Homework

Drew has homework - usually Tuesday and Thursday. I have a wonderful routine of getting him to do homework and have a snack and then he and Jack can watch a little tv. Good times. We got home yesterday and I was in a hurry to clean and get things ready for a book party I had last night. I checked the folder and didn't see any homework. The party ended, the kids went to bed and then I spotted it. The homework. ARGH!!! Now, my kindergartener is the child without his homework already. And he's only five.

Let me know where to send my own nomination for Mom of the Year.

Bo is still super fussy getting teeth. The frustrating thing is that there are no teeth visible coming in (aside from the two bottom that are already there). So this could go on for weeks... Great.

The Ballerina Costume

Have you seen the movie 'Elf'? There is a scene where Will Ferrell's character, Buddy wants to get his dad a present. Buddy has been in the North Pole since he was a baby and doesn't understand much of the 'people culture', so he sees a sign that says 'For Someone Special' near lingerie in a department store and buys it for his dad. Well, we decided to watch this the other night with the kids and this was probably the only questionable scene. When the dad opened the box in the movie, my boys thought it was hysterical that Buddy bought a ballerina costume for his dad. We didn't correct him - easier to explain it's funny that he bought a ballerina girl costume instead of lingerie... Well, Drew thought it was so funny that he shared it with his class and teacher yesterday.

Thanks, movie makers. I appreciate that.

I am planning the family Christmas card - I was going to design it. I don't know. I really think I may just order some. But I did get a couple cute shots of the kids last night!! I am putting on a couple of pictures we had made last week... These are not my pictures, these were done professionally...

Thanksgiving, Part Deux

War Eagle. Enough said - not a great game for either side, but we did manage to pull it out, so war eagle.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my parents, Katie and Gigi on Saturday. My mom made pastitio - a wonderful greek-style lasagne dish. The boys had a blast playing with gramma and grampa. We watched the Iron Bowl Saturday night. Sunday was spent doing laundry and working around the house - getting ready to deck the halls next weekend. We have narrowed down the plan for exterior illumination - probably wreaths on the windows with lights on them. I have to get greenery for the mailbox. I will use scissors to cut it this year - no knives!!

The boys also had fun playing in the leaves outside yesterday - as you can see from the pictures. John let them play with the leaf blower briefly...

Our Thanksgiving Slide Show!

A Filling Holiday

Whew! We had a lovely Thanksgiving! We watched the parade and went to Cawkie and Pop's house (John's mom & dad). Drew got the wish bone from the turkey. He's been debating ever since what to wish for. As if 'poof' whatever it is, will just show up automatically.

Drew also has his list for Santa ready. Unfortunately they don't make the things he's requesting. I mentioned that to him and was quickly corrected - "Mommy, the elves can make whatever we want." Yeah, daddy and I better get working!!

I am attaching a slide show of the holiday festivities. We had a dance party - have I ever mentioned these before?? - Wednesday night. This is a Burke tradition. We play different dance music (disco, kids, Auburn band music, etc.) and the kids dance around. Our favorite songs include: "I like to move it move it" (from Madagascar), "Jump in the Line" (Harry Belafonte), "YMCA", "Copacabana" and any Auburn music. Bo participated in his first conga line. It was fun. The boys had a blast.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are ready for Thanksgiving - I love the holiday. I have to fix a peanut butter pie (per John's request) tonight and assemble the salad. That's it. We're going to watch the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving show tonight (thank you, Ms. Dabbs!!) and the parade in the morning. I get a little bored around the middle of the parade - how many showtunes can you really handle in the morning? But I love seeing Santa arrive at the end. LOVE IT.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. Look for more pictures Friday or Monday :)

Good morning!

I took Nyquil last night to head off a cold I seem to be getting. Now I am trying to wake up - even though I've been out of bed for hours now...

The picture above is Bo in his bouncy seat. We didn't strap him in and he managed to do this in less than 30 seconds. He is getting more teeth - as you can see his finger is in his mouth. He is sleeping pretty good - some days he won't wake up at all, others he'll wake for a bottle once. He did last night, but I didn't hear it. John mentioned it this morning.

We watched Shrek 3 last night - those movies crack me up. They are getting so excited about Christmas - I love it too. When one doesn't behave, you just have to tell them Santa is watching and they'll end up with nothing on Christmas morning if they don't behave... Instant behavior modification.

