December 2012

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

The second weekend in December we headed down to Crown Center to get into the Christmas Spirit and pay Santa a visit. The line was over an hour and a half long so we opted to play outside in the automobiles, drink hot chocolate and look at the candy train instead.

Dan ran a 5K Jingle Bell Run Sunday morning. Dan beat his goal time and Burke met Slugger from the Royals. Slugger gave Burke "knuckles" and now even a week later Burke will announce out of the blue, "Lion KNUCKLES in cave!" Oh. I should mention Dan's run took place in the caves of Lenexa where it was 68 degrees. Much nicer than the 40 degrees outside.

 We made it to see Santa! 

This was at the Oak Park Mall. I have to say that Burke was indifferent to Santa. Not excited or scared, just inquisitive. Once again, "knuckles" came in handy. Once Santa gave Burke knuckles Burke started pointing out the trees and the lights to Old St. Nick and he was talking his ear off. Burke never told Santa what he wanted, but I think I know. Burke's favorite part was the candy cane he received as a parting gift.

 Our house is coming along great. We have stained kitchen cabinets, painted interior and exterior and GRANITE! Dan and I spent the 3rd weekend of December tiling the guest bathroom upstairs, Jack and Jill bath and the laundry room. We had our work cut out for us and had to finish up on Monday. We really appreciate Nonna coming up to watch Burke so we could get this done. Those two had a blast. This might be the last time we sign up to tile. We are sore! We are now about a month away from closing.... we hope.

Now that winter is in full swing we have had to find indoor activities to occupy ourselves. Burke likes to color after dinner. He is pretty accurate in identifying his colors. His "r" and "y"s are coming in slowly.

LELLO=yellow

WED= red

GEEN= green

PULLPUL= purple

BEW= blue

PINK= pink

BACK= black

BOWN= brown

 Over the hills and and through the woods

to grandmother's house we go....

We headed to Manhattan to celebrate the holidays with Grandma Karyl, Aunt Megan and Uncle Brett.

 Look how much fun these two have together! 

We had barely unloaded the car and grandma and Burke were baking some cookies.

 Our whole crew headed out to the 5 pm Christmas Eve Service at Karyl's church

 Burke received his Christmas Eve pajamas. They are parachute jammies! 

Burke has a tough time sleeping away from his bed as he has now mastered the escape of the pack-n-play. Since we were all up with Burke from 3:30-4:30 am he slept in til about 7:45 am.

This is what Burke woke up to find Christmas morning from Santa. A giant tent filled with 100 balls. 

Thank You Santa!

 He crouches down to peer inside the tunnel before he climbs in.

 Thank you to Grandma Karyl for putting up a beautiful Christmas tree. It felt like Christmas at Grandmas with family surrounding us and a tree. We didn't put our Christmas tree back in our duplex in KC. It is buried in boxes in the basement as we had expected to already be in our new house.

 Burke is allowed to be all boy and throw balls inside the tent. Yet another winter time activity appropriate for a boy with a lot of energy.

 Burke quickly got the hang of unwrapping presents.

 Uncle Brett and Aunt Megan came over to unwrap presents and start the Christmas day.

 Hot wheels and a rug to drive them on from mom and dad. 

 I can't help but hope he always remembers these special holiday moments. I will. My sweet boy.

 The happy couple's first married Christmas.

 Burke giving out thank you kisses.

 Grandma got him this KSU basketball warm up gear. Super cute! 

 While we were in Manhattan we dropped by Uncle Burke and Aunt Margery's house to say hello. 

THE BURKES!

Aunt Margery had a sleeping kitten that Burke was fascinated with. 

It was great to see them both.

Burke's 2nd Birthday is right around the corner. Before I forget here are a few fun things that Burke says:

1. "Burke do it"(Mommy, leave me alone, I am independent)

2. "Momma drinkin' da coffee"

3. "Daddy sweepin" (sleeping very early in the morning)

4. "I like/ no like ______" (expressing his likes and dislikes)

5. "Puppy dog." He knows all the relatives dogs' names but refuses to call his dog "Gage"

6. "GET DOWN! KENNEL! HERE! NO NO DOGGY" He patrols Gage sitting on the furniture and anything else Gage does.

