February 2012

WE MOVED!!!

We closed on our house Friday, Jan. 25th. Moving Day was the very next day. This time we hired movers. We lucked out with 54 degree weather in January. We owe a huge THANK YOU to Nicole for taking Burke for the weekend at her house so we could get a ton packed, moved and unpacked in a short amount of time. As luck would have it she broke her left arm two days before we moved at Reid's school skating party. Tessa was a huge help along with Reid to entertain. Karyl came to KC to help pack, clean and unpack. What a huge help! She was a trooper.

We are so happy to finally be in our new home. As you can see we don't have sod, our irrigation system or a fence. We are at the mercy of the warm weather and our builders to get those last things done. Gage has now gone to Wichita until we get our yard done. Thanks to Mom and Dad for coming up the weekend after the move to help us unpack more and take Gage home for awhile. Those 5 am walks in the cold were not our favorite way to start the day. It takes a whole village to move when you have a toddler. : )

Our kitchen

Family Room with much more room to lay and play. I think the boys are trading cars.

My kitchen island. This is what I have been dreaming of.... Pouring my guests a glass of wine at the end of the island while I finish up dinner. Belly on up to my bar. Now serving!

Sorry the lighting is bad. This is our office on the main floor when you first walk in the front door. In most house plans this is the dining room. We decided we spend so much time on the computer that we needed this on the main floor. Instead of a dining room we just added 4 feet to the breakfast area and we will eventually get a larger kitchen table to extend for entertaining occassions. I never really understood why we would need 2 tables.

Burke's Room

Front Guest Bedroom with adjoined bathroom

2nd Guest Bedroom that joins with Burke's jack-n-jill bathroom.

Laundry upstairs- I really look forward to not carrying laundry up and down stairs. 

Oh! This house makes me happy!

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Dan and I will be sharing a bathroom for the first time in our marriage- we shall see how it goes. Now that we have a door separating the bathroom from the bedroom I can get up early and shower and dry my hair without worrying about waking Dan up.

Master Closet.

Happy Crofts just for fun!

Burke playing with his valentines on the beautiful floor.

Master Bathroom shower and tub

Burke's latest art work from school.

A parting view of the kitchen and family room from the garage door entry.

Burke is talking non stop and running non stop too. On our way home from church this Sunday Dan and I were talking and stopped to listen to Burke counting in the back seat "fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, seven..." We will work on it. He is very helpful these days, but also likes to insist that "Burke do it." He is starting to remember things that happened weeks ago and initiating sweet conversations, " Mommy, I love you. Bless you Mommy or Daddy workin' hard." In the mornings he comes to his door and says, "Mommy, Open the door." or "Let me out!" I think this stage might be my favorite. I know I said that last time too.

Happy Valentines Day! 

Prince Charming getting ready to go to school to pass out his "Soopy" (Snoopy) Valentines.

The last two weeks brought SNOW SNOW SNOW. We had lots of time to play in the snow with a few snow days. Our new neighbors are awesome and let us borrow the snow blower.

 Burke thought the snow blower was a mower so we got out his mower and pretended it was a snow blower. Why not?

 Lots of time for Playdough.

 Snow cliff jumping. I'm telling you... he is fearless!

 Back inside to paint.

 Back outside to sled with dad on the hill behind our yard.

Time to build and bang with the tools that the Griers gave him for his birthday.

January 2013

Fiesta Bowl 2012

Dan headed to Phoenix the first week of January with friends to watch the Kats. Even though the KState lost he had fun catching up with college friends and cheering on his Kats.

 Unfortunately, Burke came down with a virus so I called in for help while Dan was out of town. Grandma Karyl saved the day. Burke and Karyl were home from school two days since Burke had a fever and nasty cough. Thanks Grandma! Lets just say after Grandma left, Burke kept peaking around every corner asking "Where Gamma go?" He loved having his own personal playmate.

 Since we are still living in the duplex we decided to keep Burke's birthday low key. His 2nd birthday landed on a Saturday so we picked out our new landscaping for the new house and this tree will be Burke's. We will enjoy watching both Burke and this blue spruce grow big and tall.

 Burke's birthday cookie we took to daycare to help him celebrate with friends and teachers.

 Dan has been asking, "When can Burke go flying?" Burke has also been extremely aware of every airplane in  the sky, even at night. He may have his daddy's passion for flying at a very early age. So, we decided to stop by the airport and go for a test drive and just sit in the back seat of the Cherokee to see if Burke could handle a future flight. I think the boys are both ready. Me, a bit nervous.

Burke's 2nd Birthday Celebration with the Griers.

Thank you all for being good sports wearing Thomas the Tank party hats.

 We ate greasy hamburgers at Fritz- a KC original train restaurant. Burke loved the trains!

 Happy 2nd Birthday Burke! 

 We love you so much little man.

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.