Parents of a toddler

Okay - if you have a weak stomach or have no kids, you may want to skip this paragraph. Jack came to us yesterday (we were outside) and said, "I went poo poo." After a pause he added, "on the floor - BUT IT'S OKAY." Then reiterated that it's okay. I don't know about you, but no poo poo on the floor is okay in my world. We hurried in the house (expecting to see more or less 'loose' poo on the floor) only to find one large poo in the middle of the bathroom floor - no more than a foot from the potty. He can't explain how the poo ended up on the floor. He's three - what can you say?

Anyway, we had a great weekend (aside from the magic escaping poo). The older boys went camping with daddy. They met our friend Mark and his little girl Meghan - the boys had SO MUCH FUN! Sunday was filled with Cooper's dedication (CONGRATS!!!), a great lunch with Cooper's family (we felt so honored to be included - thanks!!!) and then our social butterfly, Drew had a birthday party. The day was topped off with a great meal at Aunt Katie's church for Thanksgiving - thank you for including us! It was a great weekend.

This is a good time to say thank you to all our friends and family for always supporting us and your kind words throughout the year. We are blessed to have so many wonderful people to help if we need it and who think of us every day. We appreciate you and wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving...

Apologies for the rant...

I apparently was in a bad mood last night - the kids found every single one of our parenting 'buttons' to push last night. They were better this morning. I think Drew is bouncing back from the virus still and Jack is just Jack.

CONGRATS to the Ubils - my vote is keep going for three kids - it's really not much more work than two! I already have a feeling it could be a boy for you this time. I think I am the only one not capable of producing different gender children. We are excited for you!!

What's new in your corners of the world everyone?

Livin on the Edge

That's what our older boys are doing right now. I am beginning to think that my voice is inaudible. Certainly they hear me when I tell them 'no', but apparently, I am wrong.

Big week for them - they both have Thanksgiving feasts in their classes. Drew had a book sale at his school and to top it off, he gets to have all his grandparents come to his class tomorrow. Very exciting. It's 75 degrees here and the high for tomorrow is 58 degrees. Wow - we are in for a fun weekend - they'll probably all get colds from the weather change...

Here's an old picture from Christmas two years ago - the fresh greenery holiday. As I plan the decor, I want to use fresh greenery again (opted not to last year)... I'm going with magnolia this time. The last time I did this (from around these pictures) I sliced my wrist open fixing branches to the mailbox and ended up with several stitches. Yes, that's right. Somewhat accident prone am I. Here's to a good holiday - and a safe one at that!

Happy Veteran's Day

I know it was yesterday officially, but Happy Veteran's Day to all the Veterans we know (grandpa, pops) and thank you for your service.

Not a thrilling weekend by any means... We watched the Auburn game (well, most of it), watched Ratatouille (cute movie) and cleaned up some in the basement. We have a small project in the works - finishing out a room in the basement. We figure we need to get rid of most of the stuff there to make it feasible.

We are also planning the holiday decor for the house - John's always thinking of the 'exterior illumination'. The kids tree this year is in the works (we got a tree after Christmas one year for a steal and they have it in their playroom to decorate). Everything is rolling right along :)

More updates

One quick thing - here are pics of Drew and Jack when they were Bo's age (and a picture of Bo). Just an interesting comparison.

After missing a week of school - Drew is finally on the mend (just in time for the weekend...). He had to get checked yesterday again, and it's just a virus. Moms, watch out for this freaky fever virus. Then the baby had a slight fever yesterday... Argh - we are ready for the kids to get healthy! We think the baby is getting top teeth in.

Happy Birthday Brooklyn!! I know your mom is making fabulous desserts!!!

WAR EAGLE folks - I think we'll need it today :)

Updates

Drew is still home today - his fever is SLOWLY declining... Only 99.9 this morning!! I thought I
would share some more pictures from the weekend...
We are very excited about the Georgia game this weekend - I am not sure we'll win, but this is one of my absolute favorite rivalries... John bottled the new brew last night - it will be ready for the Iron Bowl. Other news? Not too much. We look forward to a slower-paced weekend, unless we decide to paint the living room (we planned to do it this weekend and now I am not feeling like it!). I can't believe Thanksgiving is two weeks from today. WOW!!!