7. "Where daddy go?" 

8. "Burke eat it all"

9. "Cheerios for beckfass" (Breakfast)

10. Sessa and Weet (Tessa and Reid) are his heros. He loves his cousins and they are so good with him.

Mom and Dad came up to celebrate a late Christmas at the Grier's house. Thanks to Nicole for putting up the grandparents and fixing an amazing dinner of Ciappino. YUM!

 Our new house is moving along and we are very pleased with how it is taking shape. 

We learned that our close date is scheduled for Jan. 25. 

Let the count down begin.

Polly brought Miss Brecken over so we the Mom's could catch up over Christmas break and the kids could play. Sweet Brecken was interested in Burke's blocks. Burke was semi interested in sharing. Little does he know this is his future wife.  : )

 We celebrated our New Year's Eve with Pacey's and McGown's. After a delicious Indian dinner out we headed to the McGown's house to play games, snack and celebrate. It was a great way to ring in the new year with our close friends that might as well be family. Love this crew! 

Cheers to the outgoing busy 2012 and the adventures that await us in 2013. I am feeling very fortunate, grateful, blessed with a healthy happy family and a new home in the works.

November 2012

Our California family payed us a visit the first week of November. Lovely cousin Megan is expecting a bouncing baby boy in March. We had a mini baby shower at Nicole's house after lunch. She is one cute pregnant chic. The boys will be second cousins I suppose.

Burke loves Uncle Rod. They had their serious boy discussions about current events, the state of the economy and apples.

We had to snap a family photo since we are all together only every 2 years or so. We were missing Nicole as she was in Asia and Mike was at work. They were nice enough to let us use their home to hang out.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Wichita with Grandma Jo, Grandma Jean and Richard, Clementes, Mary and Phil and even cousin Andy and his fiance Lara came. It was a full and fun house. The 70 degree weather allowed for bike rides on the patio. 

 Papa Jim was kind enough to be our photographer and take us to Sedgewick County Park for a family session. We got the perfect Christmas card pic. 

 The boys wanted to get a glimpse of the park ducks since the ducks hadn't been showing up for their early morning hunts. Boys will be boys. 

 Christmas 2012 Card Photo 

It's amazing what happens in a month. At this point we have exterior paint, wood floors, kitchen and bath cabinets installed and stained. Interior paint is underway. 

The dark evenings are causing the Crofts to get a little stir crazy. We are getting antsy to move into our new home. We hope we are in by the end of January. Cross your fingers for us!

October 2012

Happy Fall!

There is definitely a chill in the air now that it is officially fall. This sunset is our evening view out of our duplex's back deck. So if you can ignore the access road immediately behind us and the 435 highway off in the distance, it is a really pretty view.

There are a number of great reasons to live in a duplex:

1. Cleaning takes 30 minutes since we are only taking up half of a small place and only two bathrooms.

2. We pay less for utilities since we don't have a home phone or cable... which we don't miss.

3. We get out of the house more as a family and enjoy the outdoors. Now when it gets colder it won't be as easy to go swimming or to the many new parks we have found. We will visit the library more often now.

4. This location is very convenient next to the highway and many restaurants so I don't cook much. : )

 Burke has been a very hungry boy. His sleeping patterns have not been very consistent. He has been waking up in the middle of the night asking for a snack.

 What you can't see is that Burke's large purple bowl is full of POPCORN! He was having a ball holding this whole bowl full of snacks! He started giggling that turning into rolling laughter that I just love. He soon decided it was hilarious to stuff a whole fist full into his mouth at one time. My laughing could have quite possibly encouraged him a bit. When I asked if he would share with me, he tried to stuff a fist full in MY MOUTH and went into a huge fit of laughter. He realized I was about to put a stop to this large consumption of popcorn so he relocated to the hallway to hoard his popcorn prize.

 Dad and Burke before they are off to school one morning. Aren't they good looking?

I can't decide who is cuter so I will keep them both.

Burke's manners have been complimented by his daycare teacher, Miss Chrissy. He is very good to say "No, Thank You!" when he doesn't want Gage around. He hands me things I ask for and before I have a chance to say "thank you" he says "welcome."

