapbook (like this one was)...it will be a mix of all kinds of fun things, so be sure to follow me at: http://jstarrstylizedweddings.blogspot.com/

Thank you for reading and caring..... Keep in touch!!!

Muah,
Jennifer Starr

Ringing in 2012

We ended the year, with an unbelievable evening. For Christmas Justin bought us front row tickets to see Michael Jackson's Immortal Tour. He booked a room at the Hyatt Regency and we had an AMMMAZING night out on the town!

It was the coolest way to ring in the New Year....

The night started with some pre-partying and toasting in our room.

Then walked over to the show, which was INSANE! Truly INSANE.

Did I say INSANE???

INSANE!

It was the most perfect way to ring in 2012. Thank you Justin Starr....
You know how to impress a girl.

Christmas with the Starrs

Christmas Night, Shannon didn't get off work until late...and we were all sooo exhausted... so we decided to celebrate the following night.

We just made a simple yummy dinner, had some spritzers, and of course some Berried Treasure Pie!

For some reason, I'm not exactly sure why... I remember us watching the He-Man Christmas Special~which was kind of odd.

Exchanged some gifts....

And watched random utube videos....if you're interested in seeing which one the boys were watching (above) ummm.. go ahead a check it out here.... nothing says Happy Holidays more than a Hippo??

Good Ole Fashion Christmas at Ma & Pa's

This is the view we woke up to Christmas morning... there's no question who I get my event planning obession from... take a look a my mom's gorgeous living room!! And this is just a snap shot from just one angle... she decorates all over their home...and it's just magical.....

Lovely Little Christmas morning at Mom and Dads, nice and relaxing, and very cozy.....

Granny Morris (and uncle Gene) came down from Chandler...and though she couldn't hear much, being that she only had on one of her hearing aids (she calls them her earrings)...she had a great time too...

One of the gifts we gave Chase was this Beatles blanket, and about ten minutes after this photo was snapped he broke out in a itching attack ~ awesome, cheap gift.

And later that today, Grandpa Jim joined us and Justin drove up to Phoenix to pick up Trevor only to drive back down to Casa Grande again, so that he and Trevor could join mom's delicious Christmas meal.

Havin' Ourselves a Merry Lil Christmas

One of my favorite Christmas Traditions is what we call.....Our Christmas.....

So much of the holidays is shared with our families (which we love) but it's so much fun just to take a night for ourselves... I really hope we keep doing this year after year...

So the night started with a charming little dinner date & live music over at Pesto's ...

Followed by "our" gift giving to each other ...

Some years we don't buy much for each other, some years we do... this was a year we did. It's never really about the gifts, just the time together during the crazy busy, frantic, holiday season...

One of my gifts was a bottle of my favorite wine of all time....Pinot Grigio by Kokopelli...crisp, clean, light, delicious! Somehow Sammy and Olive wormed their way right into the middle of the festivities, like they always do.

No, no we didn't drink all of this that night... this was one of my gifts to Justin...his own little mini bar for entertaining ~ it's look like we were on a total booze fest this year, but I promise there were other gifts! My ultimate gift from Justin was tickets to Michael Jackson's Cirque du Soleil on New Year's Eve! I was shocked and so excited!

Norris Christmas Early Eve

Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma's House....

A treasured celebration with our Norris Family on Christmas Eve that has been the only Christmas Eve Celebration that I've ever known.

As we're growing older and the family has gotten bigger and bigger... over the past few years prior to this past year our Christmas Eve celebrations had been getting smaller and smaller.

But this past year, we decided to "bump" up Christmas Eve to the weekend before, so that all of our family (almost all) could be together....and it was just amazing.

In fact, as it turns out... it was really meant to be... as my sweet little Grandma Jane ended up in the hospital on "actual Christmas Eve".

Gracie was the star of the celebration... she passed out everyone's gifts as she handed out our gifts..... she did this darling little "bow"...it was soooo adorable.

And let's not forget about baby Ellie... she's assisted Miss Gracie (her big sis) in all the adorableness.

My dad and Karen had this random debate going on the majority of the night... and it got louder and louder as the night went on. The hilarious part of the photo is that one of their big debates was about dogs...and LOOK who is center stage in this photo....Karen and Danny's dog: Arf!

Happy Times....

Lots of food.....

Lots of fun....

Several wise cracks...

It was a loud, crazy, and wild night.... but then again that's what happens when you get the Norris Bunch together....lots of story telling and making fun of each other ~ times we treasure.

Cupcakes & Zoolights.

So this year, I didn't make any plans with friends to celebrate my bday. It's always a bit of a challenge with Thanksgiving the Holidays and all. But my little Addie Jo, wouldn't let me get by with a little bday friend fun!

She had me and Justin over one night for a delicious homemade meal followed by champagne and cupcakes. I do realize that I look like a total thug in this photo, but that's okay because I'm from Casa Grande and so is Addie and sometimes....well that's how we roll......

Billie, Addie's boxer was there lookin all pitiful and such. Justin just adores her!