Ahhh... Fall...

Before I get too much into fall and how I love that's it's finally acting like fall, Drew is okay. He's still running a 100.5 degree fever this morning. He doesn't have strep (whew!!). Hopefully this 'fever virus' is about done running it's course. He is at home with daddy today :)

I love fall. The cooler weather, the pretty leaves changing and the anticipatory buildup to the holidays. Love it! Here are some pictures from the weekend... The first two are from the pep rally Friday night. The photo of planes is from the game. I didn't go to the game (stayed with Bo) - but I heard this loud noise and the planes that fly by the stadium at the end of the national anthem were overhead. The fourth picture is truly an engineering feat. Julia and her brother Mark managed to make this LARGE flagpole from PVC pipe and they all strapped it to their large motorhome. Wow. It was really neat! The last picture of Drew's back is him at the marching band practice. Aunt Katie was practicing. Finally, Jack and Bo are just being cute. Note: if you knew Drew when he was a baby, Bo is looking more and more like him (just without the hair!!).

Iron Bowl

For any Auburn fans out there... here are the game times for Georgia and Alabama.

We play Georgia this Saturday at 2:30 on CBS. We play Alabama on 11/24 at 12:30 on CBS. A 12:30 game? I am not sure I like that!! SORRY- I did have the date wrong on the Alabama game - it's not being played on a Wednesday...

What a weekend!!

No - we didn't fall off the face of the earth. We had a great time in Auburn - thanks to all our friends we spent time with: Julia & Steve, Kim & Mike (and their WONDERFULLY mannered girls!), Josh and Melanie. It was homecoming and I had a workshop on Friday. We went to the "peppermint" rally (as the kids called it) and hit the sack Friday night. Then the party started. Literally and figuratively. There was a 21st birthday party two site away (complete with a keg and karaoke). Note for readers: they karaoked that duet from Dirty Dancing, a Whitney Houston song from the mid 80s and Total Eclipse of the Heart. WHAT'S UP? No Brickhouse? The music was poor, we thought. Once the party wrapped up at 2am, Bo woke up. And that was our night. He was awake unless we held him. So, we got a total of MAYBE 2 hours of sleep.

Saturday was GREAT though. The kids had so much fun with gramma, grampa, Katie, pops and Uncle Kevin. Thanks to everyone for sharing the day with us. We headed back and rested Sunday.

Then more fun... Drew started to feel warm Sunday evening around 6pm. He had a 102 degree fever. Ever since then, his fever spikes up every six hours when the Motrin wears off. It went as high as 104.1 yesterday afternoon - NO OTHER SYMPTOMS. So, I stayed home yesterday and John is home today.

Any tips on this illness?

Other news - fall showed up... The leaves are GREAT. Here is a shot. I'll post pictures from the tailgate later :)

WELCOME HOME MANUEL!!

We are so happy that our friend Manuel has returned safely from his third deployment in Iraq. We are so proud of you and Helen - have a GREAT weekend. WAR EAGLE to a real superhero!

The Candy Hangover

Actually - we haven't tapped into the stash, but the title sounded 'catchy' and therefore I decided to use it. And don't get mad, dear blog readers... I didn't take pictures last night.

I KNOW - I KNOW. But it was hectic and dark. Besides, they wore the same costumes we've all seen on here already. Anyway - they got a bunch of treats. The disco tent only kind of happened. We got stuck at the doctor's till 5pm and I couldn't find my wig. I did get the tent up with the disco ball and some cool music. It was quite festive.

In other news, Bo had his 4-month check up yesterday (we were at the doctor for 2 hours!). He weighed in at 17.8 lbs. (75% percentile) and 27.5 inches (off the charts). He is doing great. He has dry skin - any suggestions? Our pediatrician gave us the go ahead to start solids twice a day. Wow. You moms and dads know that's a milestone - but one that's not so convenient sometimes. It's one thing to have the big messy dinner at home (and this baby is stuck on such a schedule), but our mornings are pretty mobile with getting to school - it can throw things off. Anyway - it's a milestone regardless. We're heading to Auburn for the weekend - probably no posts tomorrow. Here's a War Eagle picture of the boys I've been saving for today!!