 Evening routine of story time. Burke is becoming more independent and wants to read on his own by pointing out the pictures and naming them himself. He likes to read back to front frequently.

 Burke still loves bath time and typically doesn't want to get out. He will stay in the tub after I have drained the water and flops around like a beached whale.

Daycare asked us a few weeks ago if we wanted them to start potty training. I honestly wasn't planning on starting the effort until he turned 2 years old. In fact, I had read boys are later so 2.5 was when we should press the issue. I wanted to wait until we had moved too. Well, there is not harm if they want to try right? Well, all Burke's friends at school are doing it and Burke was showing interest. I come to find out that when the kids successfully go potty they earn a skittle piece of candy. Of course Burke would want a skittle! I figured, if they wanted to try they could inform me of how it was going and I would avoid the effort until he was serious. Well, Miss Alicia at school told me that Wednesday 10/10 she had taken Burke to the bathroom to try to potty. She had pulled his pants down and pulled off his diaper. She was turning to toss the diaper in the trash and heard "plop." Burke had POOPED ON THE FLOOR! Poor Miss Alicia had to clean it up. He didn't quite know to wait one more moment until she had sat him down on the toilet. So, the story is that he is getting close to figuring it out, but until then, daycare is paying the price. Sorry Miss Alicia.

Now that Burke runs everywhere he goes it is common for him to bump his head, smash a finger or really just need some TLC. The terrible twos of whining are in full effect. We have learned a good old fashioned kiss on the head or hand will do the trick. Now he sticks his neck out for us to kiss his head. He even looks to Gage for sympathy and sticks his neck out expecting Gage to give it a kiss. We wish him luck on that one.

PUMPKIN PATCH VISIT

10/21/12

We visited the KC Pumpkin Patch in Gardner for our annual pumpkin visit this year. It had a ton of activities perfect for Burke's size, energy level and curiosity.

Barrels of baby pumpkins to choose from 

Wooden trains to climb 

 Hay bale maizes to get lost in

 Bouncy horses for a mini Kentucky Derby

 Tractors to dig in the sand

 Lots of pumpkins to choose from

 Baby hops (rabbits)

 Burke decided the best way to choose your pumpkin is to sit on it. Got One!

 A beautiful fall Sunday Burke and I had fun at the Mill Creak Streamway Park with a photo shoot.

 My favorite pic. We are growing his summer hair-do out so he appears extra fuzzy. ; )

 We just love our happy guy!

 This Halloween we put Burke to work as a Halloween UPS Delivery Man. Dan came up with the idea when changing a poopy diaper believe it or not!

Nonna is responsible for the awesome costume. Dan and I crafted his delivery truck out of cardboard boxes, a Radio Flyer Wagon, Sarah Wrap some duck tape and some print outs. 

 What can Brown do for you?

On Monday, October 22nd, Burke scarred us for a whole 5 minutes. It was after dinner and he ran into our bedroom and shut the door. This is not uncommon for him to shut doors, but it is uncommon for him to LOCK THEM! He was able to turn the lock and press it in at the same time. Dan yelled for me to grab a credit card to try to work the lock. Meanwhile I am calling our duplex landlord's maintenance number to see if they have a key and thinking of where our ladder is to climb to the roof and try to open the window from the outside. Burke was upset inside crying and knocking on the door and saying "mama." Luckily Dan's handiwork paid off and he was freed ...and was only in there for 5 minutes. Its seemed like an eternity.
Other fun things that Burke is saying...
1. Dada sweepin (sleeping)
2. Bless you (unprompted after I sneezed)
3. What happen?
4. Bennett NO! (school classmate's name is Bennett)
5. Fookball (football), Socccerball, Basketball, Baseball, (repeat)
6. His enunciation is quite impressive, sometimes he even repeats the last letter (i.e. Foottttt)
7. Got it!

 Canterbury Day Care Party

 SUGAR BUZZ!

 Ms. Nicole- Our babysitter and Burke's favorite teacher

 Hitting up the old neighborhood for candy and delivering packages of cookies.

 Read the fine print

What can brown do for you?