Following dinner, we mixed together a few "roadies" and headed out to the Zoo to check out Zoolights. Derrick, Addies' boyfriend and room mate met up with us at the zoo (after her got off work) for all the festive fun!

And good times were had..........

Thank you Addie Jo for making me feel so special! I love ya girlfriend!

And thanks to "Fun Derrick" (that's my nickname for him) and Mr. Justin Starr for being such great dates!

Winter Weenies

So...umm... yes this is another shamful look at how stinkin cute my dogs are blog post....so like I had mentioned before... Sammy and Olive Starr have been doing great at Doggie Day Care.

There were a few days this past December when the weather was exceptionally cold. I remember dropping them off one morning the front office told me....You really ought to consider getting little coats for Sammy & Olive as they get very cold.. I thought to myself....Umm..okay, last time I checked they were dogs, but whatever you say.

The next thing I know the next three dogs that come through the doors at Doggie Daycare are wearing little doggie coats....I stop dead in my tracks and think to myself....Oh no, I'm a horrible mother, I've been sending my babies to school with no coats! So of course, I had to fix this right away~ hence the photos you see here.

And of course, they wore them for like ONE day before it warmed again, afterall we do live in Arizona....I wear open toed shoes year round here.

And I had to include these above shots too...I don't really remember much about what was going on, other than thinking the Olive is soooooo cute!

Gross, I know....I can't help it...I'm a sicko....

Roomie Holiday Dinner

"Roomie Holiday Dinner"

This is tradition that started many years ago, and one that I've grown to love and appreciate this time so much with my very dear friends (Andrea and Melissa) and former college room mates. We do see each other a good handful of times throughout the year, but this night is reserved for Roomies Only ~ no spouses, no kiddos, just us and lemme tell ya... we talk, pour of hearts out, counsel each other, and laugh, cry, and leave each year feeling more and more bonded. Sounds totally corn ball ~ like out of a Lifetime Television for Women movie, but it's so true. We gabbed so much that we shut the restaurant down and finally got kicked out...only to spend another hour or so talking in Melissa's parked truck. At the end of the night, we tried making several attempts at taking a photo with my camera phone and this was the best shot we got.

I love you girls so much...Muah!

Past Roomie Holiday Dinners:

Last Year

Last Last Year

My Birthday, Family,Tiny Tim and Cheesy Realtors

My Birthday this past year was random, very random... but one I'll never forget.....

Rewind a few days prior to my actual birthday....

We met up for a little post thanksgiving pre birthday family dinner at La Stalla Cucina Rustica in down town Chandler... where my brother ordered Kangaroo for dinner, which totally bothered me ~I'm quite certain that's the only reason he ordered it.

Then on my actual birthday I had to work because I guess I'm a grown up now and that's what grownups do...but I did receive a special surprise delivery from the Original J.Starr ~ he's a stud. He brought me flowers and lunch.

Then that night, (Justin had previously told me) that he had tickets for us to see a show...because I really can't handle surprises....but I didn't know which show~that was enough of a surprise for me.

So we kicked off the holiday season by seeing "A Christmas Carol"... and we were by far the youngest people at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theater on that Tuesday night in November. I was going through a "red lipstick" phase during this time in my life....thankfully that phase didn't last long.

Following the show, we captured our annual Christmas photos......

A few years ago we started a random tradition.... we started taking our "Christmas Photos" on my birthday. Being that my birthday falls on November 29th and it's right in between Thanksgiving and Christmas~ the timing seems perfect.

It's totally weird in some ways...I mean, I guess I feel a little goofy sending out photos of us (ya know like without kids, real ones, not ones with fur)... But...I figure what the hay...one day we will have kids (hopefully) and we'll cherish our pre-children days... plus we already own all this crazy expensive photo gear...

So I guess we started this in tradition in 2009, and continued in 2010...and this year I had all these grand, uber cool photo location ideas.... all thematic with ice skates, vintage clothing, and falling snowflakes....

But at the end of 2011 for the first time in my life...I had no energy, limited passion, and low creative juices...I was done. The year had been amazing... busy, but I felt like I needed to slip off my heels and put on my comfy pjs, put my hair in high pony tail and wrap myself in a warm blanket and sleep for about a month.

I couldn't put anything magical or creative together... and I keep pushing myself hard. Justin was spent too... he can usually steer me back on track pretty easily.

But this time, we both we're DONE. Neither of us could come up with any energy or spare time... so for our 2011 Christmas Card Photo Shoot Justin threw up a white backdrop (in our tiny condo) and I threw a chair tie around out kitchen chair... and viola!

(FRONT)

(BACK)

About a week after all our cards we sent out we were driving around doing some shopping and Justin says to me..."Umm....do you think our card this year was kind of weird?"... Me "Yes! But I didn't want to say anything...I think we totally look like nerdy realtors"... Justin replied..." umm.. yeah what were we thinking, not cool"

None the less, this was our 2011 Christmas Card. Done and Done, and it time stamps where we were at this time in our lives.

And here's a few Bloopers that didn't make the final cut.............